Can't Miss It: Thursday

STILL TRUCKIN': Sonic Youth's new album The Eternal isn't out till June 9, and they don't play the Capitol Hill Block Party until July 25, but tonight at Gainsbourg there's a sneak peak of what you're in for. And hey, this writer is never going to try the Block Party again, so this is about as good as it gets for people like us. Three Imaginary Girls co-hosts the event with Hannah Levin, Gainsbourg's co-owner.

9 p.m. // 8550 Greenwood Ave. N. // free

THE ANSWER IS NO: Noted critic and scholar John Felstiner's new book is provocatively titled Can Poetry Save the Earth?. We have our doubts, but if the likes of Gary Snyder and Harold Bloom have anything to say about it, we're dead wrong. Drawing on five hundred years of British and American nature poetry, Felstiner digs deep into the loamy underbelly of literature.

7:30 p.m. // Elliott Bay Book Co., 100 S. Main St. // free!

FINE VINTAGE: "Poet" is derived from a Latin word meaning "drunk," so it's fitting that the good people at Richard Hugo House have helped bring things full-circle by sponsoring "Cheap Wine & Poetry," a semi-regular event at which poets read from works to one another (and their fan; yes, singular) while imbibing copious amounts of $1 a glass wine. Tonight, poets Larry Crist and Storme Webber join novelist Stacey Levine and performer Ilves Strauss.

7 p.m. // 1634 11th Ave. // free