Can't Miss It: Thursday
CAMPY: Nina Persson was a teenage crush of ours, back when she was producing brilliantly guileless pop with her band the Cardigans. So it's nice to see she's back on the road with a new band, A Camp, which began as a collaboration between her and soundtrack artist/husband Nathan Larson (damn you!) and Niclas Frisk. Now they're touring with a veritable who's who of American rock, including Kevin Marsh of Guided by Voices and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle, all in support of a brilliant new album called Colonia (their second) that's somewhat akin to what would happen if Abba bred with the Carpenters.
8 p.m. // The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave. // $12 adv, 21+
BABY, OR NO?: The Guttmacher Institute and Planned Parenthood host a discussion about the funding of family planning centers at Town Hall tonight. According to a recent study by Guttmacher, six of ten patients at such centers consider them primary care, and when it comes to family planning, there's a great return on investment, something like four to one. So as the Obama administration grapples with achieving universal health coverage, the way in which we fund family planning facilities becomes a big topic, and while policy-wonky, this is an extremely important topic.
7:30 p.m. // Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave. // $10, $5 students
LIT OR MISS: Joe Meno is one of the hot young writers in the U.S. today, and he's reading from his new novel The Great Perhaps at Elliott Bay Book Co. tonight. It's about a wacky family that just doesn't seem like it should work, featuring scientist parents who devote their lives to paleontological esoterica, a child who's a bit too interested in God for their tastes, and a grandpa who just doesn't want to be there at all, unfolding against the world-historical backdrop of the war in Iraq. Wow. We can't believe we just wrote that. Sounds kind of like every novel written since White Noise, huh? Well, that's what readings are for! Either Meno has the talent to breathe new life into a well-worn genre, or for the price of a free admission you can conclude that he's utterly full of crap next time someone tells you about this great writer you just have to check out. He appears with Ryan Boudinot and Matthew Simmons.
7:30 p.m. // 101 S. Main St. // free!
