Can't Miss It: Thursday
AWES OF ATTRACTION: When the Seattle International Children’s Festival changed its name to Giant Magnet, our reaction went from “Eh, I guess kids should be allowed to have some fun every now and again” to “Giant Magnet??!! Are you freaking kidding me? Where?!” And though there isn’t exactly a giant magnet anywhere, per se, the events calendar for this festival pretty much makes up for that. They’ve got circus performers, hip-hip violinists, African dancers, Colombian bands, Native American performing artists, puppeteers, all sorts. The festival, entering its 24th year, is still entirely family friendly, but it’s also cultural, entertaining, and entirely irresistible.
All Day // Seattle Center // $10 - $15, events sold separately
KURT AND ANDY: If ever an artist seemed to emerge from another artist’s psyche, it was Kurt Cobain from Andy Warhol’s, like a self-fulfilling prophesy in human form. Or maybe Warhol was a genuine pop-prophet, a blonde-shocked John the Baptist. In either case, the connection between the two celebrated artists is uncanny. Warhol made a career of forging examples of stardom, stamped-construction and the fleeting nature of everything (among other things, of course). And then Cobain became the living example of all of these things, a failed attempt - not that he wanted to be that attempt - at a repeating lithograph in famous flesh and blood. Pairing these two - Kurt, an exhibition of works by artists inspired by the effects of symbolic Kurt Cobain, and love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death, a Warhol exhibition which “encourages readings of powerful themes such as fame, desire and identity construction, as well as anxiety and isolation, which often accompany stardom” -- puts both men into perspective, and creates something bigger than either could be on his own.
All Day // Seattle Art Museum // $15
GLOBAL VUE: In part with Fusion Radio and Young Professionals International Network, SIFF programmers peak at 15 foreign films and present trailers of films that will appear at the 2010 SIFF, which begins on May 20th. Fusion Radio host, Dean Sven Carlson, is set to moderate the panel of programmers who will discuss various films at this year’s Festival. Thion Diop will provide post-party party music. For anyone that’s experienced a bad blind SIFF date in the past, this is the equivalent of checking a date’s Facebook page before meeting up for dinner. It’s likely that few if any of the 15 films have cheesy personal style or poor dental history, but what’s a little extra caution?
7:00 p.m. // The Triple Door // $8
