POLAR BEAR APPRECIATION: If you’ve heard about global warming affecting the polar bears, you’ll want to head down to the Point Defiance Zoo for Bear Awareness Week. Learn more about the plight of the polar bear and watch the resident polar bears, Blizzard, Glacier, Kenneth and Boris, frolic. 9:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. // Point Defiance Zoo // $11 (adults) HUNGRY: In the not-so-starved neighborhood of Ravenna, author Mark Winne reads from his book, Closing......

We seem to be covering the benefit beat lately--Wednesday night David Schmader takes over the Triple Door to "annotate" Paul Verhoeven's "film" Showgirls. It's to raise money for the the Urban Rest Stop, a "hygiene center" downtown. We're for a free place for people to freshen up, don't get us wrong. It's just funny to have the Showgirls tie-in, in that the one and only time we watched it we had to take a long......

ALL-STAR PANEL: The Hugo House 2007-2008 Literary Series presents "Answered Prayers and Other Tragedies," a colloquium with authors Sherman Alexie and Michelle Tea, the Stranger's man-about-town David Schmader, and musician Sean Nelson. All are responding artistically to the question, "Is the only real tragedy getting what you want?" Ben Blum, the winner of the Hugo House New Works Competition, will also be there, wondering if this is what he really wanted. Friday, 7:30pm //......

We randomly checked out the Walkmen and Kaiser Chiefs show at the Showbox last night, mostly in the dark about their work. Although we had seen the Walkmen live once before, we couldnt remember if they had made much of an impression. During the opening, a friend summed up their sound as "like the Strokes except not irritating." That's a good enough summary although we'd swap out the Strokes with Rod Stewart, who Walkmen lead......

Monday LESS IS MORE: In Trance of Scarcity: Stop Holding Your Breath and Start Living Your Life, Victoria Castle asks why we feel that nothing is ever enough. Castle's book shows us how to escape this malaise and become more relaxed and alive. Hopefully it doesn't involve crisscrossing the U.S. on a book tour. 7pm // Third Place Books // FREE NATURE WRITING: Robert Michael Pyle's Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps......

MUSIC: Kled, with a lineup that boasts some of our favorite band names in town, including A Gun that Shoots Knives and We Wrote the Book on Connectors. 9pm // the High Dive // $5 NERDS: Flashback to your middle school days of trying to talk to girls and spending too much time in the bathroom with the JC Penney catalog (you know, the phone-book-size one with all the super hot 18-hour bras) as Wing-It......

The magic of theatre, like magic in general, relies heavily on misdirection. If you are dying to see a great play about cloning, there is a good chance that A Number, showing at ACT right now, will annoy the hell out of you if you go. Still, some people like art that fights for its intellectual modesty, to remain opaque to reason. They like Bartok, for instance. And do you know how they can......

Here's a shot at a fun night out for a very good cause: The Lawnmowers, Alicia Dara, and the X-Ray Eyes are playing a benefit Wednesday night at the High Dive in Fremont for CASA's hurricane relief effort. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) trains community volunteers to serve as court advocates for abused and neglected kids. Imagine being one of those and on top of that dealing with the effects of Katrina...now imagine getting......

Seattle has its own flavor. It's an American city, sure, but it's its own city, with obsessions, neuroses, and pathologies that are uniquely Seattle in character. Seattlest loves that about Seattle. There are some personalities that have gained national prominence that are either from this city or not but are seen to have characteristics that personify the city. Michael Jackson is not one of those people. Regardless of how many times The Stranger puts him......