TODAY IS WORLD REFUGEE DAY! The International Rescue Committee is hosting a benefit night of poetry, music, dance and crafts from our local refugee community at the Seattle Center, and John Hilde's Made In China (a documentary about his father's childhood in pre-WWII China) is screening at the NWFF with proceeds going to Mercy Corps' work in the devastated Sichuan province of China. Be a good neighbor and enjoy these artsy celebrations of diversity and......

SALMAN RUSHDIE: He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from his latest effort, The Enchantress of Florence. According to the press release, it sounds like it's one of those quasi-fictional tales pitting opposites against each other (and, possibly, in the process, showing how opposites attract?). Tickets are available at University Bookstore for $5 a pop, or you can just buy a copy of the novel and use that as your entry. 7:30 p.m.......

Hiphop's King of Ballard, an inspired young emcee named Grynch, sat down with us over chicken satay (which he thought was delicious, and said so several times) to discuss everything from backpack rap to The Program. Here's what the man has to say. And catch his set tomorrow night at The Sunset--it's your last chance until June! Where in the family tree of hiphop would you place yourself? I think you can't really put......

Part of the reason we Zipcar-ed out to Ballard was to see the space that The Space (aka the 608 Club, at 608 NW 65th) is in. We found a door that said 608 on it and walked into a foyer crammed with electric organs and keyboards and a couch. People glanced up at us, but we kept on, down a hall to a small merch table that also contained a paper bag filled with......

NOON JAZZ: Cornish's music department is putting on a noon concert featuring the Jazz Composers Ensemble with Jovino Santos Neto, the Brazilian pianist, flutist, and composer. We don't have a lot of information on this, but come on, it's free. Grab something at Joe Bar and head on over. noon // Kerry Hall, 710 E Roy St // FREE DHARMA MEDITATION: Are you a continuing dharma student? Don't be fronting your sense of refuge:......

JAZZ: Dr. John kicks off a 6-night run at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, giving audiences the benefit of a life studded with "troubles at home." Singing about New Orleans before, during, and after it was cool, he created a musical love letter to the city of New Orleans in 2004, "N’awlinz Dis Dat or D’udda," and won an award from the Académie Charles Cros at their 57th awards ceremony. He may be most famous as......

FRIDAY MUSIC: We're supporting local talent this evening, with a Cornish Senior Recital. Composer Andrew Boscardin (aka Bosco) has two new pieces ready to meet the world. He tells us:The first set will feature a sextet with myself, Mack Grout, Brad Gibson, Rachael Contorer and Clark Gibson. The second set will feature a 13-piece big band. All of the music was written by me and represents easily the largest and most daunting undertaking of......

Knowledge: Seattle University is having a Globalization & Justice conference and you're invited. Today's keynote speaker is the very famous, very sharp...Anil Gupta, ladies and gentlemen! Put your hands together for his talk, "G2G – Grassroots to Global: the Knowledge Rights of Creative Communities." Gupta founded the Honey Bee Network, which is good because if the real ones don't bounce back, we may need to turn to them for pollen collection. 5:30pm // Pigott......

Even though he grew up in Seattle and has recently joined the UW jazz studies faculty, and even though he had an intriguing-looking gig at SAM during last fall's Earshot Jazz Festival, we still haven't managed to catch a performance by trumpeter Cuong Vu. But we'd sure like to catch him tonight at UW's Meany Hall and finally hear him in person. Equally at home with funk/rock rhythms and a more ethereal ECM-style vibe, Vu......

When your band's roster (Gonzalez on trumpet and congas; Andy Gonzalez, bass; Larry Willis, piano; Steve Berrios, drums; Joe Ford, sax/flute) has been in place since 1990, you have time to develop the musical telepathy that makes jazz jazz. And when that telepathy communicates both the bebop-and-beyond mainstream and Puerto Rican popular music (via the Bronx), you have an unusually savory mix. We first heard the Fort Apache Band on a very early (1988)......

If you heard only the NPR news blip on jazz pianist Oscar Peterson's death, you heard that he was "well known for having won many prizes." Not sure what skeleton holiday crew came up with that dismal description. Prizes were hardly the source of Peterson's fame. Musically, Peterson was in a class by himself--never quite a swing player, never quite a bop player. He didn't have a particular style. Art Tatum is known for his......

The glorious fall sunsets have disappeared along with the mouldering husks of Halloween pumpkins, and according the weather report, we can all expect a long, cold, wet weekend. But this being the Northwest, that's never stopped us from getting out and about; here's the weekend plans of your intrepid Seattlest contributors: By the time this hits the digital newsstands, Jeremy is going to be on his way to Fadó for post-work cocktails; after that......

We have a message for 15-year-old us: "You are a fuckface." Because it was 15-year-old us who decided against going to see Dizzy Gillespie at Jazz Alley in February of '92. "I'll just catch him next time around," 15-year-old us thought. There was no next time around. That performance was Gillespie's last--not just in Seattle, but anywhere. Ever since, we're committed to enjoying the elderly legends before they pass. We saw Ray Charles and Cab......

MUSICAL REVIEW: Tonight Seattlest Matt is checking out what was the longest-running musical review in the history of Broadway, Smokey Joe's Café. A hit-list from the '50s and '60s of songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, it opens tonight and runs through June 17th. We can almost hear the K-TEL announcer: Featuring 40 of the greatest songs ever recorded, including such hits as "On Broadway," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me," "Spanish Harlem,"......

Having never been to the Triple Door, we did a 'lil looky-loo on the series of tubes that is the internets. The place seemed a little more hoity-toity than we were used to, with its plush half-moon booths and candle-lit tables. Reluctantly, we ditched the jeans we'd worn for three days and dappered up a bit. Upon arrival at the Triple Door, we're greeted by a lovely hostess who shows us to our table,......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

The first thing we noticed when we got to Egan’s Ballard Jam House on Saturday was that the place was designed by architects from Mattel, with parts left over from Barbie’s last house. The front room is as roomy as the backseat of a Volvo. The main dining/concert room is like an elongated hallway with a stage built into one wall. Even before the band started, the placed felt packed; this was because there were......

ELECTION NIGHT PARTY: Get happy with Cary Moon and the People's Waterfront Coalition, the prophets of the surface/transit waterfront. 7:30-9pm (votes trickle in circa 8:15) // Edgewater Hotel [2411 Alaskan Way, Pier 67] 9pm-? // Spitfire Grill [2219 4th Ave] MUSIC: What does it do to your "keeping it real" status when your hip-hop album, which more than touches base on drug culture, only blows up after attention from the Vices and Pitchforks of the......

As he stumbled and bumbled through last night's quiz one thing was certain, Seattlest David was having serious issues rocking the mic. He considers it a miracle that only one coaster was thrown at him. In the end 'Laser Rocket Arms' came away with the top prize, followed by 'Why Can't Walter Read', and 'Dean's List.' 'The Fucking A's' finished fourth, and picked Jazz Music as a round for next week. Seattlest Seth will host......

TRIVIA: Tonight at the Old Pequilar. Seattlest David hosts. Guaranteed round: sesquipedalianism, or "addiction to unnecessarily long words." Also movies and geography. 8pm, signup at 7:45 // Old Pequilar, Ballard // $5 per team MOVIE: "Black Snake Moan is a Russ Meyer film edited by Micheel Medved"? Sold! Check out Jackson, Ricci, and the chai-chai-chain, then stop by the debate at The House Next Door. various showtimes // Meridian 16, Varsity, and elsewhere // depends......

JAZZ: Though it's presented by Starbucks, the real stars of Hot Java Cool Jazz are the five area high school jazz bands. Each band (representing Garfield, Roosevelt, Shorewood, Mountlake Terrace, and Edmonds-Woodway) shows what they got, while all proceeds from ticket sales go back to the performing schools. It's pretty much win-win. 7:30pm // The Paramount // $8-$15 SPA: Now that sexy has been successfully brought back, work to maintain it at Salon Dewi. Tonight's......

BOOKS: Dave "Mr. McSweeney's" Eggers' latest is titled What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. Mr. Deng himself--a survivor of the Darfur shitstorm--discusses his life tonight. Bring tissue. 7:30pm // Elliott Bay Book Co. // Free JAZZ: Detroit's Kenny Garrett, a former Miles Davis sideman, brings his "blues-tinged, precise and rapid-fire style" (BBC Music) here for two nights. Tonight's the first. Wade through a dumbass Flash site to hear mp3s here. 7:30pm......

ART: Think you were Toulouse-Lautrec in a previous life? Swing by the Bedroom Club tonight and sketch the Burning Hearts Burlesque performers along with the Seattle Figure Drawing Meetup Group. 9pm for the show, 10:30pm for the sketching // Last Supper Club (124 S. Washington) // free to artists if you RSVP; $10 if you want to see the show sans sketchbook JAZZ: "It's fun, swing-y, gypsy-ish," says our jazz-loving friend of Pearl Django's music.......

MUSIC: Blue Scholars and Common Market 8pm // Neumo's // $20. 21+ MUSIC: Harvey Danger with Slender Means and "Awesome." 9pm // Crocodile // $25. 21+ (also an early show at 4pm for all-ages; $5) PARTY: Arcana: New Years Masquerade Ball 9pm // Capitol Hill Arts Center // $30 (or $75 for deluxe pimp action) MUSIC: The Melvins, Big Business, Porn, "Hot Sauce" Butch Darlene 8pm// Showbox // $25 "MYSTICAL" PARTY: There's this weird......

TRIVIA: By popular demand, there's Seattlest trivia tonight, just one day after we all celebrated the birth of the Lord. 8pm / Old Pequliar Tavern [1722 NW Market St, Ballard] / $5 per team BASKETBALL: Seattlest Seth and David will be watching their alma mater dear in the only high-school basketball game of the night. Garfield goes to Shorewood. Garfield's led by super soph Aaron Dotson, here's what Scout.com says about him:He is an explosive......

So it's a been a while since New Times Media bought the Seattle Weekly, and while we didn't hesitate to bring you a nuanced perspective of the takeover (Sample opener: "Ever since the Seattle Weekly burst like a pimple between the fingers of new owners New Times Media and sprayed former editorial staffers in every direction like so much pus..."), we've been quietly taking notes since. For one thing, how about those ad sales.......

MUSIC: Yeah, we're really not sure about this, it could go either way, but the Crocodile is hosting a Disney cover night, featuring members from Catch, Kane Hodder, Pris, and a bunch of other acts. That's right. Disney covers. If it fails, it should fail in a uniquely horrifying manner. 9pm // Crocodile Cafe // $7 SPEAKING: Come learn about the horrible ways in which you and your children will live and die as John......

Tuesday 7th >>> Foreigner at The Paramount. Be warned: whether you're cold as ice or hot-blooded, this is the kind of rock that leads to double-vision. *video: Urgent 8:00pm; $40-$150. The $150 includes a pre-show wine tasting and meet & greet. >>> Bonnie Prince Billy at The Tractor. Will Oldham has been keeping us at arm's length with the "Bonnie Prince Billy" moniker for years. We can pretend it isn't true, but it is.......

"Go see George Colligan," our friend e-mailed from DC. "He's one of the best pianists working today." So we did—Colligan was at Tula's on Friday and Saturday nights, as the Earshot Jazz Festival neared its close—and he is. Although it is easy to hear earlier influences (Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner) and contemporary resemblances (Geoffrey Keezer), Colligan is original and inventive and his technique must be witnessed to be believed. A solo medley of "Body and......

Watching Batsheva Dance Company of Israel at The Moore. The New York Times tells you it is unlike any other dance you have seen, and not in that icky "experimental/performance art" kind of way. 7:30pm; $36.50 "plus fees." Listening Amiina at Chop Suey. Thanks to sponsorship from Iceland Naturally, this show is FREE, bringing a group most famous for their opening and support tours with Sigur Ros. You know you like Sigur Ros, and while......