Travis Arket, one of the three founding members of Seattle-based Team Robot House to take part in a Himalayan rickshaw race to raise money for Mercy Corps earlier this summer, hardly knows how to begin to describe their adventure. "It was so surreal, so condensed. Think Indiana Jones meets Commando meets Ghandi meets Hotel Rwanda, mashed up into a ball and forced down your throat. Luckily we have most of it on video," he says. "Absolute insanity. Overwhelming," his teammate Matt Crabtree agrees. The team raised thousands of dollars for charity, and the donations are still rolling in. more ›

It seems like that's a common fear, to lose our place in the now, but the story Weems tells reminds us how rejuvenating trips down memory lane can be. Rejuvenating--and colorful, poignant, hilarious, and heart-warming--Namaste Man runs through June 22 at the Intiman (tickets: $10-$48). For a solo performer, Weems is unusually disinterested in telling you "what it all means," which we appreciated. Instead, he offers a preternaturally observant eye on his childhood experiences in the early '70s in Nepal, as the son of a U.S. State Department official. more ›

"What’s exciting about sitting at a resort somewhere? Where’s the living in that?” Travis Arket asks, and sets down his pho chopsticks. Matt Crabtree nods. “Not exciting.” Travis and Matt (pictured) are two of the three members of Team Robot House, a non-profit adventure philanthropy corporation based here in the Seattle area that takes on a few extreme challenges each year to raise money for charities such as Mercy Corps. more ›