Results tagged “reading”

Hugo House will be officially kicking off its 2009-2010 Literary Series this Friday with well-known Seattle favorites such as Rebecca Brown, Keri Healey, Eric McHenry, and local hip-hop artist Macklemore.

Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft is a peculiarly engaging read--it's a polemic about the necessity for self-directed work, an "I did it my way" memoir about a political science Ph.D. who resigned from a thinktank to fix motorcycles, and an illuminating critique of the "knowledge worker" paradise. Probably because of the motorcycle repair, it's getting comparisons to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but Crawford is equally happy to tackle the after-effects of Taylorism and Druckerism, too.

SINGER/SONGWRITER: It's been too long since we heard Molly Rose's dulcet vocals ring out in a local bar, but that's remedied tonight at the Tractor. It's a CD release show for her new album Clandestine, and she's appearing with the Nick Jaina Band and Pickwick. Molly puts just the right amount of poetry into her lyrics, conjuring up image fragments that wriggle like a worm on a catchy hook.

Author Mark Kurlansky doesn’t always write about food, but it has been the subject of two of his bestselling books (Cod, Salt) and his newest book, The Food of a Younger Land (he's reading at Elliott Bay tonight, 7:30 p.m., free admission). But don’t call him a food writer.

CHANNELING NIRVANA, ONLY BETTER: Yeah, we said it, but as Kurt Cobain once noted about the Vaselines, "They are my most favorite songwriters in the whole world." So much so, that he named his daughter Frances Bean after lead singer Frances McKee. We agree and think it's totally awesome that they're in town playing on a Tuesday for only $20. A hugely famous band that doesn't come to town very often, fairly affordable, plenty of tickets left, and on a Tuesday. We are practically pinching ourselves, and can't wait to hear old favorites such as "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and "You Think You're a Man," among others. The last time Seattle got a chance to see them was at Sub Pop Records' 20th Anniversary, and we are loving that this time around it will be in the city, with hopefully a smaller crowd.

STAND-UP FOR CHIMPS: Pioneer Square's Comedy Underground will be hosting a charity event for our rescued furry friends over at Cle Elum's Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Put on by Yoram Bauman a.k.a. "the stand-up economist" and founder of Non-Profit Comedy, the stand-up comedy also includes raffle tickets, a slide show, and merchandise for sale. All proceeds of Stand-up for Chimps! will go toward spring planting for the chimps' vegetable garden, and besides money, they will also be taking donations of seeds and seedlings.

For those of you who didn't know, April is not only about Easter and April Fool's Day; it's also National Poetry Month!

BEGLEY VISION: We don't know about you but we are stoked about this visit from Ed Begley, Jr., who wants to tell us all about--and write his name on--his new book, Living Like Ed: A Guide To Eco-Friendly Life. It's not clear if Ed bicycled up here from L.A., but you know he could have. The Siskiyou Pass would have been a challenge on a bike this time of year, though, so maybe he stuck with his electric car or jet or what-have-you. The great thing about Ed, really, is that he's (in)famous in L.A. for riding that bicycle--you know, holy shit! a bicycle! A man is riding a bicycle! L.A. could just choke on its exhaust and it wouldn't bug us. If Ed was out of town at the time, we mean.

HAPPY WASHINGTON WINE HOUR: The Sorrento is marking the Washingtonization of The Hunt Club's previously Californicated wine list with a series of “Winemaker Happy Hours!” every Wednesday in March, with dueling winemakers, their wines, and appetizers--all for just $10. Tonight's guest vintners are Lantz Cellars (Yakima Valley, focus on Bordeaux and Rhone varietals) and Baer Winery (Woodinville, blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot).

You no longer have to buy a Kindle or give Amazon.com any money in order to access the bulk of Kindle content and features, thanks to a new application (download here) released by the Seattle-based book giant today which allows you to read, highlight, and bookmark e-books Kindle-style on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Just last month, Seattlest got to handle our first Kindle; its owner had to gently inform us that the first-generation version did not in fact have a touch screen after a full minute of watching our grimy fingers scooting along the surface in vain. If you have one of the old Kindles and don't want to invest in a new one just for the touch screen feature, now you have options. iPhone-owning readers: will you be downloading this app? [MvB: Just did.]

Stephen Mitchell has introduced us to both Rainer Maria Rilke and Lao-tzu. He did the same for a lot of people, we suspect--his translation of the Tao Te Ching has sold over a million copies. Now he's on a book tour for The Second Book of the Tao, which is based on the writings of Lao-tzu’s disciple Chuang-tzu and Confucius’s grandson Tzu-ssu. He's in town Saturday, February 28, at the Elliott Bay Book Company for a 2 p.m. appearance. We ask him a few "We haven't read your book yet" questions below--after the jump there's an excerpt he selected just for Seattlest.

CACOPHONY: British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth, Norwegian black metal group Satyricon, and Greek death metal band Septic Flesh will converge upon the Showbox at the Market tonight for a riotous, maybe-possibly Satanic, soul-chillingly shockerrific celebration of the dark side this evening. Wear your cutest black leather/nose chain combo and hit up that mess; don't forget your ear plugs.

STELLA! YOU MAKE US YELL-A!: It's a good week when we get to use the phrase "comedic stylings," and the stylings of Stella--that's Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain--fall squarely in the comedic category. We're not really "comedy" people, but even we have seen Michael Ian Black live and laughed like there was no tomorrow--when in fact there was, and that became a whole thing we won't get into. The group has been called "bizarre, nonsensical, and very funny" and "dumb comedy in a suit," if that gives you some idea.

ANTIOXIDANTS WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL: Cherie Calbum might not, upon further examination, go that far. But she's really, really, really excited about the possibilities of making and drinking one's own juice--and about sleeping away your pounds, and about coconut as the secret ingredient to everything good in life (we agree with her on that last part). Head over to Town Hall to see what all the fuss is about; who knows, maybe you'll have a fruit combination epiphany that will improve your weekend smoothies exponentially.

Sometimes book readings are news because of the book; sometimes because of the author. With Steven Johnson, you get both. He's in town for a few days on his book tour for The Invention of Air: at Elliott Bay Book Company on Sunday, at 3 p.m.; Town Hall on Monday, 7:30 p.m., and holding court at a "Words & Wine" event at the Pan Pacific Hotel on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

The King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention will double its book budget by ditching their librarians and having inmates and correction officers deliver books within the jails instead. That's how it is in the movies, so we're assuming the new set-up will work just fine. And more money for books is a wonderful development! The P-I's article is warm and fuzzy, and we love us some books, so it's unknown at this point if there even is a downside to the end of the librarian contract. Suffice it to say that if we ever land ourselves in jail, the doubled variety of books to choose from will be much appreciated.

, but given Grove's and Rosset's history, it's bound to cover plenty of interesting stuff.

GENUINELY COOL, ARTSY FARTSY NIGHT: Go to the Filter release party at the Richard Hugo House tonight for readings, hobnob opps with writerly folks, and performances by Awesome!. The literary magazine celebrates the release of its second issue, and if you haven't seen this work of art yet, you may not know: this is a beautiful and well-crafted literary magazine, not only in content but in construction.

WORDY SHIPMATES: Sarah Vowell's finally here to read from her book about the thought-life of Puritans such as John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, and Roger Williams. She's "not interested in the whole person," says Vowell in a recent interview with Seattlest Editor MvB. Take Roger Williams: "I'm mostly interested in what he thought about religion, government, community, Indians and how much Roger Williams was getting on his nerves. I don't really give a hoot what he had for breakfast or how he felt about his mom." This is one reading we feel more than comfortable recommending!

Seattlest's childhood summers were for three things: camping, sleeping late, and reading. The latter was the most pervasive. We borrowed stacks of ambitiously thick books at a time from the Lake Hills library--a bike ride through the greenbelt away--and we'd burrow somewhere comfortable to read for long hours. We inhaled books, goldfish crackers, and pina colada-flavored slurpees from the corner store during those summers like there was no tomorrow, because back then, it was almost like there really wasn't. At least, there wasn't a tomorrow we needed to concern ourselves terribly with--as long as we had a good book waiting.

One more event for tonight: Christian Lander, the biting satirist of Stuff White People Like, makes a free appearance tonight at the Hideout (1005 Boren Ave) to shill the book based on his blog. There's a private dinner beforehand--begging the question "Exactly what stuff do white people like to eat?"--but tickets to that portion of the evening are long sold out. Show up any time after 8 p.m. to buy a book, get it signed, or just mingle and commiserate with your fellow Caucasians. Prepare for tonight by being offended at the very idea of such a tasteless event, and don't forget to bring your Asian wife and token black friend!

We sent special Killer Bugs correspondent Roger van Oosten to Town Hall last night to catch Richard "Hot Zone" Preston's talk. Post-decontamination, here is his report.

, Waters has been pushing the boundaries of the cinema for about 40 years, and has moved from the indie fringes to the mainstream with popular stage musicals of his classic films.

For a first novel, Nathaniel Rich's The Mayor's Tongue makes for a good read. But even though he's "not yet 30," he is a senior editor at The Paris Review (and the author of San Francisco Noir), and so you do expect him not to offer you some rewarmed Roth in the first place. He's down at Elliott Bay Book Company on Monday night, April 21st, giving the usual free reading/Q&A and not fielding questions about what it's like having Frank Rich as a father.

Eric Alterman is the sort of liberal we like to refer to as a "Democrat," as in, capitol "D" Democratic Party stalwart. As such, this columnist and Media Matters blogger was an arch-partisan prototype for those crazy kids at DailyKos, back in the days when armchair politicos were relegated to penning rants to the editor of their local newspaper.

Well, not exactly. Eddie Vedder wasn't involved. And it's a "new rendition of an old-school tune"—a cover of the 1955 ditty "Rock Around the Clock." The "new rendition" doesn't amount to much more than a single-word swap; "Clock," in both title and refrain, has been replaced by "Barack."

George Zimmer would not have liked what went down at the Tukwila Men's Wearhouse Wednesday evening. We guarantee it.

Not that there's anything remarkably surprising about this. Most of us here in this hippy haven understand full well that the War in Iraq was forged under false pretense, and there have been plenty of news stories in the past five years to back up our suspicions.

tomorrow night. So excited, in fact, that we thought we'd go to the Google to find out what sorts of happenings are going to, well, happen tomorrow in celebration of the big release.