What's the plan tonight? Check in with our calendar for music, MOHAI, movies, arts and lectures, all on tap this Thursday. more ›

The New York Times says that Roy Blount, Jr., "hangs out in dictionaries the way other writers hang out in bars." He also hangs out in our ears, in the sense that his witticisms on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! ring true long after we listen to the show. more ›

Arts and lectures, history films and the Earth Liberation Front are on the calendar today. Read up before you make plans. more ›

Joyce Carol Oates: elegant, genius, prolific, a little bit spooky. Whether reading her delicately crafted yet deeply searing short stories about growing up—which you can still do as an adult&mdahs;or her lengthy, complex novels about relationships, status, and even celebrity, her diverse themes and subtle phrasing create some of the most memorable books you'll ever experience. more ›

Lucia Perillo’s poetry is all about bodies and animals; humans as meat, beasts as flesh, sex and desire. She’s also considered to be “the funniest poet writing today, which is saying a lot.” With works such as 2009’s Inseminating the Elephant, I’ve Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature (2007) and The Body Mutinies (1996), Perillo illustrates for readers those physical dimensions connecting humans to their animal counterparts. Her poems are at times embarrassing and grotesque, at others soothing and refreshing, but her explorations are always lively. And you can catch this Olympia resident reading tomorrow night at Benaroya Hall as part of the Seattle Arts and Lectures series (the event is nearly sold out). more ›

Black Friday is two days away, huzzah, bringing with it hordes of extraordinary deals for Seattle's savviest shoppers. Planning to shiver on the sidewalk in front of Old Navy on 12 a.m. Friday morning? Well class it up, Charlie! Seattle's arts groups are running special Black Friday deals, too. Contact the individual arts organizations for full details about each offer. more ›

A NIGHT OF POETS: The Blue Moon Tavern will be hosting Poetry Northwest's Fall Social and release party tonight, featuring Ed Skoog, Rebecca Hoogs and our fantastic friend Kate Lebo. Founded in 1959, Poetry Northwest is known for being one of the oldest American poetry journals--and not to mention for the fact that they publish many amazing local poets. The three will read from poems in the new journal and from poems by Theodore Roethke, who was known to be a regular at the Blue Moon back in the day. If you are a fan of poetry--and especially local poetry at that--do not miss this one. more ›

Revered as "a modern day Henry David Thoreau,"a writer's writer," and overall as "arguably the nation's premier nature writer," Barry Lopez is an essayist and author of over a dozen well-known fiction and nonfiction works. more ›

FOR THE DESIGNERS: Northwest Film Forum is holding their 10th annual ByDesign Series and tonight features two different selections of short films from the influential husband and wife design team, Charles and Ray Eames. The first selection, Eames Design, documents their private home, Herman Miller furniture, and solar powered kinetic sculpture. The second selection, Eames Communication, includes the duo's short films on communication, science, and new technologies. Considering that these two iconic designers were the main inspiration behind the ByDesign series when it first began a decade ago, this is definitely a not-to-be-missed night for the designers out there. more ›

TIME TO HIT THE ROAD: Jane and Michael Stern are in town tonight to speak about their diner-filled travels and food adventures across the U.S. as a part of Seattle Arts and Lectures. The Stern's supposedly eat up to 12 meals a day while on the road (Whaaa?!), all for the sake of their much-adoring fans that we're sure would eat 12 servings of the Road Food books out of their hands on any occasion if asked. Don't go to this reading hungry--we have a feeling you'll really regret it. more ›

During the long Q&A session after his Seattle Arts and Lectures talk, Gary Snyder was asked about climate change and everyone in Benaroya Hall mentally leaned in to hear. "I don't worry about it," said Snyder, taking the opportunity to mention that he thought about climate change in chunks of geologic time, 200 million years or so. There used to be palm trees in Greenland, he pointed out, and while we Pleistocene refugees may be freaked out at losing our glaciers, it's fair to say the world has warmed up more than this before. more ›

DEAD GIRL ART: Today it will be warm and sunny, which means it's a good day to break out of the office at lunch, snag a free parking spot at the Frye, and pop into their cafe for a bite before enjoying some disturbing paintings. Their exhibit Over Julia's Dead Body showcases Gabriel von Max, a Munich Secessionist "best known for his paintings of beautiful, dead women." Gabriel was into spiritualism, somnambulism, and painting with a dark palette. more ›

SPELL OUT CHARITY: The Jewel Box Theater, located at Belltown mainstay the Rendezvous, will be hosting Buzzword, their first annual spelling bee for adults. Not an actual bee that spells, of course, but the good old-fashioned kind, and it's for charity! All proceeds will benefit Pike Place Market's Medical Clinic, Senior Center, Child Care & Preschool, and the Downtown Food Bank. They will be picking ten teams of three to compete for great prizes and the title of Killer Bee Spelling Champion, which will be decided in the final round on July 28. Who doesn't love to spell, and who doesn't love to give a little back? We know we do. more ›

British poet Simon Armitage (b. 1963, Huddersfield, in West Yorkshire) was in town this week for the Seattle Arts and Lectures Poetry Series (still tickets available for Naomi Shihab Nye's second night, May 8). more ›

ELECTRONIC LOVE: Washington D.C.-based d.j. duo Thievery Corporation will be coming to the Paramount for one night only. Known for their "acid jazz" cocktail lounge sound and progressive worldly beats,they are definitely one of those groups you may think you've never heard, but once you've listened to, you'll recognize. One of their most popular songs, "Lebanese Blonde", became a hit after it appeared in a little but well-known movie, Garden State, and it is used frequently in intros on radio stations such as KEXP and NPR. We guarantee this to be great for a date night, and hopefully some movin' and shakin'. more ›

NERD BOOK: Junot Diaz, the nerdy Dominican-American novelist whose still be available, but you'll have to check at Benaroya's box office, as online sales have closed. more ›

JOHN FUCKING UPDIKE: His gallivanting rabbits may have lost a step, Updike reports: "When, against my better judgment, I glance back at my prose from 20 or 30 years ago, the quality I admire and fear to have lost is its carefree bounce, its snap, its exuberant air of slight excess." But as a critic he's an admirably close, inquisitive reader, and of course he's still John fucking Updike to all of us, so having him in town is a delight. In theory he'll be talking to the Seattle Arts & Lectures audience about small towns and the middle class. more ›

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There are two more poets due in town for the Seattle Arts and Lectures Poetry Series, both in April. Lucille Clifton shows up at the Intiman on April 7, Edward Hirsch on April 21. more ›

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