This weekend, put yourself in a puppet epicenter, hoof it down to Burien to ride in a Zeppelin Makeout Ship, and applaud a long-form fight between robots. This is the sort of three-day spread that makes for a good story at the bar. more ›

IN HEAVEN: On her most recent St. Vincent album, this year’s Strange Mercy, singer/songwriter/electric guitarist Annie Clark did something many musicians don’t - she made her sound simpler. Sometimes complex arrangements, crammed samples, sound effects, and other manufactured accoutrements seem to be taking over. So we were happy to hear Clark focused on “getting the point across.” Don’t get the wrong idea though; her playing is innovative, sometimes dirty, and her words are thoughtful, dark, and strange. She’s even got a few live moves to shake things up on stage. Jackpot for the audience. With Cate Le Bon. more ›

TAKING OFF: Tonight is opening night of Shine: A Burlesque Musical. We wondered what a burlesque musical might look and sound like, and after watching this, we got our answer. It looks like a freaking sexy musical, that’s what. Shine is a full-book musical that tells the story of the infamous Aristocrat Theatre and a family of misfits that try to save it from demolition and gentrification. Winner of the Vancouver Ovation Award for “Best New Work,” Shine is also heading to New York’s Fringe in August, but not until its through entertaining Seattle burlesque and/or musical fans through July 18. Tassels and electric guitars, need we say more? 18+, of course. more ›

ROADS TO CONSIDER: Ted Conover will be speaking tonight about his new book, The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, in which he describes the ways that we connect or separate ourselves globally through our chosen paths of travel, escape, control, and more. If you've been meaning to catch one last reading at the original Elliott Bay location, this would be a great opportunity before they hit the road for Capitol Hill at the end of the month. more ›

ONE WORLD, TWELVE FINALISTS: Central Cinema will be featuring some of the twelve best short films submitted to the 2009 Manhattan Shorts Festival tonight--the first night of the three-day event. Manhattan's goal is to show the finalists in venues on every continent, uniting audiences around the world, for this one week only. We must admit that they have a point when they ask, "For up-and-coming filmmakers, what greater test for your film is there than to be judged in cinemas by a global audience?" So go join in on the judging fun, and let your inner-critic shine. more ›

We're reminded about two events the Canoe Social Club--"a newish space in the ID that seems to be picking up where McLeod Residence left off" (Seattle Weekly)--is putting on this weekend. At 10 p.m. tonight there's the Scratch 'n' Sniff Performers Buffet, "small/solo music acts and other similar stage antics," and tomorrow there's a fundraiser for the much-lauded New Century Theatre Company, also 10 p.m. That one features the Sarah Rudinoff/Gretta Harley musical collaboration We Are Golden. It's 21+ and $25, at the Theatre Off Jackson. more ›

ONE WEEKEND ONLY more ›

ONE WEEKEND ONLY more ›

We have to start here by jumping in and saying that this is easily one of the most exciting weekends of theatre we've seen in town in months--two festivals running, genre-breaking opera, ballet crossing over into Broadway show tune territory, two shows that have had their runs extended (, you've lost your bloody mind. It doesn't get better than this! more ›

This week marks the opening of the third installment of the Solo Performance Festival at Theatre off Jackson. Running through March 21, ToJ is presenting a series of seven different programs devoted to solo performance, from the artsy one-person shows to stand-up comedy to boylesque performance. more ›

MOPE ROCK: Sad as it is to say, The Beautiful Confusion are the reason you should head out to the High Dive for The Beautiful Confusion's CD release party tonight. Unless of course you're into breathy vocal-ed, country-infused folk rock. Which we're not. But the headliner, Little Pieces, we do dig: it's lo-fi, choppy indie rock that doesn't take itself seriously (or possible so seriously you just don't believe it). With Black Nite Crash and Iris I. more ›

Last Friday, we gushed all over the Absurd Reality Theatre's production of Peter Morris's , which starts the second week of its awkwardly scheduled run tonight at the Theatre off Jackson (409 Seventh Ave., 8 p.m., tix $15, $10 student). And we weren't the only ones--the reviews are in and A.R.T.'s play has pretty much swept the press. more ›

By the time actor Adam Standley's character starts explaining how he made Abu Ghraib-themed amateur porn, you realize that a play that (or is it?) Abu Ghraib are projected. But by that point, the form has come to fit the function, and the genius of this play has won you over. more ›

HILARIOUS TOMFOOLERY: Andrew Connor of The Cody Rivers Show, a brilliant physical comedy group out of Bellingham, has brought MissoulaOblongata's newest show, The Last Hurrah of the Clementines, to Theatre Off Jackson. Connor, who has great taste, and is rumored to be the newest curator of Seattle Sketchfest, is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a winner. If you're not convinced, check out the synopsis: more ›

The first thing you need to know before you go to the Solo Performance Festival at the Theatre Off Jackson is that while the Theatre Off Jackson is at 7th and Jackson, one block up at 8th and Jackson sit two of the ID's most-loved restaurants: Green Leaf offers Vietnamese cuisine and the Szechuan Noodle Bowl, Chinese. The second thing is that the Green Leaf is remodeling and isn't open, so get that out of your head right now. more ›

One-man theater performances like the ones going on in festival format at the Theatre Off Jackson right now require a lot of imagination from the audience. Imagine that there's a huge fantastical set, imagine that the person the actor is having a conversation with isn't the very same actor with a modified posture and voice and standing on the other side of the room. Imagine that you're there in the first place, for most of you, which is a mistake because SPF is a great new festival in only its second year. more ›

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MOVIES: There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are attracted to a film program called Monument Recall: Public Memory and Public Spaces, and those who are repelled. If you're the former? Tonight's your night. more ›

We just assumed this was to prep us for an earful of earnest agitprop about Rich World/Poor World divisions -- which we were okay with. We got Lolita-meets-Psycho-meets-Clockwork Orange instead. We realize this will suit some of you just fine. If so, skip to the end for ticket info. more ›

SHOPPING: Scarecrow is having a used DVD sale right now that will be running through the end of the month (or "until the shelves are bare"), but don't wait until everyone else goes through and takes all the good stuff. more ›

>>>Third Place Books, 7:00pm. Another weighty tome, Unreleased Beatles by Richie Unterberger, to add to your Beatles-only reference section. It details the shitload of stuff that was recorded but, you know, forgotten about what with being so high at the time, plus the whole headtrip with Yoko. Free with OCD collecting disorder. more ›