Results tagged “townhall”

THE LIFE AQUATIC: The aspiring marine biologist in all of us owes a great debt to the achievements of Mr. Cousteau. His contributions to the development of scuba gear alone led to great advancements in underwater exploration. Vashon Island author Brad Matsen reads from Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King tonight. Let's hope that he doesn't leave out the pirate raid and revenge plot against the shark that killed his partner.

DEAD ALIVE: Touted as "The Goriest Fright Film of All Time," Dead Alive (aka Braindead) will be playing tonight at Central Cinema. And yes, they will be featuring Peter Jackson's director's cut with the full lawnmower scene. The plot sounds fantastic--a woman is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey, dies, and comes back to life to kill and eat DOGS, among other living creatures. It doesn't get much more awesome than that.

THE RISING SEA: Town Hall hosts Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young, professors and authors of The Rising Sea, tonight as the second installment of a series on sustainability issues titled Soundings From Island Press. The two will be discussing the possible consequences of sea levels rising by as much as seven feet in 2100, and how we can plan ahead for saving lives and communities in coastal cities such as Miami, New York, and New Orleans.

'CAUSE SARAH VOWELL'S INCREDIBLE: Much-loved favorite author, humorist, journalist, and sometimes Pixar character Sarah Vowell will be in town tonight to read from her latest novel, The Wordy Shipmates. For anyone who has yet to have read Vowell's work, we promise this will be an excellent opportunity to get acquainted not only with her latest, but as well with Vowell herself. To ensure a seat or standing spot we highly recommend getting there early--there's definitely a reason why this book has been on the bestseller's list for practically forever.

Jacque-Henri Lartigue's images of urban life are sweetly quirky and full of whimsy in a way that could only have been possible prior to two world wars. If you're a fan of the movie Rushmore, you owe it to yourself to see his work, as director Wes Anderson has drawn on Lartigue’s photographs for inspiration. Lartigue’s photographs are accompanied by the photography of Marion Post Wolcott, who worked with the Farm Security Administration during the 1930s and 40s.

ARE YOU JUST? Michael J. Sandel, professor of philosophy at Harvard, talks about political and moral philosophy at Town Hall. Sandel’s all-encompassingly titled “Justice” courses are among the most highly attended in the university’s history. Sandel is the author of Just: What’s the Right Thing to Do, which examines our obligations to others.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PATSY CLINE!: The Triple Door will be hosting Sweet Dreams, an evening celebration tonight on what would have been Patsy Cline's 77th birthday. Featuring local Northwest singer/songwriters such as Star Anna and The Laughing Dogs, and Rachel Flotard of Visqueen, the show will be a great opportunity for longtime fans to hear their favorites and pay tribute to the legendary singer. The earlier showing is all ages, and $2.00 from each ticket sold will go towards the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.

The Seattle Planning Commission and Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee is soliciting your input on a mysterious creature called a "neighborhood plan." They want to know how they're doing, so the first thing you'll want to tell them is that they've done a fantastic job of keeping the existence of neighborhood plans under wraps. After a series of in-person, town hall meetings failed to gather crowds outnumbering staff, they've decided to try this online thing and it's going like gangbusters. That being the case, they've extended the comment period until August 21, so jump in.

We don't listen to the "radio" but we do know of Thom Hartmann from his analysis of the rise of corporate culture, which is good reading. His Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture, though, got us all stirred up with nowhere to go. (Check out the excerpt on sociopathic CEOs on HuffPo.)

FISH-SICLE FRENZY: It's hawt. And the zoo's Humboldt penguins need a cool treat, so they're getting 5-gallon “fishsicles,” a block of ice with small fish, such as herring and smelt. We're told the penguins are from what's known as a "desert" but apparently it doesn't get that hot there. So iced-up fish bits it is. Swing by at 3:30 this afternoon to catch the fish-sicle action.

PARK IT FOR REGGAE: From noon to 1:30 p.m., enjoy the pure roots reggae and live dub of Clinton Fearon & The Boogie Brown Band. That's downtown in our urban rest stop, Westlake Park. It's part of the Summer in the City series, and their site even includes a list of to-go food options nearby. If you can't decide, probably your best one-stop lunch option is the Westlake Mall Food Court.

General David Petraeus is a details man. Over the course of two hours at Town Hall last night, the former Commanding General in Iraq spat out more names, dates, facts, and figures than we knew what to do with. This is why we have to make an concerted effort to remember a new acquaintance’s name while Petraeus currently serves as the Commander of U.S. Central Command.

ATTENTION! GENERAL AT THE HALL!: Hoo-ah! Former Commanding General of Multi-National Force-Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, now Commander of United States Central Command, is truly entering the lion's den--the peacenik Fortress of Solitude that is Town Hall. El General will talk about the lessons that our Afghanistan-bound troops can take from Iraq; how to prevent Pakistan from falling into a state of anarchy, and counterinsurgency that works. It's all part of the World Affairs Council's Leadership series--Petraeus was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of our 25 Best Leaders--which means that members get in for cheap and the rest of you hoi-polloi types pay full freight. 7-8:30 p.m. // Town Hall, Eighth & Seneca // Tickets: $20 WAC members/$40 general

NOLLYWOOD!: Since the weather's perfect, contrarians will want to shoebox themselves inside the U District's tiny Grand Illusion Theatre to catch a documentary about Nigeria's burgeoning B-movie film industry. Nollywood Babylon, which Film Threat calls "Irresistible," is about to close, and you don't want to make a liar of Film Threat, do you? No, you do not. Also it's a Canadian documentary, and it's Canada Day. If that doesn't get you there, we throw our hands up.

HOME ALONE: Poor little Korean kids. In So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain, two sisters (Jin, 6, and Bin, 4) must take care of each other after their mother leaves them to search for their estranged father. Parents of the Year all up in this piece! In this semi-autobiographical tale (whuuuuuuut?), things move slowly and tenderly while the children are left to their own devices and struggle to adapt to the new status quo. Treeless Mountain plays twice a night at the NWFF through Thursday. 7 p.m., 9 p.m. // Northwest Film Forum // 1515 12th Ave. // $9

BYRNE BABY BYRNE: David Byrne is back in town for a visit to the Paramount. Famous in his heyday for biting the heads off bats in his over-the-top metalhead shows...wait that doesn't seem...where's that bio again? Ah. Yes, the former Talking Heads front man is on a summer tour, playing songs by himself and Brian Eno. You'll hear stuff from Everything that Happens will Happen Today, and some back-catalogue Heads music than Eno had a hand in. Something old, something new, what's not to like?

SILENT SCREEN: Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount is back and focusing on the speechless girls of black-and-white. Words fail you when discussing Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl anyway--Judith and Bob are young atheists who naturally end up in a reform school run by sadists. This is an ur-Girls Gone Wild visual text and will count for credit if you are a student of this kind of counter-history. The important thing is, Judith and Bob learn that those fires of hell are real and they burn, thus making Christianity something more than an academic choice.

NOT A CELL PHONE PROVIDER: Fast on the heels of Maximus Minimus, Marination Mobile makes its debut today in Fremont. The Hawaiian-Korean taco truck serves a menu of "tacos and sliders, featuring ingredients such as kalbi beef, spicy pork, miso-ginger chicken, kalua pork, and tofu...marinated in signature sauces. There is also a kimchi fried rice bowl, kimchi quesadilla, and SPAM musubi. Items run from $2-$5." Marination plans to eventually operate seven days a week, open for lunch and dinner till 2 a.m. The weekly schedule is currently as follows, but be sure to watch for updates at their website and on teh Twitter: Monday: SODO, Seattle Design Guild (1701 First Ave); Wednesday: Fremont, Soundspeed Scooters (132 N. Canal St); Thursday: Capitol Hill, Broadway Shell (1500 Broadway @ Pike); Friday: Capitol Hill, Broadway Shell; Saturday: Capitol Hill, Broadway Shell; Sunday: Ballard, Cheka-Looka Surf Shop (6300 Seaview Ave. NW). 12 p.m.-2 p.m. // Soundspeed Scooters // 132 N. Canal St // $2-5

JUST LIKE A DREAM: In a Dream chronicles the life of artist Isaiah Zegar and his wife Julia, both his mosaic art and their family life. The documentary is directed by their son Jeremiah, and he pulls no punches in showing how his father's obsessive, creative mind took its toll on his family. The intimate, emotional film has won awards from festivals as diverse as SXSW, the Philadelphia Film Festival, and the San Francisco Documentary Festival. In a Dream screens at the NWFF through Thursday. 7 p.m., 9 p.m. // Northwest Film Forum // 1515 12th Ave. // $9

CAMPY: Nina Persson was a teenage crush of ours, back when she was producing brilliantly guileless pop with her band the Cardigans. So it's nice to see she's back on the road with a new band, A Camp, which began as a collaboration between her and soundtrack artist/husband Nathan Larson (damn you!) and Niclas Frisk. Now they're touring with a veritable who's who of American rock, including Kevin Marsh of Guided by Voices and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle, all in support of a brilliant new album called Colonia (their second) that's somewhat akin to what would happen if Abba bred with the Carpenters.

FIRE GOOD: In his new book Catching Fire, Harvard biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham argues that it's the human need to cook our food that made us so smart and strong and socially organized. Take that, raw foods movement! Additionally, we have cooking to credit/blame for the male/female division of labor, so thank your great-great-great-to the nth degree-grandmothers for subjecting women to unequal pay for equal work. Anyone with any problems with the theories above can yell at Wrangham at his reading at Town Hall tonight. 7:30 p.m. // Town Hall // 1119 8th Ave. // $5

OPENING: A new art gallery in Pioneer Square! What a thought. Flatcolor Gallery celebrates its grand opening as part of First Thursday art walk tonight, with work by 2H and Parskid. The gallery is the brain-child of Christopher Cook, who founded Flatcolor.com a few years back as a clearinghouse for limited-run works by local artists on the web. 5-9 p.m. // 528 First Ave. S. // free!

BURLESQUE ON THE BIG SCREEN: Northwest Film Forum will be showing A Wink and a Smile only until the 21st, so if you're interested in learning more about the lives of some of Seattle's finest burlesque dancers, we encourage you to get out and see it before it's too late! The documentary follows ten ordinary women attending Miss Indigo Blue's six-week program at the Seattle Academy of Burlesque, where they are transformed from their daily lives into beautiful bombshells who are not afraid to show off their skills and new-found empowerment.

MIDDLE EASTERN EXPOSURE: All the way from Kabul, ladies and gentlemen, Tamim Ansary! He's in town to talk about his book Destiny Disrupted, which is like his World According to the...well, Islamic World. Spanning the time from Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and more, he tells a counter-narrative of cultural progress in which the rise of the West kinda, you know, sucks. The San Francisco Chronicle calls the book “an indispensable guide," while the Oregonian says it is "vivid, often wrenching."

AUSTIN CITY SHIMMY: Bob Schneider made our sister site Austinist's highlight reel for SXSW back in March--winner of the SXSW Band of the Year and Best Male Vocalist awards, Schneider is touring for his new album Tarantula. Country, roots-rock, call it what you will, just don't expect a 45-minute set. With 15 or so albums to draw from, Schneider has more songs up his sleeve than a double-sided LP. Plus, he's at the Triple Door, so you can just sit back and make yourself comfortable.

EARTH DAY: The UW's Green Coalition invites you out to the campus today for some live music, a gallery of environmental art, a zero-emissions electric car show, a social on the Lake Washington waterfront, and a presentation about sustainable business practices from Jerry Heinlen of Yakima Products to be followed by the movie The Eleventh Hour. Don't worry--there's more earthy doings on tap if you can't make that.

SO HUNGRY: Head to the Northwest Film Forum for Steve McQueen (not to be confused with Steve McQueen) and his first feature Hunger (not to be confused with The Hunger). Instead of sexy vampires, the film's about the true-life hunger strike undertaken by jailed members of the Irish Republican Army, who just wanted to be treated as political prisoners rather than common criminals. While the politics of the film--does it glorify terrorists?--are debatable, McQueen's skills as a director are not; he's got a fine eye and a commendable patience with the camera. There's not much talking in the film, which leaves plenty of time for surprisingly lovely images (see the lonely inmate making friends with the fly in his cell), except for one virtuoso seventeen-minute single-take conversation/debate between a prisoner and a priest, which could've used subtitles, as we don't speak Leprechaun. Hunger runs through Thursday.

URGENT ASSESSMENT: Tonight at Town Hall, author and Canadian David Suzuki will offer what his blurb calls "an urgent assessment" of environmental issues. We're picturing him lecturing in double-time; after all, the environment might collapse before he finishes with even one of the topics he's planning on urgently assessing. No time to lose. Anyway, the lecture sounds promising, if you can bear to leave the park tonight.