WEDNESDAY
CULTURE
Looting
Anytime the Burke brushes the dust off and starts engaging some pressing, contemporary issues, it’s to be encouraged. Tonight the museum hosts a panel discussion on a subject both ancient and of the momentlooting. No, not pilfering TVs and stereos during a blackout, but the looting of cultural artifacts, as recently happened (to what degree is still being debated) in Iraq. (The terra cotta head, above, from around 1300 B.C. is one of the items possibly endangered at Iraq’s National Museum.) The UW has assembled an impressively varied group of faculty and guests to discuss the political, artistic, and military implications of this wartime calamityincluding specialists in Near Eastern and East Asian culture, professors of history, anthropology, and archaeology, etc. KUOW’s Steve Scher hosts, and audience involvement is encouraged. 6:30 p.m. Wed., June 4. Free. Burke Museum, UW campus, Northeast 45th Street and 17th Avenue Northeast, 206-543-5590. MARK D. FEFER
WEDNESDAY
TELEVISION
Real Pride
Now that PBS is mostly deserting the job, it’s up to cable to present complex looks at alternative but everyday lives. Cinemax jumps into the breach with Real Pride, a series of four disarming documentaries in honor of Gay Pride Month. First up is Georg and Abby Hartmann’s He’s Having a Baby (above), which follows a middle-aged man and his lover as they adopt a child from Saigon. The following weeks bring Even Benestad’s my-doctor-dad-wore-dresses memoir, All About My Father, and two of the best GLBT docs in recent memory: Deborah Dickson’s affectionate, warts-and-all Ruthie and Connie, charting the romance between two Jewish housewives in the ’60s; and No Dumb Questions, in which three sisters deal with the fact that their favorite uncle is about to become their favorite aunt. 7 p.m. Wednesdays, starting June 4 on Cinemax. STEVE WIECKING
THURSDAY & SUNDAY
FILM
Everyday God Kisses Us On The Mouth
Dan Condurache delivers an absolutely riveting performance as a killer released from jail who swiftly goes back to his old Romanian village and old murderous ways. The guy’s an enigmalike there’s an invisible on/off switch between psychopath and gentle drunkand nobody can get a read on him, not even his wife (pictured right). Is he just a thug or some kind of holy fool on a holy fool’s errand? The movie combines savagery (all off-camera or in a long shot) with moments of magical realism. A weird, intense, somewhat uncategorizable film. Part of SIFF. 4:45 p.m. Thurs., June 5 and 9:30 p.m. Sun., June 8. Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St. SIFF info: 206-324-9996. BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY
VISUAL ARTS
Gas, Cash Or Glass
Does glass art make you blow chunks? Well, be warned right now: You’re going to be seeing a ton of it this month, as the annual meeting of the Glass Art Society brings over 1,500 artists and collectors to Seattle. There’s gonna be glass everywhere. And Roq la Rue, like a few other alternative spaces, is planning to crash the party in its own distinctive fashionin Roq’s case, showing glass artists with more of a kitsch, comic, and tattoo point of view (like former Pilchuck and Pratt students Kelly and Nanda Soderberg, whose Be Mine is seen above). Hey kids, don’t throw stones; come to Roq’s house instead. Opening reception: 6-10 p.m. Fri., June 6. Roq la Rue Gallery, 2316 Second Ave., 206-374-8977. MARK D. FEFER
MONDAY
READINGS
Augusten Burroughs
There is the difficult childhood (Dad works a lot, school is uphill in the snow both ways), and the difficult childhood (Mom abandons you to a deranged therapist, your first boyfriend is a pedophile, pyschotropic meds are handed out at home like jellybeans). Augusten Burrows, author of the scatalogically hilarious, willfully bizarre, and even occasionally touching memoir Running With Scissors, had, as you might guess, the latter kind. Scissors‘ sheer outrageousness elicited strong emotions in readers, from delight (comparisons to David Sedaris ran rampant) to disgust (some felt it necessary to burn the book after reading it). Burrows is in town to hype his upcoming second memoir, Dry, an account of his attempts to get sober after years of alcoholismbrought on, no doubt, by the Dickens-on-acid depravity of his childhoodand the buzz so far is good, so even Scissor-haters may find themselves converted. 7:30 p.m. Mon., June 9. $5. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave. Info: 206-652-4255; tickets: 206-624-6600. LEAH GREENBLATT
