Giant Eraser Threatens Seattle Waterfront!

Over and Out

Sleater-Kinney will perform perhaps the summer's saddest rock show at Portland, Ore.'s Crystal Ballroom on Friday, Aug. 11. That's because the popular Northwest trio has announced it is breaking up after over a decade of making music together. On its Web site (www.sleater-kinney.com), the band didn't explain its decision, just thanked its "amazing fans." (See Barstool Blues.) BRIAN BARR

Way Out West

The 24th annual West Seattle Summer Fest will take place Friday, July 14–Sunday, July 16, and its lineup is mighty impressive by neighborhood street-fair standards. Performers include X's John Doe, Kristin Hersh's 50 Foot Wave (both on Friday), Rocky Votolato, the Screaming Trees' Mark Pickerel, and a Saturday night street dance with KEXP's DJ Greg Vandy ("The Roadhouse"), R&B vocalist Choklate, and Reyshard. The free fest is being presented by the West Seattle Junction Association. Board member (and West Seattle Easy Street Records owner) Matthew Vaughn writes, accurately, "This is easily the best entertainment the street fair has ever had." For information: www.westseattlefestival.com. RACHEL SHIMP

Typos Beware

This week, Seattle Art Museum announced a new acquisition for its planned Olympic Sculpture Park: a 19-foot-tall typewriter eraser created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, a pair of sculptors who have littered the world with gigantic toothbrushes, trowels, clothespins, and the like. Why Seattle—one of the computer capitals of the world—merits a typewriter eraser rather than, say, a more stylish giant lipstick or whimsical bowling pins is unclear. But we're sure it will lead to many quaint conversations between parents and children who have never seen a typewriter. The sculpture park will open in October. For information: www.seattleartmuseum.org. LYNN JACOBSON

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