The Weekly Wire: This Week’s Recommended Events

Thursday 4/9

Film: Forever Blue-Eyed

How gay is Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? It depends which premiere of Tennessee Williams' 1955 play you first saw, in London or New York, since he rewrote the ambiguous third act. Then director Richard Brooks took a few more liberties with the text for his 1958 film adaptation, which kept the Broadway cast save for two new stars: Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Having died last September, Newman is the subject of SAM's spring retrospective (Thursdays through June). His Brick is a boozy, self-loathing former football star unable to satisfy his wife sexually. In one reading of the play, he's fixated on the suicide of a teammate, whom he possibly loved. In another, he's fixated on lost youth: 30 years old, unhappily moved from playing field to broadcast booth, reluctant to start a family or join the unseemly fray for the Mississippi estate of his rich, dying father (the very impressive Burl Ives). Nominated for an Oscar, Newman was already battling against typecasting and belittling his blue-eyed good looks. He chips away at postwar masculinity on several fronts: resisting the obvious sexual allure of Taylor, being sensitive while his older brother is a fertile lout, and denying the whole money-grubbing ethos of the Pollitt clan. He rejects what ought to come easy for this Southern golden boy. As Newman, too, resisted the obvious Hollywood path laid out for him. Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3121, www.seattleartmuseum.org. $58–$65 (series), $7 individual. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Friday 4/10

Visual Arts: Seven Scenes

Quick, try to match an artist to each unidentified painting (or photo) arrayed around the gallery. One through seven, you can choose from Richard Billingham, Cameron Martin, Richard Misrach, Catherine Opie, Joe Park, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Hiroshi Sugito. And no cheating by Googling them on your iPhone. I recommend you start with the large snow scene and proceed clockwise through "Untitled (a Brink of Infinity)," which runs until August 1. What do the images have in common? The curatorial conceit appears to be a shared concern with vanishing horizons and the valance between earth and sky. In the snow scene—I think a digital photo—a ghostly yurt leads the eye to an indistinct line of farm sheds. They're so faint as to be unmoored in space. Fourth in the series, rising waters subsume abandoned trailers and cars as drowned telephone poles jut from the still surface. This photo hints at a new equilibrium to come: Traces of our civilization will sink beneath a mirror reflecting the clouds above, at which point you'll be able to flip the image 180 degrees—and it would look the same. Western Bridge, 3412 Fourth Ave. S., 838-7444, www.westernbridge.org. Free. Noon–6 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Public Revelry: Cymbals of Rebellion

How do you feel about marching bands? In their absolute uniformity of dress and step, do they strike you as a tad, well, militaristic—dare one say, fascist? The organizers of Honk! Fest West like the idea of walking around playing loud instruments, but have scrapped pretty much every other manifestation of conformity for their second annual "radical marching band festival" (through Sunday), gathering more than a dozen bands from up and down this coast to raucously terrorize Ballard (Friday) and Georgetown (Saturday). Under musical and sartorial influences from Carnival to klezmer—and playing Sousa only ironically, if at all—the bands include the Seattle Seahawks' Blue Thunder Drumline, the brand-new Seattle Sounders' Sound Wave, and local troupes Orkestar Zirkonium and the Yellow Hat Band. www.honkfestwest.com. Free. 7 p.m.–midnight. GAVIN BORCHERT

Saturday 4/11

Sports: Set Points

Played at home on the TV, Wii tennis is fun, but sometimes it can be a little too virtual. Which is why Wiimbledon is realing it up. In this very special Wii doubles tournament, the virtual action on the screen is complemented by real announcers, real umpires, real ball girls, and of course the very real mascot, Wiimby the Tennis Bear. All broadcast on a real big screen, natch. Only 32 teams can compete—there are prizes like massages and video games for the winners—so enter early if you want to play. Ticket proceeds and (for those over 21) drink prices will benefit the venue. 911 Media Arts Center, 402 Ninth Ave. N., 682-6552, www.wiimby.com. $8 (spectators), $20 (teams). 8 p.m. DAMON AGNOS

Music: Second Chances

Since 1991, songwriter Eef Barzelay's band Clem Snide (named for the infamous William S. Burroughs character) has been plagued by a revolving door of members, at least two breakups, and a litany of false starts. Their modest indie success possibly peaked with the use of "Moment in the Sun" as the theme song for the second season of the TV show Ed. But that was eight years ago. More recently, Clem Snide suffered its second collapse during the recording of its February release, Hungry Bird. It seemed that album would never see the light of day, but then the group made its second comeback to tour behind Hungry Bird, which doesn't stray from the pretty folk melodies and dry, quirky, lyrical style of Barzelay's prior "solo" work. The Heligoats open. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W. 789-3599. $12 (21 and over). 9:30 p.m. SARA BRICKNER