WEDNESDAY 12/16
Ray Troll
Beware the Killer Pig at the Burke!
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Books: Messenger in a Bottle
Two decades after his death in Port Angeles, Raymond Carver (1938–88) is being reassessed with his unabridged, original draft stories and a new biography. His belated success in the '70s stamped an entire generation of American writers in his minimalist mode. Fine—write as he wrote, but don't live as he lived. In Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life (Scribner, $35), Carol Sklenicka relates how Carver was already a mean drunk with a teen bride and two small children by the time he left Yakima to seek his fortune with a typewriter. It was a long time—and many bottles—coming. His second wife, Northwest poet Tess Gallagher, had the good fortune to arrive with the sobriety and good reviews, making him considerably easier to live with. Others can debate how much credit editor Gordon Lish deserves for pruning Carver's prose into his signature style. Some may prefer the long versions in the Library of America's new Raymond Carver: Collected Stories (I favor the Lish reductions). But few would've preferred to meet the man during his tumultuous first 40 years instead of the calm last 10. Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
Books/Politics: The Conservative Cougar
Long before Ann Coulter became the poster girl of modern conservatism, an equally strong-willed and outspoken lioness held sway over the GOP. The subject of Jennifer Burns' new biography Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford, $27.95) might not have done so well on cable TV, but she wrote best-sellers that any Beltway pundit would envy today. And Rand's novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are still studied by devotees of her extremely libertarian, anti-herd philosophy. Her acolytes, Alan Greenspan famously among them, still occupy posts in think tanks and Republican staff offices. Yet the Russian Jewish immigrant (1905–82) was no ally of the uptight Christian right; she was a movie-mad youth whose "Objectivist" credo owes much to Hollywood formula. (Inside each of us, you see, is a great hero trying to escape the shackles of the mediocre society around us; it's like Plato's allegory of the cave crossed with The Matrix.) And Rand was also a cougar who didn't let marriage prevent her from pursuing and bedding younger men. Rowr! Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
THURSDAY 12/17
Visual Arts: Imaginary Evidence
It's hard to disprove a negative, and local artist Eugene Parnell couches his show "Bigfoot Is Probably Real" with uncertainty and Northwest myth. In fact, he invites you to provide the evidence that Sasquatch may yet roam the forest. Oversized, strap-on wooden feet, like giant sandals, allow visitors to lay fresh tracks on an earthen bed on the gallery floor. An audio station and note-card testimonials describe Bigfoot sightings, real or imaginary. There's even a fright room, where terrifying encounters may or may not take place. A sculptor and taxidermist, Parnell practices what's sometimes called, with tongue in cheek, cryptozoology—the science of creatures that never existed but should have. Yet he's also a serious folklorist, a curator of tall tales we'd like to be true. The facts and the forensics may not be true, but that's because we don't want conclusive proof. Mythology should remain murky, like a distant, shaggy figure glimpsed in the woods. (Through Dec. 31.) Gallery4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Pl. S., 296-8674, 4culture.org/publicart/gallery. Free. 9 a.m.–5 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY 12/18
Film: "You Don't Smell Like Santa!"
In the surprise 2003 Christmas hit Elf, Will Ferrell embraces the cutesy confection of its plot. As Santa Claus doles out presents at an orphanage, a wee human crawls into his sack of toys, winds up at the North Pole, and is subsequently raised as an elf. Eight zillion sight gags constitute the first act, in which a giant-sized Ferrell bangs his head into low ceilings, squats on miniature crappers, and botches even the most remedial toy-making duties. Ferrell finally discovers he's the bastard son of James Caan, now a distant, terse Manhattan publishing-house exec. Innocent, syrup-swilling Ferrell then goes to big, bad NYC, meets Zooey Deschanel, and hilarity often ensues. So frantic, off-the-cuff, and self-aware in his ad-libs, Ferrell owns the movie the way Santa owns Christmas. (Directed by Jon Favreau, rated G, 97 minutes, continues through Wed.) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com, $6. 7 p.m. ANDREW BONAZELLI
SATURDAY 12/19
Paleontology: The Upside of Extinction
The good thing about massive species extinction is all the cool bones left behind, as Denver paleontologist Kirk Johnson will show in his selections for Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, which also includes colorful illustrations by Alaska artist Ray Troll. Both will attend today's exhibit opening and join Burke curator Elizabeth Nesbitt in a discussion of all things dead and fossilized. Your kids will love it. Troll's artwork is based on the 5,000-mile fossil-hunting road trip he took with Seattle native Johnson through the American West. Here in Washington, they found the remnants of giant mastodons and mammoths, ferns as tall as telephone poles, petrified forests, ground-dwelling birds the size of Smart Cars, and something known as "Archaeotherium, the Killer Pig," whose fearsome reputation speaks for itself. (Through May 31.) Burke Museum, N.E. 45th St. & 17th Ave. N.E., 543-5590, washington.edu/burkemuseum. $6–$9.50. 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. T. BOND
