WEDNESDAY 1/27
© Julius Shulman/ J. Paul Getty Trust
The famous Stahl House (aka Case Study House No. 22) in Visual Acoustics.
Related Content
More About
Books: The Boys of Late Summer
Some of us who played Little League baseball still cringe at the memory of taunting parents, chin-tickling fastballs, and the "fat kid," a head taller than the rest of us, who sent every pitch over the deepest outfielder. And most who played Little League quit by the time they reached high school; unless you're a star, there's not much future in it, not much fun. But in retrospect, there were also coaches like Jesse Katz, a Los Angeles journalist who coaxes his young son into the sport he once played. The Opposite Field (Crown, $25) is both Katz's midlife memoir and a manual for baseball dads who dare to take on the Little League establishment, as Katz did in his predominantly Hispanic and Asian suburb. In short order, he goes from father to coach to commissioner of a league full of disgruntled parents, sweetheart concession deals, fractured families, hidden infidelities, criminal mischief—and, oh yes, kids happily playing baseball. The child of Portland liberals (including former mayor Vera Katz), Katz's own journey takes him from Bennington to Nicaragua to East L.A., where he becomes a gang reporter and marries into la comunidad. He's a Jewish gringo, doubly suspicious in the eyes of many. Yet he incorporates all those doubts, and his own, in an extremely readable, engaging tale. (No surprise that Katz shared two Pulitzers at The Los Angeles Times.) The book's candor, generosity, and tolerance should be a lesson for any parent coaching any sport here in the Northwest. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., 366-3333, thirdplacebooks.com. Free. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
THURSDAY 1/28
Film: The Agony and the Ape-stasy
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" Need we say more about our favorite post-apocalyptic film of 1968? In Planet of the Apes, the late Charlton Heston stars in his second most iconic role (after Ben-Hur), with Roddy McDowall surprisingly recognizable and effective under that Oscar-winning monkey makeup. Tautly directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, Apes belongs to the sci-fi genre of Earth-gone-wrong. It's also a cautionary environmental movie, a parable of de-evolution, a sly satire against racism, and a bit of a Vietnam picture, too. Astronaut Heston and his crew, spun forward in time to a planet they don't recognize, are quickly captured and humiliated by a foe whose society seems primitive in comparison to their own. There's a lot of hubris in Heston, one of America's physically proudest and most graceful leading men, and he has it all beaten out of him by the movie's famous ending on the beach. 1968 was a year of crisis in the U.S., and Apes suggests—in its hugely entertaining popcorn fashion—that mankind might deserve its self-inflicted ruination. Screened on Blu-ray as part of SIFF's weekend sci-fi fest, tonight's double feature includes Terry Gilliam's underrated 1995 12 Monkeys (at 9:15 p.m.). Friday brings 2001: A Space Odyssey, followed by a double feature of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Logan's Run on Sunday. SIFF Cinema, 321 Mercer St. (McCaw Hall), 448-2186, siff.net. $8–$10. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY 1/29
Comedy: Don't Stay Classy, Kathy
Kathy Griffin performed four consecutive stand-up shows at the Paramount the last time she was in Seattle—all of which sold out. D-list celebrity? I think not. Yet the loudmouth comedienne, who recently began shooting the sixth season of her Bravo hit reality show My Life on the D-List, continues to insist she's a Hollywood bottomfeeder. She's full of it. But that doesn't make her shameless antics—tweeting that she's carrying Levi Johnston's baby, "accidentally" dropping the F-bomb while co-hosting CNN's live New Year's Eve program with her BFF Anderson Cooper—any less hilarious. Griffin is sure to be even more outrageous when she takes the stage tonight and Saturday, fully aware that she's safe from the wrath of television censors. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 682-1414, stgpresents.org. $42.50–$72.50. 8 p.m. ERIKA HOBART
Architecture/Film: Modern Lens Artist
Just about everyone in Eric Bricker's documentary Visual Acoustics seems to love Julius Shulman, including (adorably) the unstoppable old gent himself. What's not to like? Ninety-three years old at the time of filming, the great photographer of modernist architecture was still working, laying down the law, and running around in red suspenders to bask in his celebrity. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, the doc shows off the stark beauty of flat-topped Southern California homes—with their pools and low couches designed by architectural titans from Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry—and then shows how they've been re-interpreted and romanticized by Shulman. Though he dismissed contemporary Los Angeles as "a pile of junk," the passionate early environmentalist believed in the integrity of things in their natural place—preferably, the desert. Enjoyable as it is, Bricker's giddy hagiography could have used a little pushback, especially in the matter of Shulman's airy dismissal of the postmodernism that, he claimed, forced him into "retirement." Shulman died last summer at 98, doubtless sounding off as he went. If Visual Acoustics doesn't make you envy his life and legacy, you haven't been paying attention. (Through Thursday.) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$9. 7 and 9 p.m. ELLA TAYLOR
