11 a.m. to 8 p.m. • Northwest Rooms
Courtesy of Bumbershoot
Nanda
Courtesy of Bumbershoot
Grynch
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Seattle Street Biennale An ode to local street art, from large-scale murals to stickers, tags, and wheat paste-ups, this exhibit includes large, site-specific works from Baldman Watching, Joey Nix, and Ego, as well as pieces by No Touching Ground and Gretchen Bennett. You might not know all their names, but you will recognize the work, including Katsu's toothy skulls, Bennett's graceful dead deer, NTG's omnipresent (and serious-eyed) owls, with puffy bubble letters (or pared-down tags) by Aerub. Videos by Marshall "Stack" Reid and Jetpack visit specific Seattle street-art locations and practitioners. With a limited-edition issue of Graf Rag compiled by Baso. Open Sunday and Monday as well. —Adriana Grant
11 a.m to 8 p.m. • Northwest Rooms
Sounds Human Exploring new methods of sound-making from robotics to reconfigured obsolete media, this exhibit brings together artists like Trimpin, Paul Rucker, Signal to Noise, and Victoria Haven. Open Sunday and Monday as well. —AG
11 a.m. to 8 p.m. • Northwest Rooms
Countercultural Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists See feature. Open Sunday and Monday as well.
11 a.m. to 8 p.m. • Northwest Rooms
Portrait Challenge Ryan Molenkamp began this illustrative project as a security guard at the Frye Art Museum, challenging fellow artists/colleagues to draw portraits as a way to combat their rather quiet work pace. A model (perhaps a famous face, like Mr. T) begins each series, with six slots for additional drawings. On view are both completed portrait series, with contributions from artists like Jennifer Zwick and Cait Willis, as well as new works designed with blank spaces for audience participation. Subsequent portraits might be goofy caricatures, conceptual musings, or more fact-based interpretations. Audience members can pose, too, and see how others render their likeness. Open Sunday and Monday as well. —AG
11 a.m. to 8 p.m. • Northwest Rooms
The Bumbershoot Piece Many thousands of wooden coffee stirrers (in a nod to British artist Andrew Goldsworthy) are assembled into a latticework that responds to the exhibition space's architecture. South Carolina artist Jonathan Brilliant comments on coffee-shop culture and the numerous disposable accoutrements that populate that familiar urban environment. Most notably: No glue is used to hold the sculpture together. The site is our to-go culture, an environment where wood is not a stick or a tree, but a flimsy, single-use item, meant to be looked at and touched for no longer than half a minute. This piece is part of a series named "Have Sticks Will Travel World Tour." Open Sunday and Monday as well. —AG
11 a.m to 8 p.m. • Alki Court
Museum of Glass Mobile Hot Shop The Tacoma museum brings up their ovens for glass-blowing demos and a Q&A. Rule #1: Never inhale. Runs Sunday and Monday as well. —Gavin Borchert
11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. • Starbucks Stage
Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies! Out of the casino showrooms and into the light of day, this act will deliver South Sound boogie-woogie blues that will wake you up and make you want to hit on any guy who faintly resembles Mike Reno. This is a bizarre booking for Bumbershoot; there must have been a blues quota to fill, that quota must have been one, and this stage's sponsors must have come in dead last in a marathon rock/paper/scissors tournament. —Mike Seely
Noon to 1 • 1 Reel Film Festival, SIFF Cinema
Films4Families: The International Family Passport As always, Bumbershoot's short films are packaged by theme, and each day will have a family-friendly hour. First up are a shrinking British girl, an Iranian wedding, and the flute music of Russia. —Brian Miller
Noon to 1:15 • Words & Ideas Stage
Pecha Kucha In this multimedia game, 20 images are projected for 20 seconds each. Then six Northwest artists explain how they came up with the imagery in response to the theme "Evil Schemes/Evil Deeds." (The show's Japanese name translates loosely as "chit-chat.") It could be the weirdest PowerPoint presentation you've ever seen. —BM
12:15 to 1:15 • Fisher Green
Grynch Seattle's favorite Volvo-whippin', rappin'-about-rappin' MC says he's "lyrically insane, critically acclaimed, and if you ain't feeling him you're lame." True statements they all are. —Nick Feldman
12:30 to 1:30 • Sky Church
Great Waves Led by Ashley Bullock's pitch-perfect bass, Great Waves won EMP's 2010 Sound Off! contest, earning their rhythmic, alt-rock–influenced sound a place at Bumbershoot. —Paige Richmond
12:30 to 1:30 • Broad Street Stage
The Submarines Dreamy electro-pop is having a very good year, and the Submarines are very good at dreamy electro-pop. For a few years now, Saturday has been day one, not day two, of Bumbershoot, which means you have one less excuse not to be up in time to grab a mimosa with this well-meaning, if slightly shallow, L.A. ensemble. —Chris Kornelis
1 to 1:15 • Center Square
Circus Una Motorcycle Thrill Show Women. Acrobats. Motorcycles. Hell, yeah! —CK (Also 4:30 to 4:45, 6:15 to 6:30, 7:30 to 7:45.)
1 to 2 • Northwest Court
Caspar Babypants When Chris Ballew (of the Presidents of the United States of America) grew up, it was time to put on the Babypants. He went from writing about peaches and frogs to bugs and lost dogs. Maybe it's a subtle difference, but it's enough to bring Ballew's sense of humor to a set of kids' songs both parents and kids can enjoy. —Mary Pauline Diaz
