WEDNESDAY 10/27
Charles Burns/Pantheon
Burns references Tintin in his new comic series.
Anti Records
Mavis Staples.
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Books: Forever Plaid
To those who came of age in the early '80s, The Official Preppy Handbook was an improbable yet highly influential style manifesto: a call to polite rebellion to troops marching in Sperry Topsiders, chinos, plaids, duck belts, and polo shirts layered beneath button-down oxfords. It was conformity with a wink, archness embedded in the revival of a style predating disco and hippies. You didn't have to be a Reaganite conservative or come from old money to wear pearls or a mallard-embossed tie. Instead, the preppy uniform became a kind of white, heterosexual drag—the playful emulation of a pre-boomer, Gatsbyesque life of leisure, a frivolous neverland of G&Ts and golden retrievers. Ralph Lauren and J. Crew profited most famously from the preppy movement, and now its doyenne is back: Lisa Birnbach has co-authored True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World (Knopf, $19.95) with noted designer Chip Kidd, and they have no use for hoodies, Jersey Shore, and taking cell-phone calls at the dinner table. Though their book is gentle satire, Birnbach also promotes the virtues of "good manners and good eye contact and a nice handshake." And in this economy, so unlike the booming '80s, her new handbook might just help you land a job. Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 p.m.BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY 10/29
Zombies: Bring Out Your Undead
Vampires may be big in Forks, thanks to Twilight, but Seattle's obviously a city for zombie loyalists. This past July, we broke the Guinness world record for Largest Zombie Walk. For the second time. To reward our devotion, the Grand Pooh-Bah of zombie films, director George A. Romero, will be in attendance at the inaugural ZomBcon, a convention that aims to do for zombie fans what ComiCon does for anime nerds. But instead of, say, Stan Lee, zombie royalty like Bruce Campbell, Max Brooks (author of World War Z), Day of the Dead cast members, and twisted author Chuck Palahniuk will be in attendance for classic and contemporary zombie-film screenings (including a special 25th-anniversary showing of Day of the Dead), workshops, panels, and all the brains you can stomach. (Through Sun.) Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 305 Harrison St., zombcon.com. $15. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. SARA BRICKNER
Books: Healthy Without Hassles
Mark Bittman made news several years ago when he announced plans to go vegan before dusk. Coming from a New York Times food writer and cookbook author, a man clearly in love with food, this was a radical move. Bittman's recent bestseller, Food Matters, argues that eating meat three meals a day is simply unsustainable, both for our health and the environment. His new The Food Matters Cookbook (Simon & Schuster, $35) is a fat collection of 500 straightforward recipes, including his "no-work mostly-whole-wheat pizza dough," "more-vegetable less-egg frittata," and "beans Bolognese." In the book, Bittman doesn't go so far into the why; by now, anyway, especially in Seattle, his view is near-Pollanesque gospel: Eat local, eat low on the food chain, and eat better, less-processed food. And his recipes are prescriptive. Prosciutto is a condiment, not the main event, and many dishes are meatless. Bittman might be preaching to the choir, but this cookbook ensures that the choir will also remain well-fed. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m.ADRIANA GRANT
SATURDAY 10/30
Comix: Dreaming to Stay Awake
You wake in a strange room. But it seems familiar. The wood paneling reminds you of childhood. Your head hurts; you can't remember anything. Hey—there's your cat from when you were a kid! Where's it going? Through a hole that leads you, Alice-like, into a phantasmagoric underworld. And there, amid the talking lizard people and giant red-spotted eggs, are traces of your other life, the one you're trying to remember. What happened that night, the night you met that girl? Welcome to the imagination of Charles Burns, who's beginning a new comic series with X'ed Out (Pantheon, $19.95). The Seattle native, now living in Philadelphia, shifts his story between two realms. We can recognize the late-'70s punk scene of Pop-Tarts, bondage-photo Polaroids, jealous boyfriends, and Patti Smith albums. But is it real? Or should our protagonist, Doug, pay more credence to what the lizard people are telling him? On which side is it safer to wake? And which might restore what's been x'ed out of his skull? We should have a new volume in about a year to answer some of those questions. And raise others. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 1201 S. Vale St., 658-0110, fantagraphics.com. Free. 6 p.m.BRIAN MILLER
Cabaret: Dread and Laughter
Most of us know El Vez as the outrageous improvisational performer who often steals the show from his Teatro ZinZanni castmates. The self-proclaimed "Mexican Elvis" even contributed to the soundtrack of The Hangover. But tonight he'll put on a (slightly) more serious face to emcee the first installment of Mezzo Lunatico, a new variety show featuring TZZ performers and friends. For this evening's theme, fear, burlesque dancer Catherine D'Lish, Mudhoney's Mark Arm, and others will confront their worst nightmares. But the audience won't be subjected to frightful Halloween clichés. Instead of ghosts and vampires, El Vez explains, expect riffs on the economy, homophobia, and racism. Oh, and rabbits, he adds. We don't know what that that means, either. (Future shows, Nov. 20 and Dec. 18, will address Thanksgiving and Christmas.) Teatro ZinZanni, 222 Mercer St., 802-0015, dreams.zinzanni.org. $20 (21 and over). 11:30 p.m.ERIKA HOBART
