WEDNESDAY 2/15
Natalie Brasington
Schumer invites you to sit close, then she pounces.
Criterion Collection
Wages propelled Montand beyond his pretty-boy singing career.
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Books: Profit in Pink
"Girl power" has never looked more different and . . . well, more pink than it does today. Building on her much-discussed 2006 New York Times essay, Peggy Orenstein examines the phenomenon of starter makeup and Disney Princesses in Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture (Harper, $25.99). Journeying from Toys "R" Us to Club Libby Lu, she also charts the evolution of first-, second-, and third-wave feminism. While following the transition from play-clothing pastels to sexualized hot pinks (with designer labels), Orenstein finds a world defined by consumerism. This leads to a dilemma: In rejecting Princess dolls, is a mother rejecting the idea that "It's OK to be a girl?" Either way, to women whose own mothers fought sexism and broke glass ceilings, this retro obsession with the ultra-feminine induces a cringe. You don't need to be a parent to appreciate Orenstein's frank admissions and often startling discoveries. Did you know there are 25,000 different Disney Princess products in existence today? Or that the line is a $4 billion annual business? Barbie was just a toy, but pink is an industry. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m. JEVA LANGE
Design: Letter-Perfect
Look very carefully, and you may be able to discern that this sentence is printed in a traditional Roman font called Alternative HTF2, 8.75 points in size. The headline immediately above unexpectedly shifts to a larger, 18-point, sans-serif Antenna Condensed Bold. The abbreviated day (wed) reverts to a chunky 26-point Roman font (Salvo Serif Black), but with a sassy lower-case twist, in the same font family as the large "Weekly Wire" banner head up top. All of which Jean François Porchez could discern at a glance, since he's (honorary) president of the Association Typographique Internationale. He's designed clear, easy-to-read signage for the Paris Métro, the fonts for Le Monde, and custom typefaces for Beyoncé (she can afford him; we can't). In a curious corollary to our information age, with so many screens and portable devices to read, lettering has never been more prevalent or diverse. As office workers, it seems, all we do is read. This places a unique burden on Porchez and his peers: They must somehow make all that clutter clear, render all the stories and tweets and texts and ads more cleanly amid the constantly expanding flow of verbiage. We all know what it's like to be lost inside a bad website or subway station, where your path to value is impeded and misdirected. Porchez will speak tonight about how good design leads the eye, pleases the eye, and helps navigate our way toward meaning. Kane Hall (University of Washington campus), 543-2280, henryart.org. Free. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
THURSDAY 2/16
Comedy: Racy Humor
Comedy shouldn't bother with barriers, and New York comedienne Amy Schumer certainly doesn't hold much back. At Bumbershoot last year, she shoved her microphone in my boyfriend's face and asked him, "What's your least favorite race?" (He was rendered speechless; I would've said "the marathon.") After appearing on NBC's Last Comic Standing, Schumer made television history of sorts by becoming the first woman to perform stand-up on the Jimmy Fallon and Ellen DeGeneres shows. She's also played guest parts on 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Schumer recently tweeted, "The hardest part about being a female comedian is being asked if it's hard." She finds an admirable balance between being feminine and funny: She recently posed for Cosmopolitan wrapped in a bedsheet with smudgy mascara and bed head, but the image was for her article "How to Win a Guy Over—How to Get Laid." Her advice included tips like "Let him know that you don't swallow because of your nut allergy." More recently, at a Comedy Central roast for Charlie Sheen, she deadpanned, "Banging you is on my bucket list. That's a list of guys I would bang if they agree to wear a bucket over their head." (Through Sat.) The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue, 425-289-7000, parlorlive.com. $15–$25. 7:30 p.m. ERIN K. THOMPSON
FRIDAY 2/17
Film: Kaboom! and Nothingness
Taken from a novel that Hitch himself wanted to adapt, Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear was the Euro smash of 1953. Set in an unidentified country that suggests Venezuela, the godforsaken pueblo of Las Piedras is an ugly, buzzard-ridden dump populated by beggars, urchins, and cynical soldiers of fortune who amuse themselves with spitting contests in a sleazy cantina. The town is totally controlled by an American petroleum conglomerate, but the reigning prince is the layabout Mario (Yves Montand, with carefully knotted bandanna and a cigarette wedged in the corner of his mouth). Mario and three others are hired to drive two truckloads of nitroglycerin across 300 miles of winding, mountainous, badly paved roads. This suicidal drive is the ultimate test of macho, and Mario is scared that he won't measure up—every bump in the road a potential conflagration. What sets The Wages of Fear apart is its outrageous premise and the full-blown delirium of its pop existentialism. No movie before Shoah is more immersed in questions of being and nothingness—or more literal-minded. Reveling in the pure angst of its basic situation, featuring characters who can be vaporized at any moment, the film dramatizes every major existential trope. The Wages of Fear is no less a representation of nuclear anxiety than Godzilla or On the Beach. (Through Thurs.) SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St. (Seattle Center), 324-9996, siff.net. $5–$10. Call for showtimes. J. HOBERMAN
