THURSDAY 7/12

Arts: Bees & Bikes

Now that warm, sunny weather has finally arrived, SAM’s first summer Get Out! event seems particularly well-timed. Appropriate to the new Encontro das Águas mural in the PACCAR Pavilion, by Brazilian artist Sandra Cinto, the live music will come courtesy of Show Brazil! and the VamoLa Drum & Dance Ensemble. Local artists including Susan Robb will lead tours of the park, with equal emphasis on the permanent collection and temporary installations. Besides Cinto’s indoor waves, the latter include Sarah Bergmann‘s Pollinator Pathway Demonstration Garden—a series of bee-friendly micro-glades located throughout the OSP. (So if you get stung, you know who to blame.) Among the hands-on activities, Elizabeth Humphrey will help you create bicycle reflectors to stay safe on the ride home. Food and drink vendors will include SAM’s own TASTE restaurant, Fusion on the Run, and I Want Curry Now. Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. Free. 5–8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Film: We Heart the ’80s

Back during the late Cold War era (which he helped define with WarGames), Matthew Broderick also created an enduring teen archetype for the Reagan decade. The hero of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is too smart to be a slacker, too principled to be a Trumpian money-grabber, too self-aware to be a jerk. He’s a likable smart-aleck—precisely the kind of teen, you sense, that writer/director John Hughes wished he could’ve been. (Broderick once confessed, “I acquired fame by playing the coolest kid who ever lived.”) The oft-quoted 1986 teen comedy makes excellent use of Broderick’s slightly corrupt charm—and a certain 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. It also turned Ben Stein (“Anyone? Anyone?”) into an unlikely character actor. Before the movie begins at dusk, there will be juggling and circus acts from One Fine Fool and food trucks representing Raney Brothers BBQ, Whole Foods, Custom Kettle Corn, and Caramia’s Sweeties Treaties. And here’s a bonus: An ’80s costume contest will allow you to bring those high-waisted, acid-washed jeans out of the closet. Because they still fit, right? Following titles in the series include The Adventures of Tintin, The Help, Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Back to the Future, Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and The Goonies. (Thursdays through Aug. 30.) Magnuson Park, 7400 Sand Point Way N.E., moviesatmagnuson.com. $5. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

FRIDAY 7/13

Film: Lady With a Past

In the gutsy 1946 noir Gilda, the sultry title character (Rita Hayworth), just married to a casino’s sinister owner, meets old flame Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), now her husband’s best friend. Two hours of plot twists later, they end up in each others’ arms. But before that, Gilda must disclose her devastating secret: She used to be a stripper in New York. She gives the audience a peek of her past by strutting onto the casino stage, peeling off first one elbow-length black satin glove, then the other. This being ’40s Hollywood, Gilda doesn’t get very far. But the camera adores her alone out there on the dark stage, catching light off her hair and her slinky black dress as she rips a diamond choker from her neck and lobs it into the audience like a grenade. It’s a vivid moment in American film, imagining a potent piece of public undressing as both our heroine’s victory and defeat. (Through Thurs.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5–$8. 6:30 & 8:45 p.m. RACHEL SHTEIR

Dance: Youth Is Served

Dance This, STG’s annual youth festival, is always a great showcase for the ethnic dances that are part of our polyglot heritage in the Northwest. This year it features a Vietnamese Lion Dance, African dance from Benin, ritual work from Tibet, and Chinese folk dance. Alongside the traditional work is theatrical dancing from young choreographers and established hands like Mark Haim and Bill T. Jones, whose Broadway production of Fela! gets excerpted in the program. But the best part of the show is always the finale, where everyone dances everything, borrowing steps from one another’s heritage performances and wrapping it up with a big hip-hop bow. Daniel Cruz is back this year to stage this send-them-home-happy part of the show, guaranteed to raise the rafters. The Moore, 1932 Second Ave., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $12–$20. 7:30 p.m. (Repeats Sat.) SANDRA KURTZ

Sports: Masochism and Manicures

This is the 36th year the Seattle Mariners have been in existence. They have made the playoffs four times, never advancing to the World Series. They are currently on course to finish last in the American League West for the seventh time in nine seasons. Many of their prized youngsters—Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, and Mike Carp in particular—are suffering disappointing seasons, while veterans such as Ichiro Suzuki, Chone Figgins, Miguel Olivo, and Brendan Ryan are in clear to severe decline. When ex-Mariner Jamie Moyer was in town a couple weeks ago, the Mariner broadcast team ventured to come up with an all-time starting rotation. Moyer was included, as were Randy Johnson and Felix Hernandez. But there was no consensus on who the other two should be, and not because there was an overabundance of options. That a major-league baseball franchise produces a memorably productive starting pitcher only every dozen years is as sure a signal as any that the Mariners are one of the most poorly run organizations in the history of professional sports. If you still believe, you’re a masochist. The draw here is the Texas Rangers (visiting through Sunday), who’ve risen from a similar run of futility to become everything the Mariners aren’t: entertaining, cohesive, and consistently successful. Oh, and tonight there’s a “Girls’ Night Out” promotion at the park, with free manicures ‘n shit. Safeco Field, 1250 First Ave. S., 346-4001, seattle.mariners.mlb.com. $15–$185. 7:10 p.m. MIKE SEELY

Theater: Grudge Match

Director Allison Narver recently traveled through the Middle East and Africa, and while she hasn’t set her new staging of Romeo and Juliet in any real place, she says that her journeys caused her to reflect on the play in relation to societies that have known “ancient hatred.” And that’s certainly there in Shakespeare’s timeless feud between the Montagues and Capulets. Opening tonight, R&J is one of four plays being performed by the same 17-member ensemble during the Intiman Theatre Festival. Says Narver, “I want to convey what it is to live in a tinderbox of violence, a pressure-cooker of sorts—in which violence is so embedded, it’s almost like people don’t even recognize it’s happening. And yet this beautiful love can still flourish in the midst of it all. The play stresses the importance of digging through violence in order to find a way to grab life.” For this tragic love story, Narver and her crack creative team—including scenic designer extraordinaire Jennifer Zeyl—have imagined a place where the white garments of the citizenry and their grim surroundings are offset by photos of the dead. And that mortal history is real: The set is actually covered with pictures of loved ones provided by members of the production. (Through Aug. 26.) Intiman Theatre, 201 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 800-982-2787, intiman.org. $30. 8 p.m. STEVE WIECKING

SATURDAY 7/14

Arts: Happy Birthday(s)

Counting from both its founding date and 1997 expansion, the Frye Art Museum is celebrating its 60th and 15th birthdays this year. Closed since April for a major spruce-up, it’s reopening today with three exhibits. One’s an excerpt from the permanent collection; the second relates how Charles and Emma Frye were influenced by the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago; but the third is actually new. Visiting Chinese artist Liu Ding will attend and give a talk (at 2 p.m.) about his Take Home and Make Real the Priceless in Your Heart, his first solo show in the U.S. With a nod to Warhol, Liu has made commerce and commercialized images central to his art. He runs an online gift shop that will merge with the Frye’s, and he’s created a new series of half-finished paintings that riff on the museum’s famous Sin by Franz von Stuck. In other new paintings, he borrows elements from others’ works—a waterfall, mountain peak, or lounging dog—and repaints them on large white canvases. Liu is very keen on branding, signing, and valuation—what determines the worth of a copy versus the original (if there is an original). In which sense, it’s a short step from soup cans to Sin. (Through Sept. 23.) Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org. Free. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Cycling: Downhill All the Way

Anyone can ride the flat, boring Burke- Gilman Trail on a sunny Saturday, but it takes a special breed of cyclist to tackle the 2.3-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel, which comes at the end of an 18-mile climb from the parking lot at Rattlesnake Lake. After gaining 1,000 feet at a constant grade (this being an old railway), you stop to put on extra clothing and a headlamp at the entrance—that tunnel is dark and cold! The tiny pinprick of light is your beacon, the dirt smooth beneath your wheels, and the water cold when it drips from the vaulted ceiling. It’s eerie, like sailing at night or driving in a snowstorm, and you can get a touch of vertigo in the darkness. Ordinarily, you emerge at Hyak and reverse course for the long descent. But in a special group ride today organized by the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, they’re making it easy for you. A shuttle bus will take you and your bike up to Hyak; you’ll descend the Iron Horse Trail from east to west, and there’s a barbecue waiting down at Rattlesnake Lake. Why did we ever think the uphill ride was such a great idea? Rattlesnake Lake, Exit 32 (North Bend), RSVP at mtsgreenway.org. $25. 9 a.m. BRIAN MILLER

TUESDAY 7/17

Books: Recharged

Prompted in part by a talk Bill Gates gave on “creative capitalism” in the Third World, Seattle entrepreneur Whit Alexander— co-founder of Cranium games—decided on an unlikely next career path. Instead of sitting on his millions and joining a few boards, he decided to sell rechargeable batteries in the West African nation of Ghana. Joining him in the project was Maine journalist Max Alexander, his brother, who chronicles their start-up in Bright Lights, No City: An African Adventure on Bad Roads With a Brother and a Very Weird Business Plan (Hyperion, $24.99). That there is a market in Ghana is beyond question; portable radios and flashlights are ubiquitous—also in villages beneath high power lines where no local electrical connection is made. Reaching that market is a different matter. The Alexanders have to inculcate a new consumer culture among those accustomed to buying the cheapest (yet short-lived) Chinese batteries on the market. They also have to train a sales force—essentially following the Avon model—and learn some local marketing techniques, like the gong-gong man who beats a bell to assemble the village. Whit Alexander’s mantra is that “they deserve better” in Ghana. Less the idealist, Max is at first confounded by a “medieval acceptance of the status quo,” yet comes to admire a resourceful country where nothing is discarded and everything is repaired, the opposite of our throwaway culture. But the book isn’t all business. The Alexanders endure hellish roads, eat rodents, and suffer medical mishaps—not malaria, but Max somehow manages to Super Glue his eye shut. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

The Frye is reopening with three new shows.