Thursday, Sept. 25
Live by NightRunning Thursday nights through December 18, SAM’s annual fall noir series stretches from the brink of World War II almost to the end of the Cold War. Beginning the nine-title series is John Huston’s memorable debut as director, his 1941 adaptation (the third) of Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel The Maltese Falcon. Who next would play Sam Spade and attempt to own the role? George Raft was briefly attached, but he didn’t trust Huston, a mere screenwriter. (Pshaw!) So it was that Bogie cemented his screen persona as the hard-boiled detective ensnarled by a dame (Mary Astor) and various eccentrics (Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet) all searching for the precious little statue. He’s unsentimental, even cold, but he has his code—famously expressed in the line “When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it.” Other classic titles include Out of the Past and The Big Combo ; the series concludes with David Mamet’s 1987 House of Games, shot right here in Seattle. Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. $63–$68 series. $8 individual. 7:30 p.m.
By Brian Miller
David MitchellThe Bone Clocks (Random House, $30) was, even before its publication, an event book, perhaps the year’s most anticipated release. Bookstores held midnight release parties and Amazon doubtlessly had many, many preorders for the electronic edition. The English author of Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green has a huge following that will be teasing over the novel’s time-skipping, supernatural, interlocking stories for years to come. From the mundane mid-’80s a seemingly ordinary teenage girl, prone to visions, is ushered into a cosmic contest between two eternal camps, the Anchorites and the Horologists; naturally our heroine Holly fits into the latter, more virtuous faction. Since her adventures don’t end until 2043, The Bone Clocks suggests sci-fi, though Holly and her cohort almost stand out of time; fantasy is the more near genre here. Shared characters and coincidences link the book back to some of Mitchell’s earlier works (a nice way to promote the back catalogue), and he’s said in interviews that all his fiction is part of one grand uber-book (or a theological project, as some critics have grumbled). So if you can decipher this 600-page novel, it ought to help with the next. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhall seattle.org. $35. 7:30 p.m.
By Brian Miller
Friday, Sept. 26
Slip/ShotJacqueline Goldfinger’s drama debuted two years ago in Philadelphia, not long after the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida. By sheer coincidence, her play concerns the shooting of a young black man by a white cop—only the setting is a half-century earlier, in 1963 Tallahassee. But still: Florida, so everyone viewed the play through the Martin case. Two years later, Slip/Shot has an unhappy new context: the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, Missouri. The key plot difference here, as compared to those actual news events, is that the shooting is an accident which the white policeman regrets. And at the same time, both the white and black parties in the play are aware how past inequality is shifting. The victim is a star student headed to college, while the cop has barely risen beyond the cotton field. Two Americas are finding a new power dynamic in Goldfinger’s tale, and there is damage on both sides of the equation. Given its historical setting, Slip/Shot is also one of several plays this fall dealing with the unfinished business of the Civil Rights movement, including the ongoing The Mountaintop at ArtsWest and the coming All the Way and The Great Society at Seattle Rep. (Through Oct. 12.) Seattle Public Theater, 7312 W. Green Lake, 524-1300, seattlepublic theater.org. $15–$32. 7:30 p.m.By Brian Miller
Saturday, Sept. 27
Will Franz von Stuck’s Sin get your vote? Frye Art Museum
#SocialMediumIt’s trending, it’s viral, it’s getting huge traffic, it’s in the cloud! Well, not exactly, but the Frye today begins displaying the results of an interesting experiment in social media. It asked patrons—well, anyone, actually—to vote for their favorite paintings from its collection; now we get to see the winners. The voting took place last month on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr, choosing among 232 candidates for inclusion in the show. It’s a cute idea, and I’ll be interested to see who the victors are in this very American Idol-democratic seizure of the academy. (Apparently some 4,000 votes were cast.) How many pieces will be on display hasn’t been announced; what I’m almost more keen to see are the comments appended from voters—criticism practiced at a distance, no credentials necessary, by people sitting in coffee shops or on their couch, wearing pajamas and eating ice cream from the carton. (Wait, I just described my ideal job.) The show runs through January 4. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org. Free. 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
By Brian Miller
Sunday, Sept. 28
Naomi KleinKlein’s 1999 anti-globalization classic No Logo came out just a month after Seattle’s streets turned into a veritable war zone over the topic during the WTO conference. Her new book This Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster, $22.39) arrives at an equally apt time—last weekend’s U.N. Climate Summit in New York was just met with the largest climate march in history. Klein now targets climate change’s chief culprit: not carbon, not consumers, but the biggest C of them all: capitalism. Making the argument that the system’s ingrained culture of exploiting resources is the main driver for the environmental destruction we’re facing, Klein calls for a revolutionary perspective shift on our fundamentally dangerous economic system. Seattle seems more than ready to take the challenge, what with electing a socialist and passing the country’s first living wage—which Klein argues is actually an environmental issue itself. (This event is sold out, meaning you probably already have your tickets.) Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m.
By Kelton Sears
