Wednesday, Nov. 6Garrison KeillorIt’s the keen edge of Keillor’s satire that best

Wednesday, Nov. 6

Garrison Keillor

It’s the keen edge of Keillor’s satire that best belies his stereotype (among those who don’t know better) as merely a lutefisk-eating Paul Harvey. You wince as you laugh as he skewers objects of Bobo veneration like public radio (in my favorite of his novels, Wobegon Boy) or the writing of poetry, in his 1996 short story “The Poetry Judge.” After being confronted with steaming piles of narcissism—from lacerating post-Plathian resentment of distant dads to gory ’Nam flashbacks (“It was hard to read those poems and imagine how possibly to judge them as writing . . . ‘Thank you all for sharing your horrors with us, and I choose horror No. 5’ ”)—the judge/narrator eventually gets around to his aesthetic credo: “Some were good enough that I might have read them out loud to someone sitting nearby—the simple test of a good poem.” Insofar as this is Keillor’s own credo—no reason to think otherwise—you can see it in action in his new collection of light verse, O, What a Luxury (Grove Press, $20). His breadth of subject shows in a sample of titles in the table of contents: “Kansas.” “Urology.” “Show Business.” “Doxology.” “Cicadas.” “Class Warfare.” There’s lots here on Minnesota, of course, and New York City, his other home base; and an ode to Seattle’s hills: “People do not coast in this town/They don’t believe in the fall of man/They’re never depressed, or feel let down/If you’re tired you can move to Spokane.” The best—which richly satisfies his read-out-loud test—is the “Love Poem” reprinted here that forms the climax of Wobegon Boy: “I believe in impulse, in all that is green/Believe in the faithful vision that comes true/Believe that all that is essential is unseen/And for this lifetime I believe in you.” Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 p.m.

GAVIN BORCHERT

Thursday, Nov. 7

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

When Coachella announced that the Stone Roses would headline this year’s festival in April, young American music fans responded with one emphatic question: “Who the fuck are the Stone Roses?” Music bloggers scoffed. But let’s be fair. Outside rock-mag offices and music-rehearsal spaces, the Mancunian rock band is pretty obscure. They released just two albums over the course of six years about two decades ago—not enough of a sustained effort for their soul-indebted beat-heavy, jangly rock songs to jump the pond and make an impact. But that doesn’t mean that this audacious group doesn’t deserve new listeners. This is where The Stone Roses: Made of Stone picks up. Filmed by celebrated British director (and huge Stone Roses fan) Shane Meadows, the doc doesn’t dwell on the band’s past—the rise from the Manchester scene of the mid-’80s to million-selling Britpop success; the fight with its label; its eventual dissolution in 1996—but focuses on the band’s unlikely 2012 reunion. The film opens with a movingly cinematic scene of gray-haired singer Ian Brown greeting a long line of screaming fans at the barricade of a massive outdoor concert during that reunion tour. What follows is an amalgam: a moving portrait of the band’s fans, a Europe-spanning road movie, and a concert film that captures the timelessness of these songs and the prodigious talents of these musicians. This is a great, belated introduction to a band that clearly needed it. iPic Theaters Redmond, 16541 N.E. 74th St., 425-636-5601, ipictheaters.com. $18.50–$27. 7 p.m. (Repeats Sun.)

MARK BAUMGARTEN

First Thursday

There are several worthwhile stops on the gallery circuit tonight, including Molly Iverson at Davidson Galleries, Marco Mazzoni and Lindsey Carr at Roq La Rue, and Fay Jones at Grover/Thurston. Also, there are some non-First Thursday events to note this weekend: Portland photographer Holly Andres is giving a PCNW lecture at 6 p.m. Friday on her eerie staged scenes in The Homecoming; down at M.I.A. Gallery, also 6 p.m. Friday, Belgian photographer Sofie Knijff will attend the opening of her child-portrait series Translations, taken in countries including South Africa, India, Mali, Brazil, Iceland, and Greenland; and don’t forget the Georgetown Art Attack, beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday. However, because we always like to see what nonprofessional artists are up to, be sure to look in the windows at Gallery4Culture tonight before venturing inside, where John Feodorov is showing new paintings. Facing the sidewalk is a small selection of photographs taken by a dozen Metro bus drivers, called Artopolis. (No, they weren’t driving and photographing at the same time, because that would be unsafe.) Here are random image grabs from routes all over Seattle, taken during moments of repose, shift changes, and coffee breaks. Passengers stare out the windows, the clouds roll by, and the texture of the city shifts with every click of the odometer. Most of us are stuck in an office, but these photographers are constantly on the move, gaining new perspectives with each mile and fare. (Through Nov. 27.) Gallery4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Place S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 296-7580, 4culture.org. Free. Opening reception 6–8 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER

Friday, Nov. 8

Elizabeth Gilbert

The only similarity between Alma Whittaker, the wealthy 19th-century heroine of Elizabeth Gilbert’s new novel The Signature of All Things (Viking, $28.95), and the author in her memoir Eat, Pray, Love is this: Both women travel far to heal a broken heart. Otherwise, the two couldn’t be more different. Alma would never be caught dead at a spiritual retreat, nor would she seek solace in frivolous indulgences like fine food. Born into a family of botanists and explorers (her father traveled with Captain Cook), she has a fierce intellect and curiosity for the natural world. This impels her to join the scientific conversations of her time—including evolution. Not bestowed with beauty, Alma keeps a lonely, bookish existence: managing the affairs of her father’s estate and publishing her research on moss in academic journals. Then she falls in love with a brilliant but troubled artist who stirs in her uncomfortable notions of the spiritual world (and some latent sexual desires). But Ambrose Pike is not what he seems, and Alma will travel years and great distances—all the way to Tahiti—to uncover his improbable secret. Meanwhile, Alma’s decades of study turn out to be of remarkable consequence, yielding another big plot turn that makes for thoroughly enjoyable historical fiction. Gilbert has chosen an explosive point in history, the Darwin-era collision between science and faith, and imbued it with a fresh, compelling voice. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m.

NICOLE SPRINKLE

UCLA Festival of Preservation

“We go together. Maybe like guns and ammunition go together.” Aw, that’s so sweet. John Dall and Peggy Cummins play lovers more aroused by steel than flesh in Joseph H. Lewis’ taut little crime picture Gun Crazy (1950), which begins this touring retrospective of a dozen underseen movies. Gun Crazy is famed for its long-take robbery scene and the near-comical displacement of eros into ammo. It’s followed tonight by 1946’s The Chase (not to be confused with the Marlon Brando film of two decades later), in which a war vet gets involved with the wife of the gangster who employs him as a chauffeur. (Look for Peter Lorre in a supporting role.) Not everything in the series is so noir, though most titles are somewhat obscure. How many have seen Robert Altman’s 1969 That Cold Day in the Park (7 p.m. Tues.)? It stars Sandy Dennis as a rich spinster who enters into a codependent relationship with a young man, pretending to be disabled, who begins to exert a strange control over his benefactress. Equally rare is the 1975 documentary essay Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (7 p.m. Wed.) by Thom Anderson, whose Los Angeles Plays Itself has been a past favorite at NWFF. Here he explores the pre-cinematic images and philosophy of Muybridge, whose serial-photo motion studies proved that horses left the ground at a gallop. He helped blaze a path for Edison and other founders of cinema. In a way, all the titles being screened here are his legacy. (Through Wed.) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$10 (or $9–$20 for double feature). 7 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER

Saturday, Nov. 9

Kylian + Pite

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Peter Boal is adding to the contemporary side of the repertory this autumn. On the heels of last month’s world premiere by Twyla Tharp, he’s got a program featuring Jiři Kylian, whose work for the Nederlands Dans Theater combines multiple influences into a series of vivid kinetic experiences. The company already does two of Kylian’s more lighthearted dances, and we’ll see his Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze. Making its local premiere is his 1981 Forgotten Land, a much darker and more emotionally driven work set to Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem. The program’s other new-to-us work is Crystal Pite’s Emergence, which knocked audiences flat at the National Ballet of Canada when she premiered it there in 2009. Pite started in British Columbia, and her career has taken her to Europe and back multiple times with her own contemporary ensemble and commissions for ballet companies. She’s working at the edge, everywhere. (Through Nov. 17.) McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 441-2424, pnb.org. $28–$174. 7:30 p.m.

SANDRA KURTZ

Tavi Gevinson

When Tavi Gevinson was 14 years old, she founded Rookie, an online fashion magazine for teenage girls inspired by her blog Style Rookie. (The project was a hobby her father wasn’t aware of until she asked permission to do an interview with The New York Times.) The site has now expanded its coverage to include visual arts, music, pop culture, and social issues. Gevinson, editor-in-chief at just 17, oversees an editorial staff of over 70 writers around the world, most of them also teenage girls. Rookie Yearbook Two (Drawn and Quarterly, $30) is her imprint’s second collection of work culled from the site. It includes contributions from Mindy Kaling, Molly Ringwald, Carrie Brownstein, and a host of other high-profile women in media and the arts. Tonight’s event will feature a zine workshop, readings, a book signing, and maybe a fashion tip or two. The Vera Project (Seattle Center), 956-8372, theveraproject.org. Free. 1–4 p.m.

GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT