Lectures: Color, Cloth, and Plant Dyes in Ancient Japan, April 11th, free.  Fifth-generation dye master and textile scholar Yoshioka Sachio presents an illustrated lecture on colors and cloth used for Buddhist and court rituals during the Nara and Heian periods.  *  Also, The Battle over Genetically-Engineered Food in Japan , April 14th, free, on the Japanese government's gradual shift from a supportive to a cautious approach to genetically engineered foods.  *  Also, Five Wishes - Specifying Your End-of-Life Care , April 16th, free.  While we all want to be strong up to the day we meet our Maker, what if you end up as a prolonged vegetable drooling on yourself?  In this seminar, learn how to create a living will specifying your personal, emotional, spiritual, and medical directives.  *  Also, Food Safety: Who's Minding the Store , April 11-12th, $200, a seminar on the legal dimensions of food safety and relevant questions.

Genealogy: Czech & Slovak Genealogy Symposium , April 11th, $60, with ten presentations covering the history, people, and current research on the people of these lands.  You really gotta be into this to be willing to sit through a full day of lectures on this narrow topic, but if you are, then this event is right up your alley.  *  Also, Successful Family Reunions , April 14th, $5.  As long as you're bringing the family together, use the opportunity to deepen the genealogy work, record medical histories and oral stories, and take some family photos.

African-American Interest: Gender Identity in the African-American Community , April 10th, $7, exploring the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and especially transgendered African-Americans.  It's gotta be a standard question, of which restroom do transgendered people use?  Like, do those transgendered gals born with a guy's equipment package sit down to pee?  *  Also, African-American Film Festival , starting April 12th, $15+, showing African-American life from many different perspectives.  The biggie is the opening film, Honeydripper.

Gala: A Night at the 5th , April 26th, $250.  5th Avenue Theater concludes its season with a big wrap party, and as a theater company, these folks know how to throw a bash.  There will be live performances and musicals.  They also have one of the better auction catalogs full of goodies.  Finally, you get to meet those theater types, and they're always a sparkplug.

Opera: Opera Lecture Series, April 14th, free, exploring opera's connections to Jewish themes and performers, as well as discussion of the upcoming performance of I Puritani and next year's opera season.  *  Also, Vagabond Opera , April 12th, $5, this is a mesh of gypsy music, opera, klezmer, and cabaret.  Essentially, this is what you get when an opera singer turns into a musical anarchist.  It's easy to think of this such as a bit risqué, but it's formatted as family- friendly, for kids over 5 years.  The kicker is, no adults are admitted without kids, so if you're childless, guess you need to borrow somebody else's kid for an afternoon.

Dance: Laugh Out Loud , April 17-20, $20+, this one has already been getting good press.  The chuckles tend to be sparse at the ballet, so this one is a notable.  PNB mashes ballet and comedy together for some interesting combinations.  These performances are great for ballet newbies, and for families with kids and their short attention spans.  They also have a Backstage Bash party after one of the performances, where the stage of McCaw Hall is transformed into your dance floor.

Fashion: Poncho Gala Auction, April 12th, $400.  This is one of the big auctions in Seattle that brings out influential and haute people.  This year's theme is Nouveau Glam, so for every gal who's been staring at the Luly Yang gown in her closet just waiting for an occasion to wear it, well, this is it.  *  Also, Underground Fashion Show, April 10th, $25, with a free show for students at 5 PM .  These student shows always have a couple of surprise pieces.  You get students with little money, but time and lots of creativity, all combining for interesting and unexpected outcomes.  *  Also, Thaw Fashion Show , May 1st, $75, for the spring thaw, get it?  This one has tons of national designers and sponsors backing it up, so it should be pretty good.  They had to move into a larger space this year to better accommodate the growing interest.  *  Also, Seamless in Seattle, a contest to find Seattle's next big fashion designer; lots of press for the winners, backed up by Seattle Magazine .  Up-and-coming designers need to hurry up and enter.

Health: National Walk Day , April 16th, free, where you're encouraged to step out for a 30-minute walk, and hopefully make it a habit.  Stroking out is the #3 killer (and heart disease is #1), yet these are pretty much preventable by not being so sedentary.  Besides, the weather is getting nice now.  *  Also, Jamba Juice is offering free breakfast day on April 8th, 6 - 10 AM.  Because we're a nation of lard asses, Jamba Juice is promoting healthy breakfasts to jumpstart healthy living.  Sounds like it's worth skipping Starbucks this morning for an alternative to the usual routine.

Wine: There's always a bazillion wine events in Seattle, and this week is no exception.  Start with Sexy Syrah , April 16th, $40, of 30 Syrahs accompanied by the food mastery of Salty's.  These syrahs are powerful red wines, with full flavor and body, so put your taste buds on alert.  *  Also, Estrella Family Creamery Market Menu , April 18th - May 1st, $35, Seattle's vegetarian restaurant serves a three-course meal highlighting artisan cheeses.  The wine choices are always a little more interesting against the backdrop of a vegetarian menu.  *  Also, How To Taste Wine Like a Pro, April 13th, $39, of tasting wine and then translating your taste into a description, understanding wine's components, and detecting common wine flaws.

Organization: Pacific NorthwestPsychoanalytic Society , if you ever talk with a shrink in a social setting, it's easy to feel like their psychoanalytical meter is always running.  Sometimes these shrinks turn out to be the biggest nut-jobs themselves, going into psychology so they could understand themselves better.  Likewise, a bartender or girlfriend can sometimes give better advice.  Anyway, if you're into head-tripping for a living, then meet and learn with other local psychology professionals.

Multi-course Overload:
Seems like every month, a new X courses for Y dollars dining special pops up, where a select group of restaurants band together for mutual promotion.  While popular, are they good?  The possible pitfalls:     
 

Service:  These promotions do put bodies in the restaurants, so you get a restaurant full or 25-for-$25 or whatever this month's special is, for better or worse.  Service staff has to ramp up, so you get pressed service hustling for speed, serving patrons in bulk.  Worse, if you're a regular, the restaurant is full of these interlopers only interested in coming back during the next special.  Since the meal ticket is less (hence a smaller tip), understandably you may not be the server's highest priority that night.

Food Quality: Some restaurants get this right; others don't.  Generally, as meal count goes up, quality goes down.  Restaurants need to create their meals from (cheaper) ingredients fitting the formation, while still leaving fair profit to them.  Meals are prepared in assembly line format.  These meals may not showcase the best the restaurant is capable of.

Restricted Pool: Seattle's promotion limits the number of entrants, unlike other cities inviting all qualified participants.  More restaurants means more vibrant competition, greater dining options, and ultimately, better value.  A hundred restaurants would probably partake, if they could, producing innovative and delicious meals

Cool Video: Free Hugs at the Market