Museum: Wing Luke Opening, May 31st - June 1st, free, celebrating its new 60,000 square foot home. Museum highlights include Community Portrait Galleries, George Tsutakawa Art Gallery, Historic Immersion Exhibits, Tateuchi Story Theatre, KidPLACE, and so on. Since it’s the opening, they'll trot out all of the local dignitaries and fun activities to make a powerful first impression, so go enjoy it while it's free.
Lecture: Jane Austen lecture: Viewing Austen Through Vermeer's Camera Obscura, June 8th, free lecture, and $5 for the tea and cake reception afterwards. The president of the North American Jane Austen society comes into town with a discussion on female domesticity viewed through both Ms. Austen’s words and Vermeer's camera obscura paintings. Get a new perspective upon perhaps the best novels in the English language, and you can bet the Earl Gray tea will be flowing afterwards. Those Regency era chicks can be pretty hilarious, after they let the crinoline down.
Arts: Spring Arts Fling, May 30th, $10, for young arts patrons. (If you're under 40 and subscribe to the arts, then that makes you young.) This is a casual social event, to cross-pollinate exposure from one arts organization to the other, of hanging out and chatting with performers from the theater, symphony, and ballet. Afterwards, the artists put together short performances, creating little mash-ups.
Fashion: Spring into Summer - A Rendezvous of High Tea & Fashion Infusion, June 1st, $65. Undisputed Seattle fashion queen Luly Yang launches her 2009 collection of dresses, swing coats, and suits. Like cars, the 2009 models always seem to come out 7 months early. This is a good mother/daughter sort of event. Pay the bucks for a stunning piece that no one else will own. * Also, it's not until August 7th, but the tix for Fashion First are on sale now, $40+. It's hard to think of a bigger fashion show in Seattle than this one.
Fundraiser: Firefighter Calendar Judging, May 29th, $20, with the audience voting for their pick for the calendar cover. This isn't just some ogling chick event; there are enough female firefighters to make it interesting for both genders. These firefighters are not the sexy hard-body types, they're more athletic. These firefighters must have a full sack of puns ready-to-go, "You can use my fire hose any time."
Ballet: All Robbins, starting May 29th, $20+, featuring three works from the master himself, whose 60-year career spans numerous works of ballet and musical theater. PNB produces its favorite three, all of which are typical crowd- pleasers. One interesting little tidbit about Robbin,is that he testified to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, ratting out his former friends.
Business: What To Do About Rising Costs in China, May 28th, $20. Say you're a business, making your goods with the cheap labor in China, sending them to the US. But now, with the declining dollar and the rising yuan, you're no longer making the big profits, which you've become accustomed to. So, what do you do? Move onto a different country and exploit its cheap-o labor pool, or stick it out in China and try new tactics to adjust? Go hear what the options are for American companies making their goods overseas, and then selling them to US consumers.
Film: Silent Movie Mondays, $12. This is great-grandpa type of stuff. Paramount Theater puts a silent movie up on the big screen along with an organ accompaniment. See film when the captions were actually part of the story. As far as film goes, this is old-old school.
Family: Speed, starting May 31st, at Pacific Science Center, $6+. You think your life is fast? Well, go see what fast really means. Learn about how things go really fast, plus the associated attributes of speed, such as stopping, drag, and acceleration. Kids get to build a fast car, drop pennies into the Penny Smasher, and other experiments associated with speed. A lot of the scientific concepts are based on Newtonian physics, so they're actually not that hard to understand, except the speed of light, where everything gets weird.
Activities: Bothell Recreation Guide, dates and costs vary. The city of Bothell has a good group of little activities for its citizens, including Belly Dancing classes, Scrapbooking, Softball, and Bocce Ball. Since these are through the City of Bothell, the costs are reasonable.
Organization: Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society, wow, this can't be a fun job. They get to deal with festering wounds, puss, patients' colostomy bags, and other poo cleaning tasks. No wonder they need their own group, just to get together and mellow out afterwards.
