Music: Symphony on Wheels at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, Jan 12th, free. African American violinist Gareth Johnson performs a movement from the Mozart Violin Concerto. A great resource, especially for budding musicians of color.
Art: Kirkland Art Walk, Jan 13th, free. If you missed the first Thursday art walk in Seattle, here's your make-up assignment. About 15 galleries change their exhibits and stay open until 9 PM. Free 4-houring parking at the Kirkland library.
Lecture: First Brides Storytelling event, Jan 15th at the Seattle Goodwill, free. Go back 150 years and wonder what it would been like to be the first bride in Seattle. An actress in an historical role takes on the character of Louisa Boren, the first lady to be issued a King County marriage license, to David Denny back in 1853.
Show: Glitzkrieg Burlesque, Jan 15th at Doc Maynards, $15. This is shock and ahh the old fashioned way. The show is more tease than flesh; you can probably see more skin at Hooters anyway. Instead, these acts are based on Vaudeville houses, campy, bawdy mix of music, variety acts and striptease, and the go-go dancers of the 1960's. It's raunchy, but not sexual.
Fashion: Fetish fashion show at Club Noc Noc, Jan 15th, $10 (but only if you're dressed right.) A show with a dark, exotic flavor to it. The event is really more about attitude and looking cool than perverse acts, so you can let you inner goth come out safely and play for a night.
Cabaret: at the Hugo House, Jan 11th, $5. This month's theme is food and whatever happens to feel good at the moment. Some members of the Seattle slam teams will be there, music, and spoken work.
Play: Daytime TV, playing until Feb 11th, $10. By the usual wacky folks at Wing-It Productions, go through a slice of life from TV with all its saucy drama: love, sex, blackmail, and revenge.
Performance: National Acrobats of Taiwan, Jan 16th, $17+. Every time you see acrobats, it's easy to gasp at their great balancing acts, thinking for a split second that something or someone is going to fall down, at least once. Yet, it never happens. And you thought balancing the broom on the end of your fingertips as a kid was a big deal.
Theater: Vagina Monologues at the Stone Soup Theater, until January 29th, $15+. This is one of those shows to see once, just to see what everyone else is talking about. Covers the vagina, both literally and metaphorically, and all that it encompasses: intimacy, vulnerability, and self-discovery. Get you dose of knowledge with laughter.
Organization: Emerald City Sea Dive Club. See the fascinating world on the other side of the water. Diving is a fun sport, but you gotta know what you're doing. Make your first step here and join other enthusiasts.
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Money, Power, Respect: More seductive than sex or fame to some, people spend their lives in accumulation of more. In Seattle, what do these factors look like?
Money: Steve Arnold of Polaris Ventures. It's easy to think of this region's billionaires or philanthropists when using the resource of money for good, but that'd be a cop-out. Count the power of money instead by its ripple effect. Leader of a $2+ billion venture fund seeding many start-ups in this region, creating companies providing good jobs, paying taxes, creating consumers with money to spend, and so on and so on...
Power: Frank Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times. Considering power as the ability to influence, Mr. Blethen is the leader in this region. A shoot-from-the-hip maverick, he's reviled almost as much as he's admired. Depending who you listen to, he's either the last defender against the evils of media consolidation or the village idiot of the newspaper industry. Love or hate him, our Seattle wouldn't be the same without him.
Respect: Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera. This guy exudes respect like rays of sunshine. Even when this guy is standing in back of you, you can still feel his presence. An encyclopedic knowledge of the opera, a commanding presence, and passion that drips from every word when describing his craft. There's no doubt who's in charge.
