Today is Labor Day in the U.S. After the debacles of the past few years, I think it appropriate to revisit exactly what that means, beyond the hot-dogs and stump-speeches, picnics and parades. All together, now:
Are you poor, forlorn and hungry?
Are there lots of things you lack?
Is your life made up of misery?
Then dump the bosses off your back.
Are your clothes all patched and tattered?
Are you living in a shack?
Would you have your troubles scattered?
Then dump the bosses off your back.
Are you almost split asunder?
Loaded like a long-eared jack?
Boob--why don't you buck like thunder,
And dump the bosses off your back?
All the agonies you suffer
You can end with one good whack
Stiffen up, you orn'ry duffer
And dump the bosses off your back.
09/07/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Mary Daheim
Loco Motive
The local author presents her latest Bed-and-Breakfast mystery. Daheim will also be at the Bellevue Regional Library at 7 p.m. tonight.
09/07/10 7 p.m. Richard Hugo House
LiTFUSE Launch Party
Locals Tara Hardy, Susan Rich, Mimi Allin, Elizabeth Austen, et cetera, will read and/or perform.
09/07/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Mark Richard Schuster
Lofty Pursuits: Repairing the World One Building at a Time
The Seattle real estate developer talks about sustainability and community.
09/07/10 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
William Gibson
Zero History
The Father of Cyberpunk is down from Vancouver to discuss the return of Hubertus Bigend in his bizarrely compelling new novel.
09/07/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
David Callahan
Fortunes of Change
Is it possible that someone can be insanely wealthy and yet not a complete asshole? Callahan suggests so. This could be a severe blow to my zeitgeist.
09/08/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Peter Lewis
Dead in the Dregs
The local restauranteur presents his first novel.
09/08/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
S.M. Stirling
The High King of Montival
Stirling has been around for dog's years, penning tie-in novels, co-authoring, and solo writing in the more militaristic SFF sub-genres.
09/08/10 7:30 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Peter Mountford
Kamikaze
The author will read from his second book and host Stage Fright, Hugo House's open mic night for writers 8-12 years old.
09/09/10 5 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Youth Speaks Writing Circle
Central Branch Library
A weekly writing workshop for writers 13-21 years old.
09/09/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Carol Cassella
Healer
The local novelist and physician wil will discuss her second book.
09/09/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Jack Straw Reading
Three writers from the Jack Straw Writers Program will share their latest work.
09/09/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Robert Scheer
The Great American Stick-Up
The editor-in-chief of Truthdig reveals that the economic crash was a vast plot by evil masterminds out to swindle the entire planet. It's SMERSH! Only 007 can save us now.
09/10/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Melanie Thernstrom
The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing and the Science of Suffering
Thornstrom is the author of The Dead Girl and Halfway Heaven. In this book, she talks about her own struggle with chronic pain in the context of the history of pain research and treatment.
09/10/10 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
William Paul Young & James Rubart
The Shack / Rooms
The authors discuss their respective books.
09/11/10 1 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Amanda Tattersall
Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change
As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day, a million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray, are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses, for the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
09/11/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Ann Littlewood
Did Not Survive
When elephants attack...
09/11/10 4 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Ellen Boughn
Microstock Money Shots
Serious amateur photographers might be interested in this one. Boughn is a veteran stock photographer and founder of AfterImage.
09/11/10 4 p.m. Seattle Public Library
PoetsWest
Green Lake Branch Library
Open mic.
09/11/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Joseph Mattson
Empty the Sun
This "convincing variation on the theme of loss" (per the Boston Phoenix) includes a CD by Seattle's Six Organs of Admittance.
09/11/10 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Very Bright: Inspiration Through Words and Music
Poet Tia-Nache Yarbrough, and vocalists Bridget Bazile, Maurette Brown Clark, Brigette Bryant, and Shawntae Jackson, perform at this benefit to raise cash and awareness for sickle-cell anemia.
09/12/10 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Miryam Kabakov
Keep Your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires
Editor and contributor Kabakov will join various others to read and discuss this fascinating collection of essays on Orthodox Judaism and unorthodox sexuality.
09/12/10 4 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Short Stories Live
The Jewish Imagination
The season kicks off with tales from Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, and J.D Salinger. Hosted by ACT Artistic Director Kurt Beattie
09/12/10 5 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Steve Murray & Tiina Nunnally
Murray is the pseudonymous translator of Stieg Larrson's novels, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Nunnally has translated Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavsrandattar, Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow, et cetera.
09/12/10 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
ACLU of Washington
Where is Marijuana Reform Heading
Okay, not technically a reading or a signing, but local travel author/speaker/personality and marijuana activist Rick Steves will be on the panel. Anyway, it's about pot. Who's not interested in pot?
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