Constance Lambson

Edmund Morris, who was scheduled to visit the SPL back on December 10, 2010, will finally share the third volume of his definitive biography of Theodore Roosevelt on Wednesday, 1/26.  The first volume won a Pulitzer, don'tcha know. Unfortunately, Town Hall has Sherry Turkle booked at the same time, which causes a dismaying conflict between history and modernity.

Also highly recommended this week are Stephanie Coontz at Town Hall tonight, discussing The Feminine Mystique 50-ish years later; tomorrow's lecture about dark matter by Richard Panek; and Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander on Thursday, 1/27, at Kane Hall.

1/24/2011 12:15 p.m. UW Bookstore
City Club
A Conversation with Dr. Phyllis Wise
A public interrogation of the UW (Interim?) President; go ask about budgets, research, tuition, and curriculum.

1/24/2011 7:30 p.m. Benaroya Hall
Seattle Arts and Lectures
Elizabeth Strout
SAL presents the Pulitzer-winning author of multiple novels.

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1/24/2011 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer's Group
New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss. Aye, Cap'n!

1/24/2011 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Stephanie Coontz
A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s
The social historian and Evergreen State professor "analyzes the impact of Betty Friedan's groundbreaking 1963 book on the generation of white, middle-class women electrified by Friedan's argument that beneath the surface contentment, most housewives harbored a deep well of insecurity, self-doubt, and unhappiness ... Coontz contends that Friedan's great achievement was uplifting so many women out of despair even if her book ignored the problems of working women, especially blacks, and tapped into concerns people were already mulling over ... This perceptive, engrossing book provides welcome context and background to a still controversial bestseller that changed how women view themselves."- Publishers Weekly

1/24/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Susan Noyes Platt
Art and Politics Now: Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis
The local art historian and critic considers art that engages issues such as war, terrorism, and racism.

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1/25/2011 6:30 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Stages
The Coast of Utopia, by Tom Stoppard
The EBBC drama book group discusses Stoppard's brilliant Russian trilogy.

1/25/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Richard Panek
The 4-Percent Universe
96% percent of the universe is a complete mystery. Sort of like the human brain.

1/25/2011 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Donna Fletcher Crow
A Very Private Grave
A young seminarian finds a dead friar. Hijinks ensue.

1/26/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Janice Shapiro
Bummer and Other Stories
Another Brooklyn-based writer debuts a short story collection.

1/26/2011 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Edmund Morris
Colonel Roosevelt
Previously canceled due to inclement weather, Mr. Morris will finally present the triumphant final volume in his Roosevelt trilogy.

1/26/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Sherry Turkle
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
The MIT professor presents the final volume of her trilogy about humans and technology. "Based on an ambitious research program , and written in a clear and beguiling style, this book will captivate both scholar and general reader and it will be a landmark in the study of the impact of social media." – Jill Ker Conway

1/27/2011 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Cherie Priest
Bloodshot
A vampire novel from the author of Boneshaker.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Bill Cotter
Seattle's 1962 World's Fair
The Space Needle, Elvis, and other follies, documented in vintage photographs.

1/27/2011 6:30 p.m. Kane Hall, Room 130
Elizabeth Alexander
Hearing America Singing: Multi-Vocal Cultures in America
Join the poet and professor for a discussion of race and culture.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Kim Edwards
The Lake of Dreams
Based in Kentucky, Professor Edwards is the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter and The Secrets of a Fire King.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Times
"2010: Year in Pictures"
The local paper struggles desperately for relevance.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Northwest African American Museum
Wes Moore
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
"This should be required reading for anyone who is trying to understand what is happening to young men in our inner cities." – Geoffrey Canada

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Paul Schmid
A Pet for Petunia
Launch party, including age-appropriate libations and treats.

1/28/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Aminatta Forna
The Memory of Love
"Aminatta Forna's new novel takes an oblique look at the Sierra Leonean civil war of the 1990s ... [and] turns each scene into a metaphor that reverberates with meaning beyond the event itself ... A remarkable novel." – Helon Habila, The Guardian

1/28/2011 11 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Peter Rabbit
Storytime
Bring your wee bairns to meet the costumed character.

1/28/2011 8 p.m. Pilot Books
Lonely Christopher
The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse
The author will be joined by Mark Gluth and Gregory Laynor.

1/29/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Nancy Lord
Early Warning: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North
"Nancy Lord combines her knowledge and her love of the North to give us a vitally necessary, and in places, hauntingly beautiful account of what's already happening in those places the rest of us think of as wild and untouched." – Bill McKibben

1/29/2011 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Bill Cotter
Seattle's 1962 World's Fair
The Space Needle, Elvis, and other follies, documented in vintage photographs.

1/29/2011 2 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Nick Galifianakis
If You Loved Me, You'd Think This Was Cute: Uncomfortably True Cartoons About You
Galifianakis draws his cartoons to accompany the advice column by Carolyn Hax, on washingtonpost.com and named by Time magazine as America's best advice columnist. The column appears in the Washington Post and is syndicated nationally.

1/30/2011 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Cinderella
Dancers, choreographers, and techies discuss what goes on behind the scenes.

1/30/2011 3 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Edward Harkness & Anne Pitkin
Poetry Reading
Two local poets share some time.

1/30/2011 4 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Siobhan Fallon
You Know When the Men are Gone
"The crucial role of military wives becomes clear in Fallon's powerful, resonant debut collection, where the women are linked by absence and a pervading fear that they'll become war widows. Fallon writes with both grit and grace: her depiction of military life is enlivened by telling details, from the early morning sound of boots stomping down stairs to the large sign that tallies automobile fatalities of troops returned from Iraq. Significant both as war stories and love stories, this collection certifies Fallon as an indisputable talent." – Publishers Weekly

This week's calendar features a number of revisits from local artists, poets, and authors, so if you missed Kangas, Baskas, or Perillo last year, you have another chance this week.

For something completely different, the Seattle Public Library now offers free music downloads, via Freegal. Get it? Free and legal music downloads. Patrons can download up to three songs per week from the website; just click through to the Digital Books & Media page, scroll down past the Overdrive link, and there you go.

Also, please join The SunBreak in congratulating Susan Hildreth, head librarian of the Seattle Public Library. On December 22, 2010, the United States Senate confirmed Ms. Hildreth's appointment as Director of Museum and Library Services by President Barack Obama. She will begin her term at the end of this month. Then will begin the search for a new City Librarian... woe.

01/17/11 6 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Claire Dederer
Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses
The reading will begin at 7 p.m., after a reception with the author. "Dederer's humor is tangy and precision-aimed ... A book reviewer and social critic with bylines in The New York Times, Slate, and Vogue, Dederer acidly deconstructs hip, politically correct Seattle ... Dederer writes superbly and offers sharp insights into family dynamics as well as hatha yoga's impact on American life." – Donna Seaman, Booklist

01/17/11 6 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Thought Leaders Discussion
Cascadia: A Vision for a Restorative Future
Island Press presents a panel discussion of sustainability and change.

01/17/11 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer's Group
"New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss." Aye, Cap'n!

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01/18/11 4 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Perry Moore
Hero
After School & Beyond, the EBBC Young Adult Bookgroup, will discuss this surprising and delightful story of a young, gay superhero. Highly recommended for all ages, by the way.

01/18/11 6 p.m. UW Bookstore
Michael Honey
All Labor Has Dignity
Honey has collected a group of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches that focus on economic justice.

01/18/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Cory Doctorow
Little Brother
Speculations, the EBBC SFF Bookgroup, takes on Cory's YA novel of child labor, technology, privacy, and government. Awkward when it's not overly facile, the story nonetheless resonates with anyone who's ever played Farmville or feared the Department of Homeland Security. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

01/18/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Kurt Timmermeister
Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
The founder of Cafe Septieme wrote a book: "Timmermeister begins his enterprise with little farming know-how. As he cultivates his agrarian education (often through trial and error), he reflects on self-sufficiency, sustainability, and the industrialization of food production. While narrating over two decades of the farm's history, he describes such tasks as installing bees in a new hive, making apple cider, buying livestock, and slaughtering a pig ... Part memoir, part manual, this refreshingly candid account doesn't oversell its author or a political message." – Lisa Campbell, Library Journal

01/18/11 7 p.m. The UW Club
Naomi Sokoloff & Susan Glenn
Boundaries of Jewish Identity
This discussion of the short fiction of Sayed Kashua, an Arab citizen of Israel, will include a dessert reception.

01/18/11 7:30 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Belle Randall
The Coast Starlight
The local poet shares her first collection in quite a while. Go welcome her back.

01/18/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Parag Khanna
How to Run the World
Khanna asks whether we are entering a new Enlightenment, courtesy of Bill Gates and Bono.

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01/19/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Cecilia Martínez-Gil
Psaltery and Serpentines
"This is a luscious and lustrous collection of poems, a delightful first book from a poet who demonstrates convincingly here both the gravity and the joy of her calling." – Gail Wronsky

01/19/11 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Harriet Baskas
Washington Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Evergreen State
The local photographer shares her book of pictures.

01/19/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Izzeldin Abuelaish
I Shall Not Hate
"The Gaza doctor" comes to Seattle to share his campaign for understanding, respect, and peace. An evening to break your heart.

01/20/11 6:30 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Wendelin Van Draanan
Shredderman: Secret Identity
In conjunction with Adams Elementary School, SGB welcomes the award-winning YA author, as part of the 4th Annual Adams Reads The Same Book program.

01/20/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Colm Tóibín
The Empty Family
"Tóibín returns to his native shores from Brooklyn for the bulk of these nine pristine stories, all—save one—contemporary tales of lives haunted by loss ... Affairs, airports, and deathbeds populate a mature prose that's as tender with descriptions of sexual, often gay, love, as it is with the heart's more inexpressible reaches ... These stories go a long way toward establishing Tóibín as heir to William Trevor, with reverberations that show how life encompasses more than the living." – Publishers Weekly

01/20/11 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Deborah Richardson
Sex Trafficking’s Local Victims
"In Seattle, a recent study commissioned by the city found that 300-500 local children likely are being forced into prostitution. This forum... addresses the growing tragedy of sex trafficking, how the Internet is worsening the problem, and how you can make a difference. Presented by the Women’s Funding Alliance. "

01/20/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Matthew Kangas
Burning Forest: The Art of Maria Frank Abrams
Kangas takes another turn reading his mono about the Holocaust survivor and NW School artist.

01/20/11 7 p.m. Sorrento Hotel
Wallace Shawn
Essays
"Penthouse Symposium no. 10 : Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson" at the Sorrento Hotel's 7th floor Penthouse. Ticket price includes "a hearty stew" and a copy of the book.

01/20/11 7:30 p.m. Benaroya Hall
Lucia Perillo
Inseminating the Elephant
"I have two words for anyone who wants to know why people turn to poetry in times of need: Lucia Perillo. She's the funniest poet writing today, which is saying a lot, since she's also the poet most concerned with the treachery practiced on us daily by our best friends and worst enemies, our bodies." —The New York Times

01/20/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Ron Reagan
My Father at 100
I'm currently reading this, but I'm only halfway through, so it's not fair to comment. Ron Reagan fils lives in Seattle and works as a commentator for MSNBC.

01/21/11 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Lori Armstrong
Mercy Kill
In this second novel featuring former Army sniper Mercy Gunderson, an old Army buddy comes to town, and is inevitably murdered. Mercy must investigate for justice to triumph, et cetera.

01/21/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Amy Chua
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
The John M. Duffy Professor of Law at Yale Law School, and author of two very serious books on global economics, wrote a smart, candid memoir, which the WSJ then chose to excerpt with a provocative title. The whole thing turned into a minor kerfuffle that does a grave injustice to Professor Chua's book. Battle Hymn is a complex and nuanced account of the difficulties facing multi-ethnic parents, and the often conflicting demands they face from family, culture, and society.

01/21/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Michael Cassutt
Heaven's Shadow
The former TV exec and scriptwriter visits to discuss his new book, TV drama writing, and shows he's worked on.

01/21/11 7 p.m. Pilot Books
Sarah Lippek
Complicity
"...depicts a ramshackle near-future dystopia, where individuals are driven by unthinkable compulsions and unnameable desires. Informers file reports on one other, birds croak warnings to soldiers, living ghosts haunt detention camps, and lonely coroners take orders from corpses." --Pilot Books

01/21/11 7:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Signe Pike
Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World
The author "discusses her journey of magical discovery."

01/21/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Wallace Shawn
Essays
Shawn reads again, without the hearty stew. "Lovely, hilarious, and seriously thought provoking. I enjoyed it tremendously." - Toni Morrison

01/22/11 10 a.m. Westin Hotel
Creation Entertainment
Twilight Fan Convention
Creation runs some of the crappiest conventions in the business, which is a bummer. No matter what I think of the Twilight novels, no one deserves to get ripped off by this outfit. However, Hilly and Hannah, of The Hillywood Show, will be on hand for a Q&A, so maybe it's not a total loss. The convention continues through Sunday, January 23.

01/22/11 2 p.m. University Branch Library
Jump Into Journal Writing
Workshop
Learn how to begin and maintain a "journal-writing practice."

01/22/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Tom Rachman
The Imperfectionists
"[A] witty, poignant glimpse into the universe of expatriates living in Rome, and the dreams, stress, and melodrama of a small newspaper. Rachman is clearly at home in these worlds, and his portrait is alternately hilarious, sad, intensely human, and always spot-on in its accuracy." – Andrea Lee

01/22/11 9:30 a.m. SAAM
Ken Oshima
International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku
The Saturday University Sacred Sites of Asia Lecture Series presents the UW architecture professor on "Architecture of Asia Outside of Asia." This is the concluding lecture of the series.

01/23/11 2 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Marianne Williamson
A Course in Weight Loss
"21 spiritual lessons to lose weight and gain personal strength by retraining our consciousness on eating issues."

01/23/11 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Penelope Scambly Schott
Crow Mercies
"Schott's poems, like shields of hammered copper, stand between a speaker (speaking by turns fierce and tender) and a listening grandson, mother, husband, bear-husband, butterfly sipping from their common cup ... Entering your life, these poems will be invited to stay, even as you feed them, generously one by one, to friends and strangers, but keep the very best close with your secrets." – Kim Stafford

01/23/11 4 p.m. Ada's Technical Books
Michelle Bates
Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity
The "Holga queen" presents "the definitive book on the subject" of plastic cameras.

"roadside" is courtesy of our Flickr pool's rainy day photographer zenobia_joy

It's raining. It's been raining for days. Everything I own feels slightly clammy to the touch and my sweater wafts a slight reek of mildew to my nose when I move my arms. It could be my imagination, but it makes me paranoid and self-conscious.

I'm too lazy to walk the half-mile to wait for the bus out in the rain, and I'm working, again, so I go a little wild and call a taxi. The driver is from northern India, a Sikh going home tomorrow. I'm his first fare of the night--a good omen, he says, since I'm heading downtown. It's easy to pick up another quick fare downtown.

He misses the turn to Benaroya Hall, so we travel an extra block and end up stuck behind an SUV that can't decide if it wants to invest in valet parking. Robby presses me to call him after Michael Pollan's talk, when I'm ready to go home. He'll be there in five minutes, same place, for sure, so I take his number. Why not? I admire people who will ask for what they want.

I have two tickets, but it turns out I'm flying solo, so I pile my coat and baggage in the extra seat, and offer it to my neighbors for the same purpose. Everyone unloads and we all feel better. Despite the signs to check large bags and backpacks, my own backpack never elicits the slightest comment or raised eyebrow. After 20 years, it's not really a bag, it's more a leathery, brown growth that happens to contain everything I need in the event of civil disturbance or force majeur. Like a kangaroo's pouch, only with receipts and nail clippers instead of tiny infant marsupials.

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Michael Pollan (Photo: Alia Malley)

Pollan carries a giant papier-maché pea-pod and a QFC sack onto the stage. He has props. The crowd goes wild in a quietly musty sort of way. Pollan plays show-and-tell with cereal and yogurt and some sort of irradiated instant turkey entree. I'm taking furious notes, but my brain has mostly checked out. The hall is warm and dim, and I'm tired.

All last week I anticipated tonight, looking forward to seeing one of my heroes, a modern American philosopher, talk about food, one of my favorite subjects. Then a judge was assassinated in Tucson, a Congresswoman was nearly assassinated, and over a dozen other of my fellow citizens were injured or killed. Food suddenly didn't seem to matter so much.

I've been staying up past any reasonable definition of bed-time, reading news and opinion columns, watching footage. Sitting in this room, with all of these people, my bag on the chair beside me, I wonder: how many of these people are carrying a gun? In the lobby, later, as we pack together at the exits, I wonder, again.

In Seattle, I never worry about being out. My gender is no secret, not with the twins preceding my every entrance, but I don't hide my sexual orientation, and my ethnicity is rarely even noticed. In Montana and Mississippi, it's a different story, for different reasons. That's why I live here, and not there.

This week, I've worried. I'm the liberal elite media. I'm the American that my fellow Americans want to take America "back" from. I'm the treasonous Democrat, the grammar manipulator, the innocent bystander. I'm the same person, the same progeny of the twisted union of a conservative Vietnam veteran and a liberal feminist Dixiecrat that I was two weeks ago, but I'm one week less innocent.

I'm reaching a point where I mark my life in public milestones, as much as personal ones. The shooting of Ronald Reagan, the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle accidents, the Oklahoma City bombing, Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, September 11th, the Columbine shootings, both the Iraq wars. Others.

Tucson, Arizona has been added to the list, this week, and I am still figuring out where to go from here. How do I integrate the shooting of a Jewish Congresswoman, the heroism of her gay Hispanic intern, the deaths of half a dozen people, one of whom was, tragically or ironically, a "Faces of Hope" poster-child, into my personal narrative, into my mythology?

I don't know. In any case, it's not happening in Benaroya Hall, six rows from Michael Pollan, who deserves better than the attention I'm giving him. His shirt is untucked and he looks tired, as well, but he speaks passionately, and answers a few questions from the audience, starting with the usual zinger about access to affordable food for the poor.

It's still raining when I finally clear the doors. I call Robby to pick me up, calculating that the hours of work it will cost to pay for this evening's transportation is worth the hours it would take to get home on the bus. Robby tells me how lucky I am to be born in the U.S., to be a natural-born citizen, as we roll south. I agree with him, smile and nod, but I wonder if "lucky" is a good thing.

The literary calendar is packed this week, but snow is once again predicted for the region. Should we actually get a weather event, please call ahead to confirm that the reading event has not been canceled.

01/10/11 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer's Group
"New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss." Aye, Cap'n!

01/10/11 6:30 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Northwest Independent Editors Guild
Show and Tell
Guild members will also be swapping office supplies. Allegedly.

01/10/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Elsie Hulsizer
Glaciers, Bears and Totems: Sailing in Search of the Real Southeast Alaska
Rescheduled from November, when our little snowstorm caused the cancellation of all life in Seattle, one hopes the weather holds long enough for the local writer to finally say her piece. Or perhaps not, since the previously threatened PowerPoint presentation is still on the evening's agenda.

01/10/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Allison Stanger
One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy
This book should be required reading for the "government is too big!" crowd. Them are fightin' words, a meaningless catchphrase tossed out by the misguided, the uninformed, or those who would deliberately mislead the public for questionable purposes.

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01/11/11 10 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Thom Ditty
Storytime
Apparently, the monorail has been wrapped into a Harry Potter billboard for the month of January, in conjunction with the Pacific Science Center exhibit. Mr. Ditty works for the Seattle Monorail. Somehow this is all supposed to make sense.

01/11/11 6 p.m. High Point Branch Library
Poetry Workshop
Get feedback on your writing from a panel of poets. (Meep!)

01/11/11 6:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Helena Norberg-Hodge
The Economics of Happiness
The author of Ancient Lessons: Learning from Ladakh will screen her documentary film about the global movement for economic localization. The showing will be followed by conversation with David Korten, John de Graaf, and Fran Korten.

01/11/11 6:30 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Michael J. Sandel
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do
The Global Issues & Ethics Book Group meeting examines Wall Street, immigration, affirmative action, marriage, and religion with one of the more interesting books of political philosophy to be published in the past few years. Professor Sandel will not be on hand, unfortunately, but your neighbors will. Join them to discuss liberty and the common good.

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01/11/11 6:30 p.m. UW Kane Hall, Room 120
Paulo Valesio
"On Mysticism and Modern Italian Poetry"
Professor Valesio attempts to anchor the concepts of "mysticism" and "poetry" to historical and linguistic contexts. Good luck with that.

01/11/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Olúfémi Táíwò
How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa
The Seattle U. professor of Philosophy and Global African Studies, and director of the Global African Studies Program, will explain why colonialism is evil. This is the book to throw at people who say "President Obama is anti-colonialist" as if 1. they have the slightest clue what the word means, and 2. that would be a bad thing.

01/12/11 12:10 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Ladies Musical Club
Join the Ladies for some music on your lunch hour.

01/12/11 2 p.m. Ballard Branch Library
Seattle Opera
The Barber of Seville
Preview.

01/12/11 6:30 p.m. Northeast Branch Library
Seattle Opera
The Barber of Seville
Preview.

01/12/11 7 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Group Reading
Secrets
Local female authors read new work, hosted by The Stranger's David Schmader, who may or may not have a penis.

01/12/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Jerry Gay
Seeing Reality
The Pulitzer-winning photojournalist presents a collection of his best pictures.

01/12/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle - CANCELED
Eric Alterman
Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama
 Alterman has a very different take on the question of "what went wrong" with the Obama administration. Join the CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism, media columnist for the Nation, and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress for fascinating examination of the forces bunkered-in against "Change."

01/12/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Siddartha Muherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
The writer, physician, and researcher is in town. "Rarely have the science and poetry of illness been so elegantly braided together as they are in this erudite, engrossing, kind book. Mukherjee's clinical wisdom never erases the personal tragedies which are its occasion; indeed, he locates with meticulous clarity and profound compassion the beautiful hope buried in cancer's ravages." – Andrew Solomon

01/12/11 7:30 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Stage Fright
Open mic for teens.

01/13/11 12 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Seattle Opera
The Barber of Seville
Preview.

01/13/11 6 p.m. Ballard Branch Library
It's About Time Writers' Reading Series'
The 255th meeting of the author reading and open mic series.

01/13/11 7 p.m. UW Johnson Hall, Room 075
Dr. Richard Solomon
American Negotiating Behavior: Wheeler-Dealers, Legal Eagles, Bullies & Preachers
The President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) talks about whether or not Americans are mature enough to participate in a globalized world.

01/13/11 7 p.m. Northwest African American Museum
Heidi W. Durrow
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
"Heidi Durrow's first novel stunned me and partially broke my heart. The deeply divided world of her child narrator reflects that struggle between universes—race, family, art, and love—that so many 'light-skinned girls' face ... Ms. Durrow has created a resonant world all her own." – Susan Straight

01/13/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Julian Smith
Crossing the Heart of Africa
In 2007, Smith attempted to reproduce 19th century explorer Ewan Grogan's trek across Africa. Then he wrote about it.

01/13/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
William Hartung
Prophets of War
The author examines how the military-industrial complex, i.e. the arms industry, has shaped U.S. foreign policy. Students of late 19th and early 20th century Germany will find this scarily resonant.

01/14/11 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Robert Crais
The Sentry
The author returns with the latest of his Joe Pike/Elvis Cole mysteries, in which our heroes rescue a damsel in distress. Crais' books are deeply problematic, if you want to rip them apart for -isms. Screw it. They are ripping good reads, pure candy-coated fun. I'll have a review up later in the week.

01/14/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Phil & Kaja Foglio
Agatha H and the Airship City
The authors behind Girl Genius present their steampunk romance.

01/14/11 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Philip N. Howard
The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam
"This book presents a most challenging and original analysis of the cultural and political analysis of the cultural and political dynamics of the Muslim world through the lens of the interaction between communication technology and politics. It breaks new ground in our understanding of the implications of digital technology for socio-political change. It will become a reference in political communication for the years to come." – Manuel Castells, University of Southern California

01/14/11 7:30 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Seattle Opera
The Barber of Seville
Speight Jenkins and guest will discuss the cultural, political, and social milieu of Rossini's popular comic opera.

01/15/11 11 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Cheryl Kilodavis
My Princess Boy
Celebrate National No Name-Calling Storytime at the B&N.

01/15/11 2 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Dzhaan Dementyeva
Happy Birthday, Chopin!
The Armenian pianist helps SPL celebrate Frederic Chopin's bicentennial.

01/15/11 4 p.m. Green Lake Branch Library
PoetsWest
Open mic and poetry reading.

01/15/11 7 p.m. Pilot Books
Ellen Welcker
The Botanical Garden
"Ellen Welcker’s first book, The Botanical Garden, won the 2009 Astrophil Poetry Prize and was published in November, 2010. Her poems and critical writing have appeared in Tinfish, Shampoo, Mudlark, XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics, Quarterly Conversation, and Gently Read Literature, among others. She lives in Seattle, where she works at Wave Books." -Pilot Books

01/15/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Peggy Herring
This Innocent Corner
"Herring examines the struggle for openness on several levels, from political arguments and negotiations to small and resonant details of place, such as the 'tiny laija-patta plants whose delicate fringe of leaves folds up when touched.' Presenting the physical as entranceway to the psychological is one of Herring's skills, making for a book that is well-crafted and deeply satisfying." – Amy Reiswig, Focus Magazine

01/15/11 8 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Michael Pollan
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
Saint Michael will speak on "In Defense of Food: The Omnivore's Solution."

01/15/11 9:30 a.m. SAAM
Robert Buswell
"Buddhist Monasteries and Monastic Life in Korea"
Saturday University Sacred Sites of Asia Lecture Series. [Do you have any idea what a giant PITA it is to get from White Center to SAAM via bus in time for these lectures? The Saturday schedule is not kind. If these lectures started just an hour later, I would be there more than once per year.]

01/16/11 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Dori Jones Yang
Daughter of Xanadu
EBBC is billing this as a "kid's event." May I borrow yours? Because this novel rocks like a bituminous thing: "A glorious, gripping tale of a girl torn between duty, dreams, and reality, love and war." – Tamora Pierce

01/16/11 8 p.m. The Can Can
The Bushwick Book Club
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Local musicians perform original music inspired by the book.

After far too long, Michael Pollan--author of six books, numerous articles and essays, and semi-official voice of the sustainable food movement--returns to the Pacific Northwest. On January 15th, Benaroya Hall will host Mr. Pollan's talk on "In Defense of Food: The Omnivore's Solution," a cute title for a serious topic that he has been flogging since 2002.

I've been a fan of Pollan's writing since A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder was released, back in 1997. (The title was reprinted in 2008 as A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams.)

Pollan's gentle and funny memoir tells the story of his family's relocation to a place in "the country" and his efforts to build himself a modest (ahem) writing studio out back. Written in the intimate, thoughtful narrative voice that has since become his trademark, Pollan has gone on to write four more books that have increasingly focused on agriculture and sustainability.

The startling success of 2006's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals turned Pollan into a household name beyond the food-obsessed coasts, due in part to both the text's accessibility and the publisher's excellent timing. Released just a year after the inauguration of World Environment Day in 2005, and the series of sustainability conferences that accompanied it, The Omnivore's Dilemma helped to propel the concept of "locavore" out of food-geek ghettos and into the mainstream--in 2007, the Oxford English Dictionary added locavore to its lexicon. (Even my rural Mississippi parents know what the word means, now.)

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Disturbing in both concept and detail, The Omnivore's Dilemma explicated the complicated and deeply irrational food system which both sustains and sickens Americans. Pollan has stayed with the topic, publishing In Defense of Food in 2008 and Food Rules: An Eater's Manual in 2009. With each new book, Mr. Pollan has built his case for eating simply and thoughtfully, a campaign which dovetails neatly into closely allied movements such as Slow Food, organic standards, GMO regulation, and food justice.

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Presented by NW Associated Arts, the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, and The Stranger, Mr. Pollan's visit includes a dinner benefit for the NFMA--well-heeled foodies who can afford a $250 premium ticket will get to enjoy a dinner with the author, and local chefs Tamara Murphy, Christine Keff (Flying Fish), Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), and Maria Hines (Tilth). Lesser lights can attend a reception with the author for $100. $25 no-frills tickets are also available for us plebes.

2010 was the Year of the Flash Mob in the Emerald City. On Saturday, April 10th, mobbers celebrated the return of another season of Glee by dancing at Westlake Park, Pioneer Square, and under the Space Needle:

Organized by Egan Orion, and choreographed by Bobby Bonsey and Beth Meberg, the event was the first, and arguably one of the best, of 2010's mobs. It certainly was not the last.

June brought mobbers together in Gasworks Park to form a human heart for photographers from Aerial Magazine and Seattle Met Magazine. Needless to say, it was not an anatomically correct heart.

In July, Nick and Anna Golla organized a fabulous flash mob at the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library. Dancers clapped and stepped to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," much to the delight of patrons.

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August saw the musical mob turned to political purpose on 8/14, as members of Seattle "subvertising agency" Agit-Pop invaded the Westwood Village Target store to protest the company's support of right-wing and anti-gay political candidates.

Seahawks' fans got as up close and personal as Qwest Field allows on September 12th, as fellow fans (and friends of fans) took over the turf to gyrate more or less in unison to a medley of classic stadium rock songs. The performance was not universally adored, but as a participant, I have to admit, it was great fun. Like many of the mobbers, I can't dance for shit, but that's why the very tan women in skimpy outfits get paid to dance, and I (we) don't.

On October 1st, 100 or so Friends of the Seattle Library got together in Westlake Park to read. Probably the quietest mob of the year, the event was organized to raise awareness for the Seattle Public Library, which is facing brutal budget cuts, yet again.

November brought the musical Hair to the Paramount Theatre, and then to a half-baked, half-time performance featuring members of the cast and local fans during a Seahawks' game. Billed as a flash mob, it was more of a blip, unfortunately.

December was a very mobby month. On December 4th, One Degree Events hooked up with SDOT to perform an "Umbrella/Singin' in the Rain" mash-up to promote pedestrian safety, and Gerard Schwarz of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra got in on the crowd-sourcing action, conducting Handel's Hallelujah Chorus in the Downtown Seattle Nordstrom Store.

Egan and company wrapped up the year with another multi-location mob, this one in honor of Ms. Janet Jackson. Dancing to a medley of Ms. Jackson's hits, the mobbers flashed on Capitol Hill, in University Village, and in Occidental and Pioneer Square Park. The video quickly caught the attention of Ms. Jackson's management: it went live on Janet Jackson's website on December 30th, just in time for the new year. If the mobbers' plan worked, Ms. Jackson will include Seattle on her 2011 tour schedule.

Watch the "official" video, edited for your viewing pleasure:

It's all for you, Seattle.

I may have taken Monday off due to poor planning. Or it may have been part of a sinister plot. I'm reaching, here, people. Not that anything happened. The rest of the week looks interesting, though.

Greg Bear is not pimping Hull Zero Three, tonight, instead signing a Halo tie-in novel at UW Bookstore. The rest of the week is heavy on poetry, both local and imported, with Ben Lerner in town from Brooklyn, and several group readings from home-grown writers.

There's also a sprinkling of sports, science, music, and dance to keep Seattleites intellectually well-rounded, if physically still rather pale and wan. Not as pale and wan as deceased honorees Gerry Garcia and Gypsy Rose Lee, but on the vampirish side, nonetheless.

01/04/11 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Greg Bear
Halo: Cryptum, Book One of the Forerunner Saga
The local SF legend has penned a game tie-in novel. I'm ambivalent about this. On the one hand, everybody needs to eat, right? And if anyone can write a good tie-in novel, it is Mr. Bear. But still, it makes me feel ooky. (Although, not as ooky as calling a grown man, "Mr. Bear.")

01/04/11 8 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Castalia Reading Series
Group Reading
UW folks read their work.

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01/05/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Megan Snyder-Camp, Laura Shoemaker, & Sarah Steinke
Poetry Reading
EBBC hosts three local poets whose last names all start with an S. One of those odd little things that strike me as funny, what can I say?

01/05/11 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Doug Merlino
The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White
Back in the '80s, Seattle was trying really hard to be integrated and post-racial, with varying degrees of success. One effort was an integrated student basketball team. Merlino looked up the members, twenty years later, to gauge the results. This is a "sports" book that I will definitely be reading.

01/05/11 7:30 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Scribes
Group Reading
Alums from Hugo House's Scribes program read.

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01/06/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Janet Thomas
Day Breaks Over Dharamsala: A Memoir of Life Lost and Found
The author of The Battle in Seattle takes a left turn.

01/07/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Milton D. Ghivizzani
Hitter of the Year
The second novel featuring Joe Bari, a modern Perry Mason. "Sonny" Ghivizzani is a local attorney and, apparently, mystery writer. More lawyers should turn author. They seem to do well at it. Also, the world could use fewer lawyers, don't you think?

01/07/11 7:30 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Ben Lerner
Mean Free Path
The Brooklyn-based writer is published by local outfit Copper Canyon Press because they have excellent taste.

01/08/11 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
David George Gordon
The Secret World of Slugs and Snails: Life in the Very Slow Lane
I'm giddy about this book. Did you know the Pacific Banana slug is the 2nd largest land-slug on the planet? And the Great Grey slug is also known as the Leopard slug? Awesome! Also, the book is beautifully illustrated by Gordon's wife, Karen Luke Fildes.

01/08/11 4 p.m. Green Lake Branch Library
PoetsWest
Poetry Reading
Open mic and poetry reading.

01/08/11 5 p.m. Pilot Books
Paul Nelson
Pacific Rim Poetics
Preview of a six-week Hugo House course on the poetics of our region.

01/08/11 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Gary McKinney & Scott MacFarlane
The Storyteller Speaks: Rare & Different Fictions of the Grateful Dead
Stories inspired by the Dead, music, and remembrances of things past.

01/08/11 8 p.m. The Triple Door
The Swedish Housewife
Burlesque Theatre Performance
In celebration of Gypsy Rose Lee's 100th birthday, local Burlesque performers will strut their stuff. Elliott Bay will have copies of Karen Abbott's new biography, American Rose: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee, available for sale.

01/09/11 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Dennis Milam Bensie
Shorn: Toys to Men
"Dennis Bensie was a 'different' kind of boy, bullied at school, humiliated and virtually ignored by his father. His memoir tracks an initial fascination with hair to a full-blown, life-defining illness, a paraphilia in extremis. At times the story becomes so disturbing that you wonder how he can possibly emerge as a wonderful human being. But he does. This book is at once a confession and a gift." – Walter de Milly

01/09/11 5 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Brian E. Penprase
The Power of Stars: How Celestial Observations Have Shaped Civilization
Astronomy, astrology, cosmology, and philosophy. Start the year off with the Big Bang!

The publishing industry, and the attendant publicity machine, drops off the face of the planet the last week or two of every year. Everybody deserves a vacation, and those people work like dogs, so I don't begrudge them the annual vanishing act. As a result, though, the literary calendar is feather-light.

This week we've got two readings featuring local authors: Jayne Ann Krentz continues her Arcane Society novels with book number ten, and The Best Music Writing series offers the 2010 edition. Both are yummy holiday reading, suitable for making the bathtub a slightly less depressing place to hide while your relatives duke it out elsewhere.

12/28/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Jayne Ann Krentz
In Too Deep
The first novel in a new Arcane Society set, The Looking Glass Trilogy. The book is quite good. The cover is, unfortunately, quite dreadful. I have chosen to protect you, our loyal readers, from the trauma. Don't say I never did anything for you.

12/28/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Ann Powers, Sean Nelson, Chris Estey
Best Music Writing 2010
"Best of" collections can be challenging. Occasionally, I think the editors of such volumes are brachycephalic cretins who should seek other work. Not so with the Best Music Writing series—the books have consistently featured smart, modern pieces that somehow manage to hang onto relevance (and humor) long after the original publication date.

Elliott Bay Books & Cafe was visited by a flash mob, by the way. Local choreographer Bobby Bonsey managed to get a few hundred Janet Jackson fans together on Sunday to hit Pioneer Square, University Village, and Capitol Hill. Apparently, Ms. Jackson is going on tour in 2011, but she seems to be leaving it up to fans to choose the cities she'll visit. The day's mobs were intended to encourage her to make Seattle one of her tour dates.

The video stutters, but you get the idea:

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I had not quite realized that Ms. Jackson has been putting out albums for 30 years, now. My, how the time flies.

Over in the Other Washington, a historic "lame duck" session is over. The propaganda machine's weekly West Wing video features several signings, including DADT repeal and the compromise (or compromised) tax bill, and the receipt of the 2010 U.S. Census from Commerce Secretary--and former Washington State Governor--Gary Locke.

(I kind of <3 Secretary Locke. We used to see him--and sometimes Ms. Mona--in the Capitol Hill QFC on a fairly regular basis, and he was always thoughtful and courteous.)

The holiday week closes the 111th Congress of the United States, which is being widely acclaimed for getting tons of shit done, not all of it as glamorous as the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Whether one agrees with the various legislation is a matter of personal conviction, but here's a partial list of what all got signed in just the last week:

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010; Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2010 Part IV; Coast Guard Authorization; Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2010; Bankruptcy Technical Corrections Act of 2010; Ray Daves Airport Traffic Control Tower, Spokane, Washington; Regulated Investment Company Modernization Act of 2010; Reauthorization and Enhancement of Johanna's Law; Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act; Preserving Foreign Criminal Assets for Forfeiture Act of 2010; Arlington National Cemetery Management Reports; Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2010; Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009; Private Relief for Shigeru Yamada; Private Relief for Hotaru Nakama Ferschke; Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site Designation Act; Museum and Library Services Act of 2010; FOR VETS Act of 2010; Leases Involving Certain Indian Tribes; Longline Catcher Processor Subsector Single Fishery Cooperative Act; Leases of Restricted Land; National Foundation on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition Establishment Act; Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2010; CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010; Continuing Appropriations, FY 2011 (Continuing Resolution thru Dec 21); Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010; Social Security Number Protection Act of 2010; Administrative Operations of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol; H.R. 6184 - Water Resources Development Act of 2000 Amendment; H.R. 3237 - National Aeronautics and Space Act; Truth in Fur Labeling Act of 2010; Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010.

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From the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for Women, one of President Obama's first accomplishments when he took office, to the confirmation of two new Supreme Court Justices, and this week's ratification of the new START treaty, love it or hate it, it's been a historic Congress. What will the 112th do?

Outgoing Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz organized a massive choir on December 11th to celebrate the season at the Downtown Nordstrom. Below is the clip of nearly 600 singers performing Handel's majestic Messiah:

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Regarding the event, Schwarz said, "For me, there's nothing more wonderful to do in life than to be able to do this for free in a public place with hundreds of people participating and enjoying. It was really quite a moving experience for me." Schwarz has guided the Seattle Symphony for 26 years. He will be sorely missed.

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