Your Complete Guide to November 2019 Events in Seattle

Buckle up—November is here, and that means a deluge of national holidays are coming your way, from Thanksgiving to Veterans Day to Election Day (not to mention the first round of winter holiday events). In addition to all that, there's also the usual array of concerts, major author appearances, festivals, food & drink events, and tons more. As we do every month, we've compiled the biggest events you need to know about in every genre, from the Short Run Comix & Arts Festival to Seattle Pizza Week, from GeekGirlCon to Sleater-Kinney, and from Gloria Steinem to the Northwest Chocolate Festival. If all of that isn't enough, you can also look ahead to the rest of this year's big events, see our list of cheap & easy year-round events, or check out our complete EverOut Things To Do calendar. Looking for events in the South Sound? Check out our guide to the biggest Tacoma events in November.

NOVEMBER 1

FILM

'Harriet' Opening
Aside from the assistance that the formerly enslaved Harriet Tubman got from the Underground Railroad, it’s hard to imagine exactly how she pulled off all her heroics. With Harriet, audiences are given a live-action reimagining of Harriet Tubman’s journey to self-liberation: changing her name, hiding in bales of hay, being chased by dogs, and getting cornered by armed men on a bridge before jumping into the river. Harriet shows how Tubman (Cynthia Erivo) got help from a secret network of safe houses and trusted free Blacks (Leslie Odom Jr. and Janelle Monáe) who stuck their necks out to help her cause. Throughout the film, the only music you’ll hear, gladly, are negro spirituals—songs that enslaved Blacks used to express their sorrow and joy, and to secretly communicate. (Tubman, who was nicknamed Moses, would sing “Go Down Moses” as a signal to enslaved Blacks that she was in the area, and would help anyone who wished to escape.) Harriet doesn’t subject the sensitive viewer to excessive gore or violence (though there is one particularly unsettling scene), because for once, this is a story in the “slave movie” genre about tremendous triumph, leadership, and Tubman’s unwavering faith, both in God and herself. JENNI MOORE
'Jojo Rabbit' Opening
The latest from Taika Waititi starts off with a bright, Wes Andersonian whimsiness: Young Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) joyously bounces about at summer camp, having the time of his life as he frolics and laughs with his second-best friend Yorki (Archie Yates) and his first-best friend, the imaginary Adolf (Waititi). Just one thing: Jojo is at Hitler Youth camp—their campfire activities include burning books—Adolf is Adolf Hitler, and World War II is winding down, with Germany not doing so great. Both because of and in spite of its inherent shock value, Jojo Rabbit—based on a book by Christine Leunens—is just as clever and hilarious as Waititi’s other movies, but as it progresses, the story taps into a rich vein of gut-twisting melancholy. There’s more to the complicated Jojo Rabbit than first appears, and only a director as committed, inventive, and life-affirmingly good-hearted as Waititi would even have a chance of pulling it off. He does, to unforgettable effect. ERIK HENRIKSEN
'Terminator: Dark Fate' Opening
If nothing else, Dark Fate has one thing going for it: Sarah Connor. Linda Hamilton is back, which means there's a Terminator movie worth watching again. Well, it's worth watching, I guess, if you, like me, have devoted entirely too much of your ever-shrinking life span to thinking about terminators. For everyone else, Dark Fate's appeal—which largely hinges on seeing Hamilton, Arnold, and various bloodthirsty murderbots back in action—might be limited. Deadpool director Tim Miller does a lot of things right: His action sequences are messy but intense; he knows to let Hamilton, with her wry eyebrows and smoke-scratched voice, steal scenes whenever she feels like it; and he somehow pulls off the insane-sounding task of making a Terminator movie that's legitimately, consistently funny. But at the end of the day, Dark Fate is another sequel that tries, with mixed success, to reboot a rusty series, and several of the attempts it makes to feel current land with a wet thud. ERIK HENRIKSEN
MUSIC
Jinjer, The Browning
Join the woman-fronted Ukranian heavy metal band Jinjer for some haute thrashing after an opening set from electro/deathcore fusion band the Browning.
Marika Hackman
Striking the territory somewhere amid Lucy Dacus, Charlotte Day Wilson, and Marine Girls, Marika Hackman is sleekly dry without reducing every experience to simple humor, or going so far to the end of the poetry line that you lose the authentic emotion in her work. Each of her tracks plays more like “a day in the life” rather than a diary entry, with the observer being picked up and carried along for the essential moments within each relationship vignette. Hackman’s 2015 album, We Slept at Last, comes off as much spacier, more ethereally unsure of the realities unfolding before her. In I’m Not Your Man, released via Sub Pop, Hackman comes into her own, with fewer doubts and a couple more battle scars to prove her worth. KIM SELLING
Miami Horror
Australian alt-electronic group Miami Horror offers up lo-fi guitars, '70s-inspired drums, and sultry vocals in their newer releases. Catch them in Seattle with indie duo Argonaut & Wasp.
Ra Ra Riot
Never ones for restraint, New York pop-punks Ra Ra Riot boast extravagant synths and heavy reverb on their latest album Superbloom, which lead singer Wes Miles describes as "an East Coast band’s vision of California."
Sir Mix-a Lot & Tone Loc
You know, there's something special about a man who really loves ass. I think it reveals a lot about his character—moral rectitude, family values, unshakable faith. And that's why I'm so thankful that Seattle's patron saint of hip-hop and King of Ass, Sir Mix-A-Lot, is working a bit of his magic in Snoqualmie. Roll through to pay tribute to our own titan of PNW rap. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Two Door Cinema Club, Peach Pit
Irish indie-rock group Two Door Cinema Club have achieved international acclaim with their four studio albums. Join them as they perform tracks from their latest effort, False Alarm.
PERFORMANCE
On the Boards' 40th Birthday!
Celebrate the innovative theater, which has highlighted cutting-edge local and international performance art, music, theater, and dance for four decades. Make merry with singer/beatboxer/comedian Reggie Watts, musician and artist Dakota Camacho, playwright/actor/singer Sarah Rudinoff, and high-energy indie-rock band Dude York.
READINGS & TALKS
Jenny Odell: Reclaiming Our Attention in an Age of Distraction
During public talks, multidisciplinary artist Jenny Odell stresses that How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy isn't a self-help book designed to make you put down your phone so you can be more productive at work later on. It's not a book about becoming a monk who stares at a silver bowl in a cave all day, either. But she does look at how social media and tech have changed our notion of "productivity" and then offers a pretty compelling way out of the crass and alienating life such a notion engenders. Along the way, she presents tons of fascinating found objects, academic research, amateur birding, journalism, and personal stories that make the book feel like a textual cabinet of curiosities. RICH SMITH
Meghan Daum: The Problem with Everything
Daum's latest book, The Problem with Everything, is, in part, about watching the culture change around her, something she calls "a moment of profound cognitive dissonance." Values that were once solidly the purview of the left—the importance of transgressive art and comedy, the need for due process, an almost pathological defense of free speech—have been abandoned by the very people who once defended them and co-opted by the political right. It's a shift that Daum is concerned about, to put it lightly. "There is no room for nuance right now. Instead, we see a lot of purity-policing and authoritarianism," Daum says. "The similarities between the Christian right and the woke left are pretty striking. Except the Christian right at least has the concept of redemption. The left doesn't have that." The Problem with Everything is about herself, but it's also about culture, politics, society, how we live now, and the ever stretching divide between older generations and younger ones. KATIE HERZOG
Meghan Daum will appear with Katie Herzog
Nisi Shawl: Talk Like a Man
Local sci-fi icon Nisi Shawl (best-known for the brilliant Everfair) will read from their new collection of short stories, featuring virtual reality high schools, magical mirrors, and sex rites.
NOVEMBER 1 & 3
Frankie Cosmos
At first, I thought the pairing of Frankie Cosmos with the Laser Dome was an interesting but strange choice. That was until I heard their most recent release, Close It Quietly. The band’s fourth album is just as precious as their previous work, composed of several under-two-minute tracks, but there’s an urgency, a gusto, that wasn't present before. Lie back and let the band’s energetic, earnest songs like “41st” and “Actin’ Weird” provide a chill soundtrack for pretty lasers to dance to. JASMYNE KEIMIG
The November 1 show will take place at Alma Mater Tacoma
NOVEMBER 1-7
70MM Film Festival Part II
The large-format film series is back for more! Return to the huge theater for classics like Vertigo and Malcolm X as well as more recent hits like Interstellar and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.
NOVEMBER 1-17
PERFORMANCE
Where is home : birds of passage
You know what's really scary? Concentration camps for asylum seekers at the border, constant ICE raids, border patrol separating children from their parents and not having the administrative infrastructure to unite them, and the state generally doing everything it can to dehumanize people who want to immigrate to this country. In her brand-new—and first-ever (!)—solo show, Where is home : birds of passage, local Italian American choreographer Alice Gosti aims to push back against the xenophobic narratives that drive these anti-immigrant policies. She'll draw from her own history with immigration as well as the larger history of Italian immigration to the United States in a spectacle that will run about three hours. As always with Gosti's work, you'll get to decide how much attention you want to devote to this performance. And the act of making that decision, of course, is part of the performance. RICH SMITH
OPENING NOVEMBER 1
VISUAL ART
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Carpe Fin
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has been producing "Haida manga," a new style marrying Haida formline with Japanese manga storytelling and other visual influences, for nearly two decades. SAM has commissioned a major new work from Yahgulanaas: a six-by-19-foot watercolor mural based on a Haida story about a hunter "taken underwater to the realm of a powerful spirit." The mural—accompanied by a 19th-century headdress made by Yahgulanaas's relative Albert Edward Edensaw, a naaxin robe and pattern board, and the artist's sketches—comments on environmental issues and humanity's relationship with nature.
THROUGH NOVEMBER 2
EVERYWHERE
Día de los Muertos
During the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, people honor loved ones who have died by bringing them to life with colorful ofrendas (altars) adorned with memorabilia and calaveras (sugar skulls), and taking part in many other traditions. This year in Seattle, there are lots of opportunities to learn more about the holiday through performances, food, music, and more. Find all the options on our Día de los Muertos calendar.
NOVEMBER 2
COMEDY
Ryan Hamilton
Idahoan Ryan Hamilton, his enormous smile, and his gentle burring voice are coming to charm Seattle. Check out why Rolling Stone named this Great American Comedy Festival winner one of five comics to watch. For a preview, check out his special Happy Face on Netflix.
FOOD & DRINK
Ballard Brewed Winter Beer Festival
Look, any time is a good time to drink local craft beer, and now, as temperatures are dropping and the cloud cover is picking up to a deep and fluffy gray, there aren’t a whole lot of events where you can try a bunch of seasonal beers by different breweries all in one festive place. Enter the Ballard Brewed Winter Beer Festival, in which Ballard-area breweries (Bad Jimmy’s, Hale's Ales Brewery, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Lucky Envelope Brewing, Maritime Pacific Brewing Company, NW Peaks Brewery, Obec Brewing, Peddler Brewing, Populuxe Brewing, Reuben’s Brews, and Stoup Brewing) offer tastes of two winter beers each—and one of those will be released for the first time ever at the festival. Proceeds benefit Bellwether Housing, touted as Seattle’s largest private, nonprofit affordable-housing provider. LEILANI POLK
Cherry Bombe Jubilee Seattle
Women who work in the food industry (and anyone interested in finding out more about how it works behind the scenes) are invited to the Seattle edition of Cherry Bombe Jubilee. Originally launched by Cherry Bombe magazine back in 2014, the conference gathers women in the industry—bakers, restaurateurs, chefs, food photographers, writers, food producers, et al.—for a day of “conversation, connections, and, of course, great food and drink.” Local guests will include Seattle food giants Renee Erickson, Makini Howell, and Rachel Yang, and a renowned out-of-towner in Angie Mar (NYC’s the Beatrice Inn, author of Butcher and Beast), plus a keynote conversation that finds Seattle area food stylist, blogger, and cookbook author Aran Goyoaga interviewing New York Times and Bon Appétit columnist Alison Roman, who has a new book out (Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over). DAVID LEWIS
Oyster New Year
The apotheosis of the Pacific Northwest’s unofficial regional pastime, slurping oysters, is the eco-friendly Oyster New Year at Elliott’s Oyster House. The all-out briny bash features more than 30 varieties of bivalves shucked to order at a 150-foot oyster bar, a fresh seafood buffet, and local microbrews and wine from more than 60 wineries. Be a little superficial and cast your vote for the People’s Choice “Most Beautiful Oyster,” and don’t miss the oyster luge, in which a shucked oyster glides down a frozen slide in an ice sculpture, into your mouth, and down your gullet. JULIANNE BELL
Sagra di Radicchio
Cheers for chicories! Inspired by the Italian tradition of the sagra (a festival usually celebrating local food), this weeklong event dedicated to the refreshingly bitter radicchio kicks off with a tasting event with experts, farmers, and chefs.
MUSIC
Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Jameson Rodgers
Multi-platinum, CMA Award-winning country singer-songwriter Luke Combs will return to the Northwest on his Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour with guest artists Morgan Wallen and Jameson Rodgers.
Matt and Kim, No Parents
Anthem-loving stadium-pop duo Matt and Kim will celebrate their 10th year making music together on this tour stop.
MK (Mark Kinchen)
Detroit-based DJ Marc Kinchen (aka MK) will grace the Seattle stage with his club beats.
San Fermin
The composition-project-turned-actual-project from Brooklyn-based composer and songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone, San Fermin, is on tour behind their fourth full-length studio outing, The Cormorant I. It is art pop that is bright, airy, symphonic, and cinematic (in the dramatic and more subtle swells of strings and horns and overall instrumental texturing). The album is apparently the first of a two-album story arc following a pair of characters (male and female) from childhood to death. Don’t get caught up in the details, though. Just allow yourself to get lost in the lovely, sublime melodies. LEILANI POLK
Sloan
Interesting fact: The tireless and justifiably beloved Canadian rock band Sloan has now been making records for more than 25 years. That is older than most of the power-pop music they’re best known for being influenced by was when they got their shit together. Their last album, 12 (guess how many records they’ve made), came out April 6, 2018, and if you have always meant to see them play live but never quite pulled your finger out, please rest assured that they deliver a fantastic live experience—especially w/r/t the rich, complex vocal harmonies that ennoble their records. SEAN NELSON
Three Singing Sisters
In this family affair, three Salt Lake City sisters will perform a mixed genre program of Broadway classics, Neapolitan songs, opera arias, and popular music for solos, duets, and trios.
PERFORMANCE
Sandra Bernhard's 'Quick Sand': Comedy, Cabaret, and Commentary
In a wide-ranging interview conducted the same day that Republican congressional douchebags stormed the underground intelligence chamber in the US Capitol with their cell phones out (“They’re utter morons,” she said, “It’s just embarrassing!”), Sandra Bernhard and I talked about Donald Trump (a “national disaster”), Mark Zuckerberg (“he’s a nightmare”), Nancy Pelosi (“masterful”), and which three powerful women throughout history Bernhard would invite to a dinner party. As for her show, it will be her usual iconoclastic mix of comedy and music. Bernhard: "Tell them it’s okay it’s a Jewish venue. Tell them not to be nervous about that." CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
NOVEMBER 2-JANUARY 26
VISUAL ART
Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation
The long and varied history of Indian Americans stretches back to the 19th century, and this exhibition explores their contributions to American life from the age of railroads to the Civil Rights movement.
THROUGH NOVEMBER 3
PERFORMANCE
Miss Saigon
A very young Vietnamese woman and an American GI have a romantic (and ultimately tragic) encounter in this musical theater take on Madama Butterfly, written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the team behind Les Misérables. While the musical has enjoyed popularity and acclaim, it's also been protested over the years for its depiction of exoticized Vietnamese bar girls, conniving Asian men, and other stereotypes. Notes for this production emphasize the heroine's "transformation from a naive victim of circumstance into a steely conduit of fearless maternal resolve."
VISUAL ART
Carrie Yamaoka: recto/verso
In Carrie Yamaoka's art, you are integral to the completion of the work. Yes, you. Some of her paintings skip the traditional canvas, opting instead for polyester film and resin, giving the surface of her works a reflective and molten-like finish. The New York artist's first solo museum exhibition reflects 30 years of work. Yamaoka's work is largely process-based, meaning it focuses on the process—the act of creating the art—as its main subject. In emphasizing the work's creation, it can help us (the artist and the viewer) think about things like time, transience, movement, beginning and ending. If I go in and look at deep blue #3 tomorrow, the painting will contain a different version than the Jasmyne who gazed at it for the first time. Yamaoka's paintings remind us viewers that our relationship to art mirrors our relationship to ourselves—always changing, never static, not quite capturable, but always there. JASMYNE KEIMIG
NOVEMBER 3
MUSIC
(Sandy) Alex G, Tomberlin, Slow Pulp
A prolific young songwriter builds a following on Bandcamp and indie-rock “fame” swiftly follows. That’s more or less the trajectory of (Sandy) Alex G, 26-year-old Domino signee Alex Giannascoli, who’s put out records at a frightening rate since his teens. His story recalls that of Car Seat Headrest, the local KEXP darling and favorite of rock fans who want to party like it’s 1987. Giannascoli’s music is also a throwback, sure—it’s hard not to be when we’re talking dudes with guitars in 2019—but his doglegged song structures, offbeat production choices, and reticence to explain the meaning of his often elliptical lyrics make his work come off as a personal document instead of an homage. ANDREW GOSPE
Berner
San Francisco hip-hop artist Berner claims inspiration from icons like Mac Dre, Too $hort, and E-40, who all share his Bay Area roots. Join him as he stops in Seattle on his El Chivo Tour.
Immortal Technique, Chino XL, Poison the Pen
Known for his highly political lyrics, Peruvian American hip-hop artist Immortal Technique, who first came on the scene in 2001, will come through town with fresh material on his Middle Passage Tour. He'll be joined by Chino XL and Poison the Pen.
Music of Remembrance Presents "Passage: Confronting Intolerance"
"Never forget" was the refrain the world adopted in response to the horrors of the Holocaust. Music of Remembrance takes that charge seriously, using symphonic music's ability to transcend time and create emotional connections between an audience and those touched by the Shoah and other tragedies. This autumn, they mark their 22nd season with Seattle premieres of Passage, a new work by iconic Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Veritas, a piece blending the music of Japanese American composer Shinji Eshima and the visuals of sculptor Al Farrow, as well as a performance of Paul Schoenfield’s dramatic Camp Songs, an MOR commission and 2002 Pulitzer Finalist. RICH SMITH
Swervedriver, Milly
British alt-rock band Swervedriver (definitely not to be confused with the British neo-Nazi band Screwdriver), who formed in the shoegaze-rich region of Thames Valley in the '90s, will head up a nostalgic show in Columbia City after an opening set from LA-base lo-fi rocker Milly.
NOVEMBER 4
FOOD & DRINK
Author Talk: South by Sean Brock
Chef, restauranteur, James Beard Award winner, and cookbook author Sean Brock is a maestro of Southern cuisine, which started with him using “authentically” Southern ingredients (everything originating below the Mason-Dixon Line) and food grown in his own garden at his South Carolina venture Husk in 2010. He went on to open seven more restaurants (including three more Husks). Last August, he stepped away from Husk, making his departure permanent this past spring as he focuses all his attention on building a new empire in Nashville dedicated to the food he grew up eating in Virginia’s Appalachian coal country. He also finished his second cookbook, South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations, with recipes of reimagined Southern classics. For this Book Larder–hosted event, he’ll be chatting about Southern cuisine and the deep and varied food culture of the region with Seattle's own Warren Etheredge. Admission includes a copy of South. LEILANI POLK
MUSIC
FKA twigs
The music of FKA twigs (aka Tahliah Debrett Barnett) unearths a lot about sexuality, relationships, and desire. Barnett’s high-pitched vocals and moody, dark throbbing beats explore a side of love that’s fragmented and hard to define. To me, she perfectly encapsulates the concept of “topping from the bottom,” wanting to give yourself over to a lover, but in doing so, recognizing the power that action has. From the singles off her second full-length album Magdalene (due out November 8), twigs will dive further into these themes and feelings. A dancer by trade, her shows always promise to be spectacles of both sound and body with her Magdalene era in particular focusing on pole-dancing, Wushu, performance, and costume. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Sir Babygirl, bbyweems
Bop to bubblegum pop that defies Top 40 binaries with Brooklyn diva Sir Babygirl, named an "Artist You Need to Know" by Rolling Stone this year.
READINGS & TALKS
Andre Aciman: Find Me
A couple of years after the film adaptation of Aciman's Call Me by Your Name beguiled audiences with Elio and Oliver's love story, Aciman is back with a sequel, Find Me. This one follows Elio's father Samuel as he meets a beautiful young woman on the train, Elio as he has an affair in Paris, and Oliver as he deliberates returning to Europe.
NOVEMBER 4-6
PERFORMANCE
Savion Glover
Leilani Polk has called Tony winner Savion Glover "the modern-day boundary-pushing equivalent of Fred Astaire" and "a leader and innovator in tap dance who has both performance and choreographic chops." Don't miss your chance to be in the company of his extraordinary feet.
NOVEMBER 5
EVERYWHERE
Election Day
As the 2020 presidential election draws nearer, voting is more important than ever. Stuff your closest ballot box by November 5 (after reading our endorsements, of course) and check out our election calendar for a full list of places to watch the results come in.
MUSIC
Alessia Cara, Ryland James
Endearingly earnest pop star Alessia Cara is back on tour in support of her second album, The Pains of Growing, with a support set by Ryland James.
The Brook & The Bluff
Join Birmingham-bred, Nashville-based indie-rock band the Brook & The Bluff on their first headlining tour in support of their debut full-length album, First Place.
Mt. Joy, Ages and Ages
Philly-bred, LA-based rock band Mt. Joy will stop in Seattle on their biggest headlining tour yet, joined by Portland duo Ages and Ages.
Peter Hook & the Light
Peter Hook is going to milk his legendary legacy with Joy Division and New Order for as long as he wants, and nobody can stop him—not even former bandmates Bernard Sumner, Gillian Gilbert, and Stephen Morris, who are not thrilled with their former bassist’s activities. Nevertheless, with his son Jack Bates on bass, Hook has made a solid living re-creating, in the flesh and in their entirety, albums by Joy Division and New Order. Hook is now methodically plowing through the latter group's catalog, with this tour encompassing 1989's Technique and 1993's Republic. The former reveals New Order's predilection for Balearic-beat and acid-house influences, while the latter is slick dance-pop—far from the bracing, brooding rock of New Order's first two LPs. Before tackling these records, Hook and company will dust off some classic Joy Division tunes, many of which represent a pinnacle of bleak post-punk. Warning: Hook's singing makes Sumner's sounds like Ian Curtis's. DAVE SEGAL
SHAED
Newly minted electro-pop trio SHAED, who released their breakthrough slow-jam "Trampoline" last year, will come to Seattle on a headlining tour with support from wavey pop artist Absofacto.
Skizzy Mars
Rapping over a pop/R&B soundscape, Harlem's Skizzy Mars will tour in support of his debut 13-track album, Free Skizzy Mars.
NOVEMBER 5-17
FILM
Romanian Film Festival: Sixth Edition
The Romanian film industry has been producing international festival hits since 2004, and the so-called New Wave filmmakers and their successors have never stopped innovating. This brief but mighty film festival screens movies that range from caustically funny to fearlessly intellectual. This year's edition of ARCS's annual event, the sixth, is subtitled "Stories OFF the Wall," emphasizing overcoming barriers and borders (like the Berlin Wall, of course). You should check out the entire roster, but three features stand out: Corneliu Porumboiu's corrupt cop thriller The Whistlers (showing Sat Nov 16), a Palme d'Or nominee and Romania's submission to the 2020 Oscars; Serge Loznitsa's Ukraine-Romania coproduction Donbass (Sun Nov 17), a critically acclaimed dark comedy about propaganda and manipulation; and Andrei Gruzsnickzki's The Escape (Sun Nov 17), a tense, morally thorny drama about two academics trying to smuggle a paper out of communist Romania. JOULE ZELMAN
NOVEMBER 6
MUSIC
Bishop Briggs, Miya Folick, Jax Anderson
Bishop Briggs aims to transcend the limitations of genres by utilizing elements of folk, pop, and electronica in her sound.
Caifanes
Spanish-language rockers Caifanes, who formed in the late 1980s, will come up from Mexico City for a lively revival.
Chick Corea, Seattle Symphony
Chick Corea is the innovative composer and keysman who spent the early part of his career—beginning in 1968—playing sideman to Miles Davis (he appeared on Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and On the Corner, among others), and then through much of the ’70s exploring his own avant interests with jazz fusion/prog rock innovators Return to Forever (bandmate Al Di Meola lands in town October 2). He’s enjoyed a prolific (more than 70 albums released as band leader), venerable career, with more than 60 Grammy noms and 22 wins. For this date, he joins Seattle Symphony for a presentation of George Gershwin’s most famous orchestral jazz opus, Rhapsody in Blue. The program will also touch on solo piano selections by Gershwin, Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni, and Chick Corea’s own Piano Concerto No. 1. LEILANI POLK
Choker
"Grabbing attention and keeping it is very important to me. Song structure, not so much. If it sounds good, I don't care if I forgot to add a hook or a bridge," says Michigan-based singer/rapper/producer Choker. The Gen-Z artist will swerve between genres on this tour stop for his debut release, PEAK.
Tom Morello
Tom Morello has such a singular tone and style (crunchy, off-kilter, heavy-metal-/punk-rooted riffs peppered with screaming, scratching, wah-wah, and bomb-dropping effects achieved via pedals and amps and his own techniques) that you can recognize his playing wherever it may land—Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club, the Nightwatchman, Prophets of Rage, even with Bruce Springsteen, who tapped him for seven years and two albums. The Atlas Underground is his latest outing, made up of collaborations with the likes of Bassnectar, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Gary Clark Jr., and others, who, Morello has said “set my creativity into uncharted territory.” Based on the singles released so far, it’s heavy on the EDM and hiphop influences. This tour finds him playing this LP in its entirety, with possible “special appearances by surprise guests.” LEILANI POLK
READINGS & TALKS
Anita Hill
Almost three decades ago, Anita Hill prefigured the #MeToo movement by testifying at Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, asserting that he had sexually harassed her. Though Thomas was confirmed, and Hill shamefully treated (Joe Biden, notably, refused to call witnesses to back up her claims), Hill stands as a testament to the bravery of women who fight back. Now, she's the Chair of the Hollywood Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. Hear this important women's rights activist speak about how far we have—and haven't—come. JOULE ZELMAN
NOVEMBER 6-24
FILM
Dan Savage's HUMP! Film Festival
The HUMP! Film Festival has been bringing audiences a new kind of porn since 2005. The 15th Annual HUMP! Film Festival festival features 21 short dirty movies—each less than five minutes—all created by people who aren't porn stars but want to be one for a weekend. The filmmakers and stars show us what they think is hot and sexy, creative and kinky, their ultimate turn-ons and their craziest fantasies. Our carefully curated program is a cornucopia of body types, shapes, ages, colors, sexualities, genders, kinks, and fetishes—all united by a shared spirit of sex-positivity. HUMP! is a celebration of creative sexual expression. You will see films at HUMP! that shock you. You will see films at HUMP! that make you laugh. And you will see films at HUMP! that turn you on. You will also be touched by the sincerity and vulnerability with which these films are lovingly made. HUMP!'s main mission is to change the way America sees—and makes and shares—porn. DAN SAVAGE
THROUGH NOVEMBER 7
FOOD & DRINK
Seattle Restaurant Week Fall 2019
Frugal gourmands everywhere rejoice over this twice-yearly event, which lets diners tuck into prix-fixe menus at more than 185 different restaurants hoping to lure new customers with singularly slashed prices. Three courses cost a mere $35, and many restaurants also offer two-course lunches for $20. It’s an excellent opportunity to feast like a high roller at an accessible price point and cross some otherwise spendy establishments off your food bucket list, including critically acclaimed restaurants like Tilth and Adana.
NOVEMBER 7
COMEDY
Jimmy O. Yang
An extremely engaging comic and actor who plays Jian Yang in the hilarious HBO comedy series Silicon Valley and who had a role as a hedonist in the popular film Crazy Rich Asians, Jimmy O. Yang sends up stereotypes of Asian Americans in his stand-up act. Now, many comedians cover this ground, but the 32-year-old Yang—who moved to Los Angeles from Hong Kong when he was 13—is sharper than most. “I’m really proud to be Asian,” Yang boasts, “because I’ve never seen an Asian person on The Maury Povich Show.” He further expanded his entertainment empire with the memoir How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents, which should yield rich seams of humor onstage. He'll be taping a comedy special on this date; admission is free, but you'll need to RSVP in advance to reserve a seat. DAVE SEGAL
FILM
'Doctor Sleep' Opening
Danny Torrance, the psychic kid from The Shining, is all grown up—and messed up, understandably. When he meets a girl with the "shining," the same ability as his own, the two allies must fight a cult that tries to exploit their power.
FOOD & DRINK
Christopher Kimball - Milk Street: The New Rules
In his new book, James Beard Award-winning author Christopher Kimball outlines new rules of cooking aimed at making your time in the kitchen simpler and tastier, from how to tenderize tough greens on the fly to how to create creamy textures sans dairy. Meet the former host of America's Test Kitchen in the flesh at this signing.
MUSIC
The Aquabats, PPL MVR, "TBD"
You know that camp song, the one that never ends? "This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends!" The Aquabats are the band equivalent to that song. Annoying to many, but childishly charming to some. And, like the song, they never really end. The 'Bats have kept up their ska-playing superhero act for about a decade now, surprisingly, and through all the trends and music-biz ups and downs, they've stayed on course, fighting off villains and assaulting their enamored fans with flying vegetables at live shows. You love them or you hate them—either way, the Aquabats remain true to themselves. "Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, but they continued singing it forever just because..." MEGAN SELING
Twin Peaks, Post Animal, OHMME
A residency that’s been active for 14 years is an impressive feat of longevity in a town that can be pretty fickle. So it’s fitting that the anniversary celebration of Emerald City Soul Club—both a monthly event that gets hips shakin’ and asses quakin’, and the DJs who spin those righteously soulful sounds—stretches over several days. The festivities kick off with a meet and greet featuring weekender guest DJs and selectors at the Triple Door. Next, two nights (Friday and Saturday) of main events, Soul Nite #1 and #2, at the usual digs, Lo-Fi; expect rare R&B, soul, Latin, funk, crossover, and modern 45s played by top collectors/DJs from the US and Europe. ECSC DJ and Stranger staffer Mike Nipper gave me a sneak preview of songs that’ll likely be played sometime this weekend: Curtis Lee, “Is She in Your Town”; Joanie Sommers, “Don’t Pity Me”; Bernadette Bascom, “I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love”; Arnold Blair, “Trying to Get Next to You”; and the Incredibles, "Miss Treatment.” There’s also a Saturday daytime Big Dig Record Swap at Vermillion, and on Sunday, the All-Dayer Soul Survivor Party (actually, 4 p.m. to close) at Screwdriver. In sum, plenty of opportunities to gtf down. LEILANI POLK
READINGS & TALKS
Ampersand Live
Forterra presents Ampersand Live, a multimedia storytelling event "about people and place."
David Treuer: The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
In his book The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, David Treuer, who grew up on Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, counters a popular narrative of Native American history—that Native civilization ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Hear him read from this book of "Indian survival, resilience, adaptability, pride, and place in modern life" at the A. Scott Bullitt Lecture in American History.
Saeed Jones: How We Fight for Our Lives
Saeed Jones, a good poet who championed good poetry as the culture editor at Buzzfeed for several years, has poured his talent for writing exuberantly about the most painful shit imaginable into his debut memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives. Press materials and a growing number of rave reviews tell me Jones focuses this book on the trials and triumphs of life as a gay black man in America. It's also apparently a paean to his mom. Hard not to get behind either mission. And if his nonfiction is as searing and surprising as his poetry, then he'll likely scoop up one or two of the major awards for which this book has already been nominated. RICH SMITH
Tim O'Brien: Dad's Maybe Book
Tim O’Brien—whose best-selling works include The Things They Carried and If I Die in a Combat Zone, both of which are highly readable and offer revealing glimpses into the world of war—was already old when his sons were born. No stranger to loss, his new work shares a series of letters he wrote for his sons to read after he's gone. Thankfully, the man isn’t dead yet, and Dad’s Maybe Book—which touches on everything from soccer to magic tricks to, of course, war—is at heart a love letter from a father to his sons, something he wished his own father had left for him. This sounds direr than it is, but as always, O’Brien’s work is filled with as much joy and humor as pain. KATIE HERZOG
NOVEMBER 7-8
PERFORMANCE
Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker
A cast of touring ballet dancers from Moscow will take their 27th tour across the United States to perform the Great Russian Nutcracker, which promises puppets and amazing costumes.
NOVEMBER 7-9
FILM
Engauge Experimental Film Festival
This experimental film festival will once again screen "films that originated on film" from artists around the world.
NOVEMBER 7-10
MUSIC
Emerald City Soul Club 14th Annual Rare Soul Weekender
A residency that’s been active for 14 years is an impressive feat of longevity in a town that can be fickle, so it’s fitting that the anniversary celebration of Emerald City Soul Club—both a monthly event that gets the hips shakin’ and asses quakin’, and the DJs who spin those righteously soulful sounds—stretches over several days. The festivities kick off with a Meet-n-Greet featuring weekender guest DJs and selectors at the Triple Door. Next, two nights (Friday and Saturday) of main events, Soul Nite #1 and #2, at the usual digs, Lo-Fi; expect rare R&B, soul, Latin, funk, crossover, and modern 45s played by top collectors/DJs from the US and Europe. (An ECSC DJ who works at the Stranger—Mike Nipper—and writes the odd item in this calendar you’re reading right now gave me a sneak preview of songs that’ll likely be played sometime this weekend: Curtis Lee, “Is She in Your Town,” Joanie Sommers, “Don’t Pity Me,” Bernadette Bascom, “I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love,” Arnold Blair, “Trying to Get Next to You,” and the Incredibles, "Miss Treatment.”) There’s also a Saturday daytime Big Dig Record Swap at Vermillion, and on Sunday, the All-Dayer Soul Survivor Party (actually, 4 pm to close) at Screwdriver. In sum, plenty of opportunities to gtf down. LEILANI POLK
NOVEMBER 7-14
FILM
Cinema Italian Style
The Cinema Italian Style is a weeklong SIFF mini-festival featuring the best in contemporary Italian cinema.
NOVEMBER 7-30
VISUAL ART
Eva Pietzcker: Earth, Water, Light
Berlin-based Eva Pietzcker’s prints are mostly in the vein of Japanese-style woodblock printmaking, a process where watercolor paint is applied to a carved woodblock with brushes and printed by hand onto soft paper, as opposed to the Western style of using a press. Of this method, Pietzcker says that Japanese style prints “tend to have a more painterly appearance and can often resemble watercolor paintings.” I love the way the sun shines and falls upon water in her work. She has a piece that features Lake Crescent, in Olympic National Park, where the lake sparkles through the black trees. It almost seems to transform the medium of ink and paper into earth, water, and glimmer. JASMYNE KEIMIG
NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 1
COMEDY
Seattle International Comedy Competition
For nearly all of November, a lengthy last-comic-standing battle rages. Thirty-two comedians (split into two batches, each of which performs every night for one week) start the contest, and one will finish a champion. Celebrity judges and audience reactions determine who passes the preliminaries and who becomes a finalist.
PERFORMANCE
Beautiful
The dancers of Can Can and powerhouse singer Shaprece (who "ranks among the Northwest’s most radiant, soulful vocalists and producers of torch-song-centric electronic music," per Dave Segal) collaborate on this sensuous coming-of-age story, featuring a leading performance by Shaprece and new choreography.
NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 5
VISUAL ART
Ko Kirk Yamahira
Ko Kirk Yamahira’s works—one of which was recently acquired by the Frye Art Museum for its permanent collection—are destruction in suspension. Yamahira creatively takes apart sections of canvases, thread by thread (vertically, horizontally), expanding the breadth of the material and forcing it to occupy the gallery space in a new way. When I first saw his pieces, I marveled at the fastidiousness of his deconstruction, his unravelings. Of his work, he writes, “There is no specific aim to find a meaning, neither in the creative act itself, nor through the creative process.” His pieces are never finished, representing the beginning of a process of undoing and creation. JASMYNE KEIMIG
NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 21
VISUAL ART
Maja Petrić, Etsuko Ichikawa, Peter Gronquist: Digital Perspectives
This group exhibition brings together three artists whose work—in one way or another—utilizes different digital mediums to talk about humanity’s relationship to the world around us. Maja Petrić will be presenting Particle Attraction, a new interactive piece where viewers have the chance to walk through a simulated landscape. Etsuko Ichikawa will be continuing her exploration of nuclear waste and “what we choose to leave behind” in Murmurings of Love, in which a futuristic figure smashes a vessel made of uranium glass. And finally, in A Visual History of the Invisible 2, Peter Gronquist will be projecting a “soothing and hypnotic” digital installation of a large gold fabric magically suspended against a bright-blue sky. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Norman Lundin: Remembered Detail
I do believe in the holiness of certain overlooked spaces. Especially at times of the day that almost do not exist. Like, 3:30 p.m. is definitely a time, but 6:43 a.m.? I don’t know her. Seattle-based artist Norman Lundin’s work memorializes and depicts this kind of time, in these kinds of spaces. The way the light from the late-afternoon sun slants through the windows onto the neglected side of a studio, or the orange glow of dawn outside the windows of a dark workroom. A reminder that the forgotten, the overlooked, the just barely remembered can be sacred and beautiful, too. JASMYNE KEIMIG
NOVEMBER 8
MUSIC
Gramatik, The Librarian, Balkan Bump
Slovenian electronic music producer and DJ Gramatik, also known by his birth name Denis Jašarević, is billed as the world's first "crypto-artist," meaning he champions peer-to-peer file-sharing as the reason for his catapult to stardom, and he's the first artist to sign with SingularDTV in an effort to decentralize the power of the traditional music industry and get his music to his fans by utilizing blockchain technology.
Seefeel, Dr Troy
You could say this is my most anticipated show of 2019; I've been waiting 26 years to catch Seefeel live. Led by guitarist/producer Mark Clifford and vocalist/guitarist Sarah Peacock, the group arose from the UK’s potent shoegaze/post-rock scene, but immediately established themselves as outliers, embracing dubby bass lines and Aphex Twin-like ambience on releases such as More Like Space and Quique. (It made sense that Richard D. James remixed the early Seefeel classic “Time to Find Me.”) Even more blissed-out and ethereal than My Bloody Valentine circa Loveless, Seefeel generated impossibly sensuous whirlpools of sound up through 1994's Starethrough EP. Their aesthetic gradually morphed into an alien strain of IDM while still retaining Seefeel's mesmerizing guitar daubs and disembodied dub vibrations. For this gig, I'm betting on a stunning career retrospective involving radical interpretations of old faves, with possibly some new tracks scattered throughout. DAVE SEGAL
PERFORMANCE
Crime Junkie Podcast Live
Can't get enough of chatty true-crime shows? Join these morbid podcasters live.
SuicideGirls: Blackheart Burlesque
SuicideGirls Blackheart Burlesque promises geek-friendly burlesque performance, with references to Star Wars, Rick and Morty, Stranger Things, Sailor Moon, and other pop culture favorites.
READINGS & TALKS
Adrienne Brodeur: Wild Game
Brodeur writes about her very complicated adolescence in this memoir, subtitled My Mother, Her Lover, and Me. At 14, she became her mother's confidante during the latter's affair with her husband's best friend. Entertainment predicts that this tale of terrible parenting, its impacts, and the possibility of reconciliation may be the "next big memoir." Brodeur will read with Danya Kukafka.
Dan Hooper: Our Universe’s First Seconds
Learn what happened just a few seconds after the Big Bang at this talk by Dan Hooper, head of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, and author of the new book At the Edge of Time.
NOVEMBER 8-9
FOOD & DRINK
ATK Seattle Eats Festival
It’s the return of public TV’s favorite cooking show, America’s Test Kitchen, for the Seattle Eats Festival, which is definitely cause for culinary celebration. The two-day event kicks off at Block 41 with ATK’s Cheers to 20 Years anniversary celebration, a party to benefit local nonprofit FareStart (which helps people experiencing homelessness or poverty with training and jobs in the service industry), and celebrate the release of ATK’s new How to Cocktail cookbook. ATK hosts and test cooks will be on hand (including mains Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison), with well-regarded local mixologists (like Amanda Reed of Heartwood Provisions) and chefs (Adana’s Shota Nakajima among them) serving bites and cocktails. The main event occurs the following day, with a bevy of local restaurants, cafes, eateries, and the chefs behind them offering food and drink alongside an afternoon of ATK-led cooking demos (like a how-to on Torta Caprese Italian chocolate almond cake, which is gluten-free and all for me), cookbook signings, photo ops, and more. This year’s featured guest chef is venerable Iron Chef-famed Masaharu Morimoto, who just opened a restaurant in Chinatown/ID. LEILANI POLK
NOVEMBER 8-10
VISUAL ART
Best of the Northwest Art & Fine Craft Show
See and shop work by over 100 local artists and artisans at the 31st edition of this annual market, which will also have food trucks.
NOVEMBER 8-17
PERFORMANCE
Locally Sourced
Three local choreographers will present three brand-new works for Pacific Northwest Ballet, all of which pique my curiosity for different reasons. Tony-nominated choreographer Donald Byrd often uses dance to examine acts of violence levied against minorities, so it'll be interesting to see how music by Emmanuel Witzthum, who creates warm, morning-light compositions, works into his vision. Bellevue-based choreographer Eva Stone, who produces the CHOP SHOP: Bodies of Work festival, will have a new piece called F O I L. She often challenges assumptions about gender in her work, and her recent collaboration with Au Collective at PNB & SAM’s Sculptured Dance ruled. And PNB corps member Miles Pertl makes his choreographic debut with music from Stranger Genius Award finalist Jherek Bischoff, whose soaring indie compositions always make me feel better about life. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 8-23
READINGS & TALKS
Novel Nights
Raise money for Seattle's most beloved writing center, Hugo House, at this book club series featuring special guests (including the authors, if they're still alive!). The books you'll discuss are The Lord of the Rings, The Boys in the Boat (with author Daniel James Brown), A Pilgrimage to Eternity (with Timothy Egan), Exhalation (with Ted Chiang), Emma, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Beloved.
NOVEMBER 8-DECEMBER 22
PERFORMANCE
Shout, Sister, Shout!
Rejoice in the music and power of the "Godmother of Rock 'n' Roll," Rosetta Tharpe, the amazing singer and guitarist who transformed American music.
NOVEMBER 9
COMMUNITY
Auburn Veterans Day Parade
This 54th annual parade and observance in Auburn—named Washington's Regional Site for celebrating the holiday by the Veterans Day National Committee and the US Department of Veterans Affairs—features high school marching bands, military vehicles, honor guards, and other such fanfare.
FOOD & DRINK
Northwest Chocolate Festival 2019
Now in its 10th year, this gathering of artisan chocolate makers actually extends beyond the Northwest to more than 20 countries around the globe, with exhibitors like beloved Seattle staples Fran’s and Bakery Nouveau, and Portland’s Moonstruck Chocolate and Bees and Beans joining names like Theo and Philo Artisan Chocolates (from the Philippines), Hogarth Craft Chocolates (New Zealand), Al Nassma Chocolate (Dubai), and FuWan Chocolate (Taiwan), among so many others. You’ll find milk and dark chocolate, truffles, bonbons, caramels, molten cakes, decadent desserts, and plenty more, in addition to enjoying demos, educational workshops and seminars, cooking classes, and tastings. Look, it’s a shit-ton of chocolate, okay? How can you argue with that? You can’t. Go get blissed. LEILANI POLK
South Sound Winter Beer Festival
This craft beer festival promises seasonal staples like "dark imperial stouts, roasty porters, strong beers, Scottish ales, barrel-aged surprises, spiced ales, piney IPAs" and much more from over 30 Washington breweries.
MUSIC
Fisher, Claptone, Idris Elba, Weiss, Taiki Nulight, Little Fritter, Sean Majors
The All My Friends Seattle crew is back to throw a third major bash after their explosive summer, which will feature sets by Fisher, Claptone, Idris Elba, Weiss, Taiki Nulight, Little Fritter, and Sean Majors on the You Little Beauty Tour.
Herobust
Atlanta-based trap DJ Herobust will head up a night of EDM.
Infected Mushroom
Psychedelic trance innovators Infected Mushroom are a rare duo, combining live performance as a concert band with new explorations in electronica and dance music.
Kip Moore, Kylie Morgan
For the last few years, Georgia boy Kip Moore has been gigging around the globe, building his brand as a steady yet fired-up country music star. He'll be joined by Kylie Morgan on his Room To Spare Acoustic Tour.
VISUAL ART
Short Run Comix & Arts Festival
In 2018, Stranger lit critic Rich Smith wrote of Short Run: "You’re going. You’re bringing at LEAST $50 cash. You’re picking up new art books, zines, buttons, and little strips of beautiful screen-printed ephemera from more than 270 internationally/nationally/locally-renowned comics creators." All this applies for the ninth edition of Short Run, only it'll be even bigger. This year's artists will include Jasjyot Singh Hans, Glynnis Fawkes, Marc Bell, Malaka Gharib, and Jul Gordon. (Mexican artist Abraham Diaz will unfortunately not be present, having been denied a visa.) There will also be a screening of a collection of the late, lamented Bruce Bickford's animation, courtesy of Clyde Petersen and friends. Head to the afterparty at the Vera Project once you're done shopping.
NOVEMBER 9-10
MUSIC
Ladies & Gentleman, An Evening with Jason Mraz & Raining Jane
Someone's got to be the less-douchey John Mayer, and there's no better contender than Jason Mraz, a perfectly good guy making perfectly nice music that will not make you cover your ears in horror should you happen to hear it on the radio or in the supermarket. He's funny, humble, pro-gay, and he wears hats. He'll be joined by '90s-bred folk-rock artist Raining Jane. DAVE SEGAL
SHOPPING
The Farewell Glitter Sale 2019
Seattle Goodwill will add some pizzazz to the winter of your discontent with their annual sale of all things sparkly: shoes, evening wear, purses and accessories, and more. This event won't happen anymore after this year, so make it count.
THROUGH NOVEMBER 10
PERFORMANCE
The Tempest
Accomplished director Annie Lareau (Cornish College of the Arts' Much Ado About Nothing, many Seattle Public Theater productions), will tackle Shakespeare's fantastical final work about an island wizard, his hot daughter, his nonhuman slaves, and his princely prisoner. This staging will take place in an Edwardian castle, "one of the last periods before media started to infiltrate people's lives."
NOVEMBER 10
MUSIC
Bruce Cockburn
Folk and jazz-influenced singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn is widely regarded as one of Canada's finest exports. He'll play an evening set rife with memories from his exceptionally long career.
Young Thug, Machine Gun Kelly, Polo G, Strick
Since catching the ears of the rap cognoscenti with his 1017 Thug mixtape in 2013, Thugger has carved out his own path in popular rap through repetition and oddball yelps, scoring a steady string of singles like smashes “Stoner” and “Danny Glover” to his 2016 Jeffery mixtape, all recorded alongside a cadre of scene-defining producers, including London On Da Trak and Metro Boomin. NICK ZURKO
READINGS & TALKS
An Evening with David Sedaris
He’s back. One of America’s most beloved writers and humorists returns to Seattle for his annual performance. It’s almost a tradition by now, the yearly visit from David Sedaris, as though your favorite uncle or the best friend you wish you had pops in for a night to read from whatever he’s working through. We’re lucky that way. No word yet on whether his material will be old or new (maybe both?) but, like always, he is sure to amuse. KATIE HERZOG
NOVEMBER 10-15
FILM
Satoshi Kon Retrospective
Several Seattle art theaters will screen some of the best, most eye-popping films by the Japanese animator Satoshi Kon. Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Millennium Actress: All three are lysergic waking dreams of extraordinary, sometimes scary beauty.
NOVEMBER 11
MUSIC
Mary Lambert, SassyBlack, Youth Speaks Seattle
You probably know Mary Lambert for her vocals on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's "Same Love," which she then spun into her own song, "She Keeps Me Warm," and then into her own album, Welcome to the Age of My Body. But she's also a fine poet! While some of Lambert's work in Shame Is an Ocean I Swim Across feels as overdetermined as the title of her collection sounds, her plainspoken style and straightforward approach to body-image issues and sexual assault can be disarming and back-straightening. These effects are greatly amplified in Lambert's performances of the poems, which are indisputably moving. On this night, she'll celebrate the release of her new album, Grief Creature. RICH SMITH
Ski Mask The Slump God, Pouya, Pop Smoke, DJ Scheme, Danny Towers
Like seemingly every young rapper of note in 2018, Ski Mask the Slump God came up through SoundCloud. But while many in that world chase trends, Ski Mask has developed a singular style. Latest mixtape Beware the Book of Eli is defiantly strange, with murky production, absurdist lyrics, and protean flows. Each track is a whirlwind of voices and cadences, referencing Greek mythology, children’s cartoons, and blowjobs with equal gusto. The Florida rapper knows his history, both old and recent—MF Doom, Wu-Tang, and Odd Future are clear forebears here—and his work is all the richer for it. ANDREW GOSPE
NOVEMBER 11-16
FOOD & DRINK
Seattle Pizza Week 2019
If you were a fan of The Stranger’s Burger Week this past summer, we’ve got another exclusively crafted (and priced) food to deliver to your mouth: $2 pizza slices! During our inaugural Pizza Week, 11 restaurants are participating (Andare Kitchen & Bar, the Ballroom, Belltown Pizza, Humble Pie, Johnny Mo's Pizzeria, Little Maria's Pizza, Nine Pies Pizzeria, Ozzie's, South Town Pie, Southside Pizza & Gelato, and Watershed Pub & Kitchen), with three vegetarian offerings amid the meaty meats, and even one that’s gluten-free. LEILANI POLK
NOVEMBER 12
MUSIC
Bea Miller, Kah-Lo, Kennedi
Bea Miller didn't win first place on X Factor in 2014, but the singer-songwriter is doing just fine with a Hollywood Records deal. She'll breeze through Seattle on her "sunsets in outerspace" tour.
Jaymes Young
Seattle-bred, LA-based singer-songwriter Jaymes Young will revisit his hometown with his signature dusky cinematic instrumentals.
Kindness
Otherness, the 2014 album by Kindness (aka English singer-songwriter/producer Adam Bainbridge), cracked me open emotionally—especially “With You,” the track they produced with R&B wonder Kelela. Bainbridge is able to get to the pulpy heart of things, incorporating chilled out, soulful sounds to create a transcendent spiritual listening experience. Their September release, Something Like War, features an even more impressive roster of guest artists, like Robyn, Jazmine Sullivan, and the legendary Bahamadia—what a cosign! Eighties-inspired tracks like “Cry Everything,” “Lost Without,” and “Hard to Believe” will put you in your feelings and make you want to dance. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Leningrad
St. Petersburg rockers Leningrad—led by the openly anti-Putin Russian rude boy Sergei Shnurov—will swear up a storm in Seattle with no fear of having their show cancelled by the Kremlin (as the Kremlin is apparently wont to do with bands whose lyrics defy them).
READINGS & TALKS
Amor Towles
Internationally praised author Towles, whose first novel The Rules of Civility in its French translation won the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald, will talk about his follow-up, A Gentleman in Moscow, which appeared on many 2016 "Best Books" lists.
Mo Rocca: Mobituaries—Great Lives Worth Reliving
Everyone has a person in their life whose first stop in the Sunday paper is the obituary section. Mo Rocca—a frequent contributor on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!—is one of those people, and he's taken it upon himself to pay tribute to those whose stories he feels have been forgotten. He'll read excerpts from his book about departed icons worth bringing back to life.
Salon of Shame
Writing that makes you cringe ("middle school diaries, high school poetry, unsent letters") is read aloud with unapologetic hilarity at the Salon of Shame.
NOVEMBER 13
FILM
'Charlie's Angels' Opening
Elizabeth Banks co-stars in and directs this reboot of the campy franchise, which also benefits from the considerable talents of Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska, Sam Claflin, Patrick Stewart, et al.
FOOD & DRINK
Author Talk: Drunk in China by Derek Sandhaus
The centerpiece of South Seattle College’s Chinese Garden is a dignified statue of medieval poet Li Bai getting drunk (Drinking with the Moon by Chinese sculptor Ye Yushan). To Westerners, having something like this in a collegiate setting probably seems unadvisable. In China, it could be lobby art. Anybody interested in understanding the extremely different Chinese approach to alcohol cannot afford to miss author Derek Sandhaus as he discusses his latest book, Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture. Sandhaus is one of the world’s top experts on baijiu, China’s alcoholic beverage of choice. After years of conducting research all over China, Sandhaus is finally prepared to help others reach what he calls “spiritual” enlightenment. DAVID LEWIS
MUSIC
CHON, Between the Buried and Me, Intervals
Ushering in a new era of prog rock, San Diego trio CHON will headline in Seattle with support from genre mutuals Between the Buried and Me and Intervals.
Craig Finn, Cassandra Jenkins
Best known as the former frontman of Brooklyn alt-rock band the Hold Steady, Craig Finn will stop in Seattle in support of his new solo album, I Need a New War, which explores "frail hopes, wasted lives, and quiet battles against despair," as Pitchfork has it. Indie-folk artist Cassandra Jenkins will provide an opening set.
KEXP Presents Death and Music
Join KEXP morning show host John Richards for an evening on "death and music." The program features special local musical guests, personal stories from past years of the program and the history of how it came to be, and an exploration of the intersection of "these two distinct veins of life and how they feed into one another."
Our Last Night, I See Stars, The Word Alive, Ashland
Post-hardcore band Our Last Night will perform metalcore renditions of pop songs on their Let Light Overcome the Darkness Tour. They'll be joined by I See Stars, the Word Alive, and Ashland.
NOVEMBER 14
COMEDY
Abortion AF: The Tour Featuring Lizz Winstead
Lizz Winstead, co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show, will appear on a pro-choice comedy tour along with the brilliant local (and Stranger favorite) El Sanchez.
FOOD & DRINK
Sustainable Seafood Celebration - Fall Chefs Dinner
Spotting an orca from the deck at Ray’s Boathouse is becoming as unlikely as spotting a Sasquatch. Even the future of salmon in Puget Sound is uncertain. In some circles, “uncertain” translates to “hopeless,” but the nonprofit Sustainable Seafood Celebration is working to find the balance between keeping salmon in Puget Sound and on the plate. For SSC’s delicious multicourse dinner at Ray’s Boathouse, local chefs (including Ray’s own Paul Duncan and James Beard Award–winning chef and restaurateur Renee Erickson) will prepare dishes featuring locally caught seafood, like Dungeness crab, halibut, salmon, and oysters. All dishes will be served along with wines that are “salmon safe,” a practice among vintners to protect fish habitats by planting trees along streams or using natural pesticides. Get caught up on the latest in sustainable seafood practices while enjoying a scrumptious meal to benefit SSC. DAVID LEWIS
MUSIC
The Monster Energy Outbreak Tour Presents: EarthGang - Welcome to Mirrorland
EarthGang has that ATL hip-hop sound I love, keeping the spirit of Outkast (fun and freaky dirty south) alive without sounding much like that particular Atlanta duo. EarthGang is a duo, too—rappers Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot. They’ve been buzzing since self-releasing their debut in 2013, their quirky, psychedelic rap eventually catching the ears of J. Cole; EarthGang signed to his Dreamville Records last year. Their major label first (and third full-length overall, excluding all the mixtapes and EPs and comp singles and guest spots in between), Mirrorland, is fucking banging; Johnny Venus told Pitchfork that the album is inspired by 1978 Wizard of Oz redux, The Wiz: “It’s really colorful. It’s really dangerous. It’s really trippy. It’s literally Freaknik Atlanta in the summertime—folks riding around in cars with big rims with paint on their faces.” Johnny Venus has the gnarly, demented, Caribbean-flecked vocal quality, while Doctur Dot is a tad more straightforward eccentric, slicker, very slightly quicker, though both are lyrically agile, clever, witty as fuck, with the ability to be both odd and catchy. They’re edging towards stardom. Here’s hoping their quirky charm is intact when they arrive. LEILANI POLK
TroyBoi, YULTRON
Southeast London EDM and trap producer Troyboi will bring the noise and the funk to a live set in the south end.
READINGS & TALKS
Andrea Long Chu: Females
Perceptive, contentious writer Andrea Long Chu, inspired by a Valerie Solanas play, investigates matters of gender, sex, feminism, and politics, arguing that "femaleness is less a biological state of women and more a fatal existential condition that afflicts the entire human race—men, women, and everyone else."
Azure Savage: You Failed Us
A series of recent studies have shown that Seattle Public Schools have one of the worst achievement gaps between black and white students in the country, and Washington State is dead last in trying to do something about it. But cold numbers don’t often do much to spur action. That’s where Azure Savage’s new self-published oral history You Failed Us comes in. Savage, a student at Garfield High School, interviewed 40 students of color about their experiences in Seattle's schools. The book includes those interviews, plus Savage’s own reflection on the way our public schools handle race and gender in the classroom. RICH SMITH
Tom Perrotta: Laughter Is Only the Beginning
The observer of suburban malaise (Mrs. Fletcher, The Leftovers, Little Children, Election) will talk satire, comedy, and realism—special alert to aspiring comic writers with a serious streak.
NOVEMBER 14-16
PERFORMANCE
Pilobolus: Come to Your Senses
Pilobolus is a troupe that depicts science-related narratives through dance. For Come to Your Senses, they've collaborated with Radiolab and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, plus Song Exploder podcast host Thao Nguyen, to craft choreography based on the origins of life, humanity's place on earth, and "the beauty and strength of human connection." The UW Chamber Singers will accompany the multimedia performance with a live score. JOULE ZELMAN
NOVEMBER 14-17
FESTIVALS
Seventh Annual Freakout Fest 2019
If Capitol Hill Block Party and Bumbershoot’s acts skew a bit too young and EDM-ish for you, you may want to check out Freakout Festival, which has been gradually improving in quality over the last seven years. What began as a psych-rock-heavy event has morphed into something more diverse, while still retaining elements of its original mission statement (see the festival name). This year’s lineup looks strong, with appearances by Death Valley Girls, Actionesse, Bearaxe, Elephant Stone, Federale, Khu.éex', Razor Clam, and Terror/Cactus. DAVE SEGAL
NOVEMBER 15
COMEDY
Jim Jefferies
Celebrated Australian stand-up comedian Jim Jefferies will perform his set in Seattle. In 2015, Dan Savage wrote, "[Jefferies] does a better job making a case for gun control—and puncturing the arguments against gun control—than any liberal American politician or gun-control advocate has ever done."
The New Negroes
Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, actor Baron Vaughn and MC/comedian Open Mike Eagle host The New Negroes on Comedy Central. They combine rap music with stand-up routines to address topics such as racism, social-justice warriorism, police brutality, office rage, conspicuous consumption, drug abuse, the tribulations of getting into heaven, and more. Vaughn and OME are politically and culturally savvy, and they are versatile entertainers whose humor and insights transcend race and open minds with unerring accuracy. Open Mike Eagle and Phonte's “Woke as Me” video stands as one of the year’s funniest pieces of cultural commentary. DAVE SEGAL
FOOD & DRINK
Chefs Without Borders 3.0
Not even Donald Trump’s vague threats of war with Iran can ruin the third annual Chefs Without Borders dinner. Back in August, chefs in Tehran prepared Pacific Northwest meals using recipes by Seattle’s own chef Dezi Bonow of the Carlile Room. Now Bonow will make dishes from Iran. Working from recipes translated from Farsi expressly for this dinner, Bonow will cook up a saffron scented banquet of kebabs wrapped in eggplant and salmon along with other Iranian delicacies. The theme of this year’s dinner is "peace," and it’s not just a platitude. It is only possible to enjoy all of these barberry, cardamom, cumin, and rosewater-filled dishes because the US and Iran are not currently trying to destroy each other. Let’s hope it lasts. DAVID LEWIS
MUSIC
Big Freedia, Low Cut Connie
A friend told me that the relationship between Seattle and New Orleans is strong because, traditionally, our fair city was always the first or last stop for touring jazz bands from the Big Easy. That connection facilitates a cultural exchange that’s readily apparent in the acts that come through town. And I suppose it would help explain why Big Freedia comes through at least twice a year—Seattle needs A LOT more bounce. This New Orleans rapper is the best version of what every MC should be: she knows how to get the motherfucking party going. Bring some Icy Hot for your knees and get ready for the Queen of Bounce to make you MOVE. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Elephante
LA-based electronic DJ Elephante will take his festival beats to a slightly smaller Seattle stage on his Diamond Days Tour.
Jack Harlow
Young SoundCloud rapper Jack Harlow has reached a mainstream audience through recording in his bedroom and hustling long and hard in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
PERFORMANCE
Global Party
This performance will celebrate the diversity of the Seattle community with music and dancing from various cultures.
READINGS & TALKS
Allison Stanger: How Whistleblowers Preserve Our Democracy
Stanger, a Harvard Technology and Human Values Senior Fellow, will read from her book, which is subtitled Honesty in America from Washington to Trump. In it, she shows how whistleblowers have performed vital acts of public service since the days of the Revolutionary War.
VISUAL ART
SAM Remix
SAM Remix is a recurring and ever-changing art party that includes performances, tours, and dancing, all inspired by their current special exhibit. This time, it'll revolve around the special exhibition Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum.
NOVEMBER 15 & 18
MUSIC
Allen Stone's Karaoke Extravaganza
Deeply divisive white boy soul singer Allen Stone has graced these pages often by fans and foes alike, and will now take over Seattle for two nights of what he's known for: neo-soul classics and probably a few grandpa sweaters.
NOVEMBER 15-24
PERFORMANCE
The Falling & The Rising: A Soldier's Operatic Odyssey
Expanding far past their traditional offerings, Seattle Opera will present this production originally created from a compilation of interviews with veterans and active-duty servicepeople at three different military facilities. The piece illustrates one soldier's journey as she navigates a coma-induced dreamscape after a violent roadside attack, all set to original music composed by Zach Redler.
THROUGH NOVEMBER 16
PERFORMANCE
The Brothers Paranormal
This black comedy by Prince Gomolvilas, staged here for its rolling world premiere by Pork Filled Productions, concerns a pair of Thai American brothers who see a market opportunity in a surge of "Asian-looking" apparitions throughout the nation. Pork Filled says: "The Brothers Paranormal uses standard horror tropes (it's a ghost story! On Halloween!) to do a deep dive on issues affecting marginalized communities: displacement (whether from natural disaster or gentrification), mental health (a hidden killer in the Asian American community) and handling grief and trauma (well...that's everyone)."
The Thanksgiving Play
In this holiday comedy, Lakota playwright Larissa FastHorse takes aim at a group of white teaching artists who end up reasserting colonial ideology in their attempt to rid their teaching practice of that very same ideology. According to Jesse Green's review in the New York Times, the more cringe-inducing skits in the show are based on actual school lesson plans lifted from social-media posts: "They include potted history and offensive ditties and, in one case, a suggestion to split the pupils into Pilgrims and Indians 'so the Indians can practice sharing.'" Sounds like it'll be another fine entry into the growing canon of plays about white people fucking up something they're trying to fix. I'm unfamiliar with the actors in the show, but I have no doubt they'll flourish in the highly capable hands of director Kelly Kitchens. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 16
FESTIVALS
32nd Annual Winter Beer Taste: Stranger Beers
At this 32nd annual event, taste beers from a ton of local microbreweries—with snacks included in the ticket price, too—at the Phinney Neighborhood Association.
FILM
Seattle Film Summit 2019
The professional development conference for local filmmakers will return with workshops, networking opportunities, interviews, panels, and a Kinetoscope VR Film Festival.
FOOD & DRINK
Seattle Night Market: Winter
This yearly market series (now indoors for the first time) gathers a lineup of over 125 vendors, food trucks, pop-ups, artists, and more, including favorites like Pecos Pit, Sticky Treats and Sweets, and Alexandra's Macarons. There's also a craft beer and cocktail garden with breweries like Reuben's Brews and Fremont Brewing, and this month will feature a "hot sauce fest" pop-up with a focus on local makers of the spicy stuff, like Ballyhoo Hot Sauce and Mike's Fine Brines.
MUSIC
Buku
Pittsburgh-based electronic musician Buku "combines deceptively simple and emotive melodies, laden with resounding low-end and intricate drum patterns," per press materials. He'll come through town on his Cruisin’ USA Tour.
Cash Cash, R3HAB
New Jersey-bred electronic music group Cash Cash, who recently signed to the major dance music imprint Big Beat Records, will bring their BFF energy and Bruno Mars remixes to town with additional support from Dutch DJ R3HAB.
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, Birdtalker
Memphis and Nashville-bred Americana band Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors formed in 2006 and have been spilling out the honey-toned folk and bluesy rock ever since. They'll be joined by Birdtalker on their Dragons Tour.
Noah Gundersen
In the 11 years since his 2008 debut, Brand New World, Noah Gundersen has evolved from his Olympia beginnings in stripped-down indie folk to a fuller, more emotionally complicated sound that brings an unabashed sentimentality to each song—even the one about porn stars (check out the track “Bad Actors” on 2017’s WHITE NOISE). Gundersen’s committed, melancholy vocal power has a raw honesty that beckons comparisons to Thom Yorke, the Lonely Forest, and Johnny Cash. SOPHIA STEPHENS
NOVEMBER 16-17
GEEK
GeekGirlCon
For the ninth year, geek girls (and all gender identities) can revel in another great lineup of panel discussions, games, science experiments, and vendors.
MUSIC
Ray LaMontagne, Kacy & Clayton
Lifelong independent film soundtracker Ray LaMontagne will bring his soft rasp and folky bluesy forest-laden indie rock back to Seattle this autumn with folk/roots duo Kacy & Clayton in tow.
PERFORMANCE
The Hip Hop Nutcracker
This reinterpretation of the beloved ballet swaps out imperial Russia for 1980s Brooklyn as little Maria-Clara travels back in time to her parents' first meeting at a nightclub. It's acted out by a dozen hip-hop dancers, a DJ, and an onstage electric violinist.
THROUGH NOVEMBER 17
PERFORMANCE
Dracula
Dracula will be breathed to life yet again when playwright Steven Dietz's adaptation of the Bram Stoker tale is revived and revised specifically for ACT Theatre. In this Dracula, the focus shifts to Mina Murray Harker. Her character has always been ripe for a reckoning or a refresh, or both. She is the source of endless fascination, because she is an obvious heroine in Stoker's novel, pure of heart and mind, and yet she's just as much a casualty of Dracula's desires as her poor friend Lucy. No matter how many gender norms Stoker challenged, it was still the Victorian era. Mina could be given only so much agency. "But to simply make her a victim was super unsatisfying to all of us," director John Langs explained. "So Steven has done some reworking of the story, and she really comes to the forefront. The hunted becomes the hunter in this particular adaptation." LEILANI POLK
The Great Moment
Playwright Anna Ziegler earned a lot of attention in 2015 for Photograph 51, a well-received bio-drama about Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered DNA. Nicole Kidman played the starring role, everybody loved it, and Ziegler was praised for her "fair-minded and philosophical" (New York Times) approach to character building. Ziegler will likely bring that same talent for creating multidimensional characters to The Great Moment, which will have its world premiere at the Seattle Rep. According to press materials, the story follows a woman named Sarah, who is watching her grandfather slowly die while she raises her son. Alexandra Tavares plays the lead in this, and I've loved everything I've ever seen her in. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 17
FOOD & DRINK
The Shambles Presents: Dinner with Holy Mountain & Hama Hama
Chef Sara Harvey of the celebrated Hama Hama Oysters and chef Seamus Platt of the Maple Leaf bar and butcher the Shambles will join forces for the "ultimate surf and turf collaboration," featuring Hama Hama oysters and mussels, Bar R Wagyu beef, and Pachamama Farms pork. As if that's not enough, culty brewery Holy Mountain will round out the meal with beer pairings.
MUSIC
BRONCHO, Hot Flash Heat Wave, Rinse & Repeat
Pretty sure you’ve heard BRONCHO. Maybe it was the jangly “Try Me Out Sometime” (which sounds like it was ripped straight out of the early ’80s post-punk songbook) or the relentlessly catchy “Class Historian” (the one with all the du-du-du-ing and a guitar riff that feels nostalgic and sunny). The Oklahoma indie rock quartet has taken a sexier, groovier turn in 2018 fourth full-length, Bad Behavior, which starts out strong with “All Choked Up,” a snotty little ditty with a sauntering and swaggering cowbell-studded rhythm. It’s dark and funky-fun and I imagine it’ll prompt some lip-curled dance faces when they bring it to Seattle. LEILANI POLK
The Get Up Kids, Kevin Devine, The Whiffs
Before the word could be thrown around like an insult, the Get Up Kids were emo royalty. Hailing from Missouri, they released a standout of the genre with 1999’s Something to Write Home About. These songs are full of catchy hooks, mid-tempo pop-punk melodies, and earnest, often broken-hearted lyrics. The band officially split in 2005, only to reunite three years later for a handful of reunion shows. With a comeback album and several tours under their belt, it’s safe to say the Get Up Kids are back at it for good and not just cashing in on nostalgia. KEVIN DIERS
Summer Walker, Melii
Summer Walker is exactly the voice you need to get you through cuffing season, aka autumn, aka the time when everyone is trying to get boo’d up and retreat from the onslaught of cold. The R&B crooner gets the muddling of emotion this time brings: jealousy, desire, melancholy, horniness. Despite the subject matter, her songs are buoyant, warm, and sexy, like a keyed-up SZA with Brandy’s stunning vocal range. Turn on “Stretch You Out” when you want to twerk and cry; and “Body” for when you feel crazy attracted to the person you’re having sex with right now, but still wondering, what else is out there? JASMYNE KEIMIG
X Ambassadors, Bear Hands, VÉRITÉ
Considering their Top40 radio ubiquity, it's been basically impossible to not recognize the Jeep commercial-ready stadium party rock sound of X Ambassadors. They'll return to Seattle on their Orion Tour.
Zhavia
Teen singer-songwriter Zhavia, a former contestant on the inaugural season of FOX's singing competition The Four, will embark on his first headlining tour.
READINGS & TALKS
Jenny Slate: Little Weirds Tour
The star of acclaimed indie comedies Obvious Child and Landline as well as Venom (and, let's not forget, the creator and voice of Marcel the Shell), will appear in Seattle about a month after the Netflix debut of her comedy show Stage Fright. She'll be reading from her new book Little Weirds, a collection of nonfiction.
NOVEMBER 18
MUSIC
Brittany Howard
Alabama Shakes powerhouse Brittany Howard will bring her celebrated soul music to Seattle on her solo tour.
The Cinematic Orchestra
J. Swinscoe’s the Cinematic Orchestra have been among the fabled Ninja Tune label’s foremost purveyors of ornate jazz funk since 1998. Thankfully, their name is not misleading in the least. I recall seeing them perform at South by Southwest in the late ’90s or early ’00s, and was shocked by how much they evoked something of the Sun Ra Arkestra—not something you expect from a mostly white British ensemble. They were that telepathically in synch, that uproariously uplifting, that in love with density and elegant chaos. The Cinematic Orchestra’s 2019 album, To Believe, is loaded with guest vocalists and flirts with Hollywood sentimentality and a Sigur Rós-like spaciousness, but you can’t fault the exquisite skill and care with which it’s constructed. DAVE SEGAL
Longjing
Chinese hip-hop group Longjing will roll through the Emerald City on their Dragon Kings 2019 World Tour.
READINGS & TALKS
Alpa Shah: Nightmarch
If you haven't been following the news in India for the last decade or so, you might not know that the government has been at war with a Maoist insurgency called the Naxalites, who live and operate among the Adivasi in the mid-eastern area of the country. The government considers the Naxalites terrorists, while the Naxalites consider the extremely right-wing government an oppressive regime. The government is also thirsty for coal and other natural resources sitting just below the land of the Adivasi, India's indigenous people, who are caught in the middle of this whole thing. In Nightmarch, renowned anthropologist and author Alpa Shah writes about the "hopes, aspirations, and contradictions" of the Naxalites after spending nearly two years embedded with the platoon of the Indian Maoists, tracking the motivations behind the government's increasingly aggressive approach to the situation. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 19
FOOD & DRINK
Joy of Cooking: John Becker and Megan Scott In Conversation with Marcie Sillman
The classic cooking tome Joy of Cooking has been in print since 1931 for good reason. Now, author Irma Rombauer's great-grandson John Becker and his wife Megan Scott have updated it with new international, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free recipes, make-ahead suggestions, and other tips, plus additions like instructions for curing bacon and fermenting vegetables. Becker and Scott will join KUOW Arts and Culture reporter Marcie Sillman to discuss the new version.
MUSIC
Issues, Polyphia, Lil Aaron, Sleep Token
Georgia metalcore band Issues will rip through Seattle on the heels of their latest album, Beautiful Oblivion. They'll be joined by Soundcloud-bred genre-bender Lil Aaron and Sleep Token.
PERFORMANCE
Jon Boogz and Lil Buck (MAI): Love Heals All Wounds
Choreographer-dancers John Boogz and Lil Buck will perform a piece, created through the Movement Art Is program, that responds to social crises while extolling diversity and empathy. If you've had your head stuck in the news lately and are feeling pent-up despair and rage, this sounds like a good remedy.
NOVEMBER 20
COMEDY
Jason Nash
YouTube star, filmmaker, and stand-up comedian Nash will deal out some riffs.
FOOD & DRINK
Author Talk: The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook by Naomi Tomky
Local author Naomi Tomky (who's contributed to The Stranger) will discuss her debut book The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, which explores the abundance of fish and shellfish in our region, and sign copies.
MUSIC
Chelsea Wolfe, Ionna Gika
Ah, how glorious. Sylvia Plath–winged seraph Chelsea Wolfe will descend upon us, parting our gray clouds like a sacrilegious Moses, and rain down metallic, doom-rock manna to feed us. The Californian's 2017 album Hiss Spun has enough dark magic to keep us mystified for another couple of her descents back to Seattle. ZACH FRIMMEL
Melanie Martinez, Lauren Ruth Ward
The Voice success story Melanie Martinez will bring her creepy doll charm to Seattle for a night of skewed pop music with Lauren Ruth Ward.
PERFORMANCE
Bianca Del Rio: It's Jester Joke
Bianca Del Rio, whom Stranger contributor Matt Baume called "the most vicious RuPaul's Drag Race winner of all time," will wield her mean and hilarious sense of humor across the world on her latest tour. Catch her deluge of foul-mouthed devilry in Seattle.
NOVEMBER 21
FILM
Absinthe Films: IsleOfSnow + Easy Giant Live Music Experience
Watch "snowboard films for people who ride," featuring a live story by Easy Giant music.
MUSIC
Blue Note Records 80th Anniversary Tour with Kandace Springs, James Carter Organ Trio, and James Francies
Celebrate 80 years of genre excellence harnessed by American jazz label Blue Note Records with this performance by Kandace Springs, the James Carter Organ Trio, and James Francies as they explore pieces by Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, and more.
Julia Jacklin, Christian Lee Hutson
Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin will come to town with lyrically focused tracks about unrequited love from her latest album, Crushing. She'll be joined by LA folk-pop trio Christian Lee Hutson.
Nahko & Medicine for the People, Ayla Nereo
The Nahko Bear-fronted group Nahko & Medicine for the People will bring their worldly music to Seattle on their Take Your Power Back Tour with support from West Coast folk artist Ayla Nereo.
Subtronics, Chee, Digital Ethos, Zia
Philly-based dubstep producer Subtronics will amp up your night with support from fellow electronic artists Chee, Digital Ethos, and Zia.
READINGS & TALKS
Gloria Steinem: The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!
Where do you start with Gloria Steinem? She’s the founder of Ms. magazine, the author of half a dozen books, an award-winning activist, and, of course, the most famous feminist of her time. Not all of Steinem’s positions have proved to be enduring: She perpetuated the widely debunked “recovered memories” phenomenon in the 1990s, which, for some reason, she has never disavowed, and has an almost Puritanical view of pornography. But still, Steinem has done remarkable things, and she’s one of the most influential women of her generation. She’ll be talking about her life in feminism when she comes to Seattle. KATIE HERZOG
Mary Ruefle
Mary Ruefle has a new book of poetry out from Wave Books. It's called Dunce. I am happy to report that Ruefle continues to be obsessed with using her signature conversational style to write abstract-associative poetry about death, loneliness, and poetry itself. Though I'm not as in love with Dunce as I was with My Private Property, it is still early on in my relationship with the book. Regardless, it's my understanding that Ruefle rarely leaves her home in Vermont, and so it's a rare joy to get to see her in person. RICH SMITH
Robin Layton: the lake
Love Lake Washington? So does Pulitzer Prize nominee/Nikon ambassador Robin Layton, whose new art book, limited to 2,000 copies, captures the body of water over four seasons. Windham Hill Records founder and Grammy winner William Ackerman will accompany this multimedia presentation of Layton's images, lending the lovely strains of guitar to videos and photos. Todd Boston will also perform.
NOVEMBER 21-23
MUSIC
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring caused everybody in the audience to flip out and pour into the streets of Paris when it first debuted in 1913, not only because Sergei Diaghilev's very weird accompanying ballet depicted a young girl dancing herself to death (an alarmingly common COD in Russian and German folklore), but because no one had ever heard music like that before. Tonally ambitious, inquisitive, impressionistic, challenging. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 21-24
FILM
Seattle Turkish Film Festival
The Turkish American Cultural Association of Washington will present the sixth annual edition of their community-driven, volunteer-led festival featuring a rich panorama of new Turkish films.
NOVEMBER 22
COMEDY
Christina P.: Ride or Die Tour
Christina P. hosts the Your Mom's House podcast with her husband, Tom Segura. She's got a local connection: Netflix special Christina P: Mother Inferior was filmed at the Seattle's own Showbox. Hear her crack wise onstage about motherhood, life, and aging.
Jeff Foxworthy
The Portland Mercury's Wm. Steven Humphrey sums up Foxworthy as "the creator of the 'You know you're a redneck...' line of not-very-funny jokes, the host of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, and the early-'90s equivalent to Larry the Cable Guy."
FESTIVALS
Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Festival
Welcome the season's new wines at this festival with excellent French wines like the Beaujolais Nouveau, a buffet featuring fine French-influenced cuisine, French music (live and DJ), and an auction of rare treats that include wine, hotel, and restaurant certificates.
FILM
'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' Opening
It was only a matter of time before cinematic nice guy Tom Hanks was cast as modern saint Fred Rogers. Matthew Rhys (The Americans) co-stars as Tom Junod, the real-life reporter assigned to profile the TV host/all-around mensch.
'Knives Out' Opening
The director of The Last Jedi and Looper has assembled an amazing cast for a good old-fashioned ensemble whodunit. Watch Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas, et al. go at each other with barbed wit and sharp implements.
MUSIC
Los Ángeles Azules
Iztapalapa-bred Cumbia band Los Ángeles Azules (who, as you might guess from their name, now reside in LA), will come to town on their Esto Si Es Cumbia Tour.
The Maine Presents The Mirror
With over a decade's experience making emo music in the desert, the Maine (who are from Arizona, not Maine) will churn out some fresh material on this tour stop, which promises to take on an "immersive audio and visual experience unlike anything the Maine has done before."
Orfeo ed Euridice
Recall the romantic tragedy of Orfeo and Euridice with this operatic performance of their tale of woe, as countertenor Philippe Jaroussky takes us through Orfeo's journey into the underworld to bring his lady back to life.
READINGS & TALKS
Heather Havrilesky: Embracing the Imperfections of the Everyday
Heather Havrilesky, the self-improvement expert behind the acclaimed Ask Polly advice column, will share insight from her new book about embracing our imperfections.
NOVEMBER 22-23
FILM
Warren Miller's Timeless
No one captured the magic of winter slopes better than the late, great ski and snowboarding filmmaker Warren Miller. Celebrate his legacy by watching pro athletes glide down mountains in this new film by Warren Miller Entertainment.
MUSIC
Big Wild, EVAN GIIA, Ark Patrol
Jackson Stell, the twentysomething who makes large-font-on-the-festival-poster EDM as Big Wild, is a member of the Odesza-founded Foreign Family Collective. It's no surprise, then, that Stell's music shares many typical headliners' hallmarks: "organic"-sounding timbres via softsynths; features for anonymous, mononymic vocalists; beats that induce head-bobbing more than dancing. Fans of Cashmere Cat, Pretty Lights, and Zedd will be equally sated. ANDREW GOSPE
PERFORMANCE
Casa Patas Flamenco: Raíz de 4
Watch flamenco dance in its "purest styles" by Rafael Peral and Marisa Adame and the onstage guitarist and percussionist of Casa Patas.
NOVEMBER 22-24
SHOPPING
Native Art Market
Buy authentic Native gifts—clothing, drums, art prints, and more—from a group of diverse local artists in beautiful Discovery Park.
NOVEMBER 22-DECEMBER 29
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Enchant Christmas
Following a very successful first year, Enchant Christmas will transform T-Mobile Park into a winter wonderland complete with an impressive light maze, light sculptures, a market curated by Urban Craft Uprising, and more. This year's theme is "Mischievous," so expect to see sly little elves roaming about.
NOVEMBER 23
COMEDY
Felipe Esparza: The Bad Hambre Tour
The Last Comic Standing winner from 2010, Esparza (Translate This, They’re Not Gonna Laugh at You, The Eric Andre Show, the podcast What's Up Fool?) will bring some laughs.
MUSIC
Audien
EDM party starter Audien will take a break from the neon festival circuit for a night downtown in support of his Escapism tour.
The Black Keys, Modest Mouse, Shannon & the Clams
Back in 2002, when I lived in Cleveland, I’d catch the Black Keys in small venues like the Beachland Tavern. Nothing about the scrappy Akron, Ohio, blues-rock duo screamed out “potential rock megastars”—not even their decent cover of the Beatles’ “She Said, She Said.” To be honest, nothing still screams out “rock megastars,” but there’s no denying these rust-belt muthas worked hard to reach their rarefied heights. They may seem ultra-meat-and-potatoes-y to me, but Dan Auerbach can sing with barrel-chested, Paul Rodgers–esque soul and grind out catchy guitar riffs all damn night, and drummer Patrick Carney’s perfectly functional and unflashy. DAVE SEGAL
Gabriel Kahane
Pioneering vocalist and composer Gabriel Kahane will return to Seattle to perform an evening set of his unique fusion-heavy orchestra pop.
PERFORMANCE
A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage
Enjoy a live version of the Emmy-winning Christmas special, including a sing-along at the end.
READINGS & TALKS
Ben Lerner: The Topeka School
Rich Smith has written: "Lerner started off his literary career writing nerdy books of poetry that were so good you could feel your brain and heart growing as your read them. Then he turned his attention to reinventing the American novel. Both Leaving Atocha Station and 10:04 were phenomenal. His sentences abound with intelligence and humor. Before he won a Guggenheim and a MacArthur 'Genius' grant for his literary work, he was a master debater from Topeka, Kansas." Lerner's newest novel is set in Topeka and follows a high school senior struggling to fit between a liberal household and a deeply right-wing environment.
Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford: Writing the Other
Local sci-fi icon Nisi Shawl (best-known for the brilliant Everfair) will talk about diverse representation in fiction alongside fellow speculative fiction writer K. Tempest Bradford.
TedxSeattle
This independently organized TED event promises fast-paced and engaging presentations with illustrious speakers like photographer and filmmaker Chris Jordan, Mercy For Animals President Leah Garcés, Nigerian American blogger Karen Okonkwo, and other guests.
SHOPPING
Gobble Up Seattle 2019
Just in time for Thanksgiving (and the subsequent holidays), Urban Craft Uprising will host this specialty food show for the third year in a row, promising over 100 local vendors slinging everything from cooking equipment to homemade jam.
NOVEMBER 23-24
MUSIC
Sleater-Kinney
Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss are back with their first release since 2015's No Cities To Love. Soak in the iconic Northwest punk trio's new jams and scream your face off to "Modern Girl."
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Julefest
See how Nordic countries ring in the Yuletide by tasting Scandinavian treats, seeing performances from local Nordic groups, and shopping for house-made wares.
NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 26
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Seattle Festival of Trees
The historic Fairmont Olympic hotel celebrates the winter season each year with a fancy dinner, caroling, an impressive display of decorated trees in their lobby, and a teddy bear suite.
NOVEMBER 23-JANUARY 1
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Sheraton Grand Seattle Gingerbread Village
For the 27th year in a row, diabetes research center JDRF Northwest has invited local architecture firms to use their skills for a holiday tradition: crafting an elaborate gingerbread village.
OPENING NOVEMBER 23
VISUAL ART
Alchemy 5: Transformation in Contemporary Enamels
This juried exhibition, traveling from the University of Oregon, pays tribute to the "alchemical" process of firing powdered glass to produce vitreous enamel, a coating that can turn glass, metal, stone, or ceramic into a shining object of deep, sheeny colors. See some of the best enamel-coated objects in the world.
In Plain Sight
This group show is stacked. Featuring some of the best and most interesting artists currently working nationally and internationally, In Plain Sight “addresses narratives, communities, and histories that are typically hidden or invisible in our public space (both conceptually and literally defined).” The work in this exhibition isn’t confined to one particular gallery but is spread throughout the entire museum. Particularly of note is Iraqi painter Hayv Kahraman and her work surrounding memory, gender, and diaspora; Kiwi visual artist Fiona Connor, who deals in the overlooked infrastructure we are surrounded by; and the vibrant mixed-media pieces from Jamaican artist Ebony G. Patterson. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Storied Objects
These Black artists create objects and sculptures that imply narratives—"some personal, others historical, some biblical," according to museum materials—without elaborating them fully. See subtle work by Betye Saar, Martin Puryear, Denzil Hurley, James Washington Jr., and other prominent artists.
NOVEMBER 24
MUSIC
A$AP Ferg, Murda Beatz, MadeinTYO
A founding member of Harlem’s A$AP Mob alongside A$AP Rocky, Ferg ended up having more success as a solo artist. Catch him in Seattle on his Yedi Tour with Murda Beatz and MadeinTYO as openers.
A SMASH Benefit Celebrating the Music of Neil Young
A pantheon of Seattle musicians will join together to honor the music of Neil Young and to raise money for Seattle nonprofit SMASH (Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare). Performers for the evening include Dave Matthews Band, Dave Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants, Presidents of the United States), Ron Nine and Kevin Whitworth (Love Battery), Carrie Akre (Hammerbox, Goodness), John Roderick (The Long Winters), Dave Alvin, Shelby Earl, The Naked Giants, Ian Moore, LeRoy Bell and Terry Morgan (LeRoy Bell and His Only Friends), Christy McWilson, Shaina Shepherd (Bearaxe), and additional surprise guests.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra 2019 Presented By Hallmark Channel
Yes, I know, they're cheesy in the extreme and not even actually from Siberia, but Trans-Siberian Orchestra's jolly blend of electric-guitar shredding and Christmas music is like the flu: It comes around every year and it's extremely catchy. That being said, if I'm going to be afflicted with pinch-harmonic-inflected cheer, then I'm at least going to focus on the upside. Which is, TSO formed from the remains of the excellent and under-appreciated power-metal outfit Savatage, whose interpretation of Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" probably sparked the whole classical-music-meets-metal fad. Now if only they still had Alex Skolnick from Testament in the band. JOSEPH SCHAFER
READINGS & TALKS
Peter Sagal
Peter Sagal is the host of the nerdy NPR game show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and the author of the funny memoir The Incomplete Book of Running.
NOVEMBER 25
COMEDY
Pete Davidson
The Variety-hailed stand-up comic Pete Davidson, seen on SNL and in Suicide Squad and Trainwreck, will deliver his rude and randy material, perhaps combining it with Harry Potter jokes as is his wont.
MUSIC
King Diamond, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Idle Hands
Danish metal legend King Diamond will return to Seattle on his 2019 Institute tour with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and Idle Hands in tow.
NOVEMBER 26
MUSIC
Moon Duo
Keyboardist Sanae Yamada and guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson are masters of mesmerizing repetition. They’re trance-rock lifers who get fuzzy and linear like some hairy combo of Hawkwind and Suicide, augmented by Johnson’s Iggy Pop-like deadpan drawl (ask your dad about these references). If you want to mainline pure rock-and-roll adrenaline, there’s no better group to do that than with Moon Duo. DAVE SEGAL
PERFORMANCE
So You Think You Can Dance Live!
Watch So You Think You Can Dance's Top 10 finalists when they swing through Seattle on their national tour.
READINGS & TALKS
Lindy West
At the height of the "#MeToo has gone too far" movement, Stranger alum and New York Times columnist Lindy West wrote a column called, "Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. I’m a Witch and I’m Hunting You." In the column, West argued that the criminal justice system doesn't adequately deliver justice to victims of sexual assault, and that she believes the number of sexual assault reports do not, in fact, exceed the number of sexual assaults in this country. And so, obviously, the #MeToo movement has not gone "too far," you fucking morons—and, yes, she's looking at you, Woody Allen. But, because she's Lindy West, she said all of that with enough clarity, force, and humor to make even the most panicked of sex panicky cautioneers crack a smile. Her new book, The Witches Are Coming, uses that column as a launching pad to explore an issue that could use a little more light. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 29
PERFORMANCE
Mrs. Doubtfire
November 26 is the world premiere of Mrs. Doubtfire, an adaptation of the 1993 Robin Williams film (personal note: my parents divorced in 1993, and my brothers and I have seen that film one billion times). Mrs. Doubtfire will be directed by Jerry Zaks, a Broadway legend who won a Tony Award for directing the revival of Guys and Dolls in 1992, and was nominated again for his revival of Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler in 2017. "When we do new musicals, we have the opportunity to write new stories for the world we live in today," producing artistic director Bill Berry says. "When we do new things, the audience is really passionate about telling us what they think. It's not a passive experience. They feel like they're part of it." CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
NOVEMBER 27
MUSIC
Cautious Clay
Have we graduated from the PBR&B subgenre, which is a very specific, sort of boring stripped-back style I could never quite get behind? I guess Josh Karpeh, aka Cautious Clay, from Brooklyn, belongs in that class, although his music feels so much more compelling. He draws on hiphop production qualities and experimentation, his sound hinting at elements of gospel, island, pop, and soul. He has a creamy caressing vocal timbre that can hit falsetto notes (so I forgive his use of Auto-Tune), he mixes digital programming with organic instrumentation, and his sonic arsenal includes the sax and flute. The motherfucking flute. Neither is overused in his music. The obvious highlight of his 2018 Blood Type EP is "Cold War," built on a low-end that pulses like a deeply beating heart, a stark rhythm of woodblock knocks, subtle synth embellishments, and light perc clatters as his vocals ascend elegantly over the top, referencing modern dating, apps, and Instagram habits without coming off like an annoying millennial. (Heart eyes emoji.) LEILANI POLK
NOVEMBER 27 & 29
MUSIC
Illenium
Whether filling an arena or the liminal space between euphoria and heartbreak, Illenium’s dizzying drops and soaring melodies bring an unprecedented level of genuine emotion and musical talent to the EDM soundscape. 2017’s Awake is filled with heartrending yet danceable tracks like “Where’d U Go” and “Sound of Walking Away,” which go harder than the cruelest of breakups. At Illenium’s sets, it is entirely possible (and okay) to dance and cry. SOPHIA STEPHENS
NOVEMBER 28
EVERYWHERE
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving: The pinnacle of American colonialism that commemorates a fake story of sharing. While the holiday is built on a lie, it's been adapted into a day to spend with loved ones, list gratitudes, and eat turkey and pie. Find a list of turkey trots, dinners, and other events on our complete Thanksgiving calendar.
NOVEMBER 29
MUSIC
Kikagaku Moyo, Minami Deutsch
It seems as if Japan’s Kikagaku Moyo are going to keep playing Seattle till you slow learners finally awaken to their many splendors. Graduating from Barboza and the Sunset to the bigger Neumos, these deft psychedelic shape-shifters prove that their relentless touring and increasingly engrossing, mind-expanding songs are reaching receptive cortexes. From woozy, waltz-time charmers to solemnly pastoral-folky to incendiary freak-outs, Kikagaku Moyo find manifold ways to trick your brain into believing in paradise. All this, plus a bangin’ cover of Ananda Shankar’s “Streets of Calcutta.” DAVE SEGAL
Seattle's Tribute to the Last Waltz
Local rockers like Smokey Brights, Gypsy Temple, Kelly Van Camp, and many others will pay tribute to Canadian roots-rockers the Band's 1978 farewell concert, The Last Waltz. Northwest Harvest will be collecting canned food donations.
PERFORMANCE
Sasha Velour's Smoke & Mirrors
New York genderfluid queen Sasha Velour, an MFA graduate in Cartoon Studies and a RuPaul alumna, will dance her own magical choreography while lip-synching to Whitney Houston, Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland et al. in her first solo show. Apparently, she'll "[transform] into a tree in front of your eyes"!
NOVEMBER 29 & DECEMBER 1
MUSIC
Thievery Corporation
Few of Thievery Corporation's 1990s-era down-tempo electronic contemporaries have shown the durability of core members Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. What they do isn't innovative or revolutionary, but Thievery Corporation's clever amalgams of classy lounge music, buttery triphop, dub lite, boho hiphop, chill bossa nova, and other styles from the international sonic bazaar cohere into a good time soundtrack that makes you feel much more suave and affluent than you actually are. And that's good enough to sell out the Showbox, even for two dates. Thievery Corporation will be supporting their typically eclectic and tasteful recent album, Treasures from the Temple. DAVE SEGAL
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 15
SHOPPING
Annual Holiday Native Gift Fair & Art Market
Find gifts for loved ones by local Native artists and makers at this annual market.
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 23
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Christmas Ship Festival
The Puget Sound is filled with lights throughout the holiday season, but no vessel can compete with Argosy Cruises' Christmas Ship, which docks in 65 waterfront communities to serenade people onshore and onboard with its resident choir. Those who choose to board the ship will enjoy photos with Santa, a reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and kids' activities. For a less family-oriented option, you can trail behind in a 21+ boat with rotating themes each week. It's also free to watch from the shore.
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 24
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Snowflake Lane
Every year, downtown Bellevue turns into a winter wonderland not just for one night but for a whole dang month, with (fake) falling snow, jolly live music, and a nightly parade filled with dancers and toy drummers.
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 28
PERFORMANCE
A Christmas Carol
ACT Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol is a dependable, simple pleasure, with just enough variation to warrant returning year after year. Kelly Kitchens will direct.
George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'
If you haven't seen this Christmas classic since you were a kid, give it a go this year. In 2014, Pacific Northwest Ballet replaced its beloved Maurice Sendak set with one by Ian Falconer, who did the Olivia the Pig books, and I'm glad that they did. The new set is gorgeous in a Wes Anderson-like way, and it reflects the genuine weirdness and beauty in the story. I mean, the last 45 minutes of this thing is a Katy Perry video starring dancing desserts and a glittery peacock that moves like a sexy broken river. Bring a pot lozenge. RICH SMITH
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 29
PERFORMANCE
Howl's Moving Castle
Rich Smith wrote of this play's 2017 run at Book-It, who's bringing it back this fall: "I liked everything about the idea of Howl's Moving Castle. Sara Porkalob is the star. She's a quadruple threat who can carry a show on her own. Hayao Miyazaki transformed Diana Wynne Jones's 1986 novel into a beloved and mesmerizing anime with a celebrated soundtrack, and there's no reason why director/adapter/Book-It co-founder Myra Platt and composer/lyricist/actor/musician Justin Huertas couldn't turn the same source material into a magical musical. Huertas's humor and Platt's experience boded well, and there seemed to be plenty of opportunity to buck the conventions of generic musical theater and run with something a little wilder. But, though the performances were generally fantastic, this production couldn't overcome the big problem presented by the story of Howl's Moving Castle. It's boring."
NOVEMBER 29-JANUARY 5
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Lumaze
This year, Santa is enlisting the help of young princes and princesses in helping him find six hidden presents. In addition to the prize-bearing hunt, this kid-oriented indoor festival will also have a gift market (complete with fresh produce and seasonal treats) and a light display.
WildLights
The Woodland Park Zoo will light up with thousands upon thousands of (energy-efficient) LED lights that recreate wild scenes and creatures. You can also throw fake snowballs at your friends, get up close with certain animal residents, and sip hot chocolate.
Zoolights
Holiday traditions don't get more classic than strolling through the Point Defiance Zoo when it's transformed into a luminous wonderland of 3-D animal light installations. Displays from previous years have included hammerhead sharks and sea turtles, a majestic polar bear family, and a giant Pacific octopus.
NOVEMBER 30
MUSIC
Daughters, Lingua Ignota
Hardcore Providence rock quartet Daughters will make your grindhouse dreams come true on this Seattle tour stop with multi-instrumentalist Lingua Ignota in tow.
Kevin Gates
It must be said: Louisiana's Kevin Gates is one of the most exciting rappers out, a wounded, noble hustler, equally at home with detail-rich street narratives, for-the-ladies jams, and radio-ready crossover shots. His guttural baritone is as instantly recognizable as Ja Rule's bark or Method Man's heart-of-gold growl, but what sets him apart is a Scarface-like commitment to gangster storytelling and a fantastic crew of producers, elevating each mixtape track to possible hit status. Not to throw the T-word around willy-nilly, but Gates possesses nearly Tupac-esque levels of self-mythologizing, understatedly serene flow, and gritty realism, which is not praise to be thrown around lightly. KYLE FLECK
Seattle Rock Orchestra Performs Led Zeppelin I & II
Seattle Rock Orchestra perform rock and pop filtered through an orchestral lens, and they'll pull apart two iconic Led Zeppelin albums for this concert appearance.
Sullivan King, Lick, Grabbitz, SWARM
LA-based multi-instrumentalist Sullivan King will blend EDM and metal on his Thank You For Raging Tour, with support from Lick, Grabbitz, and SWARM.
Turnover, Men I Trust, Renata Zeiguer
Turnover, a pop-punk/indie-rock band from Virginia, will be joined by Men I Trust and Renata Zeiguer on their autumnal tour. DAVE SEGAL
VISUAL ART
Art Under $100
Find affordable gifts from over 100 "crackerjack artists" offering paintings, glass, fabric art, ceramics, jewelry, and more priced under one Benjamin.
WINTER HOLIDAYS
24th Annual Magic in the Market
For the 24th year, Magic in the Market brings a tree lighting, seasonal snacks and drinks, choirs, and photos with Santa to the already-magical Pike Place Market. You can even pick out a tree of your own to take home.
Greet the Season Celebration
Once Thanksgiving is over, welcome the holiday season with a miniature train display, a gift market with local makers, festive music, and more throughout Lake Union Park.
NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 1
SHOPPING
GeekCraft Expo
If Etsy and Comic Con are two of your favorite things, you won't want to miss this annual geeky craft market, which just so happens to align with holiday shopping season. Find unique gifts from local artists, or make your own crafts.
Seattle Anarchist Book Fair 2019
For its 11th year, the Seattle Anarchist Book Fair will gather radical authors, publishers, and workshop leaders for the intellectual anti-capitalist struggle. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, the fair will host a special panel and workshops, plus set up an "archival exhibit." Pick up some books and make new friends to criticize the state with.
NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 31
WINTER HOLIDAYS
Garden d’Lights
Whimsical flora and fauna, birds, animals, and cascading waterfalls get the holiday light treatment at Bellevue Botanical Garden's annual display. (To be clear, actual birds and animals will not be strung with lights.) Wander the grounds and take photos among the "half a million" bulbs.

Your Complete Guide to November 2019 Events in Seattle

The 250 Biggest Arts, Music, Food & Culture Events to Know About

NOVEMBER 1

NOVEMBER 1 & 3

NOVEMBER 1-7

NOVEMBER 1-17

OPENING NOVEMBER 1

THROUGH NOVEMBER 2

NOVEMBER 2

NOVEMBER 2-JANUARY 26

THROUGH NOVEMBER 3

NOVEMBER 3

NOVEMBER 4

NOVEMBER 4-6

NOVEMBER 5

NOVEMBER 5-17

NOVEMBER 6

NOVEMBER 6-24

THROUGH NOVEMBER 7

NOVEMBER 7

NOVEMBER 7-8

NOVEMBER 7-9

NOVEMBER 7-10

NOVEMBER 7-14

NOVEMBER 7-30

NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 1

NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 5

NOVEMBER 7-DECEMBER 21

NOVEMBER 8

NOVEMBER 8-9

NOVEMBER 8-10

NOVEMBER 8-17

NOVEMBER 8-23

NOVEMBER 8-DECEMBER 22

NOVEMBER 9

NOVEMBER 9-10

THROUGH NOVEMBER 10

NOVEMBER 10

NOVEMBER 10-15

NOVEMBER 11

NOVEMBER 11-16

NOVEMBER 12

NOVEMBER 13

NOVEMBER 14

NOVEMBER 14-16

NOVEMBER 14-17

NOVEMBER 15

NOVEMBER 15 & 18

NOVEMBER 15-24

THROUGH NOVEMBER 16

NOVEMBER 16

NOVEMBER 16-17

THROUGH NOVEMBER 17

NOVEMBER 17

NOVEMBER 18

NOVEMBER 19

NOVEMBER 20

NOVEMBER 21

NOVEMBER 21-23

NOVEMBER 21-24

NOVEMBER 22

NOVEMBER 22-23

NOVEMBER 22-24

NOVEMBER 22-DECEMBER 29

NOVEMBER 23

NOVEMBER 23-24

NOVEMBER 23-DECEMBER 26

NOVEMBER 23-JANUARY 1

OPENING NOVEMBER 23

NOVEMBER 24

NOVEMBER 25

NOVEMBER 26

NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 29

NOVEMBER 27

NOVEMBER 27 & 29

NOVEMBER 28

NOVEMBER 29

NOVEMBER 29 & DECEMBER 1

NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 15

NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 23