Welcome to $15 or Less, our eclectic, weekly events calendar for cash-strapped devotees of arts and culture.
Mike Daisey’s ****ing ****ing ****ing Ayn Rand
Seattle Repertory Theatre, 5/8-5/11, $12 for under 25
After seeing American Utopias last week, I cannot wait for Daisey’s second (and final show) here. He possesses all the absurdity and charm of my favorite comedians, the wit and timing of the my most beloved essayists and the unwavering engagement of a talented actor. All of this (plus a lot of heart) makes Daisey something a uniquely incredible storyteller, creating a performance unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day
All around West Seattle, Saturday 5/11
It’s spring, a time of new life, sunshine (?) AND garage/yard/estate sales galore! Next week is my favorite garage sale day of all (Phinney Greenwood), but I will whet my appetite this week in West Seattle, where 280 sales will be happening. Check this map to plan your route, and while you're over there don't miss the delicious brunch at Meander’s Kitchen.
Eilen Jewell
Tractor Tavern, Saturday 5/11, $15
Boston-based singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell will be in town, giving Seattle a dose of her alluring, blues-twinged folk. Jewell claims half a dozen albums to her credit, including one of all Loretta Lynn covers, one of gospel music with “The Sacred Shakers” and her most recent full-length offering: Queen of the Minor Key. She is!
Seattle Beer Week
EVERYWHERE, 5/9-5/19
IT HAS ARRIVED — and the city is brimming with events, from special casks to the fleeting resurrection of Elysian pumpkin beer! This year’s kickoff takes place at the local/neighborhood-minded Fremont Brewing Company (Thursday 5/9 at 5:30) and continues all around town for 10 days. Find somewhere to drink in direct sunlight and enjoy one of the many great brews we’re lucky to have coming out of our city.
Solutions from Underground: How Mushrooms Can Heal the Planet with Paul Stamets
Kane Hall at UW Campus, Friday, 5/10 at 7 p.m., FREE
Leading mycologist Paul Stamets will be here (as the crowning event of many surrounding the Annual Wild Mushroom Show) to discuss our close evolutionary relationship with fungi and the myriad ways in which mushrooms could be vital to a better future for our planet. Stamets was named one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” by Utne Reader and gave an immensely popular TED talk.
Blood Squad
Balagan Theatre, Saturday, 5/11 at 10:30 p.m., $10
Local improv comedy troupe Blood Squad returns with another excellent show, this one an homage to classic ghost stories such as The Shining and Poltergeist. Expect “The Harrowing Haunting of Apparition Falls,” a trilogy, to be delightfully melodramatic and hysterical.
Something in the Air
Northwest Film Forum, Friday 5/10- Thursday 5/16, $10
This French film follows a group of revolutionaries in 1971, a time when global tensions are growing and the French uprising of May ’68 is still being felt. This semi-autobiographical tale from filmmaker Olivier Assayas captures the immediacy of the period, and the genuine feeling that anything was possible.
Evgeny Morozov
Town Hall, Sunday 5/12 at 7:30 p.m., $5
Evgeny Morozov will present “The Moral Consequences of Digital Technologies,” a lecture that wears its heft in its title. HOWEVER, the permeation, potential and “ease” of technology, an oft-ignored subject in our increasingly fast-paced society, is important to consider and Morozov (author of To Save Everything, Click Here) is more than prepared to help us do so.
Collide-o-scope
Re-bar, Monday 5/13, Doors at 7 p.m., $6
Head to local favorite Re-bar for hours of smartly spliced commercials and obscure footage from the last several decades. Somehow, those detergent ads just never fail to lose their squeaky clean charm — plus, free Redvines and popcorn!
Susan Orlean
Benaroya Hall, Tuesday 5/14 at 7:30 p.m., $15 balcony, $5 students (or free day-of)
Journalist and author Susan Orlean is the latest artist featured in the ever-great literary edition of the Seattle Arts and Lectures series. A staff writer at the New Yorker since 1992, Orlean is best known for her 1998 book The Orchid Thief (which inspired the 2002 film of the same name) and for the 2011 book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend.
What are you doing this weekend? Let us know in the comments area below. And if you hear of any interesting – under $15 - events in or around our grand city, please email editor@crosscut.com.
