Start the New year right with First Thursday. Whether you take an art walk, hit the music video singalong or partake of a little free acupuncture. Just get out there. It's 2014.
Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon
Seattle Art Museum, through 1/5, $9 for adults on First Thursdays
Hopefully you’re not like me, and you went to see this show when it first opened. Hopefully you’ve already basked in the multimedia celebration of Peru’s history through its art, from "from gold funerary masks to modern folk art." Hopefully you’ve been amazed at this collection of national artifacts that have never before left Peru, even boasting about catching the exhibit at its ONLY U.S. stop. If not, you have a few more days to see it. Low First Thursday prices and a no-excuses-it's-the-new-year guilt complex will provide the motivation. See you there?
The Best Ever Music Video Sing Along
Central Cinema, Thursday 1/2 at 8 p.m., $6
Films with food and alcohol, the best music videos (from the 1980s to today) and the opportunity to raise your voice with other excited people? TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, right? Music videos really do get better the more you watch them, because you keep noticing something new, like “who IS that recurring guy in the background?” Journey, Madonna, the Spice Girls and Rick Springfield are all featured (along with Beyonce if they know what’s good for them).
Her
Harvard Exit Theatre, Every day, various showtimes, $10
Spike Jonze ("Where the Wild Things Are," "Adaptation") tells the story of Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a heartbroken man living in a not-so-distant future. When Theodore gets a new advanced computer operating system named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), his life begins to change for the better, because . . . he and Samantha fall in love. I was skeptical at first, but was sold by the combination of Phoenix’s performance and Jonze’s magic-laced style and talent for capturing our universal, age-old need for human (or human-ish) connection.
Free Acupuncture
Grassroots Community Acupuncture, Friday 1/3 from 3-6 p.m., FREE with advance appointment
Fremont’s Grassroots Community Acupuncture has been offering its services on a sliding scale ($15-35 per visit, no income verification required) since it opened. They also offer a free initial acupuncture appointment on the first Friday of each month! Whether you’re already a proponent of acupuncture or know very little about, this is a gret way to ease your stress, tackle those digestive problems, or sinusitis, or simply do something for yourself.
Surfer Blood, The Wild Ones
The Sunset Tavern, Saturday 1/4, $10
Surfer Blood’s sound is not as gritty as the name and the fact that they're opening for the Pixies implies. However, they do make fun, consistently great indie rock (not unlike Weezer, clearly an influence). Surfer Blood first attracted attention at CMJ music festival in 2009, where they were considered a breakout band, and they've been getting a lot of buzz ever since, most recently for their 2013 album Pythons.
The Odes of Pablo Neruda
Town Hall, Wednesday 1/8 at 7:30 p.m., $5
In his forties, Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda resolved to write an ode a week — whether it be about birdwatching, a large tuna in the market, or numbers — and each is stunning. He would up with 225, which, for the first time ever, have all been collected and published in a single volume. The book’s editor Ilan Stavans will be here to read from this bilingual collection: Pablo Neruda: All the Odes.
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.
