Culture Fiend

Bushwick Book Club Seattle Sets Hunter S. Thompson to Music

An unusual book club creates songs of fear and loathing for the concert hall.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Dec 09, 2011 at 10:25AM 0 Comments

Illustration: Carty Sewill

Originally published December 2011. "There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge,” Hunter S. Thompson warns in the opening pages of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as he freewheels across the Nevada desert in a red Chevy convertible with a trunk full of drugs and booze. (“Two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine…”)

But what would Thompson’s mescaline-fueled misadventures sound like if they were a symphony? It’s the latest challenge set by Seattle’s Bushwick Book Club, a rotating cast of singer-songwriters that performs original music inspired by a monthly reading assignment. Bushwick launched in October 2010 with a Slaughterhouse-Five session at the Can Can cabaret (and about 50 friends in the audience). Since then, they’ve tackled S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, even Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Tonight, they’ll hold their biggest show yet, as the 60-piece Seattle Rock Orchestra joins them for a little Fear and Loathing at Town Hall.

Read more about the Bushwick Book Club in our December feature.

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle and Seattle Rock Orchestra Present: Original Music Inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, Dec 9 at 8pm at Town Hall. Tickets are $13–$15.

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Tags: Concert, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Town Hall, Books & Talks

Annie Leibovitz Reads from Pilgrimage at Elliott Bay Book Co.

Her new book focuses on places, not faces.

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Dec 07, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: John Keatley

Do you see what I see? Annie Leibovitz in 2009.

Back in 2009 we had famed photographer Annie Leibovitz in front of a camera, posing for a Seattle Met shoot after the release of her new book Annie Leibovitz at Work. When isn’t she at work? Since her first magazine job—a plum gig shooting for Rolling Stone at age 21, through the years spent crafting celebrity photo portraits for Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has been on the go, cementing her status as a “living legend.” (A Library of Congress–certified living legend.) It wasn’t until she had children “and a life I liked being in” that she learned to resist shooting everything in sight, Steve Wiecking wrote for Seattle Met. He quotes Leibovitz: “‘I had spent years, decades, looking at everything as if it was a photograph. I’m looking at you right now and…I can’t help myself.’ She raised her hands to form a makeshift frame near my face. ‘There’s my rectangle, there you are, I’ve taken the picture,’ she said. ‘It’s not like you stop taking pictures. It’s just you’re not picking up the camera to do it.’”

For her latest photo book, Pilgrimage —which she’ll page through at Elliott Bay Book Company on December 12 —Leibovitz picks up the camera for an entirely new subject. No Hollywood A-listers in this collection. Instead, she visited the homes of Virginia Woolf, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, and Sigmund Freud to capture the spaces where her intellectual heroes lived and worked. She explored Yosemite Valley, honoring one of her favorite photographers, Ansel Adams, and traveled to Concord to capture Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. And though she couldn’t ask the Niagara Falls to pose, the book still has Leibovitz all over it. "It was an exercise in renewal,” she says. “It taught me to see again.”

Annie Leibovitz will read from Pilgrimage and sign copies at Elliott Bay Book Co on Dec 12 at 7.

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Tags: Photography, Elliott Bay Book Co, Books & Talks

TONIGHT: Nathan Myhrvold on How to Use a Centrifuge in the Kitchen

The coauthor of Modernist Cuisine mixes things up at Town Hall.

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Dec 05, 2011 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

“This book will change the way we understand the kitchen,” says leading molecular gastronomist Ferran Adrià, of the 2,438-page, six-volume Modernist Cuisine that Nathan Myhrvold coauthored. The former Microsoft chief technology officer will discuss the science of cooking, from sous vide to the many uses of a centrifuge, tonight at 7:30 at Town Hall. And as of this morning, tickets ($5) were still available at brownpapertickets.com. If you want a preview, watch the fairly hilarious Today show video above. Myhrvold, ever earnest, makes a striped mushroom omelette with dehydrated mushroom puree, and Matt Lauer can’t resist a few jabs: “Other than just because you can, what’s the purpose of this?”

There’s even more Myhrvold in our future: Nosh Pit’s Allecia Vermillion reports that he’ll be a guest chef on reality show Top Chef this season, taste testing some of East Texas’s best barbecue. The episode airs January 4.

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Tags: Town Hall, Books & Talks, Modernist Cuisine, Nathan Myhrvold

Hear David Sedaris Read from His Diary at Benaroya Hall

Tickets are on sale now.

Posted by: Allie Oosta on Dec 01, 2011 at 10:30AM 0 Comments

David Sedaris, the humorist and best-selling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, has visited Seattle annually for the last few years to read from his latest work, and we never miss it. He’s as candid on stage as he is in his essays about self-described “humiliating asshole things” he’s done (who can forget his story about being an elf at Macy’s Santaland?). It’s part book tour, part stand-up.

But when he comes to Benaroya Hall on April 29, he won’t have a new book to tout. We’re told he’ll be testing out new work and reading from (among other things) his diary. Fact: Sedaris was discovered by This American Life host Ira Glass while reading his diary at a Chicago club. This isn’t like your childhood lock-and-key journal—his autobiographical (well, semi-autobiographical) works are snarky, witty gems, tied up nicely with insightful commentary on the human condition. Even his story about buying his boyfriend a skeleton for his birthday. Or was it for Christmas?

Tickets ($38–$47) just went on sale this morning at 10am at benaroyahall.org. They typically sell out, so put this on your to-do list.

In the meantime, enjoy an old clip of Sedaris sharing one of those humiliating experiences with David Letterman.

David Sedaris returns to Benaroya Hall on April 29, 2012, at 7.

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Tags: Benaroya Hall, Ticket Alerts, Books & Talks, David Sedaris

Today’s Recommendation: Follow Sherman Alexie on Twitter

And go to Hugo House on Friday to hear his latest work.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 17, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Rob Casey.

In addition to the new fiction Sherman Alexie will showcase during the Hugo Literary Series on November 18, the Seattle scribe doles out a joke a day on Twitter (@Sherman_Alexie). Some highlights:

• Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller. That’s like Jonathan Franzen marrying Angelina Jolie.
• Can we end “douche bag” as an insult? I propose “enema.” It’s more inclusive and accurate.
• I make enough money to know that rich people who complain about taxes are evil.
• I want to be buried with a basketball, hand drum, and electric typewriter.
• Every woman knows that every man looks good in a pink shirt.
• Trapped and starving in the wilderness, I could eat human flesh. That’s why I always carry Tabasco sauce.
• In airports, I enjoy watching white businessmen get searched by black security workers.

Want to hear more like that? Alexie will muse on the topic “While You Were Sleeping” this Friday along with Portland author and publisher Kevin Sampsell; Nicole Hardy, author of Fallen: Memoirs of a Latter-Day Virgin; and Rachel Flotard of Seattle rock band Visqueen. The show’s sold out, but rush tickets will be available that day; come around 6:30 to put your name on the wait list.

Hugo Literary Series: While You Were Sleeping with Sherman Alexie, Kevin Sampsell, Nicole Hardy, and Rachel Flotard is Fri, Nov 18, at 7:30 at Richard Hugo House.

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Tags: Hugo House, Books & Talks, Twitter Comedy, Sherman Alexie

Dave Eggers Hosts the What to Read in the Rain Party

Our local writing center is getting national attention.

Posted by: Allison Williams on Nov 15, 2011 at 11:30AM 0 Comments

Student authors will be on hand to sign books, getting their first taste of delicious fame.

The question and answer are the same: Hmm, what to read in the rain? Make it What to Read in the Rain, an anthology produced by nonprofit 826 Seattle.

The writing and tutoring center will release its second edition of student and adult work on Sunday, with a milk toast to celebrate (in champagne flutes, natch). Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, will be on hand; he’s the founder of the nationwide 826 chain, and he’s bringing local comic artist David Lasky to the free event.

What to Read in the Rain is placed in hotels across the city, where rain-delayed tourists can read student poetry and fiction (including tales of robotic chickens) in addition to new work by Tom Robbins and local scribes Karen Finneyfronk and Garth Stein.

The party doubles as a thank you from the center to their community for their latest achievement, the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award for stellar after-school programs. Michelle Obama handed out the prize personally in early November to 11 organizations from across the country, but only New York and Seattle had two recipients apiece (shout out to Seattle’s Young Shakespeare Workshop). It’s hard to compete with the Emerald City—especially when our nonprofits offer rocket parking on the roof.

The What to Read in the Rain publication party runs 1–3pm at 826 Seattle on Sunday, Nov 20.

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Tags: Books & Talks, Books, Books & Authors, Family Friendly

John Hodgman Will Prepare Us for the Coming Global Superpocalypse

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 02, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

“If you are not concerned about identity theft and ferrets, then you are living in a fantasy world.” — John Hodgman

What, you haven’t heard of Ragnarok, the coming global superpocalypse? (Not to be confused with the Mayan apocalypse, which some say already came and went. Surprise!) We’re talking about the latest prediction by John Hodgman, The Daily Show’s longtime resident expert and purveyor of fake facts, in the final installment of his Complete World Knowledge trilogy, That Is All (on sale November 1). He’ll coach us on how to prepare for the end of the world at Town Hall next Monday, but before then, here’s a handy tip on “how to make essential household products yourself” postapocalypse.

“Like all things with computers inside of them, microwave ovens will be rendered useless by the omega pulse. So if you want to enjoy good, old-fashioned microwave popcorn, you’re going to have to dip into your dried corn stockpile, and then kidnap one of the descendants of Orville Redenbacher, about a third of whom still carry his telepathic mind-popping gene."

Hodgman’s arrival is yet another reason Seattle is a hilarious place to be this month.

John Hodgman is at Town Hall on Nov 7. This event is presented by Elliott Bay Book Company.

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Tags: Comedy, Elliott Bay Book Co, Town Hall, Books & Talks, John Hodgman

Seattle World’s Fair, a Look Back

New book The Future Remembered rewinds the clock to 1962.

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Oct 24, 2011 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Originally published October 2011. In The Future Remembered: The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and Its Legacy (out October 21, Seattle Center Foundation), Paula Becker, Alan J. Stein, and their fellow historylink.org staffers rewind the clock to a time when Seattle meant little more than airplanes and lumber to the rest of the world. The authors track the quest of local leaders to bring the world to the city and provide a glimpse of Seattle as seen through the eyes of President Kennedy, astronaut John Glenn, actor John Wayne, and Elvis Presley, whose It Happened at the World’s Fair was set at the expo. You’ll be hearing a lot about 1962 in the coming year—when Seattle celebrates the fair’s 50-year anniversary. The Future Remembered is the rocket to bring you up to speed.

Book-It Repertory Theatre has also adapted short stories from the 300-page book and will perform them at Intiman Playhouse on Tuesday, November 15, at 6:30pm. Tickets ($50 on brownpapertickets.com) include a complimentary Bubbleator cocktail and hors d’oeuvres.

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Tags: Books & Talks, Seattle Bookshelf, Seattle World's Fair

David Guterson Reads from New Novel Ed King

It’s more Oedipus Rex, less Snow Falling on Cedars.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Oct 19, 2011 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Tom Collicott.

Ed King, the brand-new novel by Bainbridge’s award-winning author of Snow Falling on Cedars, is practically Franzenien in its suburban salaciousness. Mild-mannered Walter knocks up his au pair, and the orphaned child goes on to marry his mother and rule as a tech tycoon…in Seattle. Of course it’s set in Seattle: opening in the 1960s with a trip to the World’s Fair, and running through today’s tech boom and beyond (to 2017). The book just came out yesterday, and it’s already been called both dazzling and a flat, misguided paraphrase of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

So which is it? Find out tonight at 7 when David Guterson reads from Ed King at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park. He’ll also be at Elliott Bay Book Company tomorrow at 7, and at University Bookstore on November 3 at 7. Admission is free.

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Tags: Books & Talks, David Guterson

Get Library Books on Your Kindle

I swear I had this idea a year ago…

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Sep 22, 2011 at 11:00AM 3 Comments

We still love books, but an e-reader is much nicer on the arms than Freedom.

I have been waiting very impatiently for this arrangement, but the time has come. You can now borrow ebooks from the Seattle Public Library and King County Library System and read them on your Kindle, according to the Seattle P-I. Yessss. The public library has download instructions on its site, spl.org, (under Library Collections), but here’s the gist:

If you have a library card number, you can download digital ebooks, audio books, video, and music onto your computer or e-reader. All you do is pick a title and click “Send to Kindle.” After 21 days, the download automatically returns to the library, so no late fees, and no slogging up that nasty hill to 5th Avenue to get to SPL. You can also borrow from the Project Gutenberg collection, which includes 15,000 titles (lots of classics, Twain and Shakespeare) that never expire.

According to csmonitor.com, roughly 11,000 community libraries are participating. And apparently, Amazon is just catching up to its competitors. Digital lending service OverDrive, which supports this new deal with Amazon, already offers Nook and Sony Reader owners some access to public libraries.

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Tags: Books & Talks, Seattle Public Library, Amazon, Kindle

CANCELLED: Calvin Trillin Talk at Town Hall

Mr. Trillin is feeling under the weather.

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Sep 22, 2011 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy AP/Richard Drew.

Get well soon, Calvin.

Sad news: Satirist and longtime Nation contributor Calvin Trillin had to cancel his talk tonight at Town Hall due to “non-life-threatening health reasons,” according to the press release. He was scheduled to read from his new book, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of the Funny Stuff, which includes nuggets like how his retirement plan consists of him winning the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. Town Hall hopes to bring Trillin back when he’s feeling better, but for now, ticket holders can get a refund or apply their ticket toward another Town Hall event in September or October. Call Brown Paper Tickets (800-838-3006) with questions.

In the meantime, let’s watch the funny man banter with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show in 2008.

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Tags: Books & Talks

I Just Got My Copy of Pearl Jam 20

It’s like being granted a retroactive backstage pass.

Posted by: Matthew Halverson on Sep 13, 2011 at 01:55PM 1 Comments

Pearl Jam turns 20 this year. How old do you feel?

Here’s my favorite quote from Pearl Jam 20, the exhausting exhaustive documentary-in-book-form that’s out today:

“All of a sudden, these guys I’d vaguely met were as famous as Elizabeth Taylor.”

First of all, that comes from R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. Yes, he moved here from Georgia in ‘93, right as Pearl Jam was blistering MTV and radio, but come on, his perspective is an odd one, given that R.E.M. and Pearl Jam were from such different worlds. What I really love, though, is that he’s comparing the band that kicked a hole in rock ‘n’ roll convention to…Cleopatra. Really, Pete? Really?

The book itself is massive: more than 350 pages of photos, scans of set lists and concert tickets, and day-by-day recreations of the band’s “first 20 years,” as director and band buddy Cameron Crowe writes in the forward. (It’s also one of a handful of releases and events—including a documentary by Crowe that screens at Seattle Cinerama from Sept 20-22 before airing on PBS—celebrating the anniversary.) The fact that it’s full of random little insights like Buck’s means the tome will border on TMI for the casual fan; but for PJ obsessives, it’s like being granted a retroactive backstage pass. I fall somewhere in between the two camps, but I can definitely see myself reading Pearl Jam 20 for hours with a pair of headphones in, blasting “State of Love and Trust” on repeat.

Pearl Jam 20 (Simon and Schuster, $20) is on sale Sept 13 at pj20.com.

Flashback 1992…MTV Unplugged

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Tags: Books & Talks, Pearl Jam , Pearl Jam Twenty, Seattle Cinerama