THURSDAY

No prior planning needed to enjoy Blitz: The Capitol Hill Art Walk tonight from 5-8 (and the second Thursday of every month). Click here for a map of the 40+ venues participating in this neighborhood-wide open house—including galleries, coffee shops, bars, retailers, and restaurants—and plot your course. We’re thinking about stopping by Richard Hugo House for its group exhibit Large, Hairy and Literate. Just guess what that’s about. Go on, guess. It’s more fun that way.

FRIDAY

William E. Wallace, a leading expert on Michelangelo, reveals a new side to the Renaissance artist in his lecture at Seattle Art Museum from 7-8pm. Apparently, old Michelangelo was a bit of a snob.

And director Tanem Davidson turns a lens on the “new brow” art movement in the documentary…wait for it…New Brow, in its much anticipated Seattle premiere at Northwest Film Forum. Davidson interviewed four major players in the Seattle art scene—Marlow Harris, Kirsten Anderson, Charles Krafft and Larry Reid—to examine the growth of this California-bred contemporary art movement. For the uninitiated (like me, until yesterday), new brow has non-traditional or “low-brow” roots—think graffiti and tattoo art, skate and surf culture, punk art, and underground comix—and a pop surrealist aesthetic.

Davidson will attend the screening tonight; New Brow runs through Sunday.

Also at NWFF: Classic teen angst film Rebel Without a Cause screens at 8, and Saturday at noon. Screenwriter Stewart Stern introduces the film tonight, but participates in a three-hour viewing and discussion tomorrow. Doesn’t get much cooler than that; tickets are $6-$9 for movie tickets, and $30 for the Saturday workshop.

MUSIC: Seattle indie darlings The Moondoggies could make James Dean mellow; they headline at Tractor Tavern.

Two of the biggest acts in electronic music right now—Israeli duo Infected Mushroom and DJ Steve Aoiki (aka Kid Millionaire) —play Showbox at the Market in a double bill of psy-trance, rock and pop remixes.

SATURDAY

You could make a weekend out of going to the opera. Start with the screening of Live in HD: Carmen, broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera. Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca sings the lead role in Bizet’s sexiest, most recognizable work. (Note: This series is so freakin’ popular you should probably buy your tickets now.)

Then sample Seattle Opera in its opening night of Il Trovatore, Verdi’s four-act drama about a gypsy’s curse that haunts young lovers. The opera runs through January 30.

SUNDAY

I fear this show will have sold out in the time it takes me to post, but if it hasn’t, go see the debut of PNB principal Olivier Wevers’s new dance company, Whim W’Him at On the Boards. Whim W’Him is a dance supergroup of sorts, featuring stars of PNB (Lucien Postlewaite and ­Kaori Nakamura) and Spectrum Dance (Ty Alexander Cheng, Hannah Lagerway, Kylie Lewallen, Vincent Lopez). They perform Wevers’s choreography in 3Seasons, a modern take on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This is local dance at its best—don’t miss it, or our interview with Wevers.

Check back for ways to extend your weekend—and honor Martin Luther King—when we post a roundup of MLK Day events.