#ManifestDestiny #NBD

Shawn Huckins: Athenaeum (I Can’t Pretend That This Is Poetry)

Oct 5–21 The reverence of American mythology converges with contemporary internet jargon in this new exhibit by Shawn Huckins. Recreating by hand the classic American portraits and landscape paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, then intruding on their stateliness with meme-ready white text and imagery, Huckins bridges two vast frontiers: the new world, from which the American concept emerged and spread across the continent, and the internet, where the instantaneousness of communication gave rise to new language.  Foster/White Gallery, fosterwhite.com 

Classical & More

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Oct 17 This 1922 silent film doesn’t need any CGI to deliver the creepiness. Composer Rick Friend and the Seattle Symphony bring the horror classic to life with a musical performance alongside the film. Expect long shadows, haunting strings, and a few laughs along with host David Schmader. Benaroya Hall, seattlesymphony.org

Comedy

Nick Offerman

“If there is a God, no part of the Bible or Christian doctrine will convince me of His existence half as much as the flavor of a barbecued pork rib.”

Oct 6 The philosophizing man’s man brings his salt-of-the-earth wit and wisdom to Seattle. Moore Theatre, stgpresents.org

Concert

The Wolfe Cries Back

Oct 30 Chelsea Wolfe could have grown into a musician resembling her indie folk contemporaries like Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten. Instead she went dark, drawing more from black metal than Stevie Nicks. Every album since her 2010 debut, The Grime and the Glow, leans more into the goth rock (some tracks off her new album Hiss Spun could easily be considered doom metal). But even veiled in black, Wolfe’s folk influence remains steadfast in her tender vocals. Chelsea Wolfe, The Showbox, showboxpresents.com

Dance

Bandaloop

Oct 5–7 Meany Hall, as in the building itself, is the stage for this open-air performance that reimagines dance as an act more...vertical. In Bandaloop, performers traverse Meany’s exterior seemingly free from the petty restrictions of gravity, thanks not to magic but to a system of ropes and harnesses. The unveiling of new work in collaboration with University of Washington dance students makes for an unmissable engagement. Try to ignore the strings and just believe.  Meany Center, meanycenter.org

Visual Art

Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect

Oct 19–Jan 15 At first glance, many of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings may come across as safe: pastoral American landscapes populated by everyday people. And yet the work manages to convey profound emotional stakes underneath all the quotidian realism. For its fall exhibition, Seattle Art Museum takes a deep dive into what made the prolific twentieth-century American painter tick, and the surprising other art forms that informed his aesthetic. Seattle Art Museum, seattleartmuseum.org

Food & Drink

Fresh Hops Festival 

Oct 7 Tasting fresh hop beer after a lifetime of the dried and processed hop beer found on most market shelves is like switching from diet soda to the real stuff. Good thing the Yakima Valley grows gobs of the stuff. Celebrate these malty beverages with a wealth of local breweries, including Fremont, Bad Jimmy’s, Lowercase, and Elysian. Hale’s Palladium, halesbrewery.com