1. The Wild Rose is having its 25-year anniversary party tonight and tomorrow. For a city that takes such pride in its diversity, the fact that Seattle has only one lesbian bar strikes me as strange. It wasn't that way 25 years ago, when the Wild Rose started out, but these days the Rose—part dive, part community center—is the sole full-time bastion of lesbian nightlife in Seattle.

The Wild Rose is shutting down 11th Avenue East where it meets Pike Street and putting up tents. The party starts tonight and lasts all through New Year's Eve.

At the Wild Rose, on 11th and Pike.

2. In my mind there was an era in Seattle, in the '70s or something, when downtown was populated with late-nite diners that catered to stumbling drunks and working class stoics who'd spent the night shift hauling logs on Yesler. It suits this image I have of old Seattle being full of rugged, steel-tack guzzling hardasses.

The Night Kitchen, which is opening tonight, brings the late-nite vibe, if not the nail guzzling. They're open all night, and only at night, and they advertise "gourmet comfort food to provide a haven for the late night diner" (although discerning tastes like mine will probably eschew the $17 green curry prawns for frites or scrambled eggs). They serve breakfast all night and there's a lounge. Just in time for New Year's.

At 216 Stewart St, downtown. 6 pm - 9 am.

3. Much has been said about Helladope on this web site : their beats are all hand claps and waves of Rhodes organ, their raps are sex-crazed and spacey. The result is R&B that defies the current '09 Capitol Hill hip-hop wave. Their live vibe is just as bumpin', and they're playing tonight at Chop Suey—which, uniquely among  local venues, seems to specialize in hands-waving booty-shaking hip-hop.

Tonight at Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St. Tickets are $5.

There's also that Murder City Devils concert I hyped over the weekend—great 80s-punk throwbacks playing their bi-monthly Seattle reunion show. That show is tonight at the Showbox at the Market.

Tonight at the Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 8 pm. Tickets are $20.