1. A Rainier Beach community group called the Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition is holding a neighborhood meeting tonight. Their subject is "Environmental Justice: Are We Getting Any?"

The group is primarily responsible for putting on Rainier Beach's annual "Town Hall meeting," which is coming in January. And recently, the RBCEC provided six teenagers with a 24-hour workshop to help them put on their own community events--resulting in an Environmental Justice Forum and a Hip Hop Dance Competition back in August.

Tonight at 6:30 at Rainier Beach Family Center (8825 Rainier Avenue South).

2. Back in high school, Jurassic 5 was my ish. The sole survivors of the Good Life Cafe hip hop crowd, their party-ready, old-school-tinged raps were perfect for bouncing around the burbs in Mom's car. The two archive-attentive DJs were my favorite, but Chali 2na, their deep-voiced, seven-foot-tall center of gravity, arguably had the best flow of the entire crew.

Chali is playing at Neumo's tonight with Gift of Gab, a favorite from my more mature music-listening years. If you can shake the $18 cover, you should go to that. Otherwise, you should scoot over the Easy Street Records in Queen Anne. Chali 2na's doing a free in-store there at 6 to warm up for the Cap Hill gig.

[caption id="attachment_19108" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Jurassic 5"] [/caption]

Neumo's at 8 pm, tickets are $18. Or, Easy Street Queen Anne, at 6 pm--admission is, obviously, free.

3. The Sexual Minorities Commission is meeting tonight at City Hall. Like the Women's Commission, I recommended checking in on earlier this week, they're tasked with watching out for a group that faces discrimination.

The fifteen-member Sexual Minority Commission advises the Mayor and City Council on city issues related to sexual orientation.

Tonight at City Hall, Room 370, at 6:30 pm.

4. Good Seattle history books are hard to come by. Sons of the Profits, which for some reason is the canon history of the city's founding days, is a dopey, factually-spotty mess (it repeatedly refers to Native Americans as "Our Red Breathren") written by Bill Speidel, the guy who started the Seattle underground tour. It's a shame, too, because Seattle is one-in-a-million in terms of the hippies, anarchists, and rapscallions who, until the advent of Microsoft, took refuge in this gloomy outpost.

It's going to take some serious writing chops and a much more patient eye than Speidel's to tell that story, but this may be a start: Lorraine McConaghy, public historian at the Museum of History and Industry, has a new book—Warship Under Sail—about the USS Decatur, an American warship that coasted the Pacific Northwest shore in the very first years of Seattle existence, firing its cannons at Native Americans  and providing settlers with supplies.

The book is supposed to be well written, and even better, it's supposed to get into that shady, West Coast underworld that characterized much of Seattle's early history.



Tonight, McConaghy is giving a lecture at MOHAI about the Decatur, based on the book.

7 pm at the Museum of History and Industry, at 2700 24th Ave. E. Tickets are $7.

Know about any important meetings, rad shows, weirdo lectures, or other noteworthy events? Please e-mail me at [email protected].