Seattle Twist

Comics connoisseurs can view “Counterculture Comix: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists” for free this Friday, September 3 from noon to 7:00 PM in the Olympic Room on the Northwest corner of the Seattle Center grounds near Key Arena.)

The exhibition features 3 generations of cartoonists from the city that gave birth and momentum to the alternative comix movement. More than 250 artworks and artifacts are on display, with a comix reading lounge, a continuous screening of David Moore’s seminal Hooked on Comix documentary, and cartooning demonstrations by Friends of the Nib and Bureau of Drawers. All Bumbershoot visual art shows are free on Friday, and hizzoner the mayor will tour the exhibitions in the afternoon.

Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual Labor Day weekend arts festival, looks promising this year. In addition to the comix exhibition, there’s the daily Flatstock poster show, a special preview of the anxiously-awaited Jesse Bernstein documentary “I Am Secretly an Important Man” on Saturday, a concert by Hole, featuring the lovely and talented Courtney Love on Sunday, and the equally lovely and talented Tony Millionaire on Monday.

BREAKTHROUGH: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle, by Thea Cooper and Arthur Ainsberg is the dramatic true story of one of the most significant medical breakthroughs of the 20th century: insulin. Told with the suspense and drama of a thriller, BREAKTHROUGH chronicles the discovery through the fragile life of young girl.

The book was written by Thea Cooper and Arthur Ainsberg and together, they embarked on an exploratory research effort that would ultimately take them to medical centers, universities, libraries, archives, and other sites of significance located in twenty-five cities and towns in eight states and four countries over the course of five years.

Seattle resident Thea Cooper will be talking about Breakthrough and signing copies of the book at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle on September 18 and at Third Place Books in Seattle on November 16, and more events will be posted on the book’s website and on Thea’s Amazon author page.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Breakthrough will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Life for a Child Program of the International Diabetes Federation.

Be There, Monday, August 16th 2010

Elvis died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland.

Re-live the glory, the agony and the ecstasy on Monday, August 16th 2010 at Cafe Racer and the Official Bad Art Museum of Art at Elvis Tribute Night, starting at 7pm.

Meet Elvis book author Gillian G. Gaar, author of “Return of the King” Elvis Presley’s Great Comeback. Gillian will be on hand to read from her book and sign copies.

Come and sing Elvis Karaoke or enjoy fabulous ETA’s (Elvis Tribute Artists) perform Elvis favorites.

Elvis Music
Elvis Favorite Food!
Elvis Favorite Drinks!

Come see the Mighty Elvis Mobile and Traveling Elvis Museum. Take a tour of Graceland and renew your wedding vows at the Elvis Chapel of Love.

Party at the Official Bad Art Museum of Art and Cafe Racer at 5828 Roosevelt Way NE in Seattle, August 16th, starting at 7pm.

Come on down to the Tractor Tavern, August 20 for Sweetpea’s Birthday Shindig! Bring $6 to get in, some money for your favorite beverage, and a buck or two to put in my donation jar for www.purrfectpals.org if you can’t make it but want to donate anyway, please feel free to go to the purrfectpals.org site, or any other animal rescue site of your choice. Hope to see you there!

Elvis died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland.

Re-live the glory, the agony and the ecstasy on Monday, August 16th 2010 at Cafe Racer at Elvis Tribute Night, starting at 7pm.

Meet Elvis book author Gillian G. Gaar, author of “Return of the King” Elvis Presley’s Great Comeback. Gillian will be on hand to read from her book and sign copies.

Come and sing Elvis Karaoke or enjoy fabulous ETA’s (Elvis Tribute Artists) perform Elvis favorites.

Elvis Music
Elvis Favorite Food!
Elvis Favorite Drinks!

Come see the Mighty Elvis Mobile and Traveling Elvis Museum. Take a tour of Graceland and renew your wedding vows at the Elvis Chapel of Love.

Party at the Official Bad Art Museum of Art and Cafe Racer at 5828 Roosevelt Way NE in Seattle, August 16th, starting at 7pm.

Georgetown Art Attack 
Saturday August 14th, 6-9pm

Seattle, WA. The tradition of cool art in a hot neighborhood continues with the Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack on August 14 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Fabulous food, fine art, friendly bars and a few surprises are in store at this colorful monthly event in one of Seattle’s most compelling communities.

Among the many free visual and performing arts events: Georgetown Records and Fantagraphics Bookstore present the book launch party for “Cover Story: Odd, Obscure, and Outrageous Album Art” featuring an exhibition of album art from the book, a book signing, and DJ sets from contributors Aja West and Cheeba; The Georgetown Arts and Cultural Center presents a solo show “Archetypes and Lucky Charms” which combines universal archetypes with individual portraiture by Seattle artist Deborah Scott; the return of the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall featuring a Market of Curiosities – a collective of local artists with hands-on activities – followed by an outdoor screening of highlights from the Georgetown Super 8 Film Festival at dusk; new paintings by Julie Lukes at Calamity Jane’s; photography by Robin Crookall with musical guests presented by the Twilight art collective at the Stables; the grand reopening of Krab Jab Studio, having moved from suite 335 to suite 250 of the Original Rainier Brewery, featuring new member, painter Michael Hoppe, as well as works by Julie Baroh, Kyle Abernethy, and Mark Tedin.

For a map of participants, please see: www.georgetownartattack.com.

DON’T MISS SEATTLE’S PREMIER MULTI-FACETED 60′S/MOD STYLE EVENT!!!

Saturday August 7, 9PM Doors

STUDIO 66 www.myspace.com/studio66

At Lo-Fi Performance Gallery (429 Eastlake Ave E, 2 doors down from the Victory Lounge (www.thelofi.net).

A night of 60′s mod, psychedelic and garage rock, vintage soul, Brit-pop, acid jazz and international pop.

FEATURING:

The rockin’ soul sounds of
SUGARSMACKS

And the Brit-sounds of a new band featuring members of Boss Martians & The Pranks –
DIRTY SIDEWALKS

As always with Resident DJ’s DJ CHRISPO, DJ GORT, DJ VODKA TWIST

SPECIAL GUEST DJ – MR. MARK

Plus Dancing by TANGERINE TONIC

$8 cover

21 + admitted

Molly Epstein will be having a solo exhibition of new work at Gallery4Culture, that opens this Thursday 8/5. Molly has worked with doctors creating medical devices that not only save lives, but are also beautiful, and this translates into some very interesting and dynamic work.

Molly’s interactive sculpture and jewelry express a deep understanding of the history of body adornment and its ability to influence the psyche. The goal of achieving equilibrium is central to Molly Epstein’s art: “My work is about healing, both physical and emotional. I am on an unending quest to find this balance. Whether it is through making surgical instruments, jewelry, or sculpture, the mission is the same.”

The exhibit at Gallery4Culture includes a large-scale kinetic sculpture, a group of abstract, wall-hung pieces, and a series of brooches created from materials and inspiration drawn from healing and medical environments.

The opening at Gallery4Culture will be from 6-8pm and the show runs until August 27th.

The creation of this work was made possible in part by an Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP) and an Individual Artist Project Grant from 4Culture. Find out more at www.artisttrust.org and www.4culture.org.

Come to the Marcus Eaton show at Egan’s on Saturday, July 31st to find out why David Crosby, Dominic Miller, Warren Haynes and Tim Reynolds are fans, and why he is endorsed by Baden Guitars and Fishman.

You can see lots of professional videos on his website, but I was lucky enough to attend a house party earlier this year where Marcus entertained us with his amazing guitar.

This is the last week for Bette Burgoyne’s show at Vermillion Gallery at 1508 11th Avenue on Capitol Hill.

Here’s a review of the show by Laura Macomber at Visual Art Source:

Bette Burgoyne’s latest exhibition of pencil drawings channel a deep, dark, and mysterious mythos: with titles such as “Whisper Vapor,” “Sacrum,” and “Primordia,” they’d better. Each drawing, a veritable webbing of wispy white lines that merge, plait, and even throb across their surfaces of coal-black paper, offers a new and semiopaque supernatural vision of worlds – of creatures, of material, of flora – that only our imaginations can rightly access.

Burgoyne’s work, however, is rooted in the natural world: “Each drawing,” she claims, “is a reinterpretation and combination of observations made from looking at many things: clouds, rocks, erosion, light, mammal ears, leaves, fur, waves, lichen and science illustrations of electromagnetic fields.” But where we might think we see echoes of birch trees, outlines of sand dollars and bird beaks, so do we sense the decomposition latent in them. Burgoyne’s pencil-tip latticework is as equally redolent of severed brain tissue and bone, snapped spinal columns and ashes and dust. Any of these drawings might inspire loneliness or sublimity or repose. Their exquisite pencil work will simply inspire.

Each piece, an exercise in meditation, is elaborate and complicated and is made using white Prismacolor pencil on black paper.

The show is up at Vermillion Gallery until July 31.

July 27, 2010 – Seattle, WA. The Mystic Sons of Morris Graves, a beneficent fraternal order dedicated to celebrating the legacy of its revered namesake, is commemorating the centenary of Graves’ birth with an invitational art exhibition and séance in August at the Tashiro Kaplan artists cooperative in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.

The art exhibition will feature dozens of homages to Northwest master Morris Graves by accomplished members and friends of Seattle Lodge No. 93. The show features work in all media from established and emerging artists including Chris Crites, Charles Krafft, Stephen Rock, Aaron Murray, Ries Niemi, James Dykes, Kelly Lyles, Peter Santino, Tim Silbaugh, Tom Francis, David C, Kane, Art Garcia, Eric Nelson, Galen Garwood, Tom Francis, John Ohanessian, Augie Pagan, Matthew Kangas, Robert Hardgrave, Larry Reid, and countless others. Also included in the exhibition will be seldom-seen artworks and artifacts created by Morris Graves specifically for the Seattle Lodge.

The Morris Graves Centenary exhibition opens with a festive reception on First Thursday, August 5 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at 3 galleries in the Tashiro Kaplan compound: Rock?DeMent, the Corridor, and Angle galleries at 306 S. Washington St. Following the reception, the exhibition will remain open for public viewing on Saturdays from noon to 6:00 PM through August 28.

On Saturday, August 28 at 9:00 PM – Morris Graves’ 100th birthday – members of the Lodge will conduct a séance in the community room of the Tashiro Kaplan Building. Presided over by master medium Kirk Charles with a special Theremin performance by Aja West, this event is sure to be both entertaining and enlightening. For membership information gaining access to this unique experience, attend the exhibition on opening night or visit the Nancy boutique at 1930 2nd Avenue, Wednesday – Saturday 11:00 to 6:00 PM.

On Sunday, July 25, from 2 -5PM ,

Full Tilt Ice Cream in Columbia City is invites you to join them  for an afternoon of homemade ice cream and hometown music – an inaugural event that is being made possible by so many wonderful friends of the Rainier Valley food bank.

It’s all free – with donations accepted to benefit the Rainier Valley Food Bank (RVFB).  RVFB provides food assistance to low-income residents in southeast Seattle, with a focus on seniors, families, individuals with disabilities and the homeless.  No one is turned away who meets the food bank’s broad criteria for assistance.  They have a commitment to honor clients by offering an abundance of healthy, nutritious food.

Come see music by  The Femurs, Big Sur, Shenandoah Davis, Jace Krause (Friday Mile) and  Kaylee Cole .

Come have some ice cream, listen to some amazing music, and make some money for the food bank!

Northwest Puppet Center is honored to become the home to this internationally acclaimed collection.

“The World of Puppetry: Treasures from the Cook/Marks Collection” will be the first opportunity for a portion of this massive collection to be displayed in Seattle.  Don’t miss your chance to see the world through wooden eyes with puppets from Bucharesti, Palermo, Bali, Athens, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, Bamako, Bursa, and many more points on the globe.

Included on display are stunning examples of Sicilian opera dei pupi, Indonesian wayang and Japanese bunraku (some of the puppet traditions recognized by UNESCO as “Intangible Cultural Assets to Humanity”).  You will even see vaudeville marionettes returning to the limelight after making their original appearances on Seattle stages a century ago!

Northwest Puppet Center presents

The World of Puppetry: Treasures from the Cook/Marks Collection

Location:
Seattle Center Pavilion B (next to the skate park)

On View July 23-Aug. 1, 2010
6pm-9pm on Fri. July 23
11am-4pm on weekends
11am-3pm on weekdays

Admission is FREE but donations to Northwest Puppet Center are welcomed to help continue NWPC’s expanding museum efforts.

Exhibit sponsored by The Jacqueline S. Marks Fund at the California
Community Foundation and Seattle Center.  General support provided by ArtsFund and Washington State Arts Commission.

To learn more about the Cooks/Marks Collection:
http://nwpuppet.org/worldofpuppetry.html

Get a double-dose of puppets by combining your visit with the regional festival, Puppet-O-Rama,
organized by members of Puppeteers of Puget Sound, to be held at Seattle University July 30-Aug. 1.  International Puppetry Museum and Northwest Puppet Center will be hosting a reception at the regional festival on July 30 to celebrate this new collection and would like you to join in their celebration.   Come learn more about puppetry at the festival:  http://www.puppet-o-rama.org

Not a puppeteer and want to see puppet shows all around the area?

Find out where the Northwest Puppet Center will be performing this summer  http://www.nwpuppet.org/summer.html

After this exhibit at Seattle Center, more of the collection will be on display when the 2010-2011 season opens in November. Northwest Puppet Center will feature two exhibits each year and The Cook/Marks Collection will be a major portion of the Puppet Museum at the Northwest Puppet Center for generations to come.

To find out more about the Northwest Puppet Center’s 2010-2011 season performances: http://nwpuppet.org/weekend.html

We at Seattle Twist support Thunderbitch, a very cool project our friend Daniel R. Smith is putting together. Support Thunderbitch if you can, and you’ll get the exhibit catalog and have fun at the associated events, and get to see me there having fun too. Can’t go wrong! Just announced a super live music lineup for the opening, Aug. 5th. How about a set by VISQUEEN (7pm), plus BARBARA IRELAND + STONE GOSSARD (6pm) PLUS show by DAMIEN JURADO (8pm) to celebrate his new album St. Barlett…? Not to mention an appearance by the PISTON PACKIN’ MAMAS, Seattle’s all-girl vintage car & motorcycle club.

Thunderbitch: Women Designers in Northwest Rock 1966–2010 

From DIY Xerox flyers for bands you’ve never heard of to big budget rock albums that sold in the millions, women designers have shaped the visual identity of music in the Pacific Northwest since at least the late 1960s. Some never considered themselves designers, simply making Xerox posters out of necessity to promote their bands. Some are artists and illustrators synonymous with various music genres and some are career graphic designers. Thunderbitch is the first attempt to document these women artists and their work. Taking its name from a pseudonym for Catherine Weinstein, an early rock poster maker in Portland, this exhibit spans the emergence of psychedelic rock, DIY punk and new wave, grunge, riot grrl and today’s contemporary silkscreen gig poster movement from Washington and Oregon.

The Exhibit Catalog 
With so many previously undocumented Northwest posters, flyers, etc. in this exhibit, I want to share the full-color images, plus some of the unexpected stories gathered along the way. Like the life story of Catherine Weinstein, who raced cars in Portland in the ’60s, created psychedelic posters and in 1984 was convicted of attempted manslaughter. Like Seattle’s Judith Bissell, member of the Weather Underground who spent time in federal prison for two attempted bombings, and who created a precursor to feminist riot girl fanzines. And Kim Kalliber, founding member of the Piston Packin’ Mammas, Seattle’s all-girl, vintage car and motorcycle club, who designs rock posters and pinstripes hotrods.

Funding 
Tether (tetherinc.com) has generously provided graphic design support for Thunderbitch, including the exhibit catalog. Mohawk Paper (mohawkpaper.com) has donated paper to print it on. Seattle’s woman-owned print shop, Girlie Press, has offered a deep discount on printing the 40 page, 7.5 x 9.75″, full-color catalog. All I have to do now is cover the remaining hard costs, $4,000 for the printing. Donate $20 or more and receive a copy! Or donate more and get great stuff, including recognition in print.

See the Exhibit 
The exhibit runs August 5th – 28th, 2010, at Tether Design Gallery, 323 Occidental Ave South, Seattle, 98104. www.tetherdesigngallery.com

Exhibiting Designers 
Lynda Barry, Judith Bissell, Deborah Brown, Rachel Carns, Neko Case, Chelsea Conboy, Cindy Crangle, Shari Critchley, Louise Crowley, Katha Dalton, Dotty DeCoster, Ellen Forney, Candy Fowler, Sharon Gannon, Marianne Goldin, Kathleen Hanna, Chanda Helzer, Jane Higgins, Lucy Huntzinger, Barbara Ireland, Kim Kalliber, Eva Lake, Molly Neuman, Lisa Orth, Tammy Packs, Gina Papen, Cielito Pascual, Emily Pothast, Robynne Raye, Mary Rivard, Helena Rogers, Rachel da Silva, Helene Silverman, Clara Sims-Mulligan, Heidi Snellman, Dana Squires, Kim Stringfellow, Ashleigh Talbot, Tobi Vail, Jeanne Wasserman, Joanna Wecht, Catherine Weinstein (aka Hedda Goldspace, aka Thunderbitch), Alice Wheeler, Bon Von Wheelie, Allison Wolfe

Please read more about Thunderbitch here.

Object sculpture by Kim Kalliber of The Piston Packin’ Mamas.

July 7, 2010 – Seattle, WA. Multifaceted cartoonist, musician, performance artist, fortune teller and neo-Victorian culture maven appears at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on July 10 to celebrate the publication of MEAT CAKE, a collection of stories from the first decade of her popular comic book series of the same name. The event features an exhibition of Dame Darcy’s original comic art and other creations, an enchanting music recital and a fortune telling session with each book signed.

MEAT CAKE is like a peek into an imaginative, deranged dollhouse filled with fractured fairy tales. An expanded version of the long out-of-print hardcover book, this new paperback assembles the very best of Darcy’s work from the first 11 issues of the beloved comic (including “Hungry Is the Heart,” the legendary collaboration with Watchmen creator Alan Moore). According to the New York Times, “Darcy’s comics are aesthetic manifestos… Darcy is a star. Meat Cake will prevail, as luxury takes over America. And the world beyond.” The Los Angeles Times observes, “[Darcy] has created a childlike, otherworldly realm, a land that hovers in the twilight space between the whimsical and the macabre. Ghosts and goblins, foul-tempered stepmothers, lovesick mermaids and charmed forests are all rendered in Darcy’s distinctive hand, loose and flowing lines reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey.”

Dame Darcy’s appearance on Saturday, July 10 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM coincides with the colorful Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack featuring challenging visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic industrial arts corridor. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport way S.) only minutes south of downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.

Commemorate the holiday with a bang at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Monday, July 5. Lovely Los Angeles-based UNLOVABLE artist Esther Pearl Watson will appear with her husband and collaborator Mark Todd from 1:00 to 4:00 PM and we’ll be hosting a festive urban barbeque. Best of all, everything in the store is on sale 20% to 50% off for one-day-only! All day long!

What better way to conclude a holiday weekend than with complimentary hot dogs, baked beans, cold beverages, and cheap comic books! Don’t miss this opportunity to meet these accomplished young artists and stock up on essential summer reading at bargain prices.

The store, located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle’s Georgetown district, will be closed on Sunday, July 4, but open regular hours 11:30 to 8:00 PM on Monday for this spectacular event. And mark your calendars for Saturday evening, July 10 with the enchanting Dame Darcy debuting her new MEAT CAKE collection.

Inviting all Capitol Hillsters to the Cal Anderson Park Alliance 8th Annual Capitol Hill Independence Day Community Picnic Saturday, July 3, Noon – 5 PM.

This great free all-ages community celebration is Cal Anderson Park Alliance’s signature annual event. With four eclectic live bands, free root beer garden, urban family photo portraits, pie eating contest, pet/human look-alike contest, and feel-good, all-ages interactive fun. Everyone is invited: kids, hipsters, parents, friends, lovers, and anyone who loves Capitol Hill.

Performances will take the Sunbowl Stage all afternoon, among them the kids band the Not-Its, funk band Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme, the Toucans and the Raggedy Anns.

The CAPA Root Beer Garden will be handing out root beer floats until the ice cream’s gone. Skillet will be on the scene with their great food. And free cotton candy for everyone!

PLUS: more free activities, including Spin Art Bike, Patriotic Tie-dye, the Cupcake Royale Cupcake Walk, and Hoola Hoop Contest.

This is a family-friendly, all-ages event to celebrate our independence and our community!

June 29, 2010 – Seattle, WA. Summer celebrations continue in Georgetown with the Second Saturday Art Attack on July 10 and the annual Georgetown Garden Walk on Sunday, July 11. These colorful activities accentuate the unique character of Georgetown’s historic business corridor and creative residential neighborhood.

Among the highlights of the July 10 Georgetown Art Attack: Seattle Teen Printmakers (STP) display work from recent workshops at Georgetown Arts and Cultural Center together with Amy Pleasant’s “Family Album” exhibition and open studios with resident artists; “Meat Cake” book launch party featuring original comic art exhibition, book signing and performance by Portland-based artist Dame Darcy at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery; a collection of handcrafted traditional Caribbean masks from Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Jamaica by Alyssa Johnson at Calamity Jane’s; the debut of “Seattle Hop” tee shirt and other works designed by Seattle home brewer and digital artist Laura Fletcher at Full Throttle Bottles; “Just Before the Leap” paintings by Mark LaFalce, “Encaustics: the Wave of Wax” by Deborah Stachowic, and “Clay, Baby” works by Pamela Hathaway at 5626 Airport Way S. studios; an exhibition at Indiro artist studio, 5050 First S., featuring Dave Alton, Nicole Appell, Catherine Bailey, Jolie Bergman, Felice Dunn, Darren Emmens, Becky Fitterer, Meredith Jenkins, Brian Kuntz, Gay Seydlitz, Reecca Thayer and Carrie Whitney. Also included in both the Art Attack and Garden Walk is a “Trailer Park Market of Curiosities” featuring local art, vintage clothing, collectibles and more at the newly minted Georgetown Trailer Park Mall.

For Trailer Park Mall information visit: www.georgetowntrailerpark.com. Maps of the Georgetown Garden Walk can be found at the Bank of America parking lot at 1112 S. Bailey St. on Sunday, July 11. For a map of Art Attack participants see: www.georgetownartattack.com

Check out this new monthly night at Smarty Pants in Georgetown brought to you by DJ Cash Audio ( Scott Giampino) and DJ Kingblind (Morgan) . This Saturday June 26th spinning the tunes are Lisa (DJ Teenage Rampage), Morgan (DJ Kingblind) and DJ EL TORO will be spinning at our new DJ night…

Cost: 100% free

Date: Saturday June 26th

Time:  *7pm till closing (*Normally we will start at 9pm but this June edition of KVF is an Artopia supershow.. so we are starting at 7pm)

Please check out  Kings Of The Vinyl Frontier for complete details and directions