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FRIDAY

FILM

2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour Past Event Like List
No need to head to Park City to experience the independent magic of Sundance—this curated collection of seven short films from the 2023 festival (including two festival award-winning flicks) feels like the real thing. Sundance's short film program often foretells later success, with past featured directors including Jay and Mark Duplass, Damien Chazelle, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Todd Haynes, Lynne Ramsay, and Taika Waititi, so who knows—you might bear witness to future greatness. LC
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, $7-$14)

LIVE MUSIC

Ghost Fetish, Dining Dead, and Mikey Moo Past Event Like List
From their Ian Curtis-esque baritone vocals to their haunting vintage synths, the music of Seattle-based trio Ghost Fetish genuinely sounds like it was made in the '80s. They will play tracks from their debut album, Almost Touching, which includes highlights like the sensual, quivering bop "Lipstick" and the New Order-style track "Confessions." Don't miss opening sets from moody rockers Dining Dead and psych-pop project Mikey Moo. AV
(Clock-Out Lounge, Beacon Hill, $15)

SPORTS & RECREATION

Avalanche Dog Education Days Past Event Like List
Let's face it, the recent warm-for-winter weather conditions have not made for a great start to the ski season. If you're still itching to get out to the mountains and play around in some snow without essentially wasting money on a lift ticket, Crystal is hosting an avalanche dog education session at the base on Friday. These furry pals have been keeping the mountain safe for almost 30 years, and this is your chance to check out obedience training demos, get all your questions answered, and snag a quick pic in the snow. If you're not a fan of dogs, they're also hosting a free avalanche awareness session on Saturday night. SL
(Crystal Mountain Resort, free)

VISUAL ART

Хліб-сіль: Of Bread and Salt Past Event Like List
In Хліб-сіль: Of Bread and Salt, the Ukrainian American visual artist Sofya Belinskaya aims to capture the experiences of local families uprooted due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine through a blend of oral history audio excerpts and airy large-format watercolor portraits. Conversations with families informed each of Belinskaya's multimedia displacement narratives in an attempt to "weave together fragments of home," and the show's title, Хліб-сіль, references the Ukrainian custom of offering bread and salt to guests, an act that represents "respect, hospitality, and goodwill." LC
(Gallery 4Culture, Pioneer Square, free)

SATURDAY

COMMUNITY

SAM Body + Mind Past Event Like List
LED lamps be damned, because you can try beating SAD with SAM this year. The art museum will present free, first-come, first-serve wellness activities on the first and third Saturday of each month through March 16 to help you battle the drab post-holiday doldrums. Drag yourself out of bed and head to Olympic Sculpture Park for the series kickoff on January 6, which will include an evening of spoken word performances curated by Inside, a "sanctuary for self-discovery and healing." Rudy Francisco will share some words, and Shooby Doo Catering will serve up zoinks-worthy snacks. LC
(Olympic Sculpture Park, Belltown, free)

FILM

Magnetic Madness: The Citizen Kanes of S.O.V. Past Event Like List
S.O.V., short for "shot on video," is also perhaps the most honest movie-making medium. The Beacon deems these works "trashterpieces," which feels accurate in the best way, and the theater's new series Magnetic Madness: The Citizen Kanes of S.O.V. will screen four of 'em. Among the trashterpieces is Blonde Death, which was shot for a mere $2,000, and '89 hoser horror Things. The series will kick off with gross-out flick Hallucinations, which features a "giant penis monster." Let's go! LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City)

Saturday Secret Matinees 2024 Past Event Like List
If you're a sucker for old-school cinema with an element of surprise, this recurring series has your name written allll over it. Grand Illusion will continue a longstanding tradition with its 16th season of matinee classics screened alongside a secret feature film every Saturday, all in dreamy 16mm. The first week's theme is "Flash vs. Ming: The Epic Begins," which will include a screening of the 1938 galactic flick Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, plus a hush-hush additional flick. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, $8-$11 tickets, $66 series pass)

PERFORMANCE

Funbox: Spongebob Past Event Like List
“I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.” If that quote means anything to you, then prep your bikini bottoms and get your life at this Krusty Krab-worthy eleganza on a Spongebob Squarepants theme. Hosts Fran Zia and Ava Magnum will blend geek and gag for this edition, and I'm expecting Sandy Cheeks realness, Plankton for the gods, and, perhaps most importantly, a drag interpretation of the true queen diva bitch in charge, Mrs. Puff. LC
(Timbre Room, Downtown, $15-$20)

SUNDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Alessandra Rose, Maeve & Quinn, and Brenna Bruce Past Event Like List
It is a mystery to me how Alessandra Rose hasn't entered the mainstream yet. Her voice is strong and smokey, bringing to mind coffeehouse soul goddesses like Amy Winehouse and Adele while displaying Katy Perry-style vocal runs. Have you ever tried to karaoke "Firework?" It's harder than you'd think. And, in my opinion, Rose has the chops to nail it. I know I know, I am naming a lot of uncool radio regulars here—but trust me, Rose brings a level of dark, murky rock to her music that only a PNW musician can. She will support her latest album, RODEOMOTHH, alongside Maeve & Quinn and Brenna Bruce. AV
(Tractor Tavern, Ballard, $11)

Anna May, Ian Arthur Williams, and Miguel Escobar Past Event Like List
Describing her sound as "tragic Americana," Connecticut-born Anna May weaves her personal experiences into gorgeous stream-of-consciousness folk songs. And, while I often roll my eyes at the overuse of the term "ethereal" in music journalism, May's fluid, breathy vocals are truly ethereal. She will be joined by fellow singer-songwriters Ian Arthur Williams and Miguel Escobar. AV
(High Dive, Fremont, $10-$13)

WINTER

Pier 62 Fire Pit Past Event Like List
We know the waterfront hardly sounds appealing in winter weather, but the Friends of Waterfront Seattle are lighting a fire right before dusk on every Sunday this month for folks to gather ‘round. Go for a nice little walk and enjoy sunset views of Rainier and the Olympics (on a clear day) or simply soak up the cozy campfire vibes. The fires are weather-dependent, so if it's pouring rain or (god forbid) snowing, they might skip that weekend. SL
(Pier 62, Downtown, free)

MULTI-DAY

EXHIBIT

Honored to Tell Past Event Like List
The first cohort to graduate from the Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute will share their oral history and "Black memory work" in this culminating exhibition, which was inspired by interviews with Black longshore workers, barbers, dancers, educators, and beauticians. I'm stoked to see Ricky Reyes, Eboni Wyatt, and Sierra Parsons's Making.Wavs zine and immersive reading room, Ariel Paine's barbershop installation, and Brenetta Ward's quilted scrolls. LC
(Wa Na Wari, Central District, free, Friday-Sunday)

FILM

All of Us Strangers Past Event Like List
The bisexual lighting is hard at work in All of Us Strangers, a film that stars Andrew Scott (the hot priest on Fleabag) and Paul Mescal in cute sweaters. The film follows two Londoners living in the same near-empty tower block, where they find each other, do ketamine, and vibe before memories of past traumas begin to interrupt their romance. The film is based on the eerie, hypnotic 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. LC
(SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Capitol Hill, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)

American Fiction Past Event Like List
If the words "incisive literary satire" perk up your ears, then boy, does director Cord Jefferson have the film for you!! In his new dramedy (an adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure), Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a novelist who's understandably aggravated by the establishment that profits from "Black" entertainment and its exhausting tropes. When Monk writes a book under a pen name, he finds himself paddling in the same phony waters he admonished in the first place. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)

The Boys in the Boat Past Event Like List
If you've already peeped MOHAI's new exhibition, Pulling Together: A Brief History of Rowing in Seattle, then you're well aware that George Clooney has directed a flick about the University of Washington rowers, who were thrust into the spotlight while competing at the 1936 Olympics. (Spoiler: The "Miracle 9” won the gold medal in the eight-oared competition.) If you haven't seen the exhibition yet, I recommend checking it out after a screening of The Boys in the Boat, which blends triumphant feels with Great Depression-era costuming. LC
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)

Fallen Leaves Past Event Like List
Set in Helsinki, Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki's Golden Globe-nommed film Fallen Leaves "opens in a fluorescent hell-on-earth and ends with a vision of something like paradise," according to the New York Times. I'm listening!! The deadpan tragicomic flick with "springtime in its heart" (The Guardian) follows a grocery store shelf stocker and an alcoholic who form an odd-couple bond; look out for the incisive political commentary, too. LC
(Grand Illusion, University District, $8-$11, Friday-Sunday)

Thou Art Dust and Food for Worms: Dark Ages Past Event Like List
It's January, which means the dreariest days of the year are upon us. I recommend leaning into it with the Beacon's latest film series, which showcases the best cinematic depictions of the Dark Ages—it should feel appropriately bleak and self-sacrificing, with a side of poetry, torchlit dread, and some comedy, too. First up is Orson Welles's 1965 film Chimes at Midnight, which the Beacon describes as the culmination of his "lifelong obsession with Shakespeare’s ultimate rapscallion, Sir John Falstaff." Follow the lumbering antihero as he navigates court politics during the War of the Roses. LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City, Friday-Sunday)

VISUAL ART

Clarissa Tossin: to take root among the stars Past Event Like List
Brazilian-born, LA-based artist Clarissa Tossin's multimedia works (including films, sculptures, and drawings) look closely at global capitalism's "frontier mythologies," interrogating persistent legacies of colonialism in Latin America and the US through repurposed consumerist garbage. She uses what is perhaps the most potent symbol of exploitation and ecological disaster—Amazon delivery boxes—to think about climate change, mapping as a conquest-driven technology, human consumption, and even space exploration. Why am I stoked about the show? Well, because I'm a nerd: Tossin's first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast borrows its title from sci-fi writer Octavia Butler’s apocalyptic Earthseed novels. LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, free, Friday-Sunday; closing)

Elizabeth Malaska: Like Honey Among Thorns Past Event Like List
If you're into Elizabeth Malaska's solo exhibition All Be Your Mirror, currently on view at the Seattle Art Museum, I have a humble suggestion for you: more Elizabeth Malaska. Like Honey Among Thorns, presented in conjunction with Malaska's SAM show, further explores the murky depths of what makes her work great; expect more moody figures, subtle patterning, and drippy, gestural flora and fauna forms. Materials run the gamut from Study for One Leopard, a stark rendering of (you guessed it) a leopard in charcoal, to pensive horses in Flashe and trickling flowers in sumi ink. LC
(Greg Kucera Gallery, Pioneer Square, free, Friday-Saturday)

Ghosts of Belltown Past Event Like List
Base Camp Studios 2, an expansion on the Base Camp Studios art collective and gallery in Belltown, will debut its first pay-what-you-can installation, Ghosts of Belltown. The art experience employs anamorphic techniques, Pac-Man-inspired pieces, and a low-lit, exploratory path to reflect on the Belltown neighborhood and its past residents. The installation also ponders some intriguing questions: How might vacant buildings "serve the communities where they are located," and what can emerge when artists and makers "see a space anew?"
(Base Camp Studios 2, Belltown, $15 suggested donation, Friday-Saturday)

Rafael Soldi: Soft Boy Past Event Like List
At the heart of artist and curator Rafael Soldi's new solo exhibition is Soft Boy, a video installation that represents the artist and curator's first venture into moving image work. Pulling from his experience as a queer youth in Peru to "focus on the construction of masculinity in Latin American society," Soldi dissects gender expectations through language and adolescent games. His video harkens to his time in an all-boys Catholic school, complete with playground skirmishes and performative machismo. Soft Boy also includes selections from a print series called CARGAMONTÓN, which translates to a form of hazing in Latin American schools, and mouth to mouth, which "present[s] word plays and Spanish-English pairings that reveal the gendered power structures built into language and the slipperiness of meaning." LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, free, Friday-Sunday; closing)

WINTER

Luminous Light Sculptures Past Event Like List
No holiday selfie is complete without a 13-foot illuminated reindeer, which is why Westlake Park's installation of luminous light sculptures will come in handy for the next few weeks. The collection of sparkly lit sculptures (presented by Amazon) will be available for free strolls and snapshots until January 9—look out for the giant snowflake and the candy cane that's twice your height. LC
(Westlake Park, Downtown, free, Friday-Sunday)

Winter Wonderland in South Lake Union Past Event Like List
South Lake Union is all lit up for the holiday season—if you take a stroll through the neighborhood, you'll find interactive art installations and twinkling trees decorating the streets. While you're in the area, you can drop by MOHAI to catch its new rowing exhibition, too. LC
(Various locations, South Lake Union, free, Friday-Sunday)