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FRIDAY

COMEDY

Bandit Theater Presents: Fancy Cafeteria Musical Improv Past Event Like List
Part Broadway glamour, part disheveled improv experiment, Fancy Cafeteria is essentially the comedy equivalent of pizza day at school with a side of chocolate milk. Each edition serves up a brand-new musical straight from audience suggestions, complete with song, dance, a live soundtrack, and a full cast. With no predetermined script or score, it's bound to be a bumpy, hilarious ride. (Resist the urge to start a food fight.) LC
(Rendezvous, Belltown, $15)

LIVE MUSIC

Bit Graves, Benjamin Marx, and Mason Lynass Past Event Like List
With its natural reverb, the Chapel will serve as the ideal location for an evening of haunting drone music, lush electronic sounds, and other experimental works for guitar, cello, and viola. Local duo Bit Graves, whom Stranger music critic Dave Segal once described as "utter masters of their dystopian domain," will support their new album, Murmur, alongside experimental composer Benjamin Marx and electronic musician Mason Lynass. AV
(Good Shepherd Center/Chapel Performance Space, Wallingford, $5–20 donation)

Lead Into Gold, NUDA, and Infideltek Past Event Like List
This isn't your typical roller disco. Skate around the rink (or hold on for dear life) as three ambient, industrial, and experimental bands make bleep-bloop noises in the center. Lead Into Gold, the long-running solo project of Ministry's Paul Barker, will take a break from his tour with Skinny Puppy to headline after opening sets from NUDA and Infideltek. AV
(Southgate Roller Rink, White Center, $15 cover/$5 skate)

SATURDAY

COMMUNITY

API Chaya Halo Halo Community Mixer Past Event Like List
Expect a “mix mix” (the English translation of the Filipino dessert halo halo) of food, cultural performances, kids activities, and live music at this day-long community fest hosted by API Chaya, an organization that supports survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. You won't want to miss music from local Indonesian American beatmaker Chong the Nomad (she blew us away with a harmonica-infused track at Bumbershoot), a performance from Filipinx drag artist Rylee Raw, and more. You'll also have the chance to enter a raffle to win prizes including a $50 Musang gift card and two round trip Alaska Airlines tickets. SL
(Jefferson Park, Beacon Hill, free)

Cedar River Salmon Journey Past Event Like List
Ever wanted to see a ton of Chinook salmon swim through the locks? August is peak viewing season, as up to 400 of the big silvery fish swim through the Ballard Locks daily. Every Saturday through September 16, a trained naturalist from the Seattle Aquarium will be on-site to share all the info you ever wanted to know about salmon and their annual migration from sea to spawning grounds. SL
(Ballard Locks, Ballard, free)

FESTIVALS

Festál: Sea Mar Fiestas Patrias Past Event Like List
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from mid-September to mid-October, a time during which many Latin American countries celebrate their national independence days. Kick off the celebrations at this free festival featuring Latin American food, cooking demonstrations, mariachi bands, folk dancing, art exhibits, free health screenings, children’s activities, and more. SL
(Seattle Center, Uptown, free)

R-Day 2023 Past Event Like List
R-Day is quintessential Seattle: it's quirky, it's fun, it's free, it's 21+, there's live music, and of course, there's Rainier. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the first R-Day, which celebrated the moment when Rainier Beer’s iconic “R” was restored to its place atop the Old Rainier Brewery in Georgetown. In addition to a herd of "Wild Rainiers," wacky merchandise, eclectic art, and more, there will be live music from truly incredible bands. Check out metal faves Helms Alee, the woman-fronted guitar grooves of Cherry Glazerr, and Seattle R&B powerhouse Parisalexa. KEXP DJ Larry Mizell Jr. will keep the party going between sets. SL
(Georgetown, free)

Rainier Beach Farm Fest Past Event Like List
This weekend, celebrate urban agriculture in South Seattle at a festival spanning the grounds of the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. You’ll learn all about urban farming techniques between performances ranging from West African folk dance to Brazilian capoeira. Plus, bring the kids to say hi to llamas and chickens, race through obstacle courses, take a seat for multilingual and Indigenous storytelling, or grab a popsicle from Ma & Pop’s. SL
(Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, Dunlap, free)

LIVE MUSIC

Hank Williams Centennial Tribute Past Event Like List
Despite leaving our celestial body at just 30-years-young, Hank Williams left an everlasting imprint on contemporary music with his emotionally resonant songwriting and blues-style guitar chops. Join local artists including Country Dave Harmonson, Ron W Bailey, Jed Jedrzejewski, Cami Voss, and more as they cook up some of your favorite lonesome cowboy classics in honor of Williams' centennial birthday. AV
(Tractor Tavern, Ballard, $15)

SHOPPING

PCNW 2023 Annual Rummage Sale Past Event Like List
Calling all light-chasers: Photographic equipment will be in no short supply at Photographic Center Northwest's annual rummage sale, their final one before reimagining and expanding their facilities. Head to their Pike/Pine space to enhance your snapshotting skills with photography books, enlargers, processing equipment, film, paper, and more. PCNW "doesn't plan on continuing to store any of this equipment," which means you can expect some serious discounts and potential freebies, particularly toward the end of the sale. LC
(Photographic Center Northwest, Capitol Hill, free)

SUNDAY

FILM

Singles Past Event Like List
My grandmother was the first person in my life to plop the 1992 film Singles into the VHS player. No, she's not a grunge fanatic—my dad appears as an extra in the film and she held onto a copy to show off her "movie star son" to friends and family. In my dad's one-and-only acting role, he bobs his head to Alice In Chains right in between Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick (luckily, the footage is now on YouTube!) Aside from embarrassing my father, there is a lot to love about this movie. To the average viewer, it's a well-written rom-com with great fashion and even better music (Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, et al). But to local residents, it's an idealized time capsule of what we wish Seattle was like (then, now, and moving forward). Catch this free screening, which happens to take place just blocks away from where parts of the movie were filmed. AV
(Here-After at the Crocodile, Belltown, free)

The Taste of Tea Past Event Like List
You might have heard of Japanese filmmaker Katsuhito Ishii from Stranger senior staff writer Charles Mudede, who reviewed his "off the register, off the rails, mind-bending" film Funky Forest: First Contact back in April. (According to Mudede, "You do not need a psychoactive substance" to watch Funky Forest. Noted.) The Beacon's offering up another Ishii flick, The Taste of Tea, which is comprised of a series of episodic vignettes following a messy, eccentric family in rural Japan. The film is more low-key than some of Ishii's other tales, but maintains his surreal sensibility and is often hailed as one of the best Japanese films of the aughts. LC
(The Beacon, Columbia City, $12.50)

VISUAL ART

Meet the Troll: Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Past Event Like List
Gigantic, hand-built, recycled troll alert!! Vashon will gain a mythical new resident, created as part of Danish artist and environmentalist Thomas Dambo's Pacific Northwest-based project, Northwest Troll: Way of the Bird King. The project has seen several massive Nordic trolls land in scenic spots across the Pacific Northwest, including Bainbridge Island, Issaquah, West Seattle, and Portland. (A Ballard troll is coming soon.) You can head to Vashon on Sunday for this public unveiling of a new troll, which serves to illustrate critical lessons of environmental stewardship, and spy the other troll spots on Dambo's online map. LC
(Point Robinson Lighthouse, Vashon, free)

MULTI-DAY

FILM

Big Trouble In Little China Past Event Like List
In this '86 schlockfest, a hard-boiled truck driver (played by Kurt Russell) finds himself tangled in a "mystical" battle against a San Franciscan crime lord in Chinatown. What better way to bid adieu to summer than with Big Trouble In Little China, one of John Carpenter's most draggable action flicks? (Back in the '80s, Roger Ebert described the film as "one extended chase scene," which will either be off-putting or totally up your alley. Enjoy!) LC
(Central Cinema, Central District, $12, Friday-Sunday)

Bottoms Remind Like List
Considering the glut of raunchy high school sex comedies that revolved around hetero teen boys attempting to pop their cherries in the '90s and early-aughts, it's about time we had a horny romp about queer girls trying to get laid. In this madcap dark comedy helmed by Emma Seligman (director of the nail-biter Shiva Baby), two hapless losers (played by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) scheme to start a self-defense club for women in order to hook up with their cheerleader crushes (Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber). Naturally, hilarity ensues. It's Book Smart meets Fight Club with acerbic shades of Heathers, and I for one can't wait to see Seligman's sapphic Gen-Z take on this campy genre, especially with the two leads' deadpan delivery. JB
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, Friday-Sunday)

Fremont Past Event Like List
A film in which the most "exciting" thing to happen is that someone goes for a drive, Fremont is a gem of small storytelling that becomes deceptively vast the longer you sit with it. It is as patient as it is playfully poetic. Showcasing a delightfully deadpan debut performance from Anaita Wali Zada as the young Donya, a worker for a fortune cookie factory trying to find happiness in the loneliness of San Francisco, it previously showed at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival though is now getting a wide release. The film is all about the beautiful simplicity of a life being rebuilt where humor and heartbreak are woven into the fabric of every frame that gently builds to something more quietly revelatory yet still no less profound. Oh, and for those of you fellow On Cinema heads out there, it also sees the magnificent Gregg Turkington sharing some of the most wonderful scenes with Zada that you’ll see all year. STRANGER CONTRIBUTOR CHASE HUTCHINSON
(SIFF Cinema Uptown, Uptown, $13-$14, Friday-Sunday)

SHOPPING

Renegade Craft Fair 2023 Past Event Like List
Serving up a thoughtful alternative to mass-marketed trinkets and big box stores, Renegade Craft Fair purports to be "the broadest-reaching curated craft showcase in the world." It'll return with goodies from over 180 curated vendors representing the best of the Pacific Northwest and beyond—skincare enthusiasts, plant parents, and fans of resin earrings and chunky ceramics should find something to smile about. Why not close out the summer by snatching up crafty wares by indie artists and bites from on-site food vendors? It's what you deserve. LC
(Magnuson Park Hangar 30, Sand Point, $0-12 suggested, Saturday-Sunday)

VISUAL ART

A Living Legacy: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art Past Event Like List
The Frye Art Museum has always been one of my favorites, and not just because it's totally free—the curation is consistently on point, blending thoughtful nods to historical movements with the most contemporary work on the scene at any given moment. Marking their 70th anniversary, A Living Legacy brings together eight recently acquired artworks by art stars Amoako Boafo, Sky Hopinka, Gisela McDaniel, Bony Ramirez, Tschabalala Self, Ann Leda Shapiro, and Sadie Wechsler, each of whom responds to or complicates "[narratives around] landscape and portraiture traditionally associated with the Frye’s founding collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American art." Artistic production and acquisition is an evolving, imperfect process—head to this exhibition to see before it closes on September 17 to see what the artists themselves have to say about it. LC
(Frye Art Museum, First Hill, free, Friday-Sunday; closing)

Cathy McClure and John Kiley Remind Like List
If you're still feeling bitter that you didn't receive a Furby for Christmas in '98, I recommend Cathy McClure's exhibition Unearth for some strange catharsis. Using discarded battery-operated stuffed toys, the artist contemplates consumption, nostalgia, and instant gratification by creating freakish, Frankensteinian "bots." The figures are recast and reassembled with precious metal armatures that reportedly exude "wisdom and contemplation." I guess you'll have to decide for yourself what they exude, but any way you look at 'em, they are awesome. Unearth is perfectly paired with John Kiley's Studio Sessions, which is comprised of sculptural glass works with "contrasting colors [and] intricate carved optic passageways." LC
(Traver Gallery, Downtown, free)

Femme Noire Remind Like List
This outdoor public art exhibition, a collaboration between the Seattle Art Museum, the Chicago-based arts organization blackpuffin, and the Central District's immersive community art project Wa Na Wari, takes its name from a poem of the same name by former Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor, an ode to the power of Black women written while he was imprisoned in Germany during World War II. Wander through the Central District to admire work from female artists from Africa and the African diaspora, installed on lamp poles and at Black-owned businesses and art organizations throughout the neighborhood. JB
(Various locations, free, Friday-Sunday)

Matt Gagnon: Space for Not Knowing Remind Like List
Matt Gagnon's lanky, vessel-like sculptures, "light stacks," and volcanic mortar-based works come together in Space for Not Knowing, a new solo show that denotes his serious material sensibility. The LA-based artist "combines intuition and planning across diverse articulations of architectural space," exploring senses of containment, shuttered and opened spaces, and emotional components of color and light with a meditative, yet precise approach. I'm most intrigued by Gagnon's material use—the works in Space for Not Knowing are an unexpected blend of poplar wood, concrete, gold leaf, mortar, felt, and more. LC
(Winston Wächter Fine Art, South Lake Union, free, Friday-Saturday)

Resisters: A Legacy of Movement from the Japanese American Incarceration Past Event Like List
Weaving together visual art, historical artifacts, and first-person accounts from the 1940s through the present day, Resisters: A Legacy of Movement from the Japanese American Incarceration finds the connecting threads between Japanese American World War II resistance movements and contemporary Asian American activism. September 17 is the exhibition's final day, so make some time to check it out if you haven't—you can peep Wing Luke's current show Guma’ Gela’: Part Land, Part Sea, All Ancestry on the same visit. LC
(Wing Luke Museum, Chinatown-International District, $12-$17, Friday-Sunday; closing)