Monday: By now you've no doubt planned your New Year's Eve down to the moment you fall, fully clothed, into bed. If you're stuck for ideas, however, I advise you to check out these five suggestions [0] on how you should spend the last night of the year, and this list of New Year's Eve parties [0] around town. They won't tell you how to keep from getting sick in a taxicab, but they're pretty helpful in most other regards. Cheers, and stay safe.
Tuesday: I can't think of any force on Earth that could get me out of bed before noon on New Years Day, much less into a 5K run that could possibly end in the chilly waters of Lake Washington. But in my heart I'm still a Las Vegan (read: a feckless drunk), and your average Seattleite climbs six mountains a day. To those hale and hearty souls, I say this: Road Runner Sports is hosting its Resolution Run 5K and Polar Bear Dive [0] today, and if you're so inclined, you lunatic, you could start this year cold, so to speak. Try to keep the gasping to a minimum, 'cos some of us are trying to sleep in.
Wednesday: The force is strong with Magnuson Park's Building 47 today, as the community recreation center plays host to the twelve hours of concentrated geekery that is the "Star Wars" films [0]. "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" screen today; "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" will be shown tomorrow; and the series concludes Friday with "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." (My advice to you: Skip today, arrive late tomorrow and leave early on Friday, before those <expletive> Ewoks can eat your brain.) Concessions will be available, and you're encouraged to wear that Princess Leia outfit you've got hanging in your closet. Girls are also welcome.
Thursday: Here are three compelling reasons to see the Santa Cruz, Calif., trio The Devil Makes Three [0] perform tonight at the Tractor. One is its cool name, which the band uses as if there were an individual called Devil Makes, and this were his trio (there isn't; it ain't). Another is its drummerless lineup; the chunky, staccato playing of guitarist Pete Bernhard, upright bassist Lucia Turino and guitarist Cooper McBean pretty much negates the need for percussion. Finally, there's the trio's punky-blues sound -- the character of which truly does resemble an inferno when the band catches fire.
Friday: If you like your plays as fresh as your produce, you owe it to yourself to check out "14/48" [0] at Capitol Hill Arts Center tonight or tomorrow. The "world's quickest theater festival" is as good as its word: 14 brand-spankin'-new plays will be written, rehearsed and performed over the course of just two days, at the rate of seven plays per night. The opening-night crowd even gets to submit ideas for the following night's productions, which the writers select from a hat (and then "complain bitterly" about). Tickets to the fest often sell out, so if this interests you, borrow a page from the "14/48" playbook and act fast.
Saturday: Film critics are practically elbowing each other aside in their eagerness to court Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, "There Will Be Blood." [0] The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it their best picture of 2007; the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Daniel Day Lewis best actor; the Austin Film Critics Association recognized the score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. It's been nominated for two Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild award. This weekend, find out why so many tastemakers and movie-industry folks are prepared to marry this film, forsaking all others.
Sunday: The fault lies not in the stars, my friends, but in bloated productions of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" that, remarkably, don't involve sing-alongs. The Seattle Shakespeare Company and director Gregg Loughridge rectify that great wrong with "Chamber Julius Caesar," [0] a stripped-down, tuned-up staging of Shakespeare's bloody Roman romp. Seriously, dudes. Sing-alongs.
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