Monday: Local band Throw Me The Statue [0] is kind of awesome. Their chunky, distortion-heavy indie pop, built on sequenced drum tracks, is reminiscent of Magnetic Fields before they went Broadway and They Might Be Giants before they went ... well, before they went. They're joined this evening by singer-songwriter Damien Jurado, whose innate folkiness provides nice balance to the bill. Check out a great gig tonight at Chop Suey, for just six measly bucks.
Tuesday: If you're into big tastes from small plates, you'll love Joule [0]. Drawing on French, Asian and local influences, this Wallingford restaurant serves up some deceptively simple and ineffably delicious dishes, from garlic-and-scallion cornbread to kalamata-olive gnocchi to marinated short ribs. The place fills up late in the week, so a Tuesday-night visit might well be in order.
Wednesday: At the beginning of the 15th century, Italian artist Lorenzo Ghiberti was commissioned to create a series of bronze panels depicting Old Testament scenes for a set of doors inside the cathedral of Florence. Michelangelo called Ghiberti's doors "The Gates of Paradise [0]," and these Renaissance masterworks have never left Italy -- until now. Today through April 6, three panels from Ghiberti's magnum opus will be on display at SAM -- and after that, they'll return to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, never to cross the Atlantic again. This is kind of a big deal, so don't miss out.
Thursday: Though they've gotten kind of overexposed (largely through their own forgivably ambitious doing), it's still fun to see Blue Man Group [0] do their thing. Imagine watching three kids -- mute alien kids, but kids nonetheless -- in the process of discovering God's own rumpus room. If there's a way that an object can be drummed upon or displayed to comic effect, the Blue Man Group has a set piece built around it. Tonight at KeyArena [0], they're giving lessons with their "How to be a Megastar" tour -- a syllabus that will no doubt include bizarre sing-alongs and the unorthodox use of PVC pipes. It's, ah, different.
Also: Arnie Roth conducts the Seattle Symphony in a selection of video game compositions, "Play! A Video Game Symphony [0]." Hear that, ladies? You can actually trick your 20-year-old boyfriend into going to the symphony this week. Get that lazy sack of crud off the couch and into a suit and tie.
Friday: It's always a pleasure to see a new gallery open in Seattle, and even more so when said gallery is paired with a cocktail lounge and café. Capitol Hill's Grey Gallery & Lounge [0] celebrates its grand opening tonight with a showing of works by Laura C. Wright, Shawn Patrick Landis, Allison Manch, Chris McMullen and others, plus live music from the Paul Rucker Trio.
Saturday: If ever you want to feel unproductive, just take a look at Ryan Adams' [0] curriculum vitae. The gifted but volatile singer-songwriter has released nine albums, several EPs and almost two dozen bootlegs' worth of unreleased material since 2000 -- and amazingly, he still found the time to browbeat his critics, date Parker Posey and develop (and kick) a heroin habit. Adams plays the Paramount tonight, and you'd be well served to check out this tuneful overachiever.
Also: "R. Crumb's Underground [0]," a retrospective of some 40 years of the great cartoonist's work, opens today at the Frye with a lecture by "comix historian" Patrick Rosenkranz. (Worth noting: Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary "Crumb" screens at the Frye tomorrow at 2 p.m. It's among the five best documentaries I've ever seen, and an ideal preamble to the four decades of genius hanging on the gallery's walls.)
Sunday: Critics call them "water-cooler movies" -- films whose entertainment value, though strong, is outstripped by their ability to generate Monday-morning discussion. Mitchell Lichtenstein's "Teeth [1]," a black comedy about a girl whose dental-care regimen includes a trip to the gynecologist, is such a movie. Whether or not you see it today, people will be talking about it tomorrow.
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