WEDNESDAY 10/19
Fashion: Forever Wrapped
To say Diane von Furstenberg has lived a fabulous life is a gross understatement. The Brussels-born fashion designer can boast that she wedded (and divorced) a German prince, inspired Andy Warhol, and, most important, created for the female population arguably the most flattering silhouette of all time—the wrap dress. Today, presiding over the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the 64-year-old von Furstenberg proves her relevance persists far beyond seasonal trends. She debuts her latest creation—Diane the perfume—at tonight’s Bellevue launch party. All you have to do to ensure you meet the fashion icon in person is purchase a bottle. Of course, it probably wouldn’t hurt to wear a wrap dress, either. Nordstrom, 100 Bellevue Square, 425-455-5800, nordstrom.com. 7–9 p.m. ERIKA HOBART
THURSDAY 10/20
Film: Lit Again
From 2001, everyone’s favorite East Bloc tranny musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, will be screened tonight as a sing-along presentation to help inaugurate SIFF’s reopening of the 83-year-old Uptown Cinemas, dark since last October. Following are sing-alongs for Purple Rain (Fri.) and Grease (Sat.), but the festivities don’t end there. The theater will then screen 10 popular old titles that previously played the triplex, as voted by moviegoers, Sunday through Thursday. See siff.net for the schedule for Citizen Kane, Singin’ in the Rain, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Godfather, Annie Hall, and other classics. And, better still, they’re free with a same-day receipt from a local LQA business (or $5 without), making for a perfect dinner-and-a-movie combo. (Being an Uptowner myself, my restaurant picks include 10 Mercer, Pagliacci, Toulouse Petit, and Tup Tim Thai.) Additionally, though it’s already showing movies, the new SIFF Film Center (the old Alki Room in Seattle Center) has its public opening Sunday, with tours from noon–5 p.m. SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 464-5830, siff.net. $7–$11. 8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
Music/Books: A Tale of Two Cities
If Steven Tyler’s Does the Voice in My Head Bother You? is a gross, sensational, unnecessary ego trip, and Patti Smith’s Just Kids is an excessively precious monument to herself, Duff McKagan‘s It’s So Easy (and Other Lies) escapes both those memoir traps. All the rock confessions and backstage hijinks are there—including the night Duff and his Guns N’ Roses bandmates tried to burn down a Seattle club and his trading, pre-sobriety, a daily gallon of vodka for 10 bottles of wine. But rather than being a straight gutter-to-redemption tale or Behind the Music facsimile, the Seattle Weekly columnist’s autobiography tells the parallel stories of an emerging punk scene back home in Seattle (with its heroin underbelly) and his contrasting ’80s experiences in L.A. with the world’s biggest band. And, unlike some who didn’t survive the hair-metal era, Duff relates how he quit drinking, became a happily married family man and father, and settled comfortably back in his hometown. Tonight he’ll read, take questions, and play an acoustic set with members of his band Loaded, aided by in-demand sideman Jeff Fielder. (Duff is also doing a 7 p.m. book signing at Third Place Books tonight; another signing- only at University Book Store on Wed. at 7 p.m.; and an extended onstage interview with professor Sharon Cumberland at Seattle University, where he’s currently pursuing a business degree, on Fri. at 7:30 p.m.) Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $12–$15. 9:30 p.m. CHRIS KORNELIS
FRIDAY 10/21
Film/Sudden Paternity
An assured first feature by Peruvian brothers Daniel and Diego Vega, Octubre is a laconic and humorous exploration of a potentially redemptive male midlife crisis. During the month when Lima’s true believers celebrate the Lord of Miracles, a single man of dubious character is unexpectedly lumbered with a helpless child. Clemente (Bruno Odar) is a sourly punctilious pawnbroker operating out his Spartan dump of a home. It’s not at all clear why Clemente feels obliged to keep the infant—other than to justify the movie. Octubre is stylized both in performance and presentation. A monument to undeserved vanity, the expressionless Odar is forever patting his pompadour. With her severe bangs, weak chin, and Bette Davis eyes, Gabriela Velásquez—as the spinster neighbor Sofía, whom Clemente hires as child-minder—has the appearance of a middle-aged kewpie doll. The compositions are highly deliberate in their symmetries; the tone is often uninflected to the point of absurdity. There’s a message here regarding loneliness and emotional isolation, but the movie’s real miracle is that, however precious its premise, this slow-burning not-quite- heartwarmer never succumbs to cuteness. (Through Thurs.) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$9. 7 and 9 p.m. J. HOBERMAN
Stage: Rotten to the Heart
James M. Cain published Double Indemnity as a magazine serial in 1936, smack in the middle of the Great Depression, when everyone was desperate for cash (with some willing to kill for it). Billy Wilder’s famous film adaptation with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray had to wait until 1944, when it came to exemplify film noir. The double-cross plot, in which a sap gets seduced into killing a femme fatale’s rich husband, is a mean little knot of lust and greed, pulled tighter than a stuck shoelace. And as our Great Recession drags on, the timing feels perfect for this new adaptation by David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright (Kurt Beattie directs). John Bogar and Carrie Paff play Walter and Phyllis, two desperate and unreliable souls in ’30s L.A. Eighty years later and a few miles north, insurance scams may be transpiring here, too, though the perps won’t be speaking in Cain’s hard-boiled prose. (Previews begin tonight; opens Oct. 27; runs through Nov. 20.) ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., 292-7676, acttheatre.org. $37.50 and up. 8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
TUESDAY 10/25
Music: Room to Roam
Tyler Ramsey is a self-taught guitar-picker who kicked his classical training when he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, keep up with his homework. “At the time,” he relates, “I didn’t have the focus or the patience to stick with it.” Nevertheless, Ramsey brings melodic and rhythmic sensibilities from the classical realm to his work as singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist for erstwhile Seattle indie-rockers Band of Horses, now based in South Carolina. Ramsey brings out the best in BOH frontman Ben Bridwell. On the band’s recent Infinite Arms, for example, Ramsey’s acoustic intro to “For Annabelle” and his dueling vocals on “Evening Kitchen” make those songs shine brightest on the album. On his latest solo release, The Valley Wind, Ramsey impressively injects intricate guitar licks into the indie-folk idiom. If they occasionally wander off on tangents, so be it. To this listener at least, his fretboard roaming suggests that on the next Band of Horses album, the man should be given a longer leash. Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave. N., 297-6221, fremontabbey.org. $10–$14. 8 p.m. CHRIS KORNELIS
