SATURDAY
COMICS DAVID REES
Once in a while, unhinged profanity in the arts can be goddamn fucking beatificthis sentence being an obvious exception. His new minimalist comic collection, My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable (Riverhead, $10), places Rees alongside George Carlin, Casino, and South Park in the gutter guffaw pantheon. He employs crude cut-and-paste methods with about 10 different clip-art images of karate figures to tell a breezy, ironic saga of obnoxious temple fighters who, when not relishing “giving motherfuckers a free ride in an ambulance,” are uproariously aware of their existential status as static cutouts. (“What the fuck?” one ponders. “I’m stuck in permanent kicking position!”) These interchangeable minor characters bitterly accuse one another of pilfering techniques; more often, they commiserate about Karate Snoopy and Circulatory System Dude (“You don’t even register on this motherfucker’s radar screen. You can see his goddamn liver!!!”). Ridiculously brilliant and innovative. 4 p.m. Sat., Nov. 8. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 206-634-3400. ANDREW BONAZELLI
FRIDAY
FILM
DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS
Screening as part of SAM’s ongoing “Baja to Vancouver” exhibit, this 2002 skateboard documentary by Stacy Peralta (pictured above in 1979) is part home moviechronicling his youth and those of his skateboard-team cohorts and part corporate-sponsored video. A cheerfully self-aggrandizing affair, Dogtown features overwritten narration delivered by Spicoli himself (Sean Penn), but the hyperbole doesn’t detract from a fun, staccato barrage of photos, old film clips, and then-and-now profiles of its subjects (including pool-riding legend Tony Alva). Yet there’s also an underlying poignancy from its juxtaposition of these joyously uninhibited ’70s kids with their careworn middle-aged selves. Summer always has to end. 7:30 p.m. Fri., Nov. 7. Free with museum admission ($7-$10). Seattle Art Museum, 100 University St., 206-625-8900. BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
DANCE
MORGAN THORSON
Thorson (pictured) has been throwing herself around, spinning until she’s dizzy, then charting her lurching pathway across the floor. The Minneapolis-based dance artist is trying to get beyond conventional movement choices, thinking about physics (like the activity of particles) to show the motion of the universe in the space of the stage. Thorson’s group is joined by Seattle artists Mary Sheldon Scott and Jarrad Powell with new work, all courtesy of SCUBA, the new touring program for emerging dance artists spearheaded by the smart directors at Velocity, linking Seattle with Minneapolis and San Francisco. 8 p.m. Fri., Nov. 7-Sat., Nov. 8. $12-$14. Velocity MainSpace Theater Center, 915 E. Pine St. (second floor), 206-325-8773. SANDRA KURTZ
SATURDAY
MUSIC
INTERCONTINENTALS
A debate rages on Amazon.com between two customers reviewing Bill Frisell’s latest band. Ed from Dallas calls the CD, Intercontinentals, “United Nations building elevator music” and complains that “the arrangements and playing are so deliberately tasteful and cautiously shaped that any individuality, even Frisell’s, is lost in a soft vaguely global haze.” Jan from Monument, Colo., says Frisell (pictured) offers “a friendly exoticism . . . that begins as esoteric and ends up as simply logical and beautiful. . . . [He] mysteriously reveals the underlying elements linking music as seemingly divergent as North American country, Eastern European, Hispanic, and West African. His genius makes it sound entirely natural, even inevitable.” My view: They’re both absolutely right. 7:30 and 10 p.m. Sat., Nov. 8. $22-$24. On the Boards, 100 Roy St., 206-547-9787. Part of the Earshot Jazz Festival. MARK D. FEFER
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
FILM
SPACE IS THE PLACE
Sun Ra’s self-financed 1974 film is one of the most bizarre and intriguing music-related movies ever made. Despite its amateurish qualities, it’s also good-humored and highly entertaining, a mix of black-power sentiment, space opera (naturally), musical, and Ra’s singular, patented brand of cosmology. He (pictured), his legendary Arkestra, and their music-powered rocket ship do battle with the FBI, NASA, and the Devil (with whom Ra plays chess). Later, the kidnapped Ra is rescued by some Oakland kids who dig the heavy message the bizarrely dressed musician’s been laying on them, whatever it is. 7 and 9 p.m. Sat., Nov. 8-Sun., Nov. 9. $5-$7. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave. E., 206-675-2025. MICHAELANGELO MATOS
