Lecture

Sea Otter Reproduction

Is your love life in a slump? Perhaps you can pick up some tips (just in time for Valentine’s Day) as People for Puget Sound kicks off its “Keeping Our Sound Alive” lecture series with a look at just what it takes to get these slick little lotharios to propagate in captivity. The Seattle Aquarium was the first facility in the world to successfully breed otters, and C.J. Casson, a 26-year veteran of the aquarium, is their resident otter expert. What are the secrets behind their groundbreaking animal husbandry efforts? Johnny Mathis records and a bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream? Or are otters’ tastes more . . . outré? Coming up May 3: “Tales of Fish Sex,” with Milton Love from the University of California, Santa Barbara. (I am not making this up.) REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Ave. N., 382-7007, www.pugetsound.org/index/speakers_2006-07. $6–$8. 7 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT

Books

American Fascists

Have we got your attention now? That provocative title continues with The Christian Right and the War on America, summing up the thesis of ex–New York Times writer Chris Hedges’ new book (Free Press, $25). Maybe there’s something in the air, what with the failure of the evangelical vote to hold Congress for the Republicans last fall, and the documentary Jesus Camp recently beingnominated for an Oscar. Hedges, a Pulitzer-winning reporter, actually follows the Jesus Camp model, touring around the country to document evangelicals—the leaders, not their children—on their home turf. That means visits with Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and company. Scary dudes, says Hedges, and if they get their way, “all those deemed insufficiently Christian will be denied citizenship.” Which means you may want to find your passport and move to Canada. Unless, of course, the secular tide continues to turn against them. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, www.bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Visual Art

First Thursday Art Walk

Art walk can be a bust or a beautiful time, depending on what’s on display at the numerous galleries and lofts downtown and in Pioneer Square. The activity is concentrated in that area on the first Thursday of each month, and if you’ve missed the last few walks because of the holidays or the weather (November’s was particularly miserable with rain), now is prime time to check it out. In February, a lot of exciting stuff is up for view, including “Give Us Your Best Shot,” Benham Gallery’s (1216 First Ave., 622-2480) series of on-the-move photographers like Jenny Riffle (pictured, p. 25). Mary Henry’s striking modernist paintings make an appearance up the road at Howard House (604 Second Ave., 256-6399), where you can detour before heading on to Occidental Avenue and its surrounding streets. In addition to the longtime glass and fine art galleries there, at least a dozen studios in the Tashiro-Kaplan Building (306 S. Washington St., 856-7037) will open or continue interesting shows, like Betty Bastai’s “Corridor Love,” in which you’re invited to write a love letter and shred it, to help create an “emotional dumpsite” Bastai will use in a future piece. And if you’re inclined to wander Belltown instead, take note of its growing art-walk scene. Form/Space Atelier (1907 Second Ave., 448-2302) hosts Vladmaster, artist–reconstructed View-Masters with “stereoscopic” inserts, while Vain artists’ studios (2018 First Ave., 441-3441) show their residents’ work to the tunes of DJ Teenage Rampage. McLeod Residence and Roq La Rue are hidden treasures in that hood—clip our First Thursday art listings, p. 35, or find the comprehensive gallery guide at www.seattleweekly.com, and start digging. Galleries in and around downtown and Pioneer Square. Free. 6–8 p.m. unless otherwise posted. Also see Sunday, p. 29. RACHEL SHIMP