Today’s pick:
1. The Northwest Film Forum is currently showing “Visual Acoustics.” As calm and sleepy as its title suggests, it’s a film about Julius Shulman, a California architectural photographer who translates Wright and Gehry to people who couldn’t see their buildings in person.
Seems like the perfect Monday wind-down flick. Also, it’s narrated by Dustin Hoffman.
Tonight (and every night through February 4) at the Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Ave). Screening at 7 pm and 9 pm. $9.
On tomorrow’s calendar:
1. The Queen Anne Science Cafe is a nerdy series of talks that brings scientists to cafes in Queen Anne to talk about weird science. Tomorrow, Marcela Ewert of the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography and Astrobiology is going to speak at T.S. McHugh’s, on Mercer Street.
Ewert studies microbes that live deep under the ice to see if she can somehow extract a “cryprotectant”—a substance that can prevent living tissue from freezing in ice-cold temperatures. Maybe Ewert will design the parka of the future.
Tomorrow evening at 7:30 PM, at T.S. McHugh’s (21 Mercer Street). Free.
2. The City Council Regional Development and Sustainability Committee is holding a special meeting tomorrow afternoon to hear presentations on the 2010 work plans from five different city agencies, as well as comments from the public.
Included on the agenda is a presentation on the work plan for the Office of Sustainability and the Environment by OSE Director Michael Mann—last week, Mann announced in an email to colleagues that he was resigning from his position at the City.
At the Council Chambers at City Hall (600 Fourth Avenue), at 2 pm.
3. The Kronos Quartet is pretty much the only string quartet there is. Even if you’ve never heard of the group, you’ve heard them—they’ve recorded more than 600 separate, complete works.
They recently inverted Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” into a tangly, challenging sketch that, as an update, is as breathy and almost as beautiful as Johnson’s 1927 one-off recording.
When they’re not doing that, they’re getting commissioned for Philip Glass’s eyelid swooners, Clint Mansell’s scores for Daren Aronofsky, or updates of Thelonious Monk and Television.
Also, I think they’re named after the Klingon homeworld.
Tomorrow evening, at 7:30 pm, at the Kirkland Performance Center (350 Kirkland Avenue). $50.
