Tonight:
KUOW’s Weekday host Steve Scher is interviewing Seattle Times reporter Hal Bernton tonight at the Seattle Central Library about his nine weeks of reporting in Afghanistan.
In October and November of last year, just as the U.S. was sinking back into the increasingly messy war in Afghanistan, the Seattle Times sent Bernton there to follow a battalion of troops from Fort Lewis into the war zone (before that, in 2003 and 2004, he was posting dispatches for the Seattle Times from Iraq).
Bernton accompanied the battalion as they wheeled into Afghanistan in Stryker vehicles. His coverage, mostly in the form dispatches on his Times blog, was as high-quality as it gets.
Thursday evening at The Central Library (1000 Fourth Ave) at 7 pm. Free.
Tomorrow:
The Northwest Film Forum is showing “45365″ this week. It’s a movie about the tiny town of Sidney, Ohio, made by two brothers who are nostalgic for it—basically a collage of high-school football games and midwest sunsets. Its greatness transcends its nostalgia, like old cars or rock songs with saxophone solos.
This trailer will give you the idea.
Also, watching a quiet, labor-of-love film on the Northwest Film Forum’s tiny screens always feels exactly right.
Friday night and through next week, at the Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Avenue), at 7 pm and 9 pm. Tickets are $9.
Tomorrow’s Full Calendar:
Karen Finneyfrock is Seattle’s poetic virtuoso, and also a soon-to-be-famous Young Adult author. As I reported back in November, Finneyfrock signed a deal with Penguin to publish her novel for teenagers. Tomorrow at 7 pm at Elliott Bay Book Company (101 S Main Street). Free.
Poet Michael McClure is giving a lecture at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center tomorrow, which might be the coolest thing to ever happen to the Rainier Valley. ArtsNerd Heidi Broadhead tells me: “He read with Ginsberg the night of Howl, for Christ’s sake.” (McClure read a poem that night based on a 1954 Time magazine article about 79 American soldiers stationed in Iceland who, one bored night, rounded up and machine-gunned 100 killer whales.) Friday at 7:30 the Rainier Valley Cultural Center (3515 S. Alaska Street). Admission is $30.
Sex-rappers Helladope and party-rappers Mash Hall double up at Nectar tomorrow, with State Of The Artist, whose song “My Shine” has the best beat in Seattle hip hop. With Dev From Above and Candidt, Friday at 9 pm at Nectar (412 N 36th Street), $7. 21+.
