WORDY SHIPMATES: Sarah Vowell's finally here to read from her book about the thought-life of Puritans such as John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, and Roger Williams. She's "not interested in the whole person," says Vowell in a recent interview with Seattlest Editor MvB. Take Roger Williams: "I'm mostly interested in what he thought about religion, government, community, Indians and how much Roger Williams was getting on his nerves. I don't really give a hoot what he......

GET SMARTIE: So you think you're a smartypants, eh? And you want to see that smartypants professor in the white house? Then you're in luck! Go use your brain for Obama tonight, and participate in a trivia night fundraiser at the Hi-Life in Ballard. The entry fee is a bit high for trivia night at a bar, but excessively low for a political fundraiser. Just think of how those Eastsiders paid $1k/plate when Cindy McCain......

GLASNOST: The Cold War Kids bring their bluesy, vaguely Southern-sounding brand of piano-based indie rock to the Showbox/Market tonight. The Cold War Kids first gained notice back in 2006 with their debut LP Robbers & Cowards and the get-off-the-sauce single "Hang Me Up to Dry," which is, ironically, a great drinking song. Their second album, Loyalty to Loyalty, dropped last week. Tix for tonight are still available as of this morning. 8 p.m. doors //......

POLITICS JUNKIE: The jury's still out on whether or not McCain is going to display how capable he is of handling politics and governing at the same time (i.e. the job of the president) by showing up for tonight's debate in Mississippi. But, the Presidential Debate Commission will be there, a giant pool of reporters will be there, and his opponent Barack Obama will be there ready and willing to turn the whole thing......

(...if by "all" you mean the housing crisis.) We'd love to make some sort of pithy comment about the state of the economy or the proposed bailout, but truth is, we can't keep up: McCain's "heroic" suspension of his campaign to photo-op and take credit for the bailout appears to be going belly-up, again, after the markets bounced up before close a couple hours ago assuming a bailout was agreed upon, but that was before......

Bernard-Henri Levy looks pretty much like you'd expect: a rail-thin Frenchman with a rather dashing coif of hair, who walked to the podium at Town Hall last night wearing a designer suit with his white dress shirt unbuttoned down to the navel (his signature), like a rock star looking to get his (mostly salt-and-pepper haired) groupies' panties in a twist. And in France, where Levy is a star of gossip pages, known only as "BHL,"......

ROOTS MUSIC IN BALLARD!?: Yeah, we know this happens pretty much every night, but there's a good batch of bands at the Tractor tonight. Local singer-songwriter outfits Husbands Love Your Wives and Jack Wilson & The Wife Stealers open a bill for the wonderful and interesting anti-folk fabulousness of Elliot Brood from north of the border (and east a bit). 9 p.m. // Tractor Tavern // $8 HIPPIE WOO-WOO TALK: (We can call it that......

COME ON AND SAFARI WITH ME: Seattlest's first concert of note was the Beach Boys at the Brevard County Fair in Central Florida. We walked into a trash can, and somehow that's the part of the night we most remember. John Stamos was there playing the bongos. Otherwise, we couldn't really tell you much about the show. That was 20 years ago. So, we have to kind of Salute the Boys (sans Brian Wilson) for......

BLACK MONDAY: Good God! Have you been following what's going on in the banking sector? We're closing our WaMu accounts as fast as we can and switching to WSECU before our Wamoola goes the same way as the investors in Lehman Bros. Wait...is that how bank runs start? Shit. Anyway, if ever there was a good day for drinking, it's today. Which is why Seattlest is happy to host a Moe Bar happy hour tonight......

WHO WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL?: Wow, Seattlest really loved that song when Jewel first came out back in '96. When we went to Lilith Fair, Jewel's set was the one we thought we'd skip and go have dinner during. Then she started, and she was an absolutely captivating performer. We're not totally sure what she's been up to all these years since then, but we can vouch for the truth of the matter that Jewel......

Naturally Slavoj Žižek, whose inner cultural critic wins equal time from his inner philosopher, spiced his Town Hall talk last night with cinematic references, in particular, The Dark Knight. After seeing that (and Kung Fu Panda five times, thanks to his "small degenerate son"), he was disturbed by the message that it's noble to lie on behalf of power, to protect it. In our apparently post-ideological era, Žižek argues, we're even more enmeshed in ideology......

THE FRAT ROCK: This Seattlest is originally from a really small town in Central Florida—a part of the country where bands don't really make a habit of "blowing up" nationwide. Sister Hazel is one of the rare exceptions, and they started their career in Gainesville playing the ever-demanding frat rock circuit. We learned about them from our sorority-member sister, because they played frequent bar parties at FSU. Anyway, it's cool to see them all the......

PHILOSOPHY!: Slavoj Žižek occupies a place in the intellectual world akin to that of Noam Chomsky, at once both a (perceived) leading philosopher and theorist and a public intellectual who commands the respect of the educated masses, weighing in on the issues of the day in more accessible publications like the London Review of Books. So, after thirty-plus books in English, hundreds of articles and essays, a tabloid-style wedding to an Argentinian supermodel-cum-Lacanian theorist, and......

MEET ME IN THE CHAMBER: We don't need to sell the symphony fans on chamber music, but maybe you rock and rollers could use a little primer. Catch six chamber ensembles at Town Hall tonight, and get your chamber music in 15-minute doses. It's like tapas, but with violins. 8 p.m. // Town Hall // Free LOCAL AUTHOR BLOWOUT: TNT sports writer Dave Boling has written a novel. Go Dave! Guernica is set during the......

PURE HILARIUM: Frank Entertainment Showcase brings Wits Up!, a showcase of its best and brightest talent to Town Hall. It's a lively night of 8 mini-performances by satirists, musical wizards, and solo artists--from jazz humorist Jay Leonhart to cabaret songwriter Ray Jessel to Stephanie Satie's solo shows about female American immigrants. Think Marvin Hamlisch meets Noel Coward meets Anna Deavere Smith, before they became the names that they are. 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. //......

Looking past Bumbershoot for a second, we want to alert you to an evening we've been waiting for with bated breath--to our doctor's surprise and chagrin. So what if we're taking days off our life? If laughter is the best medicine, we might as well put ourselves in a condition to need it. And laughter--plus chortling, snickering, and a few guffaws--is what you can count on at Frequently Asked Questions: Mike Daisey and Reggie Watts......

BEST LOCAL SHOW EVER: Okay, maybe that's too strong a statement. There are people who would argue otherwise, but Seattlest is pretty thrilled with all the bands on the bill tonight at the Tractor. It's a big ol' acousti-pop night in Ballard with Grand Hallway, Kate Tucker, Odessa Chen, and Husbands Love Your Wives. Yeah, we know. Hot action. Maybe it's not as killer as a Pearl Jam-Dave Matthews-Death Cab-Heart show would be, but it's......

POLITICALLY CRAFTY: If you're a Washingtonian for Obama and you love arts and crafts, you'll love making buttons for Obama. The buttons you make will be passed out locally at voter registration and special events, and in communities as far away as West Virginia. Make a difference with a small piece of metal. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. // Vivace Espresso // 901 East Denny Way // FREE JOB HUNTING/LIFE SEARCHING: Richard Bolles, author......

It ain't easy being Scott McClellan. He's considered a traitor, snitch, and turncoat by the right, while the left decries him for not blowing the whistle sooner—either way, he's not getting many Christmas cards this year. Last night, McClellan appeared at a sold-out Town Hall to discuss his memoir What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. Barry Mitzman moderated, and thankfully, the Q&A was handled via notecard submission, thereby......

SCIENCE WITH A TWIST: We've always had fun at the Pacific Science Center's monthly events for adults. If you enjoy science and drinking, you can't get much better than this. This month's event is focused around their new exhibit, Speed, and a drink they're calling the "Turbo Charger." Win tickets to the new Batman movie, watch a speed-themed movie on the IMAX screen, and eat and drink to your heart's content. 6 p.m. Happy Hour,......

Actually the weirdest part of the evening at Town Hall came during the Q&A, when someone asked cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff to talk about the campaign, cognitive-linguistically speaking. Lakoff started talking off the top of his head about how John McCain is running on character, but what about these rumors of him committing an act of treason as a POW? Our mind boggled a bit so we can't quote the rest, but it got......

SALMAN RUSHDIE: He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from his latest effort, The Enchantress of Florence. According to the press release, it sounds like it's one of those quasi-fictional tales pitting opposites against each other (and, possibly, in the process, showing how opposites attract?). Tickets are available at University Bookstore for $5 a pop, or you can just buy a copy of the novel and use that as your entry. 7:30 p.m.......

We sent special Killer Bugs correspondent Roger van Oosten to Town Hall last night to catch Richard "Hot Zone" Preston's talk. Post-decontamination, here is his report. Richard Preston, the award-winning author of The Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer, had the Town Hall audience on his side with his very first words: “It’s freezing here! This is crazy!” Preston is on the lecture circuit pumping his new book Panic in Level 4, a collection......

TALK ABOUT YOUR HEALTH: Founder of Bastyr University and chief science officer for Metagenetics, Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., thinks we should be focusing on "biochemical individuality derived from genetic and environmental differences." Seems practical enough. He'll be speaking on the matter tonight and, if you're interested in the ongoing debate about how to fix our healthcare system, you should check out his talk, entitled Healthcare Reform 2008: Creating a True Health Care System. 7:30 p.m. //......

TEENY BOPPER EXPRESS: Disney's High School Musical opens at the Paramount tonight, so maybe steer clear of the teenagers downtown. If you have your own teenager, maybe it's a good night to set them free with their friends so they can go sing along and goo-goo-ga-ga over the cute boys and dreaminess of this sensational teenfest. 7:30 p.m. // Paramount Theater // $20-67 plus fees WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Seattlest made it to the Seattle Storm's opening......

TO TELL THE TRUTH: We in the Seattlest newsroom love a good controversy. When it involves a literary sensation and Oprah, the intrigue is doubly delicious. So you can bet that number one on our list of things to do tonight is go to Town Hall to see James Frey and Josh Kilmer-Purcell for a night of readings from two "memorists turned novelists." Frey admitted on Oprah that what he wrote about getting over his......

DARK, CRAZY MEMORIES: Augusten Burroughs has a new memoir out—A Wolf at the Table. We don't have it yet, but a friend who does says it's exquisite. He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from it. The Town Hall site sums up the story quite well: "Burrough’s dark story follows the radical pendulum swing between love and hate—stunning psychological cruelty, and ultimately, the redemptive power of hope." 7:30 p.m. // Town Hall // Free......

LIVE MUSIC: If you're looking to start your weekend a day early, why not head to the Showbox Downtown for Minus the Bear. Fresh off the hottness of Coachella, the band's back in town to rock you hard. 8 p.m. // Showbox Downtown // $17.50 adv, $20 dos // all ages ART & WINE: Personally, we can think of no better pairing than art and wine, when it comes to nights out. The Frye will......

BURLESQUE BENEFIT: Jet City Burlesque appears at the Columbia City Theatre in a benefit for animals in animal shelters. You're supposed to bring dog and cat "items" to the show, to help the shelter experience seem less like prison. Join the Swedish Housewife and the Shanghai Pearl, among many other luminaries, for a warm-hearted celebration of the slightly indecent and intoxicatingly indecorous. And don't forget the squeaky toy. For the animals. 7 p.m. doors,......

FRIDAY MUSIC: Subtle, the genre-blending Bay Area group that plays music described as indie, electronic, experimental rock, and abstract hip-hop, have added a new element to the mix: lasers. Subtle frontman Doseone will attend a laser CD listening party at, naturally, Seattle's Laser Dome; they're hyping their new album ExitingARM. The laser show will also include some of the bands artwork. (Their Seattle live show will be at Nectar Lounge on May 10.) 9:15-10:15......