Our music critics have already chosen the 36 best music shows this week (including Capitol Hill Block Party), but now it's our arts critics' turn to pick the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genre—from Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore to the Third Annual Baby Goats and Brews, and from the Bite of Seattle to Lusio Lights Georgetown. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.

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MONDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Barangay Fiesta: Filipino Pop-Up Night
Joule sous chef Tom Hoolian and the Trove team will collaborate to create a menu of festive Filipino party favorites like fresh lumpia, crispy pata, shrimp ukoy, and their take on mussel kinilaw and pancit palapa.

READINGS & TALKS

Rachel Z. Arndt: Beyond Measure
Kirkus called Rachel Z. Arndt's new collection of personal essays "a keen, close study of the neuroses attached to everyday living." Throughout Beyond Measure, she reflects on the timing of arriving at events, describes the many insidious ways people take measure of women's bodies, and philosophizes on the nature of dating apps, all with a journalist's curiosity and novelist's eye for detail. RICH SMITH

MONDAY-THURSDAY

ART

Blank Boy Canvas
Hong Kong artist Danny Yung is the creator of Tian Tian, a "blank boy" that you can fill in with paint or markers. This exhibition shows off Tian Tians that have been painted by artists. Sadly, it will be the last exhibit at Mokedo, which is being forced into nomadism.

TUESDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Pursued by Bear & Abeja Winemaker Dinner with Kyle MacLachlan
Who knew that Agent Cooper moonlighted as a winemaker? Join Kyle MacLachlan himself inside Snoqualmie's Salish Lodge (a.k.a. the inspiration for the Great Northern Hotel on Twin Peaks), where he'll present wine pairings from his Columbia Valley winery Pursued By Bear along with winemaker Daniel Wampfler. The night will start with passed appetizers in Salish's herb gardens and include a locally inspired five-course dinner from executive chef Ben Riggs. Guests may also purchase up to two bottles of wine to be signed by MacLachlan and Wampfler.

Salmon Colored Summer Dinner
Four local chefs will celebrate salmon season with a five-course dinner paired with Cannas Feast wines, and they'll donate 10 percent to FISH Friends of Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.

PERFORMANCE

Great Soul of Russia: In the Shadow of Classics
Gavin Neub will direct these dramatic interpretations of stories by contemporary Russian masters of the short form (including Victor Pelevin and Tatyana Tolstaya), as part of the Seagull Project.

READINGS & TALKS

Clarion West Presents: Karen Joy Fowler
Hear work by the much-praised Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, and many smart, emotional, literary spooky stories.

TUESDAY-SUNDAY

ART

Captive Light: The Life and Photography of Ella E. McBride
Ella McBride, who was born in 1862 and died in 1965 at 102, was one of the most accomplished and widely exhibited Pictorialist photographers during the early 1900s. Pictorialism introduced a more painterly rather than documentary approach to photography by combining artistic composition with experimentation during the development process. In McBride’s “Shirley Poppy,” a single bloomed poppy with two budded stems stand tall in an overlarge Chinese vase while cherry blossoms cast shadows on the wall behind. Not sepia-toned nor black and white, the warm tan hues lend a soft elegance to the piece. When not producing her own work, McBride ran famed photographer Edward Curtis’s studio and was an accomplished mountaineer. KATIE KURTZ
Closing Sunday

PERFORMANCE

The Aliens
In the New York Times, critic Charles Isherwood called this Annie Baker joint about a group of young men hanging out at a Vermont coffee shop “a gentle and extraordinarily beautiful play” that was also “inordinately delicate.” Translation: You’ll either fall asleep while watching it or spend three or four hours after the show trying to convince your friends that they were idiots for falling asleep while watching it. Whatever your views on Baker’s extremely good but extremely subtle storytelling, it’ll be interesting to see if David Hsieh can draw out the nuanced acting he needs from the three young actors tasked to deliver Baker’s mumblecore lines—Alan E. Garcia, Curtis Gehlhausen, and Cooper Harris-Turner. If he can, ReAct Theatre's staging could shape up to be an under-the-radar summer hit. RICH SMITH

WEDNESDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Author Talk: Farm Food: Volume 2: Spring and Summer with Kurt Timmermeister
Reformed city slicker Kurt Timmermeister helmed Seattle’s iconic Cafe Septieme for close to two decades before absconding to a pastoral life on a farm on Vashon Island. You might know him from Kurt Farm Shop, his hidden gem of an ice cream shop tucked away in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row, where he churns up homespun ice cream with Jersey milk and pastured eggs from his farm, Kurtwood Farms, in flavors like salted plum, tomato jam, and “Flora’s cheese” (yep, it’s studded with real chunks of his creamy farmstead cheese). His magazine Farm Food, Volume 1: Fall and Winter, provided a lovely peek into his bucolic lifestyle, with photos, essays, and recipes for handmade pasta, cheese, and cake. For the next volume in the series, Farm Food, Volume 2: Spring and Summer, he’ll share stories of summertime and impart wisdom on how to make your own ricotta and ice cream. Even if you live in a cramped studio apartment rather than 13 acres of sprawling countryside, his generous, joyful writing and rustic recipes are sure to inspire you. JULIANNE BELL

READINGS & TALKS

Angela Garbes
One of the finest writers who ever worked at this newspaper, Angela Garbes (author of “The More I Learn About Breast Milk, the More Amazed I Am,” the 2015 story that broke our website’s traffic records) presents her first book, an investigative reflection on an aspect of childbirth that receives surprisingly little attention from the medical establishment or the baby book publishing industry: the mental and physical health of the mother. "Your OB will cautiously quote statistics, online sources will scare you with conflicting and often inaccurate information, and even the most trusted books will offer information with a heavy dose of judgment," Garbes writes. SEAN NELSON

Kate Christensen: The Last Cruise
A brilliant writer, Kate Christensen is equally adept at writing fiction (à la The Great Man, winner of the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction) and food memoir (How to Cook a Moose, Blue Plate Special). She returns with the story of the Queen Isabella, a 1950s luxury ocean liner on its final voyage. The Last Cruise is told from the point of view of three characters on board the ship: journalist-turned-farmer Christine Thorne, who’s primed and ready to soak up the decadence of mid-20th-century living; Hungarian executive sous chef Mick Szabo, a witness to escalating tensions among the crew; and Miriam Koslow, an aging Israeli violinist who discovers the corners cut by the cruise-ship company. According to Publisher’s Weekly, “Christensen has crafted a Ship of Fools for an era of environmental concerns and social unrest.” SEAN NELSON

WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY

ART

Holly Ballard Martz: Pattern Recognition
In her mixed-media solo show, Holly Ballard Martz tackles the hot-button issues of gun violence, women’s reproductive rights, and racism. And even in our current climate, Martz manages to take these issues on without being bombastic. Tugging a frayed thread at the notion of “the fabric of our nation,” Martz deconstructs the American flag in various ways: bleached of all color, embellished with shredded dollar bills, and stuffed in a test tube. (The last is appropriately called Procedural Error Results in Flawed Experiment.) While there, snap a selfie in front of Dangers of Nostalgia in Wallpaper Form (in utero), tag the artist on Instagram @HBallardMartz, and she'll donate $5 to Planned Parenthood. KATIE KURTZ
Closing Saturday

WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Lechoncito
Pork enthusiasts can enter a state of bliss at this weekly five-course, Puerto Rican family-style dinner. The menu changes every time.

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

Femme Fatale
A Prom Queen and Can Can collab!? Yes, please! The Can Can culinary cabaret, which serves up some of the best butts and beignets in town, is partnering with rising music star Prom Queen for their summer show, and it's a safe bet that it will be a hit. That said, the team could have chosen a better subject than Mata Hari, who catapulted to fame using an outsider's vision of Indonesia. Hopefully their adaptation will avoid Hari's pitfalls by doing more than just simply reproducing the Dutch dancer's problematic early-20th-century Orientalist style. Otherwise, this will be a spectacular shitshow. CHASE BURNS

Persimmon Nights
Last year, Sara Porkalob fully realized Cafe Nordo’s potential for gustatory and dramatic pleasure with Madame Dragon’s 60th Birthday Bash, a musical adaptation of her Dragon Lady series. The show was equal parts hilarious and poignant, and she meaningfully incorporated the food menu into the performance. Now she’s back at Nordo directing and starring in a brand-new show by Seattle playwright Saeyoung Yim (Do It for Umma). Backed by a pop group called the Kimchi Kittens, Porkalob and Ray Tagavilla (one of the best actors in town) will tell the story of a “brash, young Korean immigrant” who balances “two lovers and many debts in the 1960s.” RICH SMITH

THURSDAY

FILM

Carole Lombard: Queen of Comedy
The cool, brainy star of 1930s cinema starred in great movies like To Be or Not To Be, My Man Godfrey, and Hitchcock’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Watch the films that made her famous at this weekly SAM series. Hands Across the Table will screen this evening.

Outdoor Movie Night: Coco
Watch the Academy Award-winning animated film under the stars. Free popcorn will be available on a first-come-first-served basis.

FOOD & DRINK

Third Annual Baby Goats and Brews
In its first year, this fundraiser proved to be an instant sleeper hit, with thousands of people interested on Facebook. Can you blame them? It’s not every day you get a chance to down brewskis from Reuben’s while consorting with small ruminant critters. At the third annual event, guests will get to cuddle baby goats for five minutes—and $1 from every beer, growler, and flight sold that day will go to the volunteer-run charity Puget Sound Goat Rescue, which saves the lives of more than 100 goats every year with its work rescuing, caring for, and finding new homes for goats in need. JULIANNE BELL

Magnuson Park Night Market
Shop around from over 30 local shop pop-ups until sundown, dance to live music, and eat street food in the park.

READINGS & TALKS

City Planning Poetry
Longtime journalist (he founded Publicola and worked for the Stranger before that) and speechwriter Josh Feit will read civic-minded poetry "about commute trip reduction, affordable housing, and the babysitter's seance." He'll be joined by Sarah Anne Lloyd, another reporter and Stranger alum (currently editor at Curbed).

Finn Murphy: The Long Haul
The romance of the well-born guy who opts out of privilege in favor of a blue-collar life—aka the dropout—has never been less in keeping with the contemporary discourse about class than it is today. That makes Finn Murphy’s memoir of his career as a long-haul mover, The Long Haul: A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road, a fascinating anthropological study. But it’s his fine, funny, anti-pretentious writing that makes it a good book. SEAN NELSON

Porochista Khakpour: Sick
Sick is a testimony to the cycles of misdiagnosis, harm, disbelief, pain, survival, and transformation that affect a chronically ill woman trying to save her own life. Porochista Khakpour, who was diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease after years of trying to find out the cause of her ailments, has written a memoir that speaks directly to sick women—the women who aren’t listened to by doctors, who have their pain dismissed as hysterics, who are discarded by loved ones for being “too much”—while capturing what it means to keep going when, in all reality, the idea of getting better sounds more like a joke than a consoling hope. She stops in town for a reading and talk with former Stranger editor-in-chief Tricia Romano. SOPHIA STEPHENS

Thor Hanson: Buzz
Washington native and conservation biologist Thor Hanson is one of those science writers who can poke and stoke your curiosity no matter what he's writing about. A few years ago, he championed one of the tiniest but mightiest forces of nature in The Triumph of Seeds. In Buzz, he's moved up one rung on the taxonomical ladder with a comprehensive book on bees, an insect that started out in the world as a wasp that "dared to feed pollen to its young." They've been pollinating the earth's flora for 125 million years, but, like everything else on this planet, they might not be buzzing around for much longer. Find out everything you can about these honey bugs before we find some way to shrivel them up for good. RICH SMITH

A Wolverine Evening in Seattle
Did you know the Pacific Northwest is home to wolverines? Woodland Park Zoo’s senior conservation scientist Dr. Robert Long, biologist and author Paula MacKay, and UW ecologist Dr. Joshua Lawler will give you a run-down of the mysterious creatures' habits, as well as the myths that surround them. Presented by Wildlands Network.

PERFORMANCE

#1hr2manup
Chris Anderson's semi-improvised hiphop theater dramatizes the experience of an inner-city youth. The musician, who's played with Erykah Badu, R Kelly, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Gorillaz, Mos Def, and members of Wu Tang Clan, will be joined by Jaz Lund, Jared Squires, and DJ Toon Bugatti, with an opener by Huey and the InFLOWentials.

THURSDAY & SATURDAY

ART

Summer at SAM
These Thursday and Saturday events offer a range of family-friendly arts programming throughout the park, including yoga and Zumba on Saturdays, tours, shows, workshops, food trucks, and more. This week's events include a members' appreciation night and a family field day.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY

PERFORMANCE

Cell Phone Waiting Lot
When normal people pick up their loved ones from the airport, they arrive on time and drive around and around in a loop until their beloved finally emerges from the airport burdened with luggage. But brown-nosing rule-followers know there’s a place called a “cell phone waiting lot,” which is really just a giant wi-fi-enabled parking lot where you can hang out (for only 20 minutes!) without being harassed by the “move along” cops. A quartet of local playwrights (Andrew Lee Creech, Jackie De La Cruz, Nick Edwards, and Maggie Lee) use this slightly bizarre setting as the backdrop for four 20-minute plays about the unexpected dramas and farces that befall these parking-lot people. RICH SMITH

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

PERFORMANCE

King Lear
George Mount will direct this outdoor Wooden O performance of the bleak and stormy play about an aging king and his foolish decision to expel his only honest daughter and bequeath his lands on her power-hungry older sisters.
No performance on Friday

FRIDAY

ART

C.M. Ruiz: Dreamland 2
An artist pays tribute to the Kirby Dreamland Nintendo game, featuring Coo the owl, Rick the hamster, and Kine. C.M. Ruiz will use the motifs of these characters to create an installation with photography, painting, and plush sculpture. Ruiz is a prolific and inventive artist with a wry attitude toward pop culture, and he used to contribute the Party Vibes cartoon column to The Stranger.

FILM

'Blindspotting' Opening
In rapidly gentrifying Oakland, Collin (Daveed Diggs) is trying to survive his last three days of probation when the slightest infraction will send him back to jail. However, his best friend Miles (Rafael Casal) is white, wild, and reckless. Collin should avoid Miles, but he doesn’t. While trying to get home before curfew late one night, he witnesses a rogue cop pursue and shoot a fleeing black man. CARL SPENCE

Midnight Movie Madness
Have a blast watching public domain horror films, boozing it up at the pay-what-you-want bar, or playing board or video games with the horror sketch troupe Drop the Root Beer and Run. A must for fans of comedy, low-fi horror, and cheesiness.

FOOD & DRINK

Summer Listening Party: Sea Creatures Welcomes Turntable Kitchen
Stop by General Porpoise after hours for some tunes, courtesy of the Turntable Kitchen crew, and bites courtesy of Renee Erickson. The DJs will be spinning vinyl cuts from their SOUNDS DELICIOUS subscription series, and they'll offer a sneak peak of upcoming releases. They'll also have limited quantities of rare colored vinyl for you to pick through.

PERFORMANCE

The Ballad of Annabel Lee
Join the terrific theater company ArtsWest for a fundraiser and show inspired by the gloomy, Gothic world of Edgar Allan Poe.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

COMEDY

Arj Barker
An American comic who’s big in Australia, Arj Barker (aka Arjan Singh) has been a memorable presence on the excellent Flight of the Conchords and Doug Benson's Super High Me, among other prestigious outlets. His onstage presence is that of the paragon of reasonableness who expresses outrage with perfectly nuanced inflections and invariably witty observations (his bit about the predictive text of smartphones is amazing). While excelling at observational and stoner humor, Barker also ad-libs brilliant meta-comedy remarks into his sets. If he digs back into his Marijuana-Logues material, Barker will surely find common ground with his King County audience. DAVE SEGAL

PERFORMANCE

Fresh: A Drag Show for New Talent
Seattle is a drag capital. We've nominated many girls and ghouls to participate in the Hunger Games of Drag (RuPaul's Drag Race) and the Hunger Games of Spooky Drag (Dragula). But Seattle's booming scene is more often defined by drag created in opposition to glitzy TV drag—even our queens who do get on these shows tend to flip off convention (hello, BenDeLaCreme)—and Arson Nicki's new(ish) drag show Fresh is the best place in Seattle to find the latest drag talent riotously flipping off convention. CHASE BURNS

FRIDAY-SUNDAY

FOOD & DRINK

Albert Lee Appliance Bite of Seattle
Year-round, Seattle is filled with festivals devoted to niche food and drink offerings, but if there’s one event that everyone knows about, it’s the Bite of Seattle (July 20–22), a free event at Seattle Center that’s been going strong since 1982 and claims to attract more than 400,000 guests annually. Seattle’s “original & largest food and beverage showcase” rounds up food from more than 60 restaurants and pop-up vendors, offering everything from specialty popsicles and pad thai to Korean fried chicken and Shishkaberry’s. There’s also craft beer and cider tastings, a restaurant showcase benefiting Food Lifeline, live cooking demonstrations, and cook-off battles on the “Bite Cooks” stage. And when you can’t eat anymore, head to the free outdoor movie night on Friday (featuring A League of Their Own) or one of three music stages for bands like Marina and the Dreamboats, Everson Pines, and the Hamilton Tribute Band.

PERFORMANCE

Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience
Ruben van Kempen and Maestro Bernard Kwiram direct Victorian theatrical duo W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's satirical comedy filled with "rapturous maidens, handsome and moody poets, a platoon of enthusiastic British Dragoon Guards, and the local milkmaid who throws a wrench in it all."

Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, part 1 may be best-known for Falstaff, whom former Stranger theater critic Brendan Kiley called one of the "saddest, funniest, wittiest characters in the English language." GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park will present a version of the history play about the War of the Roses and the coming-of-age of Prince Hal. Directed by Amelia Meckler Bowers.

Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Usually, when you run into someone you knew years ago who left Seattle for NY or LA to pursue their showbiz dreams and are back for a visit, it’s fun to talk about the folly of youth and ambition and, really, dreams in general. When that someone is Lauren Weedman, who was a big fish in the brackish pond of local comedy/media before going legit and winding up with credits like The Daily Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Childrens Hospital, and loads of others, the conversation has many more interesting possibilities. Weedman will be returning with the latest in what has become a series of solo (with guests) shows that incorporate monologue, sketch, and song—the last one I saw ended with a rendition of “Stand Up” by Ludacris that no one present will be likely to forget—all in the service of a noble goal: revealing the facets of herself that may be less than exemplary while also being very funny. Weedman says the new show, directed by the mighty Alison Narver, PS, deals with “the issues of being betrayed and getting divorced,” but that “the themes are applicable to most anyone—for example, discovering who you really are, or finding yourself alone, or perhaps realizing that you're not who you thought you were.” SEAN NELSON

SATURDAY

ART

AFTER LIFE (what remains)
In this group show, curated by UW Bothell lecturer Dr. Thea Quiray Tagle, indigenous and Asian Pacific American artists use art and performance to begin the work of healing from military occupation, economic displacement, and environmental catastrophe. Through a suite of multimedia works, Super Futures Haunt Collective (SFHQ) stages a conversation among indigenous ancestors, using technology and imagination to bridge time and space. Their work serves as a hinge to connect artists Alejandro T. Acierto, Rea Tajiri, Michael Arcega, and Leeroy New, who critically examine the forces of colonialism and posit possible strategies for livability in an age that is "increasingly toxic for the poor to live in." EMILY POTHAST
Closing Saturday

Lusio Lights Georgetown
Wandering around Volunteer Park last year through Lusio's effervescent light installations was a summer highlight. While Georgetown may be less lush, the confines of Bar Ciudad offer other pleasures: food, drink, and a proper sound system, since nothing pairs better with eye candy for the artistically inclined than a stellar soundtrack. GREG SCRUGGS

SODO Track Open House
For the past three years, a slew of artists from around the world have been transforming a two-mile stretch of boring industrial buildings into a two-mile stretch of exciting murals. Here's a chance to take a walking tour, meet some of the artists—including Alex Gardner, Alexis Diaz, Angelina Villalobos, Brian Sanchez, and many others—and enjoy drinks and bites.

The Veil
Guest curator Sequoia Day O'Connell has brought together work by Seattle artists Ko Kirk Yamahira (who delicately dissects canvas in a play on the distinctions between two- and three-dimensional), Markel Uriu (here using live blackberry and string for her installation), and Taylor Hanigosky (whose suspended rocks and glass are beautifully geometrical). Together with New York artist Charlie Crowell, whose mixed media incorporates a SAD lamp and a laptop privacy screen, the artists reflect on the passing of seasons and the spaces in between.
Opening Saturday

COMMUNITY

More Fats More Femmes Witch Market 6.0
Celebrate your babely bod while shopping for plus size vintage clothing and accessories at this stacked size-inclusive market hosted by Indian Summer owner Adria Garcia, ex-IS manager (and current Stranger music calendar editor) Kim Selling, and current IS shopgirl Abby Cooke. They'll have pieces from a wide variety of styles, from size 12 to 30, and surprise vendors for jewelry and tarot reading.

PERFORMANCE

Multiple Maniacs: A John Waters Drag Show
Do your tastes run to the elegant and refined? Then maybe don't come to this drag tribute to the King of Trash, a man most infamous for his musically drawling delivery and his devotion to bringing the grotesque and scatological to cinema. With Butylene O'Kipple, Americano, Britt Brutality, Mona Real, Uh Oh, and Baby Guurl.

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

ART

Renegade Craft Fair
Renegade Craft Fair ("the largest independent craft fair in the world") will return to Seattle, bringing along a few hundred makers selling their wares, conducting DIY workshops, vending food and drinks, and more.

PERFORMANCE

Traces of Us: A Site Specific Dance
Melissa Riker's Kinesis Project, in collaboration with costume designer Asa Thornton and visual artist Celeste Cooning, will perform with "large-scale, hand-cut sculptural textiles." The scale of the dance and art objects looks impressive, and the combination of brightly colored cloth and human movement should be stark and lovely on Seattle's waterfront.

SUNDAY

ART

Cephalopod Appreciation Society 2018
Exult in your love of cuttlefish, octopuses, squid, nautiluses, and other squishy intelligences ("plus special shout outs to the Kraken, R.I.P. ammonites") with dancers, musicians, artists, and other cephalo-lovers.

FOOD & DRINK

Revel Butchery Class
Learn from James Beard Award-nominated chef Rachel Yang how to butcher like she and her team do at Revel and Trove. Then you'll get to steal the marinades and techniques they use to flavor and cook their meats at their restaurants. Finally, you'll enjoy the meat from the class, prepared at Trove's tabletop grill, and go home equipped with the skills you need to impress all the guests at your next backyard barbecue.

Second Annual Pig Out Dinner
Chef Jesse Elliot will transform an entire pig into a five-course meal for 56 people. Your ticket includes two cocktails—one Knob Creek Bourbon Old Fashioned and one Sipsmith Gin French 75— and all the noshing you can handle.