* Breaking the Code, a play about Alan Turing at the Strawberry Theatre Workshop. Fantastic play, fantastic production.
* Smash Putt, the miniature golf apocalypse of AWESOME. This year it was held in the old INS Building in the International District, and the weekend we went was also the opening of that building as an art space, so after we kicked some miniature golf ass we got to go check out all the exhibits. The most powerful, obviously, were the ones that dealt with the history of the building. Interesting stuff.
* Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, and volunteering for the first time. Why it takes me so long to get involved, I do not know. Better late than never, I suppose, and of course I only started volunteering for SIFF in 2009, so clearly I am running behind.
* Metropolis, the newest, most complete cut to date, with a live score by the Alloy Orchestra. I had never seen it before, and I think this trend of the theater experience being the first experience is an excellent one.
* Harry Potter: the Exhibition at the Pacific Science Center. Costumes! Props! Sets! My favorite was probably seeing so many of the wands. They’re fantastic, each one beautiful in its own way and perfectly suited to the wizard in question. Things I wish the gift shop had sold: posters of the Proclamations (or at least postcards of more of them), the pennant from the Quidditch World Cup, and autographed 8×10 glossies of Gilderoy Lockhart. On the other hand, I spent $18 on magnets and postcards, so perhaps they sold enough things as it was.
* The Rally to Restore Sanity, Seattle satellite edition. Some inevitable snags: rain, trouble with the live feed from DC, but a lot of cool people with clever signs, and just a nice thing to be a part of. Someday I may even upload photos from it. I was the obligatory Seattle xkcd protester, carrying a [citation needed] sign. Yup. I am awesome.
* All Souls at St James Cathedral. Every year they do Mozart’s Requiem Mass, and it’s standing room only. I stood for a while, but then went out and took a seat in the lobby, where I could listen without feeling claustrophobic (and also free of incense!) I was particularly glad to go this year because I saw in the program one of the remembered for the past year was my high school & college opera appreciation teacher, Perry Lorenzo. You are missed, good sir.
* Erin McKeown at the Triple Door for her Distillation 10th anniversary tour. The year of that album was a life-changer for me, no lie. She did the album in reverse order, then a mostly-request show, including “James!” & “Vera” at the piano. And “Single Ladies”! Hee.
* Daniel Handler at Benaroya, with a follow-up Q&A by my boyfriend Sherman Alexie. Valuable information regarding Mr Handler’s tastes gleaned from this show: he is a total fanboy of The Egypt Game, when the Giants won the World Series he was watching Red Riding, and he has a working knowledge of the band Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. I approve of all of these things.
* The Seattle Rock Orchestra performing the Pet Sounds album in full, as well as a bunch of Wall of Sound numbers. The vocals were provided by local artists, which introduced me to a bunch of new bands. Win!
* National Theatre Live began at SIFF Cinema with A Disappearing Number. I apparently love plays about math. Who knew? I bought a series pass, which is exciting, because it’ll give me entertainment through til July. Also exciting because I heart laminated passes. Sad but true. I know that there are a lot of Opinions regarding these sorts of live theatre programs, but for me, I’m still seeing theater in Seattle (thanks, Goldstar!) and this is just more, and productions I wouldn’t be able to otherwise see. Since I’m not in London, more’s the pity.
* #snOMG, Mother Nature’s first volley against Seattle, which enabled me and my death cold to have a half-day work week with much less guilt. Hooray! (Yeah, you read that correctly. One half of one day.)
