This Week in Freeattle, August 23

Hello Freeple! Here's what's up in Freeattle this week: puppets, jazz, totem poles, yoga, Harry Potter, Mexican music, Linux, help for joint pain, and roller derby!

Also check out this week's outdoor and nature events on Seattle Natural Selection - several free events this week!

Monday, August 23

• 6:30pm: Rodney the Shark Puppet Show. "Rodney is a shark who is afraid of everything…even his own shadow. Try as they might, his friends have no luck in helping him. But when another shark threatens the neighborhood, it’s up to Rodney to save the day. Can he muster the courage to become a hero?"
• 11pm: Mockingjay Release Party at U District UW Bookstore. "Have you loved Suzanne Collins Hunger Games books as much as we have? Are you champing at the bit to read the final book in the series? Then join us in the U District for a midnight release party of Mockinjay! We're pulling out all the stops for this one. Not only will there be the requisite refreshments and prizes, we're transforming our U District store into a Panem-style arena for a survival game of our own devising. Bellevue and Mill Creek customers will be able to play the game during the day on August 24. Preorders of the book are encouraged, as this looks to be a hot, hot commodity."

Tuesday, August 24

• 12pm: Live at Lunch Concert Series: Josh Rawlings Trio (Jazz).
• 7pm: Book Talk: "The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History" at Elliott Bay Book Co. "One of the foremost scholars at work on Northwest Coast native art, Aldona Jonaitis is now director emerita of the Alaska Museum of the North, but is still more than active as professor and author. She is here with a sumptuous, major new work, The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History.Smart, scholarly, and with a sense of humor—cartoons and ads featuring totem poles are included—and a feast for the eye, this may be the fullest, most accessible book on totem poles yet published. It may also be the most essential, delving as it does into history, and into the diaspora of totem poles off to other parts of the world."
• 8pm: Summer Outdoor Movies in the Park: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (Please bring food and toiletries to donate to the Overlake Service League.)

Wednesday, August 25

• 11:30am: Free Yoga at Seattle Center.
• 12:30-2pm: Family Game Days at the Des Moines Library. "Children to age 12, ages 8 and younger with adult. Celebrate summer playing games on our GameCubes, Xbox, PS2s and Wii."
• 7pm: Book Talk: "Meeks" by Julia Holmes at Elliott Bay Book Co."A highly imaginative debut finds a stark Darwinian logic in a rigidly Darwinian society. In Holmes's unnamed dystopia, everyone is ascribed a place strictly enforced by the police, with the young Bachelors bearing the responsibility of finding a wife, an accomplishment that will secure them a place in society ... Holmes has fashioned a terrifying and utterly convincing world in which the perfect human being is one stripped of all illusions." – Publishers Weekly.

Thursday, August 26

• 1:30pm: Heart and Soul of Mexico at South Park Branch. "Experience a fun, interactive show that covers many regions and aspects of Mexican culture. The musicians of La Mariachi Mexico will perform familiar songs on a variety of authentic instruments. For ages 6 and up."
• 6pm: Linux Install Workshop at Jigsaw Renaissance."Curious about Open Source? Looking for an operating system that will make your older computer run like new? In this workshop you will install Ubuntu Linux along with common applications and learn the basics of using your new system. Ubuntu is a modern, free and easy to use version of the Linux operating system which runs on a variety of computers: Apple or PC, new or old. Please bring a computer (laptop or desktop) on which you want to install."
• 6:30pm: Joint Pain Talk at Pharmaca Wallingford. "Steven Teague, DC Come learn about signs, symptoms and alternative solutions for degenerative joint problems."

Friday,August 27

• 7pm: Book Talk: Down and Derby: The Insider's Guide to Roller Derby at the Elliott Bay Book Co. A "history and a how-to for this generation's skaters and fans. More than 400 leagues strong, roller derby's heroes (villains), music, films, colorful aliases and good times are all part of the fascinating story these two skater/authors tell."
• 8pm: Trenton Doyle Hancock A Better Promise 2010 Opening Event at Olympic Sculpture Park. "Join us to celebrate the opening of the site-specific installation A Better Promise 2010 at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Trenton Doyle Hancock creates a new sculpture and wall drawings located in the PACCAR Pavilion that continue his imaginative, epic narrative featuring a cast of colorful—and often not so colorful—characters, who populate a wildly fantastic, invented landscape."
• 8:30pm: Free Film: "Candleshoe" at Cal Anderson Park. "Blonde But Not Forgotten They’re blonde, beautiful, and back on the big screen! Celebrate summer nights with these unforgettable leading ladies in the movies that made them shine. All screenings are FREE and begin at sunset (around 8:30/9pm) at the southeast corner of Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park. Concessions will be sold, and a limited number of lawn chairs available for rent. Donations to Three Dollar Bill Cinema happily accepted. Proceeds benefit our efforts to promote LGBT film and visibility."