Your Weekend Arts & Seafair Planner

Yes, Seafair events are already underway. But before we jump to those, Mike Seely tells us why to see the Ms versus the Rangers at Safeco field tonight (indeed, a perfect sunny evening for baseball):

The off-season signing of Ken Griffey Jr. was hailed by many (including this scribe) as a public relations masterstroke. Even if the Kid sucked on the field, his mere presence would serve to distract fans from a sub-middling team in the midst of an overhaul. Junior has, for the most part, sucked—but the Mariners haven't, gamely straddling the .500 line while staying within striking distance of their more talented division rivals in Texas (Rangers) and Southern California (Angels). But now that third baseman and third-place hitter Adrian Beltre is out until Labor Day with a shoulder injury, the team's low expectations may yet be met. So what's a franchise to do? Bust out even more nostalgia: For tonight's game against Texas (part of a Thurs.-Sun. series), the first 20,000 fans to pass through the Safeco turnstiles will receive a free, 2-DVD collection of ad man Jim Copacino's brilliantly humorous television commercials involving the likes of Edgar, Buhner, Ichiro, and the Kid. They're enough to make you wish TiVo had never been invented, or that Junior never forced a trade to Cincy in the first place. Safeco Field, 1250 First Ave. S., 622-HITS, mariners.com. $7-$65. 7:10 p.m. MIKE SEELY

Make the jump for Seafair milk-carton derby racing and more....

FRIDAY (cont.)
Target Practice
SAM's big summer show is awfully specific about its themes and dates: Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78. After the Abstract Expressionists got done gobbing on the paint, a new generation began scraping it off and, ultimately, probing through the picture frame. With nine galleries organized by concept (thanks to curator Michael Darling), we see the canvass variously perforated, blasted with gunfire, flipped over to reveal the wooden frame, described instead of painted, rolled up and knotted, or left on the floor for you to walk on (that last piece by Yoko Ono). In today's art-speak, you'd call it deconstruction. Representation, or the apparatus of traditional representation, is being represented. We're being asked to look past, look through the picture surface—into history and theory, in some cases. Thus Robert Rauchenberg's famous Erased de Kooning Drawing, which is just that. Or Roy Lichtenstein's Red Paining (Brushstroke), rendered not with brushes but his signature Ben-day dots. Jasper Johns' iconic Target paintings provide the curatorial premise for the large postwar survey: Our eyes are being directed along vectors, aimed like bullets at the picture plane. Looking isn't quite the same as assault—more like dissection. (Through September 7.) Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 644-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. $9-$15. 10 a.m-9 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

SATURDAY
STP
It's too late to register for the sold-out annual Seattle to Portland ride, now 30 years old. Organized by the Cascade Bicycle Club, the 202-mile STP last year counted over 9,500 entrants, most of whom divide the journey into two centuries, stopping for rest and a night's sleep in Centralia. Riders start pedaling early this morning. And we mean early! But you can bring coffee and donuts to help yourself wake up and cheer the departing throng. (In Seattle, everyone is one degree of separation from an STP rider.) Or you can join the velo-procession for the first few miles, since streets will be closed from the UW south along Lake Washington Blvd. to Renton. It's a parade! It'll be like Critical Mass, only without running red lights and beating up innocent motorists. Then, when the STPers continue south from Renton toward Kent, you can pedal home or loop around the lake. And if you're feeling inspired afterward, remember to register early for STP 2010, because it's sure to sell out, too. UW parking lots (Montlake Blvd.), cascade.org. Free. Tiered start times: 4:45-7:30 a.m. BRIAN MILLER

Matthew Amster-Burton
When Matthew Amster-Burton, who writes about food for The Seattle Times, Seattle magazine, and Gourmet.com, segued from reviewing restaurants to rising his daughter full-time, he settled on two goals: Not only was he going to keep eating the spicy, pungent food he loved, but he was going to teach Iris to love it, too. Not surprisingly, Iris has had her own agenda. Amster-Burton started chronicling his conversations and meals with Iris on his blog Roots & Grubs—turns out Iris shares his gift for the one-liner—and the blog eventually turned into Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater (Houghton Mifflin, $23). It's a fast, funny memoir punctuated with sensible advice and recipes. In an age when children's and adults' diets are more and more segregated, and when parents have to navigate through daily scare stories and nutrition advisories, the book encourages adults to chill the heck out and have fun cooking with their kids. Hungry Monkey's recipes are also notably designed for urban families, whose kids are growing up on sushi and pad thai, as well as hot dogs and pizza (though those are OK, too). Today, Amster-Burton appears to talk about the book, answer your most neurotic child-feeding questions, and cook a dish or two parents may not have realized their kids will love. U District Farmers Market, N.E. 50th St. & University Way N.E., 547-2278, seattlefarmersmarket.org. Free. 10 a.m. JONATHAN KAUFFMAN

Seafair Milk Carton Derby
Banana boats, purple pirate barges, and Titanic replicas are just a sample of the creations you might see cruising—or sinking—during today's Seafair Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake. Prizes are awarded in five categories: racing, commercially sponsored groups, open class (with subdivisions for kids and families), showboat, and military (which we expect the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy to dominate). Last year, the showboat award went to a look-alike based on the Time Bandit craft on the reality TV show Deadliest Catch. Why the tribute? That show's Sig Hansen was a Seafair marshal for the event. This year's marshals are former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren and long-time DJ and hydroplane race announcer Pat O'Day. So perhaps we can expect to see a floating Hawks design or paddle-powered hydro. Green Lake Aqua Theater, W. Green Lake Way N., seafair.com. Free. 10 a.m.-4p.m. CHANTAL ANDERSON

Seattle Center Skatepark Opening
The Seattle Center Skatepark is finally opening today, a year and a half after the old park (opposite the EMP) was demolished to make way for the Gates Foundation. The long interim has been filled with siting concerns and city council squabbles—at one point the replacement park was to displace DuPen Fountain. But the Skateboard Park Advisory Committee persisted, and a new location was found. (A World's Fair pavilion by Paul Thiry was razed to make room.) The bulk of the $2.1 million budget came from the sale of the old land; and the state threw in $800,000 as well. At 10,000 square feet, the new park is about 25 percent larger than the old. Its design, by local firm Weinstein A|U and VBZ/New Line Skateparks, is also much more modern. Skateable streetscape features combine with architectural elements like a vertical glass wall that's fully skateable! Equally impressive are the laminated glass panels along the park's south boundary. Designers bought used skateboards on eBay, studied their contours, scratch works, and indentations, then digitized those images onto the glass. They're not only aesthetically pleasing, but provide a safety and sound barrier between the park and Thomas Street. Among those attending today's grand opening (with music!) will be city council members, Ryan Barth and other leaders of the skateboarding community, and members of Skate Like a Girl. Seattle Center (Second Ave. & Thomas St.), 684-7200, seattlecenter.com/skatepark. Free. 11 a.m. BRITT THORSON

DANCE This
Local teens and youth groups are the focus in the annual "DANCE This" showcase, augmented this year by the Step Afrika! troupe. Stepping is rooted in both traditional African body music (slapping, clapping, stomping) and marching band choreography; it's an idiom also popular with African American fraternities, and two from the UW will also perform tonight. (There's also a 1 p.m. youth matinee on Friday.) Over a dozen local groups are featured, including the S.C.A.T.S. from Dearborn Park Elementary School (on Beacon Hill); the acronym is for Seattle Cirque & Acrobat Teams, a P.E. program now extended to two other public schools. The fitness regime, founded 30 years ago as an alternative to conventional sports, teaches tumbling skills, juggling, and jump rope—including the insanely fast and complicated Double-Dutch variety. Also on the bill: the drum ensemble Seattle Kokon Taiko, which pounds on the giant, resonant drums that—according to Japanese folkore—were based on empty sake barrels. But, needless to say, no booze will be poured tonight. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 467-5510, theparamount.com. $23-$26. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Fremont Outdoor Movies
Underrated by other critics because they haven't had as many bicycles stolen as I have, Tim Burton's 1985 road-trip movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure brought Paul Reubens' cable-TV man-boy character to the big screen in all his adenoidal glory. Resolutely pre-sexual, Pee-Wee lusts only after his tasseled one-speed cruiser, pursuing his bike across the Southwest. The whole thing is a kind of goof on De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, but it's more surrealist than neorealist—Burton makes America just as weird and plastic as his hero's underdeveloped yet overgrown imagination. Pee-Wee's cartoonish quest takes place in an oddly pliable world where his single-minded hunt begins to look like high principle. (PG) Fremont Outdoor Cinema, N. 35th St. & Phinney Ave. N., 781-4230, www.fremontoutdoormovies.com, $5, 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

SUNDAY
Less Than Zero
Growing up in the '80s meant progressing from John Hughes movies to Bret Easton Ellis, teen exuberance to curdled collegiate experience. This 1987 adaptation of Ellis' debut novel—written at age 21—is a minor classic of that decade, color-infused with Reaganite excess, coked-up yet prematurely nostalgic. Robert Downey Jr. is a freebasing volcano as the charismatic kid who can't (or won't) be helped by his best pal (Andrew McCarthy, still handsome). Jami Gertz is the third leg of the romantic triangle—straightened up from the book, with liberties also taken to the original ending. You could call the film an MTV tragedy, since the cinematography (by Ed Lachman) and direction (by Marek Kanievska) is pure music video—all glamorous surface, never mind the rot beneath. And the movie's signature song, The Bangles' turbocharged cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" (produced by Rick Rubin), is perfect for Ellis' elegiac tone. After whatever brief flowering of innocence, potential, and romance Downey and company may once have enjoyed, the good times have passed. All there is now is regret—brown leaves and dirty snow, even in Beverly Hills. (R) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, www.central-cinema.com, $6. 7 & 9:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Orange Flower Water
Craig Wright's wrenching 70-minute immersion in infidelity is only New Century Theatre Company's second offering. This minimalist production makes clear the breadth of the troupe's ambition: The set consists of four chairs and a single bed between them. At first, Cathy (Jennifer Lee Taylor) natters on about her chirpy little life of suburban bliss with three young kids and a forgetful husband, unaware that David (Hans Altwies) will soon be rummaging through the blouse of another woman (Betsy Schwartz), married to a jealous loutish husband (Ray Gonzalez). Before long the secret is out among all parties, and the effect is stunning—all of a sudden you're ringside at a grudge match in which the losers forfeit marriage, home, children, and trust in the person they've been sleeping a pillow away from for more than a decade. Under the direction of Allison Narver, these characters stalk and retreat from one another in infinite combination. They're all acting in self-interest: some to preserve the status quo, others to have exactly what they want precisely when they'd like it, regardless of who gets hurt. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., 292-7676, www.acttheatre.org, $20-$25. 7 p.m. KEVIN PHINNEY

The Swimmer
Frank Perry and Sydney Pollack's relatively unloved The Swimmer (1968) is one of the oddest Hollywood films ever made: nakedly existentialist, Kafkaesque in its structural metaphor, Beckettian in its deadened rhythms. Expanding upon but remaining faithful to John Cheever's brief, dry-eyed suburban wail, the film maintains a first-person association with Burt Lancaster's disoriented Westchester family man as he swims his way home through his uncongenial (and often outright wary) neighbors' pools, a journey during which summer turns to autumn, and suburban belonging becomes lonesome madness. The movie was derided in 1968 as pretentious and faux-solemn, but time has revealed it to be a compelling bizarrerie that seems altogether courageous, visually potent (Lancaster's dwindling man loping half-naked through the forest and across highways), and chilling. As semi-subconscious fables of modern masculine displacement go, it rivals Frankenheimer's Seconds. (NR) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, www.grandillusioncinema.org, $5-$8, 5 and 9 p.m. MICHAEL ATKINSON