Based in Seattle and Chicago, the critically acclaimed Onyx Chamber Players is a trio featuring cellist Meg Brennand, pianist David White, and violinist James Garlick. The group is acclaimed for its vivid, charismatic readings of Classical repertoire, with the effect—in the words of the Seattle PI—of “re-creating performances as they would have been in the composer’s day.” This program features music from America and the British Isles.
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Onyx Chamber Players: Music from America & the British Isles
Sunday, June 24, 2012, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $10-$20.
Science: Andrew Blum: A Journey to the Center of the Internet
Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The geeks call it “Intertubes” or “Internets,” poking fun at those who have no idea how it works. Which is everybody. Everybody except Wired writer Andrew Blum, who explains. The Internet exists, he says in Tubes. It fills buildings, converges in some places, avoids others …
Akash Kapur: A Portrait of Modern India
Friday, March 23, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Akash Kapur tells the sweeping story of India’s great leap toward modernity. From a cow-broker to a call-center employee to a feudal landowner and others, the subjects of the stories in his new book India Becoming illuminate some of the biggest themes of our age—rapid economic development, social inequality, environmental depredation, the rise of emerging markets, and the rebalancing of the global order.
From Island Press: The Life & Legacy of Urban Critic Jane Jacobs
Friday, March 9, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
A distinguished panel discusses the ideas—and legacy—of celebrated urban critic Jane Jacobs, an advocate of vibrant city neighborhoods. Stephen A. Goldsmith, Director of the Center for the Living City, leads the discussion, joined by local leaders including former Seattle City Councilmember and architect Peter Steinbrueck, on how Jacobs’ theories continue to influence the creation of livable, human-scale communities.
Bryan Sykes: America’s DNA
Wednesday, May 2, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve and the new DNA USA takes a historical genetic tour of one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world, illuminating our genetic mosaic, contributing to how we perceive race, and defining what it means to be American.
Future of Health: A.J. Jacobs: My Quest for the Perfect Body
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 6:00 – 7:15pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Having already achieved enlightenment (The Year of Living Biblically) and sharpened his mind (The Know it All), A.J. Jacobs had one feat left in his self-improvement trinity: bodily perfection. Jacobs, a self-described “mushy, easily winded, moderately sickly blob,” vowed to retool every part of his long-neglected body, and over two years, the experiential journalist, author of Drop Dead Healthy, subjected himself to a regimen of exercise, diets, and experiments, from pole dancing to “chewdaism.”
From Island Press: Darrin Nordahl and Jarrett Walker: Perspectives on Public Transit
Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Authors Darrin Nordahl and Jarrett Walker discuss public transit from two different ends of the bus route: technical simplicity—and fun. Most everyone agrees that public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a range of urban problems, but while Walker, author of Human Transit, believes that transit can be simple if we focus on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share, Nordahl, author of My Kind of Transit, argues that when public transit is an enjoyable experience, tourists and commuters alike will willingly hand in their keys.
Blaine Harden: Escape from a North Korean Prison Camp
Monday, April 16, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Very few people born and raised in North Korea’s “no-exit” political prison camps have escaped and survived, but Shin Dong-hyuk did. Acclaimed Seattlejournalist Blaine Harden, author of Escape from Camp 14… More, tells Shin’s story and, through the lens of
Science: John Long: Robots and Evolution
Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
John Long, author of Darwin’s Devices, has found an ingenious way to study extinct species: he creates robots that look and behave similarly, applies evolutionary pressures, lets them compete for mates and resources, and mutates their ‘genes.’
Science: Jesse Bering: Of Penises and Suicides
Monday, July 16, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Jesse Bering, “the Hunter S. Thompson of science writing,” travels a bold and captivating path through some of the most taboo issues related to evolution and human behavior. In his book Why is the Penis Shaped Like That?, Bering explores the history of cannibalism, the neurology of people who are sexually attracted to animals, what it feels like to want to kill yourself, the evolution of human body fluids, and serious questions about life and death.