Entertainment

POSTED: Thursday, May. 10, 2007

Best Bets: LaPush originals

Celebrate horn player Joel Ricci’s, right, 31st birthday and his seventh year of making original music in Bellingham — with such bands as the Lucky Seven and his current ensemble, LaPUSH — at 9 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the Nightlight Lounge, 211 E. Chestnut St. He’ll be performing with a roster of musical friends, including Josh Clauson, Scott Goodwin, Sabura Miyata, Zach Stewart, Shane Smith, Denali Williams, R.L. “Otis” Heyer and D.P. Staxx; and maybe you too, if you want to join the new LaPUSH Street Band. Cover is $8 advance, $10 day of show. Call 527-1531 or see www.night lightlounge.com for details.

The Posies original bandmates Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, Sehome High School pals who went on to form one of the most creative and influential bands to emerge from the Pacific Northwest in the late ’80s, perform an acoustic concert of “Posies stuff exclusively,” according to Auer, at 8:30 tonight at the Wild Buffalo, 208 W. Holly St. Cover is $10. Call 752-0848 or go to www.wildbuffalo .net for more.

Five premiere performances, plus a reconstruction of “New Love Song Waltzes,” one of the seminal works of renowned choreographer Mark Morris, highlight the annual dance concert presented by faculty from Western Washington University’s dance program. The concerts are at 7:30 tonight and Saturday, 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10-13, at WWU’s Mainstage Theatre. Tickets are $11 general, $9 seniors and $8 students, available at WWU’s box office, 650-6146, and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu. A special matinee performance for ages 13-18, is at 10:30 a.m. Friday. It’s free, but reservations are required; call 650-2829 for information.

Seattle keyboardist and accordionist Steve Rice is among the guest performers at the Kulshan Chorus’s “Concert with a Latin Flair,” under the direction of Roger Griffith, at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at Bellingham High School’s Performing Arts Center, 2020 Cornwall Ave. Other musicians joining the 90-member chorus are bass player Clipper Anderson and percussionist Scott Ketron. Tickets are $15 general, $12 students, seniors and active military, and $6 ages 12 and younger, and are available in advance at Village Books and the Community Food Co-op, as well as online at www.kulshanchorus.org. Call 671-1218 for more information.

“Too Beautiful,” a play about love and staying in it, is performed by the writer, Bellingham’s Carolyn McCarthy, right, at 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday, May 10-12, at the iDiOM Theater, 1418 Cornwall Ave. The show mixes songs, stories, poems and politics. A reception follows tonight’s performance. Tickets are $5 for tonight, $10 for Friday and Saturday. Call 201-5464 for reservations.

Richard Diebenkern’s “Blue” is one of the 52 works displayed in the current exhibition, “American Abstraction: Works from the Washington Art Consortium Collection,” on view Sunday, May 13, through Nov. 11 at Whatcom Museum of History & Art, 121 Prospect St. Other participating artists include Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Brice Marden, Robert Motherwell, Jennifer Bartlett, Jasper Johns, John Cage, Willem de Kooning and Al Held. For more information, call 676-6981 or visit www.whatcommuseum.org.

Be part of the studio audience for a live recording of an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930’s gumshoe classic, “The Maltese Falcon,” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at The Leopold’s Crystal Ballroom, 1224 Cornwall Ave. The Midnight Mystery Players — James Brown, from left, Leon Charbonneau, Edward Davidson, Kathryn Murray and Brian Watson — perform the show, which will broadcast at a later date on KMRE 102.3 FM, the voice of the American Museum of Radio and Electricity. Dennis Catrell directs. Be ready for a “Sam Spade” trivia contest and special guest historians. Admission is $10 general, $5 museum members; reserve at 738-3886 or call 733-3500. Go to www.amre.us. for details.