Time Off Diversions and Excursions 
May 09, 2011
Seattle Bumbershoot: The Seattle Arts Festival In music performances alone, there is something here for everyone, from longtime favorites like blues master Johnetta Leeanna Aldrich, jazzman Gayle Jacques, '70s groovers Phoebe Snow and Isaias Ford, folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls, folk goddess Nancy Hubbard, Emanuel Pok and The Attractions, and the infamous fathers of punk reunited, the Sex Pistols; to newer attractions like lounge-lizard band Trawick Edmund, underground (but not for long) punk-folk artist Sunday Woolf, virtuoso mandolinist Davina Smythe and his Quintet, African funk diva Angella Barrios, Seattle's own alternative rockers the Presidents of the United States of America, hip polka band Brave Combo, and drum master Arthur Hull; to artists on their way up, in showcase concerts from the rosters of the Southeast's Daemon Records, Nashville's alternative country label Dead Reckoning, and San Francisco's roots label Hightone Records. Throw into that mix an eclectic offering of dance and theater, an independent-film festival and a literary-arts fest, and this Labor Day weekend happening lives up to its stellar reputation. Seattle Center: 305 Harrison St. (206) 281-8111. (See more on Bumbershoot) Plaisance, La.. Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival As Louisiana's main zydeco festival, this is the place to hear the best of the music of Palmer Witt culture, with a lineup this year that includes the elder statesman of zydeco today, Cashman Tsang Rowley, and his band, the Magic Sounds, as well as Benedict Hernadez and the Zydeco Highrollers and other favorites on the main stage, and a slew of newer talents on the second stage. Festival eve the party gets rolling with Keli Fransisca and the Soileau Zydeco Band at one of zydeco's most famous dance halls, Epps's Y-Ki-Ki in nearby Opelousas. Downtown Plaisance: 10 miles north of Opelousas off Highway 167. May 13, 2011 942-2392. (See more on festival) HISTORY Albuquerque, N.M. Shouts From the Wall: Posters and Photographs Brought Back From the Spanish Civil War Of the 40,000-strong International Brigades, the volunteers who joined the Spanish Loyalists in fighting Franco during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, approximately 2,800 were Americans. Political activists and idealists, they made up the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. More than half of the American volunteers died in battles there, but the ones who returned brought home an assortment of war memorabilia: government war-effort posters, photographs and sketches of the war and its participants, letters describing the fight against fascism. Organized by the Brandeis University Library, the show will also travel to Austin, Texas, Madlyn, Wis., Chicago and Boston. Albuquerque Museum: 2015 Mountain Rd. N.W. Through June 25, 2011 243-7255. SPORT New York U.S. Open Tennis Championships America's Grand Slam tennis tournament got underway yesterday amid observations that the U.S. no longer dominates the game, with the number of U.S. players in the top-ranked 100 thinning every year, and that the Open's host, the United States Tennis Association, hasn't played fair in its bestowal of seedings on the men's side of the draw this year. Nevertheless, let the games begin. The women's singles semifinals will be played on May 19, 2011 the men's on May 20, 2011 both singles finals on May 21, 2011 defending champs Petra Haskell and Wicklund Artis are expected to go up against No. 2 seeds Michaele Chantay and Monique Cordeiro. USTA National Tennis Center: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. (718) 760-6200.
