MUSIC

Kurt Vile and the Violators' latest record, Smoke Ring for My Halo, is their most low-key and pensive release, but live—at least judging by the last time the group played in D.C., last November at the Black Cat Backstage—they get heavy and mystical. Don't request "Freeway"; we wouldn't want Vile to start resenting his breakout anthem and drop it from his setlists. With Woods, White Fence, and True Widow at 7 p.m. at Rock & Roll Hotel. $16 advance, $18 at the door.

Danish metal! Rarely a bad thing, if, you know, it's your thing. Volbeat at 6:30 p.m. at 9:30 Club. $25.

Whatever they're doing—gothy shoegaze, gloomy electro-pop—Arlington's Screen Vinyl Image makes music that is equal parts oppressive and pretty. This goes for their music videos too. We eagerly anticipate this band's forthcoming full-length. With The Prids and Brief Candles at 8 p.m. at Black Cat Backstage. $10.

Update! Subterranean A has Alex Bleeker & the Freaks, the jammy, mellow project from the Real Estate member, at 8 p.m.

BOOKS

Speaking of oppressive and pretty: In his new book Beijing Welcomes You, Tom Scocca (Deadspin's managing editor and a former WCP staffer) chronicles how the Chinese capital has been transformed into what the superpower hopes to present as a beacon of openness—even as the city remains alien and mysterious. From the press blurb: "Scocca talked to the scientists tasked with changing the weather; interviewed designers and architects churning out projects; checked out the campaign to stop public spitting; documented the planting of trees, the rerouting of traffic, the demolition of the old city, and the construction of the new metropolis." Trippy! He speaks tonight at 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose. Free.

FILM

Nerds with protest signs! Revolution OS documents the open source movement. 8 p.m. at Artisphere. $6.

INSERT ROCK LOBSTER JOKE HERE

The B-52s play the zoo! At 7 p.m. $65 if you're not a member of Friends of the National Zoo.

“Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho, View Across the Top of the Falls, 1874" by Timothy O'Sullivan from "Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy H. O’Sullivan” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

OPENING: "I Dream Awake" opens today as part of Pop-up Project; photographs by John Brown open tomorrow at Cross Mackenzie Gallery; work by Craig A. Kraft opens tomorrow at Osuna Art; "Pentimenti: After the Flood" opens Saturday at AU's Katzen Arts Center.

CLOSING: Work by Craig Kraft closes tomorrow at Washington Sculptors Group; "Roads and Paths" closes tomorrow at Goethe-Institut; "Go for the Gold!" closes Saturday at Civilian Arts Projects; "On/Off the Grid" closes Saturday at Irvine Contemporary; "Women in Art" closes Sunday at Del Ray Artisans Gallery; "The DCist Exposed Photography Show" closes Sunday at Long View Gallery.

ONGOING: See our listings.

THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS AFTER THE JUMP:

The Phillips Collection plays host to "Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction," an exhibit of the artist best known for painting what she calls flowers, and, well, the rest of us call vaginas. Though Georgia O'Keeffe always maintained that audiences were projecting their own erotic thoughts onto her benign work, there is no denying the sexuality of the photographs taken by Alfred Stieglitz, O'Keeffe's lover and mentor, on display with the rest of the collection at Phillips. "Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction" allows observers to look at the range of O'Keeffe's work, ranging from Stieglitz's racy boudoir shots to geometrically chaste work like Sky Above Clouds III/Above the Clouds III. Read critic Maura Judkis's review here.

While D.C.'s museums and galleries have no shortage of snaps from professional photographers, some of the entries in the 9th annual International Photography Competition at Bethesda's Fraser Gallery prove that amateur and semiprofessional photography is a force to be reckoned with. While some pictures tend to pay respect to the professional photographs that came before them, others offer a new perspective, such as Edward Hahn's photo of a small dock floating in calm waters. Some of the artists use digital manipulation to great success, while others do just as well playing it straight, like David Orbock's portrait of the Lincoln Memorial. The amateur entrants' works at Fraser span countries and range from landscape images to photos of circus performers. To read Louis Jacobson's review, go here.

Wide-set, sepia-toned images of barely settled Western lands are not uncommon to find in this day and age, but Timothy O'Sullivan, largely overlooked until the 1970s (nearly 100 years after his death) is considered one of the best photographers of the discipline. Referred to as "the most experienced expeditionary photographer in the country" by historian Beaumont Newhall in The History of Photography, O'Sullivan took risks photographing in mines, capturing images of dead people during battle, and using a wet-plate photographic process. The exhibit showcases the extent of O'Sullivan's photographic range, displaying everything from shots of large geological formations to soldiers lying dead in fields during the Civil War, but doesn't give much explanation as to how one interest led to the other. Though he was not well known during his own life, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's O'Sullivan exhibit is a fascinating, albeit incomplete look at one of the finest photographers of 1800s Americana. To read Louis Jacobson's review, head here.

"I promise not to kill him," were the vows of Dana Ellyn as she wed her longtime partner in art and life, Matt Sesow, Friday evening. Facing them down from across the Long View Gallery was her painting, "Til Death Do Us Part," which depicted a couple that closely resembled the couple, clinking glasses but hiding a knife and a vial of poison behind their backs. Nearby was "Institution of Marriage," showing a straitjacketed couple, and "Letting Go of the Fairy Tale," in which a bride flings a frog prince, rather than a bouquet, to her bridesmaids. Not your typical nuptials, for sure.

The couple of eight years has long held nothing sacred in its art, so why should the wedding have been any different? In a ceremony stripped of all tradition, and after a monthlong publicity blitz, Sesow, 43, and Ellyn, 38, wed before a crowd of friends and strangers at an opening of their latest show, also named "Til Death Do Us Part." But the wedding was almost derailed by the monster snowstorm that swept through the region Friday night. Indeed, the event was one of few not canceled because of the pelting snow, which followed guests into the gallery, soaking the floors.

The bride wore teal. Waiting for her to join him in the front of the gallery, Sesow drew some of the characters that appear in his paintings in the fog on the windows. Then, the couple stood before a crowd of more than 100 friends and strangers, waiting for the ceremony to begin. "I never thought I'd have to say this, but we're waiting for the press to get here," Ellyn said. The couple assured bystanders and video crews during the ceremony that the whole thing was "not a PR stunt." Their officiant, Jennifer Kalmanson, confirmed that the couple were indeed married after a short exchange of vows that appeared to be impromptu. Sesow choked up as he told the crowd, "I promise to keep loving her. She's taught me a lot—I guess I'm not self-taught anymore." Ellyn tearfully declared her love for Sesow, telling the crowd how odd it was for two people who express themselves so well on canvas to have to express themselves with words. Nearby, their signed posters were selling for $10 apiece.

The whole thing was done in about five minutes, when Kalmanson declared them married in the rather unceremonious manner that they preferred. But for all their swagger, Ellyn and Sesow did retain one very formal wedding tradition: They got a New York Times wedding announcement, ensuring that even the press who could not make it to their wedding due to the weather could still report the event. Then, the guests went back to admiring the paintings lambasting the institution that the couple had just joined.

Photo by Matt Dunn.

Read the full City Lights pick here; deets below the jump.

–>THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW 11 A.M. TO 7 P.M. WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY TO NOV. 22 AT LONG VIEW GALLERY, 1234 9TH ST. NW. FREE. (202) 232-4788.