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If the constant deluge makes you want to stay home this Friday night, please reconsider.  Just remember, into each life some rain must fall.   More importantly, the annual Ballard Jazz Festival takes place tomorrow night (11/20).

Started in 2003, the nationally recognized Ballard Jazz Festival highlights jazz musicians from the Seattle area.  There will be 12 venues hosting 18 groups–some are all ages, some are 21+.  Shows start as early as 6pm and end as late as 12:30am.

Today is the last day to buy advance tickets ($20 online or $21 with service fee at Sonic Boom Records).  Tomorrow, tickets will be $25 online, or available for purchase at Sonic Boom all day,  New York Fashion Academy starting at 5pm, and Egan’s Ballard Jam House starting at 6pm.

And, according to the festival website, “there is no better deal in jazz!”

The Silent Auction proceeds will go to support the 2010 student fashion show, Pour l’Amour, April 10th. No RSVP necessary to attend. Auction items include glass blown art, gift certificates to Anchor Tattoo, Belltown Ballet, IDOL Salon, Calidora Spa, and many more!

Make-up, wardrobe, hairstyling… it’s all a part of the backstage insanity at any given fashion event— But not for this fashion show. The make-up artists and hairstyling gurus that make up Katwalk Productions, Seattle’s newest edition to the uprise of DIY, rogue-ish fashion groups, are ditching the backstage and taking over the runway. Literally.

Fall Flashback will celebrate art, music, and fashion (duh) this Sunday, November 8th at the Ballard Art Church with a little bit of a proclaimed “East Coast flair”. The show will feature live music by the Dirty Change Ups, fashion by Belltown clothier, Monica Gutweis and headlining the event is Seattle Art Museum’s Masquerade Costume Design Competition winner, Anna Dicklhuber and her three piece costume series (one of which is inspired by Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune car explosion installation) that will also feature platform hair and make-up, i.e. styling that is done live and on stage. A little hint: the costume may involve projecting light rods from the rear and bust of the garment… just sayin’.

In true West Coast style, this event is stripping away all barriers of exclusivity and getting it’s “do-gooder” on by making the event free and donating all profits from their raffle to Art Corps for kids.

6:00 p.m. // Ballard Art Church, 2051 N.W. 61st St // Free

And you think this is cold? Imagine traveling from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands–by your own power.  Tomorrow night (11/5) local author Erin McKittrick will discuss exactly that: the year-long journey she took with her husband, Hig, in June 2007, 4,000 miles from here to the tip of Alaska.  She will read from her book, “A Long Trek Home: 4000 Miles by Boot, Raft and Ski” from 6:30 to 7:45 at the Ballard Library.  There will be a slideshow and discussion.

The aim of the trip was to raise awareness about environmental degradation, the effects of climate change, and about conservation issues.

The event is free.  Books will be available for purchase and for signing.