[October 1st, 2008] It’s book season. Recent weeks have seen the national launch of big-name titles from bigwig publishers like Scribner and Knopf with more coming in October. Translation? Even as we speak, eager bibliophiles in darkened apartments across the country are shunning the cold, gray light of autumn and settling themselves into squashy armchairs, hardbacks in hand. But wait. Something’s missing.

Ah, yes. Alcohol. Specifically wine. Because nothing complements Melville like Malbec, Rilke like Riesling, Zola like zinfandel (and pretension like pinot). But pairing books with wines can be tricky, so WW asked Kimberly Bernosky and Brian Dooley of Portland wine bar Noble Rot (2724 SE Ankeny St., 233-1999, noblerotpdx.com) to give us a leg up. With their help, we matched three exciting new book releases with regional wines to suit them. So now you, too, can drink your books.

^Headout Picks

THURSDAY OCT. 2

[WORDS] RICHARD LEAKEY
The paleoanthropologist talks population (control). See page 27 for a Q&A. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 232-2300. 7 pm. $38.25-$55. All ages.

FRIDAY OCT. 3

[SCREEN] APPALOOSA
Ed Harris directs himself as a gunslinger. He and Viggo Mortensen are terrific—so comedically calibrated that even Renée Zellweger’s scrunchy face can’t get between them. Century 16 Cedar Hills Crossing, 3200 SW Hocken Ave., Beaverton, 520-0892. $9.25.

[STAGE] DEAD FUNNY
Third Rail Rep’s tragicomedy about a failing marriage and dead comedians. World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon St., 753-0565. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 26. $16-$29.

[MUSIC] HORSE FEATHERS, DOLOREAN
The string-loving local trio celebrates the release of its beautifully lush new album. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 9 pm. 21+.

SATURDAY OCT. 4

[SCREEN] H.P. LOVECRAFT FILM FEST
More hideous squid-beasts reach out with their unspeakable tentacles from a place beyond time. They come bearing T-shirts. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 3-5. Day pass $15-$18, weekend pass $46.

[BENEFIT] WINI’S VAMPIRE BALL
Get your vamp on to benefit a local woman with the nerve-attacking, light-sensitivity-producing disease porphyria—a.k.a. “vampire disease.” Village Ballroom, 700 NE Dekum St. 8 pm. $21. Tickets and info at forwini.com.

MONDAY OCT. 6

[MUSIC] SIGUR RÓS
Iceland’s most pretentious and epic band (sorry, Björk) brings heaps of reverb, falsetto and syrupy strings to the Schnitz. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 8 pm. $35.75-$53.

TUESDAY OCT. 7

[DANCE] INBAL PINTO DANCE
Israel’s theatrical Inbal Pinto Dance Company returns to PDX with Shaker, a kind of winter wonderland set inside an oversized snow globe. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 790-2787. 7:30 pm. $20-$50.

[MUSIC] CUT COPY
Don’t believe that Aussies have more fun? Cut Copy has enough electro love songs to turn the whole house into believers. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 9 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. All ages.