This week, we’ll call it Beer & There

Whenever I want to get my husband’s attention, I offer him a beer.

I haven’t conducted a scientifically valid study of this phenomenon, but I can tell you that my brother has a snapshot of his wife bringing him a beer posted on their refrigerator door. It is titled “Good Woman.”

I deduce from this admittedly scant evidence that men like beer. More than just about anything.

So I’m expecting unprecedented male readership for today’s Here & There.

Let’s get to it.

In less than three short weeks, the streets of Seattle will transform into a beer drinker’s promised land, awash with ales, lagers, pilsners and meads. From June 30 to July 2, the Seattle International Beerfest will present more than 115 beers from 15 countries for your sampling enjoyment.

At this very moment, all across the Inland Northwest, grown men are rolling around on their backs like puppies in clover.

A mere $20 gets you in the door, clutching your tasting glass and 10 beer tickets. Depending on your level of temperance and coordination, you may have a free hand left for a little something from the cigar bar, too.

The festival also includes live music and barbecue goodies. And if anyone suggests maybe you should be repairing the crack in the living room ceiling where it leaked almost two years ago (just as an example) instead of drinking all afternoon, say you’re doing it for the critters.

Beerfest proceeds go to Pet Cross, a nonprofit that helps provide spays, neuters, adoptions and low-cost treatments to animals in the Pacific Northwest.

Check out the complete list of beers – and alcohol content! – at www.seattlebeerfest.com. You can also sign up to volunteer; for working three shifts you get a head-splitting 43 beer tickets.

Dry out for a few days and get started again at the Buoy 10 Brew Festival, July 7 to 9 in Astoria-Warrenton, Ore.

According to organizers, the event “honors North Coast fishing heritage” and “its importance to the economic livability of the North Coast region.”

If they say so.

Along with the tortured justification for drinking, this second annual festival collects more than 25 of Oregon’s handcrafted beers, local seafood vendors, a small carnival and some live entertainment. And on Saturday, you can take a beer break with the Catch and Release Sturgeon Fishing Derby.

Visit www.oldoregon.com or call (800) 875-6807 to learn more.

Feats of clay

Nothing says summer like clay.

Or at least that’s what the good people of Helena seem to think.

They’ve designated this the “Summer of Clay” and they’re celebrating with a monthlong gathering of ceramic artists from around the world. They’ll descend upon the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, a nonprofit educational institution founded in 1951.

According to its Web site, the Bray seeks to create “a place … for all who are seriously and sincerely interested in any of the branches of the ceramic arts, a fine place to work.”

The artists will get up to their collective elbows in clay, then unveil their collaborative work at the Archie Bray International, a symposium, exhibit and auction open from June 22 to 25.

During the earlier part of the month, the public is welcome to check up on the artists’ progress. But the clay excitement really kicks into high gear with the symposium, titled “Clay and Globalization: Impacts on Tradition, Cultural Identity and the Individual Artist.”

Artists will discuss their work and their countries of origin, which include Ecuador, Mali, France, Korea, Ukraine and other far-flung spots.

“We’ll also look at how this shrinking world is changing what these artists are doing in their own countries, what we’re doing here, how international artists are making art in the United States and how art is being viewed and spread around the world,” says Jill Oberman, director of programs and administration. “Everything is more accessible today.”

Those who aren’t members of the Bray will pay $160 for the whole symposium or $65 for a day pass. The silent auction runs $15 for those who don’t attend the symposium and the live auction/dinner costs $100.

The whole town gets into the swing of things, with a Ceramic Stroll through downtown on June 23. The clay-abration continues with Pottery Northwest, an exhibit of work by six or so Seattle artists; a showcase for local favorite Chip Clawson; and Colorado studio potter Alleghany Meadows’ mobile art gallery housed in a refurbished 1967 Airstream Sovereign “land yacht.”

You can find out more about the Archie Bray Foundation at www.archiebray.org or (800) 443-6434.

Regional events

•Han Woo-Ri Northwest Korean Sports and Cultural Festival, Friday-June 11, Federal Way, Wash. The largest Korean festival in the Pacific Northwest showcases art, music, traditional customs, food and more. There’s even a Tae Kwon Do tournament. (hanwoorifestival.org/ 253-835-6868)

•Little Big Horn Days, June 21-25, Hardin, Mont. Ethnic food, exhibits, music, dancing, parades, contests and performances serve only as the prelude to the re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand. (www.visitmt.com/ 406-665-1672)