Fifteen minutes before 2017 becomes 2018, a group of cheerful, chilly, self-motivated runners will gather under the clock tower in Esther Short Park for a New Year’s Eve Fun Run and Walk. It’s a completely informal, free, 5K outing, fuelled by a sparkling apple cider toast at midnight and then lighting out — in the dark — for the waterfront and a turnaround in front of Beaches restaurant. All levels of walkers and runners are welcome; no registration or fee is required for this event,aimed at setting a tone of happy, healthy vigor for the new year. Start assembling at 11:45 p.m. Dec. 31 in Esther Short Park, at the corner of Columbia and Sixth streets.
Then, in the morning, try an outing that’s probably more accurately called an “inning”: the First Presbyterian Church’s annual New Year’s Day Labyrinth Walk, free and open to all from 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Jan 1 at 4300 Main St. in Vancouver. You’ll discover that the tightly winding path inside a labyrinth isn’t too different than the larger, looser, endlessly winding journey we call life. “Walking the Labyrinth is a unique way to pray that doesn’t involve talking or words,” writes Eunice Schroeder of Sacred Journey Ministries. 360-695-4965 or sacredjourneyministries.com/wp.
Explore the sonic labyrinths created by Vancouver jazz dude Jim Templeton and his Cosmic Dust Fusion Band starting at 9 p.m. Jan. 5 at Portland’s newest jazz nightclub, the Jack London Revue at 529 S.W. Fourth Ave. Admission is $7. The tantalizingly titled Cosmic Dust ensemble — named for the eruption of Mount St. Helens and featuring some of Portland’s hottest players — will foreground Templeton’s evocative compositions and the band’s new CD, “The Dust Also Rises.” Sharing the bill with Cosmic Dust will be Innersphere, a complementary fusion outfit that features equally stellar musicianship while leaning in a more Latin direction. jacklondonrevue.com
Even monsters need mates — and the bigger and scarier the hair, the better. Seems like a good idea until things start going terribly wrong (of course) in perhaps the greatest horror movie of them all, “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), screening at noon Jan. 6 at the Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main St., in Vancouver, and preceded at 10 a.m. by a vintage toy and record mini-show sponsored by Vancouver Toy Junkies. The whole event is free, but you’d be a real monster not to donate a little something to the good cause behind it all, which is the family of toy vendor Chris Bailey, whose 11-year-old daughter was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Some of the toy and record vendors will donate some of their sales to Bailey and to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Vancouver Toy Junkies, 360-513-4828.
