…five months of upcoming night school events at the ever-glamorous hotel sorrento: perched on first hill in the emerald city known as seattle. we couldn’t be more excited about the mash-up of strange and lovely offerings ahead, wallace shawn, simon ford, a metal band named lesbian…

Swing by the Sorrento Hotel tonight between 6:30 and 8:30. Alfred Harris will be opening up a show of work titled Plots and Plans. There will be a Fireside Chat at 7pm with Alfred, Ken Kelly, Joe Park and Roy McMakin (curator). If you can’t make it tonight, the show will be up through June.

Tonight culture will commence in the Penthouse Suite of the Sorrento Hotel when acclaimed actor and essayist Wallace Shawn and Seattle’s less-acclaimed-but-certainly-noteworthy writer, musician and filmmaker Sean Nelson will have a chat in front of a stew-fed, whiskey-swilling audience for the tenth edition of the Penthouse Symposium series.

Hello 2011. It seems like just a blink ago that 2010 was upon us. I figure if Oprah can gift her audience with her favorite things at year’s end, I can too. Here is a small portion of what I would give you, if I could – my favorites: An evening at the fireplace at Seattle’s Sorrento Hotel with a good book, a good friend and an ear for jazz.

Tonight, the seats by the fire are the most popular in downtown Seattle’s Sorrento Hotel, where a group of business travelers enjoys refreshments along with choices from the hotel’s bookstore at what resembles a lavish study hall period. Even though there will be no lecture – tonight’s “class” is dubbed “Silent Reading Party” – school is in session. But these aren’t your average students, and this is no average school.

Steven Johnson offers words made for wine with his dazzling “Natural History of Innovation.” What do coral reefs, teeming cities, 18th-century English coffeehouses, and Google’s casual workspace have in common? As author Steven Johnson will explain when he leads tonight’s “Words & Wine” salon at the Sorrento Hotel…

Just learned of two upcoming Drinking Lessons in October and November. If you don’t recall, Drinking Lessons is a series of cocktail classes at the Sorrento Hotel. If you’re just looking for an excuse to drink, these are not the events for you. The Drinking Lessons I’ve attended have been as earnestly pedagogical as they were boozy. This is something I admire.

Wander through 12 rooms of Bumbershoot artists, past and present, talking shop. The Sorrento Hotel’s popular Night School series – a Michael Hebb brainchild bringing intellectuals, artists, mixologists, and chefs together for some booze-infused show-and-tells – returns this evening with 12 Writers + 12 Musicians = 12 Conversations.

At most hotels, the weak economy of the last year and a half has meant one thing – fewer amenities. But some hotels have taken a different tack and have been investing in special, or even quirky, events to attract and retain business travelers, and maybe even pull in new local business. The Sorrento Hotel started programming its “Night School” events, in part, to change the way business travelers thought of the hotel.

Seattle’s Sorrento calls ‘Night School’ to order, with books, whiskey and music. Adult education doesn’t usually come with a bottle of whiskey to pass around. But then, there’s very little about “Night School at the Sorrento” that counts as “usual.” [This] series of cultural events happening at the Sorrento Hotel [is] the brainchild of chef Michael Hebb, working in collaboration with Sorrento co-owner Barbara Malone.