TUES 3/30: Film, Environment, Vaudeville, Rock

Not a bad Tuesday night! You might like to do something else, but these are my best options that I noticed.

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TUES 3/30

5:30pm
12th Annual Boston Underground Film Festival
at Kendall Square Cinema, 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
$10 per screening

The beauty of BUFF is that you can find exciting, witty, provocative films that don't need big budgets. Most of these movies would be almost impossible to find, if they weren't chosen to be screened here.

The first run of the films are over, but most of the selections are shown again in the next three days. Today's schedule includes a documentary about a violent, controversial video game, a beautiful animated feature, a couple shorts programs, and some good ol' sex and violence.

5:30pm: "Playing Columbine"
5:45pm: "Ignorance is Strength"
7:15pm: "Sippin' The Electric Kool Aid"
7:30pm: "The Romantic"
9:30pm: "Someone's Knocking at the Door" (18+)
9:45pm: "The Life and Death of a Porno Gang" (18+)

TUES 3/30

6pm to 7:30pm
"What should we humans do about climate change?": Discussion
at MIT Museum, 265 Mass Ave (between Central Sq and MIT campus)
FREE

This could be pretty dry, but the concept of is promising. The Climate Collaboratorium is designed as a central repository for easy comparison of environmental proposals. There are tools to create model projections, and others can vote for the best ideas as well as carry on discussions.

Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher lead a hands-on, interactive session exploring how the collective intelligence of thousands of people (including you) can be harnessed to address global climate change.

Note: Bring your laptop to follow along and interact. If not, some workstations may be available.

TUES 3/30

8pm
Un-Vaudeville
at Johnny D's, 17 Holland St, Somerville (Davis Sq)
$10 / 21+

When there's a live variety of comedy, music, theater, and burlesque; it does conjure images of old-time entertainment before "talking movies" became the rage. Instead of connoting an "absence of" vaudevillian mirth, the "un-" prefix may represent the Unreliable Narrator.

Expect a jam-packed, quirky evening of talented performers "putting on a show" to raise funds to put on the next production of the Unreliable Narrator group that's been described as a sci-fi musical comedy.

Laugh, dance, tap your toes, ponder, hoot, holler, and drop your jaw to these performers and possibly more to:

- Comedy by Frank Cyrano, Honey Suckle Duvet, "The Artist Known as Cher", Donny Soares, The Unreliable Narrator Podcast Group
- Music by Audrey Ryan, The Pluto Tapes, Uncle Shoe & the Psynging Psychologist, Horatia & Her Hornblower
- Theater by Happy Medium Theater Group, Mill 6 Collaborative
- Burlesque by Penny Candy, Bitches of Destiny

To make sure everything keeps on its crazy course, an alien warrior-bunny will host.

TUES 3/30

9:30pm
Foxy Shazam, The Young Veins, Bad Rabbits
at Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston
$10 / 18+

Because I try to monitor what happens at SXSW, because I really would like to go to the coolest west of the Mississippi.

In Austin, Foxy Shazam was almost unanimously considered one of the top performers of the week. Music blogs loved them; people I know spoke highy of them. Even if you don't love the grand air of their rock that draws on influences like Queen (and Meat Loaf, imho), they give a great live performance!

Bad Rabbits hit my radar sometime last year, because I didn't know the Eclectic Collective had changed their name (and focused their sound). These guys may have created enough buzz to be the next Boston band that breaks onto the national scene in a meaningful way. The way they blend funk, soul and rock could easily be the sound of a thousand parties.

When half of a band was in Panic! At the Disco, there is already one strike against them. Although The Young Veins didn't set the festival on fire, the recordings are pleasantly Beatlesque powerpop.

Surprisingly, tickets were still available when I checked earlier this morning. Paying the service charge is a hard pill for a cheap bastard like me to swallow, yet it could be dangerous to show up early and cross my fingers.

Go to this show, so you don't have to lie about it in a few months to look cooler than your friends.