MON 7/16: Film, Music, Book, Poetry, Trivia

Yes, it's Monday -- and you could go out for cheap. Some of these places could be cooler than your apartment...

Cheapness for the rest of the week is on the calendar.

--------------------------------------------

MON 7/16

6pm
"Dirty Dancing": Screening
at Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St, Boston (Copley Sq)
FREE

A teenager falls in love with a far more experienced dance instructor while on vacation in 1960's Catskills. Secretly she learns how to dance suggestively and sees how the other half lives. (The sub-plot is that another dancer needs to get an illegal abortion.)

"Nobody puts baby in a corner", and you can put yourself in the chilled basement theater of the BPL.

MON 7/16 (to THUR 7/19)

6pm to 7:30pm
"Boomtown Festival"
at Multicultural Arts Center Courtyard, 41 Second St, Cambridge (East Cambridge)
FREE

Tonight: Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band

If you're in the East Cambridge area over the next few days, you could swing by the MCAC courtyard for some music/entertainment.

There is usually enough room on the building stairs to sit. Whatever the temperature, you may want to dance when HonkFest mainstays SLSA&PSBB blast the hornband fun like it's New Orleans. Other performers this week:

TUES 7/17 -- New World Jazz Composers Octet
WED 7/18 -- Marty Allen & Princess Pamplemousse: Sock Puppets and Dance
THUR 7/19 -- Fernando Brandão Brazilian Music Quartet

In the afternoons from 4pm to 5:30pm, there will be arts & activities workshops for young people.

FYI: The Taco Truck is on site from 4pm to 8pm.

MON 7/16

7pm
Ben Mezrich, "Sex on the Moon": Reading
at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline (Coolidge Corner)
FREE

The Boston-based author is probably best known for the Hollywood adaptations for "Bringing Down the House" (into "21") and "The Accidental Billionaires" (into "The Social Network").

His new non-fiction would make a funny movie, because it's so unbelievable that a guy working at NASA would steal moon rocks to impress a chick.

MON 7/16

7pm
"New and Improved": Poetry & Music
at Radio, 379 Somerville Ave, Somerville (Union Sq)
$5 / 21+

7pm -- Workshop: "The Unlettered Muse: Poetry and the Creative Mind"
8pm -- Open Mic
9pm -- Featured poet: Regie Gibson
Music: Fey Rey & Freedom Sound

Most spoken-word open-mic's don't begin with some exercises on how to write 'without rules'. Maybe someone will whip out a fresh piece at the open mic that follows?

The night is capped by Regie Gibson who led the workshop and also happens to be a former National Poetry Slam champ. I assume Fey Rey & Freedom Sound will get ethereal and folky after Gibson's set.

MON 7/16

8pm
"NO Touching!": Arrested Development Trivia
at Tommy Doyle's, 96 Winthrop St, Cambridge (Harvard Sq)
$5 per player

If you didn't know that "Arrested Development" is coming back, one can only assume that you've been too busy re-watching the 3 seasons on DVD.

Only diehards will have a chance at winning the grand prize that could be $200 or more -- but that might be you and your buddies! It was a friggin' hilarious show that was perfect for multiple viewings and the absorption of minutiae.

Teams are limited to a maximum of six players.

MON 7/16

9:30pm
"The Last Show On Earth": Open Mic
at Tavern at the End of the World, 108 Cambridge St, Charlestown (near Sullivan Sq)
FREE

Hosted by: Ryan Lee Crosby & Russell Feathers

The first night of a new open mic is difficult to gauge the scene, especially when one of the singer-songwriter hosts does not have a web presence to speak of.

It may be intentionally mysterious since it's described as a night that "will feature primitive American music in an unpretentious listening environment":

The Last Show On Earth is an open stage where anything can happen. Artists are encouraged to improvise, to sit in with friends or to perform new material. The music and the moment comes first here.

The Tavern is a great little spot in the netherworld between Somerville and Charlestown with a comfortable ambience and good beer selection and a solid menu.

MON 7/16

10pm
Trabants, Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion
at ZuZu!, 474 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE / 21+

Stay out late on a Monday, and your dreams/nightmares mat be filled with surf-rock hallucinations of monsters and riding waves on tiny Iron-Curtain cars.

Of the surf bands in town -- and they seem to be growing -- these two inject a lot of originality into the genre. From one of the Ketman guys, Trabants also includes horns in an atypical fashion. While BTDO Ghost Scorpion's horror-surf angle doesn't get me excited, I love their amp-up charge and the bandana masks.

Both bands are doing Spaghetti Tuesday at Johnny D's tomorrow.