MON 8/27: Film, Talk, Trivia, Music

If you feel like playing and/or listening tonight, someone suggested I remind folks about the Monday Night Open Mic at the Cantab. It's free, but they pass the hat (and $5 is suggested).

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MON 8/27

6pm
"Some Like it Hot": Screening
at Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St, Boston (Copley Sq)
FREE

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death earlier this month, the BPL is showing her films on Mondays in August.

Monroe gives one of her great 'dumb blonde/savvy blonde' performances. And when men have dressed as women in movies and TV, they owe a creative debt to "Some Like it Hot" for getting Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon to hide as memebers of an all-female band.

MON 8/27

7pm
Verlyn Klinkenborg & Tim Horvath, "Several Short Sentences About Writing": Conversation
at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline (Coolidge Corner)
FREE

Both Klinkenborg and Horvath have taught writing, so it should be quite informative to any writer who's listening.

Verlyn's CV includes being a memeber of the NY Times editorial board as well as teaching stints at Yale, Harvard, Bard, and more. A description of his new book reads:

Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an approach to writing that will change the way you work and think. There is no gospel, no orthodoxy, no dogma in this book. What you’ll find here isn’t the way to write. Instead, you’ll find a way to clear your mind of illusions about writing and discover how you write.

Maybe you'll see an improvement in coming weeks, if I go...

MON 8/27

8pm to 10pm
The Big Quiz Thing
at Club Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge (Harvard Sq)
FREE

Do you know of another free trivia night where there's a $200 1st-place prize? It's very competitive, but it can be done. The Cheap Thrills Boston team tied for 2nd place in June. I think our team helped to make the night considered to be "the ideal live-trivia audience".

Your average pub trivia is alright, but this is probably the most entertaining trivia game I've played. There are audio and video questions. Even a wrong answer has a chance for points if it's funny enough.

If you don't win the grand prize in the 3-way finale, your team could go home with some books, DVD's, gift card and/or tickets to "The Donkey Show" and the Comedy Studio.

There is a bar, and I read they are serving food beginning at 7pm.

MON 8/27

8pm
NerdNite: "Meme mad-libs and Munch"
at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$5 / 21+

Talk #1 -- "Edvard Munch: His Life and Work In Context"
by David Curcio

Talk #2 -- "Sh*t [nerds] say: Just what the hell is a snowclone anyway?"
by Tim Sullivan

It's my firm belief that you can work any NerdNite topic into the next general conversation you have. At the very least you can open up with, "You know what I heard on Monday?"

Most are familiar with "The Scream", but how many of us can say much more about Edvard Munch? Almost everyone uses snowclones, but how many could cogently describe and sound like a real cutting-edge smarty-pants?

DJ Claude Money will offer some funky, nerd-friendly tunes before, after, and in between.

MON 8/27

The White Owls (8pm), Andrea Gillis Band (10pm)
at Toad, 1912 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Porter Sq)
FREE

Like I said before: You're getting two great bar bands that go great together. Dennis Brennan captains a kick-ass team of players through blues classics and hidden gems. Andrea Gillis is the big, soulful voice in front of her punky bar-band.

The White Owls have been Monday night regulars for a while, but who knows how long the Andrea Gillis Band may run.

MON 8/27

The Devil And A Penny (11:30pm), Abadabad (10:30pm), Mutual Benefit (9:45pm), Trach (9pm)
at TT the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$8

This is a well-balanced night of local indie-rock where a couple bands are louder than the other two. Abadabad get their guitars a-buzzing and jangling, and Trach are heavy on peculiar, extended, mathy jams. I'm not sure what is meant by 'The Devil And A Penny', but the name sounds cool & oldfangled, which is not that far off from the tunes; while Mutual Benefit seems to offer some gentle melancholy.

MON 8/27

10pm
Kalyn Rock, Kelley McRae, Ariel Rubin
at ZuZu!, 474 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE / 21+

It's one of those nights where Central Square has my ear. Besides the above gig, there are 3 compelling singer-songwriters in a room that is suited to these kinds of line-ups.

I could say nice things about individually, but I'll let you discover the clever songs and luscious voices and eccentric deliveries for yourself. Good stuff!