E-Mail This Article to a Friend Lunacy Dean Wareham disbands Luna, plus Q&A with Howard Zinn and more

Next week

On the eve of Election Day, there are two things we’re going to want in order to steel our nerves: some words of wisdom to put history in perspective, and maybe a bit of disarming laughter. Both will be available on November 1 at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway, where Mr. Tingle will offer a brief monologue as a prelude to a talk, book signing, and Q&A with the radical sage Howard Zinn. While reminding us of the impossibility of remaining neutral on a moving train, perhaps he’ll pull a few nuggets of wisdom from Voices of a People’s History of the United States, a kind of study guide to the original People’s History that compiles some of his source materials from texts you won’t find in your average syllabus. That’s at 7 p.m. at JTOB, 255 Elm Street in Davis Square; call (617) 591-1616.

Next month

It seems ridiculous to keep referring to Dean Wareham as the former frontman of Galaxie 500, especially since his far more recent band Luna has had a longer and just as distinguished career that’s now coming to a close, but what the hell, we’ll do it once more for old time’s sake — next time he shows up, we’ll begin calling him " former Luna frontman" Dean Wareham. So here goes: former Galaxie 500 leader Dean Wareham is disbanding Luna, thus bringing to an end another chapter in the career of the man who would be this generation’s Lou Reed. In a post on the band’s Web site, Wareham put together a Top 10 list of reasons for retiring Luna; they include "Too many hands to shake, that means germs," "Too many dinners at Wendy’s," "Too many bands out there," and "Too much time spent in 15-passenger vans. According to 20/20, these things flip over." We tend to believe the #1 reason on the list: "Rock and roll is killing my life." Fair enough. But we’ve got one more bout with Luna, on November 5 at the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call (617) 864-EAST.

And beyond

In all the hoopla over James Levine’s debut this week, don’t overlook the Boston Pops, whose annual Holiday Pops run goes on sale this Monday. Keith Lockhart takes up the baton for 33 shows crammed between December 13 and 31 at Symphony Hall and hyping the Pops’ latest Christmas disc, Sleigh Ride. Tickets are $23 to $107, except for the New Year’s Eve gig, which’ll run $75 to $165; they go on sale October 25 at 8 a.m. at the Symphony Hall box office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, and by phone starting October 26 through Symphony Charge; call (617) 266-1200.

Leaks of the week

Earlier this year, regular "Road Tripping" readers may recall, we hipped you to DJ Reset, who likes to call himself the mash-up king of New York. (In the Eurocentric world of the mash-up, that’s a little like calling yourself the Beatles of Sweden.) His signature track, "Frontin’ on Debra," a blend of Beck’s "Deborah" and Pharrell’s "Frontin’," was a fairly pedestrian splice job, but it was also efficient and technically sound, and it started getting mainstream-radio airplay on the West Coast. Now it’s also historic: with the original artists’ permission, the track has been released by Interscope via iTunes, and it’s being touted as the first-ever legal mash-up. (We’re waiting for our research team to get back to us on whether England’s Richard X ought to have dibs.) The upshot is that "Frontin’ on Debra" will now cost you $1, whereas the rest of the tunes on his site (including his Wings/Prince and White Stripes/Eminem bootlegs) are free of charge: see www.resetmusic.com. As it happens, there are no gigs to plug for any of this, only the concert industry’s answer to the mash-up — the radio-station-sponsored Christmas gig. The grandaddy of them all, Kiss FM’s "Jingle Ball," alights at Tsongas Arena in Lowell on December 9 with performances from Idol gal Kelly Clarkson, dance-pop ingenue Christina Milian, the Black Eyed Peas, emo kids Simple Plan, Foxborough teen star JoJo, modern-rockers Switchfoot and Bowling for Soup, and, in the coup of the fall, Ashlee Simpson and ex-boyfriend Ryan Cabrera on the same bill! For tickets, call (617) 931-2000.