E-Mail This Article to a Friend

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1

BENEFITS

UNITE FOR ARTS TO BENEFIT CAMBRIDGE ARTS COUNCIL GRANTS with Nnenna Freelon is at 7 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge. Tickets $25-$50; (617) 496-2222.

AT THE CLUBS

ROCK. With a little prodding from his pal Ryan Adams, Jesse Malin has proved as adept at summoning the somber, sentimental atmosphere of Johnny Thunders’s "You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory" as he once was conjuring the cocky, sneering glam-punk of the Heartbreakers. His latest disc, The Heat, fleshes out the sketches of his solo debut, The Fine Art of Self Destruction, (both Artemis) with gentle psych-rock flourishes from the Byrds’s bag of tricks. But what lingers is his knack for striking just the right note to make regret and recrimination spark a wave of recognition, like the piece of yourself you catch in the rain that pools in gutters on slow, lonely nights. Malin plays the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call (617) 864-EAST.

Also tonight: the Donnas unveil their latest Gold Medal (Atlantic) makeover, and hometown punk heroes the Explosion push their Virgin debut, Black Tape, at Axis (13 Lansdowne Street in Boston; 617-262-2437); and Little Steven’s favorite garage-punk girl-group the Charms play Club 58 (58 Ross Way in Quincy Center; 617-471-7788).

CABARET. On their new If I Loved You, local cabaret avatars Bobbi Carrey and Will McMillan show off their attractive pipes and musical control, but also the literate sensitivity that’s so important to the Great American Songbook classics they extol. As for taste, they essay Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Van Heusen & Cahn — and, okay, a touch of Billy Joel and Carol Bayer Sager. We still swear by Carrey and McMillan’s taste, chops, and humor. They celebrate the CD at Scullers, in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike; call (617) 562-4111.

JAZZ. The Young Turks are notable for being fronted by an actual Turk: pianist/vocalist/composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, who has been in town since 1993 studying at Berklee and at the New England Conservatory, where he earned a doctorate. He’s joined by long-time Boston trumpet star Tiger Okoshi, bassist Jose Pienasola, drummer Cem Mutlu, and, probably, more Turkish musicians playing traditional Turkish instruments. That’s at the Regattabar of the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street in Harvard Square; call (617) 661-5000.

Thanks to state fiscal crises in 2002 and ’03, the Cambridge Arts Council has seen its budget slashed by 70 percent, which has taken a pretty big bite out of the grant money it’s able to distribute to local artists. To try to stem the bleeding, the CAC has organized the Unite for Arts benefit concert, headlined by Cambridge-born jazz star Nnenna Freelon, with proceeds going directly to the CAC’s grant fund. The event will feature performances by previous CAC grant recipients Snappy Dance Theater and the Underground Railway Theater, with special guests to be announced. It’s a 7 p.m. show at Sanders Theater, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, and tickets are $25 to $50, or $100 for a VIP seat and post-show reception with the performers. Call (617) 496-2222, or visit www.uniteforarts.org

OTHER LIVE SHOWS:

For the following shows, see the Club Directory for phone numbers and addresses.

AVALON, Boston. At 7:30 p.m., Korn, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin.

AXIS, Boston. At 8 p.m., Donnas, Music, Explosion.

BRASSERIE JO, Boston. At 8:30 p.m., Jon DeLucia Trio.

BRAVO at THE MFA, Boston. Ron Poster.

CANTAB LOUNGE, Cambridge. "Candy’s Blues Jam."

CAPRICE, Boston. At 9 p.m., Toussaint.

CHARLES PLAYHOUSE LOUNGE, Boston. At 10 p.m., "Larry Lee Lewis Blues Jam."

CLUB 58, Quincy. "Live Wire Lounge" with Valhalla Kittens.

CLUB PASSIM, Cambridge. Chris Elliott, Dave Dersham, Carl Cacho.

COYOTE GRILLE, Cambridge. Greg Luttrell.

DICK’S LAST RESORT, Boston. Music Schmusic.

ENCORE, Boston. Stacy Baker & Brian Nash.

THE GOOD LIFE DOWNTOWN, Boston. "Rat Pack Karaoke."

GREEN DRAGON, Boston. Scott Damgaard.

HENNESSY’S, Boston. Joe Carson Band.

JOHNNY D’S, Somerville. Girlyman, Ancha.

KENNEDY’S, Boston. Michelle Currie.

LUPO’S AT THE STRAND, Providence. Mr. Vegas.

MIDDLE EAST, Cambridge. Upstairs: Stairs, Kissers, Bright Side, Gladiola. Downstairs: Jesse Malin.

MURPHY’S LAW, South Boston. "Acoustic Open Mic" with Jon Titone.

O’BRIEN’S, Allston. Fast Actin’ Fuses, Drags, Supersoul Challenger, Ogre.

PARADISE ROCK CLUB, Boston. At 8 p.m., Collective Soul, Datsuns.

THE PLACE, Boston. Diana Karthas.

THE PLAYGROUND, Cambridge. "Open Mic."

PLOUGH & STARS, Cambridge. Bad Art Ensemble.

PURPLE SHAMROCK, Boston. Peter Gross.

THE RACK, Boston. At 6 p.m., "Afterwork Jazz."

REDLINE, Cambridge. NPG Allstars.

REGATTABAR, Cambridge. Young Turks, Tiger Okoshi.

REMINGTON’S, Boston. At 8:30 p.m., Al Vega Trio, Johnny Souza.

RIVER GODS, Cambridge. "Primitive Sounds: American Blues, Gospel, Roots."

RYLES, Cambridge. Anita Coelho Quintet.

SCULLERS, Boston. At 8 p.m., Will McMillan & Bobbi Carrey.

SERAFINA, Concord. At 6:30 p.m., Paul Broadnax, Nathalie Marsh.

SOPHIA’S, Boston. "Live Salsa."

TRATTORIA IL PANINO, Boston. "Greek Night."

T.T. THE BEAR’S PLACE, Cambridge. Red Invasion, Dead Ellington, Blue Letter Days, Up to Here.

WALLY’S CAFE, Boston. Wally’s Stepchildren.

WESTERN FRONT, Cambridge. Mike Olson, Mike Calabrese, Villray Bolles Trio.

WONDER BAR, Allston. Leo Blanco.

ZEITGEIST GALLERY, Cambridge. At 7 p.m., Ed Broms Organ Trio.

DJ SHOWS:

AN TUA NUA, Boston. "Forward Movement," reggae, soul, and hip hop.

BLUE CAT CAFE, Boston. DJ Casey.

THE ENORMOUS ROOM, Cambridge. "Galactic Fractures" deep funk and rare groove with DJ PJ Gray.

THE E ROOM AT THE GOLDEN TEMPLE, Brookline. House and acid jazz with DJ Johan Van Cauwenberghe.

THE EXCHANGE, Boston. "Explode Wednesday" with DJ Luca.

IRISH VILLAGE, Brighton. "Release Wednesday" with DJ Kelvin.

THE KELLS, Allston. "Get Over the Hump" hip-hop, house, and dance with DJ Doc.

THE KELLS, Allston. "Get Over the Hump" with DJ Doc.

MAN RAY, Cambridge. "Crypt," goth synthpop and industrial with DJ Chris Ewen, and "System," electro industrial trance power-noise with DJ Hellraiser.

METROPOLIS, Providence, RI. UK progressive, tribal, techno, and deep house with DJs Hoska and Cliff.

NEWS, Boston. At 5:30 p.m., DJ Jay Prouty.

ORLEANS, Somerville. "Slow Mo" with DJ Mona.

PARADISE LOUNGE, Boston. At 10 p.m., "Blackout Bar."

PHOENIX LANDING, Cambridge. House music and techno with DJs Caseroc, Chris Barnes.

PRAVDA 116, Boston. Global house with DJs Alex & Felix and "Latin Lounge" with DJ JC.

Q, Boston. "Violations."

THE RACK, Boston. At 6 p.m., "Afterwork Jazz." At 10 p.m., DJ Ricky.

RAMROD, Boston. "Twitch: new wave, goth, industrial with DJ Mac.

SUGAR SHACK, Boston. Hip-hop and top 40 with DJ Ren Justice.

TOAST, Somerville. "Gay Night."

TOMMY DOYLE’S, Cambridge. "Open Mic" with Will Daily.

VAPOR, Boston. Latino night with DJ Adilson.

VERTIGO, Boston. "Anitya," psy-trance with DJs Dino, Mathwin, and Dave Henshaw with special guests.

AT THE COMEDY CLUBS

IMPROV ASYLUM, Boston. At 8 p.m., "Lies, Half Truths and the American Way."

CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERTS

JOSH LAWTON gives an organ recital at 12:15 p.m. at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 138 Tremont St., Boston. Suggested donation $3; (617) 482-4826 ext. 1103.

LYDIAN STRING QUARTET performs Persichetti’s Quartet No. 2 and Schumann’s Quartet Opus 41 No. 3 at noon at Brandeis University, 415 South St., Waltham. Free; (781) 736-4867.

NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY PHILHARMONIA performs at 8 p.m. at Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. Free; (617) 585-1122.

POPULAR MUSIC CONCERTS

Now that the Pixies reunion is finally reaching Massachusetts (see Matt Ashare’s interview with Frank Black on the "Music" page of this site), can we complain about how Boston got screwed? New York City gets a week of club dates. Even UMass got its own gig last night (which, given the song "UMass," you can hardly begrudge ’em). But a string of Boston club appearances, rumored back in the summer, never materialized. And barring some late-breaking secret club show — à la the one that openers Mission of Burma did upon re-forming a few years back — you’ll have to trek out to Tsongas Arena (978-848-6900) in Lowell tonight or tomorrow.

HOOBASTANK, COHEED & CAMBRIA, AND LOST PROPHETS perform at 7 p.m. at the Orpheum, 1 Hamilton Pl., Boston. Tickets $25-$29.50; (617) 931-2000.

JOE MORRIS & COMPANY performs at 8 p.m. at Artists-at-Large Gallery, First Congregational Church of Hyde Park, 6 Webster St., Boston. Suggested donation $5; (781) 631-7641.

DANCE/PERFORMANCE

KINIWE performs West African dance at 8 p.m. at Tufts University, Aidekman Arts Center, Jackson Dance Lab, 40 Talbot St., Medford. Free; (617) 627-4042.

DANCE/PARTICIPATORY

ARGENTINE TANGO DANCE is at 7:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 55 Bishop Allen Dr., Cambridge. Tickets $5; (617) 270-4994.

DANCE FREEDOM is a smoke- and alcohol-free barefoot dance at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 11 Garden St., Cambridge. Tickets $6; (978) 369-7522.

ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCE is from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Park Avenue Congregational Church, 50 Paul Revere Rd., Arlington Heights. Tickets $8, $3 for students; (781) 662-6710.

ISRAELI DANCE is at 7 p.m. at MIT, Lobby of Building 13, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. Suggested donation $1; (617) 253-3655.

SALSA BOSTON DANCE is from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Sophia’s, 1270 Boylston St., Boston. Lessons at 9 p.m. Tickets $10, $2 for lesson; (617) 513-7001.

TANGO BREAK is at 8:30 p.m. at the VFW Mount Auburn Post, 688 Huron Ave., Cambridge. Tickets $5; (617) 699-6246.

EVENTS

WORLD AIDS DAY. At the Boston Center for the Arts’ Cyclorama, Michael Dowling’s 13th annual "Medicine Wheel" installation — a "healing circle" of 36 shrines — serves as the setting for a 24-hour vigil commencing first thing this morning (at the stroke of midnight). Processions take place every three hours, and each hour is marked with song, dance, and other rituals; visitors are also encouraged to leave offerings of words, pictures, or personal effects in memory of those who have lost their lives to AIDS. That’s at 539 Tremont Street in the South End; call (617) 426-2750.

BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER WORLD AIDS DAY EVENT with an informational health fair, free rapid-HIV testing, and a display of a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt starts at 10 a.m. at the Boston Medical Center, Menino Pavilion, 1 Boston Medical Center Pl., Boston. Free; (617) 414-4495.

TASTE OF QUINCY MARKET, with samples from 21 restaurants, is from 5 to 7 p.m. at Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, Boston. Free; (617) 523-1300.

GAY & LESBIAN

GENDER FREE EXPERIENCED COUNTRY DANCE is at 7:30 p.m. at First Church of Jamaica Plain, Centre & Eliot Sts., Jamaica Plain. Tickets $7; (617) 678-7007.

HOLIDAY

The Tweeter Center in Mansfield, host to rock monsters during the summer months, falls dark for the winter. But this year it’s playing host to a winter wonderland that’ll include a drive-through "Holiday Lights Spectacular" ornamented with more than a million bulbs, a hay-bale maze, local carolers, and, of course, Santa. It’s open through January 2, Sundays through Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 10. Admission, $15 per carload, benefits the Mansfield Music and Arts Society’s efforts to build a multipurpose theater/gallery; call (508) 339-2822, or visit www.mmas.org

AT THE MOVIES

Peter Sellers had an unmatched ability to walk the fine line between the illusion of wisdom and a reality of utter idiocy. Comparisons between his Inspector Clouseau and the current president might be gratuitous, but many saw a resemblance between his Chance the Gardener and a yet-to-be-president Ronald Reagan in Hal Ashby’s adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel Being There (1979). A pre–Forrest Gump morality tale of sorts from a time when it was still ironic to suggest that stupidity and ignorance were more desirable than intelligence and knowledge, the film also stars Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas. It screens at 4:30, 7, and 9:30 p.m. at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street in Harvard Square; call (617) 876-6837.

He could have been a force in the civil-rights movement rivaling Martin Luther King, but he had one perceived liability: he was gay. Nancy D. Kates & Bennett Singer’s documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Ruskin traces the life and times of the passionate but little-known activist whose career culminated with his organization of the 1963 March on Washington. It screens at 7:30 p.m. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street in Brookline; call (617) 734-2501.

WORLD AIDS DAY. Gregg Bordowitz, an artist, professor, and activist living with AIDS, is at the Institute of Contemporary Art to screen his 2001 film Habit (2001), an autobiographical documentary recounting, among other things, the artist’s daily routine of AIDS medication and the efforts of poor African nations to get access to AIDS drugs. He’ll also discuss his newest book, The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous and Other Writings, 1986–2003. The film screens at 4:45 p.m., with the discussion to follow at 6:30 p.m., and the ICA is at 955 Boylston Street in Boston; call (617) 266-5152.

And at the Museum of Fine Arts, Katie Mansfield’s sound installation Global Language Program One bombards visitors with language-instruction messages in German, French, Russian, and Hebrew; the twist is that the phrases include "Do you have AIDS?" The MFA is at 465 Huntington Avenue in Boston; call (617) 267-9300.

READINGS & LECTURES

Seems like everybody’s doing a little politicking these days, and there are more people with something to say than ways to get it out. Well, the folks at the New Renaissance, the international literary magazine based in Arlington since 1968, aren’t just staring at their own navels either. Come down to McIntyre & Moore Booksellers (255 Elm Street, Somerville) for a reading by founder and editor-in-chief Louise Reynolds. The always-provocative live-reading series will celebrate the latest issue of the New Renaissance, which provides an eclectic mix of fiction, poetry, and art in combination with provocative interviews and articles on hot topics. Throughout the years the magazine has published articles such as "The Real Enemy: Black Power and Anti-Semitism" and "Afghanistan: The Key We Threw Away." Call it Artforum and TriQuarterly with a little Foreign Affairs thrown in. The evening starts at 7 and is, as always, free.

Nobody knows better how to engender language with life than ebullient Shakespeare & Company artistic director Tina Packer. So why shouldn’t she turn the formula around in "Engendering Life with Language," the second talk in the 2004–2005 Presidential Lectures series at New England Conservatory. Packer, who has held forth on subjects ranging from the feminine in Shakespeare to the application of the Bard’s lessons to business management, speaks, no doubt with her trademark gusto, at 4:30 p.m. in NEC’s Williams Hall, inside Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street in Boston. The lecture is free and open to the public; call (617) 585-1122.

Fab Five grooming expert Kyan Douglas takes a break from turning his queer eye on straight guys to offer a few tips for the ladies — including the down-low on "emergency zit zapping" and, in matters of hair drying, "how to make your blowout last" — in his new self-help tome Beautified: Secrets for Women To Look Great and Feel Fabulous, which he’ll sign at 6 p.m. at the Boston University Barnes & Noble, 660 Beacon Street in Kenmore Square; call (617) 267-8484.

ROSALIND BARNETT discusses her Same Difference: Why Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs at noon at Brandeis University, Shaprio Campus Center, South St., Waltham. Free; (781) 736-4205.

GREGG BORDOWITZ discusses his The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous and Other Writings 1986-2003 at 6:30 p.m. at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 955 Boylston St., Boston. Tickets $7, $5 for students, seniors; (617) 927-6634.

BOSTON POETRY SLAM & OPEN MIC is at 8 p.m. at Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass. Ave., Central Sq., Cambridge. Tickets $3; (617) 354-2685.

CHRISTOPHER CASTELLANI reads from his A Kiss from Maddalena at 6:15 p.m. at Hotel Marlowe, 25 Edwin Land Blvd., Cambridge. Free; (617) 395-2523.

CHAPTER AND VERSE POETRY SERIES with Sheila Pritchard, Doug Holder, and Harris Gardner is at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Church, corner of Revere and Roanoke St., Jamaica Plain. Free; (617) 325-8388.

CAROLYN FORCHE reads from her poetry at 2:30 p.m. at UMass Boston, Healey Library, Faculty Club, 11th fl., 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston. Free; (617) 287-6700.

MARGOT LIVESEY reads from her Banishing Verona tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newton; free; (617) 244-6619; and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline. Free; (617) 566-6660.

OUTSPOKEN WORD OPEN MIC with Libby Franck and Ottone M. Riccio is at 7:30 p.m. at Amazing Things Art Center, 4 Aqueduct Rd., Natick. Tickets $5; (781) 772-1945.

DONALD PFARRER reads from his The Fearless Man at 7 p.m. at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline. Free; (617) 566-6660.