Monday Jan. 22 

What is it about the cold months of January and February in Boston and numerous wine/food gatherings? There's the Wine and Food Expo and the Spinazzola Gala of Food and Wine piggybacking each other, and then there are numerous restaurants that create their own little concoctions. Often, on a Monday night - downtime in restaurant world. Plattini has done that at its two locations in Boston and begins with "Alexander the Great," on January 22, featuring wines from, where else, the Alexander Valley. No word on the menu yet, but you're promised a four-course meal, wine and wisdom from the sommeliers. Starts at 6:30, costs $40/person (not including tax and gratuity). Plattini continues these Monday events for the next five weeks. Details on their website, listed below.

162 Columbus Ave., 617-423-2021 and 226 Newbury St., 617-536-2020 plattini.com

You could fill the Grand Canyon with what we don’t know about social and sartorial engineering. (Other things too, but that’s another day.) We certainly did not know that from 1927-1933 the nascent Soviet Union harnessed textile design as a weapon in the The Museum of Fine Arts. It has an exhibit up through Jan. 21 titled “Designing the Modern Utopia: Soviet Textiles from the Lloyd Cotsen Collection.’’ This was the idea: A small group of artists believed that by weaving Communist ideals and symbols (tractors, factories, hammer and sickle) into clothing and household fabrics they could assist workers and peasants in forwarding the revolution. Now, how hip would this stuff be to wear now? Way cool. But don’t even think about it.

Mon. Jan 22

The Coolidge Corner Theatre struck paydirt in 2006 with its "Science on Screen" series and it kicks it up again in 2007 with a  screening of "So Much, So Fast" at 7 p.m. This one's close to home in every way. The documentary, shot over four years, chronicles Newton resident Stephen Heywood's battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS). The disease attacks the nerve cells that govern motor skills. It's not pretty to watch someone slip away in this fashion. The film was made by Newton film-makers Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher. It considers Heywood's horrible, debilitating illness, shows his will to live (and the new technology that helps him) and shines a light on the wonderful support system (called family) that he has around him. Unfortunately, Heywood succumbed to his illness last year. For the Coolidge screening, Heywood's brother, Jamie will speak. Tickets: $9.

290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-734-2500 coolidge.org

Mon. Jan. 22 

 You can't keep a good gal down. Kristin Hersh was once (may still be, given the state of reunions these days) the leader of Throwing Muses and of the punk-rockin' 50 Foot Wave. She's also a solo artist, where she lets her softer side out. She's also one of the sharpest knives in the tool kit when it comes to being savvy about the rock 'n' roll biz, which is a way of saying she's been around the block and back ... and makes us want to come back. Endurance is far from a given in this disposable age of pop culture. Hersh and her acoustic guitar will make some moody, melancholic music at the Newbury street Newbury Comics store on Monday Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. It's a free gig in support of her new disc "Learn To Sing Like a Star." Get there plenty early. These free Newbury gigs can be pretty cool, by the way. We saw - of all things - Iggy and the Stooges at one a couple years back and were almost in awe of it all. Iggy doing Iggy! With the Stooges! At a store! Full-throttle, but muted!

332 Newbury St., 617-236-4930 newburycomics.com

Mon. Jan. 22

 If sad songs say so much - as Bernie Taupin had Elton John sing - then Mark Eitzel says a mouthful. The sometime leader of the American Music Club is the master of the dour and the downbeat, the maudlin and the morose. Put it this way: Nick Drake may have in the '70s, but his creative spirit and sense of loss were reborn in Eitzel. Sustaining a career based on such material is not easy, especially when you're in clubland. In a theater, Leonard Cohen can do this more easily; in a club, many people are out to have "fun" or some degree of it, not experience the art of the song. So, Middle East Upstairs, which he plays Monday January 22. He's got no new album to that's one of the challenges Eitzel takes on in a small venue such as the promote, so expect Eitzel to draw from his deep, dark, truthful catalog. Eitzel does have an album called "Love Songs for Patriots," so, maybe, depending on what happens Sunday in Indianapolis, his show will be the place to go. Drew O'Doherty opens at 9. Tickets: $12.

472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278 mideastclub.com