Mon. Jan. 16

The Museum of Fine Arts always does something neat on Monday holidays. That is, they open the place to the public at no charge. This means you have (probably) a day off and no excuse not to expose yourself to culture. There's no football on TV. Nope, today's a day to learn, explore, grow ... all that good stuff. And since it's Monday January 16, it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, maybe a day to honor Dr. King and not go shopping, and check out the 5000 new works up at the new MFA wing. At 3:30, you may want to check Berklee College of Music presentation, a premiere concert performance by Women of the World (in photo) —an ensemble of exceptional women from various continents around the world. Hailing from Japan, India, Italy, Greece, Brazil, and the United States, the five core singers and their diverse band create rich tapestries of culture and sound as they perform both original and traditional songs. (Free tickets available at Remis Auditorium beginning at 2:45 pm.) There's all sorts of quilting and painting and drawing workshops and, of course, the many galleries showing "Avedon Fashions," "Modernist Photography," a space devoted to European artists 1825-1925, embroideries from Colonial Boston,Jean-Fracois Millet's rural paintings and much more. It's open 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Check website or call for more info.

465 Huntington Ave., 617-267-9300 www.mfa.org

Sun. Jan. 15

 David Lowery (in photo) will be pulling double duty at the Middle East Downstairs Sunday - a year to the day after last year's double-bill.  First, he’ll be singing and playing guitar with Camper Van Beethoven, the quirky California band he co-founded in 1983. Then, he’ll be doing the same with Cracker, the more straight-ahead rock group he-co-founded in Virginia in 1990.
    The genre-scrambling Camper had underground hits like “Take the Skinheads Bowling” and a cover of Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”  Cracker hit the semi-mainstream with “Low” and “Teen Angst.” On this tour, four of Camper’s five members are originals and half of Cracker’s four are.
     Lowery, 50, has been doing this dual tour annually for the past five years and this will be their third local stop. Not only that, his solo album, “The Palace Guards” comes out Feb. 1 and he play a couple tunes from that between sets. Oh, and he’s recovering from a broken hand he suffered in England a while back.
    We spoke to Lowery from the Athens, Ga. home he shares with his wife and manager Velena Vego.
    JSInk: This tour seems like a lot of work. Why the undertaking? And why come to this part of the country now?
     Lowery: We always do it in January when it’s really cold and no bands go up to the Northeast and Canada. It started from the fact that it was the only time that was slow for the Camper Van Beethoven guys who have real careers. Then, we accidentally figured out nobody else is touring, so it’s seen as this mid-winter cabin fever kind of party.

through - Sun. Jan 15

As a kid, I listened to David Bowie sing about Andy Warhol on "Hunky Dory." Sang Bowie: Andy Warhol looks a scream/Hang him on my wall/Andy Warhol, Silver Screen/Can't tell them apart at all" into "Andy walking, Andy tired/Andy take a little snooze/Tie him up when he's fast asleep/Send him on a pleasant cruise/When he wakes up on the sea/Be sure to think of me and you/He'll think about paint and he'll think about glue/What a jolly boring thing to do." Loved it, as I was just trying to figure out who Warhol was and if those multiple images of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell soup can were part of this great pop art thing or an emperor's new clothes deal?

Suppose I could have asked him in 1985 when I met him - sorta - at the New Music Seminar in New York. I, like lots of others, stood in line at a table where the iconic silver-wigged Andy was silently signing the front cover of his current Interview magazine. I got mine signed and though usually brash enough to say something to anyone, said nothing, or mumbled thanks or whatever. I was part of the assembly line of autograph seekers. Maybe I was part of a living art project. Repetition, boredom, celebrity, silence. Sounds like a Warhol film, doesn't it? (I tossed the mag when I moved in the late-'80s, much to the chagrin of my collector friends. Stupid me.)
   At any rate, the Institue of Contemporary Art has Andy in its signts Friday Jan. 13 - Sunday Jan. 15, when the Gob Squad - a UK/German collective of artists who combine performance, theater, film and weird shit - take us back to Andyworld of the 1960s. You remember stoned would-be famous actors standing around doing nothing? Well, you can get that live!

 Sat. Jan. 14

  There was the year Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon took the Paradise stage, ripped off his shirt, tossed it to the rafters, and dove into the crowd as 20-plus musicians rocked through Cheap Trick’s "Surrender." Terry Francona and Kevin Millar stood side-stage, shaking their heads. And the time Jonathan Papelbon joined the gang and belted out the Rolling Stones’ "It’s Only Rock and Roll."

I do bits for WBUR's Radio Boston every three weeks and this is the tip from this week: Hot Stove Cool Music Saturday, "God of Carnage" at the Huntingtons' BU Theatrethrough Feb. 5 and Tracy Morgan at the Wilbur Saturday. 

http://radioboston.wbur.org/2012/01/12/weekend-picks-5