Thurs. Aug. 5

A couple of years back, Linda Viens (right, in photo) and Emily Grogan (left) were playing their guitars while their kids played together. Viens had sung with Bad Saints, Boston Rock Opera and Crown Electric Company, among others, but had taken five years off.  “Our brains clicked,” says Viens. “We have a similar edgy, rock quality. She edges me up and I soften her up; it’s a cool dance we do together.” original: Initially, just a side project, a couple of years ago Viens and Grogan formed a band called *Angeline* with Boston drummer Larry Dersch, and went in the studio with producer (and their bassist at the time) Asa Brebner. The result: the sometimes melancholic, sometimes upbeat, folk-rock CD “Powdered Pearls”, which is indeed available at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Angeline1. The current line-up of Angeline is a lean 4-piece with Viens and Grogan singing and playing guitars, Scott Cornielle on bass, and Dersch holding his post on drums.

Mon. Aug. 2

Carl Hiaasen is one clever bastard - to quote Ian Dury - and our favorite novelists. Has been for years. With crazy, but believable characters (villains, hereos and mixes of both) a vehemently pro-environmentalist slant, and just some of the best black humor going, Hiaasen just keeps hitting the mark. "Star Island," doesn't come out til July 27, but the bits we know: It involves a one-time teen pop star named Cherry Pye, who hit the skids, did the D/A rehab route and is in the midst of another comeback. (Remind you of anyone, Britney?) She also has a body double, who functions for her when Cherry just can't make it off the floor to go clubbing, and this body double manages to get kidnapped from South Beach - Florida is Hiaasen's stomping ground (he loves the place, hates what's happened to it) - by a paparazzi. It's fair to say hilarity will ensue, but that hilarity will have a subtext. We know this because Skink, Hiaasen's ex-gov-turned-madman-hermit-environmentalist makes a return. And we know it because Hiaasen really is a master at wrenching some heart and soul out of a funny romp. He's the literary Warren Zevon. And it's no stretch to see why the two became friends after being mutual admirers, and ended up writing a song together. "Basket Case." Hiaasen reads from "Star Island" Monday Aug. 2 at 6 at the Brattle Theatre. I have an interview with Hiaasen up at www.thephoenix.com.

40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-8021 www.brattlefilm.org

 Mon. Aug. 2

Generally speaking you'll se the Chandler Travis and one of his innumerable bands (the Incredible Casuals and the Chandler Travis Philharmonic) to name two at local clubs like Toad or Johnny D's. By local, we mean Boston area: Travis - a prolific and genre-scrambling singer-songwriter-guitarist - is based on Cape Cod and from the looks of it plays just about every night of the week down that way. But he's got a really big shoe coming at the Berklee Performance Center on Monday, August 2 at 8:15). Travis sent us five tracks from the upcoming, swinging, jazzy new CD, "The Chandler Travis Philharmonic Blows" -it's rather horn-driven. But in the lyrics you will note the witty and droll observations Travis is prone to put into songs. There's one Kinksian, almost happy/quasi-weary song about "Pushing Up Daisies." It's about carrying on until, well, the inevitable.

Travis is playing looking forward to the bigger Berklee venue and thinks he and his large band can do things a lot more theatrical and not just be playing for a bunch of customers more intent on their next beer than the music. (Nothing wrong with that. You make your living in clubs, that's part of the package.) But, writes Travis, "I just wanted to make a case for my/ourselves as doing something unusually original, ambitious, and necessary between these various bands. I've been working like a crazy person with three different bands with at least three different mostly original repertoires. My summer schedule is just hilarious and the CTP is certainly the most of everything, and possibly deserving of more attention in Beantown." Tickets: $15. Starts at 8:15.

Sun. Aug. 1

One of favorite songs from the English psych-rock band Kula Shaker - remember was them? - was "Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There," a trippy tribute to the late Garcia, where, in the song, it suggested many Deadheads held events where they swore, man, that "Jerry was there." Why do we think that will happen Sunday Aug. 1 out in Boston harbor? Because it would have been his 68th  birthday and this take on a 419 aspect in the Deadhead world. (Jerry went down for good 15 years ago, after years of hard drugs and dietary trouble took their toll.) This year, to make that day extra special (why do we celebrate death days?) on Sunday Aug. 1 you can board the Rock and Blues Cruise with The Grateful Dread, the long-running reggae/Dead tribute band. It's not, as you no doubt realize, a goof. There's links between the languid Dead and the languid reggae/ska sound and, of course, there's the pot. Check out the Grateful Dread at www.thegratefuldread.com. The Dread have been packing Martha’s Vineyard clubs and selling out shows across the region since their inception. 

   The Dread takes the Dead songs - "Dark Star,' "Franklin's Tower's

Fri. July 30 

Somewhere in the celebrity-chef world in which we now swim, eating became art. Or, perhaps, it's the counter-reaction to the fast-food junk culture world many of us have grown up with. (Hey, I got my wisdom teeth out at age 12 and my father asked where I wanted to eat. McDonalds!) Maybe, we're eating more wisely, better and not just more often. At any rate the Institute of Contemporary Art, has a Fridays in July program with presentatitons at the museum called "Talking Taste," a series of talks with well-known chefs.  These well-known fixtures on the city’s culinary scene share the freshest tastes in food and drink, talking about their latest flavors and signing copies of their cookbooks while you sample their tempting recipes. All programs start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 members, students. Note: Advance tickets are currently sold out. Weather permitting, the event takes place outdoors, and more tickets will become available on the day of the event. For details, please click "read more."