Sat. Oct. 11

There aren't that many CAN'T MISS events we stress here at JSink, because there really are so many viable options out there. But this is one: The Boston reunion gig of the Feelies, the Haledon, NJ-band that made the late-1970s and 1980s so much more wonderful with its mix of jangly (pre-REM) guitar, nervous, twitchy rhythms, inspired covers (the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," Velvet Undeground), and a mix of resignation, bitterness, ennui and, yes, joy. The crazy rhythms drove you one way, the intertwining guitar lines of Glenn Mercer and Bill Million another and despite the subtext of anxiety and angst, there was a palpable sense of excitement. The Feelies reunited for a show July 1, 2008 at their old stomping grounds of Maxwell's and have, tentatively, at least, kept it going. Hit the "read more" button for an interview with Mercer about this comeback, and edited versions of reviews I wrote when I was at the Globe. They're at the Roxy Saturday Oct. 11 Show starts at 7:30. Tickets: $26.

279 Tremont St., 617-338-7699 www.tix.com or www.roxyplex,com

Sat. Oct. 11

 Suicide. It's a lot of things, including the moniker taken by one of my favorite avant-rock bands, a duo consisting of Alan Vega and Martin Rev. I asked Vega about the name choice once and he said it was anything but negative - by raising the spectre of suicide and choosing to carry on day after day you're making a positive choice. But suicide has touched us all. Just recently the brilliant writer David Foster Wallace hanged himself, at 46. And now his name goes up on the grim wall with Hemingway, Plath and Hunter S. Thompson. In my rock world, the biggest loss was Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, the subject of last year's biopic "Control." Curtis, not yet 23, took his life in 1980. Joy Division's music - sad, gorgeous, gnashing - has stood the test of time. The Killers are the latest band to cover Joy Division. A lot of the latest new wave bands, like Interpol, owe a debt. Bono was proud to call Curtis a friend and called him the best front man in rock 'n' roll. U2 wrote "A Day Without Me" about him.

Sat. Oct. 11

 “I wanted to write about invisibility and put an original spin on it,” says author Tonya Hurley, “and what better way than have a dead girl trying to be popular. I thought about the most dramatic scenario I could have. It’s a story about a ghost, but it’s not a ghost story not a traditional ghost story.” What it is is “ghostgirl,” which concerns the life, death and (mostly) after-life of Charlotte Usher, a teen who choked to death on a gummy bear and must negotiate her way through Dead Ed – orientation for newly dead teens – and learn how to “possess” someone still living to get inside her skin. She also must wrestle with who she was in life and who she seems still to be in death: an outsider, a nobody. She root for her but she’s not entirely sympathetic. Her obsession with a still-alive male jock continues to burn on in the afterlife. “I did take her to an extreme,” says Hurley. “I wanted to make her a real character, not two-dimensional. I tried to develop her as a person and she is annoying at times … but it is the tale of the heart.”
     Hurley, 38 and a former Boston area resident, comes to Salem Saturday Oct. 11 at 1 p.m. to read and host a discussion Cornerstone Books.

Sun. Oct. 12

Lovewhip is where synth pop, rocking guitar lines, punk rock and funky drums serve as the basis for Empress Erin's soulful vocals. Erin is Erin Harpe who not long ago released a rootsy blues album, but the gal's obviously at home with genre switching, wearing two hats, if you will. Lovewhip is her booty-shaker band and they're at Harpers Ferry Sunday Oct. 12 Wanna get a look? Check out their vid,"Gimme That" at www.lovewhip.net and/or www.myspace.com/lovewhip. The group is readying a new CD now. They're on at 10:30 and opening up for for Tommy Boy Records recording artists Plushgun from Brooklyn. Tickets: $10.

158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-254-9743 www.harpersferryboston.com

Sun. Oct. 12

 No one knows who the Residents. Certainly, someone does, but, really, they've been a whole lot better at that shieldiing idenity thing than, say, KISS. And they've been doing it for more than a quarter-century. The San Francisco based group (quartet, quintet, more? plus dancers?) shows up at Showcase Live at Patriot Place Sunday Oct. 12 at 8. What can we tell you? Yes, they will likely be dressed similar to the photo you see here - the giant eyeball head is like their emblem. We've seen them three or four times throughout their career. They consistently offer spooky, intriguing, sometimes dissonant, sometimes cooly melodic visions of a past, present and future, where, everything's askew if not downright apocalyptic. Their latest disc is "The Residents Present The Bunny Boy." There are story-songs of butcher shops and secret rooms, something called "The Dark Man" and "I Killed Him."

Sun. Oct. 12

Do you like sitting next to an opinionated loudmouth in s bar? Who doesn't? The Fireplace - a rather civilized restaurant/bar in Brookline's Washington Square - is offering a semi-formal forum for you politically inclinded bar-yakkers Sunday Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. (Football you care about should be over; Monday's a holiday.) It's called "Speak up or Button Up!" "Enthusiastic" - that's the way the restaurant puts it - will have a podium for one minute in each round (round of drinks?) to bloviate on whatever political issue is on their mind. Kind of like the public speaking squares they have in London. Except, inside at a bar, with booze.

ongoing

 We have as much ambivalence about Woody Allen as anyone these days, and can't quite let go of that he-took-dirty-pictures-of-and-then-married-his-step-daughter! thing. I mean, really, "the heart wants what it wants." But we also have to say his last three films, "Match Point," "Cassandra's Dream" and now "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." These movies all show Woody getting away from what we've considered typical Woody, and a willingness to take cinematic leaps as he ventures into the twilight of his career. (We guess; he is 72,) "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" concerns itself with the summer getaway trip of Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and their encounter with romantic (or is he a cad?) painter Javier Bardem (Juan Antonio), acting nothing like the psycho killer of "No Country for Old Men."

ongoing

When worlds collide ... chaos happens. It's a theme the Joel and Ethan have explored it  a few times - quite chillingly in "No Country For Old Men" - and it's one they return to in a somewhat lighter fashion in "Burn After Reading," starring George Clooney, Frances MacDormand, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt. By lighter we do not mean that nobody gets killed. Come on, it's the Coens! Maybe even one big name gets it, early-ish, like Janet Leigh in "Psycho." The plot, a twisted web, involves Osborne Cox (Malkovich), a CIA analyst who is bounced from his job. He goes home to stew and brew, and decides writing his memoirs in order. Those memoirs - on a misplaced CD - propel the others on their merry, mistaken journey through this misadventure.

Mon. Oct. 13

Monday is the "dog day" in the restaurant world, and by that we don't mean that in terms of anything but "slowest" day. It has nothing to do with anyone's menu. Really. And, so, Monday is a great day for a restaurant to hold a special promotion - lure the folks inside on an off-night because of something like a) cut prices or, b) a great cause. The Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro is doing something like that with its Autumn Harvest Dinner Monday Oct. 13, with two seatings of 25 at 6 and 8:30 p.m. There are two prixe fixe - fixed price in some European language, we believe - meals of $60. You can choose "pasture" (meat included, Tarnworth suckling pig being the main dish) or "field" (veggie with Dancer Eggplant Gratine in that spot) and have wine pourings of a great wine for another $25. The cause? None of than Verill Farm Farmstand, the local landmark farm that was destroyed in a fire Sept. 20. Verrill was a main provider to the Bistro, and the Bistro is donating a portion of the proceeds to the Verill Farmstand Fund.

25 Charles St., 617-723-7575, www.beaconhillhotel.com

Mon. Oct. 13

We always enjoy the Coolidge Corner Theatre's "Science on Screen" series. The idea: Couple a well-known film with a local expert - we got a lot of these in Boston, what with all them colleges - and have said expert explain the science or psychology or what-have-you that's somewhere in the cinematic mix. Sometimes, it's a stretch. So be it. It gets people in the theater to see some classic films on the big screen and, if you want to stick around for the more serious stuff - which actually starts the night - it's your option. On Monday Oct. 13, the Coolidge presents Alfred Hitchcock’s classic psychological thriller "Marnie," at 7:00 pm. Your guest speaker will be noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Phillip Freeman.

ongoing

 We had one really wonderful night at the opening of the Boston Film Festival not long ago. The western, "Appaloosa," starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger, co-written by Harris and Robert Knott. It's based on a Robert Parker novel, and Parker was in the room to receive an award and was wonderfully warm and witty afterwards duing the Q/A, as was Knott. We later repaired to the post-screening party at Umbria, where we sipped martinis and exchanged filmic stuff with Knott. For, like, an hour. We weren't out with a notebook; he wasn't talking press talk. It was just a group of four us, all who enjoyed movies, knew something about them, exchanging opinions. He told us about how few cuts there were in "Appaloosa," a thought we hadn't realized right away, but was so apparent in retrospect. Indeed, "Appaloosa" didn't move like a modern movie. It moved like a John Ford western. It wasn't trying to impress with trickery or camera angles. It focused on the relationship between Harris and Mortenson (incoming town sheriff and deputy, respectively) who were there to clean up the mess made of the town by Jeremy Irons gang.

ongoing- Sun. Oct. 19

 When asked what any particular Cirque du Soleil show is "about," we often hem, haw and basically draw a blank. It's about beauty and splendor and grace and strength and emotion and dazzling feats of acrobatics, all set to a rock/classical/world music score. But there are stories, there, too - although to explain the story, we often have to go back to the press release. We read the press release for "Kooza," before we went to Sept. 5 debut at the Bayside Expo Center, and here's what the Cirque people say. And that's that it "tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world." And "it is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil that combines two circus traditions - acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor." Our impressions? We'll get to those after we finish with their description