Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Columbia professor and author Sam Lipsyte's latest novel, The Ask, will make you piss your pants - maybe with laughter, maybe with fear. This dark comedy follows Milo Burke, an unemployed, detached, reluctant family man, through a bizarre and poignantly crafted American landscape as he tries to win back his mediocre job as a university fundraiser - and with it the broken family he sort of wants. But to do that, he must appease the eccentric needs of his most challenging potential donor yet. Lipsyte writes all of this with a devastating wit, one we expect to be on full display when he drops by to read at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660 or www.brooklinebooksmith.com.
Filed under:
WORDS
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Alexander Zemlinsky's 1922 one-act opera Das Zwerg is based on an Oscar Wilde story about a dwarf who's given to an Infanta and becomes enamored of her, but it's really all about Zemlinsky himself and the woman who broke off their relationship to become Alma Mahler. All clear? If not, OperaHub will straighten it out for you. This fledgling company gave us a very creditable production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea last June, and, as was the case then, these performances are free with a reservation, so send off that e-mail and then head down to the Boston Center for the Arts' Plaza Black Box Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston | March 11-12 @ 8 pm | March 13 @ 3 + 8 pm | free | http://www.operahub.org.
Filed under:
ARTS
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Love him or loathe him, Jay-Z is the standout rap artist of the past decade and then some. His catalogue is the deepest in the game, and in every tour, he makes an effort to appeal to fans both young and old school. If you've never seen Hova's spectacle, this might be the time - one of these days his retirement rumors might prove more than just a publicity stunt. | TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston | 7 pm | $39-$129 | www.ticketmaster.com.
Filed under:
MUSIC
