Awkward Lectures Cory Arcangel's best known artwork Super Mario Clouds turns the world's first scrolling video game into a digital environment of placid repetition. It percolated on the internet and spilled into the Whitney's Biennial, making Arcangel a digital art superstar. But his true calling may have been as a lecturer. Whether the topic is hacking old electronics or copyright; his willful ignorance of art history or his place in it, Arcangel always entertains.......

Music --The Willows bring to the Middle East Upstairs a brand of Americana country rock inspired by the seasonal carnival scene up in Salem. Alas, no salt water taffy is included in the price of admission. With The Vic Morrows, The Resonance, The Giant Melons. Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, doors 9:00, 18+, $8. --While the show has been sold out for weeks, if there's any way you can get in we......

No indication as of yet that these events have been cancelled. Given the weather, double-check with the venue. Books Former secretary of state Madeline Albright has a few things to say in Memo to the President-Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership. Now if only the pundits would shut the hell up and listen. First Parish Church Meetinghouse (via Harvard Book Store), 8:00 pm, $5. (Event is sold out, but, as always, the......

Movies --Normally, Bostonist commends the Brattle for its impeccable taste in movies, but they are boldly venturing into stinker territory with the Lindsay Lohan polefest I Know Who Killed Me. It's listed as part of the Brattle's Best of 2007 series. The inclusion of La Lohan means we've entered an alternate universe. Midnight, tonight and tomorrow night. More info on this shlocker. --The Harvard Film Archive is back open again and starting off with an......

Many fans and striking writers turned out for the Writers Guild Rally at the First Parish Church meeting house at Harvard Square at noon today. As his mom Wendy looked on, Max Schapiro, of Needham, toted a sign that said, "My Mom let me skip school to support the WGA!" Other people sported orange-and-yellow wool caps made popular on Joss Whedon's brief television series "Firefly." After the fans and several striking writers filled the pews,......

WGA Strike Support Rally Friday, December 14, 12:00 pm-3:00 pm Harvard Square Fans4writers.com Update: Bradley's Almanac just gave us a heads-up--the WGA East announced "Please RSVP to 212-767-7843 and leave the number of people in your party" if you plan to attend the event at the church. By now, we're all sick of the writers' strike, and Bostonist HQ is suffering from MCRW (Major Colbert Report Withdrawal). Rest assured, the writers are even sicker of......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrapup of readings in the area. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Thursday, December 6 Greil Marcus, The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice, Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm Greil Marcus goes in search of the American spirit and finds it in Philip Roth, David Lynch, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, and other unpredictable sources. The Village Voice writes that Marcus' latest "basks in the possibilities of......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of local readings. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Wednesday, November 28 Helen Vendler, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and the Lyric Form, Sacker Museum (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm. More info. Vendler, the closest reader of all close readers, so says the New York Times, shines her spotlight on William Butler Yeats. Thursday, November 29 David Hosp, Innocence, 7:30 pm, Charlestown Branch Library Hosp will be reading from......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's roundup of reading events in the area. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Thursday, November 1 Alice Medrich, 7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith Not in the mood for candy corn but still craving something sweet? Alice Medrich, aka the "Queen of Chocolate," will inspire your palate in a discussion of her book Pure Dessert: True Flavors, Inspiring Ingredients, and Simple Recipes. Friday, November 2 Paula Kamen, 3:00 pm, Harvard Book Store.......

"Authorial Intent" wraps up book events for the week in the Boston area. Wednesday, October 24 Chris Matthews, 6:00 pm, Coolidge Corner (via Brookline Booksmith), $5 Recently, Jon Stewart sank his fangs into Matthews for pimping the concept that "Life's a Campaign," which is, admittedly, a little scary. Bostonist prefers the old saw that life is a bowl of cherries. Watch what Matthews has dubbed the "interview from hell," and you'll already be armed with......

The American Idea First Parish Church Meetinghouse, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square (Corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St.) Friday, October 19th, 7:00 pm, $5 More info There are a lot of things you could do to celebrate your 150th anniversary. For a magazine, publishing a book seems like a good idea: anthologize the best of your magazine writing in a more permanent format so it can be remembered for all time. And that's just......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,......

We're a day late on Authorial Intent, our wrap-up of the week's readings. That's largely because we were talking to two of the authors who will be in town tomorrow night, which seems to be the night that the stars aligned and all writers thought it would be a good idea to visit Boston. So, without further adieu … Thursday, October 11--Today, Super Thursday! Robert Reich, 6:00 pm, Swedenborg Chapel (via Harvard Book Store), 50......

Now that it's fall and writers are stepping out for tours, we'll be offering a spotlight on the best of the week's readings. You'll still see book reviews and interviews with authors, but "Authorial Intent" will help you get the jump on tickets so you don't wind up out in the cold. Also, it's impossible to read everything, so please e-mail Bostonist if "Authorial Intent" misses anything. Thursday, September 6, 7:00 pm, Robert Whitcomb and......

Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen L. Hopp (her husband), and Camille Kingsolver (their daughter) will read from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle at the First Parish Church Meeting House on Tuesday Thursday, May 24, at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $5, but they are $85 if you want to attend the reception afterwards at UpStairs on the Square and get a copy of the book. Instead of talking about eating better, Barbara Kingsolver and her family actually did it and......

Roy Blount Jr. will be reading from Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South at First Parish Church Meetinghouse on Wednesday, May 16, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at Harvard Book Store. On Saturday mornings, we need a Roy Blount Jr. fix. We're addicted. If he's not answering questions in NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me in his warm, avuncular, Southern-fried voice, we get crabby. We don't know why, but we love hearing him......

Robert Dallek will read from Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power on Monday, May 7, 2007, at 6:30 pm at the First Parish Church Meetinghouse. Tickets are $5 and are available at Harvard Book Store. We read an excerpt of Robert Dallek's exhaustive book on Nixon and Kissinger's relationship in Vanity Fair, and we thought that former president Nixon and his secretary of state Kissinger behaved in a manner more suitable for teenage girls than......

Michael Chabon will read from The Yiddish Policemen's Union on Thursday, May 3, at 6:30 pm at First Parish Church. Tickets can be purchased for $5 from Harvard Book Store. Pulitzer winner Michael Chabon's new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, is beyond ambitious – it describes a colony of European Jews that was established during World War II in Sitka, Alaska. It could have happened. Such a plan was under discussion within the FDR administration.......

UPDATE: The venue has been changed for the Kerry reading. John Kerry and Theresa Heinz Kerry will read at the First Parish Church in Cambridge tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, at 12 noon. Theresa Heinz Kerry, coauthor of This Moment on Earth, sounded furious when she and Senator John Kerry dialed into a conference call with a batch of bloggers. And she has reason to be mad because of the research she's assembled about how toxins......

Bostonist spent yesterday listening to the “I have a dream” speech and watching clips of the good doctor fight for civil rights. Today there is a chance to see another modern great mind, only without the marching. Tonight at the First Parish Church in Harvard Square Noam Chomsky will speak. The $7 - $15 entry fee will benefit Mass Global Action and will discuss the negative effects of globalization on Massachusetts. Originally recognized as......