Music Hometown keytar heroes Freezepop have returned from touring the world (okay, Florida, and the Rust Belt) to once again rock Cambridge, with the help of the The Information, The Main Drag, and Michael Hensley. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $14. Beer Harpoon will hold its St. Patrick's Festival at the brewery on 306 Northern Avenue. Wear galoshes because the floor may well be slick with beer. Harpoon Brewery, 5:30 to 11:00 pm,......

Short Cartoons You saw the nominees for the Live Action Short Film Academy Award last night; come back to the ICA for the contenders in the animated category. Formats include traditional 2D animation, CGI, and claymation. Check out the John Lennon interview film "I Met the Walrus." Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Avenue, South Boston, 7:00pm. $7/$9. Recover Heal a broken heart with laughter. Ben Karlin has assembled a collection of raucous breakup......

Books --Charles Bock's Beautiful Children isn't as delicate as it sounds. A couple reels after their child vanishes in the Las Vegas desert--only it's so, so much more than that, and it's received a flood of attention. The Globe thought Bock threw too much into his debut, but everyone seems to agree that he's ambitious. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Speaking of free, he's letting you download the book without dropping a single dime.......

Music --Haven't you always wanted to go to an event called HARVAPALOOZA? Well, now you can. Local band The Franklin Kite bring a special combination of musical prowess and astrophysics knowledge to Tommy Doyle's, where they'll play alongside Maya and The Trolleys to commemorate the palooza that is Harvard. Or something like that? Anyway, the show starts at 9 and it's totally free. A dance party will follow, so put your best foot forward. Hopefully......

We were thinking about how clever presidential candidate Barack Obama must have been to find parking in Cambridge, tickets be dammed. And then we saw the latest in ridiculous rates in this city. The Globe reports, "At least seven garages are charging for parking in 20-minute rather than 30-minute increments, and many of them are collecting their all-day rates for periods of less than two hours." Many places are charging $6 for 20 minutes or......

The annual St. Patrick's Day celebration by Harpoon Brewery is almost upon us. On Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10, the heated tents will be set up and the beer will be flowing at 306 Northern Avenue. The festival costs $15 for admission, a souvenir glass, and all the music and dancing you can handle. It runs from just after work lets out on Friday, and gets rolling again in the early afternoon on......

The new Institute of Contemporary Arts building at 100 Northern Avenue on Boston's Waterfront is open still not open. They've delayed the opening date indefinitely, but hope to open the new museum later this fall. Originally, when they closed the Back Bay ICA location they'd hoped to be fully operational in the newly constructed building for a grand opening on September 17, 2006. If you've got a calendar handy you might notice that today is......

Bostonist is a BIG fan of installation/public artwork (to be fairly general) - we LOVED Aaron Noble's site-specific mural at the Davis Museum @ Wellesley College, we LOVE Julian Opie's pieces on Northern Avenue Bridge, and we are eagerly anticipating the newest installation going up at EMF of former Cantebridgian Tighe Clark. For those of you unfamiliar with EMF - it is in fact an electrical supply company, still owned by the same family......

Thanks to the fabulous minds over at Bostonist favorite, the Institute of Contemporary Art, we all have the opportunity to hear Julian Opie "speak about his artistic process and his work for the 8th Annual ICA/Vita Brevis project, two animated LED sculptures installed on the Northern Avenue Bridge that feature full-length portraits of two walking figures. " Artists talks are always tricky events - sometimes we leave feeling excited at the prospect of the......

Oh, Haymarket, how Bostonist loves your super low prices, general uncleanliness, and the gruff attitude of most of your vendors. What we really enjoy is the good bit of sauce you leave at the end of the day. But we’ve found a new spot for our fresh food, Mondays and Thursdays, so we don’t have to wait for the weekend. Walking across the Old Northern Avenue Bridge, a vibrant open air market surrounds you.......

Bostonist is an advocate of the bicycling life, but we know that it can sometimes be a lonely endeavor - just today, as we suited up in our baggy blue rain pants and slicker, preparing to leave work and brave the torrential downpour, we had to endure the curious/incredulous stares of our co-workers (and we weren't even wearing (nor do we ever) the dreaded spandex shorts so popular with the cycling set). Wouldn't it be......