Books Is it possible to be saved by the Sex Pistols? The answer to that is a resounding yes. Michael Patrick MacDonald will be reading from Easter Rising, an account of his youth in the Boston punk scene, at Brookline Booksmith. Bostonist had the opportunity to hear him read from the book when he spoke at UMass-Boston, and we say with great emphasis that this is a must-see, not just for those who love......

Books --Self-described philosopher-comedians Tom Cathcart and Daniel Klein discuss Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington. Imagine Jon Stewart after he stops shouting "Whaaaa??" takes some time off for a philosophy PhD, and returns to TV. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. --Find out why Drew Gilpin Faust is the president of Harvard, and you're not. Faust will discuss her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War at the Harvard Coop......

Ted Kennedy catches a lot of crap just being himself. Ted-Kennedy-As-Orator is probably Jon Stewart's second-favorite impression after the George W. Bush chuckle. Throw in the alleged drinky-drinky, and Ted Kennedy makes for quite the media spectacle. Since he announced his endorsement of presidential aspirant Barack Obama, the Peanut Gallery has renewed its love affair with poking fun at Teddy. But Glenn Beck at Headline News hurt our brains when he started imagining our Senator......

Say what you will about Mitt Romney, the man never loses his cool. Even if it seems like he loses his cool, such as in the ad in which he went jogging and his hair got mussed, the stray hairs were on purpose. But a reporter got under Romney's skin at a Staples in South Carolina this morning when Romney said lobbyists didn't run his campaign. The reporter, Glen Johnson, said that was bull. Alas,......

--Now that Spatch has been rooming with a CW celebrity, perhaps he thought that another CW reality show, the mother-daughter beauty pageant extravaganza Crowned, might be as good. He was wrong. [Derspatchel] --VickieVictoria encounters "Wookie porn," as in the Star Wars holiday special. [VickieVictoria] --While the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is like a holiday gift, not everyone is happy about it. The writers' strike is still going on, and "it's not funny......

The Five Brothers, aka Mitt Romney's kids who all blog for Dad, are toothy, cute, and so wholesome it could make your brain bleed. They strike us as mostly harmless sorts who just want to tell the world how cool their Dad is. But they do not, under any circumstances, need to be playing touch football with streamers dangling around their butts. The Team Romney football game marks the second time that Bostonist has seen......

As Red Sox fans we've become accustomed to the various tauntings (they're clearly jealous), pepto-fueled stressful evenings, and many bleary-eyed mornings. However no matter what curve balls (pun intended) our beloved Boys of Summer, er October, throw at us, we will always declare ourselves proud members of Red Sox Nation. Turns out our all-weather team allegiance is nothing new. One of Boston's most giving and interesting daughters, Isabella Stewart Gardner, was a passionate Red......

"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......

Boston Comedy Festival Preliminary Rounds --Monday, October 8, Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 7:00 and 9:00 pm --Tuesday, October 9, Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 7:00 and 9:00 pm --Wednesday, October 10, Comedy Connection, Faneuil Hall, 7:00 and 9:00 pm All tickets for the preliminaries are $15 The comics rush up onstage and change right before your eyes. One moment, they gaze into the camera and at the audience like classic deer before headlines. Then, an internal......

Celebrate the origins of the Native American genocide by going to see some European art! Bostonist couldn't miss that irony. But the truth is, if you've got this rainy Columbus Day off anyway, you could do worse than to check out the Fenway Cultural District's "Opening Our Doors." All the museums in the area are free today, from the MFA to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (The reaction of one Bostonian: "The Gardner's free?! That......

We’ve long been fans of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, enough so that we’ve got two nicknames for it – ISGM when writing and “da gadnah” when speaking. The museum has been doing a lot in recent months to re-energize their image, though they’ll never lose sight of their founder (and Red Sox fanatic) Isabella, new programs are putting a new life into ISGM. Tonight marks the first in their new series, Gardner After Hours,......

If you believe the worst of the rumors, the members of the Police spend most of their downtime on the tour bus smashing bottles and going after one another with the jagged glass. But whatever happens offstage, it doesn't seem to affect the show. The Police reunion tour hit Fenway Park Saturday for the first of two nights, and they've hardly lost a step. The best part of a reunion that nobody thought would ever......

We saw so much of Denzel Washington in the local press recently that we're feeling a little left out, even more so since he's probably left town by now. Boston media was so Denzel-happy that we half expected someone to run a post saying, "I threw my panties at Denzel!" It's like Denzel Washington was here, there, and everywhere in Boston. Washington was in town for the shooting of The Great Debaters, about a 1930s......

The Phoenix posted the tenth annual Muzzle Awards. The listing, compiled by Media Nation blogger Dan Kennedy, showcases the offenses against free speech by local individuals and organizations. An apropos way to celebrate liberty for the Fourth of July. He gets the Muzzle this year by stifling the free speech of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami by refusing to provide state-police protection to the visiting former head of state. Boston Police stepped up to provide......

Any gripes anyone has with Curt Schilling - his ego, his politics, his whatever - roll 'em up in a ball and store them somewhere for a while. Because the man is clutch. With the Red Sox reeling and poised to be swept out of Oakland, #38 stepped up to the mound and threw a one-hitter. As in, one Oakland hit. As in, if Alex Cora were a foot taller or had been playing a......

This year will be the first ever wine event at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A Spring Serata (serata is Italian for "evening" but sounds way fancier in Italian than English) will take place on June 7th at the ISGM. They're setting up tasting stations all over the museum for the grassy, floral, and mineral wines – don't ask us what that means, ask them: A Spring Serata also puts a unique, creative twist on......

According to Massachusetts is so blue that you can't tell if it's blue or black. We're not really sure what exactly that means. The Daily Show recapped the Republican debate and provided no fewer than three segments to dig into Mitt Romney. Perhaps it's a sign that the statesman from Massachusetts (and Utah, and Michigan, and…) is a front runner worthy of ridicule. But perhaps it's what we've known for a while: it's the little......

The word "douchebag" tends to be overexposed thanks to Jon Stewart's frequent use of it on the Daily Show. But two guys earned the title of "douchebags" when they interrupted Keith Lockhart and the Pops' opening night with a fight. A woman unleashed an amazing scream. A few seconds later came multiple screams and the disturbance as two guys started fighting, then it turned all trailer-park when one of the guys' shirts got ripped off.......

John Kerry and Theresa Heinz Kerry will read from This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future at Memorial Church in Harvard Yard Saturday, April 21, at 12:00 pm. Tickets are on sale starting today. They're $5, and you can use the ticket cost as a coupon for a purchase from Harvard Book Store. Plus, if you buy the book at Harvard Book Store, you get two free tickets to......

This one couldn't be contained in the blotter … WBZ had the headline screaming "Dominatrix Mom Arrested on Prostitution Charge." And get this - she's from Gallows Hill. Wife, mother of two, and dominatrix Paula Webb was arrested on Wednesday night. A while back, her own husband, who was mad at her after a fight, showed police what Webb had in her dungeon: "There, the patrolmen got an eyeful - the room was set up......

The Harvard Film Archive will screen The Pervert's Guide to Cinema at 7:00 pm tomorrow, Friday, April 6, and at 7:00 pm on Sunday, April 8. Admission is $8. Sometimes, we think he's just saying the first thing that pops in his head, but philosopher/psychoanalyst/theorist/film critic Slavoj Zizek is a joy to behold. The burly, bearded fellow roams around like a grizzly bear spewing this thoughts about this, that, and the other thing. Watching Zizek......

Ishmael Beah will read at the Brattle Theatre at 6:00 pm tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13. Tickets are $3. It's rare when you see Jon Stewart flummoxed. But author Ishmael Beah's life story almost left Stewart at a loss for words. He said the book "made his heart hurt." Just hearing about the book would "make your heart hurt." Ishmael Beah writes of his experiences fighting in Sierra Leone in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of......

We're digging through the week's music finding that the best deal of the week for jilted lovers comes from Upstairs on the Square. Local rocker Ad Frank plays a show for only $13 for singles, it's $14,000 for couples. Other than that and the iPod DJ Night at River Gods (you can't do all Al Green) we're ignoring the occurance of Wednesday. You'll probably be too busy for music as you're buying flowers, chocolates,......

This past September something innovative happened in Boston. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum launched a webcast. It wasn't just any webcast, it was a creative commons licensed release of concerts performed as part of the long standing museum concert series. It's allowed users world wide to take in a little classical music culture by downloading the file and playing it on their iPod, in the windows media center or whatever MP3 compatible device they choose.......

The Super Bowl is supposed to be a face-off between the two best football teams, but it's also a free-for-all among corporations as they scramble for your advertising dollars. This year seemed a touch uninspired, but a few ads were either funny enough or odd enough to stand out. Bostonist braved all the commercials and brings the best to you. We'd also like to hear your thoughts on the ads in the comments. Without further......

Tonight the State of the Union speech will be delivered in our nation's capital. While we're hitting the booze and playing the State of the Union drinking game, the media will talk about possible ramifications of the President's statements. But the focus has already started to shift from the current commander-in-chief to who's going to take over his job. The Democratic field of contenders is growing fast. Below you'll find Bostonist's guide to the field......

Jake Halpern will be reading at Brookline Booksmith at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, January 10. Why were many Americans fixated on the scandal swirling around Miss USA Tara Conner? Why do celebrities constantly complain about the pressure of fame yet keep coming back for more? And what is the long-term impact of society's focus on fame? Author Jake Halpern, whose new book Fame Junkies will be released on January 10, tries to answer all of......

Now that the new management sent WLVI's longtime news team packing and launched the "7News at 10pm on CW 56," was all the turmoil that Sunbeam Television Corporation caused worth it? Absolutely not. The "7News at 10pm on CW 56," a wordy title already, should be renamed the "New Coke Newscast." The New Coke Newscast might appeal to you if you like Entertainment Tonight, seizure-inducing flashing lights, and out-of-breath newscasters. But, for those of you......

Rachael Ray will be at the Barnes & Noble at Prudential Center for a book signing at noon tomorrow - Wednesday, December 20. Then she'll be at the Sur La Table in the Mall at Chestnut Hill on the same day from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. A Globe article named "Hatred of Rachael Ray Can Be a Powerful Uniting Force" became one of the most popular articles on globe.com (not as popular as "Flatulence......

Don't peace out just yet. There's a music agenda to complete before you're off for the holiday. After you've stuffed yourself full of all the mashed potatoes, yams, and turkey – oh, and the cranberry sauce, come right back. Tuesday 11/21 Francisco Mela Quintet Drummer Fancisco Mela recently played sold out shows at the Blue Note in NYC with heavy weights Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Mark Turner, and Paquito D'Rivera. Now you can catch......