In Mozart's delightfully farcical opera Così fan tutte, everyone is culpable. The title—roughly, "They're all like that"—refers to the fickleness of Woman, the hypothetical Fiordiligi and Dorabella in particular (sung by Leah Sapko and Kristina Reagle in Thursday's performance) but their fiancés Ferrando and Guglielmo (David Vogel and Jonathan Nussman) likewise prove themselves to be utter cads in the course of their very complicated attempt to prove the sisters' fidelity. The Boston Conservatory production, set......

Juventas New Music Ensemble & OperaHub present Tramps, Emails & Hemlock Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway March 18, 19, and 22 at 8 p.m., $6-$24 (20% discount if purchased through the Juventas web site) J. Jacob Krause was demanding something unusual of some singers leaning over some unusual props: more salivation directed at the laptops, please. Bostonist had slipped into Seully Hall in the midst of a dress rehearsal, where OperaHub and Juventas......

Books Sarah Boxer bravely prowled through the blogosphere to share its treasures with us in Ultimate Blogs. Of course, Go Fug Yourself makes the list. Brattle Theatre (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm, $5. Edit: Event has been moved to Harvard Book Store --If you've been reading Bostonist for a while, you might know how we feel about the potential of wind power. A while ago, we read this barnburner of a book about......

The days are getting longer. The nights are getting shorter. Layers of clothing are slowly coming off and you're getting thirsty. Luckily local wine whiz Chris Campbell (left) has a few wine suggestions to slake your thirst. First, German Riesling. Campbell says when enjoyed in the spring and summer, this varietal becomes not only enjoyable, but thought provoking. "Try a dry, light, Kabinett style," he said. "Its low alcohol and high acidity has my attention,"......

Movies The MFA calls Les Saignantes "the first science fiction film to come out of Africa," which should be reason enough to see it. But did we mention that it has won comparisons to Russ Meyer? And that it's about a group of women determined to rid their distopian future world of all men? Cameroon director Jean-Pierre Bekolo wins Bostonist's seal of approval. Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 6:00pm (also screening Sunday). $8/$9......

--Hendry Street isn't the only place suffering from the home-foreclosure crisis. In fact, so many areas are suffering that real estate agents are taking possible buyers on bus tours of other people's property. As if someone losing a home doesn't have enough misery, now they have to have complete strangers tramping about on the front yard. [Boston Globe] --A group of mayors, including Mayor Menino, are banding together with labor union reps in support of......

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......

Chinese New Year Harvard Square is celebrating the Year of the Rat with a Lion Dance Parade. Perhaps even more meaningful for some Cambridge residents, the Hong Kong (yay scorpion bowl!) is holding an open house in honor of its 54th anniversary. But be aware that they are having a craft party, not a scorpion bowl party. 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, free. Art Instruction You've seen the MFA's British Prints show, and you......

Music Funny, they don't look bloodthirsty. Vampire Weekend's sound could be described as "My First Afro Pop." They merge indie sounds with world music, and the critics are falling in love. The Village Voice called them "goofy"--it was a compliment. MFA, Remis Auditorium, 8:00 pm, $15. Why do we post this since it looks like it is nearly impossible to get tickets? So you can share hot ticket tips in the comments. Keep an......

With over 20 million accounts, Second Life has become a pop culture phenomenon. An Internet-based virtual world, the metaverse in which we can be the person we've always wanted to be (without putting in the hard-work of exercise or educational training) have very few competitors. Currently, there is an exhibition going on in Boston called Mixed Realities - an exploration of real and synthetic places made possible by computers and networks. There's an exhibition......

The cold weather is no excuse for you not to get out! Human Dogsledding No kidding. The 8th annual National Human Dog Sled Competition will start today in Lowell. You can learn more about other Lowell Winterfest events, which sound like fun. However, for Bostonist, it is all about the human dogsledding--and teams usually wear costumes. Challenger rounds will be tonight at 6:45 and 10:00 pm, and championship rounds will be tomorrow at 3:30 and......

Music Cat Power will be at the Orpheum. Last time Bostonist saw her, she seemed a little plowed and, with her dark glasses, she resembled country singer Ronnie Milsap. Since then, she's been hanging out with Karl Lagerfeld. She's different every time, but the music is always memorable. 7:30 pm. It's cosmopolitan night at the MFA, and we aren't talking about drinks. The uber-sophisticated Keren Ann and Dean & Britta will perform. MFA, Remis Auditorium,......

Console yourselves, people. Go out tonight. Puppetry! The Bread and Puppet Theater launches a run of several projects at the Cyclorama, including The Divine Reality Comedy, the "family-friendly" The Divine Reality Comedy Circus, and a "cheap art" show. And, yes, there will be bread--rye brad with garlic aioli, to be precise. Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St., South End. Runs through February 10. Movies The Coolidge Corner Theater is celebrating the......

Women ended up on tables, a lot: in rapture, in protest, in flagrante delicto, and asleep. As the Cutler Majestic's red velvet curtain rose last night, we saw the heroine in a heap of wedding dress on a dining table, an image that echoed throughout the opera. Semele, the reluctant bride, is the best-developed character in the work, foolish, but sympathetic, but so petulant, even before she leaves the groom at the altar and runs......

Theater Theater lovers! A rare treat - Part I *and* Part II of Tony Kushner's seminal modern epic "Angels in America" is in town and it runs until Feb. 10. It's about the painful disintegration of two relationships against a backdrop of greed, conservatism, and the discovery of AIDS. Presented by Boston Theatre Works. Fringy Theater That Tastes Like Chicken! Who can resist a play about chickens that advises, "Beware! Contains fowl language"? Useless Theater......

Late-Breaking Event Johnny Pesky will be at the Barnes & Noble in Peabody tonight from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm signing books. Movies A Hong Kong drug-runner (Asia Argento) finds herself in trouble in Boarding Gate, Olivier Assayas' stylish thriller, which comes with side orders of sex and violence. Make that heaping side orders, plus a dash of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. (She acts? Who knew?) Assayas will be at the Harvard Film Archive......

Mayor Thomas Menino will deliver his State of the City address tonight at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. However, the spotlight won't be solely on him--the Firefighters' Union has declared they will protest the event. Firefighters have been working without a contract, and they are arguing with the mayor over whether or not to have random drug and alcohol testing. The dispute arose after two firefighters died in the Tai Ho restaurant fire, and toxicology......

Movies Strap yourselves in for the Brattle Theatre's very first Python-a-Thon. In honor of the arrival of Spamalot, they'll show And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (duh), and Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. Showtimes from the Brattle Theatre. Theater What happened when Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr met to discuss the atom bomb? Michael Frayn imagines it in Copenhagen. Loeb Drama Center.......

Already feeling the pressure of holiday family time? Leave the house. Run away. Tonight's events will help add some spice to your Santa. Music --Holiday stress? Family freaking out on you? Swap "Jingle Bells" for "Raw Power" with The Scrooges--a band that dresses in Santa suits and covers the Stooges. They'll be at Great Scott tonight at 9:00. 1222 Commonwealth Ave, Allston. Theater --The New Repertory Theater is showing David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries, which......

I Am Legend raked in the money, as expected. The public loves Will Smith, they love special effects, they love cute dogs, and I Am Legend gave audiences what they wanted. Peter Keough at the Phoenix went so far as to say that the dog in I Am Legend was his "favorite animal character of the year." As a result, the movie made an obscene $76.5 million on its opening weekend. Believe it or not,......

Jim McCue Book Launch Party Comedy Connection Faneuil Hall (T: Government Center) Sunday, December 16, 8:00 pm, $15 Free for veterans and military personnel Official Jim McCue Site AnySoldier.com The troops could use a lot from us right now, whether it be body armor or sunblock. But one local performer is using his specific talents to make the lives of the troops a little bit better. Comedian Jim McCue, who is also co-founder of the......

Brrrrlesque Saturday, December 15, midnight Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline (T: Coolidge Corner) $12.50 in advance, $20 at the door Official Boston Babydolls site In the press release we got, Boston Babydolls impresario Scratch declares, "People hate the cold, the rising gas prices, and - of course - the snow. But there's a lot that's beautiful about new England in the winter, and we wanted to remind people of some of those things."......

Here’s a novel idea: if a music scene wants to prove its relevancy through an award show, why doesn’t that scene put in some effort? Boston’s ties to regional, up-and-coming, and national talent were on clear display Saturday evening at the Orpheum Theatre, as the 2007 Boston Music Awards honored many a bold-faced musical name. Metal poster boys Killswitch Engage took home Act of the Year accolades, while critical darlings Lori McKenna and Martin Sexton......

There might have been a couple nosebleed seats in the balcony left at last night's very well attended Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black's Somerville Theater show, but, for those of you who missed it, you really missed a treat. As evidenced by various available YouTube clips, Black and Showalter are extremely funny on their own, but together they brought humor to an entirely new level. The two have been comedy collaborators for 20......

Ellipsis Mime presents Mime & Cheese - A Workshop Sunday November 11, 6:30 PM At the Watertown Arsenal Center for the Arts - Black box Theater. Free. ellipsismimetroupe@gmail.com www.ellipisismime.com Website forthcoming Bostonist sat down with Kevin Miller, one of the artistic directors behind Ellipsis, a Boston-based mime troupe that's hoping to knock the local theater scene on its ass. This Sunday Ellipsis will be hosting a workshop to preview some of their original material......

The 19th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival Now through November 11 At almost every theater in town Official site Sometimes film festivals aim to achieve a specific tone each year, or they provide selections that fit neatly into certain genres. This year's Boston Jewish Film Festival selections are unruly. They won't be boxed in. Even when it comes to their screenings, specific movies might be hard to find because they are popping up all over......

--Maggie's got a great Halloween costume idea. Yes, it involves monkeys and Boston, but it is so cool you must read it to believe it. Hint: "Rock me, Joe!" --Chris Klein, the HubTrotter, scored some sweet photos of the Red Sox players showing up at Fenway before Game 2. Papelbon's got a powerful head of hair. --H2oTown posts a photo of a leaf-peeping Barbie. We're not sure if she's on sale yet, but we hope......

Donnie Darko American Repertory Theatre Based on the screenplay by Richard Kelly Adapted and directed by Marcus Stern October 27 - November 18 Zero Arrow Theatre, Cambridge Ticket and performance information Bostonist has always wanted to speak with someone who actually saw Richard Kelly's 2001 drama "Donnie Darko" in a movie theater during its original run. Given the fact it was only shown on 58 screens nationwide during that brief October 2001 run, our odds......

"Traditional," "evolving," "models," and "criticism" are all words that might have turned most people off already, but bear with us here: today's 2.5-hour (longer than most movies!) panel discussion on the nature of film criticism at the Coolidge Corner Theater was actually at least as enlightening as annoying, if not more so. Moderators Cynthia Lucia and Richard Porton led panelists Phillip Lopate, Scott Foundas, Glenn Kenny, David Sterritt, Owen Gleiberman, and Ty Burr in......

Jimmy Tingle called Bostonist yesterday to console us about the closing of Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway in Davis Square. Tingle admitted in the conversation that the sheer work involved with running the theater was taking its toll, and he needed a break. He said, "I've done this, and I basically need to do something else." He stressed that his decision to close the Theater had nothing to do with the fact that the lease was......