33rd Annual Sci-Fi Film Festival Sunday, February 17, noon, until Monday, February 18, noon Somerville Theatre $55 in advance / $65 day of show More info on the festival The annual Sci-Fi Film Festival will kick off this weekend. Each year has a new theme, and the theme this time around is "The Future is Passe," in which "the future had been predicted, but that time has past." Bostonist asked Garen Daly, organizer of the......

Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939 Torf Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts January 30—June 1, 2008 In the collection of prints going on display tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts, humans are chiefly represented in clumps: anonymous crowds, armies, bocce players, orchestras, audiences, stick-figure Ballets Russes, eight men with oars forming a human motor, blurred passengers whirling around an ominous proto-Seussian merry-go-round—Oh, the places you (plural) will go. The exhibit highlights artists......

Human Rights International Film Festival at the MFA The Axe in the Attic: Review follows. Sunday, January 20, 2 pm Friday, January 25, 5:45 pm Saturday, January 26, 12:45 pm Thursday, January 31, 6 pm Hot House: A probing documentary that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. Screens Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:30 am. White Light/Black Rain: A film exploring the threat of nuclear weapons today while looking at mistakes......

If you thought yesterday's snowstorm was rough, try thinking about the wave of molasses that poured through the North End on January 15, 1919. The molasses flood happened when a shoddily built tank burst at the seams, sending waves of molasses through the North End, knocking down homes and crushing people. The tank held molasses that would later be distilled into industrial alcohol for use in World War I. Twenty-one people died, and many people......

The Heartbeat Detector France, 2007, 144 minutes, French/subtitled Boston Jewish Film Festival Saturday, November 10, 7:00 pm, ICA, $10 Official site for the BJFF Bostonist only started to plumb the depths of the offerings at the Boston Jewish Film Festival with last week's list of highlights. Another movie, The Heartbeat Detector, has also intrigued us, and it will make its New England debut tomorrow night. Also known as "La Question Humaine," this movie follows a......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's attempt to bring you the best readings in the area, all tied up with a shiny bow. Diane Ackerman, Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store. More info. In The Zookeeper's Wife, fiction writer, nonfiction writer, and poet Ackerman returns with the true story of zookeepers in Poland during World War II who hid Jews from the Nazis. The LA Times calls the novel "a shining book beyond category." Jonathan......

No one has a more distinctive documentary style than Ken Burns. You know you're watching Burns when the screen goes sepia, when you hear period music, when you see long, slow pans of the camera over still photographs, and when you listen to famous actors squeeze every last emotion out of old letters. Burns, who already covered the Civil War, is back with "The War," a 14-hour documentary on how World War II affected the......

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.......

-- Who would have thought the Red Sox would be happy to leave Fenway? And after a series with Toronto, no less? The orange of Camden Yards will seem heavenly after a groaner of a loss at Fenway Park on Tuesday night. The Jays knocked around the Sox, 10-3, in front of the largest crowd at Fenway since World War II. Ouch. As the Globe's Nick Cardafo summed up post-game, it was awful. True, the......

Stephen Puleo will be reading from Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 pm. He'll be in the English lounge of Wheatley Hall on the U-Mass-Boston campus. Forget what you know about molasses - molasses is fast, as North End residents discovered on January 15, 1919. The story isn't told as often as it should be - a tank full of 2.3 million gallons of molasses fell and burst......

Saturday was the third anniversary of the war in Iraq and was marked, as you might expect, by marches and vigils in the more liberal corners of our liberal Commonwealth. Today, the Globe reports that "a small but crucial number" of Guantanamo detainees - many of whom have been there since before the Iraq war began, make up a "hard-core group of firebrands" who have "called down the wrath of God on U.S. officials." And......

With parents hailing from the Midwest, little Bostonist was not exposed to locally-created Fluffernutter sandwiches until Kindergarten when a lunch mate pulled out what appeared to be some strange variation of PB & J. Turns out it was Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter on Wonder Bread. (This was the 80s, so nutritional value for kids was lacking a bit back then.) We've been hooked on this sandwich ever since, so when we heard that the......

Sonny's Barber Shop 282 Main St., Medford (near Frederick Ave.) In Bostonist's continuing search for masters of lowbrow coiffure, a diamond has been found in Medford. Sonny's Barber Shop is located on Main Street in Medford, just 2 blocks from Bob's Food's, which is a great place to get a sangy after a fresh cut. Even there are two barbers' chairs there for some reason, Sonny's is a one-man show. Sonny has been cutting hair......

When Bostonist read in today's Globe that area armed forces recruiters have been having more and more trouble getting the youngsters to sign up, we first assumed it might be because the reporting of the war in Iraq and the accompanying imagery are so much more graphic and immediate than they were in past generations. Some of the kids interviewed suggested that today's high schoolers are simply more selfish than their parents were at their......

War! The Charles River, which is typically invaded by tourists in Duckboats, will have an unexpected rival this week. The question: Is there enough room in our dirty water for Ducks AND Dragons? Now before you think the Bostonist has completely flipped our lid, check out The Boston Dragon Boat Festival coming to town this Sunday, June 12. Bostonist didn't believe it at first, but the prospect of giant metal World War II duck boats......