WED 3/3: Med School, Horror, Classical, World

Although he wasn't born (or died) in Boston, today is Alexander Graham Bell's birthday. While I was walking to the MIT campus, I saw this plaque and was reminded that the first telephone call was made from Boston to Cambridge. Pretty cool...

It's also Robyn Hitchcock's birthday, and he's friggin' awesome!

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WED 3/3

6pm to 7:30pm
"Not So Elementary: The Doctor as Detective": Lecture
at Martin Conference Center, New Research Bldg, 77 Ave Louis Pasteur, Boston (Longwood Medical Area)
FREE

Harvard Medical School is beginning another round of lectures for the layperson. They describe it as the same faculty and lecture halls without the tuition, exams or any need of science knowledge.

If you enjoy TV doctor shows, tonight's program includes the discussion of real-life medical mysteries. Doctors will speak about the diagnosis process and how the patient can assist. You'll hear a comprehensive review of the topic, but there is reading materials on the website. There is a chance to ask questions, so be prepared.

Online registration for the 2010 Longwood Seminars is no longer available. If you would like to register for any of this year's seminars, please call (617) 432-3038.

They may not turn you away if you didn't register, but it wouldn't kill you to follow the rules... You can earn a "mini–med school" certificate of completion if you go to 3 classes, and public school teachers can earn "10 PDPs" by attending all four...

Three more lectures/discussions follow in the 7 weeks that cover: "Body Building: When Engineering Meets Medicine", "To Screen or Not to Screen: Telling Fact from Fiction in Health News", "A Visible Spectrum: Understanding Autism".

WED 3/3

7pm to 9pm
All Things Horror Presents:
"Pig Hunt" w/ "How My Dad Killed Dracula", "Attackazoids Deploy", "Gun Barista"
at Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville
$5 / 17+

The beginning of the month should now be a time where you think about horror movies. Not only is All Things Horror a good site to find out about horror, but they also curate a night of yet-to-be-released horror films in the Somerville Theatre screening room.

This is the third installment and -- based on the trailer -- "Pig Hunt" may be the best feature-length so far (trailer on YouTube). It’s a solid production with all the right elements: a mix of action & violence, humor, weirdness, and a few scantily-clad women. Add in a little bit of "Deliverance" and a little bit of "Jaws" except it's a killer pig! Les Claypool makes a cameo as well as providing the score, and I also noticed blues harp great Charlie Musselwhite in the cast.

This showcase can only get more popular, so check it out before everyone reads about it in the Phoenix or Weekly Dig. Buy a beer at the concession stand, and you're spending about the same as a movie ticket elsewhere...

As usual it looks like the shorts are heavier on laughs than shrieks, but I could be wrong...

WED 3/3

7:30pm
Muir String Quartet, "The Beethoven Cycle, Part 5"
at Tsai Performance Center, 685 Comm Ave, Boston (BU campus)
FREE

One of the most respected string quartets has participated in an annual residence at BU for more than 25 years, so you get longtime pros playing masterful material for free. There will be one more recital in the Beethoven cycle.

The program will likely be:

Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5
Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130

WED 3/3

9:30pm
Full Tang, The Rex Complex, Baby States
at Lizard Lounge/Cambridge Common, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge (between Harvard Sq & Porter Sq)
$8 / 21+

Among the bands I hear facets of roots, rock, world-beat, and jazz muddled together in different colors and flavors. Not exactly for everyone, but you'll hear some good atypical sounds.

What initially seemed pretty straightforward rootsy band with Irish influence when I first heard them, The Rex Complex have exploded the boundaries of their sound in the years since to include African sounds, skewed rock with shards of Tom Waits and Beck, and wild live performances.

It appears that among the many bands that each musician plays in, the Baby States have also played together in the larger chamber-folk ensemble Cuddle Magic. This group is geared towards approaching American folk from their own peculiar angle. I had a difficult time hearing any horns, and I usually think of Alec Spiegelman as a saxophonist.

When the Boston Afrobeat Society moved to New York, they changed their name to The Superpowers which seems to be inactive at this point. Some of the guys are together in a less funkier, jazzy world-rock thang as Full Tang.