Talib Kweli visits the Berklee Performance Center.
All that late summer heat has finally left us, but don’t get too down. There’s still plenty of things to bring a smile to your face this weekend. And in case you really need help chasing those doldrums away, we’ve included one Monday event with a celebrity to cheer you up.
TALKS
The Business of Hip-Hop/Urban Music Symposium
Monday, 7 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center
136 Mass. Ave., Boston
$12, 617-747-2261
www.berklee.edu/bpc
Several executives in the hip-hop world will appear for Berklee College of Music’s eighth annual panel discussion on the state of “the game.” The symposium also includes some musical performances and an interview with the great Talib Kweli. It should be informative not just for those involved in the genre but for anyone interested in the contemporary music business.
COMEDY
‘Awkward Sex… and the City’
Friday, 10:15 p.m.
Laugh Boston
425 Summer St., Boston
$20-$25, 617-725-2844
www.laughboston.com
Is awkward sex better than no sex? Philosophers have debated the question for centuries to no avail. We won’t hazard a guess, but the five New York-based female comics at this show have at least gotten funny stories out of their own awkward sexual encounters, and they’re either confident enough or shameless enough to share them for your cringe-inducing amusement.
MOVIES
‘The Mysterious Island’
Friday, 8 p.m.
Somerville Theater
55 Davis Sq., Somerville
$8, 617-625-5700
www.channelzero.blogspot.com
Channel Zero, local purveyors of cinematic obscurity, return to the Somerville Theater with “The Mysterious Island”, a semi-silent 1929 oceanic sci-fi adventure based very loosely on Jules Verne’s eponymous novel. There is a visit to the lost city of Atlantis, lots of awesome-looking art deco diving costumes, and many other weird delights here.
THEATER
‘J.A.S.O.N.’
Saturday through Oct. 26
Cantab Lounge
738 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$20, 617-435-5056
Jason-tickets.eventbrite.com
A brand new local theater troupe called the Office of War Information presents this rock opera, which re-imagines the mythical Greek hero Jason as notorious punk rocker on the tour his band ever did. It seems like perfect material for the Cantab Lounge’s downstairs, a venue better known for its poetry slams and we’ll-book-anybody rock shows than theater.
ART
Ametsuchi: An Installation and Video by Rinko Kawauchi
Saturday through Oct. 30
Lesley University Main Gallery
700 Beacon St., Boston
Free, 617-585-6600
www.lesley.edu
“Ametsuchi” translates from Japanese to something like “song of the Universe,” and Rinko Kawauchi definitely seems concerned with the Universe and our (small) place in it in this show, providing images of distant stars, landscapes with tiny human figures and Buddhist rituals. Cycles of time are evoked with photos of controlled-burned farming—destruction making way for new creation.
