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Calendar: Recommended Events | Submit an Event Friday, November 20

FILM OPENINGS
 
ANTICHRIST Lars von Trier lives to affront again. Chaos, indeed, reigns.

THE BLIND SIDE John Lee Hancock, director of The Rookie, scores with another sports drama, this time concerning a true football story.

THE MESSENGER Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play two members of the military's casualty notification team, which delivers bad news to soldiers' next of kin.

PLANET 51 In a switcheroo, animated aliens fear the human in their midst.

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE Much like the title character Precious, this rough-hewn movie overcomes the unlikely odds for its success.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON Edward and Bella are back for more thwarted young vampiric love.

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US This music documentary chronicles the history, ideology, and aesthetic of Norwegian black metal.

MUSIC recommended events
 
JULIAN & STEPHEN MARLEY
Aces Lounge, Friday, Nov 20
Two of Bob Marley’s sons join forces, with no dearth of material to draw from. Touring behind Awake, his album from earlier this year, the London-raised Julian sticks close to the rootsy, spiritual side of reggae. Stephen, whose most recent was 2007’s Mind Control, is more comfortable behind the scenes as a producer for his brothers’ various projects, but here his presence adds considerable heft to the Marley name. – Jay Trachtenberg
RUTHIE FOSTER
Antone's, Friday, Nov 20
Gospel brunch on a Friday night.
DIAS DE DESTRUCCION
Emo's, Friday, Nov 20
A two-night gathering of bands from Texas, Mexico, and beyond, Dias de Destruccion is sort of like a U.N. summit of Latino punk. Friday, San Antonio’s Piñata Protest throws accordion into the pit along with Mexico’s no-wavers XYX and pop-punkers Porkeria, plus studded riffs from Chicago’s Ultratumbados, L.A.’s Poliskitzo, and locals the Young. Saturday, Eighties-bred headliners the Brat return from east L.A., supported by Mexico’s noise excavators Ratas del Vaticano, locals Deskonocidos, and more. – Audra Schroeder
BOSQUE BROWN
The Ghost Room, Friday, Nov 20
Denton’s sweethearts go walking after midnight, with locals the Black and She Sir.
DJ SPOOKY
Hogg Auditorium, Friday, Nov 20
Antarctica is not the first place you think of when you hear DJ Spooky, the stage name of turntable wiz Paul Miller, but anything is fair game for this postmodern scientist of sound. “Music is nothing but patterns,” he states via e-mail. “So is ice. They’re both rhythms, that’s how it fits.”

His new multimedia presentation, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, comes alive Friday in the University of Texas’ Hogg Memorial Auditorium. “I went to Antarctica in 2007-2008, for four weeks, to do a series of acoustic portraits of ice,” he explains. “I wanted to get away from the global city and see what would happen to my creative process. I wrote a symphony while I was there and got a chance to really think about what it means to be at the edge of the human condition. It really changed my music, my art, and my ideas about what it means to live and breathe on planet Earth.”

The project includes the input of the Golden Hornet Project, “one of those hidden Austin treasures,” he enthuses. Having worked with the Graham Reynolds-helmed collective on Richard Linklater’s 2006 film A Scanner Darkly, he compliments the GHP as “an ensemble that connects the dots between art, music, and film. They can handle any style.”

The GHP is also all over Spooky’s ambitious new Thirsty Ear album, The Secret Song. Asked to explain an earlier description of the album as “history through the lens of the sample,” he wastes no time: “I can hear the sound of the flows of financial capital, of derivatives and dark markets in it. Everything is connected. That’s the lesson we’ve learned from the influenza virus of 1917-18, the Depression, or the way the slave trade affected the 16th-20th centuries. Economics is the hidden thread holding everything together. We’re always told how rich and progressive we are but it just seems like people have moved into a really bizarre world of fictions holding together modern post-industrial life. It could fall apart at any moment.” – Jay Trachtenberg
DANIEL JOHNSTON
St. David's Episcopal Church, Friday, Nov 20
Waller, Texas’ patron saint ponders monsters under Casper’s watchful eye.
GUY CLARK
Texas Union Theatre, Friday, Nov 20/Saturday, Nov 21
He’s only visiting for the weekend, but Guy Clark could play Austin every night, and it would never get old. The singer-songwriter’s latest, Somedays the Song Writes You (Dualtone), maintains a masterful touch, shedding light on the human condition with a crooked smile and glint in the eye. Get there early to experience the down-home wit and beauty of Nashville songstress Elizabeth Cook. – Jim Caligiuri

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ARTS recommended events
 
DUSK: IMPROVISED TWEEN EROTICA Gnap! Theatre Projects introduces its send-up of the ridiculously popular Twilight vampire series. Every Friday and Saturday night, the (eternally) youthful fangs 'n' angst soap opera plays out in full unscripted hilarity as you watch the brows furrow, the eyes beseech, the libidos flare, and yet, somehow, the various hymens remain as unbroken as the giant cross at the end of Hammer Studios' Dracula Has Risen From The Grave. Recommended. Through Nov. 21. Fri.-Sat., 8pm. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd, 474-7886. $10. www.gnaptheater.org (Comedy)
ESTHER'S FOLLIES The most popular troupe in town lampoons the political antics and celebrity shenanigans of the day with musical comedy and sketches that'll put you in stitches regardless of the state of national healthcare. (Stitches, we said, get it?) Also, the death-defying magic and illusions of the amazing Ray Anderson. Thrills! Chills! Ripped-from-the-headlines events turned into comedy gold! Reservations highly recommended. Thu., 8pm; Fri.-Sat., 8 & 10pm. $20 (discounts available Thursdays & Fridays for seniors, students, military). Additional $5 for special reserved seats. Esther's Pool, 525 E. Sixth, 320-0553. (Comedy)
SOUTH AUSTIN MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE: ALAN POGUE The amazing documentary photography of Alan Pogue, one of Austin's natural treasures himself, offers a vivid retrospective of Austin in the Seventies. Through Dec. 12. South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, 1516-B S. Lamar, 440-8318. (Visual Arts)

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COMMUNITY recommended events
 
GAME NIGHT AT Q Some Fridays, they stay in and play games; some nights they play volleyball at Pease. Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't. Fridays, 6pm. Q Center, 3408 West Ave, 420-8557. mp_austin@sbcglobal.net www.qboyz.org (The Gay Place)
THUNDERCLOUD SUBS TURKEY TROT This Thanksgiving tradition features a 5-mile run, 1-mile walk, and a Stepping Stone Kid's K. All race proceeds will benefit Caritas of Austin. More than 13,000 people are expected to participate. Thu., Nov. 26, 9:30am. Waterloo Park, 403 E. 15th, 479-8805. turkeytrot@austin.rr.com www.thundercloud.com (Sports)
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Women's Basketball Vs. North Texas: Fri., Nov. 20, 7pm. Erwin Center, 1701 Red River. $8-16. Football Vs. Kansas: Sat., Nov. 21, 7pm. Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, 2100 San Jacinto. www.texassports.com (Sports)

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