Autumn formalizes its arrival as the new Madison arts season settles in this week. The calendar includes: a Betty Wells exhibit at Promega Gallery; book readings and talks by Bill Lueders, Jerry Apps, Lynne Driebel with Pat Dillon, and Janine Geske with Scot Straus; live music by Built to Spill, Matt & Kim with The So So Glos, Toadies, Michael Fitzpatrick, and +/-; and, the opening of Wicked at Overture.
Monday 9.20
NOTEWORTHY: Billie Jean King crushes chauvinist tennis has-been Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 at Houston Astrodome, 1973.
BIRTHDAYS: Oscar-winning actress Sophia Loren, 1934; Green Bay Packers running back/Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Taylor, 1935.
Tuesday 9.21
BIRTHDAYS: Comedian/actor Bill Murray, 1950; actress/curbed enthusiast Cheryl Hines, 1965.
Betty Wells: Thirty Years of D.C. Courtroom Art
Promega Gallery, through Dec. 1
Mostly we see courtroom sketches only fleetingly, during the nightly news. Here's your chance to linger over them. Wells has been a Washington, D.C., courtroom artist for 30 years, and she covered trials including those of Daniel Noriega and Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad. Today's reception is from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Harmony Bar, 5:30 pm
Isthmus' news editor and tireless reporter celebrates the release of his book Watchdog: 25 Years of Muckraking and Rabblerousing. There's music by singing satirist Peter Leidy. (See article.)
Barnes & Noble West, 7 pm
Apps, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of continuing and vocational education, discusses his new novel, Cranberry Red, about dilemmas posed by a crop-enhancing chemical. The book is the latest in Apps' Ames County series.
Middleton Library, 7 pm
The authors promote their Green Travel Guide to Southern Wisconsin, about planet-friendly tourism activities: visiting farms, cycling, foraging, those sorts of things.
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 7 pm
In this Academy Evenings event, Geske, a law professor at Marquette University, and Straus, a UW political scientist, discuss "Talking Resolution: A Conversation on Violence, Restorative Justice and Human Rights."
High Noon Saloon, 8:30 pm
The Idaho-based indie-rock icons are proof that you don't need to live on a coast to shape the history of music. Come to the show to celebrate awesome albums like 1994's There's Nothing Wrong with Love and 1999's Keep It Like a Secret, which helped inspire other luminaries like Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie. With Revolt Revolt.
Majestic Theatre, 8:30 pm
Dance-punk spazzcats Matt & Kim return to the Majestic for another night of crowd surfing and singalongs, while openers the So So Glos will prove why they're hometown heroes in Brooklyn, N.Y., with their explosive blend of punk, reggae and chutzpah. Learn more about their raucous rock in this week's Tour Stop.
Wednesday 9.22
NOTEWORTHY: Bob Dylan makes his Carnegie Hall debut, 1962.
BIRTHDAYS: Rock singer-songwriter-guitarist Joan Jett, 1958; actress Bonnie Hunt, 1961.
Overture Hall, 7:30 pm. Also Thursday, Sept. 23, 2 & 7:30 pm; through Oct. 10
The acclaimed, long-running, Wizard of Oz-inspired Broadway musical settles in for an 18-day run. The show turns L. Frank Baum's story on its head by focusing on the witches.
Annex, 8:30 pm
The Fort Worth quartet shaped many folks' memories of the grunge era with their twisted love anthem "Possum Kingdom," which rarely stopped playing on radio stations during the mid-'90s. Travel back to that musical era at this show by getting to know Feeler, the 1997 album that was shelved until this year, when the band rerecorded it and released it to the masses. With Gringo Star.
Thursday 9.23
FULL MOON
AUTUMNAL EQUINOX
BIRTHDAYS: Rocker Bruce Springsteen, 1949; singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, 1970.
Goodman Community Center, 7 pm
The virtuoso cellist, composer and filmmaker performs original music in this benefit for the community center. He'll preview Compassion Rising, the film he made at the invitation of the Dalai Lama.
Frequency, 9 pm
What began as a side project of the band Versus has grown into a focused trio that's mastered the fusion of electronics, live instruments and layered soundscapes. The resulting sound is like a storm, with guitar, bass, keyboards and an occasional clarinet forming a rumbling cloud from which samples bolt and drums crash. With Pushmi Pullyu and Meridene.
