Henry Vilas Zoo
Halloween at the Zoo
A busy string of autumn weekends continues with the Wisconsin Book Festival, Madison Food & Wine Show, grand opening of the new Chazen building, and Halloween at the Zoo. The calendar also includes: productions of Blackbird and Ghost of a Chance; performances by the Westminster Cathedral Choir, Terence Blanchard, the Pro Arte Quartet, and Jay Ungar & Molly Mason; and, more live music from Here Come the Mummies, IfIHadAHiFi, Rhett Miller, Peter Case, Obits, and Drive-By Truckers.
Friday 10.21
NOTEWORTHY: New York City's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens, 1959.
Through Oct. 23. See Madison Food & Wine Show
Alliant Center's Exhibition Hall, 5-9 pm. Also Saturday (noon-7 pm) & Sunday (noon-4 pm), Oct. 22 & 23
Madison Magazine hosts this gustatory extravaganza, which features exhibitors, tastings and the Dueling Chefs competition between local restaurant gurus.
Overture Hall, 7:30 pm
Based in British Catholicism's mother church, this ensemble, almost a century old, blend men's and boys' voices for a heavenly sound. They're accompanied on some selections by the Overture's mighty organ, and indeed the concert is presented as part of the Madison Symphony Orchestra's Concert Organ series.
827 E. Washington Ave., 8 pm. Also Thursday & Saturday, Oct. 20 & 22, 8 pm
The Bricks Theatre presents Scots playwright David Harrower's 2005 play about a young woman and a middle-aged man who meet 15 years after a sexual relationship, which occurred when she was 12. Blackbird won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.
Wisconsin Union Theater, 8 pm
The five-time Grammy winner takes the stage with his blazing trumpet for the Isthmus Jazz Series, performing hard-bop jazz in a fusion style inspired by several types of African music (see Music).
Bartell Theatre, 8 pm. Also Saturday, Oct. 22, 8 pm Queer-oriented theater company StageQ kicks off its season with the debut feature play by Carol Mullen, whose short works have been seen in StageQ's Queer Shorts series. This comedy is about a haunted bed-and-breakfast and the guests who get snowed in there.
Majestic Theatre, 9 pm
Composed of 13 Nashville musicians, this funky ensemble perform in full mummy attire to direct the focus toward the music and away from their identities as non-dead humans with record contracts. Celebrate their new release, Bed, Bath & Behind, with some inspired booty shaking or a leisure suit made of toilet paper. With Hypnopotamus.
UW Union South Sett, 9 pm
Drink in this Milwaukee group's deliciously surly noise-rock, then invite them out for pizza after the Sett's Saturday-night Obits show, which they're rumored to be attending. With Northless.
High Noon Saloon, 9:30 pm
When he's not touring or recording with the Old 97's, Miller flexes his songwriting muscles as a solo artist. The results have been strong, especially 2002's critically lauded The Instigator and 2009's self-titled release, which quietly grabbed a spot on the Billboard charts. With Alex Denzen.
Saturday 10.22
NOTEWORTHY: Jean-Paul Sartre awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, which he declines, 1964.
Chazen Museum of Art, noon-5 pm. Also Sunday, Oct. 23, noon-5 pm
After two and a half years of construction, the UW facility unveils its new building, an expansion that almost doubles the exhibition space. See Architecture, for critic Jennifer A. Smith's take, as well as a schedule of opening events. The museum is also opening three new exhibits: "Sean Scully Paintings and Watercolors," "Discerning Taste: Paintings from the Simona and Jerome A. Chazen Collection" and "The Leslie and Johanna Garfield Collection: A Passion for Prints."
UW Humanities Building's Mills Hall, 8 pm
The university's resident string foursome kick off a centennial season of new commissions with the premiere of contemporary American composer Walter Mays' String Quartet No. 2. They'll also play Bloch's Prelude, Barber's Quartet in B minor and Schubert's Quintet for Strings in C Major, with cellist Bonnie Hampton.
Kiki's House of Righteous Music, 9 pm
After stints in seminal 1970s power-pop bands like the Nerves and the Plimsouls, Case settled into a long, productive career playing eloquent, intimate folk-rock. If you ever saw the improbably good 1980s teen comedy Valley Girl, you've glimpsed Case. The Plimsouls were the movie's house band. With Dietrich Gosser.
UW Union South Sett, 10 pm
This Brooklyn, N.Y., trio melds garage punk and classic indie-rock sounds with dueling guitars and a whole lot of chutzpah. Nod to the Occupy Wall Street protesters or shake your fist at this year's 401k losses as the band performs selections from its new album, Moody, Standard & Poor. With Bottomless Pit.
Sunday 10.23
NOTEWORTHY: President Nixon agrees to turn over White House tapes to Judge John Sirica, 1973.
Vilas Zoo, 10 am-4 pm
Trick-or-treaters come in costume, making this the one day of the year when the animals will stare at the people.
High Noon Saloon, noon
You may know Landau as the singer and guitarist with local bluegrassers the Cork n' Bottle String Band. But he's also a children's entertainment force, with several albums' worth of material under his belt, including a brand-new one, feted today: Rocket to the Moon.
UW Humanities Building's Morphy Hall, 7:30 pm Best known for "Ashokan Farewell," the plaintive fiddle theme of the PBS miniseries The Civil War, this duo of roots musicians have plenty of other gems in their collection, including tunes from their latest album, Million to One.
Majestic Theatre, 8 pm
There was a lot of hand-wringing when Jason Isbell left the Truckers for a solo career, but the addition of vocalist Patterson Hood and pedal-steel whiz John Neff has breathed new life into the band, who'll showcase their soulful 2011 release, Go-Go Boots, and some fan favorites from their catalogue of alt-country classics and Southern-rock anthems. With Those Darlins.
