Monday 6.30
Jana Kohn & Baby
Barnes & Noble West, 7 pm
Kohn discusses her book A Rare Breed of Love, about her three-legged poodle Baby. Baby suffered abuse at a puppy mill but has since become a poster dog for the Humane Society's anti-puppy-mill campaign.
Dysrhythmia
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
This Philadelphia-based instrumental trio plays its modern prog and punky jazz-metal with such precision that you could swear members of King Crimson guested on some of its recorded material. But they didn't. Czarbles and Guzzlemug open.
Tuesday 7.1
David Maraniss
Barnes & Noble West, 7 pm
The Pulitzer Prize winner (and part-time Madisonian) follows Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered with another epic sports book. He'll discuss Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, which delves into civil rights, women's rights, the Cold War, doping and other major forces at work in those fateful games.
Wednesday 7.2
Monona Community Festival
Winnequah Park, 3-11 pm; through July 4
It's the usual community festival, with a carnival, art fair, etc. But Monona distinguishes itself with a Wife Carry race, in which one partner hauls the other around a track. The winning team receives the wife's weight in beer, along with the respect of his fellow Mononans.
Concerts on the Square
Capitol Square, 7 pm
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra continues its free outdoors pops concerts with a Fourth of July-themed "Salute to America." The program includes "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Tchaikovksy's booming "1812 Overture," which might just knock Jim Doyle off his hammock over at the Governor's Mansion.
Will Durst
Escape Java Joint, 7 pm
The political satirist sets off a few fireworks of his own pre-Independence Day with a monologue based on his new book, The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing.
Thursday 7.3
Austin Smith
Avol's Bookstore, 7 pm
Avol's First Thursday Open Mike Poetry Reading features Smith, author of the Parallel Press book In the Silence of the Migrated Birds.
12 Stones
Annex, 8 pm
Singer Paul McCoy's work on the Evanescence hit "Bring Me to Life" proved that there was plenty of room for him in Christian-leaning hard rock. With his own act, he yearns his way through radio-ready power ballads and Creed-style rock material. Mute Grey and Fragile Utopia open.
Dead Confederate
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
At both South by Southwest and the recent Bonnaroo Festival, the passionate Georgians made a lot of folks notice their simmering alt-rock. Rock Plaza Central opens.
