This Week’s Boston Events: Cooking, Cocktails, and Concert Films

Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Cinema Jukebox series celebrates the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest concert films ever, Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads documentary “Stop Making Sense.” I’d rank it slightly below The Band’s all-star final concert “The Last Waltz” only because Martin Scorsese had to digitally remove a chunk of cocaine from Neil Young’s nostril in that movie. However, I’d rank David Byrne as the coolest guy alive during the ‘80s, slightly ahead of Lloyd Dobler. The Coolidge is giving out prizes for the best costume, so bring a lamp as your date and hit up Casual Male XL for a big suit. (7 p.m., $8-10, all ages)

Every fall, Harvard’s Science and Cooking series of free public lectures welcomes world-class chefs and food experts to talk about cutting-edge culinary techniques. Tonight’s class features former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses talking about why the president is sitting around eating pastries instead of DOING THE JOB THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECTED HIM TO DO. Just kidding. Yosses will team up with NASA project scientist Steve Howell to cover how cool it is to write all your recipes on the kitchen ceiling with an astronaut pen, in a lecture titled “gAstronomy.” Kidding again. It’s about space farts. (7 p.m., FREE, all ages)

Elvis Costello once said or more likely was misquoted as saying that “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.” But combining art forms is the whole point of Consenses: Festival of the Senses at Oberon, an interactive art experience featuring more than 140 artists from 23 countries stimulating all of our senses. For example: a musician interprets a photograph, a dancer interprets their song, a painter interprets the dance, a perfumer interprets the painting, a poet interprets the perfume, and — spoiler alert — the poet was dead the whole time and only Haley Joel Osment could see him. (6 p.m., $35, all ages)

The rum distilling industry is one of the many things Boston has been the capital of at one time or another, a list that somehow doesn’t include “the United States” (shut up, Philadelphia). Ipswich’s Privateer Rum harkens back to the glory days of the 18th century, and head distiller Maggie Campbell joins food and cocktail blogger Dr. Markeya Williams (“Traveling Foodie in 4” Stilettos”) at the Boston Center for the Arts for Art of the Cocktail: The Labor of Liquor, an intimate conversation about rum and how it relates to the BCA’s Mills Gallery exhibit “Labor in a Single Shot.” Talking about alcohol is like singing about food, but don’t worry — there’s a rum tasting, too. (6 p.m., $35-40, 21+)

Not only will Magnetic Fields frontman Stephen Merritt touch your soul with his signature brand of indie synth-pop, he’ll also wreck your shit in Words With Friends by dropping “QI” on a triple word score. Harvard Book Store and 826 Boston welcome Merritt to the Brattle Theatre to talk about his new book, “101 Two-Letter Words,” a celebration of the 101 two-letter words allowed in Scrabble. The ticket price includes a copy of the book, which features four-line rhyming poems and full-color illustrations for each of the words, from “aa” to “za.” (6 p.m., $22, all ages)

Google translate, and not my four years of high school French class, tells us that the name of Quebecois circus group Les 7 Doigts de la Main translates to “The 7 Fingers of the Hand.” It’s actually better than having six fingers, because with an odd number you can still give the middle finger to anyone who calls you a seven-fingered freakshow. You could also trace your hand and make a kick-ass Thanksgiving turkey drawing, which is unfortunately not the subject of the troupe’s show “Traces” that opens Wednesday at ArtsEmerson. The performance combines music, storytelling, and amazing acrobatic feats to consider the footprints we leave behind. (7 p.m., $25-79, all ages)

Date Night Boston and Art Week Boston team up for a DJ Mmmmixer at Central Square electronic music production school Mmmmaven, but you don’t need to bring a date to attend. Even if you do bring a date, after the event’s hands-on experience and instruction inspires your sweet DJ career, you’re probably going to want to break up and start dating someone way hotter. That’s the dream of every DJ. Mmmmaven transforms into a pop-up lounge with specialty cocktails, and participants can dance the rest of the night away down the street with discounted admission to Middlesex Lounge’s Make It New dance night. (7 p.m., $15, 21+)

Photo credit: Les 7 Doigts de la Main

_

This article was provided by our content partner, The Boston Calendar.