MODERN STRING QUARTET: The Brooklyn-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider will be playing at Town Hall tonight. Originally forming after playing in Yo Yo Ma's traveling ensemble, The Silk Road Project, "Brooklyn Rider was born out of a desire to use the rich medium of the string quartet as a vehicle for borderless communication." The quartet is said to have a "wildly" eclectic voice along with an incredible ability in taking the 300-year-old form of the string quartet and making it contemporary enough to be vital, relevant, and interesting in the 21st century. Tonight they will feature classics from Debussy, Phillip Glass, Giovanni Sollima, and more. more ›

Seattlest likes Nick Hornby, we really do. We like his witty, casual style of writing, we like that he's big enough of a music geek to write essays on specific songs, and we certainly like his McSweeney's connection. Most of all, though, we enjoy the movies made from his books. High Fidelity ranks among our favorites, due to its eminently quotable dialogue, great soundtrack, smart use of lists, and John Cusack's lovesick moping coupled with Jack Black's voracious scene-stealing. In fact, this is one of the rare cases where the film is better than the book, with a seamless setting shift from London to Chicago (especially endearing to Seattlest). About a Boy is another good one, in which the Weitzes first displayed a light touch and emotional maturity, and frankly, it's the only Hugh Grant performance we can stomach. As to Fever Pitch...well, we purposely avoided the recent Farrelly Brothers/Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore crime against humanity---which ended up being a box office disappointment anyways---but we hear that the original version of the film, about football and starring Colin Firth, was more than decent. more ›