Friday, October 22

That bitch who stole Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins’s heart away is singing at Park West tonight. Her name is Vanessa Carlton (7:30 p.m., $16.50).

Catch the improv comedy troupe Neo-Futurists with a limited-engagement return of 43 Plays for 43 Presidents—if you like it, go again on Saturday night. Their mini-biographies of the presidents should give you a quick dose of American history on speed. (8 p.m., $10, Neo-Futurariam at 5153 North Ashland)

Off-Off Campus, the campus improvisation group that annoyed the hell out of us at the RSO fair with something about a banana, begins its Fall Revue, The House that Crack Built. Let’s let bygones be bygones. (9 p.m., $4, University Church)

Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim chronicles Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the Iraq war in Control Room, a documentary on “Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece.” Prepare to ponder the meaning of truth. (7, 9, 11 p.m., $4, Max Palevsky Cinema)

Saturday, October 23

University Hospitals Comer Kids’ Classic 5K, winding through the campus and Hyde Park, will benefit the new University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, scheduled to open this winter. (10 a.m., $20 to pre-register, $25 on race day, $10 for the kids’ dash, starting at 58th and University; call 834-0180 to register)

25th Annual Humanities Open House, themed “Myth, Truth, & Lies” features a day of lectures by distinguished professors on dozens of humanities topics. The keynote address, given by Wendy Doniger at 11 a.m. in Mandel Hall, is on “Magic Rings in Mythic Narratives.” (9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., free, register at http://humanities.uchicago.edu/openhouse/main.html)

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 appears to present us with some killing, a guy named Bill, and a little more thinking than Vol. 1. (6:15 p.m., 9 p.m., 11:45 p.m., $4, Max Palevsky Cinema)

New York punk band The Cramps play the Vic Theatre. (9 p.m., $22, 18+)

Something else we like from Boston—Mission of Burma—will be at the Metro. Chicago’s Eleventh Day Dream is opening for them. (9 p.m., $22.50)

Sunday, October 24

We all think the movies we make with iMovie are fine works of art, but John Cameron Mitchell hasn’t lauded them with critical acclaim yet, has he? Well, he was such a big fan of Jonathan Caouette’s footage from his childhood life with a schizophrenic mother, that he signed on to executive produce this experimental documentary Tarnation. (1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30, $8.50, Music Box Theater)

Have your Cake and eat it too; they’re at the Riviera. (7:30 p.m., $26.50)

So far I’ve listened to two episodes of Schadenfreude on WBEZ 88.5, and so far it’s been hit-or-miss. Hit: Ira Glass sitting in a diner and narrating his own life (“Act VI: I receive my pie from the waitress.”) Miss: Bootsy Collins falling into an exploding volcano, thereby turning it into a funkcano and saving the world. Hit: The poster of Stephen Hawking lying on the hood of a red Corvette that hangs on a fictional U of C professor’s office. Whatever Schadenfreude does, they stretch the radio show to the limits of the medium. (8:30 p.m., WBEZ 88.5 FM)

Monday, October 25

Think bald guys make good musicians? Check out R.E.M. with resident baldy Michael Stipe; they’re playing at the Auditorium Theatre and will grace the same stage on Tuesday night as well. (7:30 p.m., $48-73)

Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie, starring Brian Dennehy, opens tonight at the Goodman Theatre. (7:30 p.m., $20)

Tuesday, October 26

Check out a whole different kind of goat at Schuba’s tonight. As part of the ongoing series GOAt (Globally Occupying the Attention of Chicago’s Untapped Audience) put on by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, grab a pint and partake in a discussion featuring Jan Schakowsky, Illinois Representative for the U.S. House of Representatives, and Chris Robling, Principal of Jaybe Thompson & Associates. The discussion this evening revolves around the question, “I Should Vote Because…?”. (6:30 p.m., $10, 21+)

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau joins the Contemporary Chamber Players (eighth blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet) for the opening of Contempo’s 40th season. (7:30 p.m., $35 in advance and $40 at the door, Chicago Historical Society’s Rubloff Auditorium)

There comes a time in every young person’s life when he or she must learn what a gagaku trio is. The Renaissance Society is co-sponsoring the performance of Gene Coleman’s YAGO with French saxophone quartet XASAX, a gagaku trio, and electronic musicians Toshimaru Nakamura and Zauhisha Uchihashi. (8 p.m., Rockefeller Chapel)

Scottish pop band The Delgados is playing at the Double Door. (9 p.m., $13, 21+)

Wednesday, October 27

Join everyone’s favorite Neanderthal (Johnny Damon) and his ragamuffin buddies (the rest of the Red Sox) when you watch Game 4 of the World Series on Fox. (7 p.m., free!)

Overdose on adorable at Mummies Night! in the Oriental Institute. Hyde Park children are invited to make Egyptian-style art and dress up as King Tut, but older kids can join in on an Egyptian parade and listen to ancient ghost stories with Judith Heineman. And, of course, there’s candy. (6 p.m., free, Oriental Institute)

Fire Escape Films will show us Spilt Milk, Excerpts from Thax, and Lines in the Sand, three student-made films. (9:45 p.m., free, Max Palevsky Cinema)

Thursday, October 28

Tenor Matthew Hayden and pianist Yasuko Oura go at Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Finzi. (12:15 p.m., free, Fulton Recital Hall)

Poet Ben Doyle reads from his work in the Emerging Writers Series sponsored by the Creative Writing Program. (7 p.m., free, Classics 10)

Deerhoof bring their chaotic indie rock to the Open End Gallery. (10 p.m., $12)