Friday / November 11

Enjoy music, art, and free food tonight at SMAC’s Smart Soundscapes, featuring Unled Tit, Modern Temper, the Passerines, and the Goddamn Shame in the Smart Museum lobby. The Alison Wendlandt Quartet, Voices in Your Head, Ariana Barr, and Christian Ohanian perform in the galleries. (6 to 9 p.m., free, 5550 South Greenwood Avenue)

The “India: Implementing Pluralism and Democracy” conference, which runs through Sunday, kicks off today at the Law School. Nobel laureate and Harvard professor Amartya Sen gives the keynote address at 5 p.m. in the Glen A. Lloyd Auditorium. See ccc.uchicago.edu/events/index.html for a full events schedule.

Prom dresses sometimes go the same route as wedding dresses: worn once, then stowed away in a closet forever. Girls, if you brought your prom dress to college, it can live again tonight at COUP’s Fall Formal, an excuse to dress up and dance. Soft drinks and hors d’oeuvres are provided. (8 p.m., $25/single, $35/couple at the door, Navy Pier’s Crystal Gardens)

Check out Baroque’s wild side at “Baroque Untamed” in Mandel Hall tonight. Andrew Manze leads a 22-person early music ensemble in a program featuring works by Pachelbel, Purcell, Biber, and Bach. (8 p.m., $11 students/$30 adults, 5706 South University Avenue)

Flickerstick plays at Double Door tonight with Buddy Nuisance, Red Wanting Blue, and Freshwater Collins. (9 p.m., $14, 1572 North Milwaukee Avenue)

Saturday / November 12

Head over to Henry Crown Field House for Hoops for Help, a charity basketball event. All proceeds go to Saving Our Selves After Katrina. (1 to 6 p.m., 5550 South University Avenue)

Sunday / November 13

Gladiator fights (with foam weapons), live bands, theater performances, singing, food from local restaurants, a raffle, and an ambrosia eating contest are all part of Saturnalia 2005, put on by the Classical Entertainment Society. (1 p.m., free, main quads)

The Millar Brass ensemble and organist Thomas Weisflog perform music for brass and organ at Sonic Spectacular VI in Rockefeller. (2 p.m., $15 general/$8 students and seniors, 5850 South Woodlawn Avenue)

For a change of pace, check out Machete Monks, playing with Lil’ Isaac and the Dirty Stank and Screaming Bloody Murder at Subterranean. (9 p.m., $5, 2011 West North Avenue)

Reeling 2005: The 24th Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival closes tonight with the screen adaptation of Eric Orner’s popular comic, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green. A Closing Night party follows, with special guest David Monahan, who plays Leo in the film. (8:30 p.m., $25, 1104 South Wabash Avenue)

Monday / November 14

Fake out! In a surprise move, Reeling added an extra day to the festival with just one more special screening: Imagine Me & You, starring Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) as a bride-to-be who falls in love with the woman (Lena Headey) who’s arranging flowers for her wedding.

Winter quarter pre-registration opens today! Time to get cozy with timeschedules. uchicago.edu, if you haven’t already (winter time schedules went up last week, as obsessive people who write and rewrite their schedules instead of doing work for their current classes know).

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author Doris Kearnes Goodwin came under fire a few years back when she was accused of plagiarism. Tonight she’s signing copies of her latest book, Teams of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, at Borders Books & Music. (7 p.m., free, 830 North Michigan Avenue)

Line up early to catch the sneak preview of Just Friends at Doc tonight. (9:30 p.m., free, 1212 East 59th Street)

Want to help interfaith organization Night Ministry provide health services, food, condoms, and counseling to people in need? Come to Hillel tonight for a one-hour Night Ministry training session. (7 p.m., free, 5715 Woodlawn Avenue)

The Narrator, Hanalei, Metal Hearts, and Maps & Atlases play a free show at Empty Bottle tonight. (9 p.m., free, 1035 North Western Avenue)

Tuesday / November 15

For those 21 and over, Chicago Green Drinks: Art and Sustainability is happening tonight at Extra Virgin—a chance to gather and talk about environmental issues. (5:30 to 9 p.m., $4 donations/$2 for students, 741 West Randolph Street)

Come to Swift’s third-floor lecture hall for “Genocide in Our Time: The Ongoing Crisis in Darfur”—a panel discussion with speakers from Africa Action, Physicians for Human Rights, and Rhode Island College’s Sudan Studies Association—to learn more about the current situation in Darfur. (6 to 7:30 p.m., free, 1025 East 58th Street)

Wednesday / November 16

Gambling in a church, oh my. Come to University Church tonight to try your luck at the third annual Poker for Charity, a no-limit Texas hold ’em tournament benefiting the New Venture Cooperative. The top three finishers get Amazon.com gift certificates. (7 p.m., $10, 5656 South University Avenue)

A green-skinned Martian and part-Klingon girl are just two of the characters who come out in Adventures in Diversity, a spin-off of the diversity video shown during orientation. Presented by Basement Authentic Productions in association with Fire Escape and Doc Films. (6 p.m., $2 or free with purchase of $7 DVD, 1212 East 59th Street)

Give blood today and tomorrow in the Red Cross Club and Lambda’s blood drive at Ida Noyes. You get a free T-shirt and snacks and drinks. E-mail uofcblooddrive@gmail.com to set up an appointment. (11 a.m. to 6 p.m., free, 1212 East 59th Street)

Thursday / November 17

Yet another event at Doc (this one veiled in mystery) is on the docket tonight, co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Presidential Fellows in the Arts Series. Join Focus Features’s president, James Schamus, for a discussion and advance screening of a surprise film he’s bringing in tow. ($15 or $5 with UCID, 7 p.m., 1212 East 59th Street)