The Milwaukee Book Festival, which runs through Oct. 14, welcomes yet another author tonight: Junot Diaz, a Dominican American novelist whose latest book is The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, a wry story about an obese science-fiction nerd who must recognize his Star Trek-lionizing life in New Jersey with his Dominican Republic upbringing. Diaz reads from the book tonight at 7 p.m. in the UWM Union Ballroom.

Sacramento hard-rockers Telsa have been touring off and on since 1984, and after all these years, their hair is for the most part as long and unruly as it was in their heyday. Though it’s unlikely the band will repeat the success of their 1989 power-ballad “Love Song,” the group is set to release its seventh studio album this week, Forever More, and they’re giving it the full tour promotional push, stopping tonight at the Rave...

Even if he’d stopped recording after the 1970s, Peter Hammill would have been heralded as one of the most important figures in prog-rock for his work as the primary singer-songwriter in Van der Graaf Generator, the British ensemble whose ambitious, ever-shifting albums presaged most major trends in prog-rock, and later even hinted at early punk-rock. After Van der Graaf Generator’s 1978 break-up, though, Hammill went on to cement his reputation with literally dozens of solo albums, each with a different instrumental set-up—some were...

Alanis Morissette launched her rock career with Jagged Little Pill, one of the best selling debut albums of all time, so it’s no surprise that she’s had a difficult time topping that introduction. Subsequent albums have been released to ambivalence (and, increasingly, outright disinterest) from critics who are still more interested in learning who “You Oughta Know” was really about than hearing Morissette’s thoughts on spirituality. Morissette’s latest, however, returns the ever-burdened singer to the subject matter that made her a...

Keeping with Cirque du Soleil’s vision of cramming as many amazing acts of human agility onto a stage as can possibly fit at one time, Saltimbanco is the company’s oldest touring revue and a good overview of the company’s blend of ballet, juggling, acrobatics and general feats of strength. Though, like all of Cirque du Soleil’s early creations, there’s no tangible plot here, the show revolves around several reoccurring characters...

First Stage's adaptation of Lois Lowry's Gossamer begins with a waif-like girl engaged in a battle of wills with her unyielding mentor, her unquenchable curiosity gently butting against her elder's limited reserve of patience. It's an appropriate beginning for a play that is essentially all about the battle of wills between the spirited ingeniousness of youth and the wisdom of old age, the forces of light and darkness, and between a young...

Dogs take over Brady today as part of the 7th Annual Brady Street Pet Parade, a four-hour event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event features a costume contest, raffle prizes and an animal blessing at St. Rita’s Church, as well as the main attraction: a march down the popular shopping street at 1:30 p.m. Brady Street’s...

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of I Am My Own Wife, features more than 30 characters—a feat that is especially impressive since it only features one actor, Michael Gotch. He works overtime to tell the remarkable true story of German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a resilient individual who survived the brutality of World War II and the Third Reich. This difficult, one-man drama wraps up its run today with one last...

The Brewers continue to battle the Philadelphia Phillies today after successfully avoiding elimination at Miller Park yesterday. Winning today's game will send our hometown heroes back to Philadelphia on Tuesday for a final deciding game. The suspense begins at 12:07 p.m. at Miller Park.

Pigeonholed by his ties to iconic soft-rockers Fleetwood Mac, even though he contributed some of the group’s more nuanced and most celebrated songs, Lindsey Buckingham finally scored the critical reappraisal he so obviously longed for with his 2006 album Under The Skin, a stripped-down singer-songwriter disc that contained some of his best songs in a decade. Buckingham has walked with an extra pep in his...