Last Days of Disco
Friday
* Roll a j (wait, don't -- it is illegal) and get your jam on with Basshound. $10, 9 p.m. [ 930 ]
* Like ska? Funk? How about rumba? Get your fix tonight with Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band, a 14-member ensemble that mixes all three with African influences. $10, 9 p.m. [ Black Cat ]
* The idea of voting for the "person you'd most like to have a beer with" is apparently not a new phenomenon. Drew Westen, a neuroscientist, psychology professor, AND commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered" (get over it, he's smarter than you are) will discuss the emotional responses that have determined our leaders. [ Politics and Prose ]
Saturday
* 2 great events at Busboys and Poets--and they're happening back-to-back so you don't even have to leave your chair. At 4, Fatemeh Keshavarz and her bookJasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehrandispute the popular perception that Iran is a culture without joy and hope, probably because they don't live in the West, they're jealous, etc. etc. At 6, Al-Jazeera correspondent Josh Rushing will discuss his bookMission Al-Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the Worldand dispel myths that Americans have about Arab culture. [ Busboys and Poets ]
* Pull out the bell-bottoms and the cocaine -- it's time for some disco fever, thanks to Disco City, the free dance party that begins at 9: 30 p.m. [ The Rock and Roll Hotel ]
* Enjoy the spectacle of 25 people in robes looking kind of like new age apostles singing about the sun -- also known as the Polyphonic Spree. $25, doors at 7 p.m. [ 930 ]
Sunday
* See "The Singing Earth", a film about Slovak peasants that earned the best international film award at the 1934 Venice Film Festival. Free, 4 p.m. [ National Gallery of Art ]
* Who doesn't love free concerts, especially when they're a) on the Mall and b) guaranteed to get your booty shaking? La Sensual, Los Hermanos Lobos and Los Tecuanis will perform on the Mall tonight for the Latino Virginia Concert. Show starts at 6 p.m. [ City Guide ]