Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational Harvard Book Store Monday, February 25, 7:00pm Free Ariely's Official Site Dan Ariely is a MIT economist with big ideas. He has spent his 20 year academic career questioning the assumptions that make classical economics work. Classical economists believe that given the choice, most people behave rationally. That is, most people make decisions that give them pleasure and make their lives easier. But of course we don't actually behave that way.......

Samantha Hunt Harvard Book Store Tomorrow, January 21, 7:00 pm Free Hunt's Official Site Samantha Hunt's latest novel, The Invention of Everything Else, weaves together the true-life story of inventor Nikola Tesla's last days with the fictional story of a chambermaid working at the Hotel New Yorker, where Tesla resides. Tesla's own real life is so absorbing that it might have been a novel. He had an idealistic vision of inventors that made it impossible......

Santa Speedo Run Saturday, December 15, 1:00 pm Lir, 903 Boylston, Boston Run goes down Boylston to Berkeley and back up Newbury Official Site For some reason, people are compelled to prove their strength by taking off their clothes in winter and running around, displaying their pasty, quivering flash to one and all. (Tufts, we're talking to you.) But the people participating in the 8th annual Santa Speedo Run are stripping down to their skivvies......

Benefits for Jeanne Sheehy December 6--Tonight!: B.O.D., Willie T & Dr. X, Doug McDonald Band, Roger Fisk, Country Doctors, Wide Iris, The Delusions, The Outlets. Show starts at 8:45 pm. December 21: Jonny Pape, Auto Interiors, Joyce & Chick of Scarce, Downbeat 5, AdFrank, The Pills, The Shods. Show starts at 9:05 pm. December 28: Jules Verdone, The Douglas Fir, Baker, Francine, The Gravel Pit. Show starts at 9:10 pm. December 29: Keys to the......

826 Boston Housewarming Party Saturday, December 1, 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm Free 3035 Washington Street, Roxbury (T: 10-minute walk from Jackson Square or Stony Brook) Official Site 826 Boston, the center for writing that recently opened in Egleston Square, knows how to have a good time. The center serves two purposes: it provides writing tutoring for local students and it offers the latest information about cryptozoology through The Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute. For......

TGR "Lost and Found" Screening With Bang Camaro and the Marc-Andre Belliveau Band For Labels Are for Jars Friday, November 16, 7:00 pm The Roxy, 279 Tremont Street, Boston $20, Tickets TGR Official Site Labels Are for Jars Teton Gravity Research is in town, combining extreme snow sports, massive rock, and philanthropy. TGR, as they call themselves, will be screening "Lost and Found," which is a compilation of what the company calls the "sickest skiing......

5 Funny Females Saturday, November 10--tonight!, 8:00 pm Midway Café, 3496 Washington, Jamaica Plain, $15 Official Site Can't make it to Comics Come Home? Or do you just want to see rising stars who aren't always on Comedy Central 24/7? Five funny females will be performing in Jamaica Plain tonight. The performers include host Susan Alexander, Maggie MacDonald, Erin Judge, Maria Ciampa, and Michelle Buteau. Urban myths and legends have sprung up that women......

Boston Babydolls Creepshow Peepshow Sunday, October 28, 8:00 pm The Paradise Lounge 969 Commonwealth Ave, Boston $10, but $8 in costume More info Boston Babydolls Official Site Cirkestra Official Site If you're sick of pickle-dispenser costumes and tired old "naughty nurse" getups at the Halloween party, the Boston Babydolls are celebrating in a grown-up, clever, and sophisticated fashion with a Creepshow Peepshow. Scratch, the Boston Babydolls' businessman/director/all-around-person, described a few of the treats and tricks......

PodCamp Boston 2 Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 Boston Convention & Expo Center Free, but registration required Official Site PodCamp Boston 2 promises to teach you more than how to bedazzle an iPod, as witnessed on the reality-show I Love New York 2. The days are packed with practical seminars on creating your own web-media empire. Seminar titles include "Web 2.0 Tools That Are Actually Useful" and "Intellectual Property Law for the Creative......

John Fulton Reading With Joshua Henkin Brookline Booksmith Tonight, October 22, 7:00 pm Free Fulton's Official Site John Fulton doesn't go for sly pop-culture references or verbal pyrotechnics in his short-story collection The Animal Girl. Instead, he zooms in on the emotions of his older characters who are attempting to find love. With Match.com and eHarmony, dating and romance seem easy and ordinary topics, but Fulton throws obstacles in the paths of his characters, and......

Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys Saturday, October 20, 8:00 pm Lizard Lounge Official Site Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, last seen on Bostonist during the closing of Somerville's Sky Bar and the Great Lowell Cable Access Television Fiasco of 2007, will be bringing their experimental goth-rock to the Lizard Lounge. Their website promises that they combine "music, shenanigans, toys, and voice to make an organic industrial texture-core Death-folk ride......

Jonathan Messinger Thursday, October 11, 7:00 pm Lorem Ipsum Books 157 Hampshire Street, Cambridge Official Site Chicagoist Interview Author Jonathan Messinger is such a busy guy that a) we're surprised he has time to sotp in Cambridge and b) we're surprised he had time to talk to us. He runs the Dollar Store Series, in which authors write pieces based on knickknacks found at dollar stores. He's book editor for Time Out Chicago. He started......

Last night Seattle based rockers Minus the Bear played the second of their sold out Boston shows at the Middle East Downstairs. The show proved to be an eclectic mix that pleased the enthusiastic crowd. Ela (pronounced ee-lah) opened the show with a set of straight forward indie rock. Their sound was minimalist and down tempo with a moody edge. Considering they played two hours before the headliner, the turnout was strong and band......

Bhob Rainey Official Site MySpace Greg Kelley Official Site MySpace Bryan Day (Shelf Life, Platform) MySpace Howard Stelzer Official Site The first band features a mummified man with beaded hair and an earnest young aspiring (noise) rock star with a too-perfect goatee. They both hold, of all things, guitars, though the use of these guitars is unexpected. The old man sits and wails into a microphone, telling stories as incomprehensible as your war hero grandpa’s,......

New England Film and Video Festival Thursday, October 4, through Monday, October 8 Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline All tickets $10 Official Site Full Schedule What with the Red Sox savoring victory and rallies raging at City Hall Plaza, the New England Film and Video Festival planned the opening night for its 32nd year perfectly. On Thursday, the NEFVF will kick off with the documentary Play-by-Play Men and the Art of the Perfect Call, which begins......

We live in an iTunes nation. It's easy to pull a track down to your pod for under a buck. Bostonist still longs for cover art, liner notes, and that masterwork that is a multi-track collection of songs we call an album. Listed here is our much discussed, unbiased by payola, top 25 albums of 2005. After the jump you'll find where some of us stand individually on the subject of the years best. (Apparently......