Best of the Week: Our Picks for September 14-18, 2015

Welcome to Best of the Day, our recommendations for what to check out around town this week. If you’re wondering what to do in Boston this week, check out these events.

Film still from 7 Chinese Brothers

FILM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
7 Chinese Brothers

Spoiler: 7 Chinese Brothers is not about seven Chinese brothers (rather, the film title can be interpreted as a reference to an R.E.M. song from 1984, back when Michael Stipe had hair). Instead, director Bob Byington’s latest film focuses on the meandering life of Larry (played by Jason Schwartzman), a slacker manchild whose life hits a new low when he gets fired from his job for stealing booze. But don’t worry—this is not Requiem for a Dream. This is a vehicle for Schwartzman to charm audiences, with the film’s melodramatic potential spiked with humor. 7 Chinese Brothers co-stars Schwartzman’s real-life French bulldog, Arrow, as well as Olympia Dukakis, cousin of former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, as Larry’s acerbic grandmother. Here for a limited engagement, it screens at the Brattle Theatre through September 17.

September 14, 8:30 p.m., $9-$11, Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6837, brattlefilm.org.

Photo by Emily Shur for “Divine Comedian”

COMEDY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
Unofficial Mindy Kaling Day

September 15 is a big day for Mindy Kaling: Not only is the fourth season of her rom-com TV show The Mindy Project making its Hulu debut, but also her book, Why Not Me?, a follow-up to 2012’s Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), hits shelves. Thus, we have unofficially declared it to be Mindy Kaling Day—and she’s going to be spending it with us. This week, the native Cantabrigian will be making two (very sold-out) appearances: One at the Brookline Booksmith on September 14, and another at the Back Bay Events Center—where Kaling will be in conversation with celebrated Boston surgeon and writer Atul Gawande—for Harvard Book Store on September 15.

September 14, 7 p.m., Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline; for more info, see brooklinebooksmith.com. September 15, 7:30 p.m., Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley St., Boston; for info see harvard.com.

Photo provided

DINING
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
Posto Beer Dinner with Aeronaut Brewing

It’s already Oktoberfest season—bring on the fall beer dinners. And there’s a prime example at Posto, one of our favorite gourmet pizza places. They’re launching their fall beer dinner series this week with a guest spot from Aeronaut Brewing. On the menu: roasted head-on shrimp with salsa verde and brown bread crostini (paired with Hermann Hesseweizen); seared tuna with herbed spelt salad (paired with Saison of the Western Ghats); rigatoni puttanesca (paired with A Year with Dr. Nandu); and brown-sugar-glazed duck confit (paired with Oktoberfest). And if you’ve still got room for dessert, there’s a Black Ale Float with caramelized milk gelato and shortbread cookies.

September 16, 6:30 p.m., $75, Posto, 187 Elm St., Somerville, 617-625-0600, postoboston.com. Purchase tickets via Eventbrite.

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony photo by ptwo on Flickr

MAD SCIENCE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
The Twenty-Fifth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony

Whenever a scientist levitates a frog, invents a brassiere that transforms into a gas mask, or cures “intractable hiccups with digital rectal massage,” the Ig Nobels are there to celebrate it. For the Annals of Improbable Research’s milestone 25th year, they’re set to soar to ever-new heights improbability.

In addition to revealing the top-secret identities of this year’s Ig Nobel winners, the award ceremony features such highlights as a Win-a-Date-with-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest, the premiere of Darwinist mini-opera “The Best Life,” and cameo appearances galore—including one by Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats, who won a 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for documenting every meal he ate for 34 years. His contribution the night’s show will be characteristically astonishing: Ig Nobel organizers tell us that “Dr. Nakamats has been diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer; he has written a special song about that, which he will perform at the ceremony.”

While the ceremony is already sold out, you’ll be able to watch it live-streaming online—and you’ll also be able to see many of the winners drop eyebrow-raising science at the Ig Informal Lectures at MIT this weekend.

Ig Nobel Prize ceremony: September 17, 6 p.m., Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St, Cambridge, Cambridge. The Ig Informal Lectures: Free, September 19, 1 p.m., Building 10, Room 250 at MIT, Cambridge. For more info and live webcast, see improbable.com.

Rosebud decorated in grass skirt / Courtesy photo

DINING
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Rosebud Turns One: The Great Luau

It seems like only yesterday a revamped Rosebud reopened as a destination for some of the city’s best barbecue, but this week marks their one-year anniversary. To celebrate 12 months of slinging Texas Rachels in a Skirt (one of their signature dishes, featuring smoked brisket, barbecue onions, horseradish sauce, and creamy slaw, with a cheese skirt on rye), they’re putting a skirt on the Rosebud, too—a grass skirt, that is, part of the decor for their birthday luau. For this “pig-pickin’, pie-passin’ patio party and Kalua hog roast,” in addition to the Hawaiian-style barbecue, guests can enjoy an outdoor tiki bar, pineapple bowling, a hula hoop spin-off, and costume contests for best Hawaiian shirt.

September 18, 6 p.m.–1 a.m., Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar, 381 Summer St., Davis Square, Somerville, 617-629-9500, rosebudkitchen.com. Purchase tickets through Eventbrite.