THURSDAY 12

Proponent of contemporary African dance in Canada, Zab Maboungou performs Countdown (Décompte) with Nyata Nyata, at DHC/ART (465 St-Jean), 7 p.m. Multimedia artist Matthew Biederman examines perception and classification in Intervention III: [Un]Limited Colors, at the Centre de Design de l’UQAM (1440 Sanguinet), 5 p.m. vernissage. Neo-pop art explodes in Sugar Bombs, manga-like, candy-coloured works on war, by Diyan Achjadi and Brendan Tang, at MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance), 5 p.m., to Dec. 12. H2Oil, exposing environmental and health effects of the Alberta tar sands, at Concordia’s Hall Building (room H110, 1455 De Maisonneuve W.), 9 p.m. And Land Of Talk and The Besnard Lakes play CBC’s Routes Montreal at the Segal Centre (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine), 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY 13

It’s awesome that wild things and monsters are "in" right now, though I am really glad not to be a little kid with a giant imagination – I would conflate scary H1N1 with whatever long-toothed beast lives under the bed. So it’s a good thing that there’s a new short fiction series by Montreal writers called Here Be Monsters (herebemonstersanthology.blogspot.com), launching at Burritoville (2055 Bishop), 8 p.m. Being an adult is also good because you can go to anything from the pretty freakin’ incredible a cappella (yeah, I said it) of Straight No Chaser at Studio Juste Pour Rire (2101 St-Laurent Blvd.), 8 p.m.; to queer dance parties called Up Yours – all proceeds this week to sex-worker organization Stella – at the Playhouse (5656 Parc); to a Bollywood Party, complete with filmy tunes and movies playing, at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent Blvd.).

SATURDAY 14

With 300 exhibitors filling the tables at this weekend’s Expozine 2009 (expozine.ca), whoever came up with the idea of an official Friday-night kick-off party has got to be laughing. Play the Who’s Hungover? game all day at the eighth annual small press, comic and zine fair, 12-6 p.m., and Sunday too, at Église St-Enfant-Jésus (5035 St-Dominique). Cinéma du Parc’s Strange Films for Curious People series continues with nothing less than an obscure David Cronenberg double-bill: two hour-long films Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970), at Cinéma du Parc (3575 Parc), 3 p.m. Take advantage of the weekend before the end of bike-path season (who needs ‘em!) and ride to Salle de Diffusion Villeray-St-Michel-Parc Extension (421 St-Roch) for the experimental pop-rock sounds (keyboards, saxophone, absurdity) of Dynamo Coléoptera, 4 p.m., free!

SUNDAY 15

Montreal’s Zen Centre wakes up a little later than the usual pre-dawn to celebrate its new space at the Enpuku-ji Temple Opening and Open House (4620 St-Dominique), 2 p.m. Bent, an emotional World War II story of gay men forced into Third Reich work camps, ends its run at Espace 4001 (4001 Berri), 2 p.m. Classical meets rock meets Shakespeare! as Liederwolfe fits a string section and above-average octave ranges into Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent Blvd.). Also hot, if you’re into this new-fangled indie-rock that eschews nasal singing (ohgod, let this trend spread like keyboard cat, please): Brooklyn’s The Dirty Projectors are joined by Montreal’s rulin’ tUnE-YaRdS, at Le National (1220 Ste-Catherine E.), 8:30 p.m.

MONDAY 16

The Magic Flute was the first opera I ever saw. And then I learned it wasn’t a "real" opera. To which I said, "Like, whatever." I was 12. Opéra de Montréal proves that Mozart’s classic is still fun for all, at Place des Arts, 8 p.m. Ten young Canadian painters get their day in the sun in The Phoenix Art: The Renewed Life of Contemporary Painting, an exhibition curated by Border Crossings art critic Robert Enright at Galerie Simon Blais (5420 St-Laurent Blvd.), to Dec. 24. And go out and buy binoculars or a telescope because this year’s Leonid Meteor Shower starts its great celestial show tomorrow, Nov. 17, just as the sky goes dark.

TUESDAY 17

Prodigious, energetic Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Places des Arts, 8 p.m. Artist Myriam Yates messes with reality in images of a demolished hotel and a drive-in cinema in Syntoniser-Night Park, while Jacinthe Lessard-L.‘s En fonction de la forme disrupts trivial, everyday objects, at Optica (#508-372 Ste-Catherine W.), to Dec. 12. Celebrate wise words as the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Literary Awards are announced at the Grande Bibliothèque, 10 a.m., with a gala at Le Lion d’Or, 7 p.m., $15. Tableau d’Hôte’s Suburban Motel, a series of six salacious George F. Walker plays, continues with Featuring Loretta and The End of Civilization, at Mainline (3997 St-Laurent Blvd.), 7 p.m. And Peaches and Amanda Blank climb the walls at Métropolis (59 Ste-Catherine E.).

WEDNESDAY 18

Even if money’s tight and the purchase of plane tickets seems but a faraway dream, we’ll always have movies to transport us. Oh, and our imaginations, right. Andrew Princz’s Travels On the Globe series takes us to The Real Kazakhstan in a respectful, honest exploration of culture, terrain and archaeology, at Cinéma du Parc (3575 Parc), 7 p.m. In installation Dérives Connectives, artist José Luis Torres creates a sense of community through raw wood sculpture, evoking walls along with a landscape of freedom, at Monopoli La Maison de l’Architecture du Québec (181 St-Antoine W.), to Dec. 19. And the ladies of Blue Light Burlesque (bluelightburlesque.com), get hearts a-pounding at Café Campus (57 Prince Arthur E.), 8 p.m.