Kaleidoscope

[ kaleidoscope ]

album

Outside, the third outing from Minnesotan alt-rock fundamentalists Tapes 'n Tapes, effects a much-needed correction to a topsy-turvy career arc. Early victims of blog-buzz boom-and-bust backlash, TNT veered from a hype-storm-sparking self-issued debut to a slumpish, shrugged-at follow-up on a big-league indie. Back on the band's own Ibid imprint, Outside has its share of blandly comfy indie facelessness, but it's also got some crunchy bits, yelpy vocals and, in its better moments, enough soul, punk and rhythm to remind us why it's called rock 'n' roll in the first place.

—K. Ross Hoffman

party

In a stereotypical world, football and gay men don't go hand in hand. But the truth is, homos can "hut-hut" and yell at TVs with the best of 'em. For those who dig it, the LGBTQ-friendly Greater Philadelphia Flag Football League is throwing a Super Bowl viewing party at International House Sunday (Feb. 6, phillyflagfootball.com). Expect nibbles, an open bar and plenty of buff dudes — on and off the screen.

—Josh Middleton

tv

Discovery is hardly the 24/7 all-science-lectures channel I pretended it was while convincing my mom we should get cable, but it is pretty illuminating, you know, for television. My current micro-obsession is Gold Rush Alaska, a hilarious/devastating sociological terrarium wherein hardworking stiffs go for broke while battling the elements, bad luck and their own resilient incompetence in pursuit of glitter-size specks of gold dust. I hope they find it. If they don't, that'll be good, too.

—Patrick Rapa

reading/signing

Best known for fiction-memoir mashups (see The Woman Warrior), Maxine Hong Kingston — who speaks at the Free Library tonight (Feb. 3, freelibrary.org) — is one hell of a crossover artist. Her latest, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life (Knopf, Jan. 18), is inspired by her father, who wrote in the wide sidebars in his volumes of Chinese literature. But there's so much of America here, too: She's Walt Whitman in her advocacy for peace, Patti Smith in her formation of new, vibrant mythologies. So is Kingston a future-forward punk or a mystic-leaning naturalist? Maybe a little of both.

—A.D. Amorosi