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The B-list takes center stage at SuperMegaFest, Maya Angelou at Symphony Hall and more
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Adaptation Let’s see a tortured Hollywood screenwriter try to make self-referential mincemeat out of this one! In the latest tome by Susan Orlean, the New Yorker writer whose The Orchid Thief twisted screenwriter Charlie Kaufman into knots, the author takes on the voice of her four-legged pal Cooper Gillespie for a book’s worth of doggie-treat recipes in tandem with cookbook author Sally Sampson. On December 2 at 4 p.m., Orlean, Cooper, and Sampson discuss the book at the Hotel Marlowe, 25 Edwin H. Land Boulevard in Cambridge, to kick off the Marlowe’s holiday book drive (donations of new and lightly used books encouraged but not required). It’s free; call (617) 395-2523. Toys in the attic Someday, perhaps, there will be a pop-culture museum devoted to B-level celebrity — a repository dedicated to actors, musicians, and bikini babes whose names you can’t quite place, who reside perpetually on the tip of one’s tongue. Until then, we have events like Boston SuperMegaFest — in which a great many starlets are herded up for a weekend, accompanied by hundreds of square feet filled with comics, toys, movie, and TV memorabilia, like the biggest attic on earth. The SMF, taking place next Saturday and Sunday, November 22 and 23, at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel, brings together the likes of teenage porn queen-turned-bestselling author Traci Lords, original Beatles drummer Pete Best (who’ll also celebrate his 62nd birthday on Saturday night at the same location), TV Batman vets Adam West and Frank Gorshin, and Tarantino-revived actor David Carradine with whodats like Kristanna Loken (the she-android in Terminator 3) and Kenny Baker (the man inside R2-D2). That’s at 1657 Worcester Road in Framingham; tickets are $16 each day, or $28 for weekend pass. Tickets to Pete Best’s birthday party on Saturday night are $45. Call (508) 852-0005, or visit www.supermegafest.com. Blues for the homeless Last year WMFO 91.5-FM world, folk, jazz, and blues music director Morgan Huke put together a benefit for the homeless at Johnny D’s. The event was a smash, so he’s doing it again. The headliner this time is none other than the spiritual-singing blues great Mighty Sam McClain with his big band, who on December 3 will be joined by openers folk-rocker Andy Pratt and songstress Danielle Miraglia. More acts are being added, and proceeds go to RESPOND, the Somerville Homeless Coalition, Community Change Boston, and the Homeless Empowerment Project. Johnny D’s is at 17 Holland Street in Davis Square, Somerville. Call (617) 776-2004 for info. Caged bird speaks Maya Angelou read her poetry at the second Clinton inaugural, has composed verse for Hallmark greeting cards, and is six volumes into the autobiography she began with the high-school-reading-list fave I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. On February 6 she’s in town with an inspirational lecture at 7:30 p.m. Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave in Boston. Tickets are $30 to $70; call (617) 266-1200.
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