Our Picks

Can't Miss

1. SONIC CIRCUITS FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC

[CONCERT] The annual tribute to experimental music is back and more interesting than ever. Numerous jazz, noise and electronic music performances are scheduled at three venues, but the highlight is a mammoth show at the Velvet Lounge on Saturday that starts at 2:30 p.m. and runs late into the night. Featured performers include Matmos, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Andrea Parkins and Will Guthrie. For a festival schedule, visit http://www.dc-soniccircuits.org.

Opens Today. Through Oct. 5. Velvet Lounge (915 U St. NW, 202-462-3213), National Museum of Women in the Arts (1250 New York Ave. NW, 202-783-5000) and Pyramid Atlantic (8230 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, 301-608-9101). Single tickets $6-$10, $50 for a festival pass.

2. BLINDNESS

[MOVIE] Julianne Moore + novelist José Saramago x director Fernando Meirelles = something that could be great. Moore plays a woman who retains her vision in a world afflicted by sudden, contagious blindness. Under the dynamic direction of Meirelles ("City of God"), Moore should have free rein to chew the pulp out of the scenery as she tries to save mankind from its stumbling self.

Opens Friday.

3. LINO TAGLIAPIETRA IN RETROSPECT: A MODERN RENAISSANCE IN GLASS

[EXHIBIT] Tagliapietra, a Venetian-trained studio glass artist credited with expanding the art form through his teaching at the Pilchuck Glass School in the Pacific Northwest, is the subject of a career retrospective. The exhibition features 140 works spanning four decades, including a few objects that have never been publicly shown.

Opens Friday. Through Jan. 11. Renwick Gallery, 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. 202-633-2850. FREE

4. APPALOOSA

[MOVIE] Warning: This movie features severe jaw lines, cold stares, tumbleweedy beards and a whole lot of macho posturing. But it's a western, so we'll forgive the flourishes. Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen play a pair of vigilante lawmen who try to wrest control of a frontier town from a corrupt rancher played by Jeremy Irons. This is Harris's second movie as director, after 2000's incredibly intimate "Pollock."

Opens Friday. Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda. 301-652-7273. $7.50-$10.