Today, The Stranger suggests:

Punk-Rock Film Fest (FUNDRAISER) In the same way I’d rather buy a Real Change newspaper than hand a crumpled bill to some jerko in front of Jack in the Box, a fundraiser should give something BACK to you. Tonight’s benefit—for The Rambler, a new film by supertalented local punks and filmmakers Calvin Lee Reeder and Brady Hall—is sure to put the “fun” back in “fundraiser.” For a mere $5 donation, you get a screening of THREE amazing short films (Piledriver, Little Farm, Kite Flyers) and live music by THREE new bands—mishy-mashups featuring members of the Intelligence, the Pulses, and Holy Ghost Revival—all hosted by Jerkbeast. (Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave, 441-5823. 10:30 pm, $5.) KELLY O

Elsewhere…

Theaters are preemptively warning patrons about “mild peril” in the plays they are about to see. Sure, that’s pathetic, but even more preposterous is the juxtaposition of the words “mild” and “peril.” According to the OED, peril is defined as “the position or condition of being imminently exposed to the chance of injury, loss, or destruction; risk, jeopardy, danger.” Imminently exposed! Ain’t nothin’ mild about peril. (Oops, this item isn’t American, is it?)

Film International offers a long essay on Claire Denis, who is the best filmmaker in the world. (But not, ahem, America.)

Neighborhood activists are mad about the film adaptation of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, set in that East London neighborhood. I would like to inform Mr. Mahmoud Roug, chairman of the Brick Lane Business Association, that upon reading Brick Lane, I visited said neighborhood and dropped quite a few pounds at local businesses. Fiction is fiction, but put your neighborhood up on movie posters all around the world, and I would bet you’d see an uptick in business. (Uh, sorry, this isn’t about America either.)

OK, here’s some bona fide Americana: the UC Santa Barbara Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project has been converting wax cylinders to MP3s for quite some time now, and there’s a treasure trove of free songs for you to listen to. I recommend “The Alcoholic Blues,” by Vernon Dalhart, 1919: “So long highball, so long gin / Oh tell me when you’re coming back again…”