Sun. Nov. 30 Rosie O'Donnell - heaven help us has a variety show on the way - and so does the Regent Theatre in Arlington. We recommend leaving your couch Sunday Nov. 30 at 7 for something comic/social commentator Jimmy Tingle is hosting called Keeping the Heat On. It's to help defray the theatre's energy and heating costs. Yes, it's a benefit and it's for a very good venue - a theatre that's held a wide variety of acts, from Elivs impersonators to an experimental rock festival. “Even before these very tough economic times, it’s become more and more challenging to get people out of their homes—away from their TVs and computers—to rediscover live entertainment,” says the Regent’s Leland Stein. “Now, it’s even more difficult with families having to watch every penny. This event provides an opportunity for the public to enjoy a rich variety of exceptional entertainment in one evening at a reasonable price while supporting one of the many arts institutions struggling to make ends meet.” Tickets to are $35 for preferred seating and $25. for all other seats.What you get: all-vocal group Five O’Clock Shadow, rock opera songs from Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, Charlie Farren, Steve Baker Bob Jennings of BeatleJuice, Airborne Dan Foley, Ryan Casey, Digney Fignus, and Dana Z as Elvis. In addition to the live performances, the evening will feature the premiere, on the Regent’s big screen, of film excerpts from the May, 2007 “Concerts For Brad,” which celebrated the life of Brad Delp, the Beatlejuice and Boston singer who killed himself in 2007. 7 Medford St., Arlington, 781-646-4849, www.regenttheatre.com

Sun. Dec. 7 One of my lesser embarrassments is my inability to ice-skate. I even grew up in Maine, right next to a oft-frozen river, where everyone else did their spins and twirls and I hobbled out, knock-kneed, to fall after 15 feet, time and again. When it came to play hockey, a lot of us played street hockey on hard-packed snow. So it goes. And it means when winter comes to Boston, I can only sigh when I spot the skaters on the Frog Pond or elsewhere. One prime spot - aesthetically and otherwise -s at The Charles Hotel, when their ice skating rink opens to guests and locals. Which it does Sunday Dec. 7 from noon to 8. That day Santa is expected and there will be complimentary skating and rentals, holiday treats, and plenty of holiday music. This is the kickoff to the Sparklefest 2008 Festival - you may want to check out www.harvardsquare.com (http://www.harvardsquare.com/) to note the additional events that entails. The rink can be enjoyed for the rest of the season and can be booked for private parties. Cost: $5 adults, $3. Skate rental at $5 is available. The rink's open through February and its hours are 2 - 8 weekdays and 10 - 8 weekends.One Bennett St., Cambridge,617-234-8008 www.charleshotel.com (http://www.charleshotel.com/)

Fri. Nov. 21 Al Green is the best soul/gospel singer of our era, and the fact is, his still-sweet and supple voice remains in fine form. Seeing, the Rev. Green, you don't have to force your memory back to when he was great; great he remains. A force of nature. Or, God, he would say. As in: This gift came from above. God is Green's main man, has been so for years, but he mixes the sacred and secular in concert, often blurring the two, allowing you to take what you want from it. When I saw him some years ago in Dorchester, I walked in an agnostic and I walked out ... an agnostic. But an agnostic who was moved by Green's music, beliefs and soul, moved to consider that maybe there is something up there, out there, an afterlife. Look, I don't know any more than any one else does. Here's where Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens and I intersect. And I don't think Al Green knows either. But he has faith and I envy that faith - we secular humanists do that, really - and I like the idea of falling under the spell of someone as persuasive, silky, sexy and humble as Rev. Green. He's at Showcase Live in Foxboro Friday Nov. 21 at 8. Downside? Tickets are a whoppinng $125-$80, and the economy is where it is. 23 Patriot Place, Foxboro, 617-931-2000 or 888-354-7042 www.ticketmaster.com or www.patriot-place.com

Mon. Nov. 24 Quick: Name the best-known living photographer. Nine out of 10 you will say Annie Leibovitz. Many of you remember her from her Rolling Stone days - the classic naked John Lennon folded into Yoko, taken just before his assassination, published just after - and the many she's done for Vanity Fair: Kate Moss, Queen Elizabeth, William S. Burroughs, the pregnant semi-nude Demi Moore, the not-as-naked-as-everyone-thought Miley Cyrus, Mikhail Baryshnikov. The list goes on forever. Leibovitz is genius. She and her subject make statements, however profound or whimsical. She writes about her experiences in Annie Leibovitz At Work, and she comes to the First Parish Church Monday Nov. 24 at 7 to discuss her work. Admission is $5. Bad news: The talk is officially sold out, which means - sigh - you might have to go on Craig's List to find somebody willing to part with a ducat or stand in the cold outside the church with a doleful look, or $20 in your hand. It's sponsored by the Harvard Book Store.3 Church St., Cambridge, 617-661-1515 www.harvardbookstore.com

Fri. Nov. 21 Robyn Hitchcock didn't exactly disagree with the frequent comparisons to Pink Floyd's skewed genius Syd Barrett - see item on Rock 'n' Roll - but he got rather tired talking about it, oh, 20 years ago. I saw him at the Paradise and we had a great post-show chat and he reeled off what he thought were some of the ho-hum reference points people kept making about his music. I had to laugh. I'd been guilty of most all of them in my writing for the Globe. Fact is, Hitchcock, formerly of the Soft Boys, does have a knack for gorgeous, but somewhat strange, melodies and lyrics that take many a surreal twist. Not just to mess with your mind, but to take you to that other place that really good psychedelic music does. Now that the eccentric Brit has been practicing his trade for three decades or so, he's become a sort of beloved treasure

Sun. Nov. 23 Praise for Willie Nile? Sure. You heard it back in the '70s when the New York singer-guitarist-pianist was touted as another new Dylan or Springsteen. And you can hear it now, too. Director Jim Jarmusch says Nile’s last studio CD, “Streets of New York,” “may even be his best record yet.” Bono calls it “great” and both Lou Reed and Lucinda Williams echo U2’s singer. Little Steven – you may know him as the late Sil in “The Sopranos” – Ian Hunter and Graham Parker are all aboard the Nile train too. And Nile himself is pretty much looking at where he is now as a career renaissance point. “This record did really well,” he says, “and was really fun to make. In those days with all the hype – the next big thing – it’s so unrealistic. My interest is not in being an American Idol. It’s writing songs and having enough people hear them to allow me to keep making records. And as an independent, the advantage is what majors see as a failure can be a great success. You can make more money going your own way.” The powerful songs he’s coming up with? “Could be the seasoning, as you learn and grow. Songs are flowing more than ever. That’s not the case with a lot of artists we know and respect. Not everybody can maintain.”Nile, who played a terrific gig last year here, returns to Club Passim Sunday Nov. 23 with drummer Frankie Lee. Nile says at this point in time, in his mid-50s, he’s “having such good fun. The show is pretty raucous, totally rocking.” Which is to say that, although the album is electric and the show will be acoustic, Nile will be bringing the fire. He's touring behind a live album, Live From the Streets of New York. Starts at 7:30 p.m., $20 show.

Sun. Nov. 30 Chandler Travis - you know him as the wild and crazy frontman of the Incredible Casuals and the Chandler Travis Philharmonic -takes another swerve in the crooked road Sunday Nov. 30 at Club Passim. It's billed as Chandler Travis and Modern Maturity and, of course, that begs the question: What the heck's that? So, we went to the man himself to ask about this particular venture in the land of the Boston area's most venerable folk club. This one's meant as a change of pace from the wild and crazy land inhabited by the Philharmonic, replied Travis, in an e-mail. We'll instead be focusing squarely on the songwriting, and there'll be plenty of new material, because the songs have been coming fast and furious lately. A lot of it is more spacious and sparse than folks are used to hearing from either the Casuals or the CTP, more in the ballpark of my second solo CD, 'Ivan in Paris.' (Oh yes, he's a sometime solo artist, too.)