In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, there’s Paul Giamatti’s “Chinwag” podcast, The Bread and Puppet Theater, Record Store Day, “Secret Sounds of Ponds” and other Earth-related events, cake decorating and Shakespeare’s 460th Birthday.

When spaces such as the Democracy Center disappear, opportunities for young musicians to showcase their own music their own way disappear too. That’s not how you nurture your local arts and culture community.

In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, there’s Sri Lankan cooking, Susanna Kaysen and “Girl Interrupted” a “Little Prince” opera, a Patriots Day colonial fair, Space Week, Grolier Poetry history, a bluegrass festival and a Flat Top Johnny’s reopening pool party.

The next time you go to a show and find the bill not as advertised, dig it. You’re hearing an artist you’ve never heard or didn’t expect to hear, and that’s good.

In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, Jason Mantzoukas does improv comedy, Angélique Kidjo performs, there’s an archaeology fair, advice on how to run the Boston Marathon, the answer to “Can we grow buildings?” and an all-clarinet band.

Katarina Burin’s “objects laying around” is fun and fresh, combining precise, geometric architectural renderings with oddball, food-inspired sculptures.

The Venezuelan cantina Carolicious at the Aeronaut Brewery slings arepas and more, but not much more. The cooks focus on one thing and do it right.

JJ Gonson has a lot of irons in the fire, but local music fans know and love her best as the head of Once, an “itinerant” music venue preparing for another summertime “celebration of all things dark and heavy.”

In a look ahead at a week of Cambridge and Somerville events, there’s poet Nikki Giovanni, sex revolutionary Candida Royalle, joke fests and mystery comedy, new plays and folk metal, “Dope Science,” a tribute to Lana Del Rey and “Essays in Praise of Excess.” 

Underground at Armageddon lies a great selection of high-decibel soundscapes available in every format you might desire: vinyl, CD and cassette. And a few DVDs, rock ’n’ roll magazines and sundry merch for good measure.