Multi-talented singer-songwriter J.P. Cormier will showcase his remarkable brand of traditional music in Deerfield. Primarily a bluegrass musician, Cormier also strums his way through genres as diverse as blues and jazz. An impressive stage presence, he can play the guitar, the fiddle, the banjo and the mandolin. (Fri., 7:30 p.m., White Church Community Center, Deerfield)

Vanderbilt University Professor of Anthropology Beth A. Conklin will be giving a talk titled "Eat and Be Eaten: Compassionate Cannibalism in Native Amazonia." She will speak of the research she has done on the Wari,' an indigenous Brazilian people who, until the 1960s, ate the bodies of their deceased loved ones as an act of respect and a way of coming to terms with the death. Conklin's studies explore the social meanings and implications of ritual cannibalism and challenge the widely held view of cannibalism as a necessarily negative symbol. What a fresh alternative to all those run-of-the-mill poetry readings and mathematics lectures. (Thurs., 4:30 p.m., Fayerweather 115.)

Fleetwood Mac, one of the most lasting modern music groups, will perform in Boston as part of their 2003 U.S. tour. The group was originally formed in 1967 and the tour is "all about nostalgia, about looking back through sepia-toned glasses," according to The Kansas City Star. The tour features Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, co-founder Mick Fleetwood and co-founder John McVie playing old favorites such as "Go Your Own Way," "Landslide" and "Don't Stop," as well as new hits "Say You Will" and "Peacemaker." (Wed., 8 p.m., FleetCenter, Boston. Tickets $125, $75 and $49.50 at the FleetCenter Box Office. Call (617) 931-2000.)

Williams College Museum of Art is exhibiting the works of Kara Walker, an artist who works primarily in black paper silhouettes. Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress showcases many of the artist's works of the last decade. "What this picaresque blend of slave narrative, Harlequin romance, fairy-tale illustration, pornography and racial stereotyping means is hard to say," speculated The New York Times. "But there is certainly nothing else in American art quite like it." (Through Dec. 7., Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown).

Editors' Movie Rental of the Week

If you couldn't quite appreciate Tobey Maguire as a jockey in "Seabiscuit"-hell, even if you could-get yourself to Video to Go and rent "Wonder Boys," Curtis Hanson's sublime 2000 adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel. Maguire plays James Leer, a talented writer totally at sea until he finds an odd mentor in his professor, Grady Tripp, himself a former best-selling author with an outrageous case of writer's block. Michael Douglas sheds his snarky arrogance and plays Tripp with a warmth you didn't think he possessed. Even if you've seen the movie, give it another go. It's one of those rare gems that actually gets better each time you watch it.