Photo by Explosion 5000

MOVIE: The Black Cat hosts a series of documentary film screenings tonight featuring The Clash: Joe Strummer: Let's Rock Again, The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer and The Clash: Rudeboy screen back to back, for free, in the Backstage starting at 8:30 p.m.

MUSIC: Longstanding Fairfax band Emmet Swimming is putting on a benefit for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America at Iota. A trio of local acts fill out the rest of the bill, with Two Kings, Mike Huckleberry, and Justin Trawick Group (***). 8:30 p.m., $10 minimum donation.

PANEL: Learn how The New York Times decides which stories appear on its front page (and by no small coincidence, have the opportunity to purchase the Christmas gift appropriate coffee table book, The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008) tonight at the S. Dillon Ripley Center. Times executive editor Bill Keller will be joined by diplomatic correspondent Helene Cooper, economics columnist David Leonhardt, and Washington Bureau Chief Dean Baquet to discuss how "for most of this paper’s history, the news workday has been defined by the launching, refining, winnowing, and arranging of those few articles that will represent the editors’ best reckoning of what mattered most yesterday.” 7 p.m., $25.

DANCE: The Martha Graham Dance Company performs a reconstruction of Clytemnestra, with a score by Halim El-Dabh, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. 8 p.m., $22-$65.

SPORTS: The Wizards organization may be in turmoil, but that also means it's easier than ever to get last minute tickets! Having won two out of five games under their new coach, tonight the Wiz host the Pistons, who aren't exactly on fire themselves, so it's possible this could even be a competitive matchup. Not likely, but possible. Incredibly cheap $11 tickets are available here. 7 p.m.