FRIDAY:
>> The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception offers its annual Christmas Concert for Charity tonight. The Basilica’s professional choir (featuring our very own DCist Charles!) will perform, followed by the choirs and orchestra of Catholic University. Admission is free, with a free-will donation to benefit the Spanish Catholic Center, a haven for immigrants to the Washington, D.C., area since 1967. The center provides services at locations in Mount Pleasant and the Maryland suburbs. Free, 7:30 p.m. (Michigan Ave. and Fourth St. NE)
>> The bloom may be decidedly off the rose for Francis Ford Coppola’s place in the canon of film history, thanks mostly to a handful of duds and the prolonged stretches of time that now exist between his projects. But given the current climate of warrant-less wiretapping and privacy worries, we could do a lot worse than to turn to Coppola for some insight in the form of his 1974 film, The Conversation. Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a well known surveillance ace who’s been hired by a large corporation to spy on two of its employees. But Harry has a crisis of conscience when he begins to suspect the employees may about to be murdered. Hackman turns in a thoughtful, quiet performance that makes this Watergate-era story feel just as important today. Part of the Francis Ford Coppola Redux series at the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center, through Jan. 11. The Conversation shows at 8:45 p.m. tonight, also consider Saturday at 2 or 4:30 p.m. for screenings of a rare original 35 mm print.
SATURDAY:
>> D.C. has a new gallery in town. Sort of. Civilian Art Projects is the brand new “roving” gallery started by Transformer founder Jayme McLellan. Stop by Warehouse for the launch party and the opening of their first exhibit, Dynamic Field, a group show (including Ken Ashton) that imagines the world as a stage. Keep an eye out for the nomadic gallery as it treks around the city and nationwide. 7 to 9 p.m. Free.
>> We’ve got no doubt the Paul Mooney and Dick Gregory comedy show at the Lincoln Theatre will serve up plenty of fresh material on the state of race relations in our country — with the headlines Michael Richards recently made, it’d criminal for them not to go there. 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., $45.
SUNDAY:
>> The 12th Annual BB&T Classic returns to the Verizon Center, featuring local college hoops at their finest. George Mason will face Bucknell in the opener, followed by George Washington against Virginia Tech, and then Maryland taking on Notre Dame. First game tips at 1:30 p.m., tickets are $15 and $40.
>> Jeremy Enigk, lead singer of defunct indie-rock/emo band Sunny Day Real Estate turned born again Christian, is still keeping it real in his own adult-alternative, Damien Rice sort of way. Plus he’s got two Unbuckled vets opening for him at Rock and Roll Hotel, Cedars and The Hard Tomorrows. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 day of show.
