Photo by DMD67

SPELLING: The Scripps National Spelling Bee is underway in Oxon Hill, Md., but even though that annual contest is just for kids, there is still an opportunity for adults to show off their lexical skills. The journalist Stefan Fatsis and Mirriam-Webster’s in-house lexicographer, Peter Sokolowski, host “So U Think U Can Spell?” an adult spelling competition with a poorly (and purposefully?) constructed title tonight at Politics & Prose (5015 Connecticut Avenue NW). At 7 p.m. Free

MUSIC: What does it sound like when a Long Island-bred rapper teams up with the singer who performed the baby-voiced songs that filled the soundtrack to the 2007 film Juno? The answer can be found in the Uncluded, a collaboration between Aesop Rock (a rhyme-dropper from Syosset, N.Y.) and Kimya Dawson (on break from The Moldy Peaches), performing tonight at the 9:30 Club (815 V Street NW). Hamell on Trial, a one-man punk band, opens. At 7 p.m. Tickets $20.

FILM: West End Cinema (2301 M Street NW) screens The Fortress, a 2008 film from Azerbaijan that was selected as the former Soviet republic’s submission to the 81st Academy Awards. Though it failed to get a nomination, the film offers a gripping look at the adventures of, well, a film crew that gets caught in a war zone when shooting footage of one of their country’s mountainous regions. The director, Shamil Najafzade, will answer questions from the audience after the screening. At 6:30 p.m. Tickets $11.