>> Canada’s The Most Serene Republic bring their large and melodic sound to The Rock and Roll Hotel tonight, with Bellflur and Watch Man Walk. $10, 8:30 p.m. >> Married Charlottesville rockers Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule will share the stage out at Jammin’ Java tonight, touring in support of their latest releases, Sproule’s Keep Your Silver Shined and Curreri’s The Velvet Rut. 8 p.m., $10. >> Rescheduled from last week, Judith Jones, cookbook…

Is everyone already leaving town for the holidays? Our calendar here at Reader, Meet Author is looking a little lonely right now. If you have any tips or complaints that we’re not posting all the awesome poetry readings, feel free to email us. MONDAY: Caroline Kennedy will be at Politics and Prose to share the Christmas prose most dear to her. It’s all in her latest book, A Family Christmas, which includes tributes to Irving…

MONDAY: Cass R. Sunstein will be at Politics and Prose to discuss the book Worst-Case Scenarios. No, it’s not one of those books that gives you tips on how to survive if you wake up next to someone whose name you don’t remember or how to retrieve a candy bar stuck in the lunchroom vending machine. It’s actually about scary stuff, like nuclear bombs in suitcases or avian flu. We prefer learning how to jump…

2001 was a good year for Radiohead clones. Muse released their second album, Origin of Symmetry, to the fanfare of British rock critics. Coldplay finally attained mainstream success in the United States. And Travis cemented their international popularity with the Nigel Godrich-produced The Invisible Band. Meanwhile, in Denton, Texas (about as far away from Oxford as you can get), five jazz students at the University of North Texas released an EP under the name Midlake….

The Cold War Kids are the perfect complement to Muse. The boys from Fullerton, California stepped out into the Patriot Center last night with the same laid back attitude as if they were jamming in a friend’s garage. No props, no light shows, no flashy signs or confetti. They picked up their guitars and drumsticks in their partially tucked in shirts and just played, saving the over-the-top showmanship for their British conspiracy theorist headliners….

>> Poor little Village Voice music critic just can’t seem to master L’Enfant’s design for D.C., gets lost on the way to 9:30 Club and misses half of last night’s Air show. Bwahahaha. The diagonals don’t form a pentagram for no reason. >> Congratulations to local rising stars Le Loup for getting signed to Hardly Art, a new label under Sub Pop “focused on offering quality records for people to enjoy”. You’ll learn more…

MONDAY >> A year ago, Rolling Stone called The Whigs one of ten bands to watch and “the best unsigned band in America.” The Athens, GA trio has since been taking their pure rock-and-roll on the road in support of Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip, winning comparisons to the Replacements, the Strokes, REM, and the Drive-By Truckers along the way. The break hasn’t come yet, but we’ve got a feeling it could…

Fox’s Wisdom Martin reports that Maryland State Senator Anthony Muse calls the sale of bongs in gas stations a slap in the face in the war on drugs. Muse says drugs cause murders and incarcerations, and therefore he [along with Senator Miller, of course] has proposed emergency legislation banning bong sales – or at least significantly raising taxes on bong sales – in order to advance his political career and get some face time on…

TUESDAY Tonight, political gadfly and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington discusses On Becoming Fearless…in Love, Work, and Life. With her kind of money, we’d sleep better at night, too. Olssons Books & Records, 418 7th St. NW., at 12:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed hold forth at Politics and Prose tonight, discussing The Plan, which we’re guessing is the long awaited word from Democratic lawmakers that they’ve finally had an idea, and not…

God, we’re so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a “something on a something” joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can’t beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks’ Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on…