The Indiana-bred troubadour is slated to take the stage on Friday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m., at the May Memorial Unitarian Society, 3800 E. Genesee St. Grimm has four roots-related CDs in his catalog, with titles like Heartland that should pretty much sum up where the singer-songwriter’s rhythmic muse is headed. He’s also been an actor, mainly in key supporting roles, for two decades; maybe Grimm will chat about his turn as the West Virginia coach during a particularly fictitious sequence in the 2008 Ernie Davis movie bio The Express. Admission for this Folkus Project-sponsored show is $12. For details, call 440-7444.

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Nearly 80 years later, the Depression-era comedies from Paramount Pictures can still be counted on to deliver top-drawer guffaws, as the next double feature of 35mm classics will attest at Rome’s Capitol Theatre, 220 W. Dominick St. The full-blown anarchy of the Four Marx Brothers drives the 1933 laugh riot Duck Soup (right, with Chico, Zeppo, Groucho and Harpo), perhaps the funniest antiwar satire ever made, with ricocheting one-liners all over the place, although the movie does know when to shut up—during the smashed mirror sequence, when Harpo and Chico take turns imitating their perplexed brother Groucho. And 1934’s comic masterpiece It’s a Gift (below) provides W.C. Fields with his best vehicle, as a henpecked hubby who leaves behind his New Jersey grocery store and heads to California’s orange groves, although the plot is secondary to the movie’s recreation of creme de la creme skits from Fields’ vaudeville career. The movies will screen on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2:30 and 7 p.m. Admission is $5.50 for adults, $1.50 for children. For details, call 337-6453.

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The GOP continues to stonewall against overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military mantra

If it wasn’t for the pictures of Lady Gaga addressing the protest march, I might have thought it was 1993 all over again. Or maybe we’re back in the 16th century?

In 1537 the Spanish priest Bartolome de las Casas persuaded Pope Paul III to publish Sublimis Deus, a papal decree that, for the first time since Columbus set foot in the Americas, acknowledged that the native peoples whom the conquerors were busily enslaving were actually human beings.

Get Low (Sony Classics; 103 minutes; PG-13; widescreen; 2010). Robert Duvall has played big-city roles throughout his movie output—think of his consigliore in the first two Godfather epics, or the corporate hatchet man in Network—and with age, it seems, the actor has been inhabiting grizzly cracker types in the not-so-lofty likes of Four Christmases and Secondhand Lions. But Duvall’s heart has always sided with characters that come across as key examples of rural Americana, such as his country singer in Tender Mercies and his holy roller from The Apostle. As Felix Bush, the cranky codger at the emotional center of the new indie art-house darling Get Low, Duvall’s new character at times feels like a kissin’ cousin to his debut film part, Boo Radley, in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962); both roles typify the outsider looking in, although he’s also the one harboring some dark secret that functions as a plot catalyst.

Wake fake: Bill Murray in Get Low.

Curses, Foiled Again

New Zealand police said surveillance cameras showed two people in front of a Wellington store, trying to smash the front window with a rock. They gave up and fled, Detective Sgt. Mark Scott said, after the rock rebounded off the window and hit one of the offenders on the head. (New Zealand Press Association)

A man who robbed a bank in Anchorage, Alaska, escaped on a bicycle but was stopped minutes later when he crashed into a police car responding to the bank alarm. The bicyclist, identified as Christopher Todd Mayer, 45, slid across of the vehicle but lost his backpack, according to police Lt. Dave Parker, who said, “He ended up in a heap with his money pouring out of his pack.” Mayer tried to flee on foot, but was nabbed half a block away. (Associated Press)

Fans of John Gray, the internationally recognized expert on communication and relationships, are eagerly awaiting his Syracuse appearance on Sept. 29 at the Crouse-Hinds Theater in the Mulroy Civic Center. Gray explained his take on the differences between the sexes and how to navigate them in his first book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex (HarperCollins, 1992). USA Today called it “the No. 1 best-selling book of the last decade” as well as “one of the top 10 most influential books of the last 25 years.” Wow!

Gray matter: Improve your love life with advice from John Gray.

High fives: Quarterback Ryan Nassib (right) threw five touchdowns against Maine, while Mike Holmes, left (No. 35), earned Big East special teams Player of the Week honors for his punt-return heroics, while also providing some menacingly strong play on the defensive side of the ball. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

The inaugural Syracuse 70.3 Ironman carried nearly 2,000 endurance athletes from Jamesville Beach to the Inner Harbor on Sunday, Sept. 19. Beginning at 7 a.m. with a 1.2-mile swim, followed by a 56-mile bike and then 13.1 running miles into the city, this race was the first of its kind for Syracuse; athletes, spectators and merchants can expect at least two more. Here are some images from the Inner Harbor finish line.

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Good Week

. . . for area police departments, who gamely and with a smile kept antsy motorists away from the 1,800 triathletes who invaded local roadways on Sunday. Sheriffs departments from Onondaga, Madison and Cortland counties manned the bike course, while DeWitt and Syracuse troops assisted on the run.