Chapel Hill
Continuous City
Memorial Hall, UNC CampusThe conceptual performance group The Builders Association has achieved a new level of integration between theater and technology. Continuous City brings video conferencing to the forefront of drama and life as the actors depict a father and daughter staying in touch while he is in far-off places; the young girl’s nanny, who video-blogs her life; and a young man desperately trying to draw attention to his new networking system, Xubu. But it is not just their lives that director Marianne Weems shows you, it’s also the lives of everyday people who have left video messages on the Web site xubu.cc (it’s legitcheck it out). Through the use of computers and large screens, video cameras and actors, Weems builds a “continuous city” as viewers realize that, although they are each one body living in one place, they are also part of a never-ending continuous city, both online and in person. Tickets are $10-$35 for the 8 p.m. performance. Kelly Behling

Durham and Chapel Hill
Tommy Lee Edwards
Ultimate ComicsEver wonder what it would be like if Marvel Comics invaded the real world? No? Well, let’s sweeten the pot. What if Marvel Comics invaded Chapel Hill? And it was published in an actual Marvel comic? That do anything for you?

One of Marvel’s most entertaining books last year was 1985, illustrated by Silk Hope’s Tommy Lee Edwards off a script from Wanted writer Mark Millar. Set in the year that had U2, Blondie and music still on MTV, it’s the story of what happens when a comic-obsessed youth realizes that Marvel supervillains have invaded his small town. Edwards’ stark artwork gives a sense of wonder and menace to the Spielberg-esque story, as even minor Marvel villains such as the Trapster and Fing Fang Foom become terrifying creatures.

In addition, Edwards used local comics retailer Jon Newman as the model for the comic shop owner in the story, and local shop Ultimate Comics as the model for that shop. Edwards himself bears a suspicious resemblance to the main character’s dad. You can see the likeness for yourself when Edwards signs at Ultimate Comics in Durham at 756 Ninth St. The signing begins at 11 a.m., then moves to the Chapel Hill store at 1322 N. Fordham Blvd., Suite 9, at 2 p.m. It’s well worth finding yourself preoccupied with 1985. The events are free. Zack Smith

Raleigh
Montreal Man Metal
The BreweryFrom the Montreal music scene that doesn’t include The Arcade Fire or Islands come these six (melodic-)(technical-)(grind-)(blackened-) death (-core)(-metal) bands. But for all those possible modifiers, the uniform brutality of these six visitors to the South offers surprisingly little variety. While the razor-thin guitars of Beneath the Massacre certainly contrast with the viscous surface of Victory pouncers Carnifex, the hyper-time drums and cookie-monster vocals rarely come up for air or for dynamics’ sake. The exception is Neuraxis, a precise, motion-oriented death-metal band capable of stepping on the brakes, standing on the gas and keeping it between the ditches. The songsruminations on religion, where flashes of hope and revelation wash away in narrative formoffer deeper sophistication, too. Not sure if Neuraxis alone is worth the cover for this 6 p.m. stop on the Montreal Assault Tour, but weren’t you just talking about a lust for foreign sodomy last week? Here go! Grayson Currin