If you need a break from feeling conflicted about #Deflategate, try out something non-football related for the weekend. FOOD
Harvard Square Chocolate Festival
Saturday, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Deguglielmo Plaza, Harvard Square
27 Brattle St., Cambridge
Free, 617-491-3434
Several restaurants and other fine establishments in Harvard Square will be offering more chocolate deliciousness than even the most intense cacao hound can handle at this free sampling event. The local band Bloco Afro-Brazil will perform as well, in case you get all hopped up and need to dance. Pro tip: show up early, as this is a popular event. MUSIC
The Bad Plus
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center
136 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$28-42, 617-876-4275
This celebrated jazz trio, best known for their jazz-ifications of pop songs, returns to Boston with their own version of saxophonist and free jazz legend Ornette Colman’s 1972 album “Science Fiction”. Seeing how no one in the group plays horns, they’ve recruited a crack horn section including Tim Berne (alto sax), Sam Newsome (soprano sax) and Ron Miles (trumpet). THEATER
‘In the Heights’
Friday and Saturday
Strand Theater
543 Columbia Rd., Dorchester
$10-$15, 617-635-6470
Boston Arts Academy presents this musical, 2008’s Tony winner for Best Musical, which looks in on a Latino community in Manhattan’s Washington Heights district, struggling for cohesion in the face of encroaching gentrification—a battle not unfamiliar to similar communities here in Boston. The songs, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, use hip-hop and salsa for their Broadway storytelling. ART
‘Under Astral Skies’
Through Feb. 14
555 Gallery
555 E. 2nd St., South Boston
Free, 857-496-7234
Maybe your horoscope predicted this group exhibition, featuring four artists exploring our relationship with the stars, from the glorious night sky photography of Christopher Wright and Corinne Schulze to the fireworks and moon shots of Jim Nickerson to the mysterious connections Amy Friend evokes by mapping her own star fields over old family photographs. DANCE
Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host
Saturday and Sunday
Citi Shubert Theater
265 Tremont St., Boston
$25-$75, 866-348-9738
Ira Glass, host of public radio’s absorbing “This American Life”, will appear with two dancers, Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, who’ve choreographed visual accompaniment for Glass’ signature stories. They bring together several styles of dance and even a couple parlor tricks, like balancing chairs on their chins. It’s a weird idea, but what’s even weirder is how well it works.