1. ISO Opening Weekend with Joshua Bell

8 p.m. Sept. 11 and Sept. 12; 6 p.m. Sept. 13, $20-$75. Hilbert Circle Theatre, 45 Monument Circle, www.indianapolissymphony.org

Remember the Washington Post article about Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell playing for free in a D.C. Metro station? All the commuters studiously avoided noticing him. No one will be ignoring Bell when the sexy violinist (he even has groupies, including one woman who claims to be his wife) kicks off the ISO's season with Camille Saint-Saens' Third Violin Concerto. Look him straight in the eye and tell him: "We are so proud that you have turned your career around since you were playing for spare change in the subway!"

2. 2008 Indianapolis Chinese Festival: Speedway to the Great Wall

11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 13, free, Military Park, 601 W. New York St., (317) 327-7955.

If the closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics left you with an unsatisfied need for firecrackers, gongs and dancing dragons, then this is the event for you. Mayor Ballard may never get his goofy wish for a Chinatown in Indianapolis ..... check back in a century to see how that's going. But in the meantime, all of us can celebrate the Indianapolis Chinese Festival. Food, music, exotic fashions and a very cool lantern festival.

3. Civic Theatre presents 'Little Shop of Horrors'

8 p.m. Sept. 12 and 13; 2 p.m. Sept. 14 and 7 p.m. Sept. 18. Runs through Sept. 28. $32 ($25 on Sept. 18).Indianapolis Civic Theatre, 3200 Cold Spring Road, (317) 923-4597 or www.civictheatre.org

You might think autumn's arrival means you get to slack off on gardening. If so, see Civic Theatre's "Little Shop of Horrors" as a cautionary tale: Let your flowers go too long without proper care and you could have a bass-voiced azalea bellowing "Feed me!" And you know what plants want to be fed once they reach the bellowing stage.

4. Poet Frank Bidart

7:30 p.m. Sept. 16, free, Butler University's Johnson Room, Robertson Hall, 4600 Sunset Ave., (317) 940-9861

If there were a Poet's Punctuation Hall of Fame, Frank Bidart would be a first-ballot selection. Critics praise Bidart's idiosyncratic use of capital letters and irregular syntax as helping him "say the unsayable." It will be a treat to watch Bidart translate his visually arresting poems from the printed page to the spoken word. Expect a particularly moving performance of his poem "Star Dust," inspired by Hoosier Hoagy Carmichael.