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"This week, Idris Elba becomes Mandela, The Punk Singer gives us answers, Mike Birbiglia makes people laugh (and cry), Jimmy Pardo talks a lot, Nick Cave &amp;amp; The Bad Seeds go live, James Franco inexplicably stars in Homefront, Treme starts to say goodbye, and football takes over your TV. Twice.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n1. See Idris Elba in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. It\u2019s a tough task to take on: portray a much-revered historical figure, spanning most of his adult life, as depicted in his own words. Luckily, Elba nails it as Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, an adaptation of Mandela\u2019s autobiography that opens in theaters Friday. GQ\u2019s Zach Baron got an early look at the film in October for his cover profile of the Brit actor and described Elba\u2019s portrayal as &amp;quot;a performance that does real honor to the flawed, angry, and vivid humanity of the man himself.&amp;quot; Check out own our Tom Carson\u2019s take on the Oscar-worthy performance, and a handful of other actors we hope to see get that nom, from our November issue.\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n2. Find out why your favorite punk band called it quits. We\u2019ll let our eternal punkgirl crush Kathleen Hanna explain in the new doc The Punk Singer out on Friday: &amp;quot;I told myself, and told my bandmates, and told my husband, and told the world, that I chose to stop playing music because I had nothing else to say. Because that felt better to me than being in touch with the fact that I might not ever be able to do the thing that I love more than anything in the world.&amp;quot; Actually, she\u2019s got plenty to say. The Sini Anderson-directed flick chronicles the life and career of Hanna, the Bikini Kill and Le Tigre lead singer-turned-punk rock and feminist icon. Hear from Hanna about the sudden, surprising end of Le Tigre in 2005, get an intimate glimpse into her private life, and check out her latest music project, the Julie Ruin. That, plus home videos, interviews with Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, and Carrie Brownstein, and, of course, awesome music.\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterestMike Birbiglia 5 Photo Credit Brian Friedman[2].jpg \n\n3. Laugh, cry, repeat with Mike Birbiglia.  The comedian\u2019s standup-romcom mash-up, My Girlfriend\u2019s Boyfriend-previously an off-Broadway show that opened in 2011, now a comedy special on Netflix and available on DVD tomorrow-tells the story of how he, a guy who doesn\u2019t believe in marriage, ended up getting married. And all of the laughably cringe-worthy love life tales in between. It\u2019s as hilarious as it is unexpectedly touching. We spoke to Birbiglia about storytelling, his next standup special, and cursing with the Muppets.\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterestPardcast11251105_Hamm.jpeg \n\n4. Do a marathon without leaving your couch. By watching comedian Jimmy Pardo and Never Not Funny\u2019s fifth annual twelve-hour Pardcast-a-Thon on Friday. The fundraiser webcast benefitting Smile Train-stream it  here or here-will happen at The ACME Comedy Theatre in Hollywood and host very funny people like, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Scott Aukerman, and Doug Benson. (Look out for items from the show\u2019s guests that\u2019ll go up for auction throughout the show.) Since Pardo is spending the entire day-after-Thanksgiving talking, we asked him for a list of things not to talk about at the holiday table the day before.\n\nJimmy Pardo\u2019s Things Not to Bring Up at Thanksgiving Dinner:\n\n What this holiday is really about: I\u2019m begging you, don\u2019t try to make me feel guilty as to why we are all gathered on this day. I get it: thousands of Native Americans were killed in order for us to enjoy this great dinner. Hey, listen fella, save that junk for your vegan buddies in your drum circle. Nobody wants to hear that crap\u2026we want to eat like slobs and then nap. Your love of soft porn: First off, it\u2019s inappropriate talk for the dinner table. Second, quit being a pussy! Get off the fence - either like porn or don\u2019t. Unless you\u2019re the President of Cinemax, you should have no interest in soft-core pornography. I\u2019m talking to you, Uncle Hal!!! Your diet: Here\u2019s the thing\u2026No one and I mean NO ONE cares about how you\u2019re losing weight. We don\u2019t need to hear about how you\u2019ve been &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; all week so you can enjoy a third helping of yams. Shut up and pass the stuffing, you uninteresting clod. Your lack of interest in Football: For reasons I will never understand, football goes hand in hand with Thanksgiving and the love of football goes hand in hand with macho bullying. So,if you want to avoid being called a sissy and other choice names by your iceberg lettuce-eating cousin Ned, I suggest constantly having food in your mouth and just nod when football comes up. Trust me on this one. See: Pardo Thanksgiving 1981. The Affordable Care Act: What\u2019s the over under on how many dinners this topic will ruin? Whatever it is, I\u2019m taking the over. &amp;quot;You know why we ran out of gravy? This God Damned Obamacare!&amp;quot;\n\n\n\n5. Escape the holiday music with Nick Cave &amp;amp; the Bad Seeds. Spend Black Friday listening to the pleasantly melancholic tracks from the band\u2019s new live album-Live From KCRW-recorded between Coachella performances this spring at a live KCRW radio session at L.A.\u2019s Apogee Studio. The LP features minimalist versions of their classics, as well as material from the band\u2019s last album, Push the Sky Away. And it sounds nothing like that Mariah Carey Christmas song you\u2019ll hear on repeat for the next four weeks.\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Ask yourself, how did James Franco end up playing a bayou meth dealer villain in Homefront? The actor-turned-professor-turned-author-turned  GQ cover star is the villain in the latest Jason Statham action thriller: a meth dealer named Gator who doesn\u2019t like that former D.E.A. agent Statham has moved into the neighborhood. So, he steals his kid! Homefront looks like a mash-up of Taken and every single Jason Statham movie-so, how did Franco end up in it? Some theories:\n\n Whenever he needs to finance an art project, his agent spreads out a pile of scripts on a table, closes his eyes and points.\n He thought the audition was for Breaking Bad.\n Sylvester Stallone wrote it.*\n Teachers don\u2019t earn that much.\n He\u2019s just messing with us.\n It\u2019s part of a performance art piece.\n He\u2019s not sure, actually.\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n7. Say goodbye to Treme. The post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans HBO drama premieres its fourth and final season on Sunday. The show returns circa November 2008, post-Obama election with that hope for change still hanging in the air. But some things stay the same-like, those live jazz performances that alone make the show worth watching. See also: Wendell Pierce.\n\n\n\n\n\n8. Watch football because, duh. It\u2019s Thanksgiving. It\u2019s what the pilgrims did. It\u2019s the only thing on TV. There are three NFL games happening on Thursday while you quietly plot how to get the most leftovers\u2026\n\n The day\u2019s first match-up, Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Tigers, also marks the first time in, well, forever that Detroit will be favored. (Even if injured Packers QB Aaron Rodgers returns in time.) If you\u2019re going watch any game this Thanksgiving, this is the one-it could determine who wins the division. Plus, it\u2019s at 12:30 p.m. EST, which means the Turkey won\u2019t be out of the oven yet. \u2026Unlike the Oakland Raiders vs. Dallas Cowboys game. Rightfully timed for mid-mealtime-kick off is at 4:30 p.m.-so no one needs to see that thing. Cap off the night with the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens at 8:30 p.m. That is, if all that tryptophan has left you completely immobile and you can\u2019t find the remote. A late-November matchup that just two weeks ago seemed meaningless might now-thanks to the mega-crapitude of the AFC\u2019s second tier-have real playoff implications for the winner.  \n\n\n\n9. And then, uh, watch more football. It\u2019s the biggest college football rivalry game of the year: The Iron Bowl. On Saturday, theUniversity of Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn University  Tigers match up for an epic showdown-the winner earns a spot in the Southeastern Conference championship game and has a chance at the BCS title. Also, bragging rights."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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