Tap the etymologist within

"All children love bugs," says Debra Strick, spokeswoman for the New England Wild Flower Society's Garden in the Woods, discussing the exhibit "Big Bugs." "Part of it is because it's a small, intimate scale, and it's a whole world. Some of us, as we get older, we lose our sense of wonder. But once you get past the idea of squishing them, there's so much going on." There are some bugs in Garden in the Woods, the largest plant nursery in the Northeast, you won't be able to squish. They include the 12 dinosaur-size bug sculptures created over the past 15 years by David Rogers and brought to the area for the first time: a 1,200-pound praying mantis, a 25-foot long ant, a dragonfly with a 17-foot wingspan, etc. These sculptures live among 1,500 wildflower species and myriad butterflies. Wanna take something home with you? Strick assures us there are many "cool" bug toys, including flashing butterfly pins and ant farms at the Bug Boutique. It's open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults, $3 for children 6-18. (Free for kids 5 and under.) Runs through Oct. 17.

180 Hemenway Road, Framingham, 508-877-7630.

Pure pop for now people

The chap who is calling himself A.C. Newman at the moment also goes by the name Carl Newman when he leads the incredibly cool Vancouver-based collective known as the New Pornographers. One of the many things we like about Newman's solo debut album, "The Slow Wonder," is the amount of information he packs into his textural, economical songs -- 11 of them in about 34 minutes. A.C. makes us think of another Newman, Wire's Colin Newman. He also brings to mind the early pop-punk work of Elvis Costello. And just to drop another name the way we like to do when we find a songwriter blessed with pop smarts who is somewhat enamored of three-and-four part vocal harmonies: Brian Wilson and, for you true devotees of that sound, Martin Phillipps of the Chills. Newman brings a full band to T.T. the Bear's tonight with Rogue Wave and the Neins opening. The 18-plus show starts at 9 and costs $10.

10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 617-492-0082.

Let the music do the talking

Go! took a year of Spanish in college, never realizing it really would be the one foreign language it would make a lot of sense to know in the 21st century. Unfortunately, the Spanish classes we "took" were in the a.m. -- not a good time then or now for Go! -- and we either slept through them or slept during them. Thus, Go!'s Spanish is pretty much limited to saying "Yo La Tengo!" which means "I got it!" (Yep, that's also the name of a Hoboken post-punk band, too, which is the only reason we know it.) But libre is one word we didn't have to look up. It means freedom. Plena is a word we did have to research, and our research tells us it's a traditional Afro-Rican genre that emerged in Puerto Rico at the end of the 19th century with immigrants from Barbados. Over time, their songs mixed with local genres to create the plena, traditionally performed using three different sized hand drums that were pitched low-to-high and featured interlocking rhythms. There were also vocalists doing call-and-response. Over time, plena evolved -- as music will do. In 1994, bassist Gary Nunez formed Plena Libre whose mission was to reinvent and update the genre. Tonight on the stage of the Scullers Jazz Club, you'll find Nunez and 11 other musicians wielding trombones, keyboards, timbales, congas, and all sorts of drums we don't know the names for. There should be a mad weave of polyrhythms that simply sizzle. Shows at 8 and 10. Tickets: $18.

400 Soldiers Field Road, 617-562-4111.

Hardball from cuba

President George W. Bush is in a snit because he believes Cuba welcomes "sex tourism," which pretty much puts the Commie island on par with ultra-capitalistic Las Vegas as far as Go! is concerned. Besides great cigars and oppressing the masses, what else is Cuba noted for? Baseball! And there are baseball players who've taken rafts to Miami in the hopes of attracting George Steinbrenner's attention. John MacNeil, owner of Boston Film Factory, and Wayland director Bill Haney went down to the baseball-mad country -- with novelist Randy Wayne White and standup racounteur/former Red Sox hurler Bill Lee among others -- where Ernest Hemingway once founded a children's baseball league. The filmmakers met with some of those former child ballplayers and attempted to organize a new league. The Coolidge Corner Theatre's "Director's Cut" program features that movie, "Gift of the Game," with Haney there to introduce it. Starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $6.

290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-734-2500.

Events can always be canceled, rescheduled, or sold out; call to confirm. Go! can be reached at go@globe.com or by calling 617-929-8257.