Tuesday in Salt Lake City, we have a legendary film director talkin', some New Jersey Civil War buffs rockin', and a call to embrace globalization. Who says there's nothing to do in this town?---

Epic Sounds

If you have yet to hear New Jersey band Titus Andronicus, you need to 1. Buy the band's excellent debut, The Monitor; and 2. go to Kilby Court Tuesday at 7 p.m. as they headline a gig that also includes power-poppers Free Energy. Typically speaking, the Civil War is best left to high school history classes and old men who like to put on uniforms and perform reenactments on weekends. Remarkably, Titus Andronicus actually found a way to make a theme album loosely based on the Civil War rock, and rock hard, thanks to sing-along anthems, drunken Irish jigs and, um, re-imagined lyrics swiped from other tunes (“Tramps like us, baby we were born to die!” they scream on the epic opener “A More Perfect Union”). This could be one of the best shows of the year, if the band lives up to its live reputation.

Big Man on Campus

Spike Lee is a thinker, provocateur and, obviously, a noteworthy filmmaker (Do the Right Thing, School Daze, When the Levee Breaks). And when he talks, no matter what he talks about, it's bound to be thought-provoking at the very least. He's the speaker for the 2010 Tanner Lecture on Human Values at the University of Utah, and while his lecture has a title—Through My Lens: The Evolving Nature of Race and Class in the Film of Spike Lee—the subject matter changes every time he takes a dais. The speech is at 7 p.m. at Kingsbury Hall.

Rethinking Trade

Daniel Griswold is the director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute in D.C., and the author of a book that is also the name of his free lecture tonight at Westminster College's Vieve Gore Concert Hall: Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization. In a time of economic strife, when phrases like "free trade" and "globalization" get a bad name from those who prefer a policy of protectionism, Griswold is bound to offer some intriguing analysis thanks to his background studying globalization, trade and immigration policy. The lecture starts at 7 p.m.