Selections: Our picks for the best things to do in Orlando this week

Blondie

MUSIC

Forty years in and still glamorously grinding, Blondie – with the creative core of Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke intact – are on tour behind their 11th studio album, Pollinator. The band started as a group of punks creating music in New York City's mythical '70s downtown scene – alongside Suicide, the Ramones and the New York Dolls – that was undeniably danceable, but Harry and Stein went even further in entering new frontiers combining the worlds of hip-hop and pop/dance on "Rapture," the pioneering collab with Fab Five Freddie that brought the band uptown. On Pollinator, Blondie look to the youth again for the conjoining of genres: The band collaborated on songs with Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), Charli XCX and even Johnny Marr. Making for even deeper mixtapes-made-manifest magic, the co-headliners on this "Rage and Rapture" tour are '90s alt-rock supergroup Garbage. – Nicolette Shurba

with Garbage, Deap Vally | 7 p.m. | Hard Rock Live, 6050 Universal Blvd. | 407-351-5483 | hardrock.com/orlando | $45.50-$120.50

Tales From the Avitable Camp for Wayward Women

COMEDY

Local comedian Adam Avitable may have a penchant for material that plays up his imposing figure, but beneath the burly, bearded exterior is an intelligent and engaging writer. His blog has garnered national attention, and often veers far, far away from comedy to include bittersweet poems about past loves, or tributes to departed friends. This week, he premieres a one-man show that combines his comedic wit with his talent for storytelling at the Henao Center, something akin to a Spalding Gray monologue if Gray had been a regular at Dancers Royale. Expect plenty of laughs centered around Avitable's sordid tales of debauchery, but don't be surprised if his brutally honest tales of heartbreak and divorce pull on your heartstrings. – Thaddeus McCollum

7 p.m. | Henao Contemporary Center, 5601 Edgewater Drive | avitable.com | $10

Call of Duty World League Championship

EVENTS

Major League Gaming comes to the Amway this week for the world championship of Call of Duty, where you can watch the pros battle it out in the fast-paced first-person shooter that has taken over the gaming world. The tournament features 32 of the top teams from North America, Europe and Asia, who are competing for $1.5 million of the $4 million pot, the largest in league history. The adrenaline-filled four-on-four battles occur in the Infinite Warfare universe, where shooters battle for dominance in a futuristic world. Orlando's event marks the culmination of the 2017 CWL Championship season's live events in places like Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas and Sydney. – Virginia Vasquez

10 a.m. | Amway Center, 400 W. Church St. | 800-745-3000 | amwaycenter.com | $53-$161

VV

MUSIC

Bucking the conventional wisdom that concert promoters are more interested in their bottom line than bringing interesting sounds into town, there is a vanguard of younger promoters doing it for the sonic thrills, often to the detriment of their wallets. But whatever, can any of us really retire anymore? Case in point: Local Alex Thomas has put together this absolutely ridiculous lineup bursting at the seams with Southern young/loud/snotty quality. Orlando's Forms join Tallahassee's Spitball, Alabama's Joyboy, Atlanta's ultraviolence deathrockers Nurse and, excitingly, the fabulously fucked and grimey dirge dischord of newer Richmond, Virginia, project VV. Imagine an atonal hybrid of Crash Worship and Huggy Bear. That ugly. The state of punk to come is already here! – Matthew Moyer

with Nurse, Joyboy, Spitball, Forms | 9 p.m. | Uncle Lou's Entertainment Hall, 1016 N. Mills Ave. | $5

War on Wall Street

SPORTS

Maybe you're a fitness lover and a sucker for a rigorous workout. Or, maybe you just want to catch the food and drink specials from your favorite spots on Wall Street while observing local athletic powerhouses. The War on Wall Street crossfit competition gives beginners, intermediates and "RX" athletes their time to shine as they deadlift, pull-up and rope-climb their way to the top. A DJ spins tunes all day while spectators get hit with crossfit physical challenges and trivia along the way. Don't miss the Fancy Pants contest, where a little shimmy and shake in your wackiest leggings could be worth a $25 bar tab. – Kristin James

noon | Wall Street Plaza, Wall and Court streets | thewaronwallst.com | free

The Palmettes

MUSIC

Local "garage pop doo-slop rock" band the Palmettes have gained no small renown for tearing it up on stages across Orlando – playing with the likes of Autarx, Wet Nurse, the Woolly Bushmen and the Wildtones. But they've been quietly amassing a body of work along the way, and they're finally ready to release it as a demo – on the only logical format, the cassette, natch – and are throwing a party to mark the occasion. Early tracks online display sure-footed strut and sass, straddling raw garage rock and fun-loving doo-wop, which is gonna sound choice on spools of lovely magnetic tape. Expect to hear these nuggets given a ragged live airing. Joining in for the night are TV Dinner, Brunch Sluts and Tam Tam the Sandwich Man and the Magical Sugar Cookies bashing it out one more time(?). We'd be remiss if we didn't point out that $5 at entry both gets you in the show and scores you a copy of the Tell Me More cassette. Sweet, sweet DIY. – MM

with Tam Tam the Sandwich Man and the Magical Sugar Cookies, TV Dinner, Brunch Sluts | 9:30 p.m. | Uncle Lou's Entertainment Hall, 1016 N. Mills Ave. | $5

Other Orlandos Book Release

LITERARY

Like that fictional city of Tipping in China, Orlando isn't just a city in the navel of Florida. It's a weedy British movie star, a Chevy SUV sold only outside the U.S., a Sally Potter movie starring Tilda Swinton. Also, according to local literary imprint Burrow Press, it's "a power plant in Johannesburg, an epic poem, a celebrity mask used as a marital aid." In their latest city-focused anthology, Other Orlandos, Orlando is anything but our little theme park-adjacent town as writers springboard off the city, mind-bending it into "new contexts and connotations." The book release party is being held at the Brewstillery, the beer and liquor operation that also hosts the Bear & Peacock Taproom in Winter Park. In the spirit of the book, we hope to see a bear and a peacock at the party. – Jessica Bryce Young

3 p.m. | The Brewstillery, 1288 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park | burrowpress.com | free

Dueling Pianos

MUSIC

Ace Cafe, the downtown bar and restaurant devoted to car culture, has wasted no time in filling out their schedule with a mix of gearhead meetups and live music, providing something of an easygoing alternative to downtown's often raucous nightlife scene. And this week, they launch a weekly night devoted to that cheesiest of guilty pleasures, the dueling piano show. Amy and Randy Keith, a husband-and-wife act, provide the pop covers and enthusiastic schtick every Tuesday. While these kinds of family-friendly nights have traditionally been seen as tourist fodder best kept way down south of the 408, we're actually looking forward to not having to drive all the way down there the next time Aunt Edna visits. – TM

8 p.m. | Ace Cafe, 100 W. Livingston St. | 858-727-3400 | acecafeusa.com | free