Cool Picks Monday November 19, 2012

November 19, 2012/Rick Handler

Cool Picks brings you the best in Pittsburgh entertainment every day!

1) SpacePlace is a cool new exhibit that has just opened at the Carnegie Science Center. SpacePlace simulates what it feels like to be an astronaut through its exhibits: Zero-G Climbers–strap into climbing gear and scale a zero gravity climbing wall while completing a simple task; Micro-G Simulator–complete real-life astronaut training tasks; International Space Station Modules–replica of a two-story (International) Space Station that permits visitors to experience life in space; Living & Working in Space Wall–view space travel artifacts, a flight suit and ‘Ask the Astronaut’ interactive exhibit with answers from NASA astronauts; Rocket Launch and Parachute Drop– design a rocket, launch it, drop payload parachutes; see the Zeiss Model II Star Projector used at the old Buhl Planetarium (1939-1991).

2) Tonight at The Smiling Moose are musical groups We Are the Union, with special guests A Promise Never Kept, and more. 6:30 p.m. 1306 E. Carson St., South Side.

3) It’s Savoy Jazz Monday at the Savoy Restaurant in the Strip. Hosted by the Roger Humphries Trio, tonight’s featured jazz artist is trumpeter Sean Jones. 5-9 p.m. No Cover. 2623 Penn Ave.

4) Lincoln (PG-13), a just-released movie chronicling President Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to abolish slavery with the passage of the 13th Amendment in the waning days of the Civil War, is now screening at local movie houses and cineplexes. “Lincoln” stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field as the presidential power couple, Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Steven Spielberg brought his legendary directorial talents to the film, based on a book by noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Entertainment Central editor Deborah McDonald reports a “fascinating, historically didactic experience.”