Going out
               George Winston: It's all instrumental all the time when the pioneering contemporary pianist tackles the grand piano for the Miami University Hamilton Artist Series. 8 p.m. today, Parrish Auditorium, 1601 Peck Blvd., $12-$22. (513) 529-3200.

        Play reading: The Theatre of the Mind play-reading series asks you to sit back and picture things when it kicks off with Jon Robin Baitz's Three Hotels, a commentary on corporate America told from three hotel rooms around the world. 7 p.m. today, Ensemble Theatre, 1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, $5. 421-3555.

        Encore Linton: The intimate chamber music series surfaces in Montgomery for a round of Haydn, Elgar and Brahms in the capable hands of violinist Elmar Oliveira. 7:30 p.m. today, Congregation Ohav Shalom, 8100 Cornell Road, $30. 381-6868.

        Granny D: The campaign finance reform activist with a whole lot of snappy answers discusses and signs her Walking Across America in My 90th Year. 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. today, New World Bookshop, 336 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 861-6100.

Staying in

        TV picks: NBC's Third Watch dramatizes the lives of Manhattan police, fire and paramedic personnel on Sept. 10, the day before the terrorist attack (9 p.m., Channels 5, 22). The two-part story concludes next Monday showing how their lives changed after Sept. 11.

        • TV Critic John Kiesewetter also says Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper have their baby in a prime-time Blue's Clues (8 p.m., Nickelodeon).

What's in video picks

        Whoa, just in time: Everything you ever wanted to know about “America the Beautiful” — from Katharine Lee Bates' inspiration for the words on a trip to Pike's Peak to Samuel Augustus Ward's inspiration for the music on a trip to New York's Coney Island. And a bit as well on how the words and music were finally married up. ABC News correspondent Lynn Sherr wrote the book, complete with all kinds of analysis — “alabaster cities,” “amber waves of grain,” that sort of thing — and added tons of pictures too. $25 in bookstores.

Planning Ahead

        24 hours out: The Military History Lecture Series has a word or two from the guys who were actually there: Four local World War II POWs telling their stories. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Northern Kentucky University's Business-Education-Psychology Center Auditorium, Highland Heights, free. (859) 572-5364.

        48 hours out: Ah, it's Shakespeare on the cheap with a $10 preview performance of CCM Drama Department's production of the classic Tempest. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Patricia Corbett Theater, University of Cincinnati. 556-4183.

        72 hours 'til Thursday: Roger McGuinn, founding member of the plenty venerable Byrds, plays a solo acoustic evening, 8 p.m., 20th Century, 3021 Madison Road, Oakley, $17-$20. 779-9462.

        Contact Jim Knippenberg by phone: 768-8513; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jknippenberg@enquirer.com.

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