THURSDAY MAR 18

Withdrawal sets in. You sweat. You suffer. You fiend for it. Thankfully, spring brings an a cappella rebirth, starting with the fifth annual Miracle Jam. The Veritones, Opportunes, Radcliffe Pitches and Tufts Beelzebubs will perform; On Thin Ice will play hosts. All proceeds benefit the Children's Miracle Network. Sanders Theatre. 496-2222. 8 p.m. $6, available at Sanders Theatre Box Office and BosTix.

Don't you dare close your eyes. "Songs for a New World" has something for everyone: love, birth, death, an historic Spanish sailing ship and the north pole. This musical revue presents a pop-influenced song cycle about life's big moments. Through Sunday. Adams House Pool Theatre. 496-2222. 7:30 p.m. $5, $4 Adams House residents, available at Sanders Theatre Box Office and BosTix.

Hang out with the big kids (a.k.a. grad students) when they gather to watch a double-feature on their big-screen TV. First up is the Bette Davis classic "Now, Voyager" about a Boston spinster who finds romance after therapy. Then stick around for "The Talk of the Town," starring Cary Grant as a self-proclaimed anarchist framed for murder. Graduate Student Lounge, Lehman Hall, Harvard Yard. 495-2255. "Now, Voyager" at 6 p.m. "The Talk of the Town" at 8 p.m. FREE.

Watch the drama unfold in Clint Eastwood's latest movie, "True Crime". Like most investigative reporters, Eastwood's character Steve Everett has wound up trouble with alcohol, women and the New York Times. With Denis Leary. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St. 495-4700. 9:30 p.m. $5 students.

Okay, so it's not James Dean; it's a good way to spend a Thursday afternoon regardless. Davis Center Associate and Tufts Associate Professor of Russian Gregory Carleton presents the literary seminar, "Rebels with Too Much Cause: Representing Youth in the Late 1920s." Bergson/Ulam Room, Coolidge Hall 215, Davis Center, 1737 Cambridge St. 495-4037. 4 to 6 p.m. FREE.

This evening, the Institute of Politics holds a panel on Gay Rights and the Republican Party. Paradoxical, perhaps? You'll have to go to know. Bill Kristol, a highly contentious editor and publisher of the GOP bible known as The Weekly Standard and Andrew Sullivan, a columnist for the equally conservative The New Republic, will participate. ARCO Forum, Littauer Building, Kennedy School of Government, 79 JFK St. 495-1100. 8 p.m. FREE.

The "Vietnam" midterm didn't go so well? Maybe "Vietnam-the Meaning of the War," a video/film by Nancy C. Mroczek, can clear up some questions. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own instruments and join Mroczek, who will play some of her own music after the screening. Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St. 266-9268. 8 p.m. $7 students.