DON’T MISS: Chowder festival; blues at the Mill; ‘Cinema Paradiso’; Halloween bingo; fall fun for kids; mid-century design pioneer

New Englanders tend to have strong opinions about what makes the perfect cup of clam chowder. At Saturday’s festival downtown you can taste more than a dozen recipes from local restaurants and vote for the one you deem best. Reigning chowdah champ Mike’s Restaurant of Fairhaven is competing again this year against the likes of Cove Surf and Turf, Moby Dick Brewing, The Lunch Ladies, The Black Whale and more. In addition to all the ladling, feasting and judging, there will be live music.

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-noon Fri., through Oct. 22
UMASS STAR STORE GALLERY

Typography as art

Norman Ives’ abstract typographic works, posters and symbol designs inspired generations of designers and artists. “Constructions & Reconstructions,” an exhibition on view at the Star Store gallery through Oct. 22, presents examples of Ives’ work from 1951 until his death in 1978. Some of his early works are shown for the first time, including a print of a Victorian house composed by hand-stamping large 19th-century wood fonts, and a woodcut portrait of a classmate printed on Japanese kozo paper.

Seasoned blues guitarist SaRon Crenshaw has shared the stage with some of the greats of soul and blues music: B.B. King, Robert Cray, Lee Fields, Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle and Tyrone Davis, to name a few. Saturday he takes the stage at Kilburn Mill with The Authentics to raise money for New Bedford’s Cape Verdean Parade.

“Cinema Paradiso” (1988), a Cannes and Oscar winner directed by Giuseppe Tornatore with an Ennio Morricone score, is considered a masterwork of Italian film. The movie follows a young boy in a war-torn Sicilian village who takes refuge in cinema. It is perhaps best known for its kissing montage: a reel of all the love scenes that the village priest clipped from the local theater’s films over the years.

Bingo, shopping, imbibing and Halloween dress-up are all rolled into one event at Striker’s Sports Bar, located inside the Wonder Bowl. In addition to a pop-up market featuring local vendors, there will be 10 rounds of bingo and giveaways. Dress up for Halloween for a free raffle ticket.