PopSmart

Because of, well, you know, I’ve been eager to read a review of Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns, which opens today.

New York-based journalist and blogger Clay Cane has penned one of the first.

Cane writes it’s Perry’s worst film.

I’ve seen better storylines for a 1-800-MATTRESS commercial.

Nice.

(photo by Joeff Davis)

The Doug Dank Project celebrates two years of innovative, brainy and hilarious improv at PushPush Theater with a three-night party. THE LAST SEEN IMPROV FESTIVAL (pictured) gathers the cream of Atlanta’s improv crop and visitors from New York and L.A. Thursday’s show features an improvised cartoon, and a live, improvised film piped into the theater from locations around town. On Friday, it’s a comedy battle royale between competing improv troupes. Saturday’s finale is “The Last Seen,” a live show featuring all the participants in a never-to-be-reassembled ensemble. Through March 1. $5. 8 p.m. PushPush Theater, 121 New St., Suite A, Decatur. 404-377-6332. www.thedougdankproject.com.

Despite the U.S. intelligence establishment’s report stating Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, the Bush administration continues to bang its Iranian war drum. The national speaking tour TIME FOR REAL DIPLOMACY: THE FOLLY OF ATTACKING IRAN, in Atlanta Fri., FEB. 22, is an attempt at counter-rhythm by two authors who warn that war with Iran would be disastrous for both nations. Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz is the author of Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran, a book that mocks the stereotypes depicted in best seller Reading Lolita in Tehran. Former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer is the author of All the Shah’s Men, about how the U.S. overthrow of Iran’s first real democratic government in 1953 continues to haunt both nations. Free. Reception: 6:30 p.m. Lecture: 7:30 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, 1911 Cliff Valley Way. 404-634-5134. www.thefollyofattackingiran.org.

Contrary to a blog rumor we read earlier today, the Plaza Theatre is not on the brink of closure.

“We are definitely not closing,” says Jonathan Rej, owner of the 69-year-old art deco movie house on Ponce De Leon Avenue. “We’ve had a couple of slow months, but it’s gonna take more than that for us to close up shop.”

Rej says he suspects the closure rumor might have been started by a disgruntled former employee. He also says the bloggers who’ve repeated the rumor have neither telephoned nor e-mailed him. Rej’s e-mail address is on theater’s website.

(Photo by Jim Stawniak)

(Photo courtesy New Tang Dynasty TV)

Party hats, electric peaches and collards didn’t satisfy the New Year’s appetite? Today and Saturday, JAN. 4-5, the Cobb Energy Centre hosts CHINESE NEW YEAR SPECTACULAR. Yes, it’s a full month before the Year of the Rat actually begins, but who’s gonna turn down a show with costumed dance performances, sets evoking traditional Chinese art and orchestral music just because of a technicality? Incidentally, New Tang Dynasty Television presents the performance. The U.S.-based satellite-news station is associated with Falun Gong, the Chinese spiritual movement famously at odds with China’s Communist Party leaders, and the show’s announcement boasts that it’s devoid of Communist cultural influence. $39-$168. 7:30 p.m. 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway. 404-249-6400. www.atlshow.com.

The events of the morning of Sept. 11 have been replayed so often – on TV and in our minds – that they are now part of our nation’s collective folklore. Less widely documented, and less understood, are the events at the attack sites in the following days and months. Photographer JOEL MEYEROWITZ’s book Aftermath provides the most complete, and most chilling, visual document of Ground Zero’s transformation from funeral pyre to sanitary construction. He signs copies of Aftermath Sat., Nov. 17, at Jackson Fine Art, which is also hosting Between the City and the Sea, a retrospective of his large-format photographs taken on Cape Cod continuing Tues., NOV. 20, and through Jan. 5. Free. Opening reception: Fri., 6-8 p.m.; Book signing: Sat., 11 a.m.; Exhibit: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Jackson Fine Art, 3115 E. Shadowlawn Ave. 404-233-3739. www.jacksonfineart.com.

Note: Read visual arts critic Felicia Feaster’s review of Meyerowitz’s exhibition at Jackson Fine Art.

Atlanta’s own Strong Bad is among those honored in Salon.com’s Sexiest Man Living 2007 feature.

One of the stars of the Internet-based Flash cartoon “Homestar Runner,” Strong Bad is praised by Salon for his “gravelly voice, wicked wit and perpetual shirtlessness.”

If you don’t know who/what Strong Bad is, have a look at one of the recurring Strong Bad E-mails, wherein His Sexiness answers actual e-mails from “Homestar Runner” fans. “Pizza Joint” is one of my favorites, as it includes characters from my favorite “Homestar Runner” offering, “Teen Girl Squad.”

Why was I just reading Salon.com’s Sexiest Man Living 2007 feature?

Good question.

The Onion pays tribute to Atlantan Tyler Perry’s prolificacy this week by putting him on the cover of Weekender.