PopSmart

1) Comedian Margaret Cho performs at the Tabernacle for one night only.

2) Indie Craft Experience hosts “Lucky No. 7” at Centennial Olympic Park.

3) Little Five Points’ Five Spot hosts a solid bill including Feeding Fingers, Slow Motion Crash, Cinetrope and more.

4) A (new) Genre Landscape opens at Cyclorama in Grant Park.

5) ZZ Top performs at Chastain Park Amphitheatre with the Zac Brown Band.

(Photo by Austin Young)

1) The Dixie Bee-Liners play Eddie’s Attic with openers the Chapmans.

2) “Last Comic Standing” alum Gabriel Iglesias performs at the Punchline.

3) Theatre Decatur presents opening weekend of A … My Name Is Alice.

4) Battlestar Galactica goes down at Java Lords.

5) Django hosts Party with a Purpose, featuring art, music, and drink and dinner specials, to benefit the Artists for Charity Home in Ethiopia.

(Courtesy the Dixie Bee-Liners)

1) Rene Arriagada’s Death Stencil and Blink’s Guardians of Our Memory open at Beep Beep Gallery.

2) East Atlanta Beer Festival parties all day at East Atlanta Village.

3) Driving Miss Daisy closes it final weekend at Academy Theatre.

4) Drink for a good cause at Draft on Taft in Midtown, with proceeds benefiting H.E.R.O for Children and the Georgia Innocence Project.

5) Flowers Forever performs at Drunken Unicorn.

Sure, Creative Loafing’s got desks of award-winning designers, but we also know that Atlanta’s got talent.

So, we’re asking Georgia students to submit their cover designs for CL’s 2008 College Guide: The Student Body Handbook.

We’re taking the phrase “student body” literally and figuratively this year, and providing a guide for students’ heads (academics), hearts (activism), stomachs (food and drink), arms and legs (partying), and feet (moving about Atlanta and on from college).

The first-place winner receives $200 cash and prizes.

Start sketching; the deadline is midnight, Tues., July 1.

This festival is slightly different than your usual weekend-long art market, local music, neighborhood party and general debauchery. This one is also concerned with social awareness. MONDOHOMO DIRTY SOUTH FESTIVAL leaves behind traditional standards and dedicates five days, beginning Thurs., MAY 22, to anything that is queer, independent, artistic or progressive. This year’s events include tons of local queer art and music, such as Hurray for the Riff Raff (left), skateboard and graffiti demonstrations, circus performances, sporting events, corn dogs, a queer film festival, conversations about gender neutrality and equality, political activism, and an overall indulgence in diversity. Come out and enjoy the party as the spotlight shifts to all things outside of social norms. Through May 26. Free-$50. Locations and times vary. www.mondohomo.com.

— By Wendi Jonassen

(Photo by Shannon Brinkman)

1) Atlanta rock band Morning State (right) plays the Earl.

2) Virginia-Highland hosts its first annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration and Block Party.

3) Fulton County Public Library opens its Great Speckled Bird historical exhibit, which includes covers, articles, cartoons and graphics from Atlanta’s underground paper.

4) Local and national bands rock out for 500 Songs For Kids at Smith’s Olde Bar.

5) American Kidney Fund hosts a margarita tasting at No Mas! Cantina.

(Courtesy of Indie Outlaw)

Rumor has it that this week will break records in pop culture profits: Grand Theft Auto IV went on sale on Tuesday and could sell 9 million copies. If so, the console game could earn well over $400 million in its first week, and earn the highest “first week” gross of any entertainment product of all time.

I cannot claim to have much proficiency with games like Grand Theft Auto. In 2002 I wrote a feature story about console and computer games, and this is my experience with Grand Theft Auto III in a nutshell:

After two hours, my career as a criminal is not going well. My assignment is to pick up Misty, one of Luigi Goterelli’s working girls. But en route to our meeting at the Liberty City clinic, I keep accidentally knocking down lampposts, driving over fire hydrants and hitting pedestrians. My car gets crumpled from every angle, steam billowing from the radiator, and before I can even find Misty, I get arrested. In one attempt, my burning auto explodes, killing me. Could a wannabe carjacker possibly come to a more shameful end?

Fortunately you don’t need to be any good as a virtual car thief to enjoy this item from Cracked.com, “25 Rejected Ideas From Grand Theft Auto IV.” The reader Photoshop contest received some highly amusing suggestions for “missions,” such as “Promote literacy throughout the city” and “Nail this country duet with Dolly Parton.” If you’re not down with the games, reading it can at least give you the simulation of feeling hip.

(Image courtesy of Rockstar Games)

Small Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is sponsoring a benefit dinner at Glover Family Organic Farm (right) Sun., APRIL 27. The annual event is a fundraiser for Slow Foods Atlanta, a nonprofit organization that promotes local food traditions. This year’s theme of WORLD FOOD AT THE FARM pays homage to the immigrant roots that make up Atlanta’s culinary melting pot. Chefs and cooks from all over the world who showcase their talents daily at Atlanta restaurants such as Repast, Woodfire Grill and Restaurant Eugene are teaming up to prepare a family-style meal with most of the ingredients taken right from Glover Farm. It’s a collision of Southern comfort food and international flavors. Other treats for guests include a rare performance by a refugee drum troop from Burundi, and a silent auction to raise money for the community garden at Refugee Family Services. $45. Glover Family Farm, 3260 Ga. 166, Douglasville. 678-485-4941. www.slowfoodatlanta.org.
— Brooke Williams

(Photo courtesy of Glover Family Farm)

(Photo courtesy www.canstruction.org)

The season of giving and eating has arrived, so it’s about time to start giving some eatables. Not your average canned-food drive, CANSTRUCTION brings together teams of contractors and designers to turn canned goods into gigantic sculptural masterpieces. The sculptures are displayed for one week and then dismantled and donated to local charities and food banks. Awards ceremony: Fri., 7 p.m. RSVP required. Display: Through Nov. 16. Free. Daily, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Underground Atlanta, 50 Upper Alabama St. 404-892-3333. www.canstruction.org.

For more See & Do, click here.

(Photo credit: (c) 2003 Dimension Films)Are you representative of the holidays in some way, shape or form? For CL’s upcoming Holiday Guide ’07, we’re profiling six people who define the holiday season. We are looking for people who fit the following categories:

The Spiritual (Christian, Jewish, you name it), the Secular (not so religious), the Department-Store Santa (you know who you are), the Anti-Consumer (hey, no spender!), the Workhorse (moonlighting, are we?), the Lonely Heart (single, are we?)

And asking you these questions:

Why are you the way you are? What’s your ideal holiday meal? What’s the perfect gift to give or receive this season? Where are your holiday festivities/parties? What’s the best feel-good activity of the season for you?

If you’re interested and would like to participate, please e-mail me at adina.fleming@cln.com.