Are we there yet? It's coming up on August, and by now it feels like just about every eye-candy summer blockbuster has been thrown our way. Luckily this week, there are plenty of other options. The Jewish Community Center has partnered with Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation to present the New Orleans Jewish Film Festival at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St., 528-3805). From Thursday through Aug. 1, the CAC will screen six completely different films (both in length and content) examining Jewish history, culture and lifestyle. A particularly intriguing work is Joseph Cedar's 2000 feature-length film Time of Favor (HaHesder, pictured), a curious mix of psychological thriller and romantic triangle that captured six Israeli Academy Awards. Other films deal with everything from mah-jongg, Yiddish theater and the Holocaust to Hassidic and Orthodox Jews grappling with homosexuality. Festival passes are $24, while tickets are $7.50 (advance) and $8.50 (at the door) and are available at the CAC, the Uptown Jewish Community Center (5342 St. Charles Ave., 897-0143) and the Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation (3737 W. Esplanade Ave., 889-1144). Call for showtimes. A festival of a completely different stripe features guerilla filmmaking at its finest. Star Maxx Media out of Atlanta is sponsoring Countdown Cinema New Orleans, in which local filmmakers can enter and make a short film (eight to 15 minutes in length) over three nights and two days -- with films screened at the AMC Palace 16 (1151 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey) from Friday through July 31. An awards ceremony will be held Aug. 1 at the Downtown Joy (1200 Canal St.), with prizes awarded for Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Soundtrack or Music Score, and more. Registration is $25 and will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Whiskey Blue inside the W Hotel (333 Poydras St.). For more info, visit www.starmazzmedia.com. -- David Lee Simmons

J.B. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, July 23-27; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28 Arena Theatre, University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center, 280-SHOW In 1959, Archibald MacLeish won a Pulitzer Prize for his modern verse play based on the biblical book of Job, as played by American businessman J.B. and two worn circus actors. This summer, students and members of the community come together in the University of New Orleans Theatre Workshop for a production of the award-winning play, collaborating on all aspects of the production. MacLeish's plan was to write a commentary on the world after two world wars, and he saw in the story of Job a modern tale of man's suffering and fate. A play-within-a-play, J.B. is set in a traveling circus where clowns play God and Satan. Participating UNO students and community members include Jane Catalenello, Jim Winter and Leonard Zanders. J Hammons, director of last season's Fertilizer and performer with the MOMIX Dance Theatre, will direct. Admission $8 general public and $5 students/seniors. -- Tomarra Campbell

Oops! The Tour 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 24 Shim Sham Club, 615 Toulouse St., 299-0666 You'd think innovations in punk rock would be exhausted by now, but critics and underground fans are calling So Co band the Locust "the future of hardcore punk." With bug-eye glasses, electronic sensibility, and "blastbeat" delivery, the band's performances make you wonder where it's all leading. The Locust headlines this summer's indie showcase Oops! The Tour, a collective effort from individuals at a few key record labels, including Chicago-based Skin Graft, and Providence, R.I.'s Load Records. Mystery rockers Arab on Radar are also on the bill (they split a well-received 7-inch with the Locust back in 1999). Yahweh or the Highway and Rough Day at the Orifice are the latest full-length releases from the biblically and sexually fixated group. Our own electro-geek organ showman Mr. Quintron and his puppet-touting sidekick/wife Ms. Pussycat join the tour for its Southeast leg. Rah Bras and Lightning Bolt are also on the bill. All ages. Tickets $8 in advance, $10 at the door. -- Cristina Diettinger

Hariharan 8 p.m. Friday, July 26 McAlister Auditorium, Tulane University, 220-1558 Ironically enough, it was an album in which he sang in English that brought Hariharan international acclaim and stardom. Born in Bombay, India, in 1955, the son of two acclaimed vocalists, Harihan began his ascent in the music world as a ghazal singer -- ghazal being an Arabic word meaning "talking to women" that is a traditional form of poetry first surfacing in India in the 12th century. In his early years as a performer, Hariharan toiled on the concert circuit and sang television show themes as well as recording a few well-received ghazal albums. But in 1996, Hariharan skyrocketed into global view with the album Colonial Cousins, a collaboration with Leslie Lewis that served as an Indian-English fusion album. Colonial Cousins dominated the music charts in India, and soon Hariharan performed as the first Indian act on MTV Unplugged, and he now comes to New Orleans an international star. Tickets $45 per person, $5 students. -- Frank Etheridge

Los Vecinos CD-release party 10 p.m. Friday, July 26 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS Local Latin music gigs are among the hottest options for summer entertainment, Los Vecinos performances not the least of them. The nine-piece traditional Cuban band hooked a hardcore group of followers on their wild Sunday night Dragon's Den shows. When the Den closed due to fire code violation -- Los Vecinos played its raucous closing party-- the gig moved around the corner to the Blue Nile, and the crowd followed. This Friday, the band celebrates the release of its second album, P¹aqui P¹alli (meaning "here and there"), a follow-up to 2000's Guajira en Cyberspace. The new album is a collection of traditional standards from the first half of the 20th century, originals in the same style, and traditional Santeria drum tracks, all staples from the band's live shows. Holding fast to the descarga (jam session) concept, Los Vecinos always draws a host of local luminaries to sit in. So the party rolls on stage and on the dance floor, where couples shimmy their way to Caribbean bliss. Admission $7. -- Diettinger

Original Sinners 11 p.m. Friday, July 26 Shim Sham Club, 615 Toulouse St., 299-0666 When will Exene Cervenka ever slow down? Not any time soon, if her latest project, Original Sinners, is any indication. Their new eponymous CD, released last month, is a wonderful slice of nostalgia without feeling stale, reminiscent of the time when Cervenka was the co-leader of the seminal L.A. punk band X. Back in those heady '80s days, she and (now-former) husband John Doe played fast and furious punk rock, one of the first and best to fuel their romantic- and politically charged blasts with healthy doses of country and folk. While the band went through break-ups and reunions, the 47-year-old kept herself busy with plenty of solo and side projects including a spoken-work collaboration with Lydia Lunch. On this latest effort, Cervenka sounds like a 25-year-old, her vocals clear as day and just nasty enough. "Lookin' at Texas/ Through batty eyelashes," she harmonizes with guitarist Jason Edge on "Whiskey Supper." "And dust bowl colored glasses/ Wanting for hours/ Oh yes I must confess/ I need a little bartenderness." Keep on punkin', Exene. Admission $10. -- Simmons

White Clouds, Black Dreams 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, July 26-27; 3 p.m. Sunday, July 28; through Aug. 14 St. Mark's Academy, 3911 Gen. Pershing St., 891-6191 The Ethiopian Theater Company celebrates its 29th anniversary as the oldest black theater company in the Southern region. The company is directed by founder Jomo-Kenyatta Bean, an ACT I award winner and, this season, presents a production of Alex Newell's White Clouds, Black Dreams. The play centers around the Washingtons, an African-American family in the mid-1970s torn apart when the boys discover their roots in Harlem and exert their black pride. Kile Emery and Edwin King play the two sons; Lloyd Martin plays the father, while Nicole Learson plays the mother. Admission $10 adults, $8 seniors/students, $5 groups of 10 or more. For tickets and more information, contact Jomo-Kenyatta Bean at 891-6191. -- Campbell

A Visible Presence: 275 Years of the Ursulines in New Orleans Through August Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St., 598-7145 She was an Ursuline nun, but her passion was photography. Her name was Mother St. Croix and she recorded the world she knew, the architecture and activities of the Ursuline Convent. Founded in 1727 to educate women, the Ursuline Convent was already ancient a century ago when it became the focus of Mother St. Croix's lens. Its legendary history, including her camera and photographs as well as paintings, documents and objects dating from the beginning, are now on display at the Historic New Orleans Collection's Royal Street gallery. The view that emerges is of not just a religious institution, but of a community epicenter, a place where women of all races rallied to support Gen. Andrew Jackson in his battle with the British in 1815, and which continues to educate New Orleans women today. Throughout the city's long history, Ursuline nuns were present almost every step of the way. -- D. Eric Bookhardt