With an inviting blend of tolerance and freewheeling fun, the French Quarter has been, since 1972, home to SOUTHERN DECADENCE, the hard-partying celebration of gay culture that each year grows in both size and scope. This year, events run from Wednesday to Monday, with local bars, streets and dance clubs hosting an expected 110,000 visitors that pump in an estimated economic impact of nearly $90 million. In July, Rusty LaRoux was selected to reign as Southern Decadence Grand Marshall XXXI, and has since chosen this year's theme as "Carnival Decadence," saying, "It's gay Mardi Gras with a little Rio Latin flair." LaRoux selected vibrant colors of the rainbow as the official colors, and the late "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz's "La Vida est un Carnival" serves as the official song. LaRoux's touches complement a wide range of activities that run seemingly 24 hours a day for the entire six days. Venues include Oz, the Corner Pocket, the Golden Lantern, the Country Club, the Phoenix, Club 735, Cowpokes and Kim's 940, which caters to women and features DJ Mags spinning her Star 80s show. Comedienne Margaret Cho (pictured) will bring her brand of humor once again to the Saenger Theatre on Saturday (see preview below). Another annual favorite will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday, when the Mr. Leather Louisiana 2004 contest takes the stage at Cowpokes (1030 Marigny St.). One difference this year: concerns about police enforcement of local law in the wake of political pressure resulting from a videotape circulated by a local clergyman. In response, SouthernDecadence.com and Ambush, a local magazine catering to the gay community, have launched the 2003 NO Public Sex Campaign. The Web site has on its home page a picture of handcuffs with the label "Southern Decadence Wrist Band," posting underneath the warning "Public Sex = 10 Days in Jail." However, police say no new tactics will be employed. "Our plan is the same as it was last year," says NOPD spokesman Lt. Marlon Defillo. "If our officers witness, or gather information about, indecent or lewd behavior, the appropriate action will be taken." For a complete listing of the dizzying array of events, visit www.southerndecadence.com. -- Frank Etheridge

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26 Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena, 6801 Franklin Ave., 280-7171 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tour in support of the latest release, The Last DJ, on Tuesday at the Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena. Photo by Blossom Berkofsky Tom Petty often gets lumped into the heartland rocker category with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, but Petty's always had a wickedly subversive streak that's surfaced in tracks like the psychedelia of "Don't Come Around Here No More" and the unexpected wordplay of "Swingin'," with its sly references to icons like Sonny Liston, Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. Petty's most recent CD, The Last DJ, continues his unpredictability, as it's a concept album of sorts lambasting the homogenization of commercial radio. (Ballsy for a guy whose catalog remains a rock-radio staple.) It's a bit heavy-handed at times, but the crack backing of his ace band the Heartbreakers always makes interesting listing. Petty's current tour features a number of the expected hits, rarities like the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle With Care," and intriguing covers of "Little Red Rooster" and "Baby Please Don't Go." Mavis Staples opens. Tickets $39-$59. -- Scott Jordan

UniverSoul Circus 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Monday, Aug. 26-Sept. 1; 10:30 a.m. Wednesday-Monday, Aug. 28-Sept. 1 Lake Forest Plaza Mall, 5700 Read Blvd., (800) 316-7439 UniverSoul Circus' caravan roars into town this week to entertain families and celebrate its 10th anniversary as the country's leading African-American circus. Its New Orleans performance is part of a 29-state national tour titled "Soul in the City" and features ringmaster Shuckey Duckey, comedian Patrice Lovely and dancer Soul Man. The one-ring circus includes pyrotechnics, music, a light show, and song and dance. In addition, the circus' lineup boasts an array of international performers such as acrobats from Africa and China, showgirls from Brazil, contortionists from Mongolia, motorcycle daredevils from Colombia and plenty of national acts to dazzle and entertain young and old. The circus' animal performers include elephants, tigers, a kangaroo, mules, dogs and even a rare white lion. Tickets $14.50-$25. For more info, visit www.universoulcircus.com. -- Ian Morrison

Brian Coogan's Trio for the End of Time 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26 Funky Butt, 714 N. Rampart St., 558-0872 Best known as the keyboardist for jazz combo Quintology, Brian Coogan has branched out into several different side projects in the past year, not least of which is his own Trio for the End of Time. Named after a piece by avant-garde/classical composer Elliot Carter, the group aims to explore the ins and outs of the trio format, style be damned. Coogan enlists two longtime musical friends for the adventure, namely underrated saxophonist Scott Bourgeois and drummer Simon Lott, Coogan's Quintology bandmate. The material ranges from funky organ combo material akin to Larry Young and Medeski Martin and Wood, to Ornette Coleman-influenced amorphic extended improvisation. With Bourgeois and Lott in the trio format, he enjoys total stylistic freedom, pulling rhythmic inspiration from 20th century classical, hip-hop, and electronica, not to mention jazz. "Simon is knowledgeable about the entire history of music," says Coogan, "so he can cue up almost anything and does." Admission $5. -- Cristina Diettinger

"No Song Is Safe" 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Ave., 522-0276 Indeed, no genre is safe either, with this partnership between the local Trinity Artist Series and Southeastern Festival of Song, which has selected New Orleans as one of its 10 magnet cities in establishing festivals celebrating song literature. In this preview benefit performance, which heralds the official festival next spring, Louisiana native Christina Vial will perform along with several others, including Festival co-founders Ryan Taylor and Adriana Zabala. The music will span the spectrum, from Bellini and Rossini to Sondheim, Gershwin and even the Beach Boys. Tickets $20. For more information on the festival, visit www.sefos.org. -- David Lee Simmons

Like Poison Ivy 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Aug. 29-30; 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528-3800 Rarely is a work of local theater so steeped in local flavor -- and research. Like Poison Ivy is from Junebug Productions' John O'Neal, who based his work about environmental racism on stories taken from residents of the historic Treme neighborhood, members of the Gulf Coast Tenants' Association, the Concerned Citizens Association of the Agriculture Street Landfill Community, and so on. O'Neal, one of the leaders of the African-American theater scene, has been fine-tuning the play for years, including a staged reading in 2001 and last May's concert preview at the CAC. Now he's back with a full-blown version, with Steven Kent directing Troi Bechet, Lloyd Joseph Martin Jr., William O'Neal and Linda Parris-Bailey. Call for ticket info. -- Simmons

Margaret Cho 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30 Saenger Theatre, 143 Rampart St., 524-2490/522-5555 Margaret Cho found success in her failures a few years back; in her concert-performance documentary, I¹m the One That I Want, Cho mined the personal and professional disasters (booze, the cancellation of her ABC sitcom) for major laughs. She followed that up with last year's The Notorious C.H.O. , including footage from a tour that swung through New Orleans -- again, timed nicely enough for Southern Decadence weekend and her "Assmasters" fan base. The 34-year-old Cho is not only sober but also married and recently made Entertainment Weekly's "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment" list. Like many living in a post-9/11 world, Cho's turned her Revolution show into more of a sociopolitical exploration (for the template, watch Sandra Bernhardt in action). "This show has more of a political immediacy to it," Cho says by phone from her manager's office in Los Angeles. "There's a sense of this real discontentment with the way things are now socially and culturally, and how we've experienced a real shift in the way we view the world. It has to do with how media and government have made a hard and swift turn to the right." Don't worry; she'll still mimic her mom, for old time's sake. Tickets $29.75-$39.75. -- Simmons

Mini-Kiss 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30 The Dock, 1926 West End Park., 284-3625 In the '70s, Kiss was a towering glam-rock icon, and a lot of people still think Kiss is a great band -- to make fun of. Combine the kitsch factor of Kiss fandom with the recent resurgence of cover bands, and you get a whole Kiss cover-band culture. Cold Gin, Dressed to Kiss, and Kings of the Nighttime World are just a few of the groups emulating America's favorite painted longhairs, and there is even an Italian Kiss cover band. Kiss cover bands, it turns out, come in many nationalities, backgrounds, and, well, sizes. Mini-Kiss is the vertically challenged version of the Kiss cover band. This month, mini versions of Gene Simmons, et al, are touring the East Coast with a "scaled down" version of Kiss' outrageous live show. Little Man Entertainment, the company that brings us Mini-Kiss, provides many forms of Lilliputian production, from Little Elvis to Willy Wonka's orange-skinned oompa-loompas. The company also hires out "little people," as they prefer to be called, to serve as bartenders, comedians and strippers. The Distractions follow. $8 cover. -- Diettinger

The Bad Plus 9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE The Bad Plus brings its version of modern jazz to House of Blues on Sunday. The Bad Plus is the hype in today's jazz world. Is it the best new trio to debut in jazz circles in years, or is it a bunch of white boys who don't swing being put on a pedestal by the white jazz establishment as the new white hope? Neither. These two Minnesotans and one Wisconsinian play a dense, heavy brand of jazz that veers toward classical and uses dynamics and dissonance to fortify their sound. This piano/bass/drums ensemble doesn't play chorus/solo/chorus music. On its major-label debut Vistas, the band is also hip enough to cover Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (a great, shimmering, building version) and Blondie's "Heart of Glass." Regardless of the opinions surrounding the group, The Bad Plus is putting some much-needed controversy and intellectual passion into a jazz industry that too often relies on past glories and a clean-cut image. Tickets $14. -- David Kunian

Eric Lucero and Electric People 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31 Dragon's Den, 435 Esplanade Ave., 949-1750 There aren't many styles of music that trumpeter Eric Lucero hasn't tackled. He's lent his brilliant versatility to a plethora of local bands from jazz, to rock, to reggae and Latin. With his latest solo project, Electric People, Lucero infuses original rock compositions with elements from a diverse range of dance styles from throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and West Africa. The result is a Santana-esque Latin rock sound spiked with reggae, ska, cumbia, salsa, or Afro-beat. An able-bodied lineup joins Lucero, including bassist Cassandra Faulcolner, Los Vecinos guitarist John Bagnato, percussionist Anthony Cuccia, and New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars drummer Dave Sobel. Lately, singer Karin Williams has joined the gigs, making most of the music vocal, with some instrumentals mixed in. The outfit also plays a few select covers, such as the Skatalites' "Balls of Fire," and "Aqudleum," a forró by Brazilian composer Djavan. Electric People plays every other Sunday at the Dragon's Den. Cover $5. -- Diettinger

Wosene Kosrof: Recent paintings Through Sept. 28 Stella Jones Gallery, 201 St. Charles Ave., 568-9050 What does Ethiopia mean to you? Bob Marley fans know it as the basis of the Rasta Man vibration, but for painter Wosene Kosrof it is home, a place of family, coffee and gossip, and his abstract paintings are based on its language, especially the magical scrolls traditionally created by Ethiopian shamans to heal or protect. Although based on indigenous Amharic calligraphy, Wosene says his canvases express the personal yet universal language of art that speaks to everyone in their own tongue. "In my current work, I take apart the symbols and study their shapes and lines. They come to life and move within the space. They are in everything I see: beautiful people, graceful architecture, colorful textiles. They are sensuous and erotic. They breathe in the quiet spaces of the canvas. They celebrate rituals: birth, life, and death." -- D. Eric Bookhardt