It may be happening the first weekend in April, but it's definitely March Madness when the NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR comes to town. Much more than just the three games that decide this year's basketball champion, the event brings to town a wide variety of events at venues across the city this week. The Final Four semifinal games, played at the New Orleans Arena, will be held at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and the championship game is set for tip-off at 7:30 p.m. Monday. All games will be televised on ESPN. At 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Tulane University's Fogelman Arena, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), as part of its annual conference planned around the Final Four, presents "WBCA Night of All-Stars Doubleheader." The first game is the High School All-America game, featuring the top 20 prep players (and stars of future Final Fours). Second on the bill is College All-Star Challenge, putting the USA Basketball Senior Women's National Team in a game against 20 of the best college seniors not playing in the Final Four. (Though they refrain from calling themselves the Olympic team, it's the same squad that will compete in Athens, Greece, this summer.) Tickets $15-$25; call the Tulane ticket office at 861-WAVE to purchase. For basketball-related fun the entire family can enjoy, the 2004 Hoop City (similar to the one that ventured here last April for the men's Final Four) will set up on the floor of the Louisiana Superdome. Hoop City offers everything from interactive games to appearances by hoops legends to events testing basketball skill fundamentals. Hoop City also hosts a three-on-three tournament (pre-registration required); a Battle of the Bands featuring the mascots, cheerleaders and bands of the Final Four schools; Youth Education through Sports clinics; a party with J.J. Jumper, the official mascot of NCAA basketball; and the Naismith Millennium Sportsmanship Tour, held daily, a traveling exhibit showing the original rules and style of basketball. Hoop City is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday. Admission is $5 adults, $3 college students, children and seniors. For a complete listing of Final Four events, or for information about participating as a much-needed volunteer, visit the Web site of the local organizing committee, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, at www.gnosports.com/ncaa. -- Frank Etheridge

Fantômas, with Melt Banana 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 31 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Fantômas is the latest project headed by veteran rocker Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Tomahawk) and includes members of Slayer and the Melvins. Up to now, they have written "accompaniment" death metal and ambient songs inspired by films and cartoons. On their first, eponymous 1999 release, the band's songs mimic the short, hyperbolic feel of comic book frames. The 2001 follow-up, Director's Cut, features metal soundtracks to movies such as The Godfather and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Their latest album, Delirium Cordia, is one 74-minute song where the listener is to imagine a demented surgical scene. All the albums (released on Ipecac Recordings) will be represented at the show, though only excerpts from the new album will be played. Opening act Melt Banana hails from Japan and puts the "spazzed-out noise" into "noise-core." Sonic guitars and screeching female vocals weave in and out of an impossibly dense undercurrent of metal. Tickets $19.50. -- Rob Bryant

Primavera Thursday, April 1, through Saturday, April 10 The Shops at Canal Place, 333 Canal St., 522-9200 For the past 13 years, The Shops at Canal Place has embraced and celebrated the coming spring season with Primavera, an artful display of floral arrangements and landscape design. During regular mall hours from Thursday to April 10, the scent of fresh flowers will mix with live entertainment and the season's styles. This weekend, Flower Days present the floral creations of Glenn Vesh. From 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, champagne is served and Vesh will create personal arrangements. The $50 donation for Vesh's creation benefits Primavera's Scuola di Fiore, which raises funds for Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana. The long-standing partnership between the two organizations benefits the fight to prevent abuse and neglect of children across the state. Primavera is free and open to the public. -- Etheridge

JoAnne Brackeen 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Thursday-Friday, April 1-2 Snug Harbor, 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 Though she's been recording since 1975, JoAnne Brackeen remains an underappreciated treasure with more than 300 original compositions and one of the most distinct voices in jazz. Brackeen is a stylistic chameleon whose dramatic, percussive chording and modal improvisations have elicited numerous comparisons to McCoy Tyner, yet her delicate, lyrical melodic flights lead others to compare her to Chick Corea. Brackeen excels in solo settings, in duets with a bassist or in small groups like the one she'll be with here, playing with James Singleton and Ocie Davis. Recent albums have featured saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Paquito D'Rivera, and Donald Harrison Jr., Terence Blanchard and Branford Marsalis have all played with Brackeen. The California native has a history of strong gigs in New Orleans, highlighted by a 1993 performance with Ellis Marsalis and a 1994 trio gig at the Contemporary Arts Center. Tickets $15. -- John Swenson

Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 2-3; 2 p.m. Sunday, April 4 Jefferson Performing Arts Center, 400 Phlox St., Metairie, 885-2000 The Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico is a 22-member ballet company with an artistic focus on showcasing the works of Hispanics. The renowned troupe does just that in three performances this weekend sponsored by the Jefferson Performing Arts Society (JPAS), delivering its renditions of two pieces, Carmen and Latinissimo. Georges Bizet's classic Carmen is one of the most popular works ever composed, telling the story of a soldier that falls for a shadowy, seductive factory worker. The dancers will move to Bizet's famed score. Latinissimo is a collection of six short works that collectively celebrate Hispanic culture, with choreographed moves to popular Latin music; a tropical theme is enhanced by the score's blend of jazz and ballet. Tickets $24-$27 adults based on seating, $12 children. For tickets or more info, visit www.jpas.org. -- Etheridge

Frank Zappatistas 8 p.m. Friday April 2 Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 525-2767 Besides being a great name for a band, the Frank Zappatistas combine virtuosos from several disciplines. Choreographer Nanette Ledet will perform movement art while musicians Julian Garcia, Rajah and others play everything from blues to jazz to avant classical. On top of that, Surregionalist Press publisher and wordsmith Dennis Formento will recite works from New Orleans' unsung beat poet, Bob Kaufman. Performances that combine so many elements often border on disjointed, as if everyone is playing in different rooms. But in this "cosmo-drama" (as Formento calls it) everyone is listening to each other and playing off each other. The result is that the ensemble delivers a rush inherent to all good art that pushes boundaries. For the Frank Zappatistas, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Admission $7 general public, $6 students/seniors, $5 Zeitgeist members. -- David Kunian

Murs and Def Jux 9 p.m. Friday, April 2 The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE New Orleans' own BG of Cash Money Records may have immortalized in song the term voted into the Oxford English Dictionary, but the "Bling Bling" doesn't fly with L.A.-based hip-hop artist Murs: "I remember diamonds used to be a girl's best friend/ Enslaving black children with the Third World gems." Obviously, he represents the antithesis to mainstream hip-hop's diamonds and greed with soulful and smart rhymes that are socially conscious and at times comically honest. Performing in support of his new album, 3:16, The 9th Edition, Murs is joined by Def Jux labelmates Mr. Lif, the Perceptionists, Akrobatik, DJ Fakts One, C-Rayz Walz, and Hangar 18. Those familiar with Murs' work will notice a distinctive soulfulness to 3:16 thanks to rapper 9th Wonder of the Durham, N.C., collective Justus League. Tickets $14. -- Reuben Brody

WTUL CD-release party 10 p.m. Friday, April 2 The Howlin' Wolf, 828 S. Peters St., 522-WOLF WTUL's annual Music Marathon is nearly at a close, and for the second year in a row, supporters of the Tulane University radio station will have something besides a club-hopping headache to show for it. The 'TUL staff has created the second in a series of compilation CDs featuring local bands of many styles. Songs From the Basement: Volume 2 marks its official release this Friday with a live showcase of contributing artists. Paradise Vendors, which contributed tracks from its recently released EP, Music 1Š, offers a live sampling of drone-y, menacing surf-rock; downtown one-man show The White Bitch spouts a Prince-style, filtered falsetto over drunken laptop computer accompaniment. Both artists sing about local life: Paradise Vendors has a song about a shotgun house-bound dominatrix, and The White Bitch sings the soliloquy, "I Can't Find My Way Around" -- New Orleans on a bike, that is. Blackfire Revelation and Chef Menteur are also on the bill. Tickets $5. -- Cristina Diettinger

Festa d'Italia 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 3; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 4 Piazza d'Italia, Poydras and Tchoupitoulas streets, 888-7608 Along with many of the architectural treasures around the city, the downtown Piazza d'Italia is experiencing a rebirth through revitalization. The award-winning design of the open-air piazza was constructed to honor the local Italian community. It's fitting, then, that weekend festivities to mark the site's return celebrate Italian culture (and you thought St. Joseph's Day was over?). The aim is to create in Piazza d'Italia this weekend an Italian marketplace-type atmosphere, with vendors offering Italian food and wine, Venetian maskers, Italian music, artists and children's activities. Sponsored by the Mayor's Office, which partnered with Joseph Maselli of the Piazza d'Italia Development Corporation to revitalize the area, event organizers have invited local sports stars and mascots to appear. Admission is free. -- Etheridge

FQB Gallery Night: The Unveiling of the Portrait of Jeremy Davenport 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 3 FQB, The Ritz-Carlton, third level, 921 Canal St., 524-1331 The smooth, sophisticated jazz of Jeremy Davenport and his band stands on its own merit in drawing large, appreciative crowds to his regular gig at the Ritz-Carlton's chic nightspot, the FQB. However, it's Davenport's Sinatra-esque persona and natural good looks that resonate most with the ladies, who comprise a high percentage of his fan base. Those talents are recognized and honored this Saturday, when the FQB hosts its first-ever Gallery Night, in which acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist Todd White's commissioned work of Davenport, Bend It, is unveiled. White's style draws heavily on capturing an individual's essence, particularly of stars and starlets among the sex-and-martini set; such work led NBC's Extra! television show to dub White the "hot new artist most sought after by celebrities." Everyone from Macaulay Culkin to Hugh Hefner to Vin Diesel is in White's catalogue. To view White's portfolio, visit www.artofwhite.com. Free admission, but space is limited. -- Etheridge

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's Gala Concert 8 p.m. Saturday, April 3 Mahalia Jackson Theatre of Performing Arts, Armstrong Park, 523-6530 World-renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (pictured) joins cellist Lynn Harrell at the LPO's Gala Concert on Saturday at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of Performing Arts. To celebrate its Gala Concert, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) will be joined by two guest artists, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and cellist Lynn Harrell. Klauspeter Seibel conducts. Since her last performance with the LPO in its 2000-2001 season, Salerno-Sonnenberg has continued her frenetic scheduling that has built her reputation as a passionate, electrifying performer. Her solo comes with "Meditation" from Massenet's opera Thais. Cellist Lynn Harrell's solo comes when she performs Tchaikovsky's Pezzo Capriccioso. The two guests will then perform together on Brahms' "Concerto for Violin and Cello." All the musical forces converge to perform a program that also includes Verdi's Overture to La Forza del Destino, Tchaikovsky's Polonaise from Eugene Onegin and Dvorak's Scherzo Capriccioso. Tickets range from $25-$60 and are available through the LPO box office or online at www.lpomusic.com. - Etheridge

Air 10 p.m. Monday, April 5 TwiRoPa Mills, 1544 Tchoupitoulas St., 587-3777 Air flows through TwiRoPa Mills on Monday, April 5. Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, those dreamy masters of electro-pop who combine to form Air, are touring in support of their latest album, Talkie Walkie, an album for which their many fans are grateful. In large part, it returns to the lush, synthesized atmosphere created in Air's popular 1998 debut, Moon Safari, and hastily abandoned in the album that followed. Talkie Walkie's only drawback is the inane and intrusive lyrics on songs like "Surfing on a Rocket," but with any luck those lyrics will get lost in the rafters and the clouds of synth will fill the room. You may recognize the charming instrumental "Lost in Kyoto" from the Lost in Translation soundtrack, and if you've seen that movie you'll understand the mood Air is in right now: it's romantic, but more than a little melancholy. The opening act the Mosquitos found their sound from continents away, as they produce smooth bossa nova electronica perfected on the beaches of Brazil. Tickets $25. -- Eliza Strickland

The Story of the South: Art and Culture 1890-2003 Through April The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp St., 539-9600 They're at it again. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, that shining tower of glass blocks and concrete on Camp Street, is once again presenting its own unique look at Southern culture in a series of new exhibitions that include The Voluptuous Return ‹ "the intimate side of Walter Anderson"; a two-person exhibit of pioneer Southern folk artists Charles Hutson and Clementine Hunter; and a rare look at work by Miami photographers Jose Otero and Mark Surloff as well the museum's most recent acquisitions of work by Southern photographers. Also on view is Frank Gehry on the Gulf Coast, a mini-expo of the great architect's drawings, models and photos of the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair amphitheater, the Ohr-Okeefe Museum now under construction in Biloxi, Miss., and his proposed-but-never-built designs for a bandshell at Lafayette Square. -- D. Eric Bookhardt