Testing the Waters As much as seminal arthouse filmmaker JOHN WATERS enjoys experiencing New Orleans these days -- he regularly exhibits his photography at Arthur Roger Gallery and counts The Corner Pocket as one of his favorite bars -- he doesn't recall the short span he lived here in the early 1970s as a particularly happy time. "It was a very tough time. I didn't have one penny to my name. It was literally the poorest I've ever been in my life," Waters says during a recent phone interview. "It had nothing to do with New Orleans -- I love New Orleans -- but I was upset because my movie wasn't being released." That movie was Pink Flamingos (1972), a film today considered a camp classic. Waters' egregiously raunchy and hilarious film catapulted him to new levels of popularity and essentially launched his long and distinguished career. But at the time, it was stuck in the hands of a distributor, with Waters fighting for its release. A denizen of the lower Quarter, Waters spent his days stealing cocktails from unsuspecting bar patrons, living off 30-cent plates of red beans and rice at Buster Holmes, and using a credit-card hustle to make calls from French Quarter phone booths to find an audience for Pink Flamingos. One call led to the deal that had Pink Flamingos debut in New York at the Elgin Theater. "After that, it became a hit and changed my life," Waters says. "The movie is equally strong today because it hasn't mellowed over the years," Waters says of its current relevancy. Waters will prove that point with his WORLD OF TRASH monologue that will serve as an introduction to a screening of the film; the event begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday at House of Blues, (225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE). Tickets are $30. "It's about my life, my obsessions: criminals, politics, fashion, film," Waters says of his one-hour monologue. "It's about how exciting it is to be obsessed. "I also give advice on how to be a delinquent," Waters says, with a vantage point of lessons learned in the same neighborhood he now returns to as a bona fide icon. "I want to make it cool to be poor again. I think it's a very exciting time to be young. The powers that be today are looking for the next big, weird thing. When I was coming up, they weren't." -- Frank Etheridge

Grenadine McGunkle's Hee-Haw Hoedown 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 18 Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., 581-5812 The emergence of the theater troupe Running With Scissors four years ago breathed new life into the city's theater scene. The group's intrepid, intelligent brand of satire shines in past works such as original spoofs The Scooby Witch Project (2000) and I Suddenly Know What You Did Last Summer (2003). The hick-holiday hilarity of Grenadine McGunkle's Double-Wide Christmas is an annual Christmas-season crowd-pleaser, capturing trailer-park residents in an absurd realm and giving audiences classic characters such as Grenadine (Dorian Rush) and her delinquent son Tater (Flynn De Marco). Running With Scissors places those characters in Grenadine McGunkle's Hee-Haw Hoedown, a one-night-only cabaret-style show that serves as a fundraiser for, and celebration of, Running With Scissors' upcoming season, which kicks off in July with Sordid Lives at Le Chat Noir. Expect some singing, some dancing, some theatrical tomfoolery -- plus a rambunctious raffle and auction. Tickets $17. -- Etheridge

Chuck Brodsky 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 18 Neutral Ground Coffeehouse, 5110 Daneel St., 891-3381 Chuck Brodsky is the sort of folk singer who takes pride in songs that mean something. Recorded in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, his new album, Color Came One Day (Chuckbrodsky.com Records), looks sympathetically at the people who live small-town, semi-rural lives. With a Dylanesque voice, the Asheville, N.C., native made something of a splash with 2002's The Baseball Ballads, an affectionate examination of characters from the margins of baseball's history. The opener, "The Ballad of Eddie Klepp," tells the little-known story of the first white man to play in the Negro Leagues, and "Dock Ellis' No-No" recounts the Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher's 1970 no-hitter, thrown while he was high on LSD. Brodsky's songs are a little sentimental, so it's not surprising he was asked to perform at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He also recognizes a story worth telling; his 1998 song "Radio" told the story that became a movie last year starring Cuba Gooding Jr. With Gina Forsyth and Lee Quick. No cover. -- Alex Rawls

The Roots Okayplayer Tour 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 18 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-2624 House of Blues hosts the first CD-release party for a compilation from the Roots' new independent label, Okayplayer Records. The disc, True Notes Vol. 1, contains joints from Jean Grea, Skillz, Martin Luther, Blackalicious, Little Brother, Aceyalone and Madlib, Dialated Peoples, RJD2 and others, including, obviously, the Roots. The first three artists listed will open for the prolific Roots, who also have an album slated for release July 13 called The Tipping Point, which promises a profusion of guest performances -- one of which is comedian Dave Chappelle. Roots drummer ?uestlove told Time the band was shooting for "darker, murkier texture[s]" and that Exile on Main St. was its "blueprint." The single "Don't Say Nuthin" can be heard at Geffen.com; it exemplifies the murkiness and sounds almost like the Knight Rider theme. Tickets $32.50. -- Reuben Brody

Trans Am 9 p.m. Wednesday, May 19 The Howlin' Wolf, 228 S. Peters St., 522-WOLF Trans Am's latest album, Liberation (Thrill Jockey), kicks off with a train-like electronic rock scorcher and doesn't look back. A satirical concept album fixated on America's occupation of Iraq, the Washington, D.C.-based band rails hard on President Bush, with sample cut-ups of his voice saying things like, "In the battles of Iraq, we destroyed hospitals and schools," followed by phony applause. Liberation has the kind of '80s-style synth texture and echo vocals you'd find on a Depeche Mode record, but menacing bass lines balance out the dreaminess. It's a radical shift from Trans Am's previous album, TA, a silly regurgitation of kraut-rock instrumentalism and untempered New Wave-ish vocals. Though no Trans Am record is anything like the others, the band's sense of humor has burned hot since it began recording in the mid-1990s. It tackles a grave global issue with Liberation, but still seems to be smirking behind the music. Les Georges Leningrad and Testaverde open. Tickets $8. -- Cristina Diettinger

Annie Golden: The Velvet Prison 8 p.m. Friday - Sunday, May 21-23 The Country Club, 634 Louisa St., 945-0742 Broadway veteran Annie Golden brings her Velvet Prison cabaret show to the Country Club Friday through Sunday. "I wrote the song ŒThe Velvet Prison' with a guy from the Shirts, Artie Lamonica," Annie Golden says by phone from New York City, "and as (the song) started to develop lyrically Š I thought, this could be a theme. How many different velvet prisons do you find yourself in? You don't get challenged as much, but you work steady." Indeed, Golden knows about typecasting, but somehow the former New Wave rocker from the late-70s CBGB's scene parlayed that into a career blending substantial roles on (and off-) Broadway (Hair, Little Shop of Horrors, Assassins, The Full Monty) with bit parts in film (Baby Boom) and TV (Cliff's postal-worker romance on Cheers). Expect an eclectic mix of songs, with everything from Little Shop of Horrors and Assassins to Tom Waits and her former duet, Golden Carillo. Peter Calandra accompanies on piano; part of the proceeds benefit Belle Reve. Thandiew & Lynette open. Tickets $40. -- David Lee Simmons

Trilogy 8 p.m. Friday, May 21 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St, 528-3800. This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the deaths of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) members James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The civil rights workers were savagely murdered by Ku Klux Klan members on June 21, 1964, an act that garnered national headlines. Composer Hannibal Lokumbe, who made his mark as a jazz trumpeter under the name Marvin Peterson, pays tribute to the slain men with his poetic, musical performance of Trilogy. To prepare for the piece, Lokumbe journeyed through Mississippi, visiting sites and cemeteries and interviewing the men's surviving relatives. He was accompanied by his wife, Latisha Lokumbe, whose photographs of the pilgrimage provide the visuals for the performance. The music is provided by Lokumbe, clarinetist Alvin Batiste, drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist David Pulphus, among others. Philadelphia poet and spoken-word musician Ursula Rucker will narrate. Tickets $20, $15 for students and CAC members. -- Natalie Brown

"An International Evening of Ballet" 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 22 NOCCA/Riverfront, Lupin Hall, 2800 Chartres St., 468-1231 The Jefferson Ballet Theatre Presents "An International Evening of Ballet" on Saturday night at NOCCA/Riverfront. The Jefferson Ballet Theatre (JBT) celebrates old and new together in one program. JBT members will present the world premiere performance of "Sensemaya," which is set to Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas' music and marks Polish choreographer Marek Cholewa's fifth original creation for the troupe. But special guests Luis Serrano, Ramon Moreno and Patricia Perez, all highly decorated dancers from Cuba, and Katia Carranzo, from Mexico, prove that 19th century Russian choreographer Marius Petipa's classic works never go out of style. Serrano and Carranzo, currently principal dancers with the Miami City Ballet, will perform the Russian master's "Le Corsaire" Pas de Deux, while Moreno and Perez, who now both reside with Ballet San Jose, will perform the delightful "Don Quixote." Also on the program is "Symphonic Rock," "Defile," the "Flames of Paris Pas de Deux" and "Russian Blue." Tickets $40, $30 for students and children. -- Brown

Immortal Lee County Killers 10 p.m. Sunday, May 23 Mermaid Lounge, 1100 Constance St., 524-4747 Combining the soul sensibility of Stax Records with the darkness of Black Sabbath and the urgency of MC5, the Immortal Lee County Killers are Southern roots gone rowdy. On the band's latest album, Love Is a Charm of Powerful Trouble (Estrus), the duo delves further into the Delta songbook it absorbed as residents of Lee County, Ala. Singer/guitarist Chetley "El Cheetah" Weise and the duo's second drummer, The Tolkien One, pick up where the band left off on its 2001 debut, The Essential F--ked Up Blues, an album of raw drums and distortion-heavy guitar, wrapping up with a 10-minute version of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone." Live, El Cheetah whips through free-form blues licks with his signature "bastard guitar," and with Hammond B-3 player Bat Masterson now part of the live show, comparisons to the White Stripes should decrease. Fellow Auburn band Baby Driver opens, with Blackfire Revelation also on the bill. Tickets $15. -- Diettinger

The Pfister Sisters 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday, May 23 Snug Harbor, 626 Frenchmen St., 949-0696 It has been a good year for the Pfister Sisters. This singing trio celebrates its 25th year as well as the release of its first album in three years, Change in the Weather (Mambo Goddess). Holley Bendtsen, Yvette Voelker-Cuccia and Debbie Davis model themselves on female singing groups such as the Andrews and Boswell sisters with nimble, glowing harmonies. The trio is sexy performing its version of "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," and the Latin-tinged "Laissez-Faire" is one of the best recent songs about the mystique of our Crescent City. The trio also has a terrific band with trumpeter Charlie Miller and the versatile piano of Amasa Miller. One might think that after 25 years, these women would be tired of singing the "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," but the Pfister Sisters revel in the power and charm of their voices and still sing it with enthusiasm. $15 cover. -- David Kunian

Beverly Morris -- Recent works Through May d.o.c.s. gallery, 709 Camp St., 524-3936 The late, great, New Orleans painter Robert Gordy used to compare women to vessels. He meant it kindly, in the sense that women give birth to the human race. Beverly Morris is a woman who makes vessels, urns and related items out of clay that have a distinctly feminine quality about them. She says her vessels, whether a human figure or a vase, are laboriously created through a process of coil building, an "organic and raw" style that lends a quality of humanity in tune with the Japanese concept of wabi, or artful imperfection. By way of explanation, she quotes poetess Louise Bogan: "... In a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair, no woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart." -- D. Eric Bookhardt