Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth -- or perhaps more accurately, about five years ago -- DRAMARAMA was so loaded with options that the organizers were able to fill the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St., 528-3800) with enough programming for two evenings' worth of entertainment. Then reality, mostly that of the financial nature, bit, and the carnival of theater and dance offerings was truncated by a day. But as last year's offerings showed, DramaRama is once again bursting at the seams. For this year's 12th annual production, there's yet another new approach; the festival is back to its two-day strength, but will divide dance and theater into two separate evenings. Hence, Friday brings us Dance-A-Rama, while Saturday delivers the good old-fashioned DramaRama12. (As usual, the kid-friendly DramaRama Junior will be held Saturday morning.) This programming switch is a bit of a roll of the dice considering one of the production's many charms is its variety; there's nothing quite like bouncing from a comedy to a modern-dance piece to a dramatic offering, and so on. By segregating theater from dance, there's a risk of creating a redundant vibe. What tempers this risk is the variety that appears to run through both nights of programming. Dance in New Orleans is enjoying a pleasant upswing, so attendees will get plenty of variety watching everything from the NORD/NOBA Center for Dance to the upstart Tsunami Dance Company (pictured) and Izzy Moving Dance Company along with such stalwarts as Komenka Ethnic Dance Ensemble, Ole Flamenco Ole!, Gabe Pickard, and the Anne Burr Dance Company. Saturday night should be no less entertaining and varied, as we'll get a chance to peek into the creative laboratories of Kevin Allman, Brian Sands, Sarah C. James, Pamela Popeson and Barret O'Brien (currently starring in Southern Rep's production of The Vulgar Soul). DramaRama Junior's menu includes the Porta-Puppet Players, the Shoestring Players and the Dance Center Junior Company. Friday- and Saturday-night programming runs from 6 p.m. to midnight, while DramaRama Junior will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Louisiana Children's Museum (420 Julia St., 523-1357). General-admission tickets to the evening performances are $12 each or $20 for both ($10 each for CAC members); admission is free to DramaRama Junior. For a complete schedule and more info, visit www.dramarama.org or call 606-9903. -- David Lee Simmons

Buck 65 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE; www.hob.com Buck 65 is a rapper who almost completely changes his style from record to record, but is consistently one of the smartest lyricists/storytellers in underground hip-hop. He was once known for his high-pitched, fast and nasal rhymes over beats inspired by everything from techno to funk. On his latest two albums, Talking Honky Blues (Warner Bros.) and This Here Is Buck 65 (V2), there's more country in his rap, and he uses a vocal style that sounds like a grizzled old hillbilly unloading his weary soul. Though his style has changed, his narrative chops are as strong as ever. On 'Cries a Girl,' he tells a strange tale of a poor country girl who has fallen victim to false rumors: 'She should have been a cover girl, treated like a princess / but she's an enigma haunted by the stigma of incest.' Tickets $10. -- Rob Bryant

16th Annual Louisiana Shorts Film Festival 6 p.m. Thursday, March 3 Prytania Theatre, 5339 Prytania St., 339-4350; www.novacvideo.org The burgeoning film industry in Louisiana and New Orleans may have overshadowed the continuing contributions of local filmmakers to the scene. The New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC) -- an organization that has been around for more than 30 years -- presents its Louisiana Shorts Film Festival as testament to this oft-overlooked culture. The NOVAC program exists to provide film education and to nurture local aspiring filmmakers. 'We're offering opportunities to kids in New Orleans' public schools and offering services to filmmakers who couldn't otherwise afford it,' says NOVAC community director Tim Ryan. Filmmakers are encouraged to submit work that reflects the cultural diversity of Louisiana. The films will be judged by a panel of local and national film buffs. Tickets $10. -- Ian Manheimer

Matt the Electrician 6 p.m., Thursday, March 3 The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp St., 539-9600; www.ogdenmuseum.org Matt the Electrician sounds like a joke, and while the singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas, is often funny, the name has more practical origins. It came from the days of going straight from work as a you-know-what to gigs, and he took to it realizing those who saw him remembered him more easily as Matt the Electrician than Matt Sever, his real name. If a title like 'China Airline' on last year's Long Way Home (Independent) seems unusual, it's because it and six other songs on the album were written to titles suggested by the audience at his weekly Cactus Cafe sets. Though little about Matt the Electrician seems serious, his songs have emotional cores, and the jokes don't obscure that, nor do they seem like self-protection devices. Admission $10, free for Ogden members. -- Alex Rawls

Sex Workers Art Show 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3 Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 525-2767; www.sexworkersartshow.com Locally based Girl Gang Productions and Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center are teaming together to bring to town for the third consecutive year the provocative -- and wildly popular -- Sex Workers Art Show. The touring ensemble seeks to move beyond superficial portrayals of those working in the sex industry to convey the motivations and inspirations of their work in its full, artistic complexity. The show is cabaret-style, with music, spoken word, burlesque, drag, circus tricks, video and visual art all showcased. Writer and Ms. magazine's Woman of the Year Nomy Lamm, circus sideshow Diva of Danger Miss Satanica, self-defense superhero Ronica, and San Francisco artist and performer Isis Rodriguez are among this year's featured artists. Tickets $12, with advance purchase recommended. No one under 18 years old admitted. -- Frank Etheridge

John Legend 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE; www.hob.com Grammy Award winner Kanye West produced John Legend's 2004 album, Get Lifted (Sony), and it hasn't hurt Legend's career any. The association led to Legend appearing on the Grammy Awards show, where he appeared with West and Mavis Staples. More to the point, West and Legend made the sort of hip-hop-influenced R&B album it seems like should have happened by now. Legend's voice and songs recall the style and restraint of 1970s Philly soul, but with hip-hop beats that update the sound without obscuring it. The songs are also full-fledged songs, not just grooves, as 'Used to Love U' and 'She Don't Have to Know' demonstrate. Singing with Staples on the live 'Jesus Saves' makes sense not only because of their gospel leanings, but also because Legend samples the Staple Singers' 'Do It Again' on his 'Number One.' Tickets $34.50. -- Rawls

Second Annual New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival Friday, March 4, through March 20 Various locations The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival is the product of a joint effort from local public interest groups, grassroots organizers, international filmmakers, charitable donations and an entirely volunteer staff. 'I have never seen anything like this in New Orleans,' says festival organizer Jordan Flaherty. The 25 films that will tour New Orleans and Chalmette in the 17 days of the festival represent work from six different continents. In particular, New Orleanians should look out for Mardi Gras: Made in China, a story that merges globalization issues and Carnival. Admission varies depending on the venue: Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center; Iron Rail Bookstore; UNO Liberal Arts Building, room 140; Neighborhood Gallery; Chez Vodun; Chalmette Cinema; Prytania Theatre; and Loyola's Miller Hall, room 114. Visit www.nolahumanrights.org for more information. -- Manheimer

Demolition Doll Rods, opening for Dexter Romweber 10 p.m. Saturday, March 5 One Eyed Jacks, 615 Toulouse St., 569-8361 If your first reaction to Detroit's Demolition Doll Rods is, 'My God! What the hell are they wearing?' your second will surely be something like, 'My God! What the hell is that noise they're making?' The three-piece band looks like extras from Barbarella in brief stage get-ups made of strategically placed bits of leather over feathered underpants. Last year's On (Swami) shows the band is more than capable of tearing the unholy hell out of some raucous rhythm and blues with tracks like the nasty, primitive blues 'Sugar in the Raw' and the '70s vintage muscle-car rock 'n' roll of 'Take it Off.' Margaret Doll Rod's full-throated rasp and tent-meeting fervor more than cash the check the band's abbreviated outfits write. Sharing the bill is psychobilly stalwart Dexter Romweber, whose 2004 release, Blues That Defy My Soul (Yep Roc), cooked up the weird, frenetic house-rockers he used to crank out as half of the Flat Duo Jets. Tickets $10. -- Alison Fensterstock

Kim Carson and Buffalo Speedway 10 p.m. Saturday, March 5 Rivershack Tavern, 3449 River Road, 834-4938 For the last year, Kim Carson has split her time between playing solo in New Orleans and with the Houston-based Buffalo Speedway in Texas. This show will be the New Orleans debut for the band that will also appear with her at Jazz Fest this year and is rowdier than the Casualties, her long-time outfit. Carson shares songwriting and vocal duties with guitarist Adam Burchfield, and their songs celebrate the wild life and honky-tonk heroes who provided its country soundtrack. With a stripped-down musical lineup that includes Shawn Supra on the doghouse bass and J.D. DiTullio on drums, there's a little more twang, more rockabilly and more attitude than Carson has shown in the past, and the change is invigorating. No cover. -- Rawls

Trout Fishing in America 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6 Destrehan Plantation, Destrehan, (985) 764-9315 Trout Fishing's most recent album, Merry Fishes to All (Trout), offered up the duo's signature loopy, kid's-eye perspective on the holiday season, with songs like 'Santa Brought Me Clothes' and 'I Got a Cheese Log.' Just because Trout Fishing's annual return to Destrehan Plantation is in March doesn't mean they won't break out the Christmas tunes -- these are, after all, the guys who sing about taking the alien out of your nose and wiping it on a friend and who have rewritten nursery-rhyme classics to all end with the punch line 'and threw them out the window.' Guitarist Ezra Idlet (the tall one) and bassist Keith Grimwood (the short one) make a musical habit of taking a 'personal look at a commonly shared experience,' as Grimwood describes the band's recent record. That's also an apt description of the music in general, which is really all about that primal shared experience of childhood itself. Tickets $15, $5 children ages 12-under. -- Michael Tisserand

Roy Blount Jr. book signing 2 p.m. Sunday, March 6 Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 3721 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, 455-5135 Fans have two chances this week to have Roy Blount Jr. sign copies of Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans. It's a little daunting, the mere thought of reading another book by another outsider writing about New Orleans on the premise that our sinking swamp is 'American's most fascinating city.' But in his latest book, Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans (Crown Journeys), noted Georgia-born humorist Roy Blount Jr. only flirts with cliche and manages to deliver intrepid insight and entertaining revelations, all conveyed with the trademark wit that has made him one of America's leading men of letters. The book gives first-person ruminations on standards like Galatoire's, raw oysters and voodoo. But did you know New Orleans ushered in cocaine to America? Or how Fats Domino teased and infuriated TV personality Phil Johnson in the Ninth Ward? In Feet on the Street, Blount spins a colorful yarn compelling to both visitor and resident. -- Etheridge

The Comas 10 p.m. Monday, March 7 TwiRoPa, 1544 Tchoupitoulas St., 232-9503; www.twiropa.com The Comas perform Monday, March 7, at TwiRoPa. The 2004 release, Conductor (Yep Roc), has lots of disposable back story. It's officially a science fiction love story (or maybe a break-up story), but you probably won't get that without the accompanying Dark City-influenced DVD or the lyric sheet. It's also the product of Dawson's Creek star Michelle Williams ending a two-year relationship with singer Andy Herod, but that explains little but the song, 'Tonight on the WB.' More than anything else, the album is a fine collection of attractive, intelligent songs that walk the indie/not-indie tightrope. There's a psychedelic lushness to the instantly memorable 'The Science of Your Mind,' and the rocking 'Invisible Drugs' owes a big debt to the Pixies' oddly shaped songs and buzzing guitars. At the same time, there's an appealing fragility in Herod's vocal on 'Dirty South' and his duet with bandmate Nicole Gehweiler on the unfortunately-titled 'Moonrainbow.' More than anything else, you hear a band realizing some fairly ambitious musical ideas on Conductor, and if it takes heartbreak to focus a band, so it goes. Tickets $11. -- Rawls

Jean Duquoc: Visions of Brittany Through March Hanson Gallery, 229 Royal St., 524-8211 Think of Gauguin, and the sun, sand and tawny natives of Tahiti come to mind. But before that, there was Brittany, where Gauguin crafted the postimpressionist style that made his Tahitian work famous. (It is also where many Louisiana Acadians trace their family roots.) Now another postimpressionist, Jean Duquoc, emerges from Brittany with a postmodern palette. Imagine bold, Gauguin-like compositions set to the music of a radiant, almost Peter Max-ish color spectrum, with luminous blues and ultraviolet shadows enlivened by a warm tequila sunrise over the Breton woods. Unlike Gauguin, Duquoc is a native and Brittany is his home turf. A self-taught painter, he says he draws his inspiration from the sea, the sky, the earth, the peasants in the fields, the old fashioned sailboats and the traditional Breton way of life that is so rapidly disappearing. -- D. Eric Bookhardt