For Ryan Landry, crossing the fine line between parody and homage with his Ludlamesque, campy gay productions never gets old and never loses its edge. That's saying something, considering the playwright and leader of the Gold Dust Orphans theater troupe based in Provincetown, Mass., cranks out as many as five works a year. After having bonded with his spiritual cousins in Running With Scissors a couple years ago, Landry has established a New Orleans pipeline to show some of his works, including THE GULLS, which begins a month-long run at One Eyed Jacks (615 Toulouse St.) this weekend. Last year, Landry worked feverishly to finish Pussy on the House, which Running With Scissors presented in time for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival-related theater mini-season. But this time around, The Gulls -- a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller, The Birds -- is a 2-year-old work that has been produced in Massachusetts and beyond, and includes as many as 600 "puppet" birds. "I'm curious to see what they're going to do with it," Landry says by phone from his home in Boston, "because (One Eyed Jacks has) that huge ceiling, so they can really let the birds fly. It ran for eight months in Provincetown and Boston, and the ceilings were no higher than 8 feet high. I hope they just go nuts." Inside almost every Landry script is one part parody, one part message, and one massive part respect for the original work. "I'm adapting these masterpieces that I could never touch with a 9,000-foot pole in terms of my own talent," Landry notes, "but I know that when you take these works and stuff them in a closet, when they come out they've simply acclimated themselves to my environment. We never treat the original piece with disrespect. They did my version of Carrie (titled Scarrie) in Seattle and f--ked it up so goddamn bad because they took the heart out of it. They made fun of it. Some people think when you're doing drag you can't have real emotion in it." Running With Scissors' production of The Gulls stars many of the troupe's regulars -- Flynn De Marco, Brian Peterson, Dorian Rush and Jim Jeske -- as well as frequent guest Jack Long and some newbies: Nathan Martin (pictured at right, opposite DeMarco), Rod Lemaire, Pandora Gasterum, Brad Caldwell and June DiMorente, with costuming by Peterson, Pandora and Roy Haylock. Tickets are $17; tickets to Friday's opening night are available only through the Mystic Krewe of Satyricon by calling 525-4498. For all other tickets call 606-9903. Showtimes 8 p.m. The play runs through April 16. -- David Lee Simmons

Dogs Die in Hot Cars, opening for Phoenix 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE; www.hob.com On Please Describe Yourself (V2), this Scottish entry in the New Wave derby is poppier than Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and their angular brethren. Singer Colin MacIntosh often recalls Dexy's Midnight Runners' Kevin Rowland at his most urgent, particularly on the single, 'I Love You 'Cause I Have To,' though the songs have a busy quality not normally associated with Dexy's. The '80s vibe is heightened on record by the Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley production -- the producers responsible for albums by Madness, the Teardrop Explodes and Morrissey, among others. Fortunately, Dogs Die in Hot Cars has hooky songs, particularly 'Lounger,' a celebration of sleeping in and slacking off. You could reasonably ask for a little more personality from the band, but something in every track catches you. Tickets $10-$12. -- Alex Rawls

Southern Culture on the Skids, with Dr. A Go-Go $10 p.m. Thursday, March 24 The Parish at House of Blues, 229 Decatur St., 310-4999; www.hob.com Maybe after all these years, Southern Culture on the Skids isn't on the skids after all; last year's release, Mojo Box, showed a band well into its second decade maturing from the redneck kitsch that produced such pearls as 'Daddy Was a Preacher But Mama Was a Go-Go Girl.' Here SCOTS -- singer-guitarist Rick Miller, bassist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman -- seems to be embracing its Southern roots and not mocking them quite as much. Oh, don't worry; there's still campy delights in the title track, 'El Camino' and 'Doublewide,' but there's a wistfulness about Mojo Box with more than a dash of sincerity. The ballad 'Where Is the Moon' is ground-breaking for being a ballad alone. Miller's pyrotechnics -- fueled as usual by the rockabilly of Link Wray and the surf-guitar fury of Dick Dale -- are on full display here but perhaps a bit more measured save for the echoed-out 'Wipeout' splendor of 'Wet Spot.' Tickets $14. -- Simmons

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528-3805; www.cacno.org The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is an excellent addition to the small big band scene in New Orleans. Although not as wild as the Naked Orchestra, the 16-piece band plays New Orleans jazz and jazz influenced by New Orleans. This concert will feature pieces from Mayfield's Strange Fruit (Basin Street) suite, a deeply moving series of compositions based on a lynching in Louisiana in the 1920s. The band has a sound akin to the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, while the tunes more reflect Terence Blanchard's compositions and movie scores. With soloists such as Evan Christopher, Steve Walker and Leon Brown, the band can be as downtown as the Lower Nine or as Uptown as Audubon Place. Tickets $25, $20 for CAC members. -- David Kunian

White Bitch, the Buttons, DJ Bunny Matthews and Hankshaw 10 p.m. Saturday, March 26 The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE; www.hob.com This grab bag of electronic antics promises to be a cornucopia of oddities, featuring, among other things, a father/son DJ battle between local writer and cartoonist Bunny Matthews (of Vic and Nat'ly fame) and his son Jude. For his debut behind the decks, Matthews pere will play an eclectic set of 'women's music,' he says, 'like my favorite '60s reggae song, 'Barb Wire in His Underpants' by Nora Dean. My son will be playing some electro-techno noise music people can't stand.' The first 75 attendees will receive a free mix CD. Electronic duo the Buttons will provide danceable bleeps and blips, and White Bitch brings a unique combination of electronic effects, drum machine and spoken word, fleshed out with a rare appearance by a live drummer. Also on the bill is Hankshaw, a Tampa-based power-pop outfit, and one MC Little Gregory Esquire, a young 'punk rapper.' Tickets $8. -- Alison Fensterstock

St. Charles Easter Parade 11:30 a.m. Sunday, March 27 Begins at Pontchartrain Hotel, 2031 St. Charles Ave., 581-5354 This Easter holiday looks to usher in a new location tradition with the inaugural St. Charles Easter Parade. The parade begins at the Pontchartrain Hotel (2031 St. Charles Ave.) and ends at the Columns Hotel (3811 St. Charles Ave.). Charter memberships -- guaranteeing participation in future parades -- are available for $100 and limited to the first 150 takers. The 150 riders will parade in their Sunday best, with white linen for men and bonnets for women. They will be supplied with carriages, or they can ride in their own convertible. At the Columns Hotel, a seated dinner buffet will be held during a party from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. that features an open bar and live music for dancing. For riding members, costs range from $45-$150 based on several options, though spectators are invited to join the fun for free. -- Frank Etheridge

Atmosphere and Grayskul Atmosphere and Grayskul 9 p.m. Sunday, March 27 The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE; www.hob.com Atmosphere's Se7en (Rhymesayers) showcases rapper Slug's verbal dexterity over producer Ant's slightly austere grooves. The one-time battle rapper enjoys his rhyming powers, so much so that tracks are less about a thought or situation than occasions to turn loose his flow in whatever direction it goes. Like labelmates Grayskul -- also on the bill -- Slug shies away from the macho cliches that are too common a part of the hip-hop vocabulary. If anything, he can be aggressively dweeby at times. Grayskul shares some of that on Deadlivers, identifying the group members and guest artists as superheroes. There's a psychedelic undercurrent to the tracks, partly from the music and partly from rhymes that are as much inspired by sound as by meaning. Tickets $14. -- Rawls

Five Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics From the Robin and R. Randolph Richmond Collection Through April 10 New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, 488-2631, www.noma.org This exhibition of 100 Chinese ceramics, outstanding antiquities from 4000 B.C. to the 14th century, was selected from several hundred donated by Robin and R. Randolph Richmond Jr. of New Orleans. Amassed over more than 50 years, they illustrate how ceramics were used in daily Chinese life as well as after death. An especially imposing example is a 4-foot tall Monumental Horse from the Han dynasty (25220 A.D). Designed to be included among the items a noble might need in the hereafter, it serves as a symbol of the owner's status at a time when horses were prized by the military elite. Chinese rulers valued artistic as well as military prowess, displaying a degree of cultural sophistication seldom seen in politicians today. -- D. Eric Bookhardt