Rappers like to brag about coming up the hard way, but few have a history to rival that of Chris Palko, a.k.a. Cage. The last time he saw his heroin-addicted father, Cage was 8, and dad was pointing a shotgun at the family during a standoff with state troopers. Other “highlights” from his bio: a stay with an uncle who beat the crap out of him, 18 months at Stony Lodge Psychiatric Hospital (which included frequent run-ins with the straitjacket), a stint as a guinea pig in Prozac trials (leading to a couple suicide attempts), drug addiction and so on. Then there’s the storied pissing war with Eminem, which started when Cage claimed the famed rapper stole his style and rhymes. On “Get You Mad,” Eminem boasts, “Went onstage and sprayed Cage wit’ Agent Orange / And wiped my ass wit his page in Source.” On “Illest 4-Letter Word,” Cage replies, “I heard some blonde bitch walking through New York looking for Cage, I’ll stab you in the face, ten times in the same place.” But on 2005’s Hell’s Winter, Cage tones down the cocky swagger and crazy-mofo persona to probe more deeply and fearlessly into the experiences that have shaped him. The brilliant “Too Heavy for Cherubs” is an unflinching look at Cage’s early years with his smack-addled dad, backed by a descending guitar line that sounds eerily like a junkie nodding off. He even assumes the role of his father (on a sludgy, heavily processed vocal track), trying to get his young son to help him shoot up by telling him their going to play a game with a rubber snake tied around dad’s arm: “Pull it tighter, pull it tighter. All right, let go, let go Chris...ahhhhhh....” Other standouts include “Shoot Frank,” featuring a hypnotic Wurlitzer figure that could be off the latest indie-rock buzz-record, and “Left It to Us,” backed by a gnarly fuzz-guitar that would make Tom Morello smile. The Rutledge —JACK SILVERMAN

MUSIC

THURSDAY, 1ST—SATURDAY, 3RD

SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC IN AMERICA It’s that time of year when a flock of earnest part-time pickers and full-time fans descend on the city for the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America’s annual throwdown. Thursday it’s Wildfire, a pleasingly straight-ahead crew fronted by guitarist Robert Hale and mandolin man Darrell Webb, whose voices offer a nifty contrast in tone and range. Thanks to departing member Phil Leadbetter, the Dobro’s been an integral part of the group’s sound, so look for Infamous Stringduster Andy Hall to fill in. Friday night features Ronnie Bowman, whose growing musical sophistication builds on, rather than replaces, a solid grounding in bluegrass tradition. His contemporary flair and Music Row success haven’t deterred legions of faithful fans from seeing Bowman, his perfectly harmonizing wife, Garnet, and a crackerjack band that includes guitar phenom Wyatt Rice. The lineup concludes on Saturday with the SteelDrivers, who surround the husky, soul-drenched voice of singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton with muscular playing from longtimers such as banjo man-about-town Richard Bailey, fiddler Tammy Rogers and jack-of-all-trades Mike Henderson. Taken together, the three nights serve as an excellent multiple-exposure snapshot of where bluegrass is at these days, and the SPBGMA crowds know it, so be sure to arrive early. The Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER

THURSDAY, 1ST

HUSBAND&WIFE husband&wife aren’t the new Mates of State: rather, they’re just four dudes playing in another excellent indie rock band from Bloomington, Ind. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and their influences on their inverted-chord melodrama, painting starry-eyed odes to cosmic love and colossal disappointment. There’s a Death Cab for Cutie pace guiding their most guileless songs, such as the beautiful “FDR,” and an emo influence in the indie dynamic heating the edge of their most bitter bits, such as the appropriately named “Battlecab Dramatica.” But there’s also a certain wobble to husband&wife’s stride, a barely perceptible addiction to imperfection that makes the band’s redolent longing and heart-string box patterns believable. Broken music often sounds too perfect: luckily, this couple of four haven’t sought counseling. (husband-wife.net) The Rutledge —GRAYSON CURRIN

MAPS If guitar chords and circular guitar riffs were fruits, you’d be amazed at how much juice the Nashville band MAPS manage—or, at the very least, attempt—to squeeze out of just two or three of them. And though they’ve filled in the requisite “Sounds Like…” field on their MySpace page with “dealing with the 21st century,” MAPS sound often enough like they’re still dealing with the end of the ’90s—in a good way, certainly. Present and accounted for are the ringing guitars, jagged rhythms and counterintuitive drumming of the previous siècle’s post-rock, assembled into patiently sustained ruminations that build into satisfying platonic crescendos. Graciously free of over-emoting or, for that matter, emoting of any kind, MAPS (not to be confused with U.K. electronic artist Maps) make instrumental music for which Mogwai and other disciples of Pajo make relevant reference points, as does early Aloha, thanks to some occasional twinkling percussion. Recommended. (myspace.com/maps) The Rutledge —STEVE HARUCH

DIANNE REEVES This remarkable contralto is doing her part to keep the golden age of jazz singing alive. The only jazz vocalist in history to win Grammy Awards for three consecutive albums (she recently received a fourth Grammy for the soundtrack to Good Night, And Good Luck), Reeves is now a preeminent interpreter of the Great American Songbook. On her 2002 CD The Calling, she proved she could swing with the best of them, delivering a vintage cocktail version of “If You Could See Me Now” on one track and a bopping Afro-Cuban infused “Fascinating Rhythm” on another. Sarah Vaughan couldn’t have done it better. For her Nashville appearance, Reeves will have a superb backup band, the Nashville Symphony. Matt Catingub will conduct. Schermerhorn Symphony Center —JOHN PITCHER

KRISTIN HERSH “Nervous energy keeps us busy,” Kristin Hersh growls wearily on her new album Learn to Sing Like a Star, and she knows what she’s talking about. The last couple of years have seen a flurry of activity for the Throwing Muses founder and alt-rock icon. In addition to periodically reviving the Muses, she’s also toured and recorded heavily with the manic power trio 50 Foot Wave. All this kinetic collaborative energy has spilled over into the new album: while previous solo releases have tended to be stark, melancholic affairs, Learn to Sing is more full-blooded and confident, with jittering acoustic rhythms and haunting melodies augmented by a swirling, hypnotic string section. Her voice has also become increasingly husky, lending her hallucinatory lyrics an appropriately smoky quality, especially effective on highlight “Day Glo,” where she repeatedly moans the phrase “Getting up is what hurts” as the strings cascade and swell. As in all of her best music, the result is truly unsettling. This tour finds her playing indie record stores exclusively, so Thursday’s appearance at Grimey’s will be your only chance to catch her this time around. (throwingmusic.com) 6 p.m. at Grimey’s —JASON BENNETT

FRIDAY, 2ND

CONVERGE/PRIESTESS While headliner Mastodon’s constant press exposure and critical-darling status may attract the most obvious attention, openers Converge are not a band whose thunder is easily stolen. In fact, the revered Boston metalcore outfit’s presence packs a wallop that wasn’t always there with Mastodon. For one thing, Converge doesn’t just up the heaviness ante—they bring a frantic, even desperate, vitality to their blastbeat-driven fury. Singer/lyricist Jacob Bannon’s preoccupation with betrayal and recrimination may constrain him into a victim role, but the issues he broaches have far-reaching implications, and he has a poetic eye for foreboding. An equally thrilling complement to Mastodon are Montreal’s Priestess, who show that ’70s-centric, stoner-tinged rock à la Nazareth and Riggs can be done with righteous panache instead of cynical, lifeless imitation. Finally, a blacklight-poster band we can feel good about! Both of these openers threaten to turn this bill into a one-two-three punch for the ages. (convergecult.com; priestessband.com) Rcktwn —SABY REYES-KULKARNI

SATURDAY, 3RD

THE BASEMENT’S TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY Two years ago, The Basement hosted The Bees for its first official show under the Grimey regime. Since that glorious Saturday night, this low-lying venue has hosted crowded shows (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), empty shows (countless underground indie bands who deserved better), loud shows (Glossary, The Clutters), quiet shows (acoustic guitars and lots of feelings), drunk shows (Lucero’s Ben Nichols’ and his parking lot face-plant), old dudes (Tupper Saussy’s Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar) and a whole slew of gem sweaters (Leslie & the Ly’s). Nashville is lucky to have a place where the booking is creative, the beers are cold, the performance space is smoke-free and a great night of music rarely costs you over 10 bucks. This weekend, Mike, Geoff and the whole crew will celebrate over 700 days of being in business with a show featuring Explorers Club, Lone Official, Altered Statesmen, Spring Hill Spider Party, Tim Chad and Sherry, Justin Earle & The Swindlers and Pizza Party. (thebasementnashville.com) The Basement —LEE STABERT

SUNDAY, 4TH

ROCCO DeLUCA This L.A. drone-blues dude is known (if at all) as the subject of Kiefer Sutherland’s obsession in I Trust You to Kill Me, a scrappy documentary about DeLuca’s first European tour that played the festival circuit last year and is now running on VH1. When he’s not in Dave Matthews/Coldplay/Gavin DeGraw ballad mode, DeLuca’s stuff taps reasonably deeply into the eternal throb that connects pre-rock Delta blues to Led Zeppelin to the White Stripes—but then again, so does the occasional hippie playing behind a hat on a street corner somewhere. The movie is his meal ticket; give the guy a break if he mentions it. (myspace.com/roccodeluca) 3rd & Lindsley —MIKAEL WOOD

MONDAY, 5TH

SHAT W/TRAMPSKIRTS SHAT’s recent Buddyhead Records release, Cuntree, is a 69-track, 69-minute record obsessed with female genitalia. Perhaps this one-track-mindedness was a result of SHAT brainchild Jeff Wood being shot in the head outside of a late-night Hollywood after-party in the early ’90s. His songs are childish, cacophonous and often times laugh-out-loud funny, with lyrics such as “It’s the greatest new sensation—premature ejaculation.” Live, Wood dons an outfit covered in dildos and arms himself with a flashlight to shine into the eyes of stunned audience members. Opening are Nashville’s own Trampskirts, who’ve been turning heads in town recently. The young, all-girl punk rock outfit’s raunchy, impressive songwriting belies their age. Just don’t leave them alone with SHAT. (jeffwoodofshat.com) The End —ERIC WILLIAMS

TUESDAY, 6TH

AFI W/SICK OF IT ALL Last year was a great one for goth-punk guys and gals, with My Chemical Romance and Evanescence definitively proving that kids dressed up as skeletons belong on Top 40 radio right alongside Nickelback and the Pussycat Dolls. Old-school goth-punk vets from the Bay Area, AFI made slightly smaller waves than their young successors, but they still resonated far beyond the subcultural niche they’ve called home for years. In the tradition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before it, “Miss Murder” (the lead single from AFI’s deliciously moody Decemberunderground) somehow managed to become a sports-arena jock jam. Tonight, you can bet that the band’s amped-up live show will get your blood pumping harder than some silly football game. Sick of It All play rough-and-tumble New York hardcore, and they’ve been doing it since the beginning of time. (afireinside.net; sickofitall.com) War Memorial Auditorium —MIKAEL WOOD

WEDNESDAY, 7TH

VETIVER/VASHTI BUNYAN A loose San Francisco collective headed up by Andy Cabic (who’s also one of Devendra Banhart’s main musical collaborators), Vetiver play trippy freak-folk psychedelia that gets closer to real-life-song territory than stuff by many of Cabic’s peers. Drop the needle on certain parts of To Find Me Gone, Vetiver’s lovely 2006 full-length, and you might think you’re listening to Jeff Buckley; that Cabic can actually sing is in no small part responsible for this fact. Vashti Bunyan released a little-heard debut in 1970 that was reissued to wide acclaim in 2004 thanks to persistent shout-outs from freak-folk heavyweights such as Banhart and Animal Collective, with whom Bunyan teamed up for a 2005 EP. (vetiverse.com; anotherday.co.uk) Mercy Lounge —MIKAEL WOOD

THEATER

DREAMGIRLS Lest it be forgotten in the wake of the film’s popular reception, Dreamgirls started life as a Broadway musical in 1981, ran for 1,522 performances and won six Tony Awards. Now the entrepreneurial Kaine Riggan brings a stage production to his community-based Donelson Senior Center for the Arts. The women playing the fictional singing group (based on the original Supremes) are Nashvillians—Danelle Corbin, Cheree Lester, Jasmine Sutton and Jewel Lucien (who relocated to the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina). But Riggan reached across the country to Los Angeles to find suitable players for the male leads, bringing in Akil Wingate (NBC’s Homicide and FX Network’s Nip/Tuck) and Mon’Quez Pippins. The music is by Henry Krieger and the lyrics and book are by Tom Eyen, a provocatively experimental playwright who, until Dreamgirls, was mostly known as the author of the offbeat 1976 prison drama Women Behind Bars. Performances are Feb. 2-16. Tickets are available online at seniorarts.org or by calling 883-8375. —MARTIN BRADY

SPEED-THE-PLOW Before he probed the world of Hollywood in such films as Wag the Dog and State and Main, playwright David Mamet served up this cynical dissection of the movie business. It’s Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s third Mamet production in recent years—the company has also staged A Life in the Theatre and Oleanna. Rene Copeland, who scored a big hit with her thoughtful staging of the latter play, directs this play with an excellent cast that includes David Alford, Marin Miller and Jessejames Locorriere. In typical provocateur style, the Mamet script pits notions of integrity and morality against the hard realities of personal survival in a world of manipulation, sex and money. Needless to say, the content and language are totally adult in nature. Performances are Feb. 1-17 at TPAC’s Johnson Theater. Phone 255-ARTS (2787). —MARTIN BRADY

EINSTEIN IS A DUMMY Nashville Children’s Theatre presents the Tennessee premiere of this musical by Karen Zacarias and Debbie Wicks. Recommended for ages 9 and up, the story takes a funny and inspiring look at the trials and tribulations of the 12-year-old Albert Einstein, who struggles with his studies and social life, seemingly an unfocused dreamer but really a scientific genius in the making. NCT director Scot Copeland handles the staging, with a promising cast that includes Patrick Waller, Jenny Littleton, Sam Whited, Lisa Nicole Kimmey and Shawn Knight. The production is onstage now through Feb. 18. For tickets, visit nashvillechildrenstheatre.org or phone 254-9103. —MARTIN BRADY

ORDINARY HEROES Nashville’s role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s is the subject of this documentary-style stage collaboration produced by Actors Bridge Ensemble and Amun Ra Theatre. Similar in concept to ABE’s faith/doubt of last season, Ordinary Heroes draws upon the testimonies of actual participants in the historical events that gained Nashville a reputation as a training ground for civil rights activists. The presentation here comes in multilevel forms, including monologues, dramatized scenes, poetry, music and dance, all under the direction of jeff obafemi carr, who supervised the script with co-writer Vali Forrister. Lipscomb and Fisk universities are co-sponsors of the world premiere performances, which start Feb. 2 at Fisk Memorial Chapel and continue through February as a part of Black History Month. Tickets are available online at ordinaryheroesplay.com or by calling 341-0300. —MARTIN BRADY

LOVE LAUGHS LAST Local playwright Myra Anderson’s fertile imagination (and, according to her, occasionally vivid dreams) gives birth to scripts of diverse settings and style, but usually Anderson exploits her scenarios for comedy and whimsy. Her latest is set in 1590 Venice, where signors and signorinas attempt to control the errant flight of Cupid’s arrows. This romance in two acts—told in the Elizabethan style—features the acting talents of Jana Landry, Rodney Pickel, David McGinnis, John Silvestro, Judy Jackson, Obadiah Ewing-Roush and Kay Ayers-Sowell, who also directs. Performed Feb. 2-17 at the Looby Theatre. For reservations, phone 423-5304. —MARTIN BRADY

THE RAT PACK—LIVE AT THE SANDS Surprisingly, this paean of praise to the Ocean’s Eleven (1960) personas of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. began life as a British stage production in 2000 and has since entertained audiences throughout the U.K., Europe and Canada. The touring production for the American market began in San Antonio in the fall of ’06 and now makes its way into TPAC’s Jackson Hall for eight shows, Feb. 6-11. Under director-choreographer Mitch Sebastian, actor-singers Stephen Triffitt, Nigel Casey and David Hayes capture the nostalgic Vegas style of a bygone era, when hip cats ruled. A 15-piece band accompanies the vocal numbers, which include Frank, Dean and Sammy’s signature pop-jazz versions of such classics as “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “One for My Baby,” “That’s Amore” and “What Kind of Fool Am I?” The trio are backed up by the singing and dancing Burelli Sisters, played by Emily Hawgood, Andra Winglelaar and Giselle Wright. For tickets, phone 255-ARTS (2787). —MARTIN BRADY

COMEDY

JOHN CAPONERA Caponera is a meat-and-potatoes kind of stand-up who tackles a range of topics with ease, from everyday observations on society and behavior,to comic reflection on the L.A. lifestyle to caustic commentary on sports. Originally from Chicago, he honed his act in a strong local comedy scene, and has gone on to expand his career to include appearances as an actor on network television, including The Good Life (his own sitcom), ER and The Drew Carey Show. In addition, he’s hosted sports-themed shows on Comedy Central and ESPN, and to many is best known for his impression of the late Chicago sports broadcasting icon Harry Caray. He’s also released four comedy CDs. Caponera’s shtick should find a solidly satisfied audience during his six shows at Zanies, Feb. 7-10. Phone 269-0221. —MARTIN BRADY

ART

BENDEL HYDES In his new show at Estel Gallery, “The Geography of Space,” Cayman Islands artist Bendel Hydes covers his large canvases in multiple layers of translucent tones, evoking the warm, mellow sensory environment of his homeland and its culture. The show will open with an artist’s reception, 6 - 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3 . Estel Gallery. —JOE NOLAN

CHARLES KEIGER This Atlanta-based artist will exhibit his new work in a show at The Arts Company called “The Freshness of the South.” Keiger populates his oil-on-panel paintings with eccentric characters, inhabiting magical, dreamlike narratives. His work will be on display along with a Valentine’s Day show called “The Art of Romance,” featuring various artists. The opening reception is from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3. The show runs through February 24. -—JOE NOLAN

“MEXICO AND MODERN PRINTMAKING” This exhibit, drawn from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, brings together prints by Mexican artists made during three decades following the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1920. The artists of this period—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rufino Tamayo—were driven by a strong sense of social justice and pride in indigenous Mexican culture. Their best-known products were murals in Mexico and around the world, but these artists also revived interest in such print media as woodcuts, etching and lithography in Mexico. As in their large-scale public work, they used these more intimate forms to celebrate the lives and struggles of common people. The show opens to the public on Friday, Feb. 2, with a lecture at 6:30 p.m. by one of the co-curators, Lyle Williams of the McNay Art Museum. It runs through April 15. Frist Center for the Visual Arts. —DAVID MADDOX

BOOKS

RICHARD KATROVAS There’ll always be a place in the American literary scene for the macho writer/poet. We just love it when muscular prose and kick-ass poetry come packaged with an author’s physique and bio to match. In his stock publicity photo—with a mullet, goatee and sleeves rolled up to reveal massive biceps—Richard Katrovas looks as if he just wandered off the World Wrestling Federation tour bus. He boasts a black belt in karate, a troubled childhood with a criminal father, and years spent as a working stiff in San Diego and New Orleans. His memoirs The Republic of Burma Shave (2001) and the upcoming The Years of Smashing Bricks are clearly aimed at readers who like their culture with a hefty dose of testosterone. But Katrovas, for all his he-man trappings and love of short sentences, is a writer of intelligence and nuance, with a surprising sympathy for women. He writes clever, erudite poetry—notably Dithyrambs (1998), a lively experiment in updating the Greek choral form. And his swagger is lightened with moments of winking self-parody, as in Mystic Pig, his novel of New Orleans: “Nick was a little man with an enormous penis, and was a quite gifted ventriloquist.” Katrovas will read from his work in Room 101, Buttrick Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Audio of the reading will be available at http://www.vanderbitl.edu/news/. –MARIA BROWNING

NATHANIEL PHILBRICK It’s always surprising in this rootless age of dabblers and dilettantes to come across someone like Nathaniel Philbrick, whose life and work seem thoroughly, even relentlessly, grounded in a single set of connected obsessions. A Boston native, a lifelong sailor and a longtime resident of Nantucket, Philbrick has devoted the past 25 years to writing about New England and its seafaring traditions. His In the Heart of the Sea (2000) is an engrossing account of the sinking of the whaling ship Essex, a celebrated tragedy that was the inspiration for Melville’s Moby-Dick. Philbrick’s book weaves careful research into a vivid, gruesome portrait that won the National Book Award for nonfiction. In his newest book, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, Philbrick takes a new look at one of our most treasured national myths. Combining a novelist’s insight with a historian’s grasp of the grand sweep of events, he takes the reader beyond the tale of the first Thanksgiving and explores the complex relationship that developed between colonists and Native Americans. Philbrick rejects both myth and revisionism. His research, he says, took him beyond “the time honored tradition of how the Pilgrims came to symbolize all that is good about America and the now equally familiar modern tale of how evil Europeans annihilated the innocent Native Americans. I soon learned that the real-life Indians and English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave—in short, too human—to behave so predictably.” Nathaniel Philbrick will read from his work in Gentry Auditorium on the Austin Peay State University campus at 8 p.m. on Feb. 1. –MARIA BROWNING

DEBORAH TANNEN It must be one of the most common and most annoying situations in life: you say something with the best of intentions, but the other person hears something else entirely. Thanks to Deborah Tannen, her readers have a basic understanding of the ways people miscommunicate. Tannen has found a rich vein to mine, as her book titles indicate: That’s Not What I Meant, You Just Don’t Understand, I Only Say This Because I Love You and many others about conversation, argument and implicit messages. The latest, her 20th book, is You’re Wearing THAT?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. The key to Tannen’s success seems to be, naturally, her own manner of communicating. Her writing style is vivid and full of anecdotes rather than generalizations or statistics. Along the way she may bring in recent Japanese studies of nonverbal communication or even an analysis of elephant behavior. But mostly she stays in the discussion of dating or grooming or bedtime rituals, calmly and rationally attempting to decipher our daily craziness without judging it. Appearances on Nightline and Oprah notwithstanding, Tannen isn’t merely some enterprising self-appointed advice guru. She is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University who receives grants from the American Council of Learned Societies. She reads at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at 6 p.m. Feb. 1. —MICHAEL SIMS

FILM

50 YEARS OF JANUS FILMS: WEEK FIVE We’re passing the halfway point of the Belcourt’s two-month retrospective of world-cinema classics, and the theater continues to set attendance records with the Janus series in one auditorium and Pan’s Labyrinth in the other. This week’s films include Kurosawa’s police thriller High and Low and the Soviet war drama The Cranes Are Flying; the latter will be introduced 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, by Konstantin Kustanovich, Vanderbilt associate professor of Slavic languages and literature. See Short Takes on p. 59 for more on The Cranes Are Flying, along with brief reviews of new releases. —JIM RIDLEY

EXISTO In 1999, the prophecy was foretold: Music City would become host to a sick underground of artists, actors and bizarre singing acts. (Oh yeah, and there was something about a plague of frogs.) Hello? Nashville Star? Now the Nostradamus of Nashville, Coke Sams, hosts the first public screening in years of his sci-fi-horror-comedy-musical, making the premiere of a new director’s cut (featuring the infamous excised number “Our Love Festers”) 9:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at the Belcourt. See Doyle & Debbie—a.k.a. star/co-author Bruce Arntson and Jenny Littleton—in the scandalous roles their managers tried to suppress! All proceeds benefit the People’s Branch Theatre and its upcoming production of Hanging Mary, an original script by Existo co-star Matt Carlton inspired by the hanging of a circus elephant in East Tennessee in 1916. See belcourt.org for more details. —JIM RIDLEY

THE FIRST ANNUAL EVER (POSSIBLY NEVER TO BE REPEATED) DAVID KINNARD FILM FESTIVAL Sundance? Cannes? Bah! Stick that laminate where a projector don’t shine. Rather than wait for somebody else to plan his career retrospective, veteran Nashville actor Kinnard hosts his own recap of his appearances in indie features, short films and sketches from the community-access comedy show Stubby’s Place. On the bill are Glen Weiss’ “Gaylord the Good Humor Man,” Pete Wade’s award-winning 48 Hour Film Project entry “Oneonta Road” and Tommy Barnes’ vampire saga “High Moon”—and there may be a clip from Jerry Hunt’s film Jack’s Terror, with Kinnard helping to re-create Jack Nicholson’s diner dust-up from Five Easy Pieces in downtown Music City. Kinnard says he’ll also perform some cabaret and comedy live as his own warm-up. The red carpet rolls 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at Café Coco, free and open to the public. —JIM RIDLEY