"Fight AIDS -- drink booze." It would make a funny bumper sticker, but that's the gist of the AIDS Walk Bar Party, a pre-event fundraiser for April 12's AIDS Walk St. Louis pledge benefit. The first of three such bar nights allows do-gooders to pay a meager $5 for a special glass that they can then fill with various drink specials. Act cosmopolitan and drink the same from 9 p.m. until closing at Kobalt, 1221 Washington Avenue. Call the AIDS Foundation of St. Louis at 314-367-7273 for more info.
Thursday, March 6
"Hold me, Bat Boy. Touch me, Bat Boy. Help me through the night." Scott Miller's New Line Theatre presents a show so funny it could make converts of folks who swear they don't like musicals. Bat Boy is the tale of a half-bat, half-human creature with huge pointed ears and fangs, allegedly discovered by supermarket tabloid the Weekly World News in a cave in 1992. The musical chronicles the foundling's education and uneasy mainstreaming into the world of American youth. The songs include such lines as "We can always shoot him, but that don't seem right to me/I can't rid myself of my Christian charity," "We got another dead cow, and we don't know why they die" and "Sleep, little Ruthie baby, no one's gonna hurt you, sheriff's gonna have that little freak destroyed." Don't forget the interspecies-sex number with copulating stuffed animals ("Choose your mate, and then let's see what we create"). If you like Little Shop of Horrors or The Rocky Horror Show, you'll dig this fun, spooky rock musical, too. See it at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through March 29 at the ArtLoft Theater, 1527 Washington Avenue. Call 314-534-1111 for tickets, priced from $12-$15, and visit www.newlinetheatre.com for loads of background info.
Friday, March 7
If you want to talk to one of the Guerrilla Girls, you'll have to send an e-mail to Käthe Kollwitz or Frida Kahlo -- not the dead artists but the anonymous pranksters who use their names. For nearly twenty years now, the New York City-based Guerrilla Girls have staged protests and coated the streets with clever stickers and posters demanding inclusion for women and minorities in the arts world. A year ago, their "Anatomically Correct Oscar" billboard at the corner of Melrose and Highland avenues in Hollywood depicted a paunchy, naked white guy as the prestigious trophy and offered statistics decrying the lack of female and minority winners. When they make public appearances, such as tonight's 7 p.m. performance/lecture at the Millennium Student Center (on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus, 8001 Natural Bridge Road), they wear gorilla masks and use fake names to conceal their identities. Expect a 90-minute show featuring skits with audience members; descriptions of the group's past actions, including a recent ad for the "estrogen bomb" (if women ran the world, explains the ad, there'd probably be a lot less war); and a preview of the forthcoming book Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. Call 314-516-7922 or visit www.guerrillagirls.com for more info. Admission is $2 for students and $5 for the rest of us.
Saturday, March 8
If you've been putting off getting that tattoo, wait no longer, because the proceeds from today's Tattoos for Cancer day help fund local cancer-research efforts. The hip inksters at Iron Age Studio (6309 Delmar Boulevard) are honoring their beloved friend and co-worker David "Joe" Wyatt by donating all of the day's profits to a good cause and even matching donations collected from customers and gawkers. Another event in Wyatt's memory, a 2 p.m. benefit concert at the Fairview Heights VFW Hall (5325 North Illinois), features youthful area punk acts Ring True, Saved by Grace, Pound for Pound, 12 Summers Old, the Killer, Over and Over, Plan of Attack, the Requiem, Scream for Silence, To No End and Resonance. Call 314-725-1499 for more info.
Sunday, March 9
Last year's Double Helix Trivia Contest included great questions about drug casualty Ozzy Osbourne, roots-rocker Doug Sahm and deceased local-access-TV prankster Pete Parisi (what a trio). The benefit for eclectic radio station KDHX (88.1 FM) and cable station DHTV was a somewhat younger, more rockin' variant on the typical trivia fundraiser, with the usual raffles, beer and intense competition. This year's contest, held from 1-5 p.m. and once again hosted by the Schlafly Tap Room (2100 Locust Street), includes a special Simpsons category, so you'd better know the names of Marge's sisters (Patty and Selma) and Krusty the Klown's real name (Herschel Krustofky). Oh, so those were too easy, eh? Well then, what is the name of the Reverend Lovejoy's radio program? Call 314-664-3955, ext. 308, for reservations, and visit www.kdhx.org for more details. Admission is $10. (Answer: Gabbin' About God).
Monday, March 10
How do you get to Powell Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Elementary-, middle- and high-school students will breathe the rare air onstage at 718 North Grand Boulevard at tonight's Des Lee Showcase. The concert, sponsored by the University of Missouri-St. Louis, allows choirs, bands, dance groups and solo acts from the Ferguson-Florissant, Riverview Gardens, St. Charles, University City and Wright City school districts to entertain the folks in the august auditorium. Call 314-516-5980 for more info on the free 7 p.m. event.
Tuesday, March 11
If a friend told you he or she was going to an art exhibit of photos snapped at the scenes of auto accidents, you might think it sounded pretty tasteless (unless you're a fan of the David Cronenberg film Crash). The pieces in Contemporary Projects: Arnold Odermatt Photographs, though, are quiet and cool and devoid of blood or bodies. For 60 years, Swiss policeman Odermatt waited until accident scenes were clear of everything but the car before snapping his black-and-white photos. His images include an arresting shot of a Volkswagen Beetle that has tumbled down a steep, snowy incline and landed upside down on the road at the bottom; a smashed car that takes on the look of a disheveled, drunken W.C. Fields; and a frightening shot of convertible half-submerged in a river. There's horror here, yes, but also comedy, beauty and meditations on the intrusion of technology. The exhibit opens with tonight's 5:30-7:30 p.m. free reception and continues through April 20 at the Washington University Gallery of Art in Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards. Call 314-935-4523 for more info.
