Alexandra Nechita may be young, but the 18-year-old Romanian artist is more accomplished than many artists thrice her age. Her paintings, lithographs, and drawings have found a home in the collections of Bill Clinton, the Vatican, and Oprah Winfrey and have won honors from the American Red Cross and the Van Gogh Institute. Nechita comes to town to discuss and display her work, making three Wentworth Gallery appearances starting at the Mall at Wellington Green (10300 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington) this Thursday. Says Whoopi Goldberg of Nechita: "The thumbprint of the Great One is on her." Nechita pops up Friday at the Gardens Mall (3101 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens) and Saturday at the Town Center Mall Wentworth Gallery (6000 Glades Rd., Boca Raton). Call 800-732-6140.
FRI 16
It's pretty easy to tell whether a comic is having an off night or if he just blows. Good material can be a good defense against hecklers. That's the Rev. Bob Levy's approach, anyway. No one is out of his wide-ranging line of fire. Rather than try to beat the hecklers, Levy -- a pro at celebrity roasting -- preemptively joins them, taking good-natured jabs at anyone from the announcing emcee to audience members on their way to the bathroom. In case you're wondering how Levy ranks on the raunch-o-meter: First off, he's on The Howard Stern Show. Second, his CD Got Heiny? features a cover drawing of Levy preparing to chow down on a plateful of, um, well... heiny. Levy comes to the New York Comedy Club (8221 Glades Rd., Boca Raton). You might want to sit in the back and stay in your seat till the end. Tickets cost $17 and $22. Call 561-470-6887.
SAT 17
V is for Valentine... vagina... violence... and victory. And V-day (today!) has been established to increase awareness and raise money for organizations working to be victorious in ending violence against women and girls. Words like vagina, uterus, and fallopian tube make some people uneasy. But what should make them more uneasy is the fact that nasty stuff like rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery still happens. On V-day, about 1,000 groups around the world -- including a crew of women aged 13 to 62 at the Parker Playhouse (707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale) -- will stage performances of The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler's Obie Award-winning play. A review of the Monologues in O magazine says, "By the end of the show, the audience has moved from slightly embarrassed to highly engaged, sometimes enraged, and ultimately enlarged. They leave understanding that a woman is more than the sum of her parts, but if some of her parts are unmentionable, she is diminished." Tickets cost $30; they're available at the Parker Playhouse box office, or online at www.womenindistress.org. Proceeds will be donated to Women in Distress and the Pace Center for Girls of Broward County. The show starts at 8 p.m. Call 954-465-8168.
SUN 18
"A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam. And for a brief moment, its glory and beauty belong to our world. But it flies again, and though we wish it could have stayed, we feel lucky to have seen it."
-- Author unknown
Today, HospiceCare of Southeast Florida releases scores of captive butterflies during an event to honor and remember loved ones. For $30, the hospice will give you a commemorative pin and a card and let one of these beautiful creatures fly away in the name of someone you love. Donate online at www.hospicecareflorida.org/events-butterfly.html, or call 954-467-7423. The butterfly release ceremony takes place in the garden at Hospice Care (309 SE 18th St., Fort Lauderdale) at 3 p.m.
MON 19
Local production company Arcane Entertainment -- whose credits include B-movies like Hustlin' in the Bahamas, featuring former MTV VJs Dr. Dre and Ed Lover -- holds an orientation for aspiring filmmakers interested in the Five-Minute Film Competition. To enter, writers, directors, camera operators, and actors must produce five-minute films and submit them by May 31. First-place winners will land apprenticeships on the crew of Arcane's upcoming films Terror Island and The Pizza Guy. The orientation takes place at 7 p.m. at Cinema Paradiso (503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale). Call 786-488-9627, or visit www.arcane-entertainment.com. Happening simultaneously is an orientation for the Entertainment Incubator's Guerrilla Music Video Contest. Winners receive a contract from Universal Music Publishing. The orientation takes place at 7 p.m. at the Alexander Hotel (5225 Collins Ave., Miami Beach). Call 305-672-9297, or visit www.eincubator.org. If your vision leans toward the avant-garde, submit your film or video to the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, which is preparing a showcase that features the work of emerging artists. Call 305-893-6211.
TUE 20
Yo, man, you like hip-hop? Like, good hip-hop? You've probably never even heard it. It's the same with any type of music. You start out with something new. It exists in its pure form for a year or two. Then the record companies get their grubby hands on it. Soon enough, no one remembers what it was without its shiny -- sorry, blingin' -- new packaging. But it doesn't have to be that way. "Peanut Gallery Tuesdays" at Elite's (333 Clematis St., West Palm Beach) offer an alternative to all the B.S. of Top 40 hip-hop. Check out sets spun by DJs Stress One, Gello Jam, Eye D, and Deedubz. And there's no cover, so there's no reason not to drop by and drop the beat. Call 561-833-2333.
WED 21
Millions of years ago, there was a big bang. But this big bang is different from the one we're familiar with: the one hard-line creationists want to keep out of school textbooks. But both creationism and evolutionism neglect the real origins of our species: a race of aliens known as GWAR. After being banished to Earth, GWAR forcefully bred with apes, resulting in the creation of humans. And in the 1980s -- after all those years toiling with their offspring -- GWAR became a thrash band, the only sensible thing a group of aliens could do. In 1997, GWAR fed talk-show maven Jerry Springer to a giant, man-eating worm during one of its shows. Need I say more? Join Oderus Urungus and gang as they annihilate humanity at the Culture Room (3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale). The show starts at 7:30 p.m. with openers Bad Acid Trip (see Critic's Pick in Music). God, What an Awful Racket! Tickets cost $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Call 954-564-1074.
