Fluttering and Film on Friday, Studio and Strumming on Saturday, and Laughing on the Lord's Day

WINE & WINGS
Break Out of That Cocoon and Spread Your Wings
by Danielle Kurtzleben

If the idea of going to a zoo makes you cringe — pushing a stroller, carrying cotton candy and grumpy, sleeping children — perk up, hire a sitter, and come to the Minnesota Zoo’s adult-only Monarchs & Merlot social. Spend an evening sipping merlot, or chardonnay, sampling hors d’eouvres, and taking a peaceful walk through the MN Zoo’s butterfly garden. If you’re feeling more ambitious, you can also learn about the 40 species in the butterfly garden, as well as how to attract them to your own yard. While the price may seem a little steep at $40, it’s all for a good cause: the zoo’s conservation programs.

Friday at 6:30 p.m., Minnesota Zoo, 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; 952-431-9200; $40 (members $35).

FILM
Celebrate Sleep and Winter on a Hot Summer Night

Video cameras abound these days, as do self-proclaimed videographers, but when it comes time to show your work in a venue other than YouTube or the hot new video hosting service of the week, there’s a dearth of serious options. (Not that YouTube could even be considered a serious option, mind you.) More than anything else, video today is meant to make you laugh. But what about aesthetics? What about art? What about framing that perfect shot, capturing the particular way a ray of light bounces off your subject, playing with your palette? What about metaphor? In an effort to create a new venue for emerging video artists to present their work, the Rosalux Gallery is hosting its first annual No Mittens Film Festival, a one-night screening of films about winter and sleep.

Friday at 7 p.m., Rosalux Gallery, 1101 Washington Ave., Minneapolis; free.

Of course, it’s Friday, so there are a whole slew of movies opening this evening. Vitus and Ten Canoes open at the Edina Cinema, Interview and Sunshine open at the Lagoon Cinema, and My Best Friend opens at the Uptown Theatre. Also showing at the Uptown on Saturday at midnight is Sam Peckinpah’s controversial Western, The Wild Bunch. Oh! And don’t forget The Simpsons Movie. Read Rake film critic Peter Schilling’s So Little Time write-up.

VISUAL ARTS
Last Weekend for Smith and Britto Exhibit
by Ann Klefstad

Both Shinique Smith and Michael Paul Britto were in a show called Frequency at the Studio Museum of Harlem last year, curated by the incisively yet inclusively smart Thelma Golden. Also included was Kalup Linzy, whose hilarious and fond videos of various homefolks recently showed at Midway Contemporary Art in Northeast Minneapolis. Indeed, it seems that much of the most interesting art in circulation around here — including the recent show by Jim Denomie and Andrea Carlson at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Kara Walker’s survey at the Walker — is being done by people with access to at least a couple of different cultures. Maybe that double vision provides the binoculars we need to see the real lay of the land. I’m not sure which of Britto’s videos will be presented, but his Dirrrty Harriet Tubman is pretty funny, an action-thriller parody using a sanctified figure. The thing to ask is, can we all play?

Friday and Saturday from 12-5 p.m., Franklin Art Works, 1021 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis; 612-872-7494; free.

MUSIC
Bringing Down the House with Nothing but Fingers
by Danielle Kurtzleben

It’s a finger-picking extravaganza tonight, when Charlie Parr and My Two Toms hit the Kitty Cat Klub, the latest stop on their American Tour. British duo My Two Toms proves that beautiful instrumental bluegrass (what they humbly call “front-porch music”) can come from all the way across the pond. Duluth native Parr, with a country-blues style that ranges from heart-rending to rowdy, is a fixture on the Minnesota music scene. Don’t let his scruffy, regular-joe exterior fool you — this 12-string virtuoso always brings down the house.

Saturday at 10 p.m., Kitty Cat Klub, 315 14th Ave. S.E., Dinkytown, Minneapolis; $5.

Other good music shows this weekend include The Peterson Family tonight at the Fitz, the Humanboy CD Release Party tonight at the Cabooze, and a Reunion Show with Edupoetic at Visage Nightclub.

COMEDY & PERFORMANCE
Improv-a-Go-Go
by Max Ross

For five years now, Improv-a-Go-Go has served as a weekly showcase for local improvisational comedy talent. Performers take cues from the audience to create scenes on the spot, a sort of spontaneous combustion that offers the crowd a sense of immediacy and intimacy seldom found in traditional comedy theater; at its best, everyone feels as if they are privy to an inside joke that keeps on going throughout the night. Previous skits have included drunken Christmas carols and a dinosaur rock-eating party. Tonight’s show features sets by Five Man Job, Scrappy Moose, Straight from Uranus, and Ferrari McSpeedy. It’s only one dollar, so why not?

Sunday at 8 p.m., Brave New Workshop, 2605 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-6620; $1.