See Hear Do: Art of Plenty

The Writer’s Block is hosting an event featuring Shwa Laytart, the countercultural mastermind behind of AvantPop Books. Shwa is also a writer, and he’s got an illustrated children’s book coming out whose title could confuse some readers.

It’s called The Gray Areas Podcast' with Gibby Grey & Tarda the Mutant Water-bear. But the event is not a podcast — that’s just a device for the book’s spacey, fantastical narrative, which involves two hosts. One is an alien, the other is a mutant water-bear, and their schtick is gallivanting across the universe, through portal after portal, and engaging with various different creatures and species -- and podcasting all about it along the way. Giving visuals to the whole thing is illustrator Bluumangoo, a local art teacher and tattoo artist.

If the name "Buena Vista Orchestra" sounds familiar to some of you, it’s essentially the new version of the Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba. It’s led by Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos, a trombonist, composer, arranger and musical director who was Buena Vista Social Club’s original orchestra leader, composer and trombonist . Two other original members of the Club will join Ramos and seven other musicians. Fans of musical theater may want to attend and bone up on the orchestra’s music because there’s now a musical about the Social Club, which means it could make its way to the Smith Center in the future.

On its face, this is a short documentary presented by Clark County about a mural commissioned by Clark County, so there’s a promotional feel to this. However, the documentary — which, like the mural project, is called Unsung — is essentially a history lesson. The mural in question is spread out over 21 pillars at the Pearson Community Center. Each of those 21 pillars tells the timeline highlights of the Historic Westside. The title Unsung comes from the under-celebrated legacy-building of the people and institutions which would build and lift the Westside, most of them people from the Black community who lived there. Locals Gwendolyn K. Walker and Zachary Fried made the film, which centers the work of artist Mike Norice, who created the artwork, and Claytee White, the UNLV historian who guided the selection of representations on the pillars.

This playwright by Sandy Rustin premiered on Broadway two years ago. It’s a sort of homage to the work of British playwright Noel Coward, and it takes place in the English countryside. Again, sounds subtle, old-fashioned, maybe unsexy, right? But! Sylvia is the main character, and she’s in this cottage with her lover, Beau, doing the things lovers usually do there. Sylvia wants to seal the deal with him. Beau, well, not so much. That’s awkward, but not as awkward as what happens next: Their spouses — yup, you read that right — are coming to cottage — and Sylvia wants to reveal the affair to them. It sounds awkard ... But sparks fly, hijinks ensue, and so on!

Note: Show dates and times vary; Please visit ticketing website for more information.

Many of the acts booked in Vegas for Mexican Independence Day week sing in Spanish, but are not actually from Mexico. Caifanes is not only Mexican, they’re one of the pioneers of modern Mexican music, going back to the mid 1980s. They were heavily influenced by that decade’s British and American rock, and combined them with touchstones of traditional and modern Mexican music. Ultimately, they became one of the forefather acts of the rock en Español movement. They’ve been here before, but it’s great that they’re being counted among the many live music acts here for the big mid-September holiday stretch.

Kirby M. Brownell is a stream-of-consciousness painter/illustarator, who was a core part of both the Laservida arts collective and the Katherine Gianaclis Park for the Arts in the southeast part of town — both institutions for avant garde art from all mediums for decades. Fast-forward to now, and Kirby is nearing the end of a three-month run at the Clark County Library on East Flamingo. His show Scribble demonstrates work he describes as “surreal automatism” — which is to say that this work is not pre-meditated — and will include large, colorful, swirling paintings, as well as collages and graphite drawings.

Note: Also available Fri-Sun from 10am to 6pm.