Eugene Weekly : Calendar : 04.27.06

Missed the highly acclaimed Murderball in its short run at the Bijou? No need to worry; the 2nd Annual UO Disability Studies Film Festival's Push Your Limit! brings it right on back to Eugene during the three-day extravaganza. Starting Thursday, April 27, you can see a couple debate what to do with their micro-preemie, watch deaf virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glenny compose and perform and find out what happens when "Jerry's Orphans" challenge the Muscular Dystrophy Association's oft-mocked telethon. For a different film focus, on Sunday you and your kids can thrill to Eugene Parks and Open Space's Children's Nature Film Festival at the McDonald Theatre. Shorts include films about baby ducklings, sneaky termites and hunger-crazed gophers along with Eugene filmmaker Paul Garrett's hot air balloon safari. After the screening, kids can hang with "giant critters" and snag tons o' info about summer outdoor fun. See Calendar.

With the real, honest-to-goodness arrival of spring weather (though we probably shouldn't say that; now it'll start pouring any second) comes a Last Friday ArtWalk with two new venues, Teresa's Place and Studio B. This month's walk has at least 18 stops — or more, or less. Since the Walk is self-guided, it's pretty much up to you. Check out work by Cortney Benvenuto at Better Yet or by Kiki Metzler at Possum Place (left). Work by Gary Buchholz is up at Monroe St. Café, and the Museum of Unfine Art and Record Store is showing the art of Grayson Revoir, Jennifer Davis, Jacquelyn Lucchesi and Gil Jon. Go out and walk around while it's nice out there. See Friday Calendar.

In 1975, the Community Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA) raised money for the down payment on the WOW Hall with a WOWATHON, five days and nights of nonstop music played by many artists who'd performed at the WOW before. Clearly, it worked pretty well — the WOW is still going strong. Now it's time for another WOWATHON, this time to raise money to purchase the back parking lot from the city of Eugene. The party's only two days this time, and there is a little break from one day to the next, but the array of musicians looks just as broad: acts include The Ovulators, The Sugar Beets, 3 Blind Mics and everything in between. The music starts at 5:30 pm Friday and at noon Saturday and goes late into the night on both days. Saturday also features an outdoor "C&C Music Factory Stage," which, well, we're not exactly sure why it's called that. But it all sounds pretty great. See Friday and Saturday Calendar.

Let's just say this: Ani diFranco may be prolific, but she doesn't have some 43 albums to her name. Judy Collins does. The activist-folkie-author-inspiration released the newest of those albums, Portrait of an American Girl, last April. After decades filled with mixed pain — alcoholism, the suicide of her son — and wild success, Judy Blue Eyes still works for social justice causes like UNICEF and Hurricane Katrina relief. We love her for her commitment along with her silvery voice. Although we'd be happy to hear her sing "Suzanne" and "Send in the Clowns," we're just as excited to hear her own songs and her covers of Train, Bruce Cockburn and the Motown classic "Sally Go 'Round the Roses." See Thursday, April 27 Calendar.

LAgonized boys stuck in school with relentless classmates make careless, sometimes foolish choices in order to escape guilt over something to do with their background and parents. No, it's not "Harry Potter Meets Young Hamlet." It's author Tobias Wolff, master of the short story, whose memoir This Boy's Life (1989) and more recent novel Old School (2004) explore what happens when you try to escape who you are and where you come from. Is there any literary award the man hasn't won? You know you have a well-thumbed copy of This Boy's Life, Old School or In the Garden of the North American Martyrs sitting around, waiting to be signed. Make the right choice. See Thursday, April 27 Calendar.