Eugene Weekly : Calendar : 05.04.06

If you're like us and from a place other than Oregon, you probably thought of wetlands as … wet. Maybe gooey. But wetlands are oh-so-much more, as the Mississippi Delta learned to its chagrin. Here in Eugene, we still get to party with butterflies, birds, plants, and, OK, yes, insects in our bird-friendly zone. An evening in celebration of the wetlands, Fender's blue butterfly and protecting critical habitat in West Eugene brings out all of the swamp luminaries: Mayor Kitty Piercy, Mary O'Brien, Ethen Perkins and others. See Thursday, May 4 Calendar.

Guitars and Mozart! Yes! Sharon Isbin performs a bunch o' times this weekend, both solo and with the Oregon Mozart Players in their "Viva España!" celebrations. We bet you already know the super-ness of the Mozart Players, but do you know this woman with the guitar? You should. She's won a zillion international competitions, and her talent, those in the know say, is on the Yo-Yo Ma level. That kind of string power you really don't want to miss … and you don't have to. See Calendar.

You passed on The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love when it was on sale in the DVD bin, didn't you? Well, the ASUO Women's Center is here to show you the big screen sweet tale of, um, you know who in you know what, at the Queer Women's Expository Entertainment Film Festival. The festival has it all. From The Best of Lesbian Shorts (cargo shorts are the nicest, we think, but then we like butch women) to the animated "Queermation" selections, f+f films run incredibly free and sometimes true for the entire glorious weekend. See Calendar.

ÐMíren el arte! Finalmente, May's First Friday ARTWalk arrives in both English and español, which is reason enough to celebrate. Miriam Jordan, special events manager at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, leads the tour, which begins at 5:30 on the second floor of the Biblioteca Céntrica. La primera parada será … OK, OK, we'll write it in English ... the first stop is the Downtown Library, where Jordan will discuss the "Show Me the West Eugene Wetlands" photo exhibit. Stop #2 is M.E.C.C.A., showing cool art made by students from recycled (or is that reused?) materials. DIVA, stop #3, hosts a variety of artists, including Ken O'Connell, Group 669, Jean Denis, Martin Sage and Tina Schrager, whose work is pictured below. Live music accompanies a mini-ARTFest at stop #4, 126 W. Broadway, where local artists have work on display and Randy Larson performs, and stop #5 includes a little cha cha cha — or, to be more precise, a little lesson in the art of tango at the Tango Center. As always, other galleries and shops downtown are open late but not part of the walk. See Friday Calendar.