march 27
Threadgill's -- The Cookbook Threadgill's is a great place for lunch, except that it's so darned packed all the time, and it's a couple of hundred miles away. Better to whip up the Austin institution's Southern dishes at home. Proprietor and recipeman Eddie Wilson -- the so-called curator of Austin cool -- combined 100 recipes with asides such as food songs by Guy Clark and food poems by Roy Blount Jr. The first printing -- 10,000 copies -- sold out during the Christmas rush, but now you can pick up a copy from the second batch, bend Wilson's ear and sample a few of his Easter recipes. Noon-4 p.m. Randalls, 1407 South Voss, 783-8304. Free; copies of the book sell for $21.95.
Sample a sliced retina? The Museum of Health and Medical Science, home of Sneezy Sammy and Safety Sally, is celebrating its first birthday, and for the occasion, Tom Tanes, chef at the nearby Wyndham Warwick, has baked a really big cake ... in the shape of a really big eyeball. The cake is modeled after the colossal peeper in the museum's Amazing Body Pavilion, and whether the layers are white, chocolate or red velvet we can't say. But there will be candles and music compliments of the New Caney High School Tuba Quartet. 4-7 p.m. Museum of Health & Medical Science, 1515 Hermann Drive, 521-1515. Free.
friday
march 28
Joe Laid Aside Using that name, Fernando Casimiro reaches out to young people, urging them to shed their anger for their own good. The Belize native was abandoned by his parents, raised in squalor and eventually hitchhiked to Houston, where things have gotten better. Tonight, he tells his story, through poetry and performance. 9 p.m. tonight and April 4. Cafe Artiste, 1601 West Main (at Mandell), 528-3704. Free.
Fifth Annual Bunny Roast No, they won't barbecue rabbits. Nor will Santa Claus, the Great Pumpkin and Baby New Year be on hand to humorously salute the Easter Bunny. The Strand Street Saloon's fifth annual Easter festival celebrates the season with a barbecue cook-off, an Easter egg hunt for the kids and lots of music -- Mark May and the Agitators, Bert Wills and more. The festivities kick off at 4 p.m. today with 98 in the Shade and pick back up at noon Saturday and Sunday. At 10 Mile and Stewart roads, Galveston, (409) 763-6260. $3.
Lone Star Dinosaurs See how the great state of Texas might've looked 100 million years ago, before longhorns and ranches, oil derricks and football, before bluebonnets, mesquite and Enchanted Rock. Even then, things were big. Texas-based artist Karen Carr consulted with paleontologists and paleobotanists to paint the original Texans -- tyrannosaurs, nodosaurs and hypsilophodonts -- and their portraits are on display with fossils, fossil casts and more. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Houston Museum of Natural Science, 1 Hermann Circle Drive, Hermann Park, 639-IMAX. $3; $2, children under 12.
Great Loves of the Silver Screen While Stephen Stein and the Houston Symphony run through romantic selections from the soundtracks of movies such as Brigadoon, the corresponding film clips will show on a giant screen hung over the stage. Alas, there's not an Ennio Morricone song in the lot, but Doctor Zhivago gets its due with five scenes; other leading men include King Kong and Boris Karloff. 8 p.m. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana, 227-ARTS. $21-$56.
Lifesavers Party This Good Friday, bad boys can do good at Rich's. Fork over ten bucks for the entertainment -- DJ Danny M from South Beach, Florida, plus Shawn Welling, Planet Funk and Mix 96 celebs -- and feel warm and fuzzy knowing the proceeds will support AIDS research. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Rich's, 2401 San Jacinto, 521-2910. $10.
saturday
march 29
Lights... Camera... Music! It's the symphony again, this time performing soundtrack selections for kids. Heated glances and puckered lips are out; Dorothy, Toto and Robin Hood are in. The clips will be projected on a giant screen while the musicians play; kids can come early to visit the Instrument Petting Zoo. 10:30 a.m. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana, 227-ARTS. $5-$10; $3-$7, children.
The Brubeck Brothers These three are the offspring of Dave, so you know that when they brag that jazz was their first language, they grew up fluent. Tonight, Matthew (cello, piano, bass), Daniel (drums) and Christopher (bass, trombone, piano) play some of their own stuff, some of their dad's stuff and a few standards, too. 8 p.m. The Grand 1894 Opera House, 2020 Postoffice Street, Galveston, (800) 821-1894. $14.50-$24.50.
Rom Ryan Guitarist Ryan reaches into the musical melting pot to pull out a style that he calls "new edge music," a mixture of world beat and New Age. Vicky Charleston, Austin's queen of the poetry slam, opens. 8 p.m. DiverseWorks, 1117 East Freeway, 663-7087. $10.
