"It's really all about the love of being on two wheels," says Larry Gore, president of Lone Star Rally, Inc. "If you don't understand why we love to ride, just watch a dog hanging its head out of a car window, then you'll get it." Thursday, September 25, through Sunday, September 28. For information and maps, call 281-597-8800 or visit www.LoneStarRally.com. Free. -- Bliss Foster
Cinema in the Balance
Look, we know you saw it in college, but you were probably too stoned to remember it. The 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi is a wordless tumble of provocative images, set to a moving (some might say manipulative) score by Philip Glass, who'll be performing it live this week at the Wortham. The only utterance in the film is the title, an ancient Hopi word meaning "life out of balance." Images of nature, technology and the human beings who live off them are juxtaposed without judgment, leaving you to draw your own trippy conclusions. Munchies not included in the ticket price. 8 p.m. Thursday, September 25, and Friday, September 26. Cullen Theater, 500 Texas. For information and tickets, call 713-227-4772 or visit www.spahouston.org. $29 to $49. -- Lisa Simon
Celebrate visionary art at the Orange Show name-expansion party
Mention the Orange Show to someone who's never been there, and you're likely to hear the question "What exactly is that place?" The answer, my friend, can be as simple or as complex as you'd like. Yes, it is the colorful monument dedicated to a retired postal worker's favorite fruit, but it's also a whole lot more. The Orange Show is responsible for the Art Car Parade and the Beer Can House, as well as a juicy assortment of public education programs and mural projects. Basically, if it's weird and wacky in Houston, the Orange Show probably had something to do with it. So they've decided to lengthen its name to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, and they're throwing a party to celebrate. 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 1. The Orange Show Monument, 2402 Munger Street. For more information, call 713-926-6368 or visit www.orangeshow.org. Free. -- Keith Plocek
Andy Warhol: Screen Tests pulls together the hundreds of portrait films created by the iconoclastic American artist during the '60s. At his studio in New York, Warhol captured a few minutes of face time apiece with celebrities and near-celebrities, including singer Mama Cass Elliott, actor Dennis Hopper and artist Salvador Dalí. Each of his portraits -- or screen tests -- was typically four to five minutes long, and all were shot with the same simple lighting effects. The result is equal parts film-making and psychoanalysis. As the subjects were told to sit still and stare at the Bolex camera, each of their quirks soon bubbled to the surface. Warhol later magnified them for the viewer by slowing down the film speed. Just as important, he made the audience twitch and fiddle along with his famous subjects. 7 p.m. Saturday, September 27. Museum of Fine Arts Brown Auditorium, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515. $6. -- Greg Barr
String Us Along
Pearls. Considering they're actually the oyster equivalent of boogers, these lustrous gems have had quite a history. The Greeks thought they were created when bolts of lightning struck the sea, while the Romans imagined them to be frozen tears of the gods. Legend even has it that Cleopatra swallowed one of them to win a bet with Mark Antony. These and other pearls of wisdom are featured at "Pearls: A Natural History," the latest offering from the Museum of Natural Science. Keep an eye out for the prototype for Audrey Hepburn's famed string of beauties. Saturday, September 27, through January 18. One Hermann Circle Drive. For information, call 713-639-4629 or visit www.hmns.org. $6.50 to $12.50. -- Keith Plocek
