Bless you good people who get four days off. We should all be so lucky. Even though it's a long weekend, I need to make this short. Here are five cool things happening this weekend. Enjoy.

1. Saul Williams @ Arte Americas
Poet/musician/actor/author Saul Williams is the kind of guy who does so much that makes everyone else look like a slacker. But it's OK 'cause he's darn talented. He does his poetry thing at Arte Americas on Saturday night. Tickets cost $10. [ more ]

2. Gary Hoey @ Starline
If you want some rippin' guitar, check out surf legend Gary Hoey. He made his name doing the music for "Endless Summer II," plus he's done a lot of instrumental Christmas CDs. Now, he's returning to his Boston rock roots. He's playing at Starline tonight with Stacey Blood. Tickets cost $12. [ more ]

More after the break ...

The Bar, which has hosted live music at its First and Gettysburg location for a few years now, got its dance permit pulled by the city last week, thus putting the end to its run of hosting live music.

Most immediately, the Thursday night hip-hop show with Aesop from the Living Legends, Silence Interrupted and others has been be re-located to The Lucky 13, at Ashlan Avenue, near Highway 99.

Two hip-hop shows on the same day? Again?

On July 7 two chart-toppers -- Yung Joc and Bubba Sparxxx -- will be hitting Fresno, playing separate shows, each sponsored by different radio stations.

Sound familiar?

Happy crazy, steaming, burning up Friday. If you want to brave the possiblity of melting by attending some music events this weekend, here are five I would recommend.

Also, after that are five music/entertainment stories from today's paper worth a look. Enjoy!

1. Marina V at Fagan's Irish Pub
Fresno loves Marina V. It's true, to the tune of two sell-out shows this year for the Russian-born L.A. songstress. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Marina V. (right) returns on Saturday night, playing her Jewel-esque tunes. 8 p.m. $10. [ more ]

2. The Advantage/Hella at Howie and Son's
Yes, I probably should be raving about Hella, the bigger band on tonight's bill at Howie and Son's in Visalia, but The Advantage is just way too cool. If you're like me and grew up with a Nintendo, check them out, they cover 8-bit Nintendo tunes. I wonder if they take requests? I want "Legend of Zelda." 9:30 p.m. $5. [ more ]

More after the break...

As we inch closer to fair season, more and more entertainment lineups are being announced. Today it was the lineup for the Tulare Fair, which runs Sept. 13-17.

Scheduled to perform this year's fair are country star Tracy Lawrence (Sept. 13), patriotic country singer Lee Greenwood (Sept. 14), '70s/'80s pop-rock band Pablo Cruise (Sept. 15), Motown group The Spinners (Sept. 16) and a Latin-flavored Fiesta Day to close the fair (Sept. 17). All the shows are free with fair admission.

If The Advantage didn't have the coolest band idea ever, they certainly have the best idea of any band who's rolling into town this weekend.

The Advantage is an instrumental cover band. But they don't play ust any kind of covers, they play -- are you ready for this? -- theme songs from 8-bit Nintendo games. We're talking "Metal Gear," "Metroid," "Mega Man" and Mario, too.

Glorious, isn't it?

Am I reading this right? Phil Angelides wants to be my friend on MySpace?

Around election time, I was wondering how long before politicians starting harnessing the power of MySpace the way musicians and comedians have. Well, I got my answer when my "New Friend Request" turned out to be the Phil Angelides for Governor page. It's a novel idea, and a good way to connect with the younger generation, but I still groaned when I saw it.

At least he's going for the full MySpace experience. He has blogs posted, 1755 friends, a family photo and a bunch of comments. I wonder if I added him, would he keep re-posting the stupid bulletins about profile trackers? Hmmmm.

Well, I'm not gonna find out. Deny!

If you can stand the heat, here are five cool shows/musical happenings to check out this weekend. These are just my picks, for a complete rundown of what’s happening, check out my Music Roundup.

1. Speakers for the Dead @ Crossroads
Cancer-stricken guitarist Jason Garcia is playing his last gig with his metal band Speakers for the Dead tonight before leaving for treatment in Indiana with renowned Dr. Larry Einhorn, who hopes he can save Garcia’s life. The band is playing tonight to raise money for Garcia’s treatment. Get out and show your support.

When you're talking about Valley artists who have logged a lot of miles on the road, one of our most frequent flyers, or drivers in this case, is rapper/producer Coley Cole.

Cole is a Visalia native, who polished his style in rap battles and in record stores, digging through crates of old records for stuff to sample. He left Visalia to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz and when he finished school, his rap career took off.

He's toured and released music with his own crew, Lost and Found Generation, but also done production for and jumped on tours with indie rap heavyweights such as Sage Francis.

He performs his first hometown show in a while on Saturday, as part of the Summer Jam Showcase at the Main Street Theater in Visalia. Diego Redd, Sole Profit, The Skinny Fat Kids and Ghetto Society are also performing. We chatted with Coley Cole to see what he's been up to.

My column today is part two of my Fresno Treasures series. A few weeks backs, I wrote a column asking readers to submit some of their favorite mom-and-pop, word-of-mouth type businesses in town. The goal: To get people around here to start enjoying the homegrown jewels that Fresno has to offer.

I got a ton of responses. Some of them ended up in today's column. But I wanted to have everyone's recommendations in one place, in hopes that people could use this is a point of reference and sounding board for exploring some of what Fresno has to offer.

Take a look at the responses that readers sent it. Chime in on them. Add more suggestions. And most of all, explore Fresno a little more.

More after the break ...

Take a second and read mystory in today's paper about Jason Garcia, the guitarist from local band Speakers for the Dead.

Garcia's been fighting cancer for eight months. And now, he's looking for help to get life-saving treatment from Dr. Larry Einhorn in Indiana (he's the doctor who treated Lance Armstrong). Garcia will play his last show for a while with Speakers for the Dead on Friday, then leave for Indiana on Monday. His family and friends are trying to help him raise the $100,000 he needs as a down payment on the surgery.

Check out this Web site that was made to document his fight and help raise money. Below you'll find a story written by Garcia's friends and family, who are trying to raise money to help him get his treatment.

While everyone was concerned about whether the Dixie Chicks would be coming to the Save Mart Center or not, Selland Arena and Saroyan Theatre snuck up and stole the summer.

This week, the Fresno Convention and Entertainment Center, which houses both Selland and Saroyan, announced a few more big summer concerts. The biggest being an Aug. 6 date with hard-rockers Tool at Selland. Tickets go on sale June 24.

Country singer Dwight Yoakam and funny man George Lopez are among the names on a list of upcoming shows just announced by the Hanford Fox Theatre.

Tickets for many of the upcoming events are on sale now, with notables acts Lopez and Yoakam among those waiting for ticket on-sales. Keep watching www.foxhanford.com for on-sale dates.

Full list of shows after the break...

It's the week of Six Ounce Gloves, but that doesn't mean there's nothing else happening. Here's my five picks for what's crackin' this weekend, starting, of course, with Six Ounce Gloves. For a full rundown, check out my Music Roundup.

1. Six Ounce Gloves @ Starline and J Street Gar & Grill
Enjoy local rockers Six Ounce Gloves' triumphant week up close and personal. You have two chances. The Gloves released their label debut CD "Timing is Everything" on Rock Ridge Records on Tuesday and have been running around everywhere since. They already topped the weekly sales chart at Tower Records, the first local band to do that in years. Tonight, Six Ounce plays it official CD release show at at 9 p.m. at Starline. Los Angeles' Stave Sacre and their label mates Domeshots are playing as well. Tickets cost $7 and it should sell-out. On Saturday, they'll be taking the show to Tulare to perform at J Street Bar & Grill.

More music downtown is always a good thing, I say. And the Fresno Grizzlies agree, which is why they started Party in the Park.

It's a new occasional concert series that begins today at 5 p.m., filling the gap between ArtHop, Grizzlies games and Fulton Plaza Thursdays.

Today, catch the blues stylings of the A.C. Myles Band and compete in the Mr. and Mrs. Thirsty Thursday contest. Plus, the Grizzlies asked yours truly to host the shindig, so come and hang out with me. Tickets cost $5.

First of all, how was the second night of Madonna? My only real question, considering her whole set stays the same, is how was the turnout? I had been afraid that the second show would be kinda empty. Also, did she do the "Fres-Yes" bit again?

Moving on to other matters, there's a few reader responses that I thought would make good conversation on here.

If you haven't yet heard, Fresno hard rock band Six Ounce Gloves released its much-anticipated, nationally available CD "Timing is Everything" on Rock Ridge Music today.

As part of the release day mania, the band is on a whirlwind tour of appearances that'll take them all around Fresno today. Here's a look:

I'm still winding down from the first of the two Madonna concerts at the Save Mart Center. The Material Girl was in top form -- dancing, strutting and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Backed with an acrobatic group of dancers and a tightly choreographed show, it was one of the more theatrical concerts I've ever seen.

Here's my show recap and answers to questions you might have.

So what did everyone think? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Was it just OK? Anybody have a favorite song? Outfit? Are you bummed she didn't do a certain song? Tell us what you think.

Also, for all you people that were out there taking pictures -- there were tons of you, I saw you -- share your pictures with everyone else. Either drop a link in the comments section or send them to me via email.

Well, the day is finally here. Madonna is coming to town tonight. As fans, the city and the Save Mart Center prepare for one of the biggest music stars to hit Fresno, there are a couple talking points.

1. Tickets are still available. Yes, your heard me right. And not just for the second day. For tonight's show, too. Don't believe what you hear about the show being sold out.

Five cool music events to go see this weekend:

1. Help the MoFo Party Band
The MoFo Party Band are known not as only as one of the best musical acts in the Valley -- in any genre -- but also one of the most giving. They've played countless benefits around town for other causes.

Four years ago today I moved to Fresno.

It was June 1, 2002. I was not even a week out of college. All my things packed into a U-Haul, with a bunch of my Bay Area friends following along. We were amazed by the heat as we carried everything up to the second-floor apartment. We dumped everything into the living room, they took off and I was left to make sense of everything.