Somewhere, two copywriters from R&R Partners (the ad agency responsible for the initial promotion) are laughing -- all the way to the bank.

In "Redbelt," acclaimed playwright/filmmaker David Mamet attempts a thinking-man's martial arts movie.

Well, there's another small film festival popping up near the Triangle, this time in New Bern. That is where the Sister City Film Festival will debut.

While Kanye West is the star of the Glow in the Dark show, he also shares the bill with a couple of other offbeat brothas: Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell Williams.

Things are pretty pleasant nowadays for the Drive-By Truckers, who play next week in Carrboro. Back in February, the Truckers hit a chart peak with their latest album, "Brighter Than Creation's Dark" (New West Records), which made it all the way up to No. 37 on the Billboard 200.

Charlie Louvin is not one to sit on his laurels, or on his duff.

The N.C. Symphony's final pops concert of the season in Meymandi Concert Hall tonight (repeated Saturday night and Sunday afternoon) should have a lot of appeal for the classical crowd.

PineCone kicks off its Garner Family Series on Saturday with the harmonizing bluegrass of the Wells Family. The concert, which will take place at Lake Benson Park, is free.

Tired of dour, pretentious bands that go on and on without ever getting to the point? You need a blast of Death Set, the Baltimore duo that is the last word in hit-and-run slashing and bashing.

The puppets of Broadway's "Avenue Q" may look like "Sesame Street" Muppets, but they don't act like them.

Chapel Hill/Carrboro's Second Friday Art Walk is anchored by the Ackland Art Museum's "Art After Dark" event, held from 5 to 9 p.m., offering the last weekend for viewing "New Currents in Contemporary Art," the annual showcase for MFA students in a particularly worthwhile show this year.

The makers of Grand Theft Auto IV are laughing at us.

Family Outing:Places to go and things to do with the kids.

P.S. I Love You Just what every widow needs: A hubby thoughtful enough to leave behind a series of letters with life-affirming tasks so she can get on with things (or maybe he's just too selfish and perverse to go to his grave quietly and let her grief run its course naturally).

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Tony Horwitz excelled at writing the first draft of history. When he began his second career writing best-selling books, he examined how history is revived and revised by each generation, through continuous collisions of past and present.