GRANDADDY'S OFFSPRING
Because of the emotional component of their best tunes, Grandaddy's recent breakup hit indie music fans even harder than it might have otherwise. Frontman Jason Lytle's simple songs about lost love along with his mournful singing voice (think Neil Young fronting Pavement with a choir of ghosts) will take on a new poignancy when he plays a free acoustic show this week. Lytle will perform selections from the band's posthumous album Just Like the Fambly Cat (V2 Records), released on May 9, and will likely be forced to entertain questions about why Grandaddy split up, where those weird keyboard sounds really came from, why they allowed "Nature Anthem" to be used in a Honda Civic commercial, and what made him decide to leave Modesto, Calif., for Montana. All inquiries will likely come from weepy kids in ironic vintage T-shirts, and if the notion of hearing an intimate set by a musical genius isn't enough to get you out of your apartment for a free show in an excellent record store, maybe that will. (Crispin Kott)
May 17. Other Music, 15 East 4th St. (betw. B'way & Lafayette), 212-477-8150; 8, free.
WHOA, NELLIE!
For some reason countless little girls have always thought of Laura Ingalls as their own little friend. When they're not naming ponies or hating their mothers, they are tying on those little bonnets and searching desperately for a creek to go swimming in just like Melissa Gilbert did on the wildly popular TV show. They're also in agreement that Nellie Oleson is the nastiest girl alive, and we all hate her. Alison Arngrim understands that feeling better than anyone since she played hellbitch Nellie on Little House on the Prairie all those years ago. Not only is she scarred from the "child actor" malaise, but people still love to hate her despite the fact she lost those ringlets and petticoats decades ago. (Thanks syndication!) In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim's comedy show, she dishes the dirt on TV land and reveals all those startling little Prairie secrets you've been dying for. Maybe she's not as reformed as we thought. (Jerry Portwood)
May 12-13. The Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th (betw. 6th Ave. & Broadway), 212-352-3101; 8, $20.
CLASSICAL COSTELLO
Elvis Costello sure keeps on trying. Beginning with The Juliet Letters, he's been obsessed with making the world of modern classical music take him seriously. Why does that keep happening to aging rock stars? On Friday, he's teaming up with The Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM to perform a suite from his composition Il Sogno (The Dream)-which is yet another piece he's based on that King of Legitimacy, Shakespeare. After the intermission (and quite likely to insure there'd be a full house) he's promised to return and do a little "greatest hits" set, with the BP backing him up. (Jim Knipfel)
May 12. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 LaFayette Ave. (betw. Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.), B'klyn, 718-636-4100; 8, $80.
SENSE &SENSIBILITY
It's easy to misconstrue the energy of bold abstract artistic renderings on Museum Mile with the beautiful chaos created in the kindergarten class at your neighborhood charter school. The visual similarities are astounding. Out of context, Alma Thomas' inventive explorations of color and William T. Williams' repetitively geometric paintings could stand in unison with the gallery on your refrigerator door. The Studio Museum in Harlem makes sense of the sensibility of the black abstract artist with Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980. So, while Barbara Chase-Riboud's mixtures of silk and bronze and Tom Lloyd's wild and vibrant electronic light installations may resemble the masterpieces created in between naptime and recess, this bold and intentional collection of 40 poignant works of art by 15 leading artists of the era is far from regression. (Kevin R. Scott)
Through July 2. Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 W. 125th St. (betw. Lenox Ave. & Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.), 212-864-4500; $7.
CULTURE CLASH CINEMA
Adam Vardy's fairly predictable debut film has, nevertheless, already won a double handful of awards. Ivan Sandomire stars in Mendy, about a young Hassidic man who, for a variety of reasons, runs away from his insular Brooklyn community. He crashes in Manhattan with a childhood friend who's since become a pill-popping club kid, and is at first mortified by the secular world. Well, it's not long before Mendy's making drug runs to Israel and falling in love with a dancer who's not only a Gentile-she's also African-American! A heartfelt look at about eight levels of culture clash. (Jim Knipfel)
May 12-26. Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St. (betw. University Pl. & 5th Ave.), 212-924-3363; $10.
IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S SICK
Though the general public might not know it, animators have pretty twisted senses of humor. And while those dutifully churning out disposable children's programming in production studios are forced to bottle it up, it's the independent animators that get the opportunity to work out their frustrations in their product. Think of it as catharsis for the creative mind. Now, for those curious enough to explore this seldom charted territory, The Film Forum's Cartoons: No Laughing Matter? comes along just in time. A feature length collection of eight wildly eccentric pieces, varying in length from five to 23 minutes and ranging in tones peculiar, absurd and?twisted. The program includes the collage work of Andy and Carolyn London's "The Back Brace," the stop motion subtlety of Suzie Templeton's "Dog" and the hand drawn scribblings of Chris Shepard and David Shrigley's "Who I Am and What I Want." Lisa Crafts' "The Flooded Playground" incorporates a blend of digital effects, cutouts and stop motion puppetry while Suzan Pitt's "The Doctor," JJ Villard's "Son of Satan" and Debra Solomon's "Everybody's Pregnant" all have drastically different takes on what constitutes traditional animation. Most viewers already know if they're the schadenfreude type, but this could be the definitive test, because with a show like this, laughing for all the wrong reasons feels like the right thing to do. (C. Edwards)
May 10-23. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-727-8110; $10.