Calendar for the week

thursday
august 1
Naturalist Lectures: Summer is the time to look out over your yard (if you happen to have one), survey your domain, and realize that a crappy little mower and some hedge clippers aren't going to cut it, so to speak. With this idea in mind, some local gardening groups are providing free lectures throughout the summer to help folks like you get green thumbs. Today at 9:30 a.m. at Enchanted Forest Park (1725 NE 135th St., North Miami), the Dade County Master Gardeners host a talk about poisonous plants with poison information specialist Luis Velazquez. Call 895-1119. Tonight at 7:30 at the Secret Woods Nature Center (2701 W. SR 84, Fort Lauderdale), Miami Herald garden writer Georgia Tasker discusses habitat restoration for the back yard, with tips on how to successfully restore native plants to your property. Call 791-1030. On Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., the Dade County Master Gardeners host a horticultural discussion on native and exotic fruits and vegetables with former Rare Fruit Council International president Richard Snell at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens (2000 Convention Center Dr., Miami Beach). Call 673-4166. (GC)

Fred Albert Small Paintings and the Sketchbook: Artist Fred Albert was born in New York City, but he relocated to Miami as a teenager in 1949. During the last four and a half decades, not only has his reputation as an artist grown, but so has his insight into the growth of Miami. A selection of Albert's works from the Fifties to the present, including a series of drawings that depict the building boom in downtown Miami during the Eighties, is on view at the Bass Museum of Art (2121 Park Ave., Miami Beach) through September 8. Admission is five dollars. Museum hours are 10:00 to 5:00 from Tuesday through Saturday (open 1:00 to 9:00 the second and fourth Wednesday of every month), and 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday. Call 673-7530. (GC)

friday
august 2
Burning Spear: More than ten years after its release, Marcus Garvey, the 1975 album by Winston Rodney (a.k.a. Burning Spear) remains a reggae benchmark -- an incendiary blast of religious passion and political conviction. Then and now, Rodney has been one of reggae's most committed voices, preaching and teaching black history and amassing an amazing body of work defined by his growling voice and devotion to what he calls "social living" (also the name of his brilliant 1980 album). Rodney, an incredible live performer, will be appearing tonight at Rezurrection Hall at Club Nu (245 22nd St, Miami Beach), with opening acts Contractor and the Sound Rebellion. Tickets cost $20, and the club opens at 9:00. Call 535-9016 for more information. (JF)

Last Supper at Smiley's Cafe: The New River Repertory Theater at the Studio (640 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale) presents the original production of Last Supper at Smiley's Cafe. The action of this tense drama, directed by Ron Lemke, revolves around a small, isolated diner in the Nevada desert and a host of mismatched misfits: a harried waitress, a silent cook, a snippy socialite, a harmless psychotic, a dippy drifter, a dimwitted sheriff's deputy, and a suicidal salesman. Bizarreness ensues as the plot takes several twists and turns. Performances take place tonight and tomorrow night, and August 9 and 10, at 8:00. Tickets cost $12. Call 573-6797. (GC)

North Indian Music and Dance: The First Presbyterian Church (609 Brickell Ave.) presents an evening of North Indian music and dance tonight at 8:00. Tabla master Pandit Sharda Sahai, percussionist Tim Richards, and violinist Vikki Richards perform traditional music, while Sahara Devi performs traditional Kathak dances. Admission is ten dollars. Call 374-9029. (GC)

Southern Thunder Tour: Who says South Florida isn't part of the south? Get a load of the down-home sounds flooding the Coral Sky Amphitheatre (601 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach) tonight at 6:30. Multiplatinum, multiple Emmy-winning (for the theme of Monday Night Football), country outlaw superstar Hank Williams, Jr., headlines the show; Southern rockers Molly Hatchet, the Marshall Tucker Band, and A.R.S. round out the bill. Tickets cost $15 and $23. Call 800-759-4624. (GC)

saturday
august 3
Los Olvidados/Viridiana: Cinema Vortex pays tribute to Spanish director Luis Bunuel with screenings of two of his masterpieces. In an indictment of moral and material poverty, Los Olvidados (1951) -- which screens today at noon at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) and tonight at 7:30 at the B.A.R. Space (1659 Lenox Ave., Miami Beach) -- combines erotic, hallucinogenic, and surrealistic images with naturalistic action as it follows two delinquents from the slums of Mexico City deep into the criminal underworld. Ten years later, Bunuel directed Viridiana, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes; the film looks at religious hypocrisy as it follows the angelic title character (Silvia Pinal) on a visit to the home of her widowed, lustful uncle (Fernando Rey) just as she is about to take her Catholic vows. Viridiana screens tomorrow at noon at the Alliance. (Both films are in Spanish with English subtitles). Admission to each film is four dollars. Call 531-8504. (GC)

Egg-Stravaganza: The Miami Museum of Science (3280 S. Miami Ave.) goes to egg-stremes today from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with three egg-citing events. Kids ages three to six can seek high and low during the Egg Hunt (and there are prizes in every egg!) at 1:00. Moms and Dads and older kids can submit decorated hard-boiled eggs (made at home) in the Egg Deco contest; submissions are due by 1:00. At 2:00 contestants age seven and up can try their hand at creating crash-and-smash-resistant egg containers and testing them during the Great Egg Drop (but you can't use bubble wrap or Styrofoam!). Admission to the museum is six dollars (four for kids up to age twelve). Call 854-4247 for contest rules and more information. (GC)