Calendar for the week

thursday
september 12
Meat Beat Manifesto: Hip-hop, noise, house, techno, industrial elements, and human voice snippets form an amalgam of information, social criticism, and utterly danceable rhythms in the music of Meat Beat Manifesto. With former MBM vocalist and core member Jonny Stephens, programmer and musical conceptualist Jack Dangers created four albums full of sonic images for Wax Trax! and Mute Records. Going solo, Dangers recently signed to Nothing Records (nine inch nails guru Trent Reznor's label) for MBM's latest release Subliminal Sandwich, a two-disc collection of ambient orchestrations, space-age sound effects, and postindustrial grindings. Meat Beat Manifesto performs tonight at 8:00 at the Theater (3339 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale) with openers Loop Guru and DJ Alex Patterson of the Orb. Tickets cost $12. Call 954-565-1667. (GC)

The Arts and Cultural Tourism on Miami Beach: It's no surprise that the arts have a tremendous impact on the economy of Miami Beach. But just how much does the Beach depend on cultural events and cultural tourism to stay afloat? The Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Arts and Business Council of Miami, and the Miami Beach Arts Committee on Cultural Affairs host a panel discussion and luncheon to address the topic today at 11:00 a.m. at the Shelbourne Beach Resort (1801 Collins Ave., Miami Beach). Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber moderates the panel, featuring South Florida Concert Association president and impresario Judy Drucker, South Florida Art Center executive director Jane Gilbert, Florida Philharmonic executive director John Graham, and Miami City Ballet artistic director Edward Villella, among others. Admission is $20. Call 672-1270. (GC)

Festival Miami: Do you really need to watch another episode of Seinfeld tonight? Consider the alternative: The University of Miami School of Music continues its thirteenth annual international classical music festival tonight at 8:00 with the violin-piano duo of siblings Corey and Katja Cerovsek performing Kreisler's Praeludium, Beethoven's Violin Sonata in A (Kreutzer), Falla's Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas, and Franck's Sonata in A. Admission is $15. On Sunday at 4:00, violinist Eugene Fodor joins the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra to perform Dennis Kam's Music for Celebration, plus Debussy's La Mer and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D. Admission is $18. On Tuesday at 8:00, the Bergonzi String Quartet performs pieces by Kenneth Fuchs, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Admission is eight dollars. The festival continues through October 26. All concerts take place at the Maurice Gusman Concert Hall (1314 Miller Dr., Coral Gables), unless otherwise noted. Call 284-4940. (GC)

friday
september 13
Atomic Boy: Southern California power-pop-punkcore purveyors Atomic Boy pack a wallop with their debut disc, Sonic Cocktail (on Victory Records). True to the album's name, the boys toss the Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, HYsker DY, the Dead Kennedys, the Ramones, and the Vandals into a blender, add a dash of R.E.M. (singer Denny Lake sounds a little like Michael Stipe -- when he doesn't sound like Bob Mould), and voila, a tasty musical treat for fans of fast and fun music. Atomic Boy explodes tonight at the Edge (200 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale) with headliners Less Than Jake and openers Against All Authority and Discount. Admission to this all-ages show is seven dollars. Showtime is 7:00. Call 954-525-9333. (GC)

The Glass Mendacity: Toss your Tennessee Williams out the window! ART-ACT Productions skewers the works of the Southern playwright in this two-act comedy by Maureen Morley and Tom Willmorth, opening tonight at 8:00 at ART-ACT's Design District headquarters (10 NE 39th St.). Blanche marries Stanley, who seduces Maggie the Cat, while Big Daddy gulps mint juleps made with Maalox and Laura fondles her ice-cube animal and listens to Shaun Cassidy on the Victrola in this whacked-out sendup of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie. The certifiable Blanche sums it all up: "I've always depended on the quality of strangeness." The show runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through October 13. Tickets cost ten dollars. Call 573-7272. (GC)

Gary Primich: Austin-based blues-harp man Gary Primich blows his way into Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave). Primich has great chops for Chicago-style electric blues, but he puts a twist into the sound, stretching and experimenting and making those blues his own. His command of the harmonica has made him one of the most respected and lauded harp men in the biz. Currently touring to promote his latest album Mr. Freeze (on Flying Fish Records), Primich has a new disc due out this fall. Admission is five dollars. Showtime is 10:00. Call 374-1198. (GC)

saturday
september 14
Black Orpheus/The 400 Blows: The Cinema Vortex film series this weekend features two excellent films made in 1959. Marcel Camus's Oscar-winning Black Orpheus screens today at noon at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach); this colorful, stimulating retelling of the Orpheus-Eurydice legend is set against the background of the Brazilian carnaval (in Portuguese with English subtitles). Tomorrow at the same time and place, Vortex screens The 400 Blows, Francois Truffaut's touching and beautifully photographed study of a neglected adolescent boy who learns some unpleasant truths about his life (in French with English subtitles). Admission to each film is four dollars. Call 531-8504. (GC)

Invoking the Spirits: Since the fall of the Duvalier regime, Haitian muralists have used their work as a pivotal medium to document events and encourage free expression about political and social issues. Photographer Pablo Butcher captures the murals of Port-au-Prince, created over the past ten years, in a series of photographs on view at the South Florida Art Center's Ground Level (1035 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). Hanging alongside Butcher's photographs are three examples of this type of politically charged street mural -- paintings on canvas by Haitian artist Charlemagne Celestin. The show, "Invoking the Spirits: Haiti's Charged Murals," opens with a reception tonight at 6:00 and runs through October 26. Admission is free. Gallery hours are 1:00 to 8:00 from Tuesday through Friday. Call 674-8278. (GC)