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Like a trip to the dentist on too much nitrous. Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by Z Film Festival How exactly to start? The 2nd Annual Z Film Fest direct from Chicago is not your average anything. Strange, beautiful, grotesque, but obscenely smart the whole while, you'll feel affronted. Some might giggle at their own offense, others might cry 'bravo!' with tears streaming warm down their faces, and some might storm out making a scene over the atrocity. But apathy's not on the agenda. The all-audio primer, The House She Flew In On, splices and dices the classic OZ narrative to create a new story line so real that it wars with cozy memories. For the two-hour program of short films, it's all about the pure vision made possible by garage- sale 8mms and the everyday video camera. What happens when you stretch the limits of Never Never Land via technological accessibility? Such amiable themes as the brutality of taxidermy, carnivorous nemeses, and the innovative (but perky) uses of menstrual blood, flash and burn like spots on the retina. You won't know what hit you. Some of the filmmakers probably don't even know what hit them. Fri/25-Sat/26, 9pm. 21 Grand, 21 Grand, Oakl. $8. 444.7263; www.zfilmfestival.com. (EP) Dub Beautiful This Thursday the Parkway Theatre plays host to a psychedelic, freak out, Disney Light Parade of exploding plastic, inevitably dub style. Organized by Bay Area music collective, Dub Beautiful, the promised multimedia extravaganza includes music from avant-electricians MNO (drum and base with vibes, tabla, and horns), Akasha (ethno-electronic with double bass, cello, violin), and Tekfu (funky inorganic downtempo), and a silver screen picture show by visual artists Dr. Friendly and Matt Hale. Dub Beautiful regularly puts on these sensory overloads in hopes of promoting the idea of live performances and their brand of interesting and intelligent music. Particularly sensitive to atmosphere, Dub Beautiful finds the relaxing atmosphere of the Parkway with couches, comfy chairs, kitchen, and bar the ideal setting to enjoy their sensory wizardry. So if Thursday finds you seeking a break from the white noise, join Dub Beautiful at the Parkway for three hours of audio-visual orgasm. Thurs/24, 8-11pm. Parkway Theatre, 1834 Park, Oakl. $10. www.picturepubpizza.com. (MY) 924 Gilman Want to catch a case of Scurvy? Then go hang out with the patrons of 924 Gilman. The club, all-age and usually all-black attire, will host the bands Scurvy Dogs, Ludicra, Brain Oil, Cruevo, and Hoarfrost. On the forefront of the heavy underground scene are Oakland's own Brain Oil and Cruevo who, like the Oakland Raiders, are on the dark side. Expect the music to be brutal + insane + demented + intimidating = pandemonium. If it gets a little too hectic, find some sedatives and don't get stuck in the mosh pit. Past shows have featured live insects for shock value; expect the unexpected. Remember to get all your shots before you go out, and most importantly, rock hard! Fri/25, 8pm. 924 Gilman, 924 Gilman, Berk. $5. 525.9926. (GS) Caution: Cornbelt goofballs ahead. Lou and Peter Berryman No dark angst to this duo, although with their tendencies to sweet parlor tunes -- alpine waltzes, scottisches, mazurkas, the like -- they have as many links to authentic American roots music as this week's stark, brooding Johnny Cash surrogate. Their lyrics are strictly for guffaws. Lou, a warbling accordianist, and Peter, her guitarist ex-husband, play comical songs about the low-wage, grey-ponytailed, bleeding-heart liberal life as appropos to their native Madison, "Jewel of Wisconsin," as it would be to the East Bay. Highlighting their new live album House Concert (Cornbelt): the highly charitable "Cockroach Christmas," which should become a seasonable favorite. "What's on a cockroach's Christmas list? / Never to be alone / someone to hold in all of their arms / someone to call their own / someone to give their feelers a feel / someone to brush their legs / dark assignations under the fridge / somewhere to lay their eggs." Fri/25-Sat/26, 8pm. Freight and Salvage, 1111 Addison, Berk. $15.50-$17.50. 548.1761. (RvB) Lord of the Flies, yakuza style. Battle Royale Seventy-year-old Kinji Fukasaku, who created some of the most stylish and audacious yakuza and samurai thrillers of the 1960s and '70s, proves that he's still got it with this brutally macabre new satire. In a dystopian-near future, a class of unruly children are banished to an uninhabited island and forced to eliminate each other. The last survivor will be allowed to leave, and will be granted 15 minutes of media fame for their victory. With Takeshi Kitano as their instructor, who practices his own unique brand of tough love. Film will be introduced by Patrick Macias, author of Tokyoscope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion. Sat/26, 7pm. Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft, Berk. 642.1412. (CB) Picks by Chris Baker (CB), Erica Pedersen (EP), Gabriel Serpa (GS), Richard von Busack (RvB), and Maxwell Yim (MY). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]