The O'Jays pull the "Love Train" into the Benedum Friday night, with opener Deneice Williams.

MOUNTAIN MOVIES

The great outdoors moves inside and onto the big screen for the Banff Mountain Festival, a tour stopping at the Byham tonight and Friday.

The festival features a different set of movies each night ranging in length from three minutes to an hour. "Conflict Tiger" examines the challenges facing Siberian tigers and the people who share their habitat. "Ride of the Mergansers" uses hidden-camera footage to follow ducklings leaving the nest. And in the animated "The Best of Jo," a 12-year-old filmmaker sends LEGO figures on extreme skiing, fishing and heli-skiing adventures.

"Some are action films with people jumping off cliffs, and some are culture films about mountain lifestyles or environmental films about wildlife," says Banff tour director Jim Baker.

The festival starts at 6 p.m. today. Venture Outdoors volunteers set up promotional displays, pass out literature and talk about what happens when people venture outdoors. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Friday with a discussion and wine-and-cheese book signing by mountaineer and author Arlene Blum. Tickets are $10; $16 for both nights. Call 412-255-0564.

Schedule:

Today: "Yes to the No," "First Ascent: Thailand," "Conflict Tiger," "Tyrol -- Land in the Mountains," Mission: Epicocity," "Beyond Iraq," "Ride of the Mergansers," "Ride."

Friday: "Anomaly," "The Best of Jo," "The Simplicity Factor," "Exploring the Mother of Waters," "Unchained: New World Disorder IV," "Conversing with Aotearoa/New Zealand," "Kids Who Rip," "First Ascent: Didier vs. the Cobra."

For details, go to the Web site www.ventureoutdoors.org.

ALL WEEKEND

Molly Ringwald -- right here in Pittsburgh. I hope Mayor Luke made some type of proclamation. The Brat Pack star of such classics as "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club" will be at Heinz Hall, where she is playing Charity Hope Valentine in Neil Simon's Tony-winning musical comedy "Sweet Charity."

The 39-year-old Ringwald told the PG last week, "You know, I've had a really long career. I've made movies, moved to Paris, learned French and made French movies. I've done theater. ... I really enjoy being a mom -- all stuff that really interests me. I consider myself a success story."

If you want to get even closer to the famous redhead, the cast members of "Sweet Charity" will perform a cabaret set at 10:30 tonight at the Cabaret at Theater Square. Proceeds benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS ($12; 412-456-6666). Times at Heinz Hall are 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20.50 to $62; 412-456-6666. See review, page W-16.

TODAY

Who would you like to hear doing the old standards: Mathis? Bennett? Streisand? k.d. lang? How about Joey McIntyre, the youngest member of New Kids on the Block? His fifth solo CD features tracks such as "My Funny Valentine," The Way You Look Tonight," "All the Way" and "I've Got the World on a String." You can check him out live at the Hard Rock Cafe at 8 p.m. See page W-12.

For something just a few shades darker, gothic-metal band Type O Negative, plays a sold-out show at 8 p.m. at the Rex Theatre on the South Side. The band is back with its seventh album and first in four years, "Dead Again," which Absolut Metal called "heavy, creative and saturated with the gothic goodness of classic Type O." Wear black, or don't go.

Chilean classical guitarist Carlos Perez, performing the music of Antonio Lauro and other Latin-American composers, plays a free Pitt Arts concert at 8 p.m. at the Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium. Alejandro Bruzual, an expert on Venezuelan music, will conduct a 7:45 pre-program discussion. Call 412-624-4498 or go to www.pittarts.pitt.edu.

FRIDAY

The O'Jays, the Philly soul group and Hall of Fame inductees that delivered such radio gems as "Backstabbers" and "Love Train," are still alive and kicking. Once a quintet, The O'Jays now tour as the trio of Eddie Levert Sr., Walter Williams Sr. and Eric Nolan Grant. Williams, who joins the group for a show at the Benedum, recently told the Clarion-Ledger of Mississippi, "We've certainly heard music and technology change over the last 15, 20, 30 years, and there was no hip-hop generation when we came along. It was R&B; it was soul music. That meaning, at least my perception of that meaning, is you sing from your heart, you sing from your soul, and you talk about things that people in their everyday lives can relate to." Deniece Williams opens at 8 p.m. Tickets are $47.50 to $67.50. Call 412-456-6666 or go to www.pgharts.org.

Roots rocker Chris Knight slips into the Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville for a special acoustic performance, promoting "The Trailer Tapes," a spare, honest and gritty record cut inside a Kentucky trailer back in 1996, prior to his major label debut. "People have been talking about these tapes ever since I recorded them," Chris Knight says in the liner notes. "To me, they were rough and stark, and I never thought they'd see the light of day." It begins at 9 p.m. Call 412-682-0177.

The Static Age, not to be confused at all with Static X, plays the Stratus Nightclub in the Strip. The band plays pleasant middle-of-the-road alt-rock, if there could be such a song. Three Sided Circle and Burning Earth open the show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 advance; $8 at the door. Call 412-323-1919.

Anberlin, a slick alt-rock band with a Christian theme, plays Mr. Small's Theatre with Warped Tour veterans Bayside at 7 p.m. Tickets are $14. 1-866-468-3401.

The raunchier side of Pittsburgh rock can be consumed at the Rex with The Sonic Swagger a Go-Go. The seven-band bill serves up The Cosmosonics (junkrock hoodlumblues), motorpsychos (metal), mojo filter (heavy grooverock), tommy gutless (punk), forbidden 5 (swamp rock), hi-speeds (garage) and pkp (alt). It begins at 9 p.m.

Pittsburgh Glass Center gets the home fires burning for Hot Jam, a free open house featuring "heat-defying acts of art" in its state-of-the-art glass-blowing studio. Chihuly-trained Jim Mongrain will be the celebrity glass artist doing the demonstrations for the evening. Everyone is invited to help paint a koi fish flag that will be on display at PGC during the "Allure of Japanese Glass" exhibition. It takes place at 6 p.m. at 5472 Penn Ave., East Liberty, in conjunction with Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's Unblurred event. Call 412-365-2145 or go to www.pittsburghglasscenter.org.

A few blocks away, on Ellsworth, Shadyside has the FirstFriday ArtWalk. Among the highlights will be the Gallerie Chiz opening of "Pigments of the Imagination" featuring ceramics and paintings by Laura Jean Mclaughlin and drawings, etchings and paintings by Brian Fencl. There will also be sneak preview of Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art (formerly known as Art for AIDS/Art for Change), an auction opening May 14 at the Carnegie Museum of Art. It runs from 6 to 9 p.m.

Bricolage Theater opens "Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show," a performance with 15 different characters, dramatic monologues, sketch comedy, beatboxing, hip-hop dance and more. It's at 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 advance; $20 at the door. Call 412-394-3353 or visit www.proartstickets.org.

SATURDAY

CDs at Jerry's Records? No way. But the growing entertainment mall above New Dumpling House in Squirrel Hill does move into the '80s with the opening of a second Dave's Music Mine store (the other being on the South Side). It celebrates with refreshments, special discounts, contests and live music starting at noon with Triggers, Ford Thurston, Pump Fakes, Short Dark Strangers and Hollow Owl. It's at 2136 Murray Ave. Call 412-421-6900.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History invites families to an Easter egg hunt from noon to 4 p.m., where kids can solve riddles, learn about animals -- from dinosaurs to duck-billed platypuses -- while earning prizes along the route. It's free with paid admission.

Cleveland avant-garage legends Pere Ubu terrorize the crowd at Club Cafe at 7 p.m. ($15-$17; 412-323-1919). The late show there is the return of alt-country Pittsburgh expatriates SodaJerk, at 10 p.m. See page W-13.

"At last, you can bang your head to Yanni." That's the eye-opening pitch for the show at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. This Yanni, though, is Yanni Papadopoulos, guitarist for Philly cult band Stinking Lizaveta, a power trio named from a Dostoevski character that "incorporates post-rock, metal, sludge, prog, stoner and doom with jazz stylings and Eastern influences." The trio of the brothers Papadopoulos (Yanni and bassist Alexi) and drummer Cheshire Agusta were produced early on by Steve Albini and were released by the former label of Fugazi bassist Joe Lally, so the pedigree is loaded with indie cred. Also on the bill are Cultivator (Ex-Battered Citizens), Token Black Guy (Ex-Jumbo) and Channel Scorpion News (New Stoner Champs). It begins at 9 p.m. at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. Admission is $7. Call 412-682-8611.

	Andy Starnes/Post-Gazette The tulips and other flowers are bursting forth at Phipps Spring Flower Show, continuing through April 15. Click photo for larger image.

Counteracting the pastel nature of the weekend is the Rock and Roll Spookshow at the Thunderbird Cafe, a scarifying event with a 9 p.m. screening of the grisly-hilarious "Shaun of the Dead" and wild funereal rock from The Cult of the Psychic Fetus, The Memphis Morticians and Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival. Admission is $7.

SUNDAY

Happy Easter. Enjoy your candy basket or someone else's, if you have to. I believe the traditional activities of the day involve ham, pastels and a trip to the Spring Flower Show at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Hours there are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 412-622-6914.