Calendar: Week of 4/18-4/24

THURSDAY

Didn’t her Psychic Friends see it coming? That’s right, Musical Theater of Santa Barbara presents everyone’s favorite Burt Bacharach singer and infomercial star, Dionne Warwick! She’s performing tonight at the Granada Theatre. The winner of five Grammys boasts a repertory of over 50 songs to hit the charts, spanning almost four decades. The concert is at 8. Tickets are $45/60/100. Call 966-2324 for more information. Also tonight, the Santa Barbara Symphony presents legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the Arlington Theatre. Rostropovich will be celebrating his 75th birthday, playing Dvorˆk’s Cello Concerto. Tickets are $25-75. Call 963-4408 for more information.

FRIDAY

It’s Friday. It’s time to dance, dance, dance! Arts and Lectures presents the Paul Taylor Dance Company, tonight and Saturday in Campbell Hall. Lauded for their musicality and imaginative choreography, the ensemble has toured 60 countries in its illustrious 47-year career. The performances are both at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35/30 general, $19/16 UCSB students. Is it beauty in the heavens or is it science jargon? Tonight, the Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara opens JosŽ Rivera’s “Cloud Tectonics” at the Alhecama Theatre. This tale of two personified heavenly bodies merging runs until April 30 with shows from Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $20-32. Call 962-8606 for more information.

SATURDAY

Last time I looked at the mirror in the bathroom, I just saw the reflection of a toilet paper cozy. Tonight, English Beat and General Public frontman Dave Wakeling performs at SOhO. Rooted in the second wave of the ska movement, Wakeling has appeared in albums with The Specials. He goes on at 9:30. SOhO is located at 1221 State St., downtown. Also tonight, the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County presents The Rum Diary, Kissing Tigers, Farren Road and Radar, at the Jubilee Christian Church in Goleta. The Rum Diary and Radar feature plenty of computer beeps, while Kissing Tigers (from I.V.) will delight geek-rock fans. The show is at 8. The cover is $5, $3 with a canned food donation. Jubilee is located at 7190 Hollister Ave.

SUNDAY

I want my air clean and my coast oil free! Harumph! Today, the Community Environmental Council brings the Earth Day festival to the Sunken Gardens at the County Courthouse. The event goes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will feature performances by Dishwalla and Celtic Spring. Participants are encouraged to come by means other than their cars. Call 963-0583 for more information. Sounds like a tenured teacher’s dream come true. Arts and Lectures brings French film “Under the Sand” to Campbell Hall tonight. The film features a Hitchcockian sense of suspense as a long-married literature professor’s husband disappears at the beach. The screening begins at 7:30. Tickets are $6 general, $5 UCSB students.

MONDAY

Dude, you don’t even understand. It’s TV’s Benson. Dude! Speaking of Stories presents Robert Guillaume, tonight at the Lobero Theatre. The multiple-Emmy winner and acclaimed stage actor will be reading a series of sweet and sorrowful stories inspired by the age of American slavery. The performance begins at 7:30. Tickets are $13-27. Call 963-0761 for more information. To prelude your day of cultural history, visit the Santa Barbara branch of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum and see the remains of the Henrietta Marie, the earliest slave ship to be identified by name. This artifact of triangular trade can be seen at 21 W. Anapamu, Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. 6 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. 6 p.m. Call the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce at 962-5322 for more info.

TUESDAY

And you will know me by my witty title. Arts and Lectures presents “Va Savoir (Who Knows)” tonight at Campbell Hall. The French film is a sexual farce in which three men and three women tumble in and out of each other’s minds, hearts and arms, and it opened the 2001 New York Film Festival. The screening is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 general, $5, UCSB students. If you’ve got any young ones, you can take them to “Eyes in the Sky,” an up-close look at owls and their cultural significance as both a sinister creature and a symbol of patience and wisdom. You’ll even get to meet Max, a native Santa Barbara owl. The presentation is downtown at the Santa Barbara Public Library in Goleta at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.