On May 28, the Downtown Development Authority and the City of Senoia will host its second annual Memorial Day Street Festival to honor veterans from wars past and present. The event begins at 10 a.m. with entertainment all day including a parade through downtown Senoia beginning at 2 p.m. Downtown festivities will continue all day concluding with an evening fireworks display at Leroy Johnson Park on Howard Road.

Peachtree City, Ga. will join hundreds of cities, states, and travel-related businesses nationwide in recognition of the 24th annual National Tourism Week, held May 12-20. Designated by Congress and established by presidential proclamation in 1983, the event highlights the value and impact of the nation’s $703 billion travel industry and the economic and social contributions it brings to Peachtree City.

On May 19 Sure Lock Self Storage will present an event along with local military branches to support our deployed troops. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. there will be several activities for children of all ages, free gifts, door prizes, several drawings and much more. Donations will be taken for phone cards and food cards for the families that are left behind. All money raised goes to the Army Community Services Volunteer Association. Donations can be made directly to the Bank of Georgia under “Thank A Soldier.” Many local businesses have been gracious enough to donate money and door prizes. If you are interested in joining the event as a vendor, please call Bunny at 770-969-7144 or Wendy at 334-524-0837. Sure Lock Self Storage is located at 8335 Ga. Highway 74 (Senoia Road) in Fairburn, Ga.

The Starr’s Mill High School Choral Music Department will be presenting their final concert of the season at the annual spring show, “Celebrate the Music,” on Thursday, May 10.

Not a day goes by without our moms thinking about us. We hold a special place in their heart. So why not express our gratitude by taking her where she’s sure to be pampered this Mother’s Day - the award-winning Renaissance Concourse Hotel’s Mother’s Day brunch. The brunch will take place Sunday, May 13, from 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

The Southern Nights Chorale is conducting auditions during the month of May for its 2007-08 season. If you are interested in singing with this precision, men's acappella ensemble, please contact J.D.

The Sun City Peachtree Del Webb 2007 Summer Concert Series will kick off this weekend with Starship starring Mickey Thomas at the Fayetteville Villages Amphitheater.

Gates will open for the Saturday, May 5 show at 7 p.m. and the opening act will go one at 8 p.m. Starship starring Mickey Thomas will take stage at 9 p.m.

Mickey Thomas is the owner of the soaring voice that propelled Starship through the decades of the ‘80s and ‘90s. With his soulful and compelling vocals, Mickey has established himself as one of Rock Music’s most recognizable stars.

Fun event for the whole family

Next weekend the Fayette County Public Library will host a 30-year anniversary celebration of the film “Star Wars.”

Professional magician Evan Reynolds, authentically dressed for battle as Imperial Stormtrooper TK830, accompanied by his real mechanical droid R2-Q5, will perform exciting magical feats to demonstrate the power of ‘The Force.’ This spectacle for all ages will be followed by a talk by Georgia Tech professor Dr. Rodney Hill about the Star Wars cultural phenomenon: the mythic origins of the film and the subsequent “Star Wars” pop-culture explosion. The celebration takes place at the Fayette County Public Library, 1821 Heritage Park Way, Fayetteville, on Saturday, May 12, from 1 - 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Jamie Kennedy has his moments. There were portions of his television show “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,” where you would swear that he was a comic/improvisational genius and then a segment or two would fall flat and you would wonder why you were watching this buffoon in the first place. His film “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” also had some brilliant moments amid long stretches of mindless, boring and lazy comedy.

Well, I’ve been had. That’s right, the marketing team behind the new film “The Invisible” really pulled one over on me.

Southside Theatre Guild will hold auditions for “Crazy for You,” the beloved Broadway musical featuring the music of George Gershwin, at the theatre in Fairburn, on Sunday, May 6 at 2 p.m. and Monday and Tuesday, May 7 and 8 at 7 p.m.

The Twilight Theatre will offer their first audition workshop, “How To Shine Brightly At Your Twilight Audition,” in preparation for upcoming auditions for “Les Miserables, the School Edition.”

On May 5, a fun event will be held at McIntosh High School from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. called Pet Prep 101. The day will be dedicated to teaching people all about pets and has been arranged by Jessica Lasseter as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award Project. The scheduled activities will include demonstrations on different kinds of pets, dog training, animal grooming, veterinary care and a visit from an adoption team. Area businesses will be represented and learning stations will be set up with speakers on various topics. Admission is $4 per person plus a donation of a canned dog or cat food item to benefit the Fayette County Animal Shelter.

The community is invited to hear the last concert of the season of the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble (MAYWE) on May 6 at 4 p.m. at Harps' Crossing Baptist Church. The concert will be held in the new sanctuary of the church located on Ga. Highway 92 south. Due to the church's support, the concert will be free.

Art, music, performances abound this weekend

Organizers have been busy planning for the 2007 Festival of the Arts, and this year’s two day, family-friendly event boasts an exciting line-up. The event is the largest arts festival in Fayette County and brings together south side artists, performers, master craftsmen, sculptors and arts organizations.

The festival, scheduled for April 28 and 29 at the Fayette Family YMCA in Fayetteville, is designed to showcase the many arts and arts related organizations in the surrounding area and is jointly sponsored by the Endowment Committee for the Cultural Arts of Fayette County and the Fayette Family YMCA.

As “The Unexpected Guest” opens, a man lies dead in a wheelchair and another man stumbles upon what is very likely a murder with a houseful of suspects. From the minute the curtain opens at Southside Theatre Guild in Fairburn, local audiences will be scratching their heads and trying to figure out “whodunit.”

In “Fracture,” Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) is an Assistant District Attorney in Los Angeles with one foot out the door on his way to a bigger, better position in corporate law at a prestigious firm. In his final weeks at the D.A.’s office, Willy, whose impeccable record speaks for itself, is handed a case that shouldn’t present a problem for the rising legal star.

“Vacancy,” the new thriller starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, is only 80 minutes long, so it gets to the point rather quickly. The point, I guess, is that the best way to defeat marital problems is to be stalked by masked maniacs at a remote motel in the middle of nowhere.

This weekend, audiences at The Frederick Brown, Jr. Amphitheater will continue to groove to the sounds of annual concert series with Survivor. Best known as the band behind the hit song “Eye of the Tiger,” a song synonymous with the “Rocky” movies, Survivor will take stage Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28 as part of the 2007 concert series.

The Whitewater High School Theatre department will present the comedy,"The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild" this Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. each night in the Whitewater High Theater. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door, and all proceeds will benefit "Assistance in Cambodia," a relief fund designed to build schools in Cambodia.

When the owners of Jump 2 It, Peachtree City’s original, indoor, inflatable party facility found out that one of its employees, Courtney Smith, was a cancer survivor they realized that they had at their disposal the perfect means to raise money for the fight against cancer.

Mucklow’s Fine Jewelry in Peachtree City will be hosting an event for children April 28 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; May 5 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., and May 6 from 12-4 p.m. For these afternoons, Robert Mucklow will be teaching the children how to make their very own sterling silver twist bracelets to give to their mothers on Mother’s Day. Children of all ages are welcome, but they must be accompanied by an adult. The cost to make the bracelet is $25, and for every bracelet made, Mucklow’s Fine Jewelry will be making a $10 donation to Promise Place, a Fayette organization that helps victims of domestic violence. For more information, call 770-486-3400. Photo/Special.

WeddingsofGeorgia.com will be hosting it’s “Wedding Extravaganza” show at the Tyrone Depot in Tyrone on Sunday, April 29, from 1-4 p.m.

The Starr’s Mill High School Choral Music Department will be presenting their final concert of the season at the annual spring show, “Celebrate the Music,” on Thursday, May 10.

Do you like to hear original music with instruments ranging from cast iron pans, to trash cans, to authentic African drums? Do you enjoy familiar music with different arrangements?

This weekend, The Legacy Theatre production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s unconventional musical, “Song & Dance” will continue its run.

The show, which opened last weekend as the southern premiere, boasts a dynamic cast of dancers and features theater owner, Bethany Hayes Smith, as the sole singer of the show.

“Song & Dance” is a unique musical theater experience. The show’s first act tells the story of Emma (Smith), a young English girl who comes to New York full of ambitions to be a hat designer and who learns about America, and about herself, in encounters with four American men. Her story is told entirely through song, and even more daring, Emma is the only character seen on stage. The other characters exist only in Smith’s ability to make audiences see them.

Combining all-time favorite Elvis Presley songs with a surefire rock’n’roll story, “All Shook Up,” the musical that took Broadway by storm last season, will ride into Atlanta for a strictly limited engagement of eight performances at The Fox Theatre from April 24 - April 29 as part of the Fidelity Investments Broadway Across America-Atlanta 2006-2007 season.

Director Stephen Hopkins has done some good work in his career, including directing some episodes of “24,” which feature a cracker-jack plot and more suspense than you can shake a stick at. His new film, “The Reaping,” has neither. It does have two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (why?) and lots of flies, maggots, locusts, blood, dead frogs, dying cows, people with boils, mean-old machete wielding Africans, and so much more, except one good reason to care about any of the goings-on.

Every spring, after awards season has ended and before the boom of summer flicks begin their debut, there comes a time when movie releases consist primarily of second rate films (often horror or suspense based) with a handful of noteworthy pictures thrown into the mix. The last several weeks have seen little to boast about at the box office, but thankfully we should be heading into a bright summer season soon enough.

With a cast of 18 students and a student crew that’s nearly as large, McIntosh High School’s spring production of the family friendly “Alice in Wonderland” is sure to please.