Athens This Weekend: March 5 - 7

Friday, March 5:

• Everybody have fun tonight! Travel back in time to the era of shoulder pads, bangle bracelets and living to excess. The Melting Point presents The Highballs in Concert. The Highballs will be putting on a totally awesome show so you can party to the max. Like, for sure! Duran Duran, Madonna, Journey, the Bangles...all the best of the '80s in a high energy live show.

Saturday, March 6:

• The UGA Performing Arts Center is proud to present Narek Hakhnazaryan, a 19-year-old cellist who won first prize in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions! His two rewarding debuts were in Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York and at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C. According to San Francisco Classical Voice, "he produces a powerful and colorful sound in all registers, nails every big shift and flashes all the virtuoso's tricks with insolent ease. He should have a stellar career."

• Treat your family to Exotic Birds & Animals on Planet Earth: Family Day at The State Botanical Garden! Roy Hodge from Exotic Paradise, Atlanta will travel to the State Botanical Garden this Saturday to educate and entertain families with his menagerie of exotic forest animals! Attendees will discover amazing facts and adaptations of exotic animals in a live animal presentation. Children and their parents can pet and take pictures with cockatoos, parrots, owls, monitor lizards, anacondas, boa constrictors and more!

Sunday, March 7:

• Head over to The State Botanical Garden this Sunday for the opening reception of Claire Clements' paintings exhibition Bottlebrush Buckeye and Beyond! Participate in a fun art critique exercise and interpret artworks currently on display. Claire's process, cut paintings, involves cutting mixed media painting on paper. Free to the public.

Ongoing Events:

• Do not miss your opportunity to view a colorful display of late winter flowers at the 18th Annual Hellebore Days at Piccadilly Farm in Bishop, Georgia! The public is invited to stroll the gardens and view thousands of Lenten Roses in full bloom in the 2.5 acre display garden. Hellebore Days has been featured in the New York Times and numerous other publications. For those unable to attend the event, the gardens will be open on Fridays and Saturdays during the spring season.

• Athens Creative Theatre presents "Bull in a China Shop," a Women's Repertoire Show and Dessert Theatre. When a houseful of sweet little old ladies discovers that a handsome bachelor lives across the street, they are delighted! When they learn that he is none other than Detective Dennis O'Finn, of Homicide, they are faced with the problem of how to attract his attention. The answer is simplicity itself: a nice, genteel homicide with a cup of tea as the murder weapon! Patrons will enjoy a dessert buffet at intermission.

• Paintings in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media, large and small sculpture, works in clay and in fiber, jewelry, photographs, drawings, prints, and other works! The 35th Juried Exhibition at Lyndon House Arts Center showcases a wealth of Athens area talent. Over 740 art works by 291 artists were entered in the competition this year and 142 pieces were selected by this year's juror Ron Platt, the Hugh Kaul Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art.