Jacqueline Smith's week of it

MUSIC
Paul Kelly kicks off a four-night long gig on Wednesday, playing his best loved songs in alphabetical order, starting with A to E (Adelaide to Everything's Turning To White). Also part of the Auckland Festival is The Ziggy Stardust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook, a flamboyant show at the Spiegeltent, in which New York cabaret "sensation" Mac plays a combination of David Bowie and Tiny Tim ukelele covers.

And the bFM Summer Series in Albert Park, featuring Kody and Bic, Street Chant and The Drab Doo-Riffs among others, that was postponed due to the skies opening last Saturday has been rescheduled for Sunday.

MOVIES
Blue Valentine. The film for which Michelle Williams received her best actress nomination in this year's Oscars is out today. She and Ryan Gosling actually lived together in order to capture the essence of a couple in a disintegrating marriage.

An equally mystifying film is Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche, which made its debut at the New Zealand International Film Festival last year. Prepare to be suitably perplexed as it's one of those stories that leaves no ends tied. And the animated film described as "Pixar on drugs", Rango is also out today. Johnny Depp voices a chameleon who takes the advice of an armadillo and ends up somewhere he did not intend to: a town called Dirt.

TV
You don't have to be a farmer to identify with Country Calendar - the show has been around for 45 years and is part of our Kiwi psyche. It is back this weekend for another round. On a less retrospective note, TVNZ's new youth channel U also launches this week, with its live entertainment show on Sunday afternoon. U Live will screen on Freeview channel 7 and Telstra channel 77, but will also be streamed to, and invite interaction from the public via the Facebook page. Confused? It's a new way of delivering digital TV to the kids. And MasterChef fans will no longer have to sit seven days between hits, as the spin-off series, MasterChef Masterclasses, in which the chefs give cooking lessons, starts on Friday.

OR ...
Indulge your senses. Pasifika's main event on Saturday will fill Western Springs with the sounds, tastes and colours of the Pacific Islands. Performances by the likes of the Patea Maori Club, Emma Paki, Black Grace and Adeaze run across three stages from 9.40am to 5pm.

- TimeOut