Scott Kara's week of it

MUSIC
Following two sold-out shows last week, The Adults return to Auckland for an encore performance at the Montecristo Room tonight; Dave Dobbyn heads north to Ascension Wine Estate in Matakana for two shows on Friday and Saturday nights; and at the Powerstation on Wednesday is hip-hop pioneer DJ Shadow, who is best known for his classic 1996 album Endtroducing....

So put your best foot forward, endtroduce yourself to the man, and you never know, you might even find out what your soul looks like.

TV
As part of TV2's new season line-up, Wednesday night is packed with new and returning shows - although Entourage fans may want to set the recorder since the new series is on at 11.50pm.

Starting at 9pm actress Elisha Cuthbert stars in Happy Endings, about a couple who split and face the awkward situation of dividing up their friends; at 9.30pm zombies arrive in television land on The Walking Dead; Undercovers at 10.55pm is about a husband and wife spy duo; and then in Entourage Vince does his own car stunt on the set of his new action movie.

MOVIES
The film festival rolls on with this week's highlights including French comedy Le Havre (Sunday 6pm, Civic), animated Japan feature Arietty (Friday 11am/Sunday 3.30pm, Civic), and the fancy new restored 35th anniversary edition of Taxi Driver (today 8.45pm, Civic).

And speaking of a knuckle sandwich, the Incredibly Strange documentary KNUCKLE (4pm Friday/3.30pm Sunday at the Academy), about the sinister world of bare knuckle boxing, could be worth checking out, as will Hobo With a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer (Tuesday 4.15pm, Wednesday 9.15pm, SkyCity Theatre). See nzff.co.nz for more info.

Also opening this week is the latest in Britain's National Theatre Live series with Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard getting the live-on-stage-and-screen treatment, and also Mrs Carey's Concert by Australian doco-maker Bob Connolly follows the head music teacher at a private girls' school in Sydney as she prepares her pupils for the school's end-of-year concert.

Or...
hone your knowledge of Japanese comics at the Overload Festival, the annual anime and manga comics convention at Hotel Pullman on Waterloo Quadrant this weekend.

While Saturday is dedicated to exhibiting the work of local and amateur artists, on Sunday there will be a series of panel discussions with experts in the comics and gaming fields. Guests include visiting Cosplay champ YuRi Inaba and local comic creatives Dylan Horrocks and Ant Sang. More info at overload.co.nz.

- TimeOut