Entertainment picks: Get that party started

Here's the set up for election night, right. Two rooms: the lounge and a smaller room, probably a bedroom. In the lounge, the election coverage - either TV One or TV3, depending on the household - is on on a big TV, or projected on to a wall.

Turn the sound down. Don't worry, there will be enough numbers and graphics to let you know what's going on. No sound is important because also in the lounge is a big stereo - ideally some turntables too - to get this election party started.

Also in the lounge is the all-important makeshift bar with a few complementary Vodka jellies, glasses of bubbly, and a few beers, for your guests, preferably chosen by a MMP-ish type system, just to make it fun.

The smaller room is not for what you're thinking. In there is another TV with the sound on for the diligent ones wanting to absorb the election, taste the glory, and feel the pain. It's kind of like the chill-out room.

TV

One and TV3's election night specials both start at 7pm on Saturday, so tune in because the election need not be dull. It's not exactly an All Black test, but it's a good excuse for a party.

Speaking of parties, the bros are back. The new series of bro'Town (TV3, Wednesday, 7.30pm) starts this week, and immediately after is the new game show Snatch Our Booty (TV3, Wednesday, 8pm), which stars the lovely Petra Bagust as host, and Nathan Rarere and Oscar Kightley (whose voice stars in bro'Town) as competitors.

Also starting this week is a new series of Hell's Kitchen (TV2, Wednesday, 8.30pm), where nasty chef Gordon Ramsey tells wannabe restaurateurs that they're useless and thinks it will help them. Somebody give that man an exorcism.

Plus there's a new series of political drama The West Wing starting tonight (TV One, 11.05pm) just in time to coincide with President George W. Bush facing the music over the New Orleans debacle and hopefully being dangled from a helicopter and dunked in the toxic sludge that's trapped in the city.

Music

And you thought Sunday was a night to put your feet up after a hard weekend. Not this week. First up you can get "irie mon" at the Studio on K Rd, where reggae and dub legend Lee Scratch Perry plays alongside the Mad Professor.

Perry's last concert here was disappointing but he has been off the weed for a couple of years now supposedly, and if his latest album, Panic In Babylon, is anything to go by, then he's back on form. If you haven't seen him - he's in his early 70s now - then go and check out a true music legend.

And then for something a little more light, breezy, and young, on Sunday head to the Civic Theatre for 18-year-old American singer/songwriter Jesse McCartney. McCartney made his name in the boy band Dream Street and now, with the release of his first solo album, Beautiful Soul, has transformed himself into a regular little Justin Timberlake-cum-Craig David.

And speaking of boy bands, Boyz II Men - now there's a blast from the past - play the North Shore Events Centre, also on Friday night. Who thought they were still going?

On the local front, before they hunker down to start their new album, Shapeshifter play gigs at Stampede in Papakura on Thursday and the Studio, on K Rd on Friday.

Also on Friday is SJD and David Kilgour and the Punches at the Kings Arms, followed by Aussie folky punks the Go Set at the same venue on Saturday night.

Movies

The underground films are the ones to see this week, including Rize and Omagh. In Rize, director David LaChapelle takes a look at the rise of krumping, a visually stunning, energetic and adrenalised type of hip-hop dance. The characters in the movie are the young residents of south central Los Angeles, whose lightening-fast moves, which we are assured are not sped up, make the caterpillar and the head spin look easy.

Meanwhile, the aftermath of a 1998 car bombing in the Northern Ireland town of Omagh is the basis for the movie Omagh. It follows the social and political battles faced by a diverse bunch of survivors - Catholic and Protestant - to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Also opening this week is Stealth, where three elite pilots take on an artificially intelligent fighter to stop a nuclear war, and the return of Wallace and Gromit in, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Social circuit

On Friday, Tiger Beer get all arty with the opening of the exhibition Translate at the Transmission Room on Mayoral Drive. Translate is curated by design collective the Wilderness and explores the emergence of Asian culture in Western society.

On display will be six motion works by abake (Britain), Umeric (Australia), and New Zealand's the Wilderness, Chris Davies and Reinaud Van Iaar Dylan Pharazyn (aka Timbuctoo) and Campbell Hooper-Johnson.

And no doubt there will be a few free Tigers at the launch if you can get your hands on an invite.