Winos—this one isn't for you. Despite the name, this Saturday's Corkfest 2004 has absolutely nothing to do with the fine art of wine-making. The brainchild of artist Corky Frausto, this groovy backyard shindig is designed to showcase some of the best visual artists from the South Valley and beyond.

The Glass Menagerie at the Cell Theatre

First staged in Chicago in 1944, The Glass Menagerie launched Tennessee Williams' superstar career. Following the huge success of the play, he went on to become a household name, composing a string of enduring American classics. Despite his success, of course, Williams' life was famously miserable from start to finish, and he mined his unhappiness more thoroughly than any other American writer of the 20^th century.

“Two Figures” by Isaac AlaridPease

Visiones Gallery

In a new show opening this week at Visiones Gallery, Isaac AlaridPease, director of Working Classroom's impressive visual arts program, takes a crack at exhibiting some of his own work. La Calle de Oro features a mixed-media sculptural installation created by AlaridPease, which presents a varied community of people interacting with each other in a gritty urban landscape. The show opens Friday, July 30, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Runs through Sept. 30. 242-9267.

Kevin R. Elder presents a one-man show called Welcome to the Family during Tricklock’s Excavations series.

Tricklock Performance Space

A couple months ago, during the Revolutions International Theatre Festival, several Tricklock Company members offered up original one-person performances to theater goers eager to sample a wealth of fringe theater pieces brought in from all over the world. This weekend, four Tricklockers will exhume their shows during the Excavations series. Chad Brummett and Kevin R. Elder will split the bill on Thursday, July 29, at 8 p.m. Joe Pesce and Juli Etheridge hit the stage on Friday, July 30, at 8 p.m. Don't miss this opportunity to see original work by some of Albuquerque's finest. $12 general, $9 students/seniors. 254-8393.

Freelance writer Mary Roach, whose work has appeared regularly in publications such as GQ, Wired, Salon, Discover and the New York Times among others, makes as good a case as any for life after death in her latest book, Stiff. Gross, and by turns engrossing, Stiff leads us on the (mostly) silent journeys taken by willed cadavers in the name of scientific research. Roach treats her readers to the full gamut of the strange and often grotesque "lives" of human bodies postmortem—from your basic organ donor to severed heads whose faces are lifted and tucked in plastic surgery seminars, and just about every circumstance in between, in which the uniqueness of the biological human cannot be effectively reproduced.

In Katzenbach's latest, the bestselling author spins a murder mystery set in an insane asylum in which a pair of patients sets out to find a perpetrator who raped and mutilated a young nurse. Sounds gruesome, but advance readers have said Madman's Tale is an uplifting tale starring some courageous, unlikely heroes.

The lovable Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives and third man in line for the presidency, makes a rare appearance at the Coronado Mall branch of Barnes and Noble (6600 Menaul NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110, 883-8200) on Wednesday, Aug. 11, at noon. He's taking a break from wrecking the nation for a few days to promote his new book, Speaker: Lessons from 40 Years in Coaching and Politics. In it, Hastert shares buckets of wisdom gathered from long careers as a wrestling coach and political hack. Expect lots of creepy secret service types, sporting sunglasses and long black coats, sweating their federal balls off in the August heat. Please stop by to tell Mr. Speaker what a wonderful job he's doing for our country.