Philadelphia Weekly

>>pre-minstrel tension

"The Adventures of Oreo Boy and Wigga Mouth"
Through Oct. 29. Higher Grounds, 631 N. Third St. 215.922.3745. www.highergroundscafe.com

Satirizing racial stereotypes is risky business. Failing will get your ass knocked down or fired. If you go for it, it has to be unapologetic. Mike Smith's "The Adventures of Oreo Boy and Wigga Mouth," a new art installation hanging at Higher Grounds coffee shop, totally goes for it. "Adventures" is a surreal urban comedy that follows two best friends, a "white-acting" black guy and a "black-acting" white guy. Wigga Mouth gets fired for huffing whipped cream canisters on the job--which sucks since now they have no money to pick up chicks. So Wigga Mouth decides to write a Hollywood script. The 75 postcards are essentially comic book storyboards featuring collages of images cut from Philadelphia Metro. Every day from January to March, Smith took the train in from Delaware and took his scissors and markers to the morning paper, crafting the adventures of his ethnically jumbled antiheroes along the way. Best use of a Metro ever. (Tara Murtha)

Mission300

Mission300
Sat., Sept. 15, 10pm. $10-$15. St. Monica's Parish Recreation Center, 16th and Shunk sts. www.myspace.com/mission300

Every party's got its draw. For Making Time it's making out, for Sugar Town it's chicks with riffs and for Mission300 it's soft pretzels and stinky rental kicks. That's right--everyone's favorite bowling party is back for its third rager since its May inception--and by everyone we mean everyone willing to trek down to a South Philly church basement alley in pursuit of some late-night Lebowski action. The $10 cover means all-you-can-bowl bowling, all-you-can-drink beer, all-you-can-cram-in-your-face carbohydrates and all-you-can-dance freakouts, courtesy of those too-cute Oh Murder! gals, Mission300's resident mp3-jockeys. The whole shebang comes courtesy of the dudes over at Badminton Stamps, which seems to be the only local music blog with any national recognition. Decent tunes aside, you can also expect candy, arcade games, unabashed irony and at least one Craigslist missed connection. (Caralyn Green)

>>unitarded

Professional Wrestling Unplugged
Sat., Sept. 15, 6pm. $20-$30. New Alahambra Arena, 7 Ritner St. 215.755.0611. www.prowrestlingunplugged.com

Professional wrestling has taken its share of folding chairs to the head lately, with scandals involving murder, suicide and steroid abuse. On the bright side the turmoil might steer some fans to seek solace among the lesser-known independent shows. Pro Wrestling Unplugged (PWU) rolls into South Philly this weekend, celebrating its third anniversary and likely concealing more than a few foreign objects down its tight red knickers to be unleashed in the ring just when you least expect it. Expect a cavalcade of gimmicks and surprises--from an acoustic performance by local cock-rockers Shovelhook to wrestlers making grand entrances in the actual TV Batmobile. There'll be American Idol-style auditions to choose a new commissioner, and Nikolai Volkoff--the commie villain from the old-school WWF--is slated to sing the national anthem. If you're the gambling type, the smart money's on Volkoff pissing off the crowd by belting out an off-key rendition of the Soviet anthem. The evil bastard. (Joshua Valocchi)

>>scrawling from the wreckage

Cry of the City Part 1: The Legend of Cornbread
Sun., Sept. 16, 2pm. $5. Arts Garage, 1516 Parrish St. www.cinema-alliance.com

Philly can't win for losing. And neither, apparently, can our city's graffiti artists. Darryl "Cornbread" McCray began tagging walls and bombing SEPTA buses and subway cars a full two years before the slackjawed yokels in New York caught on. But Gotham goes down in hip-hop history as the birthplace of "writing" while Philadelphia is once again relegated to wooden spoon status. Countless films have documented the contributions and lifestyles of graf writers in the Apple while Philadelphia's Krylon knights are largely ignored. Cinema Alliance's Sean McKnight says bollocks to that. Taking a cue from the legendary Style Wars (which documented--yawn--New York's graffiti scene), McKnight offers up a Phillyphile documentary. Although filmed years after Cornbread's reign as the city's graffiti king (and his subsequent stint on former Mayor Goode's Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network), the movie captures McCray from his brushes with fame after tagging the Jackson 5's jet to the depths of his drug addiction. Sunday's screening is followed by a Q&A session with the legend himself as well as a screening of the groundbreaking Beat Street which celebrates--what else--New York's contributions to hip-hop. (J.V. )