Rooftop Cinema plots four nights of toads, celestial bodies, music, animation

While we at Decider rounded up information on outdoor events for our forthcoming Summer Guide (in print May 21, with some other handy content online the same week), we realized one of our favorite parts of summer in Madison is just over a month away. The Madison Museum Of Contemporary Art's Rooftop Cinema series will run in the museum's crazy rooftop sculpture garden all four Fridays in June (each screening begins at roughly 9:30 p.m. and costs $5). The main reason for our enthusiasm is that curator Tom Yoshikami always creates such a mix of whimsical fun and unsung art films that'd otherwise get neglected here in Madison. This summer's series kicks off June 5 with a set of short films by New Jersey-based animator Emily Hubley. Here's one of them, "One Self: Fish/Girl":

Yoshikami dubs his June 12 program "Above And Beyond," as it focuses on shorts that look up to the sky, observing everything from fighter jets to lunar eclipses. June 19 is a night of amphibian revelry, with the documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History exposing "sex-mad giant toads munching their way across Australia," followed by Robert Breer's animated short "A Frog On The Swing." Finally, on June 26, a screening entitled "The Sight Of Music" is all about a diverse soundtrack, rounding up films that feature music by artists from Stravinsky to Devo to Elliott Smith.

Once that's over, Gomers multi-instrumentalist Biff Blumfumgagne gives us a couple film-and-music events to look forward to on the patio of Mickey's Tavern. Just as he did last year, he'll be improvising and looping a live soundtrack to the silent vampire classic Nosferatu (July 11), and he's still putting together a second program that he says might consist of some old animated shorts (Aug. 29). To get a taste of his film collection, we'd suggest checking out the Gomers' Slappy Hour Variety Show every other Friday at The Frequency.