Weekly Agenda: Catch a shooting Star

In an excellent Mr. Show skit, a Marilyn Manson-like character (Marilyn Monster) sings about hate and pours buckets of blood over his head onstage, and then turns out to be a mild, meticulous restaurant owner filming a training video for his chain of pizza parlors backstage. That’s not to say that the actual Manson doesn’t maintain a high level of oddity when out of the spotlight, but it’s fun to think that he might be helping his brother with his taxes or putting together a scrapbook when out of the public eye. So with someone like Jeffree Star—whose rise as the self-proclaimed “Queen Of The Internet” and eventual foray into generic electronic pop has been achieved almost entirely through the unrelenting “drag queen with a violent temper” persona he’s built—it’s a little more difficult to tell if it’s all an act. With ubiquitous video updates online, it appears the only time Star is off-camera is when he’s putting on his make-up.

So it’ll be interesting to see if anyone catches him in the act of mailing a letter or reading the nutritional facts on a bag of pretzels when he’s in town to light up The Loft on Friday, since such plebian tasks seem irrelevant to the murder- and fashion-obsessed Star character. But maybe his nightmarishly deviant tourmates Brokencyde will be able to distract the Flip cameras long enough for Star to download software updates for his iPhone.

Come whatever craziness, the spectacle in the streets below will probably go totally unnoticed to the crowd huddled together on the roof of the Madison Museum Of Contemporary Art Friday for a tranquil night of water-themed short films. That kind of relaxation will be tough to beat, but the humming voices and morose country of husband-and-wife duo The Handsome Family at the High Noon Saloon on Saturday will come close. And even though Spider One’s Billy Idol-aping future-punk look will be in full effect when Powerman 5000 slams into the Annex on Saturday, that dude is probably still cool with going through the drive-thru or buying batteries after the show is over.