A/E Highlights

Chips ahoy!

You fool! You cashed in that Sands casino chip before they imploded the building. What were you thinking? That $5 chip is selling for a whopping $6.03 on eBay. Actually, casino numismatic collecting is a big thing. You can go to the Casino Chip and Gaming Collectors Club 12th Annual Convention at the Riviera this weekend to make weird, speculative investments, check out the old and historical chips or just people-watch. Trust us, all collectors are weird in their own way. We don't know exactly how this particular group is weird, but if our experience from last year's "Saved By the Bell" Memorabilia Collectors Show is any indication, it should be quite a show. The convention runs through Saturday. It opens at 10 a.m. each day and closes at 6 p.m. today, 5 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $5 per day. Info: 794-9433.

Faster pussycat! Sing! Sing!

Who would have thought a bunch of people cavorting about in insane amounts of fun-fur and grease paint and singing T.S. Eliot poems would be such a big hit? Not us. We foolishly sank all our money into a production of Ginsberg's poems being sung by overweight guys in bulldog costumes. Cats, which ran for something like 57 years on Broadway, opens at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Aladdin. It runs through June 27 starting at 8 p.m. except Sunday when it starts at 7 p.m. There are also 2 p.m. matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $36.93 to $78.93. Info 785-5000.

What happened to the plaid hair?

Pardon us, but we've been in a coma for the last 20 years. Who's this strange woman in the grown-up clothes claiming to be Cyndi Lauper? Good God, man, why hasn't Captain Lou Albano set her down for a heart-to-heart? We demand our right to a Peter Pan existence where nothing ever really changes and girls always just wanna have fun. No? Well, could she at least sing "She Bop" for us? She'll be performing at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Mandalay Beach. Tickets are $40. Info: 632-7580.

Do you feel lucky, doctor punk? Well, do you?

"Well, seeing as this is a .22-caliber, single-action revolver, loaded with poorly crafted bullets with a tendency to misfire and I'm so confused by the mirrors, I don't know where to shoot...ah, screw it!" The Las Vegas Academy is restaging their production of the Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse musical, Jekyll and Hyde this week. Tickets are $15, with the proceeds going to fund the group's trip to the International Thespian Festival, where they'll no doubt kick some thespian ass and come home with a trophy the size of Oscar Goodman's liver. Performances are at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday in the Las Vegas Academy Performing Arts Center at Ninth Street and Clark Avenue. Info: 799-2344.

Folks waggin'

You know, like happy dogs wagging their tails or maybe people wagging their tongues. Okay, that sucked. This is the last time we waste money on a cut-rate pun generator. The first International Folk Festival takes place this weekend, featuring performers from more than a dozen nations. The event runs on multiple stages at the Fremont Street Experience on Friday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., continuing Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and finishing Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Info: 678-5724 or go to

www.vegasexperience.com.

We're getting a case of the boxcar willies

Zaftig woman with giant, weirdly dyed hair coming to town can mean only one of three things: The B-52's are experimenting with the all-popsicle and lard diet, the Imelda Marcos impersonators convention is back or the Boxcar Sisters are playing the town. A Trailer Park Evening With the Boxcar Sisters will goes on at 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at OPM. Tickets are $20. Info: 737-7700.