WEDS WEDS. 3/5 Say what you will about ...

WEDS. 3/5

Say what you will about High Times, but long after you've scraped the last bit of resin from the bowl in your trusted three-footer, the stoner's periodical of choice will still be fighting the good fight. Tonight, the 4th annual High Times movie awards will honor such counterculture warriors as Frank Serpico, the cop whose name and life provided the basis for the 1973 film starring Al Pacino. And while host Pauly Shore will present prizes for the best foreign film and best cultural documentary, we're far more interested in who will take home the coveted Stoner of the Year award: Jack Black, Alex Burns, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Lillard or Horatio Sanz. At B.B. King Blues Club, 237 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-997-4144, 9 p.m., $20 adv/$25 at door.

One of the most interesting and important events on the real independent filmmaking scene, the New York Underground Film Festival turns one decade old in 2003. This year, festival director Ed Halter presents nearly 150 films?large and small, old and new, good and bad. Highlights incude the controversial 1994 Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys (see Henry Flesh's interview with director Adi Sideman on p. 34), and three grindhouse masterpieces from Joe Sarno showing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The complete schedule is available at nyuff.com. All shows at Anthology Film Archives. 32 2nd Ave. (2nd St.), 212-614-2775, $8.50 per program.

THURS. 3/6

Speaking of independent filmmaking, the original indie auteur is being honored with a weeklong retrospective. "John Cassavetes: From the Archive" includes such greats as A Woman Under the Influence, Faces and the 1959 jazz-scored improv drama, Shadows, which shows today at the Gramercy Theater at 2 p.m. For those with day jobs, catch Shadows on Sunday at American Museum of the Moving Image, which will be introduced by New York Press film critic Matt Zoller Seitz. Gramercy Theater: 127 E. 23rd St. (betw. Lexington & Park Aves.), 212-777-4900; $12, $8.50 st./s.c. American Museum of the Moving Image: 35 Ave. (36 St.), Astoria, 718-784-0077; 2 p.m., $8.50, $5.50 st./s.c.

FRI. 3/7

Julie Heffernan's Recent Paintings are dark, childlike dreams of fantastical worlds that only exist in the far corners of the mind. She brings them to us on large canvases using masterful technique and great skill. The works feature metaphorical self-portrait figures gazing out with a disarmingly placid manner that dares us to decipher titles such as Self-Portrait as Infanta Dreaming Madame de Sade. The show runs through April 19, but there's a free reception tonight, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Littlejohn Contemporary, 41 E. 57th St. (Madison Ave.), 212-980-2323.

Entering their 15th year, one of many fine ska/punk acts that survived the glut of the mid-90s, the Voodoo Glow Skulls play CBGBs tonight in support of their latest album?unfairly criticized and amazingly cool-looking Steady as She Goes. Go see why the kids still hang tough with these old-timers. With Roger Miret and the Disasters, Count the Stars. 315 Bowery (Bleecker St.), 212-982-4052, 7 p.m., $12, ages 16+.

Most of Andrew Vachss' early two-fisted novels, like Strega and Sacrifice, involved characters who step outside the law to stop child molesters and kiddie porn creeps. We must admit, they left us a little uneasy. Vachss just seemed a little too obsessed with the subject. That eye patch of his didn't help, either. But in his latest novel, The Getaway Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard), he returns to the fundamentals of pulp crime, and leaves the kiddie porn to the rock stars. It's the story of Eddie, a lifelong wheel-man who finds that his latest job involves a little more than he bargained for. Tonight he'll be reading with Black Lizard publisher Edward Kastenmeier, as the hardboiled imprint celebrates its 13th anniversary. At Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 126 Crosby St. (betw. Houston & Prince Sts.), 212-334-3324; 7 p.m.

SAT. 3/8

The old guard and the new trade riffs tonight when Marc Ribot and The Hub play two sets of filthy, dirty jazz at Northsix. Ribot takes the stage with bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma (who played with Ornette Coleman) and free-funk prophet and drummer Calvin Weston. The manic, eclectic Ribot calls his latest product "punk, funk, harmelodic hell," and there's every reason to believe him. The Hub's brand of dirty jazz sounds something like Charles Ives getting gangbanged by Slayer. Fresh from a tour in support of their album, Vandalism, The Hub always bring the weird?you bring the mop. Northsix in Williamsburg, 66 N. 6th St. (betw. Kent & Wythe Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-599-5103, 8 p.m., $12.

How sexy is the notorious rape scene in Irreversible? Well, it's hot enough to get sensitive types marching out of festival screenings. The action may be incredibly long and grueling, but it's also a crowning moment in sex and the cinema. The big secret is to remember that the craft services table is just to the left of the area that's out of the camera's range. It has lots of nice bagels and hot coffee waiting for the cast. And actress Monica Bellucci went right on to make the Matrix sequels, so she doesn't seem too traumatized. Also, the film itself is a touching look at three friends and one night that spirals into control. Opens at the Angelika on Friday, but catch it tonight after the lines have died down a bit. 18 W. Houston St. (Mercer St.), 212-995-2000, $10.

SUN. 3/9

Get the kids out of bed and drag 'em away from whatever crap's on Sunday morning television. Symphony Space's Just Kidding! Series presents An Alphabet in the Sky (and Other Curious Songs), featuring the lyrics of David Lindsay?old-school New York Press readers will recognize him from "The Patent Files"?and music by Frank London of the Klezmatics and the Hasidic New Wave. The show will feature "sea songs of the mountains, mountain songs of the sea, counting songs and nonsense verse." Recommended for kids four and up, and the original blues and bluegrass should keep the parents entertained. Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 2537 Broadway, (95th St.), 11 a.m., $10, 212-864-1414.

The second annual New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend continues today, with a slew of big names taking time to talk to the little people. The Charlie Rose/Barbara Walters event is sold out, but plenty of others are not. At 2:00, John Guare, Tina Howe, Neil LaBute, Lanford Wilson and Arthur Kopit talk theater; at 4:00, Ken and Ric Burns discuss documentaries; at 6:00, Philip Glass talks with John Rockwell about music for performance. The complete schedule (including Saturday's events) is available at nytimes.com/alweekend. At the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave. (betw. 34th & 35th Sts.), 888-698-1870, $25 per event.

MON. 3/10

Usually when a good book is made into a movie, we leave the theater a little disappointed. That wasn't the case with The Hours, as taken from Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Cunningham, along with authors Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief, the basis for the film Adaptation) and Louis Begley (About Schmidt) will discuss the good and bad in having their work adapted for the big screen. Housing Works Used Book Cafe, 126 Crosby St. (betw. Houston & Prince Sts.), 212-334-3324, 7 p.m., $7.

In the indie-rock poserville that is Brooklyn, a band like the Inflatable Men is considered somewhat uncool, but what does it tell you that they have fans who actually dance? The Inflatable Men are an excellent new-wave band that writes catchy, poppy songs with lots of synths. They're sort of like the Faint, minus the fetishes. They play tonight at Luxx with Orange Park. And for all you Interpol fans who were shut out of the sold-out shows this week, Interpol's Carlos D will be DJing. 256 Grand St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.), 718-599-1000, 9 p.m., $5.

TUES. 3/11

How many times can one man be named our readers' favorite columnist? Well, we'll find out in September, when "Slackjaw" author Jim Knipfel will once again go for the title in our Best of Manhattan readers' poll. There's a reason for this popularity: Jim's writing is funny, smart and about as genuine as you'll find anywhere. Tonight, he reads from his latest book (and first novel), The Buzzing. Hear what Thomas Pynchon calls an "undeluded American voice." Though Pynchon may have been referring to the authorial voice, we're quite keen on our favorite columnist's gravelly pipes. At Dixon Place, 258 Bowery (betw. Houston & Prince Sts.), 212-219-7581, 7:30, $5.