THURSDAY 11/22

GUCCI MANE

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9 p.m. Metroplex. $25-$75.

Barring any unforeseen illnesses or disasters, you’ll have many more Thanksgivings to spend in the comfort of your home, surrounded by family and loved ones, all planted on the couch in a football-and- stuffing-and-turkey-and-Wild Turkey-induced stupor. How many more opportunities will you get over the rest of your life to spend Thanksgiving with Gucci Mane? One? Maybe two, if you’re lucky? Gucci’s latest mixtape is last month’s “Trap God,” which he announced via Twitter would be “My Biggest Mixtape EVER!!!!!!!!!” For a guy who’s released like 50 mixtapes a year for the last several years, that’s saying something. “Trap God” isn’t a radical departure of any sort, but you’ve got to give the man credit for making sure his listeners don’t go without. Besides, I get the feeling Gucci fans aren’t exactly waiting with bated breath for his full-band rock album (lookin’ at you, Lil Wayne’s “Rebirth”). Instead, you get 20 tracks with a veritable cornucopia of collaborators, including T-Pain, Future, Rick Ross and longtime Gucci associate Waka Flocka Flame. RB

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FRIDAY 11/23

JAZZ VS. HIP-HOP V: ’THE BLACK OUT’

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9 p.m. Twelve Modern Lounge. $10-$15.

The “Jazz vs. Hip-Hop” series continues with a fifth installment, featuring trumpeter Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers (Oliver “OT” Thomas on bass, Sam Carroll on keys and drummer Michael Chandler) playing live onstage with MC and producer Kwestion, of Little Rock collective LabRatz, and D-Dirt a.k.a. Lil Rock Obama, founder of the label Tho’d Studios Ent. (and of the “Hottest in the Rock” rap battle series at Cornerstone Pub & Grill). There’ll be individual and collaborative performances from everybody. Block is fresh off of a solo album with last month’s “Steel,” and Tho’d released the mixtape “Who Tho’d Vol. 3: End Of The World Edition” a few weeks back, boasting a ton of Arkansas talent, including Aye Tell Em JT, Arkansas Bo, Yung 2, Ball Jones and many more. Kwestion’s released the “Greater than Great: 2nd Quarter” mixtape this year, along with “Please Turn it the Phuck Up,” 19 tracks showcasing his production chops. RB

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SATURDAY 11/24

QUINTRON & MISS PUSSYCAT

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7 p.m. Low Key Arts. $7.

New Orleans is rightfully famous for offering spirited good times, and one of its secrets is that the city’s biggest weirdoes own the dance floor. Which helps to explain the cult status of husband-and-wife team Quintron and Miss Pussycat, the crown prince and princess of New Orleans avant-garde. Quintron offers up campy electro-boogie — or psych-soul, or swamp-tech, pick your hyphenated poison — and Miss Pussycat puts on trippy puppet shows; the result is a sweaty, thumping sensory overload that’s about as good (and strange) of a live show as I’ve seen in the Crescent City or anywhere else. Would that all performance art was this funky. This show will be a special treat as it also includes the world premiere screening of Miss P’s “Trixie and the Treetrunks: Mystery in Old Bathbath,” the latest installment in her delightful puppet soap opera chronicling the misadventures of various felt-and-knickknack creatures, a surprisingly immersive arts-and-crafts universe. DR

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SATURDAY 11/24

THE MAIN THING’S ’A FERTLE HOLIDAY’

8 p.m. The Joint. $20.

With Election Day 2012 now thankfully in the rearview mirror, the folks behind The Main Thing (The Joint’s in-house comedy team) have retired their recent “Electile Dysfunction” play and are unveiling what is sure-to-be a witty homage to the Christmas season, “A Fertle Holiday.” The two-act original comedy will probably hit a little close to home for those of us here in the hinterlands who have family residing on one of the coasts. It concerns the Fertle Family Reunion in tiny, fictional Dumpster, Ark. The Fertles are hosting their well-to-do kinfolk from way out west in San Diego, Californey. In a feat of multi-role madness that would make Eddie Murphy proud, the cast of The Main Thing — Vicki and Steve Farrell and Brett Ihler — will perform all 15 roles between the three of them. In addition to politics, the holidays are one of the mother lodes of comedy gold — fertile ground, if you will. If past shows are any indication, The Main Thing’s take on the holiday season will be a family-friendly one that doesn’t sacrifice on the funny. “A Fertle Holiday” runs Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 29. RB

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SUNDAY 11/25

MOSCOW BALLET’S ’THE NUTCRACKER’

3 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $37-$191.

I have only vague childhood memories of what happens with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Mouse King in the Land of Sweets (seriously, “The Nutcracker” must be our most psychedelic of holiday traditions), but Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous score is still stuck in my head all these years later. The familiar music, lavish costumes, and kitschy production make for a family favorite that’s more spectacle than high art, and the Moscow Ballet, on tour with its 20th-anniversary production of “The Great Russian Nutcracker,” has a rep for going all-in on the Christmas schmaltz. In addition to the Russian pros, local student dancers from DanceArts Studios will be on stage as various mice, snow maidens, butterflies, and the like. DR

SUNDAY 11/25

BIG DAM BRIDGE FULL MOON WALK

6:30 p.m. Big Dam Bridge. Free.

OK, odds are that by Sunday, you’ll have had three full days of cramming into your gullet a ridiculous amount of turkey, ham, stuffing, green bean bundles, mashed potatoes and gravy, potatoes au gratin, cranberry sauce, rolls, pies and other desserts of various types. Also: you’ve probably spent some time sitting on the couch watching football or a “No Reservations” marathon or something. I know that once Thanksgiving is over, it’s really easy to just acquiesce to the Holiday Slide and eat however much you want of whatever you want. It’s hard, I know. Right now there’s probably a casserole dish half-full of something delicious and not-so-nutritious just sitting there, on the counter, waiting. But how about taking the holiday season equivalent of a mid-meal minute, and doing something healthy for a change. That’s what’s in store at the Big Dam Bridge Full Moon Walk. There’ll be local dignitaries on hand, such as First Lady Ginger Beebe, who’ll discuss the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Both sides of the bridge will host health fairs, where you can get a variety of health screenings, information and more. Take note: there are no pets, bicycles, skates, skateboards or rollerblades allowed. One other thing to note: If you’re going to attempt to actually do a full moonwalk all the way across the bridge, keep an eye out, or better yet, have a friend help you out by walking forwards behind you so you don’t run anybody over. There will be shuttle services from Murray Park and Crystal Hill Elementary running people back and forth starting at 5 p.m. RB

TUESDAY 11/27

CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE

7:30 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $25-$68

It’s like Cirque du Soleil, the kiddie version, except that it’s not Cirque du Soleil at all — it’s Cirque Dreams, the American answer to Soleil, and Holidaze is one more in a list of similar projects that creator Neil Goldberg has been cranking out since 1993. Holidaze is the proverbial tale of beloved objects coming to life — in this case, ornaments flipping off the tree and crash-landing into our hearts. The whole thing seems a touch trite — a familiar cast of whirling Santas, toy soldiers and rag dolls, executing some serious acrobatic trickery on a high-tech glittering stage, to an original soundtrack that elevates cheese to a whole new strata. But hey, ’tis the season — our defenses are low, our sentimentalism is high, and there’s nothing like high-flying holiday acrobatics to awe the wee ones. Anyway, I’d guess that Holidaze will be a lot less painful than much of the other holiday-related fare that might awe the wee ones. CF

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