The categorization of great coffee as a fine art has taken on a new meaning. After hitting Boston, New York, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., over the past few years, the traveling photographic exhibition "The Birth of Coffee" is visiting Minnesota until May 7. Journalist and photographer Daniel Lorenzetti's most recent project tries to expand the scope of coffee past consumers' mouths and into the larger, overtly political world in which it is grown. The 40 black-and-white silver prints on display are quite fittingly, and literally, toned in coffee, and depict the lives of coffee growers in Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Yemen. Lorenzetti and his wife, Linda Rice Lorenzetti, traveled five different continents doing research that resulted in a co-authored coffee-table book, The Birth of Coffee, and this exhibition, which explore the individuals and unique experiences that contributed to the $4 latte so many people mindlessly gulp each day. — Amy Lieberman

Somehow, Irish-born painter and printmaker Sean Scully makes alternating shades of black interesting. Somehow, he makes 12-foot-wide prints feel intimate and cozy. And somehow, Scully makes simple patterns feel new and innovative, even though he's been creating them for decades. The 65 prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum—the only collection in an American museum—on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts explore these elements of his vast body of work. Scully's use of lines, stripes, and squares in different areas of his prints gives them a geographic, quilted feel. When Scully places black and white checkerboard next to a different white and red checkerboard pattern, which butts into simple black pinstripes, for example, the work doesn't appear to be disconnected; it's an artistic landscape. As part of the opening weekend, on Sunday Scully will speak about his technique (which includes methods with fun names such as spitebite, sugarlift, and aquatint), as well as his subject matter. On April 17, the 25-minute film The Passenger by Robert Gardner will be screened. The film captures Scully's interaction with his 1997 painting by the same name. — Ben Palosaari

Patrick Scully might be dubbed our veteran provocateur. Since 1986, when the first Patrick's Cabaret opened at St. Stephen's Catholic Church, Scully has been presenting performance art at once naive, sophisticated, out there, and in synch with the times. But Scully really ups the ante with "Out Rage Us Cabarets," a series designed to show the wild side of love, life, and political discourse in a very cold climate. A different show runs the last Tuesday of every month through 2008, with a rotating group of artists. Tuesday's offerings include an evolving Cabaret theme song written by Charles Schuminski with music by Joe Chvala, during which audience members participate by following some pretty zesty bouncing balls. Choreographer Justin Leaf will preview a new work for a Queerographers Evening in April, while Kats Fukasawa shows what he learned studying with a Butoh master in India for six months. Meanwhile, Dante's Dancers, the naked writhers who rather sensationally opened last month's show with a descent into hell, will be back with fresh ordeals; Amy Salloway will reflect on her always fascinating life; and David Amdur will give us uplifting images of how bodily urges have been debased over the centuries. Is this Mel Brooks's 2000 Year Old Man revisited? Or prewar Berlin revamped? Either way, Scully knows how to throw a good party. — Linda Shapiro

What softens a recession's bite as effectively as cheap booze? Nothing...except free entertainment. While "Triple Double"—the Triple Rock's freshly reinvented Tuesday bacchanal—offers both commodities by the truckload, the night's ever-changing DJ roster and floating-genre music selection make leaving the house to drink a far more attractive proposition than mere two-for-one tap beers and well drinks (or fucking karaoke) ever could. Next week's lineup, featuring Vampire Hands vocalist and percussionist Colin Johnson, generalist DJ TRL, and Rhymesayers/Current bastion Kevin Beachum, provides a textbook example of the madness behind curators Wes Winship and Mike the 2600 King's method. We who are about to rock, er, hip-hop, uh, soul or whatever, can only salute them. — Rod Smith

In days of yore, the lesbian bar scene was apparently pretty sparse. Though there were various Dykes Do Drag events throughout the year, few specific locales catered to this untapped niche market. Some gay bar patrons even went renegade, hilariously hijacking ladies' nights around the city at various sports bars. But now that Pi has been on the scene and thriving for over a year, there's at least one Minneapolis pub out there that is openly lesbian-friendly. The bar hit the ground running when it opened, hosting a myriad of live music nights, film screenings, and free pool. And though the scene is lesbian-friendly, the emphasis is on friendly, for everyone. Included in the weekly lineup is a Tuesday trivia night. Though you might want to ease up after a night of partying into 2008, it never hurts to flex the brain muscle. Those with the most expansive, trivial of knowledge win a $50 bar tab (perhaps for the next celebratory bender), which can go toward daily drink specials including Tuesday's $3 rails and Jag shots from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Jessica Armbruster