Seven things to do this week
TODAY: Celebrating the 250th birthday of a genius, the Mozart Festival gets under way in Galway today with a chamber-music celebration. Tonight's menu includes Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat major, Sonata for Viola and Piano in E minor and Gran Sestetto. For tickets and details of open rehearsals call 091-705962 or e-mail info@musicforgalway.ie. Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, Middle Street, Galway. Tickets €18/€14. Three-day ticket €45. For more Mozart, see pages 10-11.
TOMORROW: The January blues are expected to peak tomorrow - a winter-disorder expert claims January 23rd is the most miserable day of the year - so cheer yourself up at the Recharge Festival, hosted by DúLaoghaire-Rathdown County Council in the People's Park. Forget those failed resolutions and mounting credit-card debts and instead enjoy street entertainment, carnival rides, bouncy castles and market stalls. See www.dlrevents.ie for details. 2-5pm.
MONDAY: Four of the coolest young bands around converge on the Ambassador in Dublin tonight and tomorrow night for the opening concerts of the NME Awards Tour 2006. The line-up includes Arctic Monkeys, We Are Scientists, Mystery Jets and Maximo Park. Tickets €25.65, doors 7.30pm. Bookings on www.ticketmaster.ie, 0818-719300.
TUESDAY: "Conceived at dusk and born before dawn" is the theme behind Line, Colour and Earth, an exhibition of paintings by Ross Stewart at Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely Co Wicklow. The centre is open from 10am to 5pm. Call 0402-38529 for more details.
WEDNESDAY: Former Lone Justice frontwoman, singer of Show Me Heaven and honorary Irishwoman Maria McKee takes to the stage at CrawDaddy tonight for the first date of her acoustic tour. Her new songs are earning plaudits all round, so this should be special. Tickets €17.50/€15. 01-4780225 or www.pod.ie.
THURSDAY: A double bill of contemporary theatre comes to Draíocht, in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, with Chatroom by Enda Walsh, of Disco Pigs fame, and Karamazoo by Philip Ridley. Chatroom, a thriller set in cyberspace that deals with the complex subject of teenage suicide, sounds like Walsh at his dark best. Runs until 28th. Tickets €15/€12. 8.15pm. 01-8852622.
FRIDAY: The annual Yeats Winter School starts at the Sligo Park Hotel today, and fans say it's a beacon of light in these dark January days. There are lectures, a trip around Yeats country and evening entertainment. For more information on events call the Sligo Park Hotel on 071-9160291.
