Newt's rock 'n' roll weekend planner, Vancouver edition, May 1 to 3

I know this is the "Vancouver edition" of my rock 'n' roll weekend planner, but that's not gonna stop me from sayin' "Get outta town!"

Yeah, that's right. Get outta town and head to Seattle this weekend to see guitar legend Al Di Meola at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, where he plays right though to Sunday.

Di Meola performs on his Elegant Gypsy & More Electric Tour, accompanied by keyboardist Philippe Saisse, bassist Armand Sabel Lecco, percusionist Gumbi Ortiz, and drummer Joel Taylor.

If you can judge a musician by the company he keeps, Di Meola is way up there, as his career has seen him working with the likes of Jan Hammer, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, Stanley Clarke, and Chick Corea.

"A bona fide guitar hero," reads something off the Internet, "Al Di Meola has also been recognized over the past 30 years as a prolific composer with over 20 recordings as a leader. And while his dazzling technique has afforded him regal status among the hordes of fretboard aficionados who regularly flock to his concerts, the depth of Di Meola's writing along with the soulfulness and inherent lyricism of his guitaristic expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the six-string set."

For those guitar freaks who don't own cars and need to get their six-string jollies closer to home, the Monkeyjunk show at the Rio Theatre on Friday might be the ticket. The Ottawa swamp-blues trio--composed of Steve Marriner on vocals and baritone guitar, Tony D on lead guitar, and Matt Sobb on drums--has been known to tear up a joint, and they'll be getting some help from Nanaimo blues-rock great and official "Friend of the Newt" David Gogo.

If you're lucky maybe Gogo will play "Sad and Beautiful", which has always been one of my faves of his:

Come Saturday everyone will no doubt just be waitin' around the tube for playoff games, but now that the Canucks have blown our chances of seeing Bieksa suckerpunch Ferland a few more times, Vancouverites will have to look elsewhere for a bit of the ol' ultraviolence.

One way to guarantee a bloodsport bounty is to just record the game and head out to a live broadcast of the welterweight-championship boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Screenings are lined up at the Commodore and Hard Rock Casino Vancouver, but you can also check with your local watering hole to see if they'll carry the pay-per-view bout.

My money's on Pacquiao, 'cause he's the scariest lookin' of the two.

Speaking of fighting, we've all got to fight for the right to, not just party, but have a free press too. So come Sunday head down to the Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza for the solidarity rally for World Press Freedom Day, which runs from 11 am to 1 pm. The event is organized by the Fahmy Foundation, which was started by Egypt-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy after he was released on bail from the Cairo prison he'd been held at on trumped-up terrorism charges.

Speakers at the rally include Peter Klein, director of UBC Graduate school of Journalism, and deputy mayor Andrea Reimer from the City Of Vancouver.

After all that fighting the power, why not reward yourself Sunday night with something lighthearted like It Came From Uranus at the WISE Hall. The "casual evening of not-quite-classic sci-fi cinema (and beer)" is hosted by Edward Kushner and John Woods and features the first episode of the 1966 TV series The Time Tunnel and the 1958 camp classic The Moon Missile.

Man, I used to love The Time Tunnel. Almost as much as The Invaders.