As we head into the weekend our thoughts and prayers are still with our neighbors who were victims of the devastating fire this week and its aftermath. We will continue to post any efforts we hear about  to help those folks.

Meanwhile, here are some things going on this weekend:

• Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM) and Friends at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) on Saturday at 7 p.m. This is part of the PYPM Dream Big Literary Arts Festival. This is about youth using their voices and their talent to make positive change in our community. If you can’t get behind that, then what can you get behind? Tickets are $7. The Dream Big festival is going on all weekend with several events at the International House (3701 Chestnut) in addition to this one at The Rotunda. See the schedule here. Here is an artist you will see around, Safiya:

• The Five Minute Follies is tonight (Friday) at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) at 8:30 p.m. This should be kind of wild – a bunch of wacky and cool five-minute acts. Organizers bill it as a “live, onstage variety extravaganza.” Among the performers will be Philly’s Queen of Rockabilly Kathia Jane. A $5 donation at the door is suggested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Organizers warn that some material may not be suitable for all audiences.

• If  “A girl like you” likes acts that are maybe a little more polished (and a lot more expensive) then 80s rockers The Smithereens are playing at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut St.) on Friday. The doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30.50 to $40.50.

• idiosynCrazy Productions presents Flatland 2010 on Saturday at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts‘ Harold Prince Theater at 8 p.m. The Annenberg Center (3680 Walnut St.) explains that the production: “is a physical theatre work that examines contemporary human (mis-)communication. This diverse cast of 11 athletic performers explores what happens to human relationships in a ‘flattened’ world of abbreviation and oversimplification, where the sound bite supersedes substance and the instant message overpowers the intellectual one. The great news on this one is that it is part of the West Philly Rush Hour program, which means people that live in 19104, 19131, 19139, 19142, 19143, 19151, 19153 and can prove it get in for $10.

The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts has extended the entry deadline for the West Philadelphia Gospel Choir Competition to January 31. Choirs can compete in one of three categories in the April 2 competition: Traditional Gospel; A Cappella; and Contemporary (Jazz/Rap). The winners in each category will open for the vocal jazz group Take 6 on April 30th at the Annenberg Center and receive a $250 cash prize and archival recording of the performance.

More information, including an entry application, is available on the Annenberg Center website here.

A quartet of amazing guitarists from all over the world are playing at the Calvary Center for Community and Culture (801 S. 48th St.) in West Philly on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.. Seriously, if you’re into guitar music (or music of any kind) these guys are going to knock your socks off. The guitarists include Clive Carroll from Great Britain, Alexandre Gismonti from Brazil, Italian Pino Forastiere and Brian Gore from the United States.

“International Guitar Night” will feature solos, duets and quartets in an intimate setting. A unique part of the tour is the workshop that the guitarists put on. On Tuesday at 7:30 they will work with workshop participants on some of the techniques they will use during the concert the following day. The fee is only $10.

Crossroads Music is hosting both the show and the workshop. Tickets for both are available here.

Below is a clip of Pino Forastiere performing “Wild Parking.” It’s absolutely amazing what this guy can do with a guitar.

Mayor Michael Nutter will marry a couple around Valentine’s Day aboard the Market-Frankford El as it rumbles through West Philly as part of a tour of Market Street rooftop murals known collectively as “A Love Letter for You.”

SEPTA and the Mural Arts Program run tours of the murals from aboard the train – the best viewing spot – each Saturday. These tours have included at least one marriage proposal in the past. In February, Nutter will marry a couple chosen in a contest sponsored by SEPTA and the Mural Arts Program.

This is from the Mural Arts Program website:

Tell us why you would be the perfect couple to be married on the Love Train. Attach a video, a photo, a poem…be creative, be artistic! The winner will be selected by City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and SEPTA. To enter, email: events@muralarts.org

West Philly native Steve Powers and a collection of artists created the murals in the summer of 2009. Love Letter is a series of 50 rooftop murals running along the El tracks from 45th to 63rd Streets. The murals have also been captured in book form.

Here is a partial “map” of the murals (click to enlarge):

The Green Line Cafe is hosting an open mic-style poetry event tonight at the 45th and Locust shop. The even starts at 7 p.m. and is free. If you want to read, rsvp gontarek9 at earthlink dot net.

Performers run through their last rehearsal before the Y.T.A.P. program’s first performance tonight at The Rotunda at 7 p.m.

When a dozen or so 4th through 6th graders from Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.) take the stage tonight at The Rotunda for their performance of “Let’s Learn Each Other!” they will complete what Beth Nixon hopes will be the first of many semesters of collaborative youth involvement in the West Philly arts scene.

The students have worked with poets, musicians and puppeteers, including Nixon, to tell their story through performance. That collaboration has been difficult this semester, the pilot run of Y.T.A.P., but Nixon hopes the program can adjust and grow to become a unique after-school program that will allow kids to design and stage their own performances.

The program is still looking for funding and in-kind donations – from art supplies to snacks. It’s also looking for kids interested in spending a couple of days a week after school at The Rotunda working with an amazing group of artists.

Tonight’s show at The Rotunda begins at 7 p.m. and is free.