Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Feb. 13-20

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the pink-candy-hearts B9:

➤ Yes, it’s kind of last minute — Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at the Rio — but the folks at Santa Cruz-based Housing Matters are defying the (widespread but lazy) perception that there’s nothing to be done about homelessness with a screening of a new documentary called “Beyond the Bridge.” The film looks at the experiences of a dozen cities in an attempt to outline a comprehensive solution to get people housed that will work in any community. After the film screening, Housing Matters board member Don Lane leads an on-stage discussion with the filmmakers and a gathering of local electeds and housing advocates. The idea is to rededicate the community to addressing the issue, look for new or innovative approaches, change outdated and/or self-defeating narratives and to underscore the humanity of all of those who have experienced homelessness. It can be done. 

➤ Sometimes a band name is so good, you gotta come up with a band just to use it. What else are you going to call an all-female tribute act to the great Aussie rockers AC/DC except for Hell’s Belles? And, in this case, the highway to Hell leads to Moe’s Alley on Saturday.

➤ When I think of “The Great Gatsby,” I don’t necessarily think ballet. But here it comes, Fitzgerald’s doomed Jazz Age saga repurposed into a ballet with 40 dancers in period dress, all on Valentine’s Day evening at the Civic. Then again, maybe going back in time 100 years makes sense these days. 

➤ A music festival? In the middle of winter? Roaring Camp in Felton, site of so many groovy outdoor festivals in warmer months, presents the Winter Warmer Festival, this one inside Bret Harte Hall, and featuring a number of talented musicians including Mother Hips guitarist Greg Loiacono. And, don’t fret, the outdoor season is on the way.

➤ It’s not exactly your classic romantic Valentine’s night out, but laughing with a sharp young stand-up comic like New Yorker Lucas Zelnick can be a fun couples thing … unless he singles you and your honey out on stage, which he is known to do. Avoid the front row and prepare for a lot of jokes about sex and relationships, Friday at the Rio.

➤ Well, at least love hasn’t completely died yet. Kuumbwa’s annual Valentine’s Day show featuring Tuck & Patti is now officially sold out, which is bad news if you don’t have a ticket. But there is one thing we can depend on, and that’s that Tuck & Patti will be back next Feb. 14. 

➤ For many, it’s not Valentine’s Day without some dancing. And the grand old Cocoanut Grove ballroom, Santa Cruz’s historic epicenter for big dance shows, comes alive with four big bands in a show called “La Cumbia del Amor.” Dress up, but prepare to perspire.

➤ What is erotic? The artists and visionaries at The 418 Project have been asking that potentially explosive question for many years, and offering up another answer each February. This year, the “What Is Erotic?” stage show is titled “A Bedtime Story,” and it runs four performances, two each this weekend and next. 

➤ Jerry Garcia became a guitar god while famously missing the middle finger on his right hand, which he lost in a wood-chopping accident when he was a boy. The site of that accident was, in fact, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, not too far from Felton, where a band called Jerry’s Middle Finger plays back-to-back dates this weekend. There’s certain poetry there somewhere.