SMITH: On Sunday, you'll say, 'I'll be yarned'

Knitters and crocheters with a sense of humor are working on colorful yarn creations that they'll use Sunday to dress up trees, sculptures and other objects at Old Courthouse Square.

Show up and you can help out with downtown's first big Yarn Bomb, a global public-art phenomenon that adorns civic objects with knit socks, caps, scarves, wraps, booties, bikinis, whatever strikes a needle-artist's fancy.

From 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., yarn-bombers will apply temporary knit "cozies" to the trunks of the sidewalk and median trees. They'll also swaddle Darrell Horn's stainless steel sculpture in large granny-square blankets.

Just what else may be yarned is hard to say.

GUTSY PERFORMANCE: Madeline Rouverol, who just graduated from Santa Rosa High and its ArtQuest program, was not cucumber-cool before taking the stage at San Francisco's Club Fugazi the other night to compete for a $10,000 acting scholarship.

"To be honest," she said, "like an hour before, I threw up."

But when her turn came to go before the nine judges and large audience with a three-minute monologue - she chose hers from the stage play "Mud" by Maria Irene Fornesa - she dazzled.

Madeline said the scholarship from the Beach Blanket Babylon stage revue and late founder Steve Silver's foundation will be most handy at the University of Michigan, where she'll study theater.

EVERYBODY'S FILIPINO on Sunday.

That afternoon, members of the large community of people grateful to be Sonoma County Americans and proud of their roots in the fascinating Philippines - more than 7,000 islands, more than 80 languages - celebrate in downtown Fulton.

There's a lot to the fiesta from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Filipino-American Community Center. Not to miss - the indigenous Kulintang dancing, accompanied by antique instruments, and the fried spring rolls called lumpias.

A CLASSIC PAIRING this weekend features the fabulous Peggy Sue's car show and a first-time Fifties/Sixties dance party Saturday night at the Flamingo Hotel.

Promoter Brad Scott, a downtown regular who's set up a temporary office at the Sweet Spot pub, says the special guests at the dance will be Fourth Street retailers who do so much to keep the heart of the city beating.

IN LOVE, BUT BROKE? Don Gibble has some good news about the four productions of "Love Letters" that he'll direct this weekend at Rohnert Park's Spreckels Performing Arts Center.

Gibble, who can be reached at dongibblecast@hotmail.com, said an anonymous someone donated 20 seats for people who'd like to see the play but can't afford tickets.

The casting is unusual: Kevin Dobson and Joan Van Ark of TV's "Knots Landing" perform Friday night and Saturday afternoon, and on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon yield to wed comics Will and Debi Durst.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.