SOLO SHOTS: With the Black on indefinite hiatus, frontman Chris Robinson is embarking on a short — make that very short — string of dates to road-test material for an upcoming solo album. Advance word is he’ll include no Crowes material; Dylan’s "You’re a Big Girl Now" and Traffic’s "Evening Blue" are his current cover faves. Robinson is doing just five US shows, including a date at the Paradise, 969 Comm Ave, on June 23. Meanwhile, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, having been acquitted on charges stemming from a drunken interlude on a transcontinental flight, has reconvened his side project/supergroup Tuatara — whose line-up also includes Luna’s Justin Harwood and Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin — for a tour behind the group’s new Cinemathique (Fast Horse Recordings). They’re at the Paradise on July 31. Call (617) 423-NEXT for tickets to both shows.

BROAD-MINDED: Museums, like film studios, are increasingly reliant on the success of summer blockbusters. This year’s Attack of the Clones (we’re talking genre, not quality) from the Museum of Fine Arts unveils its own in "Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collections." Taken from the hallowed holdings of LA art collectors Eli and Edythe Broad, the exhibit offers a survey of iconic pieces from the biggest names in contemporary art: Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michael Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, and many more. It runs July 28 through October 20; advance tickets — issued for admission at a specific date and time, as per usual with MFA blockbusters — go on sale to the public this Monday, June 10, at 10 a.m. Call (617) 423-NEXT.

NEXT WEEKEND:

P-Town film

Even by Provincetown’s freewheeling standards, the Provincetown International Film Festival — which kicks off next Thursday — boasts a vivid and eclectic line-up. And though it’s in only its fourth year, the fest has already proven its ability to draw a fair bit of left-of-center starpower. Any event that can handle the sensibilities of busty B-movie TV-host-turned-bustier-B-movie-starlet Elvira and Indian director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) is probably onto something interesting. Nair and Elvira are just a couple of the stars and directors who will be in attendance. The latter introduces last year’s schlock-heavy Elvira’s Haunted Hills; Nair accompanies the opening-night screening (June 13 at 7 p.m. at the New Art Cinema, 214 Commercial Street), a sneak preview of her new HBO-produced Hysterical Blindness, which is about a trio of blue-collar women — Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, and Gena Rowlands — bonding in 1980s New Jersey. Nair will also collect the first annual Faith Hubley Award, which is named after the Academy Award–winning animator.

And there are plenty of other awards to be handed out. Gus Van Sant gets the Filmmaker on the Edge Award and screens his 1985 film Mala Noche (June 14 at 9:30 p.m. at the New Art Cinema), which has been out of circulation for a decade. Swashbuckling journalist Sebastian Junger shows up to collect the Human Spirit Award and sit in on a panel to discuss "Images of Conflict: Film During Times of International Crisis" (June 14 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 260 Commercial Street). Marcia Gay Harden (Oscar winner for Pollock) accepts the Excellence in Acting Award and introduces her latest film, Gaud’ Afternoon (June 14 at 7:30 p.m. and June 16 at 9:15 p.m., both at the New Art Cinema), director Susan Seidelman’s adaptation of the cult lesbian mystery novel by Barbara Wilson, which also stars Judy Davis, Lily Taylor, and (again) Juliette Lewis. Director Rose Troche isn’t getting any awards, but she’ll introduce her latest film, The Safety of Objects (June 15 at 8 p.m. at the New Art Cinema). And honorary P-townie John Waters just won’t leave: he’s hosting a screening of the 1996 Freeway (June 16 at 6:15 p.m. at the New Art Cinema), a trailer-park retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story starring Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland. (Van Sant, Harden, Junger, and Waters will gather for a "Conversation with the Stars" on June 15 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.)

Quirky rockers They Might Be Giants get profiled in AJ Schnack’s documentary Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (June 16 at 2:45 p.m., at the Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial Street). The famous San Francisco glam-damaged commune-dwelling performance troupe are the subject of The Cockettes (June 13 at 5 p.m. and June 16 at 2 p.m. at the New Art Cinema), Bill Weber & David Weissman’s new documentary. Stand-up-queen-turned-monologuist Margaret Cho is captured in her newest show in Notorious C.H.O. (June 13 at 7:30 p.m. and June 15 at 1:45 p.m. at the New Art Cinema).

The documentary Grand Jury Prize winner from this year’s Sundance, Gail Dolgin & Vincente Franco’s Daughter from Danang (June 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the Whalers’ Wharf Cinema; June 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Schoolhouse Center, 494 Commercial Street), follows the reunion of a young Vietnamese woman and her mother who were separated by the war. In Adam Larson Broder’s Pumpkin (June 13 at 9:30 p.m. and June 15 at 11:15 a.m. at the New Art Cinema), a sorority’s attempt to earn brownie points by coaching mentally challenged athletes goes awry when Christina Ricci falls in love with one of them. And Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley, and Sarah Polley star in The Weight of Water (June 15 at 3:45 p.m. and June 16 at 11:30 a.m. at the New Art Cinema), Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller about a photographer researching a 19th-century ax murder.

The Provincetown International Film Festival runs June 13 through 16; call (508) 487-FILM, or visit www.ptownfilmfest.com.

BY CARLY CARIOLI