Kivi Rogers

With nimble-footed ease, Kivi Rogers fairly glided across the stage of the intimate Club Lodge, talking playfully about his "I'll-make-it-for-you dad." "Everything I got was homemade, right down to my Schlitz Malt Liquor beer can walkie-talkie," Rogers recalled, next regaling the audience with tales of the father who once had given him roller skates made from platform shoes for a Christmas present. "I didn't get real skate wheels, just some old wheels off an old couch. It was easy to spot me.

With nimble-footed ease, Kivi Rogers fairly glided across the stage of the intimate Club Lodge, talking playfully about his "I'll-make-it-for-you dad." "Everything I got was homemade, right down to my Schlitz Malt Liquor beer can walkie-talkie," Rogers recalled, next regaling the audience with tales of the father who once had given him roller skates made from platform shoes for a Christmas present. "I didn't get real skate wheels, just some old wheels off an old couch. It was easy to spot me.

In Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," Tippi Hedren's character takes quite a pecking. But the actress' relationship with the animal kingdom has always been a harmonious and loving one. In 1983, she established the Shambala Preserve, a 60-acre habitat in Acton, Calif., for more than 60 big cats, from African lions and Bengal tigers to cheetahs and Asian leopards. Keeping them fed requires continual fund-raising, which brings Hedren to the Irvine Improv on Sunday night.

No musical equivalents of hot dogs, hamburgers or chopped liver are being served at this weekend's Taste of Orange County festival. Starting with legendary headliners James Brown (Friday), Dick Dale (Saturday) and Merle Haggard (Sunday), the event's three stages will be stocked with cordon bleu selections. The contingent of local talent for Taste is exceedingly strong.