The Melvins; Pop Rocks!; Buskers!; Martha Redbone at Joe's Pub; John Sinclair All Over Town; Rudolph Valentino at AMMI; Johanna Clearfield at Caroline's; Deuce Expert Samuel R. Delaney

Ever since our friend at Spin Cycle, Ron Lasko, whisked us into 219 Flamingo a few weeks ago we've been dying to go back just to shake our ass and work the dancefloor. The weekly Thursday night party's called Pop Rocks! and features DJ Gerson spinning Mary J. Blige, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and J. Lo for lots of cute, sweaty guys and girls. Upstairs, you'll hear more 80s tunes, while the downstairs area's dominated by Britney and Christina. 219 2nd Ave. (betw. 13th & 14th Sts.), 462-9077; 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $6.

An Irish acquaintance who'd won the immigration lottery and lived for several years in Manhattan offered some words of wisdom when he learned we were moving here. "You'll see things there you won't see anywhere else in the world." "What do you mean?" we asked (assuming he wasn't referring to Grant's Tomb). "You'll understand later," he replied cryptically, "and when you do, think of me." On that note, New York's finest buskers?described as "blues, jazz, folk, gospel, doo-wop, African and South American" musicians (but as you well know, that ain't even the half of it) surface Thurs., June 20, at 8 p.m. to perform as part of the "In Transit" concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Here's looking at you, Declan. 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, B'way (64th St.), 721-6500; $35-$65.

It's a crime. You'd think there might be enough of an audience in this world for two really classy, beautiful young singer/songwriters of updated 70s-ish r&b, funk and soul-pop. Instead, Alicia Keys' career blows up, while another local hero, Martha Redbone, has yet to really break out. This despite the strong reviews her shows and LP Home of the Brave have gotten in the more discerning venues. Well, she's a class act anyway, and her smart fans love her. Catch her at Joe's Pub Thurs., June 20, at 7:30, and you're likely to come away a fan as well. 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 539-8778; $15.

He's legendary as the man who guided the rock-and-revolution MC5 to early fame, and as the potsmoking political prisoner whose release from jail was engineered by high-profile admirers like John and Yoko. But in subsequent years John Sinclair forged a whole new legend as a New Orleans-based expert on and promoter of jazz and blues, his love and knowledge of which form the basis of his wonderful spoken-word performances. He's sort of the Last Beat Standing, a white griot, a jazzbo's jazzbo, and every time he comes to town he shows his versatility (as well as his wide circle of musician friends) by playing multiple gigs with different backing bands. He begins this weekend: Fri., June 21, at Lakeside Lounge, 162 Ave. B (betw. 10th & 11th Sts.), 529-8463, backed by the New York Blues Scholars; then Dee Pop backs him for a quieter, jazzier night on Sat., June 22, at 3 Jewels, 211 E. 5th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 475-6650; and on Sun., June 23, he gigs twice: with Big Tree at 5 p.m. at 55 Bar, 55 Christopher St. (betw. 7th Ave. & Waverly Pl.), 929-9883; and with free-jazzers Daniel Carter and Dee Pop, 7 p.m., at CB's 313 Gallery, 313 Bowery (Bleecker St.), 677-0455.

Those lips, those eyes: In the 1920s, movies found their footing as both art and entertainment, and no star benefited more noticeably from the moving image's power than Rudolph Valentino. His legacy is celebrated through June 30 at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, with a series of films titled "Rudolph Valentino and Other Exotic Lovers." In such films as 1921's desert sex fantasy The Sheik (Sat., June 22, 2 p.m.) and its 1926 sequel, Son of the Sheik (4 p.m.), the Italian-American actor's incandescent stare, sleek face and pansexual charisma electrified audiences around the world?women especially. When he died in 1926, a year before sound came in, hundreds of thousands of fans attended his memorial. AMMI curator Richard Koszarski says before Valentino, the Latin stereotype "was that of an unclean person. What Valentino did was almost singlehandedly turn that stereotype around so that it became associated with danger and glamour. What he did stuck for decades, establishing a line that goes through Ricardo Montalban and Antonio Banderas." 35th Ave. (36th St.), Astoria, 718-784-0077; www.ammi.org.

So it's Sunday afternoon and you're up for a laugh. You could sit at home and watch the Paula Poundstone Network (aka Comedy Central), or you could sit in Caroline's for an early (starts at 5:30) evening revue of up-and-coming stand-up comedians, selected and presented by Steve Rosenfield. Yeah, we know?personally we'd rather spend the afternoon flossing with rusty razor wire?except for one talent among this bunch, Johanna Clearfield. She's written some weird and funny things for New York Press on occasion, mostly based on her, um, interesting life. And she's got a snappy, fast-talking delivery that makes her stories pretty irresistible. Catch her and her cohorts now before they become semi-famous and are then reduced to humiliating themselves in Nicorette and Bud Lite commercials. 1626 B'way (betw. 49th & 50th Sts.), 757-4100.

Sci-fi fans know Samuel R. Delany as the author of a handful of novels and short stories that revolutionized and hipsterized the genre in the 60s and 70s. He's also got a following as a gay writer and, well, a bit of a perv. In the good, old-fashioned, pre-Rudy sense of being really sex-pos and into sleaze. And for that reason he's been very outspoken in expressing his distress over the Disneyfied Times Square and his nostalgia for the dirtier, boy-hustling Deuce of yore. This Tues., June 25, he speaks out on this topic?also the subject of his book, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue?at the Urban Center, 6:30 p.m. 457 Madison Ave. (51st St.), 935-3595; $10.