Whether you're sporting a daring Donegal, manly muttons or rocking a royale, fame, glory and prizes could be yours this Saturday when "beardos" from across the nation will their facial hair against each other. It's all part of the first Great Lakes Regional Beard and Moustache Championship, a growing new concept in competition.

Scales rub against skin as a 6-foot-long boa constrictor slithers down the curves of a woman's body. The woman twists and undulates on stage in front of hundreds of staring eyes. Suddenly you realize you forgot to put on your pants. Just kidding about the pants — this isn't really a nightmare (well, maybe for some people). But the snake is real, and his name is Amon Ra.

Time to start thinking about what you're doing this Labor Day weekend. Stuff your face with hot dogs and fruit salad? Look through granny's photo album for the umpteenth time at a family reunion? Or maybe dangle precariously from the horns of a Chinese dragon boat racing perilously down the Grand River? I think we know which of these options sounds most exciting.

This weekend, occupiers will fill the streets, overrun local businesses and infiltrate the vacant spaces of Old Town. This isn't a hostile takeover, however — it's just the seventh annual Renegade Theatre Festival.

If you're looking to empty your wallet on superfluous fashion trends, outrageous "Project Runway"-style dress designs, and colors that would give hazard cones a run for their money, then Trybe, a new Lansing-based line of women’s clothing definitely isn't for you.

Between the bustling Michigan State University campus, the yearly round of music and art festivals and the serenity of the surrounding farmland, there is a lot of eye candy to be found around East Lansing. The 2012 Community Photo Contest offers East Lansing photo enthusiasts an opportunity to turn their camera skills into prize money.

"Expect nothing" is the catch phrase for Vacant, a project that is centered on "taking something empty and filling it," according to Suban Nur Cooley, founder of the Vacant Lansing events.

"We, of course, feel badly for the artist," said Rick Kibbey, chairman of the City of Lansing park board and Second Ward representative. "Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. It's not only in Lansing, but anywhere else in the world. There seems to be something in a certain kind of mind that takes satisfaction from destroying stuff. It's something we have to work around, but it should not cause us to give up."

Drive-in movie theaters are an endangered species — unless you spend your Friday nights in Old Town this month. For three nights in July, Cesar Chavez Plaza (a.k.a. City Lot 56 at Grand River Avenue and Turner Street) will be transformed into the Turner Street Outdoor Theater.

This gentle giant, along with a smiling rainbow trout, a sparkling 1,000-pound marine buoy chain, a flower, a hunting bow and a colorful abstract “Michigan wave” were created out of recycled scrap metal for the Scrappy Bike Rack Project, a program created through cooperation between the Old Town Commercial Association and the Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council.