Hey, Gambiteers! We’ve got a lot going on in this week’s issue, so let’s waste no time, shall we?

• In our cover story, Noah Bonaparte Pais chronicles how 9th Ward performance geniuses Quintron and Miss Pussycat went from their Spellcaster Lodge on St. Claude Avenue to a major, ambitious new show, “Parallel Universe,” in the rarefied New Orleans Museum of Art. This is going to be like nothing NOMA has ever done, or seen, before, and it opens Jan. 30. Noah’s got all the scoop …

• Freret Street might be the little street that could, coming back from the floods after Hurricane Katrina stronger than ever. David Winkler-Schmit looks at plans for Freret in the next year and wonders: is it the next Magazine Street or Oak Street? …

• Clancy DuBos suggests some measurable barometers for the mayoral and city council candidates …

• Dalt Wonk reviews the comedy Jewtopia at Le Chat Noir …

• Ian McNulty has his gastronomical socks knocked off at Le Foret …

• and it’s our monthly edition of CUE, Gambit’s home and fashion magazine. Editor Missy Wilkinson and contributing writer Kyla Boutte go all in on Carnival in this edition, and Missy will be on Monday’s WWL Eyewitness Morning News to discuss it with Laura Buchtel.

Last: we’re really excited about Gambit’s first-ever music compilation, Ear to the Ground: New Orleans. We did it in conjunction with the Limewire Music Store and it will be available as a download there beginning Tuesday. Free music, handpicked by Gambit’s editors, with selections by Generationals, GIVERS, MyNameisJohnMichael, Theresa Andersson, Rotary Downs, and about 12 more. And it’s totally free to all you Gambiteers as our thanks for being the best readers a newspaper could ever want.

More about that on Tuesday. For now, go Saints!