Photo courtesy of HBO

On a weekend full of Hurricane Katrina anniversary events and memorials, NOMA hosts screenings of the entire first season of Treme. Episode 1 begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and the day’s final installment is episode 7 at 4:30 p.m. The final three episodes run on Sunday morning from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Admission to NOMA is free this weekend, and also featured is “Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast]: Photographs by Richard Misrach.” The show runs through Oct. 24.

Dirty Linen Night is on Saturday, and the second Saturday of the month also brings art gallery openings in the St. Claude Avenue corridor. Barrister’s Gallery opens a photography show titled “Los Invisibles: Latino Immigrants Who Rebuilt New Orleans.” It includes the Craig Morse photo (right), “Carousel of Democracy.” Other downtown galleries opening new shows include Good Children and The Front. In the French Quarter, galleries and stores on Royal Street open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for Dirty Linen Night.

I stopped in yesterday at the Southern Sting tattoo parlor in Larose, Louisiana, and spent some time talking with the owner, Bobby Pitre. As well as tattoos he does paintings and sculpture, and has decorated the outside of his shop with political statements about the BP oil disaster.

The Southern Sting tattoo shop in Larose, Louisiana.

Much of Pitre’s business since the disaster has been from Coast Guard workers. “One of them got a Spongebob [Squarepants] standing knee deep in oil, screaming, with an oil well blowing up in the background, on his calf,” he said. Read more and see pictures after the jump.

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ACT NOW (Artists Coming Together, Nurturing Our World) will present “ACT NOW for the Gulf,” a fundraising art auction to benefit the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program coordinated by the Audubon Nature Institute.

The event will take place at The Foundry, 333 St. Joseph St., on Friday, July 30, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. More than 30 regionally and nationally recognized artists have come together to donate works of art in an effort to do their part to help the wildlife affected by the Gulf oil spill.

The nonprofit organization Artists ACT NOW was formed in response to artists wanting to help in the wake of the BP Gulf oil catastrophe. ACT NOW teamed up with Audubon Nature Institute and the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program and began preparations for the first benefit art show, “ACT NOW for the Gulf.”

The rescue program has been designated as the primary responder for the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of all marine mammals (dolphins, whales and manatees) and sea turtles along the Louisiana coast.

“We’re eager to partner with Artists ACT NOW for this fundraiser,” says Ron Forman, President and CEO of Audubon Nature Institute. “Audubon is thankful for the generous support received from many organizations across the country to help the Gulf coast region.”

The mission of Artists ACT NOW is to draw from the talents and compassion of artists across the globe to provide aid and relief to anyone and anything in need as a result of man-made or natural catastrophes.

The event will feature donated works by artists with both regional and national recognition including: Aubrey Edwards, Charles Merrell, Doug Keese, Jason DuMouchel, Sean Friloux, Karen Ocker, Kristin Littwin Gile, Tim Trapolin, Chris Kirsch, Christopher Morrison Slave, Brian Bush, Anne Cicero and many more…

Food and drink vendors include The Bombay Club and Couchon Butcher and PJ’s Coffee. Live music will be provided by The New Orleans Moonshiners.

Tickets are $30.00 per person and can be purchased online at www.artistsactnow.org (click on ACT NOW for The Gulf) or at PJ’s Coffee at 5432 Magazine St.

One of Grand Isle’s biggest events of the year, the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo, was nixed this year due to the ongoing oil disaster on the coast. (The annual rodeo — the oldest fishing competition in the U.S., had been held every year since 1928.) But using the lemons–>lemonade theory, organizers came up with a different idea: Island Aid, a benefit concert for the Gulf community that will take place on Grand Isle all day Sat., July 24.

Leann Rimes, Three Dog Night and the Little River Band are the headliners, and the lineup includes several New Orleans favorites, including Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys, the Wiseguys and the Topcats. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased onsite on the day of the event only, and procees will go to the Grand Isle Alive promotion fund, which is raising money to rebuild the fishing and tourism industries on the island.

A kickoff event was held last month at Harrah’s New Orleans, where a lot of Jeff Parish folks showed up for support, including the 2010 rodeo president, Nickie Monica, along with Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle, Tom Capella, Chris Roberts, Sheriff Newell Normand, Cynthia Lee-Sheng and others. Fox 8 weatherdude Chris Franklin emceed (but can he guarantee good weather for the day? Chris?).

A benefit poster by local artist Christy Works-Boutte was unveiled. Prints will be sold for $30, and the original will be auctioned off at Island Aid. For more info, check the event’s website.