My fellow Beehive blogger Mike Osegueda and I were able to catch many of the kick-off preview performances on Thursday night for the Rogue Festival. Among our observations:

Judging just on the RogueHop chatter, we'd say some of the shows that are that three most anticipated are Pentecostal Wisconsin, American Squatter and Sprawlzilla vs. Mainstreet.

Like the idea of a wise-cracking woman harping on sex? Go see Airplane Jayne. Like The Eagles? Go see Acoustic Highway's Taboo in Time. Like angry, ranting almost-homeless-looking guys? Go see Charlie and the Chocolate Porn Factory.

Way to pique the interest of the Beehive: Speaking of Charlie, in previewing his upcoming performance, he told a story about a psycho newspaper delivery guy "Collecting for The Bee." Weird stuff.

It looks like this year's addition of Rogue Jazz at Tower Mosaic Church was a smart one. Eva Scow's concerts last night drew some good crowds. Rogue Jazz continues with two performances per night with lots of great local jazz talent. Details here.

One of the favorite things we've seen so far was the art of Teresa Flores. It's very Fresno-centric -- from a charcoal portrait of some G's over at Holmes Playground to a map of the City of Fresno with pins marking everywhere she has been pulled over in her Impala. Her work is showing at Ashtree Studios. A reminder: If you're going to see shows at Ashtree Studios, remember to show up a few minutes early, so you can check out all the cool art that's hanging in there from Flores and others.

Bellydancers will be out in full force at this year's Rogue with three groups performing: Tanjora Tribal Bellydance, Ananka Dance Company and Mahzjai Bellydance Fusion. At Rogue preview night, we caught Ananka giving a taste of their program performed to big-band music. Who said bellydancers need tambourines?

Performance quote of the night: "I know it's ridiculous for an 18-year-old to be afraid of squash." -- a member of the Poetry and Prose from Fresno State show reading from a story at preview night.

Most dedicated promoter: The well-known Rogue performer Mallory Moad, who asked if she could commandeer the Veni Vidi Vici stage to plug her Know Headache, Know Pain when one of the scheduled acts went shorter than anticipated.

Most dedicated T-shirt vendor: The always hard-working John Beynon, who will not rest easy until the entire population of the Tower District is wearing a Rogue T.

Most serene festival producer: John B. Jordan, who brought a Zen-like calm to the opening-night festivities. Whatever trials and tribulations await him the next two weekends, he always seems like he has a handle on things. So far, so good!