JERRY GARCIA BIRTHDAY BASH Psychedelic nostalgia will be the order of the day at The Forge in the Forest, where the Birth of Jerry 60 long years ago will be celebrated with a cask-conditioned bitter from Marina''s English Ales, and a menu dubbed "memories from the parking lot." (I am not counting on kind buds, doses or nitrous-oxide balloons, but I''m hoping for something like the pizza those guys from Eugene baked in a brick oven on wheels that they towed behind their rainbow school bus.) KPIG will be there with the Harley, and anyone showing up with Jerry memorabilia earns a discount.

5-7PM. THE FORGE IN THE FOREST, 5TH AND JUNIPERO, CARMEL. 624-2333.

Why We Love Seaside

FREE BACH The Carmel Bach Festival is a wonderful thing, but you have to pay real money to enjoy the shows-$20 to $50, with the main concerts in the Carmel Mission costing $65. It''s nice that they schedule free Tower Music during the day out at the Del Monte Golf Course, but we say, you can''t ever get enough free classical music. That''s why we applaud the yearly Carmel Bach presentation in Seaside, which brings one featured group to the Oldemeyer Center for a night of free classical greatness. This year they''re bringing "Red Priest Ensemble," a quartet that performs Bach, Vivaldi and more, in a unique style they call "wild Gypsy freedom." Red Priest has been getting rave reviews across Europe and North America for their fresh interpretations of these Baroque masters. Thanks to the Citizens League for Progress, the Seaside Cultural Arts Group, the city of Seaside and the management of this paper for making it possible.

7:30PM CONCERT, RECEPTION WITH THE ARTISTS FOLLOWING. OLDEMEYER CENTER, 986 HILBY ST., SEASIDE. FREE. 899-6805.

Happy Birthday John

STEINBECK FESTIVAL WEEKEND The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas wraps up a year of celebration honoring the 100th birthday of its now-all-of-a-sudden favorite son with four days of lectures, tours, theater, panel discussions and social events dedicated to John Steinbeck (see story pg. 27).

TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY, VARIOUS PRICES, TIMES AND LOCATIONS. MOST EVENTS MEET AT THE NATIONAL STEINBECK CENTER, ONE MAIN ST., SALINAS. 755-4721.

Hoedown in the Valley

CARMEL VALLEY FIESTA Yea, verily we are in the heart of the summer festival season, and we dwell here with paint on our faces and KettleCorn stuck in our teeth. Friday night begins the festivities at the Trail and Saddle Club with the Hula Hoopla, a full-on Hawaiian luau complete with kalua pig and poi. Saturday morning an 8am pancake breakfasts gives parade watchers (10am) the strength to keep craning their necks and to stumble from food booth to ceramics vendor to photography kiosk all day at the park (10am-5pm). Wild animal shows (1pm and 3pm) spice up the day, and from 8pm-midnight the Do-Dads make the Vals shake their booty thangs. Sunday morning the fire department hosts a pancake breakfast followed by a 10am dog show and another day of schlepping in the park and grooving to Eight Second Ride.

6-10PM FRIDAY, 8AM-MIDNIGHT SATURDAY, 8AM-5PM SUNDAY. CARMEL VALLEY PARK, CARMEL VALLEY. SOME EVENTS FREE. 659-2038.

Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum

BIG SUR TO BROADWAY LA-born, Carmel-raised Barbara Brussell has been performing her cabaret music in clubs ranging from New York''s Algonquin Hotel to San Francisco''s Plush Room, and was named one of the top ten female cabaret artists in New York City by In Theater magazine for 1999 and 2000. Stephen Holden of the New York Times described her as "the younger Kathleen Turner crossed with Sandra Dee," and praised her "utterly distinctive voice: medium-size, with a cottony texture and a quickening vibrato." Last summer, while driving down the coast to Big Sur, Brussell heard a tape of Ric Masten''s poetry and music, and decided to weave a new show around his words. This past March, she and Masten debuted "Big Sur to Broadway," at Danny''s Skylight Room in New York, to a full house and more glowing reviews. The sultry songstress with the passionate delivery, now living in the Big Apple, is back in town this weekend for her 30th Carmel High School reunion, and she''s putting on one show only of "Big Sur to Broadway." She''s joined by Ric''s daughter Jeraldine Masten Hanson, who will perform her poetry and songs in her dad''s honor.

8PM. UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, 490 AGUAJITO RD., CARMEL. $15 ADULTS, $5 CHILDREN. FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE CHURCH, CALL 624-7404. FOR TICKETS, CALL 655-4332.

The Scottish are Coming, the Scottish are Coming!

SCOTTISH GAMES AND CELTIC FESTIVAL Dust off the old kilt and grab the bagpipes, because the Scottish Games and Celtic Festival is marching into town with the whole shebang-tartans, cabers, those funny white knee socks and all. Gates open Saturday at 9am with the piping and drumming competition, and continue with the gathering of the clans at noon, classic drum major contest at 1:15, sheepdog trials at 1:45 and a ceilidh at 7:30pm. On Sunday, there will be lots of entertainment all morning until the classic drum major event at 12:30, the Scottish sheepdog trials at 1pm, and Highland dancing and athletic events at 1:15. Everyone gets together for the grand finale Sunday at 4pm.

9AM-7:30PM TODAY AND 9AM-4:30PM SUNDAY. MONTEREY COUNTY TORO PARK, HWY. 68, SALINAS. $15 ONE-DAY PASS, $20 BOTH DAYS; DISCOUNTS FORE SENIORS AND CHILDREN. 647-6331, OR VISIT WWW.MONTEREYSCOTGAMES.COM.

Berry Binge

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL Athletic strawberry gobblers and dilettantes alike are invited to this annual berry-noshing festival, where rigorous contests of strawberry pie-eating will separate the truly talented from the merely skilled. For two days, downtown Watsonville will be packed with food booths serving heartier fare like barbecue and pepper steaks, with loads of fat, sweet, juicy berries for dessert. Jazz, blues, country music, swing and good old dependable rock ''n'' roll will fill the plaza, and the Strawberry Carnival will keep the Ferris wheels turning and the bounce houses rocking into the evenings. Arts and crafts and the inevitable face painting for children complete the bill of entertainment.

10AM-10PM, SAT, 10AM-8PM SUN. DOWNTOWN WATSONVILLE. FREE.

A Wild Coast and Lonely

RAMBLIN'' JACK On his 1995 Grammy Award-winning (for best traditional folk recording) album, South Coast, Ramblin'' Jack Elliott does a hair-raising interpretation of "The Ballad of the South Coast." The song, written by Big Sur author Lillian Bos Ross (aka Shanagolden), tells the story of a young man living in Big Sur who wins a beautiful bride in a Jolon card game, then loses her when a mountain lion screams and the horse throws the woman to the ground. As Jack rasps out the refrain, "The South Coast is a wild coast and lonely/You might win a card game in Jolon/But the lion still rules the barranca/and a man there is always alone," shivers crawl up listeners'' backs and down their arms. Sung live in Big Sur, with Jack''s always disarming charisma, the song should be doubly effective. And sometime during the day, the audience will have a chance to toast Jack: This is sort of a birthday bash for the legendary folk singer whose birthday was on Thursday.

3PM. HENRY MILLER MEMORIAL LIBRARY, HIGHWAY 1, BIG SUR. TICKETS: $15/ADVANCE, $20/DOOR. 667-2574.

Soft Machine

DAVE KOZ AND FRIENDS This date with the smooth jazz superstar and hot LA DJ finds Koz returning to his pop/R&B roots, with two-time Grammy-winning vocalist James Ingram, a massive crossover hitmaker and ladykiller who vaulted the charts in duos with the likes of Anita Baker, Michael McDonald, Patti Austin, Linda Ronstadt, Kim Carnes and Dolly Parton. Joining the all-star lineup will be bassist Norman Brown and keyboardist Brian Culbertson. But the star of the show is still The Koz, whose latest release, Golden Slumbers: A Father''s Lullaby pretty much guarantees that the audience will float home after the show.

3PM. HYATT REGENCY TENNIS COURTS, 1 GOLF COURSE DRIVE, MONTEREY. $50-$100. 333-1764.

That Saxy Gal