LA WeeklyHot rods, a tribute to the actor behind the "Sweet Transvestite" and Pennywise, cookbooks and all-star chefs in action, Latin Jazz and the LGBTQ/Latinx experience, and women in animation and gender equality in sports. Here are 19 L.A. happenings you don't want to miss this week.
fri 3/2
CULTURE
Gas-Guzzlin' Beauties
Showcasing the grace and power of the kinetic sculpture known as the automobile, the Classic Auto Show brings you more than 1,000 classic cars spread across two floors of the Convention Center. You'll see lowriders, hot rods, kit cars and museum showpieces of every stripe, as well as cars well-loved by everyone from celebrities to local car clubs. There's a vendor marketplace for all your auto parts needs, radical remote-control vehicles, a restoration station and detailing studio, and pro wrestler Bill Goldberg and other luminaries sitting around and bullshitting about their favorite cars. Tonight also offers a special "Screening Under the Cars" of Bullitt at 8 p.m. L.A. Convention Center, South and Kentia Halls (register in South Hall lobby), 1201 S. Figueroa St., downtown; Fri., March 2, noon-8 p.m.; Sat., March 3, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., March 4, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; $25-$200. (202) 827-5527, theclassicautoshow.com. —David Cotner
ART
Tribute to Dr. Frank-N-Furter
Tim Curry is most associated with Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the Transylvanian Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a role he originated both on stage and on the big screen. But the British actor has created memorable characters in film, TV, theater and voice-over work for more than 40 years, from the scary clown in Stephen King’s 1990 miniseries It to the butler in 1985’s board game-inspired movie Clue to King Arthur in the musical Spamalot. Burbank’s collectibles store and art gallery Creature Features hosts this group show with 75 artists whose paintings, prints, sculpture, mixed media and other artistic renderings pay tribute to Curry’s various alter egos. Creature Features, 2904 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; through Sunday, March 11; hours are Wed.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; free. (818) 842-8665, creaturefeatures.com. —Siran Babayan
BOOKS/FOOD
Foodie Heaven
When it comes to food, Angelenos consider themselves both expert eaters and expert readers. Food Book Fair L.A., an annual culinary and literary event that originated in New York in 2012, comes to Los Angeles for the first time, bringing together foodies, chefs, authors, bloggers and podcasters who love everything about gastronomy from the plate to the page. Taking place throughout Ace Hotel will be a kickoff party, keynote address, dinner and panel discussions on such topics as food in digital media, healthy eating, Asian-American cuisine and California cooking. The event will feature notable guests such as KCETLink's Juan Devis, KCRW's Evan Kleiman and Cal State Long Beach professor Oliver Wang. Of course, the weekend's highlight is the "Foodieodicals" fair within the festival at nearby Smorgasburg, where vendors will display magazines, cookbooks and other publications. Ace Hotel, 929 S. Broadway, downtown.; Fri., March 2, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat., March 3, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., March 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; most events free, reservations required. (213) 623-3233, foodbookfair.com. —Siran Babayan
MUSIC
Journey to Outer Space
Composer Andrew Norman is almost as interested in the shape of music as he is in sound itself. Tonight, conductor Teddy Abrams and the L.A. Philharmonic launch the U.S. premiere of Norman's opera A Trip to the Moon, a fantastic space odyssey inspired by Georges Méliès' 1902 silent film, which was itself influenced by Jules Verne's novels. Director Yuval Sharon's multimedia set design, which is populated by a large cast of costumed chorus singers and dancers, should be a visually entrancing spectacle, although one hopes that the theatrical elements don't turn out to be campy distractions from Norman's buoyant and relatively accessible music. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown; Fri.-Sat., March 2-3, 8 p.m.; $20-$193. (323) 850-2000, laphil.com. —Falling James
sat 3/3
DRINK
To Beer or Not to Beer
L.A.'s craft beer scene has come into its own over the past several years, with more new breweries opening than we can count. The hops-forward, higher-alcohol-by-volume India Pale Ale has long been considered the definitive style of California beer, and local brewers such as Highland Park Brewery have started to make exceptional ales to rival the legendary IPAs of San Diego and NorCal. More than 60 brewers from around our state compete in the fifth annual Los Angeles IPA Festival; the ales will be judged by a veritable who's who of California beer makers, including Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson and Stone Liberty Station brewing manager Kris Ketcham. The competing beers all will be on tap at host Mohawk Bend, 2141 W Sunset Blvd, Echo Park; Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m.; free. (213) 483-2337, laipafestival.com. —Matt Miner
ART
Museums on Us
Museums are fun and enlightening, but they're so expensive, right? Not if you've got the right credit or debit card. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust cardholders just need to flash their card, plus photo ID, to get one free admission to several museums across the Southland. Participating institutions in Museums on Us include LACMA, the Autry Museum of the American West, the Skirball Cultural Center, the Museum of Latin American Art, Laguna Art Museum and DiscoveryCube OC (Sunday only). Sat.-Sun., March 3-4; visit bankofamerica.com/museums for a full list. —Richard Chang
DANCE
A Swan Like No Other
L.A.'s own professional ballet company closes its 12th season with a luscious, romantic, full-length production of Swan Lake. Boasting some of Peter Tchaikovsky's most delicious music, this is deservedly one of the most popular classical ballets, and one of the most technically demanding, not just for the leads but also for the corps de ballet. Reviewers' high praise when Los Angeles Ballet last presented Swan Lake is one indication of how well LAB rises to those challenges. The dual role of the White Swan Odette and the Black Swan Odile will alternate between principal dancers Bianca Bulle and Petra Conti. Principal Kenta Shimizu and soloist Tigran Sargsyan share the role of Prince Siegfried. In keeping its promise to bring great ballet to Greater L.A., LAB opens Swan Lake this weekend in Glendale, then travels to the South Bay and Westwood. Alex Theater, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale; Sat., March 3, 7:30 p.m.; $29.50-$104. (310) 998-7782, losangelesballet.org. Also at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach; Sat., March 10, 7:30 p.m. Also at UCLA Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Westwood; Thu.-Sat., March 15-17, 7:30 p.m. —Ann Haskins
MUSIC
Bhangra Beats and a Badass Dholi
Great genres often arise from the uniquely fractured perspective of diasporic generations. For infectious bhangra beats, thank rebellious Punjabi youth in 1960s Britain. Get your fix this Saturday when San Francisco's monthly party Non Stop Bhangra heads south. U.K. star singer Jassi Sidhu headlines with hits from the last two decades (since his infamous split with boy band B21, featured in Bend It Like Beckham). DJ K-Square (Toronto) backs him up, with sets by Jimmy Love, Rav-E and Sandeep KuMarch Highlight: Live drumming from MTooray, the country's only female dhol player, known to layer traditional Punjabi beats over the latest hip-hop, latin and house music. Doors open at 10, Sidhu goes on at 11:30 — and you can dance it out until 2 a.m. Food trucks, henna and an outdoor beer garden for in between. Resident DTLA, 428 S. Hewitt St, downtown; Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.; $20 advance, $25 door. (213) 628-7503, nonstopbhangra.com. —Beige Luciano-Adams
sun 3/4
ART/TALK
Surrealist Scuffle
Surrealism gets real when Shana Lutker presents Chapter 5: Phosphorescence, Pheasants and Unpleasants, a multimedia performance piece commemorating the street altercation that happened during the International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture in Paris. On the night of June 14, 1935, Surrealist No. 1 André Breton slapped the fuck out of Soviet critic Ilya Ehrenburg for publishing an inflammatory pamphlet (those were the days!) calling surrealists "onanists" and other insults that really hit home. Lutker's salute to those thrilling days of yesteryear includes poetry, cinema and surrealist critique — feel free to retort in a suitably surrealist manner. L.A. County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire; Sun., March 4, 4 p.m.; free. (323) 857-6000, lacma.org/event/shana-lutker. —David Cotner
THEATER
No Longer in the Closet
Today's the final day to check out Casa 0101 Theater's Brown & Out IV, a festival of 10 world-premiere short plays celebrating the LGBTQ/Latinx experience. The plays tackle the themes of friendship, family, lovers, gender identity, HIV, suicide and religion. Playwrights include Abel Alvarado, Corky Dominguez, Claudia Duran, Casa 0101 founder Josefina López, Jaime Mayorquin and Patricia Zamorano. Facing financial difficulties, Casa 0101 is in danger of shutting its doors, so it could definitely use the support. A photo exhibition by Rolando Rodriguez also is on view. Casa 0101 Theater, 2101 E. First St., Boyle Heights; Fri.-Sat., March 2-3, 8 p.m.; Sun., March 4, 5 p.m.; $15-$20. (323) 263-7684, casa0101.org. —Richard Chang
MUSIC/ART
Fight the Power
You knew Chuck D. was an accomplished rapper, but he's a visual artist, too? Gallery 30 South is presenting the first-ever solo art exhibition of works by the legendary frontman of Public Enemy and the Prophets of Rage. (He's a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as well, kiddos.) Many people do not know that Chuck D. graduated with a graphic design degree. "Behind the Seen" will feature illustrations done in watercolor and ink, along with prints. Chuck D. himself will make an appearance on Sunday, March 4 from 3-6 p.m. Gallery 30 South, 30 Wilson Ave., Pasadena; runs March1-31; gallery hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, noon-6 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; free, works are for sale. gallery30south.com/chuckd/. —Richard Chang
MUSIC/ART
Afro-Latin Jazz and Cowboy Folklore
Bring your dancing shoes to Griffith Park for Latin Jazz Sunday at the Autry. Cal State L.A.'s Afro Latin Ensemble will play their danceable repertoire of salsa, timba, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean in the museum's Heritage Court. Led by accomplished international salsa and jazz pianist/composer Paul De Castro, the award-winning student ensemble fires up at 7 p.m., playing a range of classics and contemporary hits. Get there by 6 to wander the Autry's core exhibitions, including the first solo show dedicated to the life and work of a Native American woman, master basket weaver Mabel McKay; the ethnobotanical garden; and, yes, the Cowboy Gallery — all open throughout the event. Cash bar and light refreshments. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park; Sun., March 4, 7-9 p.m.; $3-$10. (323) 667-2000, theautry.org/events/music-and-festivals/latin-jazz-sunday-autry. —Beige Luciano-Adams
mon 3/5
FILM/TALK
Capturing the Real NYC
New York City in the late 1970s was the perfect Petri dish for the act of creation. The city was going bankrupt, crime was rampant and the infrastructure was falling apart, but Manhattan's unsupervised, uncharted, pre-apocalyptic landscape was like a Blank Generation canvas, brimming with artistic possibilities. Irish filmmaker Vivienne Dick stepped into the colossal void with her crude Super 8 camera and, in her 1978 film She Had Her Gun Already, ended up documenting the city's anti-rockist No Wave music scene with an unsentimental vision that elevated the profane, contrarian actions of Lydia Lunch and Pat Place into something resembling art. Tonight, the filmmaker looks back "Across Times, Bodies and Space" with writer-professor Vera Dika. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., downtown; Mon., March 5, 8:30 p.m.; $12. (213) 237-2800, redcat.org. —Falling James
tue 3/6
BOOKS
A Master of Sex and Intrigue
You might remember the 2002 film Secretary, a relatively intelligent and playfully sensual precursor to 50 Shades of Grey that nonetheless — in typical Hollywood fashion — watered down and even amputated the incisive character portrayals and boldly transgressive sexuality of the startling Mary Gaitskill short story from her 1988 book, Bad Behavior. Gaitskill has since expanded her stylistic range with a series of novels (Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Veronica), short-story compilations (Don't Cry) and an upcoming collection of essays (Somebody With a Little Hammer). This evening, in a chat with fellow writer Mona Simpson, Gaitskill demonstrates her ability to unearth profound insights in the most mundane places, such as this observation in her 2015 novel, The Mare, about a melodramatic pop song: "The singer's voice is thin and fake, but it's pretty, and somewhere in the fakery is the true sadness of smallness and failure." Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Tue., March 6, 7:30 p.m.; free. (310) 443-7000, hammer.ucla.edu. —Falling James
wed 3/7
FOOD
See How the Pros Do It
Less a culinary exposition than a life-changing experience, the fifth annual All-Star Chef Classic reveals unto you the latest advancements in cooking, with five days of immersive meals and conversations with an international coterie of world-class chefs, among them Evan Funke (Felix), Ludo Lefebvre (Trois Mec) and Micah Wexler (Wexler's Deli). Walk-around cooking tours celebrate everything from an inaugural female-centric Masters Dinner to the kitchen sorcery of the Spanish to the simple pleasures of open-flame cooking and Middle Eastern cuisine. If all that doesn't blow your mind, I'll eat my hat. L.A. Live, Event Deck, 1005 W. Chick Hearn St., downtown; Wed., March 7-Sat., March 10; $295-$425. (866) 548-3452, allstarchefclassic.com. —David Cotner
TALK/FILM
Raising the Ceiling and the Floor
In 1938, Walt Disney Productions sent out a rejection letter, typewritten on Snow White stationery, to a woman seeking a job in animation. It explained simply, "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men." Eighty years later, half a dozen expert animators come together for a discussion about the role of women in the animation industry today. Leading Ladies of Animation features women working in different aspects of animation, including lead animator Kathy Zielinski, whose credits include modern-day classics Frozen and The Little Mermaid, and ink and paint department head Gretchen Albrecht, who has worked on every Disney animated feature over the course of three decades. The talk comes together under the auspices of historian Mindy Johnson. As the author of Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney's Animation, Johnson should be able to shed some light on the thinking behind Disney's early policies, and how it has changed. Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., downtown; Wed., March 7, 6 p.m.; free. (213) 228-7000, lapl.org/whats-on/events/leading-ladies-animation. —Tanja M. Laden
TELEVISION
Huell Howser's Lost Episode
In 2010, TV host and authority on California history Huell Howser contacted director John McDonald about his 2007 documentary, The Ghost Mountain Experiment. Using photographs, footage and interviews, McDonald, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, chronicled the lives of Marshal and Tanya South, who, with their three kids, lived an off-the-grid existence as survivalists in an adobe house on a waterless mountaintop in the California desert for 17 years during the Great Depression and WWII. Howser wanted to produce a segment for his KCET travelogue show California’s Gold based on McDonald’s story about the South family. But Howser fell ill and died in 2013, and the project between the two was never completed. Tonight, Glendale’s Central Library screens the unaired, edited episode, followed by a discussion with McDonald. Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St., Glendale; Wed., March 7, 7 p.m.; free. (818) 548-2021, glendaleca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/34048/125?curm=3&cury=2018. —Siran Babayan
thu 3/8
TALK/FILM
Women, Sports and Equality
At the recently concluded PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Team USA's female athletes scored plenty of medals; for example, the women's hockey team won their first gold in the sport in 20 years. But one of the more famous moments in women's sports dates back to 1973, when six-time Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King beat chauvinist 55-year-old former champ Bobby Riggs in the famed tennis match dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes." Coinciding with International Women's Day, Women's Day Celebration: Panel Discussion on Women in Sports + Battle of the Sexes Screening looks at not only King's victory but how gender equality in sports has advanced over the years. Moderated by Angela Hucles, "The Role of Women in Sports, Yesterday and Today" features Natalie Morales, Valorie Kondos Field, Karen Brodkin and Christine Simmons. Also participating are Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, co-directors of last year's film version of the watershed game, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell; it screens after the panel. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Koreatown; Thu., March 8, 6:30 p.m.; $12-$15. (213) 388-1400, wiltern.com. —Siran Babayan
TALK
Craziness and Creativity
The creative energies spurred by the interaction of depression and art are today's topic when author Kay Redfield Jamison talks about mental illness and creativity. Jamison is joined by Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day, to hold forth on Jamison's latest book, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania and Character ($30, Knopf), which explores what happens when art and illness intersect, unveiling the finest beauty ever to spring forth from the tormented recesses of the human mind. Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood; Thu., March 8, 7 p.m.; free (reservations required). (310) 440-7300, getty.edu/visit/cal/events/ev_2095.html. —David Cotner
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