Tom Morello is best known as the Rage Against the Machine guitarist who became the most exciting thing in rhythm playing since John Lennon. Sam Durant is slightly more obscure: He's a modern artist and teacher at CalArts who creates political and site-specific artworks, many dealing with Native American imagery. Tonight's Hammer Conversations With Tom Morello and Sam Durant offers the men conversing substantively about things that really and truly matter. Yes, both have won multiple awards in their respective fields — and yes, both are larger-than-life creative dynamos in their respective worlds. But this is when you really want to get to the soul of the artist, not the n th layer of an endless public-image onion. This is why they have these Hammer Conversations in the first place: It shouldn't take a Wikileak to show you how a man really feels about something. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Wstwd.; Wed., Jan. 12, 7 p.m.; free. (310) 443-7000, hammer.ucla.edu. –David Cotner

Wed., Jan. 12, 7 p.m., 2011

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