There's a weekend festival at the La Brea Tar Pits starting tonight. Did you know La Brea means "the tar"? / Photo by Gamma Infinity via LAist's flickr pool.

FREESTYLING*: Latin battle MCs take to the stage tonight at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena at 8 p.m. in the U.S. finals of the freestyle MC competition known as Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos. The free event will feature MCs from LA, SF and NYC rapping solely in Spanish 'best Latin battle MC' titile. The winner will then head to Mexico City to compete against lyricists from 15 other Spanish-speaking countries.

FILM: The Aero begins series tonight honoring director John Huston with a double feature of the director’s starting at 7:30. Up first is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart as he searches for gold in the mountains of Mexico. See the film where the quote "we don't need no badges" came from. Next up is Fat City which captures the aimless lives of couple down-and-out boxers: a has-been Stacy Keach and young up-and-comer Jeff Bridges, who bond in the bars of Stockton.

MORE FILM: The ArcLight Hollywood’s directors screenings continue tonight with Religulous, a film that follows Bill Maher around the world as he asks people about God and religion. The screening starts at 7:50 pm, with a Q&A following with director Larry Charles (yeah, the guy who brought us Borat).

PERFORMANCE: The Pleasure Circus Band is a “tribal grooving, gypsy jangling, life celebrating jam band of a new breed.” With more than a dozen players, you’ll never know what you’re gonna get…dancing, fire breathing and or other surprises. There’s a midnight show at El Cid tonight.

FESTIVAL: The Tar Fest @ the La Brea Tar Fest starts at 6 pm and continues through the weekend. The festival showcases emerging film, music and art with concerts, film screenings, arts workshops, installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media and informational lectures.

Don’t forget the Detour Festival tomorrow, too. Check out other upcoming events on our LAist Agenda: October.

*Pencil pick of the day