If you want to do something else tonight besides the mind-numbing seventh season opener of American Idol, here are a few options: WORDS Nobel Prizewinner Mohammad Yunus has a conversation with Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute, Claremont Graduate University (and former editor of the Los Angeles Times' West) on "Creating a World without Poverty." The evening will focus on questions like: "What if you could harness the power of the free market......

Who is brave or foolish enough to go out tonight? No, seriously. Why do you want to leave the house? There are some things to do if you are so inclined (queue writer's raised eyebrow). JAZZ The renowned Alan Broadbent Trio plays two sets tonight at the Jazz Bakery. 8 & 9:30 p.m. // The Jazz Bakery // 3233 Helms Ave. // (310) 271-9039 // $25 FILM Quentin Tarantino hosts a LACMA screening of South......

Have a taste for deliciously scary eye candy? Check out Christopher Ulrich's phantasmagorical paintings: Demoneater Series One in Santa Monica! ...

As a send off to photographer, Ann Summa's Los Angelesshow, bands/performers from the bad old days of early L.A. punk played in the gallery. Dude, it was both awesome and bitchin. ...

Diana & Alice Bag circa '78 I almost didn’t go to see Ann Summa’s Los Angeles punk photo exhibition at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. No offense to the once, raw obscure photographers who happened to be at the right place at the right time 30 years ago, snapping amazing images of once, raw obscure bands. Your recognition is well past due. It’s just that there’s been a plethora of punk picture/art/flyer/book exhibitions......

Saturday night the Copro Nason gallery hosted the Talking Board exhibit (more popularly known as Ouija boards - how do I do the little TM trademark symbol on this keyboard?). The show was held in Bergamot Station, a really cool grouping of galleries in Santa Monica, known for great art spaces (and great parties). The talking boards were unbelievable, even down to the creative pointers, which ran the gamut from a crow skull to......

"Vive l'independance!" Sure, we just hoisted back a few brews, grilled up some meat eats, and set off our own rockets' red glare on the 4th of July, but for the French--or merely fans of--today is the day of celebration: Bastille Day, which commemorates France's national uprising and storming of the Bastille prison. (We love history, but we'd rather talk parties, so if you've an inquiring mind, hop on over here and we'll continue with......

Los Angeles native, Douglas Kearny, will be celebrating the publishing of his first book, Fear, some at Bergamot Station (Gallery A-5) on Friday, November 17th from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Photo of an Altadena Sunset by sfPhotocraft via Flickr.......

The Donnas, Kinky, Rooney, Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, John Doe, Johnette Napolitano, Agent Orange, Josie Cotton, many others @ Bergamot Station Cyndi Lauper @ The Canyon Bones @ Lava Lounge King of Beats @ Roxy Dragon Fire @ Mr. T's Bowl Suicide Holiday @ Viper Room Pat Benatar @ Pomona Fairplex Bloody Hollies, Black Furies @ Alex's Bar Ariel Pink, Holy Shit, Supercreep @ Little Pedro's Tommy James, Eric Burdon, The Grass Roots,......

A couple of very cool local artists have an opening this weekend. You might recoginize his work from graffiti and stickers around Echo Park/Silver Lake as well as Spin Magazine, Vans shoes, the hallway at Little Joy and album covers for Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Get Up Kids, New Amsterdams, etc. You might recognize her work from album covers by the Silversun Pickups, Irving and/or hanging on the walls of the Mustard Seed in......

This is part two of our three part LAist Interview with the founders of the Fallen Fruit Project. Dave, Mathias and Austin fight for the betterment of Los Angeles on a number of fronts. In addition to their work with the Fallen Fruit Project, the collaborators submitted a proposal for an Endless Orchard to the Grand Intervention Grand Avenue park design competition organized by the Norman Lear Project and the Los Angeles Times. Dave......

With promises of Italian food, wine and new works by everyone from Wim Wenders to Matthew Barney, we went to the opening of Dark Places at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Friday. Open from now until April 22, the exhibit, curated by New York-based critic (and video art fan) Joshua Decter explores "the subtle interconnectedness between memory and social space - and the possibility that traces of events are scripted into the......

FRIDAY • The Immortal Lee County Killers are back to shake up The Echo, along with Shaky Mallard and Gentlemen Callers, starting at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $8 advance, $10 day of. [18+] • Cave-In, Doomriders and Lorene Drive are playing an early show at the Knitting Factory, starting at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $10 advance, $12 day of. • From 7 PM until midnight, be part of the US premiere of TRIP, a......

On Saturday, December 11th, Santa Monica Museum of Art will exhibit "Black Belt," a group show of artwork, curated by the Studio Museum of Harlem, exploring the intersection between African American and Asian American cultures from the 1970s and 1980s. The forty five works in different mediums by nineteen contemporary American artists interpret political and philosophical connections among people of color, pop culture, and urban life. When the show opened in New York last......

Keeping up with cultural goings on is one of the joys and burdens of living in a big city. As July draws to a close, LAist recommends catching the following exhibitions before the opportunity vanishes. Inventing Race: Casta Painting and Eighteenth-Century Mexico (La invención del mestizaje. La pintura de castas y el siglo XVIII en México) is at LACMA through August 8. As described by the museum, this extensive exhibition "explores the complex process......