If you see folks walking around with some dirt on their foreheads today, they proabably did it on purpose. It is Ash Wednesday, where Christians are supposed to fast, pray, repent after the debauchery of Mardi Gras and (Super Tuesday). So here' are a few debauch-free events for tonight: WORDS The ALOUD series continues with John Burnham Schwartz, author of Reservation Road, who talks about his new novel set in 1959 Japan where a non-aristocratic......

TALK Natalie Angier, New York Times reporter and author of Woman: An Intimate Geography, has written foreword to Full Body Project, the recently published book of photographs by Leonard Nimoy (yes Trekkies, Spock). The two will focus their Hammer Conversation on the concepts of beauty and sexuality. 7 pm // Hammer Museum // 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles // Free. MORE TALK As we read in Get Your Lit On, yesterday, Fritjof Capra talks with......

Yes, we know that rainy days and Mondays can get you down. And doubly so today. But you can turn that mood around by stepping out tonight to one of these great events. Just watch for puddles. TALK Jill Leovy probably writes the Los Angeles Times best blog (excepting LAist’s own Adam Rose, natch). She chronicles almost every murder in LA to give a human element to what would be another crime blotter. Tonight Leovy’s......

TALK What’s up with all the development in Downtown LA? What’s it going to look like in 5, 10 or 20 years? Moderated by Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times architecture critic, ALOUD at the Central Library features panelists Lauren Bon, Tom Gilmore, Martha Welborne and James Von Klemperer, AIA to discuss all things Downtown and development. 7 PM // ALOUD at the Central Library: Mark Taper Auditorium // 631 Fifth & Flower streets, LA......

Tonight’s the next installment of the LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series, but here are other options we've dug up for your going-out pleasure: DANCE Hollywood Ballet is LA's own modern ballet ensemble. Tonight's show includes premieres of "RQ 21," set to sections of Mozart’s Requiem; "Ghost Frog," set to music by Parisian jazz guitar virtuoso Pascal Vaucel; lyrical/Middle Eastern fusion dance set to the ballet music from Verdi‘s Aid. Dancers from the troupe’s pre-professional group,......

WORDS SCI-Arc’s spring lecture series on design and architecture kicks off tonight with Jeffrey Kipnis, professor of architectural design and theory at Ohio State University. Kipnis will discuss “happy,” “zany” and other important political trends in architecture. So the title of his lecture -- *@$#*!#!! -- does make sense. Kind of. 7 pm // W. M. Keck Lecture Hall SCI-Arc, 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles // Free. MORE WORDS David Frum is a former......

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......

TALK: Pulizer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold moderates a Zócalo discussion that focuses on “The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles.” Joining in on the roundtable are Gilberto Cetina of the Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill. 7 pm // Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium // 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles // Free. (Reservations are recommended.)......

"Chinatown" screenwriter Robert Towne shares stories about screenwriting at the Writers Guild Foundation Spring Storytellers Series tonight at 7:30 PM. The Writers Guild Theater is located at 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. For reservations, call (323) 782-4692. Tickets are $25 for WGA members and academic faculty. Students get in for $15 with ID. A different kind of legend will speak downtown at the Central Library tonight: Kamau Daáood -- The Language of......

"China Beach" co-creator and executive producer John Sacret Young discusses his latest book "Remains: Non-Viewable" with writer Louise Steinman at the Central Library at 7 PM today. The two will discuss Young's book about the generational effects of war. Central Library Mark Taper Auditorium Fifth & Flower Streets, Downtown Los Angeles......