Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Here's a sampling of events about town that'll give you a diversion from the tradition of warm beer and hot dogs. FILM ETC*: Starting righ at 1 pm, Cinefamily @ the Silent Movie Theatre hosts its 4th of July BBQ Blowout, with music and short film screenings. The evening’s feature is the 1976 Italian film, Jabberwalk (aka This is America). Prepared to be grossed out by America's sexual practices. There......

Bikes and graffiti are on tap for today. / Photo by Lush.i.ous via LAist's flickr pool. GRAFFITI ART Ghettogloss presents the graffiti art of Jersey Joe in Silverlake. The exhibit runs until March 20, but the opening reception is tonight from 7-midnight. 7 pm // Ghettogloss // 2380 Glendale Blvd #C, Los Angeles // Free. RIDE & TALK * RIDE-Arc monthly ride -- themed "Trolly" -- happens tonight. The group rides along for awhile......

Can you re-imagine the LA Riverfront? Then checkout tonight's lecture at SCI-Arc. / Photo by Lush.i.ous via LAist's flickr pool. FILM* A classic Japanese double feature plays at the New Beverly tonight and tomorrow. While these films were made more than 50 years ago, the themes are timeless: Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) focuses on a housewife who’s sick and tired of her boring life with her business-minded husband as her niece......

Lots of old school films happening around town tonight. / Photo by get directly down via flickr. THEATRE You have a hand at commenting on the Theatre of NOTE’s play selection this week and next. NOTEwood is their comprehensive series of public readings featuring new, original works. The 2009 season will be chosen from the 30 scripts selected to be read aloud at the year’s NOTEwood reading – but there’s a talk back session......

Drinks with Digital LA tonight at Bodega Bar in Santa Monica (and yes, this is not the Bodega bar) / Photo by C-Monster via LAist's photo pool. FILM I am so scaaared. Writer/director Eli Roth (Hostel) continues his reign at the New Beverly in “The Greats of Roth” series. Tonight, he’s screening the double-feature of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), an earlier film that deals with a missing documentary film......

Do you think this is part of the Reno 911! marketing campaign? / Photo by Bernard Mickey Wrangle via flickr. COMEDY* Paging Reno 911! fans: Robert Ben Garant, who plays Deputy Travis Junior, hosts The Armando Show tonight. (It’s an hour-long improvised comedy show inspired by an audience suggestion). He’ll be joined by a few other Reno castmates: Carlos Alazraqui, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Kerri Kenney and Cedric Yarbrough. 8 pm // iO West......

Life doesn't stop in LA because it's raining. / Photo by kristi.nicole via LAist's flickr pool FILM The American Cinematheque’s Outfest Wednesdays continue at the Egyptian. On the big screen tonight is With You! -- director Yaniv Dabach’s documentary on the formation of New York City’s first gay rugby club, the Gotham Knights. A discussion with Dabach follows the screening – plus there’s a reception hosted by Absolut. 7:30 pm // American Cinematheque at......

Killing on the big screen at the New Beverly tonight, courtesy of Eli Roth. / Photo by hemmob via flickr. TALK Author Katha Pollitt discusses her new book On Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories with UC Irvine Professor Jon Wiener as part of the ALOUD at the Central Library series. Pollitt is a poet and columnist for The Nation who’ll discuss her latest essays that deal with sex, death, ex-lovers, politics, motherhood,......

Love is in the air tonight. / Photo by lush.i.ous via flickr. Ahhh luuuurve is in the air. Need some last-minute ideas for the Hallmark-inspired holiday? Yes, tonight’s Valentine’s Day and here are a few different ideas that will beat flowers and candy any day. ART To coincide with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at LACMA this weekend, “Women in the City” selected to exhibit four prominent contemporary artists (Cindy......

Arts and Crafts class at the Craft and Folk Art Museum tonight. / Photo by CarbonNYC via flickr. GET CRAFTY Make your Valentine’s Day gift tonight instead of picking through the lame leftover cards in the Ralph’s card aisle tomorrow. The Craft and Folk Art Museum hosts “A Creative Valentine” and provides materials for you to let your inner artist loose. Couples are encouraged to attend to get a jump start on the Valentine’s......

And you thought the Burger King Chicken was crazy? Check out the Crazy Chickens this week at the Mayan / Photo by upslases via flickr. TALK Could you not get into Michael Pollan last night at the Central Library? No worries because American eating habits and food policy are a hot topic this week. Tonight, the Center for Healthy Communities presents “Hungry for Change: The Politics of Food with Marion Nestle.” The nutritionist, author......

LAist contributer Osmany Rodriguez found a few fresh new Banksy paintings near the New Beverly Cinema. As you may already know, Banksy is the elusive guerrilla street artist responsible for some of the most interesting art in the city (not to mention the entire world). He's a trickster figure who never shows his face, but joined Steve Jones in the Indie 103.1 studios earlier this week (that's how we know he's been in L.A.......

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......

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......

We leaf through various calendars so you don't have to. HOLIDAY FUN: The folks at the Troubadour Theater Company who brought us It's a Stevie Wonderful Christmas and Fleetwood MacBeth are back with A Charlie James Brown Christmas. The show features Charlie Brown singing "It's a Man's Man's World" or maybe James Brown singing "Christmas Time is Here." Or maybe it's both? 8 pm // Falcon Theatre // 4252 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles // $20-$37.50.......

FASHION: Inside Project Runway hits Beverly Hills tonight. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the production, the catfights and, oh yeah, the fashion. Heidi Klum will be there, and organizers promise a few surprise guests. (The main auditorium is sold out, but a few tickets remain for the overflow theatre.) 7 pm // The Paley Center for Media // 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills // $7 for closed-circuit viewing room. OPERA:The LA Opera brings......

One of the great things about living in L.A. is the profusion of movie choices available. You can see everything from Beowulf in 3-D at the Bridge's IMAX theater to Into the Wild in one of the Landmark's Living Rooms to a revival screening of Bananas at the New Beverly. One of the best choices for more eclectic fare is the Silent Movie Theater. Every month they program several series, any of which is......

For me, Edgar Wright is one of those directors whose films I see the moment they hit theaters. Both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz share a comic spirit that never diminishes even after many viewings. This past August, Wright hosted several sold-out screenings of his films at the New Beverly Cinema and starting December 2nd the New Beverly will turn over its programming reins to him for what is sure to be......

A hat tip to Quint over at AICN for alerting me to this little bit of coolness happening next week. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are two of my absolutely favorite movies from the past few years. Shaun has been in heavy rotation at home and Fuzz will surely follow now that it's out on DVD. Starting next Sunday night, you'll have the chance to see them both as God intended--back-to-back and......

We can't count the times, restless and strange, we've walked the empty city streets during those nameless hours between midnight and dawn. Ingmar Bergman captured that feeling precisely, in this nightmare sequence from Wild Strawberries. Catch the rest of the movie, as well as 1960's The Virgin Spring, at the Bergman double feature, playing tonight and Thursday at the New Beverly.......

News earlier this month of the death of Sherman Torgan, the owner of the New Beverly Cinema, sent waves across the film community. Waves that reached all the way to London, where filmmaker Neal Romanek was prompted to pen this remembrance and send it along to LAist. At the beginning of the month, I'd swing by the New Beverly to get a new schedule - usually parking illegally on Detroit - usually snatching up......

On Today's LAist poll, the majority of readers say yes to separating the Purple Line from what some dub as the Pink Line, which would serve the transit-ready WeHo. Keep those votes coming in! After Sherman Torgan's unexpected death last week, the New Beverly reopens tonight. Come on. Give them some love. You know you wanna. If you want to be able to afford living in Downtown LA, maybe the could-be-passed-into-law 250 sq. ft.......

New Beverly Cinema owner Sherman Torgan died yesterday, unexpectedly, of a heart attack. Two local film blogs, Hollywood Elsewhere and Cinema is Dope are reporting it, and LAist has confirmed the sad news with the revival movie theater. Projectionist Jeff Nowicki of the New Beverly said on the phone with us that Torgan had indeed died in Santa Monica yesterday of a heart attack while on a bike ride. While the theater will be......

Coffy & Foxy Brown The New Beverly's two-month Grindhouse festival officially ended on May 1, but they're screening an awesome double-bill: Coffy and Foxy Brown. If only they'd screen Cleopatra Jones along with these films, you'd have God's perfect trio of sexy, ass-kicking blaxploitation flicks. WHEN: Weds., May 2 - Thurs., May 3 WHERE: The New Beverly: 7165 Beverly Blvd. (1 block West of La Brea Ave.) Japanese Video Art The Radical Communication: Japanese Video......

Grindhouse The week begins with a John Hayes double feature. In Grave of the Vampire, legendary vampire Kroft awakens and rapes a woman in a graveyard. The resulting child doesn't need milk. He needs… blood! This is paired with Jailbait Babysitter, which stars Therese Pare as a teenager who's turned out by an older prostitute (Lydia Wagner). Wednesday and Thursday it's a double-bill of Hong Kong action beginning with the Bruce Li (not to be......

Grindhouse Monday and Tuesday it's The Muthers, a combination blaxploitation and women-in-prison flick that stars Janine Bell and Rosanne Katon as a pirate duo who must rescue Bells sister from the private jail of an evil coffee plantation owner, followed by Fight for Your Life, a revenge thriller about a pacifist black minister whose family is taken hostage and tortured by a trio of convicts, until he finally snaps and wreaks his vengeance. Wednesday and......

Grindhouse The Girl from Starship Venus (AKA The Sexplorer) is a space nudie starring Monika Ringwald as an astronaut from Venus who lands in London's swinging Soho district circa 1975. Her mission? To research sex customs on the planet Earth. This is paired with The Legend of the Wolf Woman, a 1976 horror film from Italy whose title pretty much says it all. A beautiful woman seeks men out, has sex with them then turns......

Don't forget. If you want to see a sneak preview of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature, Grindhouse (Planet Terror = Rodriquez; Death Proof = Tarantino), head over to the New Beverly tonight at 11 p.m. Actually, head over at 9:45 p.m. That's when tickets go on sale, and there's a good chance it will sell out. If you wanna go in true grindhouse style, I recommend rolling up in a 1970s Dodge Challenger......

Grindhouse The week begins with a pair of 70s actions flicks. The Lady in Red, which has one of my favorite taglines of all time "She's made of bullets, sin & bathtub gin!" is a gangster film starring Robert Conrad as John Dillinger and Pamela Sue Martin as his moll. (Bonus: it was written by John Sayles.) In Bare Knuckles a Los Angeles bounty hunter tracks a psychopath who murders women by using kung-fu. Then......