Photo of last year's Pasadena Chalk Festival by uselessdoug via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. ART Billy Shire Fine Arts opens it’s new exhibit, “New Work” by Detroit artist Glenn Barr tonight. Drop by the reception and take a look at his work and chat (& drink) with the artist! 7 p.m. // Billy Shire Fine Arts // 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City // (323) 297-0600 // Free FOOD If you have......

The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival kicks off at the Japanese American National Museum tonight. / Photo by puck90 from LAist's flickr pool. PUPPETS* There's more to puppetry than Muppetry. Dr. John Bell, puppeteer, teacher and director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut, leads an exhibition talk at the Santa Monica Museum's "The Puppet Show" on the history of puppetry. The exhibit explores the work of......

On Saturday, March 8rd I went down to Silverlake's Manual Archives (a "Microtheater") and saw a strange and wonderful play called Concrete Folk Variations Part 1: Death Of A Sugar Daddy. Written and designed by Susan Simpson, this absurdly titled play is a surprisingly gripping thriller about city corruption, sex and murder, set against the backdrop of LA's gay underground during the McCarthy era. It had literally everything - A scandal revealing the black underbelly......

...or you could hit up Swingers for a late-night bite (LAist did!) | Photo by Stephanie Asher via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr DOCUMENTARY & DISCUSSION Non-profit mentoring group WriteGirl is putting on a screening of Girls Rock! which is a documentary about a rock n' roll girls' camp, and hosting a panel discussion after the film. Scheduled panelists include WriteGirl's founder and executive director, singer-songwriter Keren Taylor; Grammy-award winning songwriter and......

If, like me, you were such a huge fan of Muppets and costumed creatures growing up that you're practically anti-CGI, you should head over to the Silent Movie Theater on March 18th for "Jim Henson's Commercials & Experiments"! The screening starts at 8pm and will feature rare clips, shorts and commercials from Jim Henson's studio archives, including experimental animation and "a 35mm print of Time Piece, an Academy Award nominated 8-minute masterpiece that showcases Henson’s......

There's a new performance space in Silver Lake hidden among a smog shop and an immigration service center on Sunset Blvd. Inside the 300 square ft. space, deemed a "micro theater," are a few rows of displaced church pews that seats 20 people total for each performance. Welcome to the Manual Archives, a space devoted to the newly invented folklore of Los Angeles. Lead Feet And Nothing Upstairs: A History of the Lifelike is......