When you're a teenager, there are several big moments in life--when you turn 16 and you can legally drive, 18 when you can vote, buy cigarettes and get pierced without parental consent and then the next big moment is 21. Hold On!! Highways Performance Space and Gallery, one of our local internationally renowned centers for new performance (dance, music, performance art and any hybrid thereof) is turning nineteen this weekend!! And, in this day and......

Barbarella plays at the Arclight tonight. / Photo by atomicshakespeares via LAist's flickr pool. SPOKEN WORD The NYC-based nonprofit organization The Moth brings its StorySLAM to LA every first Tuesday of the month. If you’re good a spinning yarns, then StorySLAM is for you. They provide the theme and the mic – you put your name in the hat and if you’re picked, you have 5-minutes to tell your story – no papers allowed.......

DANCE The State Ballet of Georgia arrives for their Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall to perform Giselle. This historic Russian dance company is taking on a classic, with Nina Ananiashvili in the spotlight as the company's artistic director and prima ballerina in the title role. 8 p.m. // Royce Hall, UCLA // Westwood Plz at Charles E Young Dr S// (310) 825-2101 // $20 - 90 SPOKEN WORD It's an Anything Goes Open......

FREE DAYS @ LACMA Don't forget that today, tomorrow, and Monday admission to LACMA is free. There will be lots of extra entertainment on the grounds, and access to all the galleries, except the new Broad Contemporary, which has already sold out (of course!). But that means less people crowding the European paintings you love so much. Tickets need to be reserved in advanced online or by calling the box office. Sat, Sun, & Mon......

DINE dineLA Restaurant Week starts today. The event "unites restaurants from the traditional to the trendy to promote the extraordinary diversity and culinary expertise found throughout LA’s restaurant scene. Restaurants in two dining categories will serve a selection of three-course menus at special prices." Nab a reservation for tonight, and eat up this amazing event! (Previously on LAist: Restaurant Week Coming to LA this Month; dineLA Restaurant Week's Big Kickoff) January 27th-February 8th, lunch &......

FILM A Bloody Aria, a film from Korea about a professor, his pretty student and a possible murder, opens tonight for a one-week engagement in Little Tokyo. It’s been compared to Deliverance, but with a dark sense of humor. (We wonder if there’s any pig squealing in this one?) Times vary // ImaginAsian Center // 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles // $7-$10. MUSIC / SPOKEN WORD Tonight the CalArts Creative Music Festival features......

Rain rain has gone away...so Tuesday we'll go out to play. Here's what's going on around town tonight: MUSIC The LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series continues tonight. “Songs of the City” is being billed as a program where “urban troubadours share lo-fi songs about city life.” We’ll believe it with a lineup that features: Marc Bianchi, Biirdie, Franklin Bruno, Zooey Deschanel, John Doe, Inara George, Stevie Jackson, Sondre Lerche, Kyp Malone, Bob Mould, Zach......

Here's the good news of the day: It's almost Friday! Go out and celebrate tonight with these happenings about town: FILM The 2000 film Peppermint Candy opens with the suicide of its protagonist: a middle-aged, South Korean businessman. The film then flashes back 20 years — from student uprisings of the early '80s to the Asian financial crisis of the late '90s. "Lee's breakthrough debut unfolds a stirring story of regret, first love and letdowns."......

If you want to laugh non-stop for an hour and a half, then go see Bob's Holiday Office Party at The Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. This slapstick Holiday play is hilariously fucked up and the riot that is the party at Bob's will leave you smiling like no other. The whole audience is LOLOLOLOLOLOLROFLOLOLOLOL the whole time -- pure insanity. Every year in a small Iowa town, insurance agent Bob Finhead throws an office party......

If you aren't familiar with Projekt Newspeak, they are a burgeoning local production company aimed at encouraging independent projects and breaking Asian American stereotypes in the media. Founded by Eddie Kim, the project has hosted many events, including the popular Newspeak SLAM!, a spoken word poetry competition which has featured HBO's Def Poetry veterans like SKIM and Dante Basco. This Saturday the 1st, Projekt Newspeak presents the annual "Sketch Comedy Show" at El Portal......

There's an eclectic mix of comedy, drama and spoken word in this week's theatre picks. Shut Up and Eat Your Groundlings The Groundlings’ latest sketch show hits the stage this weekend. Groundlings Theater. 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 934-4747 ext. 37. Tickets are $21.50. Opens Friday at 8 pm. Runs Fridays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 8 and 10 pm until Nov. 24. L.A. Voz L.A. Voz (Los Angeles Voice) is a series......

"My questions are my weapons" I really wish there was more Los Angeles theatre snippets on YouTube. This clip is from the Los Angeles area based group, Mosaic.......

Ahh how glorious the post-In Rainbows world is. Albums being released for free, people downloading them without being prosecuted--all is tranquil. Trent Reznor has announced that his forthcoming project with spoken word artist Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust, will be released in Radiohead fashion. However, as Trent explains, the only real difference is that Saul needs your support: "There are obvious similarities in how Radiohead just released their new......

The West Hollywood Book Fair, now in it's sixth year, will take over West Hollywood Park this Sunday from 10am - 6pm. We like to think of the WeHo book fair as the calmer, cooler cousin to the LA Times Festival of Books - great authors, excellent panels, live readings and good food - but much easier to navigate. As with any festival, planning the who/what/when is key...especially when trying to pack it all into......

Extreme Crew vs. Last for One J.U.I.C.E.’s 4th Annual Danger Room: Justice for All Elements is going down tomorrow, August 23, from 4pm to midnight at the First Unitarian Church (2936 W. 8th Street). The $7 charge is well worth the eight hours of Bonnie & Clyde style Bboy+Bgirl Battles, live graf battles, DJs Kenzo, Renato and Ultraman, and an emcee showcase featuring Rogue Venom, OYG of Keetokers, SP-83 of Customers Service and Project......

There's just something so beautiful about puppetry in art. The intimate intricacies of movement and its relation to the music and text of the performance feels uncanny and magical. Continuing tonight and tomorrow, The Saint Plays is an original puppet drama by Erik Ehn (Adapted and Directed by Alison Heimstead) examining the lives of five saints, whose narratives meld with modern human stories that become broad­sided by ecstatic truths. Using masks, puppets, live music,......

AMERICAN MUSIC an acoustic punk documentary Part Time Punks @ The Echo Anavan, Team Robespierre, Eyes & Ears, Foot Village, Lacoste @ The Smell The Rock 'N Roll Adventure Kids @ Alex's Bar Malas Noches, Faculty, Off The Cross, Mournblade, Ascension @ The Airliner The Spazmatics @ Dragonfly Violent Femmes @ Pacific Amphitheatre High Recommendation John Anson Ford Amphitheater @ 6 p.m. | more info "with Eastside R&B group Tierra (featuring The Salas Brothers);......

Blue Scholars Bayani Rawkus Records Teaming up with Massline and Rawkus Records to release their second full-length album, Bayani (due out on June 12th), Blue Scholars reaffirm their goal to mobilize minds and bodies towards liberation. The group fuses personal experiences with political stances and Baha’i spirituality. The album kicks off with “Baha’i Healing Prayer,” setting the spiritual undertone and openness of the album. The following 14 tracks fit nicely into the group’s laidback style,......

Tongue and Groove, a monthly spoken word/music happening around town, took place tonight at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. Coordinated by Conrad Romo, who LA Weekly called "a friend to creatures both great and small", this event included readings from both unknown LA writers, and those who've been around the block, namely Mike the Poet, who has done over one hundred readings in and around LA this past year. He loves Los Angeles and isn't......

GWAR, Municipal Waste @ House of Blues Barbara Streisand @ Staples Jello Biafra @ El Rey (spoken word) The Rapture @ Henry Fonda James Blunt @ Virgin Megastore (signing) Sarah Silverman @ Largo Sierra Swan, OK Stranger, Hope Republic @ Viper Room Matt Fishbeck @ Silverlake Lounge Mr. Divisadero @ The Scene Desmond Child, Billy Steinberg, Jill Sobule @ Hotel Cafe Van Gunn, Lions in the Street @ Safari Sam's The Need, LCD, Start......

By Jeff Baum for Gothamist We're at the home stretch! Sunday was a bit of a quieter day for us, but by no means did the music disappoint. The plan was to make it a short day and get back to civilization that night, but due to some travel miscalculations we ended up sticking around till they kicked us out. Very glad we did. The day started with Nashville teenage kids done good Be Your......

Naveen Andrews loves Los Angeles: It kind of has an element of rootlessness, and it attracts rootless people. Google and the Da Vinci Code. We have to confess, starting off with an easy sudoku clone was a good way to get us hooked. The game began today. There's shaking going on at the San Andreas fault and seismologists aren't quite sure why. We do know that it wasn't why the Hotel San Diego fell......

The days are getting shorter, but that's no excuse to stay at home. Have fun without emptying your pockets. Unless otherwise noted, all performances are free. SATURDAY, 9/10 Shakti Foundation presents a program of classical Indian music and dance at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center at 6pm. Call (310) 781-7171. DJs Michael Stock and Benjamin White of Part Time Punks continue their two month residency at MOCA at 6pm. Kinky takes the stage at......

You've probably heard the distinctive voice of Jennifer Johns coming through your radio but just didn't know it. The sometime Los Angeles resident has done voiceover work for LA Weekly, Pacific Bell, and Macy's. Her deep, throaty voice is captivating, even more so when she's singing. Her debut album, Heavyelectromagneticsoularpoeticjunglehop, is, as the title suggests, at the crossroads between neo-soul, spoken word, hip hop and just out and out melody for melody's sake. We......

If you're an Angeleno brave enough to venture outside in the cold tomorrow, there are good times to be had. First, the party you can't go to: VH1 tapes it's Big in 04 Awards Show at The Shrine Auditorium. Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Maroon 5, and Velvet Revolver are performing. Lots of celebrities will be in attendance. If you want to play paparrazi, we suggest getting there between 6:30 and 7 PM. If......

LAist likes nothing so much as a three-day weekend. Of course, you have to make it through Friday first—but that is so little to ask in return for sleeping in on Monday. Below are LAist's picks for this (long) weekend's entertainment. Get out there and enjoy your holiday! Today is the Fuck Yeah Fest in Echo Park, a celebration of all things Echo Park in the areas of music/art/spoken word/comedy, all going on at......