Pencil This In: Spiders at NHM First Friday, Graphic Arts Meetup, Party at the Downtown Independent

2010 First Fridays at the Natural History Museum begins tonight. | Photo by FrogMiller via LAist's flickr pool.
GRAPHIC ARTS
Tonight at 7 pm, the Graphic Artists Guild is holding a Los Angeles Area Graphic Artists Meet & Greet at Dinah's Family Restaurant1 near LAX. Graphic artists--whether guild members or not--are welcome to attend. A round of complimentary appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided, but there's food and booze available for purchase, too.
THEATER
The new drama 11, September asks, "What are the defining moments in our lives - those accidents of fate that change everything?" It explores a chance meeting of two strangers and issues of truth, coincidence, denial, and the secrets we keep. 8 pm tonight at the Odyssey Theater. It runs through Feb. 7. Tickets $30.
FIRST FRIDAY
It's the Natural History Museum's first First Friday party tonight. At 5:30 pm, take a tour of the arachnid area with Brent "The Bug Guy" Karner, NHM's associate manager of Invertebrate Living Collections. Then at 6:30 pm and 7 pm check out the discussion "Spiders: The Miracle Engineers" with UC Riverside biology professor and MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Cheryl Y. Hayashi. Resident DJ Them Jeans (a.k.a. Jason Stewart) and headliner, DJ Spider start the music at 7 pm. Live music performances with the Tune-Yards and Atlas Sound begin at 8 pm. $9.
A CAPPELLA
The LA-based a cappella group Sonos has a gig tonight at 7 pm at the Apple Store on the Santa Monica Prominade. It's a free event.
MORE THEATER
Violators Will Be Violated, created and performed by Casey Smith extended its run at the Son of Semele Theatre. It attempts to answer the question--in a nearly wordless theatrical experiemce--"If a mime gets humiliated, chopped in half, and fed to animals in the forest, is everyone a little happier?" Tonight at 11 pm. Email VwillbeV@aol.com to reserve tickets. $10.
MOVIES+
Baseck and So Simple present: Party at the Movies!at the Downtown Independent Theater. It's an evening of experimental audio and visual art. Live performances by performances by WMX, Ted Nava, We are the World. $8, 21+ and $3 Miller beers.
DANCE
As part of the LA Arts month, ID Fest happens this weekend at The Electric Lodge. Tonight at 8 pm, check out a pay-what-you-can performance of improvisational dance performance mixed with collaboratively generated work, from a mostly male cast.
*Pencil pick of the day
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