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Pencil This In: Thomas Dolby's 'Floating City' and Cocktails in Historic Places

Friday! Finally. Here are several events that piqued our interest in LA tonight. First up, Thomas “She Blinded Me with Science” Dolby gives a lecture at Hollywood Forever; Zombie Joe takes on Edgar Allan Poe, the Art Deco Society of LA hits up the Langham; author Adilifu Nama talks about black comic superheroes; and there’s a fundraiser for the International Bird Rescue. Read on for all the details.
PERFORMANCE*
Tonight at 9 pm, ’80s rocker Thomas Dolby presents a solo lecture and performance on The Floating City: A Dieselpunk Dystopia in the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. The 60-minute program focuses on Dolby’s new social networking game The Floating City, interspersed with live music from his upcoming album, A Map of the Floating City. Tickets: $20. Free parking on site. Doors at 8 pm.
THEATER
Just in time for Halloween: Zombie Joe’s Underground brings Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado to the stage. The troupe follows Monstresor's deadly plot of revenge on the drunk and insulting Fortunato deep into his secluded vaults. Opens tonight at 8:30 pm. Runs on Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 5. Tickets: $15.
NATURE
There’s a 40th anniversary celebration tonight of International Bird Rescue (IBR) at The G2 Gallery in Venice from 6:30-9 pm. The guest of honor is Irene Taylor Brodsky, director of the award-winning HBO documentary Saving Pelican 895, which tracks the “aftermath of the Deep Water Horizon Blow Out and the IBR's efforts to save oiled birds.” She’s scheduled to receive the IBR's inaugural Every Bird Matters award at the event. Tickets: $15 individual/$25 pair.
COCKTAILS
The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles welcomes both members and nonmembers alike for its monthlyCocktails in Historic Places gathering. Tonight at 6 pm in the Langham Huntington Hotel. The hotel first opened in 1907 as the Wentworth Hotel, but closed after one season. It was bought by railroad magnate Henry Huntington and re-designed architect Myron Hunt and reopened in 1911. Learn more about the history of the hotel at this no-host cocktail reception at the hotel bar.
LITERATURE
Adilifu Nama discusses and signs Super Black: American Pop Culture & Black Superheroes tonight at 7 pm at Vroman’s in Pasadena. Nama examines the seminal black comic superheroes such as Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Blade, Nubia and others and their “powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society that express a myriad of racial assumptions, political perspectives, and fantastic (re)imaginings of black identity.”
*Pencil pick of the day
Want more events? Follow me on Twitter (@christineziemba). Or follow Lauren Lloyd—who takes care of Pencil on Wednesdays (@LadyyyLloyd).
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