Pencil This In: Joe Boyd on the Music of Nick Drake, Alloy Orchestra Accompanies Silent Films, a Magic Lantern Show

The Alloy Orchestra LIVE: w/ Phantom Of the Opera + From Morn to Midnight! from Cinefamily on Vimeo.

Happy Monday, LA. After some digging, we found great film events tonight, including the works of Charlotte Pryce and an orchestra accompanying silent films. There’s also an evening with Nick Drake producer Joe Boyd and Lucinda Williams, a book reading on the band Sparks’ 21 concerts in London. And finally, there's a great evening of Ranting and Raving scheduled with awesome writers, including Doug Kearney and Kemp Powers on the same bill. Read on for all the details.NOT-SO-SILENT FILM
The three-man Alloy Orchestra accompanies two separate films tonight at Cinefamily. Using a number of traditional and nontraditional instruments, the band— Ken Winokur, Terry Donahue and Mission of Burma's Roger Miller—first takes on the 1925 Lon Chaney classic The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Rupert Julian, at 7:30 pm. Tickets: $14-$90. They’re also performing to the rarely seen German Expressionist film From Morning to Midnightat 10 pm. The 1920 film is highly stylized and visually tantalizing. It was directed by Karl-Heinz Martin. Tickets: $14-$90.

BOOKS
Tonight at 7 pm, Book Soup hosts author Tosh Berman who discusses and signsSparks-Tastic: Twenty-One Nights with Sparks in London. The book is part memoir, part travel journal that follows the band through 21 performances of each of their 21 albums in succession in London in 2008. Berman traveled to London and Paris, observing life and music through an ultra-fan’s perspective.

READING
Tonight at 8 pm, Rogue Machine presents the latest installment of Rant & Rave, in which writers are asked to either, rant or rave on a topic. Tonight’s theme? Dirt. The lineup is fantastic: Julie Ariola, Barbara Corday, Liesel Euler, Cris Rose, Julian Silver, and Doug Kearney and Kemp Powers. Inside Theatre/Theater. Tickets: $15.

MUSIC TALK*
The Grammy Museum welcomes producer Joe Boyd for a program tonight that discusses his lengthy career and his work in keeping Nick Drake’s music alive. Boyd produced Drake's first two albums back in 1969 and 1970, and since Drake's death has organized concerts in which various musicians perform his music. Boyd’s tribute album Way to Blue has just been released, and tonight will also feature a special guest appearance by Lucinda Williams, who was one of the first artists to cover a Nick Drake song. Tickets: $20. (Our favorite Nick Drake song? Northern Sky.)FILM
Tonight at 8:30 pm, REDCAT presents the program Cabinets Of Wonder: Films and a Performance by Charlotte Pryce. She’s been making “films and optical objects” for nearly 30 years, often examining subjects such as nature, light, insects and more. The screening tonight includes the films, Concerning Flight: Five Illuminations in Miniature, Discoveries on the Forest Floor, The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly, Curious Light, Looking Glass Insects and A Study in Natural Magic. But even more interesting is that Pryce is putting on a live magic lantern show, too. Tickets: $5-$10.

MUSIC
It’s a School Nightwelcomes live music and DJ sets from both up-and-coming and seasoned artists every Monday night at Bardot in Hollywood. On tap tonight are live performances by Big Black Delta, Shy Girls, Emma Ejwertz and The Last Internationale. DJ sets by Benedikt and Eli Glad. Free with RSVP for those 21+; $10 for 18+ with RSVP. Doors at 8 pm.

*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).