Pencil This In: Thursday

Ahhh luuuurve is in the air. Need some last-minute ideas for the Hallmark-inspired holiday? Yes, tonight’s Valentine’s Day and here are a few different ideas that will beat flowers and candy any day.

ART
To coincide with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at LACMA this weekend, “Women in the City” selected to exhibit four prominent contemporary artists (Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer and Louise Lawler) at unpredictable venues and locations throughout Los Angeles, including billboards, storefronts and other sites throughout the city. Tonight, Lawler’s “A Movie Without the Picture” screens plays at the Aero, and Lawler will be there to introduce the performance. And it's what its title implies -- listening to the movie's audio so that the visual's don't get in the way.

7:30 // Aero Theatre // 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica // $9.

THEATRE
Carnage, A Comedy was written 20 years ago, but the but the focus on faith in religion, government and freedom rings true today than ever before. The play delves into a crazy world of mercenary armies, survivalists, unhappy couples, Armageddon, sinister ministers building armies of God and—last but not least—a church mascot named Foo Foo Bunny.

8 pm // The Actors’ Gang @ the Ivy Substation // 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City // Tickets are $25 general admission and $20 for students, but tonight and all Thursdays are pay what you can.

FILM*

Filmmaker Wendy Clarke has collected more than 800 short videotapes in which people share their thoughts on love. She sets up a kiosk where they can choose the soundtrack and they wax poetic on the subject for a few minutes. The Cinefamily will screen some of Clarke’s favorite “The Love Tapes” -- and a few new ones from a kiosk set up at the Silent Movie Theatre. But wait -- there’s more, kid: A screening of Casablanca follows.

8 pm // Silent Movie Theatre // 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles // $10.

THEATRE (OPTION 2)
Stupid Kids, a play written by John C. Russell, previews tonight. The story focuses on four students at Joe McCarthy High School and all the drama and angst that’s involved in those years. We hear that the work is told “through music-video-like-scenes,” though we’re not quite sure quite what that means.

8 pm // Celebration Theatre // 7051 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles // $25 (but tonight’s preview is half-price.)

COMEDY
Want to do something really on the cheap (i.e., free?) The Downtown Comedy Walk happens tonight at six different venues with 10 acts at each place. Here’s how it works: (1) Patrons park in the garage for $5 at Main and Sixth streets. (2) Choose one of the venues to go to first: the Downtown Comedy Club, Palace Theatre (featuring all Latino comics), The New LATC, Wyatt Earp Room, The Onion Room and The Backstage. (3) Like it enough? Good. Then your lazy ass doesn’t have to move for the rest of the night. (4) Don’t like it? Then head over to one of the other five clubs in between acts. (5) Repeat steps two through five.

8:25 pm // Downtown Los Angeles Comedy Walk // the Downtown Comedy Club, Palace Theatre, The New LATC, Wyatt Earp Room // Free tickets via the website.

For other Valentine’s Day ideas: There's an anti-Valentine's Mystery Barhopper tour that begins and ends at Tiger Lily; a Suicide Girls/Peta2 anti-fur event at the Roxy; a Hip Hop Congress at UC Irvine; and, of course, RocknRollDating. Also check out other Pencil picks from earlier this week, like Lucha va Voom and the Audrey Hepburn double feature at the New Beverly.

*Pencil pick of the day

The listed events were chosen by the editors of LAist and brought to you by the