Last Member Drive of 2025!

Your year-end tax-deductible gift powers our local newsroom. Help raise $1 million in essential funding for LAist by December 31.
$700,442 of $1,000,000 goal
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Pencil This In: Miss Hooker Beauty Pageant, NHM's First Fridays, Mid-Century Cartoons and Sample Sales

KENT_WILLIAMS_1000.jpg
Natalia Fabia curates the group exhibition 'Hookers' this weekend at Cory Helford Gallery. (Image: 'Convergence: Ayako' by Kent Williams)

Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.

There are a number of events happening in LA tonight, including a performance-art inspired "MIss Hooker Beauty Pageant" at Dragonfly; mid-century cartoons screen at LACMA; a First Friday celebration at NHM, and sample sales at the California Market Center. Read on for all the details.

HOOKER ART
LA-based artist Natalia Fabia makes portraits of “beautiful, strong and sultry women” whom she calls “hookers.” Tonight, the Corey Helford Gallery presents Fabia’s Miss Hooker Beauty Pageant 2012 at Dragonfly. Nine contestants compete for the Miss Hooker crown. It’s really a celebration of LA’s art scene with a burlesque show and pageant thrown in for good measure. The pageant’s hosted by comedian Brian Posehn with celeb judges Dave Navarro, Traci Lords and Alexis Arquette. 7-10 pm. Tickets: $10 at the door. Fabia’s art show opens tomorrow at Corey Helford Gallery on Saturday night.

CARTOONS
LACMA presents the program Madcap Modernism: Mid-Century Cartoons from UPA and Beyond tonight at 7:30 pm. The museum screens rare 35mm prints that showcased modernism—animation that was “diametrically opposed to the fairy-tale worlds created by Walt Disney.” Animation historian Jerry Beck curates and hosts two programs in conjunction with the exhibition California Design. General admission tickets: $10.

FIRST FRIDAYS*
Ok, so we know that it’s not a First Friday of the month, but the Natural History Museum is moving ahead with its First Friday celebration with a mix of live music, DJs and scientific lectures. There are tours at 5 pm, 5:30 pm and 6 pm of The Dinosaur Hall, and at 6:30 pm, Dr. Jared Diamond lectures on “Is it Good or Bad that the World has so Many Languages.” Live sets by Matthew Dear and Songodsuns from 8-10 pm. Resident DJ Anthony Valadez featuring Eric J. Lawrence spin tunes in the African Mammal Hall all night long. Museum Admission Only tickets are available (concert is sold out) $5-$12 and includes first come, first served access to the guided tour and discussion, as well as access to the DJ Lounge and galleries.

SAMPLE SALES
Showrooms at the California Market Center open their doors to the public on the last Friday of the month for sample sales. So you have a few more hours to head downtown to shop the Center’s sample sales with collections for men, women, children, gift and home at below-retail prices. The showrooms set their own hours, but generally they stay open until 4 pm. CMC parking is $10.

*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).

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible year-end gift today

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right