Even pencils can be mightier than a sword in these shapes! Check out these solid graphite pencils and more cool gifts at the Gallery of Functional Art

Dynamic Young Artists

Opera on the Bay

Gender Blender at Highways

Huck on Down to the Library

There's A Parade In Town

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SMC Art Mentor Show
Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery
SMC Performing Arts Center & Music Academy
Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street
June 16-July 1

Pilar Thompkins has curated this exhibition of SMC's most select art students. Taking as a title the room number at SMC's Airport Campus where the students work intensively with three professors, Thompkins has assembled an array of exciting works. The mentor program was created to provide an innovative, experimental and interdisciplinary environment for students to explore a variety of art forms, professional practices and critical theory. Alumni have gone on to prestigious schools throughout the nation - including the Rhode Island School of Design, California Institute of the Arts, UCLA and Claremont Graduate School - and to successful careers. So check them out while they're young and you can say you saw them when!

Madama Butterfly
Vineyard Touring Opera Company
Casa Italiana Opera
Santa Monica Bay Women's Club
Friday at 8:00 pm

Haven't you always wanted to see the inside of the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club? Well, here's your chance - and with it comes the opportunity to see one of the all-time great operas performed by a sterling cast. Upon that historic 1914 stage you'll see the story of the ill fated love between a young Japanese girl and her American lover. The partnership of Vineyard Touring Opera and Casa Italiana Opera combined with the Bay Women's Club beautiful auditorium - believed to be the only two-story ballroom on the Westside - is a match made in heaven.

Call 800/595.4849 for tickets or reserve online here.
 

Summer Solstice Vaudeville Extravaganza
Juggling the Layers of Gender
Highways
Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

This 2-day summer solstice vaudeville extravaganza is being curated by Tyler Daly and Ian MacKinnon and co-sponsored by Antioch University Los Angeles and the LGBT Specialization. There will be over 15 performances across the 2 night spectrum that guarantee to tantalize, tango with, and dazzle our senses through circus- style traditions such as queer mime, sexy trapeze acts, drag burlesque, gender bending body builders, psychological acrobatics and so much more.

Reserve your tickets by calling 310/315.1459 or buy them online here .

Dogtown and the Z-Boys & Skaterdater
Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium
Santa Monica Main Public Library
Saturday at 2:00 pm

Grab your board, do a switch backside 180, a high ollie and huck on down to the library to experience the thrill of skateboarding at the free screening of Dogtown and the Z Boys. Narrated by Sean Penn the film follows the evolution of modern skateboarding through it's 70's heyday, its decline during the 80's, and its eventual return in the 90's. Following the Dogtown documentary there will be a viewing of the very first skateboarding film, the rarely seen 1966 Palme d'Or winning Skaterdater, and a special appearance by its producer Marshal Backlar. Bring the kids and show them that we were totally jamming skateboarders long before they were born!

For additional information call 310/458.8600 or stop by the Library's website.

Annual Main Street 4th of July Parade

I see flags, I hear bells, there's a parade in town! It's time to get ready for Santa Monica's newest tradition, the Annual Main Street 4th of July Parade. You can't imagine how much fun you can have marching in this parade - and you don't need to be a brass band, a harpsichord or a clarinet! Fill out the form on their website and remember, any parade without you would be a second-class parade. And if you really don't want to create your own float or marching band, volunteers are still needed to help check in the many parade participants, set up the route and wrangle all those parading citizens into a manageable herd. If you'd like to help out, send an e-mail to Nicole at or phone 310/994.1424.