Chamber Music at the Library

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Opa Opa
Jazz on the Lawn
5:00 pm
Sunday, August 31
City Hall Front Lawn
1685 Main Street
310/458.8350

Wrapping up this summer's season of Jazz on the Lawn is Opa Opa, one of the best purveyors of hot tropical sounds you can find!  This Sunday's concert brings to a close another season of remarkable free concerts in front of City Hall.  There are many regrets in life, but one thing you'll never regret is spending your afternoon with friends and family lying on the soft green grass while the energetic salsa sounds of Opa Opa pulsate through your very soul. But trust me, you won't just lie there. Opa Opa has promised me that they'll get everyone up on their feet to dance away these last summer days.

Miford Zornes
Remembering an American Artist, 1908 - 2008 
Opening Reception Tonight at 7:00 pm
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Wednesday thru Sunday through January 25
California Heritage Museum
2612 Main Street
310/392.8537

Milford Zornes was one of the most respected contemporary watercolorists in America.  During a life that spanned a entire century, he traveled, taught and painted in countries around the globe but is probably best known as a key figure in the development of the California Regionalist Style.  Along with his fellow California artists Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Emil Kosa Jr. and Rex Brandt, Zornes was a pioneer in the revival of watercolor painting in the 20th Century. He first rose to national prominence in the early 1930s when his watercolor The Old Adobe was selected by President Franklin D. and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to hang in the White House.  

Maximum Security
7:30 pm
Tonight through Saturday
2:00 pm Matinees
Saturday and Sunday
Santa Monica Playhouse
1211 4th Street
310/394.9779 

The Young Professionals’ Company at Santa Monica Playhouse presents their Summer Stock 2008 production, Maximum Security this weekend.  It’s a turbulent, chaotic and inspiring all-female rock musical about passion and regret, delight and depression, freedom and suffocation, and lost inhalers.  The young women in the story struggle with the most important questions of their lives – how can they take on the mantel of adulthood when their imaginations, desires and creativity are locked away in solitary confinement?

Faculty Art Show
Emeritus College Art Gallery
Emeritus College
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Thursday, August 28
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Monday through Friday
Through October 31
227 Second St
310/434.4306    

Twelve faculty members of Santa Monica Emeritus College will place their work on exhibition in the college’s gallery starting tonight.  The walls will be filled with stimulating work by Catherine Tirr, Susan Weinberg, and other local artists.  If I were you, I'd stick my head in the door tonight on my way to the Twilight Dance Concert for a visual treat before taking in the Pier’s musical delights. Who knows, there might be munchies!

Content Life
Performing almost every night along the Boardwalk or on the Promenade 

Here’s a tale that is sure to tug at your heartstrings and demonstrate the kind of power to be found in the arts.  You might have seen these young men performing on the Promenade or on the beach beneath the Pier following the Twilight Dance Series, but when you hear their story, you’ll look at them in a whole new way. 

John David Rushton left Tuscaloosa with nothing but his guitar, a gospel trained voice and a big dose of southern charm - having spent a fair amount of time in Tuscaloosa myself, I can’t say that I blame him.  Then came Cowboy, displaced from New Orleans by Katrina, who found a tambourine and joined in.  Performing on the Boardwalk, they soon encountered Mauricio, another homeless young man from El Salvador, Mauricio, who just happened to have a congo drum.  Together they created Content Life. 

They’ve now been featured on KABC news performed at the Hollywood Social Club, bought themselves an RV to get off the street, recorded their own CD (in the RV) and are moving up in the world.  Their love of music and performing abilities could be the ticket to a new life.  Check out their video on You Tube or their MySpace page and watch for them tonight as you walk back from the Twilight Dance Series and just about any night along the beach and on the Promenade.  You'll be able to say you saw them when!

Chamber Music at the Library

Bright Light Chamber Players
2:30 pm
Saturday, August 30
Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium
Santa Monica Main Library  
601 Santa Monica Boulevard
310/458.8600

The Bright Light Chamber Players return to delight the community with a free End of Summer concert.  This afternoon event will include works by Albrechtsburger, Louis -Toussaint Milandre, Nino Rota and Brahms.  Seating for this free event is limited and on a first arrival basis.  What a great opportunity to enjoy a relaxing afternoon in one of our community’s most vital assets, the Santa Monica Library.  While you’re there be sure to check out their amazing selection of current bestsellers.  I’m always astonished at how many books from my own reading list are available for check out – which saves me a fortune!