Holiday entertainment in a variety of packages
By Hamp Simmons
Special to the Daily Press
This is one of those extra special weekends in Santa Monica, where we’ve got something for everyone. It starts Friday night with singing animated sea creatures and continues on with Christmas carols, mad musicians, sacrificial lambs, gallery openings and memorial musings, before finishing off on Sunday with a community gathering around a gingerbread city.
This one weekend covers all the highs and all the lows of the holiday season, wrapping it all up in an artful package that can be found only in Santa Monica.
SpongeBob Sings!
Best Day Ever — CD signing
Every Picture Tells A Story
7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 1
1311-C Montana Ave.
(310) 451-2700
On Friday night, bundle up the kids and head for Montana Avenue, where Tom Kenny — the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants — will surface at Every Picture Tells A Story to personally sign the newly released Best Day Ever CD, featuring the swinging sounds of SpongeBob and the Hi-Seas! That same evening, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., is Montana Avenue’s famed Holiday Walk — so come early, stay late and visit all of the great shops on the friendliest little street north of Bikini Bottom.
Gallery Hopping at Bergamot
Vernon Fisher, Disconsolate Pairs, (detail) 2006
Bergamot Station gallery openings
4 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 2
2525 Michigan Avenue
Baby, its cold outside, but it’ll be hot, hot, hot at Bergamot Station on Saturday night! Openings at the complex include Mark Swope at the Craig Krull Gallery, Marc Chiat at Track 16, a group show at Gail Harvey and Vernon Fisher at the Mark Moore Gallery. Get there around 4 p.m., when the opening receptions start and hang out until at least 8 p.m. for a fashion show featuring the work of Lun*na Menoh and a performance of her band, Jean Paul Yamamoto, at Track 16 Gallery.
Final Production of Three by Mee
Iphigenia by Charles L. Mee
Dec. 1-17, 2006
Jan. 12 to Feb. 4, 2007
City Garage
1340 1/2 (alley) Fourth Street
(310) 319-9939
In this, the last play of City Garage’s Mee series, we see the tragic beginning of the story of the Trojan War. Agamemnon seizes on the excuse of Helen’s abduction to lead his nation to war, expecting those he leads to die for his cause. They are willing, but first they demand a sacrifice of him: his own daughter’s life. Not your typical light holiday entertainment, but really good theatre. Mature situations and language. Nudity.
A Christmas Celebration
Santa Monica College Chorale
7:30 p.m.
Dec. 2 and Dec. 3
First United Methodist Church
1008 11th Street
Suggested donation of $10 - $15
Peter Graves appears as the special guest narrator at Santa Monica College’s annual Christmas concert, featuring Mozart’s Magnificat and Vivaldi’s Gloria, along with the always popular audience sing-along to holiday favorites. Performers include SMC Concert Chorale, the Chancel Choir of the First United Methodist Church, Los Angeles Concert Orchestra and the Spirit of L.A. Ringers (on handbells), all conducted by music professor James E. Smith.
World AIDS Day at Highways
Artists Confronting AIDS: A world AIDS Day event
3:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 2
Highways
At the 18th Street Arts Center
1639 Olympic Boulevard
(310) 315-1459
On a more somber note, in 1989, artist Chuck Stallard created the Highways AIDS Commemorative Floor by writing names of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of artists who have died from AIDS. On Saturday, sponsored in part by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, guest artists such as Michael Kearns, Ian MacKinnon and members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will perform readings while, with a few dozen magic markers, community members will restore the existing names on the floor and add new ones in honor and memory of those we have lost to this disease.
Meet Me Under The Fig Tree
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 3
Fairmont Hotel
101 Wilshire Boulevard
(310) 899-4127
And if all of the previous listings haven’t put you in a holiday mood, then you absolutely have to attend the Fairmont Hotel’s “Meet Me Under The Fig Tree.” This second annual free gathering under the magnificent Moreton Bay Fig Tree — one of our city’s most historic landmarks — features an entire town of gingerbread houses and buildings, all available for sponsorship benefiting The Virginia Avenue Project, and a silent auction on behalf of Chrysalis. Entertainment will be provided by Santa Monica High School’s Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Monica Playhouse, along with a reading room for the little ones provided by the Santa Monica Library.
Be sure to check out the recommendations in Creative Capital, the new plan that will direct our city’s arts and cultural programming for the next 10 years. We still want your input, so stop by the Web site (http://www.smgov.net/creativesantamonica/) and let us know what you think.
Hamp Simmons is the cultural affairs coordinator for the City of Santa Monica. Send comments or suggestions for the Palette to artpalette.mailbox@smgov.net.