You know, it’s not easy trying to make your lives better. It’s not that we’re complaining, but sometimes we ask that you meet us halfway.
Take, for instance, when myself and Long Beach Post videographer Thomas Cordova went out to ask people what they were doing this weekend.
What we expected were lots of fabulous answers, sprinkled with things like “underground” and “gala” and “drink.” And yes, as you’ll see in the responses below, people did have a few things to tell us.
But, for the most part, the answers we got ranged from “Nothing” to “Work” to “I’m boring” to “I’m boring and from the UK” to “I’m happy with my religion, thank you.”
A bit tightly wound, that one.
OK, you obviously need our help, so here’s a baker’s half-dozen of things to do running the gamut of high school football to progressive dance and opera to timely cinema to a lot of other stuff not including lorikeets.
Enjoy!
Art Theatre presents ‘Soufra’
We love when the Art Theatre offers these one-time documentary presentations that have a strange and wonderful habit of coming around right when they’re needed. Case in point: “Soufra.”
It’s an award-winning film that tells the story of Mariam Al Shaar and her colleagues who attempt to scratch out a better life in the Burl El Barajneh refugee camp, south of Beirut, Lebanon, in which many of them have spent their entire lives.
First using a micro-loan to open a small kitchen, Mariam and her partners attempt the arduous task of overcoming near-insurmountable political and bureaucratic hurdles involved in starting their own food truck. The film is a reminder that those we are so quick to label as either “refugees” or “immigrants” or simply “other” are just folks, usually hard-working, looking to scratch out a life and maybe get a little nosh. That’d be nice.
Soufra plays at 7 pm Thursday at the Art Theatre, 2025 E 4th St, 90814. For ticketing information visit the Art Theatre website here.
JSerra vs. Long Beach Poly High School football
Southern California is home to some of the best high school football in the country and, of course, one of the nation’s most storied programs is Poly which has always done its part to supply the NFL with plenty of its workforce.
This is a first-round, Division 1 playoff game, and though Poly is the higher seed, both teams come into the contest with 8-2 records. Considering that one of JSerra’s losses was by a mere seven points against Bellflower’s St. John Bosco, the top-ranked team in the nation, this figures to be a spirited game.
It also figures to be high-scoring—Poly beat JSerra, 60-44, in last year’s playoffs—as well a pretty quick game since both teams run about twice as much as they pass.
JSerra vs. Long Beach Poly, Friday at 7 p.m., Veterans Stadium, 5000 E Lew Davis St., 90808
Backhausdance presents “Quantum of Love”
The Orange County-based dance company will present the work of Italian choreographer Mauro Astolfi as well as a new piece by Israeli choreographer Jhonathan Scoutchy, and two works by the company’s artistic director, Jennifer Backhaus at CSULB’s Martha B. Knobel Dance Theater.
Astolfi’s “Quantum of Love” features movements that are challenging to both audience and dancers—during rehearsals, one dancer called them “super strange” to which Astolfi answered, “in a few days, it will be normal.” Italians, is there anything they don’t know?
Anyways, as you’ll notice above, the movements may seem different, yet they manage to communicate the timeless qualities we associate with love: the joy, the pain, the day your partner informs you that thing you do with
Backhausdance performs Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Martha B. Knobel Dance Theater, on the campus of Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton, 90840.
Butt Awareness and Clean Up Day
Yes, yes … grow up.
The Long Beach Environmental Alliance is inviting everyone from do-gooders to students looking for service hours to those particularly drawn to bending, to come help clean up a bit of the city, specifically those parts inundated with cigarette butts.
In this case, it’s Retro Row that’ll get a scrubbing as part of LBEA’s “Drop Booty, Not Butts on Retro Row” event.
Did you know that cigarette butts are the most commonly littered item on our streets, beaches and parks, ranking ahead of fast food containers and Shen Yun fliers?
It’s true, so head down to 4th St. and do your part. There will be a chance for volunteers to win prizes for the most butts collected (all butts are sent to Terracycle to be recycled).
Long Beach Environmental Alliance’s Cigarette Butts Awareness and Clean Up Day, hosted by Salud, takes place Saturday, Nov. 3, from 1 p.m to 3 p.m. at 1944 E 4th Street. Long Beach, 90802
Painting Long Beach
Ten artists produced more than 40 paintings presenting their vision and perspective of Long Beach.
The works run the gamut of nature to cityscapes to landscapes and a lot of stuff in between. Half of the artists are members of Long Beach Collective Group, an innovative group that advocates for art exhibit space in the city, having called attention to the need for more exhibit space and opportunities for the many talented artists in Long Beach.
These works confirm the artistic talent contained here; we’ve always been big fans of Sarah Arnold, whose landscapes seem to radiate that kind of stoic beauty one finds in Hopper.
To be honest, not all of the artists paint: Marka Burns’ collages are collections of images which she takes from old books, magazines, etc. and combines together to create ideas that, she says, are “a bit like catching butterflies without a net.”
Needless to say, Burns has some quick hands.
Painting Long Beach, Saturday, Nov. 3, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 Anaheim St., 90804
“Three Tales” opera
Long Beach Opera opens its latest season with this Steve Reich work that takes a look at the effect technology has on our lives.
No, there are no arias celebrating or defaming cellphones or the deep pain caused by spotty home wifi reception, but there is a look at the Hindenburg disaster and the implications of Dolly the cloned sheep.
As usual, LBO doesn’t do anything like anyone else so this promises to be fun and different and just the right amount of weird.
By the way, for the younger folks in the audience who might be unfamiliar with the Hindenburg catastrophe, here is some little known footage of it complete with the famous “Oh, the humanity” commentary.
Long Beach Opera performs “Three Tales,” Saturday Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2:30 p.m. at the Ernest Borgnine Theatre, 855 Elm Ave., 90813
Autism Families Night at Long Beach Aquarium
The Aquarium of the Pacific has set up a special evening exclusively for families with adults or children with autism.
Guests will be able to enjoy everything in the aquarium, from the strangely, soothing jellies to the cute-as-a-button otters to the Shark Lagoon and Kaya the Seal Pup, it’s more than 11,000 animals from the world’s largest ocean.
Well, it’s everything except the Lorikeets, but don’t take it personally. Lorikeet’s are well-known divas, probably why they’re known as the Lauryn Hill of the bird world. Yeah, that’s a thing.
Admission is $7 person and free to Aquarium members and kids under three.
Autism Families Night at Aquarium of the Pacific, Sunday, Nov. 4, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.