Culture Lust Weekend: Fabulous Forts, Literary Death Match And La Jolla Art & Wine Festival

EVENTS

Highbrow meets lowbrow as literature meets game show this Tuesday at Literary Death Match 100. Watch local literary talent fight to the rhetorical death as they engage in the kind of ruckus usually saved for reality TV. The event is co-sponsored by So Say We All and hosted by El Take it Easy. We're pretty excited to don a cultural unibrow, and provide the evening’s laugh track.

Bloggers, bookworms and San Diego culturati of all kinds will enjoy San Diego County Library’s Book Festival. Oscar-winning actor and local San Diegan Richard Dreyfuss will be speaking about his civics project, "The Dryfuss Initiative" and blogger Justin Halpern (“S--- My Dad Says") entertains with stories from his youth.

Earlier this year Roz Savage became the first woman to cross the Pacific Ocean solo – by way of rowboat. She has spent almost a year of her life alone in a 23ft rowboat, paddling over 11,000 miles. Tonight at the Birch Aquarium, Savage is speaking about life at sea, detailing some of her more perilous ocean adventures. In addition to showing never-before-seen footage, Savage is hoping to shed light on environmental issues.

THEATER

Romeo wears high-tops and Juliet is the headstrong highschooler in Intrepid Shakespeare Company’s "Romeo and Juliet". Set in 2010 (but still retaining the Shakespearian English), Intrepid’s twists to this timeless love story bring a fresh young take to an old classic.

FILM

Get hyped for Halloween with the Japanese horror film “House” screening this Wednesday at UCSD’s Reel Gems Film Series. "House" (it’s forecasted to be the next nightmarish cult-classic) will be making its U.S. debut on a newly restored 35mm print. Arrive early for So Say We All and watch writers perform 5-7 minutes of prepared poems/slam pieces/horror stories etc. inspired by the film.

ART

Before Kindles, iPads and Nooks changed reading habits, books were made of paper. Tonight, artists who make paper their inspiration will show work Paper Work at the Eric Phleger Gallery. The group show of sculpture, collages, watercolor and drawings and will be on display until November.

What’s the best way to usher in a rainy fall? By making A FORT of course! This Saturday, dreary daydreams become a reality for kids of all ages at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. They’re hosting Fantastic Forts, a day of building forts guided by local artist Wes Bruce, who's workLeveled is currently on view at the Center.

Wine, dine and wander through downtown La Jolla this weekend for the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival. Originally an offshoot of La Jolla’s famous Farmers Market, the new festival has expanded to encompass more local art, (over 100 emerging and established artists will be showcasing their work), a “gourmet food court," live music, a family fun center, and of course beer and wine gardens.

Usually relegated to hosting intermission mingling, the lobby has historically been one of the most neglected and under-appreciated parts of a theater. Until now. Thanks to SUSHI, for once, it’s about the foyer. SUSHI Contemporary Performance and Visual Art is turning the La Jolla Playhouse lobby into artwork of its own. SUSHI is presenting video artist Chris Warr this Saturday and Sunday in conjunction with the Playhouse’s "Notes from Underground".

To the group of multimedia artists featured this month at Southwestern College Art Gallery, the U.S. – Mexico border is “not universe,” it’s CONTROverse. Jamex and Einar de la Torre, Gustavo Vazquez, Electronic Disturbance Theater, and more, will be using their art to delve into the political/social/personal divide represented by the border. It opens today, with an artists reception and panel discussion (guided by art maven, and former Tijuana resident, CityBeat’s Kinsee Morlan).

After his first major museum exhibition at MCASD in 1976 (and many subsequent solo and group exhibitions since), local San Diego artist and professor Kim MacConnel returns for a retrospective look at his career. MacConnel’s many inspirations include (but are not limited to) Picasso, Matisse, Eastern textiles, indigenous cultures and the flotsam and jetsam that float in from the coastline. See our latest post featuring a time-lapse video of a new public artwork by this renowned artist.

Seventeen young women, along with their furniture, ceramics and textiles, have traveled to San Diego all the way from Sweden. 17 Swedish Designers began at a gallery in Stockholm then launched a world tour that brings them to Planet Rooth Studios Gallery this Saturday.

DANCE

If Trolley Dances stirred you, check out, San Diego Dances this weekend. Produced by Peter G. Kalivas and The PGK project, San Diego Dances is one of the city stops in the new bi-annual “roaming festival.” They will be performing at 57 Degrees this Friday and Saturday.

Next Wednesday watch as compagnie jant-bi, an all-male Senegalese dance company performs a new piece called "Waxtaan." After the performance, meet the compagnie jant-bi performers at The Loft’s after party!

MUSIC

Bringing from England the “snarky dance music” we know and love them for, Hot Chip is coming to town! Showing off their new EP "We Have Remixes," our favorite disco-ballad band will be at House of Blues on Wednesday.

Four U.S. combat veterans have joined voices to create the quartet, 4Troops. The former front-liners will be singing on behalf of all service members tonight at Balboa Theatre.