Culture Lust Weekend recommends an absurd circus troupe, a chamber group named for a Wallace Stevens poem, and the reggae grooves of Fat Freddy's Drop.

San Diego Repertory Theatre brings an Irish comic-drama to the stage this holiday season. After making its Broadway debut in 2007, "The Seafarer" was nominated for numerous awards and garnered much acclaim for the young Irish playwright, Conor McPherson. We'll talk to the creative team behind the new production at the Rep, including artistic director Sam Woodhouse, who plays The Devil in "The Seafarer," and director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.

This weekend we explore what's happening south of the border, as well as some great music right here in San Diego. And, of course, we'll talk about the pop culture moment that is "New Moon."

This Friday marks the start of a new surge in the popularity of vampires. The latest movie installment of the "Twilight" series, based on Stephanie Meyer's popular books, opens in area theaters. "New Moon" now joins "True Blood," "Vampire Diaries," and "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" in feeding our seemingly endless fascination with vampires. We want to know why all the fuss about vampires.

Culture Lust Weekend recommends some music, some theater, and even some choice shopping for your weekend.

The movie "Date Night" with Steve Carell and Tina Fey comes out in April but the trailer has just been leaked. It actually looks pretty funny, but I'm a sucker for these two. Check it out.

Some great music and theater takes place around town this weekend, including a play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks and a solo project by Interpol frontman Julian Plenti.

Danish filmmaker, provocateur, and bad-boy Lars von Trier recently declared himself "the greatest filmmaker in the world." His latest and most controversial film to date, "Antichrist," is currently playing at Landmark's Ken Cinema. "Antichrist" is von Trier's take on the horror genre, and as is his practice, his female actress is put through the ringer.

UCSD professor Rae Armantrout's latest book of poetry has been nominated for a National Book Award. The poems in "Versed" investigate subjectivity in a media-saturated world as well as Armantrout's experiences battling cancer.

Thursday Night Thing is back. Silent film fests, major writers in town and even a poetry slam for your Wednesday. Here are our picks for what to do with your weekend and beyond.

The Weekend Preview is back! After a hiatus, we decided to bring back those 20 minutes at the end of each week in which we help you plan your weekend. We'll talk movies and music on this Weekend Preview.

This weekend, the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory honor the region's hardworking music teachers with a concert. Such a celebration seems like a good time to explore the state of music education in our schools and look at a new program designed to support music education training called the California Music Project.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a bison, a rabbit, or a spider? Do you ever pretend to be an animal? Every artist in the New Children's Museum latest exhibition, Animal Art, explores how and why animals excite the human imagination. Joining us to talk about the exhibit are its curator, Rachel Teagle and artist Jason Hackenwerth.

Artist Jason Hackenwerth will construct four large-scale, original balloon sculptures for the latest exhibition at The New Children's Museum. Using 1000s of balloons and a technique developed after years of working as a children’s entertainer, Hackenwerth turns the unlikely material into ancient animals borne from his imagination.

What if a camera could capture death? Or desire? Or jealousy? More than any other photographer, Duane Michals has spent his career pushing the medium of photography to capture the metaphysical. We'll talk to Michals about what motivates his photography.

Horror Trailers Night at the Whistle Stop, a pop surrealist Halloween party at Subtext, and a groundbreaking play about Nazi persecution of gays. We offer it all here on Culture Lust Weekend. Take a look at your Halloween weekend options.

Two local chefs who love to travel have written a cookbook called "Flying Pans: Two Chefs, One World." Chefs Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver from the Marine Room restaurant in La Jolla have gathered all of their favorite recipes from around the world and compiled them into a book for you to use at home.

Is provocateur Lars von Trier's newest film the most disturbing movie of the year? Does Chris Rock's documentary "Good Hair" shed light on cultural standards of beauty for African-American women? Who is Agnes Varda and why is her work important? We'll answer these questions and more on our monthly Film Club of the Air. Also, stick around for some recommended horror films for your Halloween weekend.

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Goya were all victims of cranioklepty, or having their skulls stolen in the name of science. This bizarre phenomenon is the subject of Colin Dickey's new book Craniokelpty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius.

While Culture Luster Angela Carone didn't love Spike Jonze's new film adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are," she did love some of the websites and blogs inspired by the book and film.

If you missed Grizzly Bear's show last week at the Belly Up, then we have a little salve in the form of "Two Weeks" captured on video. Check it out!

Japanese noodles, Tuvan throat singing, Daniel Johnston, break dancers, and lots and lots of pins. That's the eclectic mix of stuff happening around town this weekend. Culture Lust has a truly lustable list of options for your culture-filled weekend.

Pioneering chicana muralist Judith Baca has created public art that is truly public - it engages the community and tells their stories. In the 1970s, Baca created and directed one of the largest mural projects in the world, called the Great Wall of Los Angeles. An exhibit of her paintings, drawings, and renderings will be on display at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery.

Take your pumpkin-carving skills to the next level! If you've mastered the triangle eyes and the toothy pumpkin grin, maybe you should try carving your favorite movie star's mug. Check out these ideas.

An indie experimental band and a charismatic maestro offer two top-notch musical options for San Diegans this Wednesday. Grizzly Bear plays the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach and Gustavo Dudamel's inaugural concert with the LA Philharmonic airs on KPBS-TV.

Italian films may have fewer car chases and shoot 'em ups, but they make up for it in satire, political edge, and social realism. Some of the latest Italian films will be screening at the San Diego Italian Film Festival, including four films by the young, prolific director Paolo Virzi.

This weekend could start a little early with Buenos Aires singer Federico Aubele playing at the Belly Up tonight, or a cross-border art opening at UCSD, or a book signing at Warwick's. And that's only Thursday! Culture Lust has a truly lustable list of options for your culture-filled weekend.

The San Diego Asian Film Festival is one of the largest exhibitions of Asian international and Asian American cinema in North America. Along with narrative features, the festival also showcases documentaries, short films, and animation. We'll talk with the festival's executive director about what's being offered this year, and with actress Jodi Long, whose documentary "Long Story Short" is screening at the festival.

Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts' play "Man From Nebraska," tells the story of insurance salesman Ken Carpenter, who wakes up from his routine-oriented life to discover he no longer believes in God. This crisis of meaning takes him from Nebraska to London and the world of the British counter-culture. Cygnet Theatre's "Man from Nebraska" is directed by Francis Gercke and stars Monique Gaffney as a British waitress.

The always irreverent, often brilliant Sarah Silverman has a plan to end world hunger and it involves the most American of enterprises: real estate.

Three years into their marriage, Judith Fox's husband, Dr. Edmund Ackell, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Over the course of the next ten years, Fox watched as the man who used to perform surgery, fly planes, and run universities, forgot how to turn on the coffee maker or place a phone call. Fox is a photographer and decided to document her husband's daily struggles with Alzheimer's. She's collected those images in a book called "I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer's." Fox joins us to talk about the book and her role as wife, care-giver, and photographer.

Grammy-winning, singer-songwriter Steve Earle has a new album of songs written by his mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Earle is on tour promoting "Townes" and he'll be at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach tonight. Watch Van Zandt perform his own song "Waiting to Die" from the 1981 documentary "Heartworn Highways."

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Steve Earle pays tribute to his mentor, Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt on the new album "Townes." Earle performs songs from the album tonight at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.

Musicians Dean and Britta have scored 13 of Andy Warhol's screen tests and are touring the country in a show called "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests." ArtPower! brings them to UCSD's The Loft and Culture Lust gives you 13 compelling reasons to be there.

There's a lot to recommend this weekend in San Diego. Talk Manny Farber at D.G. Wills, see Rodrigo y Gabriela at 4th and B, or check out a film from Argentina. Culture Lust has a truly lustable list of options for your culture-filled weekend.

USD graduate Heather Raffo has written a critically acclaimed play about the lives of Iraqi women. It's called "9 Parts of Desire" and Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company is staging the production through the end of October. We'll talk to members of the creative team behind this production.

Chris Rock's new documentary "Good Hair" is not coming to San Diego! Based on the trailer, topic, and Chris Rock's hilarious commentary, we should all be seriously bummed.

Acclaimed director Jane Campion's new film about English poet John Keats is a stunner. If seeing it makes you want to write poetry, then you can participate in the film's contest for the winning homemade love letter or most poetic tweet. Alas, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" has already been done.

Soon you'll be able to experience the animal world in a completely new way - through the eyes of contemporary artists and children! The New Children's Museum opens their doors on Sunday, October 11th to children, families and art fans who are anxious to see the new exhibit Animal Art. We get a sneak peak at one of the pieces being built this week.

San Diego's progressive music scene has a guide in Bonnie Wright. The second season of her Fresh Sound Music series starts this week and it promises to be anything but mainstream.

Some Culture Lust suggestions for what to do with your weekend: Trolley Dances, Emerge Dance Festival, Lux Art Institute and more.

The film "Thinking Grande!" tells the story of Jose Luis Bonilla, a Mexican immigrant dishwasher turned entrepreneur who worked for 20 years to build his dream of a Mexican Disneyland in the heart of California. He built it without permits and once the county demanded permits, he abandoned the massive complex of buildings and moved back to Mexico. We'll talk with documentary filmmaker, Kevin Bender.

On this edition of Film Club of the Air, we'll talk about the latest developments in the case against Roman Polanski, and we'll review new films about fashion icon Coco Chanel, poet John Keats, and see if newbie director Drew Barrymore's roller derby movie offers some laughs. We'll also get the scoop on a San Diego filmmaker's much buzzed about new film called Paranormal Activity.

This year's San Diego City College International Book Fair adopts the theme Lucha Libro, a play on "lucha libre," or freestyle, Mexican wrestling. We'll find out why and we'll talk about the addition of children and young adult programming to the festival line-up.

Playwright Doug Wright has written award-winning works about the Marquis de Sade and a fascinating German transvestite named Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The latter play, I Am My Own Wife, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004. Wright has now adapted the August Strindberg play "Creditors" for the La Jolla Playhouse stage, where he'll also direct the production. We'll talk with Wright about his work.

London-based artist Su Blackwell creates elaborate and delicate book-cut sculptures. Culture Lust is celebrating books this week and I've included artists who work with books as their source material.

Dan Brown's latest book "The Lost Symbol" is flying off the shelves and Oprah has picked a new book-club book. Things are looking up for the publishing industry, especially since this fall promises books from some of the leading fiction and non-fiction writers working today. We'll preview the fall season and recommend some books that you can read right now.

Two local critics compile a must-read list of the latest releases that includes E.L. Doctorow, Raymond Carver, Lorrie Moore, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

In our week-long celebration of books, I'm including artwork made about or from books. And, believe it or not, I don't think these artists are defiling our literary or intellectual tradition by making their art. Instead, I consider work like Cara Barer's photographs of molded, sculptural books, lovely explorations of form.

Alexander Calder's mobiles can be seen in public parks and in front of museums around the country. But did you know at one time his art could also be found adorning the necks, wrists and fingers of women all over the world? A world-class exhibition featuring 90 pieces of jewelry made and designed by the famed modernist sculptor are currently on view at the San Diego Museum of Art.