Love, lust and other human odditiesd

Gallimaufry Performing arts presents Naomi Grossman’s “Carnival Knowledge: Love, Lust and Other Human Oddities” for a single performance before heading overseas for its European premiere as part of the 2010 Edinburgh Festival.

The “sneak-peek” performance will take place at 9 tonight at the Artists’ Theatre, 625 Park Ave.

The audience is taken on a rough but thrilling ride through the twists and turns of the rollercoaster that is the search for one’s soul mate, only to discover that maybe love is easier to find than it seems, according to a news release.

Set on a carnival midway, the award-nominated solo performer chronicles her dating history by depicting a freak show full of suitors: a touchy-feely yoga teacher, a furry in a chicken-suit, a touring Argentine football team, a dangerous, hot-headed hunk; and the list goes on. Her perils and pitfalls of playing the dating game ultimately lead her to rethink her strategy in the quest to find “the one.”

Presented as part of the 2010 Gallimaufry Arts Festival, the show is intended for mature audiences.

Tickets are $15. For more information, visit https://www.gallimaufry.org or call (949) 499-5060.

Author Janelle Brown to appear at Laguna Beach books

Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Hwy., will feature Janelle Brown, author of “This is Where We Live,” a novel about subprime mortgages, ruthless Hollywood economics, and the unraveling of a young marriage at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Janelle will read an excerpt from her book, answer questions, and sign copies at this free event.

Her book tells the story of Claudia and Jeremy, a young, artistic married couple (she’s an aspiring filmmaker, he’s an indie musician) who, while on the verge of making it big, encounter a series of seismic events that deal a crushing blow to their dreams of the bohemian life and their professional aspirations and make them question their values and their shared vision of the future.

Brown is a novelist, essayist and journalist, whose writing appears regularly in the New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Wired, Self, the Los Angeles Times and other publications.

Mukti, an ensemble of accomplished musicians whose spicy blend of tabla rhythms, flamenco guitar, harmonium, piano and R&B-flavored vocals are breathing new life into the world of Kirtan.

Their debut album, “Light of the Sun,” is a collection of original songs in Sanskrit and English, enlivened by the group’s years of collective spiritual practice and deep devotion.

Mukti draws from a substantial catalogue of original material, regularly taking the stage with distinguished guest musicians and singers from diverse musical and spiritual backgrounds.

Here, the songs take a spontaneous journey through driving, rhythmic highs into soulful, sublime spaces that lead effortlessly into meditation.

The group will perform 7:30 p.m. July 30 at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St. Ann’s Drive.

Tickets are $16 prepaid; $20 at the door. For information, call (949) 494-8858 or visit https://www.livingrasa.com.

Museum surpasses fundraising goals and announces new exhibition

Laguna Art Museum recently announced that it surpassed its fundraising goals for its annual Palette to Palate event and 2009-10 Annual Fund.

The May 22 event broke the $100,000 mark for the first time since the event’s inception five years ago with a net of $109,000. In addition, the museum surpassed its goal for its 2009-10 Annual Fund with $108,000 in contributions versus a budgeted $100,000.

“Despite difficult economic times, it is gratifying to begin seeing positive results like what we have experienced with these programs,” Director Bolton Colburn said. “The museum thanks its donors for their continued long-term support, which is so important to the sustainability of Laguna Art Museum. We sincerely thank all of our supporters, and we hope this trend continues in the future.”

The museum has also announced plans to host a retrospective exhibition of well-known artist and designer Isamu Noguchi, “East Meets West,” the first retrospective of his work on the West Coast.

The exhibit will run Feb. 27 to May 15, and will feature more than 50 drawings and 50 sculptures covering more than 60 years of the artist’s work drawn from the Noguchi Museum in New York.

Laguna Art Museum will simultaneously host a “California Scenario: the Courage of Imagination” exhibit in celebration of the 30th anniversary of California Scenario, Noguchi’s “gift to California,” a garden sculpture installation commissioned by Henry Segerstrom in 1980 at South Coast Plaza.

Both exhibitions are part of JapanOC, a county-wide celebration of Japanese art and culture, and the Carnegie Hall Festival in New York focusing on Japanese culture.

Department of Fish and Game holds stamp design competition

The California Department of Fish and Game is sponsoring an art contest for the 2011 design for the state’s upland game bird stamp, the third in the Encore Edition after reinstating the use of original artwork for the stamps image in 2009.

Entries will be accepted Oct. 25 through Nov. 19 from U.S. residents ages 18 and older.

The species to appear on the stamp is the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo, Rio Grande sub-species) and the illustration must depict a male and female pair.

An upland game bird stamp is required for hunting migratory and resident upland game birds in California. The money generated from stamp sales can only be spent on upland game bird related conservation projects, education, hunting opportunities and outreach.

Fish and Game sells about 200,000 upland game bird stamps annually, including sales to collectors. In addition to the stamps, Fish and Game typically issues signed, limited edition prints.

The contest will be judged by a panel of citizens who have expertise in the fields of ornithology, conservation, art and printing. The winning artist will be selected during a public judging event Dec. 1.

For more information or an entry form, visit https://www.dfg.ca.gov/upstamp.

Summer Jazz Series

Grammy recording artist, producer and keyboardist Ronnie King will bring his distinctive jazz styling to Laguna for a weekly series Tuesday and Wednesday nights at French 75, 1464 S. Coast Hwy.

A well-known session musician, King has recorded with Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dog, the OffSpring and Rancid. The Palm Springs native is producing eight different musical acts around the country.

He will bring in a weekly assortment of jazz musicians to join him, a throwback to the local jazz scene in Paris in the 1950s.

The show starts at 8 p.m. Admission is free.

Charbonneau and French photography exhibit at Demossa Gallery

Los Angeles-based photographers, Jeff Charbonneau and Eliza French, will showcase their work through July 30 at Demossa Gallery, 1294-D S. Coast Hwy.

The artists use large-format film and traditional darkroom techniques to create narrative photographs which are a product of teamwork from conception to finish. They engage viewers in a discourse about feminine archetypes and myth by creating performance-based images that draw heavily from personal history, memory and dream states.

“They have compiled an impressive body of work brimming with mystery and sensuality, self-conscious but elegantly Gothic stills, it would seem, from an Edgar Allan Poe film adaptation directed by Ingmar Bergman, or Fellini’s take on Lewis Carroll,” art critic Peter Frank said.

The duo, who began exhibiting their collaborations in 2006, have been featured in Photograph Magazine, American Photo Magazine and the catalogue for the exhibition “The Art of Caring: a Look at Life Through Photography,” which opened at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2009 and is traveling throughout the United States.

For more information, visit https://www.demossagallery.com.