thursday 11|6 Sondheim Spectacular

SIDE BY SIDE If you are a fan of Broadway musicals, you'll be excited to hear that Stephen Sondheim is coming to Monterey Peninsula College. Not the man himself but some of his biggest hits, in the form of a compilation that was first performed in London in 1976. Local actors Gary Bolen and Laura Akard have dreamed of doing Side By Side By Sondheim for about two years and now they will both perform in and direct the musical. Sondheim is responsible for such masterpieces as West Side Story, Gypsy, and A Little Night Music, and has won Tonys, Grammies and an Oscar for his theater work. [CC]

Tonight's preview (and following Thursday's) starts at 7pm. Fri. and Sat. 8pm; Sun. 2pm. SRO Studio Theater, 980 Fremont Blvd., Monterey. $15/advance, $20/students and seniors, $25/door. 646-4213.

The Big Brain

DR. RAMACHANDRAN The mind works in mysterious ways but this author and brain surgeon might provide some insights, in his lecture at Santa Catalina School. V.S. Ramachandran has been profiled on PBS' Nova series, and Newsweek named him to list of "prominent people to watch in the next century" last year. Give your brain a workout tonight and hear "what neurology can tell us about human nature." [CC]

7:30pm. Santa Catalina School, 1500 Mark Thomas Dr., Monterey. Free, but reservations required. 655-9350.

Literary Resilience

WOMEN'S VOICES: WHAT SURVIVES Poetry is like music, it can change your mood in a minute. Three local poets want to enlighten you to a woman's point of view as they read their words, accompanied by harp music. Diana Garcia teaches creative writing at CSU Monterey Bay, Jennifer Lagier teaches at Hartnell College, and Laura Bayless has published two books of poetry. Harpist Amy Krupski will sweeten the event. What is a woman's voice? Try "Keepsake," by Laura Bayless in 1999: "Sometimes you forget your wildness/ your lightning voyage/ within eternity, your quiet core. I only want to remind you." This performance is dedicated to the late Bonnie Gartshore, who helped organize the Women's Voices readings for five years. [CC]

7:30pm. Carl Cherry Center, Guadalupe and 4th, Carmel. $8. 624-7491.

Tipplers' Delight

THE GREAT WINE ESCAPE There's no getting around it. If you live in Monterey County, someone at some point will likely urge you to indulge in the fruits of the wine bottle, because vines seem to be spreading out across the valleys faster than you can say merlot. Tonight begins a four-day extravaganza of local wine and food, thanks to the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association. Nine top restaurants are paired with 12 top wineries at the opening gala. Friday afternoon has a casual tasting and cooking demonstration at the Monterey Plaza Hotel. Winemaker dinners are held at a dozen Carmel and Monterey restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights, while bus tours and winery open houses highlight the day on Saturday. The grand finale of course takes place in Spanish Bay, once again with tastings of Monterey County's best. [CC]

Thurs.-Sun. $30-125, or buy packages. Call 375-9400 or www.montereywines.org.

Fingerpickin' Good

SEAN SMITH/ PETER MULVEY Tonight, local musician Sean Smith will be debuting tunes from his new CD, Guitar Soli For 6 String. Expect some acoustic fingerstyle guitar in the tradition of Mississippi John Hurt and John Fahey. On Tuesday, Boston singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey will be performing at the Thunder. After getting laid off from his job at Kinko's, he started playing acoustic guitar in Boston's subway tunnels. Currently, Mulvey has recorded seven acclaimed contemporary folk albums. [ST]

9pm, tonight and Tuesday night. Ocean Thunder, 214 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey. No cover. 643-9169.

friday 11|7

Nothing's Fair In Love and War

UNITED NATIONS FILM FESTIVAL The Monterey Bay chapter of the United Nations Association presents a film festival with international documentaries about human rights, world cultures, the environment and the devastating impact of warfare. The festival is divided into three sessions over Friday and Saturday. (See story, p. 34) [ST]

7pm, Friday; 2pm and 7pm, Saturday. Irvine Auditorium in the McCone Building, Pierce and Jefferson Streets, Monterey. Free. 625-9414.

Simply Classic

CHICAGO STRING QUARTET While the summer Carmel Bach Festival may be the granddaddy of local classical music, other ensembles are quietly presenting superb examples. The Mozart Society of California, based in Carmel, welcomes the Chicago String Quartet to the Sunset Center. Violins and cellos are the heart of this group, part of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, who in the past have performed such rare gems as Puccini's Cristantemi. [CC]

8pm. San Carlos and 9th, Carmel. $22/adults, $8/students. 625-3637.

Sing For Your Supper

ARIEL DINNER THEATER There's a murder afoot, and the world's most famous detective will visit Salinas to solve it at ARIEL Theatrical's annual fundraiser. Sherlock Homes and the Red-headed League, a musical adaptation of this story, opens Friday. The Saturday performance will benefit ARIEL Theatrical. Tickets include a prime rib or pasta dinner, Yorkshire pudding, salad and a desert course, catered by Hullaballoo Restaurant, and the show. Benefit tickets for Saturday's performance also include a raffle ticket. [JL]

Friday, 7pm, $35. Saturday, 6:30pm, $75. The Wilson Children's Theatre, 320 Main St., Salinas. 775-0976.

Poems in the Redwoods

DAPHNE GOTTLIEB, HAL SIROWITZ On Oct. 23, Coast Weekly profiled the ambitious literary journal of Hartnell College. This week, the Homestead Review hosts two wonderful spoken word artists, Hal Sirowitz and Daphne Gottlieb, in a reading at the ever-magical Henry Miller Library. The Bay Area poets just released Final Girl (Gottlieb) and Before, During and After (Sirowitz). This is also a celebration of the new Homestead Review issue, with a signing and reception. [CC]

7pm. Henry Miller Library, Highway 1 just south of Nepenthe Restaurant, Big Sur. 755-6943.

Do I Have a Taker?

BACHELOR/ BACHELORETTE AUCTION Nine women and 11 men, confirmed bachelors and bachelorettes from the Monterey Bay area have stepped forward to make themselves available for...dates. Each has concocted a combination of fun, from a helicopter tour and Big Sur mountaintop picnic to VIP tickets for a 49er game. They range in age from 20 to 61, from doctors to rodeo queens. There will be a no host bar, donated wine, and hors d'oeuvres. Come bid on your fantasy. All proceeds go to the Community Partnership for Youth. [AS]

6pm. Monterey Marriott Ferrante Room, Calle Principal, Monterey. $35/advance. $40/door. 394-4279.

Scribblers and Doodlers

BLACK & WHITE CARTOON ART SHOW What would we be without cartoons? Boring nihilists who don't care about anything and can't laugh, probably. And who are these people who can imagine and draw squirrels that talk and cats that do yoga? Cartoonists! Ten of these characters will be corralled in one place for talking and drawing. You'll recognize a lot of the work as Eldon Dedini's art that can be found all over the Monterey-area, as well as Alex Anderson, creator of Rocky & Bullwinkle. [AS]

7-9pm. Sally Griffin Senior Center, 700 Jewell Ave., Pacific Grove. $10/general, $5/children. 375-4454.

saturday 11|8

Ageless Talent

MICKEY ROONEY By the time I saw my first Mickey Rooney film, The Black Stallion in 1979, the legendary actor had already been in show biz for more than 40 years. His first Academy Award nomination came in 1939 for Boys Town. Tonight, he graces the Sunset Center with his wife Jan in their "cornucopia of song and dance" and stories of his star-studded film career, plus a special film remembrance of Rooney's favorite co-star, Judy Garland. [CC]

7pm. San Carlos and 9th, Carmel. $50. 624-8511.

Pebbles Roll

THUNDERBIRD WRITERS GROUP The title sounds like the beginning of a joke but the writing inside is not. For four years, local writers known as the Pebbles Group, met at Thunderbird Bookstore and scribbled the poems and short stories in The Barmaid, the Bean Counter, and the Bungee Jumper and it is hot off the press for this reading and signing. The first anthology, Pebbles, by writers such as May Waldroup, Illia Thompson, and Walter Gourlay, features the same creative juice inspired by many local places and people. [CC]

4-6pm. Thunderbird Bookstore, The Barnyard, Highway 1 and Carmel Rancho Boulevard, Carmel. 624-1803.

Have A Hoot

HOOTENANNY ACOUSTIC JAM Calling all musicians for one night only: join other area musicians and perform classic songs by Patsy Cline and The Beatles in a relaxed environment. The Hootenanny, also a benefit for the Pacific Grove Art Center, has been a popular event in the Butterfly Capitol of the World for the last seven years. On the best nights, the art center has had 30 people singing classic songs. "Some times it's like church," says founder and coordinator Vic Selby. "People get quite high." [ST]

7pm. Pacific Grove Art Center, 568 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove. Donation. 375-6141.

Alone With The Blues

MARIA MULDAUR TRIO Best known for her '74 debut, Midnight At The Oasis, Maria Muldaur's 40-year musical career runs the gamut from jazz, blues, gospel, country and pop, not unlike the sultry chanteuse whom Muldaur pays tribute to in tonight's concert. "Remembering Peggy Lee" is a tribute to the legendary jazz and blues singer as heard on Muldaur's most recent CD, A Woman Alone With The Blues. [JL]

7:30pm. The Jazz & Blues Company, 236 Crossroads Blvd., Carmel. $40; $20/students under 18. 624-6432.