WEEKEND FORECAST

TODAY

EVENTS

A little Self Help for the dead

Self Help Graphics & Art began staging Day of the Dead events in 1972. This year’s festivities will commence with a procession, followed by a celebration featuring crafts by local artists, calavera face-painting, traditional foods and live entertainment, including music, theater and poetry readings. Musical group Quetzal, poet Maria Elena Fernandez and theater troupe Aztlan UnEarthed are among those performing.

Dia de los Muertos: procession begins at 5 p.m. at Cesar E. Chavez Avenue and Lorena Street and ends at Self Help Graphics, 3802 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles. Festivities will continue until midnight. Free. (323) 881-6444. www.selfhelpgraphics.com.

JAZZ

Pianist likes to stretch

“Renaissance man”

may be an overused term, but not when it’s applied to pianist Denny Zeitlin. Here’s a guy who has a

day gig as a psychiatrist, teaches at UC San Francisco and moonlights as a world-class jazz artist.

He’s also a mountain biker, fly fisherman and oenophile. If that doesn’t sound like the politically correct image of a jazzman, worry not. When Zeitlin is in action with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson, expect an evening of envelope-stretching, rhythmically dynamic contemporary jazz.

Denny Zeitlin Trio, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. 8 and 9:30 p.m. $25. (310) 271-9039

* Also 8 and 9:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday. $30.

EVENTS

The circus is in town

The UniverSoul Circus, a family entertainment extravaganza primarily geared toward an African American audience, returns to Los Angeles for an 11-day stay. The show features such traditional circus fare as elephants, tigers, lions, acrobats, daredevils and high-wire artists, but it’s set to an urban beat with state-of-the-art sound and special effects. Comic Tony Tone, formerly of HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam,” will serve as ringmaster. A new attraction, Soul on Ice, a skating act, will be featured in Los Angeles.

UniverSoul Circus, parking lot of Hollywood Park, at Gate 2, 1050 S. Prairie Ave., Inglewood. 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. $10 to $28; children’s tickets are $2 off the adult price; 11 months and younger, free. (404) 588-1235.

* Also runs 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; noon, 4:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday; ends Nov. 12.

MUSIC

His strings tie locations

Over two decades that have combined the critics’ approbation with the crowd’s adoration, ever-boyish fiddler Joshua Bell has become one of those musicians, like Yo-Yo Ma and Renee Fleming, whose fame extends far beyond the classical world. This week, he is performing in the second phase of his current “On Location” residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, playing Brahms’ Violin Concerto under guest conductor Jonathan Nott not only at Disney Hall but also in Santa Barbara, where the orchestra will give the first of its four concerts this season elsewhere in the Southland.

Joshua Bell with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A., 8 tonight. $15 to $135. (323) 850-2000, www.laphil.com.

* Also 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday. * At the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St., Santa Barbara, 8 p.m. Saturday. $35 to $75. (805) 963-4408.

FRIDAY

DANCE

Ambitious moves

Former Bella Lewitzky dancer John Pennington took home more Lester Horton Dance Awards

this year for performance, choreography and company excellence than any other nominee. Now this locally based artist presents an ambitious four-part

program titled “Disrobing Sites,” with additional

choreography by Tonia

Shimin, Emma Lewis Thomas and modern-

dance pioneer Harald Kreutzberg. The evening features Nancy Colahan as guest dancer and the Concord Ensemble, with original music by Edgar Rothermich and Paul Des Marais.

“Disrobing Sites,” Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, 8 p.m. $17 (students) and $23. (323) 993-8503. www.penningtondancegroup.org.

* Also 8 p.m. Saturday.

MOVIES

‘Borat’: the good, bad

Variously described as “breathtakingly offensive” (the Guardian) and almost in the same breath as “uproariously funny” (Variety) and the sly “scourge of the reactionary” (the New Yorker), Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” rides a crest of publicity -- some of it unwittingly provided by Kazhakstan itself -- into theaters Friday.

“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” opens in general release. Rated R for pervasive strong, crude and sexual content, including graphic nudity, and language.

POP MUSIC

Can’t-miss mariachi

The first time Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez performed at what is now the Gibson Amphitheatre was Sept. 29, 1985. The king of mariachi music is back 21 years later for the longest run of his career -- seven nights -- at the venue in Universal City. Far from an oldies act, Fernandez is a living phenomenon, the best singer by far in the genre, with a voice as powerful and tender as ever. He is not to be missed in this lifetime.

Vicente Fernandez, Gibson Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $62.50 to $160.50. (818) 777-3931.

* Also 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and next Thursday through Nov. 12.

JAZZ

An array of sounds

Joe Zawinul in action has the look of a hip, 21st century starship commander. Ensconced behind batteries of keyboards, wearing his colorful, trademark skullcap, he is in charge of an astonishing array of sounds, textures and rhythms. With a resume that reaches from the soul jazz of the 1960s through fusion, groove and electronica, Zawinul directs his world-music-oriented players through works that embrace half a century of jazz, enhancing them with one of the genre’s most consistently inventive musical imaginations.

Joe Zawinul Syndicate, Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 8:30 p.m., $25; 10:30 p.m., $22. Two-drink minimum. (323) 466-2210.

* Also Saturday at 8:30 p.m. for $30 and 10:30 p.m. for $25, and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. for $25 and 9:30 p.m. for $22.

SATURDAY

THEATER

Rock on, odd men

Bald and cobalt blue, the anarchic trio known as the Blue Man Group, backed up by an eight-piece band, puts the excesses of pop superstardom through its unique techno-retro wringer with its full-scale touring production “How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0,” a satire of arena rock concerts.

Blue Man Group, Cox Arena, 5500 Canyon Crest Drive, San Diego, 8 p.m. $44 to $89.50. (619) 220-8497.

* Also 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Honda Center, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. $49.50 to $100. (714) 704-2500. www.ticketmaster.com.

SUNDAY

MUSEUMS

Roam the color fields

Mark Rothko, like many of his Abstract Expressionist compatriots, always maintained that his work was about the emotional and spiritual experience rather than the formal elements of painting. “MOCA’s Mark Rothkos” highlights eight examples of his color fields made from 1947 to 1960. Viewers can decide for themselves whether Rothko’s works, on display at the museum’s intimate Pacific Design Center venue, are capable of evoking transcendence or are masterpieces of complementary color combinations.

“MOCA’s Mark Rothkos,” MOCA Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Opens Sunday. Free. (213) 626-6222.

* Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Ends Jan. 21.

TUESDAY

THEATER

‘Godot’ can wait

“The Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration” opens Tuesday with “The Beckett Trilogy” -- “Molloy,” “Malone Dies” and “The Unnamable” -- staged by Ireland’s Gare St. Lazare Players, with Conor Lovett. The company returns Wednesday with “Three Works by Beckett”: “A Piece of Monologue,” “Enough” and “Texts for Nothing III, VIII & XI.”

“The Beckett Trilogy,” Freud Playhouse, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Westwood. Opens 8 p.m. Tuesday. Continues 8 p.m. next Thursday and Nov. 11, 7 p.m. Nov. 12.

* “Three Works by Beckett”: Opens 8 p.m. Wednesday. Also 8 p.m. Nov. 10. $28 and $40. (310) 825-2101. www.uclalive.org.

WEDNESDAY

BOOKS

Mamet on ‘Wicked Son’

Chicagoan David Mamet, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director and novelist, is known not only for his meaty and rhythmic dialogue in such works as “Glengarry Glen Ross” but also for his controversial opinions -- for instance, his labeling of “Schindler’s List” as exploitive despite good intentions. Los Angeles Times book editor David L. Ulin speaks with Mamet about “The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews.”

Aloud at Central Library presents David Mamet, Central Library’s Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. 5th St., L.A., 7 p.m. Free. (213) 228-7025.