Art
The show is cleverly titled “The Carbon Alternative,” but it’s not particularly about environmental awareness, emission standards, carbon footprints or other lecture-ready subjects. On display at FAU’s Wimberly Library and organized by the campus’ Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for the Book Arts, “The Carbon Alternative” dives passionately into the 1980s punk-infused book arts subculture, exploring movements such as copy art, mail art and Fluxus.
In our perpetually wired, technologically bounteous 21st century atmosphere, it’s fascinating to look back at such once-revolutionary methods as xerography, stamp art and the novel “video phone,” all of which are included in this exhibit. The artists, whose names are as memorable as their work, include Polly Esther Nation, Ulises Carrion, Rockola and Buzz Blurr. If you can’t catch it this weekend, the show runs through Oct. 18 on the Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. Admission is free.
Elsewhere, if you ever wished childhood plush toys had a little more teeth to them, then check out the latest show at the Bear and Bird Gallery, 4566 N. University Drive, Lauderhill. Understatedly titled “Peculiar Playmates,” the nearly 50-piece exhibit probes the warped minds of six local artists – Kit Lane, Megan Bogonovich, Ninon, Rosanna Pereyra, Crissy Penuel and Mark Errol – whose anthropomorphic pottery, twisted doll pastiches and darkly comic visions of disaster transcend their seemingly innocent presentation. In other words, it’s an archetypal Bear and Bird show: adult subversiveness in the guise of kids’ stuff. It runs through Sept. 25, and there is no cost to view the art, which is available for purchase. For information, call 954-/748-0181
Movies
Fort Lauderdale’s Cinema Paradiso is hosting two full days of classic film comedies Sunday and Monday during its “Labor Day Comedy-a-Thon.” The revelry starts at 12:45 p.m. Sunday with Preston Surges’ locally relevant comic masterpiece “The Palm Beach Story” and continues all day with “It Happened One Night,” “The Thin Man,” “A Night at the Opera,” “His Girl Friday” (one of my 10 favorite films of all-time, by the way), “Dr. Strangelove” and “Raising Arizona.” The same evening, at 10 p.m., the theater will be screening the genre-defying mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap” on the outdoor patio. Monday’s screenings include “Some Like It Hot,” “M.A.S.H.,” “Manhattan” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Weekend passes are $10 for film festival members and $15 for general admission, and single-admission tickets are $1 for festival members and $3 general admission. For information, call 954/525-3456.
Theater
New Theatre opens its 2010-2011 season Friday with its customary Shakespeare epic. This year, the Coral Gables playhouse is presenting “The Tempest,” the island-set, maritime drama believed by critics to be the last play the Bard wrote alone. John Manzelli adapted and directed the dozen-member cast. Tickets are $40. Call 305/443-5909.
