Don’t forget it’s Small Business Saturday today. Remember our Pick of the Week is Montana Ave’s Small Businesss event. But there will be events taking place all over….so get out there and support all the local businesses in your community whereever that may be.

In Santa Monica…Bergamot Station (2525 Michigan Ave.) will be celebrating a couple of new exhibitions with artist receptions…

Ruth Bachofner is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Seiko Tachibana.

Recognized as one of the Bay Area’s premier printmakers, Seiko Tachibana creates works on paper that align abstraction and natural forms. The idea of connectivity and creating unified wholes from smaller pieces has been a recurring and central theme throughout her career.

For this body of work, Seiko Tachibana used the term network, and its many associations, as a guiding theme. A network is structured by nodes and links and has flow. This definition caught her attention because of its significance in both technology and biology; interactions between humans; and natural forces and electronics. While these are vastly different worlds, it is the implied strcuture within the continual flow that Tachibana draws upon.

Also on view…a group show of small works, representing a range of approaches and practices by 18 gallery artists. Artists include: Tony Beauvy, Trang T. Le, Douglas C. Bloom, Kaoru Mansour, Mariangeles Soto Diaz, Udo Noger, Jennifer Faist, Soojung Park, Phillip Griswold, David Allan Peters, carlson hatton, Natasa Prosenc-Stearns, Virgina Katz, Audra Weaser, Yoichi Kawamura, Sharon Weiner, Robert Kingston, Jane Park Wells.

On view: November 29th – January 3rd, 2015

What: Opening reception
Where: Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Bergamot Station, (G-2) 2525 Michigan Ave, SM, 90404
When: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Phone: (310) 829-3300
Website: www.ruthbachofnergallery.com

TAG Gallery (at Bergamot Station, SM) presents a new exhibition featuring Artists: Lorraine Bubar, Anne Ramis, Katherine Rohrbacher.

Mountain Lore, Lorraine Bubar:
Lorraine Bubar’s current exhibition was inspired by her Artist-¬in-¬Residency spent in Denali National Park in Alaska where she immersed herself in the diversity of life thriving in that vast wilderness.

See image: Lorraine Bubar, Walking in Water pm Papercut 2 9×20 2014

Landscapes: Fact and Fiction, Anne Ramis:
Creating in the spirit of artist Robert Rauschenberg’s combination techniques, artist Anne Ramis applies her own combinative artistry to her latest body of work.

Metamorphosis, Katherine Rohrbacher:
Poet Ovid pronounces in Book One of his mythological epic, Metemorpheses, “I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities.” Artist Katherine Rohrbacher provides a modern meditation on transformation, posing the question of what it means to change – whether artificially or naturally.

Artist Talk: Saturday, December 13, 3pm.

On view: October 25 – December 27

What: Opening reception
Where: TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue D3, SM 90404
When: Saturday, November 29,  5-8pm
Phone: (310) 829-9556
Website: www.taggallery.net

Also in Santa Monica…

Independent Opera Company presents a hilarious science fiction fantasy version of Mozart’s beloved comic opera “Le Nozze di Figaro” (the Marriage of Figaro).

Set in the future on a distant planet (Aguas Frescas), the story will take the guise of a comic book with makeup reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s classic art work and with supertitles and projections in comic book lettering. Directed by Jay Stephenson and fully staged with soloists and chorus.

Four performances only, Friday Nov. 28, Saturday Nov 29, Friday Dec. 5 @ 7:30pm and Saturday, Dec. 6 @ 2pm. Admission charge: $15 children and students with ID- $25 general admission.

To purchase tickets online, Click HERE or at door one half hour before performance.

What: Performance
Where: Event: Lutheran Church of the Master, 10931 Santa Monica Blvd., LA 90025
When: 7:30pm
Phone: 818 765-5764
Website www.independentoperacompany.com

In Pasadena…

Enjoy some theatre on the holiday weekend…

Pasadena Playhouse presnets “STOP KISS”….which opened earlier this month…(closing soon Nov 30). It marks the Playhouse directorial debut of Seema Sueko, who joined the Playhouse staff in January 2014.

Originally produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, with a cast including Sandra Oh and Jessica Hecht, this critically acclaimed play received the GLAAD Media Award for Best New York Production. STOP KISS tells the story of Sara and Callie, who are walking through New York City’s West Village late at night when they share their first kiss. This leads to a vicious attack by an angry bystander, in which Sara is horribly injured.

Throughout STOP KISS, relationships are explored, formed, and even ended. Diana Son elaborates on the depths of human emotion and compassion.

Tickkets range from $25-$100.

Runs through Nov. 30.

What: Performance
Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101
When: 7pm
Phone: 626-356-7529
Website: http://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/

In Pasadena…

The Elliott Caine Quartet performs at Pinocchio’s Pizza & Italian Restaurant.

The band includes: EC-trumpet, Gary Blumer-piano, Bill Markus-bass, Kenny Elliott-drums.

Call for a reservation.

What: Performance
Where: Pinocchio’s Pizza & Italian Restaurant, 1449 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena 91104
When: 8:00-11:00pm
Phone: 626-791-7591
Website: http://www.pinocchios-pizza.net/