GOINGS ON : 2 Offbeat Films Look at Mid-70s, Post-80s Youth : Santa Barbara also plans a signing by four comic book authors and a concert by the S.B. Symphony.

UC Santa Barbara’s “Winter Movie Magic” series of “unusual contemporary” films will open tonight with a showing of Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused.” The former looks at the disillusionment of post-1980s unemployed youths, the latter focuses on the hard-rock teen-agers of the mid-1970s.

The series, continuing through Feb. 17, will include “Orlando,” “Baxter,” “Into the West,” “The Forbidden Quest,” and “Silverlake Life: The View from Here.” All films will begin at 7 p.m. at Campbell Hall. General admission is $5. Call 893-3535. Tickets will be available at the door beginning at 6 p.m.

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It hasn’t yet achieved the status of Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, but Santa Barbara’s Metro Comics shop will be hosting a special day of its own--Ultraverse Day--on Saturday.

Four of the top writers for Malibu Comics--which is finding success with its Ultraverse series--will help celebrate the occasion with a signing of their work. Guests will get to meet Mike W. Barr, author of the Mantra series; Steve Gerber, who writes the Exiles and Sludge comics; James Hudnall, author of the Hard Case and Solution comics, and James Robinson, writer of Malibu’s Firearm, Golden Age, and Grendel Tales magazines series.

Ultraverse Day activities will run from 4 to 6 p.m. Metro Comics is located at 15 W. Anapamu St., at the corner of State Street. For more information, call 963-2168.

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Guest conductor Leo Driehuys, music director of the Charlotte North Carolina Symphony since 1977, and award-winning violinist Eugene Fodor will lead the Santa Barbara Symphony in concert Saturday and Sunday. The program will include Copland’s “El Salon Mexico,” Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto,” and Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 1.” Tickets range from $15 to $32 for Saturday’s 8 p.m. show, and $10 to $24 for Sunday’s 3 p.m. performance. Call 963-4408.

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It’s time again for another Santa Barbara Antique Show & Sale, one of those Sy Miller Productions offerings. This one, scheduled to feature more than 65 exhibitors, will be held Friday through Sunday at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, located at the Las Positas exit off U.S. 101. The show will be open noon to 9 p.m. Friday, noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $4. Call (619) 436-3844 for more information.

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Best-selling Canadian author Margaret Atwood, whose work includes “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Edible Woman,” and a collection of short stories called “Wilderness Tips,” will read poems and fiction, Tuesday, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall. The event is part of a tour promoting her latest novel, “The Robber Bride.” General admission is $5. The presentation will begin at 8 p.m., with any remaining tickets on sale at the door beginning at 7 p.m. Call 893-3535 for more information.

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The Lobero Theatre’s 1994 Travel Film Series will kick off Wednesday with “Egypt: Of Pharaohs and Fables.” Filmmaker Sandy Mortimer will be on hand to narrate his tour through the crowded marketplaces and beautiful mosques of Cairo, the Valley of the Kings, the Biblical Mt. Sinai, the Sphinx, and the Pyramids of Giza. Show times are 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. General admission is $7, with children age 8 to 15 admitted free with an adult. Call 963-0761. The Lobero is located at 33 E. Canon Perdido St.

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Through a series of distinctly different characters, actor Lane Nishikawa will take a look at Asian American life and stereotypes in his one-man show, “I’m on a Mission from Buddha,” Wednesday at UCSB.

Nishikawa is a longtime member and former artistic director of San Francisco’s Asian American Theater Company. He will portray a stand-up comic who parodies the Japanese, a “redneck Texan,” a tough Japanese businessman, a World War II veteran, and others, mixing in autobiographical accounts of Japanese American life.

The performance will begin at 8 p.m. at Campbell Hall. General admission is $16, $13, and $10. Call 893-3535.