Pacific Symphony Series, ‘Patterns’ and ‘Palookaville’

* MUSIC: The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble (story, F31) will sing tonight at 8 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. . . . Saturday at 8 p.m., the King’s Singers of Cambridge, England will be at the Irvine Barclay Theater with a varied program sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. . . . This year’s Pacific Symphony Chamber Music series starts Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Artists’ Theatre at Laguna Beach High School. The program, which includes music by Haydn, Debussy and Brahms, will be repeated Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

* ART: The discovery, at a garage sale, of a box of dress patterns spanning some 20 years inspired Elizabeth Pulsinelli’s installation “Patterns,” at the Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, through Nov. 22. . . . In addition to the exhibit of Amish quilts at the UCLA/Fowler Museum, “Views of an Amish Community: Photographs by Susan Einstein” will run concurrently through Feb. 16.

* MOVIES: “Big Night,” a lyric to the love of food and family, continues at selected theaters. See the Orange County Movie Guide, F31, for screens and times. . . . “Palookaville,” winner of the “best first film” award at the Venice Film Festival, opens today at the Edwards South Coast Village 3 in Santa Ana. It follows the fortunes of three unemployed men who try to solve their problems by committing the perfect crime. Review, F12. . . . Rueful and unpretentious, “Swingers” (at the Edwards Town Center in Costa Mesa) is the ultimate L.A. guy movie; its air of relaxed and confident hipness is helped by a clever script, written by star Jon Favreau. . . . With “Trees Lounge” (at the Edwards University in Irvine), writer-director-star Steve Buscemi burrows into life at a neighborhood bar in his Long Island hometown and checks in on the dead-end barfly he might have become. . . . Supersaver Cinemas in Seal Beach continue their retrospective series with “The Searchers,” directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. A weeklong run starts today, with screenings daily at 11 a.m.

* DANCE: Ten dancers from various ballet companies including the Bolshoi will dance on the Ballet Stars of Moscow (story, F30) program tonight and Saturday night in the McKinney Theatre at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. The mixed repertory pieces will include the “Don Quixote” and “Swan Lake” Act 3 pas de deux, and “The Dying Swan” (repertory will vary slightly at each performance).

* JAZZ: In Costa Mesa, trumpeter and film composer Terence Blanchard will inaugurate the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s new jazz club in Founders Hall tonight and Saturday with a combo that includes singer Philip Manuel and Venezuelan-born pianist Edward Simon. Special attention will be paid to the romantic compositions of Ivan Lins, a Brazilian. Two shows each night.

* THEATER: “Collected Stories,” a new play by Donald Margulies about two female writers on a collision course, opens today on the Second Stage at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. “Six Degrees of Separation,” John Guare’s provocative comedy based on the true story of wealthy New York couples deceived by a con man, continues on the SCR Mainstage . . . Shakespeare’s comic “Much Ado About Nothing” opens today at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse.

* FAMILY: “Curious George, the Musical,” a comedy based on the children’s book classic, will be presented by New York’s touring TheatreworksUSA in two matinee performances Sunday at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, and tonight at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.