BEST BETS: Saturday 9/4 : 11 am: Movies
The title of Amie Williams’ captivating documentary--”Stripped and Teased: Tales From Las Vegas Women”--brings to mind sequin-clad, or barely clad, Vegas chorines, and although Williams does feature a showgirl or two, her film is actually a consciousness-raising look at some of the other women who live and make their livings in the gambling oasis. Among them: Ana Garcia, a retired maid (and great-grandmother) who runs an emergency food bank; Hattie Canty, a widow and mother of 10, who, as president of the culinary workers’ local, led a six-year, two-month strike against a major Strip resort; Janna McCoy, a hearty veteran cab driver; and Tina Lokosis, a construction worker who has helped build virtually all the major new Strip landmarks of the past decade.
* “Stripped and Teased: Tales From Las Vegas Women,” Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m. $5 to $8. (310) 394-9741.
11 am: Pop Music
Buddy Guy, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, the Fabulous Thunderbirds with Smokey Wilson, Koko Taylor and Guitar Shorty with Sonny Rhodes launch the 20th anniversary edition of the Long Beach Blues Festival. Sunday’s soul- and R&B-slanted; bill includes Al Green and Bobby “Blue” Bland, while John Lee Hooker headlines Monday’s finale.
* Long Beach Blues Festival, Athletic Field, Cal State Long Beach, 11 a.m. Also Sunday and Monday. $27 in advance, $30 at the door, $70 for all three days. (562) 985-1686.
all day: Festival
The 27th annual Harvest Festival Tour pulls into the Long Beach Convention Center for the Labor Day weekend. The traveling arts and crafts marketplace will present more than 300 exhibitors offering items such as jewelry, soaps, candles, home and garden decorator items, clothing and food. The festival will also feature continuous entertainment. World beat musician David Zasloff, the Main Street Dixieland Band, Beatles tribute band Revolution and the Theater 16 Puppet Theater are among the scheduled performers.
* Harvest Festival Tour, Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Monday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. $7:50; seniors, $6.50; children, $4. (562) 422-1616.
8 pm: Pop Music
Ruben Blades, who has just released his first album of new material in three years, headlines the third annual Latin Music Festival Catalina, sharing the bill with Mexican singers Pablo Montero and Beatriz Montez. On Sunday, the festival stages a free concert featuring Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca, Cannibal & the Headhunters and others.
* Latin Music Festival Catalina, Casino Ballroom, Avalon, Catalina Island. 8 p.m. $35 to $100 (VIP tickets include reception and dinner). Sunday at Wrigley Memorial Stage, Avalon, 3 p.m. Free. (888) 330-5252.
8 pm: Dance
Expect snake charmers and stilt walkers, classic fairy tales and innovative junkyard costumes when the locally based Trip Dance Theatre brings its freewheeling contemporary movement spectacle, “Exquisite Corpse,” to the outdoor “Summer Nights at the Ford” series. Choreographed by artistic director Monica Favand and five company members, the project represents Trip’s sixth collaboration with composer-musician Charlie Campagna, a founding member of the band Quarks. For the brand new, full-evening “Corpse,” he blends electronics, sitar music from India, Brazilian percussion and Balkan melodies with his own atmospheric guitar playing. Trippy.
* Trip Dance Theatre in “Exquisite Corpse,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. 8 p.m. $7.50 for children to $20. (323) GO-1-FORD.
8 pm: Theater
Award-winning British director and actor Roger Rees, formerly co-artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic and Tony winner for his performance in the title role of “Nicholas Nickleby,” is about to make his directorial debut at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. The production of Shakespeare’s romp “The Merry Wives of Windsor” stars stage and screen veteran Dakin Matthews as the philandering Sir John Falstaff who gets his comeuppance.
* “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Old Globe Theatre, Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m., through Oct. 9. $23 to $39. (619) 239-2255.
all day: Family
The Los Angeles Zoo gets a head start on Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) with mariachi music, children’s dance groups, crafts, Mexican food and other ethnic activities. The zoo will also offer special close-up views of selected animals.
* Mexican Independence Day Celebration, Los Angeles Zoo, 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Zoo admission: $8.25; ages 2 to 12, $3.25. (323) 644-6400.
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FREEBIE: Master ceramist Goro Suzuki creates an installation focusing on the Japanese tea ceremony at Frank Lloyd Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave., B5B, Santa Monica, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., (310) 264-3866.
A Summer Jubilee features craft vendors, games and music at 2nd and Main streets, Alhambra, 5-10 p.m. [626] 570-3244).