all day: Festival

Los Angeles County’s 150th Birthday celebration is this weekend and, rather than baking a lot of cake, the county is throwing open the doors to its best-known cultural institutions. Things get underway Friday with open houses at libraries and firehouses. Saturday, check out the county’s natural beauty with free admission to the County Arboretum in Arcadia, Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge and the South Coast Botanic Gardens in Palos Verdes. Sunday, all county museums--yep, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Page Museum and the Natural History Museum--are free all day. In Hancock Park, near LACMA and the Page Museum, there will be a festival starting at 11 a.m., a parade down Wilshire Boulevard at 2 p.m. and a free concert by the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band afterward.

* Los Angeles County’s 150th Birthday: Open houses at all county libraries and firehouses, Friday. Arboretum, Descanso Gardens and South Coast Botanic Gardens free on Saturday. Sunday, free admission to county museums. Festival, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Hancock Park, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 974-1311.

8 pm: Dance

When Stephanie Gilliland’s “Full Frontal Enigma” received its premiere last year, The Times called the contemporary hourlong work “an orgy of the body” in a review almost as visceral as the performance itself. Now Gilliland’s eight-member locally based Tongue company brings this essay in high-impact physicality back for another showing and adds the premiere of “Soon” to the program for good measure. An exponent of stamina-testing athleticism mixed with passionate sensuality, Gilliland has worked outside mainstream dance since 1977, picked up two Lester Horton Dance Awards along the way for choreographic achievement and teaches at Idyllwild Arts Academy.

* Tongue, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Drive, East Los Angeles, 8 p.m. $12.50 to $25. (323) 343-6600.

8 pm: Music

Midori, the onetime child prodigy who first made headlines at age 14 when she remained unflustered by two broken E-strings in the middle of a concert, has grown into a fabulously successful solo violinist. She returns to Los Angeles to play Dvorak’s only violin concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic--her first time playing with the group since she was 18, 10 years ago.

* Midori with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. $10 to $70. (213) 365-3500.

all day: Movies

Walter Matthau plays the curmudgeonly father of sisters Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow in “Hanging Up,” a comedy drama written by Delia and Nora Ephron (the screenplay is based on one of Delia’s novels). Keaton, who plays the eldest sister, a high-powered magazine editor, also directed the film.

* “Hanging Up,” rated PG-13 for language and some sex-related material, opens Friday in general release.

all day: Movies

The New Beverly Cinema is offering up an Atom Egoyan double feature showcasing one of Canada’s most talented and original filmmakers. Egoyan, an Oscar nominee last year for directing and writing “The Sweet Hereafter,” explores in both films tormented characters who become entangled in complex relationships: Set in Toronto, “Exotica” is a drama about loss and desire that focuses on the relationship between a thirtysomething tax auditor (Bruce Greenwood) and a young table dancer (Mia Kirshner). “Felicia’s Journey,” Egoyan’s most recent film, stars Bob Hoskins as a seemingly gentle middle-aged man and his obsession with a pregnant teenager (Elaine Cassidy).

* Atom Egoyan double feature, New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Friday, “Felicia’s Journey,” 7:30 p.m.; “Exotica,” 9:45 p.m. Saturday, “Felicia’s Journey,” 3:10 and 7:30 p.m.; “Exotica,” 5:25 and 9:45 p.m. $3 to $6. (323) 938-4038.

7:30 pm: Theater

“Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Edward Sakamoto’s epic drama based on the lives of the heroic Japanese American soldiers of the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe during World War II, has its West Coast premiere. See story, Page XX.

* “Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St., Little Tokyo. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. $27 to $30. (213) 680-3700.

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FREEBIES: The ninth annual PXL This, a video program composed solely of video projects made with the discontinued Fisher-Price toy camcorder PXL 2000, will screen at Vidiots, 302 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, 8 p.m. (310) 392-8508.

Pianist Jeff Colella, bassist Trey Henry and drummer Kendall Kay take a melodious approach when they play at the L.A. County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (323) 857-6000.