BEST BETS Sunday 11/12

all day

Motorcycles

Grand Marshall Jay Leno and honorary Grand Marshall Peter Fonda will lead a group of more than 20,000 motorcyclists expected at Love Ride 17, a 50-mile caravan from Glendale to Castaic Lake. John Kay & Steppenwolf will perform a 7:15 a.m. concert at the event’s launch site, Harley-Davidson of Glendale. The caravan of bikes will depart at 9:30 a.m. A Tony Roma’s barbecue lunch and a motorcycle trade show will take place at the Castaic Lake Recreation area beginning at 11 a.m. Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Blood and Sweat & Tears will deliver ‘60s-era rock at this destination site beginning at noon. An annual benefit event, Love Ride is expected to raise more than $1 million for the Los Angeles Times’ “Reading By 9” literacy initiative and the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.

* Love Ride 17, begins at Harley-Davidson of Glendale, 3717 San Fernando Road, Glendale, and concludes at Castaic Lake Recreation area, 5 freeway to Lake Hughes Road exit, Castaic. Sunday, 7:15 a.m.-4 p.m. $50 minimum donation. (Includes admission to the Castaic Lake concert and trade show and barbecue lunch.) (818) 246-5618.

2pm

Country Music

The third annual KZLA Country Cookout serves up its established mix of big names (Dwight Yoakam, Lee Ann Womack) and touted newcomers (Eric Heatherly, Darryl Worley, Billy Gilman, Keith Urban). Vendors and vittles add other dimensions to the all-day affair.

* KZLA Country Cookout, Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 2 p.m. $67.50. (818) 622-4440.

5pm

Theater

Tony Award-winner and two-time Oscar nominee Shirley Knight and her daughter, stage actress Kaitlin Hopkins will headline together in “Blithe Spirit,” Noel Coward’s comedy about a man whose new marriage is complicated by the arrival of the ghost of his dead wife.

* “Blithe Spirit,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Also Nov. 20, 8 p.m. Dark Nov. 23. Ends Dec. 17. $15-$42.50. (626) 356-PLAY.

6:30am

Fund-raiser

Benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute, the fifth annual Terry Fox Run 2000 at West Los Angeles’ Veterans Administration Park will feature a 10K run, a 5K fitness run/walk and a children’s fun run. A free festival with entertainment, music, refreshments, interactive fun for kids and an array of expo booths will also take place. Monty Hall will serve as the host of the event.

* Terry Fox Run 2000, Veterans Administration Park, San Vicente and Wilshire boulevards, West Los Angeles. 6:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Runner-walker participation fee, $25. Festival, free. (310) 582-7073.

all day

Art

“Paul McCarthy,” the first United States retrospective devoted to the influential Los Angeles-based performance artist and sculptor opens Sunday at MOCA’s cavernous Geffen Contemporary space. Covering more than 25 years, the survey will feature McCarthy’s melding of sculpture and performance, which often utilizes disturbing combinations of pop culture cliches, social taboos and art history references in attacking mass-media penetration. More than 100 works will explore the effects of media and consumerism on the subconscious including drawings, videos, sculptures and installations.

* “Paul McCarthy.” MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo. Ends Jan. 21. Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Adults, $6; students and seniors, $4; visitors under 12 free. Admission free Thursdays from 5-8 p.m. (213) 626-6222.

all day

Art

“Body Politics: The Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar,” a new exhibition pairing works by Los Angeles-based sculptor Saar with those of African artists from the 17th to late 19th century, examines the representation of the female body in both African and American art. Opening Sunday at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the exhibition looks at African wood carvings created in the Luba kingdom primarily by men and Saar’s works which portray the female body as a political battlefield. Combined, the 86 works in the exhibition explore the notions of the female body as a locus of identity, politics and spirituality.

* “Body Politics: The Female Image in Luba Art and the Sculpture of Alison Saar.” UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA Campus, just west of Royce Hall, Westwood. Ends May 13. Wednesdays-Sundays, noon-5 p.m.; Thursdays, noon-8 p.m. Adults, $5; seniors and students, $3; visitors 17 and under free. Admission is free on Thursdays. (310) 825-4361.

FREEBIE

Ted Jacobs, who turned 19th century poetry into silky vocals and evocative instrumentation in his award-winning children’s CD, “The Days Gone By,” performs a special family concert with his band at Every Picture Tells a Story, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 4 p.m. (323) 932-6070.