BEST BETS SATURDAY 10/15

10:30am

Music/Family

The 28th Peninsula Music Fair not only features two Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts, but also a host of dance, storytelling and other activities.

* 28th Peninsula Music Fair, Chadwick School, 26800 S. Academy Drive, Palos Verdes Peninsula. 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Youth Concert featuring Copland, Bernstein and Berlioz, with host David Prather: 1:30 p.m. Family Concert, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting a program of Debussy and Ravel: 3:30 p.m. $6-$20. (310) 318-8166.

2pm

Family/Music

Showing his softer but still silly side, “3rd Rock From the Sun” star John Lithgow performs the West Coast premiere of “Farkle and Friends,” his child’s guide to the orchestra. Performed with a full orchestra conducted by composer Bill Elliott, it’s based on Lithgow’s new book, “The Remarkable Farkle McBride,” about a child prodigy who masters all instruments only to discovers his true vocation as a conductor.

* “Farkle and Friends,” Royce Hall, UCLA (parking lot 3), Westwood, Sunday, 2 p.m. $10 to $30. (310) 825-2101.

3pm

Dance

The dance world currently teems with pundits bemoaning our culture’s marginalization of the art. Not Karen Goodman. Instead of merely complaining, this local dancer-choreographer has used the meaning and value of dance as the subject of a full-length, multidisciplinary solo titled “Close Dancing,” working with director Winship Cook to create what she calls “an experience that pushes the act of dancing and viewing into a more active relationship.” Thus the audience will sit on the stage, surrounding Goodman on three sides, allowing her work to gain the intimacy of a studio event along with the technical control of a normal stage performance. Close dancing indeed.

* Karen Goodman in “Close Dancing,” Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles. 3 p.m. $12 to $20. (323) 343-6600.

3:30pm

Music

Quartets by Mozart (K. 575), Brahms (Opus 67) and Mendelssohn (No. 1, Opus 12) make up the program of the touring Guarneri String Quartet, opening the 97th season of Coleman Chamber Music concerts in Pasadena.

* The Guarneri Quartet, Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, Michigan Avenue south of Del Mar Boulevard, Pasadena. 3:30 p.m. $15 to $27. (626) 395-4652.

Noon

Movies

One of the biggest ‘70s disaster films, “The Towering Inferno,” screens at the Burbank Hilton as a benefit for the L.A. Fireman’s Relief Assn. Based on two novels (“The Tower” and “The Glass Inferno”), the film was a collaboration between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. and garnered seven Oscar nominations, including best picture. Master of the genre, producer Irwin Allen, assembled an all-star cast: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire and O.J. Simpson. The special effects were state of the art--for the time. The event also features a silent auction of memorabilia from the film and a question-and-answer session with some of the cast, including Susan Blakely.

* “The Towering Inferno,” Hilton Hotel, 2500 Hollywood Way, Burbank. Noon. $25 to $35. (818) 848-4432.

8pm

Performance Art

Groundbreaking, innovative and witty performance artists John Fleck, Andy Dick, Jacki Apple & Julie Adler, Dan Kwong and Linda J. Albertano host the Dark Bob headline in “All-Stars of L.A. Performance Art, Act III.”

* “All-Stars of L.A. Performance Art, Act III,” Arcadia Club, 205 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica. 8 p.m. $12. (310) 581-5369.

FREEBIES

Dolores Johnson, author and illustrator of children’s books, talks about her work in a program for kids. KLOS Story Theater, Central Library, 650 W. 5th St., downtown Los Angeles. 3 p.m. (213) 228-7250.

The Brewery Art Colony hosts its fall art walk, when more than 100 artists open their studios to the public. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 2100 N. Main St., downtown Los Angeles. (213) 694-2911.