BEST BETS Friday 10/26

10am-4pm

Festival

Most of the art we see nowadays comes to us through corporations, which often distort the creator’s original intentions. At the Artistic License Fair, however, purity is the key. This two-day show features art, music, sculpture, dolls, plants and more by more than 50 artists in Orange and Riverside counties--all one-of-a-kind, handmade and for sale.

* Artistic License Fair, Estancia Park, 1900 Adams Ave., Costa Mesa. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free; items run $2 to $300.

7:30pm

Pop Music

Need to smile? Drop in on Nerf Herder, the good-humored Santa Barbara band playing Chain Reaction in Anaheim. The group, which got its start with the quasi-novelty hit “Van Halen” that bemoaned the exit of singer David Lee Roth and his replacement by Sammy Hagar, recently released a new EP, succinctly called “My EP” and including the new song “Bridge Under Troubled Water.”

* Nerf Herder, Chain Reaction, With No Motiv, Longfellow, Melee, Luckie Strike. 7:30 p.m. $10. (714) 635-6067.

8pm

Dance

In 1943, Martha Graham commissioned Aaron Copland to create a new score for her. He first called it “Ballet for Martha,” but the world came to know it as her famous “Appalachian Spring.” Lois Ellen, director of the Nouveau Chamber Ballet, has fashioned her own version to Copland’s music, which her company will be dancing twice this weekend in Brea. Also on the program is Ellen’s “La Revue de Cuisine,” set to Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s jazz-inspired score of the same name.

* Nouveau Chamber Ballet, Brea Curtis Theater, 1 Civic Center, Brea. 8 p.m. Also Saturday at 8 p.m. $15. (949) 854-4646.

10am-4pm

Art

Traveling from Chile to Orange County, “The World of the Etruscans” has arrived at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art. The exhibition features 335 objects dating back 2,000 years, including elaborate sarcophagi, bronze helmets, terracotta statues and gold jewelry. The Etruscans, believed to be indigenous people, lived in the Tuscany-area of Italy from the 7th century BC to the 1st century BC before being defeated by the Romans. They influenced early Roman art, religion and politics. The show coincides with the museum’s current exhibition, “The Holy Land: David Roberts, Dead Sea Scrolls, House of David Inscription.”

* “The World of the Etruscans,” Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Museum hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $12 to $18 for both shows; children under 5, free. Ends Jan. 9. (714) 567-3600.