BEST BETS Friday 9/28

5:30pm

Art

A big “aloha” to the island that inspired the stylish designs of popular Hawaiian shirts. But there’s more to the Hawaiian Islands than fashion. A special island-themed preview of the new exhibition “Inventing Paradise: Hawaiian Image and Popular Culture” at the Fullerton Museum Center is sure to entertain. Guest curator Richard Smith will host a walk-through of the show followed by a hula performance by the Alohis Polynesian Group at 7 p.m. and ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s music by the Resophonics. The exhibition features more than 100 cultural items including Hawaiian-style art, textiles, vintage musical instruments, early surfboards, classic aloha attire and a 45-foot outrigger canoe.

“Inventing Paradise: Hawaiian Image and Popular Culture,” Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton. Preview, 5:30-9 p.m. Exhibition opens Saturday. Museum hours: noon-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; Thursday, 6-8 p.m. $1 to $4. Ends Dec. 3. (714) 738-6545.

6pm

Art & Jazz

Feast by moonlight or dance under the stars to live jazz performances during the 5th annual Sights and Sounds of Santa Ana today through Sunday. The event kicks off with a jazz cabaret and an art preview at the Santa Ana Performing Arts and Event Center. The festival is held in conjunction with a citywide, juried plein-air painting competition by the California Art Club. Saturday’s lineup includes dinner at Tangata restaurant at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, a live jazz show by the Herman Riley Band and a plein-air art pre-sale. On Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., a plein-air art exhibition and sale will take place. Proceeds will help fund the Bowers plein-air collection.

“Sights and Sounds of Santa Ana,” Santa Ana Performing Arts and Event Center, 550 N. Sycamore and Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Today, 6 p.m.; Saturday, 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. $25 to $75. Sunday exhibition, $3. (714) 571-4272 and (714) 558-7775.

7pm

Pop Music

An album of material due next month that was recorded in the early-’90s by pre-Matchbox Twenty members singer Rob Thomas, drummer Paul Doucette and bassist Brian Yale when they were in the band Tabitha’s Secret will give fans a glimpse of what they sounded like before they created Matchbox and caught fire. No substitutes are necessary, though when Thomas and his present-day Matchbox cohorts play the Arrowhead Pond on Friday.

Matchbox Twenty, Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. With Train. 7 p.m. $35 to $50. (714) 704-2500.

7pm

Pop Music

British gothic-punk group the Damned returns to the Southland for the first time since the release last month of its latest album, “Grave Disorder,” which singer Dave Vanian considers one of the best of the group’s long career. They’ll play today in Santa Ana.

The Damned, Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. With Swingin’ Utters, Pleasure Forever. $22.50. (714) 957-0600.

8pm

Theater

“The Kiss of the Spider Woman” concerns the bond between two very unlike cellmates in a Latin American prison. Molina, a romantic and a movie buff, has been jailed because he is homosexual; Valentin is being held for his opposition to the authoritarian state. Molina’s gift of storytelling helps them pass the time, until the regime tries to use him as a tool to undermine his new friend. The story by Argentine Manuel Puig has been told in many forms: first as a 1975 novel, then, in 1985, as a two-character play and a more expansive film (starring William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga), and subsequently as a Broadway musical. Rude Guerrilla presents Puig’s stripped-down, two-character stage version.

“The Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Rude Guerrilla Theater Company’s Empire Theater, 200 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Also Oct. 18, 8 p.m. $12 to $15. (714) 547-4688.