Best Bets Friday 5/17

8pm

Pop Music

Actor-director-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton added another credit to his resume last year when he released “Private Radio,” an album of noir roots-country that earned some positive reviews. Now Thornton takes it on the road, opening a two-week U.S. concert tour with an L.A. show.

Billy Bob Thornton, El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 8 p.m. $25. (323) 936-4790.

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all day

Movies

The directors of “American Pie” team with Hugh Grant for the adaptation of Nick Hornby’s comic novel “About a Boy.” Chris and Paul Weitz, who are among the growing number of sibling collaborators (a la the Coens and Farrellys), also wrote the screenplay. The story is about a wealthy London playboy who forms an unlikely bond with a fatherless teen (Nicholas Hoult) while hitting on single moms. Toni Collette and Rachel Weisz also star. Novelist Hornby is the author of another bestseller turned hit movie, “High Fidelity.”

“About a Boy,” rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some thematic elements, opens Friday in general release.

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9pm

Pop Music

There’s a Southern spin to the double bill of Atlanta-bred Kelly Hogan and South Carolinian Danielle Howle. But beyond their shared geographical/cultural heritage, the two singers are among the most distinctive and acclaimed figures in the folk sector of American indie pop.

Kelly Hogan and Danielle Howle, Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake, 9 p.m. $8. (323) 833-2843.

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7:30pm

Movies

An eight-film tribute to one of noir’s most hard-boiled writers, “Hammett in Hollywood” unspools at LACMA beginning Friday. Dashiell Hammett had been a private eye in the 1920s before trading in his pistol for a pen and writing such classics as “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Glass Key.” The salute opens with a pair of films from “The Thin Man” series, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Saturday night features both the 1931 and the better-known 1941 version of “Maltese Falcon.”

“Hammett in Hollywood,” Bing Theater at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. “The Thin Man” and “The Thin Man Goes Home,” Friday, 7:30 p.m.; “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) and “The Maltese Falcon” (a.k.a. “Dangerous Female”) (1931), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. The series continues Fridays and Saturdays through May 25, $5 to $7. (323) 857-6010.

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7:45pm

Music

The oft-overlooked viola gets the attention it deserves at the two-day California Mini Congress of Violists. After an opening address, a concert of solo appearances by Southern California violists will feature concertos by Ignaz Gspan and Robert Nixon. Saturday’s events include workshops in improvisation, jazz, auditioning and an instrument builders’ exhibit. A second concert of music for solo and multiple violas begins at 8 p.m.

Southern California Viola Society meeting, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Westchester, 7:45 p.m. Also, Saturday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. $5. (818) 522-9274.

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7pm

Art Walk

The windup to the 23rd annual Venice Art Walk starts tonight with a Roger Kellaway jazz concert, held at a private home in Pacific Palisades. The big event, of course, is the Art Walk on Sunday, with studio tours, art exhibitions, a food fair, children’s art center and art auction. On Saturday, there’ll be an auction preview and a docent-led or self-driven tour of architecturally significant homes through Topanga, Venice, Santa Monica and the Westside. The popular fund-raiser benefits the 17,000 uninsured patients who receive free care at the Venice Family Clinic.

Venice Art Walk 2002, Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., $50. Studios open at noon; registration at the Westminster School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice. Parking at Walgrove Elementary School, 1630 Walgrove Ave., Mar Vista, and Broadway Elementary School, 1015 Lincoln Blvd., Venice. Shuttle service provided. Jazz with Roger Kellaway, Friday at 7 p.m., $150 includes Art Walk ticket, champagne and dessert. “A Celebration of Art and Home” guided home tour, Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., $150. Self-guided home tour, Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., $100. Preview party and art auction, Saturday, 4:30 to 7 p.m., $25. (310) 392-9255 or www.venice familyclinic.org.

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8pm

Theater

Boogie on down to the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre for Troubadour Theatre Company’s latest pop-circus-style treatment of the Bard, “All’s Kool That Ends Kool.” The company that sent up Shakespeare before with “A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream,” and “Romeo Hall & Juliet Oates,” this time adds the funky sounds of Kool and the Gang to “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

“All’s Kool That Ends Kool,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd., L.A., Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 1. $20 to $36. (323) 461-3673.