Three-day forecast

POP MUSIC

Wild bill at El Rey

After the Raveonettes’ 2002 mini-album “Whip It On” helped drive the movement of wildly passionate, blues-based duos such as the Kills, the Black Keys, Mr. Airplane Man, et al., the Danish team of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo have come roaring back with a biker-flick homage full-length album, “Chain Gang of Love.” They’re appearing at the El Rey with second-billed Stellastarr, an underrated band working elements of the neo-new-wave that has made college radio faves of folks such as Interpol. This wild bill’s opener, Kittens for Christian, taps elements of both screamo and noise bands.

Raveonettes, Stellastarr, Kittens for Christian, El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Today, 8 p.m. $17.50. (323) 936-4790.

ART

Buddhist exhibitions

Two of the Southland’s museums face east with exhibitions that explore Buddhist art. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art features “The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art” -- sculptures and paintings dedicated to the Buddhist deity Vajravarahi. Following the theme, “From the Verandah: Art, Buddhism, Presence” -- an experimental exhibition and the product of collaboration between the UCLA Fowler Museum, the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center at the Fowler -- is designed to evoke Buddhist concepts of heightened awareness. The installation features the work of artists Wolfgang Laib and Hirokazu Kosaka.

“The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art,” LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Mondays and Tuesdays, noon-8 p.m.; Thursdays, noon-8 p.m.; Fridays, noon-9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Ends, Jan. 11; related programs end March 7. (323) 857-6000.

“From the Verandah: Art, Buddhism, Presence,” UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural Art, Sunset and Westwood boulevards, Opens Sunday. Wednesdays-Sundays, noon-5 p.m.; Thursdays, noon-8 p.m. Ends Jan. 4. (310) 825-4361.

ART

American originals

Ever wonder how America would’ve responded if Neil Armstrong had been stranded on the moon? The answer is included in “American Originals: Treasures From the National Archives,” opening at the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Included in the exhibit are 25 documents from the National Archives: the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, Benedict Arnold’s letter to George Washington following his act of treason and an unused speech written for President Richard Nixon to deliver in case the Apollo 11 mission ended with the astronauts unable to return to Earth.

“American Originals: Treasures From the National Archives,” Getty Gallery, Richard J. Riordan Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. Opens Saturday. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sundays, 1-5 p.m. Ends, Jan. 4. (213) 228-7000.

MOVIES

Life’s train: a depot stop

It’s not often that a dwarf gets to be the leading man in a movie, but veteran actor Peter Dinklage has the charisma and presence to pull it off. In writer-director Tom McCarthy’s “The Station Agent,” Dinklage plays a man who inherits an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey, turns it into his home and develops some uneasy relationships with the locals. Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Williams costar.

“The Station Agent,” rated R for language and some drug content, opens Friday exclusively at the Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; and the Laemmle Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741.

THEATER

Shaping cigars, lives

“Anna in the Tropics,” by Nilo Cruz, won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama and is having its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory. It concerns Cuban immigrants who run a small, family-owned cigar factory near Tampa, Fla., in 1929. Mechanization is threatening to displace the traditional way of rolling cigars by hand; also threatened is the old-fashioned custom of having a “lector” read classic novels out loud to help the workers pass the time. In Cruz’s tale, hearing Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” read day-by-day begins to shape the cigar-makers’ lives and emotions.

“Anna in the Tropics,” South Coast Repertory’s Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Opens Friday. Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 and 7:45 p.m. Ends Oct. 25. $27-$55. (714) 708-5555.

WORDS

Hawking lecture

In a lecture titled “Godel and the End of Physics,” noted physicist and author of a “A Brief History of Time” Stephen Hawking acknowledges the seminal influence of another scientist, Paul Dirac, whose work opened the field of quantum physics. Hawking posits that newer theorems built upon Dirac’s work are moving humankind closer to the discovery of a complete form of the laws of nature, not unlike the laws of mathematics mapped by Kurt Godel.

Stephen Hawking, “Godel and the End of Physics,” Beckman Hall, Caltech, 323 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. Friday, 8 p.m. Free; guaranteed admission tickets distributed on the day of the event only beginning at 9 a.m. Limit two tickets per person. (626) 395-4652; (626) 395-3700, TDD.

DANCE

A company rooted in royalty

After 12 years with England’s Royal Ballet, dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt left to pursue a more contemporary style of classicism. Assuming the name Ballet Boyz for two wildly popular television documentaries, they subsequently formed a five-member company named George Piper Dances, quickly earning a reputation for being (in the words of the Daily Telegraph) “Britain’s most off-the-wall ballet dancers.” Their UCLA program includes a duet for the boyz -- Russell Maliphant’s “Torsion” -- plus two quintets: William Forsythe’s “Steptext” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Mesmerics.”

“George Piper Dances presents the Ballet Boyz,” Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. $25-$45. (310) 825-2101.

JAZZ

Island festival

Twenty-six miles across the sea, Santa Catalina Island will be brimming with smooth jazz this weekend. The 17th annual Catalina

Island JazzTrax Festival opens Friday for the first of three consecutive

weekends at the historic Avalon Casino Ballroom. Norman Brown, Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Greg Adams and former rocker-turned-smooth jazzer Rick Derringer headline this weekend. Next weekend’s show will feature Peter White, Jeff Golub, Steve Cole, Richard Elliot, Hiroshima and Lee Ritenour. The Crusaders, with Joe Sample and Wilton Felder, are slated to close the festival Oct. 19. Complete schedule at www.jazztrax.com.

Catalina Island Jazztrax Festival, Avalon Casino Ballroom, 1 Casino Way, Avalon. Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon. $18-$315. (866) TRAX-TIX.