BURGERS, BURNOUTS AT POMONA RACEWAY starts Saturday, November 17. Gates open at 8 a.m. at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, 2780 Fairplex Dr., as In-N-Out Burger and Hot Rod magazine throw a party to celebrate 70 years of burgers and burnouts. Both Southern California businesses opened within 25 miles of each other in 1948. The event includes a rare opportunity to see historic vehicles drag race, on-site In-N-Out cookout trucks, an outdoor car show featuring historic racecars, special historical exhibits, and the chance to view the history of Hot Rod and meet its staff.
POLITICAL POLARIZATION AND THE CONSTITUTION: The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College, 385 E. Eighth St., hosts a free and open to the public 6:45 p.m. panel discussion, “Political Polarization’s Challenge to the Constitution,” with panelists Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Kenneth Miller and George Thomas, and moderator Zachary Courser. Since the American founding, broad agreement on the republican principles embodied in the Constitution has been a necessary condition for constructive policy debate.
DRONE RACING AND MORE: The 20th annual Academy of Model Aeronautics Expo West takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Fairplex Exposition Center, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona. The event repeats Saturday, November 3, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, November 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Presale tickets range from $5 for kids 13 to 17 on up to $13, with additional discounts for multi-day passes. Tickets at the door are a few dollars more. For more information go to: http://bit.ly/2P32boM
FREE ZOMBIE BAND SHOW (BRAIN DONATION REQUIRED) The 18th annual appearance of the ghoulish collective known as The Zombie Band hits the stage at 10 p.m. for a free show at the Press, 129 Harvard Ave., Claremont. The annual Zombie Band shows are always super fun, as the Press fills up with costumed revelers and the band rips into the guts of the gory hits of yesteryear. More information is at thepressrestaurant.com.
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE With just one week left, the city’s free music series Friday Nights Live is about to call it a year. The seasonal series hosts live music from 6 to 9 p.m. at four locations in the Village. Final performances take place next Friday. Tonight’s lineup includes Dynamite Dawson at Laemmle plaza; Ana Maria de la Cruz at the chamber; Grateful Dead cover band Pride of Cucamonga at Shelton Park; and Honeybuckets at city hall. More info is at claremontchamber.org.
THINGS THAT GO BUMP Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 N. College Ave., Claremont, invites visitors to unravel the myths and mysteries of nature’s nightlife at Things That Go Bump in the Night today and tomorrow from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The event offers activity stations along Garden trails, live animal encounters and family-friendly comedy shows that showcase the natural world’s nocturnal side.
‘MUCH ADO’ IN 1945? The Shakespeare Club of Pomona Valley hosts a free and open to the public 2 p.m. talk at the Joslyn Center 660 N. Mountain Ave., Claremont with director Wendi Johnson, who chose to set her new production of the Bard’s “Much Ado About Nothing” in 1945. The comedy opens next month at the Lewis Family Playhouse in Rancho Cucamonga. “What themes connect America, as World War II ends, with the world Shakespeare created when he wrote the play in the 1590s?”
CCA HOSTS ‘BE THE MATCH’ Residents are invited to join the Be The Match Registry from 2 to 6 p.m. at Claremont Craft Ales, 1420 N. Claremont Blvd., 204c. Be The Match pairs potential bone marrow donors and people with life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, for life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplants. The group needs marrow donors as well as volunteers and financial contributions.
PRIMAL NATURE Claremont Museum of Art, 200 W. First St., opens a new show at noon today, “Primal Nature: Animalia by Women in Post-War Claremont.” “Animals, both real and fantastic, occupied an important place in artistic expression in mid-twentieth-century Claremont, appearing in the work of ceramists, painters, enamelists, and sculptors,” a press release read. “Primal Nature, curated by Susan M. Anderson, focuses on this phenomenon, particularly in the work of women artists who played a vital role in the development of the arts in Claremont.”
FRIDAY NOON CONCERTS ARE BACK: Scripps College’s free Friday Noon Concert Series kicks off the 2019-2019 season today with music by Raymond Luedeke, Anthony Plog and Halsey Stevens. The show at Balch Auditorium, 1030 Columbia Ave., Claremont, begins at 12:15 p.m. with performers Stephen Klein and Beth Mitchell, tubas, Jennie Jung, piano, and Gibb Schreffler, narrator. The weekly concerts are a joint production of Scripps and the Pomona College Music Department.
VIDEO GAME PARTY: Claremont’s Wheeler Steffen Sotheby’s, at 500 W. Foothill Blvd., hosts a video game party from 6 to 10 p.m. The free and open to the public event includes a drawing for prizes. Among the multiplayer games are Drawful, which includes up to eight players drawing and the other players trying to guess what has been drawn; Fibbage, which also includes up to eight players testing their ability to lie creatively while making up definitions; Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and many more!
‘I HAVE A DREAM’: HAVE WE MADE PROGRESS? This week marks the 55th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s profound “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered in 1963 to some 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Today the Pomona Valley chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is celebrating with a free and open to the public viewing and panel discussion of the historic speech from 6 to 8 p.m. at The African American Museum of Beginnings, 1460 E. Holt Ave., Pomona, entrance 3.
JAZZ VESPERS TUNE INTO LABOR: Claremont Presbyterian Church’s Jazz Vespers perform a free and open 6 p.m. concert with the Ron Kobayshi Trio and vocalist Debbi Ebert, all around the theme of labor. The church is at 1111 N. Mountain Ave., Claremont. “Labor Day is coming,” a press release read. “That got some of us here at Claremont Presbyterian thinking; what do we labor for? In the Christian tradition we are encouraged to labor for justice. So this Jazz Vespers is dedicated to the people and organizations that labor for a more just world.
CONCERT IN THE PARK: Claremont’s annual free Concerts in the Park series continues at 7 p.m. with a night of traditional Irish music and dance with Spirit of Ireland, with Michael Ryan and friends, featuring members of Craic Haus and the Tamara School of Irish Dance. The Monday concerts at Memorial Park, 840 N. Indian Hill Blvd., start at 7 p.m. and run through Labor Day, September 3. Here’s the rest of this year’s lineup: August 27:?Suavé; September 3: The Answer. For more information call (909) 399-5490 or email specialevents@ci.claremont.ca.us.
