Trio

MUSIC Local avant-garde rock trio Autolux provides the soundtrack to "Into the Night: Music and Magic," which includes performances from Superhumanoids and KCRW-FM DJ Anthony Valadez. The evening's entertainment features strolling magicians, a screening of the Harry Houdini serial "Master Mystery" (1920) and access to the galleries. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fri. $15. (310) 440-4500. http://www.skirball.org.

Better Than Ezra front man Kevin Griffin writes songs that speak intimately about matters of the heart, and he couches them in expansive arrangements that shamelessly play to the back row. That's one reason this New Orleans-based trio sold more than a million copies of its 1994 debut recording "Deluxe." Of course, it doesn't hurt that Griffin has one of those wistful, boyish voices that's hard to resist.

At 60, Howie Johnson is one of the real veterans on the Senior golf tour. He is not, however, too old to make some changes in his game. After playing poorly last week at Sun City, Ariz., Johnson, who lives down the road a few miles at Rancho Mirage, made two adjustments. At the halfway point of the 72-hole Vintage Invitational, there has been a marked improvement.

When life can imitate melodrama as effectively as it has in the recent history of, say, Jim and Tammy Bakker, or Joan Collins and what's 'is name, why shouldn't an entertainment act reverse the process? The Perines, opening at the Cinegrill Friday night made a good case for doing precisely that.

Rancho Santa Fe's Pat Duncan and Vista's Jerry Michals and Randy Reznicek won second- and third-round matches Friday in the Trans-Mississippi Men's Amateur Golf Championships at the La Jolla Country Club. Medalist Jack Spradlin of San Diego won his second-round match, 2-up over Irvine's Jon Buchman, but was defeated, 1-up, in the third round by Craig Steinberg, the Southern California Amateur champion from Van Nuys.

OK, so you've won the Academy Award for best picture of the year and two more for writing and directing. What do you do for an encore? Go off-Broadway for an extended commercial run of your acclaimed trio of one-act plays. Ethan Coen, an Oscar winner (along with brother Joel) for "No Country for Old Men," will see his "Almost an Evening" resume performances March 20 at the Bleecker Street Theatre in New York. The three short plays -- together, they run less than 90 minutes -- were a critical and popular hit for the Atlantic Theater Company this year at its tiny Stage 2. Now the off-kilter comedies, directed by Neil Pepe, are back for a limited run through June 1. Casting has not been announced.

The Mid-Valley All-Stars, an American Roundball Corp. team, did nothing to hurt their top ranking in the Puma National Slam 'N Jam Tournament on Wednesday. Led by 18 points from Fairfax High's Sean Higgins, they defeated Buffalo, N.Y., 90-49, at Pauley Pavilion. Taft's Kevin Franklin added 15 points. Crenshaw's Doug Meekins and Fairfax's Chris Mills each added 14. Mid-Valley is expected to play either Kentucky or Oregon at 9 p.m.

House of Pain may be from Los Angeles, but you'd never know it by the rappers' Brooklyn accents and their Irish affectations. Rappers Everlast and Danny Boy are old Taft High School pals who pump out rhymes about ho's, corned beef and cabbage, guns and nuns. Spins by DJ Lethal and the music's overall thick grooves are about the only real local ties.

Time got so tight from drawn-out equipment changes at the Miller Sound Express concert Sunday afternoon that members of the vocal trio LeVert, the headliners, were warning the crowd about "having to cut it (the set) short" during the introduction to the group's second song. But that logistical problem was the only real drawback to the free event before about 10,000 contemporary R&B fans at Jackie Robinson Stadium near Dorsey High in Los Angeles. This appearance was the second in a summer-long series of weekend concerts scheduled to bring the Sound Express semi-truck (which contains the stage)