Garage-sale aficionados, collectors and eBay resale sharks, be advised: The Webster Film Series is flooding the market with movie posters. From noon to 4 p.m. at Webster University's Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487), a selection of promotional posters from the past 26 years of Webster Film Series screenings are available for purchase.
Imagine collectors with impeccable taste in their chosen field. Imagine they have direct contact with the studios and marketers, and that these collectors get the really good stuff (not the mass-market posters you can buy at Hot Topic). Imagine that these collectors carefully saved each poster for almost three decades. Now picture them giving you four hours to peruse this magnificent collection -- and purchase whatever strikes your fancy. This is what the Webster Film Series Movie Poster Sale offers. Are your palms sweating? They should be. Even if you don't consider yourself a cinephile, the incredibly diverse range of films the WFS screens in any given year means you're bound to find something to covet -- or at least something unique that can replace that "Le Chat Noir" lithograph. Imagine a nice, framed Bride of Frankenstein poster, or the retro-classic chintz of an Invasion of the Saucer Men hanging in your bathroom. And maybe if you're very lucky, and you find it before a certain calendar editor does, you'll walk out of there with the Coffin Joe poster. But why would you want to do that? Dibs has been called right here. -- Paul Friswold
Roman (à Clef) Candles
It takes extraordinary design intelligence to sing above the surround-sound, if you will, of the graphic white noise blitzing contemporary life. The letterpress technique of printing can belt it: When you see a letterpress-produced image, you notice. Quick -- what'd that loud poster at the Shop 'n' Rock promising 30 cans of beer for $11.99 look like? You don't remember, suds-dog; you wouldn't even if you were teetotal. But you'll remember the letterpress artistry of Eric Woods and his Firecracker Press, on display at Subterranean Books' upstairs gallery (6275 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-862-6100) through September 26. The opening reception for the free exhibit begins at 7 p.m. Friday, August 26. -- Alex Weir
Acting Orange
SUN 8/28
Ever since the days of Shakespeare, when women weren't allowed to act, the ladies have been trying to make up that lost time on stage. And perhaps these efforts are what fueled the Orange Girls Theater Company into existence. Regardless of the reason, this brand-new theater company is, as the name implies, a women's theater company, and it's having a fundraiser from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Miso on Meramec (16 North Meramec Avenue, Clayton; 314-863-7888 or www.misolounge.com). So for $10 you can join everyone's favorite local synthpop band, Glow, and the Orange Girls as they drum up some money for their inaugural season. Going to See the Elephant is the first play on the schedule, and you know you want to help 'em out with that. -- Alison Sieloff
Holy Land Spill, Batman!
Get a jump on your Saturday-morning cartoons by visiting artist Ron Laboray's "After the Common Era" exhibit, which opens Friday, August 26, at Gallery 210 in the TeleCommunity Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus (One University Boulevard at Natural Bridge Road; 314-516-5976). Laboray's paintings involve maps and globes, upon which controlled blobs of spilled color create entirely new microenvironments over specific locations. Given titles such as Avengers West Coast Meet the Fantastic Four and Fred in Bedrock #1, the viewer might not be surprised to find that the color bursts are often based on cartoon characters, and the locations -- like Metropolis, Gotham and Springfield -- are pulled from the same source material. The show runs through October 15. -- Mark Fischer
