ARTIFACTS - Philip Glass and Godfrey Reggio show their film Powaqqatsi Oct. 2 at Henry Miller Library.

• The Monterey Modernism Monologues reception and lecture series, 6-9pm Thursday in the Irvine Auditorium of MIIS (499 Pierce St., Monterey), is the springboard event for the next three days of the AIACC Monterey Design Conference (see our Calendar and online coverage at mcweekly.com), but it’s stacked deep in authority. Jerrold E. Lomax presents architectural historian and preservation consultant Kent Seavey, architectural historian Rick Janick, and architect, educator and author Pierluigi Serraino, who combine the cumulative weight of their expertise on the subject of the “evolution, history and preservation of modern architecture on the Monterey Peninsula.” $45/online registration, $50/door, www.aiacc.org/mdc to register.

• For a kind of musical transcendence, the Choraleers, a group of women who’ve been singing locally since 1964, is looking for women 18 and over to join their ranks and sing pop songs in group homes and such. 869-6947 or montereysuzy@gmail.com for more info.

• That atmospheric roar you hear in the sky this weekend comes from the Superbike World Championship races at Laguna. Get up close to the fast, gleaming machines that make such an impressive commotion at Cannery Row’s Race Night on the Row, closed to only the hundreds of bikes and bikers who zoom into town from all over the world for the motorcycle event… and the gawkers who admire them. It’s free 5-11pm Saturday, 649-6690, www.canneryrow.com.

• Retired Sen. Rudy Boschwitz and his team received a medal of commendation from Pres. G.H.W. Bush in 1991 for pulling off Operation Solomon, the “24-hour airlift that rescued 14,325 Ethiopian Jews” from civil war and a cruel dictator. 7:30pm Sunday at Congregation Beth Israel (5716 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel), the former Minnesota senator (who was made an ambassador to the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission in 2005) shows a short film about the operation and talks about the experience. 624-2015 or CarmelBethIsrael.org for details.

• The Carmel Art Association is sponsoring a juried art competition called For the Love of Art for Monterey County high school juniors and seniors, beginning Oct. 1 for a group exhibition scheduled for April 2014. That may seem like a long time for teens to wait, but there are cash prizes up for grabs (which seems a bit of a contradiction to the title, no?). Principals, directors and teachers call 624-6176 x13 for more information.