ARTIFACTS: The starter gun for Car Week, She Kills Monsters kills it at Western Stage, truth-telling at Old Capitol Books.

• This might be the very first public event of Car Week. Cibo Ristorante (full disclosure: this reporter bussed tables there when he was 18) holds a drivers reception 5-7pm this Friday, when they bring historic race cars to cruise leisurely down Alvarado for admiring eyes. Cibo supplies complimentary appetizers and live jazz. 649-8151, www.Cibo.com.

• The Western Stage’s youthful 2x4BASH theater company puts on the second play of their abbreviated summer season, She Kills Monsters by Vietnamese-American playwright and fight director Qui Nguyen. It’s about a girl who submerges her grief over the loss of her sister by playing Dungeons & Dragons. The play’s full of demons, swordfights and ‘90s pop culture references. 7:30pm Friday, with repeat performances Aug. 14 and 15. 755-6984.

• Saturday is Kid’s Day at Del Monte Shopping Center. And that doesn’t just mean dropping them off at the movie theater or Hot Topic and coming back in 5 hours. It means that 11am-3pm you’ll find, for free, a petting zoo, magic show, pony rides, My Museumgames, kid’s Zumba, face painting, prizes and giveaways. Donations will go to Make-A-Wish. 373-2705.

• The Monterey Peace and Justice Center in Seaside is forming a new book discussion group. But Jane Austen’s name is not likely to come up much here. Their first book is Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel byAlison Weir. The book club says Weir stirred up controversy with groups sympathetic to the Palestinians, concluding with “let’s read it and see what we think.” And that kind of thing is the food of democracy. 2-4pm Monday. katharlow@aol.com, jvandevere@comcast.net.

• As part of this Tuesday’s Networking Aloud: A Writer’s Open Mike, author Tom North speaks. He’s the 11th of 20 Beardsley children, a family made famous in the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours starring Lucille Ball as the mother and Henry Fonda as the father. The movie is a lark. But the reality of his family was painful, an ordeal North didn’t escape unscathed from. He’ll tell it like it was 6pm Tuesday at Old Capitol Books in Monterey. 601-9195, 521-0375.

• I heard good things about a 2003 documentary called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, about a flock of feral parrots in San Francisco and the squatting musician who cares for them. Carmel Foundation has heard of it too, and would like you to see it 2:30pm Wednesday at their Diment Hall. 620-8701, 620-8705.