Every now and then, ArtiFacts encourages people to think ahead, to be proactive, to make plans and buy tickets in advance, that sort of thing. This, gentle readers, is one of those times.

On Friday, Oct. 27 (that''s next Friday), Monterey County Artists Studio Tour 2001 (yes, that''s next year''s Studio Tour) is having a benefit fundraiser. The drama department at Monterey Peninsula College will donate all proceeds from the Oct. 27 performance of Museum to support the 2001 Studio Tour. This is one of those times when your $15 bucks can''t go wrong. The Artists Studio Tour is a worthy and free annual event that certainly deserves your support; and Museum is a delightful, naughty spoof of the art world. Our estimable theater critic, Patrice Parks, says so herself (see her review on page 51). To reserve a ticket for the fundraiser, call Skip at 373-0554.

Films for Grrls

You''ve probably stumbled across the full-page ads for the Monterey Bay FilmFest 2000 during your cover-to-cover perusal of Coast Weekly. And yes, we are thrilled about our upcoming documentary film festival, which celebrates human rights and world cultures. But a worthy film festival of another stripe, the Multicultural Lesbian Film Festival, starts tonight at the CSUMB World Theater, with a screening of The Celluloid Closet. An evening of shorts and documentaries follows on Friday, and the next three weeks bring feature films such as Go Fish, The Watermelon Woman and Fire. Informal discussion follows the screenings. The event is free and open to the public. Films screen at the World Theater at 7pm on Oct. 19, 20, 26 and Nov. 3 and 10.

Is the Truth Out There?

In 1983, Ben H. Bagdikian wrote Media Monopoly, a now-classic work of investigative journalism that warned of the rise of the media conglomerate and the chilling effects of corporate ownership of the nation''s news media.

"If mergers and acquisitions by large corporations continue at the present rate, one massive firm will be in virtual control of all major media by the 1990s," he wrote in 1983. It hasn''t gotten to that yet, but most of the country''s daily newspapers, consumer magazines, book publishing companies, film studios, and television and radio stations, are in the hands of about a dozen corporations. (You''re one of the smart luckies who still gets to read an independent newspaper.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bagdikian was once assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, and is former dean of U.C. Berkeley''s Graduate School of Journalism. Bagdikian will lecture and sign copies of the sixth edition of his book at Thunderbird Bookstore on Monday, Oct. 23, at 7pm.

On the Road

Most people regard museums as rigid, immobile bastions of high culture--architectural entities fixed in time and space. One day back in 1973, the Monterey Museum of Art decided to explode the concept of what constitutes a "museum" after artist Dick Crispo donated a large collection of folk art, and voila--Museum on Wheels was born.

The mobile museum has evolved into a dynamic multicultural outreach program that ferries its collection of international, folk, ethnic and tribal arts to schools all over the Central Coast. The concept has been so successful that MOW is celebrating its 25th anniversary this Saturday, from 2-4pm, at the Museum''s civic center location on Pacific in downtown Monterey. Call 373-2061 for more information.

--Tai Moses