WHAT'S HAPPENING : DINING.

Sunday special: The attractive early dinner special served from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sundays at Epicure Inn, 7625 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, is highlighted by prime rib au jus, baked potato and vegetables, plus house-baked french rolls, a soft beverage and house dessert - all for $9.95.

Additional $9.95 early bird options, which are also available Tuesday through Thursday at the same time, some with the same accompaniments, are roasted half chicken, fettucine primavera, New England beer-battered fish and chips, eggplant Parmesan, ground sirloin steak chasseur, almond chicken breast, grilled Cajun or plain red snapper, spaghetti and meatballs and a steamed vegetable platter.

Epicure Inn, long known for its signature beef or chicken Wellington entrees, has an extensive continental-style menu that includes everything from oysters Rockefeller to a culotte or carpetbagger steak to a brace of Australian lobster tails.

Information and reservations: [phone].

?13- Larry Lipson

music

Metal shows its mettle: If you're a metal fan, you already know that the annual Foundations Forum and F Musicfest has gone a bit, well, alternative this year.

The three-day festival, which kicked off Thursday, offers panel discussions as well as 200 shows at 18 local clubs across the city, with acts ranging from Black Sabbath to the Wild Colonials.

Tonight, you can check out North Hollywood's own Slush at the Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica. Also on the bill is Phantom Planet and Pink Noise Test.

Again tonight, Claw Hammer brings the noise to Hollywood's Moguls while '80s metal merchants Exodus and Testament shake things up at the Palace in Hollywood.

And at the Whisky, local teen rockers Sovereign open for Anthrax. Meanwhile, Rob Zombie's younger brother's band, Powerman 5000, appears at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

On Saturday, the Wild Colonials offer melodic pop at the Opium Den, Silver Jet touches down at the Whisky and Mojo Nixon shows he's not a crook at the Viper Room.

Also Saturday, the Palace rocks to an all-star Black Sabbath jam featuring Lemmy of Motorhead and others.

Bob Chiappardi, head of the New York promotion company Concrete and chief organizer of the festival, said the event used to be contained in one venue. But last year, Hollywood's clubs got involved.

``We wanted to add the showcases to the local clubs,'' Chiappardi said. ``It's the first music festival Los Angeles has ever had. New York, Austin, New Orleans and Chicago all have them, but Los Angeles is one of the biggest music towns in the world and doesn't have a festival of its own until now.''

For start times and admission prices of F Musicfest events, call individual clubs.

?13- Fred Shuster

theater

Packing up `F.O.B.': Eight years before he won a Tony Award for ``M. Butterfly,'' playwright David Henry Hwang survived the disco era. And a good thing, too, else we wouldn't have ``F.O.B.,'' Hwang's wily portrait of a young Chinese immigrant doing double duty as an Asian folk deity - in Torrance, no less.

The East West Players is reviving Hwang's breakthrough hit, produced at the Public Theatre in Manhattan when he was only 23. The catch is, you only have until Sunday, when Tim Dang's production wraps up a six-week run.

Dueling identities have long obsessed the Yale-educated playwright. Born in Los Angeles in 1957 to Chinese immigrant parents, Hwang has what you might call a global imagination. Myth, history, culture and identity are inseparably woven together in his works, and he writes with equal authority from the perspective of a Chinese woman, a cynical French diplomat or a transsexual diva.

Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $23 general admission, $18 for students and seniors. East West Players is at 4424 Santa Monica Blvd. For information or tickets, call [phone].

?13- Reed Johnson

art

Through Catesby's eyes: When Britannia ruled the waves, there were no Web sites. That created a bit of a problem. After all, how could you show the folks back home what the Colonies looked like if nobody knew how to download pixels?

Enter Mark Catesby - artist, explorer and nature lover par excellence. After visiting the southern Colonies and the Caribbean between 1712 and 1726, Catesby etched 220 plates of the local flora and fauna. Filled with exquisite detail and a strong sense of drama, Catesby's etchings became the naturalist's bible of the New World. So comprehensive was his compendium that Lewis and Clark used ``The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands'' when they set off on their cross-country trek decades later.

Today, Catesby's works tell nearly as much about 18th-century European cultural attitudes as they do about blue jays and bald eagles. Which means you have at least two reasons to visit the new exhibition of his work on loan from Windsor Castle at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The show of 52 original drawings in watercolor opens a national tour on Sunday at the Huntington, and stays there through July 20 before moving on to Houston, Colonial Williamsburg, Va., and Savannah, Ga.

Located at 1151 Oxford Road, the Huntington is open to the public noon to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For information, call [phone].

?13- Reed Johnson

film

Revolutionary satire: You've never seen anything quite like ``Children of the Revolution.'' The Australian political satire bounces from farce to personal tragedy, from Stalin's Kremlin to the fall of the Berlin Wall, with remarkable assurance and a cleverness that never flags.

Judy Davis, our greatest living practitioner of neurotic comedy, is the true believing Aussie Red whose dream date with Stalin (F. Murray Abraham, surprisingly goofy) results in his death and her pregnancy. Back home Down Under, she raises the lad with the help of her apolitical husband (``Shine's'' Geoffrey Rush) and a love-struck double agent (Sam Neill). But despite his mother's best efforts to raise a politically correct socialist, little Joe (Richard Roxburgh) grows to be more interested in his own power than that of the people.

Fierce comic acting, especially from Davis, does not prevent writer-director Peter Duncan from poignantly addressing the delusions and disillusionment communism triggered. Smart, sad and astonishingly funny, ``Children of the Revolution'' may be the best thing Karl Marx ever inspired.

?13- Bob Strauss

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) ``The Bald Eagle'' is one of 52 original drawings in watercolor by artist and explorer Mark Catesby on display at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens beginning Sunday.

(2) Rachel Griffiths and Richard Roxburgh in the Australian political satire ``Children of the Revolution.''

(3) On Saturday, the Wild Colonials offer melodic pop at the Opium Den.