VENTURA COUNTY This Weekend

Family

Popular trio Parachute Express, winner of the 1999 Indie Award for best children’s music (for “Dr. Looney’s Remedy”), will perform Friday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, as part of the Conejo Valley Children’s Concert Series.

* Parachute Express, Friday, 6:30 p.m., Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Kavli Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. $8.50. 492-2522.

Viola-Piano

Violist Victor de Almeida, a 1998 New West Symphony Discovery Artist, will join pianist Ronna Binn in concert Sunday afternoon at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The program will include works by Hindemith, Forsyth, Enesco, Paganini and Bergsma.

* Victor de Almeida and Ronna Binn, Sunday, 2:30 p.m., Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Scherr Forum, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Preferred seating, $18; general, $12; senior citizens and students, $6. 449-2787.

Maritime

Ventura County Maritime Museum in Oxnard will open an exhibition of paintings by respected marine artist Ian Marshall on Monday. “The Age of Steam and Steel” includes 25 watercolors of historic steamships. Marshall’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis, Md. A Meet the Artist reception, open to the public, will take place Jan. 14 at 7 p.m.

* Ian Marshall watercolors, opening Monday; daily, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; through March, Ventura County Maritime Museum, 2731 S. Victoria Ave., Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard. Free. 984-6260.

Musical

A touring Kennedy Center musical presentation of Judith Viorst’s children’s book “Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day” will be staged Wednesday and Jan. 13 at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The noontime shows are presented by the Ventura County superintendent of schools and are open to the public.

* “Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day,” Wednesday and Jan. 13, noon, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Scherr Forum, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. $10; groups of 10 or more, $6. All children must have tickets. 388-4411.