This week, in our curated compendium of upcoming events from the Buzz calendar, we provide our usual short list of highlights for the coming weekend…talk about the vast number of family-friendly events in our part of Los Angeles (too many of which we don’t get to highlight often enough in this column)…and finish up with our local film list for the next three days.
Weekend Highlights
This week it’s hard to pick just one fun thing per day, so here’s a quick list of two or three highlights for each day of the weekend:
Friday
For the literary minded, Chevalier’s Books is holding a book talk from 6-7pm with author A. H. Kim discussing her new book Relative Strangers. Local favorite author Julia Claiborne Johnson (Be Frank with Me) is the interlocutor.
Meanwhile, over at the Petersen Automotive Museum, attendees will be scrambling to get out after getting in, as the museum turns itself into a mysterious, puzzle-solving escape room from 7-10pm.
Saturday
In the morning, the Miracle Mile Residential Association invites you to join in one of its periodic Operation Sparkle cleanups of Wilshire Blvd. If you’d like to help out, meet at Wilshire Green Park (affectionately known as the “turtle park” to local parents and toddlers), 8th & Sierra Bonita, at 9 am. All ages welcome.
From 10am-12pm, the The Frank Lloyd Wright Garden Symposium, at the Ebell of Los Angeles (743 S. Lucerne Blvd.) will “examine how Frank Lloyd Wright and other early twentieth-century architects responded to the Southern California landscape and climate and how they invite us to think about contemporary issues in gardening.”
And finally, there’s the annual Taste of Hollywood event from 5-8pm, a fundraiser for Pacific Clinics at its Hollygrove Campus (815 N. El Centro Ave.). The menu features culinary creations from some of LA’s finest celebrity chefs. Participating restaurants include Connie & Ted’s, Momed, Border Grill, Antico, BADMAASH, Phorage, Maple Block, Jaybird, Salt & Straw, and Shake Shack.
Sunday
On Sunday, the focus is on music, and fans have a couple of great choices: the Holocaust Survivor Band, playing at the Holocaust Museum LA at 3:00 pm…and the Grand Kyiv Ballet performing Giselle at the Wilshire Ebell Theater at 7:00 pm.
Keeping the Kids Happy
As many of our local parents know, our part of Los Angeles features some of the best activities in the city for kids, teens, and the whole family. And our Buzz calendar keeps up with as many as we can, including offerings from our four (yes, four!) local branch libraries, museums large and small, and more. Many of these kid-friendly events don’t make it into our weekly highlight column very often because they’re smaller and often ongoing every week or month, so they lack the urgency and flash of some bigger happenings. But sometimes small and ongoing is just what you’re looking for, especially when you want to help keep the kids happy, exploring, learning, and playing. This weekend alone, for example, our neighborhood (and slightly beyond) offers an abundance of activities for kids, teens, and their parents to enjoy:
Friday
3 pm – Chess Club – All ages welcome – Memorial Branch Library (4625 W. Olympic Blvd.)
3:30 pm – Creative Minds After School Arts & Crafts – ArtLounge Art Collective (145 N. La Brea Ave.)
Saturday
11am – Storytelling and Reading with a STAR Volunteer – Wilshire Branch Library (149 N. St. Andrews Pl.)
11 am – Adopt Your New Reading Buddy at the Library – Visit with available pets…and maybe bring one home – Memorial Branch Library
11:30 am – Dinosaur Encounters Sensory Friendly Show – A version of the popular large-scale puppet show with lights brighter and sounds lower than regular performances – Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
2:00 pm – Fairfax Science Fest – Learn about insects, rockets, seeds, plants, and more – Fairfax Branch Library (161 S. Gardner St.)
2:00 pm – Jason and the Argonauts Screening – An old fashioned family matinee with stop-motion animation by the legendary Ray Harryhausen – New Beverly Cinema (7165 Beverly Blvd.)
2:00 pm – Griffith Park Star Party – Visitors of all ages can explore a variety of telescopes set up for viewing outside the observatory – Griffith Park Observatory
5:00 pm – Bolt Screening – A family-friendly animated favorite – Autry Museum of the American West
Sunday
9:00 am – Sensory Morning at the Broad – Smaller crowds, quieter galleries, adjusted sound and lighting, and sensory bags available with noise-cancelling headphones and sensory touch items available, for guests of all ages – The Broad Museum
9:00 am – Junior League of Los Angeles’ 5th Annual Touch a Truck – Includes a lifeguard patrol truck, garbage truck, trackless train, fire truck, LAPD patrol car, Jurassic Park Jeep, Xos electric truck, Star Track Tour bus, and mini digger – Westfield Fashion Square (Sherman Oaks)
10:00 am – Kids’ Art Class: Focus on Painting – LACMA
12:30 pm – Andell Family Sundays: Earth Day Collage Upcycle Workshop – LACMA
1:30 pm – Craft Lab Family Workshop: Upcycled Soft Sculptures with Melora Garcia – Craft Contemporary
2:00 pm – Family matinee: Jason and the Argonauts – New Beverly Cinema
And that’s just what’s available in the next three days. We’ve got many more throughout the week, every week!
This Weekend’s Movies
Local-ish film screenings this weekend include good-old fashioned monster movies, classic romantic comedies, several music-focused documentaries, midnight horror shows, and more. Here’s the list – just click the links for film details and tickets:
Friday
6:30 pm – Holiday & Too Many Husbands (double feature) – New Beverly Cinema
7:30 pm – The Harder They Come – Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
10:00 pm – Trash Humpers – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
11:59 pm – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – New Beverly Cinema
Saturday
10:00 am – The First Omen – New Beverly Cinema
2:00 pm – Leviathan & Sweetgrass (double feature) – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
2:00 pm – Jason and the Argonauts – New Beverly Cinema
5:00 pm – Bolt – Autry Museum of the American West
6:30 pm – Mothra & The H Man (double feature) – New Beverly Cinema
7:00 pm – Jackass The Movie – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
10:00 pm – Gimme Shelter – American Cinemtheque at the Egyptian Theatre
11:59 pm – The Craft – New Beverly Cinema
Sunday
10:00 am – The First Omen – New Beverly Cinema
12:00 pm – Titicut Follies – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
2:00 pm – The Wild One – Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
2:00 pm – Jason and the Argonauts – New Beverly Cinema
5:00 pm – Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
6:30 pm – Mothra & The H Man (double feature) – New Beverly Cinema
7:30 pm – Julius Caesar – Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
7:30 pm – Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre
Lastly, as always, we’d like to remind you that if you don’t see something in this column that interests you, there are many more events to explore on our larger Buzz calendar – full of great things to do every day of every week. You can also add your own events here, free of charge, at any time.
Have a great weekend!