As we get closer and closer to that June 15th reopening date, it’s a good week to take advantage of limited capacities and online events while you can. This week you can take part in a virtual house tour with the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society, see a classic movie in an old downtown theater, and more.
Arts & Culture
The GRAMMY Museum reopens this week and features new exhibits including Motown: The Sound of Young America and Dave Matthews Band: Inside and Out. Tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance.
The Museum of Neon Art is going on the road: specifically Sunset Boulevard. Starting May 21st, more than 16 artists will be sharing 22 neon art pieces in the Hollywood Palladium windows – described as “are kinetic, interactive and thoughtful reflections on the past year of stops and starts” – as well as a work from MONAs historic sign collection, in an exhibition titled OFF//ON. The museum has also organized a special Hollywood neon walking tour on Thursday, May 27th in honor of the exhibition.
On Saturday, May 22nd at 11:00 p.m. you can see Scarface and Carlito’s Way in 35mm at the historic and rarely open Million Dollar Theater downtown with the Secret Movie Club. Park (and eat) at Grand Central Market and take advantage of being one of only 200 people inside the 2,000 seat auditorium.
For an outdoor movie experience, check out Street Food Cinema Club’s screening of La La Land at LA State Historic Park on Saturday, May 22nd at 8:30 p.m. Sit in socially distanced pods while you watch the movie (bring a sweater), and get dinner at Cargo Snack Shack and desserts from Dreamy Creations’ food truck.
For a taste of Italian food and culture, join the Ebell of Los Angeles at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 28, for “Live from Tuscany!” the latest in the club’s Foodie Fridays series. This “cooking lesson and virtual travel experience from the hills above Lucca, Italy,” will feature hosts Celia and Enzo Cammarota, known for their Piazza Talk Lucca culinary series on You Tube. Via Zoom, the couple will welcome participants into the kitchen of their centuries-old villa, Mura di Sotto, where Enzo will demonstrate “how to make a homemade maccheroni pasta without the benefit of a pasta maker, topped with…white ragu sauce,” while Celia will “tell us some fascinating stories of their ancient and charming Tuscan village of Benabbio.” The program is free, and registration is available at the link above.
Community & History
If you’ve ever admired the mosaics on the former Masonic Temple on Wilshire Blvd., or any of the old Home Savings bank buildings around the city, you can learn more about the artist, Millard Sheets, on Monday, May 24, as the Ebell also hosts “The Creative Multiverse of Millard Sheets,” a 12 p.m. The talk, by veteran arts and culture journalist Victoria Lautman, will provide a “deep dive into Sheets’ life to discover the astonishing range of his work that extends far beyond his many 1930s and 1940s paintings and all the sleek mid-century banks and mosaics punctuating the West Coast.” The event is free, with registration at the event link above.
And the Ebell just keeps going this week with “LGBTQAI+ and What it All Means,” at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26. The program will feature “leaders from Camp Brave Trails who will talk about identity, advocacy and education with the next generation of the LGBT+ community,” and answer the questions, “What does each letter in the acronym stand for? How are gender and sex different? How can you be an ally to the queer community?” Also free, with registration at the event link.
Meanwhile, Japan Foundation Los Angeles is celebrating the full moon this week with an evening version of “Wellness Wednesdays” on Wednesday, May 26th at 6:20 p.m. The instructors will join together for a virtual evening of yoga and meditation live via JFLA’s Facebook page to “stretch your body by Hikaru’s English & Japanese instruction while absorbing sounds by Yuki’s Japansese singing bowls” and embrace “the full moon power [which] will help to release your stress and give you energy!”
The Windsor-Square Hancock Park Historical Society presents a “Virtual Home Tour” on Wednesday, May 26th at 7:00 p.m. of 303 N. June Street. The house “is loaded with Los Angeles lineage and colorful history” and “has been wonderfully restored and is now loaded with beautiful antiques and stories to go with each one.” The event will feature an interview and guided tour by WSHPHS President Richard Battaglia and home owner Joseph Guidera. Tickets are $26.25 for members and $36.50 for non-members.
For book lovers this week, Chevalier’s welcomes Spencer McBride on Wednesday, May 26th at 7:00 p.m. for an online discussion of his book Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom, which “tells the story of Joseph Smith’s quixotic but consequential run for the White House and shows how his calls for religious freedom helped to shape the American political system we know today.”
Finally, the Ebell is back in action again on Friday, May
Local Government
Lots of Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council committee meetings happening this week starting with the Transportation Committee on Monday May 24th at 7:00 p.m. The Land Use Committee meets on Tuesday, May 25th at 6:30 p.m. and the Quality of Life Committee on Wednesday, May 26th at 7:00 p.m.
