After the big holiday season, and a brief post-holiday lull, the local events schedule is back to a pretty normal pace this weekend – lots to do, and film fans will be particularly happy.
First up on Saturday is a chance to beef up your winter garden, with the January Open House event at Two Dog Organic Nursery, 914 S. Cloverdale Ave., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They’ll have “lots of gorgeous Certified Organic winter veggies, herb and edible flower seedlings, fruit trees, a new batch of blueberries, plus all the Organic soils and products you could need.” Street parking is available, no tickets or appointments are necessary…and they’re even serving refreshments.
Next, for those who’d like to spend part (or all) of the day at the movies, the New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., will start early on both Saturday and Sunday, with its monthly 10 a.m. Cartoon Club.” Enjoy a “feature-length assemblage of classic shorts, including rare gems unearthed from the vaults and other animated antics lovingly assembled from our large archive of film treasures.” Tickets are only $6, and the show is appropriate for all ages. Later, at 2 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, there’s the Japanese favorite Ponyo, in which “acclaimed animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki returns with a delightful fantasy adventure following the relationship between a 5-year-old boy and a young goldfish princess who dreams of becoming human.” (It’s dubbed in English, so no subtitle reading required for the young ones.) And then, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (and 6:30 on Sunday), enjoy the much more adult tale, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film “visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age.”
For some hands-on creativity on Saturday, check out Honey I Blew up the Weavings: A Giant Weaving Workshop with Mimi Haddon, from 1-4 p. m. at the Craft Contemporary. Join fiber artist Haddon to weave, knot, and tie your very own oversized weaving using a variety of fibers, wool roving, and chunky yarn. Advanced registration is required at the link above. The fee is $160 for the public, and $150 for museum members, including materials.
Also starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, LACMA‘s 2016 Art + Technology Lab grant recipeient Kirsten Mosher will conduct Soul Mate 180°—A Tour with Kirsten Mosher . Mosher will explain how she researched LACMA’s antipode, the point on the earth that is diametrically opposed to the museum site. According to the museum, “The other side of the world is marked by an ocean wave, elusive and quantifiable. Mosher explores the tension between the other side as a realm of fantasy and geographic reality. She will discuss her adoption of both old and new technologies in the realization of the artwork and the ideas behind its genesis.” The tour will start on the lawn outside Level 1 of the museum’s BCAM building. It’s free, but reservations are required at the link above.
Yet a third option for 1 p.m. on Saturday is the monthly French Conversation class, taught by a native speaker, at the John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave. Come brush up on your skills, and meet others interested in the language. You can also stay on afterward, as the library will be offering a Street Art T-Shirt design workshop (for adults and teens) starting at 2 p.m. The workshop will be led by Gajin Fujita, who designed the library’s latest art card. It’s also free, but space is limited, so contact the library to sign up in advance.
Moving on to 2 p.m. on Saturday, the American Cinematheque will screen Brian De Palma’s Scarface, the first of a huge slate of movies this weekend at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. In the film, Al Pacino plays “two-bit gangster Tony Montana, who almost singlehandedly creates anarchy in the Miami underworld.” Next, at 4 p.m., there’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, in which “Grant Williams begins to shrink uncontrollably after he’s exposed to nuclear fallout.” Later, at 7:30 p.m., there’s a “creepy double feature” of Rosemary’s Baby and The Other. In the first of those,  New York couple Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes move into a new apartment building with unusual neighbors…and in The Other, “strange happenings begin to swirl around twin boys on a New England farm in the mid-1930s.” Also at 7:30 p.m., on a different screen, there’s Valley of the Eagles, in which a Norwegian scientist discovers his wife has run off with a laboratory assistant and stolen his precious invention. The film fun continues on Sunday, too, with a 90th anniversary screening of The Blue Angel at 1:00 p.m. (Emil Jannings is a repressed professor who falls head-over-heels for bawdy cabaret chanteuse Marlene Dietrich). Then there’s a 30th anniversary screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams at 4:00 p.m. (it’s “an anthology of eight dream episodes adapted from the director’s own nocturnal reveries”), and at 7:30 p.m., the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival Touring Program #1, presenting “some of the best experimental films of 2018 and 2019,” including animated, documentary and narrative videos. Finally, and also at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, there’s a double-feature of
Deliverance and Wake in Fright. In the first, “four friends’ canoeing trip becomes a struggle for survival” as they’re “stalked by a scruffy gang of backwoods neanderthals”…and in the second, “a schoolteacher finds himself stranded in an Outback mining town” in “one of the films that kickstarted a new wave of Australian cinema in the 1970s.”
Meanwhile, for something much less scary, and for those interested in local politics, there’s a CD 10 Candidate Forum, for several candidates hoping to replace City Council District 10 representative Herb Wesson (who’s termed out), in the upcoming city primary. The forum will be held at 3 p.m. at 1041 S. Fairfax Ave., hosted by the Little Ethiopia Democratic Club. Candidates scheduled to appear include Aura Vasquez, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Grace Yoo, and Channing Martinez. Questions for the candidates can be sent in advance to [email protected] for consideration.
Moving on to Sunday, the Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society will hold its Annual Tea at the Ebell of Los Angeles, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd., from 1-4 p.m. Attendees will enjoy guided tours of the historic Ebell, and guest speaker Craig Owens will present excerpts from (and sign) his best-selling book “Haunted by History – Separating The Fact and Legends Of Eight Historic Hotels And Inns In Southern California.” Tickets are $75 for WSHPHS members and $85 for non-members, at the event link above.
Moving from the sublime to the (comparatively) ridiculous on Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., is the 12th Annual No Pants Metro Ride, accessible from rendezvous points at six different Metro subway stations (the closest to us is Wilshire/Western on the Red Line). Requirements include a “willingness to take off pants to ride the Metro,” the ability “to keep a straight face about it” (to remain undercover), and wearing “pants you can easily remove” (be sure to also bring something you can keep them in while riding). Standard Metro fares apply. It’s sponsored by GueriLA and Improv Everywhere, so a sense of humor is also probably a bonus.
Getting more serious again, and starting at 3 p.m. on Sunday, the Natural History Museum will present a free screening of “Polar Extremes,” an upcoming NOVA special hosted by paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History Kirk Johnson. The film “will take viewers on an epic adventure through time at the polar extremes of our planet. Following a trail of strange fossils found in all the wrong places—beech trees in Antarctica, hippo-like mammals in the Arctic—Johnson uncovers the bizarre history of the poles, from miles-high ice sheets to warm polar forests teeming with life. What caused such dramatic changes at the ends of the Earth? And what can the past reveal about our planet’s climate today—and in the future?” Johnson and NOVA producer Caitlin Saks will also be part of a panel discussion at the event. Again, it’s free, but registration is required at the link above.
And finally on Sunday, there’s a second CD 10 Candidate forum, this time co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, the Community Action Mobilization Team, the West Adams Neighborhood Council, and the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP. This one is at Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., from 3-6 p.m.Â
Have a great weekend!
