This is one of those weekends event-lovers live for. There’s no way you could get to everything that’s happening this weekend, but no matter what you choose, big or small, indoors or outdoors, you just can’t go wrong.
First up, for early risers and hunter-gatherers, is a huge luxury estate sale, running Friday-Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 275 S. Rossmore Ave. in Hancock Park. The roster of specific items for sale is too long to list, but it includes high-end furniture, antiques, a baby grand piano, Chinese art and vases, beds, mirrors, accessories, art (including lithographs by Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali), crystal, dishes, tea sets, barware, candelabras, books, DVDs, records, bathroom accessories, kitchen ware, glassware, outdoor patio furniture, fountains, plants, garden accessories…and more. For a full list, and photos, see the link above.
Next, starting at 10 a.m. and running all day on both Saturday and Sunday, is the California Vegetarian Food Festival, taking place at Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave. Described as “part food festival, part tech conference, part nutrition-and-health summit,” the event features vendors, speakers and demonstrations on vegetarian, vegan and other plant-based fare, by nutritionists, registered dieticians, authors, and chefs…including The Lusty Vegan’s Ayinde Howell and The Vegan Taste chef Jason Wyrick. Also, of course, lots of great food samples!
For another kind of yummy goodness, Salt & Straw, 240 N. Larchmont, will be celebrating its third anniversary all day on Saturday. Celebration fare will include a special ($6) ice cream sandwich made with Mr. Holmes’ Bakehouse’s Cornflake Cookies and Salt & Straw’s Stumptown Coffee with Compartes Love Nuts ice cream. Other festivities will include cornhole games, live music, and pedicab rides up and down the block from 7-9 p.m.
A bit further out, starting at noon on Saturday, the Central Library, in downtown LA, will host the official opening of its new exhibition Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A., in the Library’s Rotunda. Bring your family and friends to celebrate and experience the new murals commissioned for Central Library by the Oaxacan artist collective Tlacolulokos. There will be music from Grupo Folklórico Guish Bac and Banda Grandeza Oaxaqueña, a stencil workshop with artists from Tlacolulokos at 3:00 p.m., a popsicle cart in the courtyard, and special exhibition tours. Everyone is welcome and no RSVPs are required.
By far the biggest event on Saturday, though, will be the 15th annual TarFest celebration, in Hancock Park, adjacent to (of course) the La Brea Tar Pits. From 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., enjoy musical performances, live artworks and installations, children’s art activities, gourmet food trucks, an outdoor bar and more. The event is free and open to all ages, with no reservations required. Members of the Natural History Family of Museums (including the La Brea Tar Pits Museum), can also enjoy an exclusive after-hours Members Lounge, with more music, a VIP bar, and behind-the-scenes tours of the Fossil Lab, Ice Age walkabouts, and other special activities. And, of course, the museum will also be open as usual during regular business hours.
For something a bit quieter, you can just cross the street to the Craft and Folk Art Museum, where the Yarn Bombing Los Angeles Knit Graffiti Collective will be holding its monthly meeting from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday. Knitters (of all skill levels!) are invited to come and share projects and good conversation. The meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, see the YBLA link above.
Also at CAFAM at 3 p.m. on Saturday, you could join CAFAM curator of public engagement Andres Payan, with artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Cog*nate Collective, for a discussion about growing up in different areas of the U.S.-Mexico border. (The event is part of the huge Pacific Standard Time event – see the listing below for more information on that one.) Space is limited, so RSVPs are required at [email protected]. Admission is free, though, with paid museum admission.
Meanwhile, if you prefer crocheting to knitting, head over to the John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave., where there will be a free crocheting class open to all skill levels, and all ages over 7, from 3:30 to 5 p.m.. Just bring some yarn, a crochet needle (if you have one), and your enthusiasm.
Finally, on Saturday evening, the American Cinemathque is offering a couple of fun vintage film screenings at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.. First is a double feature of “Repo Man” and “Death Watch,” starting at 7:30 p.m. The show honors legendary actor Harry Dean Stanton, who plays a veteran repo warhorse breaking in new repo man Emilio Estevez in the first film…and an evil TV exec trying to exploit Romy Schneider’s fatal illness in the second.
Also at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian, on another screen, will be a showing of Universal Studios’ 1923 super-production, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” with its classic portrayal of Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, by Lon Chaney, Sr.. Special guest Dave Slaughter will also be on hand with the untold story of his grandfather, silent movie actor John Gough, and his brief-but-memorable role in the film. There will also be live musical accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.
For those who aren’t already exhausted by Saturday’s offerings, Sunday is just as jam-packed this week.
It starts with Big Sunday’s 5th Annual Books‘n Brunch event, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Big Sunday headquarters, 6111 Melrose Ave. The charitable organization has been collecting thousands of new and gently-used books of all kinds, which will be sorted and distributed to all kinds of schools, headstart programs, group homes, senior and veterans centers and other non-profits. All ages are welcome to attend and help out. Volunteer registrations are full at the moment, but you can contact [email protected] to be put on a waiting list…or to donate books or funding for the event.
One of the two big events on Sunday is a massive free museum day to celebrate the opening of this year’s Pacific Standard Time show – a huge, coordinated set of exhibitions at more than 70 museums and other cultural institutions throughout Southern California, this year focusing on Latin American and Latino art. In addition to Free Day, there will be hundreds of ongoing exhibits, public programs and special events from now through January 2018, on everything from Mexican cooking demonstrations to pyrotechnic performances. Free museums in our area on Sunday include LACMA and CAFAM, but check the list for others not too far away.
The second big event on Sunday, at least in our general area, is the return of the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society’s home tour, this year focusing on St. Andrews Square. From 12- 4 p.m., come enjoy a rare opportunity to tour restored St. Andrews Place homes, built in the early 1900s, featuring Craftsman architecture. There will also be refreshments, an antique car show, guest speakers and entertainment from Bob Baker’s Marionettes. Tickets are $40 for the general public, and $30 for WSHPHS members. Tickets will be available at the check-in table at St. Andrews Place and 2nd Street. Parking is available all day at the St. Brendan’s School parking lot, on Manhattan Place between 2nd and 3rd. You can also park in the St. Brendan’s Church parking lot at 3rd and Wilton from 1-4 p.m. Please wear flat shoes with soft soles. Also, unfortunately, the tour homes are not handicap accessible…and photography of the homes is not allowed.
Later, for those who love interesting footnotes to history (not to mention silent films), the American Cinemathque and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles will host a fun program on soda fountains on Sunday afternoon, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The event begins at 3:30 p.m. with an old fashioned ice cream social in the theater courtyard, followed by a 5 p.m. illustrated lecture on the history of the soda fountain by vintage ice cream man Cary Farnsworth. Then, at 6 p.m., they’ll screen the classic silent film, “Speedy,” starring Harold Lloyd as a baseball-obsessed soda jerk who becomes a cab driver.
And finally on Sunday, neighbors who have been wondering what’s happening at 540 N. Larchmont Blvd., where the old building that used to house the Larchmont Chronicle was demolished a while back, and a very modern new building is rising in its place, you can come to a neighborhood meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, where the owners and publishers of Flood magazine, owners of the new building, will discuss a big new mural project they’re planning for the north side of the building.
Have a great – busy – weekend!
