A Simply Stylish Saturday

In case you've been looking to infuse your Saturday afternoon with a dose of fashion-fueled fun, then we've got just the event for you. Simply Stylist has opened its doors to the public (finally!) and is offering a celebrity-hosted luncheon (ClosetRich.com's Elizabeth Kott to be exact) and seminar THIS Saturday, March 3rd at the W Hotel in Hollywood.

Hollywood CityPASS and Aquarium of the Pacific added to survey prizes

New prizes: Hollywood CityPASS and Aquarium of the Pacific

We're happy to share that we've just added some outstanding prizes to our already awesome list of rewards for taking our user survey. Thanks to LA Inc. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau and CityPASS for contributing several Hollywood CityPASS cards, and to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach for a pair of passes to the aquarium.

Take our survey and win prizes!

The ExperienceLA user survey has launched! Now through March 19, give us your two cents, and be entered for a chance to win some great prizes.

Each year, we ask for input from our users about your experience using our services, whether it's our events calendar, Metro Trip Planner, giveaways and promotions, Facebook, Twitter, WiFi, etc. Your thoughts are important to us, as they allow us to improve our communication and outreach to keep you better informed of things happening in and around your community. (Take our survey)

For the Love of Music: DTLA Celebrates Black History Month With a Bit of Soul

Get ready to groove your socks off during Thursday's Homage: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble featuring Phil Cohran event at Exchange LA. Presented by Edgar Varela of EVFA and ArtDontSleep, this is the second live music collaboration between the two aficionados in the former 1929 Stock Exchange building. Gathering such prominent jazz and soul artists as the Chicagoan 8-brother troupe that makes up the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, trumpet-playing AACM (that's: Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, of course) cofounder Phil Cohran, and Philly's own William Hart of the Delfonics, this is a must-see performance of 2012. Joining the illustrious cast will be KCRW's Anthony Valadez and dj's Spinna & Lefto on Exchange LA's state-of-the-art sound and lighting system.

Special event: Love Never Dies (The Phantom of the Opera sequel)

Valentine's Day may be over, but we're still feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at NCM Fathom and Omniverse Vision, ExperienceLA has received four passes to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies in theatres on February 28th. To share this love, we're hosting a Twitter contest to send two of our lucky followers to see the first ever US showing of Love Never Dies, the highly anticipated sequel to the Broadway classic: The Phantom of the Opera. 

Photos: Olvera Street and Aztec Dancers at El Pueblo

A quick walk across the street from Union Station gets you to El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, LA's birthplace.  It's a great place for both native Angeleno and tourist alike - with plenty of sights and sounds to take in.  On this particular day after roaming through the vendor stalls of colorful souvenirs (and picking up a mini guitar for myself), I happened to come across Aztec Dancers performing in the area.  Their colorful costumes and the sound of drums is a memorable experience I hope everyone can find themselves discovering.  I was certainly glad that it was an unexpected addition to my Los Angeles experience that day.

-Charity Tran

Revisiting my childhood with OVO

Ants: Foot juggling/icarian games from "OVO"
Image courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

They never cease to amaze. OVO is the latest Cirque du Soleil show to come through the Santa Monica Pier under the Grand Chapiteau. It is, by far, the most whimsical show I've seen in the Cirque du Soleil repertoire, with beautiful, brightly colored costumes and playful characters.

OVO is a journey into the world of bugs. It is part love story, part adventure, and pure imagination. The initial thought of "insects" doesn't necessarily scream "beauty" for many of us. Leave it to the talented people at Cirque du Soleil, however, to change your mind. For a brief moment, I imagined myself as a young child again, and one who happened to stumble upon a secret world of insects trying to figure out this mysterious egg which has entered their realm.