Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

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)

Monday, February 20, 2012

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.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

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. 





Thursday, February 16, 2012

Photos: Olvera Street and Aztec Dancers at El Pueblo

IMG_2046A 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

Thursday, February 09, 2012

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.


Wednesday, February 08, 2012

"Red Hot Patriot" is a Must-See

1308185239_RedHotPatriot_iconThere's something incredible about the one-woman play.  It lays somewhere in the intimacy of the experience that calls into bright focus the power of the single actor and their story.  When that actress is Kathleen Turner as Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot, the experience is magnified, not only because Turner is an incredible actress, but because Molly Ivins herself had such a larger than life persona as a boldly critical, out-spoken, and witty reporter...and a human being.

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

"No Good Deed" packs a punch, graphic-novel style

Photo by Anthony Masters Photography, courtesy of [Inside] the Ford

In the 1980s, singer Bonnie Tyler longed for a hero in her song, "I Need A Hero." In 2012, playwright Matt Pelfrey examines the consequences of becoming a modern-day hero in the play, "No Good Deed." Told in the style of a graphic novel, the play follows the story of a high-schooler, Josh Jaxson, who rises as a hero and falls as a tragic story on the local news.