Wednesday, February 27, 2013

African American History: Beyond the Month of February

The California African American Museum currently has African American
Military Portraits from the American Civil War.
Pictured: Unidentified African American Soldier in Union uniform with
wife and two daughters. From Library of Congress.
February may be African American History Month, but this doesn't mean that you can't continue the exploration of African American history, stories, and culture throughout the year.  Check out these events and destinations to keep the experience going!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

LA Times Travel Show at LA Convention Center on February 23 and 24

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What I like best about the LA Times Travel show this upcoming weekend at the LA Convention Center are the culinary presentations and hearing from travel authors.  Thus, even if you are not planning on doing any travelling, other than from an armchair, attending this Travel Show can be lots of fun for all ages.  You can go to the LA Times Travel Show official website to see the entire schedule, but what I make an effort to see are the cooking demonstrations and authors that will be speaking as shown below.  Not to be missed is Andrew McCarthy on Sunday, talking about his new book, The Longest Way Home.  Below he is pictured with Don George, former North American Editor for Lonely Planet Books and now Special Features Editor at Gadling.com, at the Annual Book Passage Travel Writing and Photographers Conference in Corde Madera.

Andrew McCarthy and Don George at Book Passage

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

FIDM Museum Annual Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition

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For the 21st year the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Museum and Galleries showcases, up close and personal, costumes from a wide range of 2012 movies at their campus in the South Park neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles until April 27, 2013.  If you love going to the movies, then this is a must see exhibit, and it is even free, although donations are greatly appreciated.   Plus, they have one of the best museum stores in all of Los Angeles, showing unique items from many former students. The FIDM exhibition and store is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm.

This year FIDM has all five of the movies nominated for an Academy Costume Design Oscar, and eight of the fifteen movies nominated in the Costume Guild's three categories of competition.  My embedded Flickr slideshow gives one a walk through of the motion picture costumes on exhibit, and if you are on an iPad, click here.



As I write this, the Costume Guild will be having their award dinner tonight to announce their three winners.  For each of the categories, my predictions for Costume Guild awards would be Skyfall, Anna Karenina, and Mirror Mirror. [Update on morning after: My predictions were correct.]

Monday, February 18, 2013

The Revivalists Return to L.A. to Play the Roxy on February 20th

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For those who missed the New Orleans based The Revivalists during their 2012 Los Angeles area visits to Club Nokia and The Mint, there is another chance to see them live as they headline at The Roxy Theatre on Sunset Blvd on Wednesday night, February 20,2013.  You can read my prior ExperienceLA blog post on The Revivalists here.  Tickets are still available and can be purchased from the Roxy website link for $12.50.  They will be appearing with four other bands, and so I am not sure exactly when The Revivalists will come on stage.  Doors open at 7:15 pm.  Not previously shared on my last ExperienceLA blog post was my own YouTube video of The Revivalists playing in the New Orleans area which is embedded below, and if trouble viewing is linked here.

 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

GRAMMY and Hyundai Emerging Musician Competition: CENTERSTAGE

CENTERSTAGE announced during Grammy weekend it's competition for three emerging music artists to be discovered and then mentored by Grammy award winning musicians.  The competition has a very small window for submitting, with performances to be uploaded on the CENTERSTAGE  site by February 19, 2013.  The underlying web platform powering this competition is the GRAMMY Amplifier engine.  At a recent press conference, shortly before the Social Media Rock Stars Summit that officially kicked off the live web streaming of Grammy weekend, the Grammy Recording Academy and Hyundai announced the competition with Mike Shinoda, member of Linkin Park representing the mentors.  Incidentally, Linkin Park is the number one band on Facebook with almost 50 million fans. Representing The Recording Academy was Evan Greene, CMO, and representing Hyundai was Jon Budd, Senior Group Manager of New Media Hyundai. The three are shown in this picture with Mike in middle, Evan on left, and Jon on right.

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

24th STreet Theatre: Walking the Tightrope

Walking the Tightrope is sophisticated children's theater that recently opened at the 24th STreet Theatre in the West Adams community near USC that will run on Saturdays through March 30, 2013.  The reasonably priced play is just over an hour, and one can catch a 2 pm or 7:30 pm performance.  According to the nonprofit theater's Executive Director, Jay McAdams, it is very rare to find this quality of children's theater in the Los Angeles area; in fact the British playwright, Mike Kenny, was quite surprised to learn that the 24th STreet Theatre had decided to fully produce his play. Even though the play is intended for children, dealing with a subject that all of us, unfortunately, are forced to confront at various stages of life, it works for both young children and adults alike.  The play brought tears to all of the adults in the small theater.  When I went to see the play, I had no idea as to the theme, but it became apparent within the first 10 minutes.  Do I need a spoiler alert?

Thursday, February 07, 2013

FREE February Kid-Friendly Events

The Littlest Musicians by Lucyrk in LA
From the ExperienceLA Flickr Pool
Heading out with the kids doesn't have to be an expensive adventure!  Organizations and destinations throughout Los Angeles offer a wide-variety of kid-friendly events from arts and crafts to nature outings to festive celebrations.  Here are a few in February we thought were pretty fun...and free!  

-Charity Tran

Craft a Valentine (Card)!: Bring the kids out to this free event to craft a valentine for someone special!  
Date/Time: 02/09/2013 - 10AM-12PM
Location: One Colorado (Old Pasadena)
Cost: FREE

Art Workshop Beads of Faith: Ronald Jackson facilitates a beading workshop to create personalized ornaments of faith.  This art workshop is for all ages! 
Date/Time: 02/09/2013 - 2PM-4PM
Location: California African American Museum (Downtown LA)
Cost: FREE

Chinese New Year Festival - Year of the Snake: Celebrate the Year of the Snake in Chinatown Los Angeles with a parade, festival, food, and activities for all ages! The event includes an attempt to break the world record for paper folding! 
Date/Time: 02/16/2013 from 12PM-8PM; 02/17/2013 from 12PM-6PM
Location: Los Angeles Chinatown (Downtown LA)
Cost: FREE

Whale of a Weekend: Highlighting the annual migration of the Pacific gray whale, this event allows kids (and adults) of all ages to learn more about whales and engage in activities and events.  You might even  see whales from  the west end observation deck!
Date/Time: 02/16-02/17/2013 - 12:30PM-5PM BOTH DAYS
Location: Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium (Santa Monica)
Cost: FREE for children 12 and under; Admission for other ages is $5 suggested donation ($3 admission per person required) 

Free Bus Trip to the Mountains: Solstice Canyon: Take a fun, free day trip with the family exploring Solstice Canyon - just make sure to pack a lunch and bring water!  
Date/Time: 02/23/2013 - 9AM-4PM
Location: Vista Hermosa Natural Park (Santa Clarita) 
Cost: FREE

"Make it and Take It" Craft Class for Kids: Sit by the ocean at Dockweiler Beach and enjoy a free craft project.  For kids 0-12 years old, accompanied with an adult
Date/Time: Every Saturday until 2014; 11AM-1PM
Location: Dockweiler Youth Center (South Bay)
Cost: FREE

For more events ideas, visit the ExperienceLA.com Calendar of Events!