Lucent Dossier Experience Plays Palace Theatre on Thursday Night

Unless you already know the downtown Los Angeles based Lucent Dossier you may be wondering what all the excitement is about regarding their show at the newly renovated Palace Theatre on Broadway on Thursday evening, July 28th. Having a chance to watch a couple of scenes from a dress rehearsal of the Lucent Dossier Experience show (and tickets are still available) brought back memories of other great performance art. A decade ago I stumbled upon the Certaldo International Festival of Street Artists, one of the premiere festivals in Italy featuring the best streets artists from all over Europe coming to perform in this medieval Tuscan town. The Certaldo festival organizers were proud of having collected the best of European performance artists featuring actors, musicians, jugglers, fire acts, acrobatics, etc. and bringing it all to the medieval center of this Tuscan hilltop town reachable by a funicular railway. But you don't need to travel to Italy, you can discover this same range of talents at the historic Palace Theatre on Broadway on Thursday for a one night show of the Lucent Dossier Experience.

Thus, I felt transported to another time and place watching these talented performance artists showing up on the Palace Theatre stage that dates itself to an era of Al Jolson and other vaudeville acts from the early 1900s. This 1,000 seat venue that recently played to four sellout crowds of Sunset Blvd from the Los Angeles Conservancy Last Remaining Seats is a perfect venue to become engrossed in the myriad talents that will be displayed on this stage. The music showcasing violins was captivating. As I write this, there are still tickets available, and check out this show that starts at 8:30 pm. There is plenty of time to eat at one of the many new trendy restaurants in downtown Los Angeles, and you can even ride our own Angels Flight funicular railway to the top of Cal Plaza while exploring the downtown renaissance. Then arrive early for the performance and explore the Palace Theatre and think what the future of Bringing Back Broadway will bring using this great performance space.

Here is a link to some of the pictures I took at Lucent Dossier Experience press preview, but not including the even more spectacular use of fire pictures, so that the audience can be surprised on Thursday night. But after Thursday, I will share a few.

Shrek the Musical: An "ogre"-dose of fun

Burping. Farting. Air-guitar. No, this is not a description of my husband's and his buddies' man-cave joys. This is "Shrek the Musical," the theatrical adaptation of DreamWorks' 2001 award-winning CG film, "Shrek."

Experience LA in New Ways for Carmageddon #xlagoodcarma

Pink Sunset on Wilshire Blvd by intellichick | ExperienceLA Flickr Pool

There's something I've always known about Los Angeles, a lesson about LA that I find my way back to, but is always nice to learn. 

Send #xlagoodcarma and win!

It seems these days just about everyone in L.A. is thinking about Carmageddon, ExperienceLA.com included (And not just L.A. My brother-in-law in Mississippi and my family in MN are even talking about it!). Much of the talk seems to focus on the impending chaos that will accompany the I-405 closure. Well, we want to try and sprinkle some positivity into this weekend by sending 'xlagoodcarma' (ha! get it?). We're running an XLAGoodCarma giveaway, and here's how you can enter for your chance to win a complimentary dinner for two at WEST Restaurant and Lounge in Hotel Angeleno, now through Monday, July 18. Good luck! --Julie

Taking in a "Sunset" LA-style #SunsetStrip

Now that summer has officially kicked off, we're sure your social calendar is packed with all kinds of fun. How could it not be, especially when you have XLA to present you with our "Summer Ideas" series?

Especially for the music lovers, this selection of events features the famous Sunset Strip, music, and beer (*Note: This is not part of our  regular "Summer Ideas" series, and not all events listed are free). 

LA Street Food Fest Provides the Cure for "Carmageddon!"

Experience LA's diverse cultures one bite at a time with LA Street Food Fest as they present their 2nd annual summer tasting event happening at the Rose Bowl on July 16th. The event will feature a curated selection of street inspired eats from numerous vendors including the city's best gourmet trucks, old school carts, stands, celeb chefs, live entertainment, demos and more.

Carmageddon Survival Kit: A Collective Post of the Coming (Car)Apocalypse

And this is on a regular day...
Photo - Establishing Shot: The 405 by Atwater Village Newbie from the ExperienceLA Flickr Pool

We do our fair share of rooting for public transit, but sometimes events kind of speak the message for themselves. Carmageddon?  Carpocalypse?  Whatever you're calling the 53-hour closure of the I-405, it probably doesn't sound like a pretty commute (even if naming the event has felt like all kinds of fun).

But we've been getting ready for this event for weeks - sorting, collecting, gathering - to present to you your Carmageddon Survival Kit!

Read on for

• Background Info
• Public Transit Info
• Carmageddon Survival Ideas & Tips

Summer Ideas: "The Wilshire Slides, 1978-79" #Free

Take a visual historical tour of Wilshire Boulevard at this free event this Saturday at the Central Library!  These photo slides were donated to the Los Angeles Public Library in 2010 by Annie Laskey.

The photos were the outcome of an after-school project by then-teenager Laskey and her mother in 1978-1979.  The assignment?  "An informal photo survey of Wilshire Boulevard from downtown to the ocean."

The Greencards Playing at The Mint on Tuesday July 5

The other day I got a friend request on Facebook from Kym Warner and at first didn't recognize the name. But I qucikly realized that this was Kym from The Greencards who I had seen back at Stagecoach 2008 and had included them in my blog post for ExperienceLA.com back then. Now I suspect the reason he friended me was that I might then discover that The Greencards were coming to play in Los Angeles at The Mint on Tuesday, July 5.

I had a chance to make it to another concert at The Mint several years back, and I did a blog post on that concert featuring Broke Down Cadillac and opening act Smith and Pyle. So in honor of the Greencards coming to The Mint, I uploaded some of these The Greencards Stagecoach 2008 pictures to flickr for this blog post.

Sarah Jarosz at Long Beach Fingerprints

I have my Tivo player set to record all episodes of Austin City Limits, and thus I discovered the repeat performance of Sarah Jarosz as the second act following Steve Martin and his banjo. Sarah is an amazing American roots musician just having turned 20 hailing from Texas. She just had "Follow Me Down" her second CD released in May 2011 and the first one ("Song Up in Her Head") released in 2009 by Sugar Hill Records in Santa Monica. This recent Austin City Limits broadcast was a repeat of the original performance from October 2010.

Trying to find out more about Sara Jarosz, I discovered that she was coming to the Los Angeles area in June to play McCabe's Guiter Shop in Santa Monica and the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. However, when I bought the Follow Me Down CD at Fingerprints in Long Beach, they told me that she was also doing an in store appearance after playing San Diego and my purchase entitled me to attend the 50 minute concert (and here is the link to my Sarah Jarosz Fingerprint pictures on flickr).