FREE Holiday Eve Fares with Metro

Go Metro for the holidays!  Safely travel for free using all Metro bus and rail lines* this holiday season for the periods of:

• 9PM on Tuesday, December 24, 2013 until 2AM Wednesday, December 25, 2013
• 9PM on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 until 2AM Wednesday, January 1, 2014

*Note: Metro Rail will close per its regular schedule around midnight (12 AM) on December 24th, but late-night buses will be free during this time. All Metro Rail Lines and the Metro Orange Line are scheduled to operate all night - 24 hour service - every 20 minutes on New Year's Eve with free service for the designated times above.

For more information, visit Metro.

Happy Holidays and safe travels.

-ExperienceLA Staff

Have a FREE Summer, LA!

One of our favorite things about Los Angeles summers is that there are so many free things to do!  It's a great way to head out with family and friends to experience some of Los Angeles' best offerings and discover gems throughout the greater LA area.

Free Summer Concerts and Performances

Grand Performances is one of our summer favorites, always offering not only an eclectic mix of outdoor entertainment, but a great venue for emerging voices and ideas.  This summer is no exception with guests like Las Cafeteras, Uncaberet, children-friendly Bob Baker Marionettes, Mucca Pazza,  Rufus and Friends with Black Light All Stars, Songs in the Key of L.A. with Ozomatli and Friends, Lux Boreal, and many more.

The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors offer a number of free events including Marina del Rey Summer Concerts at Burton Chace Park featuring a wide-range of musical styles and talented artists like Taylor Dayne, Poncho Sanchez, and Rose Royce.  Make sure to also check out their listings for their Farmers' Market, Walking Club, Craft Classes, Yoga Classes, and more! 

FIDM Museum Annual Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition

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.]

December 24 Free Holiday Celebration at the LA Music Center

For the fifty-three year in a row, the LA County Arts Commission is bringing some of the finest performing arts groups to the Los Angeles Music Center for a free public performance during the afternoon of December 24, 2012 from 3 pm to 6 pm.  The LA County Holiday Celebration, includes free parking at the Music Center, and the performances take place inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  Festivities begin on the Music Center plaza at 12:30 pm, to help entertain those in line looking for the best seats.  Seating begins at 2:30 pm, continuing throughout the entire three hour performance period, as most people are there to see their friends and family members, so on average are in the audience for about an hour.  This year for the first time, the adjacent Grand Park will be open, so explore it before or after your visit to the Music Center, and there will even be food trucks. If you can't attend in person, then catch the performance live on KCET-TV, on the radio at KPFK 90.7, or streaming on a computer or mobile device at www.kcet.org.  You can also participate during the live performance in an interactive conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag of: #HCLA. The following 20 performance groups (not in performance order), chosen from among over 500 performing arts organizations throughout Los Angeles County will each perform for approximately six minutes each during the afternoon before Christmas Eve.

Salvation Army Tabernacle Children’s Chorus
Invertigo Dance Theatre
Vox Femina Los Angeles
Elliot Deutsch Big Band
Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble
Las Cafeteras
Palmdale High School Choral Union
Mariachi Sol de Mexico (which can be watched here on YouTube)
Colburn Children’s Choir (not to be missed)
Shin Dance Company (with video embedded below)
South Bay Children's Choir
Vaud and the Villains (also not to be missed: possibly singing Christmas comes to New Orleans)
Immaculate Heart of Mary Children's Choir
Harmonic Bronze Handbell Ensemble
Family Life Sanctuary Choir
Pacifico Dance Company (with picture above)
Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles
Shakti Dance Company
Second Samoan Congregational Church Choir
Double G and Strings

Transit Space combines skateboarding and dance

(Photo by Randall Bass)

When I first heard about L.A.-based and world-renowned Diavolo Dance Theater's resident project at the Music Center, I knew I had to learn more. Skateboarding and dance - how does that work? Similar to MOCA's summer exhibit, Art in The Streets, Transit Space takes an American subculture sometimes frowned upon, and injects it into the world of - for lack of a better word - highbrow art.

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."

Summer Ideas: LBD - A Free Must-See Exhibition to Match Your Must-Have Outfit

The Little Black Dress (LBD) is a dress with a reputation for versatility, fitting in its multiple forms just about any reputation and attitude.  It can be high-end style or elegantly simple.  It can highlight an accessory or require none.  A free petite exhibition at FIDM Museum & Galleries reflects on this versatility while paying homage to the 50th anniversary of Breakfast at Tiffany's where Audrey Hepburn gave this dress new meaning.

Culture and art at your fingertips: Hammer Museum launches a free mobile app

I've already loved the depth and breadth of the Hammer Museum's event calendar, especially when so many are free! Now that they've rolled out a free mobile app to not only help plan my visit, but enhance my experience while I'm there, I see no reason not to go!

Celebrate the Grand Opening of LA Plaza

Los Angeles has always celebrated a rich history of Mexican American culture, but starting this month, a new cultural center will open to serve as its national center - and you can be there!  Opening on April 16th 2011, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes will open its doors from 10am to 4pm for a day-long family celebration.  This FREE event is being made possible by Target. 

MuseumsLA.org: Museums Free-For-All (1/29 and 1/30)

Did you know that the Museums Free-For-All is now a part of LA Arts Month?  The sixth annual Museums Free-For-All is now in the last weekend of January on January 29th and 30th, 2011.  Select museums of the Museums Marketing Roundtable will be opening their doors wide and inviting visitors to attend free of charge.  Enjoy art, cultural heritage, natural history, and science...for free!

A taste of LA (Louisiana, that is) in L.A.

Last Friday evening, my husband and I along with a couple of our friends, hopped aboard the Metro Red Line from North Hollywood and made our way to the Music Center Plaza for some Zydeco dance lessons, all part of the Active Arts at the Music Center's Dance Downtown events. We arrived a little after 6:30 and the plaza was already packed with people dressed up in their cowboy hats and boots having a good time learning dance steps.

Dance Downtown Zydeco and ExperienceLA's Final Dance Video Challenge: 60s Dances

We've been rather fortunate this summer in LA. The weather (so far) has been relatively comfortable, and the evenings nearly downright perfect. So what better way to enjoy the last Friday of July 2010 than dancing under the stars at the Active Arts at the Music Center's Dance Downtown series, where the featured dance style is Zydeco? I know it's where I'll be. Zydeco was also the subject of our latest video contest for July.

And now, our final video contest is "60s Dances." Read on to find out more about this contest and how you can enter to win. (Photo courtesy of Music Center, credit Alex Pitt)

Still time to enter for tickets to Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center

There's still a week left to get your video entries submitted to us for our Zydeco dance video challenge (also mentioned on Culture Spot L.A. and About.com's L.A. Travel section). One winner will be randomly selected and announced at the upcoming Dance Downtown Zydeco night, Friday, July 30 at 6:30PM. (Photo courtesy of Music Center, taken by Alex Pitt)

Flash Mobs and Downtown Drums

"But few things were more curious than what was staged on Friday evening, at the south end of Union Square near East 14th Street. More than a thousand people, most of them young, gathered for a dance party without audible music, known as a silent rave.

It was striking for what could not be heard."
-New York Times, "For 1,000 Solo Dancers, a Soundtrack of Silence"

There's been a phenomenon of flash mobs--public collaborations of silly and harmless, but staged, activities that first started in 2003. Last Friday, 1000 people gathered at NY's Union Square to collectively dance in silence to their own iPod playlists. Back in January, over 200 "Improv Everywhere Agents" simply froze in place at the same time for a duration of five minutes at Grand Central Station.

Can LA do something like this too? Please??

There's just something about these flash mobs... CNN once called the participants "jokers [who] gather en masse at a moment's notice, perform an inane activity and then disperse quickly". But I think there's something deeper than just a propensity for silliness and a beauty in the way a large number of people can come together seemingly out of nowhere, regardless of backgrounds, circumstances, and everyone's independent and oftentimes, me-centric, schedules. For those precious moments, there's an unspoken understanding that time is theirs to share.

But in the meantime, LA does offer great community building events, like the Music Center's "Drum Downtown". Start your Saturday mornings by the beat of your own drum in Drum Downtown's outdoor group drumming experience on the Music Center Plaza. A fun, entry-level experience for all ages creating improvised rhythms and making music in the moment. The first of five Drum Downtown events will be held on Saturday, May 10th from 10:00am to 11:30am.

"Community"... that's the key word in all of this, flash mobs or not.

-Sarah Koo, ExperienceLA Marketing Assistant

Freebie of the Week: Spiritual Warriors, The Film

We love freebies and we're sure you do too.

Starting today, catch free screenings all week long of "Spiritual Warriors"... and get your hands on a free copy of the book that inspired the film, Dr. John-Roger's LA Times #1 bestseller "Spiritual Warrior".

Brief synopsis: "Spiritual Warriors" stars Jsu Garcia as Christopher Finn, a sometimes mob gofer/sometimes actor who eludes police pursuit after a drug deal goes bad. After hiding behind the walls of an opulent estate, Finn is awakened the next morning by an old man who seems to know more about Finn than he possibly could or should...

Screening at Fine Arts Theatre 7pm & 10pm every night. November 19th - 25th.

-ExperienceLA Staff

Less Taxing Situations: Free Coffee and Ice Cream

Los Angeles is famous for some perks. Among them, almost year-round sunshine, diverse arts and cultural offerings, and just about any kind of food you want to find!

A temporary, but fantastic perk? It's also home to a free coffee promotion by Denny's for this year's tax day! April 17th is also Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day...

Denny's Pours Los Angeles A Cup of Coffee
Anytime on Tuesday, April 17th (i.e. that dreaded TAX DAY), customers can visit participating restaurants and receive a free cup of Denny's new Special Blend coffee.

There's even free coffee at select post office locations where sampling teams will be handy with "rocket packs" filled with Denny's new special blend of coffee. Those at Westwood Village will even have the opportunity to get free travel mugs and coupons.

WHEN: TAX DAY - April 17, 2007
WHERE:
7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Post office at 9029 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.: Post office at 10 W Bay State St., Alhambra 10 W Bay State St., Alhambra
11:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.:
11000 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles Westwood Village near Denny's on Triverton Ave.
8:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.: Post office at 9029 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day

This annual event runs from 12pm-2pm on April 17th! Find a participating store near you!

-ExperienceLA Staff