OK…so after a bit of a lull last week, the crazy-busy holiday event season is now in full firehose mode. On your mark, get set…and start your weekend today!
First up, from 5-8 p.m. this evening (Friday), Larchmont Blvd. businesses Pickett Fences, Muraya and Jeni’s Ice Cream will be participating in a special Larchmont Stroll shopping event to benefit St. Brendan’s School. Mention that you’re a St. Brendan’s family, and a portion of your purchase (20% at Pickett Fences and Muraya, and 25% at Jeni’s) will be donated to the school.
Also starting today (Friday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and continuing both Saturday (9 am. to 2 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) is a big estate sale at 863 S. Gramercy Pl. According to the organizers, “Owners lived in the home “forever!” Father was a dentist. You will find the family humor throughout the home.” Also, a bit sadly: “This home is a teardown, so most everything you see at the home will be for sale.” Items available include collectibles (comics, costume jewelry, designer sunglasses, amber elephants, an egg collection, stamps), furniture and furnishings (Murano glass, mid-century massge chair that still works, Brutalist coffee and side tables, Asian porcelain and cloisonne, lamps, stereo equipment, a Gulbransen Pacemaker organ, Asian paintings and rubbings, Rose Medallion china, Waterford crystal, soapstone carvings, Depression glass, a Midcentury Modern chandelier, other MidMod furniture, more glassware and china, small appliances)…and much, much, much more. Also, it’s worth noting that prices will be 25% off on Saturday, and 50% off on Sunday.
For those who’d rather fill up on food on Saturday morning, the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA) will be hosting a Pancake Breakfast ( 9-11 a.m.) and Market Fair (9 a.m. to 1 p.m).  Breakfast tickets are $5-10, depending on age, and market vendors will include a wide variety of community organizations and businesses, in the fields of art, beauty, clothing, finance, floral/garden, health, home, jewelry, real estate, services, sports, and toys/children. Lots of GALA gear will also be for sale. (Click here for the full list of vendors scheduled to attend.) All proceeds will benefit GALA athletic programs.
Also starting at 9 a.m. is one of several nature-focused events happening on Saturday. This one is a free Compost and Gardening Workshop, hosted by the LA Department of Sanitation at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Environmental Education Center, 5413 S Avalon Blvd. Learn about gardening in urban spaces as well as the many uses of compost and mulch. Workshops are taught by Steve List, a passionate horticulture teacher with more than 40 years experience teaching sustainable urban gardening practices. Participants will also receive free bags of TopGro mulch and soil amendment. The event is free, but space is limited, so please sign up at https://lasancompostsouthla2019.eventbrite.com/ if you’d like to attend.
Just an hour later, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday and much closer to home, at Memorial Branch Library, 4625 Olympic Blvd., you can attend a training session to learn how to use the iNaturalist app and be a citizen scientist contributing to a new Biodiversity Project cataloging local flora and fauna. The effort is sponsored by the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council and the LA Department of Sanitation, and it’s a great way for the whole family to get involved with doing real science. For more information, see the project link above.
Next, and a little bit further afield, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday in Runyon Canyon Park, 2600 Franklin Canyon Drive, you could also attend a workshop for a similar Wildlife Pilot Study taking place across the Hollywood Hills. You’ll learn about the project, and what’s new with it since it was first proposed about a year ago, and find out how you can help provide feedback and support in protecting our urban wildlife and its habitats.
Moving from nature to machine, the Petersen Museum will hold a workshop for kids ages 5-8, called “Little Sparks: Behind the Wheel,” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. “What makes a car a car? Is it alive? Does it have a heartbeat? While it may seem that our cars are alive, they in fact only work because of the system of parts that help the car move.” The session “explores the basic mechanics of cars, and introduces students to the different parts of the car. By looking back at some of the earliest cars to modern day production lines, students not only learn the parts of the car, but also how cars, and their parts, have changed over time.” See the event link above for tickets, which include admission for the child and one required adult chaperone.
Also appropriate for the whole family is the 12th Annual World Fair at Larchmont Charter School, 815 N. El Centro Ave., running from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Come learn about more than 15 countries from around the world through a day of fun activities including games, prizes, a bouncy slide, photo booth, DJ, home-cooked food, crafts and special cultural performances ranging from African Drums to Mariachi Teocuitalan, and from Hawaiian Dancers to Danza Azteca Grupo Nezahualpilli.
A bit later, starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, head over to the John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave., for a talk with author and Pitzer Professor Susan A. Phillips about her new book, “The City Beneath: A Century of Los Angeles Graffiti.” Phillips will sign copies of her book after the talk.
For the art minded, starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday, the LaunchLA Gallery, 170 S. La Brea, will host an artist-led exhibition walk-through for its current show, “A Love Letter,” featuring distinctive and personal Los Angeles landscapes by Lynne McDaniel and Lindsey Warren. According to one review, the works “…feature a profusion of light and a realm of surprising stillness even in the most urban of scenes. Trees abound – Lynne McDaniel’s trees are often a forest, deciduous or evergreen, and while taken from her own walks in the LA area, they have a quality that essentially defines LA; Lindsey Warren focuses on palms, and when she includes other trees they have a more exotic, decidedly Southern California nature.” If you can’t make it to the walk-through, but still want to see the show, gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday 1-5 p.m.
Also starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday is the Nitrate Nights film series at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. This (literally) explosive series features classic films produced and shown on highly volatile nitrate film stock, which have a unique picture quality and can only be shown today in specially-built, fireproof projection booths (which the Egyptian has). Films that will be shown in the series this weekend include Spellbound (Saturday, 4 p.m.), Rebecca (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Laura (Sunday, 4 p.m.) and Nightmare Alley (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.) See the link above for more information.
Moving on to Sunday, and back to art, the Craft Contemporary will host a Curator Walkthrough at 1 p.m. in which the museum’s exhibitions curator Holly Jerger will be joined by with exhibiting artists Ignacio Perez Meruane and Raksha Parekh for a discussion of the show “RAW: Craft, Commodity, and Capitalism.”  Learn more about the intersection between craft and capitalism and hear about the ideas behind the artworks featured in the exhibition. The event is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP to [email protected].
For family fun on Sunday, check out a fun street fair in Little Ethiopia, at the intersection of Fairfax and Whitworth, from 2-6 p.m. There will be free Ethiopian and Latin American food and music, art-making with Painted Brain, free bike tune-ups and flat-fixing tutorials with the Los Angeles Bicycle Kitchen, fresh food resources from La Cienega Farmers’ Market, circus-folk/magicians/jugglers, culturally-appropriate mental health activism and outreach with the African Coalition, resources and a mini street audit from Los Angeles Walks, goodie bags from the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition, and resources and conversation with representatives of the Los Angeles Great Streets program.
2-6pm
Starting at 4 p.m. on Sunday, women’s voices from the past will come to life again as the Ebell of Los Angeles presents “Ebell Voices: 125 years,” in which an
award-winning cast stages the world premiere of a new show featuring words from Ebell members of the late 19th and early 20th century, courtesy of the Ebell archives, merged with brand new original music by two female composers (and Ebell members), celebrating the women’s club’s 125th anniversary. For tickets, see the event link above. For even more information, see https://larchmontbuzz.com/featured-stories-larchmont-village/ebell-voices-celebrating-125-years/.
And finally on Sunday, and in this busy weekend, the local holiday season dons its full seasonal dress with the big annual Christmas-tree lighting extravaganza at the Grove shopping center. The free festivities begin at 7:30 p.m., hosted by Leslie Odom, Jr. with music directed by Nick Rosen, and special live performances by Isaac Slade of The Fray, Tori Kelly, Aloe Blacc, The Tenors and Malea Emma. You can also enjoy the season’s first snowfall, Santa’s grand arrival…and a huge fireworks spectacular. (So, yes, if you have fireworks-sensitive pets, please take note – those of us who live in the area will hear the explosions.)
Happy early holiday season…and have a great weekend!
