Weekend Buzz – Events for November 19-20, 2016

It’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but holiday-season events are starting to pop up all over.

Saturday begins, as it has for a few weeks now, with a big local estate sale.  This one actually starts today (Friday) and runs through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 246 S. Lorraine Blvd.  Featured items include a 1908 Steinway grand piano, custom-made 1930s dining room set,  fine china, sliver and crystal, an exotic wood tea caddy, fancy hearth coal scuttle, gentleman’s leather hat box, spool bed, doll’s spool cradle, Windsor-style rocker, handmade patchwork quilts, oil lamps, French Regency-style open arm chairs, 1890s table with six chairs, rattan lanai table, Spanish Revival 7′-long console, handmade bookcases, pairs of twin beds, dresser with 3-way mirror, rugs, formal and Cotillion gowns, evening bags, vintage shoes and jewely, fancy linens, perfumes and perfume bottles, fine art, books, documents…and more.

For something more active, Saturday also features the 11th annual Great Los Angeles Walk, in which people gather – just for the fun of it – to walk from downtown L.A. to the beach in Santa Monica.  This year’s route starts at 9 a.m. at Grand Hope Park (corner of 9th and Hope Streets), and will proceed down Pico Blvd. all the way to Santa Monica.  It’s not a race, it’s totally free and fun for all ages, and the main goal is simply to enjoy your city on foot.  So you can jump in or out wherever you like, travel at whatever pace is comfortable, and pause to explore whatever catches your fancy along the way.  For the full route map, and other details, see the link above.

For those not walking, and wondering about car travel safety with their little ones, the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles Injury Prevention Program is hosting a free child car seat safety inspection and workshop from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, at 4400 Sunset Blvd.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3 out of 4 car seats are installed incorrectly.  This event will provide car seat inspections by a certified child passenger safety technician…and free replacement car seats if needed.  Seats will be inspected for  expiration dates, manufacturer recalls and proper fit of the seat for the child.  A great idea with holiday travel coming up for many families!

If you’re interested in civic issues such as development and land use (and not still worn out from our most recent election cycle), the Coalition to Preserve LA, the sponsors of an upcoming ballot measure aimed at revising city plans and curbing over-development, will be holding a Wilshire-Hollywood Community Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Third Street Elementary School, 201 S. June Street.  The ballot measure sponsors are inviting local residents to share their stories of interactions with developers and city staff regarding local development.  If you’re interested in attending, RSVPs are requested (though not required) by November 18 to [email protected]

And now we get to the big annual holiday-season events, three of which launch on Saturday.  First up is the LA Auto Show – the annual Thanksgiving-season extravaganza of all things automotive, which opens this weekend and runs through November 27 at the L.A. Convention Center.  Whether you’re shopping for a car, want to test drive the latest models, learn about new technologies, customize your current ride…or (speaking as the mom of a particularly wheel-crazy child) just give your kids the chance to sit in and pretend to drive hundreds of brand new cars of every imaginable style and configuration, you can find it here.  For full details and ticket information, see the above link.

If you’d like something a bit more reminiscent of your holidays back home (assuming home is somewhere north or east with actual winter weather), check out Snow Los Angeles, billed as “LA’s First Snow Tubing Park,” it promises more than 10,000 square feet of “PowderPak” snow tubing lanes, nine acres of “stunning winter wonderland,” “snow blowing in the air and a magical blizzard every hour,” a “giant snowman forest light show,” and, to warm up the adults later, a “Penguin Louge VIP Bar.”   It’s located at the Old Lodge in Elysian Park, and runs November 17-December 23.  See the link above for ticket information.

Back in our own neighborhood, the Craft and Folk Art Museum will host one of its three events this weekend – a panel discussion related to the current Work Over School exhibition.  Moderated by exhibition curator Jill Moniz, the discussion with three of the exhibit’s artists (Lisa Bartleson, Susan Feldman and Miguel Osuna) will examine the topic of self-taught artists, who often combine their training in other professional fields with their own artistic investigations.  The event starts at 3 p.m., and is free with museum admission.

Later, at 7 p.m. and down the street at the Petersen Museum, art of a different genre will be in the spotlight at The Rogue Collective Art Show, a special event inside the Petersen Store, featuring artists from The Rogue Collective – a group of automotive artists from the Los Angeles area. Prints in multiple sizes will be available for purchase and light refreshments will also be served.

Finally on Saturday, another big holiday event launches – the third season of the LA Zoo Lights.  This event, which takes up where the old Griffith Park DWP light show left off several years ago, dresses large swaths of the LA Zoo in huge displays of lights and other technological and multimedia enhancements to create winter scenes and wonderlands of many different types.  You can also see real reindeer (including two babies!), visit with Santa on select dates, and enjoy seasonal treats and goodies, all under the stars at the beautiful Los Angeles Zoo.  For tickets and entry schedules, see the link above.

On Sunday, CAFAM is hosting not one but two more creative workshops.  The first is “Scratching the Surface: A Sgraffito Clay Workshop with Cola Smith,” and takes place from 12 to 3 p.m.  Smith, an artist whose works are currently on display at the museum, will provide instruction in sgraffito, a technique of scratching through the surface of unfired painted clay.  The cost of the class is $70 ($60 for members) and materials are included.

The second CAFAM workshop focuses on art of a different type:  poetry.  “School & Crossbones: A Poetry Workshop with Brendan Constantine,” from 12 to 3 p.m., will allow participants to view current exhibits at the museum and then draw on themes from those exhibits to inspire new poetry.  No experience is necessary – just bring a notebook, pen or pencil and a sense of adventure.  The cost is $50 ($40 for CAFAM members).

Art education will be front and center across the street at LACMA on Sunday, too. At 1 p.m., enjoy a lecture on Beauty and Conflict in German Renaissance Art in the museum’s Bing Theater.  Renowned scholar Jeffrey Chipps Smith presents the talk in conjunction with the opening of the special exhibition Renaissance and Reformation: German Art from Dürer to Cranach. Smith is a noted authority on German Renaissance art, with numerous books and other publications to his credit. Most recently, he has written definitive studies on the work of Albrecht Dürer, and his essay, “German Art in the Sixteenth Century” is included in the exhibition catalogue for Renaissance and Reformation. The lecture is free and open to the public.

A bit later, at 1:30 p.m. in LACMA‘s L.A. Times Central Courtyard, parents can bring their creative kids to “Jewelry: Art to Wear,” for students age 5 and up. In this three-hour workshop, families will look at works from the special exhibition Beyond Bling: Jewelry from the Lois Boardman Collection and use them as inspiration to design and make their own original, wearable artworks. Led by artist Valentina Mogilevskaya.  Please noted that pre-registration is required, though no prior art-making experience is necessary.  Age limits will also be enforced (children ages 4 and under will not be admitted). Art materials and parking fees are included in the tuition.

Finally on Sunday, at 2 p.m., book lovers of all ages can join some very special human and canine volunteers at the John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave., for the monthly BARK Read to Dogs event.  BARK is an all-volunteer program that encourages children to increase their reading skills and self-confidence by reading aloud to certified therapy dogs. All dogs are specially trained to work with children, and the owner is present at all times. All ages are welcome, and of course, this and all other library programs are always free.

Have a great weekend!