There’s so much going on in the City of Angels, it can be hard to keep track of it all. Thanks to the new Flavorpill, we’re inviting the entire community to make suggestions with its gorgeous city-based culture guide — an open platform where our very own editors and curators meet and mingle with artists, gadabouts, and other tipsters for a limitless variety of both ongoing and one-off recommendations. With this in mind, please enjoy our weekly list of hand-picked event suggestions here on Flavorwire, and in the meantime, be sure to check out the new Flavorpill. We’ll see you there.
Tuesday, May 28
BOOKS: Eve Ensler: Body of the World: A Memoir
Wednesday, May 29
FOOD/WINE: May Mix-Off Finale Wednesdays in May, LA’s top mixologists have been meeting at The Mixing Room inside the JW Marriott at LA Live. The weekly cocktail competition has stirred the competitive juices of eight hand-picked bartenders as they’ve gone head-to-head to make the best cocktail with a different liquor each week, from Milagro Tequila and Hendrick’s Gin to Reyka Vodka and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. Join the winners of May’s four previous events in the completion of what’s destined to become an annual tradition in the May Mix Off finale. — Karin E. Baker
Thursday, May 30
Courtesy Catalina Island Museum
GETAWAY: 9th Annual Taste Around of Avalon Ah, Catalina Island — where cars are illegal and the only vehicles you’ll see are surfboards, golf carts, and the Catalina Express, which actually gives you a free ride on your birthday. “26 miles across the sea,” this famous getaway is not only the island of romance; it’s the island of film history; local legends and mystery; and a hot destination for food-and-wine adventurists, too. It all goes back to chewing-gum mogul William Wrigley, Jr., who developed Catalina into a tourist destination during the “Jazz Age.” But even before then, it was a convenient base camp for secretive starlets, confidence men on the lam, and expert smugglers (way before bootleggers, that is). Now, Catalina celebrates its centennial with a series of year-long events, exhibitions, and other special programs to honor its continuing legacy, like the 9th Annual Taste Around of Avalon, which officially kicks off Catalina’s yearly Flying Fish Festival. — Tanja M. Laden
FILM: Cinema at the Edge Independent Film Festival
Friday, May 31
MUSIC: Elliott Caine Quintet Elliot Caine is a local trumpeter renowned for his 1960s Blue Note-style jazz. An accomplished studio musician who has recorded and/or played with the Beastie Boys, Beck, Filter, and Wyclef Jean, Caine was also a member of the ska band Jump With Joey, who performed at Capitol Records’ 50th Anniversary celebration; toured the US and Japan; and has played with jazz luminaries including Teddy Edwards and Ernie Andrews. Caine plays with his quartet, featuring Gary Blumer on piano, Peter Marshall on bass, and Kenny Elliott on drums, at Colombo’s in Eagle Rock. — Karin E. Baker
MUSIC: Joy Kills Sorrow w/ The Cerny Brothers
Saturday, June 1
PERFORMING ARTS: First Take The Hammer hosts a free workshop with 20-30-minute excerpts of six new operas, including works by electronica legend Pauline Oliveros, whose opera The Nubian Word for Flowers employs surround sound, and rising-star Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz, whose Pierrot Lunaire is set to gay cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum’s sardonic interpretation of the eponymous classic. With music by David Brynjar Franzson and libretto by Angela Rawlings, Longitude is a collaboration with a composer, visual artist, video artist, and text artist, but interestingly, no singer. Meanwhile, Winter’s Child, with music by Ellen Reid and libretto by Amanda Jane Shank, goes the opposite direction, featuring half a dozen female voices breathing life into a ghost-filled lake. All of the composers and librettists are on hand to hear more than 40 artists bring their works-in-progress to life, with each presentation introduced by a snappy video of the creative process at play. — Tanja M. Laden
Sunday, June 2
“Spirituals” by Lillian Richter
MUSIC: LA Master Chorale: American Songs and Spirituals Grant Gershon is conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its “Kiki and David Gindler Music Director.” Over the course of the past ten-plus years, he’s been guiding hundreds of voices in the world-renowned Los Angeles institution, giving audiences goosebumps along the way. To conclude another ultra-successful season (which included a jaunt through Europe in March), the local treasure sings melodies that are close to our heart: American Songs and Spirituals. — Tanja M. Laden
Ongoing
FILM: Before Midnight Before Midnight reunites Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, and director Richard Linklater nine years after Before Sunset and 18 years beyond Before Sunrise. A far cry from your typical romance (or sequel), these films continue to attract a devoted cadre of fans for a unique take on love, a rejection of the formulaic, and the thrall that both the characters and the audience hold for the philosophical conversations shared by Jesse and Celine, who are now in their early 40s. Youthful idealism has made way for reality, and there is no longer the urgency of nearly missed airplanes, as with the earlier films. It can be painful to see the characters fight, but it’s nonetheless a beautifully intimate film. Jesse and Celine talk almost nonstop, and their conversations, as always, remain thought-provoking, passionate, and very natural. Before Midnight both stands alone and as an equal companion to the previous films that comprise an unforgettable trilogy. — Karin E. Baker