Kristin's List: A Guide to Cultivated Los Angeles

Dorothy Parker’s words, “I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I’m under the table, after four I’m under my host,” should be put to example at her birthday party at the Culver City Hotel bar. Come for a night of ribaldry, epigrams and aphorisms, meet the people who use these words in sentences, as well as those who just want a stiff drink on a Friday night.

WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Culver City Hotel bar
ADDRESS: 9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
PHONE: (310) 838-7963
CULVER CITY HOTEL: www.culverhotel.com
DOROTHY PARKER SOCIETY: www.dorothyparker.com

A veteran Washington Post reporter and author of several award-winning non-fiction books, Pete Earley had his life turned upside-down after his son was diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Earley’s personal struggles following his son’s diagnosis and the maddening obstacles he faced with America’s mental health care system are explored in his new book, “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.” Join Earley for a discussion of his recent work at the California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities.
- Juliet Small Ernst

WHEN: 5:30pm
ADMISSION: Free, rsvp required at www.calendow.org/Article.aspx?id=2680
WHERE: California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities
ADDRESS: 1000 N Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
WEBSITE: www.calendow.org/Article.aspx?id=2680

The “World’s Best Paddle Boat Racers” will fight for the gold and “the eternal glory of victory” at the Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta/826 LA Fundraiser. Regatta t-shirts, foam fingers and sailor hats will be available at the Lake as you cheer on such teams as The Julie McCoy Experience, Disco Interno and the Lotus-Eaters. Create your own team or support another with contributions to help fund 826LA’s free writing and tutoring programs for kids. Given the swiftness and aerodynamics of paddleboats the competition will undoubtedly provide spectators the thrill of a lifetime.

SPECIAL REGATTA NOTE: Kristin will be competing on Team Echo Park Ornithology Club. Come out to cheer on the Club and get a few bird watching tips!

WHEN: 4pm
ADMISSION: Free to watch, register to compete at www.826la.com/regatta/
WHERE: Echo Park Lake Boat House
ADDRESS: 751 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026
WEBSITE: www.826la.com/regatta/
ADDITIONAL INFO: Post-race concert at the Echo with The Damselles and Super Duper, $10 suggested donation

Family hosts the launch of Peter Sutherland’s new book, “Muddy Treads,” a collection of photography about “the hidden beauty of ordinary objects and everyday events.” Drawing inspiration from an unkempt plot of land near his junior high school — a haven for stoners, class-cutters and idle locals — “Muddy Treads” is a study of unclaimed spaces across the country where anything is possible.
- Juliet Small Ernst

“Locals would go there to drink beer, burn stuff for fun, and drive four wheelers on the hills, some of which were steep and untracked…I like empty plots of land like that one. There is always something messed up about them that keeps them from being developed, and there’s a special kind of freedom that allows for stoners to go four wheeling in abandoned jeeps.”
- Peter Sutherland

WHEN: 7:30pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: FAMILY
ADDRESS: 436 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
WEBSITE: www.familylosangeles.com
ADDITIONAL INFO: Family will be giving away 100 signed limited posters by Sutherland

Join former NY Times religion reporter (and grandson of Protestant theologian Reinhold Neibhur) Gustav Niebuhr for a discussion about his new book “Beyond Tolerance.” With the premise that the U.S. is the most religiously diverse nation in the world, Niebuhr traces the roots of religious freedom in America and believes this rich past can catalyze America’s future strivings for religious tolerance.

WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: $25.95 plus tax, includes the price of the book & 1 ticket OR $5 at the door without a book
TICKETS: Can only be purchased at Vroman’s Bookstore
ADDRESS: 695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101
PHONE: (626) 449-5320
WEBSITE: www.vromansbookstore.com
EVENT HELD AT: All Saint’s Church, 132 N Euclid Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101

Join forces with LA’s independent publishing and zine making scene at the “Simple Pleasures” all day expo and DJ-fest. Buy merchandise from over twenty exhibitors, including Secret Headquarters, Giant Robot and Sumi Ink Club, while listening to the tunes of DJ Diabetic (Shepard Fairey), Lucky Dragons and Professor Canteloupe. The event will be capped off with a wild panel discussion at the Subliminal Projects Gallery on the role of accessible art and modern book design.

WHEN: 1pm-9pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Subliminal Projects parking lot
ADDRESS: 1331 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
WEBSITE: www.studionumberone.com/simpleasures

Join award-winning animator and director Eric Goldberg (“Aladdin,” “Pocahontas,” “Fantasia 2000”) for a reception and signing of his recently released book “Character Animation Crash Course!” at the Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop. The animation tome and accompanying CD will be filled with the insights and methods needed to bring pencil lines to extraordinary life.

“Well, the animation book I’ve been writing for 25 years, based on my animation notes, has finally arrived! “Character Animation Crash Course!” comes with an accompanying CD that has animation movie files of selected sequences in the book. You can watch them in real time, or frame-by-frame, and they all include X-sheets, in between charts, circled keys, and underlined breakdowns, so the tests can be analyzed while you read the book, revealing how the principles actually look in movement and why.” – Eric Goldberg

WHEN: 7pm-9pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Samuel French Theatre & Film Bookshop
ADDRESS: 11963 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604
PHONE: (818) 762-0535
WEBSITE: www.samuelfrench.com/store/booksigning_Goldberg.php

Based on Philip Roth’s short novel “The Dying Animal,” director Isabel Coixet presents “Elegy,” a film about the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor and a young woman whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. Starring Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz, with extraordinary supporting performances from Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard, “Elegy” hopes to be “a meditation on the power of beauty to bind, to reveal, and to transform.”

“Elegy” will be released on August 8. 2008, Samuel Goldwyn Films, 113 min.

WHEN: 7:30pm
ADMISSION: Free, online reservations necessary
WHERE: Harmony Gold Theatre
ADDRESS: 7655 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046
CONTACT & TICKETS: www.zocalola.org

As part of their Dead Author Readings series, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart presents comedian Patton Oswalt as he reads “The Clock” and “August Heat” by William Fryer Harvey. Best known for his mystery/horror stories, English author William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937) will be reimagined by Oswalt, best known for his roles in “The King of Queens,” “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and “Ratatouille.”

WHEN: 7:30pm
WHERE: 826LA East
ADDRESS: 1714 W. Sunset Blvd, Echo Park, LA 90026
PHONE: (310) 305-8418
WEBSITE: www.826la.org

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss comes to Vroman’s to discuss his latest work “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World,” the story of the 1960 Olympics and its relationship to the pending international political upheaval. Maraniss’s remarkable narrative reveals how Cold War rivalries, the civil rights and women’s movements, the first doping scandal, television, money, new athletic techniques, and legendary athletes came together in Rome to alter the Olympics forever.

WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Vroman’s Bookstore
ADDRESS: 695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101
PHONE: (626) 449-5320
WEBSITE: www.vromansbookstore.com

This delightful bedtime story features Paul Frank’s popular character Julius as he takes readers on a tour through the world of dreams. Julius loves sleeping because there are things he can do only in dreams, from paddling down a strawberry-milk river to performing in a rock concert on the moon.

“When I sleep, I dream. And when I dream, I can do anything I can imagine!”

WHEN: 12noon
ADMISSION: Free
STORE HOURS: 9am-9pm Sun-Thurs, 9am-10pm Fri-Sat
WHERE: Book Soup
ADDRESS: 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
PHONE: (310) 659-3110
WEBSITE: www.booksoup.com
PARKING: Limited parking behind store & street parking

On the 25th anniversary of Tennessee Williams’ death, three of his recently discovered one-act plays — “Mister Paradise,” “The Palooka,” “And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens” — are being performed at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre. Williams’ lyrical, earthy and poignant voice is once again present as these three gems are brought to the stage.

WHEN: 8pm Fri-Sat, 7:30pm Sun
ADMISSION: $20
TICKETS: www.laglc.org
WHERE: Davidson/Valentini Theatre @ LA Gay & Lesbian Center
ADDRESS: 1125 N McCadden Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90038
PHONE: (323) 860-7300
WEBSITE: www.laglc.org
ADDITIONAL INFO: Show closes July 20

When something is sucked into a black hole, does it disappear? For over three decades, Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking have been disputing the true nature of black holes. In conversation with science writer K.C. Cole, Susskind will discuss his new book, “The Black Hole War,” and why Hawking’s theories put our understanding of physics and the entire universe on the line.

WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: Free, reservations recommended
TICKETS: www.lfla.org/aloud
WHERE: Mark Taper Auditorium @ the Central Library
ADDRESS: 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071
CONTACT: www.lfla.org/aloud
PARKING: 524 S. Flower Street Garage

It’s 1952 in Martha’s Vineyard and an underground group of prominent men is plotting to manipulate Nixon. When one of them turns up dead, the Harlem literary star Edie Wesley discovers the body and is swept into a twenty-year search for the truth. Join Stephen Carter at Vroman’s as he discusses “Palace Council,” his new suspense novel about race and political corruption.

In addition to his fictional works (“The Emperor of Ocean Park” and “New England White”), Yale law professor Stephen Carter has written extensively on the national debate of the role of religion in American political culture. kristin’s list pick: Stephen Carter’s commentary on the separation of church and state in “The Culture of Disbelief” (1994).

WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Vroman’s Bookstore
ADDRESS: 695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101
PHONE: (626) 449-5320
WEBSITE: www.vromansbookstore.com

After the success of “The Watchman,” Robert Crais returns with “Chasing Darkness,” the latest in his Elvis Cole mystery series. Los Angeles P.I. Elvis Cole was a hero when he cleared an innocent man of a murder charge. But when the innocent man is found dead three years later holding photos of the victim, Elvis is the one on trial.


WHEN: 7pm
ADMISSION: Free
WHERE: Vroman’s Bookstore
ADDRESS: 695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101
PHONE: (626) 449-5320
WEBSITE: www.vromansbookstore.com