Meet up with Ari Kletzky, creator of the Islands of LA project, and enjoy a picnic on the traffic island at San Vincente & Del Valle Drive near Beverly Hills. I think this is a good “starter” island for me, sounds posh. I love that Ari is pushing us to rearrange our notions about public space and rediscover the easily missed “in-between” spaces. A post-picnic stroll through the other islands on San Vincente will follow an early streetcar route laid down in 1906.
WHEN: 8:00pm
ADMISSION: Free, bring food to share & a blanket to sit on
MEETING LOCATION: the traffic island at San Vincente & Del Valle Drive, Los Angeles
WEBSITE: www.islandsofla.org
Dorothy Parker, who once proclaimed “Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city,” would be relieved to know we have located the city and the Big Parade is here to prove it. A two-day walk through Los Angeles, the Big Parade will begin downtown at the Angel’s Flight Stairway, traverse 100+ stairways and weave its way through scores of architectural landmarks. With a mid-point break at the Music Box Stairs in Silver Lake, site of the Laurel & Hardy film of the same name, the walking route will be filled with off road adventures — “backcountry” bushwhacking on a secret dirt road, paddle boating on Echo Park Lake, hearing a marching band and getting sweet treats from designated locals. Whether you are walking 1 mile or all 40, everyone is invited to join this celebration of seeing L.A. from the ground up.
Guided by Esotouric’s keen L.A. scholars, take a tour of Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled times in the City of Angels. Using screenplays, film adaptations and private correspondence, Esotouric shows us Chandler’s influences and the locales of his anti-hero Philip Marlowe. Best described by its tagline - “Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death.” - “Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles” tour is a must see for anyone with an interest in how L.A.’s mean streets shaped a literary giant.
More then just an intriguing voice that comes across the airwaves, Edward Goldman of NPR’s “Art Talk” is also the host of the dynamic and roaming class, “Fine Art of Art Collecting.” Beyond explaining how to cultivate one’s private art collection, Goldman takes his students into a usually unseen side of the LA art world. With visits to artist studios, the homes of collectors and gallery walk throughs with curators, the class is a look at current local trends in both creating and collecting art.
The 1947 Black Dahlia murder is the most compelling unsolved crime LA has ever known. As the Esotouric’s Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour visits the last places Elizabeth Short visited before her gruesome death, the tour hopes to answer not “who killed her?” but “who was she?” Who was this black-haired girl who became the unfortunate symbol of her time? Why has she been the object of fascination by writers, musicians, filmmakers and cops for more then sixty years? 
