People always say LA lacks seasons. I disagree: there’s awards season (which probably consumes a full 1/3 of the year), jacaranda season (when the floor is littered with purple confetti – my favorite), the hazy days (Gray-pril, May gray, June gloom) – and then there’s summer.
When summer hits in most other cities, people can’t wait to get out of their apartments and into the streets. There’s something to be said for that hard-fought, hard-won feeling of shedding the galoshes and making plans for picnics in the park, rooftop screenings, and outdoor music festivals. Summer lacks some of that ecstasy upon arrival here in LA. If we’re talking purely hot weather, LA summers typically begin in August and run through October (though this year is really giving us a run for our money). The season exists, but we don’t get that explosive party, that thrilling rush of finally being able to gather outdoors. Because, well, we’ve been doing it in some form or another since March.
We wanted to bring back some of that party feelingfor what remains of this summer – to celebrate the special places, the out-of-the-way places, the I’ve-always-wanted-to-do-that-but-never-have-places. Like LACMA Jazz! Every Friday night during the summer, the good people of Los Angeles scatter themselves across the museum plaza and enjoy phenomenal music in an iconic setting. Despite having worked at LACMA for a time, I had never been to this summer staple until a few weeks ago. And wow, if you are looking for a dose of feel-good, intergenerational vibes, pack yourself some cheese cubes and get thee to Friday night Jazz. (Just get there early to snag your spot!)
There are so many other examples that make LA summer feel like a party. Barnsdall Art Park’s beloved wine tastings are back on the lawn of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House after a Covid-induced hiatus. Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum – Topanga Canyon’s wildest open-air theater – is the perfect place to catch some Shakespeare. Opportunities abound, if we’re just willing to get a little creative and get out there! Los Angeles has a rich history, after all, and even if it can feel a little unnatural to get out in the world when the heat is high, it’s worth doing! (Charge!!!)
When I moved to LA in 2013, knowing nary a soul, I used to go out by myself a lot. I’d meet people in restaurants who wanted to share their tidbits and tricks – their favorite places to dine, watch, listen, discover. They’d write recommendations on the backs of napkins and coasters, which I kept around until I moved out of my rent-controlled bungalow in Echo Park (damnit!) eight years later. I used to drive all over town with the curiosity of a hungry New York wolf – there was nowhere I wouldn’t go, nothing new I wouldn’t try. The coasters may be gone, but the recommendations remain. I’m still hungry and this is still my new old city.
So consider this your Summer coaster. Below, you’ll find a smattering of August events that will help get you out of the house and into the city… and give you something to talk about at your next cocktail party. Put on some sunblock. Eat a popsicle. It’s not Summer until you’ve seen (or slept through) some Shakespeare in a park.
- Meredith Rogers
Cultural Happenings
Clockwise from top left - Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum; Barnsdall Art Park (photo cred: Mark Read); Mount Wilson Observatory; Laraaji (photo cred: Balarama Heller for NYT); As You Like It; Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Aug 1 - Sep 1 - As You Like It (Griffith Park, Wed-Sun) "As You Like It" is a play about nature and decay, and there could hardly be a more apt venue for those themes than Los Angeles’s Old Zoo. It’s free, it’s joyous, and truly, it’s the perfect thing to fill any empty calendar nights. (DH)
Aug 1, 8, 15, 29 - A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum) Need a date night idea? Make your way to one of LA’s most treasured outdoor theaters in Topanga Canyon – it’s the perfect place to see Shakespeare’s classic tale about love and magic. You can even bring your own picnic and enjoy the garden beforehand with the other Angeleno Shakespeare heads. (MR)
Aug 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 - Friday Night Wine Tastings (Barnsdall Art Park) After taking a pause in 2019, Friday evening wine tastings are finally back this summer. Good wine, a view of the observatory at sunset, and support for the wonderful Barnsdall Art Foundation make this a tried and true summer event in LA for good reason. (BK)
Aug 3 - 31 - Weekend Short Cuts: Los Angeles Home Movies (Academy Museum, Sat-Sun) Los Angeles is not an easy place to wrap your head around. Watching a curated selection of home videos filmed throughout LA over the last century seems like one of the best ways to try and comprehend this fascinating and disparate city. (BK)
Aug 6 - Vanessa 5000 (The Elysian) Loose Land friend Anne Hong, who has a very high bar for comedy, is SUPER into this one-woman show from comedian Courtney Pauroso, who brings to life the sex robot Vanessa 5000. I have an abiding love for solo shows (looking at you, Taylor Mac) so I was already in, but for the skeptics, the Guardian writes: “While silliness remains at the show’s core, the character is also a vessel for larger questions around technology, pleasure and control.” (BK)
Aug 10 - Leaving Records featuring Laraaji (DTLA) This month the beloved record label is teaming up with dublab for their outdoor music listening series and venturing out of their usual spot in Elysian Park to the serene (kidding!) streets of DTLA. They are flying in none other than New Age superstar, and fashionista in orange, Laraaji in addition to a curated slate of cool experimentalists. Always donations-based which deserves a standing ovation (or the quiet equivalent) in and of itself. (MR)
Aug 10 - True Romance (Hollywood Forever Cemetery) Cinespia’s outdoor movie events at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery are always a good time, and there’s plenty to like about their August line-up (also including Bridesmaids, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and a Kristen Dunst double feature), but it’s hard to top True Romance. Scripted by Quentin Tarantino, directed by Tony Scott, and featuring insanely charismatic performances from Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, it’s the kind of movie that reminds you why movies used to feel like magic. (DH)
Aug 11 - Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome (Mount Wilson Observatory) A concert in a telescope?! Need we say more? We’ll take any excuse to do the drive through Angeles National Forest on a Sunday afternoon, but this by far takes the cake as the most unusual concert venue we have our sights set on. (MR)
August 24 - Spirited Away (The Ford Theater) The Ford is the often overlooked outdoor venue, but it really shouldn’t be. More intimate than the Greek and the Bowl, at the Ford you can literally hear the crickets turn up their volume as the sun sets. This month we get a chance to see all the classic Studio Ghibli films screened in Japanese with English subtitles outdoors. Friday: Princess Mononoke, Saturday: Spirited Away, Sunday: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (BK)
August 27th - A Tribute to the Life & Devotional Music of Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane(S. Mark Taper Foundation Amphitheatre) Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you probably know Andre 3000 made a flute album. And he did it with pioneering LA-based producer & musician Carlos Niño with contributions by keyboardist Surya Botofasina. The album has ushered in a new mainstream era for a hard-to-define genre of “spiritual jazz,” (NYT) one in which Alice Coltrane figures interestingly. We can’t think of a better place to listen then among the trees and the rocks we try (and sometimes fail) to not live under. (MR)
August 29 - Pasta Platter Dinner (Garibaldina Society) We relish finding corners of LA history still thriving like the Garbaladina Society, a mutual aid society dating back to 1877. Garibaldina opens its doors to the community once a month hosting a pasta platter dinner and live band in their time capsule of a ballroom. (BK)
Plate of the Month
Winner: KPOW101 Runner-up: SOORAVN
SOORAVN is a really solid plate. It’s got energy, even without an exclamation mark, and if it were a pun (for an ornithologist, say, or a stunningly black, stunningly smart car with a small beak in place of a hood ornament), then it really would be 10/10 – but sadly the car offered no further clues about its driver’s relationships to Raven Symone or recursion). Lacking that, I have to go with a classic: “KPOW101”. This car also lacks any other clues about the driver’s relationship to the plate, but what more explanation does one need!? Also, KPOW no longer exists, to all appearances, so this car is a quiet, unostentatious testament to a dead thing that once had value to someone. Someone who went to Santa Clara. Someone who drives a Subaru. Sometimes, that’s enough. Congratulations, KPOW: What is dead may never die!
