Busy Holiday Weekend: Mark Your Calendars

– Pershing Square’s Winter Holiday Festival — located adjacent to the Downtown on Ice skating rink — takes place this weekend, both days, from noon to 8 p.m.

The Saturday and Sunday event includes real snow, outdoor ice skating, festive arts and crafts, tree decorating contests, music and puppet shows.

Pershing Square, Downtown Los Angeles

– “Save the Puppets: A Fundraiser to Benefit the Bob Baker Marionettes” takes place Saturday, Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. As you’ve probably heard, Baker’s famed downtown Marionette Theater is in a financial bind, and needs some help. The day-long event will include:

Bob’s famous puppet shows all day long, musical acts and special guests, arts & crafts, celebrity silent auction and raffle, art auction including works by many well-known artists, circus performers, food and drinks, etc.

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, 1345 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles

– Silver Lake Art, Craft & Vintage: Art, crafts and vintage vendors, selling their wares Dec. 13 and 14 (as well as the 20th and 21st). Ghettogloss and Citibank sponsor; portion of the proceeds go to the new Silver Lake library.

Corner of Silverlake Blvd. & Glendale Blvd., 2450 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles

– MOMS Club Glendale West holds its 3rd Annual Holiday Boutique on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 10 a.m.; entrance is $2 (children are free). Holiday gifts such as toddler/children’s clothing, jewelry, gift baskets, chocolate, etc.

Grandview Presbyterian Church — 1130 Ruberta Ave., Glendale

Atwater Village Gets Into the Holiday Spirit

A reminder, Atwater Village will throw its free Christmas tree lighting festival tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Glendale Blvd.

Unlike the Grove and Americana trees, the tall one in Atwater Village is very much alive. The event is also a chance to get your kid up close and personal with Santa, without having to plop down those insane mall photo prices.

I’ve been slow to feel the holiday spirit — it really snuck up on me this year — so I hope this event will jump start that cheer. If you see the Franklin Avenue trio there, feel free to unlurk and introduce yourself.

Los Feliz Cancels Its Holiday Festival, But Atwater Village Carries On

One of our favorite neighborhood holiday events, the annual Los Feliz holiday festival, has been canceled this year.

According to the Los Feliz Business Improvement District, the festival was scrapped because the group is “re-evaluating our festivals and fairs.” But it also came down to money: The city’s no longer waiving its fees, and “street closures are expensive.”

(Flickr pic by Jory.)

Good news now: The 17th annual Atwater Village Tree Lighting Ceremony is still on.

Event takes place this Thursday, December 4, 2008 starting at 6:30 p.m. Details:

The tree lighting ceremony will be accompanied by a Holiday Festival in the Wells Fargo parking lot at 3250 Glendale Blvd. The evening’s program will include children’s choirs from local schools, the world premiere of a new locally produced song, a fashion show featuring local merchants and citizens, a short film about the Atwater neighborhood, and traditional Christmas harmonies by the Tam O’Shanter Singers. Santa Claus is scheduled to arrive on a Los Angeles Fire Department fire truck, heralding the lighting of the tree at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Also this year: The Old Bank District Holiday party takes place 6 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 6. It’s free. Details:

- Main Stage presented by Little Radio with live performances from The Like, Whispertown 2000, The Afternoons, Restaurant, and special guest headliner performing from 6 pm – 12 am.

- An outdoor Beer and Wine Garden on 4th St., with seating for partygoers to enjoy the lights and entertainment.

- Harlem Place Alley will be transformed into an intimate Jazz Bar with performances by Pablo Calogero and band, hosted by Pete’s Café & Bar.

- Comme des Garçons, Blends, Orange 22, and Fremont Apparel, as well as other neighborhood retailers including those on Main St. like Banquette, Blossom, Raw Materials and others, will be offering specials and discounts for holiday shoppers.

- An Art Bazaar will be hosted in the historic Farmers and Merchants Bank, featuring the work of over 30 local artists. The Bazaar will be cash only and all work will be $200 and under.

Get Thee to the Eagle Rock Music Festival This Weekend

It’s the best music festival of the year here in L.A. — well, in my opinion since (a) it’s free, (b) it’s free, (c) it’s free, and (d) it’s kid-friendly, not crowded, diverse, and Eagle Rock’s ever-growing stable of restaurants, bars and coffee houses cater to it.

The Eagle Rock Music Festival, which takes place Saturday night, is expected to attract 20,000 people — listening to music at 17 different locations. Colorado Blvd. will be closed for the evening, as people stroll up and down the street grooving to the music.

The L.A. Times, meanwhile, writes about the continued emergence of Eagle Rock — but pegs it with the tale of an empty lot-turned-condo project-turned-empty lot at the far end of Colorado Blvd. Still, the mostly praises Eagle Rock:

Eagle Rock stumbled into a terrible decline in the 1970s. In the ’90s, it began to ascend, fueled by millions of dollars in public and private investments — and a wave of artists and bohemians priced out of the beach and unimpressed with the hip scenes of Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park.

Along with counterculture types who’d never left, they sought to create a different sort of community on what might be called an urban seam — not quite city, not quite suburb; edgier and funkier than nearby Glendale and Pasadena, but more forgiving and artsy than the metropolitan center to the south.

By and large, they succeeded. Colorado Boulevard is the most obvious testament — coffee shops and muffler shops and an old-fashioned hardware store interspersed with galleries, artisans and eateries with Malbec tastings and vegan tempeh balls.

Hi-Fi, Small Event

We’re always in the mood for a great street festival — loved the Thai New Year Fest in Thai Town; already miss the late, great Tofu Fest; consider the Lotus Festival in Echo Park (even sans lotus) as a standard; and think the Eagle Rock Music Festival is one of the best free events around. That’s why we had high hopes for the sixth annual Historic Filipinotown Festival on Saturday… and came away kinda disappointed.

Granted, it’s only the sixth edition — indeed, it’s only been six years since the neighborhood was even designated “Historic Filipinotown.” And the festival also takes place in a wildly diverse neighborhood that’s not even predominantly Filipino, possibly hurting attendance as well. Plus, it was hot. All those things conspired against the event. (It also didn’t help that the postcard advertising the event wildly oversold it — containing photos of Ferris Wheels and big-ticket rides, of which there were none.)

But probably the saddest part of the event was the sorry state of the carnival rides. Stationed one block over from where the festival booths and stage, the dirty, old rides sat empty — and, as the Militant Angeleno noted, the carneys were kinda scary. At the very least, they semi-spooked me and the Kid Formerly Known as Blogger Toddler.

On the bright side, despite the small nature of the event, there was a decent turnout in the morning, and plenty of culture was on display. Some sights:

Julius Shulman At the Movies

(Photo by Gerard Smulevich)

Our friend Jeff pointed out that of all the titles at the L.A. Film Festival, we might like this one the most.

Knowing our love of everything L.A. — not to mention our love of anyone and anything that chronicles our city — he’s got a point. “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman” chronicles the career of the famed photog — who, at 97 years old, is still busting out his camera and shooting L.A.

Dustin Hoffman narrates the film. From the website:

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award – nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others.

In addition, the documentary hugely benefited from the dedicated involvement of Shulman himself, who offered exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and intimate entre into his day-to-day life. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, Visual Acoustics offers an unforgettable portrait of Modernism’s most eloquent ambassador.

Shulman’s famed photos were recently organized into a show at the Central Library.

The June 22 screening of “Visual Acoustics” at the Landmark Theatre is sold out, but according to the site, there are still tix available for the June 25 show, at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. Show starts at 4 p.m.

Julius Shulman At the Movies

(Photo by Gerard Smulevich)

Our friend Jeff pointed out that of all the titles at the L.A. Film Festival, we might like this one the most.

Knowing our love of everything L.A. — not to mention our love of anyone and anything that chronicles our city — he’s got a point. “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman” chronicles the career of the famed photog — who, at 97 years old, is still busting out his camera and shooting L.A.

Dustin Hoffman narrates the film. From the website:

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award – nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others.

In addition, the documentary hugely benefited from the dedicated involvement of Shulman himself, who offered exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and intimate entre into his day-to-day life. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, Visual Acoustics offers an unforgettable portrait of Modernism’s most eloquent ambassador.

Shulman’s famed photos were recently organized into a show at the Central Library.

The June 22 screening of “Visual Acoustics” at the Landmark Theatre is sold out, but according to the site, there are still tix available for the June 25 show, at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. Show starts at 4 p.m.

Atwater’s Music and Arts Festival Makes a Splash

Oh, one festival isn’t enough for us. As part of what’s shaping up to be another big L.A. weekend for the Franklin Avenue crew, we also checked out the nearby Artwater Music & Art Festival in Atwater Village on Saturday evening.

By the time we arrived, around 6:30, the weather was starting to cool down, and the crowds were coming back. The Artwater Fest was small, managable and not too crowded — in other words, a perfect stop in our eyes.

Some photos:

Rockabilly band performs to grooving-out audience members — as well as several kids.

Your usual festival food.

Atwater pride!

Sidewalk chalk mural competition

Atwater’s Music and Arts Festival Makes a Splash

Oh, one festival isn’t enough for us. As part of what’s shaping up to be another big L.A. weekend for the Franklin Avenue crew, we also checked out the nearby Artwater Music & Art Festival in Atwater Village on Saturday evening.

By the time we arrived, around 6:30, the weather was starting to cool down, and the crowds were coming back. The Artwater Fest was small, managable and not too crowded — in other words, a perfect stop in our eyes.

Some photos:

Rockabilly band performs to grooving-out audience members — as well as several kids.

Your usual festival food.

Atwater pride!

Sidewalk chalk mural competition

A Novel Saturday at the Book Festival

Hoping to avoid the crunch — not to mention the swealtering temps — the Kid Formerly Known as the Blogger Toddler and I drove out to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books early on Saturday — and I’m glad we did.

(Maria was at home, still recovering from a terrible virus that knocked her out for several days. Yeah, it’s been a pretty rough week here at Franklin Avenue HQ, between that and the car accident.)

Parking was $8, but ultimately worth being so close to the festivities. (In years past, we’ve gone on a Sunday and hunted for free parking spaces.) The real reason we got there so early: “Johnny and the Sprites.”

Getting there before 10 didn’t make much of a different with the heat; it was a sauna all day.

If you’re going tomorrow, one reminder: Don’t pay for the overpriced, disappointing vendor food; just go to UCLA’s Ackerman student union, where there are several fast food choices.

Now, some shots from Saturday:

Ahh yes, the main reason we were there with the Kid Formerly Known as Blogger Toddler: A live performance on the Target Children’s Stage by Playhouse Disney’s “Johnny and the Sprites.” “Avenue Q” star (and “Sesame Street” alum) John Tartaglia headlines the show, and appeared on stage with two of the show’s puppet characters. Ex-Blogger Toddler enjoyed it, as did his cousin (who we met up with); I now have those damn songs in my head. (It was actually a pretty good, nearly half-hour show — not bad for free. Gladly took this over seeing those creepy “Doodlebops.” Would have liked to have seen “Choo Choo Soul,” but that performance was slated for the afternoon.)

J. Eric Lynxwiler and L.A. Observed‘s Kevin Roderick man the Angel City Press book, signing copies of their Wilshire Blvd.-themed book.

The spirit of the book festival: Strangers standing side by side, solving crossword puzzles together.

Hi De Ho Comics promises “books with pictures.”

Pop culture historian Charles Phoenix holds up one of his great books, a colorful look at life in post-war Southern California. Charles confirms that he’s taking a break from doing his Disneyland-themed tours of downtown L.A., but he’s excited about his Roller Skating Spectacular at Glendale’s kitschy, historic Moonlight Rollerway. Event, which takes place May 17 and 18, includes Charles’ retro slide show, this time celebrating roller skating, and an after show all-skate party, among other things.

The “Comix Strip” row of mostly animation/comics-related booths (although, strangely, several non-comics booths resided there as well, including Tribune’s Metromix).

Pretty self-explanatory.