The Book And Word ‘Herder’

Author and Bookshop Owner Larry McMurtry Receives the LAPL Literary Award in tonights Art Events Los Angeles

Larry McMurtry will receive the Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award this week because he is a “bibliophile par excellence.” That’s how City Librarian Fontayne Holmes describes the novelist, essayist and screenwriter. “He really is such a book person in every single meaning of the word, as a bookstore owner, as a book collector, as a writer and as an incredible reader of literature,” she said.

McMurtry, who has published 41 books, is known for depicting an un-idealized vision of the Old West and his native Texas. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1985 novel Lonesome Dove, which became a television mini-series starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones and Danny Glover in 1989.

Among his other novels that have become popular films are Terms of Endearment, Hud (from the novel Horseman, Pass By) and The Last Picture Show (which …

Rock, Pop & Jazz – Musical Events Los Angeles

Disney Hall

Photo courtesy of Global Pop at the Music Center

A new event called Global Pop at the Music Center brings Tony Award-winning singer Lea Salonga, best known for her portrayal of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, to Disney Hall on Friday, July 11, at 8:30 p.m. Born and raised in the Philippines, Salonga was the first Asian to play Eponine in Broadway’s Les Misˇrables, and her 2007 album, Inspired, went platinum. Global Pop at the Music Center is presented by The Blue Ribbon, a group of women leaders founded by Dorothy Chandler in 1968 to support the Music Center and its programs. Disney Hall is at 111 S. Grand Ave. Tickets are available at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, 135 N. Grand Ave. or at Ticketmaster: (213) 365-3500 or ticketmaster.com.

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The Metamorphosis, part of Culture Events in Los Angeles

L.A. Opera Turns ‘The Fly’ Into an Opera of Cinematic Proportions

Downtown LA Scene – David Cronenberg’s 1986 version of The Fly with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis turned the 1958 film into a sci-fi and horror spectacle, full of grisly makeup and creature effects. Gone was the innocence of Kurt Neumann’s black-and-white movie, in which a fly with David Hedison’s head famously pleaded “Help me” to Vincent Price.

Writer and director Cronenberg, who most recently directed Eastern Promises, put his characteristically gory spin on the story of Seth Brundle, a scientist who recklessly uses himself as a subject in his teleportation experiments, unaware that a housefly has entered the telepod with him. This week, The Fly gets another unexpected twist when it opens as an opera in Downtown Los Angeles. It plays at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for six performances Sept. 7-27.

Though Brundle does not survive his ambitious experiment in the film, L.A. Opera is hoping for …

Old ‘Swan’, New Tricks

American Ballet Theatre Spices Up The Culture Events in Los Angeles With Tchaikovsky’s Classic And Different Dance Teams

Five different couples will perform when American Ballet Theatre brings its acclaimed production of Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky’s 19th-century ballet about a prince who pledges his eternal love to a maiden cursed to take the form of a swan, to Downtown Los Angeles for five shows this week.

“It’s one of the hallmarks of the strength of ABT that it has such a diversity of principals,” said Kevin McKenzie, the New York-based company’s artistic director since 1992. “Many companies tend to have a few stars or headliners, whereas our strength is that we’ve always had a number of interesting principal dancers that really take things and make them their own.”

Four different male principals will take the stage as Prince Siegfried, and five female principals play the dual role of Odette, the white swan under a sorcerer’s spell, and Odile, the black swan …

Searching for Trader Joe’s

On the Hunt for the Grocery Store Everyone Wants

Downtown Los Angeles hasn’t escaped the cultish zeal. For at least the last five years, since the rush of new loft buildings kicked off the current residential boom, one burning question has been on everyone’s lips: When are we going to get a Trader Joe’s?

Few things are as shrouded in mystery as Trader Joe’s operating strategy. The Hawaiian shirt-clad grocers are notoriously tight-lipped about their business practices, and even more so about where and when they open a new store.

For communities in search of a TJ’s, that void gives rise to copious amounts of speculation, rumor and even desperation. Take San Jose, for example. In hopes of boosting its struggling downtown, city officials proposed a $2.9 million subsidy to help lure the reluctant market to a shopping center.

Last month, Auburn, Calif., city council members ditched their suits and ties in exchange for Hawaiian shirts and leis in a …

Consider It Catered

Downtown LA Scenes Filled With Restaurants That Make Party Planning a Snap

While waiting for your colleagues who are selective about what they eat, to make their decision, you can always entertain yourself playing no deposit online casino games during your lunch break. Every office has one: the picky eater. Whether it’s someone who only eats chicken. Or never eats chicken. Or counts their carbs with a pocket calculator. Or doesn’t eat vegetables that have traveled more than 80 miles, because of the resources it uses up.

And nothing kills the mood at a festive catered event faster than people holding empty cocktail napkins. That’s why ordering the catered meal for an office party can be an exercise in problem solving.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of no-fuss Downtown eateries that do the problem-solving for you – restaurants that do more than just cater, but that offer up extensive options, customized menus, and even hold your hand through the …

The Man Behind the Comics

Jules Verne Festival Pays Tribute to Icon Stan Lee

They were born nearly a century apart – one into a well-to-do family in 19th-century France, the other to working-class immigrants scraping by in Depression-era New York.

The Frenchman planned to be an attorney, but found a passion for writing and became a novelist. The other aspired to write the great American novel, but had to “settle” for becoming the seminal figure in the comic book genre.

Although they came from different cultures and generations, it’s a safe bet that in an alternate reality Jules Verne and Stan Lee would have been friends, perhaps even collaborators. And who better to imagine such a reality but the men who have introduced some of the best fantasy and science fiction to the world? His work has inspired entire generations and today there are many movies and games based on his comics. If you are a fan of his comic novels, you must try …

A War Story With Little Fight

Usually Dependable Circus Theatricals Misses the Mark With ‘Harm’s Way’

As happens with most wars, it took a couple of years for playwrights to capture various aspects of the armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, however, it seems battle-fueled works are premiering every couple of weeks on an L.A. stage.

Shem Bitterman, best known for his work The Job, which won an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, collaborated last year with Circus Theatricals on Man.Gov, about an arms inspector whose life is altered radically when he is suspected of leaking information to a reporter.

Bitterman and the Downtown Los Angeles theater company have followed up this season with Harm’s Way. Both plays, directed by Steve Zuckerman, are scheduled to open off-Broadway in New York next year, but this latest effort falls short as both a revelatory exploration about the war and a family drama. The plot lacks surprises and the dialogue is predictable, but there are …

L.A Downtown

Box Gallery

977 Chung King Road, (213) 625-1747 or theboxla.com.

Andlab

600 Moulton Ave., No. 303, (323) 222-2225 or andlab.com.

Cottage Home

410 Cottage Home Road, cottagehomela.com.

David Salow Gallery

977 S. Hill St., (213) 620-0240 or davidsalowgallery.com.

Brewery Arts Colony

The Brewery is located at 2100 N. Main St., (213) 694-2911 or breweryart.org.

Andlab: 600 Moulton Ave., No. 303, (323) 222-2225 or andlab.com.

Gallery 618E: 618E Moulton Ave., illuminatednegatives.com.

I-5 Gallery: 2100 N. Main St. #A9, (323) 342-0717 or breweryartwalk.com.

L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex: 650A S. Ave. 21, at the Brewery, (323) 276-9320.

MLA Gallery: 2020 N. Main St., #239, (323) 222-3400 or mlagallery.com.

Fringe Exhibitions

504 Chung King Court, (213) 613-0160 or fringexhibitions.com.

High Energy Constructs + Solway Jones

990 N. Hill St., Suite 180, (323) 227-7920 or highenergyconstructs.com. 

Art Slave

216 S. Spring St., (213) 598-3155 or artslavegallery.com.

Ongoing: More than 115 paintings and mixed media works by artist Neil

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