What's Opera, Doc?

Finally, somebody turned off the oven.

Look, I love all the free and low-cost summer events like the outdoor movie screenings, the concerts, and Shakespeare in the park, but oh, holy hell, this summer was hot. After long stretches of triple-digit heat (even L.A. sizzled this summer), I was happy as hell when the temperatures dropped 20 degrees at the start of fall.

With fall, comes pumpkin lattes and a slew of cultural events. This week we’re talking opera, tours, and some arts freebies.

Let’s start with opera.

“But Jim, isn’t that just large women in horned helmets?”

Get one thing straight right now – I don’t go to the opera for horned helmets.

The only horned helmet I've ever done. Oh, and be advised, just like in What's Opera, Doc?, the girl usually dies.

  I go to hear Don Jose sing the flower song, trying to convince the temptress Carmen of his love.

I go to hear Athanael sing to a dying Thais that nothing is true but life and the love of human beings.

I go to see Manon seduce Des Grieux.

I go to see want and desire expressed in all its twisting-knife-in-the-gut agony. I go to see love expressed so beautifully it brings tears to your eyes.

I go because it so beautifully expresses the love and desire I feel for  my wife every waking moment.

Nope, I don’t do horned helmets.

Look, I’m very new to this art form. I’m still trying to figure out my Donizetti from my Rosetti and Verdi (I do know Wagner. I loathe Wagner). Until I met my wife, my only exposure to opera was the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon “What’s Opera, Doc?” I still giggle whenever I hear the Ride of the Valkyries (I’m going to kill the wabbit, I’m going to kill the wabbit).

But after accompanying my wife to a couple of operas I was hooked. I can appreciated great music, regardless of its genre, and a beautiful voice is a beautiful voice.

Piotr Beczala and opera goddess Anna Netrebko in a scene from Manon. Seriously, dude, you're going to say no to that? Yeah, I didn't think so.

If you want to give this art form a look, there’s a couple of ways to go without it costing you an arm and a leg. L.A. Opera offers tickets starting around $20 for the balcony (that’s where my wife and I have our season seats). If that section is sold out, keep calling the box. Sometimes us season holders turn tickets in when we can’t make a performance.

Discounts are hard to come by. There are rush tickets for seniors and students, but rarely for matinees and rarely for some of the more popular productions. I have seen tickets on Goldstar, but that is rare.

Tenor Vittoria Grigolo and soprano Nino Machaidze in the L.A. Opera's production of Romeo and Juliet.

There are two other affordable options if you want to just sample opera. One is the Live in HD series from the Met where operas are shown in movie theaters (each gets two showings, one live and then an encore a few days later). Last time I went, tickets were $22 each, steep for movie showing, but cheap for an opera.

You can also catch operas on TV from time to time with PBS Great Performances. There is a version of Carmen featuring Elina Garanca that is absolutely sizzling.

If you’re going to a performance at the L.A. Opera you have some dining options ranging from low-cost to high-end. If money is an issue (and when is it not, really?), you can picnic on one of the tables in the Music Center plaza and at Grand Park. Another option is the Tina Tacos stand on the plaza.
Sometimes we’ll hit Phillipe’s for French dip sandwiches before heading to the Music Center.

Elina Garanca and Roberto Alagna were perfect as the temptress and the obsessed Don Jose in the Met version of Carmen.

If you got the bucks, then go straight to Pinot. Depending on what you drink, a meal for two will set you back $60, depending on what you drink and whether you have dessert (which we always do, my wife says). If you’re there for a matinee and they have the brunch menu, I can recommend the French toast. So fluffy, it’s like eating little clouds.

If you do go to an opera, squeeze the hand of the one you love during the great aria. After the performance, look them straight in the eye and tell them they are your passion, your obsession. And, to borrow from U2, telling them they are the reason why the opera is in you.

A few quick hits:


What’s that, you say? You want your cultural offerings for free? I can help.

On Sunday, Sept. 29 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. you can see “The Dude” himself, Gustavo Dudamel via a giant screen TV at Grand Park. They are broadcasting the performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles from the Disney Hall into the park.

If you go, go early and bring a picnic. Events at Grand Park fill up quick.

And here’s another Disney Hall-related freebie – On Oct. 5, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. the Music Center is presenting “10 Times the Party,” a celebration of the hall’s 10th anniversary. The event will be held in front of the hall and in it’s W.M. Keck Foundation Children’s Amphitheater, 111 South Grand Avenue.

The event includes music, dance, and arts workshops.

Over the next week weeks you’ll be hearing a lot about various tours you can take around L.A., starting with a great architecture tour. For now, let me offer up a suggestion on a fairly cheap, but wonderful set of tours – the L.A. Conservancy’s walking tours. My wife and I have done three or four of these tours, including the one for Union Station, the art deco tour, and the one for the Biltmore (aka the happiest place on Earth). They cost $10 a person for non-members, $5 for members.

For a great, low-cost date, do the Union Station tour and then go over to Olvera Street for taquitos at Cielito Lindo. You can cut down on the parking fee by using the park-and-ride lot at Universal City and taking the Red Line into Union Station (roundtrip for two $6).

On Sept. 28, Smithsonian magazine is sponsoring Free Museum Day. Several L.A. museums are participating, including the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Zimmer Children’s Museum, and the Pasadena Museum of Art. Find out more at the event website.

Another freebie coming up is Art Night in Pasadena on Friday, Oct. 11. Several museums and galleries will be open for free. There will also be a free shuttle service to get around to the different venues. We’ve got this penciled in our calendar. More information can be found at the event website.

Villains, Charles, and Becoming L.A.

Check out Dimples O'Rawley. Even the grandkids get villainized.

Oh, man, so much good stuff is going on. Let’s dive in.

First, a quick update to my last post: After playing a couple of shows out on the East Coast, Vaud and the Villains are back in Southern California. They are playing Sept. 21 at Fais Do Do (in the West Adams district) and, if you’re the San Diego area, on Sept. 29 at a place called The Belly Up in Solana Beach.



“Jim, you keep gushing about these guys,” you say. “Are they really that good?”

Let me put to you this way: we’re seeing them on Sept. 21 for the third time in three months. Yeah, they are that good.

Speaking of the 21st, it kills me that this is going on the same night because I would really love to go: The Moon Festival is being held in Chinatown. Similar to the Summer Nights series, it features live bands, food trucks, dancing, cooking demonstrations, dragon dancers, and more. A band that I like, The Little Ones (unapologetically sunny pop rock), is scheduled to play. The festival runs from 5 to 11 p.m. and admission is free.

If you drive, there’s relatively cheap parking nearby. If you go Metro, the Chinatown station off the Gold Line drops you off about a block away from the festivities. If we didn’t have tix for Vaud and the Villains, we would be all over this one.

Speaking of Chinatown, “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix will be conducting tours there on Oct. 6. You don’t know who Charles Phoenix is? Hold on a moment while I face palm and say “oh, dude…”

In addition to being a performer and an author, Charles also likes to experiment with food.

Let me back up a bit. One of our recent dates had us taking in the new “Becoming L.A.” exhibit at the Natural History Museum, seeing an IMAX film at the California Science Center, and then going back over to the museum to see Charles Phoenix’s slideshow: “Architecture in L.A.”

If you have seen a Charles Phoenix show or gone on one of his tours, you know how much fun he is. If you haven’t, in you’re in for a treat.

Charles is the king of retro California. Growing up in Ontario, he fell in love with all that is Southern California – theme parks, neon lighting, googie (space age themed) design, and 50s and 60s cars (his dad was a used car salesman). After stints as a fashion designer (he’s a grad of FIDM where Kim occasionally teaches) and as a classic car salesman, Charles started on the path of becoming an author and entertainer when he found a shoe box of slides of a road trip made in 1957. He’s been collecting slides ever since.

In his bio on his website, Charles calls his slide archive the “Slibrary” and employs a “Slibrarian.”

Now he does themed slideshow presentations. He recently did a retro Disneyland show in Anaheim and his annual Christmas slide show is not to be missed. He also does Disneyland-themed tours of downtown Los Angeles (also well worth the time and money).

His L.A. architecture show, which he is performing again in Pasadena on Nov. 24, features unappreciated and under-appreciated buildings and signs from the 50s and 60s. Here’s a description from his website: “With his trademark enthusiasm, gracious wit, and keen eye for odd-ball detail, Charles shares spectacular space-age drive-ins, coffee shops, bowling alleys, strip malls, shopping centers, extreme homes, dingbat apartments, fast food stands, theme parks and much more all in glorious color!!!”

That’s the show: amazing slides of a golden age in Southern California design accompanied by his witty banter.

The key word being “witty.” This isn’t snarky commentary. He makes fun of things, but it is done with love. He has a true appreciation for what he is showing you.

I found this great quote of his from a 2005 interview on NPR: "I want people to stop saying `Oh, that was so tacky or that was so ugly or whatever.' You know, it wasn't all tacky and ugly. It was amazing."

He is doing the architecture show on Nov. 24 at the Art Center College in Pasadena. Tickets are $25 and $30.

On Oct. 6, Charles is doing three one-hour tours of Chinatown. Here’s the description from his website. “Look through the layers of time at Chinatown’s recently restored vintage neon signage, colorful Chinese modern architecture, multi-generation family owned antique stores and curio shops, classic restaurants and more. You will never see Old Chinatown the same way again.”

Tickets are $39 each. A bit pricey, I know, but it is Charles and it is Chinatown.

Back to our date. Before I go any further, remember this: do not drive anywhere near Exposition Park when USC is playing a home game. We made the mistake on a previous family outing of going during a game and got stuck in a massive traffic jam. We kept seeing signs with progressively higher fees for parking, topping at $80 (that’s not a typo - $80). We finally broke free and headed downtown, parked next to the 7th and Metro station for $3, and took the Expo Line back. (The Natural History Museum will knock $1.25 off your admission free for riding Metro.

If you haven’t been to the museum or haven’t been recently, now is a good time to go. The museum has just gone through a major renovation and looks fabulous.

One of the new additions is the new permanent “Becoming L.A.” exhibit, which covers about 14,000 square feet of space. The exhibit chronicles the history of the city (yes, L.A. has history) from the first contact with the Spanish explorers through its development into the city we now love.

Nice tagline.

Kim is a teacher, so she gets into the museum for free. Because we arrived about an hour before closing, my ticket has half off - $6.

An hour is just about the right amount of time to see the L.A. exhibit. Its highlights include one of Charles Chapin’s “Little Tramp” costumes, a 1902 Tourist automobile, and one of Walt Disney’s early animation machines, with a handwritten set of instructions from the man himself. One room is filled with a scaled model of the city, circa 1930.

After seeing the exhibit, we went over to the nearby California Science Center to see one of their IMAX movies, Blue Planet. The movie is fantastic to look at. Be warned it does come with quite a bit of tree-hugging-save-our-planet narration (I’m a tree hugger, so I was okay with it). Tickets were $8.25. I can’t remember the cost of concession stand food, but I do remember it being quite reasonable.

If I were planning another date to Exposition Park, I would get timed tickets to see the space shuttle Endeavour over the Science Center (The center admission is free. Tickets for Endeavour are free, but there is a small fee for getting them over the Internet) and spend the first part of my day there. I would picnic at the tables just outside its backdoors and then head over to the Natural History Museum for the afternoon.

Parking at Exposition Park can be had for $8 or $10, depending on the lot. If you go Metro (always a favorite of ours), the park is an easy walk from the station.

Well, that’s it for now.

We Become Villainized

It was a hot, steamy night and wife and I were both dripping in sweat. No, forget dripping – we were drenched in sweat.

Despite the heat and humidity, we wouldn’t have been anywhere else in the world that night.  We were seeing Vaud and the Villains, a band hotter and steamier than the weather that night.

So who is Vaud and the Villains? They are a 19-piece 1930s New Orleans band and cabaret show. Think Americana noire meets Moulin Rouge. The band is the creation of actors Andy Comeau (aka Vaud), a saxophone player, and his wife Dawn Lewis (aka Peaches Mahoney), one of the group’s smoking hot dancers.

Inspired by the Bruce Springsteen Seeger Sessions album, the villains’ shows included songs that have long been in the public domain songs, such as “O Mary Don’t You Weep,” “John Henry,” and “St. James Infirmary.”

The band is loaded with great musicians – guitar players, banjo pickers, piano players, a dude playing spoons on a washboard, a violinist, and a horn section complete with a tuba player. I’ve haven’t been this thrilled about a band with a tuba player since seeing Freebo with Bonnie Riatt’s band back in the 80s. I don’t think I’ve ever been thrilled by a band with a washboard player before, but then again I don’t travel in those circles.

In addition to Peaches, a redhead, the dancers include Frankie Mineli, a brunette, and Shadie Sadie Sinclair, a blonde (real names unknown to me despite a Google search). At our show there was a fourth dancer, a shorthaired brunette whose name, but not her curves, escaped me. (update: I'm informed the dancer goes by the name Jinx)

Dawn Lewis as Peaches Mahoney.

Here’s a link to the band’s official video.

I hadn’t heard of these guys until just a couple of months ago. Then I couldn’t stop hearing about them – they kept turning up in my searches for date ideas. Their recent shows in Los Angeles included a free concert at MacArthur Park and being the headliners of a Great Gatsby-themed party at the Park Plaza hotel.

Who are these guys? I wanted to find out, but every time there was a chance to see them, some scheduling conflict came up or, if the date worked, my wallet would suffer a money drought.

Then came TwentyWonder, a fundraiser for the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles. Put this event on your radar screen for next summer. During the course of that evening – and this just a partial list — we saw a 3-D printer for the first time, made trippy laser art, held a rock that was created during the universe's adolescence, saw Ernie Kovac's Emmy and his art, saw some impressive art from people with Down's syndrome, and got a piece of Greenland — all before the roller derby, the lucha libre wrestling, and the acoustic set of power pop artist Matthew Sweet.

Then we saw the mind-meltingly great set from Vaud and the Villains, the night’s headliners.  We were hooked.

Soon after TwentyWonder, I looked their schedule up and saw they were doing a show at the Ford Amphitheater.

If Vaud and the Villains are my new musical find, the Ford is my new venue find. How a 90-plus-year-old venue and I, a Southern Californian for more than 40 years, never met is something of a mystery.

If you haven’t been to the Ford, think of it as a miniature Hollywood Bowl with about a fourth of the cost and hassle.

For openers, the Ford seats 1,200, a size that allows you to actually see and have a more intimate show with the performer than the 17,000-plus seat Hollywood Bowl.  Look, I love going to shows at the Hollywood Bowl, but there have been times when I have felt I was part of a herd going off to the stockyards.

The entrance to the Ford.

You won’t see major performers there like at the Bowl, but when a venue is savvy enough to bring Vaud and the Villains, you become curious as to what other great talent you’ve been missing.

I have seen discount tickets for most, if not all, shows at the Ford on Goldstar. Tickets were listed for $30 each, not including service charges, but we got two tickets from Goldstar for $41, including service charges.

When we go to the Bowl, we use their park-and-ride bus service, which costs $5 a person to get a seat on a large metro bus. For the Ford, they use smaller, dial-a-ride size buses. The cost? Nothing. Zip.

 Discounted tickets, free parking, and a free shuttle – you got to love it already. Our only other costs that night were for tacos - $16 for six. Total date cost: $57 for a show, parking, a shuttle, and dinner.

The Ford today.

Just like the Bowl, you can picnic at the Ford. Food and beverages, including alcohol, are allowed. There are some nice spots to set up a picnic, but we arrived too late to grab one. We had our tacos, along with the wine we brought, at our seats. We made a mental note to plan a picnic next time and arrive a bit earlier.

So what happens when you bring a smoking band into a great venue? You get about 1,000 people dancing in their seats and in the aisles. There were people at the show who clearly had no idea who Vaud and the Villains were. I overheard one conversation with a woman who brought a group of 60 people to see the show and none of them knew the band. I saw her and many in her party dancing the night away.

We were dancing too.

The Ford in the 1920s, shortly after being built.

A couple of quick notes: First, as of this writing, Vaud and the Villains were heading off for some East Coast shows. They frequently play clubs in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Check their site for show dates. 

Second, the Ford has shows scheduled through mid-October, including free shows under their  JAMS program. Some of these shows, okay, many of these shows, are a bit esoteric (accordion night, anyone?), but what's life without some new flavors from time to time?

Off to see Charles; a few quick hits

In a few days I’ll be writing about our date seeing performer, humorist, chef, author, and “retro daddy” Charles Phoenix. If you haven’t seen one of his slideshows or taken his downtown L.A. tour, you are truly missing out. Here's a link to Charles' jello Christmas tree video.
And here's the flying gingerbread house video.

In the meantime, I wanted to do a few quick hits on some date ideas for you. As summer winds down, so do a lot of the freebies.  I mentioned the free Shakespeare performances by the Independent Shakespeare Co. (at Griffith Park) and the Downtown Repertory Co. in past posts.  Both are winding down their seasons over the next few days. Catch them while you can.

On Aug. 30, Vaud & the Villains will be playing at the Ford Amphitheater. We saw these guys earlier this summer and they were mind-meltingly good.  They are a 19-piece New Orleans orchestra and cabaret show with three very hot dancers. They are Moulin Rouge meets American noir, as the Ford describes them. Discount tickets are available through Goldstar and there’s free parking and a free shuttle at the Universal City park-and-ride. Check their website for details.

Eat See Hear is wrapping up its season with a screening of Pulp Fiction on Aug. 31 and The Breakfast Club on Sept. 14, both at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Food trucks and live music are also part of the mix. Again, Goldstar has discount tickets.

On Sept. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Los Angeles Central Library is holding a free presentation of prewar Los Angeles photos from Ansel Adams. Afterward, you can head to Grand Park for a screening of Jurassic Park.

That 20s Show

Now you take a woman who is red-headed,
if you got what she wants, she's gonna get it
cause nobody knows what a red head mama can do.
(Red head, everybody loves red head)
She's my heartbreaker, I'm gonna make her,
don't you take her, my heartbreaker,
I'm gonna make her mine!
- Nobody Knows What a Red Head Mama Can Do, 1924

My saucy redhead.

"Tonight, we're going to party like it's 1928," I said to my wife.

My wife had been working her butt off, taking care of work and family matters and I had been hustling to keep the home fires burning while she was away. We both desperately needed a night out. Armed with cash from some freelancing gigs, I decided we were going to skip the frugal date night and splurge.

We were going to the Cicada Club.

The Cicada Club is a 30s and 40s style nightclub that is held two or three times a month inside the Cicada restaurant of the Art Deco wonder the Oviatt Building.The Oviatt, completed in 1928, was the headquarters for one of the most prestigious and expensive haberdasheries in the city, Alexander & Oviatt, according to the L.A. Conservancy.

The building is topped with a tower with a three-sided clock Oviatt had shipped over from France. He also had over 30 tons of glass by designer Rene Lalique. Most of the glass as been lost or sold over the years, according to the conservancy, but a few original pieces remain in the panels at the top of the lobby columns. The building still retains the elegant art deco fixtures, stair rails, and molded plaster ceiling panels.

The entrance to the Cicada Club

The building is a jewel and the conservancy includes it in its Art Deco tours on Saturdays, which I highly recommended. But that's a cheap date for another time.

We had wanted to go to the Cicada Club for quite awhile, but the stars never seemed to align for us to do it. When I saw the club was doing a special 1920s themed event that included the premiere of a silent movie about silent movies, we had to jump on it.

We were about to approach the cashier to enter when a group of men cut in front of us. They argued over who was going to pay, with various guys waving big wads of cash around, each insisting they would pay. We're quite irked by this. They bought their tickets and moved on. After we got checked in, we found the same guys blocking the entrance arguing again about who was paying.

The Cicada Club has a dress code - coat and tie for the gentlemen, cocktail dresses, skirt or pant suit for the ladies. Patrons are encouraged to dress in vintage clothing or in evening attire. We opted for evening attire.

We finally navigated past the quarrelsome crowd and into the club. The tables had been pushed aside, and rows of chairs set up in front of the movie screen. The evening's guest of honor, the film's producer/director/writer/star, was called up to do an introduction - and it turns out he was one of the quarrelsome bunch. The movie's cast includes Jennifer Tilly (Clara Bow), Debi Mazar (Gloria Swanson), and Iona Skye (Virginia Rappe).

The director, Alex Monty Canawati, said he got the idea for the movie when he found a bag of film on the street in Hollywood -  two years before The Artist, also a silent movie about silent movies, came out. The movie is about all the scandals and heartbreaks of the stars of the films of the 20s. Not a bad little film. Tilly's Clara Bow segment was pretty funny as was a segment with Tippi Hedren playing a movie mogul's secretary trying to deal with wannabe stars. Some of the other segments were rather sad.  It was next heading for a screening at the Palm Springs Film Festival. It's worth your time if it comes around near you.

After the screening, we were ushered to the upstairs bar while the tables and stage were set up. Earlier my wife had gotten us drinks and the bartender thought the pomegranate martini I wanted was hers. I redeemed my Man Card by getting a Glenlivet scotch on the rocks while getting her gin and tonic.

Where Jon Hamm is sitting is where I was when I ordered the second round of drinks. Only I didn't have the lovely Elizabeth Moss next me. I had the girl and her male friend who was in drag. Both were quite glam, I have to admit.

At 6:30 p.m., we went down to our table. A dinner for two at a table at Cicada Club is going to set you back at least $100, without drinks or tip. For that price, I expect great food. We were not disappointed.

We both ordered the "Trocadero" tiger shrimp, which the club describes as shrimp stuffed with Lump Crab Wrapped in Kataifi (Angel Hair Pastry) with Trio Caviar Sauce.

For our entrees, I had the "Maxwell's Special" braised short ribs, which comes with vegetables and mashed potatoes, and Kim had the "Mr. Tin Pan Alley" portobello and asparagus ravioli. For dessert, Kim had the Cicada Club Chocolate Molten Cake (chocolate Streusel with vanilla ice cream) and I had the Angel's Flight Cheesecake.

Sometime during our meal, Kim turned to me and said "I'm so happy right now." After seeing work so hard the past few weeks, that moment meant everything to me.

Some of that 20s music you hear at Disneyland and California Adventure is by Dean Mora and his band.

 Then Dean Mora's California Poppies took the stage and people took to the dance floor. The band was awesome. They kept to 20s music and focused in on works that were either written in L.A. or recorded there. Here's the link to his webpage, which includes a video of the band playing at Cicada: http://www.morasmodern.com/

The band also played the Red Head Mamma song quoted above. I couldn't find a clip of them playing it, but here's a clip featuring the tune: Nobody Knows What A Red Head Mama Can Do

A couple of years back, Kim and I took ballroom dance lessons. At our peak, we managed a decent rumba, a fair waltz (which was our first dance at our wedding), and even a few basic steps of a tango. We have since, sadly, forgotten everything but a few rumba steps. But we were there to dance, damn it, the lack of skills wasn't going to stop us.

This couple had all the moves.

We faked our way through a few dances, trying to avoid being stumbling into the better dancers (which was everyone). We stopped  to catch our breath and admire the other dancers. We sucked, but we had a blast. There were dancers out there that were sensational. I mean forget the pros on Dancing With the Stars. These guys could knock them down, take their lunch money and not miss a step or break their rhythm. We loved watching them even if they did make us insanely jealous. If you know some swing steps and maybe a bit of the foxtrot, you're going to make a ball at Cicada.

If you want a snapshot look at what the atmosphere is like, here's an LA Weekly slideshow from that very night: http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/lina-in-l-a-roaring-20s-babylon-at-cicada-club-40158083/

Also, check out the Cicada website here: http://www.cicadaclub.com/main.asp
Their site has all the info: show schedule, menu, a photo gallery, the works. It's a nicely done site.

Kim with Cicada's top man and host - Maxwell DeMille.

We are definitely coming back. There's a Halloween show with Mora's band that we are planning to go to. There's also a show in October with Johnny Crawford, Mark from the TV show "The Rifleman," and his orchestra that we would also like to go to (although I'm worried Kim might try to make him say "pa.")

So how much does this all run? Well, with dinner, drinks, valet parking, and the purchase of one of Mora's CDs, it took us somewhere north of $200. "But, Jim," you say, "this blog is supposed to be about cheap dates. What gives?" Well, I did say there would be an occasional splurge and this is one of them. I do have a few ideas on how you can cut your tab if you want to check Cicada out, but don't want to commit to a full sit-down dinner.

First, you can just get tickets for the show and dancing. That'll run you $20 or $25 apiece, depending on the show, but you can knock off $5 a ticket by buying in advance. Second, we chose to valet park, which is $7 without the tip (we might be cheap, but we do tip well). There's plenty of lots within a block or two of the Oviatt that would save you the tip.

The biggest way to cut the tab is to either not eat at the club or to eat at the upstairs bar. You could split, for example, an order of sliders and an order of fries, which would give you a decent meal at about $20, give or take a buck or two on the tip. The downside is that seating is first come, first serve upstairs. When you shuffle your feet to hit the dance floor, odds are good you'll lose your seat. Depending on how much you drink (cocktails run from $12 to $14), these tips could cut your tab to about half of what ours was.

Look, if you got the money, splurge. This was one of our all-time favorite L.A. experiences. If you have any love of dancing, of L.A.'s history and architecture and it's resurgent downtown, you'll love Cicada.

Quick Hits for the Weekend Ahead

I'll be writing soon about our latest date, a night of food and dancing 1920s style at the Cicada Club. But I wanted to post a few quick items of note for the weekend ahead. This is one of those jammed pack weekends of great events, many of them free or cheap.

I can highly recommended the third and final Chinatown Summer Nights this Saturday. Kim and I went last year and had a blast.

There will be live bands, DJs, gourmet food trucks, arts and crafts for the kids, cooking demonstrations, merchandise booths, dragon dancers, and art exhibits.


Last year, it was people watching heaven – hipsters, wannabe hipsters, middle-aged couples (we were the ones making out on the bench), and families, who were apparently mandated to buy those light up twirly things for their kids (Kim wanted one, but we couldn’t find one. Kids must have got them all). My favorite sight last year - the dad with the mohawk carrying his newborn in a baby snuggie.

Here's a slideshow from LA Weekly from a previous event: Chinatown Summer Nights slideshow

It's free. There's plenty of relatively cheap parking around Chinatown. Kim and I took the Gold Line last year, which has a stop about a block and a half away from the festivities. My advice is to go a little early and get a meal at Hop Louie. Last year we got a dinner for two that could have easily fed four or five people.

Going on both Saturday and Sunday is an event that I've been dying to go to, but missed last year and might end up missing it again this year. It's Echo Park Rising, a free music festival featuring a bunch of great local talent.

They do offer VIP passes for $20 that supposedly lets you into set aside viewing areas and allows for easier access to the bar. Here's the event website: http://echoparkrising.com/

As I said, I've never been to this. If you go, please me know how it went.

Other freebies this week include a screening of Troop Beverly Hills at Grand Park starting at sunset. Go early pack a picnic. Downtown Repertory Theater is staging Romeo and Juliet at the Pico House hotel across from Union Station on Saturday at 8 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22-25 and again Aug. 29-31.It's free, but expect them to solicit donations.

Independent Shakespeare Co. is staging As You Like It on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7 p.m. all three nights at the Old Zoo grounds at Griffith Park. These guys are awesome and definitely worth the trip. Again, go early and pack a picnic. And, again, expect them to solicit donations.

Troop Beverly Hills

Troop Beverly Hills

A Fashionable Date

My latest date with my wife took us to one my favorite places in Los Angeles, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Museum & Galleries, for the seventh annual “The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design” exhibit.

The exhibit features over 120 costumes from 15 TV shows and TV movies, including "Downton Abbey," the Liberace bio-pic “Behind the Candelabra," "Mr Selfridge," "Game of Thrones," and "House of Cards." These are the actual garments used on the show, giving you a chance to see some of the work that goes into your favorites and to see what size the actors actually are (holy moly, Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are small dudes).

Nick Verreos, star of TV’s “Project Runway” and a FIDM spokesman, calls the FIDM museum "one of the hidden treasures for costume design in the entire United States." Verreos said he has traveled the world and nobody offers a more up close look the clothing than FIDM

Kim poses with Project Runway's Nick Verreos.

Now our date was a bit high-fluting since we were there for the reception and media preview (see the Valley Press Showcase section for Aug. 9 for my story on the exhibit). Our date was filled with gourmet mac and cheese, incredible tacos, desserts,and Bombay Sapphire martinis and Grey Goose screwdrivers. We also got to meet some of the designers, see "histo-tainer" Charles Phoenix (a favorite of ours and a FIDM grad,and Sheriff Lee Baca, who was looking rather glum as his wife shopped in the FIDM store.

You, however, can make the exhibit part of a very inexpensive date (did I mention the exhibit is free?). The exhibit runs through Oct. 19. The museum, located at 919 S. Grand Avenue, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturdays. Parking is available under the FIDM building, entrance on 9th Street, or in surrounding lots. Sorry, I don't know what the parking rates are. If you are relatively hale and hearty, my recommendation is to ditch the car and use the Metro rail system. The museum is about a three block walk from the 7th/ Metro station.

Costumes from Downton Abbey.

There are a couple of cheap places to eat nearby, but my advice is to pack a picnic and eat at Grand Hope Park, which is right outside the museum's doors, or eat at Grand Park. Check the schedule for Grand Park, there is almost always something going on over there, including farmer markets and yoga classes during the week and free movie screenings on Saturdays through the summer. If you're going to an evening event, get there early. That place does fill up.

This and That
 In the mood for some culture on your next date? By all means check out the Independent Shakespeare Co. at the old zoo grounds of Griffith Park. Every Thursday through Friday evening through Sept. 1, the company puts on one of the bard's plays. This August they are doing "Macbeth" and "As You Like it." The shows are free, but they will be soliciting donations. Give as your circumstances allow. We saw this company's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last summer and it was fantastic. It pains me that we haven't been able to get over there so far this summer.

Do arrive early and definitely pack a picnic. The show we went to filled much of the meadow. If you want to guarantee yourself a spot, you can reserve tickets from Goldstar for a service charge to sit in their area. Last year the Goldstar sitting was off to the right, as your looking at the stage. My advice, go early, explore the old zoo grounds, and settle in for picnic before the show.

There's another Shakespeare company that you might want to check out, "The Young, Classically Trained (and thoroughly broke) Downtown Repertory Company. They are staging Romeo and Juliet on weekends from Aug. 8 through Aug. 31 at the Pico House right across from Union Station and Olivera Street. Their productions are also free, but I suspect they too will be passing around the hat. I haven't seen this company, but I love that they are using the historic Pico House, built around 1870, for their productions. I also like the fact they are convenient to the Metro Red Line.

One of the sources of entertainment information I forgot to mention last week was libraries. My wife and I recently attended a presentation at the L.A. Central Library on Aggie Underwood, the first woman to become city editor of a major newspaper, and a couple of the more curious crimes she covered. We combined that presentation with a cross-town trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibit. Cost of this entertainment: zip. The lecture was free and we’re LACMA members.

One more thing, keep you eyes open for opportunities. Coming out of the Kubrick exhibit we noticed one of the restaurants by the parking lot was having happy hour. We had a pizza and three beers for about $20, tip included. The restaurant also validated our parking.