HAPPY 225th, L.A.!
HAPPY 225th, L.A.!
Put on your walking shoes, Angelenos. Monday marks the 225th birthday of the City of Los Angeles, and the 25th year that the cities of Los Angeles and San Gabriel, El Pueblo Historical Monument (a.k.a. Olvera Street), and Los Pobladores 200 (an ancestral heritage association) have celebrated the occasion by staging “Los Pobladores – Walk to Los Angeles.”
The walk is a reenactment of the one that los pobladores, the city's original settlers, took from Mission San Gabriel to La Porciúncula, now known as the L.A. River. Los pobladores were an ethnically and culturally diverse group of 48 poor farmers and soldiers from northwestern Mexico. Bright and early on September 4, 1781, the motley band left Mission San Gabriel and trekked west to the site where they founded El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles (The Town of the Queen of the Angels).
This Monday, modern-day pobladores will wend their way through a drastically different landscape, but the timing of the nine-mile journey will be the same. Walkers meet at Mission San Gabriel, like the original troupe, in the early morning. There, they'll receive free goodies, including a T-shirt and a wristband that will entitle them to food and return transportation. Expect the hike to take about three hours, with some surprises. (Last year's event included mariachis and Aztec dancers.) Participants also have the less strenuous option of embarking from Lincoln Park, six miles into the route. “But,” chides Cynthia Smith, walk liaison for the city of San Gabriel, where she is an administrative service manager, “if you want to be a real pobladore, you'll do the nine.” Food, music, and entertainment await participants at Olvera Street, the walk's terminus.
Smith says interest in the walk has increased substantially over the last five years. Organizers anticipate this year's event to attract upwards of 1,000 participants. Among them will be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who first took part when he was a member of the city council. “Certainly, Mayor Villaraigosa's participation and recognition of the importance of San Gabriel and L.A.'s shared living history has made a difference,” Smith adds.
“I really believe that this unites all of us. It's the people's walk, and it celebrates not just the original pobladores, but generations of people who have come here from different walks of life.”
–Jonathan Frochtzwajg
“Los Pobladores – Walk to Los Angeles.” Starts at San Gabriel Mission, 428 S. Mission Ave. in San Gabriel. Mon. 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Free; includes food, shuttle transportation from Olvera Street to Mission San Gabriel before and after event. Info, schedule: (213) 485-8372 or Lacity.org/225.
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THIS WEEK IN THE CITY
Thursday 31
WAY TO GO
Christopher Lee Nutter became a guiding light to American gay men when he came blazing out of the closet in 1994 via a stunning, self-affirming essay in Details magazine. Now he's celebrating his new, already acclaimed book, The Way Out: The Gay Man's Guide to Freedom No Matter If You're in Denial, Closeted, Half In, Half Out, Just Out or Been Around the Block. Tonight, he'll be signing copies at A Different Light Bookstore (8853 Santa Monica Blvd., 310-854-6601; 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m.), followed by a public reception at East West Lounge (8851 Santa Monica Blvd., 310-360-6186; 9 p.m.-midnight), both in West Hollywood. With the aid of this self-help treatise, Nutter hopes gay men will start to view their sexuality in a productive, rather than destructive, manner, and to empower themselves with their will to live lovingly and freely. Both events are free.
Friday 1
WALT THIS WAY
Walt Disney took animation in one direction, J. Walt is driving it in another. Tonight, the artist currently considered on the forefront of interactive art and computer performance presents “Spontaneous Fantasia,” a program of spontaneously generated computer animation with live musical accompaniment. Indeed, J. Walt Adamczyk has figured out how to manipulate the mighty PC machine to create a form of animation that he says combines elements of painting, music, dance, video art, sculpture, and architecture. Add his musical tastes – which run toward Bach, Satie, Chopin, and Saint-Saens – and you've got a family event that would make Walt D. proud. 8:30 p.m. $15; $8 kids under 12. Neighborhood Church, Ross Chapel, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena. Info: (626) 398-3608. Spontaneousfantasia.com.
Saturday 2
HOLLYWOOD IS BOLLYWOOD
Blast into September looking East and West and see “KARISHMA: An Enchanting Evening of Bollywood Dance Beneath the Stars” at the Ford Amphitheatre tonight. Blue13 – a multi-ethnic, 20-member Bollywood dance company that boasts “real technique” in its efforts to advance experimental and nontraditional Western contemporary dance while preserving the cultural and classical forms of India – performs this concert inspired by fantastical tales A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Wizard of Oz. Watch the troupe perform “Bollywood-Tech,” its trademark precision-based style, as well as breakdance, fire dance, and aerial acrobatics. 8 p.m. $22; $12 kids under 13. 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, (323) 461-3673. Fordamphitheater.com.
Sunday 3
OPERATIC IDEAS
With the L.A. Opera about to lift its curtains again, when better to brush up on such things recitative? Today, the Opera League of Los Angeles holds its first seminar of the season. Dr. W. Allan Edmiston will moderate a discussion with opera experts Helen Greenwald of the New England Conservatory of Music, and Patrick Smith, former editor of Opera News. Greenwald will focus on Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo, Smith will cover Jules Massenet's Manon, and you can test their analyses, or simply make good use of them, by seeing productions of these works in town this fall. 1 p.m.-4 p.m. $35; $25 Opera League members. Wilshire Grand Hotel, 930 Wilshire Blvd., downtown L.A. Info: (213) 972-7220.
Monday 4
AFRICAN EXCLAMATION
If you have the day off because of all your hard laboring, you can partake in the last day of refreshment provided by the annual “African Marketplace & Cultural Faire,” now in its 21st year. This carnival of cultures of the African Diaspora includes mini festivals celebrating Brazil, Haiti, and Cameroon; dance workshops from doo-wop to square dance; live music from blues to hip-hop; wearable art shows; a literary village; and food choices as wide as their originating continent. Plus drumming, gospel, and tons of fun for little ones. Sat.-Mon. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. $6; $4 kids 11-18 and seniors; free for tykes under 10. Rancho Cienega Park, 5001 Rodeo Rd., L.A. Info: Africanmarketplace.org.
Tuesday 5
THE SHORT END
For the tenth year running, tiny is tops when the “Los Angeles International Short Film Festival” comes to town. The fest – which opens tonight with a presentation of a “Maverick Award” to filmmaker Paul Haggis, followed by shorts by George Hickenlooper, Joe Nussbaum, Grace Lee, Jason Reitman, and Adrian Grenier – will showcase approximately 700 shorts from 29 countries. It will also offer panel discussions and workshops to educate you on the art of these mini movies. Then, guess which titles will turn up again at Oscar time – seven previous winners scored awards here first. Through Sept. 14. $25 opening night; $10 screenings; $15 panels. ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 464-1478. Full schedule and info: Lashortsfest.com.
Wednesday 6
TOPSY-TURVY TEMPTATIONs
Feeling jumbled? Pull it together and see the noisy and graceful exhibition A Tumultuous Assembly: Visual Poems of the Italian Futurists at the Getty Center. On display are approximately 50 manuscripts, drawings, rare books, and journals procured from the Getty Research Institute's special collections to reveal how the artists of the Futurist movement (spanning approximately 1909-1944) employed methods similar to those of advertising to promote the manifestoes of Futurism's founder, F.T. Marinetti. Here, see how they subverted poetic convention in favor of parole in liberta (words-in-freedom), which in turn freed audiences to embrace the literary form in entirely new ways – visual, verbal, through icons and/or analogues. Closes Jan. 7. Tue.-Thur. & Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 'til 9 p.m. Free. 1200 Getty Center Dr., L.A., (310) 440-7360. Getty.edu.
Published: 08/31/2006
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