SEXY BEASTS: Grrrowll! It's all going down at the LA Zoo this weekend. Make like a cat and head on over to catch two annual events that are wildly hot...and cool too. See animals frolic in wintery habitats on Sat & Sun for the Snow Days at the Zoo. 

Just in time to warm up your mate before Valentine's Day is the Saturday evening Sex and the City Zoo. We think Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big would approve.

Trending along with the animal theme is the Dinosaur Petting Zoo at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on Sunday. Show your love for these old bones. 

CUPID CONUNDRUM? Yep, it's that candy-hearted time of year again with Valentine's Day landing next Thursday. Don't let this holiday give you the cold sweats...there are loads of fun and budget-friendly romantic adventures that put the whole prix-fix dinner menu to shame. You can also scope out other events on our February Calendar. XOXO!

MAKE LOVE WITH ARTS:

• Free Valentine's Day Craft At Buttercup in Pasadena 
• 1st Annual Valentine's Day YWCA Charity Fashion Show
• 1st Annual Valentine's Day Cookie Decorating Party And Food Drive
• Downtown Art Walk
• Love Fest II 
• Valentine's Day At Paint:Lab! Champagne, Chocolate And Strawberries  

DRAMATIC LOVE:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Day They Missed the Forest for the Trees
• The Snake Can
• Neil Simon's "Proposals"
• Romance at the Phil 

 LOVE TO LAUGH:

• Date Night in Santa Monica
• Stand-Up on the Spot: The Improvised Valentine's Day Show
• His and Hers Comedy Night

NO LOVE? For those who'd rather skip the sweet stuff, there's still plenty of things to do.

• Professional Bull Riders Liftmaster Invitational
• Roller Derby - All Star Teams Battle 
• Innovation In The Golden Era - Movie History Walk
• "A Guide To Living On Our Radioactive Planet" 

WEEKEND LOVE AFFAIR: Whether you're cruising solo or riding shotgun, we're big fans of taking the wide open road to...well just about anywhere. Take a three-day V-Day Weekend Getaway with some on and off the beaten trail destinations.

See all of this week's Editors Picks or view the full Eye Spy LA Calendar 

TIP: you can find events and other things to do near you - you'll find neighborhood and regional calendar links at the bottom of all Eye Spy LA web pages.

Have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Last Chance To See Caravaggio At LACMA & Giotto At The Getty

By Mark Share 

This weekend is the last chance to catch "Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio and His Legacy" at LACMA. The bad boy of Baroque painting, whose reputation has catapulted in recent decades, paints emotionally-charged characters in religious and secular settings, frequently androgynous young men, pushed to the front of the scenes, many of whom stare out at the viewer.

Also, closing this weekend is the important exhibition "Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination," (1300-1350), a show collecting eleven works of the genius Giotto, who broke from medieval formula to introduce a new level of humanity in his religious paintings at the start of the Renaissance...

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Mulholland Scenic Parkway by Andrea Kirk

A scenic drive along Mulholland Drive is one of the things I recommend to do on Valentine's Day especially if Cupid shoots Mother Nature with a love arrow and it turns out to be a beautiful day. This is always a romantic and scenic drive on a clear day.
 

We started at the Stone Canyon Overlook east of the 405 and continued to the eastern most Hollywood Bowl Overlook just west of the 101. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy maintains the overlooks along the Mulholland Scenic Parkway. Some of the overlooks are pullouts where you can get out of the car and have a look, others have trailheads and larger parking areas...

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Gargantuan Googie Gewgaw, Lakeland Florida, 2013 by Charles Phoenix

Recently while curiously searching Google for "Googie" images, I scrolled across a picture of the Southgate Shopping Centers sign. I was more than spellbound by the Googie gloriousness and oh-so surprised because I was totally unaware of it. 

With the click of a few keys, I was shocked to discover that this super-sized, space-age spectacle STILL STANDS as the centerpiece, logo and crowning touch of the shopping center it stands for just as it has since 1957...

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Happy birthday to these celebrity January Aquarians: Edwin Buzz Aldrin (1/20), Geena Davis (1/21), Guy Fieri (1/22), Tiffani Amber Thiessen (1/23), Mary Lou Retton (1/24), Alicia Keys (1/25), Ellen Degeneres (1/26), Mikhail Baryshnikov (1/27), Elijah Wood (1/28), Oprah Winfrey (1/29), Christian Bale (1/30), Kerry Washington (1/31)

Celebrity February Aquarians: Lisa Marie Presley (2/01), Shakira (2/02), Nathan Lane (2/03), Alice Cooper (2/04), Bobby Brown (2/05), Natalie Cole (2/06), Ashton Kutcher (2/07), John Williams (2/08), Alice Walker (2/09), Brandy Norwood (2/10), Taylor Lautner (2/11), Christina Ricci (2/12), Jerry Springer (2/13), Michael Bloomberg (2/14), Jane Seymour (2/15), Ice T (2/16), Michael Jordan (2/17), John Travolta (2/18)

AQUARIUS - Judge, Juror, Jailor

PISCES - Under Pressure
ARIES - Goals
TAURUS - Fair is Fair
GEMINI - Diplomacy
CANCER - Loose Change
LEO - Come Full Circle
VIRGO - Soar

LIBRA - Doing Time

SCORPIO - Unknown

SAGITTARIUS - Scheming, Plotting, Researching
CAPRICORN - Radiate Confidence 

Start 2013 with a fresh perspective! This is an excellent time to shed old attitudes and habits. Pay close attention to relationships this month and determine whether or not they add or detract to your well-being. Toxic entanglements and emotional vampires should get the boot for good. Reflect on what you learned last year and adapt those experiences in order to avoid making the same mistakes. This is the month when we tend to fall off the resolution wagon, so make a conscious effort to stay the course. Do what you intend to do without excuses or justifications.

Read your full EYESTROLOGICAL Forecast

Last Weekend of "Dirty Filthy Love Story"  by M.R. Hunter

It's too bad the show ends the weekend BEFORE Valentine's Day but if you're one of the few folks to have missed this sweet but dirty little ditty then you're missing out. 

The set alone is worth the price of admission, but the unfolding love story between a lonely woman and a hired hand obsessed with junk and the neighbor that threatens to come between them surprisingly draws one in as Mersola continues to raises the stakes in the fatal attraction...

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Eye Spy LA has been the online Local's Guide to L.A. since 2003. Content is written, edited and maintained by locals and focuses on local and nearby events and the local creative community.

Editorial policy: Eye Spy LA editorials are stories written about places, entertainment and events that we go to. The opinions are those of our editorial staff and the writer of the piece. Calendar listings are ads posted by the people producing events and activities in the local area. Each week we pick and recommend events and other things to do based on our experience or sometimes because they look particularly unusual, unique or in some other way interesting. We do not recommend them based on any fees they may or may not have paid us for advertising.

You'll always find the latest events & activities plus commentary about where we've been at eyespyLA.com - updated daily. 

Andrea Kirk, publisher (editor@eyespyLA.com)

 EYE SPY LA CONTRIBUTORS:

M.R. Hunter - editorial and reviews

Mark Share - reviews

Kelly Hargraves - dance and reviews

Abby Abanes - food adventures

Charles Phoenix - retro slide of the week