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June 20, 2014
The Joint is Jumpin: American Heroes, Summer of Mud & More

  

Celebrate summer with these hot and happening activities on Saturday:

 

Get out and about for summer on Sunday:

The Curse of Oedipus TICKET GIVEAWAY:Nab your pair of tickets to see "The Curse of Oedipus" at The Antaeus Theatre on Thursday, June 26 @ 8 p.m. in NoHo. A curse lies upon the land of Thebes and its ill-fated rulers Oedipus the King, Jocasta the Queen and Creon the high counselor-a curse that reiterates generation upon generation. The suffering of the people provides a battleground against which Apollo and Dionysus contend for power over the mortal realm. Playwright Kenneth Cavander, director Casey Stangl and the actors of Antaeus Company have distilled the legends of three generations of a people caught in a web of self-destruction. Email us at eyespylareviews@gmail.com with your name and your favorite summer activity.   

 

MORE:

 

EVEN MORE: Some things are always fun to do... Check out our Places to Go Anytime and Things To Do pages for plenty of ideas that are available on a regular basis.

  • KIDS STUFF - Shows, activities, teas and more for families with toddlers, tykes and teens.
  • FESTIVALS - There's always something to celebrate in almost every neighborhood.
  • FILM - This is the time of year where outdoor films are the hottest happenings.

See what's going on all month on the JUNE CALENDAR  

  HorzLine

 Find more? Check out our Editor's Picks selected at the start of every week.  

  

DiscountsDISCOUNTS - there are some really good ones right now. From whale watching to kids shows to festivals... entertain yourself at a discount. All at very reasonable prices. Even better, most of the discounts offered are direct from the event/activity producers and do not involve additional fees to receive the discount.

  

TIP OF THE ICEBERG: you'll find lots more events and other things to do near you - on our neighborhood and regional calendar links at the bottom of all Eye Spy LA web pages.


Have a Happy Weekend!

 
Summer Outdoor Entertainment 2014

Levitt Pavilion  

Summer in L.A. is all about the experience and not so much about the money. Grab your friends and a cooler, a blanket, and a picnic. You'll find plenty of summer events and low cost al fresco entertainment all over town.
 
FREE CONCERTS: Some of the best things in summer are free. Look around you're own neighborhood. You'll find free concerts, film screenings and theatre in parks, shopping centers, museums, and other nooks and crannies that have a patch of grass or some asphalt to setup a stage and some seating in...


HorzLine

Theater the Way it Should Be: "The Brothers Size" @ the Fountain Theatre by M.R. Hunter

The Brothers Size

Following last year's widely acclaimed "In the Red and Brown Water," the second installment of Tarell Alvin McCraney's "Brother/Sister Plays" trilogy at the Fountain is impactful and stunning. One does not need to have seen the first play as each is a standalone piece relating to the themes of African Yoruba mythology, interpersonal relations, struggle, locale and McCraney's signature style of vocalizing the stage directions as a reminder that THIS is a theatrical art form.

And it is definitively theater-not pseudo-theater plaguing many underwritten, uninspired or creatively hesitant new plays as of late. McCraney's stories work on the stage because he writes FOR the stage instead of the other way around. From the melodic dialogue with its poetic underpinnings, mythological symbolism, multilayered characters filled with pathos, hubris and complexity, "The Brothers Size" is one of those rare gems of contemporary playwrighting that gives hope to the future of the craft. Being able to tell a story is a privilege most people enjoy. The art of storytelling however is a very exclusive ability and when it unfolds in such a way to leave one breathless and clamoring for more, then a certain respect must be paid to its talent.

McCraney infuses his work with folklore from Yoruba, located in southwestern Nigeria which made its way to the southern states of the U.S. This play is set in the rural Louisiana bayou in elder brother Ogun Henri Size's home and his auto shop. Younger brother, Oshoosi has just come home after being paroled from jail, struggling to adapt to his newfound freedom. Elegba, Oshoosi's friend infiltrates the tenuous relationship with his own secret agendas only Ogun can sense as he watches his brother fall into a seduction of good vs. evil, inevitably setting him free...


HorzLine
 
"The Human Spirit" at the Odyssey Has A Lot of Heart
by M.R. Hunter

The Human Spirit

 

Nelson Mandela's death earlier this year elicited a worldwide outpouring of genuine admiration for a revolutionary but peaceful leader who after being imprisoned for 27 years, went on to become the first president of South Africa and championed tirelessly for a transition from a racially divided apartheid country to one working for progressive change. For all that Mandela was able to achieve, the roots of prejudice, fear, hate and political corruption are still ever present in the embittered colonized African countries. While it may seem another world away, the people still struggling to mend the fences and bloodshed after half a century of tyranny continues to affect us all.  

 

This is Carole Eglash-Kosoff's primary mission with her play "The Human Spirit" based on her nonfiction book published in 2010 recounting the unlikely heroes of four women who banded together to make a difference in the community. These women nicknamed the "Mamas" comprised of two segregated locals (the charming Allison Reeves and exquisite singer Rea Segoati), a South African nun (Zuri Alexander) and a white Jewish sympathizer (Lisa Dobbyn). They invited great risk to ensure medication, basic essentials and food were reaching those who were in most desperate need of them and due to apartheid, were the ones least able to have access. Their journey and refusal to acquiesce under pressure, imprisonment and physical harm captures the enduring strength of compassion and fearlessness in the worst of times...


HorzLine

LACMA's World of Color - Expressionism, Mobiles, California, Futbol and the Metropolis by M.R. Hunter

LACMA Expressionism

Bringing together some of the greatest painters of the early 20th century from Bonnard, Cézanne, Gauguin, Marc, Matisse to lesser notable names as Cuno Amiet, Heinrich Campendonk, and Edouard Vuillard along with a smattering of rare pieces by van Gogh into its recent exhibit running through September 14, one can see the fluidity of the expressionist movement and how it related from the work itself to the artists themselves in an open dialogue.

 

 
The impressive exhibit follows a semi-chronological/semi-national timeline with the Parisian influence upfront peppered with the German persuasion. It's a glittering array of treasures with an imposing introduction by Vuillard's "A Walk in the Vineyard" cast in pastels with a verdant textile-like foreground. Moving through the period, a maturity and inventive play with color and form underlies the presentation. Flourishes of Impressionism are seen in the earlier French artists from the outset, making way to Fauvisim and Bauhaus evidenced by German artists Kandinsky and Klee... 


HorzLine

Eyestrology: Happy Birthday Gemini! by Cici Psy-Chic

Psychic Reader Dog For the month of 5/21/14-6/21/14
 
Happy birthday to these celebrity June Gemini's: Morgan Freeman (6/1), Justin Long (6/2), Anderson Cooper (6/3), Angelina Jolie (6/4), Mark Wahlberg (6/5), Robert Englund (6/6), Prince (6/7), Joan Rivers (6/8), Johnny Depp (6/9), Kate Upton (6/10), Shia LaBeouf (6/11), Ella Joyce (6/12), Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen (6/13), Donald Trump (6/14), Ice Cube (6/15), Abby Elliott (6/16), Venus Williams (6/17), Blake Shelton (6/18), Paula Abdul (6/19), Nicole Kidman (6/20), Prince William (6/21)
 
Although summer is upon us and most of us would like to be out catching the rays by dashing off to the beach, many signs will be feeling introspective and homebound in the next few weeks. Choose events and activities that stimulate the mind and lift the spirit but be prepared to cozy up with a Kindle or simply wile away the day in PJ's. There is a good opportunity for weekend trips, meeting new people or positive changes in career towards mid-June but for now take it easy. Use this time to plan, reorient or address anything requiring resolution and a sense of peace...
 

HorzLine

 

ABOUT EYE SPY LA
 

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 L.A. EYE SPY LA CONTRIBUTORS:

 

M.R. Hunter - editorial and reviews

Mark Share - reviews

Kelly Hargraves - dance and reviews

Leena Deneroff - food adventures

Charles Phoenix - retro slide of the week