A beloved valet at Barney’s Beanery was improving Wednesday after a brutal attack outside the West Hollywood restaurant over the weekend that authorities have characterized as attempted murder. His assailant remains at large.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was seeking the public’s help, disseminating photos in hopes of identifying the man suspected in the assault Saturday night of Efrain “Frankie” Zarazua as well as the battery of two additional victims.
Zarazua, who has worked at the popular WeHo watering hole for more than 30 years, remained in the hospital Wednesday afternoon, according to A.J. Sacher, director of operations at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood.
“His condition is improving,” Sacher said, “which is miraculous because of how severe the assault was.”
The shirtless suspect was captured on surveillance video wearing a white baseball cap and gray sweatpants. In the attack, which occurred at 10:10 p.m., the assailant punched Zarazua, causing him to fall to the ground, then repeatedly kicked him in the head and upper torso, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Anyone with information on the suspect, additional victims or witnesses is asked to contact Detective Brandon Zeff at (310) 358-4033 or bgzeff@lasd.org, or leave an anonymous tip at (800) 222-8477.
Sacher identified the other two victims as a Barney’s cook who was waiting at the bus stop by the restaurant and a passerby outside the Soho House on Holloway Drive.
According to Sacher, Zarazua heard a commotion as the first two attacks occurred, ran to see what was happening and was then chased into the parking lot and viciously assaulted.
The valet’s family has launched a GoFundMe page to cover his medical expenses and lost wages. The fundraiser quickly surpassed its $30,000 goal, raising more than $47,000 by Wednesday afternoon.
“God bless you all and we will be praying for a speedy recovery for Frankie,” his family wrote on the fundraising page. “Justice will be served once we have the culprit who attacked him in custody.”
Sacher said he was deeply moved, but not surprised, by the outpouring of support.
“It’s not unexpected, given how long Frank has been the valet at Barney’s — it has been over 30 years — and how wonderful a person he is,” he said. “He’s got a huge heart, he’s welcoming, he’s generous, he’s kind and he’s been this way with literally thousands of people.”
On Wednesday, Barney’s Beanery turned its National Cheeseburger Day celebrations into a fundraiser for Zarazua by contributing proceeds from sales of its “Juicy Lucy” burgers to his medical expenses. The restaurant intends to continue shining a spotlight on the incident in the coming days and weeks.
“We still need the support and we still need this awareness, because the person who did this to him is still out there,” said Sacher. “That’s scary to say.”
Joe Nail, 28, saw all 50 states this summer — because he ran a marathon in each one. Project 1310, named for the amount of miles Nail ran, came to a close Sunday in D.C.
Joe Nail completed his 1,310th mile Sunday in D.C. on the National Mall.
(WTOP/Grace Newton)
WTOP/Grace Newton
Nail ran a marathon in each of 50 states.
(WTOP/Grace Newton)
WTOP/Grace Newton
Nail even knocked out the file 50 push ups.
(WTOP/Grace Newton)
WTOP/Grace Newton
Joe Nail, 28, saw all 50 states this summer — because he ran a marathon in each one. Project 1310, named for the amount of miles Nail ran, came to a close Sunday in D.C.
In addition to running, Nail challenged himself to do 1,000 push ups in each state: a total of 50,000 push ups.
“Every state, wake up, run a marathon, do 1,000 push ups, and then go to the next state,” Nail said.
The Army officer, veteran advocate and CEO of Lead for America, a nonprofit dedicated to raising money and support for veterans, began the journey in June with his first marathon in Denali, Alaska.
Three months later, a crowd gathered on the National Mall in D.C. to watch as Nail completed his 1,310th mile.
He ran 13.1 miles on his own earlier Sunday, then joined runners in the D.C. Half marathon to finish up. Nail ran to West Potomac Park where friends, family and supporters carrying state flags joined him to walk the last mile ending at the World War II memorial.
He also completed his last 50 pushups on the memorial grounds.
“More important than the physical challenge, though, was the cause behind it. I’m an Army officer. I was first inspired to join the military after going to my great uncle’s funeral in Arlington National Cemetery,” Nail said. “In the time since, every time I’ve gone to military training, I’ve come back inspired and felt like we need more of that spirit of service and sacrifice across our entire country.”
Project 1310 was used to raise money and awareness for Lead for America’s new Veterans Fellowship program — which helps one veteran in each state return to their home and continue serving and leading every year. Veterans are placed in a governor’s or mayor’s office and given the chance to work with their local community.
“The whole goal is to get people who have served our country to be able to have leadership positions when they come back home,” Nail said.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom is heading east to headline a splashy big-dollar fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in New York before the vice president’s first debate with former President Trump on Tuesday in Philadelphia, which he’ll likely attend.
The governor will promote Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, from Sunday through Wednesday, according to a member of Newsom’s political team, making media appearances and attending fundraisers in New York and stumping for the Democratic ticket in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Newsom is jumping back into campaigning for the Democratic nominee after largely lying low in the weeks since Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket. Newsom was a prominent surrogate for Biden, stumping for him around the country and defending him after his poor debate performance in June that ultimately led the incumbent to bow out of his reelection campaign.
But his role in Harris’ campaign had been unclear. Harris campaign officials said Saturday that Newsom is a leader of Harris’ national campaign committee, the same role he held with Biden’s campaign.
Harris and Newsom have a long history, having run in the same political circles in San Francisco before being sworn in together on the same day in 2004, Newsom as mayor and Harris as district attorney.
“I have known Gavin as a friend and colleague for so, so many years,” she said. “I want to thank you in front of all of our friends who are here for being an extraordinary leader of California and the nation.”
Still, a vein of competition has marked their relationship for many years, as both were viewed as rising stars in the Democratic Party. It was particularly notable during the Democratic National Convention last month: Newsom attended, but without a prominent official role.
The governor, who normally seeks the spotlight, had only a brief moment on camera during the official programming when he announced California delegates’ votes for Harris. He said he turned down an opportunity to speak on the opening night of the convention because he was attending a school orientation for his children and couldn’t get to Chicago in time.
Newsom told The Times in an interview during the convention that he was awaiting an assignment from the Harris campaign and was mindful of how the rest of the nation views San Francisco and California.
“I’m deeply situationally aware of that, and that’s why I’m not asserting anything,” he said. “I’m happy. I don’t need anything or want anything. I just want to be helpful and not hurtful.”
One way Newsom is helping is by raising money. An invitation to Sunday’s fundraiser in New York City asks donors to contribute up to $100,000 to attend the event headlined by Newsom, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Hosts include producer Shonda Rhimes and actors Tony Goldwyn, Robert De Niro, Leslie Lloyd Odom Jr. and Amber Tamblyn.
The fundraiser is taking place as campaign disclosures show Harris with a gaping financial lead over Trump. The Democratic nominee’s campaign announced Friday that she and Walz and their allied committees had raised $361 million in August, the most in the current electoral cycle, and had $404 million in cash on hand.
Trump, running mate JD Vance and their allied committees raised $130 million in August and had $295 million in the bank, according to Republicans. The former GOP president is scheduled to return to California this week for a pair of high-dollar fundraisers, one notably hosted by relatives of Newsom’s wife, according to invitations obtained by The Times.
After New York, Newsom is scheduled to visit Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, Harris is debating Trump at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. His aides referred questions about his attendance at the debate to the Harris campaign, which did not respond to The Times’ question.
A source familiar with the plans, though not authorized to speak about them publicly, said that Newsom is widely “expected” to attend the faceoff as a surrogate who’s vocally promoting Harris in her historic run against Trump.
Join an Evening of Fun, Food and Fundraising on September 21, 2024
BEND, Ore., August 27, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– The Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon is back to Raise the Woof in 2024 at their second annual benefit gala, an evening of purpose celebrating Bend’s valued pet community and supporting VRCCO’s philanthropic fund initiatives. This event will take place on Saturday, September 21, 2024, from 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon in Bend, Oregon.
Raise the Woof is an evening of fun and fundraising, including dinner, musical entertainment from the Mitch Gordon Trio featuring Neil Girard and Mark Karwan, unique animal encounters, a VIP speakeasy sponsored by BackDrop Distilling, and a live and online auction.
The funds raised will support the VRCCO Care Fund, which provides advanced medical care to Central Oregon’s pets that are in need of financial aid. Since last year’s inaugural gala, VRCCO has raised $130,000 to help pets in need. Additionally, contributions toward the Hero Fund allow VRCCO to acquire the state-of-the-art equipment necessary to make a true difference to the patient guests in treatment.
VRCCO is honored to have patient guests and pet parents in attendance, sharing their personal experiences with the specialty hospital as well as the importance of these funds.
The Veterinary Referral Center offers the most advanced emergency and specialty care options to members of the Central Oregon community. VRCCO was formed with a single goal in mind: to provide the highest level of personalized pet care. With over a decade of devotion to the veterinary field, and a lifetime of being animal lovers, they know how important it is to be your pet’s hero.
Tickets for “Raise the Woof” Benefit Gala by VRCCO are available for purchase at: https://vrcvet.com/raise-the-woof-2024/. Don’t miss this special night that will leave you feeling like a hero to the pets in your community.
Contact: hero@vrcvet.com
Source: Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon
In a boisterous homecoming after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris returned to California on Sunday and reveled in being surrounded by supporters she has known for decades, while also warning of a bleak future for the nation if Democrats do not win in November.
“It’s good to be home,” Harris told about 700 people who roared and leaped to their feet as she walked on stage in a hotel ballroom in San Francisco. “This is a room full of dear, dear friends and longstanding supporters — folks I have known for my entire career. … We’ve been through a lot together. I want to thank everyone in here for your love and longstanding support and friendship and for your dedication to this country.”
The mood at the fundraiser was warm and optimistic — one woman in the front row waved a sign that said “Make America Joyful Again.” But Harris turned serious when she argued that fundamental rights such as healthcare, same-sex marriage and abortion are at stake in the race against former President Trump.
“We know what we need to do — we need to knock on doors, we need to register folks to vote, we need to get people to the polls. And every day matters,” she said. “That’s why we’re going to win, but let’s not take anything for granted.”
The event, which drew House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Rep. Barbara Lee, San Francisco Giants Chief Executive Larry Baer and a slew of other elected officials and donors, raised more than $12 million in the city that laid the foundation for Harris’ political career. Tickets cost between $3,300 and $500,000.
Harris worked as a prosecutor and a City Hall attorney in San Francisco before being elected district attorney in 2002, which served as a springboard to her later roles as state attorney general and then U.S. senator.
“This is a good day when we welcome Kamala Harris back home to California,” said Pelosi, who introduced the vice president. “She makes us all so proud, she brings us so much joy, she gives us so much hope.”
The event had the feel of a family reunion. Harris’ niece’s young children posed for pictures in front of a large Harris/Walz campaign sign on the stage. She called out several attendees from the stage, showering the most attention on Newsom. She reminisced about the day in 2004 when they took their oath of office in San Francisco, she as district attorney and he as mayor, and also their work marrying gay couples that year.
“I have known Gavin as a friend and colleague for so, so many years,” she said. “I want to thank you in front of all of our friends who are here for being an extraordinary leader of California and the nation.”
The event capped a whirlwind three weeks in the presidential campaign, with President Biden announcing he would not seek reelection, Democrats quickly coalescing around the vice president as their nominee and Harris selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
In Biden’s first interview since he announced he would not seek another term, he said his decision was driven by the importance of beating Trump, the concerns among some members of the House and the Senate that he could harm their chances and that his candidacy could “be a real distraction.”
“The critical issue for me still, it’s not a joke, maintaining this democracy,” he said on an interview that aired on CBS on Sunday. While “it’s a great honor being president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what I — the most important thing you can do — and that is, we must — we must — we must defeat Trump.”
Harris and Walz spent last week barnstorming battleground states — events that have drawn large crowds.
“Folks are coming to these events and they’re bringing with them so much joy. People are singing and they’re dancing in the aisles long before we get there,” Harris said. “They’re showing up not only because we must beat Donald Trump, they’re showing up because they believe in our country and our freedom.”
On Saturday, the Democrats collected the endorsement of the powerful Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, and Harris announced she supported not taxing tips — an immensely popular proposal among service industry workers and one Trump backed in June.
“Copy Cat Kamala directly plagiarized President Trump’s No Tax on Tips policy proposal to let hard-working service workers keep more of their own hard-earned money,” the Republican’s campaign said in a statement.
Sunday’s fundraiser also took place four years from the day Biden selected her to be his running mate, months after Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign sputtered out.
“It’s been the best decision I’ve made,” Biden wrote in a fundraising appeal. “Kamala’s sharp. She’s tough. She’s going to make one hell of a president.”
California Republicans chose the location of Sunday’s fundraiser to cast doubt on Democratic leadership and point out dysfunction in San Francisco.
“For anyone unsure of what a Harris presidency would look like, take some time to tour her hometown where crime is running rampant, homelessness is visible on seemingly every street corner, and storefronts and office spaces sit empty as businesses close and people move away with no plans to return,” said state GOP chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson in a statement.
Given California’s deep blue tilt, it will not be contested in November. But it is home to so many wealthy donors that it provides the most campaign cash to candidates on both sides of the aisle. The GOP’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, recently headlined two fundraisers in the state. On Tuesday, Walz is expected to attend a fundraiser in Newport Beach, the same day Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff raises money at an event in Los Angeles.
Attendee Susie Tompkins Buell, the co-founder of Esprit and The North Face who has known Harris since the 1990s, said she could not recall the last time she had seen this much energy among Democrats, which she attributed to Harris’ candidacy as well as the “danger to our country from within” posed by the prospect of Trump winning another term.
“Kamala’s youth and positive energy is like a fresh gust of a cool breeze on a sweltering, humid day. So refreshing and hopeful,” said Tompkins Buell, whose husband served as Harris’ finance chair during her district attorney and attorney general campaigns.
“She has been an important part of our community for years,” added. “I am so impressed by her consistency. She is very confident in who she is and her style has always been the same, just improved. It’s all impressive.”
On a sticky August Friday afternoon on Fire Island, New York City’s second most illustrious summer weekend destination, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and First Secretary of Transportation Gentleman Chasten Buttigieg held the most successful fundraiser in the island’s history, according to event co-chair and former 18-year treasurer of the Democratic National Committee Andrew Tobias. He said the fundraiser brought in $310,000, beating the $200,000 haul for an event Cher showed up to in 2016.
The inherent contrasts of the 2024 campaign — prosecutor vs. criminal, future vs. past, and, as the event’s host Marius Meland pointed out, woman vs. man — were embodied by the environs. The event took place in the Pines, a historically gay neighborhood that served as the setting for the 2022 romantic comedy Fire Island. En route to the event, secret service agents appeared to waylay hunks in bikini cut swimsuits to smuggle Emhoff on and off the island. (“We can’t walk on the boardwalk because someone’s getting on a boat?” said an annoyed man holding what looked to be a to-go cocktail.) Hanging over the entrance of Meland and his partner Eng Kian Ooi’s home was a large painting of an unusually sexy Narcissus. The house, designed by Studio 54 architecture firm Bromley Caldari, was purchased with a fortune made from the sale of Law360 to LexisNexis and from Meland’s current work in AI. Buttigieg and Emhoff were dressed formally — “Business casual on a Friday on Fire Island…thanks, team!” said Emhoff with affectionate sarcasm — while the well tanned and polo-shirted crowd cheered. A campaign staffer bridged the divide in an increasingly damp linen suit worn over a tank top.
Attendees paid between $250 and $10,000 to be there, according to marketing executive Barry Lowenthal. (The floor for a photo with Emhoff and Buttigieg: $5,000, Lowenthal told VF.) Though President Biden was referred to with gratitude — “Look what he just did!” someone said of the hostage exchange that freed Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich — everyone Vanity Fair spoke with expressed great enthusiasm over the change in ticket. Nowhere was this vibe shift more evident than in attendance: the event had initially been conceived as an event to raise money for President Biden, but after Vice President Kamala Harris declared her candidacy, the event was rejiggered—and it sold out.
Kian Ooi confessed he and Meland were titillated by the thought of the event as a test run for Emhoff and Buttigieg as, respectively, First and Second Gentlemen, if Buttigieg’s husband Pete were chosen as Harris’s running mate. But the consensus of attendees was that any of the reported finalists — Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, or Buttigieg — would be great. “People think decisions like this are like choosing betweens doors, and behind one is a dragon and the other is a million dollars,” Tobias said. “But usually it’s like $800,000 is behind one door and €800,000 is behind the other.”
The VP contender who came up the most was Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, even though she has withdrawn herself from contention. Ninety-eight-year-old Jack Kabin (who made the fortuitous real estate purchase of a $22,000 home in the Pines in 1972), said, “Of course I want it to be Pete. But America isn’t ready for a gay Vice President.” The undeniable intrusion of identity politics into the election has been both negative (Former President Donald Trump suggesting HBCU alumnus and AKA member Harris “happened to turn Black”) and positive (the millions of dollars raised in Zoom fundraisers like “Black Men for Harris” and “White Women for Harris”). Lowenthal suggested a theme for this event: “Gays for Harris.”
For Lowenthal and other donors, the stakes of the election and choice to support Harris are clear; when Lowenthal went to Florida for the winter, someone shouted the f-slur at him. At the event on Fire Island, Buttigieg told a story of the 24-hour notice he and Pete had before finding out they were going to adopt their twins: While their son Gus was on a ventilator in the first hours of his life, Emhoff and Vice President Harris FaceTimed into the children’s hospital to talk to the the Buttigieges. The spouses became close during the 2020 primary despite being on opposite sides of Team Pete and the KHive, and Harris ended up administering the oath of office to Pete Buttigieg for his cabinet appointment in 2021. Emhoff reminded the crowd he practiced law for 30 years and that a threat to Griswold and its promise of right to privacy — and attendant right to “to do what you want in your home with who you love,” as Emhoff put it, including be married to them—have been forecasted in the concurring decision on Dobbs written by Justice Clarence Thomas.
The Getty Center’s “On Thin Ice – Dutch Depictions of Extreme Weather” includes “A Winter Scene with Two Gentlemen Playing Colf; Hendrick Avercamp (Dutch, 1585–1634); Pen and brown ink and translucent and opaque watercolor; Getty Museum; 2008.13” on exhibit through Sept. 1. (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
Here is a sampling of things to do in the San Fernando Valley and the greater Los Angeles area.
EVENTS
Ventura County Fair: The fair — celebrating its 150th anniversary — runs today-Aug. 11. Fair hours: noon-12 a.m. daily. Commercial and exhibit buildings and the barn close earlier. Check the website for “early bird” online fair admission and season passes; regular admission is $20; $15 ages 65 and older and ages 6-12 (venturacountyfair.org/fair/hours-and-days/). Carnival wristband are an extra fee. Check the website for PRCA Rodeo show times, $8 or $10 (rodeo tickets are additional and are good only for a specific time and date). Concerts are free with fair admission, but there is a VIP ticket option for purchase (venturacountyfair.org/fair/entertainment/). Parking is limited onsite. Check parking and shuttles here: venturacountyfair.org/fair/parking-shuttles. Ventura County Fair Grounds, 10 W. Harbor Blvd, Ventura. venturacountyfair.org
Prosperity Market’s Black Business Scavenger Hunt: Take part in the 4th annual event to discover Black-owned businesses included restaurants, services and stores, Aug. 1-25. More than 100 Black-owned businesses in the Los Angeles area are taking part. Text #BBSH24 to 323-417-0465 to participate and earn points by texting the unique code for each business you visit. A pop-up finale market and block party and winners of the scavenger hunt will be revealed, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 1 (parking lot of Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, 4427 W. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles). www.instagram.com/prosperity.market. www.prosperitymarketla.com/. Details on the event: www.prosperitymarketla.com/pages/events
Music Center’s Dance DTLA: Have fun learning new dance steps when expert dance instructors provide lessons and DJs spin the tunes, 7-11 p.m. on Fridays Aug. 16. Schedule: Samba, Aug. 2; Hip-Hop, Aug. 9; Disco, Aug. 16. Lessons are free. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Check the website for instructors and DJs. Dances are subject to change. Check the website for parking or taking the Metro. Jerry Moss Plaza at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. www.musiccenter.org/dancedtla
National Night Out Against Crime and Drugs – Mission Hills: Neighbors in the Los Angeles Police Department Mission Community Police Station area gather together at a block party to meet-and-greet the senior lead police officers, learn about crime prevention and safety tips, and enjoy music by DJ Bobby Arias, raffle prizes and free food, 5-7 p.m. Aug. 6. Bring a blanket or lawn chair for seating. Bring a picnic dinner. No pets allowed. Brand Park, 15121 Brand Blvd. Betty Ley, 818-401-3272. Details on the flyer: www.mhnconline.org/event/national-night-out-6/
National Night Out with Burbank Police Department: Meet Burbank police officers, view police vehicles, community exhibitors, refreshments and giveaways, 5:30 p.m. Aug. 6. Johnny Carson Park, 400 Bob Hope Drive. Burbank Police Department, Community Resource Officers, 818-238-3235. www.facebook.com/BurbankCA/
National Night Out – Northridge: Event includes community resources booths, a police vehicle display, a children’s bouncy house, popcorn and a screening of “Sing 2” (2021), 6 p.m. Aug. 6. Event is cosponsored by Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee’s office and Los Angeles Police Department Devonshire Community Police Station. Northridge Recreation Center, 18300 Lemarsh Ave. (at Reseda Boulevard). See the flyer: www.facebook.com/LAPDDevonshire/
National Night Out – Valley Village: Neighborhood Council Valley Village holds an event with music, food, raffles and a “Glow Stick” walk, 6 p.m. Aug. 6. Bring your own glow stick. Also, nonperishable food to be collected, and then donated to the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry (no glass bottles). Valley Village Park, 5000 Westpark Drive. Maribel Ulloa-Garcia, 818-759-8204 or email: maribelugncvv@gmail.com. www.myvalleyvillage.com.
Nisei Week Japanese Festival: The 82nd Nisei Week events include special cultural activities, entertainment and exhibits throughout Little Tokyo, Aug. 10-18. The Grand Parade, 4 p.m. Aug. 11. Festival map: https://niseiweek.org/festival/#map. 213-687-7183. Email: info@niseiweek.org. niseiweek.org
The “Natsumatsuri Family Festival” — at the Japanese American National Museum — includes cultural performances, activities and crafts, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 10. Free. Location, 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Details: www.janm.org/events/2024-08-10/2024-natsumatsuri-family-festival
Also, the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center (244 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles) has a schedule of activities, Aug. 10-18. The JACCC presents the “Plaza Festival” — Aug. 17-18 — that includes entertainment, food and shopping, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 17; and on the second day, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 18, a “Taiko Gathering,” with local Japanese drum groups. Details on the Aug. 10-18 schedule at the JACCC: jaccc.org/events/82nd-annual-nisei-week-jaccc/
Nisei Week Japanese Festival winds up with a closing ceremony and “Ondo Street Dance Party,” 3:45-7 p.m. Aug. 18 (First Street between Central Avenue and San Pedro Street). niseiweek.org
Grand Parade – Nisei Week Japanese Festival Grand Parade: The parade includes traditional Japanese taiko drum performers, local community groups, high schools, elected officials and representatives, and the newly crowned 2024 Nisei Week queen and court, 4 p.m. Aug. 11. Grand marshal is David Ono, KABC-7 news anchor, and the parade marshal is actress Amy Hill. The route begins at Central Avenue; on Central and heading west on Second Street; turning north on San Pedro Street; turning east on First Street; turning south and ending on Central Avenue. 213-687-7183. Email: info@niseiweek.org. niseiWeek.org. niseiweek.org/events/grand-parade/
The Big ‘I Do’ Wedding Experience – City of Santa Clarita: If you’re engaged to be married (or planning to propose), register by Aug. 16 to be a part of the City of Santa Clarita’s event in which multiple couple exchange their wedding vows, at the same time, and followed by a group wedding reception on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2025. Couples who register will automatically be entered in a raffle to win a custom wedding dress or suit. 661-651-0823. Read the details and register: santaclarita.gov/weddings
Wings Over Camarillo Air Show: The event includes aerial performances, a classic car and motorcycle show, vintage and present-day military aircraft display, a STEM pavilion and a “Veterans Hangar,” 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 17-18. Air show performances begin at noon. All ticketing is online. Admission, for one day and plus fee $30; $20 for active military with ID; $10 ages 6-16 (details and to purchase general admission here: tinyurl.com/mshrb8my). General admission ticket holders need to bring a blanket or chairs for seating (no personal umbrellas or tents; also, the viewing area is at the “East Ramp” only). VIP Chalet tickets (seats and VIP parking) $170 for Aug. 17 or $160 for Aug. 18; $90 for ages 3-12 for VIP Chalet tickets (see details and to purchase: tinyurl.com/4es28r25). No dogs or pets are allowed. Details on attending here: https://wingsovercamarillo.com/public-notice). Camarillo Airport, 555 Airport Way. Updates: www.facebook.com/WingsOverCamarillo. www.wingsovercamarillo.com
ART
ReflectSpace Gallery: New: “(Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossing.” Gallery hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 1-6 p.m. Sunday. Exhibit runs through Sept. 22. The gallery is inside the Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St. 818-548-2021. reflectspace.org. www.reflectspace.org/post/be-longing
ONGOING ART
Babst Gallery: “Athena LaTocha” and “Sarah M. Rodriguez.” Gallery hours: noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; and by appointment. Exhibits run through Aug. 3. Location, 413 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. 424-600-2544. babstgallery.com/
Brand 52 – Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper: The 52nd annual show includes 102 artworks — 1,574 artworks were entered for this year’s show, the largest number submitted, and also the largest number to be chosen to be exhibited. The art was submitted by artists from across the United States and curated by art critic and curator Shana Nys Dambrot. Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Exhibit runs through Aug. 9. Exhibit catalogs for sale: www.associatesofbrand.org. Brand Library and Art Center, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale. 818-548-2051. www.brandlibrary.org
Michael Kohn Gallery: “Chiffon Thomas: Progeny.” Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit runs through Aug. 17. Location, 1227 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles. 323-461-3311. www.kohngallery.com
David Kordansky Gallery: Three new exhibits at the gallery: “Curated by Rashid Johnson: Bruts,” a group show (tinyurl.com/3fdvp2wu); “William E. Jones: Saturn Comes Again (tinyurl.com/bzmfkbf2); “Simphiwe Mbunyuza: Intlombe” (tinyurl.com/338wj6d7). Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Exhibits run through Aug. 24. Location, 5130 W. Edgewood Place, Los Angeles. 323-935-3030. davidkordanskygallery.com
Artist Co-Op 7: “Touch of H’art,” interpretations of the natural world by local artists — Susan Ahdoot, Selina Cheng, Beverly Engelberg, Cheryl Mann, Debbi Saunders, Joi T. Wilson. Show is curated by artist Helen Kim. Gallery Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday; closed on Sunday and holidays. Exhibit runs through Sept. 27. Encino Terrace, lobby gallery, 15821 Ventura Blvd. (between Densmore and Gloria avenues), Encino. Artist Co-op 7 contact, Jeanne Hahn, 818-885-8306 or jeannehahn@aol.com. www.co-op7.org
Visual Journey – Artist Co-Op 7: A virtual exhibit from 12 members of the group, through Sept. 30. The exhibit is held in conjunction with the San Fernando Valley Arts & Cultural Center. https://www.co-op7.org. View the exhibit here: www.sfvacc.org/
BOOKS
Book Soup: Chris Nashawaty discusses and signs “The Future Was Now – Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982, 7 p.m. Aug. 1. David Alexander discusses his photography book “Pictures of Time,” 7 p.m. Aug. 2. Moon Unit Zappa discusses “Earth to Moon: A Memoir,” 7 p.m. Aug. 22 (ticketed event, $37.73, for admission and book; event is at the Beverly Hills Public Library, 444 N. Rexford Drive; www.booksoup.com/event/moon-unit-zappa). Location, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 310-659-3110. www.booksoup.com
Diesel, A Bookstore: Jessica Knoll (“Bright Young Women”) and Sarah Pekkanen (“House of Glass”) discuss and sign their books, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6. Free seating is limited at the outdoor events. Purchase a book in advance to reserve a seat (click on the website’s tab for the author’s date). Location, 225 26th St., Santa Monica. 310-576-9960. www.dieselbookstore.com
Jay Ellis in Conversation with Issa Rae: Malik Books presents a book release event for Ellis’ “Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? Adventures in Boyhood,” 7 p.m. Aug. 13. Reservations required. Admission $60.52 (includes second-level seating and a sign book); VIP admission $92.52 (includes floor seating, signed book and backstage after-party). Also, an add-on option for the backstage after-party, $28.52 (must also purchase a general admission ticket). Location, The Miracle Theatre, 226 S. Market St., Inglewood. malikbooks.com. Details and to purchase admission on Eventbrite: tinyurl.com/yu58xcch
An Evening with Nancy Pelosi: The former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives discusses her new book “The Art of Power,” 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15. Tickets $44.52 for admission-only; $68 for admission and book. Books must be picked up at the program. Books will not be held or mailed. No refunds. Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. Eighth St., Los Angeles. ebellofla.org/event/the-ebell-of-la-writers-bloc-speaker-emerita-nancy-pelosi-08-15-24/
CHARITY/FUNDRAISER/VOLUNTEER
Brody Stevens Festival of Friendship Walk and Softball Game: A fundraiser for Comedy Gives Back, an organization that provides help for comedians who need mental health or addiction services/treatment, Aug. 17. The Friendship Walk – 1.5 miles around Reseda Recreation Center (between the pond and the baseball field) – begins with check-in or day-of-event registration, 1-2 p.m.; walk takes place, 2 p.m. A post-walk rally includes guest speakers, comedians, music and food trucks. The “star-studded” comedians vs comedians softball game, 5 p.m. (at the Dodgers Dreamfield Little League field behind Brody’s bench. The late stand-up comedian, who died in 2019, attended Reseda High School. Walk entry fee $40 in advance; $50 on Aug. 17. Location, 18411 Victory Blvd., Reseda. Information about Comedy Gives Back, www.comedygivesback.com. Details and to register for the walk (or give a donation): https://givebutter.com/BrodyStevensWalk
Community Bingo Night: American Legion Post 288 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1614 in La Crescenta host the 12th annual Bingo Night fundraiser for veterans’ programs in the local area, 6 p.m. Aug. 18. Doors open, 4:30 p.m. Admission $25 (food available for purchase and the event includes raffles). Purchase tickets in advance from members of the AL Post 288 or VFW Post 1614. Also, from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday at the Crescenta Valley Weekly Newspaper, 3800 La Crescenta Ave., La Crescenta. Location, Healy Hall at Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish, 2361 Del Mar Road, Montrose (enter Healy Hall from Briggs and Mayfield avenues). Dick Clubb, 818-384-5761.
Brody Stevens 818 Festival of Friendship Comedy Show: The late comedian is remembered with humor and love, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 18. Minimum age: 21. Tickets $35.05 and up (Tickets: https://www.showclix.com/event/818-2024) . Two-drink minimum. Proceeds go to Comedy Gives Back mental health programs. Comedy Store, Main Room, 8433 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. https://thecomedystore.com/calendar/the-main-room/
DINING
Brew at the L.A. Zoo: The Los Angeles Zoo holds the event with samples of beers, DJs (Tyler Boudreaux, Raul Campos, Johnny Hawks), the band Arena, and food for purchase, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 3. Minimum age to attend: 21 (must show a valid ID). Tickets $75; VIP $175 (includes early entry at 6 p.m.; a lounge area with drinks and food; animal keeper talks; other perks when choosing a VIP ticket). Purchase standard tickets in advance to avoid lines; also, no VIP tickets available at the door. Details on beers and other beverages: tinyurl.com/yc47phtw. Facts about the event: tinyurl.com/49kkse87. Location, 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles. www.lazoo.org. https://lazoo.org/plan-your-visit/special-experiences/brew2024/
Smorgasburg Los Angeles: The outdoor food and drink market has an “Ice Cream Alley” vendor area, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 4 (and all other Sundays through Sept. 1). Check the website or Facebook for vendors. Free admission. No pets allowed at this venue. Row DTLA, 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles. la.smorgasburg.com and www.facebook.com/SmorgasburgLA/
Charles Phoenix – Southern California in Kodachrome: The pop culture author and entertaining lecturer presents a retro slideshow of 1950-1960s cultural scene through Kodachrome slides, 7 p.m. Aug. 7. The Getty Center offers this mid-century lecture for free (an advance ticket is required) or watch online on Zoom (register in advance for the link). Details and to register for in-person or the Zoom link: tinyurl.com/3xrc2ree. About Charles Phoenix: https://charlesphoenix.com/. Getty parking: www.getty.edu/visit/center/parking-and-transportation. The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive (at North Sepulveda Boulevard), Los Angeles. 310-440-7300. www.getty.edu.
Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California: The 2024-25 season of speakers: Trevor Noah, Oct. 15; Malcolm Gladwell, Nov. 19; Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Jan. 14; Pete McBride and Kevin Fedarko, Feb. 11; Zanny Minton Beddoes, April 22; Emily Chang, May 6. Subscription packages on sale for the series, $210 and up (no single tickets are sold). Programs begin at 7:30 p.m. and there will be a question and answer session. Details and information for the Long Beach, Pasadena and Redondo Beach location talks: www.speakersla.com/faq/. Bank of America Performing Arts Center, Kavli Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. 805-449-2787. bapacthousandoaks.com. www.speakersla.com/locations/thousand-oaks/
Canoga Park Farmers Market: A certified market, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturdays. Rain or shine. Location, 7248 Owensmouth Avenue, between Sherman Way and Wyandotte Avenue. www.instagram.com/mainst.canogaparkfarmersmarket
El Nido Farmers Market – Pacoima: El Nido Family Centers and the City of Los Angeles present the market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. Location, Pacoima Family Source Center, 11243 Glenoaks Blvd. www.elnidofamilycenters.org/farmers-market
Encino Farmers Market: ONEgeneration presents the market, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays. Location, 17400 Victory Blvd. (between Balboa Boulevard and White Oak Avenue). Farmers market manager, 818-708-6611 or email: farmersmarket@onegeneration.org. www.onegeneration.org/farmers-market/
Good Times Farmers Market: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays. Los Angeles Valley College, parking lot A, 5800 Fulton Ave. (at Burbank Boulevard), Valley Glen. Email: goodtimesfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Instagram: tinyurl.com/mrxcaxrn
NoHo Summer Nights Movie – Valley Cultural Foundation: “Barbie” (2023, 8 p.m. Aug. 10 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-noho-movie-barbie/). Free. Bring a blanket or low-back lawn chair for seating. Upcoming: “Coco” (2017), Aug. 24. North Hollywood Recreation Center (behind the North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Public Library), 11455 Magnolia Blvd. Check upcoming movies and concerts here: https://valleycultural.org/concerts-events/noho-summer-nights/.
MUSEUM
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures: Ongoing special exhibits: “Outside the Mainstream,” through Aug. 4. “Shifting Perspectives: Vertical Cinema,” through Aug. 4. “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” through Aug. 4. “Significant Movies and Movie Makers,” three exhibits through Jan. 4, 2026: “Casablanca,” “Boyz n the Hood,” and Lourdes Portillo.” Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and Monday. Admission $25; $19 ages 62 and older; $15 students, age 18 and older with ID; free for ages 17 and younger. Location, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. (corner of Fairfax Avenue), Los Angeles. 323-930-3000. academymuseum.org
African American Firefighter Museum: Artifacts, fire apparatus, pictures and stories about African American Los Angeles firefighters. Hours: timed entry admission, 1, 2 and 4 p.m. on Sunday (make a reservation on Eventbrite here: tinyurl.com/4dx5xxhk). Donation. Location, 1401 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles. 213-744-1730. https://www.aaffmuseum.org/
Autry Museum of the American West: Museum hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission $18; $14 ages 62 and older, and ages 13-18 and also students older than 18 with ID; $8 ages 3-12 (theautry.org/visit). Location, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. theautry.org
Bolton Hall Museum: Hours: 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Free admission; $5 donation is appreciated. Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga. 818-352-3420. Email: llhs@boltonhall.org. www.facebook.com/boltonhallmuseum and www.boltonhall.org
California African American Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Speaking to Falling Seeds,” through Aug. 3. “Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door,” through Aug. 18 (caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2024/paula-wilson-toward-the-sky-s-back-door). Also, “Simone Leigh,” a traveling exhibit, co-presented with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (artwork to be presented at both museums), through Jan. 20, 2025 (caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2024/simone-leigh). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Free admission. Parking $20 before 5 p.m.; $24 after 5 p.m. (in Exposition Park). Location, 600 State Drive, Los Angeles (in Exposition Park). 213-744-7432. www.caamuseum.org and www.facebook.com/CAAMinLA/
California Science Center: Ongoing special exhibit: “Leonardo Da Vinci: Inventor. Artist. Dreamer.,” through Sept. 2 (californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/leonardo-da-vinci-inventor-artist-dreamer). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission is free to the center’s permanent galleries, but there is a charge for special exhibits. Admission to the “Leonardo Da Vinci” exhibit: $22.95 ages 18-64; $20.95 ages 65 and older and students ages 13-17 with ID; $15.95 ages 3-12; (timed tickets are required for special exhibits, and also the Imax Theater; californiasciencecenter.org/visit). Location, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles. californiasciencecenter.org
Craft Contemporary: Ongoing special exhibits: “Kyungmi Shin: Origin Stories” (www.craftcontemporary.org/exhibitions/kyungmi-shin-origin-stories) and “3B Collective: Highway Hypnosis,” with artwork from members of the Los Angeles-based 3B Collective — Adrian Alfaro, Aaron Douglas Estrada, Alfredo D. Diaz, Alexa Ramírez Posada, Oscar Magallanes, Rubén Ortiz-Torres — (www.craftcontemporary.org/exhibitions/highway-hypnosis). Both exhibits run through Sept. 8. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Admission $9; $7 ages 65 and older and students; free for ages 12 and younger. Location, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. www.craftcontemporary.org
Discovery Cube Los Angeles – Sylmar: Ongoing special exhibit: “Expedition: Dinosaur!” through Sept. 2. The Discovery Cube has ongoing exhibits that aim to make science fun for children. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission $18 ages 15-61; $17 ages 62 and older; $16 ages 3-14. Location, 11800 Foothill Blvd., Sylmar. www.facebook.com/TheDiscoveryCube and www.discoverycube.org
The Getty Center: Ongoing special exhibits: “The Book of Marvels – Wonder and Fear in the Middle Ages,” through Aug. 25. “On Thin Ice – Dutch Depictions of Extreme Weather,” through Sept. 1. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and Sunday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday. Free admission but a timed-ticket admission is required (tinyurl.com/yu6fsv3s). Parking $25 (www.getty.edu/visit/center/parking-and-transportation). Location, 1200 Getty Center Drive (at North Sepulveda Boulevard), Los Angeles. 310-440-7300. www.getty.edu
The Getty Villa: Ongoing special exhibits: “Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery,” through July 29 (www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/picture_worlds). “Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt,” through Jan. 25, 2027. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. Free admission, but a timed-entry reservation is required. Parking $25. Location, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. www.getty.edu/visit/villa/
Grammy Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Roxy: 50 and Still Rockin’,” through Sept. 2 (grammymuseum.org/event/50andstillrockin). “Hip-Hop America: The Mix Tape Exhibit,” through Sept. 4 (grammymuseum.org/exhibit/hip-hop-america-the-mixtape-exhibit). Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Friday and Sunday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Admission $18; $15 ages 65 and older; $12 ages 5-17 and college students with ID. Location, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-725-5700. grammymuseum.org
Italian American Museum Los Angeles: Ongoing special exhibit: “Louis Prima: Rediscovering a Musical Icon,” through Oct. 13 (tinyurl.com/mrrb4pbh). Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Admission free; donations requested. Location, 644 N. Main St., Los Angeles. 213-485-8432. www.iamla.org
Japanese American National Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Giant Robot Biennale 5,” an exhibit of art by Sean Chao, Felicia Chiao, Luke Chueh, Giorgiko, James Jean, Taylor Lee, Mike Shinoda, Rain Szeto, Yoskay Yamamoto (co-presented by Eric Nakamura, founder of Giant Robot), through Sept. 1. “J.T. Sata: Immigrant Modernist,” photography exhibit by the late James Tadanao Sata (1896-1975), through Sept. 1. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Sunday; noon-8 p.m. Thursday; closed on national holidays (www.janm.org/visit). Admission: $16; $9 ages 62 and older and children; free for ages 5 and younger (timed advance tickets are recommended). Location, 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. 213-625-0414. Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamuseum and janm.org
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum: Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, except closed on the first Tuesday of the month and national holidays. Admission $15; $12 ages 62 and older and students ages 13-17; $7 ages 3-12; free for ages 2 and younger, but a ticket is required (tarpits.org/plan-your-visit/la-brea-tar-pits-buy-tickets). Parking $18. Location, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-763-3499. tarpits.org/
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes: Permanent exhibits: “LA Starts Here!” “Calle Principal: Mi México en Los Ángeles.” Hours: noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Free admission. Location, 501 N. Main St., Los Angeles. www.lapca.org
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Ongoing special exhibits: “Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting,” through Aug. 4. “Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine,” through Aug. 11. “Ed Ruscha/Now Then,” through Oct. 6. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Thursday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Plan your visit information here: bit.ly/2P3c7iR. Admission $23; $19 ages 65 and older and students ages 18 and older with a valid ID; free for ages 17 and younger (reserving/purchasing an advance, timed-entry online is recommended; these prices are for residents of Los Angeles County with an ID). Location, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-857-6010. www.lacma.org
Martial Arts History Museum: Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Admission $12; $5 ages 6-17. Location, 201 N. Brand Blvd. (corner of North Brand and Wilson Street; use entrance at 111 Wilson St.), Glendale. 818-245-6051. www.facebook.com/martialartshistorymuseum. martialartsmuseum.com/
Museum of Contemporary Art: Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission is free but an advance online timed-entry ticket is required. Special exhibits are $18; $10 seniors and students; free for ages 11 and younger. Locations: the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles; MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. 213-633-5351. www.moca.org/visit
Museum of the San Fernando Valley: Hours: 1-5 p.m. Tuesday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Free admission; donations appreciated. Rancho Cordillera del Norte, 18904 Nordhoff St. (southwest corner of Nordhoff and Wilbur Avenue), Northridge. 818-347-9665. themuseumsfvnow.org/
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County: Ongoing special exhibit: “Butterfly Pavilion,” through Aug. 25. Admission to this special exhibit is $8 by a timed ticket (30-minute time slot) and also, a general museum admission is required (nhm.org/plan-your-visit/nhm-buy-tickets). Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday (closed on Tuesday). Admission $18; $14 ages 62 and older and ages 13-17; $7 ages 3-12; free for ages 2 and younger, but a ticket is required. Location, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. nhmlac.org
Petersen Automotive Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Eyes on the Road: Art of the Automotive Landscape,” through Nov. 2024. “Best in Low: Lowrider Icons of the Street and Show,” through April 2025. “GM’s Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars from the Joe Bortz Collection,” 6 concept cars from the 1950s, through March 2026 (www.petersen.org/gms-marvelous-motorama-exhibit). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission $21; $19 ages 62 and older; $13 ages 12-17; $12 ages 4-11. Location, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-930-2277. www.petersen.org
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum: Ongoing special exhibit: “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy,” through Sept. 8. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and Jan. 1). Admission: $25; $22 ages 62 and older; $18 ages 11-17; $15 ages 3-10 (purchase online here: tinyurl.com/mry5ne9h). Location, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley. www.reaganfoundation.org
Skirball Cultural Center: Ongoing special exhibit: “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak,” through Sept. 1 (www.skirball.org/museum/wild-things-are-happening-art-maurice-sendak). Hours: noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Closed for Jewish and national holidays (www.skirball.org/visit). Admission $18; $13 seniors, full time students with ID and ages 2-17 www.skirball.org/visit). Admission for the “Noah’s Ark at the Skirball” is an extra charge and by a timed-entry (purchase online). Location, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 310-440-4500. skirball.org
Valley Relics Museum: Take a trip down San Fernando Valley memory lane, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 3-4 (see website for other dates). Admission $15 and up. The museum is located at 7900 Balboa Blvd., Hangar C3 and C4, entrance is on Stagg Street, Van Nuys. Purchase tickets at the door or online. 818-616-4083. www.facebook.com/valleyrelics and valleyrelicsmuseum.org
Wende Museum of the Cold War: Ongoing special exhibits: “Undercurrents I: Stories, Symbols and Sounds,” through Sept. 15. (wendemuseum.org/exhibition/undercurrents-i/). “Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West,” through Sept. 15 (tinyurl.com/2ef586nh). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday (wendemuseum.org/about-us/visit). Free admission. Location, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City. 310-216-1600. 310-216-1600. Email: visit@wendemuseum.org. wendemuseum.org
MUSIC
Waahli – Sunset Concerts at Skirball Cultural Center: 8 p.m. Aug. 1. Doors open, 6:30 p.m., for exploring museum exhibits, and for purchasing food and beverages. Free walk-up tickets; first-come, first-served. Parking $20 (no street parking). Upcoming: Vagabon, Aug. 8; DJs Jauretsi and TossTones, Aug. 16. Location, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 310-440-4500. skirball.org. www.skirball.org/programs/sunset-concerts-el-laberinto-del-coco
Anna Kovaleva and Elena Kovaleva: The pianist and violinist, respectively, perform a recital, 1 p.m. Aug. 3. Platt Branch Library, 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills. 818-340-9386. Details: tinyurl.com/yj64u5v2
Concerts at Warner Park – Valley Cultural Foundation: Wanted, a tribute to the band Bon Jovi, with emerging artist Saticöy, Aug. 4 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-wanted-bon-jovi-tribute/). Emerging artists perform, 5:30 p.m., followed by the headliner (concerts end at 8:30 p.m.). Upcoming: ABBA-LA, a tribute to ABBA, with emerging artist Tomorrow’s Tigers, Aug. 11 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-abba-la/). Free admission (bring your own blanket or low-back chair for seating). Or: $20 VIP seat; $35 VIP seat and paid parking (purchase in advance). Parking: event parking begins at 4 p.m. (see the website for address and more information). See more concerts at Warner Park on the website. Warner Park, 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. 818-888-0822. www.valleycultural.org
Concerts in the Park – Chumash Park: Blank Space, music of Taylor Swift, 6 p.m. Aug. 4. Upcoming: The Yacht Groove, Aug. 18. Free admission ($2 suggested donation). Bring a blanket or low-back lawn chair for seating. Food available for purchase or bring a picnic. Location, 5550 Medea Valley Drive, Agoura Hills. Click on Events: www.agourahillscity.org/department/community-services-parks-recreation
Reggae on the Mountain XII – The Homecoming: The line up includes Steel Pulse, Don Carlos, Marlon Asher, Empress Akura, Quinto Sol, Neighborhood Orchestra, Mestizo Beat, Irie Nature and Jah Faith, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Aug. 17. There will be a children’s area, beverage, food and non-food vendors. Bring a low-back chair for seating. No animals allowed. Purchase tickets in advance: $90.74; VIP $272.60. Topanga Community Club, 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. Information on attending, parking, shuttles and map: www.reggaeonthemountain.com/info. Updates: www.facebook.com/reggaeonthemountainfestival. www.reggaeonthemountain.com
THEATER
The Grown-Ups: Baby Teeth present the Los Angeles premiere of a play by Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques about a group of summer camp counselors who have decisions to make when an emergency occurs, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3 and 8. Minimum age: 13. The play is performed outdoors around a campfire. Tickets $25. Location, Hollywood Lutheran Church, 1733 N. New Hampshire Ave., Los Angeles. Details and to purchase tickets on Eventbrite: tinyurl.com/h2enj7uj
ONGOING THEATER
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The play by William Shakespeare, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1. Show runs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8, 15 and 29; 7 p.m. Sept. 2; 3:30 p.m. Sept. 8; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/a-midsummer-nights-dream/. www.theatricum.com
The Winter’s Tale: The play by William Shakespeare, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2. Show runs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 10 and 16; 3:30 p.m. Aug. 24; 3:30 p.m. Sept. 7 and 15; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/the-winters-tale. www.theatricum.com
Wendy’s Peter Pan: A retelling of J.M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan,” by Ellen Geer, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9. Show runs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 18 and 25; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1, 8, 14, 21, 28; 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/wendys-peter-pan/. www.theatricum.com
Tartuffe – Born Again: The play by Molière, translated from the original French and adapted by Freyda Thomas, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4. Show runs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 11; 3:30 p.m. Aug. 18 and 25; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30; and other dates through Oct. 13. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/tartuffe-born-again/. www.theatricum.com
Submit calendar listings at least two weeks in advance to holly.andres@dailynews.com. 818-713-3708.
LOWELL — The stage lights of the 37th annual Lowell Folk Festival were turned off after the last acts finished their sets Sunday evening, but the glow of the three-day music, food and arts celebration lingered.
It was a high that Director Lee Viliesis was still savoring.
“I think the festival went really well this year,” she said by text on Wednesday. “The weather was perfect and both audiences and artists were having a great time. That’s all I could ever ask for in an event.”
The free festival is the longest-running in the United States and the 2024 lineup featured 20 performers on four stages, more than a dozen food vendors, numerous exhibits, dance tents and a variety of distinctive cultural experiences.
It also featured more than 200 bucket brigade volunteers, including Milo McFadden, who canvassed the almost 20-block footprint of the festival collecting donations for the extravaganza.
Milo is the 6-year-old son of Danielle McFadden, the president and CEO of the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce. The organization provides online and general fundraising support, marketing and public relations for the festival.
But the Chamber’s primary role during the festival is to coordinate the bucket brigade, in which teams of volunteers fan out across the festival’s venues and grounds to solicit donations in exchange for a string of colored beads and the feeling that comes with helping to support a storied cultural tradition.
McFadden said volunteering for the bucket brigade was her family’s favorite part, which she called a “summertime tradition.” Besides in-kind donations, sponsors and merchandise sales, the festival relies on the generosity of its visitors to help keep the $1.5 million public gathering free and financially healthy.
“We don’t have a specific number of what was raised, but I can say firsthand how generous and enthusiastic festival-goers were – many donating multiple times throughout the weekend!” she said by email on Wednesday.
Local business also enjoyed a festival bounce. Lala Books opened its doors on Market Street in July 2021, a year the festival was canceled due to the COVID pandemic, but owner Laura Lamarre Anderson said the excitement builds even before the festival opens with visitors exploring Downtown Lowell in what she called “full festival mode.”
“We had well over 500 people in the store over the weekend,” she said. “We talked to folks about local authors, popular books, and summer reading requirements, but mostly about how much fun they were having. It was great to see that there were so many people from outside the city who were learning about what downtown has to offer.”
Anderson said Market Street was packed with people on Saturday and Sunday — she even gave a Market Street stage shoutout for Milo’s bucket brigade collection efforts.
“Folk Festival is our favorite weekend of the year,” Anderson said. “Our staff worked long hours and we were all exhausted by Sunday night, but it was totally worth it.”
One of the biggest draws of the festival each year is the food from various local organizations presenting an international flavor. Walking through the JFK Plaza, Boarding House Park and Market Street sections of the festival can make it difficult to decide what to eat when the sights and smells of a hugely diverse menu of food all compete for attention.
Among the most popular food vendors of the festival was Iskwelahang Pilipino, which has had a tent in the Boarding House Park section to serve Filipino food every year since it started in 1987. In the immediate aftermath of the festival, IP’s Elsa Janairo said it is too early to say how much money was raised to support the Filipino cultural school while they do a count. But as far as the amount of food that was served, Janairo said they very well may have set a record, selling well over 1,000 pounds of meat in three days.
“We realized Saturday night that we were on the brink of running out of meat to grill, which has never happened to us before,” said Janairo.
IP ended up needing to purchase more meat for the final day of the festival Sunday. Through the entire weekend, Janairo said the group sold approximately 640 pounds of grilled pork and 865 pounds of grilled chicken by the weight of the raw meat.
Janairo said she received feedback from the teenaged volunteers that did most of the interacting with customers. She said the volunteers told her the customers this year seemed happier than they had sometimes appeared in past years, calling it a kind of “pervasive joy.”
Janairo also loved the palpable camaraderie between food vendors, from lending cooking equipment to purchasing food from other tents to bring back to their own to eat.
“It was great to support each other and be a part of this giant community-building effort, and to be able to establish connections with new customers on top of the ones that come back every year,” said Janairo.
Like IP, most of the festival food vendors use the occasion as the opportunity to fundraise for their various causes. In JFK Plaza was Acha’s Foundation, which Delphine Acha founded to benefit children and prisoners in her native Cameroon, where the food they cooked originates from.
Friday and Saturday were as busy as any Lowell Folk Festival weekend, Acha said, but she noted Sunday appeared to be one of the slowest days of the festival she can remember.
While she is still doing a full accounting, Acha said customers spent an estimated $13,000 on food from her tent over the course of the three days, approximately $8,000 of which will go to the foundation after festival expenses are accounted for. That money will be used to fund scholarships for students in Cameroon, as well as for outreach to a Cameroonian prison.
“That started from a request where prisoners didn’t have money for bail … about $20 in American dollars,” said Acha. “Our aim is to go to the prison and speak with the prison warden to see exactly what the prisoners need, and how we can assist them.”
Some of this assistance will involve doing exactly what Acha did over the weekend: cooking a lot of food. Acha said her foundation is working with a Cameroonian prison to try to provide food to a portion of its 4,000 inmates, though the logistics are still being worked out, as they will not have enough food to cook for all of them.
Acha, like many of the vendors, use the festival as their primary, and sometimes only fundraising source each year. While the festival only ended a few days ago, some could be eyeing the countdown clock that has already been reset on the festival website. Only 357 days to go.
BEND, Ore., July 3, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– The veterinarians at the Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon have received advanced training in a range of different specialties, however, one particular subject may come as a surprise. A group of veterinarians recently completed a course to receive their Oregon alcohol servers permit in order to tend bar at Ponch’s Place, VRCCO’s beer and food truck pavilion.
You may be wondering why this hospital or these veterinarians have a desire to serve beer. You can find the answer straight from the company’s core values: personalized experience, beyond expectations, one team, compassion and education. Interestingly, their participation at Ponch’s Place connects to each one of these values.
Ponch’s Place and VRCCO plan to hold “meet the vet” nights:Doctor Rounds at Ponch’s Place throughout the year to benefit their Care Fund. Proceeds of the beer poured will go toward providing medical services to Central Oregon’s pets that are in need of financial support. VRCCO started this fund from a place of compassion. Using their one team mentality, their staff is determined to help this initiative succeed. The more awareness and support they can achieve, the more animals will benefit from their work.
Ponch’s Place provides VRCCO the opportunity to educate the public about their philanthropic efforts. Additionally, “meet the vet” nights will offer educational opportunities and a chance for pet parents to ask questions about the hospital and the services their organization provides.
VRCCO understands that the relationship between a parent and a veterinarian is often made through stressful experiences with their pets. Ponch’s Place gives VRCCO the ability to create these experiences that hopefully exceed expectations, eliminate stress, and allow pet parents to enjoy some time (over a beer) with their veterinarian.
Ponch’s Place was also created as a space for their team and the community to gather and connect. Doctor Rounds at Ponch’s Place is a way to strengthen this connection and provide more personalized experiences with VRCCO. The Veterinary Referral Center feels fortunate to have the ability to create these unique events that will foster the relationships they hope to build in Central Oregon.
VRCCO hopes that you will come out to “meet the vet” for the next Doctor Rounds at Ponch’s Place on Thursday, July 18, 2024, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. during trivia night with QuizHead Games.
TheVeterinary Referral Center of Central Oregonoffers the most advanced emergency and specialty care options to members of the Central Oregon community and beyond. The VRCCO Care Funduses 100% of its funds to provide financial assistance to pet parents facing financial hardship in their community. The funds raised will provide medical services to the neglected, abused and financially constrained animals with otherwise good prognoses that find their way into the VRCCO Emergency and Specialty Hospital. To learn more about this initiative, to donate or attend VRCCO’s annual gala, please visit: www.vrcvet.com/donations.
Source: Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon
President Biden raised millions of dollars for his reelection bid in Silicon Valley on Friday as he poked at former President Trump and argued that his campaign was being underestimated.
“The press doesn’t want to write about it, but the momentum is clearly in our favor, with polls moving toward us and away from Trump,” he said, noting that 1.6 million people have donated to the campaign, nearly all less than $200 each. He said his campaign has opened 150 offices in battleground states “and Trump has opened zero offices. And it’s not just because he’s on trial.”
California donors bankroll presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle, and Biden and Trump have both raised more in the state for their reelection bids than anywhere else, according to the Federal Election Commission. The president is expected to return to Southern California for a fundraiser in June.
Biden’s Friday trip to California was his first since a February fundraiser at the Beverly Park estate of media mogul Haim Saban. The Israeli American billionaire prompted scrutiny this week because of an email he sent to senior Biden aides criticizing the administration’s decision to put a shipment of weapons to Israel on hold because they could be used in an offensive against a densely populated city in southern Gaza.
Biden encountered protesters on both sides of the issue in the Bay Area, as well as in Seattle, where he flew after the California visit. As the president’s motorcade drove to a Palo Alto fundraiser hosted by Marissa Mayer, the former chief executive of Yahoo, it encountered people holding Palestinian flags and signs that said “Defund Israel” as well as another group waving Israeli flags.
Biden did not address the issue at three fundraisers in California and Washington on Friday, including the event hosted by Mayer, where tickets cost up to $50,000, according to the news website Puck. An earlier fundraiser Biden headlined at the Portola Valley home of Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, cost up to $100,000. The two events were expected to raise $4 million.
California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom attended the Mayer event. Biden called the two women a source of inspiration and noted his efforts to create a diverse administration. “These two ladies here in my view — and I mean this sincerely — are emblematic of how America is changing,” the president said. “They’re incredibly competent and they’re incredibly capable and they’re changing the whole emotion of what constitutes success and what can be done.”
Silicon Valley has grown into a fundraising juggernaut for political candidates and overwhelmingly favors Democrats.
In the 2024 presidential election, Biden and associated groups backing his campaign have raised $17.1 million from the communications and electronics industry, which includes tech companies, according to an analysis of FEC data released April 22 by the nonpartisan nonprofit Open Secrets, which tracks electoral finances. Trump has raised $1.7 million.
Trump did receive the backing of some notable tech leaders in his successful 2016 campaign, such as billionaire Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder who made history that year who said from the podium of the Republican National Convention that he is gay before Trump was nominated as the GOP candidate.
Thiel and some other tech leaders backed away from Trump after the tumult of his presidency and in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that attempted to halt the certification of the 2020 election results.
In the 2024 Republican primary, some backed other GOP candidates but have reportedly returned to the fold since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.
“President Trump is building a historic and unified political movement to make America great again, receiving more than 90% approval from Republican voters, winning Independents by double digits, and picking up historic gains with longtime Democrat constituencies,” campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Anyone who believes in securing the border, rebuilding the economy, restoring American energy dominance, and ending the wars Joe Biden has created around the world is welcome to join President Trump’s movement to make America great again,” Leavitt said.
National GOP leaders predicted Biden would lose in November dispute his fundraising prowess.
“Everyone is worse off under Joe Biden, but instead of correcting his failed Bidenomics agenda or securing the border, Biden is rubbing elbows with donors to save his flailing campaign,” Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. “It won’t work — voters know that Biden is wrong on the issues, and they’ll vote President Trump back in to the White House on November 5.”
First Lady Jill Biden was also in California raising money for her husband’s reelection campaign — in Marin County on Thursday and in Beverly Hills on Friday at the home of John Emerson, the U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Obama, and Kimberly Marteau Emerson, the spokesperson for the U.S. Information Agency under President Clinton.
The event raised more than $450,000, John Emerson told attendees, who included media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign.
After recounting how Biden proposed marriage five times, Jill Biden laced into Trump.
“Donald Trump is dangerous to our families and to our country,” she said. “We are the first generation in half a century to give our daughters a country with fewer rights than we had. We simply cannot let him win.”
The president, speaking in Portola Valley, repeated jokes he has previously made about the former president.
“Not everyone is feeling the enthusiasm these days. The other day this guy walked up, said I’m in real trouble, short on cash, I don’t know what to do. I said, ‘Donald, I can’t help you,’” Biden said.
LOWELL — Dozens gathered in the Lowell Memorial Auditorium Thursday evening to see a performance by six-time Grammy Award-winner and recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dionne Warwick for Middlesex Community College’s annual Celebrity Forum.
Warwick performed hits like “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Close to You” and “What the World Needs Now,” among many others over the two-hour performance.
MCC President Phil Sisson said before Warwick’s performance that the annual Celebrity Forum is the college’s “lead fundraiser to support student scholarships.”
“This event is a critical source of support for our central mission of providing affordable access to high quality education for our very diverse community of learners that we serve each and every day,” said Sisson.
The show was opened up by the 83-year-old Warwick’s granddaughter, Cheyenne Elliott, who, along with her father, Warwick’s son David Elliott, also joined Warwick for a few songs near the end of the show. As Warwick took the stage, she said the evening’s fundraiser was “of great importance.”
“Not only to me, but to a lot of young citizens who have aspirations of continuing music,” said Warwick. “I know of the importance of scholarships, as that is what got me into college.”
After the performance, Warwick sat down with Sisson for a wide-ranging discussion of her life and career, from her roots being born into a deeply musical New Jersey family in 1940, to her advocacy during the AIDS epidemic and her later induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“I actually read that your mother was quoted as saying, ‘She came out singing,’” said Sisson to Warwick.
Warwick told the story of the first time she sang gospel as a child.
“My grandfather was a minister. He brought me to his congregation, to his pulpit, and he decided he wanted me to sing. I was 6 years old,” said Warwick. “He had placed a bunch of books so I could stand on them and they could see me over the lectern, and I looked at him like he had lost his mind.”
She said she relented and sang for the congregation, and quickly became encouraged by the response she had received from the audience. As her professional career unfolded, she performed multiple times at the Apollo Theater in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, a venue that has a reputation for having tough crowds to please.
“If they don’t like you, they let you know. There is an old saying that if you can make it at the Apollo, you can make it anywhere in the entire world, and that is the gospel truth,” said Warwick.
Sisson pointed out that Warwick’s career goes beyond music, as she served as the U.S. ambassador of health to the United Nations during the AIDS epidemic, and as a U.N. global ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
“We noticed how many people in my industry were being affected by it,” said Warwick on the AIDS crisis. “As a result of me being nosy, I started inquiring with doctors about what we were going through here … I lost two people who were working for me: my hairdresser and my valet, before we even knew what it was. We thought it was a cancer of some sort.”
After reaching out for answers to a man who would become a household name decades later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, Warwick said President Ronald Reagan appointed her to the ambassadorship.
Warwick also recalled meeting Elvis Presley in Las Vegas for the first time, and had nothing but good things to say about the late king of rock. She recounted how Presley complimented her music, and how he announced at a show that any time his people saw one of her records in a store in or around Las Vegas, they would put a signed photo of him inside.
“I sold more albums in that time,” said Warwick as she was cut off by laughter from the audience.
Sisson pointed to Warwick’s love of education, and how her elementary school in East Orange, N.J., was renamed to the Dionne Warwick Institute.
“Education is one of the most valuable things we should all revere,” said Warwick. “Without it, we know nothing. With it we can know, and learn, everything.”
At the end of the conversation, Sisson presented Warwick with purple flowers, her favorite color. He then announced that in honor of Warwick and her dedication to education, a plaque will be installed on a seat in MCC’s Academic Arts Center in Lowell, which will read “Dionne Warwick: Award-winning singer, author and humanitarian.”
In a phone call Friday morning, Sisson said it was far too early to tell how much was raised from the Celebrity Forum this year, and that number will likely come sometime later in the spring, when the MCC Foundation has its next meeting.
“This is a premier event for us to raise scholarship dollars for a variety of different scholarships across the institution,” said Sisson. “It is important to know that a lot of our students do not have their financial needs met through financial aid, so now our scholarships are probably more important than ever.”
We could not have done it without the amazing pups and people who participated. So many got up early, travelled far, and followed maps to make this happen. And everyone was absolutely on time for their session!
So…without further ado, here are the 12 dogs respresenting TORONTO in Tails of the World book for 2023.
President Biden is in New York City for a fundraiser with former Presidents Obama and Clinton at Radio City Music Hall. The event is expected to bring in some $25 million, increasing the fundraising gap between Mr. Biden and his presumptive opponent, former President Trump. Caitlin Huey-Burns reports.
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SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Students at South Glens Falls High School are taking part in the annual South High Marathon Dance. The dance kicked off around 7 p.m. Friday and will continue nonstop until Saturday night.
This is the 47th year of the event, and it serves as a fundraiser for many local charities. A total of $10 million has been raised since it began.
Students said it also helps generate school spirit. More than 80 percent of the high school students take part each year.
“I think a lot of students return every year to the marathon dance because it is our one thing we have at the school that is special to us,” student Cody Touse said. “It’s only us in the state that is doing this dance, and it’s a lot of fun to do it, and we love to give back to our community.”
The goal this year is to raise more than they did last year, which was more than $630,000.
In a heartfelt endeavor to support senior dogs in shelters, Amanda Stronza has launched Matilda Day, a fundraiser named in honor of her late dog Matilda. This initiative is not merely a fundraiser but a sincere tribute to Matilda and a beacon of hope for senior dogs in need.
Phoenix — A perennial “On the Road” favorite is the story of Secret Santa, a wealthy and anonymous businessman who every year gives out hundreds of $100 bills to random strangers.
For students of Derek Brown, a Phoenix elementary teacher who uses “On the Road” stories to teach kindness and character, watching Secret Santa do his thing made a huge impression on his students.
“I was, like, shocked because, well, who does that?” student Nicholas Talamantes asked.
“I’ve never seen anyone, like, just give money away like that,” student Carissa Cheong added.
So, with guidance from Brown, the students this year started a Secret Santa club and began fundraising. They called friends, family and businesses, raising $8,000 without any help from their school or district, just so they could turn around and give it all away.
They gave the money to people like Rosemarie Hernandez, who had been out of work for a week.
“It will give me a lot of relief, thank you…you guys,” an emotional Hernandez told the students.
They also gave money to Deidre Taylor, who had just been diagnosed with cancer and was down to her last $20.
“Thank you so very much, you guys are amazing,” Taylor told them. “Oh my God.”
The children spent the day changing dozens of lives. Along the way they noticed something remarkable: the more they gave, the more they got.
“I’m just so happy right now,” student Andrea Ramirez said.
“Their joy — that’s the gift to you,” student Evangeline D’Agostino said.
That was exactly the realization Brown was hoping for.
“I want this memory to be so strong that it now drives them every day, in everything they do,” Brown said.
Cheong said the experience “definitely” changed her.
“I never felt this way in my life,” Cheong said. “So this was really a life changer for me.”
Whoever said money can’t buy happiness, obviously never gave it away.
President Joe Biden told the crowd at a fundraiser this evening, “You’re the reason that Donald Trump is a former president, or he hates when I say it, a defeated president.”
At the Holmby Hills home of designer Michael Smith and former ambassador James Costos, Biden spent a substantial part of his 11 minutes of his remarks warning of his likely rival next year as a threat to democracy, a contrast that many of the president’s die-hard supporters believe will help boost turnout and donations as the 2024 campaign gets in full swing.
“Literally, I believe, the future of democracy is at stake,” Biden said, according to a pool report. “The greatest threat Trump poses is to our democracy, because if we lost that, we lose everything.”
A large group of pro-Palestinian protesters was outside the security perimeter near a Holmby Hills Park, and videos posted on social media showed demonstrators attempting to surround cars and chanting as police officers escorted attendees into the event. The demonstrators were heard chanting “ceasefire now” and “free Palestine” and accusing the president of supporting genocide. According to the pool report, the sound of sirens and helicopters could be heard as the program went on.
The president talked of Trump’s behavior on January 6, 2021, when the then-president was watching TV coverage of the attack on the Capitol from a West Wing dining room, as a mob searched for his vice president.
“It’s despicable. It’s simply despicable,” Biden said, then saying, a bit facetiously, “My guess is that he won’t show up at my next inauguration.”
Biden also referred to Trump’s comments earlier this week, in which the former president told Sean Hannity that he would not abuse power in a second term except for the first day of his presidency, when he would close the border and expand drilling.
“The other day [Trump] said, ‘He would be a dictator only one day. That God. Only one day,” Biden said sarcastically.
“He embraces political violence instead of rejecting it,” Biden said.
Earlier, First Lady Jill Biden said that she was “so glad that Joe is our president during these uncertain times,” and she also asked the crowd to recall their feeling after Trump won in 2016, according to Reuters. “We have to begin now,” she said.
Co-hosts of the event included Steven Spielberg, Shonda Rhimes and Rob Reiner, as well as Peter Chernin and Jim Gianopulos. Lenny Kravitz was scheduled to perform.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced Biden, following speakers including First Lady Jill Biden and Costos. Other politicos there included California Governor Gavin Newsom, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Bass’s rival in last year’s election, Rick Caruso, was a co-host of the night’s event.
The LAPD and Secret Service had beefed up security in the expectation of protests.
Last month, pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside a Los Angeles fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
PREVIOUSLY: President Joe Biden arrived at LAX late on Friday afternoon to kickoff a weekend of fundraising, starting with a Hollywood-centric event hosted by designer Michael Smith and James Costos, the former U.S. ambassador to Spain.
Biden and a number of White House staffers then rook Marine One to Santa Monica Airport, and he is motorcading to the event. Among those greeting Biden were California Governor Gavin Newsom, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
The Los Angeles Police Department sent out an advisory warning motorists “in the West Los Angeles area, including Century City, Pico-Robertson, and Beverly Hills adjacent, can expect intermittent street closures today. Please plan for traffic delays and avoid the area if possible.”
According to videos posted on social media, dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, chanting “ceasefire now,” lined up near a Holmby Hills park, where Los Angeles police officers and the Secret Service had set up a security fence perimeter near the home where the event will take place.
The LAPD had earlier warned of protest activity expected throughout the weekend.
“The Department will continue to work with any protest organizers to facilitate lawful demonstrations while protecting the safety of all involved including surrounding communities. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated,” the LAPD said.
First Lady Jill Biden arrived earlier in Los Angeles, and toured the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center and Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars Sinai.
The California Republican Party, meanwhile, has weighed in with a blast at the presidential visit.
Party chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement, “If President Biden is expecting a warm welcome from the Golden State today, he hasn’t been paying attention to local polls that show his approval at record lows among Californians. It seems even deep-blue California can’t get behind his disastrous agenda of high inflation, open borders, weak foreign policy, failing schools, and rampant crime. No amount of time spent rubbing elbows with Hollywood elites while bragging about the imaginary merits of ‘Bidenomics’ will change the fact that Joe Biden’s presidency is an abject failure.”
This summer, 16-year-old Hudson Reynolds climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. In the process, he raised $200,000 to battle PKU, a rare disease he’s watched his sister fight every day. Kris Van Cleave has more.
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“I became so incensed and personally frustrated at the rejection I was receiving by just trying to get people’s attention. I was made so aware of the silence, this huge, loud silence regarding AIDS, how no one wanted to talk about it and no one wanted to become involved. Certainly no one wanted to give money or support, and it so angered me that I finally thought to myself, Bitch, do something yourself. Instead of sitting there getting angry. Do something.”
In 1987, Taylor launched her first perfume, Passion, and followed it up in 1991 with White Diamonds, another enormous hit. She traveled around the country visiting the department stores that sold her perfume, and she vowed to visit AIDS hospices in every city that she could. But there were two caveats: She did not want any press to interrupt those private visits, and the perfume company and the department store would have to donate money to each of the hospices she visited. She vowed to match their contributions.
At the Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco’s Castro District, nurses were told in hushed tones that Taylor was on her way. She stopped in each of the hospice’s 15 small rooms, and she spent several minutes talking with each patient. She asked them if she could arrange to have their dogs walked; she asked if she could call their mothers for them or write letters for them.
Some patients cried when they saw her, said Guy Vandenberg, a health care worker and AIDS activist who was at the Coming Home Hospice when she visited. After she met with patients, he said, Taylor sat with the handful of staffers in their tiny kitchen and asked them how they were taking care of themselves. “How do you support each other?” she wanted to know.
They averaged three deaths a week in the 15-bed hospice, he said. “Sometimes I would get off my three-to-midnight shift and I would come back the next day, and one or two people might have died during the night,” Vandenberg said, his voice cracking. “The need was so great that the bed would not be empty more than a day at most; sometimes the bed would be filled right away. We didn’t have time to process the volume of death.”
Even amid all the darkness, there was joy. “A majority of our patients, as they were dying, were quite capable of laughter and gallows humor, and to an outsider that often felt really strange or inappropriate. When the hospice was taken over by a more corporate hospital, we got disciplined for too much laughter, and we were eating with the patients and that was not allowed,” Vandenberg said through tears. “She fit right in, she knew that was good. She joked with them. She hugged and kissed every single one of us, the patients and the staff.”
After one of her hospice visits, a patient woke up and said, “I had a vision that Elizabeth Taylor came to me in my sleep!”
“No, she was actually here,” a nurse told him.
Taylor wanted to look perfect for every visit (“I hope I haven’t overdone it!” she’d joke), so she always arrived with full hair and makeup and the famous 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp diamond on her left ring finger. She wanted the patients to see her the way they had imagined her to be.
She told her assistant Jorjett Strumme, who would get emotional, that she could not come into hospices with her because she would start to cry if Strumme cried. She had to keep things light and happy, she said, but she’d get back in the car and she would bury her head in her dog’s soft white fur and be unusually quiet for a while.
Ed Wolf was a counselor in San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5B in the 1980s. San Francisco was second only to New York in the number of AIDS cases, and 5B was the world’s first revolutionary inpatient unit for people with AIDS. It was created in 1983 and run by registered nurses who specialized in caring for AIDS patients. In 5B patients were treated with compassion.
In the beginning nurses and doctors wore so much protective gear that they looked like astronauts. Food trays piled up outside of hospital rooms because no one wanted to touch them. But in 5B things were different. Nurses were not allowed to wear protective medical gear, including gowns and masks. They believed that physical touch was an important way to honor each patient’s humanity. They did seemingly little things, like re-creating the decor of patients’ living rooms in their hospital rooms, allowing their pets to visit them, and, of course, allowing their partners to stay with them. They even used Champagne glasses for water.
