“Did I dare to wear my tightest gown tonight?”

This week Maine-based folk troubadour Ray LaMontagne will be performing with local ruddy-haired songstress Jenny Lewis (LAist Review, #2, #3, #4) and LAist favorites Blitzen Trapper (LAist Interview) in tow. Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird (LAist Review) is poised to headline the Greek Theatre with Syracuse-bred indie rockers Ra Ra Riot and yet another LAist favorite, Cincinnati's own garage rock outfit Heartless Bastards. Local alt-rockers Everest (LAist review, #2) will be performing with Red Cortez (LAist Review, #2) at UCLA's Hammer Museum for this week's edition of Also I Like To Rock. And, lastly, Brooklyn's crown jewel, the erratic experimental indie rock collective known as Dirty Projectors (LAist Review), will be gracing the Troubadour.

Music in film is one of the most important devices used in cinema today; this music has been ingrained in popular culture, to the point that most people could recognize the tunes. Also sprach Zarathustra, Ride of the Valkyries, Beethoven's 5th, are a few of the major works that come to mind. This week, you can hear a few of these tunes and more at several venues.

       

Last Sunday we urged you to Get Out and get yourself some free burgers, fries, and shakes from Ruby's Shake Shack at their Grand Opening party. Ruby's Shake Shack is indeed part of the Ruby's chain, but it's a chain with a lot of local history (the first one opened on the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach in 1982, styled like a classic 40s diner and named for the owner's mom).

Tonight Bellingham-based indie rock outfit Death Cab For Cutie will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic bolstering their sound. Local indie rockers Avi Buffalo (LAist Interview, Review) are headlining Silver Factory Studios. And, lastly, Long Beach's own surf punk trio Tijuana Panthers will be performing at the Echo for this week's edition of Part Time Punks. But we strongly suggest heading over to the Bootleg Theatre to catch legendary experimental French pop chanteuse Émilie Simon.

       

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We may have spent the evening watching fireworks go off all along the horizon, in the streets, on the hills, and from major venues in Los Angeles, and we may have fallen asleep to the not-so-dulcet sounds of neighbors snap-crackle-popping their own stash of illegal fireworks into the wee hours, but we also woke up to a few great photos posted online from last night's many fireworks displays.

Don't stop till you get enough, right? Head down to the Huntington Beach Pier for the third and final day of the Pier Plaza Festival and enjoy crafts, food and surf rock music, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

1.6 million people signed up to be eligible to win tickets to attend Tuesday's highly anticipated public memorial service for late music icon Michael Jackson, according to MyFoxLA. The Staples Center's website caved under the pressure of the hits several times since the lottery was announced and until the cut off time last night at 6 p.m. local time. Initially the registry was open only to US residents, but soon expanded to allow anyone around the world to sign up for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the event, about which few details are known, save that there will be no funeral procession, and that it will cost the City of Los Angeles a pretty penny to host.

• Whoops: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Thaddeus Doyle was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving late Thursday night in Baldwin Hills.
• Want to lick the backside of Michael Jackson? Al Sharpton thinks we all should be able to!
• Police in Ventura have determined the June stabbing of Wendy Di Rodio wasn't coincidental, but rather that the victim had been targeted.

So the City of Los Angeles is going to put their hands deep into the Piggy Bank to pull out the cash needed to foot the bill for Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center. That means shutting down the streets around LA Live's Downtown "campus" and lots of bucks to pay LAPD officers to serve as security to police the anticipated throngs of crowds. And don't bother showing up if you aren't on the list: "Officials said that there would be no funeral procession and that no one would be allowed inside a large area around Staples unless they had a ticket and a wristband, a media credential or could prove they live or work there," notes the LA Times.