The kind folks who read LAist every week (that’s YOU!) live all over this fantastic city and we try to have a little something for everyone. This week’s classical pick has us hanging out at the Norton Simon Museum in the Pasadena/SGV area for a concert featuring musicians of the Grammy-Award winning Southwest Chamber Music group. This Saturday’s program includes Charles Ives’ Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting, Schubert’s Shepherd of the Rock (believed to......

Spring is finally almost here and what better way to enjoy the arts and the outdoors then at the Pasadena Art Weekend? For three days, the city of Pasadena's epicenter of focus won't be on the Rose Bowl, but instead music, spoken word and visual arts. Here's a breakdown of the weekend's activities: ArtNight on Friday from 6-10 pm : Pasadena's cultural institutions like the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena Jazz Institute, Art Center College......

DANCE The State Ballet of Georgia arrives for their Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall to perform Giselle. This historic Russian dance company is taking on a classic, with Nina Ananiashvili in the spotlight as the company's artistic director and prima ballerina in the title role. 8 p.m. // Royce Hall, UCLA // Westwood Plz at Charles E Young Dr S// (310) 825-2101 // $20 - 90 SPOKEN WORD It's an Anything Goes Open......

A few months ago I noticed a nekkid lady’s torso perched on a plinth in the middle of the Windward Traffic Circle in Venice. Considering the calle vida thereabouts, this shouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. Yet, the utter incongruousness of a slick, black, metal, larger-than-life sculpture in the midst of "don’t harsh my mellow" Bohemia, made me stop and gawk. Regardless of yellow caution tape, I sprinted across to the island, which is roomy enough......

Yes, LAist will go slightly out of their way to step on that crunchy-looking leaf. Thankfully, for this Southern transplant (who used to rake dozens of bags of leaves every year as a kid), red and gold leaves do peep through the palm tree-lined horizon of Los Angeles during the Autumn months. It's already early November and the main indication of the season comes not from the sunny 70-degree weather but from the offerings......

"They're giving it away free? It must be good!" Put on your best pair of ripped jeans and a collared shirt (floss it, of course). It’s time for all the broke posers of LA to pretend they’re cultured! You can’t miss with the second annual "Museums Free-For-All" day on Sunday, October 1. Of course, those broke non-posers will probably realize that most of the 20 participating museums are normally completely free (Getty Center, California......

Opening: Art Now Yeah, yeah. You can’t wait for Night Vision so you can be all hipster again like last summer. Until then, this Thursday is the start of MOCA Focus: Eric Wesley. Wesley “has become internationally known for his large-scale sculptural works that combine highly crafted objects with elements of performance and a wry, pranksterish social criticism.” At the Pacific Design Center. And while you wait for Klimt at LACMA, Contemporary Projects 10:......

Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron) turns 25 today. She's doing both artsy and big-budget stuff; soon she'll be in both As You Like It and Spiderman III. Coldplay's Chris Martin celebrates his 29th birthday today. Jersey hair rocker turned actor Jon Bon Jovi turns 44. And rock icon Lou Reed is now 64. OG SNL comedienne Laraine Newman turns 54. Recently she's appeared on "According to Jim" starring Jim Belushi, the icky-but-living brother of......

FRIDAY • Donita Sparks of L7 is at Spaceland tonight with The Sharp Ease and The Ettes. Doors open at 9 PM. • Tony Bennett performs "The Art of Song" at the Hollywood Bowl tonight at 8:30 PM. Remaining tickets are limited, so get them while you can! • Cinespace features Dinner & a Movie with The Lost Boys tonight at 8 PM. Happy hour is from 6-7:30 PM, followed by club at 10......

FRIDAY • The Echo features dancehall queen Rosie Flores with Mike Stinson and Speed Buggy at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $10. [18+] • Tonight at Spaceland, enjoy a record release party for The Willowz, with special guests Scarling, My Sexual Dad and Shoot Out the Lights. Doors open at 9 PM.  • Flamenco maestro Ottmar Liebert performs tonight at The Canyon Club at 9 PM. Tickets are $39.50. • Pinback performs tonight at Avalon.......

Here's some upcoming events happening around town: Tonight: If you haven't been able to get your hands on James Stewart's "Disney War," you should be able to buy one at the Central Library tonight when the author converses with Marty Kaplan, Director, Norman Lear Center and Associate Dean, USC Annenberg School for Communication, about dramatic, inside story of what drove America’s best-known entertainment company to civil war. During the Q&A ask the prize-winning journalist if......

Tonight is Art Night in Pasadena, and several museums and gallery spaces will be opening their doors to the public for free from 6-10 p.m. with free shuttle service between venues. Participants include the Armory Center for the Arts, the Student Gallery at the Art Center College of Design, the Norton Simon Museum, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Pasadena Museum of History, and many more. At the Norton Simon you can......

We're changing things up a bit here at LAist. Because we live in such a vibrant, socially active city, there are things going on all the time. We have long wanted to be able to list events in advance (for the benefit of our wonderful readers), so starting today we have implemented a new strategy: a week's events in advance. We will still post featured events each day, but we've added a permanent sidebar......

Tonight, the 7th Annual Art Crawl kicks off across the eastside landscape of Silverlake, Los Feliz and Echo Park. The free, self-guided event runs from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Admission is $5.00, which also allows attendees acess to the "Album Cover Art Retrospective" post-crawl party. The Crawl continues throughout the weekend, running from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. At 7:00 PM, head for Pasadena and Norton Simon Museum to......