Arts & Entertainment

Today in (and around) LA! Step out with the Big Parade LA in a community climb, get the whole world in your hands at Worldfest, and Walk Like a Venetian with the art set.

In the middle of the 1980s, Neil Young was having what many people perceived to be a mid-life crisis. Instead of getting himself a red sports car and a mistress, he’d show up one day with a new band and a new persona - one day embracing edgy German electronica, the next turning into Carl Perkins with a slick fifties haircut and sideburns and and the whole bit. Finally around the time he put a cowboy hat on and started jamming with Willie Nelson - “Willie Neil”, his associates called him - Geffen Records decided to stop financing what they saw as a hopeless, self-destructive binge and sued him for not sounding enough like himself, right around the same time that Fantasy was suing John Fogerty for sounding too much like himself. The eighties were a big decade for midlife crises (and lawsuits) among sixties rockers, but Young took the desire to mutate with the times and head into unpredictable territory much further than any of his peers.

Today in LA (and just beyond)! Get out for the California Strawberry Festival, a bug eating Believe It or Not! event in Hollywood and an all singing all dancing all laughing Jubilee in Silver Lake.

A still from Chaplin's 'Shoulder Arms' (Photo: © Roy Export S.A.S) Some people think of silent film screenings as novelties, but when you add live music to the mix—like the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) will do tomorrow—the passive screenings turn into performance. LACO's 22nd Annual Silent Film Gala will feature two 1918 Charlie Chaplin films, with the original Chaplin scores, restored, adapted and conducted by Timothy Brock and performed by the orchestra. A...

On their way to winning the 1965 World Series, the Dodgers of Chavez Ravine clashed with the despised San Francisco Giants in Major League Baseball's most legendary bench-clearing brawl after Giants ace Juan Marichal brought his bat down on the bare head of Dodgers catcher John Roseboro.

'Breach of Privacy' exhibition opens at Carmichael Gallery tomorrow. (Image: Adam Krueger) ART* Enjoy a free evening of art, music, food and entertainment at ArtNight Pasadena tonight from 6-10 pm. The city’s arts and cultural institutions open their doors to the public, including the Armory Center, Side Street Projects, One Colorado, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pacific Asia Museum and more. Free shuttles, a bike tour, food trucks also abound. JAPAN BENEFIT EM &...

NBCUniversal Sports head Dick Ebersol resigned today, good riddance! Americans now have a chance to see the Olympics the way they should be seen. --- "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" have hour-long season finales tonight, check 'em out. --- Have a gander at our TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for the night and the listings to choose your poison.

Twice-annual ArtNight Pasadena is back after being temporarily canceled last year due to funding concerns, reports the Pasadena Star-News. The event will be held tomorrow night at venues around Pas. The event is put on in part through mini-grants of $500 given out by the city's Arts and Culture Commission, reports the Star-News.

It's hard to say what's better -- Snoop's announcement that he'd like to do a reality show to find the next great rap star, or the way that the press conference at which he made said announcement was reported by British newspaper The Guardian.

Puro Instinct will be performing at Buddy Society on Saturday, May 21. (Photo by Melissa Esterby for LAist) Initially conceived as a gift for a child, Violet Valen decided to develop her own line of custom teddy bear-themed one-of-a-kind sweatshirts after the adults went batty for the designs. Since forming Buddy Society in 2004, she's expanded into all manner of items to adorn yourself with, including denim jackets, jeans, and t-shirts. Where does the...