Sam Kim

July is National Parks & Recreation Month, and all month long LAist will be featuring a hand-selected park a day to showcase just a few of the wonderful recreation spaces--big or small--in the Los Angeles area.

Cochon 555, which debuted a few months ago in Los Angeles, is coming to Vegas. Here are 7 reasons why it's worth the trip for Angelenos.

There are some pretty big names at the Bowl this week, with Pinchas Zukerman at the Bowl on Tuesday night performing Mozart's Violin Cto. no. 5 and Gil Shaham on Thursday night performing Bruch's Violin Cto. no 1.

If you want to stay as far away from the 405 as possible, Dudamel is conducting Puccini's Turandot next Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl.

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in Downtown still has free organ concerts every Thursday noon until July 30th. You can bring your lunch and eat it in the Forecourt before/after the concerts, which last around 50 minutes. Just enough time for a relaxing lunch break.

Dale Trumbore, recent winner of the Sadye J. Moss Composition Prize and USC alum, is recording a new CD, Snow White Turns Sixty, focusing on 12 contemporary female poets' re-telling of classic fairy tales.

Danyelle Freeman gets labeled a lot. Harvard grad, food blogger, ex-food critic for the NY Daily News, Top Chef Masters judge, but most people know her as Restaurant Girl. Her new book, Try This: Traveling the Globe Without Leaving the Table, is a handy companion for any diners looking to step out of their comfort zone and try some new dishes or cuisines.

The summer season is about to pick up some steam, great news for those languishing because of the lack of concerts. The Hollywood Bowl just kicked off their Summer season (more on that later), the Music Academy of the West begins this week, and musicians are streaming into Aspen this week to prep for the Summer-long festival.

If you need a mini vacation away from LA before Carmageddon, head on over to Ojai this weekend for the Ojai Music Festival. Local (and global) fave Dawn Upshaw returns to the 65th iteration of the Ojai Music Festival as music director in a well curated series highlighting contemporary composers and little known or rare works of older composers.

If you aren't going out to the Ojai Music Festival (and why not?), you've still got some fun programs at home. Pacific Serenades is performing at the UCLA Faculty Center on Tuesday at 8 PM. The program includes Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, a Haydn string quartet, and a world premiere.