Hollywood Christmas Parade Grandstand Tickets Available Now
There's lots of free standing room along the 2.5 mile route of the Hollywood Christmas Parade (yes, they're back to the original name), but if you'd like to see the parade in relative comfort, you can buy tickets to the grandstand seating on Hollywood Blvd. Bleacher seats are located between Orange Drive and Highland Ave on both sides of the street.
When: Sunday, Nov 29, 2009 6:00 pm
Where: U-shaped route starts at Orange and Hollywood Blvd. - travels east on Hollywood Blvd. to Vine, turns South on Vine to Sunset, travels west on Sunset back to Orange. Grandstand seats run from the beginning of the parade route to Highland Ave on both sides of the street.
Cost: Grandstand seats $35, group discounts for 25 or more
Parking: Hollywood & Highland Center, $2 for first 4 hours
Metro: Red Line Station Hollywood & Highland
Info and reservations: (866) PARADE1 (866-727-2331). www.thehollywoodchristmasparade.com
More:
- LA Christmas Traditions
- Most Unusual Christmas Traditions in LA
- Give LA Travel Experiences for the Holidays
Photo courtesy of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Entertainment Books On Sale
The 2010 Entertainment Book, which is valid now through November 2010, is $5 off and shipping is free through November 16. With the many 2 for 1 dining offers, you can save the price of the book in just one use. The book also includes discounts on movies and attractions. Read the Review of the Los Angeles Entertainment Book and if you decide it's right for you, click Buy Direct to get the discounted rate. Compare other discount options in the LA Discount Guide.
Recession Buster: Free and Discounted LA Shows and Events
I fully support buying full-priced theatre tickets to support the arts if you can. But in the current economy, ticket prices may make some people think twice about a night out to see a show. No money is no excuse for not seeing a show or attending an event or tour while you're in Los Angeles. You can often see a play for less than it costs to see a movie with discounted tickets from Goldstar.com (free registration required), Stubdog.com, LAStageTix.com, or Plays411.com. Most of these have branched out to provide half price tickets to concerts, tours, museums and even spa treatments.
This week, Stubdog.com has FREE tickets to variety of comedy and theatre performances as well as half price tickets for Cirque du Soleil's Kooza, comedy shows at M.I.'s Westside Comedy Theater, the Hollywood Improv, ComedySportz LA and Quick Culture art tours, as well as this weekend's Speakeasy at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel and more.
Goldstar.com, also has half-price tickets to Kooza, plus Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, at the Pantages Theatre, Songs for a New World in Long Beach, Wait Until Dark in Hermosa Beach and many others. They also have discounted tickets to Medieval Times, Pirate's Dinner Adventure, the Laserium, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Dodgers and LA Galaxy games, museums, tours and dozens more opportunities.
LAStageTix.com has half-price tickets to Big River at the Actor's Playhouse in Hollywood, Baby It's You - the Musical in Pasadena, A Big, Gay, North Hollywood Wedding in North Hollywood, The Gogol Project at the Bootleg Theatre and more.
For additional discount theatre tickets, check out Plays411.com
If you call (909) 429-7469 x0 before 2 pm Saturday, Nov 7, you can get $10 off Tibbies Cabaret's Forever Fifties dinner show on the Queen Mary for the performances on Sunday Nov 8 and Friday, Nov 13, 2009.
Silver Lake Art Crawl
Over 25 art galleries have coordinated to present the Silver Lake Art Crawl this weekend, November 6-8, 2009. The gallery events are not all simultaneous. The reception schedule is staggered, with several on Friday night, more on Saturday and Sunday from 3 pm to 1 am. It's also more of an art drive than a crawl if you want to take in all the included events. The highest concentration of galleries are along Sunset and Silver Lake Blvd, with a few farther north on Hollywood Blvd and throughout the neighborhood. Several galleries in Los Feliz, Atwater Village and Echo Park are also having related events, including a culmination party on Sunday at Barnsdall Art Park in Los Feliz/Hollywood.
For more information and a full schedule, visit www.silverlakeartcrawl.com
Note the comments below from the 2008 Silver Lake Art Walk.Happy Day of the Dead! Celebrate Tonight!
In honor of Dia de Los Muertos, celebrated today in Mexico and Los Angeles, I've posted some photos from the Novenario procession on Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles, which goes on for 9 nights, ending tonight. You can also celebrate tonight with Self Help Graphics in East LA. For more information visit my LA Day of the Dead Guide. Or check out the Day of the Dead Novenario Photos.
More: Photos from Saturday's Halloween on Pine Festival in Long Beach.
© 2009 Kayte Deioma, courtesy of www.KayteDeioma.com
Cirque du Soleil's Kooza Extended in Santa Monica
I had the chance to see Cirque du Soleil's Kooza in Santa Monica with some other LA bloggers. As many times as I've seen Cirque du Soleil shows, I keep thinking that I'll become blasé. As I felt my jaw drop and my breath expelled in a gasp during the first trio of graceful contortionists, I realized - nope, not going to happen. My sense of wonder is still fully intact and well-exercised by the aah-some spectacle of physical ability and fantasy that is Kooza. That's "Aah-some," as in the audience's collective spontaneous vocalized "Aah!" of disbelief that could be heard throughout the evening.
You can depend on Cirque du Soleil to take the imagination into places you've never dreamed. As you watch human beings perform super-human feats, you wonder, not only, "how do they do that?" but also "how did someone ever have the thought to ride a unicycle while spinning a woman around his neck?"
I picture acrobats challenging each other over a casual game of ping pong in their mobile compound:
"I can catapult higher than you can!"
"I' can to do it backwards and on stilts!"
"Well then, I'll catapult backwards on stilts with a flip!"
Each Cirque du Soleil production has an abstract storyline that loosely ties the aerial and acrobatic acts together. Kooza follows an innocent loner in search of his place in the world, exploring "themes of fear, identity, recognition and power." But you won't need to follow the story line to be highly entertained. Kooza incorporates more dance numbers than other Cirque shows I've seen in LA, but pairs them with bigger, more spectacular circus feats. Unusually, this show doesn't really go out with a bang, but rather winds down slowly in the last half hour.
If you act quickly, Goldstar.com has a limited number of discounted tickets available (free registration required). Stubdog.com also has some reduced price tickets.
When: Oct 16 - Dec 20, 2009 EXTENDED
Where: 350 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA 90401-3128
Cost: Adults $60 - $250, Children 2-12 $42-$175, Seniors 65+ $54-$112, children under 2 free (lap only)
Info: www.cirquedusoleil.com
More:
- Kooza Photo Gallery
- Cirque School and other LA Learning Vacations
- Photos of Cirque du Solel's Corteo
- Photos of Cirque du Soleil's Quidam
- LA's own Cirque Berzerk
Photos by OSA Images, courtesy of Cirque du Soleil
More LA Halloween Happenings
I've added a few more events to my Guide to Halloween in LA and Adults-Only Halloween Events, but just couldn't fit everything in, so here are some more events you might find interesting.
Tickets to Santa Monica Museum of Art's Halla Gala include a portrait session of your "secret self" with Leonard Nimoy as photographer, open bar, food and more at this vintage fashion and art themed soiree.
Halloween Night with Dancing with the Stars at Café Was in Hollywood (with Melissa Joan Hart, Kelly Osbourne, Mark Ballas, Louis Van Amstel, Louie Vito, Aaron Carter and Jaime Pressly) 9 pm - 2 am, costume and dance contests, no cover.
M.I.'s Westside Comedy Theatre's Halloween Extravaganza (more on M.I.'s Westside Comedy Theatre)
Halloween Party at the Roxy on Sunset with live music and DJs.
Halloween on Pine street festival in Downtown Long Beach.
Friday Nightmare before Halloween at Tatou in Downtown LA and Saturday Halloween Horror at Empire in Hollywood from pitent.com.
More Halloween Celebrations in Downtown LA.
Looking for a last-minute costume? Here are some Costume Tips for Halloween in Los Angeles and ideas Where to Shop for Costumes in LA for all budgets.
Check Goldstar.com for last minute discount tickets to Halloween events.
© 2009 Kayte Deioma, courtesy of www.KayteDeioma.com
Ice Skating in October in Santa Monica?
As a promo for the DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of the movie Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, ICE at Santa Monica, an 8000 square foot outdoor ice rink, opened today, several weeks earlier than usual. Could that be the cause of the sudden temperature drop in the neighborhood? Well, not likely, but the cool cloudy weather is certainly better for ice maintenance in normally sunny Santa Monica.
As the latest in many world records broken in Los Angeles, the opening includes a Guinness record-breaking ice sculpture which tops off at 48.8 feet, unveiled at 4 pm on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. The ice rink will stay open through January 31, 2010.
In addition to the 8000 square foot main rink, a smaller 400 square foot rink is provided for children 8 and under. Both rinks will offer skating lessons and season passes.
When: Oct 27, 2009 - Jan 30, 2010 Sun Thurs, 10 am to 10 pm, Fri-Sat, 10am to midnight
Where: 1324 5th Street (at Arizona Avenue), Santa Monica, CA 90401
Cost: $10 including skate rental. Admission to opening day festivities is free.
Info: http://www.downtownsm.com/about/winterlit.html
Zeppelin Tours Are Returning to LA
I had a chance to ride in the world's largest Zeppelin, Eureka, when Airship Ventures came to the LA area a couple months ago and it was an awesome experience. The San Francisco-based company will be back in Long Beach in November with more public air tours on Eureka, so if taking a ride in a Zeppelin is on your "bucket list," you can start making plans now.
While we often see dirigibles cruising our coastline and hovering over events, the So Cal-based blimps don't offer rides to the paying public. The Eureka will be offering one and two-hour "flightseeing tours" departing from the Long Beach Airport. Some will fly over celebrity homes and Hollywood studios, others will focus on the Southern California coastline. There's also an opportunity to join the 8 hour flight from and back to San Francisco.
Read my Review of Airship Ventures Zeppelin Tour
When: Nov 19-23, 2009, transit flights southbound on Nov 18 and northbound on Nov 24.
Where: flights depart from the AirFlite Aviation Services Facility, 3250 AirFlite Way, Long Beach, CA 90807 at the back of Long Beach Airport
Cost: One hour flights are $495 +tx, two hour flights are $990 +tx, flight from/to San Francisco $1500 one way
Anniversary Special: Buy one ticket or gift certificate, get the 2nd for half price if booked by Nov 30, 2009.
Info: www.airshipventures.com
More:
- Photos from My Airship Ventures Zeppelin Tour of Long Beach
- Air Tours of Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Tours Overview
© 2009 Kayte Deioma, courtesy of www.KayteDeioma.com
LAX Adds Irvine FlyAway Shuttle Service
The popular LAX FlyAway shuttle service, which currently operates from Union Station, Van Nuys and Westwood, will add an Irvine route beginning November 16, 2009. The new Irvine FlyAway service will operate non-stop between LAX and Irvine Station, which is a hub for Amtrak, Metrolink and OCTA bus lines in Orange County. Irvine Station, located at 15215 Barranca Parkway, will have 500 parking spaces available for FlyAway passengers, with free parking up to 30 days.
The 50-mile route will cost $25 one way with children through 8th grade (with ID) riding free with a paid adult. Initially, six 22-passenger busses will depart Irvine Station each day at 4:45 am, 6:45 am, 8:45 am, 10:45 am, 12:45 pm, and 4:45 pm. Buses will depart LAX at 9:45 am, 11:45 am, 3:45 pm, 5:45 pm, 7:45 pm and 9:45 pm.
More: