LA Sake Festival

Tonight, master musician and esteemed peacemaker, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, transcends the political and gives breath to the universal with beautiful music. Free at this evening’s concert at the Skirball Center.

On Friday, an enchanted forest appears within the midst of a secret downtown warehouse called Serendipity. Performers, guests and creatures mingle and the lines between the fantastic and the mundane are blurred.

On Saturday, it’s your chance to learn all about the nuances of Sake from Timothy Sullivan, a “Sake Samurai,” and then belt out blistering Karaoke versions of “Wanted Dead or Alive” in front of hundreds of your newfound BFFs. Saturday also offers a chance to catch Flux Super 8 at the Scion Space, an installation that celebrates eight of the most exciting, emerging filmmakers, video artists, and design collectives from around the world. And then finish your evening with an explosive sonic snapshot of Columbian grooves by Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro at the Echoplex.

Finally on Sunday, Little Temple Bar and Sonido Sundays celebrate the return of John Forté, the genius producer behind The Fugees, to the stage.

LA Air Sex Championships

This Friday (6/26) the World Air Sex Championships are taking place in LA and you’re invited.

Never been to an Air Sex show before? Here’s what you need to know: It’s a lot like Air Guitar, but instead of rocking out with an imaginary guitar, you’re making sweet and/or filthy business time with an imaginary sex partner.

You choose your music, you show up in whatever sort of wardrobe you like and you come up on stage and show everyone how you do it. Or how you wish you could do it. Or how you once had it done to you, and oh my god was that a bad idea and… I think you get the idea.

The only rules are the laws laid down by the state of CA. So, no getting naked and all orgasms must be stimulated–I mean, simulated Meg Ryan “When Harry Met Sally” style. Other than that, you’re free to do whatever it takes to impress the judges, the audience and the world! Note: moose mascots okay.

Wanna go? (or even more bettah) Wanna compete? See details…

Pizza making party at Surfas

Turn a lazy Sunday afternoon into a unique opportunity to create your own signature pizza at the gastronome’s paradise known as Surfas.

From 2pm to 4:30pm (no conflict for you Laker fans!), Surfas’ professional kitchen staff will guide and instruct you in the delicate art of pizza making and will provide an epicurean selection of pizza dough, cheeses, sauces, meats and veggies to satisfy every diet and every taste bud.

Additioanlly, Surfas’ Executive Chef has overseen a selection of fine wines and beers to pair with your ultimate pizza!

The cost of the entire event is just $25 and includes culinary instruction with all the gourmet fixings you can possibly imagine, two glasses of premium wine or beer and a prize to be awarded to the Top Lek Chef!

The pizzas require 20-25 minutes to cook, so please be punctual to ensure that you have enough time to savor your creation!

Many thanks to fellow Lekker Calpon3 for suggesting this event!

LACMA Art Walk

Tonight, St. Vincent ascends to the El Rey Theater with ethereal voice, precocious arrangements and insightful lyrics. On Friday, catch a newly restored version of “The Harder They Come,” the film that introduced the world to reggae music and superstar Jimmy Cliff. On Saturday, LACMA’s MUSE posse hosts the annual Miracle Mile Art Walk and After Party. The self guided tour offers free admission to four area museums and entrance to over twenty participating galleries. The After Party is an open bar affair and features the infectious, New Orleans swing of Vaude & the Villains. For those not partial to tar pits, Culver City also has an Art Walk and features a number of galleries deep in the underground contemporary art scene. And for those who hate walking, comedien, songstress, performance artist, Charlyne Yi invites you to go “fishin’” with her new band OLD LUMPS (she was the stoner Jodi in “Knocked Up”). And finally, this weekend, The BuFest’sannual 2-day music festival returns with headliners Reel Big Fish, MxPx, Eve 6, Unwritten Law, Butch Walker, Pato Banton and over 70 national and local acts.

Tonight!
	St. Vincent
	With an ethereal voice, precocious arrangements and insightful lyrics, St. Vincent’s is a star on the rise.
Friday
	The Harder They Come
	Gritty, ground-breaking and graced with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, The Harder They Come brought reggae to the international stage and helped make Jimmy Cliff a star.
Saturday
	Fishin’ with Charlyne Yi
	Go fishin’ with comedien, songstress, performance artist, Charlyne Yi and her new band OLD LUMPS. You might remember as stoner Jodi from “Knocked Up.”
Saturday 2.0
	Culver City Art Walk
	The Culver City renaissance gets into full swing with its own art walk and features gallery luminaries like Blum and Poe, LAX Art, the Scion Installation Gallery and much, much more.
Sunday
	BuFest
	The BuFest’s annual 2-day music festival returns with headliners Reel Big Fish, MxPx, Eve 6, Unwritten Law, Butch Walker, Pato Banton and over 70 national and local acts.

Hot Butter Fridays

From Hot Butter and The Dude to Craft Beer and BBQ, your weekend deLEKtables…

Tonight catch a rare glimpse of streetart originals from luminaries like Banksy, KAWS, Sheppard Fairey, and Space Invader at the Carmichael Gallery opening. Also, beginning tonight and bowling into Friday, the Lebowski Festival abides in LA to pay homage to the Coen Brother’s cult classic, “The Big Lebowski.” The fest features a screening this evening and bowling on Friday. Hot Butter Fridays heats up this week with a special appearance of Jneiro Jarel who, like Madlib, blurs the lines of Hip Hop, Jazz, Punk and more. Saturday welcomes both the return of the Santa Monica Festival, a free outdoor event with live performances on multiple stages, and newcomer, The Craft Beer Fest, which presents the best in CA craft beers and local pub grub at the Echoplex. And finally, both Saturday and Sunday get finger licking good as the premiere BBQ masters from LA, Texas, Kansas City and beyond gather for the LA BBQ Festival.

Your weekend deLEKtables is a weekly guide to what’s happening in LA brought to you by TheLEK.com.  Click here to subscribe to Your weekend deLEKtables.

LA Weekly's LA Weekend

So after 30 years of “passionate arts and cultural coverage, inky hands and hooker ads, not to mention plenty of kick-ass reporting, L.A. Weekly has decided to throw a weekend festival to celebrate all that makes this city so … so … Angelenean — with music, fashion, art, books, film, comedy and theater.”

And, best of all, the festival is now FREE!

This 2 day fest starts on Friday at 7pm and heats up on Saturday from noon on. And with the Kogi truck making a Friday night appearance, this promises to be an all LA affair.

Day 1:

LA Weekly's LA Weekend, Day 1

Day 2:

LA Weekly's LA Weekend, Day 2

From the hilarious…

If Superman and the Flash had a race around the Earth who would win?

flash33’s answer: Chuck Norris

…to the thoughtful…

If you could have any super power, what would it be? What would you do first?

Claredare’s answer: Shape shifter! I could turn into household objects and animals that could do all sorts of things, like be bird and fly! Anything I fancied. First I would, shape shift into Bush and resign!

…to the provocative…

If only one: great food or great sex?

LindyGal’s answer: I love both (occasionally together). But faced with a lifetime choice: the delights of food ultimately trumps sex.

…to the informative…

What’s your favorite L.A. thing that most people don’t know about?

Russell’s answer: Greystone Mansion. North of Sunset in the heart of Beverly Hills is a gorgeous estate built by the Doheny family in the 1920’s. The grounds are just as amazing as the views.

…to the huh?!

How would you describe your ocean floor?

Chandler’s answer: Mine is an azure paradise, dappled with swaying kelp forests, bright coral and painted fish. A giant hermit crab, covered in blue algae, plays drums.

If you haven’t asked or answered any questions yet, now’s your chance to check out what other members have posted and, perhaps, become inspired to create your own…!

Mindshare LA every 3rd Thursday of the month

If Noah’s Ark had an open bar, it would be more like Mindshare… If World Leaders held pyjama parties, it would be more like Mindshare… If Jamba Juice made smoothies from books, it would be more like Mindshare…

Under the tagline “Enlightened Debauchery,” Mindshare LA surrounds innovative talks with live music, artistic and technological installations, and the ongoing open-bar party that underlines Mindshare’s festive atmosphere. Mindshare takes place on every third Thursday of the month and gathers energized people from diverse backgrounds for an evening of inspiration and interaction in Downtown LA. The event starts at 7pm and as the ~300 attendees arrive, they can meet new people while enjoying hors d’oeuvres and a stocked, open bar. Every month we showcase new installations and games for our attendees to experience and interact with, created by the great brains at Mindshare Labs.

Drawing Angelenos from the cultural, technological and business worlds, this month’s installment will feature presentations on:

“Herd Neuroadvantage: How Humans Bind Together for Success” with Rao Leadership President Ravi Rao, M.D., Ph.D, M.Ed.

“Drag Queens and the Fluidity of Personality” with scholar and activist Justin Natoli

And much more…

7th Annual National Grilled Cheese Invitational

The need for adults to play seems stronger than ever these days. Last week there was a massive pillow fight in downtown’s Pershing Square. Coming up on April 25th is the 7th Annual National Grilled Cheese Invitational. Santacon had thousands of marauding Santas descend upon shoppers during the winter holiday season and this past Easter Sunday The Los Angeles Dodgeball Society offered the church alternative Burt Reynolds “No Bunny Does it Better” Dodgeball Tournament & Mustache Expo. So what’s it all about? Why the regressions? Is this a new phenomenon? Are we experiencing an infantilization of society? Or are we simply beginning to acknowledge the adult inner child that is oft talked about, but seldom indulged?

As one who spends much of his spare time dreaming up stop-action Space Lego vids, and the like, you might guess I’m an advocate of good play. Pillow fights downtown? Awesome. Dodgeball Easter… okay not my thing, but power to moustache for everyone who gets out there. Grilled Cheese competition? Why not? Something feels right in the world when we are given outlet to indulge in harmless fun. There’s misery-o-plenty to go around and I find it refreshing that adults are taking impish glee while participating in the puerile.

For me, the dangerous assumption is the one that equates play and playfulness with immaturity and forces us to conform to some imaginary status quo of “growing up.” Yes, there is need for us to be civil to one another, to be respectful, to have compassion and empathy. But those common courtesies apply in equal measure to children and adults alike. Immaturity is realm of petty emotion, the spiteful, the jealous, the hurtful and has nothing to with play. Play is about discovery, camaraderie, imagination and the expression of delight in the here and now. Play is living.

Do not surrender your right to play. Do not adhere to some zombie standard of adulthood where play is looked down upon with distaste and distain. LA is your playground and there’s yet still time to sing, to dance, to stomp, and to eat grilled cheese sandwiches! See you there!