Stuff To Do

For those of you who missed out on the debut party for Slake‘s fourth issue Dirt, the lit mag is having a reading tonight at 7:30 at Skylight Books in Los Feliz. Luke Davies, Joseph Mattson, Melissa Chadburn, Clay Steakley and Diana Turken will all be reading excepts from their latest pieces.

More info here.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Pasadena’s first community-wide book festival is launching this Saturday. The free event will feature local authors and publishers in readings and panel discussions, as well as children’s activities, music, theater, and best of all, food trucks.

Pulitzer Prize winner and Pasadena resident Jonathan Gold will be in attendance for a little sit down chat with KPCC book critic David Kipen. Larry Wilson, event co-founder and public editor of the Pasadena Star-News, will interview award-winning novelists Janet Fitch and Michelle Huneven. And then there’s a panel discussion on L.A. Noir led by best-selling mystery writer Denise Hamilton. Find the full schedule here and here.

LitFest runs from 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. in Pasadena’s Central Park.

Artillery magazine is hosting their next lively reading tonight at The Standard hotel’s groovy Cactus Lounge. Like the best things in life, it’s free.

The reading, curated by poet Steven Reigns, features novelist Cheryl Klein, comedy writer Michael Serrato, and fiction writer Tony Valenzuela.

The event begins with a wine reception at 7 p.m. Readings get started at 8. The Standard is at 8300 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood. Event is free, but valet parking is $6.

More info here.

Local literary journal Slake: Los Angeles is celebrating the launch of their 4th issue with a big bash at Atwater Crossing.

To date, Slake parties have been a delight, and this one looks promising as well. For the price of admission you get free beer from Golden Road Brewing, free pie served by real, live, incredibly hot Suicide Girls(!), live music, art, and a chance to rub shoulders with L.A.’s literati. Yes, we’re going. We like pie.

Event starts 7:30 p.m. @ Atwater Crossing. More details here.

It’s no surprise that photojournalist Gary Leonard was present to document the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Chronicling the city’s history through his lens has long been his life’s work. But Leonard wasn’t working alone during the riots — his then 14-year-old son David was with him.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the riots, the pair will exhibit their work as part of a show titled, “Parker Center” at the Take My Picture gallery downtown. This Sunday, April 29, from 12 to 5 p.m. at 860 S. Broadway.

Parker Center from David Leonard on Vimeo.

The illustration crowning this weekend’s LA Times Festival of Books doubles as a jolly green homecoming for USC alum Bob Staake. And who better to paper the in-between years than a reporter for The Daily Trojan?

Staake, who drew cartoons as a non-student for the Trojan for two years before landing a USC scholarship, tells Alexis Driggs that the above illustration came from his unused pile:

Not every image he sketches ends up in a book, such as the image of a dinosaur on the Empire State Building reading a book that he recently re-designed as a dinosaur on top of a stack of books to promote the Festival of Books. Staake said one of his publishers, Random House, asked him to design art for the festival, but there was no question for him that the dinosaur was the right fit.

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To celebrate the arrival of the second issue of the Grantland Quarterly, Skylight Books in Los Feliz will host a quartet of the Web publication’s staffers for an April 9 reading and Q&A event. Attending Monday night will be Katie Baker, Rafe Bartholomew, Tom Bissell and Molly Lambert.

The publication is a combination of Web best-of and print exclusives. Lambert could be in for a fun time in particular, as her contribution to Issue #2 is all about the Kardashians.

Baker writes in the latest issue about female marathoners, Bartholomew profiles Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra while Bissell takes stock of Dead Island, the latest release from Techland. The issue retails for $25.

The event begins at 7:30pm. More info here.

Daily Trojan reporter Stephanie Byrd has the lowdown on “Trouble in Paradise: Music and Los Angeles, 1945-1975,” a new exhibit at the Grammy Museum. Turns out the presentaton was originally developed as an undergrad project at USC Annenberg under the supervision of professor Josh Kun.

One of the more intriguing elements of the show is a timeline that matches up moments of social and political change with corresponding LPs and music memorabilia. There are also artifacts from influential LA DJ Art Laboe‘s program and a couch-car to underscore the importance of car radio-dispatched sounds:

USC students developed some of the key pieces that elevate the exhibit from a run-of-the-mill museum tour through time to an interactive, engaging space. Kun, acting as a guest curator for the Grammy Museum, said that his favorite student idea – a revamped 1970s jukebox – became an exemplary feature of “Trouble in Paradise.”

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Hollywood is full of odd couples. Still, TMZ camera-totters would be hard pressed to find a visual grab as striking as the side-by-side sight of Slash and Betty White.

Calm down; they’re only an item for LA Zoo promotional purposes. Out of the five new ads touting the attraction’s upcoming reptile and amphibian shrine The Lair opening in March, this is FishbowlLA’s favorite (great comeback, frogs!):

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If you thought blogs killed the zine, you’ll be heartened to learn that the indie tradition of homemade publishing in print is alive and well, and being celebrated this weekend here in town.

The L.A. Zine Fest takes place this Sunday at the downtown Spring Arts Tower, in The Last Bookstore and on the floor above. The event will feature panel discussions, workshops, even a conversation between Henry Rollins and the legendary V. Vale of RE/Search Publications. L.A. Record will host an afterparty in the bookstore, with KXLU DJs spinning.

A pre-fest Comix & Zine Reading is planned for Saturday evening at the art gallery Home Room. Over a dozen local artists are participating, including the creators of FishbowlLA’s beloved comic Henry & Glenn Forever.

All events are free.