Our weekend itineraries seem to be getting longer and longer as summer grows shorter and shorter. So much to do, so little time! Let's get started...
Friday
If your work week has been as brutal as ours, you might want to mellow out at LACMA on Friday night. Start with free live jazz at 6 p.m. followed by a free outdoor screening of How to Train Your Dragon at 8 p.m. You may be the youngest or the oldest person in attendance at either event, but this could be good for your dating life given the fact that eligible men our age are as rare as unicorns in this town -- the underage and the elderly might be the city's best untapped dating resource. (We kid! Please don't date anyone who can't legally buy you a beer.)
If free events at world-famous museums aren't your thing, you could opt instead to check out Sandy Brown's one-woman show, Oh Yes, She Did! -- they're offering free and discounted tickets on Friday night. Or, Nerds like Us will be presenting a midnight showing of Jurassic Park at the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz, before which we suggest indulging in our Los Feliz Happy Hour Hop so that you're good and ready for those terrifying velociraptors (and Jeff Goldblum's inexplicable hotness).
Saturday
If nightmares of being devoured alive by dinosaurs didn't keep you up all night, start your morning at the Lululemon on Beverly Drive with FREE Cardio Barre demonstrations, followed by a cleansing brunch at Kreation Juicery. Later, pretend that your healthy morning cancels out any ill effects from an afternoon spent beer-guzzling, because you just can't miss out on the LA Craft Beer Crawl, which will be co-hosted by our friends The Beer Chicks. Once you're so full on beer you can barely move, sober up downtown at an LA Derby Dolls brawl between the Tough Cookies and the Fight Crew.
If you only deign to drink beer when live music is involved, opt instead to partake in the Sunset Strip Music Festival, which returns this year after a one-year hiatus. The outdoor festival features performances by Marilyn Manson, The Offspring, and Bad Religion, so you may want to hit up Hot Topic en route.
Maybe you're okay with waiting until the evening hours to drink (congrats, btw), in which case we suggest you sleep in on Saturday and start out fresh with lunch at newbie Republic of Laughter (ROFL) on Melrose. They don't have a liquor license just yet, but the short rib grilled cheese sammies will more than make up for your sobriety. After lunch, make a quick stop at the Melrose Trading Post before popping over to the The Grove, where Betsey Johnson is making an appearance at Nordstrom to debut a shoe she designed in honor of The Grove's 10 Year Anniversary. Later, choose between Street Food Cinema's double feature of Sixteen Candles and Valley Girl or Cinespia's sleepover screenings of Wet Hot American Summer, Sleepaway Camp and Little Darlings. Or, if you're feeling totally awesome, choose to see Top Gun: The (30 minute) Musical at Celebration Theatre in WeHo instead. Later, endure lines at Laurel Hardware, where the odds of leaving with a "date" are something like 9 in 10. If you're feeling a bit antisocial and would rather go to a meat market where you'll be left alone, however, we suggest Rage or The Abbey as an alternative. Plus, the guys (read: gays) will be hotter.
Sunday
We fully support laziness on Sundays, so we've put together three separate itineraries in three different parts of town this week so you don't have to battle traffic unless you really want to. If you're mid-city, start the day with brunch at Rush Street, where we encourage you to indulge in some bottomless cocktails. After, do some creative repurposing of your goth outfit from Saturday's Sunset Strip Music Festival, as you'll need to look appropriately punk for the Punk Rock BBQ happening at Liquid Kitty. Then, since you've gone to all of the trouble to look the part, head over to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for the annual celebration of late Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone.
If you'd prefer to stay east, we recommend following the itinerary we put together for a broke-girl-friendly day out in Silver Lake, making sure to stop in at newbie restaurant Diablo Taco for some maple-fried chicken tacos and Michelada popsicles. In the evening hours, join For the Record for a live performance set to the music of John Hughes films such as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club.
Westsiders should fill up on a breakfast burrito at Lemon Moon or a chocolate waffle confection at Bru's Wiffle before biking over to The Santa Monica Museum of Art to take part in the Cause for Creativity: Tour da Arts, Vol. 4, which is basically an art walk on wheels. Later, swing by the LA Mobile Arts Festival -- the largest iPhone art festival in the world -- to listen to talent wax poetic about their (tiny?) work. Leave by 9 so you can walk over to Buddha's Belly for some chicken lettuce cups and a $5 beer before bed. Or, shun food for some last-minute fun by joining in on the waning hours of The Bungalow's Sunday soiree (2-10 p.m.).
