This Weekend at LACMA: Lautner’s Birthday, Jazz at LACMA, Classic Cinema, and More

Okay, we know, we know: CARMAGEDDON. For those of you not paralyzed with fear (or if you plan to take advantage of the various transportation alternatives we hipped you to on Wednesday), there is plenty happening at LACMA—starting tonight, with a special edition of Jazz at LACMA. Luther Hughes and the Cannonball/Coltrane Project will be bringing the stage alive with works from those two titans of jazz; and, in honor of Jazz at LACMA’s twentieth anniversary, we’ll also have a special photography showcase by local photographers who have captured some of our concerts over the years.

Photo by Yolanda Poe of The Eye of Poe Photography

The galleries (excluding Tim Burton) are free for L.A. residents after 5 pm, so once you’ve arrived for jazz be sure to take in some of our exhibitions (including Possible Worlds, which got a nice write-up in the L.A. Times this week) or head up to BCAM with your kids for a (not too) spooky storytelling event—“Spiders, Bears, and Other Tales of Critters that Give You the Shivers.”

Ian Birnie’s Celebrating Classic Cinema series continues this weekend with a night of comedy followed by a triple dose of drama. Tonight, Preston Sturges’s outstanding screwball comedy Sullivan’s Travels is followed by Ernst Lubitch’s WWII-set comedy To Be or Not to Be.

The film series continues tomorrow with a triple feature, starting early with a 5 pm showing of Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind, followed by Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket, and one of my own personal favorites, Jacques Demy’s Bay of Angels. Demy would soon move on to colorful, often haunting musicals like Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but his second feature is a classic New Wave film that captures gambling addiction better than any other film has managed.

Also on Saturday you can catch an affordable matinee screening of horror classic The Thing, part of our Tim Burton-inspired Monster Matinee series. Later in the evening Brazilian singer Kátia Moraes will give a free concert in Hancock Park as part of our Latin Sounds series.

As mentioned yesterday, this weekend marks the architect John Lautner’s 100^th Birthday—and tomorrow has officially been declared “John Lautner Day” by the city. In honor of that, our Art Catalogues store has been transformed into a mini Lautner exhibition, featuring an archival model and photographs of Lautner’s famous Goldstein Office. On Saturday afternoon in the Brown Auditorium architects and critics Michael Rotondi, Craig Hodgetts, and Sylvia Lavin will discuss Lautner’s work, followed by a second conversation on architectural preservation between Christopher Carr, Vice President of the John Lautner Foundation, and Frank Preusser, a conservation scientist at LACMA. That in turn will be followed by a reception commemorating the first John Lautner Day. Then, on Sunday, artist and critic Dan Graham will be in the Art Catalogues store to talk more about Lautner.

John Lautner, Goldstein Office

Sunday, as always, is a great day to bring the kids. Starting at 12:30, our free Andell Family Sunday activities are inspired by the current Gifts of the Sultan exhibition.  At 3 pm, children’s author Mina Javaherbin will sign copies of and read from The Secret Message, based on a Persian poem [Sorry, this event has been canceled]. The weekend closes out with a free performance from iPalpiti, who will bring works by Dvorák and Franck to the Bing Theater as part of Sundays Live.

Finally, should you get thirsty while you’re here on Saturday or Sunday, the Stark Bar is featuring a special Carmageddon cocktail: a white Sangria with peaches and lemon verbena for a mere $4.05.

Scott Tennent