BUG FAIR: Maybe you just admire the moths flitting around your patio light at night. Or maybe you're a full-on insect aficionado, collecting all sorts of specimens that are alive and formerly alive. If you lean toward the latter, make for the Natural History Museum on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19 for North America's largest bug festival. Over 70 vendors'll be in the house, purveying in scurrying, multi-legged things. You can hold a few wee beasties, too, and even sample 'em during the in/famous cooking demo.
BIKE NIGHT: Is the best part of this free Hammer Museum party the stuff you can make for your two-wheeled ride, like stickers and reflectors? Or how about the screening of the Nicole Kidman favorite "BMX Bandits"? Maybe pay no admission to wander the galleries? Or that UCLA Bike Shop will be on hand to perform gratis tweaks to your bike? That's all good, but we like the free bike portraits best. Just you and your wheels, posing together, semi-proper-like. Swanky! Friday, May 17
GREAT LA RIVER CLEANUP: Our urban waterway's profile as a destination -- yep, a destination, as in a place for recreation and general hanging out -- has recently grown in ways that could be classified as both leaps and bounds. But we gotta keep it looking spiffy, don't we? That's one of those questions that's meant to be polite but only has one answer. Lend a hand and pick up trash -- some of it is usually weird trash, if you're intrigued -- on Saturday, May 18.
SATURDAYS OFF THE 405: Forget crocuses blooming and trees leafing and natural things doing something that signifies the coming of warm weather. When The Getty Center starts hosting free concerts featuring some truly buzzy acts -- the bands and singers on the up-and-up-and-up -- you can be certain that summer is nearly here. Getty-tinis and gallery talks are in the music-adjacent mix. Saturday, May 18
CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL: You know how in movies and TV shows you'll see characters participating in tart-throwing events and pie-eating contests? And yet those things seem kind of fake, because you rarely see them at real fairs? Hold onto your shortcake, strawberry buffs, because that stuff goes down, for real, at Oxnard's most famous fruit party. Heck, this thing is famous all over the state, and it turns 30 this year to boot. Watch out for the flying tarts. Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19
