CicLAvia: Wherever our city's mega bike ride roams, it always heads back downtown for a spin, and so it shall on Sunday, Oct. 5 when it returns to the Heart of LA. The route is "almost entirely new," meaning you'll find fresh turf (think Boyle Heights and the Broadway theaters). This is also the tenth CicLAvia -- nice -- and it will also be in the 90s. No sweat; the free event, which regularly draws well over 100,000 participants, has rolled, and walked, on toasty days before. Loads of food trucks and restaurants'll be along the route, should you need to pull in for some H20.
FESTIVAL OF PHILIPPINE ARTS & CULTURE: This much-attended, much-loved festival is a few years shy of its quarter century, but it has connected with a good swath of Southern California, with past stops at Cabrillo Beach and Pt. Fermin Park. It moves to Grand Park downtown on Oct. 4 and 5 (CicLAvia participants: You aren't too far from the party). Bamboo dances, an art gallery, a poetry slam, a vege competition, and a full-on marketplace festoon the joy-nice festivities.
EAGLE ROCK MUSIC FESTIVAL: It isn't even a secret that every up-and-coming community with a strong commitment to local songsters and filmmakers and culture-makers desires an outdoor music festival that's just easy, interesting, and brimming with the best stuff. Eagle Rock has long led ("long led"=16 years) the pack on the making-music-fests-happen front, and shall again, on Saturday, Oct. 4. The transcendent Mia Doi Todd, East LA's cool Quetzal, and Aloe Blacc and his message of "positive social change" shall transform Colorado Boulevard for the good and mind-filling day.
NATIONAL ECZEMA ASSOCIATION WALK: Some 30 million Americans live with eczema, and while there are fundraisers throughout the year, the walk at UCLA on Sunday, Oct. 5 "is the only walk for eczema!" If you want to bring awareness by your participation, perhaps on behalf of a loved one or yourself, this is a good place to get involved and donate, too. Can't make it? You can sign on as a virtual walker.
CHILLS AND GRINS: The Halloween extravaganzas keep lining up, like so many plump pumpkins on a fence. Oh, did we say pumpkins? In fact we did, because The Rise of the Jack O'Lanterns debuts at Descanso Gardens. Prepare for a big number: Some 5,000 jacks'll flicker throughout the La Cañada Flintridge gardens. And further south, down Long Beach way? Dark Harbor opens at the Queen Mary, which is already one of the most allegedly haunted spots in all the land. How eeky do you feel? (You feel plenty eeky, is the answer.)
