DAY OF THE COWBOY AND COWGIRL: How are your lasso twirling skills? Your square-dancing moves? Do you wear a ten-gallon well? These are all important questions when you ponder life on the romantic range, the herding of cattle, the singing of songs under the stars, and shining of spurs. The Autry celebrates the wide-open clip-clop saddle-sweet life with a day of tunes, nifty trickeroos, Wild West photos, leatherwork, and the kicking up of boots. Yeehaw? Yes, yeehaw. Saturday, July 26
NATIONAL DANCE DAY: So if you should stroll by Grand Park on a fine and sunny Saturday, say, Saturday, July 26, and if you should see hundreds of people shaking their stuff in unison, courtesy of a routine they are learning in honor of this joyful day of dance, what will you do? A) Join in. Oh, sorry, B) through E) don't exist. It's free, Grand Park/Music Center serve as the mondo event's West Coast flagship location, and it's health- and happiness-enhancing.
CENTRAL AVENUE JAZZ FESTIVAL: When song scholars and historians of the American music legacy ponder the spots along the West Coast that became iconic in the jazz world, they look to LA's own Central Avenue. The tunes still reign each year during the summertime Jazz Fest, which raises the vibes on Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27. Set to play the 19th outing? Kamasi Washington & Next Step, Gerald Wilson Orchestra, and other acts bringing those deep and true jazz notes.
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: Where did everyone go? They're very likely inside the San Diego Convention Center, rocking an outlandish costume of their own making, watching a panel about next summer's mondo blockbuster. It's time for the biggest pop-comic-game-film-TV-you-name-it convention in the Milky Way, and thousands -- thousands and thousands -- will con-it-up through Sunday, July 27. Maybe not the whoooole Milky Way, but chances are solid.
FREE TV EXHIBIT: If you do love your costumes but can't make San Diego, take heart (and skip taking the cash): The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising's annual exhibit honoring television fashion is heading into its first weekend. It's on through Sept. 20, it is open Tuesday through Saturday, and admission? Zilcho. Pay nothing to eye over 100 costumes from some 20 shows (hello, "Orange Is the New Black").
