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Try a Chinese Mooncake at L.A.'s Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

If you're not lucky enough to be in China today for the Mid-Autumn Festival, you still have a chance to partake in the event's signature goodie, the mooncake. Los Angeles' Chinatown will throw its own homage to the traditional pastry on September 25, with its 72nd annual festival. Similar to Thanksgiving, the lunar festival is harvest-time holiday where you're supposed to gather with your loved ones and gorge. There's a number of legends associated with the fest, one of which says that rebels trying to overthrow the 14th-century Mongol rulers hid secret messages inside mooncakes to rally the people.

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Museum Travel / Los Angeles Travel / Art Travel / Events / → All Tags

Los Angeles' MOCA Celebrates 30 Years With a Behemoth of a Retrospective

MOCA's First Thirty Years is a retrospective that covers 30 years of the Los Angeles museum's artistic contributions to the public. Since opening its doors in 1979, MOCA has prided itself on making the best of contemporary art available to the masses, and this behemoth of a collection—featuring more than 500 pieces by over 200 artists from 1940 to today—is a reflection of this cultural richness.

Novice art connoisseurs, or even those who don't know Mondrian from Michelangelo, will inarguably be impressed by this compendium of some of the 20th Century's most impressive pieces. Diane Arbus? Check. Jackson Pollock? Check. Mark Rothko? You get the idea. The list goes on and on, and the exhibition will enjoy a long run at the downtown location—through May 3rd of next year, to be exact.

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Music Travel / Los Angeles Travel / Live Music / Live Music Travel / Classical Music / How To Get Tickets To / → All Tags

Cue Strings! How to Get Tickets To The LA Philharmonic

These days, buses and benches in Los Angeles are emblazoned with one of two images: an ad for Cougar Town, or a photo of an enthusiastic, curly-haired conductor with the text, "¡Vibrante Gustavo!" or "¡Bienvenidos Gustavo!" scrawled across it in bold letters. This animated man is Gustavo Dudamel, the young Venezuelan conductor who has just assumed a lead post at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Everyone from Vogue to 60 Minutes has been buzzing about his arrival in the City of Angels, and after a free preview at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend, it's official: He's arrived.

It's difficult not to buy into the hyped-up excitement about Dudamel, especially when he's drawing comparisons to Leonard Bernstein and it's said his youthful energy might save the state of classical music in the U.S. Talk about expectation. That said, we're itching to see the man in action just as much as the next classical enthusiast. The question is how, especially when ticket demand for a Dudamel-conducted show is ridiculously high.

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Recession Restaurants / Recession Restaurants Map / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags

The Edison Lounge Has Depression Eats, Depression Drinks and Now, Depression Prices

Even before the market tanked, Depression-era watering holes were en vogue in a big way, with speakeasies, burlesque shows and classic cocktails abundant on both coasts. While the trend seemed a little kitschy at first, now that we're officially hurtling towards a depression, it's starting to feel a little more like home.

One of LA's most authentic early-Twentieth Century spots is downtown's unsuspecting Edison Lounge. Set in a former power plant, Edison is a huge, open, brick-walled loft with lots of sneaky little hideaway spots to lounge in gigantic antique leather sofas while sipping a "Hemingway" absinthe-and-Champagne cocktail along with simple-but-delicious depression eats like deviled eggs and Dungeness crab salad.

The problem is that places with Great Depression themes like this tend to have decidedly 2009 pricing schemes. But now that the Depression meme is becoming less of a joke, Edison has a '30s imitation we can bet behind. Every Friday from 5pm to 7pm, the lounge is offering free depression eats (grilled cheese melts and tomato soup) along with 35-cent martinis and other special depression cocktails, like the 401(k), a gin cocktail served in a half-empty glass. Kitschy idea, yes; but there's nothing kitschy about 35-cent drinks.

· Edison Lounge [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [Edison Lounge]

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Baking with My Homies

Count on LA to offer a venue where former gang members will whip up a fresh mint-spinach lemonade to go with your zucchini blossom omelet.

Homeboy Industries was founded in 1988 with the goal of getting young Angelenos out of gangs and into the workforce. The nonprofit organization provides former gang members and other at-risk youth with job training and on-the-job experience at its two eateries, Homeboy Bakery and Homegirl Café.

Both outposts are located at the Homeboy Industries headquarters, a renovated warehouse downtown, two blocks from Union Station. Homeboy Bakery offers freshly baked muffins, bagels, cakes and pies, while the adjacent Homegirl Café serves up a Latin-influenced menu, with omelets and chilaquiles--crisp tortillas simmered in salsa--in the morning, and sandwiches and tacos for lunch, along with that mint-spinach lemonade, which believe it or not, is delicious.

Related Stories:
· Homeboy Industries [Official Site]
· LA Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Homeboy Industries]