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Emma Straub on her new novel, Bob Baker Day, L.A. Climate Week, BagelFest 2026 and more of the best things to do this weekend.Bob Baker Day takes over the L.A. State Historic Park for a full afternoon of puppets, art, food and local vendors.
Take a break at the L.A. Public Library’s “Rest Nest,” plus check out stalls from the Academy Museum, the Colburn School, Heritage Square Museum and many more. And, of course, check out puppet, music and clown performances all day long on two stages. Settle the"best bagel in town" battle once and for all at BagelFest West. From the Bay Area’s Boichik Bagels to local favorite Belle’s to Inglourious Bagels in Carlsbad and even Hey Bagel in Seattle, the West Coast doesn’t play when it comes to the delicious, holey breakfast delight. Patrick Martinez’s neon signs with activist messages have become part of the L.A. landscape over the past several years. His work in neon responding to the immigration raids in L.A., plus new paintings, drawings, and sculptures, gets an inspiring solo show at Charlie James Gallery in Chinatown — make sure to get there before it closes Saturday night.L.A. Olympics tickets or lack thereof, I’m right there with you. Let’s hope future drops have a few more reasonable tickets available for those of us who don’t have $1,000 to see Katie Ledecky swim her heart out., the annual streaming event for Coachella, which is on this weekend and next, right in your own living room. And slap on that SPF if you’re desert-bound. This weekend is also the kickoff for L.A. Climate Week, with events ranging from a planet-friendly Food Day Festival in West Hollywood to a conversation on climate futures in Malibu; it’s also the last weekend for the Getty exhibitPatrick Martinez’s neon signs with activist messages have become part of the L.A. landscape over the past several years. His work in neon responding to the immigration raids in L.A., along with new paintings, drawings and sculptures, gets an inspiring solo show at Charlie James Gallery in Chinatown — make sure to get there before it closes Saturday night.Food Day FestivalWritten by Julie Shavers and directed by Daniel O’Brien, the play follows a woman returning to her hometown for the Fourth of July.View this post on Instagram It’s back! The 12th annual Bob Baker Day takes over the L.A. State Historic Park for a full afternoon of puppets, art, food and local vendors. Take a break at the L.A. Public Library’s “Rest Nest,” plus check out stalls from the Academy Museum, the Colburn School, Heritage Square Museum and many more. And, of course, check out puppet, music and clown performances all day long on two stages.Settle the"best bagel in the West" battle once and for all at BagelFest West. From the Bay Area’s Boichik Bagels to local favorite Belle’s to Inglourious Bagels in Carlsbad and even Hey Bagel in Seattle, the West Coast doesn’t play when it comes to the delicious, holey breakfast delight. You can taste more than 20 different bagels with your ticket — so come hungry and ready to carb-load.. She’s also the owner of a lovely bookstore in Brooklyn, Books Are Magic. She brings a little of that magic to Skylight Books in Los Feliz about her new novel,. You can also catch Straub talking about her books and career when she heads to the Clifton C. Miller Community Center in Tustin on Monday as part ofPart art market and gallery, part stand-up comedy show, part excuse to eat fried chicken, FusterCluck gathers up-and-coming local comics for a stand-up show at The Earl Gallery.The 1990s are alive and well, as Lilith Fair favorite Dar Williams plays the Troubadour. The singer-songwriter’s latest studio album,, draws on her more recent experiences as a playwright and songwriting instructor. I will now have"What Do You Hear in These Sounds" in my head for a week.Enter a mystery year once a month on Sunday night, kicking off this week at Gold Diggers in East Hollywood. Born out of a DJ night that started in San Francisco in 2008, the actual YEAR is a surprise until you walk in the door — it could be any time from 1963 till now. Curated by Dennis “The Menace” Scheyer, the night features a specialty cocktail, experimental films and art, and a surprise live performance. Here’s a hint for this month’sTina Blankenship-Early sits in her 1966 Chevrolet Caprice, named "Game Killa," on March 30. The award-winning car helped her become Lowrider magazine’s first Woman of the Year in 2023.Tina Blankenship-Early’s legacy highlights a shift within lowrider culture where women are no longer viewed as just passengers or eye candy, but are celebrated as creators and competitors. Because of her influence, women are joining car clubs that specifically cater to them, like the LA-basedFor more than 30 years, Blankenship-Early has been immersed in a scene historically dominated by men. She’s been featured in publications from. There are many firsts attached to her name. She’s known in the culture as “First Lady,” she was the first woman member of her car club,Lowrider MagazineAfter installing an audio system for Super Natural Lowriders then-President Andre Jones, she was asked to join the club as its first woman member in 1998. Former club Vice President Gerald Hill gave her the nickname “First Lady.” Today, she holds the title of vice president, a role she said she’s using to plan food drives for unhoused people in the community and backpack giveaways for local students. In a subculture long defined by masculinity, chrome and hydraulics, Tina Blankenship-Early carved out her own lane as a lowrider pioneer. For more than 30 years, Blankenship-Early has been immersed in a scene historically dominated by men. She’s been featured in publications from There are many firsts attached to her name. She’s known in the culture as “First Lady,” she was the first woman member of her car club,Lowrider magazine, and her cars include a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice named “Game Killa” and a 1961 blue Impala featuring a painting of Michelle Obama on its trunk. “The cars are the main focus, but it’s the people of the community for me,” Blankenship-Early said. “The realness and the people who are all about the cars and the culture made me want to be deeply involved.” Blankenship-Early’s legacy highlights a shift within lowrider culture where women are no longer viewed as just passengers or eye candy but are celebrated as creators and competitors. Because of her influence, women are joining car clubs that specifically cater to them, like the L.A.-based Les Riley, longtime lowrider and member of the Super Natural Lowriders, told The LA Local he didn’t see a lot of women in the culture nearly 40 years ago when he first started, and he knows having a lowrider is not an easy or cheap hobby. “She’s doing everything that the men are doing and probably doing it better,” Riley said of Blankenship-Early. “So I take my hat off to her.”Blankenship-Early, 58, said she was about 8 years old being raised in Watts when she first saw guys lowriding.“I’ve always wanted to lowride, but what actually made me go ahead and do it — my best friend, her dad, me and him built his ’66 Impala in his garage, and he would take me riding with him all the time,” she said. In 1988, she said she bought a Nissan 200 SX, and after watching her neighbor install an audio system in the car, she taught herself and began installing them for local car clubs. After installing an audio system for Super Natural Lowriders' then-President Andre Jones, she was asked to join the club as its first woman member in 1998. Former club Vice President Gerald Hill gave her the nickname “First Lady.” Today, she holds the title of vice president, a role she said she’s using to plan food drives for unhoused people in the community and backpack giveaways for local students.“Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve made friends in other countries that I chat with on a regular basis,” Blankenship-Early said. “It’s opened up worlds for me that I probably would’ve never encountered.” During a Super Natural Lowriders meeting at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro on March 15, member Kenneth Jones told The LA Local that Blankenship-Early has been in a leadership role since he joined the club. “When I came into the club, Tina was already here influencing the club and doing a lot of things,” Jones said, adding that having a woman in the car club’s leadership is cool and she knows what she’s doing.Blankenship-Early has owned at least three lowriders in her lifetime. “The first lowrider I bought was a 1984 Regal, and that was a whole different experience for me,” Blankenship-Early said. “I remember being excited to pick it up from the hydraulics shop.” She bought her award-winning lowrider, a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice named “Game Killa,” for $500 in 2005. It took her three years to transform it from a shell into a car built for cruising and competition. The car was named by fellow club member Ivan Lopez, who told her she’d be “killing the game” after seeing photos of the car’s transformation. Game Killa has earned dozens of awards, appeared in music videos and even appeared in ads for the 2015 film “Straight Outta Compton.” Blankenship-Early was given the nickname “First Lady” after becoming the first woman to join the Super Natural Lowriders in 1998. Her second car, a blue 1961 Impala also named “First Lady,” pays tribute to former first lady Michelle Obama.Blankenship-Early owns another customized lowrider: a 1961 blue Impala fittingly named “First Lady,” that sits in her home garage. The car has painted murals of former First Lady Michelle Obama on the trunk. When she isn’t driving one of her lowriders, Blankenship-Early operates a street sweeper for the city of Los Angeles, a job she’s had for the past eight years. She said she likes to spend time with her husband and family, while helping to take care of her aging mother. But Sundays are for cruising.Koreatown-raised entertainer Dumbfoundead tells it straight: “I don’t think I’m just Korean or Korean American. I’m more Koreatown than both of those labels.” The Korean American rapper, born Jonathan Park, moved to Koreatown at 3 and has lived there ever since. He’s often called the “mayor of Koreatown,” a title he’s proudly embraced.“SPIT: A Life in Battles,” which he promoted at a book launch in early April hosted by the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation. Set to be released April 14 from Third State Books and co-written with Donnie Kwak,traces Park’s childhood through his late 20s. He chronicles coming up in the music scene while dealing with racist stereotypes, problems at home and addiction. Koreatown-raised entertainer Dumbfoundead tells it straight: “I don’t think I’m just Korean or Korean American. I’m more Koreatown than both of those labels.” The Korean American rapper, born Jonathan Park, moved to Koreatown at 3 and has lived there ever since. He’s often called the “mayor of Koreatown,” a title he proudly embraces. which he promoted at a book launch in early April hosted by the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation.traces Park’s childhood through his late 20s. He chronicles coming up in the music scene while dealing with racist stereotypes, problems at home and addiction. “This is the culture I grew up in, in the neighborhood, and that’s what made me who I am. If I didn’t grow up in a neighborhood that proudly had Korean letters on menus and signs and I could be unapologetically Korean, I would not be able to battle rap in confidence and be able to have thick skin to fight opponents verbally,” he said.Park, 40, was born in Argentina to Korean parents. He and his younger sister later crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with their mother, eventually landing in Koreatown. The neighborhood didn’t have much of a hip-hop scene but provided the young Park a space to find his voice. Enter the hip-hop scene of nearby Leimert Park. Old, grainy YouTube videos show him performing at Project Blowed, where rappers gathered for open mic sessions that could run late into the night. He would skateboard there as a teenager, then head back home late. With his immigrant parents working long hours to support the family, the lax supervision allowed him to roam the city freely and build his street cred. Seth Eklund, executive director of the Koreatown community and resource center Bresee Foundation, remembers the teenage Park from those early years. “I do consider him like a son, one of my many sons from over the years,” Eklund said. “I started at Bresee in 1996, he started coming in 1998 when we were still up on the third floor of the church.” In his memoir, Park describes the Bresee Foundation as transformative for his childhood. He started going there when the center served mostly Black and Latino youth. Park, his sister Natalie and their Korean friends Andy and Mimi “stuck out like sore thumbs,” Eklund said, but they quickly became regulars, spending most afternoons at the center. Eklund remembers Park getting into music and media production. He even went to Leimert Park to watch Park freestyle. “You had guys out there that were gangsters from all over L.A.,” Eklund said. “It was a really cool cultural scene. And there were really angry battle rappers, gangster rappers, all sorts of people, and he was always the funniest of everyone that would pick you apart with laughter as opposed to angst.” Sociology professor Oliver Wang from Cal State Long Beach has researched Asian Americans in hip-hop and said the kinds of community spaces Park was part of were critical to him being able to “take off.” Wang also points to how closely Park has tied himself to Koreatown. He said hip-hop, from its earliest days, has always been rooted in a sense of place, but especially with someone like Park, grounding himself in Koreatown helps listeners understand he is coming from a particular place and, therefore, a particular perspective. “I think for Asian American listeners, the fact that he comes out of Koreatown, an Asian American ethnic enclave, that completely matters,” Wang said, “because it’s tied into a larger sense of Asian American-hood when you’re naming your Asian American hood, no pun intended.” Even after growing up and leaving the Bresee Center, Park stayed connected to them, something Eklund says he really appreciates. Park returned to the center for a few summers to run workshops for younger kids, teaching writing and music production. He would also bring his artist friends to teach DJing and graffiti art. “For a couple summers, our center was just flooded with not just kids from this neighborhood but kids from all over L.A. to learn from him and participate,” Eklund said.“He’s a multicultural artist. He’s an L.A. artist. This is what L.A. is, it’s a melting pot of people of different traditions coming together, and that’s why I think people resonate with him,” he added. Paul Kim, Park’s longtime friend and founder of Kollaboration, a nonprofit that helps grow Asian American talent, remembers seeing Park performing as a teenager.Kim notes that Park always stayed true to his roots. “He’s performed at almost every Koreatown nonprofit gala, he’s supported so many different organizations, he’s performed at all the student associations, the cultural performances,” he said. “He was always rapping about real-life situations. He’s just very raw and authentic.” That authenticity is what drew 23-year-old Johnny Nguyen, originally from the Bay Area, to become a fan of Dumbfoundead. “I was 13 and I was looking for Asian American rappers because I wanted to support the community and stories that weren’t represented,” he said. “He is a regular guy living in Koreatown trying to live life like everyone else in the neighborhood,” Nguyen added. “He’s not living in a mansion far away.”“I think hip-hop is just authenticity,” Park said. “When I was growing up, I had a lot of songs that were super nerdy. … The other Asian rappers were pretty gangster, and then they saw this dude named Dumbfoundead. He looks scraggly, he skateboards, and he’s rapping about not getting girls while everyone else is rapping about getting girls. Hip-hop is about being unique and standing out.” Park says his book is about “capturing Koreatown’s legacy, Asian American history and entertainment, all just told through my lens.” Touring made him more aware of how specific his experience was — and how lucky he was for it. In other parts of the country, he said, he would meet Korean American fans who did not grow up around a large Korean community.“To us it doesn’t mean anything because we can get great Korean food and we just gotta choose between 10 options,” he said about growing up in Los Angeles. “I think we take it for granted a little bit that this is a place where you can have confidence and be unapologetically Korean.”“I really do thank the neighborhood in that way,” he said. “I think that that played a big part.” Park is scheduled to appear in conversation with chef Roy Choi at Barnes & Noble at The Grove on April 16If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.Published April 9, 2026 5:00 AM Nicole Kidman across from Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman in "Margo’s Got Money Troubles," premiering April 15, 2026 on Apple TV.In the spring 2026 TV version of Southern California, Keanu Reeves is a Hollywood star with a long list of people who hate him, Nicole Kidman is a former pro wrestler, and Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac have “beef.”We compiled a list of new and returning spring TV shows that are set in L.A. or Orange County:A new and returning slate of TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies are heading your way this spring, with a good number of them set here in Los Angeles . From comedy about the entertainment industry — this one starring Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz and Jonah Hill — to one set Fullerton — starring Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer, andThis dark comedy was co-written and directed by Jonah Hill, who also plays Hollywood mega star Reef Hawk’s crisis lawyer in the film. After Hawk finds himself blackmailed with the release of a video that could destroy his career, he sets off on an apology tour in the hopes of stopping the extortion plot. Matt Bomer and Cameron Diaz play Hawk’s friends, alongside a star-studded cast including Susan Lucci, Martin Scorsese, Drew Barrymore, Laverne Cox and comedians Roy Wood Jr., Atsuko Okatsuka and David Spade.is about a 19-year-old aspiring writer and single mom who lives in Fullerton and turns to OnlyFans to make ends meet. Margo’s mom, an ex-Hooters waitress, is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, and her dad, a former pro wrestler, is played by Nick Offerman . on the Fullerton College campusis only partially filmed/set in Los Angeles , but we’re including it on this list because the finale is set to take place in Los Angeles at the Netflix is a Joke Festival. Comedian Kevin Hart hosts this search for “the next stand-up superstar,” with help from guest judges including Kumail Nanjiani, Chelsea Handler and Keegan-Michael Key. chosen from a list of finalists by audience votesHead coach Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on from the bench during an NBA basketball game circa 1977 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. West coached the Lakers from 1976-79.his passing in 2024 premieres this week. The season was partially filmed in L.A., along with Las Vegas, New York and Paris. A side note on the show’s L.A. filming locations: the Altadena home that was featured as the “side mansion” of lead character Deborah Vance is set in the fictional city of East Highland but is largely shot in and around Los Angeles. Zendaya returns to her Emmy-winning role of Rue, along with supporting cast members Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi.Much of the first season of the Netflix series, starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as strangers who meet through a road rage incident, filmed on location. Season 2 involves an entirely new story and cast, including Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac, and was filmed at least partiallyThe series where Kate Hudson plays a woman who’s unexpectedly put in charge of her family’s professional basketball team , but new episodes of the Hollywood satire starring Lisa Kudrow are still coming out on Sundays.Published April 9, 2026 5:00 AMLos Angeles leaders could soon make some changes to the city’s embattled “mansion tax.” But some housing advocates, who blame the tax for a slowdown in apartment development, say the new attempts at reform don’t go far enough.The city’s housing department released a report last week recommending the City Council make four changes to voter-approved Measure ULA, a tax on real estate sales of $5.3 million or more. The changes, described by the housing department as “narrowly focused,” mainly deal with the financing and regulation of affordable housing projects funded by the tax.Critics of the tax say the proposed reforms don’t address the tax’s broader impact on housing development in the city, but they could fix overly restrictive spending rules.the city’s embattled “mansion tax.” But some housing advocates, who blame the tax for a slowdown in apartment development, say the new attempts at reform don’t go far enough.last week recommending the City Council make four changes to voter-approved Measure ULA, a tax on real estate sales of $5.3 million or more. The changes, described by the Housing Department as “narrowly focused,” mainly deal with the financing and regulation of affordable housing projects funded by Measure ULA. The department recommended the City Council approve those changes by early fall so loans for new affordable housing projects can close later this year. Mott Smith, an adjunct professor of real estate at USC and a critic of the tax, said the reforms proposed in the report could fix overly restrictive spending rules. But he said they don’t address the tax’s broader impact on housing development across the city. “This is really a form of admission that ULA is not working as designed,” Smith said. “It's frankly about time that the city admits this because we're never going to fix it if they can't admit there's a problem.” The report’s conclusions were reviewed and endorsed by the citizen oversight committee tasked with monitoring Measure ULA’s outcomes. Joe Donlin, director of the United to House L.A. coalition, said supporters are in favor of the proposed changes. “ULA was written with flexibility to make these exact kinds of amendments,” Donlin said. “We always knew that there would need to be adjustments along the way, and we continue to support efforts to optimize Measure ULA in any way possible.”Since taking effect, Measure ULA has raised more than $1 billion for tenant aid programs and affordable housing construction. Before voters approved the tax in 2022,it could produce 26,000 homes in its first decade. So far, the tax has funded the construction of about 800 homes, Tax proponents say thousands of new homes are entering the development pipeline. Last year, the city began taking applications for $387 million in funds for housing development and preservation. But according to the Housing Department report, affordable housing lenders have told the city that Measure ULA requirements can discourage them from funding projects.Exempt projects built by affordable housing developers from paying the taxAllow foreclosed projects to be sold to other developersAzeen Khanmalek, executive director of Abundant Housing L.A., said those changes would help unlock Measure ULA funding but wouldn’t do much to convince market-rate developers to return to L.A. “The biggest thing that we don't see in this report is around addressing the impact measure ULA is having on multi-family housing production across the income spectrum,” Khanmalek said.Tax supporters dispute those findings, blaming high interest rates and other macroeconomic factors for slower building in L.A.to develop potential reforms for the November ballot that would alter but not eliminate the tax. The new report from the housing department has been referred to that committee, but it has not yet been scheduled for a vote. Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation, said he and other business leaders, academics and affordable housing developers recently formed a new coalition — called Mend It, Don’t End It — to support proposals such as a 15-year tax exemption for new apartment buildings. “ULA has created circumstances where investors are deciding not to invest in Los Angeles and are investing in surrounding communities,” Santana said. “We know that at the crux of the affordable housing crisis is supply and to be able to respond to that issue.”
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