Summer Goal: Attend Outdoor Concerts

August 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment

During the summer, outdoor concerts are great opportunities to enjoy music outside for low cost or even free. There are still many scheduled outdoor concerts in our area.

outdoor concerts janss
Janss Marketplace Summer Concerts – Wednesdays 6PM through August 24

In summer, we’re more relaxed, less busy, and in my case, a little bored. We traveled a lot early in the summer but now we’re in the home stretch between trips and back-to-school, so I look around for stuff to do with the family, hoping to spark my kids’ imagination and get their bodies moving. Otherwise? Video games and YouTube (gag me). I mean I love a good YouTube video, but not all day long. Can you feel me, parents?

So I rallied the kids and husband and we went out to Janss Marketplace (you know, the one with Toys R Us and the newly redone movie theater and that awesome fountain) for their Summer Concert night. It happens every Wednesday at 6PM through August 24. The concerts are outdoors, free, and feature great local cover bands.

outdoor concerts radio rebels band 80's covers

On the evening we first went, Radio Rebels played 80’s tunes, and not just the ones you hear on Flashback Friday on the radio all the time. They played Def Leppard and Cyndi Lauper and Billy Idol and Men at Work and they sounded great.

There’s plenty of seating on the lawn in chairs that the staff sets up beforehand, and people brought blankets and their own chairs and food for picnics. Kids and adults were dancing near the stage, or in the fountain, as my kids did:

outdoor concerts kids fountain play

We had a great time just chilling at a table and watching both the band and the kids. It was so easy! I won’t be slacking off and skipping these anymore. Next time we’ll bring snacks or grab some dinner or a beer at the new Dudes’ Brewing Company first and then mosey over to watch the music.

outdoor concerts big bang television skirball

Skirball Cultural Center Family Amphitheater Performances – Saturdays and Sundays 12PM and 2PM through September 4

Since it’s been so hot the last few weeks, we’ve stayed inside during the worst hours, but at Skirball Cultural Center (you know, that place you pass when you’re leaving the Valley on the 405 and you think “I should check that place out someday”) the concerts are held in a covered amphitheater right outside the popular Noah’s Ark exhibit. Seating is shaded, so when we visited to watch Big Bang Television, a band that describes itself as “Hollywood Garage Pop,” we were comfortable and entertained.

noahs ark

Since I had never been to the Center, we got timed entry for Noah’s Ark (as guests of the Center) and explored that exhibit before heading outside. Even my big kids enjoyed the interactive artwork and climbing opportunities. Everything used to make this multi-staged exhibit, arranged by rooms to tell the story of Noah’s Ark, was something else in its previous life. Sunglasses became butterflies. Car seats and gloves became a gorilla. Forks became the majestic fur around a lion’s neck.

outdoor concerts big bang television skirball audience

There was music inside, too, as two energetic performers led the children in Noah’s Ark in drum circle activities. It was a great prelude to the outdoor concert, which was lots of fun. Big Bang Television isn’t a kid’s band, but their original songs had upbeat spirit and the lead singer’s high pitched voice commanded the attention of even the little kids in attendance.

skirball baseball

The Skirball Center is a great place to spend a day with your kids. Besides Noah’s Ark, they currently have a baseball exhibit complete with a Dugout – a room filled with kids’ activities and even a wardrobe with a baseball uniforms you can wear for a photo opp! In the art studio, kids can make anything they want, but they can also follow the guided activity (on this visit, my son made a board game). Snacks and lunch are available in the cafe. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for children 2-12.

Where are your favorite outdoor concerts in the area? Here are few that I want to check out:

Outdoor Concerts Near Agoura Hills

Agoura Hills Concerts in the Park – August 7 and 21, 6PM
Chumash Park
5550 Medea Valley Dr
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Free

Saturday Concerts in the Park – Platinum Groove, August 20, 7PM
Berniece Bennett Park
31800 Village Center Road
Westlake Village, CA

Sun Sets Concert Series – August 7 and 28, 6PM
Calabasas Lake
enter at Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center
23400 Park Sorrento
Calabasas, CA 91302
Free and open to the public

Malibu Wines – live music on weekends (21 and over only)
31740 Mulholland Hwy
Malibu, CA 90265
Free Admission, wine purchase suggested (and I recommend!)

Summer Jazz Concert Series – Sundays through August 28, 5:00-6:30PM
Gardens of the World
2001 Thousand Oaks Boulevard
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Free

Summer Concerts in the Park – August 15 and September 5, 5PM
Conejo Community Park
1175 Hendrix Ave
Thousand Oaks, CA
Free

Concert in the Park – Led Zepagain, August 20, 6:30PM
Rancho Simi Community Park
1765 Royal Ave
Simi Valley, CA
Free

Concerts on the Green – Sundays through August 28, 6PM
Warner Park
5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Woodland Hills, CA
Free (but the most convenient parking is $15)

The Village Unplugged – Acoustic sets on Sundays at 3PM and occasionally during the week
The Village at Topanga
6600 Topanga Canyon Boulevard
Canoga Park CA 91303
Free (there is a charge for parking in the Village’s lots and garage)

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Create Confidence with Girls Club’s Back to School DIY Workshops

August 3, 2016 by 4 Comments

girls club teamwork
Health educator Cindy Williams recently started Girls’ Club, a program in the Conejo Valley that helps girls find their inner strength, make good choices, and become confident. At first she led the groups as part of after-school enrichment classes, but now she’s running fun arts & crafts workshops at Create Studio in Westlake Village. “I love working in the school, but by teaching at the studio, it gives me a chance to reach a much broader group of girls,” she says. “We even had a family from Studio City drive out for the class!”

The workshops take place for 2 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. If I had a daughter, I would definitely sign her up. Williams has a broad mission in mind. “This is a passion project for me. I have had the opportunity and pleasure, over the past few years to watch more than a few shy, quiet girls, find her strength and her voice to speak up and handle herself with confidence. I’m hoping we can get as many girls as possible to join in and feel strong.”

Creativity & Confidence

Everyone experiences some form of back to school jitters. Let us help! Join us for a fun, inspiring and supportive series of classes that will explore:

• Nerves about the first day
• Sad summer is over
• New everything: teachers, friends, etc.
• Getting organized and less stressed
• Tools for success both academically and socially

Plus! DIY projects (one per class) to start the year feeling prepared and confident!

***This workshop is recommended for girls entering grades 4th -10th***

Girls’ Club “Confidence & Creativity”
August 16,18, 23, 25 / 3:30 PM-5:30 PM
$80 for all 4 classes or $25 per class

Create Studio
31840 Village Center Road
Westlake Village, 91361
For More Information or to Sign Up:
phone – 818.575.9566
email – gi************@***il.com
www.GirlsClubStrong.com
www.CreateStudioFun.com

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The Little Prince Movie Opens August 5

August 2, 2016 by 12 Comments

littleprinceBased on the beloved book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince is an animated feature that will be released on Netflix and in select theaters simultaneously this Friday, August 5. Using both CGI and stop motion animation (using paper and clay in different scenes), the film brings the story to modern audiences by nesting it inside a new story.

A Little Girl, voiced by Mackenzie Foy (famous for playing the love child of a vampire and a human in Twilight: Breaking Dawn), strives to live up to her Single Mom’s exacting standards, hopping out of bed right on time and keeping to a rigorous schedule of study and exercise, all in preparation for her first day at a new school in an industrious town of workers, where every house looks the same. Except one. Their neighbor, The Aviator, lives in a quirky treehouse-like home next door, where he tinkers with his old airplane and eventually makes friends with The Little Girl. She is curious and entertained by his story about a Little Prince he met a long time ago, so she gradually gives up on her schedule and simply plays and explores like a regular child.

As The Aviator relates his tale to the Little Girl, the pair grows closer, but of course, in their tidy world such things cannot last. Single Mom gets wind of their unusual relationship and forbids it. The Aviator grows older and gets ill. But bolstered by the wonders of the story, the Little Girl takes matters into her own hands, refusing to believe that the Little Prince is no longer out there.

mackenzie foy mark osborne

Actor Mackenzie Foy and director Mark Osborne at press interview for The Little Prince

Director Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda) assembled a star-studded cast, with Jeff Bridges as The Aviator, Rachel McAdams as the Mother, and a long list of other noteworthy names playing the friends that the Little Prince encounters on his trip around the cosmos. The Little Prince himself is voiced by the director’s son, Riley Osborne, whose scratch tracks proved remarkably perfect for the feeling the filmmaker wanted to create. Riley is 15 now, but he was 11 when the voices were recorded, and even in foreign-language versions of the movie, the boy’s voice remains. For Osborne, who spent many years working on this film, that captured laughter is a gift that will last.

I took my own children (little Princes, themselves) to see a screening of the movie, and I recommend you go see it in the theater if you can. It’ll be great to replay it on Netflix, but the experience of seeing a film in a theater is so special and grand, and The Little Prince is visually beautiful. On the big screen you will be able to see details that you might look for on repeated viewings at home – one that caught my eye was that the pages of the Aviator’s story are written in French. Osborne told me that was a nod to the French heritage of the book – he actually hired a forger to copy de Saint-Exupéry’s handwriting so that it could be recreated in animation.

The film is also very moving, emotionally. Touching on themes of friendship, love, and loss, the movie made me more than a little bit teary, and when I looked over at my kids I saw at least one of them wiping a tear away, too. If you haven’t had the chance to read The Little Prince to or with your kids, this is a great opportunity to get to know the story together, and then dive into the text to get a deeper level of appreciation for this classic title.

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