LBMAAfterDark

File photo. 

While Daylight Saving Time doesn’t end until next week, the days are sure getting shorter, and the nights are getting longer. So we’ve thought up five ways to keep things bright in Long Beach this weekend.

Today, {open}—now simply “Open”—made its long-overdue comeback as the “book” half of “Long Beach’s first book bar,” The Brass Lamp. The opening celebration is at 8:00 PM tonight at The Brass Lamp and will feature a performance by Alicia Murphy.The new Open will feature a smaller, but carefully-curated range of books. Open will feature a permanent collection—a roster of select titles that will remain in stock—as well as a rotating selection from local experts in various fields. While Open and The Brass Lamp remain independent as businesses, together they form a singular community space for Long Beach to come together over its loves of literature, art, music and fine libations. For more details, visit Open on Facebook or at openthebookstore.com.

LBMA After Dark makes its triumphant return tonight from 6:00PM to 10:00PM in celebration of the closing weekend of one of the most popular, and possibly profound, exhibitions in the museum’s history: Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape, which was extended past its original September closing date to Sunday, October 25. Nearly 12,000 visitors have walked through the colorifically transformed galleries of the forward-thinking seaside institution since the show opened on June 27. Those who attend the culminating After Dark event will get to see the debut screening of a short film about the creation of the exhibition and witness firsthand the start of the removal process as all the murals in the exhibition fall to their intended ephemeral future. Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased here. Visitors can attend free by becoming a Museum Member today; click here for more information. 

For those invested in sustainable food systems…join the sustainable food celebration this Saturday, October 24 as Dia de los Verdes returns to North Long Beach on Food Day, an annual event created to call attention to what works and what’s broken within our food system on both a local and international level, and what we can do it fix it. Dia de los Verdes will take place at The Growing Experience, an urban farm and community garden in a low-income housing development in North Long Beach, located at 751 Via Carmelitos, from 11:00AM to 7:00PM with both an opening and closing ceremony. Highlights of the day include two stages and 12 musical sets played by Nothing But Flowers, Bootleg Orchestra, Tall Walls, MOVE, The Red Leslies, The Hawkline Monster, Alyssandra Nighswonger, Daniel and Bear, Alicia Murphy, Rene Marino, Front Porch Dreamer, Julian Moon and DJ Hawkeye demonstrations. Guests are encouraged to bring their own water bottles.

Also on Saturday, the National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) is holding its annual Moving Day L.A. event, a fundraising walk for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) at Shoreline Aquatic Park, from 9:00AM to 1:00PM. Funds raised by the community through the event will help improve the lives of PD patients and families affected by the disease.

The 50th Anniversary has arrived: the Long Beach Camerata Singers are set to debut this year’s season, their 50th, on Sunday in the Long Beach City College Auditorium. The legendary performers will bring to life Joy, Fantasy and Remembrance: a 50th Anniversary Celebration. The program is geared toward audience members of all walks of life, performing a range of hits, from Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy to Jenni Brandon’s We Are Joy. The performance begins at 4:30PM, after a pre-performance lecture by Jenni Brandon. Tickets are $30 for general seating, $40 for preferred seating, and $10 for students (at the door with an ID), and can be purchased online at LBCamerata.org.