$5 RAVE: Pasadena Summer Solstice (6/20)

Does Pasadena know how to throw a rave? It did in Project X "Pursuit of Happiness" (music video)

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On the Summer Solstice of Saturday, June 20, 2026, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm the LAist is holding a rave at Remainders Creative Reuse. Total price of entry? $5.00 (five USD and 49 cent service fee).

Break out the rave gear and join Remainders Creative Reuse and LAist.com for a night of wild dancing, crafting, and community.

ALISON WONDERLAND trap, hip hop and bass DJ set in The Lab LA

(Kid Cudi) "The Pursuit of Happiness" (hopeless hedonism disappoints)

(Maskevito) Rave Music + footage (mainly early 1990s house mix)

It's on Washington Bl. west of Lake Ave.

DJ Tekfor will be on hand all night bumping the 90’s rave jams and all the other hits. And there will be not one, not two, but three crafting stations with instructors:

1. Make Your Own Junk Journal with Sarena
2. Circle Weaving with Courtney
3. Paper Mâché Sculptures with Aspen

• TICKETS: Craft Rave at Remainders w/ LAist
• LOCATION:
• Remainders Creative Reuse
• 787 E. Washington Blvd.
• Pasadena (LA), CA 91104

Shop — Remainders Creative Reuse - Creative Space & Thrift Store

Classes — Remainders Creative Reuse - Creative Space Thrift Store

Tove Lo "Habits (Stay High)" - Hippie Sabotage Rave Remix

What must non-Southern Californians imagine?

Already have a project in progress? Bring it along! Or if still looking for a spark, we’ll have a pop-up crafting table ready for everyone.

Whether a raver knits, collages, beads, sketches, or basketweaves, this is the perfect excuse to make something while soaking up the ravey 90’s vibes! Come as you are. (Bonus points will be awarded for 1990s-inspired outfits).

• PLAYLIST: Trip-Hop Vol. 2: Portishead/Massive Attack inspired mix [The Lounge Palace]

So get ready for a night of dancing, crafting, and fun. All ages. Families welcome. BYON (bring your own Narcan lol).

• Source: LAist.com

Trip hop is still a rave fave

(Pepito Tequila) Trip Hop Meditation? When the DJ spins Portishead's "Wandering Star"

 

COMMENTS

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  Can I sew my own outfit for EDC '27?

  Is this serious?!?! How...for only FIVE bucks?!
• It worked! It's SOLD OUT! You snooze, you lose.
• We wouldn't put anything past Larry Mantle or Pasadena's KPCC 89.3 FM and its long-running battle to seem more relevant than Madeleine Brand and Santa Monica's KCRW 88.9 FM.
• C'mon, everyone knows Larry is a [bleep]!
• That doesn't mean he doesn't put on a good show, what he claims is "the largest conversation in Los Angeles." Maybe NPR reporter Josie Huang wants to outdo science journalist... [Science bowl: Can NoHo… | KCRW]
• Who, Doualy Xaykaothao of NPR via KUNC?
• No, remember there was that Asian science journalist at KPCC and like the LA and Pasadena Weekly? She used to go to all sorts of parties, festivals, events, write about it, be on the radio all the time. Then KPCC booted her, KCRW picked her up? She lived in a small house in NoHo, the value of which kept going up, trapping her in LA.
• You mean Cary Harrison? He's over at KPFK (90.7 FM) on Friday morning, unless you mean Emily Kwong or these folks Honor Roll: Asian American Journalists Association? LMU?
• Oh, you must mean radio turned sex star Sandra Tsing Loh!

Puberty for adults: Brains On, LAist (5/14)

Thursday, May 14th, 2026, 7:00-8:15  pm at The Crawford (474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena 91105).

Get tickets priced from FREE to $25. Join Molly Bloom, host and creator of the kids' podcast company Brains On Universe, for a live panel about puberty. Featured guests include

• Dr. Cara Natterson, pediatrician, author, and founder of Less Awkward, a company designed to make puberty a less awkward and more joyful experience
• Dr. Christopher Miller, a clinical psychologist and the founder of The Boys’ Institute for Growth (BIG), which educates boys about puberty and facilitates healthy conversations between boys and their trusted adults.

The evening will feature a moderated discussion followed by a live Q&A designed to help parents prepare kids ages 7–11 for the changes ahead. More

• Brains On Universe presents…Puberty! (The podcast) | LAist

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Mexican Barbie gets in on the holiday

Today, Nov. 1, is Día de los Muertos. It’s a time when people celebrate the lives of those who've passed on -- a time to remember family members, close friends, pets, even strangers, perhaps all of humanity.

The Mexican American holiday holds a special place for many people as a way to grieve those who have died and keep their memory alive.

• La Calavera Catrina ("The Skull Belle")
• Day of the Dead in Mexico | Celebration in Cancun and Xcaret Park | Dia de Muertos

Catrina beauty contest winner in Los Angeles

People usually celebrate with an ofrenda or offering altar that has photos of their loved ones, their favorite meals, orange marigolds, pan de muerto [bread for the dead, dead bread, soul cake offerings], sugar skull candies, and other items that have special meaning to those being remembered.

Home altar feels like Halloween

In celebration of the holiday, LAist.com asked readers: "What is a memory of a loved one you would like to share for Día de los Muertos?"

LAist heard from people across Southern California about those favorite moments. This digital ofrenda is meant to highlight those memories.

The Day of the Dead and the story of La Catrina | Mexican animated tale

Remembering loved ones

Offerings (ofrendas) to benefit the deceased who are grateful to be remembered by the living

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Photos of the dead on home altar

Joanne Pineda of Monterey Park (a small city in the San Gabriel Valley of LA County) has made a tradition of celebrating Día de los Muertos with her family. She said she’ll always remember the time when her dad asked her mom to dance to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” in the living room.

(News 4 San Antonio) The origins and meaning of Dia de los Muertos

“Thinking about it now really brings me tears because it just brought them so much joy. It brought them close together,” Pineda said. “For me to be there, to see that, how special it was to them I just think about it all the time.” More

Coco (by Pixar/Disney)

• VIDEO: "Day of the Dead" catches on in the U.S.
• David Rodriguez and Gillian Morán Pérez, LAist.com, "Angelenos are celebrating Día de los Muertos. Here’s who they’re honoring today," Nov. 1, 2025; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

California Coastal Cleanup Day (9/21)

Inland waterways are next. See calendar

(LAist) It’s one of the biggest days of the year for the ecologically minded.

Thousands of volunteers across Southern California will come together on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 21, for the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Last year, volunteers removed 376,308 pounds of trash from Cali beaches and waterways across the state, according to the California Coastal Commission, including 10 tons of debris in Los Angeles County and 12 tons in once filthy Orange County.

The cleanup provides insights into what’s being thrown away in Southern California or, more accurately, what’s being littered. Cigarette butts are the most commonly found item, though plastics and Styrofoam are becoming more common, according to the nonprofit Heal the Bay.

We've got a tropical blond surfer reputation

That’s despite the state’s efforts to cut back on the use of these items. In case anyone is wondering, those new rules are still being phased in as of this year.

If volunteers can’t make it to the beach but still want to help, consider volunteering at one of the inland cleanup sites listed below, because those “No dumping, Drains to ocean” signs on storm drains aren’t lying.

Today wasn't really convenient, so there are other options:

Heal The Bay

Heal has relaunched their monthly Nothin' But Sand clean-up events, which happen on the third Saturday of every month. By the way, the organization expects to cross 2 million pounds [2,000 lbs. is one ton] of trash picked up over the 35 years it's been managing Coastal Cleanup Day for L.A. County.

How to sign up

Some organizers just want volunteers to show up and help out, no sign up required — and beachgoers can always pick up trash wherever, whether or not it’s at one of these official sites.

However, others are requesting that volunteers register in advance to get an accurate headcount. A few of the more hands-on cleanup sites require boats or other special equipment.

To find more information for each site, including contact information and signup details, find it on THIS MAP from the California Coastal Commission.

Here's a list of the cleanup sites for this Saturday: 10 tons of trash were found in LA beaches, and everyone can help clean it up this Saturday (LAist.com)

Zen refuge: Huntington Botanical Garden

Asian garden pavilion sits on a lily pond with lotus flowers as tall pines, bamboos, and plum blossoms surround it: The lovely Lotus Pavilion (Martha Benedict/The Huntington/LAist.com)

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Huntington Botanical Gardens in a new light

The Tao or "way" of Zen is [easy].

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is opening evening access to its Twilight Garden Strolls hours during the summer months so more people can enjoy the gardens in cooler temperatures. Previously, only members could get tickets to the special program.

Why the Huntington is extending hours: “Opening in the evening allows us to welcome more visitors who can enjoy green spaces and see our gardens in quite literally a different light,” said Director of Membership and Visitor Services at the Huntington Kristin Voss.

The program has been such a success for members that the Huntington is now expanding ticket access to the general public.

The cultivation of stillness, silence, absorption

• [EDITOR SEVEN: What is "Zen"? In English it means "flow state," "effortless creativity," "artless artfulness," "unpremeditated spontaneity," "calm," "ease," but in Japanese it comes from the Chinese Chan (channa), which is an attempt to pronounce the Pali jhana (from the Sanskrit dhyana), all of which mean "meditative absorption." If meditation in English means flapping our wings to get in the air, efforting to alight off a branch in a tree on a cliff, in Buddhist terms it is the bhavana or "cultivation" of the subsequent effortless soaring. Just let go of the branch.

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  What if? - Don't do that to yourself. Be here now
  

  We make an effort (dharana) to let go, allow, let it be, accept what is, breathe being aware only of that breathing, which keeps us in the present moment, not reacting to whatever arises but merely observing, not falling into the habit of escaping to the past and dragging it into the present, not leaping into the habit of escaping into the future and dragging it into the present, staying only here and now mindful (present with) of the present, watching, and remaining watchful.

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  Thinking is not the way. Let go. See. Allow.

  It is the nonabandoning of the moment, the nondistraction from the object, the following this very moment into calm presence, unification of mind, stillness, coherence, which are ways of saying samadhi. First there was the subject (me) and the object (what was observed). Then, for a moment, they were one; that is, there was no distinction. They merged, one absorbing into the other. It was so Zen.]

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What’s different about the gardens in the evening hours: With the shift in temperatures and lighting, the gardens take on different sights, smells, and sounds.

One can see the campus during the “golden” or “magic” hour -- a favorite time for photographers when the sun is just about to set and casts an ethereal quality on plants and flowers.

Rose Garden Tempietto, Huntington Botanical Gardens (The Huntington)

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“The Desert Garden is one of my favorites,” said Voss. “There's something really lovely about the unusual shapes and colors matched with the warm tones of sunset during summer.”

How to take a tour after hours: This year, the Huntington has added Twilight Garden Estate Tours, a docent-led walk through many of the gardens and looks at some of the historic architectural features, on campus.

Docent leads Twilight Garden Estate Tour at Huntington Botanical Gardens (The Huntington)

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When and how to attend: There are three Twilight Garden Strolls left scheduled for the summer, but they will return. Hours are 4:30-8:00 pm. Reserve tickets ONLINE for $20.00. Tickets to the Estate Tours cost an additional $25.00. More: LAist.com

Wise quote and Zen comic art by Roshi Brad Warner, Angel City Zen, Los Angeles (WQ)

• Julia Paskin/LAist.com, July 21, 2024; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Dhr. Seven (explanation of Zen), Wisdom Quarterly

Prose Bowl: Night of POETRY: Get Lit (9/8)

Get Lit (LAist.com)

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 Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

"[H]ome is a safe zone/no, bitch face is safe zone,/bitch face is home" ("Ode to My Bitch Face")

Get Lit Host Mason Granger baseball cap and t-shirt (LAist.com design/Get Lit)

Young poet Olivia Gatwood reads for her large YouTube following (nytimes.cf)

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The Prose Bowl: A Night of Spoken Word Poetry with [the youth poets of] Get Lit

It’s a celebration of Los Angeles poetry at LAist with Get Lit - Words Ignite! In this new three-part live event series, Get Lit youth poets, standout local artists, and a nationally renowned featured poet will get together for a night of spoken word performance poetry hosted by Get Lit’s Mason Granger (he/him).

• LAist's The Crawford
• 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
• 7:00-8:15 PM, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023
• Price: $0-$15 (GET TICKETS)
• RSVP: FREE (PasaDharma Meetup)
• Disclosure Project: The Prose Bowl: Night of Spoken Word Poetry: Get Lit (Pasadena), Fri, Sep 8, 2023, 6:00 PM | Meetup
• Nature Center: The Prose Bowl: Night of Spoken Word Poetry: Get Lit (Pasadena), Fri, Sep 8, 2023, 6:00 PM | Meetup

Come early to enjoy sweet snacks from Day & Night Cereal Bar, sips, a DJ set from Austin Antoine (he/him), and tons of cool people to connect with in the name of poetry.

Drinks, music, and snacks start at 6:00 pm, and the show kicks off at 7:00 pm. Join LAist for its series kickoff on Friday, Sept. 8, with feature poet Olivia Gatwood.

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GET LIT YOUTH POETS

• Pluto Saidkarie*
• Jasmine Minchez*
• Jonathan Smith*
• Naomi Farkas*
• Dharma Lemon
• Austin Antoine
• Raul Herrera
• Celia Douglas
• Christian Perfas
• Erica Almond
• *2023-2024 The Get Lit Players (GLPs) are an award-winning performance troupe of youth poets, who’ve performed at the United Nations, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, and White House — to name only a few. Every year they perform live for over 50,000 of their peers, and their videos have been watched online over 300 million times.

Message from the event organizer: Register for The Prose Bowl: A Night of Spoken Word Poetry with Get Lit. Free seats will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis unless one reserves a Preferred ticket. The doors will open 30 minutes prior to the show. Questions? Reach LAist via email at events@laist.com. The Prose Bowl | LAist.com

• Upcoming Series dates:  Fridays, Oct. 6 and Nov. 17, 2023

ABOUT THE POETS: ...DHARMA LEMON (she/her) is a writer and teaching artist from Los Angeles. Dharma is quirky and passionate. She writes about feminism, body positivity, the environment, and racial injustice. She is inspired by writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Huey P. Newton, Patricia Smith, and Amari Baraka. Dharma has performed and taught workshops at UCLA, CAAM, and The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She has performed at Firedrill Fridays with celebrity activists like Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix, Rainn Wilson, and many others. Dharma has also performed in "Artists for Amazonia '' with Kali Uchis, Barbara Streisand, Morgan Freeman, among others. Dharma Lemon has been published in GLAFF’s book titled Bridges, performed in the closing ceremony of GLAFF, and presented a “Tree of Life Award” to Patricia Arquette. Her passion doesn't just register in her writing but also in her love for activism....

• The Get Lit Players will spend the next year honing their skills and enjoying exciting and unique workshops, paid performance and networking opportunities, and a lifetime of support from Get Lit’s community.

ABOUT FEATURED POET:

Yeah, I have resting bitch face (Buttons Poetry)

OLIVIA GATWOOD (she/her) is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her work historically focuses on stories about young womanhood as a site for obsession, intimacy, and hysteria, often pulling from horror and surrealism to depict a coming of age. Gatwood's performances have been featured on HBO, Huffington Post, MTV, VH1, and BBC, among others. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review, among others. She is the author of two poetry collections, New American Best Friend and Life. She is the co-writer of the film The Governesses alongside Director Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco). Her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey, will be released in 2023. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

ABOUT HOST: Mason Granger is the deputy director at Get Lit. Originally from Philadelphia by way of Willingboro, NJ, Granger is a poet with 19+ years of professional experience on stage and in classrooms across 49 states and six countries as part of the performance poetry trio, The Mayhem Poets. In 2014, he created SlamFind, a digital platform to connect fans of poetry videos with the poets and live poetry venues where these videos are born. Connecting the poetry community to itself and the rest of the world continues to be the foundation of his work to this day. Between 2016-2018, Mason was the official videographer for Poetry Slam Inc., producing several iconic poetry videos that continue to garner millions of views across multiple platforms. In the spirit of his mission of always keeping the "live" in "live poetry," he also hosted the weekly PoetNY open mic at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC from 2017-2019 while also serving as executive director of Bowery Arts & Science through 2019. Now as a Los Angeles resident in his fourth year with Get Lit, Granger continues to pursue creative projects, while helping to shape the future of spoken word poetry education in the State of California and beyond.

SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS LAist is committed to providing access and accommodation for individuals with disabilities at events. To request accommodations, please email events@laist.com or call (626) 585-5222 at least one week (7 days) in advance of the event. Read Values, Commitments, and Code of Conduct on orders on how to behave at nominally leftwing events.

Ticket revenue generated from these programs helps LAist continue to deliver timely and dynamic in-person and virtual experiences that support the public service mission of Pasadena's LAist as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donate today

Gen Z finding (or rejecting) religion

Austin Cross, AirTalk, 3/3/23 (LAist); Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Fail! I'm tired of this bullsh*t church service and that patriarch telling us what to believe.

Say a little prayer for Gen Z: How young folks are finding (or moving away from) religion

How to Know God (Patanjali)

For more than two weeks in February, Christian college Asbury University hosted a round-the-clock [Christian] religious revival, making headlines (washingtonpost.com) across the world and inspiring other colleges to host revivals of their own.

But wait a minute, aren’t Zoomers (Gen Z members) supposed to be less religious? While there is a general trend towards disaffiliation from religion, digging into the data paints a more complicated picture of a generation [an artificial demographic segmentation in the US by age] in flux.

How has living in a time of tremendous social change influenced Gen Z’s attitudes towards religion --organized or otherwise? And within this generation, how does religious feeling differ between certain groups?

What if I tone down the smiting, Sinners?

Joining in to answer these questions and more are Director Daniel A. Cox of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, and Executive Director Richard Flory of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

• LISTEN • 18:53 minutes

Imperfect Paradise: Guru Jagat Conspiracy

Guru Jagat had the nerve to listen to David Icke

ABOUT THE SHOW: Imperfect Paradise is a longform narrative podcast showcasing California stories with universal significance -- like American Katie Griggs as Kundalini Master Guru Jagat.

[The nominal Left turns against the Left for daring to question the COVID narrative and other "conspiracies" in the name of spirituality. Therefore, someone made a podcast called "ConSpirituality," and Imperfect Paradise is capitalizing on it.]

Personality cult of Guru Jagat's RA MA Institute for Applied Yogic Science and Technology

Katie Griggs: The Second Coming of Guru Jagat (aka Katie Griggs) | Vanity Fair

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Each story takes on something essential about California -- its progressiveness, its reputation as a home for dreamers and schemers, its heartbreaking inequality, its varied and diverse communities, its unique combination of dense cities and wild places -- and each season breaks it down into multiple 20–40-minute episodes that will be released sequentially.

• Season 1 sheds light on divisive housing issues in Orange County.
• Season 2 investigates the death of Chicano activist Oscar Gomez.
• Season 3 unravels the controversy surrounding LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Season 4, Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracy Theories"

Invincible Living (Guru Jagat/Target)

This is a new season that tells the story of how a former [now dead at a suspiciously early age] yoga and wellness star (Katie Griggs aka Guru Jagat) fell down the far-right "rabbit hole" during the pandemic [by daring to question NPR, the Democrats, Faustian Fauci, and the mainstream media]. The first episode became available to stream starting January 3, 2023, on the laist.com website. [Guru Jagat was a beautiful Kundalini Yoga teacher mocked and ripped to shreds by the Imperfect Paradise podcast for holding and promoting New Age views.]

• EPISODE 3 is on Kundalini Yoga’s #MeToo Moment

Yogi Bhajan of Yogi Tea fame

In early 2020, just as fears about coronavirus are worsening, women begin accusing the founder of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, of sexual assault. Guru Jagat’s surprising response sets the stage for her radicalization during the COVID p[l]andemic.

[Kundalini] Yoga's Queen Guru Jagat

• EPISODE 2: Kundalini Royalty

Guru Jagat memorial, RA MA (laist)

Katie Griggs, a young woman from rural Maryland, discovers Kundalini Yoga in her early 20s and goes all in. She transforms herself into "Guru Jagat," a beloved and controversial yoga and wellness influencer in Los Angeles.

In the second episode, her friends, family, and coworkers grapple with how she changed in the final years of her life. And the connections between yoga and conspiracies like QAnon are explored. LISTEN NOW

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This podcast was made possible with support from the Committee for Greater LA in partnership with the Weingart Foundation.

[The mainstream media loves it, too, and there will be rewards all around in the future when those affiliated apply elsewhere.]