Picks – June ‘26
Some things you can do in Los Angeles (and beyond)
Picks is a monthly selection of California happenings, goings-on, and general commotions we’re excited about. This June, we encourage you to picnic in a cave of forgotten dreams—take in the dank, dark, and coax summer from the shadows—then, when you are ready, relish each morning’s gloom and dance in the light of long days.
✸ Los Angeles Conservancy’s Last Remaining Seats program provides Angelenos with the opportunity to see classic films in Downtown’s lavish movie palaces from June 6–20. Don’t skip the Charlie Chaplin double feature at the Orpheum with musical accompaniment by local legend Edward Torres.
✸ Pretty But Wicked will host a residency at Café Triste on Mondays throughout June. Summer’s here, and it’s got that je ne sais quoi.
✸ The Oinkster’s cult classic Burger Week returns June 22–28, with seven original burgers inspired by seven Eagle Rock favorites, each crafted as a love letter to the neighborhood. Tastes like home.
THINGS
Thursday, 6/4
✸ Gary Wilson at Footsie’s • 9:30 PM • Basic Cable Programming presents legendary pop weirdo Gary Wilson with support from Spooky Marvin and DJ Boss Harmz. Gary’s in the park and you know we’ll be waiting for you.
Friday, 6/5
✸ By Design at Vidiots • 4:30 PM • In Amanda Kramer’s latest vision of material and interpersonal desires, a woman swaps bodies with a chair and finds everyone likes her better as a chair. Multiple screenings throughout the weekend.
Saturday, 6/6
✸ Lunch avec Rory’s Place at Bar Etoile • 12 PM • Ojai’s Rory’s Place will take over Bar Etoile for a long afternoon of oysters, wine, and a few special dishes alongside a couple Etoile favorites. Rory’s broiled oysters with fermented chili butter are a quintessential California dish we wouldn’t mind enjoying within city limits.
Sunday, 6/7
✸ A LACMA Therapy Session at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre • 4 PM • Join Punch List, New York Review of Architecture, and LA Material for this public forum (and chance to process complicated feelings) on the new David Geffen Galleries. The goal isn’t to decide whether it’s brilliant or terrible, but to consider a range of responses to what is easily the most polarizing work of LA architecture this century.
Sunday, 6/14
✸ The 21st Century Odyssey at 2220 Arts + Archives • 10 AM • A video travelogue through love, liberatory technology, social and personal mythology, and the pleasures and rigors of making life into art told in part through the pixelated beauty of the videophone. Presented by Hollywood Entertainment with LA Filmforum and EZTV for Filmforum’s 50th Anniversary series, with co-director Barbara T. Smith in conversation with Michael J. Masucci.
Saturday, 6/20
✸ Cupid’s Hot Dogs 80th Anniversary • 11 AM • Celebrate the Valley legends and Licorice Pizza stars’ milestone with 46% off hot dogs. Could it be a chili dog summer?
Tuesday, 6/23
✸ A Celebration of Eve Babitz & Release of Too LA: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were) at Book Soup • 7 PM • A collection of unsent letters from everybody’s favorite girl discovered in file boxes after her death. As Eve put it, “They’re practically a diary.” Featuring a conversation between Matthew Specktor, Sandi Tan, and Chiara Towne, with special readings by Stephanie Danler and Molly Lambert.
Thursday, 6/25
✸ Cookbook Live with La Copine’s Nikki Hill and Claire Wadsworth • 7 PM • Presented by LAist and the James Beard Foundation, the partners behind the High Desert darling La Copine bring their insight into California cooking and hospitality.
Friday, 6/26
✸ Camp at Vidiots • 7 PM • We’re big fans of Avalon Fast’s blissed-out, charming, and incomprehensible debut Honeycomb, and can’t wait to see their latest dark and witchy indie darling. Multiple screenings throughout the weekend.
Sunday, 6/28
✸ SLO Coast & Friends Wine Fair • 12 PM • An annual fair championing organic winemakers from the SLO Coast AVA, including the singular Parr Wines and certified Tidbits favorite Lo-Fi Wines, featuring music and food from heavy-hitters like Jan’s Place and Brydge. Worth the trip!
✸ Forever Evil on VHS at Whammy! • 7:30 PM • The last screening at Whammy’s 2514 Sunset location before moving their retail store and microcinema to Echo Park (in Heavy Manners’ old space), where they’ll be teaming up with Hollywood Entertainment and T.A.P.E. Donate here to help support these beloved organizations with the move.
ICYMI
✸ For forty days and forty nights in the Mojave Desert, artist Da Ron Vinson will perform I was/ In paradise, a site-specific piece running through June 25, where visitors are asked to bring fresh meat, a vegetable, and a gallon of water to pre-scheduled dinners with the artist. During dinner, Vinson will share portions of his day’s monologue, reflections, or something else entirely. What happens to speech without a guaranteed audience?
✸ On the last Tuesday of each month, smart funk and odd rock meet at Fast Casual, a new vinyl night at the Airliner by selectors George Chen and Spencer Owen.
That’s it for our June picks. Follow us on Instagram for troglodyte ephemera and sunset enjoyment.
If we dropped something, let us know in the comments!
Like eating summer's first ripe berries straight from the bramble