5 unique ways to see LA

AS cities go, Los Angeles is pretty much a wallflower. It reveals what it wants to, in its own time and on its own terms. Vast and confusing as it is, many people walk away from America’s second city with a superficial understanding.

The truth is, few cities in the western world can even aspire to be nearly as multi-layered and engaging; while Los Angeles may be known best for its most glamorous industry, anyone with a working knowledge of the town can tell you, entertainment is just the beginning. The rest of it is just as — if not way more — entertaining. Here are five unique ways to get to know Los Angeles better.

FOR ART’S SAKE 
 
On the second Thursday of every month, a particularly atmospheric quadrant of the city center packed with lofts, galleries, tarted up SROs and unique little restaurants goes from being a quiet outpost of hipster civilization to the center of attention. The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk is now by far one of the most popular regular social gatherings in the city, an ever-growing combination of night market, art appreciation class, community meeting and all-around good time. Watching the dark streets crowded with curious funseekers — here to check out dozens of galleries, hear live music, drink in the smart cocktail bars and just plain old people watch — is like getting a glimpse into the future of Los Angeles. If we’re very, very lucky.
Info downtownartwalk.org

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWEIRD

It started out as a celebration of everything that makes Southern California strange, now it’s morphing into a force for cultural good. Esotouric, a tour company founded by local oddballs Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, isn’t your average Grey Line tour — their regularly scheduled journeys include voyages through Charles Bukowski’s LA, haunted hotels and bus rides out to the San Gabriel Valley for a heaping dose of grisly crime lore and plates of Chinese dumplings. Cooper and Schave recently founded the Los Angeles Visionaries Association, a network of creative types and thinkers working to grow Los Angeles up.
Info esotouric.com

SEE A SHOW

If you’ve ever found yourself gazing longingly at photos of West 42nd Street back in the dirty old days, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a place where you can reconnect with that era — minus all the pickpockets and the porn, anyway. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, the city’s first theater district before Sid Grauman set his sights on Hollywood Boulevard, is home to scads of beautiful old theaters, many of their original marquees now announcing Sunday church services, often en espanol. In between, you’ll find a selection of tattered cafeterias, cut-price shoes stores and a lot of marvelous old architecture from the heady early 20th century boom period during which today’s Broadway came to be. Each year, the Los Angeles Conservancy hosts a month-long program known as Last Remaining Seats, during which film and architecture buffs flock downtown to watch classic movies in classic palaces. This year, the series runs May 26-June 30, and tickets go fast. It all starts on the 26th with a screening of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” at the baroque Los Angeles Theater, dating back to 1931.
Info laconservancy.org

LOS ANGELES AGLOW

In a city that claims to have the world’s highest number of original neon signs still blazing, it’s fitting that there a) would be a Museum of Neon Art and b) that this museum would lead nighttime neon cruises by double decker bus. The Museum’s been pushed around a lot — it may be the home of the original Brown Derby sign, for instance, but it turns out that folks with lots of money aren’t that concerned whether or not the sign ever gets the exhibition space it deserves. For now, the museum is housed in a modest space on Downtown’s W. 4th Street and itss famous neon cruises are as popular as ever. Running from June 5 to November 27, the ride costs a very worthwhile $55.
Info neonmona.org

HORSE PLAY

In New York’s Central Park, you pay a probably-disgruntled man and his usually-unhappy horse dozens of dollars for a short ride on a boring loop through the most crowded bits of the park. In LA’s giant Griffith Park, you rent the horse and ride it up and down the mountainous preserve’s labyrinthine trail network yourself. Who’s getting the better deal, here? Operating out of the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, Griffith Park Horse Rentals runs scheduled, hour-long trail rides for $25 per person, as well as a must-do dinner ride on Fridays and Saturdays to a nearby Mexican restaurant. Yes, they have horse parking.
Info griffithparkhorserental.com