From Hoops to Opera..Here’s What’s Going on This Week in LA

Coming soon to the Staples Center

At the LA Live Complex

LA Live is the premier sports and entertainment center of downtown Los Angeles. Opened in 2007, LA Live continues to add new entertainment venues and restaurants to its repertoire of offerings. LA Live is a six-block complex that surrounds the Staples Center sports arena and the Nokia Theatre. LA Live is located just two miles from Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens. The hotel offers free shuttle service to nearby attractions and Los Angeles vacation packages. Reserve Kyoto Grand Hotel getaway packages online for the best rates and availability.

Upcoming Events at LA Live

At the Los Angeles Convention Center

We would like to welcome the follow groups and conventions in Los Angeles this week:

At the Los Angeles Music Center

Within walking distance from the hotel are famous Los Angeles attractions and authentic Little Tokyo restaurants. The celebrated Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ahmanson Theatre, and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are steps from the hotel.

Parking Alert for Los Angeles Music Center Patrons

Exhibits At the Grammy Museum

HIP-HOP: A CULTURAL ODYSSEY

On February 5, 2011, The GRAMMY Museum will debut the major special exhibit, Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey. Based on the ARIA Multimedia Entertainment large-format book of the same name, Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey will be the first major museum exhibition to explore the four-decade history of Hip-Hop in America and the genre’s impact on the world. The exhibit will be featured in the museum’s second floor temporary exhibit gallery.

Visitors will learn about the history of Hip-Hop through interactive mixing and listening stations, video footage, rare photographs and original artifacts, including:

• original, handwritten song lyrics by rapper Tupac Shakur
• LL Cool J TROOP suit and Kangol hat
• Run DMC leather jacket and pants worn during Walk This Way performance with Aerosmith
• DJ Jazzy Jeff Homebase Tour jacket
• Grandmaster Flash turntables
• Hip-Hop sneaker gallery from the private collection of Hip-Hop recording artist Everlast
• and much, much more!
• Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey will be on display at The GRAMMY Museum from February 5, 2011 through May 4, 2011. Public and educational programs related to Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey will be announced throughout the duration of the exhibit.

JOHN LENNON, SONGWRITER

John Lennon, Songwriter explores some of the singer/songwriter’s early influences (Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and more); his time with the Quarry Men and the transition into the early Beatles; his songwriting collaborations with Paul McCartney; and his transition from a Beatle to a solo artist/songwriter and his work with Yoko Ono.

Some of the artifacts to be featured in the exhibit include:

• Several guitars used by John Lennon (including his Fender Telecaster)
• Early albums
• Lennon’s signature round, wire-framed eyeglasses
• His typewriter, used to write lyrics early in his career
• Original drawings by Lennon
• Sgt. Pepper costume (replica)
• Lennon’s Album Of The Year GRAMMY® Award for Double Fantasy
• Many handwritten song lyrics, including Imagine and Beautiful Boy
• Early Beatles photographs and original posters
• Quarry Men ephemera
• Rare, historic footage of Lennon
• Never-before-seen interview with Yoko Ono about Lennon’s songwriting
• In The Studio with John Lennon interactive

The exhibit will be open during regular Museum hours until March 31, 2011.

Exhibits at the Japanese American National Museum

Common Ground: The Heart of Community

Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents and photographs collected by the National Museum, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, beginning with the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present.