Things to Do in Los Angeles

Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company, this ornately restored 1926 movie palace was part of real estate developer Charles E. Toberman and showman Sid Grauman's original Hollywood theater district (along with the neighboring Chinese and Egyptian theaters). Now used primarily to host premieres and special runs of Disney films, the El Capitan is bordered by a Disney store and soda fountain, the latter of which features ice cream flavors named for the theater's current feature.

Though successful, the original incarnation of the El Capitan increasingly faltered in the 1930s, a casualty of the Depression. Financial desperation forced it to accept the premiere screening of Orson Welles' controversial Citizen Kane, which had been largely blackballed by powerful friends of the film's target, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Shortly after this premiere, the theater closed for one year, re-opening with a new modern look, a new sponsor (Paramount Pictures) and a new name -- the United Paramount Theatre.

After a couple of decades of the theater changed ownership as Disney finally purchased it in 1989. At this time it was thoroughly restored it to its initial Spanish Colonial Revival splendor and re-opened in 1991 with its original name. The El Capitan today includes a vintage Wurlitzer organ and a museum room beneath the main theater which exhibits artwork and set pieces from the movie of the moment.

Movie tickets range from $13-22 for both adults and children, and include a pre-screening stage show. Parking at the Hollywood & Highland mall complex across the street is partially validated by the El Capitan; the mall is also a stop on the Metro's Red Line.

Opened in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards, the music industry's biggest accolade, this major attraction at Downtown L.A.'s blockbuster entertainment complex, L.A. Live, celebrates all aspects of the music industry. With four stories and over 30,000 square feet of space, this is the largest music-themed museum in Los Angeles, which is itself the center of the American music industry.

Permanent exhibits at the Grammy Museum include elaborate outfits worn by past Grammy winners like Kanye West and Beyonce, as well as sound booths where you can record a song and remix it in different musical styles. Rotating exhibits have included tributes to deceased stars Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison and John Lennon, as well as retrospectives of Muzak, hip-hop, heavy metal and more.

In the 1950s, the Grammy Awards themselves were created to honor the music industry in the same manner as the Oscars and the television Emmys, and were named for one of music's most significant technological inventions, the gramophone.  The awards were devised by the same L.A. Chamber of Commerce members who originally developed the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a history alluded to by a block's worth of sidewalk outside the Grammy Museum, inlaid with marble stars honoring high-profile music performers and producers.

As part of L.A. Live, the museum is surrounded by two hotels, The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles and the J.W. Marriott, several restaurants, various parking lots and a subway stop on the Metro's Red Line. It is open daily, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

One of only three historic Japantowns in the United States, Downtown L.A.'s Little Tokyo is a compact commercial district centered around the Village Plaza, a warren of food stalls, restaurants, and shops jam-packed with Japanese products. Home of the first California Roll (created at the now-closed Tokyo Kaikan sushi restaurant) and the oldest food purveyor in Los Angeles (mochi bakery Fugetsu-do), the Village Plaza sits across from the 85,000 square-foot, Smithsonian-affiliated Japanese American National Museum, dedicated to the 130-plus year history of Japanese people in California and beyond.

Though Little Tokyo had been a thriving residential and commercial center for L.A.'s large Japanese community since the early 20th century, the U.S. policy of relocating Japanese-American immigrants to internment camps during World War II all but emptied this neighborhood in the early 1940s. When the war ended, some original residents returned, but many moved out to the nearby San Gabriel Valley. The district remained culturally important to the local Japanese community, however, and when Japanese-owned businesses and banks began investing in the area in the 1970s and '80s, it experienced a financial resurgence that has continued to protect it from most non-cultural re-development.

Today, area attractions include a monument to Japanese-American astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986; a small Japanese garden on the rooftop of the Kyoto Grand Hotel; the Go For Broke Monument, which honors Japanese-Americans who served in the U.S. Military during World War II; the Geffen Contemporary, a special-exhibition space affiliated with the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA); and several early 20th-century Buddhist temples.

Little Tokyo offers street and public-lot parking, lies within walking distance of The Walt Disney Concert Hall and MOCA, and is easily accessed by subway stations at Union Station (the Red Line) and Little Tokyo itself (the Gold Line).

Housed in the 1935 Art Deco, pink-and-green marble Max Factor Building, this former museum of make-up (which has been partially preserved here) now hosts the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. In addition to movie props, sets and costumes, the archives here include over 1,000 vintage photographs from Tinseltown history.

Arranged chronologically from the silent film era to modern entertainment production, temporary exhibits have included career retrospectives of stars like Lucille Ball and Michael Jackson, and permanent exhibits include an entire floor of horror-themed set pieces and props from frightening movies like Silence of the Lambs and Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as gory TV shows like Dexter and The Walking Dead. One of the museum's most prestigious features is a large, permanent exhibition of historian-authenticated Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.

Located across the street from the Hollywood and Highland mall complex (where parking is available), the museum includes a comprehensive library, a screening room, and a souvenir-ready gift shop. Open from Wednesday to Sunday, docent-led tours are available for groups of 12 or more.

The most-visited link in the House of Blues music club/restaurant chain, this joint is hopping every night of the week with established and emerging musical acts from a wide variety of genres -- but with a focus on the blues. The club itself was built to resemble a tin shack from the Deep South, and there's a metal box of Mississippi Delta mud beneath the performance stage.

Renowned for fostering artists like local L.A. glam-metal parody band Steel Panther and hosting the occasional burlesque show, the House of Blues is most popular for its Sunday morning Gospel Brunch, which features a huge choir in church robes, and a groaning board of a Southern menu. The soul-food-inspired Crossroads Restaurant also has weekday happy hours and live blues shows on Friday and Saturday nights, and dinnertime concerts can be booked in the red-lit Voodoo Lounge every night of the week.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), set within L.A.'s Hancock Park beside the La Brea Tar Pits, is an exciting place to explore both the world of art and the art world. Here you can purchase a ticket to the latest big-budget show (like lily-pad-loving Monet or local anti-hero Tim Burton), take a comfy seat in the busy lecture/movie hall, or immerse yourself in rare and varied collections.

Much of LACMA's art represents the area's diverse citizenry. Mayan sculptures honor the city's huge Mexican community; the spiral-path Asian wing reflect three of L.A.'s most influential populations "” Japanese, Korean and Chinese; Persian tile-works and intricate paintings allude to the city's thriving Beverly Hills community of Iranian expats; and mysterious carvings and totems from Tonga, Papua New Guinea and more are a nod to L.A.'s often-direct-flight proximity to the islands of the Pacific Rim.

Wander through historically important European artworks, then take a spin through the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, LACMA's newest section, to experience the state of modern art collecting. Established in 2008 and resembling a futuristic sailing vessel, this wing of the museum was funded by LACMA founding chairman and real estate magnate Eli Broad and his wife Edythe. Many of the Broad's works are by controversial art stars Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons; be sure to see Koons' beautifully detailed Train, a miniature cast from pure silver and bourbon.

Outside the Broad, Chris Burden's Urban Lights invites you to wend your way amongst cast-iron street lamps salvaged from across the city. To the left of these lights, you can wander amongst Rodin castings in the sculpture garden, and back on LACMA's north lawn, stroll without fear beneath Michel Heizer's enormous Levitated Mass, a 340-ton granite boulder suspended over a concave walkway. After exploring the museum and grounds, take a seat at the resident Ray's & Stark Bar, which offers lunch, dinner and one of the best happy hours in L.A.

LACMA is open daily except for Wednesdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.