LA Weekly

This week, we chatted with L.A.-based pop artist Troye Sivan about his Go West Fest party that he has curated as part of this year's LA Pride festivities, but there's a lot more musical goodness going on. Here are some of the highlights.

Since the Ojai Music Festival began in 1947, such legendary figures as Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Pierre Boulez, Mitsuko Uchida, John Adams and Kent Nagano have served as music director.Since 2004, artistic director Thomas W. Morris has continued Ojai’s tradition of anti-tradition by selecting creatively daring musical directors. This time around, he has made another bold choice, anointing the provocative Canadian composer-vocalist Barbara Hannigan as music director of the fest, which runs from Thursday to Sunday, June 6-9.

Eve Ensler has used the power of words to champion female sexuality in her landmark and ever-evolving 1996 play, The Vagina Monologues. After waiting in vain for much of her life to hear her father show repentance for reportedly abusing her as a child, Ensler wrote the words for him instead in The Apology, a cathartic and healing account of her tragic childhood that she discusses with vocalist Idina Menzel.

"Mama's worried all the time/She tells everyone she's fine," Patty Griffin discloses somberly on "Mama's Worried," the opening ballad from her self-titled new album. "People in their stylish clothes/They look at us and turn up their nose/A hunger deep inside me grows." Griffin's lyrics speak to a lot of the anxieties that people are sharing during these uncertain, politically divisive times, and yet they also might allude to her own personal vulnerability after battling against and defeating cancer over the past several years.

Grab a guide map at one of the information booths and stroll down the neighborhood's streets and alleys, where you'll find 17 art installations that are bold in both color and size, and consist of everything from 300 balloons and origami to a pop-up tattoo shop and a giant coloring book.

Over 70 choreographers have been presented during the four years Alexx Shilling and Devika Wickremesinghe helmed the series. This edition marks the passing of the torch to Miles Brenninkmeijer and Alexsa Durrans, both Hi, Solo alumni.

Baraka is one of those films that needs to be seen on the big screen to be properly appreciated, preferably in 70mm, as it was originally shot.

Amanda Montell loves language. The local writer and self-described "wordy gal" not only revels in words and their multiple definitions, she also celebrates the secret meanings and usages of words in her new book, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language. The local writer parses the histories, the distinctions between, and the meanings of such loaded words as "bitch" and "woman," as well as the Valley Girl tendency to, like, use "like" too often.

Sweet treats for National Doughnut Day at the Original Farmers Market, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 watch party events hosted by L.A. Galaxy and National Rose Day at Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu, here’s what’s popping up in L.A. in the next few weeks.

Inside Disneyland's hugely-anticipated new Star Wars-ian world Galaxy's Edge- the hidden, 14-acre immersive environment that's also its largest singular-theme addition in history. The attraction transports guests to the planet Batuu where an array of amusements await, from making droids to sampling different lightsabers to drinking weird concoctions in the cantina to flying the Millennium Falcon. So was it all worth the wait? Join us as we explore this new galaxy far, far away.