Spring Lifestyle Preview 2015
(Software/SCEA)
By Benjamin Pollock
April 2, 2015 1:44 a.m.
Spring quarter may be the time of the year that best represents the postcard UCLA lifestyle. Shorts, tank tops and sun-drenched mischief energize the student body.
This springtime rejuvenation presents an opportunity for the UCLA community to explore all the greater L.A. area has to offer, from food to upcoming book and video game releases.
Food
Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills offers springtime cupcake flavors like brown sugar praline and carrot cupcakes to celebrate Easter, and margarita cupcakes in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Sprinkles allows customers to create their own cupcake-ice cream sandwiches with cupcake-ice cream combinations anywhere from bubblegum and strawberry to Belgian dark chocolate and vanilla. Those who want to make a quick stop can use their credit card to withdraw a cupcake from the “Cupcake ATM” located outside the store.
Westwood’s newly opened Boiling Crab allows students to replicate the feasts that Texan crabbers and fishermen would take part in after a long day out on the water. This feast, consisting of hand-shucked shellfish, can get a little messy, but it serves as a memorable moment to shoot a before-and-after Instagram picture with friends.
Museums
Students can express their finer tastes in a trip to the Getty Center. Perched on a mountaintop just northwest of campus, the museum’s spring exhibitions are titled “World War 1: War of Images, Images of War,” and “J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free,” running now through April and May, respectively, with the latter displaying J.M.W. Turner’s radical 19th century artwork. On April 25, students can enjoy free live music from ambient artist Julianna Barwick accompanied by L.A. photographer Matthew Brandt. Brandt will be showcasing images of the Getty and Harold M. Williams Auditorium to contrast Barwick’s ambient soundscape.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be featuring its “Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School” exhibition through June, which displays notable paintings from the 19th century American landscape movement. This showcase of New English, Western American and South American landscape reflects parts of the American realist and romantic movements. Forty-five American landscape paintings are represented in the exhibition, including work by Thomas Cole, whose five-painting masterpiece “The Course of Empire” will serve as the climax of the exhibition.
Books
On April 30, Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate and author of “Beloved,” one of the Library of Congress’s Books That Shaped America, will be releasing her 11th novel titled “God Help the Child,” which conveys how childhood trauma can affect victims into adulthood.
Although not being released until July 14, Harper Lee’s unexpected followup to her American classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” also a Library of Congress Book That Shaped America, will be a source of much anticipation in the literature world in the coming months.
Video Games
If students are searching for a day indoors with a bit of wit, darkness and animated violence, the critical hit Bloodborne serves as a choice opportunity. The player fights for survival among the inhabitants and monsters of a plagued city, Yharnam. Released on March 24 for Playstation 4, the action role-playing game has earned “universal acclaim” according to review aggregator Metacritic since its release, looking to top many critics’ ‘best of the year’ lists in December.
Culture
In 2013, L.A.’s Fiesta Broadway held more than 500,000 attendees. On April 26, Los Angeles will attempt to surpass this large attendance in a celebration of Latino heritage. The Fiesta will feature performances from Latin pop singers Marisela and Cristian Castro, and appearances from other Latino celebrities such as game show host Marco Antonio Regil and radio host El Piolín.
– Ben Pollock, A&E contributor
