The Family Savvy Launches! A New Website to start the New Year

There's a new website in town called The Family Savvy. I spent the last six months creating a robust calendar-based site for families looking to interact with the city and with each other, and I am excited to share it with you. It's where I'll focus my attention from here forward, so check it out and start 2012 equipped with up-to-the-moment information about culture and kids around LA.

CLICK TO VISIT THE FAMILY SAVVY

A few words from The Family Savvy: 

We don't know about you, but we can't stand having this conversation: "What-do-you-wanna-do"," I-dunno. What-do-YOU-wanna-do"? The Family Savvy was created in order to let you skip past the planning inertia and find ways to keep the whole family engaged. By staying up-to-date on everything cultural and cool around town, we are in a great position to help you make the most of your family's time together. We know from experience that family outings help to change up the weekly scenery, are useful for oiling the joints of inter-generational communication, and - most importantly -- are a fun way to introduce your family to many wonderful events, art and ideas that crop up in our world-class city.

Think of The Family Savvy as your Cultural Concierge. Your Ambassador for Adventure. Your Envoy for Enjoyment.

Connect with The Family Savvy: Here's how you can get up-to-the-minute information about what's happening around town as well as free screening and ticket offers. 

·   Bookmark The Family Savvy

·   Sign Up for the free newsletter

·   Like The Family Savvy on Facebook

·   Follow The Family Savvy on Twitter

Spread the Word! We rely on the good graces of subscribers like you to grow. If you like the new site, please share it with your friends and teachers, family and co-workers so they can share in all the subscriber benefits.

Best wishes for 2012 to you and your family.

Sarah Bowman
Co-Founder, Kids Off the Couch
Founder and Editor, The Family Savvy

Questions? Write to me at:familysavvy@gmail.com

Kids Off The Couch Ticket Giveaway: TWIST - An American Musical at the Pasadena Playhouse

A new musical based on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist

Ticket Giveaway for Wednesday, July 13 at 8:00 PM

It's not often that a new, family-friendly musical comes around, so Angelenos get a treat when TWIST - An American Musical, featuring American Idol's Tamyra Gray, debuts at the Pasadena Playhouse this month. TWIST, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel Oliver Twist, is set in New Orleans on the eve of the Great Depression and tells the story of a young orphan boy who navigates the colorful and sometimes rough waters of street life and racial intolerance in his quest to find his family and to find love.

The score for TWIST features the musical pulse of New Orleans in the 1920's and is highlighted by a tapestry of soaring ballads, hot jazz, blues, gospel and tap-infused dance numbers that will take audiences along this magical journey. Golden Globe and multi-Emmy Award-winner Debbie Allen directs and choreographs a timely show which is perfect for the whole family!

What: TWIST - An American Musical plays from June 14-July 17 at the Pasadena Playhouse with plenty of matinees for the family. Show at 8:00 PM Tuesday-Friday, 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM Saturday, and 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM Sunday through July 17. Tickets are on sale now.

Enter to Win: Kids Off the Couch has a Family Four-Pack to give away to the Wednesday, July 13 show at 8:00 PM. Click here to be in the drawing - and please include your telephone number. Winner will be chosen by Wednesday, July 6.

Photo: Boston (Matthew Johnson, center) and his Boys in a scene from TWIST - An American Musical at the Alliance Theatre. Photo: Greg Mooney

Kids Off The Couch info@kidsoffthecouch.com

info@kidsoffthecouch.com

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Kids Off The Couch: What's On Our Los Angeles May Radar Screen

No More Showers, it's Time for Flowers

Train Day Ticket Giveaway

May, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways: Mother's Day, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Cinco de Mayo and a three-day weekend for Memorial Day. As much as we may revel, we know that the end of the month means just one thing: School's out in one second flat!

Train Day Invitation: PBS Kids and the Jim Henson Company have organized a special day to celebrate National Train Day at the Los Angeles Live Steamers -- Your junior conductors and engineers can spend the afternoon riding the trains and singing along with DINOSAUR TRAIN creator Craig Bartlett. Kids Off the Couch has 10 sets of Family Four-Packs to give away to our subscribers. The event takes place on Saturday, May 7 from 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM. The event is not open to the public, so send us a note if you want to be in the ticket giveaway for this fun afternoon.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Two days of bugs and other crawly things mark the Natural History Museum's wildly popular Bug Fair, Saturday and Sunday, May 14-15. Fair is free to members, or with museum admission. If bugs aren't your thing, come by the Hammer on May 15 and participate in theKids Art Museum Project, in which artists help kids make art (all to benefit kids programming at the Hammer!). Finally, the Skirball Cultural Center is hosting an afternoon of magic in conjunction with their new show Houdini: Art and Magic(which we'll tell you more about next week) so mark your calenders for Presto Chango: Magic Day at the Skirball on May 14 from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM.

MIDDLE SCHOOL: The Los Angeles Times Festival of Bookstakes place this weekend (April 30-May 1). Check out the festival's iPhone or Android App, that will help your family navigate the event's new location, at USC. We love to go to this annual event and discover new books, ideas and authors - it's all FREE! Click here for the Target Children's Stage line-up for Saturday, and here for Sunday. If you're a history buff, make some time to check out the Magna Carta, on view at LACMA until May 5. Or, tee-up the topic of European history digital style, and soak up The Royal Wedding -- Kate marries William tomorrow -- it's practically Wedding Day in London already, so set those DVRs!

TEENS: If your teens are trying to fulfill their community service hours, jump aboard the citywide volunteer effort that is BIG SUNDAY, May 15. MOCA's graffiti show, Art in the Streets, is sure to stir up some controversy, so let them form their own opinion. Oh, and there happens to be a little stage show they might like -- the GLEE LIVE tour is coming to Staples on May 28 (with an afternoon and evening show).

Mothers and Other Favorite Mammals: One of our most-viewed Popcorn Adventures teaches how to explore the downtown Flower Mart. We paired it with My Fair Lady, so take a look and we promise you'll never pay flower shop prices for anyone (even Mom) again. Also, local seals and dolphin are suffering from another outbreak of an algae that affects their nervous system. We visited the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro a few years back, on another Popcorn Adventure, and you can do the same. Call ahead to see what supplies the kids can bring to donate.

PARENTS: Here's a worthy date night event: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson gather friends for a reading of The Merry Wives of Windsor to benefit The Shakespeare Company of Los Angeles, at UCLA Live on Monday, May 9.

Pasadena Lovers: Pasadenans love their neighborhood so much that it can make a Westsider jealous. We just read a hilarious new book by Lian Dolan called Helen of Pasadena, a breezy romance about a woman who returns to work after her husband drops dead -- it's set at the Huntington Gardens and full of spot-on observations about the mommy wars and parenting in Southern California. And, for a taste of the neighborhood, you can explore all the Museums of the Arroyo for free on Sunday, May 15 from noon to 5:00 PM.

Food News The Market at Santa Monica Place is set to open on May 20, presumably in time for summer. We're very excited that Homeboy Industries -- a company formed by Father Greg Boyle to put gang kids back to work -- is selling their salsa and chips at Ralph's. Support them by purchasing their products or by donating online.

Kids Off The Couch

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Kids Off The Couch LA: Secretariat + Santa Anita Park

A Visit to the Winner's Circle

Everything changes so fast in Los Angeles that it can be a real treat to experience something that's been around for ages. Our kids loved hearing stories about their grandmother's trips to Santa Anita Park with her friends way back in ancient times (i.e., the 1970s). When we decided to go visit Santa Anita, it was like reliving Grandma's stories. We visited the Winner's Circle and the infield, then we hung out at the rail to watch the buglers play and the horses speed by. We had a wonderful day even though (unlike Grandma) we didn't place a single bet! And we got another visit to the past when we checked out Secretariat, the 2010 movie about the greatest race horse of all time. Starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich, Secretariat took us into the world of horse racing as well as right down onto the race track itself, as we followed the story of the great Triple Crown winner. We found the movie inspiring and exciting, and it had a special meaning to us when we watched it right after seeing Thoroughbreds in action at the track! (Click here for our tips on visiting the track, a Food Truck Festival on May 14, and our experience taking the Tram Tour which concentrates on another great racehorse, Seabiscuit).

Kids Off The Couch

If you like what we do, please tell a friend to sign up!info@kidsoffthecouch.com

www.kidsoffthecouch.com

Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater + Family 4 Pack Ticket Giveaway = Kids Off The Couch

April 8-17 at the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Family 4-Pack Ticket Giveaway

You won't know if your kids love modern dance unless you take them to see a performance, and the very best way to start them off is with the Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater. Mesmerizing from the curtain's first parting, the renowned company helped to move modern dance to the forefront of American culture, promoting the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance heritage. Long time dance lovers and curious newcomers are in for a special treat when the company comes to town for 10 performances in April.

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center has a multi-cultural parade of shows throughout the rest of the spring, including Mark Morris Dance Group, Ballet Nacional de Cuba and American Ballet Theatre. Whether you catch Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (and your kids are clamoring for more) or you are looking for an elegant date night downtown, you'll find something in the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center's varied line-up between now and June.

Where and When: Tickets are still available for all the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater shows, which will take place at the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, between April 8 and 17 (including four matinees). The company will present three different programs: "21st Century Ailey" features compelling and exciting works from recent years; "All Ailey" features Ailey's timeless masterpieces; and "20 Years of Jamison" celebrates the phenomenal influence of Judith Jamison in her final season. All programs include the beloved Revelations, which is celebrating 50 years as an enduring classic. Approximate running time is two hours, including intermissions. Appropriate for children age eight and up. Click here for ticketing information.

Enter to Win: Kids Off the Couch subscribers are eligible to win a Family 4-Pack for the Wednesday, April 13 show. Please send us a note if you're able to attend the 7:30 PM show. Winners will be chosen by Tuesday, April 5. Don't forget to include your phone number so we can reach you if you are chosen!

info@kidsoffthecouch.com

info@kidsoffthecouch.com

LA Food Truck Adventure + Iron Chef America = Kids Off The Couch

We have to smile secretly when we see our kids getting all excited about Iron Chef America and other cooking shows on TV. First, because we remember our own childhood when we typically wouldn't have been caught dead in the kitchen (and when foods like mangoes, sweet onions and goat cheese would not have been found in our local supermarkets). And second, because seeing the kids excited about cooking can only be a step away from them learning to cook -- right? In a world where fast food is abundant and the microwave can sometimes seem too slow, there's nothing like watching your kids develop skills like baking, basting and marinating. Sampling the foods of different cultures is one of the bonuses of living in Southern California, so we spent an afternoon chasing the best of L.A.'s Food Trucks - those trendy versions of the old school taco trucks commonly seen at construction sites. From comfort foods like grilled cheese and fried chicken, to ethnic goodies like Korean BBQ and Israeli Couscous, to fabulous desserts galore, the food trucks have something for everyone. Our kids tried new tastes (chocolate/chili ice cream, anyone?) and stepped out of their culinary comfort zones. The best of all? We didn't pay “sit down” dinner prices for some of the best food our city has to offer!

Click here for more tasty bits of wisdom including our favorite LA Food Trucks and staging your own Iron Chef competition!

Kids Off The Couch Ticket Giveaway - LA Phil Presents Toyota Symphonies for Youth: Jazz and the Orchestra

February 19 & 26 at 11:00am at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Family Four Pack Ticket Giveaway

Getting kids to love music is as easy as switching on your iPod and sharing your favorite play list. Teaching them how music is created could take a lifetime, so get started with an excellent series of concerts, LA Phil Presents Toyota Symphonies for Youth. These popular shows always sell out early, because they provide a clever and entertaining deconstruction of how music is made by an orchestra. Kids are invited into Walt Disney Hall to hear short musical selections, and learn the basics of how a symphony produces its melodious harmonies -- how wind instruments differ from their brass and string counterparts, how styles of music vary, and how the conductor brings everything together. Adults will come away having learned something as well!

Where and When: Tickets are still available for February's shows LA Phil Presents Toyota Symphonies for Youth: Jazz and the Orchestra (2/19 and 2/26). Join the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conductor Joshua Weilerstein, and legendary jazz artist John Beasley in a musical celebration of the exuberance of jazz music. Book now for seats in April's series, LA Phil Presents Toyota Symphonies for Youth: The Hero Composer(4/23 and 430). Explore how the composer can be a hero in our lives.

Enter to Win: Kids Off the Couch subscribers are eligible to win a Family Four Pack for the February 26 concert. Please send us a note if you're able to attend the 11:00 AM show. Winners will be chosen by Tuesday, February 15. Don't forget to include your phone number so we can reach you if you are chosen!

Touring Walt Disney Hall: The Toyota Symphonies for Youth take place in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, giving families the chance to explore Frank Geary's beautiful and unusual building. Click here for a schedule of the official hour-long tours of the building, but we think most kids are best off just walking up to the rooftop garden, and then following the staircase that leads up and around the metallic wings of the building.

Other Treats: Our kids loved The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, a picture book about the members of an orchestra getting ready in their separate apartments before coming together at Carnegie Hall to make music. Click here for other books that will help you get ready for a trip to Disney Hall.

info@kidsoffthecouch.com

Kids Off The Couch: Female Role Models for 2011

True Grit & Newbery Award Winner "Moon Over Manifest"

We're full of New Year's Resolutions about leading a more intentional life in 2011, and have already been inspired by two new fictional heroines. Mattie Ross is the fourteen year-old heroine of Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit, which is in the hunt for Oscar nominations even while it has outsold most modern Westerns after just twenty days in theaters. Abilene Tucker is the twelve year-old heroine of "Moon Over Manifest," a colorful work of historical fiction that won the 2011 Newbery Award this week. Both stories are set in the past and feature girls who set out on a quest, using their brains and bravery to overcome unlikely obstacles. The word pluck is out of vogue, but it might swing back into the lexicon as easily as Mattie swings herself up on her horse. The success of the movie and the book indicate to us that old fashioned storytelling can win modern hearts and minds, and that portends well for the New Year.

True Grit: Newcomer Hailee Sternfeld plays a fourteen year-old who's out to level justice against the man who killed her father and delivers her idiomatic lines of dialogue at a rapid pace, holding her own against formidable actors such as Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin. She hires crusty Marshal Cogburn, or "Rooster", (Bridges) to chase down the elusive Tom Chaney (Brolin), and her determination carries the film to an astonishingly emotional end. Along the way, a rogue Texas Ranger named LeBoeuf (Damon) accompanies them on their cold, dangerous journey into Indian country. With sumptuous scenery, cinematography by the great Roger Deakins, and a hilarious smattering of character actors, the film appeals to everyone in the family who is over the age of 11 (something we might not get to say about a Coen brothers film again). There's just a little cussin' alongside the stuff of a great Western: original characters riddled with conflict, and a plot shot through with bears, snakes and horses. True Grit works for boys and girls who can handle some strong images of violence -- Mattie witnesses a hanging, LeBoeuf's tooth is pulled out by Rooster, there are several gunfights and a horse dies -- though we can report that no violence is gratuitous. Joel and Ethan Coen also directed No Country for Old Men andFargo; the film is rated PG-13 for violence and runs 110 minutes. Film is still in theaters.

Moon Over Manifest: Just this past Monday, the American Library Association announced this year's Newbery Award winner, written by first-time novelist Clare Vanderpool. Abilene Tucker is only twelve when she gets off a train on her own in a town called Manifest, where she has been sent for safekeeping by her father. After she finds a hidden cache of items she thinks are her father's, a diviner uses each item as a talisman that helps Abilene see into the past. The story takes place in Depression-era Kansas but, through the seer's visions, Abilene is taken back to 1918 and World War One and is able to put together clues to solve a mystery that the residents of Manifest would rather forget. Abilene is a girl without a home, who makes new friends as she finds a place to settle, and the author explores rich historical events from coal mining to the Ku Klux Klan to immigration. We raced through the novel on our iPad (it is sold out already in local bookstores) so grab it from Amazonand prepare for a lively winter read. We recommend it for kids over ten -- and think it would make a great book to listen to on a long car ride.

Extra Credit: The Coen brothers adapted True Grit from a novel by Charles Portis and the 1969 film adaptation starred John Wayne, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Rooster. In that version, Maddie Ross was played by a 22-year-old Kim Darby, who'd already had a baby at the time she played Mattie. Hailee Steinfeld turned fourteen in December and lives in Thousand Oaks, CA.

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