Nights

More overnight closures on the 405 Freeway are planned for Friday and Saturday as construction crews continue to work on the Mulholland Drive overpass. Caltrans said it would close the northbound 405 between Getty Center Drive and Ventura Boulevard around 11 p.m. with some ramps closing as early as 7 p.m. On Saturday, crews will close southbound lanes from the 101 Freeway to Getty Center Drive, using the same time schedule. Full closures are expected to be in place by about 1 a.m. each day with lanes expected to reopen by 6 a.m. Continue reading > > -- Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times

Mountain Avenue Committed to Kids (MACK), Mountain Avenue Elementary's Foundation kicks off its annual MACK Movie Nights on Friday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. with Curious George. The school's students, their families and friends are invited to the cafetorium to enjoy the movie, which is compliments of MACK, though a $1 donation per person at the door is welcome. "This is a wonderful, fun family oriented program that has become a Mountain Avenue tradition and attracts up to 100 guests with each movie," said Greg and Peggy Grande, chairs of MACK Movie Night.

CITY HALL — The next chapter in the fight of residents angry about construction of the San Fernando Corridor “flyover” bridge project will come to the City Council dais Tuesday. In the latest development of the contentious project, the City Council will consider granting residents affected by 13 nights of construction with an electric-bill reduction. Residents, who have long protested the noise and traffic related to the massive projects, have argued that the construction will force them to keep their windows closed and run air-conditioning units when they normally wouldn’t.

My wife and I joined a "westside" college friend and his wife last Friday night for an evening out. The conversation drifted to community arts and I asked what community activities they took their two teenagers to. They kind of looked at each other and confessed that the only "community" Brentwood activities of which they were aware were the 3rd Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. I thought of our community this past summer when we've visited a free arts event almost every night of the week.

Some 82-year-olds settle into their rocking chairs and sing the blues about their aches and pains. But Linda Hopkins prefers to rock the house while singing blues favorites twice a month at Revo Art and Jazz Café in Glendale. The veteran actress has made a career of cabaret singing and in December Revo owner Henry Kazarian invited her to start a talent showcase on Sunday nights. "I'm trying to build up and get young artists known," Hopkins said. "And get people here looking for good talent."

The quiet upstairs nook of Left Coast Wine Bar transforms into a vibrant space filled with the sounds of Cuban jazz on Friday nights. Singer and pianist Iliana Rose performs with her band while audience members sip wine and sample some of the dinner menu items. Others sing along with Rose or shake the percussive instruments on their table to Cuban classics like “Guantanamera.” Sergio Gonzalez on drums, David Zasloff on trumpet and Roy Alnashef on bongos complete Rose’s quartet band.

Zarian to host talk on columnist The ongoing contention over Glendale News-Press columnist Dan Kimber will be the subject of a dialogue Thursday on ?The Larry Zarian Show.? Columnist Patrick Azadian and Glendale resident and Forum page writer Patrick Grant will sit down to discuss the social implications of the back-and-forth that has played out in the News-Press? Forum section for more than a month since Kimber?s column on the Armenian Youth Federation and assimilation.

Bob’s Big Boy is considering a move to bring back one of its restaurants to our area, where it all began for the chain, and all I can say is, “Yahoo!” I had my first Big Boy when I was about 3. Our family had just moved from Los Angeles into our home in Montrose, and in celebration we went to Bob’s. It was love at first bite for my brothers and me. A little later in my life I got to go to Bob’s after piano recitals as a reward, not for my stellar performance, but just for having made my way through it. One memorable piece that I recall mangling badly, “The Donkey Serenade,” had my brothers sitting in the audience and braying out when I descended the stage to a chorus of “hee-haws.

It’s 7 a.m. as I write this, so maybe it’s just the tequila talking. But this was a lousy June. A never ending series of Portland mornings; dreary days that drive men to bars for breakfast and cause teenagers to pierce cartilage. On a lifelessly gray morning last week I was driving north on the 101 Freeway, and the radio was airing endless reports on Michael Jackson’s sudden death the day before. The clouds outside mirrored the shrouds of sounds and sadness, white noise and unknowing on the airwaves.

Jacqui Brown GLENDALE--Joan Marie Whelan has plenty of things on her mind, but it's what's on your mind that matters. Whelan, a psychic who lives in Glendale, has been featured on KBIG-FM (104.3) radio talk show "Angels in Waiting" on Sunday nights and two shows on KPLM-FM (106.1) in Palm Springs. As a medium, Whelan helps clients cope with the loss of loved ones and clarifies unresolved issues with those who have passed on. Those skills will be exhibited Thursday during a presentation at the Holiday Inn at the Burbank Media Center.

Glendale police will be patrolling city streets Saturday night for motorists who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Officers with the department's DUI Enforcement Team plan to monitor neighborhoods from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., when DUI arrests and collisions are most likely to occur. The team's patrols are funded through a California Office of Traffic Safety grant. Glendale police arrested 282 motorists for alleged drunk driving during the first three months of this year, according to the Police Department.

Glendale police plan to conduct a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint Saturday at an undisclosed location in the city. Officers will be monitoring motorists from 7:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. at the checkpoint to determine whether they are driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Police arrested six motorists on April 20 on suspicion of DUI during a checkpoint at Los Feliz Road and Gardena Avenue. They also conducted 26 field sobriety tests and towed nine vehicles. Another 14 motorists were arrested for driver's license violations.

If you are the parent of a current high school student, you will spend about $250,000 to raise that child to the age of 18, give or take a few thousand depending on family resources, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With prom season imminent, it might be time to increase the budget. The average American family will shell out $1,139 for the big dance in 2013, a 5% increase compared to last year, according to a survey released Wednesday by Visa Inc. If that strikes you as an eye-popping sum, hopefully you don't live in New York or Connecticut.

Though not in class Thursday, a group of Harvard University student-athletes surprisingly managed to earn high marks. The Harvard men's basketball team caught the nation's attention after pulling off a shocking victory in the second round of the NCAA West Regional Tournament and making program history. It featured a local tie in Kenyatta Smith, a Flintridge Prep graduate who helped the Rebels win the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA championship in 2011. Smith finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks to help 14th-seeded Harvard register a 68-62 upset win against third-seeded New Mexico in Salt Lake City.

After helping the Flintridge Prep boys' basketball team make history, Kenyatta Smith accomplished it at the collegiate level Thursday night. Smith, a former All-Area Boys' Basketball Player of the Year who helped lead the Rebels to a CIF Southern Section Division V-AA title in 2011, registered 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks to help 14th-seeded Harvard to a 68-62 upset victory against third-seeded New Mexico in an NCAA West Regional second-round game...

A quick show of hands here: How many SoCal cities have a resident Cuban restaurant? Not many, eh? Well, Glendale stands tall in this regard. Mambo's Café, at the corner of Victory Boulevard and Western Avenue, serves lunch and dinner, with live music two nights a week. Even the Versailles chain, the standard for Cuban cuisine among Los Angeles residents, can't boast a music schedule. Pull into the parking area that buffers the one-story building from the street traffic and you get the idea that Mambo's is a one-of-a-kind operation.

After making a spirited run to reach the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA playoffs, the members of the Flintridge Prep girls' basketball team were rewarded with an invitation to the CIF State Championships. In doing so, the sixth-seeded Rebels needed to travel nearly four hours by bus to nearby Fresno to participate in a Division V first-round game against 11th-seeded Reedley Immanuel on Wednesday night. Flintridge Prep saw its late comeback bid fall short in a 53-46 loss.

A cold low-pressure system moving south should reach the Los Angeles area Thursday evening, bringing with it the chance of rain and cooler temperatures through Friday night, according to the National Weather Service. The system is expected to bring low-elevation snow to local mountains that could linger through Saturday, Andrew Rorke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the L.A. Times. Snow levels could reach as low as 3,000 feet by Friday morning, which could create hazardous driving conditions, especially around Interstate 5 through the Grapevine, Rorke said.