Advance Notice. 826LA's Everything You Know is Pong.

826LA is known for their fantastic charity events. An evening of summer fun is coming up, featuring Spike Jonze, Miranda July, and Ping Pong! What's not to love?

Everything You Know is Pong: Tournament of Champions will take place next Tuesday night at the Echoplex. There are options to join an existing team, create a team, or sign up as an individual player.

The Echoplex is located at 1154 Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park. Spectator tickets $10, donations also welcome. Info: attheecho.com & 826la.org, to register: 826la.org/pingpong

Related post--Check out this beautiful rehearsal video of my all-time favorite singer Ryan Adams (and his wife, the multitalented Mandy Moore), for an 826LA event last fall.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: 826LA

Do It. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers at Family.

Now that Lauren's told you about the awesome Family bookstore on Fairfax, it's time to check out the cool events they put on--like this Saturday's double book launch, featuring a Q&A and signing with filmmaker Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers.

The two made a collaborative splash together last year when they released the film version of Where the Wild Things Are, but now they're promoting their separate projects (albeit together, which is cute). Jonze is representing a behind-the-scenes book about a short he released earlier this year named I'm Here, a sort of robot romance that stars one of my favorite new actors Andrew Garfield (he's going to be the 'new' Spiderman). Eggers, meanwhile, continues on his not-fiction run with his first book of drawings titled It Is Right to Draw Their Fur (I'm really hoping that's his work up there in the poster). He'll be interviewing Jonze for the Q&A, and then there'll be a live performance by Aska, whose music appeared in I'm Here.

Even with Jonze alone, this event is sure to be entertaining, but it'll be even greater to see the two friends play off of each other and support each other's works. Again, Family is pretty tiny, so be sure to get there way before the 8:30pm start time to grab a chance at meeting the two; it's doubtful you'll regret it.

Family is located at 436 N. Fairfax Ave. in Mid-City.

-- Chau Tu

Advance Notice. 826LA's Spelling Bee.

Admit it: every June, whenever you're flipping the channels around and see the Scripps Spelling Bee is on (or if you don't even try to pretend and just immediately switch to it), you get excited. You get pulled in. You suddenly get overwhelmed by every single awkward and passionate emotion that you remember feeling as an adolescent child and put all that energy into that one kid with the glasses, nervously asking for any alternate pronunciations. And no matter who wins, you're happy. Everyone loves the spelling bee.

So why not take that love and put some money behind it? And maybe take your own spelling skills to task? The (always cool) education-based non-profit 826LA has got the event for you. In its latest creative fundraiser, A Spelling Bee for Cheaters, you have the chance to show off your spelling moxie...but also save some face if you're not exactly keeping up with word origins and all that. That's because if you and your team raise enough money, you can buy cheats such as "get a dictionary" ($750) or "i before e" (ask a letter hint, $100) to get you through to the next round.

The bee is on August 14, so it's time to start raising your money! Glee's Dianna Argon is already past her goal of $5,000. Oh yeah, there'll be celebrities there too, like Argon and Spike Jonze and John Krasinski. So even if you're spelling-shy, you can still sponsor another participant, or buy general admission tickets to the show (will be available on Aug.6 for $25). Educational, charitable fun? It's spelling 8-2-6-L-A (that's sort of cheating, I know, but that's the spirit of it all, right?).

A Spelling Bee for Cheaters is taking place Aug. 14 at 2pm at Lincoln Middle School at 1501 California Avenue in Santa Monica.

-- Chau Tu

Check It. Opening Ceremony collaborations.

As far boutiques in L.A. go, Opening Ceremony's got to be the hippest and most drool-worthy around. Built upon the simple idea of highlighting styles from different countries and designers from all over the world, the company's grown this past year to build a credible reputation in creating some of fashion's best collaborations. Among them? Keds, Levi's, Chloe Sevigny, Jeremy Scott, Terence Koh and Sanrio (yes, Hello Kitty!), to name a few, with each collab bringing something fresh and new to the style plate.

But where Opening Ceremony gets even more fun is outside of their fashion realm--with a little help from their many hip celeb friends, of course. Here is a too-cute music video starring (my fave!) Jason Schwartzman (who's helped out OC before) and Kirsten Dunst, featuring music from Schwartzman's musical venture Coconut Records, and created by Gia Coppola (yes, that Coppola) and Tracy Antonopoulos:

Opening Ceremony also recently promoted another amazing collab not actually involving themselves, by getting Solange Knowles to join the stage with Dirty Projectors to duet on "Stillness is the Move," the DP song Knowles had infamously surprise-covered online. Part of that performance can be seen at the end of this video here, which also happens to be an interview segment on OC created by Spike Jonze.

For Opening Ceremony, it's not name-dropping when they just happen to be your friends, and when you've got the awesome products to back up your cred.

-- Chau Tu

Do It. Bid in the Crafts For a Cause auction.

In just pure devotion and stamina alone, the relief efforts for Haiti have been truly awe-inspiring. The country still needs help in rebuilding, though, so here's another creative fundraiser coming your way, which--even if you've already donated--should easily convince you to continue.

For Crafts For a Cause, Binki Shapiro--member of Little Joy, an indie-rock band headed by her boyfriend and Strokes drummer Fab Moretti--rounded up a few of her famous and artsy friends to create one-of-a-kind creations for an unbeatable kind of auction, with all proceeds going to filmmaker Paul Haggis' charity Artists for Peace and Justice.

The line-up of contributors range from the famous to the more-famous, and the items being auctioned are quite, well, priceless. Natalie Portman is offering a signed pair of ballet slippers she wore in the to-be-released film Black Swan, Spike Jonze has an original drawing to sell, Daft Punk (!) is giving away limited-edition and autographed “Daft Punk 1000% Kubricks” toy robots, Mark Ronson is offering his personal production services on an original song (!!). And that's just naming a few items, with more coming in, it seems.

Surely once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are at hand, and it all goes to a good cause! So get out your wallets and get bidding: the auction officially begins today and ends on Mar. 27 at 3pm PST. And if you win that Mark Ronson-produced song, we'd love to hear it! (and join you in the studio?? Ronson's a stud!)

-- Chau Tu

Photo credit: Drew Barrymore decorating a camera for auction, courtesy of Crafts for a Cause

Check It. Where the Wild Things Are on DVD.

Where the Wild Things Are is out on DVD today. Spike Jonze's 2009 long-awaited film based on Maurice's Sendak's beloved children's book can now also be part of your DVD library. Last summer, when Wild Things was in post-production, Variety reported that Jonze acquired the rights to Shane Jones' debut novel, Light Boxes, with Ray Tintori attached to direct.

Other March 2 releases: Almost Alice, the soundtrack from Alice in Wonderland (which is out Friday). It includes songs by Owl City, Franz Ferdinand, and Wolfmother, among others. Los Angeles band Lifehouse's fifth album, Smoke & Mirrors is out today. If it has anything as catchy as "Hanging by a Moment" on it, they're in luck.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: www.slashfilm.com

Check It. I'm Here.

Spike Jonze as a filmmaker, artist, Jackass, man, whathaveyou is often a subject of contention; is this guy for real? Is he a genius or a lucky break? Funny or trying too hard? This trailer and subsequent short film seems like it can only further push you in either direction. (I, for one, have been swooning over Jonze for years.)

Bear with me here. What I'm about to show you is pretty weird. The only words I could utter after seeing this the first time (I actually watched it immediately twice in a row) was, 'I'm speechless.' But then I paused, took a deep breath, and smiled. This--whatever it is--is awesome. Don't forget your sense of humor (and try your best to ignore that Absolut Vodka thing).



Yeah, I know. And yes, it's real.

I'm Here premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week, and will be released in March.

-- Chau Tu

*props to the sprawlster for the tip. Feel free to send your own tips/links/love letters to thebeatofyounglosangeles@gmail.com or in the comments section.

Photo credit: I'm Here