Hollywood Forever Cemetery

It isn’t summer in L.A. until the first cemetery screening brings hoards of movie-lovers to Hollywood Forever, toting folding chairs, picnic blankets, snack spreads and lots of booze. Each year, Cinespia brings classic cult favorites to the hallowed resting place of such Hollywood greats as Rudolph Valentino and Bugsy Siegel. The series typically releases its slate one month at a time, with summertime screenings at the cemetery and a few off-site ones on either end (including at L.A. State Historic Park and, for the first time, at the Rose Bowl). For each evening at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, pack a picnic (yes, booze is allowed), pose in the photo booth and enjoy DJ sets, dance parties and all sorts of other magical mischief that’d otherwise be strictly forbidden behind the cemetery gates. The outdoor screenings are an L.A. rite of passage, a quintessential summer experience and one of the best film venues in the city. Just be sure to get your ticket early, arrive early, pee early… it’s a popular affair, to say the least.

It’s been nearly a decade since, Divers, onetime “freak-folk” icon Joanna Newsom’s singular opus full of artfully swooping vocals, deft harp skills, world-building lyrics and meticulous, knotty arrangements. Catch her pull from that and the rest of her remarkable catalog at this string of solo shows at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. Newsom will play but piano and harp, and she’s even scheduled a matinee specifically for kids.

Pulp’s modern life-skewering, poignant and brilliantly crafted pop songs still hit their mark decades on, and sexagenarian Jarvis Cocker still twists the night away like an enthusiastic newbie half his age, while charming the pants off the adoring crowd with his wittily dry banter. Expect teary-eyed singalongs to the likes of “Lipgloss,” “Do You Remember the First Time,” “Disco 2000” and, of course, “Common People.”