On May 26 and 27 (Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend), UCLA hosts the JazzReggae Festival, featuring a diverse array of artists covering the pop, hip-hop, reggae and jazz arenas. Amoeba Music has tickets for sale to the event. Pick them up at the Info Counter before they’re all gone!

Taking place at UCLA’s Intramural Field, JazzReggae Festival is the largest, entirely student-produced-and-run event of its kind on the West Coast. The festival is divided into two days: the Jam Day May 26 and the Reggae Day May 27. Performers on the Jam Day will include indie dancehall-pop star Santigold, rap hero Common, underground hip-hop crew The Grouch & Eligh, R&B singer Jhene Aiko, and G.O.O.D. music affiliate and artist/producer Ryan McDermott. Reggae Day features reggae star Ziggy Marley, reggae and dancehall artists Barrington Levy and Mr. Vegas, and "Queen of Reggae" Marcia Griffiths. In addition, art exhibits and craft projects by local artists and collectives will be featured at the festival.

Compared to Bay Area, the weather in NYC of late has been overall pretty crappy with some nasty rainy days like today: overcast, wet, showery with highs only hovering around the 60 degree mark. Yep, for spring coming into summer this is not the most desirable weather, but it is another needed reminder for anyone living in or visiting that it is always good to carry an umbrella with you anytime in NYC (summer or spring) because it can switch up from sunny to stormy in an instant. Last Saturday, when the weather was mostly nice, warm, and sunny, outdoor events included a big free hip-hop jam at the season re-opening (after the winter) of NYC graffiti mecca 5 Pointz (pictured above), which was simultaneously the kick-off of the all summer long, four-month hip-hop event accurately titled Celebrating 40 Years of Hip-Hop. Yes, believe it or not is now four full decades since that fateful day back in 1973 in the Boogie Down Bronx when DJ Kool Herc's block parties would kick-start the global music and cultural movement of today known as hip-hop. The always impressive, decade old 5 Pointz Aerosol Art Center, which has been rumored to be facing eviction for some time now but reportedly is not in any danger for the next year, will continue its celebration of hip-hop between now and September 14th with most entertainment taking place on Saturdays (but note the area is open to public 24/7. Entertainers will include influential, legendary NY hip-hop DJ/producer Marley Marl spinning music and local emcees and beat-boxers holding informal battles - and, of course, lot and lots of graffiti art being done live. 5 Pointz Aerosol Art Center is located near the E and 7 train stops at 45-46 Davis St at Jackson Ave, Long Island City, Queens; 317-219-2685, 5ptz.com).

Remember Sixteen Candles? What if instead of being so passive about her thing for hunky Jake Ryan, Molly Ringwald’s Samantha Baker serenaded him with “Don’t You Forget About Me” until he succumbed to her wiles?

You can hear that song and more when Ringwald performs at the GRAMMY Museum for The Drop, sponsored by Amoeba Music, on May 20 at 8:00 p.m. The singer and actress recently released her debut record, Except…Sometimes, a collection of standards and well as covers done in a jazz style, with song selection ranging from standards like "The Very Thought of You" to Madonna's "Sooner or Later" (written by Stephen Sondheim) to Simple Minds’ classic song.

Though she’s primarily known for her run of ’80s flicks directed by John Hughes and as a member of the Brat Pack, Ringwald has been singing since childhood, releasing her first album at the age of 6 called I Wanna Be Loved By You, Molly Sings. Her father also was a Dixieland musician in The Fulton Street Jazz Band, inviting Ringwald to sing onstage at the age of 3. She also has continued acting, starring over the past few years in the TV show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”

Los Angeles is a film town -- maybe the film town. Like the Hollywood district contained within it, the name "Los Angeles" a metonym for American film industry in the minds of many. "La La Land," "The Entertainment Capital of the World" and all that. I love movies; however, in my mind, the Hollywood film thing actually ranks pretty low in the long list of what makes Los Angeles the greatest city in the world. This is possibly (probably) shocking to hear/read if you're a cog in the blockbuster factory or a celebrity worshipper but better you find that out now than never. Luckily, Los Angeles doesn't just make movies, it also shows them. There are few cities in the world with as robust a film culture as Los Angeles.

For those who love celebrity-driven, gazillion dollar CGI superhero franchises you're in luck; there are multiplexes in every mall and Redboxes at every 7-11. Thankfully for other varieties of cinéastes, there's a lot more to Los Angeles’s mise en scène than that. There are architecturally beautiful picture palaces, romantic drive-ins, dingy dollar theaters, high profile revival houses, low profile smut houses, and actual art house chains. Additionally there are all sorts of special screenings and festivals that take place every week of the year.

There’s a fuck-all attitude to Hanni El Khatib’s music that makes his relatively straightforward garage rock so enjoyable. Maybe it’s that his songs are really catchy, pairing rock ‘n’ roll swagger with actual hooks. Or that he actually seems like a really cool guy, which I learned he is after interviewing him. Check out his second album, Head in the Dirt, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, which is out now on Innovative Leisure. He’s at S.F.’s Fillmore May 17 and L.A.’s Mayan Theater May 21, both with The Black Angels and Wall of Death.

PST: There’s a hint of desperation to the lyrics to some of these songs. I’m thinking of how “Family” starts with the lyric “I wanna be somebody else today” or the lyrics of songs like “Nobody Move” and “Pay No Mind.” Where do you get your lyrical inspiration?

El Khatib: Most of my lyrics are written in a very spontaneous way. Total stream of consciousness that I try to loosely connect to an underlying mood or theme. They usually reflect the mood I’m in at the moment, and since the record was written and recorded in such a short time-frame, I guess that’s just the place I was at.