FIRST FRIDAY: When we were a youngster being hauled around Atlantic Avenue by our grandmother to Anthony’s and Robert’s and Sad Sack and Ray & Eddie’s and you jumped out from the alleyway behind Raymond’s Tux Shop and Vessel’s Western Wear and ranted about how one day Bixby Knolls would be the culture capital of Long Beach, we would have laughed. Laughed nervously, then started crying. What are you doing jumping out of alleys and scaring little kids?

Bixby Knolls is, in fact, the cultural capital of Long Beach now, at least on the first Friday of each month, such as today.

From 6:30 to 10 p.m., on just a short section of Atlantic Avenue between Bixby Road and San Antonio Drive you can hear a dozen bands and musicians, sample food from every corner of the (apparently cube-shaped) globe, spend your sequestration-sapped dollars at a wildly eclectic batch of shops.

A bit of what you’ll find on the street tonight includes Gypsy jazz by Hedgehog Swing at the Historical Society of Long Beach, music by Las Barnabas Boys at the Factory (anybody go to St. Barnabas when Mary Prichard taught there? She was our aunt. Yeah, she was strict with us, too), a rare and early appearance by the Easter Bunny at Goldhill Salon, a live stage tribute to silent movies at the Richard Goad Theater, a tarot reading at Everyday Zen Relaxation Studio, green hair-dos for kids at Salon Medusa and a demo on how to throw a reptile party at Reptiles Unlimited.

See the article here.