5 design things to do: Nov 21-27

This week: check out e-cars with vroom at the LA Auto Show; meet the author of a book about the charismatic man behind the first LA Olympics; and hear from the architect who is looking for legibility in American residential architecture; learn about the evolution of street art from Judy Baca, Saber and Swoon; and get the scoop on horror movie-making past and future, from biz legends Andy Muschietti and Roger Corman.

1) LA Auto Show

If it's Thanksgiving it must be time for the LA Auto Show, which opens its doors Friday at the LA Convention Center and runs through December 1. There'll be hundreds of prototypes and new releases, but expect eyes to be on the cars that are trying to fuse the vroom of gas-guzzlers with the virtue of e-cars: Porsche's all-electric Taycan and Ford's Mustang Mach-E.

When: November 22-December 1; click here for daily opening times

Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Tickets: Prices vary;clickherefor more information.

2) Book Launch: Unresolved Legibility

Architect Clark Thenhaus has spent five years analyzing American residential architecture -- its "character, context, frontality, corners, systemization, physiognomy, symmetry, doors, walls and stacks" in homes ranging from a remote one-room cabin to urban row houses. Now he's published a book, "Unresolved Legibility In Residential Types," which will be launched Friday. Meet the author and peruse his collection of 500 drawings, diagrams, rendered images, and photographs.

When: Friday, November 22, 7 - 9pm

Where: The Courtyard @ Mandarin Plaza, 970 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Tickets: Free; click here for more information.

3) Book Launch: Dreamers and Schemers

As Los Angeles plans for its third Olympics, it is worth remembering how the first one happened. It had a lot to do with a charismatic real estate developer named Billy Garland. Barry Siegel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning director of the literary journalism program at UC Irvine, tells the story in his new book, "Dreamers and Schemers: How an Improbable Bid for the 1932 Olympics Transformed Los Angeles from Dusty Outpost to Global Metropolis." He will sign books at The Last Bookstore this Thursday. Sip wine and check out this essential bookstore's other books while there.

When: Thursday, November 21, 7:30 – 9 pm

Where: The Last Bookstore, 453 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

4) The Evolution of Street Art in L.A.

In 1974 the artist Judy Baca started painting The Great Wall of Los Angeles. It is a half-mile long mural in the Tujunga Wash drainage canal in the San Fernando Valley, one of the LA river’s tributaries and involved the participation of 400 youth volunteers. She , "The Great Wall was a reclamation of a story that had been disappeared very much like the river had been disappearing. I was a kid at the time that the rivers were not all entirely concreted and there were open spaces where we could go and play and as they became concreted we lost those kind of spaces."

Now she will tell that story along with other tales of collective history-making through street art, when she joins the veteran street artists Saber and Brooklyn-based Swoon (aka Caledonia Curry) for a conversation about the evolution of street art and the impact of gentrification. It takes place at the Annenberg Space for Photography and it is part of the programming for the exhibition “Walls: Defend Divide and the Divine.”

When: Friday, November 22, 7 – 9pm

Where: Annenberg Space for Photography, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067

Tickets: Free, click here to RSVP.

5) The Past, Present, and Future of Horror Movies

Beloved and highly influential B-movie-maker Roger Corman -- “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum” (image shown above) -- will join Andy Muschietti (“IT”; “IT: Chapter II,” "Mama") this Friday for a look back, and forward, at the art of horror movies. It coincides with the museum's current exhibition, "Natural History of Horror," which explores the scientific discoveries — from early experiments in animal electricity to the excavation of King Tut’s tomb — that inspired Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Attendees can explore the collection-based exhibition after hours and learn about horror as a film genre of the past, present and future. The evening will feature movie props from “IT,” as well as food trucks and cash bars.

When: Friday, November 22, 6 – 9 pm

Where: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exhibition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007

Tickets: $8 members | $10 non-members; click here for tickets and information.