Summer

Since the cancellation of virtually all public summer school in Los Angeles, Yolanda Murrieta has been scrambling to find alternatives to keep her three children busy and academically engaged. Tutoring, which would cost hundreds of dollars a month, is not an option. Instead, Murrieta is cobbling together a schedule that includes regular library visits and trips to the Boys & Girls Club.

The SUMMER of 2008 is shaping up as an unusual one for me. I'm actually looking forward to seeing several of the films on offer. After all, who wouldn't want to see the first Indiana Jones film in nearly 20 years, the wonders the gifted Guillermo del Toro has cooked up for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," Russian director Timur Bekmambetov's American debut in "Wanted" or what director Christopher Nolan and Batman Christian Bale have in store for "The Dark Knight"?

For YEARS , it has seemed that summer movies are not so much made as they are extruded from studio marketing departments -- like fast-food taco fillings. But that's an old lament, one that looks as if it could undergo a change.

FOR A moment or two, I thought we had lost the summer and would have to spend the pre-Emmy months in wistful nostagia and reruns. Undone by the writers strike, Emmy hopefuls like HBO's "Big Love" and FX's "Damages," which made last year one of the best TV summers ever, won't be back for many months. This season was so weird and truncated, reruns weren't appealing and no one seemed to be launching summer shows. Would my son and his gaming friends gain control of the flat-screen? No!

Eight Los Angeles parks will stay open until midnight from Fourth of July to Labor Day under Summer Night Lights, an anti-gang program launched Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The $950,000 program, part of the mayor's plan to bring social services to high-crime neighborhoods, will run from Wednesday to Sunday starting at 4 p.m. It will bring sports, arts classes and movie screenings to children between 9 and 17 at eight of the city's 390 parks, mayoral aides said.

In "THE WAY WE ARE," a concise, razor-sharp book of existential musings, philosopher Allen Wheelis describes the "margin of terror." Just beyond the agreed-upon scheme of things, like the raw desert and wild places at the edge of the paved city, it's the territory where pain and grief and mystery are too much to reconcile. "We look away, pretend it does not exist, is of no importance, a deviation, a neurosis perhaps."

HERE'S THE thing about roses and me: I buy them by the case. With other wines, maybe I'll buy a couple of bottles -- one to drink, one to stick away -- and if I really like them, I'll think about picking up a few more. It's a considered, rational purchase. But who can be rational about rose? At any time during the summer I'll have one bottle open in the fridge, ready for me to pour a glass or two for dinner. There'll be another bottle chilling, because who wants to run out of rose?

L.A.'s summer festivals are as diverse as its population. Whether you're a headbanger or a tofu fanatic, there's a way to celebrate in the coming months -- and we're only scratching the surface (for lots more options, go to www.culturela.org). Big and bigger If you've been hibernating until now, know that these festivals attract crowds larger than most small cities, which means plenty of opportunities to see what the rest of the population is up to.

FOR Coachella patrons the requirements are simple: excellent sound system and port-a-potties. Someone attending a food event expects decent grub. Pundits like Barbara Ehrenreich and Hakim Bey, however, consider festivals to be a lot more than that: a momentary vision of a better world. To wit, West Coast fests such as Burning Man, Oregon's Autonomous Mutant Festival and British Columbia's Shambhala, where personal freedom and audience-generated entertainment are the main attraction.

Gasoline prices are astronomical and hotel rates are going through the roof, but that hasn't discouraged people from planning getaways this Memorial Day weekend. And summer travel -- especially within the U.S. -- is looking hot. Studies "show that the majority of consumers expect to continue to see high gas prices this summer, but they seem to be taking this much more in stride than they have in the past," said Suzanne Cook, senior vice president of research for the Travel Industry Assn.