Tours

Watched enough football? The wetlands at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station can provide an unusual diversion. During a two-hour tour of the wetlands starting Saturday at 9 a.m., trained docents will lead participants on a nature hike of less than a mile, pointing out rare Southern California birds in their natural habitat. Participants might see such birds as the snowy egret, great blue heron, brown pelican and peregrine falcon.

OK, trivia fans: What do the Empire State Building, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty and Kenny Kramer have in common? Give up? In New York, they are all tourist attractions. In the case of Kramer, it's the proximity theory of success. Sometimes, you can make a very good living just by living across the hall. But more about riches through cozy real estate later.

Michelle Kwan, the 1996 world and national figure-skating champion from Torrance, turns 16 Sunday and expects to find 16,000 people on hand for the occasion. She will be performing that afternoon with more than two dozen other top skaters at the Pond of Anaheim, on the Tour of World Figure Skating Champions. Kwan's cast mates include current world champion and U.S. silver medalist Todd Eldredge, reigning U.S.

The government wants to reduce noise pollution at the Grand Canyon by banning air tours over 87% of the park and limiting the hours that sightseeing planes can fly over the rest. The Interior and Transportation departments announced proposed rules Friday that also would cap the number of flights allowable over the canyon each year. In addition, the new rules would prohibit commercial sightseeing flights before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m. in summer, as well as before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.

How can rap music generate nearly $800 million a year in record sales and yet be virtually shut out of the pop world's lucrative concert business? One reason for the absence of rap headliners from the current national ranking of the Top 25 concert attractions is that, for much of the last decade, the controversial genre has been plagued by perception problems that have their roots in several troubling incidents.

Pearl Jam announced plans on Wednesday for an 11-show North American fall tour that will bypass Los Angeles--as well as Ticketmaster, the giant ticket company with which the Seattle band locked horns last year. For now, the only West Coast date on the tour will be Sept. 16 in the band's hometown. The other 10 shows will be staged in venues primarily on the East Coast. Pearl Jam's fourth album, "No Code," will be released Aug. 27 and is expected to be one of the year's biggest sellers.

When the Cuban National Folkloric Dance Ensemble arrived in Clinton Township, Mich., on Jan. 30, it was so chilly--50 below--that the animal-skin heads on several drums cracked. "It was very cold," remembered artistic director Rogelio Martinez Fure, midway through the tour. "But the audience was very warm." That opening night represented a triumph in a long struggle to expand cultural exchanges between Cuba and the U.S.

If the Central Library and its 2.8 million books intimidate you, here are some quick suggestions for making your visit easier. Each of the three entrances--from Flower, Hope and 5thstreets--converge on the main lobby, a rectangle at the center of the original 1926 building in Downtown Los Angeles. Splashes and streaks of brilliant color crisscross the lobby ceiling. "When you come in here, you can't help but look up," said Milton J.

In its five years, the Lollapalooza tour has come in for a lot of criticism and second-guessing. That goes with the territory for the traveling summer festival, which has become the definitive rock showcase of the '90s. But its organizers weren't prepared for the intense criticism that has followed the recent announcement that Lollapalooza '96 will be headlined not by the kind of alternative-rock act that has anchored the past tours, but by hard-rock giant Metallica.

Lollapalooza might be the only tour to approach stadium-size numbers, but that doesn't mean it will be a bad summer for the concert business. A number of tours are expected to do brisk business in the 15,000- to 20,000-seat amphitheaters. Leading the way are two festival packages: a bill featuring bands led by former members of the Grateful Dead (unofficially nicknamed Deadapalooza) and the fourth edition of H.O.R.D.E., a Lollapalooza for the neo-hippie set.