Calendar’s Summer Splash : Three Ways to Plunge Into Summer : Mid-Range

It’s summer, the “good vibrations” season when people spell the word entertainment f-u-n----and they get away with it.

There’s a deluge of no-brainers--and a good number of serious undertakings, too--all beckoning us to dive right in.

To assist waders, swimmers and lifeguards through the season’s somewhat unpredictable waters, Calendar has set up three guided tours to help you cope with the Summer Splash. They’ve been created chiefly with budgetary considerations in mind, but each itinerary includes bargains and splurges alike:

* At the low and frequently free end of the spectrum, there’s the Bargain tour for those with more time than bucks to invest in entertainment. Approximate investment for the whole summer: $100.

* For middle-of-the-road spenders, there’s the Mid-Range tour, a generally local group of enticements. It’ll get you as far away as San Diego for an optional weekend getaway. Approximate summer-long cost, excluding side trip: $300.

* At the high-rent end of these excursions, there’s the Pricey plunge, with optional side trips to Paris, Venice and Purchase, N.Y. To have it all (excluding side jaunts), all summer, figure on about $1500.

In each case, the mythical traveler is presumably a well-rounded seeker, as open to Tchaikovsky as the Cowboy Junkies.

The selections have not been sampled, but are based on past performances, insider buzz or, in a few cases, convincingly seductive advertising.

This week: Lace up your black Air Jordans and trot over to the Universal Amphitheatre to see the BRE Music Awards show ($25) with two of the hottest sex symbols on the soul circuit: Bobby “My Prerogative” Brown and Al B. “Nite and Day” Sure!. Also appearing: jazz-tinged, a cappella gospel group Take 6, which won a recent Grammy Award. May 28. Information: (818) 980-9421.

June 4-June 10: Treat your ears to the spare, bluesy textures of the Cowboy Junkies ($19.50) June 8 at the Wiltern Theatre. This Canadian band with soulful vocals by Margo Timmins has the critics raving. Information: (213) 480-3232.

June 11-16: Browse through the oversize glitzy paintings of Frank Stella, America’s leading abstract artist, at the L.A. County Museum ($5.00 for adults, $3.50 for seniors and students with I.D., $2 for children 6 to 12 and free for those under 6). The show, which runs June 4 through Aug. 13, was well received in New York in its Museum of Modern Art installation. 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Information: (213) 857-6111.

Optional side trip: to San Diego to see “Latin American Spirit,” a survey of the Hispanic contribution to art in the United States from 1920 to 1970, ranging from the influence of the Mexican muralists to recent environmental works by such artists as Ralph Ferrer. At the San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park, to Aug. 6. Information: (619) 232-7931.

June 18-24: Settle in with Second City, one of America’s most renowned comedy troupes, many of whose alumni have gone on to become stars in television, movies and the theater. Tuesday through Thursday at 8:30 p.m., followed by an improv set ($12.95). Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. ($13.95), no improv set following. And Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ($12.95), with improv following. 214 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. Information: (213) 395-8416.

June 25-July 1: Jazz lovers have been waiting for this one: the first Southland appearance of an international 17-piece orchestra led by George Gruntz, the Swiss-born composer who for many years has been the musical director of the Berlin Jazz Festival ($15) on June 23 and 24 at 9 and 11 p.m. ($20). If you’ve got time, have dinner first at 7:30 p.m. (about $15) at Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Information: (213) 466-2210.

July 2-8: Movie marathon time. Catch up on all the Fourth of July extended weekend movies and those released thereabouts: “The Abyss,” the first film to be shot entirely under water; “Great Balls of Fire” with Dennis Quaid and Wynona Ryder; Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” and “Karate Kid III” with Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio. (All four shows, about $26).

July 9-15: Opening night at the Hollywood Bowl. Yuri Temiraknov of Leningrad directs the Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony, and pianist Vladimir Feltsman, a controversial Soviet emigre, plays the Beethoven Fourth Concerto, 8:30 p.m., July 11 ($15.50 for a seat in one of the bench sections). Go early and have dinner at the Bowl’s Patio restaurant below the box office ($12 to $18 per person). Information: (213) 850-2020.

July 16-22: Take in “Lethal Weapon II” ($6.50) with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The film is once again in the care of director Richard Donner and has its pair of detectives protecting a federal witness from a crime organization out to get him.

Then hop over to the Day of the Lotus Festival (free) and feast your eyes on the only public lotus bed in the county, which typically blooms in Echo Park Lake in July. Nineteen cultural groups of Asia and the Pacific Islands are represented at this event, which presents traditional and modern music, dragon boat races, origami demonstrations and other things. 1632 Bellevue Ave., Los Angeles. Information: (213 485-4825.

July 23-29: Haul out the gold monster cable and chill out with New York’s L.L. Cool J in “Rapper’s Delight” at the Universal Amphitheatre, July 25 and 26 ($20). Information: (818) 980-9421.

July 30-Aug.5: Check out a survey of the art of Marcel Broodthaers, a Belgian who inherited the Surrealist tradition of Rene Magritte and others, then moved it into environmental and conceptual art. ($4 general admission, $2 for seniors and students with I.D., free on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m.). MOCA, 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Information: (213) 621-2766. Then catch another favorite of the critics: “Distant Voices, Still Lives”($6.50), a pair of films from British director Terence Davies that are considered major treasures of last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Aug. 6-12: Travel to Cal State Northridge for the closing night of the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival (June 26 through Aug. 6). There will be four plays presented on the final evening ($15 prepaid, $20 at the door), including “Oscar & Martha” by Cuban-born Maria Irene Fornes and a new, as yet untitled work by John Steppling. Cal State Northridge Art and Design Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. Information: (818) 885-3093.

Aug. 13-29: Take in the Aug. 18 Southern California premiere of “Heathen Valley” ($18), the Romulus Linney play that won top honors in 1988 from the American Theatre Critics Assn. It continues through Sept. 16. at the Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Information: (714) 636-7213.

Aug. 20-26: Squeeze into those old bell bottoms and celebrate 25 years of rock ‘n’ roll with The Who ($25), on Aug. 26 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 3911 S. Figueroa St. Information: (213) 748-6131.

Aug. 27-Sept. 4: Hear Al Jarreau and Take 6, the Grammy-winning gospel sextet ($26.50), Aug. 31 through Sept. 2, at the Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. Information: (213) 410-1062.