After dancing around and debating about going or not I broke down and went this weekend. Why I was putting it off I don’t know.  It was actually a lot of fun, something one needs to do at least once in their life.  There is a lot of period confusion among the fair goers, its not all pure Medieval Renaissance times with some fun in the form of trolls, ogres and fairies tossed in for good measure.  But its all in good fun.

You get a good smattering of crafts, free wine tasting courtesy San Antonio winery, beer huts, music, free shows…minstrel, comedy/variety, magic and wenches all tossed in with some pretty good food too.

This isn’t a free event. Tickets at the door are $25 head, you can purchase slightly discounted tickets at select Walgreen stores enumerated HERE.  Parking at the Santa Fe dam will also set you back $10 bones for a dirt lot.  Map to location here near the junction of the 210/605 Freeways.  Better hurry as next weekend is the last weekend it will run this year.

Monrovia does things a little different.  In this case we turn Cinco de Mayo into a big street fair that is family friendly and hold it before the actual day.  We’ll be doing it Sunday April 29th to be precise.  The event is full of activities for kids, music and art featuring local artists.  It will even include a food drive for the Foothill Unity Center so bring a non perishable canned goods you can donate while you are there.

Details: Sunday April 29, Noon-9PM, Coloradao and Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia CA WEB SITE  MAP HERE

Paseo Spring Fest Post Card click to embiggen

I’m not a fan of malls, but I am a sucker for a good fine art event.  At least Paseo Colorado is a semi-open mall.   Paseo Spring Fest promises to be among the better ones as it is a juried event, meaning the artists have to be reviewed by a jury panel to ensure they are accomplished at what they do.

During your time at the art show if you need a break and feel the need for a little libations do stop in at the Bodega Wine Bar.

Parking is fairly good at the Paseo.  It is about 6 blocks, an easy walk from the Gold Line Memorial Park Station which is a pretty good option if you are mass transit enabled.

Details: Sat 10AM-6PM, Sun 11AM-6PM, 280 E. Colorado Blvd.Pasadena, CA MAP HERE

Pasadena Earth and Arts Festival poster, click to embiggen

You’d think I live in Pasadena given how often I post about the place, I don’t, but they always have something of interest going on.  This Saturday its the 10th Annual Pasadena Earth and Arts Festival to be held in and around the Armory Center for the Arts across from Memorial Park.  Here’s the run down of things that will be at this FREE festival:

• huge eco-market place with exhibitors private and public helping you to live green
• The Green Truck and Coolhaus food trucks for sustainable noshing
• First ever sustainable beer garden with a biodegradable “little red cup” featuring the beer from Craftsman Brewing Company and Eagle Rock Brewery
• Fallen Fruit will be there with its jam making wisdom.  Feel free to bring in your found fruit from public spaces or your own back yard.

For gawds sake take public transpo to the Gold Line and exit Memorial Park Station…you’ll be right at the park and only a very short walk to the Armory Center.  Show your metro pass or ticket at the Transportation Booth and they will have a gift for you…well a gift as long as the supply lasts.  Beats the difficulty in finding parking in the area which can be expensive when you do find a space and don’t forget that PPD does patrol hard for scofflaws.

Details:Saturday April 14, 2012 11AM-5PM, 145 Raymond Street, Pasadena CA, MAP HERE

It isn’t often I get jazzed about a press release’s contents but this event sounds too cool to pass up.  A tradition in some Asian countries is a night market wherein streets become giant markets for the night. That is is exactly what is happening this Saturday night in Pasadena on Oakland Avenue between Union and Colorado.  The event promises to be filled with music, food and merchandise all with an Asian flare to it.  Admission is FREE!

Parking is tough (and expensive and extensively patrolled for scofflaws) in that area.  I strongly suggest that if you are mass transit enabled do so and get yourself onto the Gold Line and take it to the Memorial Station and walk the couple of blocks it takes to get there.

Details: April 14, 2012, 5-11:30PM, Oakland Avenue, Pasadena  MAP HERE. 626 Night Market Web Site.

Full press release after the break. Read the rest of this entry →

Pair of Ford Focus at the Petersen Museum.

This promises to be an interesting event this coming Saturday on the steps of City Hall in Pasadena.  The folks at Clean Vehicle Rebate Project and the city of Pasadena are sponsoring the fair and it is free and open to everyone.

The EV Fair will feature a number of vehicles for test drives and on static display. As of now I have confirmed that a Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Toyota Prius Plug-In and CODA will be available for attendees to experience at the event. (Unfortunately Ford dealerships have not quite received the all-electric Focus so the dealers will not be participating. They are, however, working with Ford to provide a Focus EV for the event).   UPDATE 3/29 Ford will have a new Focus EV at the event.   They will also have a number of electric vehicle charging equipment providers at the event displaying products and providing information on home installation). Read the rest of this entry →

Freddy Douglas, (left) and Graham Hamilton duel over the woman they both love in "The Illusion" at A Noise Within. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

It was way back last September when I looked over the collection of productions planned for the acclaimed repertory company A Noise Within’s first season in its brand new Pasadena home. Of those plays set to be staged, the previously unheard of “The Illusion”  — a comedy written way back in the 17th century by Pierre Corneille and adapted by Tony Kushner — interested me the most, especially when I read it was about an estranged father going on a mystical journey to reunite with the son he’d long abandoned. Not to get all TMI or psychoanalytical but the reason it struck a chord is that I’m a son of an abandoning father whom I’ve never met and thus with that kind of baggage I quickly ordered up tickets to see what Corneille and Kushner might have to say on the subject. Then I waited. Six months. Until last night.

Going in, I had no expectations about the play but with many past experiences sitting before A Noise Within’s stage, I had every expectation the company would do an incredible job, and it most certainly did.

“The Illusion” opens with the father, Pridamant (Nick Ullett), venturing into a cave in search of the sorcerer Alcandre (Deborah Strang) to help reconnect him to the son (Graham Hamilton) he selfishly disavowed 15 years earlier. With the help of her servant Amanuensis (Jeff Doba) Alcandre conjures three episodes from the young man’s life. Pridamant watches with each scene finding the boy in a slightly different world where names change and allegiances shift, but only as the strange tale reaches its conclusion does he learn the ultimate truth.

Read the rest of this entry →

Click to embiggen..its the gallery invitation

This should be interesting.  7 local news photographers, 1 photographer/artist and one Disney artist are getting together to put on a show and reception this Saturday night.

Two of my favorite artists will be there.  Stephen Coleman a photographer and the Disney Artist, Rick Kess…pretty much ensures I’ll be in attendance.  Free food and booze doesn’t hurt either…sorta stimulating all your senses at once.

Deets: Saturday 7PM – 10PM, Paint n Play Art Studio and Art Gallery,  418 S Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia CA 91016  MAP HERE.

In the waning months of the last year of the last century spent toiling as the editor of a weekly newspaper in Pasadena a press packet landed on my desk detailing an exhibit at the Mendenhall Gallery and from it I discovered and become enthralled with the art of Richard Bunkall, a resident of the city and long-time instructor at Arts Center College of Design.

Little more than a week later, at the age of 45, Bunkall died after a five-year struggle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. In shock as I read the perfunctory obituary in the Pasadena Star-News, I mourned his passing somewhat selfishly in that I’d just found his heroic art. As such I wanted both to know more and share that with my readers, and thanks to the grace of his widow Sally during what had to be such a difficult time, she allowed myself and writer Kathleen August to intrude upon the Bunkall home, and access his studio, where he created his amazing works, and where surrounded by family and friends he passed in May 1999.

It was a deeply emotional experience and privilege, to say the least.

Q&A: Curator Peter Frank (center) is flanked by artists Kenton Nelson (left) and Ray Turner (right) as they discuss Bunkall's life and his art.

It was equally emotional to visit the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) last night for a standing-room-only event surrounded by some of his most profound and moving creations, to remember the man and his art and to celebrate the launch of a new book devoted to both, the first publication of the artist’s remarkable 25-year career as a painter and sculptor.

If this is your first time hearing about Richard Bunkall or it’s been a long time since you last thought about him, I’d encourage you to make a trip out to the PMCA to introduce or reacquaint yourself with his remarkable imagery before the exhibit, “Richard Bunkall: A Portrait” closes April 22.

Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 E. Union Street, Pasadena, 91101
When: Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 5 p.m., through April 22.
Cost: $7 adults; $5 seniors and students; free the first Friday of the month

It is what it is and this spokesperson at least gives a cohesive reason why the parade should be disrupted.  Although I don’t agree with it in its entirety, something has gone horribly wrong where this once largely free event is now costing us a fortune to even view the floats after the fact at Victory Park.  Hell, even some of the floats charge “Volunteers” for the privilege of helping to decorate.  If they disrupt I fear they stand more to lose more potential followers than they can gain. Is this being naughty or nice is up for debate.

We all know the story for required reading in High School.  To Kill A Mocking bird is set in 1935, the rural south and told from a child’s point of view.  It is about a black man accused of raping a white woman and exposes the racism of the period.  This cast gave a wonderful rendition of the play on their small intimate stage.

What I didn’t know is what a great little venue the Sierra Madre Playhouse is for such a play. It is small enough that you have an up close and personal view of the stage no matter where you are in the room.  The seats are nice and comfy stuffed theatre seats…though they are covered in bright red mouse fur.  Parking is ample and free near the theater.  One caveat, they don’t do assigned seating, rather its by cattle call Ala Southwest so you do need to be in line early in order to get the best seats.

I’ve been here in the SGV for many years and often heard of the Sierra Madre Playhouse, just never had the time to get there until last night for the short trek up the hill to see them.  If To Kill A Mockingbird is an indication of the quality production they do I’ll be back.  More information on Sierra Madre Playhouse’s presentation of To Kill A Mockingbird just pop onto their web link HERE.

It’s time to strap up, square off, and challenge yourself and your friends in an epic obstacle/adventure run experience! Dan Clark aka Nitro, from the original American Gladiators, is putting on the Gladiator Rock’n Run one-day challenge in Pasadena’s world famous Rose Bowl on October 1st.  Gladiator Rock’ n Run is a muddy, gritty, ultimate-test-of-wills event!  At the end of the run is the “Rock’n Rumble Pit” where you can square off against your friends and others, in Pugil Mayhem, Mud Tug-O-War, and other battle-hardened games, just like the old-school. Ages 14-and-up can participate, and racers are encouraged to form teams, wear over-the-top costumes, and get down and dirty! Plenty of freebies for finishers, including t-shirts from Affliction, and prizes for the top 3.

After the games are done, there’s 3 kickin’ bands ready to turn it up for the party,with food and free beer for race challenge participants (21+). Enjoy the event knowing that proceeds will go to benefit the charity TACA: (Talk About Curing Autism) Bring friends, family, and gawkers; it’ll be a muddy, wild, and awesome time, all for a good cause!More details can be found at their Web Site.  Contest info deets after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry →

This video showed up in my email this morning.  Not everyone in the SGV, include me among them, think that bears in our yards are a bad thing.  This homeowner had them in their Koi pond and enjoyed it tremendously.  They have the right idea, give them distance to stay safe and enjoy the visit the best you can.  Not all bear visits are bad news.

Last night was the kick off to the 125th Anniversary celebrations in Monrovia and it was a parade.  The Art Bears, 7 in total stole the show.  Each of them here get bigger with a click, sorry but a couple of them aren’t that sharp…low light and moving caused a lot of problems.  The whole parade on my flickr set.

Actually, its more like two-and-a-half days as the parade doesn’t start until 7PM on Thursday, but the next two days will be busy in Old Town Monrovia.  We’re celebrating our 125th birthday and all are welcome to attend…its a folksy-homey-small-towny kind of event.  All the information you could want is on the city web HERE, with a special section for the 3.5 mile “Fountain to the Falls Walk/Run” HERE.  Map of center of Old Town HERE.  Seriously, it is all a lot of fun, especially if you have kids, I certainly will be around for most of it. Read the rest of this entry →