Pasadena’s A Noise Within celebrates its 25th year (and its fifth in Pasadena, after 20 years in Glendale) with a particularly effective and timely rendition of Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, King Lear. Their choice to dress the players in 1940s era costume makes the action more immediate, contemporary, and unflinchingly political, bringing to mind the Netflix …
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If you’ve been in Los Angeles for more than a week or three, you start to notice things, and you may begin to wonder about them. Like why is there a Hollywood sign, and why did it used to say Hollywoodland, as seen in The Rocketeer? Why are LA’s so-called rivers just ugly concrete trenches? What’s with all the palm trees? And why is this place so spread out?
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There is a supposed “Ancient Chinese Curse”, which of course is neither ancient nor Chinese: May you lead an interesting life. May you attract the attention of famous people. May you get what you want. This has never been so clearly seen in effect as the time I won a date, well, technically a ride, …
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I’m not nostalgic for much about the ’80s; the graphic design and fashion trends were hideous, the music was largely disposable, the movies often forgettable, but there were some great things about the ’80s. One of those was Original New York Seltzer, a delicious and refreshing beverage that seemed to suddenly vanish from the market sometime in the early ’90s.
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Visiting a mission with your children provides an opportunity to step back in time and experience the history of California. Most of the missions display art and historical artifacts, and many have living history and other special events.
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Afternoon Tea at the The Langham Hotel, Pasadena is like stepping through a glorious doorway to another time and continent. Relax in the beautiful surroundings overlooking the gardens while you savor a wonderful array of tea sandwiches, scones with Devonshire cream, tarts, luscious fruit, and delicate French macarons as you sip from the elegant Wedgwood …
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The central theme of “Blue Collar, Black Tie” has always been about experiences; getting to do fun things without spending a lot of money. Sometimes that means going to a concert, theatre or art gallery, and other times it means doing something silly in public just because you can. Today we’re going to talk about the latter.
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Last Saturday, to celebrate my birthday, Terri got us tickets to see Wayne Brady in Kiss Me, Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse. I expected Brady to be very good in the role of egotistical actor-director-producer Fred Graham, but what I didn’t expect was how good everyone else in the cast would be, nor how effectively Director Sheldon Epps would reinvent Cole Porter’s classic backstage musical about a theater company staging a production of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed our exploration of some of the interesting things to see around LA; we plan to continue to show you around town as we find things to show you. Meanwhile, here’s a look at a few destinations we had to skip due to distance, traffic, or time constraints.
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