The mission of the wonderfully named Parson’s Nose Productions is to introduce “classic theater to family audiences,” through original one-hour adaptations of dramatic masterpieces. These staged readings are designed to be both smart enough for grownups and boisterous enough for kids, though this week’s play is maybe a little heavy for the single digit set. [...]
Hardcover Fiction Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris Hollywood Hills, Joseph Wambaugh Reversal, Michael Connelly Confession, John Grisham Our Kind of Traitor, John Le Carre Fall of Giants, Ken Follett Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson Help, Kathryn Stockett Mary Ann in Autumn, Armistead Maupin Hardcover Non-Fiction Decision [...]
Once upon a time, as a college student, I put together a walking tour for a New York guidebook that covered many of the city’s famous deaths. It is in a similar spirit, I’ll venture, that the odd gentlemen of Esotouric have put together a bus tour of some of the San Gabriel Valley’s more [...]
It turns out Altadena, to the surprise of almost no-one, is full of backyard farmers—especially backyard chicken farmers. Last month, these industrious suburban homesteaders gathered at the Zane Grey Estate to sell their produce at an “underground” (because held on private land) farmers’ market. We didn’t write about it then because we didn’t want to [...]
The Playhouse was always going to survive—you can’t have a Playhouse District without a Playhouse, right? Right: the grand reopening was a month ago, with Ed Asner in FDR. Their second show is another one-performer piece: Uptown Downtown, in which the Tony-winning Leslie Uggams musically recounts her winding road to success, from Sing Along with [...]
Helen of Pasadena came out last week. Have you bought it yet? No? Waiting for the right moment? How about this Sunday, when author Lian Dolan will be appearing at Vroman’s to discuss, sign, and otherwise be fabulous. Even if you have a copy already, come by and get it signed by Pasadena’s very own [...]
The Pasadena Museum of California Art is a great little museum. Their exhibits are consistently interesting and their event programming is not shabby, either. Now that the summer exhibits, including the Design Biennial, are closed, it’s time for a fresh slate of California art. In the main gallery until March will be the porcelains and [...]
KPCC has a lot of good (in person, non-radio) programming, which we don’t mention as often as probably we should. In the name of guilt, then, we recommend this Sunday’s live staged reading of There or Here, a play by Jennifer Maisel in which a couple, as the title of this post oh so subtly [...]
My father, despite being of Ashkenazi descent, is convinced he is Irish at heart. Why? The music (it really gets to him). Bagpipes are best, but fiddle is a close second. He was understandably overjoyed, then, to hear that Eileen Ivers will be playing Caltech this Friday. She’s the queen of the fiddle, the winner [...]
It is becoming increasingly hard to pun on A Noise Within, Southern California’s only classical theater repertory company. Their latest production is Great Expectations, which, yes, is Dickens, but has a powerful new stage adaptation by Neil Bartlett. There’s original music by Doug Newell—does that mean it’s a musical? Unclear. The original Dickens novel is [...]
