Imagine Joan Crawford-turned-Frankenstein-reborn-as-Honey Boo Boo. Only then will you begin to understand the monster at the center of Frozen, the story of a woman who must reanimate her cryogenically frozen, narcissistic mother and raise her from childhood. Elizabeth is determined to re-raise horrible Helen to be the mom she deserves, but her mother-turned-daughter is worse [...]
He liked to mow lawns and garden. He became mesmerized with the effects of peroxide when he experimented on his own hair. After seeing a Vidal Sassoon team—so put-together and dashing—at McLaren Hall, he chose their image as a role model. He attended 9 high schools and as many different foster care homes in a [...]
HP: You were heavily involved in the recent debut of LitFest Pasadena. How and why did you get involved? What was the goal of this event and do you think you and the other organizers achieved it? How do you see LitFest growing, expanding, and changing in the years ahead? TC: I was first introduced [...]
Steve Skrovan: stand-up comic; talk show host on MTV; game show host of “That’s My Dog”; writer on “Seinfeld” and “Everybody Loves Raymond”; writer, producer and director of “An Unreasonable Man,” a documentary about Ralph Nader; and a dedicated supporter of Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization, which advocates on behalf of Americans citizens before Congress, [...]
In answer to our question about his “landmark” textbook, Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past, William Deverell responded, “Landmark? You must have been talking to my mother.” Actually, we were researching our subject, and we stumbled upon whitewashedadobe.com. The site discusses Deverell’s book and the four one-hour [...]
Not surprisingly, as the son of Guatemalan parents, a L.A. native, a former Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Buenos Aires, and a weekly local columnist, Héctor Tobar’s fiction is infused with the desire to illuminate the complex layers, significance, and consequences of cultural and ethnic differences and conflict. His latest novel, The Barbarian Nurseries, is an [...]
Our first exposure to Ulla Anobile’s art was at Cactus Gallery & Gifts in Eagle Rock. The piece was called Dirge Singer, and as that name sounds, it was rather formidable and a bit frightening for those of us weaned on simple Americana. The work springs from a piece resembling wood with claw-like roots, and is [...]
How about this as a hobby: spending years (years!) researching Los Angeles spas and massage-therapy places. (We are so loving this already.) And now these two professional women, Brenda Goldstein and Gail Herndon, both of Pasadena, have written a book about their findings: The Spa Less Traveled: Discovering Ethnic Los Angeles, One Massage at a Time. How [...]
When he’s not busy overseeing the Scholarship Audition Performance Preparatory Academy (SAPPA), an organization aimed at providing free music lessons to young Pasadenans, Billy Mitchell spends his time churning out sweet jazz tunes with his band, the Billy Mitchell Group. The eight-piece band will be playing a free concert this Friday, August 12 at Pasadena’s Levitt [...]
Hilary Thomas, artistic director for Lineage Dance, is a Pasadena native whose love for dance and charity have combined to create a successful organization. Thomas is not only the creator of Lineage Dance Company, but she is also a teacher at a Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada. She began fueling her passion for dance [...]
