Permit us to share some in-house joy: At the annual Southern California Independent Bookseller Awards Saturday night at the Biltmore, Susan Campoy’s cookbook, Celebrating with Julienne (which we distribute) won Best Nonfiction Book 2009. It was chosen by the booksellers themselves as their favorite nonfiction book published in the last year by an author with [...]
Stockton native Ray Turner arrived in Pasadena in 1982 to study painting at Art Center College of Design and never looked back. The moment he earned his BFA, Art Center hired him to teach painting, which he did for sixteen years, while working on his own paintings and building a career. During this time he [...]
Given his devotion to Altadena, you might think that Timothy Rutt, writer/editor/chief bottlewasher at Altadenablog.com, was a native. In fact, he hails from Fort Collins, Colorado, and he found his way to California the way so many do — seeking success in the entertainment industry. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Colorado, [...]
Pasadena, for all of its innumerable charms and attractions, isn’t exactly known as a rock and roll hotbed. A full generation after the rise of Pasadena shred-legends Van Halen, however, the band Holy Grail is looking to restore the 626 to its status as the birthplace of rock legends. The latest band to emerge from [...]
Altadena resident (and native) Michelle Huneven is one of our finest writers, and if you doubt it for a moment, pick up her third novel, Blame, just published by Farrar Straus Giroux. A quietly captivating tale of a talented and beautiful Pasadena professor who struggles with alcoholism, men and, most of all, the guilt for [...]
Our pal Adrienne Crew has a lovely interview on the L.A. Weekly‘s excellent food blog, Squid Ink, with Julia Child Prud’homme, namesake to her famous great-aunt. Julia the younger, an actress who now lives in Hollywood, grew up in southwest Pasadena and shares memories about visits there with her great-aunt and uncle. If you’ve seen [...]
I first met Rebecca Bonebrake while we were both working at a nonprofit theatre camp a couple hours outside of L.A. I was wary when we were paired up as counselors, but I soon found that my concerns were unfounded. Beyond having the best name ever, she was fun and entertaining, and I’d never been [...]
As promised, here’s Part 2 of our Q & A with Pasadena artist Jacquelyn McBain; here’s a link to Part 1. Jacquelyn McBain doesn’t produce a lot of work, but she works very, very hard, which is evident when you see her paintings — they are astonishingly detailed, richly colorful and as meticulously crafted as [...]
Pasadena artist Jacquelyn McBain doesn’t produce a lot of work, but she works very, very hard, which is evident when you see her paintings — they are astonishingly detailed, richly colorful and as meticulously crafted as any of the Old Masters. Her work doesn’t get to be seen often enough locally; she is represented by [...]
A true daughter of the San Gabriel Valley, Trish Albright grew up in Pasadena’s Hastings Ranch, escaping her hilly suburban neighborhood to romp in the wilds of Eaton Canyon and catch polliwogs in the streams of Sierra Madre. Her mother says, “Her nose was always in a book,” and Trish used to teased her friends [...]
