Arroyo Monthly March 2011 by Southland Publishing

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MARCH 2011

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ARROYO VOLUME 7 ~ NUMBER 3

M O N T H LY

12 THE GARDEN ISSUE 8 FLIGHTS OF FANCY A horticulturist transforms her South Pasadena garden into a butterfly habitat. –By Ilsa Setziol

12 GRASS, BEGONE! A La Cañada Flintridge couple plants an award-winning French Provincial garden that’s sustainable. –By Bettijane Levine

22 RETURNING TO THE HUNTINGTON’S ROOTS Henry Huntington’s interest in agriculture is evoked by the new Huntington Ranch, a lab for sustainable urban agriculture. –By Noela Hueso

ART 25 A LOST TALE SoCal sculptor John Frame creates an animated world of tarnished antiquity for a new exhibition at The Huntington. –By Lynne Heffley

DEPARTMENTS 7 FESTIVITIES FIDM unveils the Art of Motion Picture Costume Design, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra gala and Masters of the American West at the Autry

37 KITCHEN CONFESSIONS So you think all salt is created equal?

PHOTO: Orly Olivier

Think again.

39 DINING Eagle Rock Brewery, where ale lovers make hearty beer without fear 44 THE LIST 1960s abstract painters at the Norton Simon, the world’s largest blossoming plant in Sierra Madre, Descanso’s Mind and Body Retreat and more ABOUT THE COVER: Photo © istockphoto.com/Christian Musat

ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 5

EDITOR’S NOTE

SUSTAINABILITY IS ALL WELL AND GOOD — BETTER than that, actually — but the word can send shivers down the spines of homeowners who envision low-water grounds dotted with spiky cacti and cow skulls. As La Caňada Flintridge’s Jeanie and Terry Kay discovered, the operative landscape to envision and borrow from isn’t Death Valley but the balmy Mediterranean. Cassy Aoyagi, co-founder of FormLA Landscaping and president of The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants, transformed the gardens surrounding the Kays’ French Provincial home into a colorful, elegant setting fit for a villa in the South of France. Bettijane Levine visited the awardwinning garden and filed her report in this issue. And don’t forget the beauty certain fauna can bring to your flora — namely, the regal butterfly. You don’t have to rely on luck to lure a painted lady or two. They’re as picky about their diet as their human counterparts, and in this issue, Ilsa Setziol serves up menus for attracting your butterfly of choice. Next month, you can see a butterfly garden in action at the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, where garden designer David Snow is creating a habitat for monarchs, swallowtails, fritillaries and, yes, painted ladies. Of course, gardening methodology is always undergoing improvement, and over at The Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens, a new site has sprouted up for experiments in urban agriculture. Noela Hueso checks out The Huntington Ranch and brings back tips for your own victory garden. Also at The Huntington, sculptor John Frame unveils Three Fragments of a Lost Tale, a stop-motion animated film depicting a world of tarnished antiquity, populated by his curious puppet-like figurines. Lynne Heffley talks with this fascinating SoCal artist and reports back from the arts front. — Irene Lacher

ARROYO MONTHLY Altadena, Arcadia, Eagle Rock, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Sierra Madre, Pasadena, San Marino and South Pasadena

EDITOR IN CHIEF Irene Lacher PRODUCTION MANAGER Yvonne Guerrero ART DIRECTOR Joel Vendette JUNIOR DESIGNER Eisen Nepomuceno WEB DESIGNER Carla Marroquin COPY EDITOR John Seeley CONTRIBUTORS Leslie Bilderback, Michael Burr, Michael Cervin, Scarlet Cheng, André Coleman, Mandalit del Barco, Patt Diroll, Gary Dretzka, Jenn Garbee, Lynne Heffley, Noela Hueso, Katie Klapper, Ilsa Setziol, Kirk Silsbee, John Sollenberger, Nancy Spiller, Bradley Tuck PHOTOGRAPHERS Johnny Buzzerio, Teri Lyn Fisher, Gabriel Goldberg, C.M. Hardt, Melissa Valladares ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dina Stegon ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Fred Bankston, Leslie Lamm, Heidi Peterson, Cynthia Vazquez ADVERTISING DESIGNER Carla Marroquin VP OF FINANCE Michael Nagami HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Andrea Baker

CONTACT US ADVERTISING dinas@pasadenaweekly.com EDITORIAL arroyoeditor@pasadenaweekly.com PHONE (626) 584-1500 FAX (626) 795-0149 MAILING ADDRESS 50 S. De Lacey Ave., Ste. 200, Pasadena, CA 91105

BUSINESS MANAGER Angela Wang ACCOUNTING Alysia Chavez, Monica MacCree

ArroyoMonthly.com

OFFICE ASSISTANT Claudia Solano PUBLISHER Jon Guynn

6 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

FESTIVITIES

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising unveiled its 19th annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition Feb. 5, showcasing more than 100 costumes from some 20 movies –– including The Young Victoria, which won last year’s costume design Oscar for Sandy Powell, nominated again this year for The Tempest. The FIDM show in downtown L.A. includes those costumes as well as this year’s other nominees: Alice in Wonderland by Colleen Atwood, I Am Love by Antonella Cannarozzi, The King’s Speech by Jenny Beavan and True Grit by Mary Zophres. Atwood, already an Oscar winner, and Zophres attended the event. The exhibition, free to the public, runs until April 30.

1. Billy Davis, Jr., and Marilyn McCoo 2. Colleen Atwood and Mary Zophres 3. FIDM’s Barbara Bundy, Kevin Jones and Christina Johnson MAIN: Judianna Makovsky, costume designer of Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone and Seabiscuit

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra honored Pasadena arts philanthropists Carol and Warner Henry during its ninth annual benefit winter gala, PHOTOS: Alex J. Berliner/abimages (FIDM); Lee Salem (LACO); Jamie Phan (Autry)

“From Bach to Bossa Nova,” at the

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown L.A. Feb. 12. Samba dancers and drum-

The 14th annual Masters of the 1

American West Fine Art Exhibition

mers were on hand to greet orchestra

and Sale at the Autry National

supporters before a concert highlighted

Center opened on Feb. 5, drawing 650

by guest artists Luciana Souza, a

art aficionados from around the coun-

Brazilian-born bossa nova crossover

try. Griffith Park's important show of

vocalist, and Derek Bermel, LACO’s

Western art, featuring 276 new works

composer-in-residence. Guests includ-

by 75 artists, raised more than $3.2

ed LACO’s founding music director, Sir

million on opening night. “Although

Neville Marriner, Alice and Joe

many of the artists are painting in very

Coulombe, Jerry and Terri Kohl,

1. Dr. Robert and Marybeth Cutietta

traditional ways... we have a lot of

Marshall Rutter and Terry Knowles

2. Joyce Fienberg with Jeffrey Kahane

artists in the Masters show that take

and Steve Scharf.

3. Terry Knowles, Sir Neville Marriner, Rachel Fine and Marshall Rutter

unexpected risks,” said Amy Scott,

MAIN: Princesas de Bateria from SambaLA with Carol and Warner Henry

of Visual Arts.

1. Howard Terpning with Saralynn and John Geraghty 2. Peters Family (from left): Nanette, Kate, Bryce and Robert

Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator

ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 7

THE GARDEN ISSUE

FLIGHTSOFFANCY A HORTICULTURIST TRANSFORMS HER SOUTH PASADENA GARDEN INTO A BUTTERFLY HABITAT.

WHEN BARBARA EISENSTEIN AND HER HUSBAND, JIM, MOVED INTO THEIR SOUTH PASADENA HOME A DOZEN YEARS AGO, IT WAS LIKE MANY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: AN ARCHITECTURALLY SIGNIFICANT HOME — A 1910 CRAFTSMAN — SURROUNDED BY A FAIRLY BANAL GARDEN. THE GROUNDS WERE MOSTLY LAWN, ALBEIT STUDDED WITH MATURE TREES. A FEW BIRDS PERCHED IN THE OAK, BUT IT WASN’T THE MINIATURE NATURE PRESERVE THAT ENCIRCLES THEIR HOME TODAY. Over the years, the lawn lost ground and was supplanted by wildlife-supporting native shrubs, including ceanothus and sages, and herbaBarbara Eisenstein ceous plants such as monkey flower, penstemons and yarrow. Today the garden pulses with vibrant colors, bird song and the slurping and munching of lizards, caterpillars, butterflies and other small dinner guests. Eisenstein is a horticulturist –– formerly outreach coordinator at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont –– who lectures on native plants and blogs about her garden at wildsuburbia.blogspot.com. She has photographed swallowtails, painted ladies, monarchs, Gulf fritillaries and other butterflies feasting on her plants. Her photos and writings encourage people to examine native gardens closely. “The plants are very delicate and beautiful,” she says, “but sometimes you have to stop and look, even take out a magnifying lens.” Eisenstein says butterflies aren’t just pretty; they entice people to observe and understand nature. “You’re busy, walking by, but if a monarch or a swallowtail flies by, you’re likely to stop.” Eisenstein’s knowledge of butterflies evolved with her garden. She’d see one, then dash to a field guide to identify it and determine its host plant. She learned that adult butterflies will sip from a variety of petite flowers, native and nonnative, but caterpillars eat only certain leaves. “The butterflies, in most cases, are looking for specific plants or groups of plants on which they can lay their eggs,” 8 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

says Brent Karner, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. “You can plant as many nectar plants as you want, but butterflies are only going to be in your area and stick around if you have the plant on which the caterpillar feeds.” In Eisenstein’s garden, adult giant swallowtails (Papilio cresphontes) — flashy yellow and black butterflies –– might sip from her sages, but their young chomp on citrus. (The abundance of cultivated citrus in Southern California has prompted this once rare butterfly to proliferate widely.) So many native plants support butterflies that planting a variety, even without a lot of planning, will likely create a stage for butterfly ballets. For gardeners new to natives, Eisenstein recommends easy-to-grow cea-nothus Ray Hartman, Verberna lilacina, mountain penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus “Margarita BOP”) and yarrows. “The first summer they need some water to get going,” she notes, but after that, “none of them want a lot of summer water, so try to find part of your garden where you’re not going to water as much.” Connie Day, whose Santa Monica garden is a certified monarch way station, advises placing butterfly plants in sunny spots. “They don’t put their eggs on plants in the shade, because it’s not warm enough for them to grow,” she says. If you’re not up for a major redesign, try native and other butterfly plants in containers — and do provide water year-round. “Even if you just have a patio where you can put a few pots,” Eisenstein says, “everybody can do something to make the world a little healthier.” After you’ve started your butterfly plants, just sit back and observe. Don’t spray them (duh!), and look closely for teeny butterfly larvae. “If you see something you think is a bug or a worm, I would leave it there,” advises Day. “That little ‘worm’ just might be the makings of a monarch.” AM Ilsa Setziol is a freelance environment reporter who blogs at ramblingla.com.

PHOTO: Elizabeth Eisenstein

BY ILSA SETZIOL

ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES — AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO STICK AROUND –– WITH THESE PLANTING TIPS MONARCH These charismatic orange-and-black butterflies deposit their eggs only on milkweed plants. The black, yellow and white–striped caterpillars nurse on the plants’ alkaloid sap, which makes them toxic to predators. Exotic milkweeds are readily available, but some research suggests they leave the butterflies more vulnerable to parasites than the natives do. A good source for milkweed seed is butterflyencounters.com. When positioning milkweeds, keep in mind that some are not beauties, and the voracious caterpillars will defoliate them. It’s the butterflies that dazzle. LADIES Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is sometimes called the cosmopolitan because it’s thought to be the most widespread butterfly globally. This small orange-and-black insect migrates into Southern California from Mexico in late winter or spring. It’s the one schoolkids rear in classrooms. Among the plants that host its young are lupines, mallows — even the vacant-lot variety called cheeseweed –– and thistles. Native and PHOTOS: Nate Larimer (Common Buckeye); Barbara Eisenstein (Monarch and Ladies)

exotic mallows are easy to grow. Lupines provide a COMMON BUCKEYE Despite the name, these small brown butterflies are

gorgeous blue accent in a native plant garden; they are

uncommonly lovely. Their

nature’s comple-

wings are adorned with

ment to orange

large eye-like spots in a

poppies.

kaleidoscope of blues, yel-

Resident

lows, pinks, oranges and

West Coast ladies

black. “One of the reasons

(Vanessa annabel-

buckeyes are still relatively common in Southern California is because their caterpillars eat members of the snapdragon family,” says entomologist Brent Karner. But don’t panic if your snapdragons get chewed up, he adds. The plants will rebound — and perhaps grow even more vigorously. Know that “you’re going

la) will frequent the same plants. Both species sip from sunflowers and buckwheats (Eriogonum species). Eisenstein grows California buck-

to get some nice butterflies out of the deal.” Eisenstein’s garden features another

wheat. It sports little orbs of creamy white-to-

buckeye host plant — native monkey flower (mimulus species).

pinkish flowers that dry to a rust color. ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 9

THE GARDEN ISSUE

GULF FRITILLARY This pumpkin-colored butterfly, with black-and-silver accents, is native to Mexico and the Southeastern U.S. The gray caterpillars brandish horizontal orange stripes and black spines. The insect moved into coastal California when its host plants — passion vines — became popular in gardens. Avoid blue crown passion flower (Passiflora caerulea); it’s a weedy plant that can escape gardens and damage wildlands. 10 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

SWALLOWTAILS In addition to the giant swallowtail, two other types frequent local gardens. Named for the tiger-like stripes on their yellow wings, the Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) will drink from a variety of plants commonly found at nurseries, including lantana and aster family plants such as zinnia. Eisenstein grows native seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus) and a variety of sunflowers. These swallowtails deposit their eggs primarily on sycamore trees, but they also use poplars, cottonwood, willows and alders. The anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) is also abundant here, lured by exotic sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), which has become a roadside weed and wildland invader. Skip the fennel; attract it with native plants from the carrot family. –– Ilsa Setziol

PHOTOS: Robert Lawton (Cloudless Sulphr); Barbara Eisenstein (Swallowtail and Gulf Fritillary)

CLOUDLESS SULPHUR This pretty pale yellow butterfly has become rare in recent years. It depends on native cassia and senna plants, but the exotic ones found in conventional nurseries don’t do the trick, according to Karner. So ask your local nursery to order the natives or visit the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley or Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

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ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 11

THE GARDEN ISSUE

GRASS, BEGONE! A LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE COUPLE TRADED IN THEIR WATER-GUZZLING LAWN FOR AN AWARD-WINNING FRENCH PROVINCIAL GARDEN THAT’S SUSTAINABLE. BY BETTIJANE LEVINE PHOTOS BY ORLY OLIVIER

Leptospermum scoparium “Ruby Glow” (tea tree) at its fiery best

GRASS IS GOOD. BUT COULD GRAVEL BE BETTER? THAT WAS THE QUESTION FOR JEANIE AND TERRY KAY, WHOSE CHARMING COUNTRY FRENCH CHATEAU STRADDLES A SMALL RISE ON A STREET OF CUSTOM HOMES IN LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE. Their white brick mini-villa — with its tall welcoming windows and elegant sheltered door — looks like it might be a centuries-old transplant from some nobleman’s estate in Southern France. It was actually built in 1998, and the Kays are the first to live there. “The house itself was perfect from the moment we moved in,” says Jeanie Kay. But the unbroken carpet of grass that sloped from house to street just never made sense to her. “It was boring. It did nothing to enhance the home’s architecture. It didn’t even have a path up to the door. Visitors had to walk up the driveway to get there. I had this idea that our front garden should be French, because that’s the style of our house.” She’d also come to realize there were ecological considerations that were equally important. “We wanted our garden to reflect our values,” Kay continues. “We are concerned with the ecology, the environment; we try to conserve natural resources. We both drive Priuses. And yet, we were using Gravel ponds lead up to the front entrance.

12 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

—CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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ARROYO

HOME&DESIGN CAROL COBABE DESIGN

I’M GOING TO BREAK MY USUAL RULE AND WRITE THIS COLUMN IN THE FIRST PERSON FOR A CHANGE. (THAT IS, IF MY EDITOR LETS ME GET AWAY WITH IT.) YES, IT’S GOOD TO SHAKE THINGS UP A BIT EVERY NOW AND THEN. BUT, TO BE HONEST, THE REASON I’M OPENING A WINDOW INTO MY PERSONAL LIFE IS NOT BECAUSE I HAVE A YEN FOR JOURNALISTIC ADVENTURE BUT BECAUSE THIS IS AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE VIRTUE OF DESIGNERS, AND I’LL NEVER FORGET A CERTAIN PAIR OF DRAPERIES. I was on a budget, not a newlywed but just past it, and I loathed the draperies in our first house. Loathed is not too strong a term either — these were heavy, dark, pooling, billowy dust collectors in a pattern that reminded me of writhing worms. I flipped through design magazines, found a spread that included photos of sheers floating in an afternoon breeze and drooled. Sheers seemed simple enough. So I marched off to a local store and purchased a batch of lacy panels that seemed perfect. Seemed — but most definitely were not. They looked great hanging there on display but, in my living room, they looked just plain stupid and more than a little drab. “They’re fine,” my husband assured a very worried me when he got home. “You’re just not used to them.” But I never did make peace with those draperies. Every morning and too many evenings for the next ten years I never passed them without flinching. Others have walked in my path, Carol Cobabe of Carole Cobabe Design assures me. “Because of our training and schooling for the business of interior design we have the expertise in doing the job right the first time,” says the Pasadena-based designer. “People might think they have a good eye for design but end up making costly mistakes.” My mistake, for instance, was failing to recognize that there’s more than

DÉCOR THAT’S A DELIGHT, NOT A DISASTER

just picking something pretty when trying to find the right item to complement a room. As James Coane of James V. Coane & Associates in Pasadena advises: ‘Decorating’ is really just one of the steps of the interior design process. “Like in a good movie or a good book, all the small details and scenes decided upon in the design and decorating must support and reaffirm the overall story being told,” Coane continues. “One of the designer’s primary responsibilities is to ensure that everyone ‘sticks to the script’!” Space planning plays a key role in this script. “This means making sure that the scale of ‘X’ chair works with ‘Y’ sofa,” says Cynthia Bennett of Cynthia Bennett and Associates in South Pasadena. “The size of the furniture can be verified on the floor plan as well as the elevations, to make sure that everything fits and is not too high or too low, or too wide or too narrow.”

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ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 15

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Timing is important, too, adds Terri Julio of Day of Design in Arcadia. Designers help ensure that a project runs on a fluid schedule that requires no change orders, with all the important decisions made by the time contractors require them. Additionally, a designer’s duty may be simply to reassure the client that they have done their homework well. “The designer can fine tune the project to be practically worry-free for the client,” Julio concludes. Here’s how I have come to see it. A designer is both composer and conductor, someone with the knowledge, skill and artistry to maneuver all the necessary elements — all the strings and brasses and the woodwinds and percussion — into a masterful composition. Somehow, magically, as each component joins the others, a glorious symphony emerges. —CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

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And the audience applauds. “We make sure the patterns and colors work with the rug, window treatments, wall color, artwork and accessories,” says Bennett, whose designbuild firm consists of a team of designers, project managers, sub-contractors and administrative staff. “We walk you through the whole process from beginning to end, with every detail specified so it maximizes the probability to stay on schedule and on budget.” Cobabe agrees. “We designers have all the necessary tools to do the job as costefficiently as possible,” she says. “We establish a rapport with our workrooms and installers to alleviate any error that can happen along the design process.” But a good designer brings more to the table than rapport with a workroom. “Because of our professional experience and personal interests, architects and designers are intimately familiar with current trends and established historical precedents,” Coane explains. “We know what has worked well in the past from our collections of books and journals as well as what works in our own modern practice.” In other words, working with a designer means the client can sit back and enjoy the journey. “Aesthetically, we can design the total interior vision of a space often with small amounts of input from clients about their likes and dislikes,” Coane continues. “We can ensure that the interior design is a totally personally satisfying experience. Clients can focus on the design with us while we quietly handle some of the less interesting day-today coordinating, tracking and administration needed to complete a project successfully.” But, Coane cautions, caveat emptor. There’s more to selecting a designer than liking his or her work. “Selecting a designer is a very personal decision,” Coane tells me. —CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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THE GARDEN ISSUE

—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

gallons of water and putting chemicals into the earth to maintain this lawn which we didn’t really like.” Of course, they’re “not perfect conservationists,” she quickly adds. “We have grass in back that we wanted to keep. And we still do all the Christmas lights — just can’t seem to give that up.” Finally, after a decade of keeping their front lawn in pristine condition, the Kays decided to chuck it. They called in sustainable landscape expert Cassy Aoyagi, co-founder (with her husband, Kirk), of Tujunga-based FormLA Landscaping. It’s an award-winning firm devoted to creating gardens that are low water and low maintenance, yet intriguingly lush and architecturally appropriate for the homes they surround. Aoyagi and Kay bonded immediately, Kay says. “She instantly understood my concern that the garden didn’t complement the architecture.” As for Aoyagi, she says she was impressed that Kay was “a woman ahead of her time. Just look around you. We all talk about sustainable landscape, but this block, this city, this whole country is filled with almost nothing but traditional grass lawns.” She’s right, of course. Arroyoland, indeed much of the Los Angeles area, is awash in grass — acres of it, from small patches fronting bungalows and cottages to estate lawns large enough for flocks of sheep. For homeowners here and across the country, the front lawn is all-American, a symbol of democracy, a vote for this country that allows anyone of humble origins to work his or her way up to land ownership. In England and Europe, where Lavandula “Goodwin Creek”

The fields of gravel are dotted with islands of Tuscan blue rosemary in the foreground, elfin thyme between the flagstones, lavender, roses transplanted from the Kays’ preexisting garden and more.

20 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

the lawn fetish first began, only titled aristocrats were allowed for centuries to own land. Lawns also weren’t popular in early America, where the working classes had to use whatever land they had for farming and other productive purposes. But during the home-building boom that followed World War II, the lawn became iconic — even in regions where rain was rare and front yards of a different sort would have been more suitable. Even now, grass continues to reign supreme, a vestigial moat that separates one’s private property from passers-by on the public street. In Aoyagi’s opinion, many lawns in Southern California should be considered as obsolete as actual moats. “Here’s the problem: People are not informed about their options,” Aoyagi says. “They think if they want to take out their lawn, they have to replace it with all sorts of cactus, succulents, spiny things. They think their front yard will look like a desert. We’re here to prove they are wrong. Their new landscape can be very lush, interesting, beautiful. We can use plants and trees from regions of the world that have a climate similar to that of Southern California: Chile, South Africa, Australia, the Mediterranean basin. Using natives from those regions opens up a whole new world of plant material that is enormous. You’ve actually expanded your garden horizons, made an opportunity to create more habitat, bring more butterflies, more hummingbirds, more flowers and biodiversity — all while creating a landscape that’s more interesting and more architecturally fitting for your home. And it will be a landscape that saves water, lowers maintenance and eliminates chemicals.” Aoyagi is used to explaining all this. Through the Theodore Payne Foundation (she’s president of the Board of Directors) and numerous garden-oriented organizations, she teaches sustainable landscape to homeowners and professional landscapers throughout Southern California. In 2010, she was named Landscape Teacher of the Year by the City of Santa

Monica’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment. She’s also an LEEDaccredited licensed contractor. FormLA co-designer Isara Ongwiseth immediately started researching gardens of French Provincial dwellings in the Mediterranean basin. One of his specialties, he says, is “honoring the natural and cultural history” of sites on which he works. In this case, he found that gravel was a major component of gardens in France, along with a stunning array of plants that offered color, texture, fragrance and sculptural beauty. The firm decided to create the look and feel of such a garden for the Kays. It was a dream come true for Jeanie Kay, who had seen an exquisite book of photo essays titled Sun-Drenched Gardens: The Mediterranean Style, by Jan Smithen (who happens to live in Southern California). “I wanted my front garden to look like some of those photos,” she says. She also wanted to preserve some plants and trees that surrounded her lawn before the makeover. “My roses were favorites,” she says. “A great thing about FormLA is that they let you keep existing plants and find a way to incorporate them into the new landscape.” According to the plan crafted by Ongwiseth and Aoyagi, the lawn was removed and replaced with a sumptuous stylized array of plantings traversed by meandering, free-form flagstone paths surrounded by gravel. One path leads from the driveway to the front door, another from the street to the door. “Now visitors actually experience the garden instead of passing by it,” Ongwiseth says. What they experience is a variety of heights,

Lavandula stoechas “Otto Quast” (Spanish lavendar)

Red autumn sage, Jerusalem sage and Spanish lavender

textures, colors and fragrances arranged to shelter the garden from neighbors on both sides and to create an outdoor room that is a sensory buffet. “Almost everything in the garden has a scent,” says Ongwiseth. The ground was regraded. To prevent weed growth, the gravel and a layer of fabric below it are both permeable, so that water does not run off to the street but sinks into the earth to replenish the water table. An underground irrigation system was installed, so that whatever water is needed heads directly to the plants’ roots. The Kays’ grounds now boast a veritable banquet of sustainable plantings: kangaroo paw, golden elaeagnus, Spanish lavender, Goodwin Creek Grey lavender, Russian sage, Jerusalem sage, silver sheen, hollyleaf redberry, Indian hawthorn, Tuscan blue rosemary, autumn sage, lavender cotton and coast rosemary. Forest pansy redbud and rose acacia trees were placed to complement the already existing white birch, crape myrtle, sweet gum, crab apple and California sycamore trees. The landscapers also kept such existing plants as the Kays’ New Zealand tea tree, Wheeler’s dwarf mock orange and various roses. Snow-in-summer and elfin thyme groundcover were added, and boulders, artistically placed, provide visual anchors, enhanced by path lighting. On a recent visit, the garden was not in bloom. Even so, the subtle variety of colors, textures and scents intrigued the senses. The denuded trees displayed a sculptural elegance, and even the crunch of the gravel underfoot was somehow satisfying. “We tamped it down, so the stones interlock and it feels stable to walk on,” Ongwiseth says. The French Provincial garden is now a La Cañada Valley Beautiful award winner. And Jeanie Kay says she and her husband are more than happy with the outcome. “In fact, we’re both thrilled. It’s so pretty now. Visitors park on the street and walk up a lovely garden path to our house. And the house looks so much better because of it.” AM

ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 21

THE GARDEN ISSUE A plant bed of recycled concrete yields a bountiful crop of fresh greens (foreground: Osaka purple mustard and Chirimen Hakarashi mustard), while doubling as outdoor seating or a space for casual entertaining.

Returning to the Huntington’s Roots A DIFFERENT KIND OF URBAN COWBOY EVOKES HENRY HUNTINGTON’S INTEREST IN AGRICULTURE AT THE NEW EXPERIMENTAL HUNTINGTON RANCH. BY NOELA HUESO

“We’re exploring what noncommercial urban agriculture might look like in Southern California today — what people who want to integrate some amount of their food production in their own lives can do, the vast majority of whom work full time and have lives outside of growing food,” says project coordinator Scott Kleinrock. “And we’re specifically looking at our Mediterranean climate, at water conservation and how you can get the most out of a small space, because gardening in Southern California is very different from gardening in other parts of the world.” The concept of urban agriculture — growing food crops in a village, town or city — isn’t a new one, of course. Records of such endeavors date back to ancient Persia and Machu Picchu, the 15th-century Inca site in Peru’s Urubamba Valley. Allotment gardens (subdivided land cultivated by various 22 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

individuals or families) have been in use throughout Europe since the 18th century; and victory gardens, planted in both public parks and private residences, sprang up to help reduce pressure on the public food supply during World Wars I and II in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. The seeds of the Huntington Ranch — quite literally — began in another verdant garden, L.A.’s South Central Farm, one of the largest urban farms in the country. When the 14-acre property, which had been cared for by 300 families, was forced to close in 2006 (the city took the land by eminent domain), the Annenberg Foundation funded the boxing up and transportation of dozens of fruit trees and bushes — fig, guava, apple, banana, cherry and mulberry — to The Huntington, where they were to be stored temporarily until appropriate permanent homes were found. It soon became evident to Jim Folsom, the director of The Huntington’s botanical gardens, that the plants had already found suitable turf. After all, when Henry Huntington purchased the San Marino Ranch (now the library and gardens) in 1903, it was home to California’s first commercial avocado grove; it also boasted citrus crops, pineapple guava, peaches, nuts and grain. For all his renown as a railroad magnate and collector of rare books and fine art, Huntington cultivated yet another identity: gentleman farmer. Folsom conceived of the ranch and submitted a proposal to the Annenberg Foundation, which funded the project with a $1.1 million grant in 2008. Now, thanks to the dedication of Kleinrock, 28, who came onboard in 2009, the ranch is yielding information that will help urban farmers get the most out of gardening in the region. He shares his findings during scheduled one-hour tours of the ranch (not otherwise open to the public) and on his blog, huntingtonblogs.org/theranch. Both children and adults can get their hands dirty by signing up for gardening workshops. Training classes for teachers and symposia for professionals on sustainable urban agriculture are also offered. “We’re trying to put together a garden that speaks to a lot of different people but still is a garden that’s nice to walk through and that speaks to what peo-

ple might do in their own spaces,” says Kleinrock, sporting an omnipresent wide-brimmed hat as protection against daily sun exposure. Among the experiments and types of gardens on the ranch:

PHOTOS: Courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

LOOKING AT THE 15-ACRE HUNTINGTON RANCH, IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT NOT TOO LONG AGO, A LARGE PORTION OF IT WAS A GRAVEL PARKING LOT. THIS DEMONSTRATION GARDEN AND OUTDOOR CLASSROOM, WHICH OPENED IN NOVEMBER 2010 ON THE WESTERN EDGE OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS AND BOTANICAL GARDENS, IS NOW A LUSH LANDSCAPE, REPLETE WITH A CORNUCOPIA OF NATIVE PLANTS, FRUIT TREES, VEGETABLES AND HERBS. THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSFORMATION OF THE LOT — WHICH REQUIRED TRACTORS, ROTOTILLERS AND SOME OLD-FASHIONED SWEAT EQUITY TO CREATE A HOSPITABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR GROWING PLANTS — IS A SHOWCASE FOR THE RANCH’S MISSION: LEADERSHIP IN ECOLOGICAL URBAN AGRICULTURE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. ON A MORE PHILOSOPHICAL LEVEL, THE SITE EXISTS TO EXPLORE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND COMMUNITY.

Intensive Vegetable Production “This is how you plant if you want the most production out of your space,” Kleinrock says of the traditional row garden that sits in the center of the property. “There’s a simplicity to this if you want to be able to get into your garden, do your work and get out.” With the 100-square-foot block of vegetables — including gourmet garlics, fava beans, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, arugula, snow peas, sweet sugar snap peas, carrots, radicchios, endives, potatoes, collards, bulb onions, broad beans, Italian dandelions and bulb fennel — Kleinrock is luring beneficial insects by interspersing herbs such as parsley, chives and fennel between the rows of vegetables; doing so confuses pests who would otherwise hop from one plant to the other in a single crop block. He’s also exploring methods of building up soil fertility over time, so that gardening gets easier with each passing year. Edible Landscape Gardening Scott Kleinrock A vegetable garden doesn’t have to be confined to a traditional row pattern. It can curve or swerve if that serves the landscaping needs of your home. At the ranch, chard, kale, lettuce and broccoli form edible swaths of “pattern and texture” that give shape to the surroundings. In addition, Kleinrock has built a circular raised planting bed, made from chunks of broken concrete recycled from past projects, that serves two purposes:

It’s not only a place to grow vegetables; it doubles as a gathering place for guests to sit on during tours and lectures. On a practical level, it’s a space saver: It doesn’t take up a lot of room. “This is a way to do triple duty in the landscaping to make it all work together,” he says. Container Gardening Is it worth it? That’s what Kleinrock set out to discover when he planted the “salad factory,” a checkerboard of 48 plastic storage tubs used for growing various salad greens and herbs, including lettuce, kale, chard, mustard, mizuna, nasturtiums, salad onions, cilantro, endive and escarole. The answer? If you’re short on space but still feel the urge to exercise your green thumb, the container method is relatively simple and the vegetables thrive. Raised Beds: Redwood vs. Douglas Fir Raised beds, essentially self-contained gardens within wooden boxes, are easy to set up, Kleinrock says, and good for those gardeners who don’t want to take the time to add nutrients to the soil in their backyard (they would, instead, purchase nutrient-rich loam). But is one type of wood better than another? Redwood has traditionally been considered the best for raised beds.. It lasts longer and holds up to moisture well, but it’s also expensive. So Kleinrock built two beds for endive, radicchio, fennel, chard and kale — one out of redwood, the other, Douglas fir, which costs about a third as much. Time will tell whether the latter holds up and is cost-effective. —CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 23

Returning to the Huntington’s Roots A DIFFERENT KIND OF URBAN COWBOY EVOKES HENRY HUNTINGTON’S INTEREST IN AGRICULTURE AT THE NEW EXPERIMENTAL HUNTINGTON RANCH. BY NOELA HUESO

ple might do in their own spaces,” says Kleinrock, sporting an omnipresent wide-brimmed hat as protection against daily sun exposure. Among the experiments and types of gardens on the ranch:

PHOTOS: Courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

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Irrigation Techniques Kleinrock and his team (an intern and some volunteers) are examining the efficiency of various irrigation techniques. Taking a cue from commercial irrigation systems and adapting them for noncommercial use, “we’re able to talk about how they perform and what can be adapted to different kinds of landscaping you do at home,” Kleinrock says. “We talk about where to get them and show how to use them.”

URBAN AGRICULTURE 101 Scott Kleinrock’s tips for home agronomists: 1. REALIZE THAT EVERYONE IS A DESIGNER. You don’t need to emulate what you see in a magazine. Every site is unique. Look at it for a while before you start your garden. Where is the sun? Where is the shade? Where is water coming from? How can you recycle some of that on the property? Think about what you want from your space and how much time you want to spend there.

Experimental Food Forest Kleinrock’s favorite garden doesn’t 2. IF YOU HAVE A RELATIVELY look like a garden at all. Taking up the SMALL SPACE, YOU DON’T back portion of the ranch, the threeNEED TO SEPARATE DIFFERacre experimental food forest is a wild ENT PLANTS. You can have vegetables, fruit ecosystem built with “useful and edible trees and native plants growing species” to be self-sustaining. To the together. You can create a whole casual observer, the food forest looks garden ecospace in a 100-foot space or limit plants to containuncultivated. In reality, it’s the result of ers. It’s your choice. careful design and planning based on a solid knowledge of crops sown (i.e., 3. FEEL FREE TO EXPERIMENT. If you provide plants with what scattered) into it. Once established, it they need to grow, they will. needs very little input from its owner. There are more right ways than “Some people love it and some wrong ways to grow plants. don’t, but the lessons we learn in there can then be extrapolated and used in our more curated gardens as well,” Kleinrock says, noting that plants may even grow better in such a system. He recalls the transplantation of a pair of plants — one to the container garden and one to the food forest. The container garden plant was babied with top-of-the-line organic potting soil, while the food-forest plant was left alone. The results were surprising. “The stuff in the food forest grew far better with less pest pressure than the stuff in the containers,” he says, “all because we built this resilient system.” AM

PHOTOS: Courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23

FOTO FACIAL IPL/RF

ART

A Lost Tale SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCULPTOR JOHN FRAME CREATES AN ANIMATED WORLD OF TARNISHED ANTIQUITY FOR A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE HUNTINGTON.

PHOTOS: John Frame

BY BETTIJANE LEVINE

The 60-year-old artist has carved out a career making curious puppet-like figurines out of mismatched materials and placing them in intricate stage sets. A 2005 retrospective of his work, “Enigma Variations: The Sculpture of John Frame 1980-2005,” at the Long Beach Museum of Art was described as conveying “a sense of suspended animation” by art critic David Pagel. So it stands to reason that actual animation would be the logical next step in his evolution. And indeed, the self-taught artist moved in that exact direction with the Huntington show, which focuses on a series of stop-motion animated film vignettes of a post-apocalyptic world of tarnished antiquity and their associated sculptural figures, stage settings and still photographs. And yet, the emotional wellspring for the exhibition was Frame’s conviction that his life as an artist was over. He arrived at that conclusion despite

John Frame with the cast of Poor Tom’s Library MAIN: The Tottentanzers Performing the Palace of Sleep Play

—CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 25

ART

restored him as an artist felt like “an incredible gift” so fragile and large and requiring so much of his strength and attentiveness, Frame said, that until recently very few people outside his own family had been told of the direction his work was taking. In fact, it became a collaborative family affair, with hands-on help from Frame’s wife, his three adult daughters and filmmaker son-in-law Coffeen. In the process, Frame stretched himself in unanticipated ways: “I went from being a guy who could just generate a Word file and surf the Internet” to using five computers, various digital cameras and professional filmmaking and music composition programs. (Frame wrote the delicate scores that accompany both of the films being screened.) “It’s been wildly taxing, but it’s really demanded my brain grow in ways that I didn’t think it could,” he said. Meanwhile, eBay replaced much of Frame’s time-consuming searches through flea markets, garage sales and junk shops for found materials that he adapts to suit “the used, completely separate world” that his sculptures inhabit. One compelling element in Frame’s work, his use of doll and prosthetic eyes, was an eBay coup: hundreds of flawed 19th- and early 20th-century doll-eye seconds. “It’s the flawed part that gets me going,” Frame said. “I love the fact that they are things that have been rejected. They give a lifelike quality and a kind of character that I’ve never seen before in my work.” Smith, who is co-curating the Frame exhibition with Kevin M. Murphy, The Huntington’s Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art, noted that when the work of a living artist is featured there, “it is because that work resonates strongly with the institution’s permanent collections. John is very inspired by Shakespeare, Milton, Blake and the literary traditions that we represent in the library,” she said. “Another important thread throughout his career has been his interest in John Ruskin, William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts Movement, and that is, of course, a pillar of The Huntington’s art collections.” Indeed, because of Frame’s affinity for William Blake and his intimate acquaintance with The Huntington’s Blake collection, he was invited to curate a small exhibition of that artist’s work. “Born to Endless Night: Paintings, Drawings and Prints by William Blake Selected by John Frame” will run concurrently with the main exhibition. “It’s a nice opportunity to have a different curatorial voice represented in the gallery through the intimate perspective of an artist who’s been inspired by the work,” Smith said. For Frame, the show at The Huntington is “maybe a halfway point or less” along his new creative journey. “What will happen after the show, I hope, is what has happened all the way through this: that the next step will just come to me when I need it. “The word ‘fragments’ in the title of the exhibition is key,” he said. “I think of each of these things as a fragment of a very, very large picture. My hope is that people will look and feel, not think too hard about what’s in front of them.” AM

—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

26 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

“Three Fragments of a Lost Tale: Sculpture and Story by John Frame” runs from March 12 through June 20 in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino. Hours are Monday and Wednesday through Friday, noon–4:30 p.m.; weekends, 10:30–4:30 p.m. After Memorial Day, PHOTO: John Frame

the fact that the Long Beach show had been well received. As ArtSCENE’s Daniella Walsh wrote: “Frame’s body of work … suggests that by defying the art establishment early on, he has blazed a trail for younger artists fascinated with sources such as J.R.R. Tolkien and computer graphics that have taken detailed fantasy and figuration to new levels.” But when it was over, he found the cupboard was bare. “I thought I’d go back to making cabinets or something,” he said. “I had really come to the end of my working life.” Then one night, when Frame found himself in the borderland between waking and dreaming, he envisioned an epic narrative so vivid and dense that he says he dared not move for fear it would dissipate. When his wife, Laura, awoke, he asked her for pencil and paper. “I wrote 60 or 70 pages that first day,” said Frame, who lives in pastoral Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. “It was like dictation, just pouring out. I had aftershocks for days afterward where I would get multiple pages of set designs and one thing or another.” The “massive download” of material was rife with vivid settings, archetypal characters and themes of life and death, good and evil. It had a beginning, middle and end (the show’s accompanying catalog details a catastrophic event, a lost art form and an epic quest). Yet when Frame began to work on the art that it inspired, “I realized that the story was only a seed bank.” Characters that were born of that original impulse refused to be confined to a linear story framework, he said. “They have become completely independent of it. And the longer I’ve gone with it, the deeper it gets.” Frame’s sculptures of carved wood, fabric, glass eyes and found objects over stainless steel armature are crafted with complex articulations of joints and jaws. His explorations with them through film and photography — “probably the single biggest discovery I’ve made along the way is the power of the photograph,” he says — invite a further multiplicity of interpretations and speculations. “The minute that I started working with the latitude of making everything move, it was incredibly freeing,” Frame said. “Suddenly, I can do serious things with them, I can do playful things, I can express this range of possibilities that before only I saw in the studio, because eventually I had to stop them from moving and fix them as works of sculpture — static pieces. “I’m trying to create a new form, I guess. It’s not really animation, it’s not just photography, it’s not just the staging. It’s something else that I can’t quite get my head around yet, which is why it’s so interesting for me to work on it.” The sense of intimacy and drama the work evokes is reflected in the exhibition’s design: narrow spotlights in a “theatrical, dark space,” said Jessica Todd Smith, Virginia Steel Scott “I’M TRYING TO CREATE A NEW FORM, I GUESS. Chief Curator of American Art at IT'S NOT REALLY ANIMATION, IT’S NOT JUST The Huntington. A major focal point is the 12PHOTOGRAPHY, IT’S NOT JUST THE STAGING. foot-wide, 6-foot-deep stage that IT’S SOMETHING ELSE THAT I CAN’T QUITE GET Frame built for his animations. It MY HEAD AROUND YET, WHICH IS WHY IT’S SO represents a working theater “where INTERESTING FOR ME TO WORK ON IT.” action takes place, with sets that come and go and characters that move in and out,” he said. “There’s definitely a strong theatrical component in the entire project.” Adjacent to the gallery, a screening of Frame’s animated film, Three Fragments of a Lost Tale, will be accompanied by Happy Medium, a short documentary by filmmaker Johnny Coffeen showing Frame at work in his curiosity shop of a studio in the woods, discussing his new creative direction. Themes of loss and discovery that infuse his new body of work reflect in a real sense Frame’s own recent deeply felt creative journey. The vision that

The Huntington is open 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. every day except Tuesday, when it is closed. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older, $10 for students ages 12–18 or with full-time I.D. and $6 for youth ages 5–11. Children under 5 and members are admitted free. Call (626) 405-2100 or visit huntington.org. ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 27

ART

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“Finding the person you can relax with and openly share your vision, creativity, indecision and worries with for the next year or two is paramount. There is a lot of very personal back and forth. You have to feel you can rely on this person unwaveringly for a long period of time.” Ask questions, too – lots of them. These include: • Do you have references? (Cynthia Bennett recommends asking for at least three.) • How long have you been in business? • Do you have a particular style? Design philosophy is important as well, Julio advises. Visit past projects or, at the very least, review photos. “Ask yourself, does what you see match your style?” says Julio. “Everything in your home should reflect your personality, NOT the designer’s”

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And don’t neglect to ask about fees. Fee structures vary from designer to designer. They can also vary within one designer’s firm. “We have a different fee structure depending on the type of design project,” Bennett explains. “If it is a remodeling project, we generally charge 10% of the estimated total project cost to draw up a complete set of plans including all details of lighting and electrical, cabinet elevations, and material specifications, as well as detailed floor plans and all structural elements required by the city building department. Every item is pre-selected, down to the last knob and hinge on the cabinet. When the client receives a bid from us, everything has been included. There are no surprises!” When CBA tackles purely design-focused projects, they charge an hourly fee in these instances. Services include drawing furniture plans and shopping for furniture, —CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

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KITCHEN CONFESSIONS

A Fantastic Salt-Time Journey SO YOU THINK ALL SALT IS CREATED EQUAL? THINK AGAIN. BY LESLIE BILDERBACK | PHOTOS BY TERI LYN FISHER

I am not usually a proponent of the fancy or the schmancy,

known as rock salt, grows in very hard isometric crystals and is either hacked out in chunks or extracted through evaporation.

especially when it comes to food. I don’t buy kitchen gadgets

Virtually every worthy destination on earth has a salt associated with it. Every marshy, boggy pool of water, every lonely sandy edge of coastline, every desolate

(my chefs always told me I was weak if I needed more than a

wasteland and jagged peak around the world has a salt gift shop somewhere nearby.

chef knife), and I am not interested in that attractively pack-

Icelandic hot springs salt, Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula salt, Japanese nazuna sea

You can buy Dead Sea salt, Himalayan salt, Kashmir salt, Danish Viking salt, salt, Sicilian sea salt, Cyprus sea salt, Bolivian rose salt, Peruvian pink salt,

aged $19 jar of heirloom cedar-plank fifth-generation hickory-

Hawaiian black or red salt, Australian Murray River salt and Jurassic salt (It’s dinomite!). If I were a motivated entrepreneur I’d harvest California beach boardwalk

smoked gooseberry-lime barbeque salsa. I’m a deadly

salt, with subtle undertones of cotton candy, Coppertone and medical marijuana.

serious cook, and I reject frivolity.

seawater over fancy smoking woods such as alder, cherry, juniper, elm, mesquite,

You can buy salt with flavors, such as smoked salt. That’s made by evaporating But years ago I was gifted a jar of sel gris, and I immediately became a salt fanatic. What kinds of salt are there? I’m glad you asked! Fancy salts come in an amazing array of flavors and colors, and, yes, they all taste different. I generally laugh at the wine people with their excessive descrip-

guava or old Chardonnay wine barrels. (I’d like to see Rolling Stone salt, smoked over Keith Richards.) There are salts infused with herbs, flowers, truffles, plums, saffron, vanilla, sugar maple, bamboo juice and Pinot Noir. There’s even moon salt. (It’s harvested at night. It’s not actually from the moon, although… “Hello, NASA?”)

tors, spouting off about how the bouquet is reminiscent of fruit and grass and dirt

The most ubiquitous fancy salt is fleur de sel, which you can find all over

and ennui. But salt really does vary, not only in flavor but also in texture, color and

town in jars or sprinkled atop caramels, chocolate bars, ice cream and lattes.

its effect on the food.

(I learned a valuable thing when I first tried fleur de sel caramels: Just because

Salt can be harvested from sea water or rock deposits left from ancient seas. From the ocean, salt water is dried by the sun in shallow pools. Mined salt, also

something is pretentious does not mean it can’t also be really yummy.) —CONTINUED ON PAGE 38 ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 37

KITCHEN CONFESSIONS

—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37

Fleur de sel is hand-harvested sea salt. It too is available from a variety of locations, but the most notable offerings come from the coast of Brittany. Each area produces a distinct salt because the natural vegetation and minerals vary. Salt removed from the top layer of water is pale and delicate (like a flower) in flavor, while gray sea salt (sel gris) has been allowed to sink and mix with the ocean water, giving it a more robust, under-the-sea flavor. You’d think this array of salt would be a prime target for my snarky ridicule. But on the contrary, like a little girl with her Barbies, I can’t wait to play with each and every one of them. So it will be no surprise to you that I dragged my family to Salzburg, Austria. (Salz = salt.) Salt has been mined from these Alps for five centuries and was a major part of the local economy. (That is, until Julie Andrews came to town.) Not only can you buy local salt everywhere, but you can also visit the mines, which we did. Despite my assurances that the tour would be just like a salty version of Disneyland, the eyeballs were a-rollin’. But the minute we walked in and saw Salzi, the smiling cube-shaped salt-crystal mascot, we knew we were in for a treat. The first step in a salt-mine tour is to lock up all your personal belongings and climb into a sporty miner’s jumpsuit. Then we hopped up and straddled long seats aboard a tiny electric train that swept us, surprisingly fast, deep into the mountain. The tunnel was cold and tight, and there were times we had only an inch or two of clearance above our head. It was like Disney’s Indiana Jones ride without the snakes or safety precautions. Off the train we walked through dark tunnels and listened to recorded tales of ancient salt history and underground salt adventure. The cavernous Salt Cathedral was a huge open space made über-awesome by nifty colored lights. The miners used it for subterranean worship, and later, the Nazis stashed their stolen loot there. To get to the mountain’s lower levels, we rode the banister slide the way they did in the pre-elevator age. The whole family was stacked in a tight row, straddling a wide banister. (Miners like straddling.) A gate is lifted, gravity does its thing, and suddenly we were 36 meters lower and a little tousled. (When I dreamt of a two-story house as a kid, a salt-mine banister slide was what I really wanted.) Through mystic salted grottos, we discovered memorials to past salt miners, ancient mining equipment and the occasional mannequin startling us in its vintage salt-mine gear. The many wonders of salt were revealed and all our salt questions answered in the multi-media Salt Laboratory, where “edu-tainment” was the order of the day. To get the salt out of these mountains, water is pumped in, which dissolves the salt, creating salt water, which is then pumped out and evaporated. Salzi and his friends left one cavern filled with water for salt-loving tourists. We boarded a barge on the briny banks of Mirror Lake and floated under a canopy of salt crys-

A SALT TASTING INGREDIENTS 4 willing friends Plenty of water An assortment of specialty salts (I suggest 5 to 8 distinctly different salts, including your regular salt. More than that is too much for one seating. Be sure to choose a varied assortment, such as a fleur de sel, a black salt, a red or pink salt, a sea salt from a couple of different places, a smoked salt and an infused salt. Also, be sure to sprinkle in different textures by choosing some flake, some coarse and some fine-grained.) 1 or 2 baguettes Good unsalted butter, room temperature 2 or 3 English cucumbers 2 or 3 good steaks Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream

tals. Suddenly, the lights went out and the cavern filled with kosmische musik and laser lights. The colors were mesmerizing as they bounced off the crystal ceiling and reflected off the water. Eat your heart out, Laserium! After the tour there was, of course, a salty gift shop, and you know I stocked up on delicious mountainy salt. Those Bavarians are quite proud of their salty mountains, and rightly so. Their love was poetically illustrated in the salt mine brochure and its heartfelt, if confusing, English translation: “Leading the Salt Mine into the future, without doing without what is well-proven which is precisely what has been achieved with the fantastic Salt-Time Journey!” Wünderbar! AM Leslie Bilderback is a certified master baker and chef, a cookbook author and lead pastry instructor at École de Cuisine in Pasadena. A South Pasadena resident, she teaches her techniques online at culinarymasterclass.com. 38 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

METHOD 1. Create a salt-tasting chart for your guests, listing the foods and salts on a grid, with room for notes. 2. Slice baguette a half-inch thick on the bias. Smear generously with butter and top with a sprinkle of your first salt. Serve. Repeat with each of the remaining salts. 3. Slice cucumber into half-inch coins, and sprinkle with your first salt. Serve. Repeat with each of the remaining salts. 4. Grill or broil steaks to desired doneness with no additional seasoning. Slice meat into bite-size cubes and sprinkle with your first salt. Serve. Repeat with each of the remaining salts. 5. For each guest, scoop out one bite of ice cream onto a plastic spoon. Sprinkle with your first salt. Serve. Repeat with each of the remaining salts.

Compare your results and make your recommendations. Then try it again next week with a new batch of salts!

DINING

Beer Without Fear EAGLE ROCK BREWERY IS ONE OF THE LATEST AND MOST HEARTENING CHAPTERS IN THE LONG HISTORY OF BEER. BY BRADLEY TUCK

“BEHOLD THE RAIN WHICH DESCENDS FROM HEAVEN UPON OUR VINEYARDS, THERE IT ENTERS THE ROOTS OF THE VINES, TO BE CHANGED INTO WINE, A CONSTANT PROOF THAT GOD LOVES US AND LOVES TO SEE US HAPPY.” — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO ANDRE MORELLET, IN 1779

And so it would seem that those who erroneously have Ben Franklin waxing lyrical about his love of the amber nectar are sporting their beer goggles. Indeed, if one were to look at the lackluster state of some of the most popular beers produced in the U.S., it’s a wonder that this myth was not debunked long ago. Franklin certainly wouldn’t have recognized what passes for a brew in most fridges. Watery, fizzy and insipid beers have pretty much been the ale of the nation. There’s a reason for this sorry state of affairs, and it requires us to look at history. What better place to start than at the beginning?

Eagle Rock Brewery 3056 Roswell St. Los Angeles (323) 257-7866 eaglerockbrewery.com

back 6,000 years ago in Sumeria, which lay between

Tap room hours: Thursday through Saturday, 4–10 p.m.; Sunday, noon–6 p.m. (Brewhouse tours on Sunday only)

the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Who knows how yeast

No reservations needed

Beer has been brewed pretty much since civilization began. The earliest accounts of brewing date

and barley ended up in a liquid mash, fermenting to make beer? But like most of mankind’s great moments, it was likely an accident deemed to have good results, which was then repeated deliberately and perfected. And perfected. The Babylonians of the second millennium B.C. were perhaps the original boozehounds, as they were able to brew as many as 20 types of beer. (It no doubt kept them cheery while pruning the Hanging Gardens.) Interestingly, the Sumerians and Babylonians drank their beer through straws, made of, yes, straw. Their beer was unfiltered and the flavor bore little resemblance to modern beers. The brewing byproducts, which had a strong bitter taste, were left in the brew, so the straw kept those nasty bits out of the drinker’s mouth. Beer-making continued in ancient Egypt and was an important part of daily PHOTO: Courtesy of Eagle Rock Brewing

Egyptian life, with locals adding dates to their brew to improve the flavor. When the Romans ruled the civilized world, they preferred wine and viewed beer as the drink of the barbarians to the north. Over the centuries, beer production followed the cultivation of barley and mirrored the spread of the Christian abbeys across Europe. In what now seems an ironic arrangement, the abbeys brewed beer for the monks and even sold their brews commercially in order to finance their religious orders. The main preservatives in beer at the time were bark and leaves. However, at some point in the 15th century, hops came into use as a preservative, in what was a —CONTINUED ON PAGE 40 ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 39

DINING

—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39

major step toward shaping the flavor of beer as we know it. Perhaps the greatest refinement was that century’s introduction of the Reinheitsgebot, a German standard for beer brewing dictating that only four ingredients — water, malted wheat, malted barley and hops — could be used in the making of beer. (Yeast was already understood to be a naturally occurring ingredient needed for fermentation, although it was later added as well.) The final step in creating what we think of as modern beer came with the understanding of how yeast worked and the refinement of cooling techniques that removed the cloudiness from and imparted stability to the brew. If you want to look for the real culprit responsible for the insipid

graphics, perfect accents for this equally bright,

brews for which America became

modern brewery. It’s truly a family operation,

infamous, look no further than

with Ting Su’s sister, Lin, behind the branding

Prohibition and World War II.

of merchandise, glasses, labels and such.

Prohibition dealt a huge blow to

Perched atop shelves at head height is a row

thousands of small breweries

of Growlers, refillable half-gallon bottles that

across America, forcing them to

can be taken home, then brought back and

were able to diversify into the pro-

refilled with your brew of choice. On a low

Steven and Donna Raub

counter are large bowls of pretzels and peanuts

duction of non-alcoholic beers and other cereal malts. Prohibition was repealed in

in their shells. Benches awaiting the thirsty line

1933, but with America’s entry into the war eight years later, much of the drinking-

the walls.

age male population joined the military and went abroad, leaving behind a U.S. work force consisting mainly of women. A shortage of the ingredients for malt, which adds

The brewery itself is clean as a whistle Ting Su and Jeremy Raub

depth to beer flavor, combined with a female-dominated market that preferred lighter

and houses an array of stainless steel tanks used for making the mash — a mixture of malt-

beers, led to the predominance of the pale, refreshing but somewhat bland beers

ed grain and warm water. Different sets of tanks are used for boiling the wort — the

that are the biggest part of the country’s drinking landscape.

liquid drained from the mash — and then hops are added. In another set of tanks,

Thankfully, all is not lost. In recent years, true beer lovers have fought back, and

yeast is added to the cooled wort and fermentation begins, a process lasting seven

microbreweries — small production breweries devoted to the craft of making unique

to 14 days. The liquid, which now has alcohol and CO2, is then transferred to yet

and interesting beers — have been flourishing. Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and

another tank for aging, which allows any sediment to drop to the bottom while fla-

San Diego have all had great beer scenes for some time. Los Angeles was seen as a

vors blend together and mellow. Finally, the beer is carbonated by forcing air into it.

black hole of antimatter when it came to ale. But not any more.

At any of these stages, the brewer has control of the parameters — the amount and

When Eagle Rock Brewery was launched by the father-and-son team of Steven and Jeremy Raub in January 2010, it became the first new Los Angeles brewery in

type of hops, different blends of malt and length of time aging — that will affect the final flavor. That’s what makes each brew unique and interesting.

more than 60 years. The demand for good beer has been growing enormously over

Stepping back in after a 15-minute tour, we find the tap room full — like bar-on-

the past few years in L.A. Bars like Verdugo, with its emphasis on a regularly rotated

Saturday-night full. Hipsters, bicyclists and older patrons all chatter noisily, while sip-

selection of artisanal beers, and Pasadena’s own, now sadly shuttered Brix 42,

ping from flights of four beers or grasping pints with one hand and pretzels in anoth-

helped fuel an interest in and appreciation of genuinely interesting beers. The blog-

er. Some have brought in their own food to help wash down the beer. It’s a truly

osphere has helped foster that community with beer events, blogger bar crawls and

extraordinary scene, people lured to a room in the middle of nowhere by their shared

regular blasts of who’s-serving-what-and-where. Beer bulletins can be tweeted furi-

love of great beer. Jeremy passes me a flight nestled into a wooden plank whose

ously, feeding the frenzy when a hard-to-find brew hits a bar.

drilled holes clasp small glasses filled with liquids ranging in color from a light frothy

Steve Raub started home brewing 14 years ago and has won numerous awards

yellow to a deep burnt mahogany. “My dad made these,” he says proudly. Ting Su is

for his brews in homebrew competitions. His son Jeremy learned the craft from his

jovially manning the taps and filling the reusable Growlers, tying the tops with a plas-

dad in 1994 and has been brewing here with fervor for six years.

tic tie, so as to pass open-container muster.

A visit to the brewery, in an unprepossessing semi-industrial pocket wedged in

The selection of beers on offer in the tap room changes periodically. The

a corner off the 2 Freeway, seemed unpromising. There are no signs to indicate the

Populist IPA was a particular standout, with lively, bright hops in a robust but smooth

treasures that lie within the unadorned grey walls that could just as easily belong to

body. It felt elegant but also, dare I say it, manly? At 7 percent alcohol by volume, it

a paper storage warehouse. But opening the doors at 4 p.m., Ting Su, Jeremy

would be easy for a drinker of this beer to over-enjoy and become anything but ele-

Raub’s wife and the business manager at ERB, leads me into a small L- shaped tap

gant. But no doubt about it, Ben Franklin would have approved, as would God, who

room with a long counter and walls lined with framed posters of bright modern beer

sees that we are finally happy. AM

40 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Eagle Rock Brewing

close down, while larger breweries

ARROYO

RESOURCE GUIDE HEALTH & BEAUTY

BUILDERS & REMODELERS

CHRISTINE WON, M.D.

ROMANI CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

What is Concierge Medicine? It’s a type of practice that allows you to spend 30 minutes for office visits (rather than 8 minutes in a traditional practice). You’ll be treated like a person instead of a number. We’ll focus on preventive care to maintain your good health through a comprehensive annual physical that includes extensive blood tests, EKG, metabolic test and much more. Call us for info and how to join at (626) 793-8455.

Whether your dream home is traditional or modern, a mansion or a cottage, Romani Construction will work with you from design to completion. Since 1984, Jim Romani has worked to create a reputation of excellence in building custom homes, with the added personal touch of being on-site daily to ensure a smooth process. Call for a complimentary consultation or brochure (626) 442-2292, find us on facebook, or visit romaniconstruction.com

ARCHITECTS JAMES COANE & ASSOCIATES Since 1994, James V. Coane, has specialized in: custom residences, estates, historic renovations and expansions, residential and apartment interiors, multi-family residential, corporate interiors, retail and small commercial building design. American Institute of Architects award winners, and named Best Architect by Pasadena Weekly, their projects have been in Architectural Digest and other magazines and used as locations for filming and fashion shoots. Well-versed in historical and modern architecture and design and known for attention to detail on all projects. Visit jvca.com or call (626) 584-6922.

HARTMANBALDWIN DESIGN/BUILD HartmanBaldwin Design/Build is a fully integrated Architecture, Construction and Interior Design Company specializing in upscale remodels, additions, historic restorations and new custom homes for highly discerning individuals that are passionate about their home and lifestyle. We pride ourselves in being chosen by clients who look for a full service firm that will provide them with outstanding design services, cutting-edge materials and products, quality construction that is sustainable and energy-efficient, as well as a relationship that goes beyond the duration of a project. Call 626.486.0510 to schedule your complimentary design consultation. HartmanBaldwin.com.

MARK HOUSTON ASSOCIATES, INC. Mark Houston Associates Inc. provides residential planning and design services in San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles and surrounding areas. With Mark Houston Associates Inc. you are an integral part of the design process. We work with you to create a residential environment that expresses your personality, values and vision. This collaboration begins with discerning your needs and flows through to the completion of construction. Call (626) 357-7858

MODERN LIGHTING

INTERIOR DESIGNERS

Modern Lighting has been serving Southern California's lighting needs since 1946. With all types of fixtures in every price range, you’ll find what you want. If not, we do custom design. We have stocks of light bulbs to compliment your fixture and we continually watch the marketplace for the best buys. Our staff has decades of lighting experience.. Feel free to contact us if our service is what you are looking for: call (626) 286-3262.

CAROL COBABE

MORTGAGE LENDERS

DR. MARILYN MEHLMAUER Having smooth, youthful skin is the first step to feeling great about your appearance. Dr. Marilyn Mehlmauer offers a wide variety of solutions for any problem areas on your face. Whether you have lines, wrinkles or acne, we have a remedy to restore the elasticity and refine the appearance of your skin. Visit us and explore our facial rejuvenation treatment options. Call and schedule your consultation today, (626) 585-9474.

vated second-hand treasures. Within this “home” shoppers can find a unique hostess gift for $25, a $5,000 table and a variety of beautiful items in between. 55 E. Holly St., Pasadena. Call (626) 577-3400 or visit maudewoods.com

Angie's List, and the Better Business Bureau. Call (626) 296-2617, or visit mothermagnolia.com.

TEAK WAREHOUSE Today’s hottest outdoor trend is the outdoor living room ... a favorite for hotels & resorts for years and now available for residential settings. Why go to an expensive resort for the weekend when you can turn your back yard into one? Invest in something that will bring comfort and style for the long run! Teak Warehouse boasts over 16 varied collections of deep seating, offering teak and wicker at the best prices in California. 133 E. Maple Ave., Monrovia. Call (626) 305-8325 or visit teakwarehouse.com

REAL ESTATE With a philosophy of “good design resulting in the creation of harmony in one’s environment,” Carol’s work has been published in countless publications. She has participated in several showcase houses, the Los Angeles Assistance League Design House, the Venice Family Clinic Design House and Little Company of Mary Design House in Palos Verdes. Carol is also a winner of the coveted First Place Award of the L.A. Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. Call (626) 441-6052.

CYNTHIA BENNETT Cynthia Bennett & Associates has been a celebrated design and build firm for almost 30 years. They specialize in innovative kitchen and bath design, general construction, historical renovation, project management and interior design. With all areas of residential design and construction being taken care of by Cynthia Bennett and Associates, Inc., each detail will be thought of and coordinated. Call for a consultation at (626) 799-9701.

DAY OF DESIGN WITH TERRI JULIO Day of Design with Terri Julio — Imagine the opportunity to consult with a professional designer for an entire day. Now you can for a fixed flat fee. Let Terri’s expertise be the first thing you call upon when considering any project. It is a worthwhile investment and a good dose of prevention considering valuable dollars and time can be lost when improvements go awry. Call (626) 447-5370 or visit terrijulio.com.

INTERIOR SPACES AMERICAN WINDOW COMPANY Since 1999, American Window Company has supplied builders, general contractors and homeowners with a wide variety of door and window options. We can enhance the current style of your home or help you create an entirely new look. We offer the very best manufacturers’ products. They are beautiful, efficient, affordable, dependable and long-lasting. We want to be the door and window replacement supplier for the life of your home. 803 N. Glendora Blvd.,in Covina. 909-9674043 americanwindowcompany.com

MAUDE WOODS Stepping into Maude Woods: Artful Living, shoppers may feel they’ve entered someone’s beautiful home. Owner Carrie Davich mixes new upscale furnishings with vintage and reno-

LIN VLACICH-SOTHEBY’S WELLS FARGO The Patsy Grant Team at Wells Fargo Home Financing meets your needs. Because your home is one of your biggest investments, it's important to ensure that your mortgage fits you. This is our specialty — helping you find mortgage solutions that meet your current situation while complementing your long-term financial goals. We will help you determine what mortgage options work for you, guide you through the loan process and answer your questions. Patsy: (626) 577-3721; Jim: (626) 577-3703

Lin Vlacich of Sotheby’s, a 25-year veteran in the real estate profession, is known for her reputation and success as a leader in the San Gabriel Valley brokerage community, as well as for high professional ethics, superior negotiating skills, innovative marketing plans and extensive knowledge of real estate sales. Committed to excellence in representing buyers and sellers throughout Pasadena, San Marino, South Pasadena and the surrounding communities. Call (626) 688-6464 or (626) 396-3975 or email vlacichs@aol.com

JEWELRY, ART & ANTIQUES OUTDOOR LIVING ARNOLD’S FINE JEWELRY GARDEN VIEW LANDSCAPE Specializing in landscaping, nurseries and pools, Garden View Inc. can take you from a design idea to a finished, detail-oriented garden. Garden View & their clientele are recipients of 60 awards from the California Landscape Contractors Association. The intent of the company is to provide high-quality interrelated outdoor services. The synergy between having their own designer/project managers, in-house crews, their own large nursery, and being a licensed pool builder provides for efficiency, competitive pricing, quality and schedule control. Call (626) 303-4043.

GAROCCO POOLS Plan for your new pool or pool remodel. The time is now to start the process of building your new pool. Your family and friends will thank you at the beginning of the summer as you start to enjoy the beautiful new addition to your home and yard. Garocco, Inc. is well known for their outstanding pool design and construction. Call now to set up an appointment for a design consultation: (626) 359-5050 or visit garocco.com

Celebrating their 100th year in Pasadena are inviting shoppers to help blow out the birthday candles. On Dec. 10 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., third generation gemologist and jewelry design expert Bruce Arnold and his knowledgeable staff will be raffling off a string of 100 Pearls, one for each year in the crown city. Entries may be taken in the store starting Nov. 2 through Dec. 10. One per household only. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. 350 Lake Ave., Pasadena. (626) 7958647 arnoldsfinejewelry.com.

FANCY THAT! Throw open the windows and bring the outdoors in! The sweet smell of spring tempts all the senses and Fancy That! has a delicious assortment of gifts, décor and seasonal surprises. From exquisite florals and vases, to made in California birdhouses or 1960’s vintage cookie jars to house your home baked goodies, Fancy That! has everything you need to dress your home for Spring. Fancy That! 2575 Mission St. San Marino fancythat.us.com

JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS MOTHER MAGNOLIA A private residential landscape design and construction firm operating here since 1999, Mother Magnolia’s passion is creating an outdoor space for you to enjoy. Your outdoor space should be your refuge, a place with power to rejuvenate. Our reliable and dedicated in-house designers, experienced masons, irrigation specialists, and landscape technicians will make your landscape vision a reality. Or, if you have a design prepared, we will provide construction bids. Fully bonded and insured, 3-time winner of HGTV’s “Landscaper’s Challenge,” and a member of the California Landscape Contractors’ Association,

A full-service auction house for over 40 years, John Moran Auctioneers is internationally recognized as a leader in sales of exceptional antiques, fine art, jewelry and eclectic estate items. In addition to monthly Estate Auctions, Moran’s conducts tri-annual California and American Art auctions featuring top 19th and 20th century Impressionist and Western artists. Clients value Moran’s for expertise and dedication to top-quality personalized service. For information about consigning, purchasing at auction, estate services, appraisals, and free walk-in Valuation Days, please call (626) 7931833 or visit johnmoran.com. ARROYO ~ MARCH 2011 ~ 41

We take education personally

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A SELECTIVE PREVIEW OF UPCOMING EVENTS

THE

LIST TWO CLASSICS STAGED AT A NOISE WITHIN

The classical repertory theater company A Noise Within opens two classic plays this month: March 5 — Michael Michetti directs Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at 8 p.m. The freewheeling farce leads the audience on a wild adventure through the world of identical twins, loony lovers and comedic ineptitude. The play continues through May 14. March 19 — Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (pictured) opens at 8 p.m. and continues through May 28. It tells the story of Alma Winemiller, a woman locked in the culturally suffocating, intolerant confines of a small Mississippi town as she bears the burden of unrequited and unattainable love for the boy next door. Michael Murray directs. Performances run Wednesday through Sunday evenings, with matinees Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets cost $44 and $46. A Noise Within is located at 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Call (818) 240-0910, ext. 1, or visit anoisewithin.org.

CHORALE BRINGS KOREAN CONFLICT TALE March 6 — The Los Angeles Master Chorale premieres a new choral work by Mark Grey at 7 p.m. at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The text of Mugunghwa: Rose of Sharon is based on the poetry of a North Korean man who escaped from prison in his country and fled to South Korea at the start of the Korean War, then struggled to reunite with his family. Violinist Jennifer Koh performs. The all-Korean program, conducted by Grant Gershon (pictured), also includes Korean folksongs and “Me-Na-Rii,” a selection for three choirs by Hyo-won Woo, Incheon City Chorale’s composer in residence. Tickets cost $19 to $124. The Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Call (213) 972-7282 or visit lamc.org.

CHAMBER MUSIC IN A MANSION March 6 — The Da Camera Society’s “Chamber Music in Historic Sites” series features concerts at 2 and 4 p.m. at the Tod Ford House, a Mediterranean estate overlooking the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. The Pantoum Trio performs romantic works by Schumann, Brahms and Arvo Pärt. Tickets cost $89, which includes a light reception between concerts. Directions will be provided with ticket purchase. Call (213) 477-2929 or visit dacamera.org.

COOKING UP KITCHEN SOLUTIONS March 10 — Chez Cherie Cooking School in La Cañada Flintridge hosts a design workshop, “9 SOULutions to Cookin’ Up a Fabulous & Functional Kitchen,” presented by Soul Interiors Design; Cherie Twohey, an HGTV guest chef, cookbook author and owner of Chez Cherie; and Ron Brooks of Viking Range Corporation, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The cost is $20 per person, including appetizers and wine. Chez Cherie Cooking School is located at 1401 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge. Call (818) 952-7217 or visit chezcherie.com/schedule for reservations, which are required.

LACO LADLES UP RAGTIME, BACH The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra presents a variety of concerts and conversations: March 19 — The orchestra presents “Bach’s Birthday,” with selections including Keyboard Concert No. 6 in F major, at 8 p.m. at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The concert is repeated at 7 p.m. March 20 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The featured artists are conductor and keyboardist Jeffrey Kahane and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Tickets range from $18 to $100. 44 ~ MARCH 2011 ~ ARROYO

March 27 — “Ragtime Xylophonia” (pictured), featuring works by Becker, Cahn J. Green and G.H. Green, is a family concert hosted by Alan Chapman at 2 p.m. at the Alex Theatre. At 1 p.m., LACO opens its “instrument petting zoo” to children, who can also make eco-friendly art with Kidspace Children’s Museum, participate in a drum circle and learn ragtime dance with Louise Reichlin. Tickets cost $10 and $16. The Zipper Concert Hall at The Colburn School is located at 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. The Alex Theatre is located at 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. For tickets, call (213) 622-7001, ext. 215, or visit laco.org.

BEETHOVEN AND MORE AT AMBASSADOR AUDITORIUM March 12 — The Pasadena Symphony presents “Beethoven 7” at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Ambassador Auditorium as part of its “Symphony Classics” series. The concert includes excerpts from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, plus “Kanun Concerto” by Avetisyan and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Maestro George Stelluto conducts; kanun player Karine Hovannisyan (pictured) is the featured artist. Tickets cost $30 to $80. The Ambassador Auditorium is located at 131 S. St. John Ave., Pasadena. Call (626) 793-7172 or visit pasadenasymphony-pops.org.

CALIFORNIA STYLE’S MIGRATION DOWN UNDER DISCUSSED March 12 — In a Friends of the Gamble House lecture, Pasadena author Ericka Esau discusses “The Transcontinental Bungalow: From Australia to Pasadena” at 4 p.m. at Art Center College of Design’s Ahmanson Auditorium. During a 15-year span teaching art history in Australia, Esau learned that well-known Australian architects, such as James Peddle, became enamored of the bungalow style so popular in Southern California in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which they discovered through photos in such publications as Sunset Magazine, Craftsman and Pacific Engineering. The style flourished there until the Great Depression. Admission costs $12 (free for Friends of the Gamble House). Art Center College of Design is located at 1700 Lida St., Pasadena. Call (626) 793-3334, ext. 52, or visit gamblehouse.org for reservations.

NATIVE AMERICAN THEATER AT THE AUTRY March 12 — America’s premiere Native American theater company, Native Voices at the Autry, continues its season with performances of The Frybread Queen by Carolyn Dunn (Muskogee Creek), opening at 8 p.m. at the Autry National Center’s Wells Fargo Theater. The play traces three generations of Navajo women, tied by marriage and blood, who gather at Lake Powell for the funeral of a beloved son. Through the grieving process, they deal with long-simmering tensions and family secrets that could tear them apart. Performances continue at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 27. Tickets cost $20; $10 for students, military personnel and seniors 55 and older; and $12 for Autry members. The Autry National Center is located at 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. Call (323) 667-2000, ext. 324, or visit nativevoicesattheautry.org. —CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

PHOTOS: Craig Schwartz (The Eccentricites of a Nightingale); Ken Hively (Grant Gershon); courtesy of the Pasadena Symphony (Karine Hovannisyan); Michael Burke (“Ragtime Xylophonia”); Terry Cyr (The Frybread Queen)

COMPILED BY JOHN SOLLENBERGER

HELPFUL HINTS FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS March 12 — Budding authors can get career tips at “Book Publishing 1-2-3: From the Writer’s Fingers to the Reader’s Hands,” a workshop presented by book editor Laurie Gibson from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Vroman’s Bookstore. Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Call (626) 449-5320 or visit vromansbookstore.com.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Pacifica Asia Museum (“Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artist in Asia 1900 –– 1940”)Courtesy of Descanso Gardens (Cherry Blossom Festival)

MEDITATIVE RETREAT, JAPANESE SPRING FESTIVAL AT DESCANSO March 12 — Descanso’s Mind and Body Retreat introduces beginning yoga instruction, mindfulness and healthful living, including a walk and guided meditations for relaxation and stress relief, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day includes a luncheon at the Boddy House by Patina Catering. The cost is $80 ($65 for members). March 19 and 20 — Descanso’s new Japanese-themed Cherry Blossom Festival offers fun educational activities, plus cherry trees for sale, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. At 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Saturday, savor a formal Japanese tea ceremony in the Japanese Garden. Tickets cost $5 per person and are available from 10 a.m. The festival is free with Descanso admission of $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students and $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Dr., La Cañada Flintridge. Call (818) 949-4200 or visit descansogardens.org.

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—CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

WOMEN WIELDING WOODBLOCKS AT PACIFIC ASIA March 3 — “Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artists in Asia 1900 – 1940” opens at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and continues through May 29. The exhibition highlights Western female artists' fascination with Asian cultures from 1900 to 1940. Showcased are artists Helen Hyde, Bertha Lum, Elizabeth Keith and Lilian Miller. All four, trained as painters, designed woodblock prints while living in Japan. “Visions of the Orient” includes woodblock prints, rare paintings, drawings, proof prints and tools used by the artists. The Pacific Asia Museum is located at 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Call (626) 449-2742 or visit pacificasiamuseum.org.

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A SELECTIVE PREVIEW OF UPCOMING EVENTS

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STREET FAIR TWINES AROUND VAST VINE March 20 — The 2011 Wistaria Festival on the streets of downtown Sierra Madre celebrates the world’s largest blossoming plant –– sown in a one-gallon bucket in 1894 and still blooming at a private Sierra Madre residence. Shuttles to view it are available hourly from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., leaving from downtown Sierra Madre. Also that day, the Art and Garden Faire will showcase the wares of some 175 artisans in the vicinity of Sierra Madre Boulevard and Baldwin Avenue. The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shuttle tickets the day of the event cost $12 ($10 in advance), $7 for seniors and kids ages 6 to 16. Children 5 and under are admitted free. Arroyo Monthly and Pasadena Weekly readers who purchase advance tickets receive $1 off by ordering online at wistariatickets.com and entering promo code PW01. Tickets can also be ordered by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Wistaria Tickets, Sierra Madre Chamber of Commerce, 37 N. Auburn Ave., Ste. 1, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Call (626) 355-5111 or visit sierramadrechamber.com.

CHORAL CONCERT FOR THE KIDS March 26 — The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus collaborates for the first time with the Angeles Chorale in “For the Children” at 8 p.m. at Pasadena’s First United Methodist Church. The concert features the L.A. premiere of John Rutter’s “Mass of the Children,” plus works by Vincent Persichetti, Dominic Argento, Joshua Shank and Irvine Fine. Tickets cost $25, $15 for students with ID and $10 for children under 13. The First United Methodist Church is located at 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Call (818) 591-1735 or visit angeleschorale.org.

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March 26 and 27 — The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles presents “A Mighty Voice” at the Los Angeles Theater Center. The concert’s guest conductor is Cristian Grases, assistant conductor of the Miami Symphony, who was recently named to USC’s Thornton School of Music faculty. Works include “Amor de mi Alma” by Z.R. Stroope, Franz Schubert’s “Nachthelle,” Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” “La Sombra Salió del Monte” by Venezuelan composer Antonio Estevez and “Locus Iste” by Anton Bruckner. Tickets cost $35 to $55. The L.A. Theater Center is located at 501 S. Spring St., Los Angeles. Call (800) MENSING (636-7464) for information; visit gmcla.org for tickets. AM

PHOTOS: Randy Yan (Steve Roden); courtesy of the Sierra Modre Chamber (2011 Wistaria Festival)

Christine K. Won, M.D. Internal Medicine

March 18 — Pasadena artist/musician Steve Roden (pictured) and musician/sound artist Mark Trayle present “Cartridge Music,” a 7 p.m. concert of John Cage's work at the Norton Simon Museum, in conjunction with the exhibition, “Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel: An Artwork by John Cage.” The performance is free with museum admission of $10, $5 for seniors 62 and over (free for members, students with I.D. and patrons 18 and under). March 25 — The exhibition “Surface Truths: Abstract Painting in the Sixties” opens with 17 large-scale paintings from the 1960s by Larry Bell, Thomas Downing, Helen Frankenthaler, Takeshi Kawashima, Kenneth Noland and Jack Youngerman. The show continues through Aug. 15. March 26 — In conjunction with the “Surface Truths” exhibition, Prof. David Carrier of Case Western Reserve University lectures on the relationship of the exhibition’s artists to their Abstract Expressionist forebears and their rivals working in other genres. The 4 p.m. lecture is free with museum admission. The Norton Simon Museum is located at 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Call (626) 449-6840 or visit nortonsimon.org.