Arroyo October 2015

FINE LIVING IN THE GREATER PASADENA AREA

OCTOBER 2015

FALL ARTS

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A R C H I T E CT U R E . C O N S T R U CT I O N . I N T E R I O R S .

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arroyo

VOLUME 11 | NUMBER 10 | OCTOBER 2015

11

40

44

FALL ARTS 11 THROUGH A GLASS PLAYFULLY Walter Askin’s multi-faceted artwork depicts the human condition with a humorous flourish.

—By SCARLET CHENG

IMAGES: (Top) Elise Doyle Askin; (bottom left) Courtesy of Constance Mallinson

31 STRICTLY BALLROOM Alice Simpson, daughter of a renowned vaudevillian, infuses her first novel with her love of dance.

—By BETTIJANE LEVINE

37 DANCE MOMS The Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association’s Tami and Erin Stevens have been swinging up a storm for more than 30 years.

—By REBECCA KUZINS

40 MEASURING TRUE WORTH Artist Constance Mallinson challenges the art market with her Armory exhibition, Free Painting.

—By NANCY SPILLER

DEPARTMENTS 10

FESTIVITIES The Pasadena Playhouse honors diversity, The Huntington Ball

44

KITCHEN CONFESSIONS In Halloween’s sluts-vs.-ghosts tourney, there’s no contest.

46

THE LIST Wicked Lit returns to Arcadia, Arthur Miller at A Noise Within, the Love Ride’s final chapter and more

ABOUT THE COVER: A detail from Parade by Walter Askin 10.15 ARROYO | 7

EDITOR’S NOTE We always look forward to the Fall Arts issue here at Arroyo Monthly, in part because Pasadena’s lively cultural scene virtually guarantees a delightful cover image, and this year’s is no exception. The cover detail from Parade, an acrylic-onpaper work by Walter Askin, is a charming example of the seasoned Pasadena artist’s fanciful view of the human landscape. And at 86, Askin is as busy as ever. He currently has a one-man show — Mainstreaming the Muse, at Cal State LA’s Luckman Gallery through Oct. 24 — and continues to entertain invitations from galleries around the country. Art maven Scarlet Cheng, who teaches art and film history courses at Otis College of Art and Design, visited Askin at his studio in Old Pasadena, where he has been creating colorful work for 47 years.

Our other visual art story looks at Constance Mallinson’s fascinating Free Painting project at Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts. Artist and novelist Nancy Spiller spoke with Mallinson about her show, which challenges the soaring art market’s stranglehold on determining an artwork’s worth. To do that, she’s giving away her new oil painting, Raft, in a process that will tease out observers’ personal opinions of the work’s value. Find out how you can get in the game on page 40.

This month, we also look at the joys of ballroom and swing dancing, starting with late-blooming first-time novelist Alice Simpson’s Ballroom.

The South Pasadena writer and artist talked to Editor-at-Large Bettijane Levine about growing up with her vaudevillian father, Hal Sherman, an eccentric dancer famous in his prime, and her own remarkable journey from young commercial artist to 73-year-old literary novice and painted book creator, whose work is in the collections of New York’s Lincoln Center and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, among others.

For those who’d rather do their own swinging, check out Rebecca Kuzins’ story about Tami and Erin Stevens, the sisters behind the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association, where people have been experiencing the pure joy of moving to music for more than 30 years.

—Irene Lacher

EDITOR IN CHIEF Irene Lacher ART DIRECTOR Carla Cortez ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Torres PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Tim Oliver, Rochelle Bassarear EDITOR-AT-LARGE Bettijane Levine COPY EDITOR John Seeley CONTRIBUTORS Leslie Bilderback, Martin Booe, Michael Cervin, Scarlet Cheng, Patt Diroll, Carole Dixon, Kathleen Kelleher, Rebecca Kuzins, Diana Palmer, Ilsa Setziol, John Sollenberger, Nancy Spiller ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dina Stegon ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Lisa Chase, Brenda Clarke, Leslie Lamm ADVERTORIAL CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Bruce Haring ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Tim Oliver, Stephanie Torres HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Andrea Baker PAYROLL Linda Lam ACCOUNTING Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie, Teni Keshishian OFFICE ASSISTANT Ann Turrieta PUBLISHER Jon Guynn 8 | ARROYO | 10.15

arroyo FINE LIVING IN THE GREATER PASADENA AREA

SOUTHLAND PUBLISHING V.P. OF FINANCE Michael Nagami V.P. OF OPERATIONS David Comden PRESIDENT Bruce Bolkin CONTACT US ADVERTISING dinas@pasadenaweekly.com EDITORIAL editor@arroyomonthly.com PHONE (626) 584-1500 FAX (626) 795-0149 MAILING ADDRESS 50 S. De Lacey Ave., Ste. 200, Pasadena, CA 91105 ArroyoMonthly.com ©2015 Southland Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

10.15 ARROYO | 9

FESTIVITIES

Kenny Ortega

Playwright Josefina López and Sheldon Epps (center), flanked by cast members (from left) Ingrid Oliu, Diana DeLaCruz, Santana Dempsey, Cristina Frias, Director Seema Sueko and Blanca Araceli

The Rothenberg family: (top row, from left) Sarah and Dan Rothenberg, Alexander Wei and Jeremy Baker; (bottom row, from left) Catherine and Anne Rothenberg with Erin Baker 10 | ARROYO | 10.15

Josefina López and Cristela Alonzo

The Pasadena Playhouse honored eminent choreographer, director and producer Kenny Ortega and El Portal restaurateur Abel Ramirez at the ninth annual Wells Fargo Theatrical Diversity Project benefit coupled with the Sept.

13 opening of Josefina López’s Real Women Have Curves.

More than 200 supporters attended a pre-show reception at Pasadena’s El Portal Restaurant, decorated with brightly colored streamers, sunflowers and pink tablecloths, where guests received maracas and fans and dined on a spread of hot tamales, pumpkin soup, bolillos and berries. Then revelers lined up behind Mariachi Bella for a lively procession to the theater, where Ortega, who directed the films High School Musical and Michael Jackson’s This Is It, was presented with the 2015 Diversity Award and Ramirez the 2015 Community Award. Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps told the crowd, “The diversity onstage has brought the Pasadena Playhouse to a whole new level, setting a standard for the American theater.” The event raised $89,000 for the playhouse.... More than 400 guests raised some $430,000 for The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens research and educational programs at the 2015 Huntington Ball on Sept. 12. The black-tie gala, catered by The Kitchen for Exploring Foods and decorated by Jacob Maarse Florists, was hosted by the Rothenberg family in honor of Capital Group Chairman Jim Rothenberg, who passed away in July.

Anne Rothenberg and Huntington President Laura Skandera Trombley

Seema Sueko and Troy Hirsch

Elliott and Lindsay Hollingsworth

PHOTOS: Maury Phillips for opening of Real Women Have Curves at the Pasadena Playhouse; Jamie Pham for the Huntington Ball

Kristy Johnson

THROUGH A GLASS PLAYFULLY Walter Askin’s multi-faceted artwork depicts the human condition with a humorous flourish.

BY SCARLET CHENG

WALTER ASKIN HAS A MISCHIEVOUS GRIN ON HIS FACE WHEN HE RECALLS THE FIRST MOMENT HE WANTED TO BECOME AN ARTIST. “WE WERE IN A RENTED HOUSE, UP ON MAR VISTA,” SAYS ASKIN, WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN PASADENA. “I WAS DRAWING LITTLE FIGURES INSIDE THE FLOWERS ON THE WALLPAPER. MY MOTHER NOTICED THEM, AND SHE BECAME RATHER ANGRY BECAUSE IT WAS A RENTED HOUSE.” YOUNG ASKIN WAS DULY IMPRESSED. “I THOUGHT, ANYTHING THAT MAKES THIS WONDERFUL LADY SO ANGRY — THAT’S Askin’s 8-foot-tall flame-cut-steel sculpture, The Sentinel, is on view at the L.A County Arboretum

PHOTOS: Elise Anne Doyle

POWERFUL.” Today Askin is 86, with a full head of white hair and a full beard. His eyes twinkle behind large-frame glasses, in a way that might evoke Santa Claus, but with his rumbly, deep chuckle, he clearly enjoys being naughty now and then. His one-man retrospective, Mainstreaming the Muse, on view through Oct. 24 at Cal State LA’s Luckman Gallery, reflects his love for diverse art media (drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture), as well as his sly sense of humor in depicting the human condition. Most of it is figurative — you will recognize people, plants and architecture — but done in a highly stylized manner, set against single colors or surreal backgrounds. Also on view is Askin’s flame-cut-steel –continued on page 12

10.15 ARROYO | 11

Breugel-Britannia (1970), five-color screenprint

Askin in front of Elgin Marbles at The British Museum in London

–continued from page 11

Christopher Columbus Returns from the New World with the Four Basic Food Groups to Queen Isabella Levitating, Dog Buster and Oscar Kokoshka in a Funk, acrylic on canvas

figure The Sentinel, part of a group show, The Nature of Sculpture, at the L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden through Oct. 21.

Askin’s father was an engineer for the City of Pasadena; his mother had worked for the city prior to marrying and having two sons. When his father brought home architectural plans for buildings he was working on, his brother, who would later become an architect, would examine them; Walter made his own drawings on the back.

In 1949 Askin went up north to study, earning a BA and MA from UC Berkeley.

One of his classmates was the noted Beat Generation artist Jay DeFeo, who went on to marry Askin’s good friend, the iconoclastic artist Wally Hedrick, also from Pasadena. “There was a whole group of us who went to the Bay Area, all very altruistic,” he says. “We were all young.” He recalls studying under such greats as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. “Berkeley was a conduit for New York painters,” he says. “It was almost all Abstract Expressionists at the time.” But his own work is largely representational, I point out. “Before this it was more abstract, but inside there were forms that were more representative of people and so on,” he says. “And I’ve found that humor was important as well — that was part of my nature. I grew up laughing and carrying on.”

Another close friend, artist June Harwood (who died in January), once wrote of him, “Walter Askin creates a universe of fantasy which is somehow related to the real world. Occasionally, individual images within a painting seem to suggest a particular course, but when all the parts are pieced together it is a cryptic, elusive message….

Askin’s work tips the scale, more often, in favor of creative imaginations, instead of satirical or ethical intent, despite the fact that he now and then takes a few liberal pokes at the pomposity and arrogance and the self-serving gratuitous stance of humankind.”

Askin returned to Southern California in 1956. “There was a job teaching here,” he says simply. That was at Cal State LA, where he ended up teaching for nearly –continued on page 14

12 | ARROYO | 10.15

10.15 ARROYO | 13

Mystery Figure, acrylic on canvas

–continued from page 12

four decades, until he retired in 1992. Askin taught studio art, but he also taught art history. “In those days, if you had an idea for something you wanted to teach,” he says, “you could teach it.”

Meanwhile, he continued making his own artwork and had shows at venues near and far. In 1961 he showed at the former Pasadena Art Museum — an institution considered a magnet for area artists. “There must have been about 300 artists in the area,” he says. He’s also had a one-person show at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco and has shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum. The Norton Simon Museum (formerly the Pasadena Art Museum) owns several of his works.

Today his studio is still in Old Pasadena, an area much more congested than when he moved there 47 years ago. His studio has a small courtyard for parking, and for some of the sculpture he has made over the years. The building is divided into two large rooms. Down the corridor to his working studio, there’s a long table to one side with dozens of paints in small jars and brushes. For the interview we sit at a large worktable, surrounded by his art on nearby walls.

Askin has a good memory for what he did when, although he seems loath to talk about technique and the ideas behind his work. “The sun comes up every day, I don’t remember all those things, I just start to work,” he says. “I’m as influenced by medieval art as I am by what’s going on now.” Sometimes he is influenced by place. The colorful print Bruegel-Britannia (1970), with its juxtaposition of standing and sitting figures, reflects both his stay in London during the tail end of the “swinging” ’60s, and his interest in the 16th-century print The Alchemist by Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel.

The other room is arranged like a small gallery, with his work hanging or in neat piles against the walls. His wife, fellow artist Elise Anne Doyle, helps us by pulling some out. Several pieces of sculpture are in the middle of the room, including three of his Polyplanographs (1980) — boxes made up of plexiglass layers with cut-out prints placed on different layers. Each box is mounted on a stand, raising it to shoulder level for comfortable viewing. The prints are of whimsical flora and fauna, dancing in a surreal landscape.

There will be a number of very large acrylic-on-canvas paintings in the show. One of them, Seers, depicts a man standing on a pedestal-like peak, literally on the edge, –continued on page 16 14 | ARROYO | 10.15

10.15 ARROYO | 15

Desert Song, lithograph

–continued from page 14

as he looks to the far distance. Behind him is something that looks like a cross, as well as a stylized chunk of mountain. Even farther behind him are three “wise men” and a tent — perhaps they are waiting to hear what the man will say, where he will lead them.

Over the years Askin has produced several books with his ruminations and his illustrations. “I started developing books as another means of reaching people, because books you can pick up any time — it doesn’t happen at the time of the show,” he says. He Askin with First Singing Telegram created his first book, Another Art Book to Cross Off Your List, when he stopped teaching. It’s full of “revelatory snippets — these are stories about students,” he says. “They’re fictional, but there’s a true underpinning to them.”

His latest book, published in 2013, is called True Fictions. The preface tells us that it is “an aesthetic ramble to various points of view including the amazing wonders of Wobblevision.” The text is a tongue-in-cheek take on several professions in the art world, with a personage speaking pompously in the first person. For example, Otto Gross, here an art critic, says, “Everybody knows that almost all crime is due to a repressed desire for creative activity. When artists stop doing artwork, they become extremely dangerous.” Philbert Drags, the fictitious curator, admits, “Of course, the real curators in my museum are the board of directors. Luna Spleck is our new museum president for the coming year. She is a partner in charge of the Enterprise Group and Business Systems Consulting Practices at the Totally Awesome Company.”

“It’s irritated a bunch of people,” Askin says with a smile,” but I did it as a humorous event.” ||| Mainstreaming the Muse runs through Oct. 24 at The Luckman Gallery in Cal State LA’s Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Dr., L.A. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday and Saturday. Admission is free. Visit luckmanarts.org/

The Nature of Sculpture runs through Oct. 21 at the L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. The exhibition is free with regular admission of $9, $6 for students and seniors 62 and older and $4 for children 5 to 12; no charge for members and children under 5. Call (626) 821-3222.

16 | ARROYO | 10.15

PHOTOS: Elise Anne Doyle

gallery.

10.15 ARROYO | 17

18 | ARROYO | 10.15

arroyo

™

~HOME SALES INDEX~ HOME SALES

august august

ALTADENA Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. ARCADIA Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. EAGLE ROCK Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. GLENDALE Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. LA CAÑADA Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. PASADENA Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. SAN MARINO Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. SIERRA MADRE Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. SOUTH PASADENA Homes Sold Median Price Median Sq. Ft. TOTAL Homes Sold Avg Price/Sq. Ft.

AUG. ‘14 36 $642,000 1589 AUG. ‘14 35 $920,000 1800 AUG. ‘14 14 $656,000 1274 AUG.‘14 99 $625,000 1513 AUG. ‘14 24 $1,262,500 2205 AUG. ‘14 160 $649,000 1475 AUG. ‘14 17 $2,038,000 2625 AUG. ‘14 23 $850,000 1724 AUG. ‘14 11 $1,035,000 1638 AUG. ‘14 419 $558

HOMES SOLD

+0.54%

400

AVG. PRICE/SQ. FT.

419

-4.53%

2015

HOMES SOLD

2014

AUG.‘15 33 $675,000 1518 AUG. ‘15 32 $910,000 1818 AUG. ‘15 11 $812,000 1485 AUG. ‘15 120 $640,000 1482 AUG. ‘15 25 $1,450,000 2454 AUG. ‘15 128 $690,250 1549 AUG. ‘15 14 $2,190,000 3072 AUG. ‘15 11 $950,000 1776 AUG. ‘15 26 $1,040,000 1756 AUG. ‘15 400 $561

HOME SALES ABOVE

RECENT HOME CLOSINGS IN THE PASADENA WEEKLY FOOTPRINT ADDRESS ALTADENA

2413 Midlothian Drive 1276 Sunny Oaks Circle 1717 East Mendocino Street 2615 Bowring Drive 2100 Grand Oaks Avenue 3079 Maiden Lane 2075 Minoru Drive 396 Buena Loma Street 2123 Santa Rosa Avenue 2407 El Molino Avenue 2041 North Altadena Drive

CLOSE DATE

PRICE

BDRMS.

SQ. FT.

source: CalREsource

YR. BUILT PREV. PRICE

08/04/15 08/25/15 08/18/15 08/03/15 08/11/15 08/06/15 08/17/15 08/21/15 08/20/15 08/28/15 08/21/15

$1,580,000 $1,310,500 $1,305,000 $1,280,000 $1,032,500 $1,000,000 $950,000 $930,000 $925,000 $860,000 $845,000

5 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 6 3

4295 1734 3226 2004 2227 1925 2220 2613 1351 2685 2301

1976 1954 1923 1947 1948 1940 1952 1945 1948 1953 1946

08/06/15 08/21/15 08/28/15 08/10/15 08/26/15 08/26/15 08/17/15 08/25/15 08/14/15 08/26/15 08/18/15 08/26/15 08/11/15 08/27/15 08/20/15 08/27/15 08/10/15 08/31/15

$4,560,000 $3,188,000 $2,780,000 $2,500,000 $2,430,000 $2,350,000 $2,100,000 $2,008,000 $1,850,000 $1,795,000 $1,398,000 $1,062,500 $1,040,000 $963,000 $920,000 $918,000 $902,000 $895,000

6 5 2 4 3 5 4 5 4 2 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3

7502 2557 1299 2504 2167 5176 6178 4086 2820 1446 2569 2150 1834 1743 1606 2209 1928 1231

2006 1969 1948 1952 1952 2013 1932 2008 1954 1948 1950 1958 1951 1960 1955 2005 1958 1951

08/03/15 08/04/15 08/05/15 08/13/15 08/06/15

$1,269,000 $1,200,000 $1,035,000 $909,000 $899,000

4 3 5 6 3

2184 3465 2420 3028 1890

08/12/15 08/14/15 08/17/15 08/19/15 08/21/15 08/13/15 08/21/15 08/03/15 08/06/15 08/17/15 08/18/15 08/04/15 08/07/15 08/11/15 08/25/15 08/25/15 08/20/15 08/25/15 08/25/15 08/18/15 08/21/15 08/21/15 08/03/15 08/04/15 08/12/15 08/18/15

$2,300,000 $1,680,000 $1,620,000 $1,535,000 $1,500,000 $1,295,000 $1,272,000 $1,270,000 $1,150,000 $1,150,000 $1,150,000 $1,100,000 $1,092,000 $1,090,000 $1,015,000 $970,000 $950,000 $950,000 $925,000 $913,000 $900,000 $881,000 $860,000 $859,000 $845,000 $825,000

5 4 3 4 5 2 4 4 3 3 4 3 4 5 2 3 4 2 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 5

08/07/15 08/17/15 08/11/15

$4,950,000 $3,895,000 $2,585,000

8 6 3

PREV. SOLD

$995,000 $625,000 $1,059,000 $489,000 $763,500

10/16/2009 10/14/1999 02/23/2007 08/12/1999 07/10/2008

$297,500 $433,000 $215,000 $480,000

09/15/1999 12/19/2014 11/30/1995 08/03/2001

$1,555,000 $1,175,000 $740,000

03/18/2005 08/29/2013 04/25/2013

$2,989,000

03/12/2014

$162,500 $1,675,000 $754,000 $950,000 $126,000 $177,500 $415,000

10/30/1984 07/17/2013 06/28/2013 04/03/2009 10/07/1977 12/05/1984 02/15/2002

$820,000 $784,000 $745,000

11/02/2006 08/30/2005 08/21/2013

1932 2010 1922 1920 1938

$685,000 $849,000

01/13/2011 07/11/2011

$392,000 $277,000

10/22/2002 09/04/1998

4165 2935 4560 3352 4088 2634 2777 2618 2718 2377 3012 2726 2816 2604 1841 1446 2011 2713 2112 2302 1447 1660 1934 1452 2186 2131

1930 1927 1928 1927 1937 1940 1990 1989 2005 1936 1975 1938 1939 1947 2008 1930 1948 1967 1956 1967 1948 1924 1926 1949 1959 1927

$500,000 $900,000 $539,000 $765,000 $485,000 $725,000 $1,180,000 $1,265,000 $659,000 $1,068,000 $1,199,000 $455,000

02/25/1993 08/16/2013 02/15/1996 06/12/2001 10/15/1987 04/01/2003 12/24/2013 05/18/2006 06/08/2010 01/31/2006 04/23/2008 03/11/2002

$865,000 $635,500 $812,500 $440,000

08/08/2014 02/02/2010 06/14/2006 02/24/1989

$610,000

05/19/2015

$399,000 $495,000

09/01/2000 06/16/2004

$260,000 $172,000 $143,000

07/27/1995 10/31/1984 03/11/1980

8172 5907 3883

1928 1999 1925

$190,000 $3,600,000 $1,700,000

03/17/1972 08/20/2008 05/17/2005

ARCADIA

246 Arbolada Drive 1614 South 1st Avenue 1136 South 6th Avenue 1550 Rodeo Road 1426 Oaklawn Road 1227 Louise Avenue 1820 South Santa Anita Avenue 1036 Louise Avenue 1421 North Baldwin Avenue 924 South 4th Avenue 303 East Wistaria Avenue 1666 North Santa Anita Avenue 161 East Las Flores Avenue 1016 South 9th Avenue 1815 South 3rd Avenue 513 South 5th Avenue #A 228 East Magna Vista Avenue 327 South 3rd Avenue EAGLE ROCK

5243 Highland View Avenue 4928 Onteora Way 5136 Ellenwood Place 2216 Addison Way 5202 Monte Bonito Drive GLENDALE

2965 St. Gregory Road 1114 East Mountain Street 1440 Royal Blvd.

1615 Arbor Drive 435 East Mountain Street 839 West Mountain Street 1045 Calle Contento 925 Calle Del Pacifico 1323 North Pacific Avenue 1221 Imperial Drive 1611 Heather Ridge Drive 1326 Rossmoyne Avenue 3615 Sierra Vista Avenue 1029 Alcalde Drive 270 Caruso Avenue 2527 Community Avenue 3208 Sparr Blvd.

3157 Beaudry Terrace 1639 Sheridan Road 2645 Sleepy Hollow Place 1333 Oak Circle Drive 2156 Crescent Avenue 1630 Capistrano Avenue 3724 La Crescenta Avenue 3624 Burritt Way 683 Luton Drive LA CAÑADA

3972 Alta Vista Drive 4255 Oakwood Avenue 4377 Chevy Chase Drive

–continued on page 20

The Arroyo Home Sales Index is calculated from residential home sales in Pasadena and the surrounding communities of South Pasadena, San Marino, La Canada Flintridge, Eagle Rock, Glendale (including Montrose), Altadena, Sierra Madre and Arcadia. Individual home sales data provided by CalREsource. Arroyo Home Sales Index © Arroyo 2015. Complete home sales listings appear each week in Pasadena Weekly.

10.15 ARROYO | 19

–continued from page 19 ADDRESS LA CAÑADA

544 Georgian Road 401 Woodfield Road 4936 Palm Drive 5139 Jarvis Avenue 2012 Los Amigos Street 3991 Hampstead Road 4744 La Canada Blvd.

4409 Chevy Chase Drive 5702 Catherwood Drive 2136 Sunnybank Drive 5037 Hill Street 3608 Hampstead Road 4848 Alminar Avenue 4280 Mesa Vista Drive 4557 Castle Road 4544 Loma Vista Drive 4520 La Granada Way 4536 Commonwealth Avenue

CLOSE DATE

PRICE

BDRMS.

SQ. FT.

YR. BUILT PREV. PRICE

08/26/15 08/17/15 08/25/15 08/11/15 08/12/15 08/28/15 08/27/15 08/10/15 08/20/15 08/27/15 08/24/15 08/27/15 08/13/15 08/05/15 08/24/15 08/21/15 08/14/15 08/04/15

$2,500,000 $2,400,000 $2,375,000 $2,200,000 $2,070,000 $1,925,000 $1,825,000 $1,794,500 $1,575,000 $1,450,000 $1,410,000 $1,375,000 $1,285,000 $1,265,000 $1,172,500 $1,101,000 $980,000 $900,000

5 4 5 4 4 2 5 3 4 4 3 2 5 3 3 3 2 3

3980 2021 3868 3540 2743 2687 3800 2472 2562 3022 1763 2454 1949 1468 2020 1797 1563 1828

1963 1952 1924 1948 1940 1950 1931 1940 1966 1953 1928 1960 1947 1950 1948 1950 1955 1940

1660 Lombardy Road 08/14/15 964 Hillside Terrace 08/18/15 875 South Madison Avenue 08/21/15 455 West California Blvd.

08/06/15 1015 South El Molino Avenue 08/17/15 883 South Oakland Avenue 08/14/15 494 California Terrace 08/17/15 1671 Poppy Peak Drive 08/28/15 136 Glen Summer Road 08/04/15 1492 Old House Road 08/10/15 1409 Linda Vista Avenue 08/17/15 2500 Canyon View 08/19/15 1840 Villa Rica Avenue 08/04/15 633 South Lake Avenue #11 08/06/15 1036 Linda Glen Drive 08/25/15 1396 Inverness Drive 08/03/15 1491 North Holliston Avenue 08/26/15 1170 Busch Garden Court 08/18/15 151 South Hudson Avenue #401 08/20/15 409 South Meridith Avenue 08/21/15 1854 East Mountain Street 08/19/15 127 South Meridith Avenue #A 08/12/15 154 North Parkwood Avenue 08/07/15 211 South Orange Grove Blvd. #11 08/05/15 405 Sequoia Drive 08/25/15 885 South Orange Grove Blvd. #42 08/26/15 1190 Avenue #64 08/03/15 371 South Greenwood Avenue 08/21/15 425 San Juan Place 08/19/15 1265 Medford Road 08/14/15 1226 North Holliston Avenue 08/24/15 257 South Hudson Avenue #102 08/05/15 700 East Union Street #304 08/10/15 2063 Monte Vista Street 08/25/15 2823 Magna Vista Street 08/20/15 1731 East Mountain Street 08/07/15 1183 North Wilson Avenue 08/18/15 520 East Elizabeth Street 08/28/15 1120 North Catalina Avenue 08/27/15 785 North Hill Avenue 08/07/15

$4,580,000 $3,025,000 $2,751,000 $2,525,000 $2,375,500 $2,000,000 $1,808,000 $1,700,000 $1,605,000 $1,550,000 $1,500,000 $1,370,000 $1,340,000 $1,325,000 $1,310,000 $1,290,000 $1,255,000 $1,252,000 $1,200,000 $1,175,000 $1,171,500 $1,070,000 $1,055,000 $1,000,000 $998,000 $975,000 $950,000 $950,000 $949,000 $935,000 $920,000 $915,000 $889,000 $885,000 $880,000 $870,000 $860,000 $855,000 $838,000 $825,000

6 4 6 5 4 6 4 3 5 2 3 4 4 2 3 2 4 3 0 3 4 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 6 4 3 4 3

5813 3466 4364 2982 4362 3848 2992 2648 2727 2593 1883 2838 2909 1970 2890 2256 2508 1789 0 1872 2245 2520 1809 2311 2146 2544 1746 1961 1933 1952 1737 1680 1530 1732 1721 2854 1370 1676 2320 2038

1928 1926 1914 1926 1922 1920 1979 1944 1928 1946 1924 1978 1959 2010 1978 1959 1925 1952 1925 1926 1953 1911 1975 1937 1973 1930 1936 1957 1951 1924 2009 2006 1928 1947 1923 1914 1924 1914 1920

08/18/15 08/28/15 08/14/15 08/10/15 08/04/15 08/06/15 08/25/15 08/10/15 08/21/15 08/20/15 08/18/15 08/04/15 08/20/15 08/25/15

$9,150,000 $5,300,000 $3,600,000 $3,050,000 $2,950,000 $2,238,000 $2,200,000 $2,180,000 $2,012,000 $1,980,000 $1,828,000 $1,627,000 $1,575,000 $1,235,000

6 6 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 3 3 3 2 3

5565 4605 4487 3953 3038 3106 3404 3559 1188 2486 2302 1614 1868 2045

08/12/15 08/07/15 08/12/15 08/14/15 08/27/15 08/27/15

$1,726,500 $1,405,000 $1,190,500 $1,175,000 $990,000 $950,000

4 5 3 3 5 3

08/07/15 08/20/15 08/06/15 08/17/15 08/24/15 08/05/15 08/20/15 08/03/15 08/11/15 08/20/15 08/17/15 08/10/15 08/27/15 08/14/15 08/20/15 08/19/15 08/04/15

$2,225,000 $2,198,500 $1,920,000 $1,700,000 $1,508,000 $1,420,000 $1,400,000 $1,270,000 $1,220,000 $1,200,000 $1,135,000 $1,108,000 $1,100,000 $980,000 $910,000 $875,000 $850,000

4 0 4 3 6 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 2 4 3 3 3

PREV. SOLD

$2,300,000 $1,660,000 $1,975,000 $1,200,000 $112,000 $640,000 $1,320,000

07/14/2014 01/15/2014 09/26/2008 06/21/1991 07/21/1978 01/02/2001 06/29/2010

$1,035,000 $435,000

08/17/2012 12/03/1990

$318,000 $1,148,000 $1,230,000

02/12/1986 08/30/2007 05/02/2006

$752,000 $345,000 $815,000

03/28/2011 08/16/1999 10/30/2007

$994,000

05/23/2003

$1,250,000 $1,580,000

09/19/2000 03/31/2004

$270,000 $1,250,000 $1,500,000 $1,425,000 $1,176,000 $1,035,000 $800,000

12/18/1979 03/26/2013 08/18/2010 06/08/2006 09/27/2013 03/10/2006 01/05/2012

$595,000

09/10/1998

$313,000 $552,000 $980,000 $850,000 $930,000

03/02/1994 09/10/1999 07/07/2015 02/09/2007 12/21/2012

$122,000 $500,000

01/08/1986 10/18/1993

$600,000 $615,000

09/02/2011 04/28/2010

$825,000 $295,000

04/02/2008 07/15/1998

$875,000 $890,000 $641,000 $109,396 $730,000 $439,000

04/11/2007 07/26/2006 07/22/2004 12/04/1992 09/01/2006 04/16/2002

$340,000

08/22/2001

2013 1953 1937 1928 1948 1931 1930 1928 1940 1947 1937 1927 1948 1951

$6,500,000 $2,298,000 $3,450,000 $1,050,000 $150,000 $998,000

05/21/2014 07/25/2000 11/20/2009 12/31/2002 06/23/1975 10/16/2003

$87,000 $727,500 $99,500 $157,500 $1,333,000 $117,727 $448,000

07/01/1974 12/09/2005 04/06/1998 05/23/1978 06/12/2006 03/22/2013 02/02/1995

3100 4133 2311 1830 2410 1756

1976 1947 1948 2013 1950 1941

$470,000 $1,250,000

08/12/1992 09/02/2005

$999,000 $425,000 $840,000

08/13/2014 01/02/2002 03/05/2007

2740 989 2970 2601 2406 1600 2752 2249 2424 1743 1960 1768 1257 4933 1216 1131 1842

1948 1914 1969 1908 1906 1914 1910 1992 1995 1913 1908 1912 1958 1991 1950 1940 1908

$1,800,000 $431,500

10/04/2012 06/18/1990

$1,675,000 $325,000 $1,111,000 $225,000 $327,000 $500,000 $342,000 $925,000

10/15/2014 07/21/1994 06/21/2006 04/06/1984 02/22/1995 10/12/2001 09/20/1993 02/28/2014

$320,000 $130,000

08/23/1999 01/04/2000

$774,500 $660,000

11/26/2007 01/25/2012

PASADENA

SAN MARINO

1170 St. Albans Road 1145 Rosalind Road 1550 Circle Drive 1760 Ramiro Road 1300 Bedford Road 2495 Coniston Place 2430 Cumberland Road 2157 Homet Road 410 La Mirada Avenue 699 South Santa Anita Avenue 2580 Lorain Road 2805 Carlaris Road 1365 South San Gabriel Blvd.

1305 Blackstone Road SIERRA MADRE

699 Camillo Road 531 West Sierra Madre Blvd.

521 East Orange Grove Avenue 190 Grove Street 30 West Mira Monte Avenue 107 Lowell Avenue SOUTH PASADENA

1981 Oak Street 1534 Ramona Avenue 1710 Camino Lindo 1122 Stratford Avenue 1918 La France Avenue 1019 Adelaine Avenue 1524 Ramona Avenue 744 Bonita Drive 1821 Hanscom Drive 741 Garfield Avenue 1721 Mission Street 1024 Cawston Avenue 1105 Buena Vista Street 1905 Hanscom Drive 2018 Empress Avenue 2027 Stratford Avenue 615 Fairview Avenue 20 | ARROYO | 10.15

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ARROYO

HOME & DESIGN SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

CHANGING TIMES MEAN CHANGES FOR ESTATE SALES AND AUCTIONS You may be surprised at what’s available in-person and online at upcoming sales

PHOTO: Courtesy of John Moran Auctioneers

BY BRUCE HARING

ONE CERTAINTY IN LIFE IS THAT THINGS WILL CHANGE. IN PASADENA, BECKHAM GRILL & BAR RECENTLY CLOSED AFTER 38 YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE TO ITS CLIENTELE. RETAIL GIANT MACY’S DEPARTED THE CITY SEVERAL YEARS AGO AS PART OF A NATIONAL DOWNSIZING. JAKE’S OF PASADENA, BERG’S HARDWARE, BURGER CONTINENTAL – ALL ONCE LANDMARK LOCAL BUSINESSES, AND ALL NOW A PART OF HISTORY, FONDLY REMEMBERED BY THOSE WHO PATRONIZED THEM. Yes, schools fade away, seasons pass, fashions go in and out of style, and tastes in homes and entertaining adapt to the times. It’s all part of the human experience, as time and shifting demographics influence the way we live our lives.

Thus, it’s no surprise that estate sales and auctions reflect the changes in lifestyle and habits of our region’s population. As people divest themselves of the accumulated possessions of a lifetime, what’s available often reflects what was popular several years or even decades ago. Yet there’s been a distinct change from traditional to more modern offerings at estate sales and auctions lately, as new local housing reflects the different tastes and styles of the people in the area.

Estate sales (sometimes called tag sales or estate auctions) are professional clearing houses for a lifetime of possessions. Their goal is to help you divest your household items in a dignified manner, typically when a family member passes away. But they are sometimes used just to clear the clutter out of a house, turn no longer needed items into cash, or in preparation for a move to a new home.

In the Pasadena area, more than 100 estate sales or auctions are usually held each weekend, according to estatesales.net, a web site monitoring local activities in the sector. Estate sales and auctions are typically conducted by professionals for a percentage of revenues, with some charging fees for additional services like advertising, marketing, staff, refreshments and other incidentals. Every situation is different, so an appraisal of your potential sales items by the firm is the usual first order of business.

The increasing interest in estate sales and auctions in the Pasadena area has caused several firms to take notice.

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PHOTO: Courtesy of Doyle New York

—ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT—

–continued from page 23

Doyle New York is a recent entrant to the local market, and its operations are typical of the estate sales/auction business. The firm has handled the estate sales for numerous celebrity clients in the past, including James Cagney, Bette Davis, Rock Hudson and Joan Crawford. Doyle New York holds over forty auctions each year. The sales represent a wide range of categories, including jewelry, art, fine watches, furniture, decorations, Asian works of art, modern design, prints, books, autographs, coins and stamps, as well as prominent single-owner collections and celebrity estates.

Similarly, Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house that has established a base in the Los Angeles area. The local outlet has resident specialists in European and American furniture, decorative arts, 20th Century design, Hollywood memorabilia, books and manuscripts, Asian art, California paintings, and wine, among other items.

–continued on page 28

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PHOTO: Courtesy of Abell Auctions

—ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT—

–continued from page 25

PASADENA IS BIG ON SALES Pasadena is a particular hotbed for auctions and estate sales.

Joe Baratta, Vice President of Business Development at Abell Auctions, says the Pasadena area was once known as a more formal market for auction items because of the large number of more traditional style homes. But it now has a strong contemporary housing market as well. “Tastes are changing,” says Baratta. “People are moving from more formal settings.” As a result of that cultural shift, auction interest in fine china, tableware and crystal is not as strong as it used to be, Baratta says.

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PHOTO: Courtesy of Abell Auctions

—ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT—

–continued from page 28

An auction house differs from an estate sale manager in that it determines value by competitive bidding rather than set prices. “We also have the ability to market internationally,” says Baratta. The Abell company deals in fine arts, jewelry, paintings, silver, “anything one can take out of their house.”

SMALLER ITEMS DO WELL Jeff Moran, Vice President at John Moran Auctioneers, said the items that do well at an estate sale are those that fit today’s living spaces. “Art objects, decorative smalls, unique, well-made accessories all sell well,” says Moran. “Large furniture does not sell well. There are two key reasons: right now, with baby boomers downsizing, there is an abundance of quality furniture on the second-hand market.” Moran adds that doesn’t even count the new furniture available from many retailers.

One thing that does draw a lot of interest are objects connected to history. “People will pay a premium for an item that belonged to someone well-liked or famous,” said Moran. If you have a continuous record of ownership, this may increase value in an item, such as art of jewelry.

This is called provenance. In some cases, it helps support authenticity on an item that may be heavily faked.”

Pasadena is known for “wonderful collections,” says Moran. “I am always amazed at the quality of objects we are called in to appraise or sell that come from a 10-mile radius of our address.

PLAN AHEAD If you’re thinking about an estate sale or auction, it is advisable to have a qualified specialist look at the property before making any decisions on what to sell or what not.

“This way, the family or trustees can be presented with options to consider on how best to sell the items,” says Moran. “Even though the Internet has increased visibility in marketing, certain items fetch a higher price if sold in a particular location.”

For example, Moran cites a recent sale of an oil painting of a mosque by a 19th century English “Orientalist” artist. The piece was designated to be sold in the Middle East.

“We did this on behalf of a consignor, where we were handling the entire estate,” Moran says. By targeting that specific region, “It ended up on the catalogue cover and sold for $825,000 against a $300,000/500,000 auction estimate,” Moran says. “I doubt it would have sold for that much Moran was definite in his reply when questioned on what some believe are worth much, but deliver little value: “Hummel figurines.”

Fortunately, there aren’t many collectors in the Pasadena area. |||| 30 | ARROYO | 10.15

Strictly Ballroom Alice Simpson, daughter of a renowned vaudevillian, infuses her first novel with her love of dance.

PHOTO: Jimmy Chou

BY BETTIJANE LEVINE

ALICE SIMPSON FELT LIKE SHE’D STRUCK GOLD WHEN HER

QUICKLY SUCCEEDED BY YET ANOTHER ONE: THE AGENT

EMAIL QUERY TO A TOP NEW YORK LITERARY AGENT RESULTED

SOLD THE FIRST-TIME AUTHOR’S BOOK WITHIN A WEEK TO THE

IN A PHONE CALL THE VERY NEXT DAY. THE AGENT LIKED THE

VENERABLE HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHING HOUSE. THE NOVEL,

CHAPTERS SIMPSON HAD SENT AND OFFERED TO REPRESENT

BALLROOM, WAS PUBLISHED IN HARDCOVER LAST YEAR; THE

HER IN THE SALE OF HER FIRST BOOK. THAT GREAT COUP WAS

PAPERBACK JUST CAME OUT LAST MONTH. –continued on page 33 10.15 | ARROYO | 31

32 | ARROYO | 10.15

PHOTO: Courtesy of Alice Simpson

–continued from page 31

To celebrate her unexpected success, Simpson, 73, did what she always said she’d do if she ever won the lottery. “I always said if I won, I’d get private tango lessons. I actually said I’d buy Tony Dovolani from Dancing with the Stars to come teach me the tango,” Simpson says with an exuberance that gives her voice a perpetual smile. Dovolani proved impractical, so she went on YouTube and found the instructor who now comes to her South Pasadena loft, where they tango together every week in her endless pursuit of terpsichorean splendor.

The seductive thrum of tango music has permeated Simpson’s life ever since she can remember. It has hovered, like the scent of some exotic bloom, over all her artistic endeavors. It saturates the memories of her father, the renowned eccentric dancer Hal Sherman, once known as “the Charlie Chaplin of dance,” who is said to have invented the Moonwalk long before Michael Jackson. His so-called rubber-leg routines made him an international star and household name when vaudeville reigned as the world’s supreme form of entertainment.

Immortalized by Al Hirshfeld in a New York Times caricature, and by some of the era’s top photographers, Sherman cavorted through the world’s capitals in bespoke suits and gold-tipped cane, surrounded by showgirls along with the rich and the royal. By the time Alice was born, however, both vaudeville and her father’s career were largely finished. She saw her father dance only in their living room. While her mother went to work to support the family, her dad was at home, listening endlessly to the haunting melodies of tango masters like Carlos Gardel, whose mesmerizing voice you can still hear on YouTube. No longer the chum of European royals like the Prince of Wales, with whom he used to pal around at Maxim’s in Paris, and no longer surrounded by fancy women (Simpson’s mother

was Sherman’s fourth wife), he used to let his daughter dance on his toes as he twirled to tango rhythms in their New York apartment. It is music that Simpson says she only realizes now, in retrospect, “must have seeped into my bones and into the very core of me... and it has lasted forever.”

Tango plays a huge part in her book, which takes place in in 1999 and follows six characters who seek love and fulfillment in Sunday night visits to a once-grand but nowseedy ballroom in lower Manhattan. There they dance with strangers who become objects of desire, but who ultimately cannot fulfill the fantasies their weekly partners have woven around them.

Reviews of the book have been sparse but positive. Comparing Ballroom to Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Kirkus Reviews said, “Readers who enjoy seeing inside the hearts and minds of others will relish sharing the lives of Simpson’s creations.”

And now that she’s launched as an author, Simpson says she has no time to waste. She’s already 350 pages into her next volume, a story of greed in New York’s Gilded Age. “It’s a wonderful time period, the 1890s to the early 1900s. People were building mansions on Fifth Avenue, the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Natural History were founded, they were putting elevators into steel structures and the Brooklyn Bridge was being built. There were the few who were very rich, like the Rockefellers and the Fricks, and the many who were very poor, immigrants crowding into tenements. There are some parallels to today.”

The story of Simpson’s late-life literary success would be interesting enough on its own, but it is just a small part of this fascinating woman’s delayed foray into new fields of work at a time of life when most people think they’ve defined who they are and what

10.15 | ARROYO | 33

–continued from page 33

they are capable of. Simpson reached her 50s believing the rest of her life would probably proceed much as it had before. She was a single mother who enjoyed a successful career as a commercial graphic artist and illustrator, with top-notch corporate clients in the New York fashion and cosmetic industries.

Her first marriage, at 22, had been brief, but brought the blessing of a son. In 1980 she married again and joined her new husband in the San Fernando Valley, where she again plied her trade for such clients as Max Factor and Redken. That marriage lasted nine years, she says, and by the time it ended her son was out of college and on his own. She moved back to New York alone, intending to resume her career and friendships. During all those decades of work and motherhood, she says, dancing was no part of her conscious life, nor did she ever imagine herself veering off to become a fine artist — and certainly not an author. Where her story departs from millions of others is the U-turn she made in her 50s, when strictly by chance she discovered talents she never knew she had. And she rediscovered dancing.

“It was 1990 when I went back to New York. I was getting my business and my life back together again,” she says. “I had a friend who told me she was doing ballroom dancing and how wonderful it was. I had loved to dance in high school and college, but that had all gone away. I felt it was beneath me as an adult to go to a ballroom to dance. It wasn’t a classy thing to do. My friend said the people are nice, they’re educated, they’re not what you would imagine. She convinced me to try it, and we went to the Marc Ballroom in lower Manhattan, and dancing became an important part of my life. Once you start you want to become better and better. So I began taking dance classes, and it was great.

You meet people and gather at different places and find out where to dance in the city. It’s a community of its own.

“Then another friend said, ‘Come with me to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle in Maine.’ I asked what it was and what we’d do there. She said, ‘We’ll make artist books.’ I had never heard of that and asked what it was. She said ‘They’re painted books,’ and explained the process. I didn’t really want to go. She said, ‘It’s only three weeks and we’ll have great fun.’ So I went. And that changed my life. I have never been the same.”

Simpson discovered a talent for creating painted books that she never knew she had.

“I just couldn’t believe what I was capable of. It’s quite magical, especially considering 34 | ARROYO | 10.15

who I had been. And others responded to my work in positive ways. The first book I made was called Matthew with the Turquoise Eyes. It’s a tunnel book that expands, like an accordion, into a ballroom.”

Simpson has continued making art books, which are now in private collections as well as those of museums and universities around the world. Seven have been purchased

by New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Lincoln Center Theatre Collection. Her work is also in collections at Yale, Harvard and Stanford universities, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Armenia, the New York Public Library and the Rhode Island School of Design.

For one of her Haystack projects in the ’90s, Simpson had been asked to write brief stories describing the lives of characters she had created visually in one of her painted books. She discovered she loved writing, another discipline she’d never tried before. Those same characters and stories, much expanded on over many years, became the basis for the characters in Ballroom.

Throughout the ’90s in New York, Simpson continued perfecting her writing, her dancing and her book art, and she also began sculpting in clay, all of which she continues to this day, almost always with tango music in the background. In addition to Gardel, her favorites include Astor Piazzola and the contemporary Gotan Project based in France.

In 2009, her son, Mike Simpson, a multiple Grammy Award–winning music writer and producer, asked her to try California once more, to be closer to him and her grandchildren. She moved to her modern, light-filled live/work loft that year and says she was “surprised at how much I enjoy living here in little South Pasadena. It’s clean and quiet and sweet and life is easy. Of course, after living in the heart of New York City, where I used to go to theater and out dancing sometimes five nights a week, I sometimes do miss my night life. But I fulfill my cultural longings — I go to a lot of classical music concerts here, and that’s very important in my life. And I have my work and dance lessons, and I have found a wonderful writing group nearby that is excellent and supportive. I’m also working with the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors.”

She’s not the first woman in her family to bloom later in life, Simpson says. Her mother met her dad when he was at the top of his career. At age 65, she became the secretary-treasurer of a mining engineering corporation. “It was very unusual in those years,” Simpson says, seemingly unaware that her own trajectory as an artist is unusual even today. ||| Alice Simpson at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts

PHOTO: Courtesy of Alice Simpson

Alice Simpson with her handmade book, Ballroom.

10.15 ARROYO | 35

36 | ARROYO | 10.15

Tami and Erin Stevens, flanked by dance partners

DANCE MOMS The Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association’s Tami and Erin Stevens have been swinging up a storm for more than 30 years.

BY REBECCA KUZINS

ON A RECENT SATURDAY NIGHT, PASADENA’S GRACE HALL WAS A JUMPIN’ JOINT, WITH MORE THAN 100 COUPLES DOING THE JITTERBUG, LINDY HOP AND OTHER SWING DANCES. THE 1950S THEME BROUGHT OUT WOMEN WEARING SADDLE SHOES AND PONYTAILS AND

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association

MEN SPORTING LEATHER JACKETS, WHO CAME TO HEAR THE LIVE MUSIC OF LIL’ MO AND THE DYNAFLOS. THE CROWD SPANNED A WIDE AGE RANGE — FROM PEOPLE IN THEIR 30S THROUGH THEIR 80S, WITH A SCATTERING OF MILLENNIALS — AND THE DANCERS WERE CLEARLY ENJOYING THEMSELVES, FLASHING BROAD SMILES AS THEY MOVED TO THE MUSIC. Some people have been coming to these Saturday night swing dances for years.

“It’s my family,” says Wende Mintz, a middle school history teacher. “This is where my whole social life is. I’ve been making friends here for 10 years.” Others said the weekly events were a good way to exercise and forget their problems through the sheer joy they

experience on the dance floor.

The Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association has been staging these dances and conducting dance classes since siblings Tami and Erin Stevens and their parents founded the organization in 1983. The sisters now offer group classes every Sunday through Thursday night at Grace Hall (in the back of Hill Avenue Grace Lutheran Church), where they also hold their monthly Friday-night ballroom dances and weekly Saturday-night swing dances.

Unlike many instructors who teach a European-based international style of ballroom dancing, Tami and Erin base their lessons in the American tradition, which is rooted in lead-and-follow techniques and allows partners to improvise on the dance floor.

By comparison, the European style is competitive, less spontaneous and more strictly choreographed. Erin says she and Tami prefer the less rigid American style because “you can make your own interpretation to the music, which is more fun.”

“Our foxtrot is based not on the Arthur Murray Magic Step, which studios would teach, but on Harry Fox’s box step,” explains Tami, referring to the vaudeville actor for whom the dance was named. “We also follow the African-American tradition of Lindy –continued on page 38 10.15 ARROYO | 37

–continued from page 37

Hop and jitterbug swing. We don’t jive, which is the European tradition the studios would teach. We’re in our own American social dance world.”

Dancing with the Stars employs the European style, and the TV show’s popularity has had little impact on the association. “I honestly don’t think it helped us one bit — it scared people away,” says Erin. “People looked at the costumes and thought a lot of people would judge them.... and they never could look like that.” For the Stevens sisters, dancing is not about looking a certain way, or even perfecting the dance steps. It’s about having fun or, as Erin puts it, “joy put to music.”

The sisters’ free-spirited, nonthreatening instruction is one reason for the association’s longevity. “These ladies can get people who’ve never danced before up and dancing in about 20 minutes,” says Gordon, a ballroom dance student who declined to give his last name. “They’ve really broken [the steps] down until they’re just as simple as they can be.”

Although Tami and Erin have been involved in the dance world for more than 30 years, they had little interest in dance as children growing up in Pasadena. Instead, they helped out at The Wonderful Balinese Shop, their parents’ gift store at Colorado and Orange Grove boulevards. Jim, their late father, was an Americana paper collector, and their mother, Monza, had been a prima ballerina and dance teacher.

In the 1970s, Tami started out as a cable-TV anchorwoman on a local public-access cable channel. She was eventually offered a job with the NBC television affi liate in Corpus Christi, Texas, but she turned it down to help Erin create the ballroom dance association.

Around the same time, Erin began pursuing a newfound passion for dancing, sparked by a jazz- dance class she enrolled in after high school. She continued to take dance classes while studying at Pasadena City College and regularly attended big-band dances and concerts. She and dance partner Steven Mitchell had won several cha-cha contests but had never tried swing dancing. The two became smitten with swing when, despite their inexperience, they aced a swing dance contest at Santa Monica’s Miramar Hotel.

Erin enrolled at UC Irvine, where she majored in choreography and dance. She and Mitchell avidly practiced swing steps, including the dance they saw in a scene from the Marx Brothers’ A Day at the Races. Although the two did not know the name of the dance, Erin recalls, “We knew that [dance] was what we wanted to do, because we knew it was different from what everybody in a structured-dance community was doing. This [dance] had so much life and joy.” Erin learned its name when her father brought home a 1940s Life magazine with the cover story “The Lindy Hop: America’s National Dance.”

She and Mitchell scoured the magazine for the names of that decade’s professional Lindy Hoppers. The pair later went to New York to explore the roots of swing by interviewing the dancers listed in Life. By then, most of the dancers had died, but they were able to locate Al Minns, a Lindy Hopper who danced at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in the 1930s and ’40s. Minns taught Erin and Steven some Lindy Hop steps and told them he liked their “groove.”

After Minns’ death in 1985, Erin and Mitchell returned to New York to meet Frankie Manning, another former Savoy Lindy Hopper who was working for the post office. “This was discovering the original style of the Lindy Hop, trying to put the missing links together,” Erin says. “Finding Frankie changed my life because he was this elderly black man who was not bitter about the world he had grown up in.”

Erin’s rediscovery of Manning inspired him to pursue an active second career traveling the world to dance and teach. His itinerary in the mid-1980s included two yearly visits to Pasadena, where he conducted workshops for the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association and gave Tami and Erin private dance lessons.

By the late 1980s and well into the 1990s, swing was enjoying a national resurgence.

The neo-swing revolution fomented by the 1996 indy fi lm Swingers launched the careers of bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (which appeared in the movie), the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Royal Crown Revue. The swing trend exploded in 1998, when The Gap 38 | ARROYO | 10.15

aired a commercial in which dancers, wearing the company’s khaki pants, did the Lindy Hop to Louis Prima’s rendition of “Jump Jive an’ Wail.”

For the PasaVeteran dancer Frankie Manning swings with Erin. dena Ballroom Dance Association, the swing revival was a temporary boon. “In the 1990s, we actually had enormous classes,” recalls Tami. “We would literally have 300 people in a swing class.”

In 1995 the association began sponsoring swing camp, a four-day event initially held at the casino on Catalina Island and later moved to Palm Springs. “We had thousands of people come from around the world,” says Tami. “We brought in instructors from around the world, fabulous bands, performing troupes. It was really an event.”

It was also costly and labor-intensive, which is why the sisters held their last swing camp in 2004. By then the swing fad had faded. The sisters learned about the fad’s “official” demise a few years earlier, when they appeared on Roseanne, dancing to the music of the Royal Crown Revue. While waiting to perform, Erin recalls, “We were standing in the green room and they had a television screen that was the whole side of one wall. And all of a sudden the E Channel came on and the announcer said retro was out.”

The fad’s decline left its mark on Pasadena. “Then all the people who were coming [to association events] in zoot suits just stopped coming in their zoot suits,” Erin continues. “The people who were in it for the look and the style, they didn’t come. But the people who were in it for the heart were the people that stayed.”

Of course, Tami and Erin have always been “in it for the heart.” But now that they’re in their 50s — both married with children — they have slowed down a bit. They still get dancing gigs, teach dance at private functions and do some touring, but less frequently now. Instead they focus most of their attention on the association and the many people who regularly attend its dances and classes. “No matter how tired you are at the end of the day, you will be rejuvenated by listening to music and dancing,” says Erin. “It just makes you happy; I think it just changes people’s lives when they realize that.” |||

SHALL YOU DANCE? The Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association requires no long-term contracts; students pay $15 for one class or $75 for a six-week series.

Class attendance averages from 25 to 80 students; swing dance classes — where students learn the jitterbug (also known as East Coast swing), West Coast swing and the Lindy Hop — attract more students than ballroom dance classes, which teach the foxtrot, waltz, cha-cha, rumba and some East Coast swing.

Classes are open to couples and singles, and a rotation system ensures every student has a partner of the opposite sex. “There are always enough men, and I’ve been coming here for 20 years,” says ballroom dance student Helen Caliway, a South Pasadena Realtor.

Classes and dances take place at Grace Hall, 73 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena. For schedules, visit pasadenaballroomdance.com.

— R.K.

10.15 ARROYO | 39

MEASURING TRUE WORTH

Artist Constance Mallinson challenges the art market with her Armory Center for the Arts exhibition, Free Painting.

BY NANCY SPILLER

IN A WORLD WHERE A PICASSO PAINTING RECENTLY SOLD FOR A RECORD $179 MILLION AND BILLIONAIRE ELI BROAD BUILT A BIG-BOX–STORE–LIKE MUSEUM FOR HIS COLLECTION OF BIG ARTISTS’ OEUVRES, EVERYONE KNOWS THE PRICE OF ART, BUT FEW ITS INHERENT VALUE. THIS FALL, VETERAN ARTIST CONSTANCE MALLINSON HOPES HER ARMORY CENTER FOR THE ARTS INSTALLATION, FREE PAINTING, WILL LITERALLY FREE PAINTING FROM ITS DEPENDENCE ON THE MARKETPLACE FOR DETERMINING ITS VALUE. MALLINSON AIMS TO GET US TALKING ABOUT CONTENT INSTEAD OF COST BY REMOVING MONEY FROM THE “BUYER’S” TRANSACTION — SHE’S GIVING AWAY ONE OF HER CANVASES. HER LARGE NEW OIL PAINTING

TITLED RAFT, WILL BE DISPLAYED ON A WALL OF THE ARMORY’S PASADENA ART ALLIANCE GALLERY. PEOPLE Raft (2015), oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

40 | ARROYO | 10.15

INTERESTED IN TAKING IT HOME CAN APPLY ONLINE TO

IMAGE: Courtesy of the artist

OF A LAVISHLY RENDERED PILE OF STREET TRASH,

BE INTERVIEWED BY MALLINSON AND VETTED BY A PANEL OF ART PROFESSIONALS IN WHAT MIGHT BE THE FINE-ART APPROXIMATION OF TV’S THE BACHELOR. THE ARMORY WILL PICK THE DESERVING RECIPIENT, AND THE PAINTING WILL THEN BE REPLACED ON THE GALLERY WALL BY A MONITOR PLAYING THE EDITED INTERVIEWS DURING THE FINAL WEEKS OF THE SHOW, WHICH ENDS NOV. 28. THE PROJECT IS THE NINTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF

their money, that’s the last I see or hear of them. Something just felt a little off to me about that.

This is an experiment in bringing the act of viewing back to painting. We’ve become consumers of art rather than appreciators of art. There’s a huge difference.

WE ARE A CONSUMER SOCIETY; WE’RE SUPPOSED TO SHOP TO KEEP THE ENGINES OF CAPITALISM GOING. Yeah, that whole sort of neoliberal market ethic has completely taken over the art world.

NOW WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAY NEOLIBERAL? I LOOKED UP THE DEFINITION AND IT’S ONE OF THOSE WORDS THAT THROWS ME OFF — IT’S NOT BEING LIBERAL. Yeah, it has nothing to do with liberal politics. It means that the market should be entirely left alone and never questioned as an all-deciding factor. You hear this from conservative economists as applied to everything, even health care. Let the market decide how much it should cost.

THE ARMORY’S YEAR-AND-A-HALF–LONG EXHIBITION SERIES, “EXPANDING ON AN EXPANSIVE SUBJECT.” “ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT THIS PROJECT IS THAT, ALTHOUGH

NOT MORALS OR ETHICS. Not anything else — the market rules. Milton Friedman, the Chicago School of Economics — it’s taken over everything in American life. The mechanism of the market, that’s God. I don’t believe that. I believe there are a lot of other ways of doing things, particularly when it comes to art. Art can be very subtle, it can take time to appreciate. It should.

MALLINSON IS OFFERING SOMETHING FOR FREE, THERE STILL IS A TRANSACTION TAKING PLACE,” SAYS SINÉAD FINNERTY-PYNE, WHO CURATED THE SERIES. “A PAINTING IS GIVEN AWAY IN EXCHANGE FOR A CHANCE TO GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW PEOPLE INTERPRET HER WORK (OR ARTWORK IN GENERAL) AND WHAT MOTIVATES THEM TO WANT TO HAVE IT. IN MANY WAYS,

BUT WE’RE A DISPOSABLE SOCIETY. That’s true, but people are not disposing of their Warhols, unless they’re disposing of them for higher and higher prices. The ethos that has taken over in the art world [is] that we’ve got to inflate the prices any way we can. Why should [a painting] just pop up in a gallery and boom, this viewer says it’s worth this and this, and then they work forever to keep those prices up at auction? It doesn’t always happen that way.

BUT IT HAPPENS ENOUGH TO DRIVE PRICES IN THAT UPWARD DIRECTION. Yes, so I’m saying, wow! First of all, there’s a lot of questionable work out there. You’ve got top galleries propping that up. So whatever people are willing to pay and dealers are able to do in a convincing way, they’ll go for it.

WHAT COMES OF THIS EXPERIMENT COULD BE MORE VALUABLE TO HER THAN THE PAINTING ITSELF.” I RECENTLY SPOKE WITH MALLINSON, A LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART–COLLECTED PAINTER, ART IN AMERICA WRITER AND UCLA AND CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR, IN HER AIR-CONDITIONED WOODLAND HILLS STUDIO. THE PETITE ARTIST GENEROUSLY DISPLAYED HER HEARTY LAUGH AND PUCKISH HUMOR AS WE SAT IN FRONT OF HER YET-TOBE STRETCHED CANVAS, RAFT. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS PAINTING? The project is, I get you, the participant, to describe it. I’m trying to bring some sanity back to the viewing of art or, put another way, rejuvenating painting’s aura. The commodification, the marketing of it, has so overtaken the art world that people are not looking at, not delving into the richness of painting. Someone comes into a gallery and says, “I’ll take it.” They plunk down

IT’S A NEW GILDED AGE, THERE’S A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY CIRCLING THE PLANET AND IT WANTS TO PARK SOME PLACE. Yes, there are actually those who attribute the popularity of art right now to the surplus of capital that’s out there. It’s this 1 percent that has this massive amount of money. What do they do with it? It’s driving the contemporary art market, so you have the galleries pandering to that; artists, everyone is pandering to it.

YOU SAY THAT YOU WANT TO PUT THOSE MARKET CONCERNS ASIDE AND BRING VIEWERS BACK TO THE PAINTING, BUT SO MUCH ART WRITING USES THIS SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY AND KEEPS IT A KIND OF CLOSED SYSTEM. Well, it depends. There are different strata of art writing, from very serious criticism that appears in academic journals using obtuse, impenetrable language — it’s written for other academics. And there are the art magazines — Artforum, Art in America — and there is some pretty good critical writing in those, but you have to find it amongst the advertising. There’s a place where there’s serious indebtedness of criticism [to] commercial interests. And then there are newspapers like the [Los Angeles] Times, actually there’s some very good critical writing. I don’t know who even reads it. There’s Leah Ollman, an extremely good writer. She knows how to pick her words and she’s not afraid to say if she has a problem with something. She recently did a piece on Rachel Harrison who’s this hot, hot, hot New York artist showing up everywhere and she just nailed it. Is anybody paying attention? And so the marketing mechanism just goes on and rolls right over it.

–continued on page 42 10.15 | ARROYO | 41

PHOTO: Courtesy of the artist

Constance Mallinson

–continued from page 41

With [influential modern art critic Clement] Greenberg, in his day, there was a relationship between the discussion of the work and its value within the culture. Now the gallerist uses whatever writing about the work will help promote it: Here’s Laura Owens on the cover of Artforum, you’ve got to have one. It doesn’t really matter what anyone says after that. I’m saying, let’s bring a reasonable conversation back to what we’re looking at and encourage intelligent looking.

WHAT QUESTIONS WILL YOU ASK PEOPLE IN THE APPLICATION FOR THE FREE PAINTING? There’s only one and that is, why do you want to be involved in this process or project? We’re looking for a diverse group: lawyer, art student, janitor. I’d want an art critic to participate because they’re likely to be interesting, but I wouldn’t rule out a teenager who loves art, to see how that generation looks at art.

AND QUESTIONS IN THE INTERVIEW? The first thing I’d like to ask the person is [to] respond to what they’re looking at. There will be info on the website briefly describing my process. I collect this trash on my daily 3-mile walk through my neighborhood. These are things I find, I bring them back and set them up as a still life and I paint them. In some ways it’s like a diary of the things I found on the street. It took me two months to paint this.

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We’ll hand out this information beforehand so people know where I’m coming from. I want to know how you respond to what you’re looking at as a viewer. Some people will know how to read a painting. They may be artists themselves, others may not be and may need to be led into the process. So those are some of the questions, what are you looking at, what do you think you’re looking at, how do you respond to it? You know that it’s trash, how do you feel about that? Some of it may be familiar, like the Coke can or Planter’s Peanuts wrapper or Goofy in a space suit. I find the most amazing stuff. Once they’ve been put into an artwork they become amazing. You’d otherwise walk right over them.

THERE IS THIS WONDERFUL HISTORY OF ARTISTS WORKING WITH TRASH, FOUND OBJECTS. IT’S A WAY OF GIVING VALUE TO THINGS THAT WOULDN’T OTHERWISE BE VALUED. YOU’RE TELLING PEOPLE TO PAY CLOSER ATTENTION TO THE WORLD THEY’RE MOVING THROUGH? You take any of these, you think, wow, to make that Goofy doll, some tiny little hands sewing it together, and it ends up in an alley. I’m so interested in the movement of these things. Once they’re thrown together, the medical marijuana bottles with the food wrappers with the Goofy doll with the Christmas ornaments, when they’re re-contextualized in a painting like this they take on a much different meaning or they begin to tell something about our culture. One plastic spoon on the street, no. All this stuff on the street put together, it starts to add up and tell us who we are and what we value, don’t value.

It also occurred to me that these paintings are reminiscent of the Golden Age of Dutch still life, where they would pile up the fruit and pearls and chambered nautilus in an opulent display of their wealth. The objects themselves are certainly as beautiful, in color and transparency and reflectiveness, as anything in Dutch still-life painting. As a painter, it’s really important to me to have that rapport with the history of my medium. It’s what keeps painting relevant, to have it connected to the past but also connected to the present.

WHAT ABOUT THE TITLE, RAFT? Titles are another way into a painting. I think it’s fairly obvious that this is a kind of floating garbage dump, because you have the suggestion of water in various places.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE A GREAT PAINTING? Lately, great painting for me has imbedded in it the entire history of painting. That of course requires hours of viewing and thinking about what you’re looking at, but if it doesn’t spark that in you, it’s probably not a great painting.

Someone who continually does that for me — this is going to seem like an odd choice — is David Hockney. A lot of people hate his work.

I LOVE HIS WORK. I love his work. I’ve followed [it] for 40 years, ever since I was a young painter. He’s absolutely vitally engaged with the history of painting. He has never rested on his laurels. As soon as he understands what he’s doing, he moves it to another level. He went into photography; before that, he wrote a book on the camera obscura. Also, for a 78-year-old man, he’s going out, doing these plein air paintings. He is so actively engaged with painting, understanding it. You look at his paintings you can see Matisse, Bonnard, Van Gogh, Dutch landscape painting. He to me would typify that yardstick.

SHORT OF GREATNESS, WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES FOR A SIGNIFICANT PAINTING TODAY? What I tend to look for is a really meaningful intersection between the artist’s personal and subjective sense of life and the culture at large. What is the collision or the tie-in of the artist’s subjective sense of things? That is if you continue to believe art has to do with personal expression. But personal expression on its own is, you know, ugh. Cultural observation on its own is not that much. You put those two together and you’ve got a potent mix.

You see the composition, the brushstrokes, the personal choices the painter made, what language he or she is using — Abstract Expressionism, representation, geometric abstraction.

Then how do those personal choices tell me something about the culture the painter lives in?

All I ask is that you spend the time with the work, have your own list of questions you ask of it, not just rely on a gallerist to tell you what it’s worth, or a coffee-table book to tell you. It’s the work, stupid! (laughter) |||

FREE PAINTING BY THE NUMBERS Applications to take home Constance Mallinson’s Raft are available at armoryarts.org/mallinson, and the deadline for fi ling is 11:59 p.m. Oct. 10. On Oct. 14, the top 10 applicants will be notified that interviews will be held on Oct. 17 or 18 from noon to 5 p.m. The winner will be announced on Oct. 25.

The Armory Center for the Arts is located at 145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free and donations are accepted.

10.15 | ARROYO | 43

KITCHEN CONFESSIONS

Day of the Bread In Halloween's sluts-vs.-ghosts tourney, there really is no contest.

BY LESLIE BILDERBACK

W

e are quickly approaching the season of the creepy creepers. But for me, Halloween has become not as scary as it is annoying. I am not intimidated by the Styrofoam headstones and giant fluorescent green spiderwebs in my neighbor’s yard. I would like to never hear “Monster Mash” again. I am not excited by pumpkin-flavored anything, orange-and-black–colored anything or dry ice. And I am not impressed by your slutty nurse, slutty pirate or slutty crossing guard costume. I have been there and done that — and I am over it.

Of course, this “get off my lawn” attitude is a direct result of my kids running off to college. There they are having the kind of Halloween one should have in college, the kind I used to have — no money but lots of ingenuity. We drank whatever was cheap and made costumes with whatever was lying around. I was a toilet-paper mummy. My roommate went as a condom in a wetsuit with a Ziploc bag on her head.

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When you’re young, Halloween still has some danger involved. Even if kids know their neighborhood, walking around it in the dark is creepy. Anything could happen.

Young adults use the holiday to engage in behaviors that are sketchy at best — because they can get away with it. Meanwhile, I am here, waiting in vain with my bowl of mini candy bars. My street has a slight incline, which is usually too daunting for trick-ortreaters. The only thing dangerous about my Halloweens now is the likelihood that I will be the one eating this entire bowl of mini candy bars on Nov. 1.

I wish Halloween did impress me. I wish I could get scared. I wish I believed in ghosts, or monsters, or magic, or the walking dead or even evil people. But I don't. I just wasn’t raised to fear anything other than my own stupidity. But in other parts of the world people not only believe in ghosts, they celebrate them. In Japan, ancestors’ spirits are celebrated at Obon, a holiday sometime in mid-July or August, when your

dead relatives are believed to come back for a visit. The Buddhist and Taoist traditions of the Hungry Ghost Festival recognize a monthlong opening of the doors between us and the netherworld. During this time, spirits are said to roam freely — a belief that keeps many families indoors after the sun goes down. In Cambodia, Pchum Ben is one of the most important Khmer holidays. During this two-week period the divide between our world and the world of our ancestors is at its thinnest, allowing them to return and atone for their past sins.

Mexico’s spooky celebration is Dia de los Muertos, which, if you were raised in California, you know very well. Th is holiday is linked to both pre-Columbian funerary traditions and Catholicism’s remembrance of the departed, Allhallowtide (All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day). As in all of these festivals that honor our departed, there is food involved.

I am a fan of this holiday, even though I am an absolute gringa. I particularly enjoy the dressing of altars or gravesites to honor and remember the dead. The favorite food and drink of the departed, photos, memorabilia and marigolds (the flower of the dead) are laid out to encourage the ghostly souls to visit and hear how they are remembered, and still loved. It’s a nice idea, and Mexico does it so well that in 2008 it was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, keeping company with such other intangibles as the tango, falconry and Kabuki theater.

These festivals are definitely more meaningful than trick-or-treating, and they have the added bonus of actually being a bit scary — certainly more so than that rubber spider, candied apple or superhero costume (or slutty superhero costume). |||| Leslie Bilderback is a certified master baker, chef and the author of Mug Meals: More Than 100 No-Fuss Ways to Make a Delicious Microwave Meal in Minutes. She lives in South Pasadena and teaches her techniques online at culinarymasterclass.com.

Pan de Muerto I hope my kids make this bread for me when I’m an ancestor. I would totally come back for its rich, buttery, spicy crumb. If I become a ghost, I will just come back to eat and hug. I won’t be scary. Much. Maybe a little. In a nice, fun way — like Casper.

INGREDIENTS ½ cup milk, lukewarm (about 99°— just slightly warmer than body temperature) 1 tablespoon granulated yeast 1½ cups bread fl our ½ teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon anise seeds, toasted and ground Grated zest of 1 orange 1½ teaspoons salt

3 eggs 3 tablespoons brown sugar 6 ounces (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1 to 2 cups all-purpose fl our, as needed 1 egg 1 tablespoon water 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

METHOD 1. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer) combine milk and yeast. Stir to dissolve, then set aside until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in bread flour (I like to use a fork because it is easier to clean), cinnamon, anise, orange zest and salt. Add eggs one at a time, then brown sugar and softened butter. Slowly begin adding more flour until a soft dough is formed.Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead it for 8 to 10 minutes. Add more flour as necessary to keep the dough from becoming sticky, but not so much that it is too stiff to knead. (The amount of flour needed will vary with the temperature, humidity, moisture content of butter and eggs, the brand of flour and the accuracy of your measurements; don't worry about it though — just keep adding as needed). When the dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a bowl, cover with a moist towel and set aside to double in volume — about 1 to 2 hours. (It will rise faster in a warm spot.)

3. When the dough has doubled, turn it out onto your counter and divide it into two unequal pieces, one about twice as large as the other. Roll the large piece into a round, tight ball. Coat a baking sheet with pan spray and place the large round loaf on it, seam–side-down. Whisk together the egg and water into an egg wash, and brush it over the surface of the loaf.

4. Divide the smaller piece of dough into three parts. Roll one into a ball, and fashion that into a skull. With the other two pieces, roll two ropes with knobby ends, for crossbones. Place these on top of the round loaf, then egg–wash them. Dust the whole thing lightly with sugar and set aside to proof (rise for the final time before baking) for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°.

5. When the loaf is proofed (which means just slightly puffed), bake it for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake another 30 minutes.The loaf should be golden brown all over, with an internal temperature of 210°. (It is best to check, as large loaves sometimes remain doughy in the middle.) If the loaf is very brown but not done in the middle, turn the heat down to 300°, tent it with foil, and continue to cook as needed.

6. Cool the loaf completely before serving — or taking it to the cemetery. Leftovers make great French toast.

10.15 | ARROYO | 45

A SELECTIVE PREVIEW OF UPCOMING EVENTS COMPILED BY JOHN SOLLENBERGER

THE LIST

Wicked Lit Returns to Altadena

The L.A. Convention Center is located at

Oct. 2 through Nov. 14 — Unbound

1201 S. Figueroa St., L.A. Visit politicon.com.

Productions brings Wicked Lit, the

literature, to Altadena’s Mountain View

A Noise Within Reprises ’50s Classic

Mausoleum. This year’s slate includes

Oct. 11 through Nov.

theater company’s Halloween-season stage adaptations of classic horror

21 — A Noise Within

“The Grove of Rashomon,” adapted

by Jonathan Josephson from “In A

presents Arthur Miller’s All My Sons as

Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa; Edith

part of its season, dubbed “Breaking and

Nesbitt’s “The Ebony Frame,” adapted by

Entering,” featuring protagonists who

Susannah Myrvold; and Edgar Allan Poe’s

break down walls, enter unknown realms

“The Fall of the House of Usher,” adapted

and search for the truth. Miller’s play

by Paul Millet. Performances start at

indicts The American Dream and explores

7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $35 to $75. Visit the

how family ties bind. The Tony Award–

website for dates.

winning play opens at 2 p.m. today and

Mountain View Mausoleum is located

continues through Nov. 21. Ticket prices

at 2300 N. Marengo Ave., Altadena. Call

start at $44.

(323) 332-2065 or visit wickedlit.org.

Teeing Off for Troubled Tots and Teens

SCARING UP A HAUNTED HAYRIDE

A Noise Within is located at 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. Call (626) 356-3100 or visit anoisewithin.org.

Oct. 5 — The Five

brings the “Haunted Hayride: Boogeyman” to Griffith Park’s old Los Angeles Zoo

ASID Hosts Annual Kitchen Tour

Acres child and

for the seventh year. The ride is completely redesigned this year, spotlighting

Oct. 11 — The

Oct. 2 through 31 — Ten Thirty One Productions, producer of live horror attractions,

family services agency hosts its annual

claustrophobic spaces and nightmare characters. Also included are five Scare

American Society

Golf Classic and Round Up at the 5A

Zones, as well as Theatre Macabre, Death Row, Jack’s Carving Shack, Scary-

of Interior Designers

Corral fundraiser at Annandale Golf Club.

Go-Round, Bootique, psychics and other scary fun. Tickets cost $30 to $59,

Pasadena hosts its annual self-guided

Golfing runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The

with private wagons offering VIP access to all attractions for up to 30 people

Kitchen and Home Tour from 9:30 a.m. to

cost to enter starts at $695, including a

available for $1,395. The Haunted Hayride opens at 7 p.m. every day. Visit the

4 p.m. The tour includes a Craftsman-style

dinner and awards ceremony starting

website for dates.

home in Pasadena and a Mediterranean

at 6:30 p.m., after the saloon cocktail

The old Los Angeles Zoo is located at 4730 Crystal Springs Dr., Griffith Park. Visit

residence in La Cañada Flintridge.

hour at 5 p.m. The cost for dinner only is

losangeleshauntedhayride.com.

Tickets — which cost $30 in advance,

$125. The evening includes a raffle and

$35 the day of the tour — are available

dancing to live bluegrass with Pam Loe &

at several area locations, including the Visit artnightpasadena.org.

Hipshot, featuring Chad Watson. Western

Ave. OUTSIDEIN opens today with a

attire is encouraged.

reception at the Williamson Gallery from

Anandale Golf Club is located at 1 N. San

6 to 10 p.m.

Rafael Ave., Pasadena. Call Lara Colvin

The Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery is

Politics Meets Entertainment at Politicon

at (626) 773-3776 or email events@5acres.

located at 1700 Lida St., Pasadena. The

Oct. 9 and 10 — The worlds of politics

org to register; visit 5acres.org/golf for

Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall is located

and entertainment collide at Politicon,

information.

at 870 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena.

two days of nonpartisan, fan-fest activities

Young Ensemble Mounts Mahler Work

at the L.A. Convention Center. Politicians,

Oct. 11 — L.A.’s new Young Artists

pundits, comedians and entertainers

Symphony Orchestra (YASO) debuts

Oct. 8 — Art Center College of Design

Night of No-Cost Culture

representing the spectrum of American

at UCLA’s Royce Hall with a free 7 p.m.

presents OUTSIDEIN, a monthlong indoor-

Oct. 9 — Art Night

politics are scheduled to appear on

performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2

and-outdoor exhibition focusing on

Pasadena has an

panels and in radio and television

in C Minor, “Resurrection.” Artistic Director

the insurgent quality of graffiti-based

encore from 6 to

broadcasts, comedy, book readings,

Alexander Treger, a music educator and

mural painting and its cross-cultural

10 p.m., offering free

interviews, film screenings, art exhibitions,

former L.A. Philharmonic concertmaster,

New Exhibition at Art Center

ASID Pasadena office, 1000 E. Walnut St., Pasadena. Call (626) 795-6898.

Call (800) 237-263, email asidpasadena@ sbcglobal.net or visit asidpasadena.org.

influences. More than 10 noted street

admission to the city’s cultural institutions

music performances and other activities.

leads the orchestra of 15-to-26–year-old

artists — including Robbie Conal, Shepard

and music and dance events, including

Confirmed participants include James

musicians culled from SoCal colleges and

Fairey and Kenny Scharf — contributed

the Norton Simon Museum, Armory

Carville, Newt Gingrich, Meghan McCain,

conservatories. Guest artists are soprano

to the show, which will be installed at

Center for the Arts, Lineage Performing

David Axelrod and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Amanda Achen, mezzo-soprano Niké St.

both campuses: at the Alyce de Roulet

Arts Center, Boston Court Performing

The event runs from 2 to 11 p.m. Friday

Clair and members of the Angeles Chorale.

Williamson Gallery at the Hillside Campus,

Arts Center, USC Pacific Asia Museum,

and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. Two-

UCLA’s Royce Hall is located at 340

and at the South Campus’ Hutto-

Pasadena Conservatory of Music,

day, all-access tickets cost $100, $35 for

Royce Dr., L.A. Call (310) 593-9890 or visit

Patterson Exhibition Hall and the rooftop

Kidspace Children’s Museum, Pasadena

students and military; VIP admission is

yasola.org.

and an exterior wall at 950 S. Raymond

City College and others.

available for $250 to $2,000.

–continued on page 49

46 | ARROYO | 10.15

10.15 ARROYO | 47

48 | ARROYO | 10.15

THE LIST –continued from page 46

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ORCHIDS

Oct. 16, 17 and 18— The juried International Orchid Show and Sale comes to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens for three days, showcasing elaborate floral exhibits by local orchid societies and international growers. Also on display are rare examples from the Huntington’s S. Robert Weltz Orchid Collection. Each day brings experts’ talks on orchid care and culture and vendors offering a wide range of orchids and related merchandise. Hours are noon to 4:30 p.m. Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Admission costs $23 Friday, $25 Saturday and Sunday.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is located at 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino. Call (626) 405-2100 or visit huntington.org..

Chaplin to The Daily Show. Tickets cost

Chamber Ensemble Moves to Huntington

$28 to $38; youth tickets go for $10.

Oct. 13 — The Camerata Pacifica

on Michigan Avenue, south of Del Mar

chamber ensemble presents works by

Boulevard, Pasadena. Call (626) 395-4652

Rossini, Weber, Wilson and Smetana at its

or visit events.caltech.edu.

Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium is located

new location, the Huntington Library, Art

7:30 p.m. Featured performers are Adrian

Chamber Orchestra Presents West Coast Premiere

Spence, Giora Schmidt, Ani Aznavoorian,

Oct. 17 and 18 — The Los Angeles

Timothy Eckert and Michael McHale.

Chamber Orchestra (LACO) presents

Tickets cost $56.

“Mozart to Marimba,” featuring noted

The Huntington Library, Art Collections

pianist Richard Goode’s performance

and Botanical Gardens is located at 1151

of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18. The

Oxford Rd., San Marino. Call (805) 884-

program also includes works by Haydn,

8410 or visit cameratapacifica.org.

Emmanuel Séjourné and Brooklyn

Collections and Botanical Gardens, at

composer Timo Andres, whose “Word of

Comedic History at Caltech

Mouth” receives its West Coast premiere.

Oct. 17 — The Reduced Shakespeare

The Friday concert starts at 8 p.m. at the

Company presents The Complete

Alex Theatre in Glendale, repeating at

History of Comedy (abridged) at 8 p.m.

7 p.m. Saturday at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium.

Ticket prices start at $27.

The company, which has previously

The Alex Theatre is located at 216 N.

skewered the Bible and other subjects,

Brand Blvd., Glendale. Royce Hall is

gives its comedic take on humor’s history,

located at 340 Royce Dr., L.A. Call (213)

both low-brow and high-brow, from

622-7001 or visit laco.org.

Aristophanes to Shakespeare, Charlie

–continued on page 50 10.15 | ARROYO | 49

THE LIST

PHOTO: © Christopher Sinclair

–continued from page 49

CAR CLASSIC CRUISES INTO TOMORROW Oct. 25 — Art Center College of Design’s Hillside Campus is the scene of the school’s annual Car Classic, showcasing futuristic vehicles seen on the road and in movies, videogames and theme parks. The event offers a look at the auto world’s future at the institution training many of the industry’s talented designers. The Car Classic starts with a sneak preview at 10 a.m., early access at 11 a.m. and regular hours from noon to 4:30 p.m. Tickets cost $40; kids 12 and younger are admitted free.

Art Center College of Design is located at 1700 Lida St., Pasadena. Visit artcenter. edu/carclassic.

SoCal high schoolers interested in the

The Last of the Love

performing arts to apply for the Music

Oct. 18 — Jay Leno leads thousands of

Center’s 28th annual Spotlight arts and

motorcyclists from Harley-Davidson of

education scholarships, providing arts

Glendale to Castaic Lake 45 miles away

training and workforce development skills.

for the 32nd and final installment of the

More than $100,000 in scholarships is up

Love Ride, a daylong party featuring a

for grabs. All applicants receive feedback

live performance by Foo Fighters. Love

from a panel of judges, valuable

Ride 2015 starts with 6 a.m. registration in

audition experience and a certificate of

Glendale where Eagles tribute band The

achievement.

Long Run plays at 7 a.m. At 9 a.m. riders

Visit musiccenter.org/spotlight.

take off for Castaic Lake, where activities

from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $45

Down the Danube with Pasadena Chamber

through Oct. 16, $60 the day of the event.

Oct. 20 through 28 —

Proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior

The Pasadena Cham-

— including a motorcycle trade show, food trucks, drawings and Foo fun — run

Project, aiding injured servicemen and

ber of Commerce hosts a cruise on the

women.

Danube River, from Budapest, Hungary, to

Harley-Davidson of Glendale is located

Nuremberg, Germany. The Jet Vacations

at 3717 San Fernando Rd., Glendale. Visit

trip takes place in a five-star riverboat

loveride.org.

making numerous stops — including Bratislava and Vienna — along the sto-

50 | ARROYO | 10.15

Arts Students Can Grab Some Green

ried river. Airfare from L.A., transfers, meals,

Oct. 19 — Today

Call (626) 795-3355 or visit pasadena-

is the deadline for

chamber.org.

drinks and other amenities are included in the price of $3,699 per person. ||||

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