22 minute read
Arts & Culture
RESCUING CHRISTMAS FOR KING & COUNTRY SAVES THE HOLIDAY FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI or King & Country’s Luke Small-
Fbone didn’t necessarily feel down For King & Country’s first holiday album, “A Drummer Boy about the quarantine. It gave him Christmas,” was recorded around the world. time to slow down.
“Everybody’s situation is different,” Smallbone says. “For me and my household, it was an amazing reprieve. I’m just gone—in and out of town a lot. I was able to be home for the longest time in our marriage and we’ve been married for 10 years. “Last year, I said, ‘I’d love to be able to take six months off and just be home.’ I didn’t think it would come with a pandemic. We live on a little farm. We bought some cows, eight cows. We were doing things I wouldn’t Photo by Robby Klein otherwise get to do. We were able to make some memories that otherwise wouldn’t exist. I hope for better circumstances, but it’s great to be home.”
Now, however, he and his brother, Joel, are returning to the stage for “A Drummer Boy Drive-In: The Christmas Tour” to celebrate the duo’s first holiday album, “A Drummer Boy Christmas.” The tour includes a stop at the Rose Bowl’s parking lot on Sunday, November 15.
Smallbone says the album, which was in the works for “years,” was no easy task.
“In the past, we overemphasized every tiny little detail,” he says. “With that, you lose a little bit of the big picture. We had to get this thing done in a certain time frame. We had to go in with our intuition the first time around and we didn’t have an option to go back.
“Every record that you ever make is a small miracle. There are so many things that have to go according to plan. We tracked most of this while the pandemic was going on. It was mixed in London, with some tracking in LA, mastered in New York and also tracked in Nashville. Yet, we were all basically in our homes.”
With the live shows, the Grammy Award-winning Australian brothers teamed with The Salvation Army and ask concertgoers to bring new, unwrapped toys. The goodies will be collected by representatives from the nonprofit and distributed to families struggling during the holiday season.
“When we first came to America, we didn’t have any money,” he says. “If it wasn’t for our family being a first-grade class project, we wouldn’t have been able to have Christmas.
“We were looking at the idea of not being able to have gifts under the Christmas tree. The idea of gifts isn’t what defines Christmas. It is the element of Jesus and his birth. It’s a gift. It’s representing the birth. Partnering with the Salvation Army, it’s a way to remember what it was like to come to a new country, a place where we had nothing. We’re at a situation where we had this opportunity to give back to people and Rescue Christmas.”
For King & Country is saving Christmas in other ways. With collectives like Mannheim Steamroller and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra grounded due to the pandemic, For King & Country is providing holiday entertainment across the country.
“I say from the stage every night how grateful we are that people come out and join us for these drive-in events,” Smallbone says. “For us to do these shows for people in cars—and doing it safely—it’s a real honor for us.” n
For King & Country’s A Drummer Boy Drive In: The Christmas Tour 7 p.m. Sunday, November 15 Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena Tickets start at $50 | universe.com
Photo courtesy California Philharmonic
Every year, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts awards gifts and grants to diverse nonprofit organizations to support performing arts in the community.
HELPING THE COMMUNITY
PASADENA SHOWCASE HOUSE SEEKS ARTS APPLICANTS
BY KAMALA KIRK n avid supporter of performing arts in the community since 1948, the Pasa-
Adena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA) provides financial support and assistance to nonprofit organizations to help with their efforts every year through its annual Gifts & Grants program. The 2020 program began accepting submissions on October 1 and encourages all qualified organizations that provide music education and programs to the community to apply.
“Each year, PSHA awards gifts and grants to a broad and diverse list of nonprofit organizations to support their efforts in the community,” said Marybeth Rehman-Dittu, chairwoman of the Gifts & Grant Committee.
“We underwrite concerts to ensure that the joy of live music is made available to a wide range of audiences. We support choirs, musical theater, school marching bands, dance programs, opera, jazz bands and orchestras. This enriches the community and provides opportunities for a variety of groups—from students to seniors—to learn, enjoy and grow from their experiences in these programs.”
The application period for the 2020 Gifts & Grants program closes on November 15 and awardees will be notified in April 2021.
Over the years, gifts and grants have included music education at all levels, music therapy for at-risk children, the underwriting of concerts, the purchase of instruments and uniforms, as well as other art programs. The geographical scope of the program extends to nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations within the greater Pasadena area and designated areas of Los Angeles. Past recipients have included A Noise Within, California Philharmonic Orchestra and Pasadena Symphony Association.
“All manner of music plays center stage,” Rehman-Dittu said. “Past grant recipients include concerts, choral productions, music theater, jazz quartets, marching bands and orchestras at local schools, senior centers and a spectrum of other nonprofit organizations. What’s more, music therapy for at-risk children, scholarships for young musicians and music education at a variety of levels are the brainchildren of our program.”
An elected group of dedicated PSHA members decide who receives gifts and grants. The selected recipients’ merits are based on the project’s quality, accountability and soundness of the design. Committee members conduct interviews and site visits to better learn and assess a project’s impact on the community.
The public can help support the program a number of ways, which include participating in one of PSHA’s fundraisers, becoming a patron or sponsor, designating PSHA as their choice at AmazonSmile, volunteering as a PSHA member, and making a selection in the Shops at Showcase when buying a ticket to Pasadena Showcase House of Design.
“Pasadena Showcase is more than dedicated, we are ‘ferociously’ dedicated, as evidenced by our persistence this year in both sticking to our commitment, despite the pandemic, to complete the 56th House of Design, to other creative ways to raise funds to support our mission to bring the joy of music to the community,” Rehman-Dittu said. “For example, just recently our Pasadena Strong online auction raised over $100,000 to dedicate to future gifts and grants. Watch for more unique and interesting news from Pasadena Showcase soon.” n
Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts’ 2020 Gifts & Grant Program Pasadenashowcase.org
REIMAGINED
BY KAMALA KIRK
For the past 28 years, Pasadena Heritage, a nonprofit organization dedicated to historic preservation in and around Pasadena, has hosted Craftsman Weekend—a popular annual event that celebrates the American Arts & Crafts Movement.
The three- to four-day event has guided tours of Pasadena’s historic neighborhoods, receptions in historic locations, hands-on seminars and lectures, in addition to an antique and contemporary furnishings and decorative arts sale. The weekend always ends with the Sunday Home Tour, which allows visitors to tour five to six historic homes in the area.
“Craftsman Weekend began in the early 1990s as a determined effort to build upon the popularity of our tours featuring craftsman homes and neighborhoods,” said Sue Mossman, executive director of Pasadena Heritage.
“Pasadena Heritage’s craftsman tours were regular sellouts, prompting us to add a lecture and a place for exhibitors and book sellers to display their wares: on the front porches of historic homes on tour. Board chairman Lew Phelps and his wife, Cathy, both craftsman lovers, envisioned a whole weekend of tours and events and led the charge to expand the program, calling it Craftsman Weekend.”
This year, Craftsman Weekend has been reimagined with a broader frame and a new name, Preservation Pasadena: Craftsman to Modern. Attendees will explore architectural style and design over five decades and learn the connections and differences that illustrate how architecture has changed over time. Due to COVID-19, the event will be virtual and held on Zoom. It will feature 16 events over 10 days, ranging from online tours and lectures to panel discussions, and conversations with artists and collectors.
“For several years we have been expanding the programs that we offer during our annual Craftsman Weekend to better align with our mission and to explore all of the various styles of architecture in Pasadena,” said Patty Judy, education director for Pasadena Heritage.
“In deciding on a name, we wanted it to explain who we are and what we do. Our mission guided us that ‘Pasadena Heritage works to identify, preserve and protect the historic, architectural and culture resources of the City of Pasadena,’ so Preservation Pasadena: Craftsman to Modern summarizes the mission statement. It is the name we will use from now on for our annual fall event.”
The event will include live and prerecorded events, although most days will feature live talks and presentations by notable figures in the field of historic preservation and architectural history. Topics will include a talk on Richard Neutra by Barbara Lamprecht, the preservation of minority communities, the influence of Asian and Hispanic design on California architecture and a panel discussion celebration 100 years of Sunset Magazine.
Because travel isn’t required to enjoy the programs this year, Pasadena Heritage is hosting more out-of-state participants, and will make recordings of each live event available afterward so ticketholders can view them anytime.
“This year we are excited to invite people to the event who in the past may not have been able to attend due to the need to travel to Pasadena,” Judy said.
“While some of our events are particular to the architecture of Pasadena, there are several programs of interest to a general audience. For example, there will be a presentation that will change the way you look at playgrounds and public space that explores the preservation of historic playgrounds. In addition, we will offer a virtual tour of the Prospect Park neighborhood, Pasadena’s first National Register district and the first tour that Pasadena Heritage hosted as an organization over 40 years ago.”
Pasadena Heritage is also partnering with The Gamble House to see how they have incorporated Stickley furniture into the historic museum home by architects Charles and Henry Greene. Author and TV producer Stephen Gee will discuss buildings by architect John Parkinson, whose work includes the Memorial Coliseum, Bullocks Wilshire, and many structures on the University of Southern California campus. The event will also celebrate the second Dr. Robert Winter Memorial Lecture with guest speaker John Brinkmann,
Photo by Aaron Echols
The description would be “An aerial view of the Historic Home of Sam & Alfreda Maloof and the Jacobs Education Center Gallery."
Photo Courtesy Pasadena Heritage
The Millard House also known as “La Miniatura” designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
owner and publisher of American Bungalow magazine.
“Most of the events will include a question-and-answer opportunity, and one of our social events includes trivia where guests will be asked to answer questions for a chance to win prizes,” Judy said. “We are also hosting two days where participants may meet and greet with some artists and antique dealers who specialize in decorative arts and furnishings from the craftsman movement.”
Tickets costs $10 to $20 per program and will be available to purchase up until the day of the event, which runs from Friday, November 6, to Sunday, November 15. Participants may purchase tickets separately or purchase a discounted ticket that includes all of the events. Pasadena Heritage’s staff encourages the public to register in advance to ensure a spot.
“Starting about five or six years ago, the popularity of the craftsman movement began to wane,” Mossman added.
“We began discussing how to still cater to our craftsman crowd, but gradually shift or expand the focus of the weekend. By including a variety of historic architectural styles and periods, and especially the now very popular modern era, we hope to attract and entertain a much wider audience. And because participants don’t have to come here to Pasadena to take part, we can offer a wide array of subjects and presentations.” n
Preservation Pasadena: Craftsman to Modern Friday, November 6, to Sunday, November 15 $10 to $20 pasadenaheritage.org
CONCERTS AT HOME
GET COZY—VIRTUAL SHOWS ARE APLENTY THIS WINTER
BY OLIVIA DOW
rowd cheering, blood pumping and entertaining thousands of singing
Cfans. These are experiences that artists everywhere are missing after the COVID-19 pandemic has halted concerts around the globe.
Artists are not the only people missing the rush of live music, fans are feeling the void as well.
Now, artists are bringing concerts to audiences at home. While these concerts may be different than what fans are used to, jamming out to your favorite artist in your pajamas could be a different, but just as enjoyable experience.
Here are a few artists who are bringing live music to viewers at home.
Patty Griffin 5 p.m. Saturdays, November 7, November 21 and December 5
Patty Griffin will bring “Patty Griffin: A Residency Streaming Live from The Continental Club” to living rooms everywhere. Each show in the three-night series will be new with partial proceeds going to benefit 18 independent venues in the country as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the live music community. A series trailer video is available via Griffin’s socials now. General admission tickets are $25; residency pass for all three streams is $60. Tickets: at mandolin.com
ekoostik hookah 5 p.m. Saturday, November 7
Everybody’s favorite Ohio jam band tries to quell pandemic boredom with a live show that’s free. The stream will be found at nugs.tv website.
Dumpstaphunk 6 p.m. Saturday, November 7
The funk and jam band Dumpstaphunk doesn’t stray too far from home for its virtual show. They’ll play at Tipitina’s in New Orleans Tickets are $14.99 for the HD broadcast or $59.99 for six shows through Tipitina’s. Tickets for the show can be found on the nugs.tv website.
Niall Horan 10 p.m. Saturday, November 7
Former One Direction singer Niall Horan will bring “Heartbreak Weather” to the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall for fans across the globe. Tickets are $20 on universe.com, a Ticketmaster partner. (No fees associated.) Proceeds from the show will be given to the #WeNeedCrew fund.
The Radiators 6 p.m. Friday, November 13
New Orleans rockers The Radiators will hit the Tipitina’s stage as well. Tickets are $19.99 and can be found on the nugs.tv website.
Metallica 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov 14
Metallica will perform live and acoustic at Metallica HQ in San Rafael, California. Tickets start at $14.99 on the nugs.tv website. The profits from the show benefit the All Within My Hands foundation.
Brendan Benson 3:20 p.m. Saturday, November 14
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Brendan Benson will celebrate his 50th birthday with a livestream from the 5 Spot in Nashville. He’ll be accompanied by a full band comprised of members of The Shins, Eagles of Death Metal and Neon Castles. Tickets start at $15 and can be found on the Noon Chorus website, noonchorus. com/brendan-benson/
Toto 7 p.m. Saturday, November 21
The classic rock band Toto will debut its new lineup during the show that replaces a massive worldwide tour the “Africa” act was supposed to do. Tickets to see Toto are $15 and can be purchased on dice.fm.
Master Class with Sebastian Bach 6 p.m. Thursday, November 16
Rocker and Broadway star Sebastian Bach offers virtual vocal lessons. (Why not?) Tickets are $300 and can be purchased through the universe.com website.
The Soul Rebels and Big Freedia 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov 21
The Soul Rebels, an eight-piece New Orleans-based brass ensemble, teams with bounce’s Big Freedia for a livestream from Tipitina’s. Tickets are on the nugs.tv website and are $14.99 for the one show and tickets for six shows for $59.99.
Jonas Brothers TBA Thursday, December 3
Continuing with their comeback, The Jonas Brothers are working with Lenovo to host a free concert for fans. Further details for the show are to be announced. Keep your eyes peeled on jonasbrothers.com
The TSO couldn’t bring its bombastic shows to arenas this holiday season, so the collective will perform virtually. Tickets start at $30 and can be found at https://tsolivestream.com/tso/ livestream/ n
JOURNALIST LYNELL GEORGE DISCUSSES HER BOOK ABOUT PASADENA LEGEND OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
ree and clear.” So many closely held dreams were compressed into those three “Fwords, written by late Pasadena literary legend Octavia E. Butler in handwritten contracts she made with herself as she struggled for decades to succeed as a writer. In her compassionately written new book, “A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler,” award-winning journalist Lynell George sets them down as evidence of the pragmatic discipline required to create the fantastical worlds of landmark Butler novels such as 1979’s time-traveling “Kindred.”
Butler’s taskmaster perfectionism and relentless financial fears are on display throughout “A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky,” which presents an intimate, vivid portrait of the writer’s life detailed with extracts from Butler’s notebooks, journals, letters, bills, calendars, marginalia, shopping and to-do lists and a mountain of library slips. It’s George’s third book, after 1992’s “No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels” and 2018’s widely praised “After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame.”
It extends her ongoing examination of the importance of place, as Butler’s writing is deeply rooted in the natural landscape of Pasadena and Altadena. But George, who was recently honored with a Distinguished Journalist award by the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, took a left turn while researching the Huntington Library’s Octavia E. Butler archive; instead of traditional biography, Butler’s work and experience form a prism through which to explore creative process.
The book delivers a gratifying tactile experience with its smooth, heavy paper, Jon Stich’s vivid cover painting and Amy Inouye’s creative layout adorned with George’s photographs. One such picture depicts a tableau arranged at Butler’s gravesite with loose flowers and notebooks taped over with self-admonishing reminders such as “I am a woman at odds with myself.”
Dreadfully shy, poor, and 6 feet tall by her mid-teens, Butler’s voluminous notes chart the development of her formidable internal resilience as her literary visions were rejected by relatives, teachers and, initially, publishers.
Born in Pasadena in 1947 and raised by her widowed mother, she was a “voracious reader and sensitive observer” who “lived deeply and vividly in her imagination,” George writes. Her Pasadena Library card escorted her into otherwise inaccessible worlds, and as she pursued her calling, she created characters who reflected her experience as a young Black woman in midcentury America.
“The writing was a way of giving her space both as a person and as a writer to create characters and situations that she could see in her own life but hasn’t seen on the page,” George said. “[She could] move her characters in and out of situations in the rooms and give power to people who didn’t generally have power, either in society or in books.”
While a freshman at PCC, Butler won a short-story contest. The prize: $15 — the greatest tangible reward her writing received for years. But Butler, who worked intellectually undemanding jobs in offices and factories to pay rent, harbored no illusions.
“Writing is a form of gambling,” she wrote to herself in one of the many notes George quotes in the book. She gambled hard for decades, depriving herself of sleep, proper nutrition, society and financial security to center her life around writing. Her journals outlined goals with striking numerical specificity, and her self-critiques reveal a wrenching lack of mercy. George agrees that stress accrued over decades of self-denial, of begging publishers for money she was owed, likely contributed to Butler’s ill health and death at age 58 in 2006.
In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction author to be awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, but she felt conflicted about the “sci-fi” designation; she preferred the shorthand “SF,” which covered both science fiction and speculative fiction. In a note George records in the book, Butler wrote, “The way most people think of SF: unreal, silly, or juvenile. (It can be all three.)” George subsequently observes: “The best science fiction, she knew, was a literature of transformative ideas. It was a genre that was powerful enough to rearrange her point of view, to change the way she saw herself: what if the world was turned to a different slant, what if she had more power, what if?” Through writing, Butler could chart her own “personal map towards freedom” and inch closer to “a more nuanced and inclusive future.”
Over the phone, George cites one of the numerous questions Butler puzzled over while writing “Kindred:” “‘What if history were a planet?’ It’s a place to be. Even going back in time, history can be a planet. [She’s] creating landscape and characters and planting them there and moving them around. … Since she’s the maker in this, she can choose whose point of view; that’s also what’s thrilling about it. She has created all these strong women who are curious and courageous and also fearful, because Butler was also struggling with finding her own agency, and you see that in some of the characters.”
With her profound need to write, Butler was clearly invested in the telling of her stories. It’s equally true that, with prescient novels like 1987’s “Dawn” and especially 1993’s “Parable of the Sower” and 1998’s “Parable of the Talents”—both set against scenes of environmental devastation that now read like our daily reality—Butler strived to transform readers’ thinking about climate, race, gender, and societal breakdown. Interviewers and fans often said her books predicted environmental and political change, but she insisted she wasn’t prophetic; she was just paying attention.
“She was interested in climate really early — through the 1970s and ’80s she was reading about climate, clipping [articles] about climate,” George says, discussing the “walking notebooks” Butler carried during regular jaunts up Lake Avenue and around Altadena and Pasadena neighborhoods. “She would start paying attention to cycles of growth, of plants and flowers and trees and all the subtle, gentle changes … that slipped into her work. …
“We see her like that imposing, serious figure … the other view is all this mythology that has grown up around her. But really, she was a real person with fears and doubt but also joy and curiosity. That was the great thing for me about working in the archive — getting to know this other person that you wouldn’t have gotten to know, really, unless you were her friend or family member.”
Butler, a self-described “news junkie,” joked about being a hermit in the middle of Los Angeles; she had to diligently seal herself off from distractions to work. How might she have responded to an internet-connected world of 24/7 news cycles?
“She would be doomscrolling with us, probably,” George jokes. “Or maybe deriving ideas.” n
Retirement Project
GLENDALE AUTHOR TIM WAHL INTRODUCES FOOTBALL TO NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS
BY MORGAN COLE
lendale author Tim Wahl is bringing together his two loves—English as a
GSecond Language and football—for his new book,
“Footballogy: Elements of American Football for Non-Native Speakers of English” includes readings, illustrations, puzzles and self-assessments that guide readers to learn the story of football’s history and traditions as well as how the game is played.
Wahl, who just retired from a 32-year career in adult education with the Los Angeles Unified School District, taught ESL to people from all around the world. After years of researching American football being played in other countries, Wahl decided to use is retirement to write this book.
The book is written for people who are learning English and want to discover more about American culture. It can be used in classrooms as a means of learning the English language or for individual preference.
Hailing from Upstate New York, Wahl earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa and his master’s degree at the University of Phoenix before moving to LA and teaching junior high school.
Wahl said he didn’t know what ESL was before he started teaching it. While working as a junior high school teacher, Wahl said he was advised to teach ESL to adults because they believed it was the greatest job.
“I got into it purely by accident,” Wahl said.
In the beginning, Wahl taught ESL to adults at night in Chinatown as a part-time job and continued his day job teaching kids.
Wahl said he enjoyed it so much that he made it his full-time job and ended up teaching adult education for 32 years.
Wahl is hoping to expand the works of “Footballogy” to workshops on American football in other countries. The problem, according to Wahl, is that he doesn’t have name recognition.
“I’m not somebody who played in the NFL,” Wahl said.
His book, “Footballogy: Elements of American Football for Non-Native Speakers of English,” is available at online retailers as well as available for discounted bulk orders through eslpublishing.com. n
