Pasadena Weekly 10.20.22

Gabby Giffords named Rose Parade grand marshal

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Pasadena Weekly Executive Editor

Former Arizona State Rep. Gabby Giffords was named the 2023 grand marshal by Tournament of Roses President Amy Wain scott.

Giffords’ remarkable recovery from traumatic injuries epitomiz es the 2023 theme, “Turning the Corner,” according to Wainscott.

The announcement was a celebratory event on the front steps of Tournament House in Pasadena, 80 days before the Rose Bowl Game and Rose Parade presented by Honda, both on Jan. 2.

“It’s a tremendous honor to serve as the grand marshal of the 134th Rose Parade,” Giffords said in a statement.

“I love the theme of ‘turning the corner’ — the idea that we all can make a conscious decision to go in a different direction, toward something better. This philosophy of moving ahead is one that I’ve tried to embody both in my personal journey of recovery since being shot in 2011 and in the fight for gun violence prevention that has become my life’s work.”

Wainscott said she is looking forward to hosting Giffords.

“We are just over the moon thrilled to have Gabby as our grand marshal,” she said.

“It all starts with our theme, ‘Turning the Corner,’ and I can’t think of anybody who is more of a hopeful, optimistic person that embodies that theme.”

There’s a second Tucson tie to this year’s parade. The Catalina Foothills High School marching band is going to participate in the parade.

“It’s a great coincidence that we have the high school and Gabby Giffords in our parade,” Wainscott said. “They’re under the direc tion of Renee Shane Boyd, who is another incredible female.”

To choose Catalina Foothills, Wainscott traveled to Tucson in the spring. She also encourages the community to help fund the band’s trip to Pasadena.

“We visit all of our bands and bring awareness to the community that they’ll be traveling to Pasadena,” she said.

“They have to pay their way to get to Pasadena. We were there this spring and we were able to visit with the students who are amazing musicians and the boosters, the administrators at the

school and the community. (Artist) Diana Madaras had a fundrais er and Gabby said she knew her. It all came full circle for us.”

Giffords was the youngest woman elected to the Arizona State Senate, represented the community in the Arizona legislature from 2000 to 2005, and then in Congress from 2006 to 2012.

On Jan. 8, 2011, at a “Congress on Your Corner” constituent event in Tucson, Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery. Giffords em barked on a path to regain her ability to speak and walk.

“The idea of ‘turning the corner’ also resonates from a national perspective,” Giffords said.

“Our country has faced multiple years of a deadly pandemic and political rancor. Yet medical advances and bipartisan compromise have helped us to take steps toward a better future, even if these steps aren’t always as quick or as sure as we would like them to be, but I’ve learned the importance of incremental progress — and that progress starts with having the courage to hope, and then to act on that hope.”

In 2013, after the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementa ry in Newtown, Connecticut, Giffords co-founded the organization now known as Giffords.

During the past several years, the organization has made gun safety a kitchen table issue for voters. Giffords has worked hard to pass legislation in states across the country and at the federal level. This summer, Giffords was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” a documentary from the filmmakers behind “RBG,” premiered this year and is now available to stream at home on demand.

“I’m extremely grateful to follow in the footsteps of the many distinguished grand marshals in the parade’s history and to blaze my own path forward,” Giffords said.

“Thank you so much to Tournament of Roses President Amy Wainscott and to the board of directors for this privilege, and I look forward to being at the parade on Jan. 2.”

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Gabby Giffords is the 2023 Pasadena Tournament of Roses grand marshal.

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Pasadena commission assesses city’s ‘officer-involved shooting’ review process

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

In a recent meeting with the Community Police Oversight Commission, LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman and LAPD Assistant Inspector Gen eral Django Sibley spoke with community leaders about the importance of how law enforcement agencies handle internal investigations and reviews, shedding light on the administrative process behind officer involved incidents.

They discussed Pasadena’s process for conducting reviews of critical incidents and raised potential changes for the police department’s practices.

To begin, Commander Mark Goodman explained that the current policy gov erning the investigation of officer involved shootings in Pasadena states that once detectives respond to the scene of a shooting, along with the District Attorney’s own investigators, a criminal case is submitted to the DA’s office where prosecu tors will review and decide if the officer’s actions were consistent with the law.

The Pasadena Police Department must wait until this criminal investigation is complete to conduct their own internal review. It’s a system that, according to Pasadena’s independent police auditor Dr. Richard Rosenthal, results in lengthy delays in the administrative process.

Dr. Rosenthal cited the death of Anthony McClain, who was fatally shot by

Pasadena police officer Edwin Dumaguindin on Aug. 15, 2020. The decision to pursue criminal charges by the District Attorney was not made until March 31, 2022.

“When I inquired, I learned the Pasadena Police Department has recently, as a matter of practice, waited to conduct administrative investigations and reviews of their officer shootings until after the DA has issued its letter regarding wheth er to criminally charge a case,” Dr. Rosenthal explained. “What this means is, in the case of Anthony McClain, the department had been unable to complete its administrative investigation review of the matter until more than two years after the shooting.”

Dr. Rosenthal said that since May of 2019, there have been four officer in volved shootings involving Pasadena Police Department officers still pending with the District Attorney, the oldest of which took place over three years and four months ago.

“That causes a lot of problems in their ability to collect information,” Hunts man added as he drew comparisons with the LA County Sheriff’s Department, which also waits to conduct its internal affairs investigations until the conclusion

Pasadena’s Community Police Oversight Commission met with LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman and LAPD Assistant Inspector General Django Sibley to discuss policy changes regarding the city’s police investigations.

of criminal cases. “Homicide investigators don’t ask a lot of questions that really ought to get asked right away. And so with the Sheriff’s Department, they get asked years later when recollection is very poor.”

According to Huntsman, this issue stems from an agreement that the depart ment entered into with its union several years ago with no sunset date. It states that the department will not compel a statement from a deputy during a pending criminal case.

“It doesn’t legally prevent them from starting or even finishing an internal affairs investigation,” Huntsman explained. “They just can’t compel a statement… It’s a huge problem at the Sheriff’s Department.

According to Sibley, who leads the use of force section of the Inspector Gen eral’s office, the LAPD functions under a different system. Sibley’s team oversees investigations from start to finish through their own specialized Force Investiga tions Division, working closely with detectives and monitoring the LAPD’s own internal review process.

Once the department completes its internal review, Sibley’s team prepares an independent report with recommendations to the decision makers adjudicating the case.

In the LAPD, these decision makers are the Board of Police commissioners, a five-member panel appointed by the mayor to oversee the police department and serve as its policy-making body and adjudicating collective for the use of force cases.

“We do not have any delay in the initiation of our administrative process,” Sibley said. “We run concurrent investigations, criminal and administrative, with separate teams of detectives so that the criminal investigation can proceed untainted by the administrative investigation. The reason why that’s important is because officers have the right to not provide statements to criminal investigators, and they exercise that right routinely.”

The LAPD compels officers to provide a statement to explain what happened during an incident. Since the interview is compelled, it can’t be used to inform the criminal investigation, ensuring that the criminal and internal affairs investi gations remain separate.

“The administrative investigation is typically completed within about an eightmonth timeframe, and we always adjudicate our cases administratively in under one year,” Sibley said. “Within that one-year period, a final determination will be made administratively regarding the involved personnel.”

Both Sibley and Huntsman insisted that the Pasadena Police Department could learn from the LAPD, specifically by having a “prompt initiation of the admin istrative investigation” that “provides the managers in the police department the opportunities to make information-based decisions relating to the incident…to the involved employees and more broadly relating to the training and policy and equipment … employed by the police department.

“For instance, three days or so after we have officer involved shooting, the chief of police is briefed on the investigation as it is at that early stage, which would include him being briefed on the content of the involved officer’s statements.

“On that basis, he’s able to make informed decisions about whether the em ployees should be returned to the field, what training they’ll be provided with prior to any such return or in some cases whether the employee should be placed on restrictive duty … while the investigation is ongoing.”

Sibley described that this process can give departments the ability to make in stant revisions if an incident exposes a shortcoming in policy or training, helping avoid future harm.

“It’s really sad that we have not done that in Pasadena,” CPOC Commissioner Alexis Abernethy said. “Have you heard of any obstacles as to why this could not occur for the Pasadena Police Department?”

Dr. Rosenthal recalled that former Pasadena Police Chief John Perez had said that a criminal investigation could help inform an administrative investigation, and that the city should wait out of an “abundance of caution.”

“I’m not in a great position to argue against this because I passionately believe that we should be doing differently,” Dr. Rosenthal expressed. “The real issue at this point is part of the reason for having this conversation and having it in a public forum … to give the decision makers an opportunity to hear it, consider it and then to hopefully address it.

“‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ is a legal maximum. That means if legal ad dress or equitable relief to an injured party is available but is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it is effectively the same as having no remedy at all.

“In cases involving the use of deadly force, all of the involved stakeholders have the need for a timely resolution of the administrative review process. This includes the involved officers who often have the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over their heads as well as their families, the families of deceased, the community as a whole and the police department itself.”

Gordo condemns LA city councilmembers’ remarks

By Morgan Owen Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer

LA City Council President Nury Martinez resigned her seat on the city council on Oct. 12 after audio of a conversation was leaked between Martinez and Councilmembers

Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon and LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera making openly profane, racist and anti-Black statements regarding the city’s redistricting process. The 80-minute conversation took place in October 2021 but was recently released by a now-disabled user on Reddit.

Mayor Victor Gordo has called for the resignation of all parties involved. “While Mr. Herrera has resigned his position as head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and Nury Martinez has announced a leave of absence after stepping down as president of the city council, this is not enough. Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin De Leon must immediately resign their positions on the LA City Council.”

Following the leak, the LA City Council met Oct. 11, to address the content of the conversation. Throughout the chaotic meeting, the crowd erupted several times into an gry shouting as public commenters expressed anger, sadness and frustration at Martinez’s remarks and the city council’s approach to the situation.

The most inflammatory section of the recording is a 3-minute stretch where Marti nez compared fellow Bonin’s young Black son to a “changuito,” or “little monkey,” as she recounted the events of a Martin Luther King Day parade. She also accused Bonin, who is white, of thinking he is Black and treating the child like an “accessory.”

Martinez apologized in her initial resignation as city council president on Monday. “I ask for forgiveness from my colleagues and from the residents of this city that I love so much. In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. I hope that you will give me the opportunity to make amends.”

Redistricting and accusations of gerrymandering

Much of the 80-minute recording focused on maps brought forward for redistricting. During public comment, many people expressed their concern that members of the LA City Council sought to disenfranchise Black and Indigenous voters during the recent redistricting process.

In the recording, just before Martinez begins to speak about Bonin’s treatment of his son at the Martin Luther King Day parade, she describes a conversation she allegedly had with businessman Danny Bakewell about which district would control the Los Angeles Airport. Her comments were part of a larger redistricting dispute involving Councilmem ber Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

“So getting back to Marqueece, I told Danny, if you want to cut a deal, and if you want to make like (expletive) boss moves, I would go after the airport. He goes, (expletive) I love that idea.’ I said, ‘Go tell Marqueece.’ Don’t go after him. Leave him alone. Go get the airport from his (expletive) little brother, that little (expletive) Bonin.”

Martinez continued to debate redistricting around Koreatown, a predominantly His panic neighborhood with a large Indigenous population. It is at this juncture that Matinez

makes additional statements regarding Oaxacans residing in Koreatown, remarking on their dark and “ugly” appearance. Indigenous groups have called her comments divisive, stating they perpetuate prejudice against people of native origin in Latin American com munities.

This leak also comes at a critical juncture in the Supreme Court case, Merrill v Mil ligan, as the court heard oral arguments for the case on Oct. 4. The federal lawsuit, filed by Black voters in Alabama, contends a long history of gerrymandering in a majority Black region of the state that allegedly disseminates Black voters between four districts to diminish their voting power. In January, three district court judges unanimously ruled in a panel that the congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Voting Rights Act makes gerrymandering based on racial discrimination illegal, but gerrymandering based on race, whether beneficial or detrimental to certain voting groups, is more ambiguous. With rising allegations of gerrymandering in Los Angeles following Martinez’s comments, Merrill v Milligan will provide important legal context if a gerrymandering investigation of District 10 does move forward, as many public com menters requested.

Responses and further political fallout

The political timing of this leak comes just one month before major mayoral elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Martinez has endorsed mayoral candidate Karen Bass, which Rick Caruso, her opponent, pointed out during their final live debate on Oct. 12.

Municipal elections for several city council seats will also be on Nov. 8. Several candidates for city council seats have also called for Martinez, De Leon, and Cedillo to resign. District 14 (De Leon), District 5 (Martinez) and District 1 (Cedillo) are not up for election in November, but Councilmember elect Eunisses Hernandez will fill Cedillo’s seat in December once his term concludes.

Cedillo has issued an apology aimed at absolving his contribution to the conversation. “While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year. It is my instinct to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly, I should have intervened.”

According to published reports, De Leon’s response to the conversation was to say: “There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate; and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private.” His response indicates that Martinez, Cedillo, De Leon and Herrera did not know they were being recorded.

Bonin responded to the leak in a press release on the 9th and further addressed the public at the LA City Council meeting. “As parents of a Black child, we condemn the entirety of the recorded conversation, which displayed a repeated and vulgar anti-Black sentiment, and a coordinated effort to weaken Black political representation in Los Ange les,” he said. At the city council meeting, he attempted to calm the crowd.

After audio from a conversation containing racist rhetoric between LA city councilmembers was leaked on Oct. 12, Mayor Victor Gordo has called for the resignation of all members involved.

FEATURE

National Coming Out Day ‘means everything’

By Morgan Owen

Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer

People of all ages gathered at the Pasadena City Hall Courtyard on Oct. 11 for the city’s seventh annual National Coming Out Day Celebration. The event, hosted by the Pasadena Public Health Department, the Pas adena Public Library, and the Pasadena Parks and Recreation and Community Services Department is part of the city of Pasadena’s initiative to foster a more inclusive community.

“This event is for all ages and supports those who have come out as (LGBTQ). The city of Pasadena is proud to be an inclusive city, accepting of everyone regardless of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, marital sta tus, socioeconomic status, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or disability,” said the city in a statement.

There were performances by LA Drag Queen Borgia Bloom, Mariachi Arc oiris, world’s first LGBTQ mariachi band, and speakers from the LGBTQ com munity. Rochelle Diamond, the keynote speaker, is an award-winning research biologist from Caltech who has dedicated much of her career to advocating for LGBTQ inclusion in the sciences.

Diamond shared her coming out story with the audience, explaining she was outed in her workplace by a homophobic coworker.

“I have been out since 1982, but let me rephrase that, I was outed in 1982 at my job,” she said.

“It was the worst day of my life, and it was the best day of my life. That expe rience led me to a group of like-minded people I heard about on KPFK public radio; the group was the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists. (That group) completely turned my life and my head around.”

Diamond later established the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists, now known as Out to Innovate, and establish several awards for out standing scientists and engineers who honor the legacy of LGBTQ innovators.

“We must have hope and be optimistic that our commitment to being out can make a difference,” said Diamond in the conclusion of her keynote speech. “By standing up for who we are, we make a difference, we change minds. We bring hope to our young people as they bring hope and courage to us. We can not be intimidated.”

The significance of National Coming Out Day

Pasadena’s annual National Coming Out Day celebration on Oct. 11 falls on the anniversary of 1987’s National March on Washington, D.C., for Lesbian and Gay Rights, considered one of the most pivotal moments in the LGBTQ human rights moment.

As a holiday, National Coming Out Day was orchestrated by Richard Eich berg and Jean O’Leary, the head of the NGRA at the time, in 1988, by the West Hollywood offices of the National Gay Rights Advocates (NGRA) in honor of the first anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

In Pasadena, the history of National Coming Out day goes back to 1987, when the city organized a local rally on the stops of city hall to support those marching at the capitol. Diamond was also a speaker at the 1987 rally.

“We have come a long way as a community and Pasadena has made strides over the years…The beginnings of the fight for inclusion publicly started at that rally and continue to this day.” Diamond told the crowd during this year’s address.

One in two Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian and one in 10 know someone who is transgender. In 1993, Eichberg said, “Most people think they don’t know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does. It is imper ative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes.”

Ahead of the event, Diamond shared her thoughts on the importance of events like this one.

“It means everything because this is how we empower ourselves, is to be out.

Guests enjoy the music from Mariachi Arcoiris at the seventh annual National Coming Out Day celebration in Downtown Pasadena.

Chris Mortenson/Staff photographer

We need to be able to be out so we can find each other, mentor each other, talk to our families … (and) overcome the barriers to achievement that many of us have,” she explained.

Coming out resources

Diamond’s No. 1 piece of advice for someone interested in coming out is to reach out to their community. There are multiple local and national organizations with resources for someone that may be struggling with their identity, wants to reach out to the LGBTQ community, or is looking for information on how to become a better ally.

The Trevor Project: The Coming Out Handbook thetrevorproject.org

This handbook serves as a resource for those questioning their sexual and gen der identity. It goes through the basics of sexual orientation, sex versus gender, and romantic expressions. Then, it provides strategies for planning a coming out conversation, from timing, location, and safety. The Trevor Project, whose mis sion is to end suicide among queer youth, has 24/7 support lines, counselors, and an active online community with over 400,000 members worldwide.

Local Support: San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center sgvlgbtq.org/about-the-center 626-578-5772

Formerly the Pasadena Pride Center, SGVLGBTQC serves Pasadena and the greater San Gabriel Valley area. They were founded in 2011 and focus on devel oping programs and resources specific to the San Gabriel Valley community. They have programming, peer support groups, and a radio station. They also have a list of other local resources, including legal centers.

For Culture- and Faith-Based Resources: Family Acceptance Project lgbtqfamilyacceptance.org

The Family Acceptance Project is a research, education, and intervention initiative that has worked for the last 20 years to create “evidence-based family support model to help ethnically, racially and religiously diverse families to sup port their LGBTQ children.” Their website has culture based, fact based, and faith based resources and can connect people with local organizations.

For Families of LGBTQ Youth: Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays pflag.org/chapter/pflag-pasadena

626-817-3524

There are many resources available for the parents and loved ones of someone who has recently come out. Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays have a chapter in Pasadena where you can learn how to be a better ally and best support your LGBTQ loved one through their coming out process.

Chris Mortenson/Staff

Rochelle Diamond shares her experience about coming out and how it affected her life.

Burke Williams’ new treatment designed for deep relaxation

By Bridgette M. Redman Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer

Burke Williams pays attention to what its guests say they want. It’s why last month they launched a new treatment, the Tranquility Massage.

Diane Hibbard, chief treatments officer for Burke Williams Day Spa, said that massage is the heart and soul of the Burke Williams business, a treatment that bleeds into all their departments. In her 22 years with the company rendering treatments, receiving treatments, training treatments and watching and interacting with their guests, she knows what the number one answer is that guests give for what brought them to Burke Williams.

They want to relax.

There were many ways already to do that, including their pure relaxation massage. But Hibbard said they wanted something that would set them apart, something that would capture the magic of spa and spa treatments.

She described her first massage many years ago at Burke Williams.

“I remember going into our lounge afterward and just sitting there thinking, ‘what just happened to me,’” Hibbard said. “I lost sight of time and space and was really in this Zenned-out place that I couldn’t articulate. I just felt like something special had happened.”

However, she also recognized that as members and guests come in and get the same treatment over and over, it starts to become routine. She wanted to take them back to the place of total relaxation as often as they wanted to go there.

Thus, the Tranquility Massage was born.

The Tranquility Massage begins by bathing guests in sound, using singing bowls

that have been hand-crafted by Nepalese artisans who add a personalized touch to each bowl. Each bowl is tuned to be in harmony with the others. The vibrations mesh with the body’s natural vibrations as the movements of Swedish massage begin. Once the guests are in a dream-like state, therapists use light-touch craniosacral therapy to fully immerse guests in a deeply calming experience.

The singing bowls range from small hand-held ones played with a mallet circling the rim to larger ones placed on the body and gently hit like a gong.

The treatment begins at $215 for members and $280 for non-members with prices ranging based on whether the massage is 80 minutes or 100 minutes. This is their first 100-minute treatment.

Hibbard said she researched insomnia and sleep disorders, trying to figure out what would give their guests the most relaxing experience.

“Time and time again, what I came back to was frequency, vibration and sound,” Hibbard said. “Those are the things that break up your brainwaves and take your mind into a different state where you can really check out, be present in your massage and have an experience that transports you to that deep relaxation.”

As her research took her down the path of sound therapy, they started to experi ment. She said it took them about three years to get to where they are today with the service. Before launching, they did hundreds of tests and trial runs, and she said it has consistently been an out-of-body, out-of-this world experience.

She said the treatment opens with the singing bowls so that the guest can check out as soon as possible. They’re sandwiched in with the hands-on work with the therapist

A massage therapist places a large Tibetan sound bowl on the guest’s back so that the vibrations can draw her into a deep relaxation.

Burke Williams/Submitted

strategically placing them on the body throughout the treatment and playing them. The therapist opens by getting to know the body of the guest, doing gentle compres sions to warm them up and then they begin to play with the sound.

“You become part of the symphony that really soothes your body and your mind while receiving hands-on work,” Hibbard said.

Hibbard said that each bowl was handmade in Nepal and takes eight hours for a person to make.

“These are musical instruments — they are not your Amazon specials,” Hibbard said. “They’re all Himalayan brass, which is a musical-grade brass. When we start to really play, you’ll feel the subtle vibrations in your spinal fluid and in your muscles and in your cognitive tissues. Your brainwaves start to mirror the vibration of the sound. That’s what starts to break up all the crazy thoughts in your mind so that you can start to Zen out.”

Once they’ve done a good amount of work on and around the body and they feel the guest getting to that trance-like place, they start to do the massage and then repeat the full sequence after the guest turns over.

Hibbard explained that there are three specific intentions that they believe draw people to the spa — relaxing, awakening and healing. Relaxing is where people want to zone out, awakening is where people seek uplifting and stimulating treatments and healing is when they seek out specific therapeutics to respond to a condition or prob lem that they want cured.

They have several treatments in each category, but it was the relaxing one that they wanted to expand.

Burke Williams has more than 700 massage therapists in 11 locations across Cali fornia. Hibbard said this has been the biggest training they’ve ever done as a company — three days of training per person plus testing. The bowls are musical instruments and the therapists had to be trained in the different ways to play them.

“We spent the time to train every one of our massage therapists to really make sure that by the time they touch a guest — and these are already licensed massage thera pists who have worked with us and gone through other training — they can execute this treatment from our expectation of extreme excellence,” Hibbard said.

They also did decibel testing in all their rooms. While each room is well-insulated, sometimes the sound does bleed outside the rooms, which provides an added experi ence for all their guests.

The feedback they have received has, Hibbard said, validated the intention of the treatment. They’ve been told by those who received the service:

“I got the best night’s sleep of my life the next day.”

Excerpts from this novel--The Pollinator In His Own Words--read by the author, exemplify the intimate relationship between two art forms: painting and writing. The protagonist of this tale, through the mystic art of surfing, slowly develops the ability to fly. As the story evolves, he discovers that he can,

Excerpts from this novel--The Pollinator In His Own Wordsread by the author, exemplify the intimate relationship between two art forms: painting and writing. The protagonist of this tale, through the mystic art of surfing, slowly develops the ability to fly. As the story evolves, he discovers that he can, during flight, by way of olfactory engendered clairvoyance, accumulate and store inter nally essential love; eventually he is able to bestow this love. The following excerpts, inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, occur in the story when the protagonist is beginning to collect such essences of primal bliss.

Excerpts from this novel--The Pollinator In His Own Words--read by the author, exemplify the intimate relationship between two art forms: painting and writing. The protagonist of this tale, through the mystic art of surfing, slowly develops the ability to fly. As the story evolves, he discovers that he can, during flight, by way of olfactory engendered clairvoyance, accumulate and store internally essential love; eventually he is able to bestow this love. The following excerpts, inspired by

Excerpts from this novel--The Pollinator In His Own Words--read by the author, exemplify the intimate relationship between two art forms: painting and writing. The protagonist of this tale, through the mystic art of surfing, slowly develops the ability to fly. As the story evolves, he discovers that he can, during flight, by way of olfactory engendered clairvoyance, accumulate and store internally essential love; eventually he is able to bestow this love. The following excerpts, inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, occur in the story when the protagonist is beginning to collect such essences of primal bliss.

GENRE: Magical Realism Fictional Memoir

paintings of Edward Hopper, occur in

GENRE: Magical Realism Fictional Memoir

GENRE: Magical Realism Fictional Memoir

Burke Williams’ Tranquility Massage 39 Mills Place, Pasadena burkewilliams.com/pasadena-massage

Tibetan sound bowls create vibrations that draw the guest into a deep relaxation in the new Tranquility Massage.

ARTS & CULTURE

Making madness at CalTech book event

By Bridgette M. Redman Pasadena Weekly Contributing Writer

When Pasadena comedian and commentator Sandra Tsing Loh released “The Madwoman and the Room ba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem,” she couldn’t know that the book would be published in a year of absolute international mayhem.

Loh will join her Bookish co-host Samantha Dunn to discuss “The Madwoman and the Roomba” at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, or on YouTube Live.

The free in-person event will be followed by a book signing and a question-and-answer session.

The appearance by Loh is part of the Caltech Public Programming Behind the Book Series.

Loh’s book, talking about a crazy year with her live-in boyfriend and two teenagers in Pasadena, was pub lished June 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the heat of the George Floyd protests.

The paperback version was released in summer of 2021 when many people still weren’t yet comfortable with live events.

“I feel like this is my inaugural ball of actually having a big live book event,” Loh said. “So many other au thors feel the same way — the books came out in the past two years, and they never got a party, so they throw their party two years later.”

She described doing COVID-19-safe book signings in her driveway wearing masks and gloves. It was a time, she said, when everyone was “kind of depressed” in quarantine. Now everyone is slowly coming out of it.

“I think everybody gets two years now to try to renormalize themselves or make a better version or whatev er,” Loh said.

“The Madwoman and the Roomba” follows her 2014 book “The Madwoman in the Volvo” where she talked about menopause and raging hormones.

Samantha Dunn joins Sandra Loh in discussing the latter’s latest book, “The Madwoman and the Roomba.”

Sandra Loh is returning to Caltech, her alma mater, to discuss her latest book, “The Madwoman and the Roomba.”

Discussing the book at CalTech is a bit of a homecoming for her. She graduated with a BS in physics from Caltech in 1983, and she’s the first alumna to return and make a commencement speech in 2005.

Loh has made her career as an author, writer, journalist and performer, but grow ing up, her father had no use for liberal arts and insisted that his children pursue careers in science. She talks about that in a chapter called “C+ Tiger Mom.”

“My father, the late Dr. Loh, who is the grandpa of the whole clan, he died at 97,” Loh said. “He was the original Shanghai engineer — all of my kids must do science. Math at the dinner table every night until you’re crying. So, all three of his kids go into science, no matter what, although we eventually dropped out and went into the liberal arts, which to Chinese fathers is like pole dancing.”

She and her brother were determined not to be tiger parents, to take a more relaxed approach to parenting. That is, until their children started getting mediocre grades and they panicked about whether their offspring would make it into college.

Loh shared a story about how she suddenly tried to be a tiger mom, but in a very ineffective way.

“I started doing my children’s homework for them,” Loh said, adding that because she’s a writer, she thought she should be able to ace any language arts assignments.

“There’s a chapter where my poor 12-year-old has one homework assignment to write eight poems about the parts of speech in rhyming couplets. It took me 14 hours to write these eight poems — and she got a B.”

Loh and Dunn have known each other for decades, both having successful writing careers and now, Loh says, both ex-wives to musicians. Both have a deep love for books.

Bookish, produced by the Southern California News Group of which Dunn is a special projects editor, was born during the pandemic, a chance for them to talk about books with authors that they love.

“One of the silver linings of the pandemic is that we’ve been able to get authors we would not normally get,” Loh said, listing such novelists as David Baldacci, Dean Koontz and Lemony Snicket. “It was just amazing how generous people have been with their time and we wouldn’t have been able to get that in non-Zoom times.”

With two years of book shows behind them, they’ve developed a language and style that attempts to avoid anything snooty. Instead, they appeal to general audiences and book lovers who are genuinely curious and like to hear authors talk about their craft.

Loh described herself and Dunn as Western women, outsiders who love books. It’s what they’ll bring to the CalTech Behind the Book show.

“It’ll be kind of a loosely structured rumination conversation where I’m going to be sharing about the book,” Loh said. “People can be afraid of Caltech. It is an aca demic institution, it’s impossible to get into and the kids are super, super smart. And Asians, you know, can be the scary smart people. I’m looking forward to breaking down that wall. Don’t hate us because we’re Asian — there are a lot of different kinds of Asians.”

Loh said she’ll spend time talking about the book’s Asian elements, in small part because for most of her career she’s resisted making Asian part of her trademark.

“I don’t trade on the brand of being Asian American, but obviously I am,” Loh said. “I’m exploring what that means. Asian Americans should certainly come, and they’ll have a laugh. Anyone who fears Asian Americans should come. I think we’re going to have a really fun conversation about all of our cultural backgrounds, our families and what education has meant to us. It should be a really fun, fun hour.”

It’s a chance, she said, to have an open conversation about children and education and the panic that can ensue from both. It’s also an opportunity to break down fears about CalTech.

“We’ll have it in the hallowed halls of Caltech,” Loh said. “Disneyland is the hap piest place on earth, Caltech is the scariest place on earth. Come to Caltech and get healed. It’s free and its fabulous.”

Nor is Behind the Book the only fun event Loh has planned for this month. She’s continuing to do the ‘Dena Home Companion and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, she’ll host “Halloween-a-dena” at Bob Stane’s Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 Lake Avenue, Altadena.

The event will feature scary movie music and dueling banjos. Special guests will include the Terrible Adult Chamber Orchestra (TACO), rogue rock cellist Matt Cooker and Carnal Circus. It’s a chance to see a bedsheet shadow puppet theater doing music from Jaws, the cellist performing Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” and “Some Enchanted Evening” sung by a mournful demon. Guests are welcome to come in costume.

Behind the Book, CalTech Public Programming w/Sandra Tsing Loh, author of “The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem,” and Samantha Dunn, senior editor at Southern California News Group WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20

WHERE: Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium, 332 S. Michigan Avenue, Pasadena COST: Free; RSVP required for in-person and YouTube Live INFO: 626-395-4652, events.caltech.edu

Slow Ode: New South Pasadena gallery supports budding artists

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

Nestled among the tranquil streets and camphor trees of South Pasadena, the new Slow Ode gallery was founded to provide a more humble, intimate experience for the region’s art lovers.

The gallery’s owner, Caleb Engstrom, moved to Southern California from New York in 2017 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree at University of California, Irvine, and was introduced to LA’s art community through his experience.

“This is a way for me to continue to engage with Los Angeles artists and the community here,” Caleb said.

Slow Ode is a joint project between Caleb and his wife, Caitlin Reller.

For its first ever show, the gallery will display LA-based artist Alex Kerr’s “Tara Reid Gave a Dog Twenty Dollars,” which will run from Saturday, Oct. 22, until Saturday, Nov. 19.

“I saw Alex’s artwork on Instagram … and I just thought it was super playful, imaginative and experimental and I was drawn to it, but there are also deeper layers to it as you dig into it,” Caleb described.

Kerr, who was born in Norfolk, VA, received his MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2022. In his sculptural exhibition at Slow Ode, he built wall pieces made primarily out of ceramic materials and used archetypes like clowns and masks to present a playful image while also speaking to ideas such as performance and identity.

For example, Kerr’s “Carpool” is a 19-by-19-inch glazed ceramic wall piece that depicts a colorful grid of faces. Caleb described the piece as using a “camouflage effect” with joyful colors to mask over the frowning clown faces.

“It’s like an uncomfortable tension that he does a really good job of creating with this work,” Caleb said. “It’s like this immediately likable, playful, almost childlike language, but then … there’s a sort of eeriness to clowns in general, but also frowning clowns, right?

“For me, that’s where the work lies, that point where you’re met with that likable or drawn in-ness, and there’s also questions of authenticity, of personhood or identity, like how we present ourselves. That’s what it starts to make me think about, this kind of presentation or performance of the mundane or the everyday, the quota.”

The opening reception for Kerr’s show will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, filling the 300 square feet of Slow Ode’s gallery space.

Due to the gallery’s location adjacent to a private residence in South Pasadena, the exact address of Slow Ode is given out with appointments, which can be made through slowode.com.

Caleb explained that while behind-the-house galleries are nothing new in Los Angeles, they are low-stakes destinations that can be crucial starting points for budding artists.

“That’s a big part of why we started this,” Caleb said. “Because this space is behind a home, I don’t have a rent to cover with that space. I’m able to present work of artists…and it doesn’t matter if we sell artwork. It’s to create validation and support someone that you believe in as an artist and as a person.

“In the case of Alex here with our first show, he just finished at UCLA in the grad pro gram there last spring…I believe this is his first solo show in the Los Angeles area.”

Along with providing a platform for local artists, Caleb hopes to start hosting workshops, educational opportunities, movie screenings or readings through Slow Ode in the future.

“I’m not on a gallery month to month schedule of install, de-install, so that’s kind of excit ing,” Caleb said. “I think it’s limitless.”

“Tara Reid Gave a Dog Twenty Dollars” by Alex Kerr at Slow Ode

WHERE: South Pasadena, address by appointment INFO: slowode.com

“Carpool” by Alex Kerr

APU brings ‘Phantom’ to its student stages

By Bridgette M. Redman Pasadena Weekly Contributing Writer

Azusa Pacific University’s Department of Theater Arts has won a rare distinction. It is one of only five universities in the nation getting to produce “The Phantom of the Opera.”

The Broadway production is closing Feb. 18 after 35 years and until now rights were rarely granted for anyone to do the show. Azusa Pacific University, which boasts being one of the first BFA acting programs that trains its students for both on-camera and stage acting, is one of the few to be given permission to perform the hit musical.

After a week’s delay due to COVID-19 infections in the cast, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical opened and runs through Sunday, Oct. 23.

“Last spring, we were given the rights as one of the first five universities,” said Jill Brennan-Lincoln, chair of the university’s theater department. “After 35 years of ‘Phantom’ running on Broadway, they’ve never allowed regional theaters or professional theaters to produce it. Last spring, we found that he had opened the rights to universities. We are beyond excited.”

With the announcement of the show closing on Broadway, there has been a resurgence in interest in the iconic musical making it an even more exciting event for the department.

The musical, which is based on the Gaston Leroux novel, takes place in the Paris Opera House in the 19th century. A masked musical genius becomes obsessed with Christine, a soprano singer/chorus girl whom he tutors and sponsors.

With intricate costumes, stage magic, sweeping sets and the need for a working (and mobile) chandelier, it isn’t an easy show to do. The technical elements are demanding, and the score requires highly trained voices.

The APU production is being directed by guest director Gary Krinke and will be accom panied by a 14-piece orchestra — using the same orchestrations that the London production adopted when they reopened after COVID-19 shutdowns.

Brennan-Lincoln said the department built all the technical elements from scratch, including the iconic chandelier.

“We have just an exceptional production team,” Brennan-Lincoln said. “We put together a special director, choreographer and designers. Our costume designer is from LA Opera. The chandelier looks fantastic. We’re doing a traditional retelling of the story, but we’re being innovative as well.”

For example, there will be moments during “Masquerade” at the top of the second half where the chorus will move throughout the audience.

Casting was done in the spring and then the technical teams worked throughout the summer so the actors could start rehearsing in September when school resumed.

“It’s been a pretty fast and furious rehearsal process to get this up quickly,” Brennan-Lin coln said. “It’s in great shape, it’s really phenomenal. The student actors are exceptional.”

Playing the title character is Forrest Gorrell, a BFA theater arts senior. He began his col lege career studying opera and musical theater and switched to the theater arts major. He’s had two years of theater training on top of his opera training.

“It’s really exciting to see him use those operatic skills and then also be able to really bring the emotional aspects,” Brennan-Lincoln said. “I watched him sing ‘Music of the Night.’ It was really moving. He’s fantastic.”

Playing Christine is Isabella Adad, whom Brennan-Lincoln describes as an outstanding soprano who can sing the part that Webber wrote for his then-girlfriend.

“Any time you can hear a soprano hit those notes (is amazing),” Brennan-Lincoln said. “She’s really exceptional as well and they’re just beautiful together.”

While the director has hewn to the traditional telling of the story, there were some changes that had to be made because they do not have the large house that the show was traditionally performed in. So for some of the large numbers, they move people off stage and use mirrors. The orchestra will perform on the stage.

Brennan-Lincoln is thrilled to bring this story to a new generation of students. When they first asked their students how many of them had seen “Phantom of the Opera,” only two raised their hands.

“This is wonderful that he has opened this up and now the story is going to have a resur gence,” Brennan-Lincoln said. “Every time we tell a story to a new generation, it lives longer. Many of the students haven’t seen it, so they are coming from a pure place of not reproduc ing it, but bringing their own characters and the story to life.”

WHEN: Various times through Sunday, Oct. 23

WHERE: Warehouse Theater, APU’s West Campus, 701 W. Foothill Boulevard, Azusa COST: $27 INFO: 626-815-5495; aputickets.universitytickets.com

Forrest Gorrell as the Phantom escorts Isabella Adad’s Christine into the depths of the opera house at the Azusa Pacific University production.

Larry. Sandez/Submitted

“The Phantom of the Opera” by Andrew Lloyd Weber; Azusa Pacific University’s Department of Theater Arts

Dance for Hope: Children of One Planet hosts gala in Altadena

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

On an afternoon hike in the San Gabriel Mountains on May 17, 1998, Azita Milanian made a horrifying discovery. One of her dogs had found something moving beneath the dirt on the side of the trail. When Milanian dug beneath the earth to investigate, she found a newborn baby boy that had been buried alive. She desperately removed the dirt from the infant’s mouth and nose, whispering “I love you, please don’t die” as she held him in her arms. Unable to reach 911, she convinced a motorist to pull over and help her contact the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

In critical condition, the baby clung to Milanian’s wrist. Milanian described that it felt as if he was saying, “I’m hearing you right. I’m here with you.”

Once the baby eventually arrived at the hospital, doctors were able to save its life. Adoption offers followed, and Milanian didn’t see the child again until they were reunited 20 years later through Ryan Seacrest’s radio show.

“I’d never felt such a connection ever in my life,” Milanian recalled. “That changed my whole life altogether.”

Milanian quit her job in engineering at JPL, where she had been working for the past 12 years, and decided to dedicate her life to her nonprofit, Children of One Planet, which was built to protect children around the world from hunger and vio lence.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, Children of One Planet is hosting its annual gala at 5 p.m. in Altadena’s William D. Davies Memorial Building. The event will feature live performances from professional dancers, singers and local musicians like Flamenco Soul as well as food from the Mixx, Raffi’s, Cabrera’s, Nancy’s Greek Café, Griffins of Kinsale and Heidar Baba.

“We want people to dance and have fun,” Milanian said.

While the event is a celebration of the nonprofit’s 22-year anniversary, it is also a fundraising gala with every dollar raised supporting Dance for Hope America, a campaign to bring dancing, music and motivational talks to children and families.

“We want to help kids to be mentally and physically happy through our educa

Milanian visits an orphanage in Rosarito, Mexico. tion,” Milanian described. “We have to pay more attention how we take care of our children, and that’s what the program is about. The art and music part is a tool for bringing happiness to the kids. … They last 10 to 15 minutes, or once a month, twice a month. … They’re going to learn things that are going to help them for a lifetime.”

Though she officially founded Children of One Planet in 2000, Milanian had long been serving children in need. For instance, she began assisting the Save the Children Foundation, USA with fundraising in 1993 and also donated money to help children in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Sudan from 1994 to 2000.

As Milanian explained, it was a path that had been forged in her youth.

“Children of One Planet started in my mind as a child in Iran where I was born,” Milanian said. “My calling started from inspiration of my father, who ran away from the abuse of an uncle after his father died. And he was on the street in Iran, and one woman with her son came to put gas in a gas station and saw my dad on the pavement sitting there. And she was determined to take him home and give him a different life.

“I was so in love with my dad that anything that he would say, it would sit in my heart. And as a child, I told him, ‘Don’t worry Baba. I will grow up one day and I will save all the children against hunger and violence.’ And my dad always just smiled at me, and he would say, ‘I’m sure you will.’ He never laughed at my imagination. And I had a pretty big imagination.”

After the Iranian Revolution began in 1978, Milanian’s family moved to the United States to escape persecution as members of the Baha’i faith.

“I came here for education and to get away from the injustice,” she explained.

Since then, Milanian has helped underprivileged children around the world through donations of food, clothing, toys and money.

Through Children of One Planet, she has also sought to combat child trafficking through educational promotions that raise awareness and provide support for victim’s mental and physical wellbeing.

Milanian has also provided donations for children and women in Haiti, orphanages in Armenia and Baja Mexico, children in Brazil, families across rural Costa Rica and members of her local communities.

In 2019, she donated new mattresses for children at the Dream Center in LA and provided masks to Shriner’s Medical Center for Children, Ronald McDonald House and Sycamores during the pandemic.

“COVID brought awareness that it’s not embarrassing to say you are sad, you are depressed,” Milanian said. “Mental, physical health education is much more open on the table than it was before. Before you couldn’t tell anyone, people thought you were crazy. If you sound sad, people say, ‘God, he’s depressed. He needs medicine.’

“Every day I wake up with energy knowing that something better is going to hap pen for children. Something today will happen somewhere with the action of me… or someone through our programs, and it’s going to completely change their life from depression, from suicide, from bullying, anything that kids are going through. I’d like to bring enough education for it to be stopped. Education is the reason that it isn’t being stopped.”

Dance for Hope America Gala

WHERE: William D. Davies Memorial Building, 568 E. Mount Curve Avenue, Altadena

WHEN: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 COST: $25 to $75 for general admission, $50 to $250 for admission with dinner INFO: childrenofoneplanet.org

Azita Milanian/Submitted

Children of One Planet founder Azita Milanian has dedicated her life to serving underpriviledged children around the world.