Pasadena Symphony Bids Adieu to Season with Richard Strauss Musical Farewell

Pasadena Symphony Bids Adieu to  Season with Richard Strauss Musical Farewell By Ted AYALA When the Pasadena Symphony’s artistic director and musical advisor James de Priest had to pull out of the orchestra’s season closing concert on a recent Saturday owing to an emergency heart bypass operation, a minor stir was created by those looking […]

‘The Perfect Family’ Isn’t Quite Perfect

By Susan JAMES Newbie director Anne Renton’s art market film, “The Perfect Family” is a Catholic fairy tale with a happy ending. But along the way there are a lot of bruises and bumps, some of them filmed in a familiar locale outside Honolulu Avenue shops in Montrose. Kathleen Turner plays Eileen Cleary, an obsessive-compulsive […]

Free – Yes, Free – Comic Book Day

By Charly SHELTON There are a few days I really looked forward to as a kid. Christmas, Easter, birthday, last day of school. But one of the biggest days of the year as a kid was the first Saturday in May – Free Comic Book Day. Every year, the comic book shops of America give […]

SCO Closes Season With “Rítmo”

By Ted AYALA If one were to think of traits that define what Latin American music means to audiences outside the region of its provenance, then surely it can be reduced to a single word: rhythm. Whether in popular music, in which dances have become known the world over, or in its take on classical […]

The Rising Star of the Far East

By Ted AYALA It’s not an uncommon occurrence to see a flurry of vehicular and pedestrian traffic wending its way over to Disney Hall on any night a concert is under way. But the sight that met the hall’s patrons last Thursday night was something else entirely. Slow traffic on Grand Avenue and its surrounding […]