January

People celebrated the Lunar New Year Festival at Universal Plaza with the entranceway decked out in red paper lanterns and banners, welcoming the year of the fire rooster. Cherry blossom trees stood around the courtyard with red slips of paper tied to the branches, each with a wish for the coming year. A Mandarin-speaking Megatron greeted guests for a photo-op and guests snacked on the biggest fortune cookies ever sold in the park. The most unique update to this year’s edition of the annual festival was the inclusion of Po and Tigress from “Kung Fu Panda,” who greeted guests.
Town Kitchen and Grill has fast become a staple of the Montrose diet, including holding bi-monthly pairing dinners to complement the recipes with just the right glass of wine. With the popularity of those wine dinners taking off, owner Jim Collins decided to expand their horizons and welcomed guests to their first ever bourbon pairing dinner. “We were looking for not only a great quality of bourbon but also a nice variety that shows the range of what bourbon can be,” said Executive Chief David Prewitt.

February

One-hundred and fifty guests rocked a Vintage Valentine event at The Rialto in South Pasadena, helping the theatre restoration effort and our own local restoration project – Rockhaven. Vintage Valentine was a production created by the Friends of the Rialto and the Friends of Rockhaven groups as a fundraiser and as a way for their calls to action to reach a wider audience. “It’s all about getting the name out there,” said Joanna Linkchorst, president of Friends of Rockhaven. “We were able to reach the Friends of the Rialto to tell them about Rockhaven and we were able to have this unbelievable experience and get more people into the Rialto and help them out, too, so it was incredible.”
For the first time since Nov. 25, 1996, Disneyland fans swarmed the park to see the triumphant return of The Main Street Electrical Parade to Disneyland Park. Disneyland was in its off-season, which typically means smaller crowds and shorter lines. Not so this year. The park was packed and, while the attraction wait times rival those of an easy spring day, the wait for the parade was immense.

March

In anticipation of the launch of the Nintendo Switch, the company held a North American tour in the winter to demo and show off the system. The tour ended in early March in Los Angeles to coincide with the March 3 release. Fans were able to demo games such as ARMS, a motion controlled fighting game that lets players “punch” each other as robots, and Mario Kart 8. The Switch went on to become one the hottest pieces of tech in 2017.

The CV Weekly leisure section underwent a transformation – or a rebranding of sorts – newly named Travel and Leisure. The rebranding started with a preview of a new location – Ireland. Reporter Charly Shelton was invited to experience some hotels, resorts, restaurants and attractions on the Emerald Isle, and this would be the source of several stories over the next year.
This year the Food and Wine Festival was back at Disney’s California Adventure and bigger than before, with more food offerings, more wine and beer offerings and a better overall presentation. The entrance to the festival was marked with a beautiful new archway and signage displaying the rustic new stamp logo for the event. The booths were better themed this year, more closely tied to the foods they serve and highlighted many of California’s food crops, such as olives, artichokes, nuts, garlic, citrus and onions, as well as cheese and wine. Other booths highlighted the cuisine trends of LA, sustainable seafood and the all-important sourdough bread, a native of San Francisco.

April

Knott’s Boysenberry Festival was back for its fourth year to infuse the famous berry into everything imaginable – boysenberry panna cotta, boysenberry fry bread, fried alligator bites with boysenberry aioli, boysenberry barbecue sauce on everything, chocolate covered boysenberry cheesecake, boysenberry ICEE floats, boysenberry jerky, boysenberry latte, etc. With so much available, one cannot try it all and survive. For $25 for a tasting card, guests received tastes of six boysenberry foods. It adds up after a day of walking around in the sun, going on rides and eating constantly.
Reporter Charly Shelton and his wife Sabrina gave a primer on what to do and see when visiting Ireland. Travel by car and search for five-star restaurants (or McDonalds!), drink Guinness, and be sure not to tip too much – 10%, even for great service. Barberstown Castle, Granville Hotel, Brooks Hotel and Carrygerry County are all places to experience.

May

The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts opened and delighted guests with beautifully redesigned rooms across three levels of the house – the chic yet comfortable bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, the grand and elegant entrance and dining hall downstairs, and the sunken patio and swimming pool area, with landscape redesign surrounding the English Tudor home.
There are many kinds of beer available to order across the Ireland, but if one were to walk into any pub and say, “Give me a beer,” they would get a Guinness. Those who ask for a pint of the black get a Guinness. Sometimes if something else entirely is ordered, a Guinness will still be served. The famous posters of animals advertising Guinness are all over the country – put up like wallpaper in pubs, painted on the outside of buildings as murals, alluded to with the toucan mascot on products in almost every shop that carries souvenirs. Guinness is less a beverage and more a symbol of national unity, shipped out to be enjoyed across the world.

June

The Guardians are trapped! The Collector has captured them and they are on display in his museum. Rocket Raccoon has escaped but he needs our help to get past the scanners and free the rest of his team by disabling the gravity generators on the museum ship. Properties like “Guardians of the Galaxy” have a lot of wiggle room for stories and applications, so to adapt the Guardians to the former Tower of Terror site at Disney California Adventure didn’t take much to create a really cool experience. It’s all the same layout, same elevator car, same everything, but with what is called a story overlay – basically the decorations have changed and new videos added.
CV Weekly was invited to a menu tasting at the official opening to Voodoo Doughnut at Universal Citywalk, and it was almost more than one could handle. With 60 different doughnuts, there’s something to fit everyone’s taste, and each one is more delicious than the last.
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, was held in Downtown LA, as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo battled for the public’s hearts and minds. This year the biggest names in games lined up to show off their wares: “Destiny 2,” “Call of Duty: WWII,” “Far Cry 5,” “Assassins Creed Origins,” “Super Mario Odyssey,” “Sonic Mania,” “Metal Gear Survive” and more. There was a little something for everyone at E3.

July

Unlike many of the distillery tours that focus on what each has done throughout history, the Irish Whiskey Museum in Dublin is not promoting any one brand. It gives a more unbiased overview of the story of the drink starting from its first distillation in the early Middle Ages by Irish monks, experimenting with imported equipment from the Middle East. Charly Shelton suggests going in the evening for the once-a-day guided tour, led by a tour guide who can answer any question one can think of, and ends in a whiskey tasting and blending experience.
Verdugo Hills High English teacher Jere Mendelsohn rocked The Rose in Pasadena as he and his bandmates opened for Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees in support his new album, Old Sins, Long Shadows. Mendelsohn, who retired from teaching in December, grew up loving The Beatles, and seeks to bring back a classic, more genuine sound with his guitar playing and singing.

August

After a year and a half, guests were finally able to welcome back some classic Disneyland attractions: The Mark Twain Riverboat, the Santa Fe and Disneyland Passenger Train and the mighty sailing ship Columbia. But nearest and dearest to reporter Charly Shelton’s heart is Fantasmic. The attractions have been closed for 18 months as construction began on the upcoming land expansion, “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.” The new land will be located behind Frontierland with entrances roughly where the Big Thunder Ranch barbecue restaurant used to be.
Introducing MaxPass, a digital add-on which links a Disneyland park ticket via a smartphone app. The Disneyland app on Android and iOS has come a long way in recent years and now offers digital park tickets, wait times, dining reservations and more. With the addition of MaxPass, guests have the ability to book their FASTPASSES right on their phone. Gone are the days of dads running across the park to go pick up FASTPASSES for Splash Mountain while the rest of the family had breakfast.

The Alex Theatre in Glendale celebrated its 92nd birthday. Aside from food and drinks for the public, there was a self-guided tour, and scavenger hunt as well as raffle prizes. Among the raffle prizes were gifts donated by Massage Envy, the Glendale Historical Association and Laemmle Theatres.

September

In mid-September, the annual Halloween haunts begin at the local theme parks. A much-awaited time for horror fans across LA, there is something for everyone – from the little kiddies to the steel-nerved spook fans. For families, Disneyland is transitioning most of its Halloweentime celebration over to Disney California Adventure to get some kinks worked out before the swell of attendees descend for “Star Wars Land.” The now-DCA-based nighttime event Mickey’s Halloween Party offers kids a chance to trick-or-treat through the park and dress up for pictures in their Halloween costumes.
Universal Studios Hollywood launched its 27th year of Halloween Horror Nights, this year bringing Chucky, Leatherface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Babyface, Ash, The Butcher, Danny, Tony, Jigsaw and more face-to-face with unwitting victims. There were a total of eight mazes throughout the park and backlot. From “The Shining” to “American Horror Story,” the event brought movies and TV shows to life as guests stepped into the fray of blood, guts and terror.
Now in its 45th year, Knott’s Berry Farm transformed, under cover of darkness, to host killer clowns, headless horsemen and ghastly ghouls at the longest running theme park haunt event in the world – Knott’s Scary Farm. This year, KSF brought out some old mazes, some new mazes and some refreshment to mazes sorely in need.

October

The seventh annual event at Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor was better than ever with a redesigned layout to make the flow through the carnival a little easier for guests. The carnival featured several dining locations and performance spaces as well as bars and shops. But the real attraction is the ship. The Queen Mary is one of the most haunted places in America, usually ranked somewhere in the top 10 on any list of haunted places.
The added Halloween-themed acreage at Disney California Adventure made the crowds feel a little less intense by spreading out the fun between DCA and Disneyland. By adding more Halloween enhancements to DCA, it gives guests a reason to head across the way, which thins out the crowds. Regular old Cars Land being decorated for “Haul-o-Ween” was a cute way to help crowds flow over to the other park.
Filmmakers from around the world came together for the Glendale International Film Festival. The annual event, now in its fourth year, once again celebrated “all creatures great and small in the animal kingdom, especially cats, dogs, and horses.” While the festival didn’t require all films entered to be about animals, it definitely didn’t hurt. “Basically, those films are given absolute precedence, along with films that are made by women and also the screenplays which are written by women,” said Velvet Rhodes, festival organizer.

November

Christmas in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was on now at Universal Studios Hollywood and is the perfect way to bring out the magic of the season. The main attraction for Christmas in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was the spectacular nighttime light show. Using the same incredible projection technology that debuted in the simply titled summer show, “Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle,” the new Christmas light show brought the castle to life as present-laden owls, dancing lanterns and magnificent Christmas trees appeared like magic on the walls of the castle.

December

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” opened in theatres to great critical review, but mixed audience scores. CV Weekly reviewer Susan James noted the films massive 152-minute run time, and said of the main characters Finn, Rey and Poe: “The problem is that instead of playing them off each other like Luke, Leia and Han as a squabbling, engaging unit, each is sent off on their own separate mission. It not only complicates the storyline but reduces the camaraderie that made the original three films soar.”
Each year, the Queen Mary in Long Beach hosts a Christmas carnival called Chill, featuring carnival rides, county fair food and some ice sculptures, eventually turning its focus to ice and wintertime fun. Running through Jan. 7, reporter Charly Shelton criticized managers who weren’t as knowledgeable about features as they should have bee, but said, “based on the merits of event offerings alone, it is a good time and definitely something you’ll want to see this year.”