December 2009 Archives

Here's my third annual list of my favorite movies of the year. (You can read my 2008 list here and my 2007 list here.)

In 2009 I saw 26 new movies, oddly enough the same number as in 2008 (but down from 41 in '07). Obviously there were loads of good movies I didn't see, so if your favorites aren't here, maybe I just didn't see them.

Note: A couple of these are technically 2008 movies because they came out Dec. 25 or Dec. 28 in limited release, but like most people, I saw them in 2009.

My top 10, in roughly descending order:

Gran Torino, Up, Milk, The Class, Julie and Julia, (500) Days of Summer, Me and Orson Welles, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Food Inc., Black Dynamite.

The next 10 would be:

Summer Hours, Watchmen, The Hurt Locker, An Education, Up in the Air, Monsters vs. Aliens, I Love You Man, Gomorrah, Last Chance Harvey, The Soloist.

What did you see and like (or dislike) in 2009?

Candy Cane Lane is the nickname given to a stretch of Second Avenue south of Foothill Boulevard where most of the homes are decorated for the holidays. Its local fame has been supplanted by the more outrageous Thoroughbred Street decorations in Rancho Cucamonga.

More than 30 oversized and identical candy canes are displayed this year in front yards on Second. They start at F Street, a block north of Arrow Highway, and continue to Mesa Court, a block south of Foothill.

A reader named Alicia writes with a question about the Upland tradition -- which is in her neighborhood:

"I purchased one of the 1950s homes on "candy cane lane" on 2nd ave just south of Foothill in 2007. The previous owners lived in the home for 30 years, and could not tell me the history on it. I have been trying to find more information on the history of the Candycanes. If anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it. I heard from a neighbor that there used to be a lollipop lane and something else? Any info would be great."

Can anyone fill her, and us, in? I'd also suggest she poll more neighbors.

We compiled a list on our Music Now blog.

This weight-loss sign is strangely, or perhaps strategically, placed on Carnelian Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga in front of a McDonald's.

Restaurants fail all the time, sometimes for the good of community tastebuds, some for the worse, but the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce is alarmed enough by the number of closings in Chino and Chino Hills to appeal to the public.

"Because of the influx of new restaurants in the south Chino and Chino Hills area, many of the longer established restaurants all around Chino Valley are struggling to keep the
doors open," writes the chamber's Jean Christy.

In Chino Hills, Que Pasa and Bad Bob's BBQ both closed recently. Chino lost Black Angus and On the Border, both at the Spectrum, and Dickey's BBQ. (The latter especially bothered Christy because it participated in the chamber's annual Taste of the Chino Valley.)

"If that is not bad enough," Christy writes, "an icon in the Chino Valley for 15 to 20 years -- Marie Callender's in Chino Town Square -- MAY be closing effective Jan. 3." She says Callender's participates in Taste of the Chino Valley and the Dairy Festival and also contributes to other community events.

The chamber has contacted the Callender's local manager (613-0434) and the corporate office (800-776-7437, ext. 5302) to voice its concern and encourages the public to do the same.

"A groundswell of support for keeping this long-time major participant in local Chino Valley life would at least let their corporate offices know that we value them," Christy says. She adds: "Phone calls of support are one thing, but a more important demonstration of support is to DINE there."

And before Jan. 3, obviously. The restaurant is at 5455-A Philadelphia St. at Central Avenue, just north of the 60 Freeway.

* UPDATE: Apparently it's saved. See the comments.

"No Room at the Inn," circa 1967, courtesy of the Model Colony History Room, Ontario City Library. Below is the same scene in 2009.

The Nativity scenes in Ontario have been a 50-year tradition on the Euclid Avenue median. (See my Christmas Day column for more.) What you may not know is that all 12 scenes did not debut the same year; they were built as money could be raised from 1959 to 1968.

When did each scene debut? Here's a list pieced together from Daily Report stories in the Ontario City Library files.

1959: Shepherds' Adoration (Scene No. 4)

1959: The Nativity (Scene No. 5)

1960: Arrival of the Wise Men (Scene No. 7)

1960: No Room at the Inn (Scene No. 2)

1961: The Annunciation (Scene No. 1)

1961: Shepherds' Vision (Scene No. 3)

1962: The Presentation (Scene No. 6)

1962: Flight Into Egypt (Scene No. 8)

1963: The Holy Family (Scene No. 9)

1965: Jesus in the Temple (Scene No. 10)

1968: Come Unto Me (Scene No. 11)

1968: The Light of the World (Scene No. 12)

Any thoughts or memories regarding the scenes? Post away below.

And Merry Christmas!

The beacon atop City Hall was located and restored a few years back and placed where it belong. It sweeps the sky at night, offering a Gothom City-type effect. Sorry the photo is blurry; I must have been excited by the cool sight.

I was stepping off a Metrolink train in Claremont a little after 7 p.m. Saturday when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a gaily lighted train with music and costumed characters performing for families on the other side of the other set of tracks.

This would be the Metrolink Holiday Toy Express that hits our local cities this time of year. I'd heard about it but never saw it before. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The train also stopped in Montclair, Upland and Baldwin Park that night.

If you're stuck for what to do on Dec. 31, 2010, it looks like the Fox Theater in Pomona has you covered. As for Dec. 31, 2009, you may be on your own.

Bob's Big Boy, 3521 Hamner Ave. (at Chaparral Center), Norco.

Bob's opened earlier this year in Norco -- motto: "Horse Town, U.S.A." -- with the proviso that the Bob statue out front sport a cowboy hat. And as you can see, it does. The only other quasi-Inland Valley Bob's is in Diamond Bar; there's another one in West Covina. Nice to see them coming back.

The Norco interior is the standard, overly tasteful Coco's-style coffee shop design, no branding irons or saddles in sight. The rows of seating are interrupted by a large salad bar. The booths are comfortable, the service friendly. The menu has sandwiches, diner classics like meatloaf and chicken parmigiana, and breakfasts.

Taking a tip from reader Jim L from a discussion here some time ago about chili mac, I went for the chili spaghetti ($9.49), which is chili straight (no beans) atop spaghetti. The Bob's version comes with melted cheddar-ish cheese and, if you like, chopped onions. (I believe chili with spaghetti, onions and cheese is what's sometimes known as "3-way chili.")

It's a filling dish, and tasty, but by the end I'd decided the melted cheese was too much. If I were to get it again I'd ask them to leave off the cheese and onions and to bring grated parmesan. Yep, 3-way is 2 ways 2 much.

Since the Bob statue isn't holding a plate of chilighetti, I'll have to go back sometime for a burger, fries and shake.

Reader Ernie Alvater writes this week:

"Any idea what happened to the Spires Restaurant at Foothill & Haven in Rancho Cucamonga? It was open and busy last week, then suddenly it was closed with a sign in the window reading 'OUT OF BUSINESS.' It's sad, because they had a very nice staff and very reasonable prices. Maybe that's what did them in -- the reasonable prices, not the nice staff!"

I have no inside info but would take the sign at its word. Must have been busy, but not busy enough. (There's still a Spires at Vineyard and Holt in Ontario.)

Fun fact: The multi-sided white building on Foothill west of Haven began as a Spires, became Foothill Grill in 2000 and reverted to a Spires in 2007. Question: Can we get Foothill Grill back?

Jodie Holt of UC Riverside, a professor of plant physiology, will participate in a Q&A at the Edwards Ontario Palace 22 at Ontario Mills at 6:30 p.m. Saturday concerning James Cameron's new SF movie "Avatar." Holt provided botanical expertise for the depiction of the movie's fictional moon, Pandora, and its ecosystem.

Well, it's not like having Cameron here, but it might be fun.

Reader Larry Mendoza, who works at Richard Hibbard Chevrolet in Claremont, keeps a Henry's menu in his office. The date on the menu is 1966 and the prices should either bring back memories or arouse envy.

The most expensive meal is $1.70, a burger is 70 cents, fries are 30 cents (40 cents with gravy) and Cokes are 15 cents. For carhop customers, "minimum service 25 cents per person average per car." The signature "chicken in the rough" (half a chicken, fries, two dinner rolls and honey) is $1.50, or $1.10 on Mondays.

I reduced the tri-fold menu to fit on this page. If you want to study it closely, click on the thumbnail versions below.

It was wet and only slightly wild for Saturday's parade. Here's a link to Bulletin photographer Thomas Cordova's gallery of 17 photos and a link to the Downtown Pomona blog; scroll down to the parade photos.

I rode in the parade, as Cordova documented:

And my friend Lisa McPheron snapped a shot of one of the wackier floats, a rolling teeter-totter:

The Grinch read to children and adults last week at the University of La Verne Literacy Center as part of a three-day book fair. Or, as a university press release describes the day in verse:

On a wintry day in the late afternoon

A host of young tykes gathered up in a room.

Their parents were there, joining in on the fun

All watching and waiting for the one yet to come.

They sat and they hoped barely moving an inch

Looking up and around for to glimpse Mister Grinch.

And when he arrived, they clapped and they smiled

As he read and he spoke to each eager young child.

At the end, all were happy, both the young and the old

Having sipped the hot cocoa, meant to battle the cold

The book fair raised funds to help tutor and mentor

Local kids who rely on the Literacy Center.

Tortas Sinaloa, 2252 S. Euclid Ave. (at Philadelphia), Ontario; also at 9765 Sierra Ave., Fontana; 1520 W. 6th St., Corona; 1497 Mt. Vernon Ave., Colton; Baldwin Park; Santa Ana; and Tijuana.

At loose ends for lunch Wednesday, I headed south on Euclid from downtown to see what I might find. In a shopping plaza with a Food 4 Less on the southwest corner of Euclid and Philadelphia, I found Tortas Sinaloa, which beckoned with the promise of a cheap, filling meal.

Walking through the doors was a "wow" moment. The space has unusually high ceilings and is cavernous, encompassing what were probably two adjacent storefronts originally. Three giant murals fill one wall, with a fourth mural on another. There's plenty of seating, the tables placed far apart. The first impression is that it's quite an operation.

The menu has 60 tortas from $2.50 to $5.99. These are grilled Mexican sandwiches, for the uninitiated. A large variety of juice drinks, licuados and smoothies are offered. The menu is in Spanish, which poses a challenge, but the two servers I talked with were bilingual.

I went for a Fontana sandwich ($5.95): carne asada, avocado, cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion and refried beans, and a strawberry-pineapple-papaya smoothie ($4.25). The drink came in a mug 7 inches tall, so they didn't skimp. The sandwich was delicious, rivaling the ones at Los Jalapenos in Rancho Cucamonga, my favorite. But the choices are far more limited there.

Tortas Sinaloa has other locations, including Tijuana, but the main office is Ontario, according to the menu.

Plenty of light comes through the expanse of windows. The tables are decorated with fruit art and the shelves behind the counter are stocked with fresh fruit. It's a neat atmosphere that offers one of those pleasant am-I-in-Ontario moments. It just goes to show, if you go searching and keep an open mind, there's no telling what you'll find.

We all remember Charles Phoenix, the midcentury maven and slide show entrepreneur who makes the past fun, right?

He'll give a slide show in Pomona on Saturday and lead a tour his native Ontario on Sunday. You can read more about both in Friday's column, but let me give you the appropriate linkages for tickets and more info.

He'll give his Retro Holiday Slide Show at the National Hot Rod Museum, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Gate 1, at 8 p.m. He describes the narrated slide show as "a 1950s & 60s New Year's, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas jubilee."

This is the first time he's done his holiday show in the Inland Valley; other locations on his tour are Pasadena, Hollywood, Portland and Seattle. Tickets for the Pomona show are $26.95.

Read about the Charles Phoenix Hometown Holiday Tour here, and buy tickets there if you like. Phoenix also wrote recently about one of this tour stops, Logan's Candies, an Ontario institution since 1933.

A Pomona College senior is at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, blogging. Grace Vermeer is writing about her experience at COP15 on the college's Environmental Analysis Program website, www.dispatches.pomonaea.org.

The opening day ceremony "began with a video full of activist imagery -- scared children running from climate change induced floods and storms, their teddy bears falling in their wake," Vermeer writes, eyes rolling.

She finds the protesters "a bit obnoxious" and the delegates seemingly more interested in networking than working. She's not crazy about the "Hopenhagen" slogan promoted by the city's mayor: "Just because it rhymes doesn't mean it's clever."

President Obama is scheduled to arrive today and we'll see how Vermeer takes it all in.

She's there with Pomona senior Dawn Bickett, Scripps senior Elizabeth DeGori, two University of Texas students and Pomona political professor Richard Worthington, all granted observer status as a research, nongovernmental organization.

The conference began Monday and ends Dec. 18. The purpose is to come up with a global climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.

Metrolink is looking at cutting some trains from its schedule as an alternative to a second fare increase, which riders are understandably against. A decision is expected at Friday's board meeting, but a series of cuts was apparently outlined at the Nov. 13 meeting. Here's a PDF of all of them. (Props to reader Hank Fung for forwarding me the link.)

You'll have to compare the train numbers to the Metrolink schedule to figure out which trains may be cut. But here's a shorthand version.

On the heavily used San Bernardino Line, two trains would be cut weekdays and two on Sundays. Four would be cut on Saturdays, including -- sob! -- the 11:30 p.m. train, the last one on the line and one that allows some of us to take the train to and from evening events in L.A. Ridership of that late train, which was launched in 2006, has always been light.

(You may recall that the initial 11:15 departure from Union Station eastward was changed to 11:30 after a column by yours truly about making a mad dash for the train after a play at the Ahmanson.)

In a welcome softening of the blow, the penultimate train, which leaves L.A. to head east at 9 p.m., will depart at 10 p.m. instead. Not a bad compromise.

Saturday trains would then leave Union Station at 3:25, 5:45 and 10 p.m.

As usual with the 909, progress comes as two steps forward, one step back.

Books bought this month: "The Art of the Lathe," B.H. Fairchild; "Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest," B.H. Fairchild; "Usher," B.H. Fairchild.

Books read this month: "The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories," ed. Ray Bradbury; "The Art of the Lathe," B.H. Fairchild; "Richard II," William Shakespeare; "Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow," ed. Ray Bradbury; "Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest," B.H. Fairchild.

2009 is winding down and so is my year of reading. Yet in November I raged, raged against the dying of the light by galloping through five more books. Why, you'd think it was March or something.

This month saw me read two collections by Claremont poet B.H. Fairchild, two fantasy anthologies from the 1950s edited by my boy Ray Bradbury and, just to mix it up, a play by William Shakespeare.

The Fairchild books were fine stuff, and acclaimed: "Art of the Lathe" (1998) was a National Book Award finalist, "Early Occult Memory Systems" (2003) a National Book Critics Circle Award winner. The working class, oil fields, the desolation of the small-town Midwest, memory, baseball, jazz, old movies and art are among his subjects. Anyone who can base a good poem on "Creature From the Black Lagoon" should earn our admiration.

The Bradbury-chosen anthologies (featuring only one Bradbury story between the two of them) were intriguing, full of surprising choices. Authors such as John Cheever, John Steinbeck, E.B. White, Christopher Isherwood and others who aren't fantasy writers managed to have written something with a fantastic element, and that was good enough. Bradbury was obviously trying to legitimize his chosen field. Many of these stories originally appeared in the New Yorker.

Shirley Jackson, author of "The Lottery," is represented in each book, with stories that make me want to read more by her. Ditto with Robert M. Coates, whom I'd never heard of before. His story "The Hour After Westerly," in "Timeless," is about a New England commuter who loses an hour on a drive home through the country and remembers none of it; he later retraces his possible route and finds hints he made quite an impression. The whole thing is tantalizingly elusive.

The "Dr. Lao" book is long out of print, although I found up a copy a few months back for $3. The "Timeless" book is out of print too, but less far, and '70s editions can still be found at used bookstores.

As for Shakespeare's "Richard II," a production of that was performed recently at Pomona College and I thought I'd reread the play, for the first time since college, before seeing it. It's one of his history plays and, while not his A material, even his B material is nothing to sneeze at.

(I wrestled with whether to count it as a book since technically I read it from an 1,800-page, closely spaced "Riverside Shakespeare" textbook of the Bard's complete works. But one can buy any of Shakespeare's plays separately, it took me six hours over a week to read it and I've read books this year that didn't take me that long. So I counted it.)

This brings me to 55 books for the year. I've already finished a 56th and am expecting to end the year at 58. No point in running up the score.

Hayato Sushi & Grill, 950 W. Foothill Blvd. (at Regis), Claremont.

For years, Nogi was the only sushi bar in Claremont, and it wasn't even in the Village, instead standing on Foothill in a center set back from the street and roughly across from Stater Bros. and near the restaurant that looks like a tugboat. Now there are by my count five Japanese restaurants in town, including one that took over the tugboat, and Nogi, which closed a few months ago when its owner retired, has been replaced by Hayato.

And Hayato is pretty good. The interior has been simplified and classed up with smooth, dark tabletops, a color palette of wasabi green and tasteful art. It's a restful place.

I've had two meals there. First time, at dinner, I had a sushi plate (price forgotten; around $20) with a chef's choice of nigiri sushi and rolls, plus miso soup; all were above average. Second time, at lunch, I got udon (about $6), a soup of long chewy noodles in a dark broth, plus a few pieces of tempura ($2). The latter meal is pictured above. It was surprisingly filling, not to mention tasty.

(Thankfully no one else was in the dining room at the time to observe my clumsy attempts to pick up the noodles with chopsticks. The spirit is willing but the dexterity is weak.)

I'm looking forward to returning to try more items. Something about the place appealed to me. The atmosphere was serene and the food a cut above. We all have our favorites, and I wouldn't argue with anyone who prefers Kazama or Kinya, but Hayato just might offer the best Japanese food in Claremont.

Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona had positive things to say recently about Hayato as well.

Snoop Dogg now provides driving directions on a GPS service. Listen to a sample here. How many other former Claremont residents can say the same?

Today's column is a capsule history of this fondly remembered drive-in, restaurant and coffee shop, which lasted from 1957 to 1971, became a nightclub and then a disco and fell to the wrecking ball in the mid-1980s. Architecture buffs are still mourning the loss of the structure, a notable example of John Lautner's work. Here's Lautner's Wikipedia entry.

We've talked about Henry's on this blog before -- click here to read that -- but now we have photos.

The two photos above are courtesy of the Pomona Public Library's special collections room and date to 1957. The restaurant is so big it's hard to get a good view of it, but these aren't bad. The top photo emphasizes the drive-in area, whereas the dine-in entrance is highlighted in the other. You can see a bit of the Henry's sign on the corner in the top one.

This photo above of the dining room is from Charles Phoenix's book "Cruising the Pomona Valley 1930 Thru 1970." To call it stylish doesn't do it justice.

The photo at right below is also from Phoenix's book and shows a bartender in the cocktail lounge hard at work.

The photo at left below is from Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange's book "Lautner," a handy overview of the architect's work, and shows the coffee shop portion. Note the cutouts in the wall, through which a sliver of the kitchen can be seen, and the huge window. No wonder critic Alan Hess, in his midcentury architecture classic "Googie Redux," writes: "Indoors and outdoors flowed together smoothly."

And here's the corner today. *Yawn*

This image, "Pomona," by artist Sonia Romero adorns a subway stop in downtown L.A. It's next to an image of Hermosa Beach, so it seems the MTA may have commissioned art for various L.A. County cities.

The explainer on this one reads: "Romero pulls together a wide variety of cultural icons from the city's history including the L.A. County Fair, Antique Row, the Arts Colony, the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum, and the goddess of Pomona herself."

You can find the art on the Civic Center stop of the Red Line. It's on the Hill Street side of the station, near the escalator to the surface. I discovered it a month ago but (naturally) didn't have a camera, so I returned last week.