January 2010 Archives

Making the Internet rounds is a very funny "save the date" video for the October 2010 wedding of Jeff Wong and Erin Martin, made as a parody of trailers for big-budget movies. The couple met at the Claremont Colleges. According to their website, they met in 2000 when he was an engineering student at Harvey Mudd and she was majoring in psychology at Scripps. Awwww.

The video prompted pieces on CBS' "Early Show," NBC Channel 4 and Huffington Post. I heard about it from reader Don J.

A friend who knows A.J. Mendoza says he's a much better singer than he was on TV on Tuesday. One would hope so.

Pizzaioli Ristorante Italiano, 3920 Grand Ave. (at Pipeline), Chino.

I'm not sure how you pronounce the name exactly -- "pete's-ay-ee-oh-lee," perhaps -- but I sometimes think of adding an "ee-oh-ee-oh," as if we were yodeling. Anyhow, I met up there for lunch last weekend with readers Doug Evans, Hugh McBride and Elizabeth Casian, allowing for a four-way review.

Pizzaioli, in the Chino Spectrum center, has been in business since 1995. Despite the shopping center setting, the interior greets you with a well-stocked bar and an elegant feel. The dining room is adjacent and there's also patio seating. The ambience is upscale-casual, reminiscent of Macaroni Grill. The menu boasts fancy pizzas, paninis, salads, pastas, seafood, steaks and chops, with entrees ranging from $10 to $30.

Our table had eggplant parmesan ($15), described as "fantastic"; chicken al vino ($15), "very good"; manicotti ($13), called "okay" (blah cheese, decent sauce, but a large enough portion to take home half); and chicken with spinach ravioli ($15, pictured), mine, which I'd say was "not bad," although the presentation looks more slipshod than it seemed at the time. Some of these items were daily specials not on the regular menu. We also had dinner salads ($7 each). Service was attentive but they knew to leave us alone to enjoy a long, chatty lunch.

Overall, good, although perhaps a few bucks pricier than strictly necessary. You could do a lot worse. Apparently it's especially popular for weekend dinners. Pizzaioli-oh-lee-ay!

In the waiting room of my periodontist's office Wednesday in Upland, the name of a fellow patient, past 70, was called. As he stood, the young woman asked how he was. He replied with a smile: "Pretty good, for an old man."

I'll have to store that one away.

Southern California is known for wantonly erasing its past, so it's a pleasant surprise to find that multiple World War II-era air raid sirens still stand. Here are two in downtown L.A., one at Broadway and Temple near the old Hall of Justice, left, the other on Olive and Second by the Music Center parking structure, below, the tip of Disney Hall poking up behind.

Close to home, Claremont has one on Sixth Street east of Mills on the Claremont McKenna campus, next to the bottom. I'm relieved to know my city of residence is prepared in case of attack, perhaps by Montclair.

UPDATE: As commenters below brought to my attention, Claremont has a second air raid siren, on Oxford Avenue between 10th and 11th streets. I've added a photo of it at the bottom.

This website has photos of nine more in the L.A. area, including in Eagle Rock, MacArthur Park and near LACMA. This page has photos of 38 L.A.-area sirens, albeit without the locations identified. More than anyone would ever want to know about air raid sirens can be found on this Wikipedia page.

Bedsairy (Betsy) Santoyo is the new Miss Pomona, crowned in a ceremony Saturday in which yours truly was one of the judges. Look for my column on the experience on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the Metro Pomona blog has a writeup, with a Flickr slideshow by photographer Sally Egan. Elsewhere, on the M-M-M-My Pomona blog, a blogger enjoyed the event yet expresses unease.

I was happy to be asked to judge. After all, I've led a parade and I've judged a chili cookoff, but I'd never judged a pageant.

Does this mean I have the world's corniest bucket list? No, but after participating in two staples of small-town Americana, a pageant would make a trifecta.

All three of those events, by the way, were in downtown Pomona, which is apparently a traditional-values hotbed. I don't know what's next down there. Maybe an ice cream social and a rodeo.

Here's a 9:45-minute chunk of the 1950 classic "Sunset Blvd." If you don't want to watch the whole bit, jump ahead to the 8:30 mark for a great little scene with a famous Inland Valley movie reference.

Act accordingly.

Update: I celebrated on Monday, a couple of days late, with this slice of apple pie at Corky's Kitchen and Bakery in Rancho Cucamonga.

Chef Dave's Cafe, 10574 Acacia St. (at Haven), Rancho Cucamonga.

Chef Dave's is in a nondescript office park, as the photo indicates, there primarily to serve nearby workers and do catering. The cafe interior has a bit more individuality, with burgundy tablecloths and paintings on the walls, but it's slightly bare, indicating that dining-in is only one component of the business. This first-timer went there for lunch on a rainy Tuesday and was the only diner, although two people came in for takeout.

Someone alerted me to this place a while back, recommending the gumbo. The menu, which is written on a chalkboard, changes frequently, and there was no gumbo this week, alas. Dave's has a bistro-type menu and feel, with hot and cold sandwiches and salads, nothing more expensive than $6.89. Customers order at the counter.

I ordered the jerk chicken sandwich ($6.89) and an iced tea. I didn't know what to expect, but the sandwich was a pleasant surprise, mildly spicy and accompanied by onions and cheese. A few pieces of grilled pineapple made a nice garnish.

Open weekdays only from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., they do lunch and a few breakfast items. If you want to ask what's on the menu, phone (909) 941-0303. While I wouldn't recommend driving across town to eat here, if you find yourself in the neighborhood -- it's a block east of Haven and just south of the new underpass -- Chef Dave's is worth hunting down.

Just when you thought it was safe to use the Internet, the valley's most feared blog is back. After an absence of five months, the Claremont Insider resumed daily posting on Monday, smacking around the usual suspects (Oliver Chi, Ellen Taylor, the 400) as if nothing had changed.

As we regular readers might expect from a blog that beats the drum for transparency from behind the curtain of anonymity, there was no explanation for its death or its (pre-Easter) resurrection. C'mon, Insider, we were hoping for some insider gossip!

Well, there was a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the situation at the end of the first post, which was about the storm: "The commotion is enough to wake the dead, or even the e-dead."

Did you hear about the so-called "monster train" that chugged through the Inland Valley on Jan. 10? This 3.5-mile Union Pacific test train, which traveled from Texas to Long Beach, was said to be the longest freight train in California history. At one point in its journey, the train spanned virtually the entire length of Pomona.

Well, an Ontario man named Joe Perry, who's a railroad buff, followed the train from Imperial County to Ontario, documenting various legs of the trip on his website, www.chasingsteel.com. Below is a video he shot from the Mountain Avenue overpass at about 2 p.m. The train, with nine locomotives and nearly 300 cars, takes almost five minutes to pass. You can read Perry's account here.

If you were in a hurry, you wouldn't have wanted to be among the motorists stuck at a railroad crossing. You can see them streaming across the tracks the last few seconds of the video.

In Rancho Cucamonga, you can have instant prestige. All you need is an address on Prestige Court.

Via LA Observed, we've learned of the deaths of Glen Bell and J. Putnam Henck. Bell, who got his start in San Bernardino, founded Taco Bell and Der Wienerschnitzel, while Henck created Santa's Village, a former attraction near Big Bear that operated from 1955 to 1998.

Update: Here's Bell's LA Times obit.

The Images of Pomona blog asked to interview me. I complied -- why not? -- but spoke almost inaudibly (cars rushing by 50 feet away on Garey turned out to be louder than me, as you'll notice). What can I say, I'm a soft-spoken person. I also couldn't figure out what to do with my hands. Other than that, it was a huge success. At least for Whitney Hanlon, the interviewer.

Shakey's Pizza, 12455 Victoria Garden Lane (at Monet), Rancho Cucamonga.

While it's rare that I write about a chain restaurant, I have a soft spot from childhood for Shakey's, and the new location at Victoria Gardens, which opened in December 2009, was mentioned in our paper recently for its "green" features. It has bamboo flooring, recycles its oil for biofuel and has 100 percent recycled napkins. Oh, and they serve pizza, too.

The ragtime music, straw boaters and picnic seating are long gone, I'm afraid, but this Shakey's still does a lunch buffet ($6.99) plus soda ($1.99) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays, with chicken, "Mojo" potatoes and plenty of pizza. At the peak of lunch they had 10 pizzas on the buffet. Shakey's is my favorite corporate pizza. I like the crispy crust. The buffet also has salad, as well as a watery pasta that should be avoided.

This Shakey's has a bar with 12 beers on tap, including Sierra Nevada, Newcastle and Blue Moon. I sat at the bar because it's the best seating for a solo buffet diner, read a Jack Smith book and sipped a Pepsi. The bar is said to be a twist on the "Ye Olde Public House" identity of the chain and an appeal to adults, not just families and youth sports teams.

The restaurant also plays up its own kitsch to good effect with vintage advertisements and signs from the chain's glory days.

"Ye Olde Notice," one reads. "Take advantage of Shakey's generosity...Persons over 90 accompanied by parents receive free pizza."

A downtown Pomona restaurant's attempt to go 24/3 on weekends seems to have fallen short by four hours and one day. Well, it was a nice try.

Photo by Marc Campos

A news release from the Upland Public Library:

"UPLAND -- Race on in to the Upland Public Library to hear Dave Allen, Vice President Marketing and Sales, Auto Club Speedway talk about the history of the Auto Club Speedway. Mr. Allen will also be sharing his personal racing experiences from his early childhood karting days at Laguna Seca to Crew Chief of a World of Outlaws Sprint Car Team. Don't miss this opportunity to hear about a local racing venue and one of the most popular spectator sports in the world -- Automobile Racing.

"This free program will be presented in the Multipurpose Room of the Library on Saturday, January 16th, 2 - 3 p.m. The Upland Public Library is located at 450 N. Euclid Avenue in Upland. For more information about the Meet the Expert series contact the Library at 909-931-4205."

I'm tempted to attend just to meet my doppelganger, Mr. Dave Allen. But if we shook hands, would the universe explode?

Dave Allen (courtesy photo)

As I made a purchase at a Victoria Gardens bookstore Monday, a clerk, for the first time in my recollection, tried to upsell, as if we were at Applebee's or something. Pointing to copies of a paperback novel displayed on the counter for impulse purchase, she asked, more or less: "Would you be interested in 'A Reliable Wife'?"

Insert your own punchline below.

I got knocked out by a cold. No "Restaurant of the Week" this week, but it'll be back next week, as will I.

This mural appears on the sandwich shop at 724 W. Holt Blvd., Ontario. I shot this months ago and forgot to share it here. Very belated 50th anniversary, Grinder Haven!

Kim Peek, 58, a savant who inspired the title character in the Oscar-winning movie "Rain Man," died Dec. 19 of a heart attack. Screenwriter Barry Morrow is pictured at left with Peek. (Unlike Dustin Hoffman's character, who repetitively talked about his "excellent driving skills," Peek had limited motor skills.)

My understanding is that Morrow lived in Claremont when he wrote the screenplay. I don't know if he's still around town or not.

This sign is in the window of Tattle Tails, a children's clothing store on Yale Avenue in Claremont that closed at the end of December after 15 years. The owners obviously kept a stiff upper lip.

The owners seem to be planning on a rebirth. The sign on the store's door reads: "Join us! for the grand re-opening February 2012."

Books bought this month: none.

Books read this month: "Usher," B.H. Fairchild; "The Bradbury Chronicles: Stories in Honor of Ray Bradbury," William F. Nolan and Martin H. Greenberg, eds.; "The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury," Sam Weller.

Three books read this month was my lowest monthly total yet, but why not, as I handily surpassed my 2009 reading goal of "30, 40 or even 50" books and coasted to a nice finish. Grand total: 58.

I'll have more to say about this in my column in a few days -- try to control your mounting excitement -- so here I'll focus on December.

"Usher" was my fourth poetry collection this year by Fairchild and was published in 2009 to acclaim. Any book with an Edward Hopper painting as its jacket is off to an excellent start as far as I'm concerned. Whether writing about a movie usher, an armless and legless sideshow freak or a panicked and procrastinating student studying for a final exam, Fairchild's poems are good stuff.

(I've interviewed him for a column that ought to appear in the next week or two.)

The two Bradbury-related books were saved to read the same month solely to capitalize on the oddity of their both having the same title, if different subtitles. Yes, even reading plans can have their own in-jokes. We must motivate ourselves however we can.

The Nolan-edited collection was published in 1991 as a 50th anniversary tribute, with various writers supplying stories inspired by his. At various points I would stop, remind myself this wasn't part of the canon and wonder why I was reading it. As with any anthology, the results are uneven, but in the end, I actively enjoyed one-third of the stories and most of the rest were at least okay.

The biography, the first and only, was published in 2005 and written with Bradbury's cooperation and with full access to his files. Bradbury has had an interesting life, and I especially enjoyed the tales of his poverty-stricken beginnings as a writer. At his wedding, he tried slipping the minister a few bucks as payment, at a point when he had only $20 in the bank. The minister returned the envelope, saying, "You're a writer, aren't you? You need this more than I do."

I did read more than these three books. Closing in on finishing my long march through my unread Bradbury, I cherrypicked the otherwise-uncollected stories from two 100-story anthologies, "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (1980) and "Bradbury Stories" (2003), adding up to another 200 pages. But those books don't "count," since even though I've read the other 170 or so stories, in some cases it's been 30 years, and I'd rather reread them in the original collections at some point.

In other words, having read three books I felt like reading and feeling no need to run up the score, I used the remaining days of December to mop up.

Besides the 58 books I read this year, I also read 36 cartoon-related books: a few graphic novels, some comic book reprints in paperback or hardback, and numerous reprint books of vintage comic strips. I certainly could count all those in my total. An oversized page of, say, three Little Orphan Annie strips of 1931 probably has as many words as most novels, and those collections were over 300 pages each. Technically, then, I read 94 books.

But my goal for this year involved reading more prose, and that I did. Fifty-eight books, up from 24 in 2008. Hats off to Larry, as Del Shannon once sang, and hats off to me too.

As for 2010, I'm going to keep reading.