The well-liked independent movie house in Claremont is in escrow but will continue operating for at minimum six months, Laemmle’s president says at a screening of “Only in Theaters.” I was there and write about the movie, the Q&A and more in my Wednesday column.
Category Archives: Around Claremont
Column: Sky was crying, voters were smiling (mostly)
I voted in person Tuesday in Claremont and was surprised, but cheered, to find my vote center packed. Apparently not everyone is voting early or by mail. I observe the scene in my Wednesday column.
Column: ‘I’m the Sky’ shines light on Norma Tanega’s music
“I’m the Sky” is a new retrospective of the music of singer-songwriter Norma Tanega, a longtime Claremont resident who died in 2019. You may recall that I had an uncomfortable interview with the gnomic Tanega early that year. Also: a Riverside book fair, where I’ll have a table, is Sunday, and a journalist and San Bernardino native has died. All this is in my Sunday column.
Column: Writer and prof is a master of disaster, and cheerful about it
In my Wednesday column, I chat with Char Miller, an environmental studies professor at Pomona College who writes often about fires, forests, drought and other matters that are of increasing concern. He’s got a new, enjoyable book of essays, some of them with a Claremont focus.
Column: Another cultural loss for Claremont: its video store
I write a tribute to Video Paradiso, a video rental store that operated for 25 years in Claremont and was unique in the region in its focus on arthouse, independent and international films, in my Friday column. We weren’t worthy.
Column: Rhino Records to leave Claremont on a high note
Rhino Records’ last day in Claremont is Sunday before its move later this summer to Montclair. There’s a sale all week with escalating discounts, by the way. I interview the owner, and reflect on this local institution’s survival in a changing world, in my Wednesday column, the last before vacation. See you July 3.
Column: Rob Lowe takes high road at Pomona College
Actor is friendly with fans during taping on location in Claremont. Also: items about another mural about L.A. history, my column on my 2021 reading and, on a related note, Claremont’s On the Same Page community read, all in Wednesday’s column.
Column: City of Trees is shaken by windstorm
Claremont got clobbered by the weekend’s winds. I survey the damage in Wednesday’s column.
Column: Comic Mort Sahl made Claremont part of his routine
Mort Sahl, the comic who died Tuesday, was for a period a familiar sight in Claremont, where he spent two years lecturing at Claremont McKenna College. Also: writer Douglas Wolk will appear in Rancho Cucamonga next week to promote his book about Marvel Comics, and a founder of the folk group We Five, from Claremont, has died. Read all about it in my Friday column.
Farewell, BC Cafe
BC Cafe in Claremont (701 S. Indian Hill Blvd.) closed earlier in 2021. The last Yelp review is from January; I only noticed recently while driving past and noticing how forlorn the property looked.
Kind of a shocker, since the breakfast and lunch diner used to be so popular that if you drove past on a weekend morning, you might see a dozen or two dozen people standing around outside, waiting for their name to be called. I blame not only COVID, but the presence of Norms on the other side of the 10.
I pulled over recently to take photos of the exterior, and to place my phone against a window for an interior view. A notice on the door said the business had been in Claremont for 30 years: “We all are heart-broken and deeply sadden(ed) by this.” The staff, it said, had been transferred to the remaining location in Rancho Cucamonga (10123 Foothill Blvd.), where it’s known as Kickback Jack’s.
Oldtimers will remember that the restaurant began in 1959 at 1280 Holt Ave. in Pomona, where it was called Breakfast at Carl’s. That’s where the acronym BC Cafe came from. That building still stands (see below) and in recent years has been a succession of Vietnamese restaurants. In the old days there was a Van de Kamp’s, an IHOP and a Denny’s all within a couple of blocks.
All is not lost for fans of locally owned breakfast spots: A banner has gone up outside BC Cafe saying that Sammy’s Cafe is coming soon. That would seem to be a new location for the Upland diner (131 W. Foothill Blvd.).