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Rachael Worby at the celebration party Monday night at the Castle Green for the creation of her Muse/ique, a new Pasadena orchestra described as a "mix of high culture, beloved standards and sounds for the iPod age." See my Wednesday column for the bands I want to add to the mix.
The Pasadena Museum of California Art had a bangup opening of "Street Cred" and works by the Clayton Brothers Saturday night as partygoers lined up down Union Street by the fancy food trucks to get in ... all below this graffiti-style new front facade all the way up the three stories of the building, as painted by the 33third consortium ...
Hundreds of people filled the galleries, including a lot of young art-student type Angelenos I'm guessing got their first look at Pasadena's coolest museum ...
And the art was really interesting, too.
The furniture store at El Molino and Colorado that used to be Biggars, a real furniture store, but has for years pretended to be a furniture store that's on the verge of closing down within just a few days so that "Everything must go!," never seems to be in any real danger of closing its doors, but sure acts like it in its signage.
Other local businesses have complained and then checked with city code enforcement about the charade. They are told that the city can't -- short of obscenity, I suppose -- dictate what a sign says, even when it's a fudge. It can just dictate what a sign looks like.
It will be many months until the long-delayed IDS project going in at the site will begin construction. Someday, everything really must ... go!
Here's the Carmenesque invitation (propped up against the Kleenex box on my desk) that everyone's talking about: an introduction week after next to Rachael Worby's new Muse/ique orchestra. Don't know anything more about it except the excellent local people on the board for the new endeavor from the former batonista of the Pasadena Pops include Msgr. Clem Connolly; Lori Dillman, Jerry Kohl, Harvey Knell, Erin Kuhlman, Pete Kutzer, Tom Leddy, all longtime supporters of the maestra.
I'll keep you posted after there's more word on what the new orchestra will be about.
High above the Dalai Lama in the boxes at Galen Center wasn't necessarily the best place to see or hear His Holiness the 14th incarnation Tuesday morning. But it was a treat to be in the room with him, and the TV screens, as at a basketball game in the arena, made him bigger. Great crowd. A fine vibe. Man could charm the birds out of the trees. A thought for the day from him: "I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."