New Benches
at Debs Park Vista

The Debs Park Advisory Board is pleased to announce that two new benches have been installed at one of the most dramatic vista spots in Debs Park. Board members worked with Rec & Parks to find the right place to spend some of the department's limited resources for the benefit of hikers. Last summer, Jorge de Loera, Andy Ho and Bill Lopez traveled around the park with Debs PAB chair Martha Benedict and selected on the intersection of three trails directly above the Audubon Center.
This morning Rec & Parks staff Dan, Duane, Ricardo, Adan and Jose along with community service workers Juan and Richard installed the terra cotta benches on previously poured concrete bases. Duane was the epoxy man who cemented the benches in place with help from the others. Jose operated the forklift with skilled precision to place the seating. Afterwards, staff arrived to bolt the benches to the bases with L-brackets.
The two new benches provide a resting place with dramatic views of downtown, the Southwest Museum and the San Gabriel Mountains. Debs PAB members Michael Perez, Ann Walnum, Nancy Wyatt, Tom Marble, Sybil Venegas, Jeff Chapman and Martha Benedict all participated in the planning of this installation. Many thanks to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks for this enhancement to Debs Park.

Highland Park Pawnbroker Returns Bracelet to California Attorney General

At a meeting of The California Pawnbrokers Association, Doug Brown presented a bracelet to California's Attorney General Jerry Brown. The bracelet had been given as a token of appreciation to Mrs. Edmund G Brown, the Attorney General's Mother during the time that Edmund G Brown his father was serving as the Governor of California.
"The Bracelet came into our store a few years ago. I kept it in the safe hoping to get an opportunity to return it to the Governors family. When I learned that the Attorney General would be speaking at the, CLSDA*, convention, I brought it with us to the meeting."
Highland Park Pawnbrokers on York Blvd. has been serving our community for more than thirty years. Doug is a member of the Highland Park Chamber of commerce and has served on the board of The California Pawnbrokers association for more than ten years.

Gold Line Eastside Extension Grand Opening Nov. 15

from Metro news service

            Following five years of construction and coming in on budget with a flawless 4-million plus hour construction safety record, the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension from Union Station downtown to East Los Angeles will open to the public on Sunday, Nov. 15.

            "The long-awaited Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension is going to greatly benefit the community by linking it with schools, hospitals, shopping and business opportunities throughout the county," said Ara Najarian, chair of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors. "It's a wonderful example of the power of our partnership with the workers who built it, with the local people who insisted on it and with our federal legislators who secured more than half of the $898 million needed to build it."

            The six-mile Eastside Extension light rail segment will have eight new stations, two of them underground at Soto and Mariachi Plaza, and 1.7 miles of underground track. It will link the existing Metro Gold Line to Pasadena with Little Tokyo and the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles, before traveling east along 1st Street through Boyle Heights to East Los Angeles. When it opens it will bring the Metro Rail system to a total of  79 miles of rail -- all built during the past 20 years.

            The Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension will be supported by a confluence of buses to further extend its reach into the neighborhoods. More than 20 bus lines -- including those serving L.A.'s downtown Union Station -- will connect the Eastside Extension with greater Los Angeles County. Atlantic Station, for example, is the location of a mini-bus hub for East Los Angeles and is served by six lines. Other stations, such as Indiana Station, are served by local buses as well as municipal carriers including Montebello Transit.

     Ground- breaking for the line, which was constructed by Eastside LRT Construc- tors, was in July 2004. The project has posted an exemplary safety record -- more than 4 million construc- tion hours without a lost-time work injury -- making it perhaps the safest major public works project in U.S. history.

            Ridership on the extension is expected to grow steadily, reaching 13,000 average weekday boarding passengers by the end of the first year of operation.

            Free rides on the entire Metro Gold Line from Pasadena to East Los Angeles will be offered on opening day Sunday, Nov. 15. Community celebrations also are planned around some of the stations. Details will be announced shortly. Local, state and federal officials will take an inaugural ride following an official ceremony the day before on Saturday, Nov. 14.

Looking Back

by Joe Walker 

100 years ago this month-November, 1909.

            The stately old house at 5213 Monte Vista St, Highland Park, still stands, and 100 years ago this month, it was the home of Mrs. F.H. Dunlap, the daughter of Edward Hickham, 79 years of ago. Born in 1830 in Delaware, he traveled via the Panama Canal to San Francisco during the Gold Rush Rush. From there he set up a business in Stockton, and eventually moved to Highland Park to live with his daughter. He died in the house on Monte Vista of "apoplexy", an outdated medical term generally thought to mean what we now call a stroke. A funeral was held at the home, and his body was shipped back to Stockton to be buried next to his wife, who had died in 1901.

            Just a few blocks away, and around the corner, at 215 N. Ave 56 is another stately Highland Park home. This was the home of Dr. J.D. Moody, a famous dentist who had once been the private secretary to President James Garfield when the futire president was serving as a battle field general in the Civil War. An interesting bit of trivia is that Garfield's widow, Lucretia Garfield, moved to South Pasadena

            She relocated to South Pasadena, where she had a home built a home designed by the now famous architects Greene and Greene. She died there on March 14, 1918. The home is at 1001 Buena Vista St, South Pas.

70 years ago this month-

Eagle Rock-1939

            Typhoid Fever outbreaks were reported on November 9, 1939, in Highland Park. Brought about by poor sanitation and dirty water, antibiotics that became available in the mid-1940's effectively treated most American victims.

            Imagine the surprise a couple of weeks later when workers doing digging in a building in the 4500 block of York Blvd hit something that felt like a bone, and then looked like more bones. Scientists from Cal Tech quickly arrived and a huge woolly mammoth was discovered. His complete skeleton, estimated to be about 25,000 years old and similar to ones found in the La Brea Tar Pits, was taken to Cal Tech for study

65 years ago this month-November 1944

            Master Sergeant William R. Kopp, a Highland Park resident, was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm medal by the Government of France to B-26 Mauderer group bomber crews for their bravery in flying over France during the liberation of their country from the Nazi's. According to Wikipedia, "The croix de guerre may either be bestowed as a unit award or to individuals who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with enemy forces. The medal is also awarded to those who have been "mentioned in dispatches", meaning a heroic deed was performed meriting a citation from an individual's headquarters unit. The unit award of the croix de guerre was issued to military commands who performed heroic deeds in combat and were subsequently recognized by headquarters."

            "The Seventh Cross", with Spencer Tracy, and "The Impatient Years" with Jean Arthur were playing at the Highland Theater at 5604 N. Figueroa St.

            On Nov 6, 1944, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution memorializing the heroism of Capt John M. Crawford, an Eagle Rock High School graduate, who was killed in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. After graduating from ERHS, he received an agriculture degree from UC Davis and then entered the military.

            On Nov 14, 1944, word was received in Eagle Rock that 2n Lt Thomas Foley, of 4539 Eagle Rock Blvd, was awarded the air medal for his heroics overseas. This medal, awarded only to service members that do something brave during air battles, is the same award given former President George H.W. Bush for his wartime service.

            Later that month, in November, 1944, 1st Lt. Willard C. Erfkamp, of 2314 Fair Park, Eagle Rock, was piloting a P-51 Mustang fighter when he spotted one of the new German Jet Fighters, the ME-262. They tangled with it for awhile, eventually shooting it down and watching it crash into the German countryside.

On Nov 7, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented 4th term in office. Overall, the city of Los Angeles widely supported FDR over his challenger Thomas Dewey, but the neighboring towns of Glendale, South Pasadena, and Pasadena were all Republican strongholds and voted against returning Roosevelt to office.

50 years ago this month-

Eagle Rock

            Eagle Rock High School announced the appointment of Donald O. Skinner to replace Robert Reinhard as the boy's vice-principal.

            Mobile X-ray units to detect tuberculosis were set up in the parking lot of the Shopping Bag Market at 2222 Colorado Blvd and Kory's Market at 6215 York Blvd on Nov 1, 1959.

            On Nov 28, 1959, Kevin Snyder, 5, of 1237 Montecito Dr, Montecito Heights, was bit by a large orange cat. A neighborhood search was conducted to test the cat for rabies, hoping to avoid the painful treatment for the young Snyder boy.

40 years ago, Highland Park.

            Now the site of a new Longs Drugs and Starbucks, the lot at 4414 York Blvd used to be known as the Deep Rock Water Company. In November, 1969, the company took out a $250,000 loan to expand the facility. This area has long been known for its excellent underwater deposits, which is what Sparkletts has been pumping for many years.

Cosmic Conjunction 2009

October 4, 2009 - Eagle Rock resident and Griffith Observatory Director, Dr. E. C. Krupp with Congressman Adam Schiff and CD 4 Councilmember, Tom LaBonge, celebrate the debut of Cosmic Conjunction 2009, a special one-night-only concert at Griffith Observatory on Sunday, hosted by Friends Of The Observatory (FOTO). The inaugural event, developed to link astronomy and the arts, marked the first time in the Observatory's history that a full 67-piece symphony orchestra performed on the Observatory lawn. with live narration by actor Leonard Nimoy.

(Photo courtesy of FOTO/Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging)

Update on Permanent Medical Marijuana Ordinance

Dear Neighbors --

            We are writing to provide you with an update regarding medical marijuana in this City. There is considerable misinformation circulating on this topic. We hope to inform you and to encourage you to share your views in this matter with the City Council. We do not have a City Council hearing date, but will write again once the day and time are known. Our proposed medical marijuana ordinance is attached.

1. What is the law?

            Both state and federal law ban and criminalize the sale of marijuana. California voters created an exception for the seriously ill in our 1996 Compassionate Use Act. This Act and its implementing state legislation immunize "qualified patients" and their "primary caregivers" from criminal prosecution if their only conduct is the collective cultivation of medical marijuana for personal use to treat specific serious illnesses. The Compassionate Use Act ballot argument stated that the Act would not allow the sale of marijuana. The California Supreme Court has confirmed that this is our law. On Monday, the Obama administration also advised us that the federal government will honor California law.

2. What has happened in Los Angeles?

            California cities are authorized to write their own local regulations governing access to medical marijuana, consistent with state law. Los Angeles has yet to take this step. As Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Chalfant ruled this week, our temporary rules have expired. Even so, to date, they were not being enforced. In this vacuum, as many as 1,000 marijuana dispensaries have opened in Los Angeles for the commercial sale of marijuana. No one knows the sources for the vast citywide quantity of marijuana, but it is apparently not the result of cultivation by patients and caregivers. Unlike for every other product that we consume or ingest, there is no local, state, or federal agency that oversees the quality, content, and potential threat of chemical or foreign matter contamination. Moreover, the increased crime at and around the pot shops is taxing our police force and our neighborhoods.

3. What is the next step?

            Los Angeles needs to adopt regulations about where and how true medical marijuana collectives can operate. The City Attorney transmitted this office's draft ordinance to the City Council yesterday. The draft enables collective cultivation for compassionate use, but does not allow the outright sales that Los Angeles is currently experiencing. Once the City adopts a permanent ordinance, we can begin to close shops operating illegally and monitor legitimate collectives that lawfully provide medical marijuana to residents in need.

4. How can you help?

            Marijuana advocates who want to legalize retail sales turn out in force for the City Council hearings on this topic. While it is also common for the hearings to include a handful of chronically ill patients who rightfully deserve access to medicinal marijuana, most speakers appear to be profiteers, with little compassion for patients and much concern for their personal pocketbooks. These profiteers are well organized and are confident that they can ride roughshod over this City. Who is missing from these hearings? Missing are the pot shop customers, ranging in age from 14 to 30, who are not in medical need of marijuana but, rather, are recreational users. More importantly, you are missing. It is critical that you and your neighbors be heard. The downside risk is too great that this City will continue to be the lawless Wild West for unregulated marijuana shops and their attendant crime and social ills.

            Many thanks for reading. Please let the City Council know your views. Please write or email us back with your questions.

Jane Usher

Jane.Usher@lacity.org

Dog'Ami Drama

by Tom Topping

            In a local drama that easily rivaled any soap opera, the falling out between the Friends of the Hermon Dog Park (FHDP) and Artist Gerardo Hacer-Martinez was quite a show. October 2009 was filled with dented egos, heated emotions, ultimatums and betrayals all over the ending of the Dog'Ami public art project for Hermon Dog Park. It was triggered by the report in the Boulevard Sentinel last month, about the Friends of the Hermon Dog Park removing their $10,000 matching grant from the proposed Gerardo Hacer-Martinez's origami inspired dog art installation project.

            I first heard about the broiling drama when Wendi Riser of the FHDP sent an e-mail telling me that the artist had again contacted the Hermon Dog Park group after they had both agreed in writing to end their relationship on the project. Soon after, I got a message from a Ms. Ashley Lund asking that I appear before the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council board to explain the other side of the story published in the BS. (At that time I knew nothing about it- the story was only a press release sent by the FHDP)

            Soon after, I found out that there was a lot more to this story- and that folks were getting a little pissy about it.

            The situation is, a formerly local artist, Gerardo Hacer-Martinez, had designed some really nice origami inspired dog sculptures to become public art installations. They were the subject of an L.A. City grant application and were intended to be placed adjacent to the Hermon Dog Park. He had created scale models and displayed them publicly at the Hermon Pet Adoption & Environmental Fair on October 13, 2007.       

            The name itself, "Dog'Ami" came about through a contest to name the Community Beautification Grant that the Friends of the Hermon Dog Park applied for at that time. Ms. Christine Boyd won a t-shirt for making up the Dog'Ami name. (re: Boulevard Sentinel, November 2007)

            The FHDP completed the grant application and it was received by the Los Angeles Public Works department.

            The project was on track in February 2009, when it won the $10,000 grant, according to Project Manager Wendi Riser, a FHDP board member who worked on the grant from the start. However, after winning the grant, it was not over. It also had to get the sanction of the L.A.'s Cultural Affairs Commission. Hacer-Martinez and the FHDP worked together, and they earned that sanction in May of 2009, as well as a spot in the City's Permanent Art Collection. From there, the Recreation and Parks Commission was the next hurdle to overcome; who, after holding a community meeting at Ramona Hall in August 2009, voted to approve the project.

            Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, after the 2 years that went by, the costs of materials and of installation expenses went up. Funds would have to raised to complete this project. Luckily, Gerardo connected with Ashley Lund, who some say is his girlfriend and is described as a person who is going to get things done when she sets her mind to it. She went to work to raise the funds, and according to her, she was successful.

            She presented a new budget to FHDP on August 21. A very detailed spread sheet of the Dog'Ami budget numbers from that meeting was forwarded to me by Mrs. Riser. In it, every expense is listed, which added up to $77,000. Ms. Lund stressed that she had already raised the funds, as well. The expenses seem kinda high, but not unreasonable, and actually, as someone who is familiar with working with metal, they may have been entirely realistic.

            However, when the FHDP board considered the new budget, I think it's safe to say they were shocked. The small community group had accepted the notion of dealing with a $10,000 grant, the first and largest they had ever gotten, but the jump to $77,000 was too much of a leap for them.

            One FHDP board member, who would be responsible for much of the accounting and IRS reports feared she would be overwhelmed, as it had not been a simple task even to get this far. She did not think the FHDP should be responsible for such a large amount. Wendi Riser said the board also feared triggering additional city approval and oversight when the price of the installation exceeded $50,000. They questioned whether spending this much time, effort and hassle toward a public art installation was the best use of their time and effort as "Friends" of Hermon Dog Park, who were really only formed to support the dogs at the dog park.

            They also felt a little betrayed by the artist who diverged (albeit unintentionally) from the original plan that had the project costing $10,000.

            The FHDP board voted to put the project on hold on September 11, 2009.

            Mr. Hacer-Martinez responded in writing on September 16, 2009. It reads like an ultimatum. He began by dictating, among other things, his terms, and adding that if the FHDP does not agree to them, that the relationship between the FHDP and himself would be over. He further requested a letter of closing from the FHDP, if his terms were not met.

            The FHDP had already tried to compromise with Hacer-Martinez to no avail, so they sent their closing letter the next day, September 17.

            That should have been the end of it, but after the report was published in the October Boulevard Sentinel, Hacer-Martinez and Lund tried to re-open negotiations. After they were rebuffed they contacted other local artist-friends, getting them to e-mail the FHDP, apparently in an attempt to sway them to reconsider their decision.

            An e-mail from local artist and gallery owner Margaret Garcia was full of anger and accusations and lashed out at FHDP member Wendi Riser. She accused Wendi Riser of doing a "Bait and Switch" on prominent local Artist J. Michael Walker (on a previous grant for art), and had redirected city beautification funds for an art project into signage. Ms. Garcia said Wendi Riser's true objection was over the copyright of the project. She offered to explain it to anyone who called and I did.

            It turned out she did not explain anything, would not even listen to, let alone answer my questions and did not offer to show any evidence that confirmed her story. She said she had SEEN the evidence. However, in that conversation and subsequent e-mails she accused me of:

1. Dissing the Southwest Museum

2. Incredibly Naive behavior

3. Not doing my job

4. Not being a friend of the Arts

5. Being an easy MARK

6. Not being a Journalist - and more!

            Overall, she repeatedly referred me to talk directly to Hacer-Martinez, who ultimately wouldn't talk to me at all. (In stark contrast, Wendi Riser spent about an hour talking openly to me, did her best to answer all my questions and sent me copies of everything that I asked for.)

            Luckily, Hacer-Martinez's closing letter says a lot, and a visit to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website yielded a few clues as well.

            In the closing letter, Hacer-Martinez writes, "I did not agree to surrender into perpetuity my intellectual property rights to the TFHDP for the related designs and the merchandising stemming from their creation."

            In my conversation with Ms. Lund she said the falling out was over copyright as well, and claimed to have e-mails proving that, but neither she nor Hacer-Martinez would send them to me.

            However, even as the Hacer-Martinez letter says the Dog'Ami designs are his intellectual property, "[TM SER # 77828005]" it turns out that the trade mark is not registered at all. It is simply a file number for an application for trademark. (Although it may provide some protection) Oh, and it was filed the same day as his letter of closing, September 16, 2009. And it uses the name, "DOGAMI" that was created through a contest put on by the Friends of the Hermon Dog Park in 2007, a name he did not create.

            OK, those are the facts.

            Here's what I think really happened.

            I think Artist Gerardo Hacer-Martinez, after participating in winning the beautification grant, having his design adopted into the L.A. City Art Collection, receiving the unanimous support of two City Commissions, and having two positive articles in the Boulevard Sentinel, was really pumped up and feeling unconquerable.

            The new girlfriend, supposedly with connections to the entertainment industry and the haughty Westside arts community, added to that pump, and also gave him a little coaching on his intellectual property rights. They then looked at the project and realized the he had underestimated the work and $10,000 really would not cover it. They re-estimated the work, perhaps padding a little here and there just to be safe to the tune of $77,000.

            The FHDP was repelled at the jump in price, even though they would not have to raise the funds themselves.  They felt they were being taken advantage of, and were being forced to do a lot more work than they bargained for.

            When Hacer-Martinez-Lund saw the FHDP backing away from Dog'Ami, they made a futile dash to get some kind of leverage. They filed their application for trademark with the Trademark and Patent Office the same day as their closing letter was sent.

            FHDP had had enough and was satisfied ending the relationship. I do believe they felt they should have had the right to sell t-shirts and bags with the image of Dog'Ami to help support the dog park, because they had done so much work to make it a reality, but that was not the deciding factor.

            I think it was really resentment about a new face, Ms. Ashley Lund, entering the fray. She was a turn-off for the FHDP board. I think they felt she was trying to dictate to them, what was going to be what. The local folks making up the FHDP board would not stand for that. It wouldn't be the first time a young person learned the hard way about how NOT to work with an all-volunteer group.

            When this issue hits the streets, Hacer-Martinez-Lund will probably have found a new installation location and a new non-profit group in another part of the city to be the fiduciary agent for the Dog'Ami funds that Ashley Lund raised.

            A new artist will have been chosen for the Hermon Dog Park beautification grant funds and the approval process will start all over again. At the Hermon Dog Park, things are going along as usual. The monthly "Yappy Hours" will continue, along with the quarterly mobile pet immunizations, annual pet adoption events and partnering with the FAST group that traps-neuters-releases feral cats.

            Because in Hermon, it’s all about the dogs.

Highland Park Heritage Trust Meeting

Preserve Historic Windows

            The Highland Park Heritage Trust is sponsoring a talk by Ed Sanchez of Window Restoration and Repair. This event is a must for anyone considering the replacement of windows, especially on older homes with original wood or steel windows. Mr. Sanchez will talk about how to successfully preserve and repair wood and steel windows. The approach is proven to help retain the value of a house, maintain its architectural features, and save money.

            The Monday, November 9, 2009 program will start at 7:00 p.m. at Ramona Hall, 4850 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

            Ed Sanchez originally began working in the window replacement business in 1983, and opened his own window replacement company in 1986. He lost faith in replacement windows because they didn't last as long as the originals and he decided to follow his inclination toward historic preservation. Ed and his long time friend, Scott Goldfarb, started the new company Window Restoration and Repair in 2000. 

            The unusual offering of this company has led to articles in many local papers such as the Glendale News Press, Pasadena Star News, Larchmont Chronicle, and Press Telegram and recommendations in the Daily Variety and Cottages and Bungalows.  Many of the articles can be read in their entirety in the press section of the company website: www.window-restoration-repair.com Window Restoration and Repair has done restoration work for the Bembridge House, the Hotel Laguna, the historic building that houses the Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena on Fair Oaks and Colorado, the original country club for the Country Club Park district in Los Angeles and many other designated historic buildings.

"Make Art Not Trash" Project Vandalized

from Pauline Mauro

            Ute from Eagle Rock Montessori reported that this morning sometime between 9:30 am probably noon, in broad daylight, the panel facing the street from her trash can got STOLEN! This panel was designed and created by Marikit de Lara.

            I talked to Mike Perkins, our contractor who said that of all the panels he's installed (multiple times in Silverlake, etc) there has only been one case where someone tried to pull it off. In that case, the person tried to pry it off, but he/she was not able to pull it off completely, the contractor had to come back and pry off the remaining piece, which shattered when it came out.

            Mike the contractor is coming by to grout all panels around the cans Thursday. He was unaware they were not grouted- his employee told him they were completed and he had even paid his employee. He says he used Customs Versabond with polymer glue to install the panel, the best tile adhesive.

            This is very unfortunate, as the majority of the tiles used were limited in production. I've asked Ute to let us know if they have the capacity to make another panel and if so, how much materials would cost and find a way to finance this. Of all the vandalism imaginable, this was honestly unexpected, particularly because historically, if anyone every tried to remove a panel, which happened once--- it got damaged, in our contractor's experience.

Center for the Arts Exhibition

Practicing Moving: Projects About Practice and Movement

            Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock is pleased to present the exhibition Practicing Moving: Projects About Practice and Movement curated by Fritz Haeg opening November 14, 2009. Practicing Moving pays special attention to the activity and idea of practice. In particular it focuses on physical movements, routines, and exercises like yoga, stretching and dance warm-ups. These movements do not lead to a conclusive goal or identifiable end point, rather they move towards something, striving for an ideal condition that is never achieved. They are ephemeral actions that are meant to be enacted daily, or on a regular basis. These activities are only intended to have an effect on the person doing them, not on those watching.

            However, Practicing Moving places these movements on a hidden stage, in a public space, presenting them both as a public ritual and a private performance. Curator Fritz Haeg will engage in these movements in the space every day during the run of the show, and extend an open invitation for others to join him, so that they might teach or lead each other in practice.

            Practicing Moving will combine workshops with movement archives as well as a dancing reading library. Haeg will start each day with the Warm-Up Outfit Workshop in which he will alter selected garments to serve as his official outfit for that day of practice. At the end of each day that outfit will be permanently retired, and hung on the wall for display for the duration of the show. The Open Practice Hall will serve as the location for moving, stretching, warming up, and dancing. There will be an open call online and by email, inviting anyone to come join Haeg, to lead each other in various warm-ups, stretches, and practice routines.

            The side chamber will house the Movement Archive and Exhibition. A display of dance-related materials from local dance groups and past Sundown Schoolhouse dance activities will be on view. Also, in the side chamber will be a Dancing Reading Library. Some of the original bookshelves in this space will be revived to display books about dancing and moving. A lounge area will be set up inside of an adjacent geodesic dome tent where visitors will be welcome to Practicing Moving will document each day with a photograph of Haeg together with any visitors from that day in the most challenging or meaningful position or movement achieved. A video will be edited from a series of still images taken of the practice sessions for continuous screening in the adjacent room, providing evidence of the hidden activity in the adjacent room for those who do not participate in the practices.

            For further information, a schedule of events, and updates, contact Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock. For more information on Fritz Haeg please visit his website www.fritzhaeg.com.

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to provide innovative and multicultural arts programming to the communities of Northeast Los Angeles. The Center is located at 2225 Colorado Blvd. in Los Angeles, and is open Monday through Saturday. For more information on Center for the Arts, including our gallery hours, schedule, and arts classes for children and adults, visit: www.centerartseaglerock.org or call 323-226-1617.

Santa Cecilia Orchestra's 17th Season Opens November 22

With Two Symphonic Masterpieces: Respighi's Pines Of Rome and Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition (orchestrated by Ravel)

2009-10 Season Opening Concert, "Celebration: St. Cecilia Feast Day" Sunday November 22, 2009, 4 PM, Thorne Hall, Occidental College

            Santa Cecilia Orchestra, an orchestra with a special mission to serve the Latino community, will open their 17th Anniversary Season at Thorne Hall, a beautiful facility on the campus of Occidental College in Eagle Rock. Under the baton of the orchestra's music director and conductor, Sonia Marie De Léon de Vega, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra will perform on November 22, 2009.

            St. Cecilia's Feast Day falls each year on November 22. In earlier centuries, this occasion was widely celebrated with concerts dedicated to music's heavenly patroness. Since the orchestra takes its name from Santa Cecilia, the patron saint of music, it is with special pride that they uphold that tradition. The orchestra marks the occasion with a programmatic feast for the ears.

            Respighi's "Pines of Rome," a work in four movements with each movement visualizing a different scene from the city of Rome, Italy. "Pines of Rome" celebrates the beautiful trees of Respighi's home using unusual rhythmic patterns that feature brass and woodwind instruments.

            Pines of Rome forms one third of an informal trilogy of tone poems celebrating the Eternal City, along with Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals. All combine muscular images of modern Italy with ghosts of the grandeur of ancient Rome. Written at a time that Mussolini and fascism were ascendant, Respighi's world, in a sense, is the opposite of Mussolini's. While the Fascisti dreamed of a resurgent Rome, Respighi saw only phantoms; where Mussolini is possessed, Respighi is haunted. He left very specific descriptions of what he intended the music to evoke; one example: "Children are playing in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese. They dance a kind of ring-a-roses, mimicking marching soldiers and battles, shrieking cruelly like swallows at eventide, then they swarm away." Respighi's widow was not alone in detecting an anti-fascist fable in the music, a "travelogue of a soul caught in a parody of its own dreams."

            Marvel at Mussorgsky's vivid paintings in sound! Mussorgsky composed "Pictures" at the peak of his career, after finishing his masterpiece opera "Boris Godunov" and the first version of "St. John's Night on Bald Mountain," both inspired by Russian literary works, legends and history. "Pictures from an Exhibition" was motivated by a memorial exhibition of the architectural drawings, stage designs and watercolors of Mussorgsky's friend Viktor Hartmann, who had died the year before.

            "Pictures at an Exhibition" is a masterpiece that conveys a wealth of striking images. Orchestrated by Ravel, "Pictures" captivates the spirit of imagination embodied by the creative soul. From its famous opening Promenade to the roof-raising final Great Gate of Kiev, it's one of the all-time brilliant orchestral showpieces – a glittering jewel-box full of spicy tunes and unforgettable images.

            The concert will begin with Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto Grosso, Op. 3 No. 11 in d minor as arranged by Siloti for full orchestra.

            Sonia Marie De Léon de Vega, noted symphony and opera conductor has achieved distinction as a creative and consummate musician, as a woman in a groundbreaking career role, and as a leading influence in the growing Latino culture in the United States. Her musical talents have inspired a large following in Southern California through live orchestral presentations, as well as an international audience through televised performances in the United States, Latin America and Europe. She was the first woman in history to receive a Vatican invitation to conduct a symphony orchestra at a Papal Mass.

            De Leon de Vega is most closely associated with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra. She is celebrated in educational circles for creating the dynamic Discovering Music program that takes orchestra members into elementary schools in underserved Latino neighborhoods to introduce over 16,000 children a year to classical music and the instruments of the orchestra. The program also provides free violin lessons to over 150 children in these communities.

            The concert will take place at Occidental College's Thorne Hall, 1600 Campus Rd., Los Angeles on November 22, 2009 at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. There will be one performance only of this program. Tickets priced at $26, $20 and $7 (youth 17 and under) are available by calling the Santa Cecilia Orchestra office at (323) 259-3011 or logging on to scorchestra.org.

The Recovery Discovery Tour

17th annual self-guided auto tour of artists' homes and studios in Highland Park , Eagle Rock and Mount Washington

Sunday, November 22, 2009

9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Special Preview Party, Saturday, November 14, 7 to 9 pm Future Studio, 5558 North Figueroa Street , Highland Park. Samples of tour artists' work will be on display

            Now you see it, now you don't. Has the recovery come to your block? Need a plein-air painting to stand in for that view you used to have? Could that barrel you're wearing use a jaunty hand-painted scarf? Seriously, folks, artists have always known how to have a good time and bring out the best of an economic downturn.

            On Sunday, November 22, artists' homes and studios will open to share the wealth during "The Discovery Tour – An Economic Stimulus Plan," the Arroyo Arts Collective's 17th annual self-guided auto tour in Highland Park , Eagle Rock and Mount Washington . The Arroyo Arts Collective, a grassroots community arts organization in Northeast Los Angeles, invites the world to discover art in the heart of Northeast L.A. Seventeen years ago, 50 artists opened their studios; this year the roster tops 100, old favorites side by side with fresh finds. The event features painting, sculpture, ceramics, collage, computer graphics, photography, letterpress, printmaking, fiber arts and spray can art -- something for everyone (in a good way). This is an opportunity to engage with the artists and view their priceless creations firsthand! Franklin High School students will also show some of the work that has been supported by previous year Tour proceeds.

            Tour tickets can be purchased in advance ($10) online at www.ArroyoArtsCollective.org and at Galco's Old World Grocery, 5702 York Boulevard , Highland Park . Tickets the day of the tour ($15) will be available at the Charles Lummis Home located at 200 E. Avenue 43 in Highland Park beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tour ticket holders will receive a comprehensive map of artists' studios and homes; studios and homes will be open between 10 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. A preview party showcasing Tour artists and their work will be held in conjunction with NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night on Saturday, November 14 at Future Studio, 5558 North Figueroa Street , Highland Park.