Coffee Gallery on a Steep Hill

I was at the Coffee Gallery Backstage earlier this month to hear Will Ryan and the Cactus County Cowboys and write an article about them for Altadena Patch. (It was a really fun assignment.) I get to the Coffee Gallery pretty often.

The Coffee Gallery and Coffee Gallery Backstage are two separate but, shall we say, conjoined entities operating out of basically the same space. Both entities are institutions around here.

When John and I first moved to the San Gabriel Valley we rented a house in Altadena. We got married in the back yard there. We called the Coffee Gallery "Awake and Open" because of the sign hanging outside. It's always been part of our lives here.

Right now, both Coffee Gallery entities need to raise $20,000 by February 15th for their Conditional Use Pemit (CUP) and parking variance in order to keep their entertainment license.

They're having a fundraising concert on February 8th. Tickets are $18 and the artists, bless them, are donating 100% of the proceeds to the Coffee Gallery. Timothy Rutt wrote a good article about it on Altadenablog. If you can't make it to the show you can still make a donation.

$20,000. My god, that's steep. I think the Coffee Gallery will do it, but jeez louise, how's a small business supposed to survive in LA County with fees like that?

Bawdy Litfest

dining room at Castle Green (on a not-so-bawdy day)

More for your calendar!

Thursday evening, October 20th, head out to the Castle Green and support Litfest Pasadena. The evening is called Singing the Bawdy Electric (in reference to Walt Whitman's poem). As Timothy Rutt said on Altadenablog, "every bawdy is invited."

There will be readings by Jonathan Gold, Larry Wilson, Ron Koertge and others. Plus music, food and bawdy surprises to light up even the darkest corners of Castle Green. It's $75 per person or $100 for two (so bring a friend!). Email juliaharm@gmail.com or leave a message on the Litfest Pasadena Facebook page.

Funds raised on October 20th will go towards creating a literary fringe festival that aims to be to the LA Times Book Festival what the Doo Dah Parade is to the Tournament of Roses--more light-hearted, less corporate, a little sillier--according to writer/historian Michele Zack, one of the planners. That fringe-y event is scheduled to take place in Pasadena's Central Park March 17, 2012. But as light-hearted as it may sound it's got literary clout behind it including Michelle Huneven, Jervey Tervalon, Lian Dolan, the director of Pasadena Public Library Jan Sanders and too many more to list here.

By the way, the 20th is also the day of the Great California Shakeout. If you want to know if and how that relates to the Bawdy Electric, you'll have to come to Castle Green Thursday night.

Update: Today, 4pm at Webster's in Altadena: Poetry and Wine!

Props for Peeps

Local folk have heard Steve Scauzillo's name. He's the opinions editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers. Now his name is being heard nationally because yesterday he accepted the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing.

According to Editor and Publisher, The Wilderness Society presents the award every year "to an editorial writer who has produced editorials that strongly advocate protection of America's remaining wildlands." We'll pardon their redundancy; the award went to Steve after all.

Steve is a local treasure, a CDP blogger at Temple City Daily Photo, a teacher, an outstanding journalist and a friend. Congratulations, Steve.

Another local treasure is Denis Callet. You might have seen Gary Altadena's piece about Denis on Altadenablog. Denis comes to mind whenever I try to photograph a bird. His superb photos of birds at Hahamongna make me think I'll just stick with clouds and the occasional telephone pole.

Thanks, both of you. You are fab guys and I'm a fan of your works.

Friend of Hahamongna

Thanks to the inimitable Altadenablog for alerting me to this:
There will be a meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee this evening at 6:00pm at La Casita del Arroyo, 177 S. Arroyo Blvd. in Pasadena. Much has been said, plans have been made and I'm confused about what's going to be done with Hahamongna.

I wish it were nothing. Hahamongna is accessible wilderness in the middle of civilization, a ragged wedge of land where humans can breathe the scent of sage, watch a heron fly, even make eye contact with a coyote. There's nothing like it in Chicago or San Francisco or even Paris. It's one of the gems that makes Pasadena unique. It is often my muse.

But change may be coming to Hahamongna as inevitably as the Station Fire came charging through the San Gabriel Mountains. There was no stopping it once the arsonist had done his work.

I'll be at the meeting. Maybe I can help make sure the changes are for the good. So much of Pasadena's natural surroundings have already been destroyed; I'd like to see this small, ragged wedge preserved.