March Your Calendar

March in Pasadena is overloaded. I don't know why this is true but it's the same every year. Just like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you can't possibly get to all the parties and events you want to attend. Your digital calendar has run out of room; you have to remove spaces between words to get it all in. If you still use an analog datebook (I do), you've resorted to putting things on post-its so you can move them around and try to fit them all in.

Three things you must attend, no matter what:

Art Night, Friday, March 9th, 6-10pm. Twice a year, Pasadena's finest art venues open their doors for free. It's a tradition both erudite and wacky. You can go after Real Irish.

LitFest Pasadena, Saturday, March 17th, 9:30am to 5:00pm. Speaking of erudite and wacky, here comes a new tradition! The first annual Litfest Pasadena will take place in Central Park (pictured here) under the batting eyelashes of Castle Green. Authors, publishers, booksellers--everyone who reads will be there. Food and a kids' area, too. (They still need volunteers, find out more here.)

And don't miss Primavera IV! Saturday, March 24th, 11-5pm. Primavera is the Altadena bloggers' gift to all San Gabriel Valley bloggers and blog fans. Everyone's invited! We bring a dish to share, we enjoy Altadena's Farnsworth Park and we bask in each others' actual, as opposed to virtual, company. It's the one event when you can talk to all the local bloggers without bothering with word verification!

Art Weekend

Pasadena's bursting with art. There's always an exhibit, a concert, a play or a spontaneous expression. Twice a year, in October and April, we have Pasadena Art Weekend, an event that's dear to my heart. This weekend the slogan is "6 events, 1 weekend, all free."

Art Night kicks things off tonight, when local art museums and other venues open their doors to the public, gratis. Free shuttles will take you from site to site. Plan ahead to see as much as you can.

There's quite a list of four events happening Saturday, including the Latino Heritage Parade and jamaica (ArtHeritage) culminating at La Pintoresca Park, Art of Food on South Lake, ArtWalk in the Playhouse District and ArtRhythm at the Paseo Colorado. I don't see how it's possible to catch all of Saturday's events, but it's worth a try.

Sunday is the Cultural Dance Festival at Memorial Park. It lasts all afternoon but at least it's all in one place so it should be easy to see it all.

All of this is free. Pasadena's just bustin' with art and you should go get you some.

Art Night, Art Future

We Pasadenish are a gentle people. We're polite, well-mannered and friendly. We smile and say thank you. We're willing to give way.

Except, apparently, when it comes to public art. We loves us some art and we're passionate enough to fight about it.

You may recall our January discussion regarding the installation of art on the plaza in front of the Pasadena Civic Center. Here at Pasadena Daily Photo comments remained relatively civilized compared to how things heated up in brick-and-mortar real live town.

I've since sworn off local politics on the blog. By its very nature, a daily blog gives me insufficient time to research complicated issues. However, if you want to get involved in Pasadena's art future, specifically at the Civic Center a.k.a. Convention Center, you may want to free up the evening of March 18th to attend a public meeting and voice your opinions.

You might be just the one who can help turn war-like Pasadenamaniacs back into the gentle, peace-loving Pasadenamanians we were all meant to be.

(The photo was taken at the outstanding Pasadena Museum of California Art on Art Night, 3/13/09. Extra Art Night shots on Overdog.)

Art Night

Art Night Pasadena is held twice a year. It's always great and it's always free, and that includes transportation between the venues.

Last night, 14 venues participated. My friend Linda and I started at the Armory Center for the Arts, where this man couldn't seem to tear himself away from Ornithology 3 by David Dedlow. To the left is ReloJ, an etching by Edward Ruscha. Both works are part of the Armory Center's Off the Wall Biennial Art Auction.

It's damn near impossible to see everything, but Linda and I gave it our best shot. The night was brisk and beautiful and it was fun to be out. Instead of using the free transportation we used our personal, built-in free transportation between several of the venues.

Sore feet, ibuprofen and early to bed. But worth it. Art Night is one of those things that makes me a braggart about Pasadena.

Extra Art Night shots on Overdog.

Apéritif

The Pasadena Symphony, conductor Jorge Mester and pianist Howard Shelley staged an "open, working rehearsal of music by Mozart" Friday night for Art Night.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium but it was okay to shoot in the lobby, where this video presentation showed the rehearsal going on inside. I was disappointed, but I contented myself to photograph a particular lamp above the stairwell twenty or thirty times when I discovered I could hear the orchestra especially well while standing beneath it.

If that was a rehearsal, surely a performance will transport me higher than the stairs.

Art's Big Night Out

Everybody was out last night for Art Night. Pasadena was lit up and showing off with free museum entry, art exhibits and performances all over town. At Paseo Colorado (above), folks turned out to hear Carl "Sonny" Leyland and his swinging trio at the Pasadena Jazz Institute.

Art Night is part of Pasadena Art Weekend, sponsored by the Arts & Culture Commission. Events continue today with Art Talk at the Boston Court Performing Arts Complex and Sunday with Art Market at One Colorado. It's a biannual event, so if you missed it you get another shot at it this fall.

(Goodness. There's a link for everything, isn't there? I'm exhausted.)

As Palm Axis predicted in yesterday's comments, I had trouble getting folks to let me take pictures of the art itself. But I got a couple of good (legal) ones. I'm loading new software today and hope to have those up soon.