Theme Day: Water's Edge

 sometimes the watershed is wet

Conveniently timed with City Daily Photo's theme day, Pasadena's Department of Water and Power**, in collaboration with the Pasadena Museum of History, is launching a free exhibit at the Central Library entitled, Celebrating Pasadena's Water Centennial.

We live at the "water's edge" in Pasadena and that edge is receding, so I'm grateful for this extended opportunity to learn about where we stand.

  sometimes the watershed is dry

City Daily Photo has a new website! I used to give you a count of our worldwide members, but when we lost our previous site we lost our main way of staying in contact. And apparently many of those blogs were not active. Right now, Julie from Sydney, Australia is working with Peter from Sunshine Coast Daily Photo (also in Oz, thanks for the corrections, folks) to put it all back together. As of today's count, they had re-recruited 211* active blogs.


*see Julie's comments
**see Ann's comment

PMH Super Twofer

Two new exhibits at the Pasadena Museum of History are well worth your visit.

You're going to love the enthralling Pacific Electric Railway, Then and Now, an exhibit of memorabilia and "then and now" photos based on the book by Steve Crise and Michael Patris. Crise took the exquisite "now" pictures with more than expertise: he added care and wit. Not satisfied to simply position his camera to correspond exactly with the "then" photos, Crise went to the trouble to take his photographs at the same time of day so shadows would correspond. He added witty touches as well, even waiting for the time on a clock to be the same in one photo as it was back then.

Oh and note the detail of the train crossing gate above. A delicious touch.

Tasty in a whole different way (like a banana split with a whiskey chaser) is What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been: 35 Years of the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade. Just across the hall from the trains you'll find photos, costumes, signs, and uh, stuff, collected from past Doo Dah Parades. I wish my photo of the crowns of past Doo Dah queens had worked! That is some fab headgear.

Doo Dah is our own mini-Burning Man, Pasadena's hand-made, knee-jerk reaction to the Tournament of Roses. There may be other events like it, but they probably haven't had a lot of museum coverage. Bravo to the PMH for proclaiming Doo Dah as part of Pasadena's history, which of course it is. My only concern is the exhibit may legitimize Doo Dah, and I would hate for that to happen.

We Are Young

Our birthday party yesterday was grand. Many of Pasadena's well-loved dignitaries were there for the synchronized cake-cutting. We had music, classic cars, booths starring local businesses, face painting--all the fun stuff.

But the star of the party was the cake. Uh, cakes. Seven cakes.

Everyone who was willing to stand in line got a piece. I'm too impatient, and I'll bet I'm not the only one.

We Are Old!

Big, big doings today for the Pasadenish because it's our 126th birthday.

We're having our party from 12-4 pm at the Pasadena Museum of History (free admission, free parking). There will be art, music, antique cars and more. In honor of this year's Olympics, the Synchronized Cake Cutting will be held at 3pm, officiated by Mayor Bill Bogaard.

Many organizations sponsor the event. A big co-sponsor is Pasadena Water and Power (a super important entity in this part of the world), and this year the cakes (also super important) come from Vons.

Everybody gets a free piece of cake. Everybody. You are Pasadenish. Come and get your cake.

Helen Lukens Gaut

They've got this great photography exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of History. I'm sorry to spring this on you at the last minute but it's closing, so you have to go today.

Helen Lukens Gaut was a self-taught photographer and journalist who lived in Pasadena and Highland Park in the early 20th Century. Her father, Theodore Parker Lukens, was mayor of Pasadena. Twice. The family's Victorian home still stands on N. El Molino.

Gaut loved Pasadena architecture and photographed a lot of it. She even designed a bungalow and apparently one, or some, of her designs were built in Bungalow Heaven.

I wish there had been a book based on the exhibit so I could take it around with me and compare the then to the now. That's probably too expensive an undertaking for our small and homey museum. The museum shop's book section is impressive, though--they carry books about Pasadena history I had once thought hard to find, including some about the native Tongva, architecture, etc. I bought a book by Ann Scheid called Downtown Pasadena's Early Architecture. That's right up my refurbished, Old Town alley.

I feel a kinship with Helen Lukens Gaut. She was born in Rock Falls, Illinois, not far from where I grew up in DeKalb. She loved to write and take photos (moi aussi), she loved to travel (that's me) and she was interested in architecture (me again). And she died the year I was born. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. It's certainly not reincarnation. I might just call it carrying on.

Photographic History

the Curtin House at Pasadena Museum of History

In conjunction with the exhibition Southern California’s Evolving Landscape: The Photography of Helen Lukens Gaut (1872-1955) at the Pasadena Museum of History through Feburary 26, the Museum is offering some pretty cool photography workshops next month. Three different teachers, three different workshops, three different perspectives.

Saturday, February 4: Working the Angles with James Staub,
Photo Services Specialist, California Institute of Technology
Staub will focus on what he calls "Moving the furniture around" -- framing the scene, dealing with lighting to your advantage, color balance and other methods to enliven a photo through simple changes to your camera and yourself.
Participants will meet at the Information Kiosk in the East entrance of Pasadena City Hall.

Saturday, February 18: The Basics of Composition with Ibarionex Perello,
Adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design and author of the bestselling book, Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light
Perello's workshop will teach students to improve their compositions. You will learn how to carefully consider what to include and exclude from the frame as well as how brightness, contrast, sharpness, patterns, and color saturation shape how we create and see photographs.
This workshop will take place in Curtin House at Pasadena Museum of History.

Saturday, February 25: Phoneshots with Eliot Crowley, Santa Barbara-based commercial photographer
The best camera is the one you have with you. As Eliot says, “It’s not the camera, it is the photographer.” In just a couple of hours you'll learn some of the capabilities of your phone camera. Be ready at a moment’s notice to make the image, set up the composition and lighting to flatter your subject just by pulling your phone out of your pocket.  Equipment needed:  Cellular phone with camera.
This workshop will take place on the Colorado Street Bridge. Participants should park on Grand Avenue and meet at the East entrance to the Bridge.


Museum Members, $25 per session; Non-Members, $30 per session; Museum Members, $60 for all three workshops; Non-Members, $75 for all three workshops.
Reservations are required. Call 626.577.1660, ext. 10.

I've never gone wrong at the PMH. They're cool people who care about offering quality programs.

Curtain Time at PMH

If you've got a hankering for something to do today, it's a Free Day from 1:00-4:00pm at the Pasadena Museum of History.

Free music, free ice cream and a free play reading of "History Lit" from Unbound Productions (starting at 2:00pm) all make this a good day to be on the Museum grounds.

They're probably not going to let you inside the Fenyes Mansion where I took this photo (yikes) three years ago. Soon, however, the refurbishment will be finished. The mansion was already glorious. Just imagine how much moreso it's going be.

Happy Birthday, Pasadena

I wasn't the only one photographing the birthday balloons. I couldn't resist.

Yesterday, on the grounds of the Pasadena Museum of History and the adjacent Avery Dennison Corporation, Pasadena held a 125th birthday party for itself. There were antique cars, wonderful bands, high-powered super-drummers, food stands, historic photographs, hat making, a children's area, representatives from the police and fire departments, more music and more food. Despite the June gloom, the crowd didn't seem the least bit morose.

Alas, I promised you cake, or at least a photo of it. Actually what I said in Thursday's comments was, "I hope to make it before anybody messes with that cake." The birthday cake, created by the student pastry chefs at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (about whom we brag at every opportunity) is a depiction of Pasadena's history. Or so I hear.

True to my word, I got there three hours before the cake was scheduled to be messed with, and unfortunately I had to be somewhere else at messing time. But I found the pastry chefs, which is the next best thing to cake.

Okay, not really. Coffee is probably the next best thing to cake. Or the other way around.

I think the chefs had been up since very early. They were applying last-minute sugar-roses and sugar-balloons to their precious cake, which was hidden inside a shadowy tent so I couldn't even sneak a peek, much less a photo. But the chefs were hyped on sugar and coffee amiable, and willing to show me some of what they were working on.

Last year, as well, I met and photographed the chefs. They were a friendly, happy bunch, just as these were.

I ran into Jeannette Bovard, the Museum's Media Consultant, soon after I took this picture. She put forth the theory that when you're always creating festive and delicious works of art, you're bound to be a cheerful person, and of course it's true. Caffeine and sugar come in handy, too.

Sweet History

Our fair city was incorporated in 1886. That means this year is Pasadena's 125th birthday. The big birthday bash is this Saturday, June 11th, at the Pasadena Museum of History.

Last year, for the 124th, we had a cake in the shape of City Hall made by the students at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. This year the students are in the process of topping themselves, creating an edible history of Pasadena in sugar and cake.

Saturday's free event at the museum goes from noon to 7pm and features "nonstop entertainment, activities, and refreshments." Certainly those refreshments will include some of that history-making cake.

Hat People

Last night I went to the Pasadena Museum of History to see the hats.

There was a reception for the Mad for Hats exhibit. Patt Morrison of KPCC was there; she spoke to the crowd and was brilliant as usual (off the cuff!). And everyone was wearing a hat. You don't see a crowd like that every day.

Can I be honest here? I have one hat. It's a straw bowler (boater). I don't know where I got it. (Actually, I have a stocking cap for winter, but I wasn't about to wear that to a fancy reception.) But I'm not a hat person. I didn't think I was interested in this exhibit. I went because my neighbor Linda invited me, and because I made her promise we didn't have to stay long.

But I had fun. I got into it. I love the Pasadena Museum of History, and the hats in the exhibit are gorgeous. It was like being in the most perfect hat store and wanting every other hat on display. The only trouble was I wasn't allowed to try them on.

I left there thinking of something Patt Morrison said: "It's time for hats to come back."

Damn. I might be a hat person after all.

Update April 25, 2011: Due to popular demand, the Mad for Hats exhibit will remain on view through Sunday, September 25, 2011.

Que?

It's been a couple of years since I took this photo of the Curtin House on the grounds of the Pasadena Museum of History. The Curtin House was designed in 1915 by Sylvanus Marston, one of those early architects Pasadena is grateful for.

Today's a good day to post this because I want to wet your whistle for June 11th. The Pasadena Museum of History will be hosting Pasadena's birthday party, like it did last year and like it has many other years except not exactly, because this year is Pasadena's Quasquicentennial. If you want to be precise, Pasadena was incorporated on June 10th, 1886. But we don't need to be precise. We need to have our party on the weekend.

So mark your calendar. There will be cake.

The Icing on the Cake

left to right: Berlin Mercado, Jeanne Nelson, Crystal Mazzarella, Tracy Latimer

Pasadena's having a birthday party (it's 124th) this Saturday, June 12th at the Pasadena Museum of History. Yesterday I had a chance to see the birthday cake in progress at the Pasadena west campus of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

Under the guidance of Chef Instructor (and the cake's designer) Alicia Boada, fourteen student pastry chefs are making a three-foot tall, six-tiered replica of the top of City Hall, complete with tiny tiles on a sugar dome, a sugar cupola and gorgeous sugar flowers. More photos on Overdog.

In a separate kitchen, these pastry chefs-in-training were working on the layers. Some layers will make up the base of the cake and some will be eaten at the (free, open to the public) birthday party on Saturday.

I took a series of shots of the student pastry chefs at work and they gave me a taste of the cake and frosting. There are two kinds of each. I should have written them down because they have fancy names and I've forgotten them but they are de-damn-licious and you have to go to the party Saturday and eat some.

I hadn't planned to use this photo. I asked the chefs to pose for a reference for the other shots, and I wrote down their names in the order in which they stood. But just look at them. I had just had a piece of cake with frosting. They had just seen and heard my ecstatic reaction. They'd been working hard for nearly two weeks. Can you see the pride on their faces?

Update 6/13/10: You can see more photos and the finished cake at Pasadena PIO.

Lost Garden: In Memory

In comments on my first post about Earthside Nature Center, Karin the Altadena Hiker said some put their heart and soul in to the place. It's true. If you keep your eyes open you can see the evidence in small monuments on the property. This one says, "In memory of 'Pop Pop,' Shirley W. Owen, Pasadena, 1895-1983." At least I think it says 1983, it's kind of hard to tell.


The small plaque on this stone says "in memory of Marilyn Close Davis, 1989."


The kiosk (scroll down here for a look at it) is still in decent shape. A plaque lists names, presumably of donors. Marilyn Close Davis, 1989, appears here as well. There's also a Hazel M. Close, 1988. And look, Elna S. Bakker, the founder, 1995. And Virginia M. Connelly, 1995. I wonder if she was (is?) related to Kevin Connelly, the native plant advocate (see yesterday's post) who helped run Earthside. And lo and behold, there's Grace Gertmenian, 1985. I recognize her name. The Gertmenian family is one of the featured families in the fantastic Pasadena Museum of History Family Stories Exhibit that's running until January of 2010.

I'm a little amazed to find this connection. I shouldn't be. The Gertmenian family began arriving in Pasadena from Armenia in the 1920s. They're familiar to me because I'm curious about Pasadena history and they're part of the fabric of that history. The more I learn the more connected it all becomes for me.

I like my history like that--not that I don't like reading it in a book, but living with it is so much more rewarding. This is why preservation is so powerful. A book is history removed. Living with history is letting it touch you and affect you. Seeing Grace's name on the plaque is like finding a message she wrote in the past and left for me to read in the future.

Time Well Spent

I mentioned yesterday I had a photo from the Pasadena Historical Society. To be more clear about it, the Pasadena Historical Society operates as the Pasadena Museum of History, which houses its archives/treasure trove in the museum basement.

It's darn near impossible to finish a project at the PMH archives in a single day because there's more information than you thought possible. But that's okay, because you'll want to spend a lot of time there. And Laura Verlaque and her impressive team of volunteers run the place like a friendly study room. It's a nice place to do your research.

Plus the volunteers know stuff. They keep it in their heads. Plus, there will be someone else, I guarantee you, who knows about the thing you're researching. Or you'll know something about the thing they're looking up. And sooner or later...

I remember that! My grandfather owned the bakery on the corner. We used to go after school and wait until my mother came to pick us up after work.

I remember that bakery, that's where all the rich people shopped.

We never saw the rich people, only their servants. Isn't that funny? The servants did the grocery shopping, too. The grocer was--what was his name?

Someone else will know and the conversation goes on from there. You leave with your head spinning. You wouldn't leave at all, but they have to close and you have to eat and sleep. You'd stay and dig in the archives and listen to more stories if only you had all the time in the world.

Free Time

Are you free this afternoon? Well how about that? So is the Pasadena Museum of History.

Pasadena family histories are highlighted at the PMH right now, and on Wednesdays until January 10, 2010 you can get in free if you live, work or go to school in our community. They're calling it Community Wednesdays. Click the link for times and requirements. You have to prove you live here, and the link tells you how.

I took this photo upstairs in the Fenyes Mansion, which is part of the museum. (Mansion tours may be separate; check the website for times. A $4 donation is suggested.) It's the bathroom. Just the bathroom.

As Pasadena's Public Information Officer says, "Don't cry to me that there's nothing to do in Pasadena this summer." (Check this post for a list of free activities for kids and teens.)

Why I Usually Take the Stairs

I really enjoyed this post on the Old Pasadena Blog about some of the creative ways the Pasadena Museum of History shares its photo archives around town. (Love the PMH!)

The post mentions the Delacey Street Garage, and that's where I took this shot. (Love the Delacey Street Garage!)

I mean I like that you can park free for 90 minutes in Old Town. We ought to have something like that in other parts of town. It would be a boon for businesses. The city recently put in some odd sort of parking meter-type thingies on Lake Avenue south of Colorado Blvd. I stood in front of one of them with another woman one day trying to understand it and we both finally gave up. I could probably figure it out, but who has that kind of time to spend learning how to use a parking meter?

I'm probably old-fashioned, but mostly I'm just really impatient.

Flat-Cat

This kitty lives at the Curtin House on the grounds of the Pasadena Museum of History. She's very friendly. Don't worry about her ear. It's there, it's just a little flat. I've had this photo for a while. Been wanting to use it and finally decided to put it up this morning.

My timing's good. I checked the Museum's website and tomorrow (Thursday) is Family Free Day from 4-7PM. Click on the link to see what they've got planned. Then if it looks like fun give them a call at (626) 577-1660, ext. 10, because reservations are recommended.

I can't promise kitty close-ups, but there'll be plenty of other photo ops. That I can guarantee.

Intimate Opera

Okay, right off: no ghosts. Nor did I sneak a photo last night (because, as Letty from Ararat mentioned in yesterday's comments, I'm a piker). This is the salon at the Fenyes Mansion where, 100 years ago, Eva Scott Fenyes held entertainments, and where last night a more modern group of Pasadenans (Pasadenyites?) were entertained by the outstanding Repertory Opera Company.

I'm not a qualified opera critic, but I'm qualified to know when I've enjoyed myself, and I had a wonderful time at Music in the Mansion. I've seen/heard the LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is truly grand. But to hear Puccini's "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" sung in the intimacy of a room like the Fenyes salon is a rare experience. A powerful voice quickly fills a room like that, then it has to go somewhere. So it fills the listener, brimming up through the body and pushing out through the tear ducts.

And if the Puccini doesn't get you, Rossini's Cat Duet will.

They're going to have two more concerts: May 6th (take your mom for Mother's Day) and June 3rd (what the heck? take Dad).

At intermission, we ate chocolates and sipped champagne while mingling with the performers and other audience members in the dining room. The chandeliers glowed. The mansion was briefly ours.

Update: per Jeannette Bovard, Media Consultant at Pasadena Museum of History: "Information from the Collections Department at the Museum states that the owl was stuffed by Dr. Adalbert Fenyes. One of his many hobbies was ornithology."

Ghost Photos

I posted the other day about the Fenyes Mansion at the Pasadena Museum of History. I liked the idea of "Music in the Mansion," a series of opera concerts performed in the Victorian rooms of this 102-year-old Pasadena treasure. It's the type of entertainment the mansion's first owner, Eva Scott Fenyes, enjoyed. I find the idea haunting. In a good way.

Letty from Ararat Daily Photo (that's Ararat, Australia) entered a comment on that post: "Can you sneak in and take some secret photos? Go on - I dare ya!" From what I know about Letty she wasn't kidding. But I'm too chicken, plus my cat burglar outfit's at the dry cleaners'. But the Museum staff were nice enough to invite me to tonight's kick-off concert, so I'm gonna go hear me some opera singin' and I don't have to sneak!

If they let me take a photo (and if it's good enough) I'll post it tomorrow. And there will be photos of the mansion's interior in the future, that much I can promise. I'm told there are ghosts in the mansion. I don't believe in ghosts, but I'd love to capture one on film anyway.

Music in the Mansion

The Fenyes Mansion at the Pasadena Museum of History looks so bright in the sun it'll make you squint. I was nosing around on their website, and did you know they're going to have opera singers? In the mansion? That's so intimate. And so—I don't know—rich.

It's called Music in the Mansion: Timeless Treasures, and the first of three concerts is Tuesday, April 8th. (Go here and scroll down.) You still have time to call for reservations at 626-577-1660, ext. 10.

If opera's not your thing, there's other stuff to do at the PM of H: wander the gardens, browse the museum exhibits, tour the Fenyes Mansion.

My favorite thing about the mansion: almost all the furnishings are original, down to the lace curtains imported by the original owner more than 100 years ago. That's not only rich, it's rare. And so—I don't know—intimate.