Entertainment Tonight - and Tomorrow

Some goings on around town:

SMOKIN'!

The Great Recession doesn't seem to have the jazz club and/or fondue business. The Hip Kitty Jazz Club in the Claremont Packing House appears to be surviving, thriving even. Tonight they've got the group Speed of Sound from 9pm to 1am.

You can see who's coming up by checking Hip Kitty's calendar of events.


RAVELERS SPAM ALERT

The Ravelers spam keeps coming into our in-box. The latest tells us of the local classic rock band's next appearance:

Friday, April 30- Let's party on the patio!
Doubletree Hotel Claremont
555 W. Foothill Blvd
Claremont, CA 91711(909)445-1835

(Please call to make reservations if you would like to eat dinner, it helps them to set up the right number of tables on the patio)
The Ravelers play from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Meet with friends, food, and fun!
On Foothill Blvd between Indian Hill and Mountain Ave.

...afterwards, you can walk across the parking lot to PianoPiano for more fun.

If you are having a birthday, this is a great place to celebrate. If you are looking to wind down after a week of work, this is a great spot to wind down with some cocktails, dinner, and some fun music. If you are wondering where to meet some friends for fun at a nice outdoor setting...well, this is the place!

The weather looks to be perfect for a patio party on a Spring's eve!
See the attached photo to view the setting we have arranged for you and your friends.

If you are enjoying Facebook, please go here and "Become a Fan"! Just click on this link...

See you Friday!
Hai, Pat, Martie, Rob
The Ravelers

FOLKFEST 2010

The Claremont Folk Festival is back this Saturday after a one-year hiatus. This year's festival is a little smaller than the 2008 edition, which ran long after sunset and featured Ben Harper, Jackson Browne, and Taj Mahal. It's also cheaper this year - $15 general admission versus $50 in '08.

The festival runs from 10am to 6pm at Sycamore Elementary School, located at 225 W. 8th St., Claremont. There'll be lots of activities for kids, and children's admission is $5.

For ticket information, call the Claremont Folk Music Center: (909) 624-2928 or (909) 624-8803. You can also pop into the FMC at 220 Yale Ave. in the Claremont Village and pick up tickets there.



GYPSY SISTERS ART SALE

The Claremont Packing House will host the semi-annual Gypsy Sister Art Sale this Friday through Sunday. The event website tells us there will me a massage therapist and a psychic, as well as arts and crafts. Proceeds go the the Prison Library Project, which gets books to prisoners across the U.S.

Gypsy Sisters Art Sale
Friday: 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday: 10:00 AM -5:00 PM

CLAREMONT PIANO MUSIC

No, not the dueling pianos of Piano Piano. From our favorite South Asian correspondent Anand Gupta, come word of an appearance by the Claremont Trio at the Cal Tech campus on January 23, 2011. The piano trio's performance is part of the Coleman Chamber Concerts series, now in its 107th season.

Check back in for more news of this and other Claremonts.

On Tap Tonight: City Council

Yes, folks, it's time for another edition of the biweekly tragicomedy, The Claremont City Council. In tonight's episode: Behind Closed Doors - secret talk about our men in blue. More specifically, our costly men in blue.

As this is being written, the regular session has begun, and you can watch it all here.

Among the hot topics tonight are:

• New paratransit vehicles - four at a cost of $305,261.64 from the city's transit funds.
  
  
• Trash contracts - two, one for recyclable material processing and one for solid waste transfer.
  
  
• Funding for community-based organizations and for homeless programs.

The council is also considering a ban on smoking in outdoor public places in Claremont. We're not sure where this one came from.

Smoking used to have a friend in the film industry, but that's no longer the case. Bogart's Rick in Casablanca would have a hard time taking a drag in or out of his Café Américain nowadays. AMC's Mad Men gets away with a good deal of smoking, though it isn't necessarily romanticized, and Jim Jarmusch would have to retitle Cigarettes and Coffee. Come to think of it, if China Forbes comes to Claremont, she would need to think twice before launching into "Sympathique" (....Je veux seulement l'oublier/Et puis je fume.)

We haven't a clue as to how Wim Wenders would recast the Peter Falk's cigarette and coffee scene in Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1987). For those of you don't know the film, Falk explains some of the life's pleasures to the unseen angel Damiel, played by Bruno Ganz:



(If the film seems familiar, it was made into the really awful Nicholas Cage-Meg Ryan vehicle City of Angels in 1998.)

UPDATE, 8:20PM: The council just rejected the outdoor smoking ban, thanks in no small part to the Tessier brothers, Ed and Jerry, whose Arteco Partners refurbished and rebuilt the Packing House and the Padua Hills Theatre. The Tessiers reminded the council that restaurants like Casablanca with its hookahs and Nancy Tessier's Hip Kitty rely on customers who like to step outside for a smoke. Ed Tessier also mentioned the fact that wedding goers at the Padua Theatre often step out onto the patio for a cigar (not in fire season, we hope).

Councilmember Yao seemed a bit perturbed at the Community Services Commission, which approved of the ban and forwarded the issue to the council. Yao was bothered that none of the commissioners consulted with the council before referring the matter to the council. Yao and councilmember Corey Calaycay were also bothered by what they felt was an attempt to legislate behavior.

Mayor Linda Elderkin and Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza were torn between not wanting to appear anti-business and the risk of displeasing their left-leaning supporters, many of whom were in favor of the outdoor smoking ban. Pedroza seemed particularly uncomfortable, giving his long, tongue-tied Sammy explanation for his vote. Councilmember Larry Schroeder was the only one who seemed to be in favor of the proposed ordinance.

Communitarian and Fourth of July Committee member Ed Reece, by the way, spoke in favor of of the ban, saying he was a cancer survivor. Frankly, Reece being for anything is usually enough evidence for us to vote against it.

In and Out of Town

There's lots going on in and out of town this week:

HELP WANTED

The restaurant that's going in next to the Claremont 5 Theatre in the Village Square is hosting a job fair Monday and Wednesday. If you're looking for a job, you might want to check this out:

CASA MORENO JOB FAIR

In December 2009, the City of Claremont awarded Casa Moreno Grill a job creation grant for their proposed new business in the Village Square, across from the City’s Public Plaza. The purpose of the grant was to create six full-time equivalent jobs for low-moderate income persons living within the Claremont area. Casa Moreno’s construction is well underway and they are now looking for qualified applicants to be members of their team. To that end, they are hosting two job fairs in which they will be accepting applications for the positions of hosts, bartenders, busboys, dishwashers,prep cooks, head cook, and line cooks. These job fairs will be located in front of their new restaurant and held on the dates and times below. Casa Moreno’s goal is to be open in early June. For more information regarding the Casa Moreno restaurant job fair,please contact Susan Moreno at (626) 339-9496.

Casa Moreno Restaurant Job Fair:
101 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Suite C2-103
Claremont (adjacent to Hotel Casa 425)
Monday April 19th, 9:00am-12:00 noon
Wednesday April 21st, 9:00am-12:00 noon
(These are the only dates/times Casa Moreno will be accepting applications.)

PARK OPENING

Parents and kids involved with AYSO will want to go to the Padua Park grand opening next Saturday, April 24, beginning at 10am. The turf is in at the park, is the restroom building and the park lights. Looks like a lot of the landscaping and walking paths haven't gone in yet, so the park as it stands doesn't look to offer much in the way of public space for walking or picnicking.
Those other amenities may have to wait until the city's finances are in better shape.

So, for the time being, it's pretty much a one-function park as opposed to a park like the Village's Memorial Park that is more conducive to family outings. Anyway, the city was wanting people interested in attending to call ahead. Here's the flyer for the event (just click on the image to enlarge it):



ROTARY CLUB FUNDRAISER

April 24 is also the day the Claremont Rotary Club hosts its annual Taste of Claremont fundraiser at Taylor Hall from 5pm to 8pm. Tickets are $50, and you can order them from the event's website or you can get them at any of the following Claremont businesses:

Bejeweled
260 West Bonita Ave.

Carkle Sudie
216 West Second St.

Euro Café
Mills & Baseline in the Von’s Center

Prudential Wheeler Steffen Real Estate
500 West Foothill Blvd.

Wolfe’s Market
160 West Foothill Blvd.

Xerxes
319 Yale Ave.

11th Annual Taste of Claremont

Date: April 24, 2010
Time: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Location: Taylor Hall

1775 Indian Hill Boulevard
Claremont, CA 91711

LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

The Times may have done away with its Sunday stand-alone book section, but that hasn't stopped them from hosting their annual Festival of Books at UCLA next Saturday and Sunday.

There's a little branded something for all ages, from the Target Children's Stage to

The festival runs from 10am to 6pm Saturday April 24, and from 10am to 5pm Sunday April 25. General admission is free and parking is $10. Check out the Times website for details (as of 4:30pm today the site was down - never a good sign for a bankrupt media company).


UPCOMING ATH SPEAKERS

As always, Claremont McKenna College's Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum has an interesting slate of speakers lined up for the remainder of their spring speakers series.

M.M.C. Athenaeum
385 E. 8th St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
(909) 621-8244
Fax: (909) 621-8579
athenaeum@claremontmckenna.edu

April 19	Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent and analyst, The Jerusalem Post; "Red States, Blue States and the Jewish State: Jerusalem-D.C. Relations from an Israeli Insider’s Perspective" (12:00 p.m.)
Monday, April 19	Musicians and Dancers from the Department of Dance, Minzu University of China; "Music, Song, and Dance of the Mongols and other Ethnic Nationalities of China"
Tuesday, April 20	George Roberts '66 P'93, founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR); "Lunch with a Leader" (12:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, April 21	Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology and global studies, affiliate professor of religious studies; director, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, U.C. Santa Barbara; author, Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution (2002) and Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (2000); "Religious Rebellion in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Afghanistan" (12:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, April 21	Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology and global studies, affiliate professor of religious studies; director, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, U.C. Santa Barbara; author, Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution (2002) and Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (2000); "Beyond Religious Violence in South Asia: Conflict and Reconciliation"
Thursday, April 22	Wayne Ferson, Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson Chair of Banking and Finance, Marshall School of Business, USC; co-author, Testing Portfolio Efficiency with Conditioning Information (2009) and Asset Pricing Models with Conditional Alphas and Betas: The Effects of Data Snooping and Spurious Regression (2008); "The Problem of Alpha and Performance Measurement"
Friday, April 23	Michael Armacost, Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow for Political Affairs, Asia-Pacific Research Center; Stanford University; co-author, "New Beginnings" in the U.S.-ROK Alliance: Recommendations to the Obama Administration (2009) and Asian Policy Challenges for the Next President (2008); "President Obama's Foreign Policy: A Preliminary Reckoning After One Year" (1:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, April 27	David Schulman, Renee Lang professor of Humanistic Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co-author, Textures of Time: Writing History in South India, 1600-1800 (2003) and co-translator, God on the Hill: Temple Poems from Tirupati (2005); "Dark Hope: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine"
Monday, May 3	Ken Rogoff, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics, Harvard University; co-author, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (2009) and Foundations of International Microeconomics (1996); "McKenna Lecture on International Trade and Economics"

Without Comment

Helen Thomas, Dean of the White House Press Corps, quoted here,

Thomas is naturally skeptical of the new media and all the Facebooking and tweeting. “I think we’re all suffering from the real lack of true communication,” she said. “We can be ignored totally—almost. The White House feels they have other ways.” She also lamented the proliferation of bloggers, some of whom are formally accredited to the White House.

“There’s no accountability for a blogger,” she scoffed. “They can ruin lives, reputations, and once you send something into the air, it’s going to land, and there’s nothing that can curb them from saying anything they want. Everybody with a laptop thinks they’re a journalist, and everybody with a cellphone thinks they’re a photographer.”