Downtown Beer Fest

Downtown Claremont plays host to the California Beer Festival tomorrow, October 16, from 12:30 to 5:30pm. The event will take place in front of the Claremont Packing House on First St. between Oberlin and Cornell. Tickets are $40.

They're also offering a designated driver ticket for $25. That includes a free meal and free non-alcoholic beverage. Yellow Cab will also offer discounted cab rides -call (909) 622-1313 for information.

The event's website says there will be three live bands and food from various local restaurants, including a preview from Eureka!Burger, which is supposed to open in the Packing House sometime this winter.

Saturday Mail

And then there was this reaction to those community development block grants for Hip Kitty Jazz & Fondue Lounge and the Packing House Wine Merchants that the city council agreed to award at their last meeting:

DATE: Wed, July 28, 2010 11:16:07 AM
SUBJECT: cdbg funds for hip f***ing kitty
TO: Claremont Buzz

HUD's CDBG website says this:

"...each activity must meet one of the following national objectives for the program: benefit low- and moderate-income persons, prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or address community development needs having a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community for which other funding is not available."

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/

What a bizarre way to use this money. Maybe the Packing House is a slum that presents an immediate threat to the health of the community.

The CDBG website also says:

Citizen Participation

A grantee must develop and follow a detailed plan that provides for and encourages citizen participation. This integral process emphasizes participation by persons of low or moderate income, particularly residents of predominantly low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, slum or blighted areas, and areas in which the grantee proposes to use CDBG funds. The plan must provide citizens with the following: reasonable and timely access to local meetings; an opportunity to review proposed activities and program performance; provide for timely written answers to written complaints and grievances; and identify how the needs of non-English speaking residents will be met in the case of public hearings where a significant number of non-English speaking residents can be reasonably expected to participate.

Of course, this being Claremont, there was no mention of future public meetings involving in this particular CDBG disbursement. There was just a decision by city staff, who recommend the council grant Jerry Tessier the two CDBG grants totaling $100,000. The money then disappears into construction expenses at the Packing House, which itself was just renovated by Tessier's company Arteco Partners.

The federally mandated "citizen participation" is equivalent in Claremont to the "citizen oversight" for our school district's bonds. That is to say, in practice it's non-existent.

Chop House Update

Here's an update to our post from Saturday:

Daily Bulletin reporter Wes Woods II covered the Forks Chop House closure in today's paper. The article said the restaurant was unable to reopen following a December 2008 kitchen fire because its insurance company apparently denied the restaurant's business interruption claim, which would have reimbursed the owners for the business they otherwise would have transacted.

The Forks' landlord, Jeved Management, apparently wasn't able to hold the restaurant's space during the lengthy period the owners were trying to settle their insurance claim. Woods' article said:

The restaurant didn't have enough money to reopen because its insurance company refused to pay business interruption fees, co-owner Mark Bollinger said.

Restaurant officials didn't provide information about how much money is owed to them.

"In the meantime, the landlord came to us and said `I can't wait for an insurance settlement,"' Bollinger said. "`I'll have to pull the plug and get someone else.' "

Jeved Management, incidentally, is owned by the Tessier family, which also owns Arteco Partners, the developer that restored the Fox Theatre in Pomona, as well as the Padua Hills Theatre, and the Claremont Packing House where Forks was located. Jeved filed a lawsuit against Forks in Pomona Superior Court last year, possibly in connection with a lease dispute. It appeared to have resolved fairly quickly, according to the court's information:

Case Number: KC056128
JEVED MANAGEMENT INC. VS MICHAEL A. BOLLINGER

Filing Date: 06/25/2009
Case Type: ED/Commercial (not Drugs/Evict) (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Dismissed - Other 09/14/2009

-----------------------------------------
Future Hearings
None

-----------------------------------------
Parties

BOLLINGER MICHAEL A. - Defendant
JEVED MANAGEMENT INC. - Plaintiff
TESSIER VICTOR G. ESQ. - Attorney for Plaintiff
THREE FORKS STEAK HOUSE - Deft's DBA

-----------------------------------------
Documents Filed (Filing dates listed in descending order)

09/14/2009 Ord of Disml with prejudice
Filed by Attorney for Plaintiff

09/02/2009 OSC-Failure to File Proof of Serv
Filed by Clerk

06/26/2009 Notice-Case Management Conference
Filed by Clerk

06/25/2009 Complaint Filed


-----------------------------------------
Proceedings Held
None

Today's Bulletin article makes it sound as if Bollinger's claim now includes the entire value of the business, not just the income loss they suffered. Bollinger was also quoted as saying that the Forks' owners have retained an unnamed Claremont law firm to represent them.

We suspect that, if a bad faith suit with any merits is in the works, the law firm the Forks retained could be Shernoff Bidart Echeverria, which in 1979 was responsible for a landmark case called Egan v. Mutual of Omaha that allowed consumers to sue their insurance companies for wrongfully denied claims and to be compensated for emotional distress and punitive damages in addition to the value of the underlying claim. (Translation: mucho mas dinero.)

Shernoff's website explains that Egan created the whole practice area of bad faith litigation. If we were in the Forks' shoes, we'd sure want that firm representing us. SBE is not just the best in the business; they invented the business.

Put a Fork in Them (!)

Like a lot of folks in town, we've been wondering what happened to The Forks Chop House. The overpriced eatery located in Unit 7 of the Claremont Packing House has been closed since the December 17, 2008, fire that gutted the kitchen and a stairwell. Ever since, the restaurant's management has been promising that they would reopen, but the place just sat there.

We tried checking The Forks' website, but that is no longer working. That was our first clue as to an official demise. We didn't have to search very hard to discover what had happened. The Packing House website's business directory told us that Unit 7 has a new tenant coming in the Winter of 2010:



Eureka!Burger currently has just one location (in Redlands), and their website informs us that they're supposed to open another in Fresno some time this month. There's a menu posted online that, among other things, has exhausted the company's exclamation point allotment for the next decade. They serve craft brews and upscale Angus beef burgers, as well as sandwiches and salads. The burgers are all around eight or nine bucks and include fries.

We couldn't help thinking that this is just what our town of 35,000 people needs - yet another place to get a beer and a burger. Burger bars in Claremont have suddenly become the equivalent of hair salons. Lookout, Back Abbey and Burger Bar.

A one-minute walk from the Packing House to the Village Expansion will be all that separates the Eureka from Back Abbey. We're anxious to see how those two higher end establishments compare. Eureka!Burger's fare looks good, and, if you include a soft drink with your burger and fries, that's all probably about $10 cheaper than the same order at Back Abbey, though the twice-fried pommes frites at Back Abbey are probably going to be a couple orders of magnitude up from Eureka!Burger's. On the other hand, the burgers may be better at the new place.

By the way, we thought we had a real scoop with this stuff, but we just now checked City Manager Jeff Parker's latest weekly report and learned that Parker beat us by one day:

EUREKA BURGER The City has recruited a new restaurant (Eureka Burger) to fill the former Three Forks location on the west end of the Packing House. The new restaurant is described as an authentic one-of-a-kind burger bar experience, serving a wide selection of Angus beef burgers, gourmet tossed salads, signature hand cut fries, and a distinctive assortment of craft beers and wine. For more information, see their website at http://www.eurekaburger.com/.

Looks like Parker cheated the new Packing House tenants out of an exclamation point or two.

It's a shame The Forks didn't make it, but they might not have survived the Great Recession anyway. We don't know how well The Forks was doing before the fire. When it first opened, the joint seemed crowded for dinner. Their business was no doubt aided by a glowing review from S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times review of the place.

We came across a lawsuit filed in LA County Superior Court by one of The Fork's suppliers, Premier Meat Co, a subsidiary of the Wayne Distribution Center. The defendants were Bollicorp LLC dba Three Forks Chop House aka The Forks and Mark Bollinger, along with a DOE or two. The plaintiffs sought $25,953.29 - the unpaid amount the plaintiff claimed was owed on a Forks account with Premier Meat Co.

The suit was filed on 11/25/08, about three weeks before the fire, so it's possible that business was slowing even before the fire occurred. A default judgment in the matter was entered on 5/9/09, and the plaintiff filed a satisfaction of judgment on 11/23/09.

To indulge the prying eyes among us, we dispatched the Insider Copy Service to downtown LA and got the actual filing. Here's the complaint:

Smogdance 2010

If you're looking for something to do today, head on over to the Laemmle's Claremont 5 Theatre for this year's edition of the Smogdance Film Festival. Smogdance started yesterday and continues today and tomorrow.

The festival features short films from around the world, and there will also be question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers, as well as an awards party tomorrow at the Claremont Forum in the Packing House. Smogdance was started in 1998 by the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona and has changed venues this year, leaving the Pomona Fox and moving the City of Trees.

The change in venues was not without some controversy. The Daily Bulletin's David Allen tells us about a feud behind the move:

[Festival director Charlotte] Cousins quietly seized the festival's reins last year from the dA, a Pomona nonprofit, renewing Smogdance's Web site in her name and filing fictitious-name statements for the festival as if it were hers.

She told me there had been differences of opinion with dA officials on film selection and poster art, as well as personality conflicts with some dA directors.

She said she was being squeezed out of the organization - this after winning a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the festival, drawing attention from the New York Times and doubling attendance.

According to David Allen's column, the folks at dA say this was more of a hostile takeover.

_______________________


SMOGDANCE ’10--The 12th Annual Pomona Valley Film Festival
The Claremont 5 Laemmle Theatre
450 W 2nd Street, Claremont, 91711

Saturday, January 23 at 3:00 p.m and 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 24 at 1:00 p.m and 5:00 p.m.

Packing House Weekend Event

Although the Rotary's Taste of Claremont managed to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Claremont Folk Music Center's annual folk fest, they still left locals having to choose between supporting the Rotary's fundraiser and a concert at the Packing House.

Tremoloco, an LA-based band that played at the Folk Center in January, is appearing at the Packing House Saturday, April 18. The event is sponsored by the Claremont Forum, and the money raised will help support the Forum's good works.

Tickets for the event are available at the Forum's Thoreau Bookstore, located in the Claremont Packing House at 586 W. 1st St. Tickets are $10, and the doors open for the event at 7pm Saturday evening. The concert begins at 7:30. Call the Forum at (909) 626-3066 for more information.

We didn't make it to the January Tremoloco concert, but some friends of the Insider did get over there, and they say it was an excellent concert, blending some delta blues, Tex-Mex, and country music with a side of jazz thrown in. We hear the lead guitarist, Bob Robles, was fabulous.

Robles' bio, by the way, says he's the son of the 1950's singer/songwriter/actor Lalo Robles, who appeared in a number of movies, including Rio Bravo, East of Eden, and Pillow Talk - about as eclectic a triple bill as you could conjure up.

Rick Shea, a local San Berdo musician who started out playing in the 1970's around the same time as Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer (two other semi-famous San Bernardino natives), will be playing as well. Shea opened for Tremoloco at the Folk Music Center back in January, playing a mix of Merle Haggard/Bakersfield-style country, blues, and Norteno music.

That San Bernardino music scene, we hear, was pretty lively at one time, and Mary MacCaslin was probably the biggest of them all. MacCaslin did some nice covers of Beatles songs like "Blackbird" and "Things We Said Today." She also penned a number of memorable songs, including "The Bramble and the Rose":

See how the bramble and the rose interwine
Love grows like the bramble and the rose
'Round each other we will twine

If $60 for a Taste of Claremont ticket will break your budget, try to get over to see Rick Shea and Tremoloco. You won't see a better concert for the money.

Downtown Pomona Happenings

David Allen had a column in Wednesday's Daily Bulletin about the ongoing restoration at the Fox Theater. Allen took a tour of the restoration work and reported back, saying that the original Art Deco look is being lovingly resurrected, down to the carpets and chandeliers, the original color schemes, architectural flourishes, old murals, and even the exit signs. We love it that the old revolving neon sign at top the Fox's tower will actually turn again.

Allen likened the work to an archeological dig and gave some insight into the people behind the project:

Credit for the Fox's rescue goes to the band of brothers: developers Ed and Jerry Tessier and concert promoters Paul and Perry Tollett. They bought the Fox in 2007 and are spending more than $10 million to ready the theater for the 21st century, while keeping many 20th century details.

Preservationists watching the Fox's revival say they couldn't be happier. They're happy not only because of the theater's impending return but because of the amount of restoration.

At first, the Tessiers, who are handling the renovation, had planned to put off most of the historic touches for a later time, when they would be paid for by community fundraising events.

The Tessiers mostly concerned themselves with restoring the Fox to operation after three decades of disuse and misuse.

Instead, rather than doing 20 percent of the restoration as planned, the Tessiers ended up doing more like 80 percent, digging deeper to recreate the murals and most of the chandeliers ahead of schedule.

The Pomona Fox Theater is scheduled to have its first event, a fundraiser called Fox First Night, on April 18th. It's not cheap. Tickets for the event are $135 or $1,080 for a table of eight. You can get more info here on the Friends of the Pomona Fox Theater site.

The Fox Theater itself has a separate site with photo albums of the restoration work, along with historical photos of the theater. You can find the photos here.

The Tessiers, incidentally, have pretty strong Claremont connections. Their company Arteco Partners restored the Claremont Packing House and is in the process of doing the same for the Padua Hills Theatre. Ed Tessier is a Pomona alum, Jerry graduated from CMC, and Jerry's wife Nancy owns the Hip Kitty Jazz Club in the Packing House, one of the few new downtown businesses that seems to be doing well.

* * *

The blog for Claremont Colleges radio station, KSPC 88.7fm (who knew they had a blog?), has a post announcing a free hip-hop concert tonight in downtown Pomona's dA Center for the Arts. LA act Bambu is appearing, along with two from Pitzer: Pepe and Jerms.

The dA Center is located at 282 S. Main St. in Pomona. Doors open at 7pm, and the bands start at 9.

The KSPC blog says there's free transportation to the event for 5C students, but you have to reserve a seat in advance:

If you are a 5C student in need of transportation, The Sagecoach bus will leave from the intersection of 6th St. & College Way (between the Rains Center and Smith Campus Center) at 8:30 PM. Be prepared to leave when the show finishes, around 12 AM. To guarantee yourself a spot on The Sagecoach, please e-mail erica.tyron@pomona.edu ASAP.

Pomona Fox Theater News

The Pomona Fox Theater's 14-month-long restoration is approaching completion, the Daily Bulletin's Monica Rodriguez informed us earlier this month. Ed Tessier of Arteco Partners, the developer involved in the restoration, was interviewed for the article and explained what we can expect:

"We've created a multi-faceted venue," Tessier said.

Everyone from "two people to 2,200 people can find a good home for their special event," he said.

A ballroom, banquet facilities, a roof-top restaurant, a lounge, a place for a romantic dinner and other amenities are part of what visitors will find at the Fox.

The auditorium alone will accommodate groups of various sizes, Tessier said. As a banquet hall the auditorium will seat about 350; as a cinema 1,700; and as a concert venue 2,100.

The Bulletin has a photo gallery showing the restoration work in progress. You can also find out more information and can also donate to the Friends of the Fox Theater here.

Arteco Partners is also the company that restored the Claremont Packing House, and they are currently involved with the City of Claremont in the restoration of the Padua Hills Theatre.

CMA Alive and Well

We received word from a reliable source that the Claremont Museum of Art's website problems were just due to some technical problems that had nothing at all to do with the restaurant fire in the Packing House.

Even better, the museum's Permanent Collection, current exhibits, museum store, and offices are all okay, just a little smoked out. (Hey, who hasn't been?)

We've been more than a little lax on our coverage of CMA events lately, and we'll try to fix that.

_________________________________


CMA's free Family Art Day series continues on January 18th:

Sunday, January 18, 2009, 12 – 4 p.m.
(rescheduled from September, 2009)
Family Art Day: Kaleidoscopes

Free and open to the public.

Ever wonder how a kaleidoscope makes all those beautiful images when you look into it? Join us for Family Art Day and learn the secret as artist Mike Lardi teaches children and parents how to make their very own kaleidoscope. This is an activity you really don’t want to miss!

The CMA two ongoing exhibits, Multiverse and Passerby Museum have been extended to February 1, 2009, so you can still get over there to see them if you haven't had a chance. Here's some information from the CMA website:

Multiverse
Through February 1, 2009


Multiverse refers to the hypothesis that all of physical reality actually exists within a set of multiple, parallel universes, of which our universe is merely one part. The possibility of many universes raises a myriad of scientific, philosophical and theological questions that have been explored in various branches of theoretical
science, disciplines of thought and fiction. Multiverse will explore these issues artistically in a dynamic exhibition featuring photographic installations, mixed media sculptures, video projections, a light box installation, and sculpture from paper, among other media.

Artists continually create a visual vocabulary for themselves that parallels and portrays an idealized, imagined or fantasized reality. Nature and its mysteries provide endless departure points for fictitious imagery that is recognizable enough to have relevance, yet abstract enough to interrupt familiarity and probe deeper into our psyches. From chimera to corporeality, Multiverse delves into alternative outcomes for the universe we believe exists in singularity. “This exhibition represents the Museum’s interest in ideas that connect the arts and artists to
contemporary thinking and points-of-view,” said CMA Director William Moreno. “Exploring these provocative ideas creates an opportunity for interdisciplinary discourse.”

Participating artists include Sebastiaan Bremer (New York), Jedediah Caesar (Los Angeles), Emilie Halpern (Los Angeles), Violet Hopkins (Los Angeles), Emre Hüner (Istanbul, Turkey), Miler Lagos (Bogotá, Colombia), Nancy Macko (Claremont), Carter Mull (Los Angeles), Diana Thater (Los Angeles), Fred Tomaselli (New York),and Kerry Tribe (Los Angeles). Multiverse artists will engage in an email exchange with local scholars, discussing particular areas of science, psychology or the discipline of his/her choice, which will then be incorporated into the exhibition. Multiverse is curated by Pilar Tompkins.

Passerby Museum
Through February 1, 2009


The Passerby Museum makes its Southern California debut in Claremont! Created in 2002 by María Alós and Nicolás Dumit Estévez in New York City, the Passerby Museum is an itinerant institution dedicated to presenting temporary exhibitions in different cities. The museum draws its collection from donations from people who visit,work or live where it is in operation at any given time, including about 400 objects recently collected at two locations in Claremont.


The Passerby Museum has been presented in Madrid, Spain, Puebla, México, Kitchener, Canada, New York, New York and twice in México City, Mexico and Havana, Cuba. At each location, visitors were asked to donate any random object from their life to the Passerby Museum’s “collection.” The only requirement is that the object fit into a sandwich bag. Its collection – which currently holds about 3,000 objects – has been exhibited to the public in two occasions, last time in 2006, bringing more than 32,000 visitors to the Galería del Ayuntamiento (Puebla) in less than a month and a half. The installation will include each of the approximately 3,000 items collected at all of the locations so far, including the approximately 400 items collected in Claremont.

Claremont Museum of Art
536 W. 1st St.
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 621-3200

Claremont Packing House Fire-UPDATED

Told Fire Started in Forks Kitchen
Estimate a Quarter Million in Damage

See below for Wednesday evening update

An early morning fire damaged the Packing House early Wednesday morning. A brief story was posted on the Daily Bulletin website. No injuries were reported.

Our later information is that the fire started in the Forks Restaurant kitchen, and may have caused some $250,000 in damage. The restaurant will apparently be closed for at least a few weeks--the height of the holiday season.

No word on damage to the Claremont Art Museum [click on the preceding link for an entertaining error message that the Art Museum has evaporated from cyberspace. All we can say is, it was here this morning] or about water damage in the Packing House due to its sprinkler system. Since the Packing house is constructed primarily out of 100-year old wood, and the floor at least is impregnated with polyurethane resin, comparison to a tinder-box is not inapt.

We understand that once the fire-safety sprinkler system goes off, it can dump a whole lot of water in a hurry. Don't know how the system is plumbed, or whether it goes off in zones or all at once.

We'll update as information becomes available. Nothing on the City website as this is written.

UPDATE: The Daily Bulletin has a more detailed article with a photo gallery. It seems that the fire started in a wall and gutted the kitchen. We are not trying to minimize the damage, but truth be told we've seen many kitchens in everyday use that looked in worse shape than the one in the pictures in the photo gallery. Smoke damage--again from the pictures--appears minimal; but then you smell it when you don't see it. See the pictures in the photo gallery at the Bulletin.

Arson was on everyone's lips today, so it was somewhat comforting to see in the article that "arson was ruled out", at least according to owner Mark Bollinger.

The fire started about 3:30 a.m., and was out by 4:30 a.m. Casa 425, across the street, was evacuated.

Kitchen Fires Can Get Out of Hand Quickly

Packing House Book Signing Saturday

Our friends at the Pomona's Art Colonists sent us notice of a Saturday book signing by artist Karen Green at Beautiful Crap, located upstairs in the College Heights Packing House at 532 W. 1st St. #212 in downtown Claremont.

The event takes place this Saturday, December 13th, between noon and 4pm. The information on Pomona's Art Colonists says:

Beautiful Crap and Spineless Books
invite you to an Open Studio and Book Signing for
here/gone: AN ABC FLIP BOOK FOR GROWN UPS,
an artist's book by Karen Green
published by Spineless Books.
Eat. Drink. Stare. Meet the artist. And publisher.
Buy the book or the exclusive limited edition.
Support art. Push the ocean uphill.

Saturday, Dec.13 12:00-4:00 p.m.
Upstairs @ The Packing House
532 W. First Street #212
Claremont, Ca. 91711
Call 909.291.5685 for more information

Private viewing by appointment.

You can learn more about Karen Green on her website. Her publisher, Spineless Books, also has a site with information about their wares.

Packing House Wins Award

Kevin Roderick at LA Observed had a post about the 27th Los Angeles Conservancy preservation awards. The Claremont Packing House received an award for adaptive reuse. The Conservancy's press release said:

Claremont Packing House, Claremont -- The last visible link to Claremont’s pioneering history in the citrus industry was transformed into a thriving center for arts, entertainment, retail, and community services, becoming a model of adaptive reuse and an anchor for revitalization.

The conservancy apparently did not look at the effectiveness or economic viability of the Packing House reuse. Consumers will ultimately have the say on that count.

The awards will be given out Thursday, May 8th, at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets are $125 per person. Call (213) 623-2489 for more information or email pal@laconservancy.org.

Downtown News

http://www.claremontpackinghouse.com/about.htm

The Claremont Packing House has been open one year now, and according to an article in Saturday's Claremont Courier, the tenant reviews are mixed.

Courier reporter Tony Krickl wrote:

After one year, 4 store front business owners have walked away from their second story lofts out of 11 listed on The Packing House’s website. Some did not have the success they were hoping for, while others left for personal reasons.

Kathleen Galipeau, who ran an art studio in her loft, decided to move out due to poor business sales. She had hoped for greater foot traffic throughout the building to support her business and believes she will have more success in her previous location in Upland.

“There have been some growing pains along the road there,” she said. “Live/work lofts are such a new idea. It’s a great place to be, but there are a few integral problems with how upstairs is laid out.”

Lynnette Barron, who ran a floral business, worked an agreement to cut out of her lease early. She complained of difficulties with the building’s management, structural problems in her loft and excessive noise.

A 3rd tenant not renewing his lease was Chas Seward, whose ad agency, Spitfire Studios, ran Claremont’s holiday marketing campaign. Mr. Seward said he left because the loft was too big for his company’s needs and has moved to a smaller location in the Village.

“As far as environment, it’s a great space,” Mr. Seward said. “It just wasn’t conducive to our business.”

Krickl's article went on to quote several other tenants who were doing just fine, though one of them was Jerry Tessier, the president of Arteco Partners, who was the developer for the Packing House project. Tessier told Krickl that there's no shortage of prospective tenants lined up to fill the vacant units.

Some of the businesses seem to be making it. Three Forks Chop House reportedly has a waiting list of several weeks, and Meg at the M-M-M-My Pomona blog wrote that the Hip Kitty Jazz Club was jumping when she visited a couple weeks ago.

On the other hand, the Maui Wowie smoothie place appears to have been up for sale, and some of the other Packing House businesses haven't seemed especially crowded with customers or window shoppers.

Expose Yourself to Art...In Claremont

Claremont currently provides a couple of very nice--and related--opportunities to have your senses challenged, for you to relax and perhaps see some things another way...opportunities to get your Art on.

The Claremont Museum of Art, located in the Packing House, has a terrific exhibit up through the end of the month. It is small, as befits the fairly small museum, but it is imaginative and unexpected. It is well worth a visit

The image heading this post is taken from the flyer for the exhibit: Ephemeral: Explorations in Light. The museum is located in the Packing House at 536 West First Street, Claremont. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is only $3, or become a member and support the enterprise. The museum store, also well worth a look if you need any small (or even large and pricey) holiday gifts, is open the same days, through 7 p.m.

The exhibit was originally planned to run through November 18, but it was extended through December 30. Take a little time to check it out, and plan to spend a little time doing it.

All in all, a very auspicious opening year for the Claremont Museum of Art and a tip of the Insider beret to the community volunteers and those who contributed to get it going.

Also in Claremont, at the Pomona College Museum of Art, is a long-running exhibit of art by James Turrell, sometimes described as one of the most important artists you've never heard of. He also works in light, and his work is unique to him. He says that in high school art class when the teacher was showing slides of great art using a slide projector, he was always more interested in the beam of light coming out of the projector than the art on the screen. This only gives the barest idea of what his work is about. If you are unfamiliar with Turrell, the experience will be unexpected.

Go see it. It's in Claremont and it's free. Besides Turrell, there is another artist on display with additional imaginative light-themed work. The museum is in the Montgomery Art Center, located at the northeast corner of Bonita and College. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 12-5, Saturday and Sunday, 1-5, and Closed Monday. Caution: The museum is closed during winter break, December 17, 2007 through January 21, 2008. However, there is no rush on this one. The exhibit will be up through May 17, 2008, so if you don't catch it before the holidays, you can do it afterward.

Also on the Pomona College campus: Another Turrell work, Skyspace. This is an outdoor architectural installation forming an entire courtyard between the Lincoln and Edmunds buildings on the Pomona College campus. Like most of Turrell's work, it is more or less indescribable. You need to plan an hour or so near sunrise, or, more likely, sunset. Rather than attempt to give visiting information here, see this link for the details. Since this artwork is part of the Pomona College campus, it will be up indefinitely.

You will want to go back again and again. It is also without charge.

Claremont Bits and Pieces

As we write this over the weekend, there is no Weekly Update by City Manager Jeff Parker posted on the City website. Guess there are no new businesses to pimp. We suppose he could note, as Saturday's Courier did, that at least one new merchant has broken its lease in the Packing House and left due to lack of customers.

Seems as if the building owner and the Chamber of Commerce ought to get together in an emergency effort to deal with the issues. The City and Redevelopment Agency will have a role to play but don't have the competencies to lead the charge.

The merchants must have a realistic view of things. As someone pointed out talking when talking about restaurants, it's not enough to have a business license in Claremont. You have to put out good food consistently, and with good service. Everyone has to take a look at the fundamentals.

* * *

La Puerta Sports Park and Antenna Farm

A curious agenda item for tomorrow's council meeting, Tuesday, November 13: A group of neighbors are appealing a split planning commission decision to allow cell phone antennas in La Puerta park. We don't know all of the issues, but suspect there are plenty of reasons to hear the appeal. For one thing, the staff report is woefully inadequate: the "Financial Review" section deals only with the chump change of the appeal procedure, and not with the real money on the table from the cell phone operator. Buried deep in the report are allusions to money, and $2,000 per month is mentioned, but no real indication of where it goes.

We'd also like to see one of the appellants, Helaine Goldwater, orchestrate the appeal. It's always a pleasure seeing her work.

* * *

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

The Congregational Church scored in Claremont last week: Beth Bingham, Congregational minister in Pomona, elected to the School Board. Butch Henderson, retired Congressional minister from UCC in Claremont appointed Chair of the Committee on Youth and Families Policies and Procedures.

This seems to be in line with the Congregational doctrine of "advancement of His Kingdom in the world."

We've seen this before, when former-councilmember Lew Miller's campaign was run out of the Louise Roberts room at the Claremont Congregational Church, and when Butch Henderson chaired Peter Yao's campaign Q&A events in 2003.

* * *

Revisiting the Packing House, a reader writes,
"Low foot traffic and poor signage are among the concerns of several business owners in The Packing House who are struggling to stayafloat."

Big raises for the planning and development staff!