Lyons at Night - Music and Live Art event - Sat, Nov 13th, 4-10pm

Free ongoing Mosaic Workshop! Sundays through August

From their website:

In conjunction with the EARTH exhibition, 2cc and professional mosaic instructors Dawn Mendelson and Luz Mack-Durini will launch a series of fun-filled and educational mosaic workshops open FREE to the public. The workshops will begin in April and continue through August. They will be held on most Sundays from 10:00 am - 1 p.m.

All ages welcome. No experience necessary. Workshops will be conducted in English and Spanish and are set up so that anyone can join in at ANY TIME. Participants will create both mosaic art pieces to take home and work on communal pieces for the gallery's wildlife garden.

Each month we will explore a environmental different topic, have a guest speaker or see a film and create a mosaic artwork. Our final workshop on August 22nd will be a celebratory BBQ in the garden. At the end of summer, the 2,500 sq. ft area behind the gallery will be transformed. We will utilize the knowledge we have gained about our native environment and select drought-resistant plants that attract wildlife. We will have a community planting. We will create an environment for wildlife to find food, water, shelter and a place to nest. The communal mosaic artwork that has been created will be installed. The garden will serve as a quiet place for the community to relax and groups to gather. Every opportunity to come together is a potential to breakdown barriers, gain understanding and build community.

For more information on our instructors, please visit their websites.

Dawn Mendelson www.daybreakmosaics.com
Luz Mack-Durini www.l-durini.com

Please join us by registering for the free classes. Registration ensures that we have enough mosaic materials and healthy snacks for everyone to enjoy. Please either call (562) 901-0997 or email 2ndcitycouncil@earthlink.net. Please use the subject line "Mosaic Workshops.

Patchwork Long Beach! November 29, 2009

Come out on Sunday, November 29 for Patchwork Long Beach, co-hosted by We Love Long Beach. Vendors will include such local favorites as The Outfit and The Kids are Alright. Get a head start on your holiday shopping!

Free Cold War Kids Show in Long Beach, this Friday, 8/21- Busker Fest!

Hallloooooooooo! I've missed you all - vacationing on the East Coast and processing some new big news at Casa de Mod has kept me from posting lately. However, I didn't want you to miss the fun this Friday, August 21 at 7pm. Summer and Music Long Beach (SAM) is featuring a FREE Cold War Kids show for Busker Fest - and it's interactive! -

From Yelp, "Local bands will be playing 25 minute sets beginning at 6pm, and it's up to the audience to vote for who gets to open for Cold War Kids later in the night. Featuring Free Moral Agents, Deep Sea Diver, So Many Wizards, Chris Paul Overall, Pawn Shop Kings, Brook Lee Catastrophe, Forcefield ON and 60 Watt Kid, and more...

At 6 p.m., Busker Fest information booths will open, giving attendees a chance to collect wooden nickels, maps, and schedules for the different performances. The first round of busking will begin at 7 p.m., followed by a second at 7:30 p.m. and a final round at 8 p.m. As the audience makes their way to the main stage, judges will tally the wooden nickel counts and declare a winner.

The group with the most wooden nickels by the night's end wins $1,000 cash prize and gets to open up for Cold War Kids at 9 p.m., on the main stage at the corner of First Street and Elm Avenue."

Friday, August 21
East Village Arts District
Broadway and Linden Ave
Long Beach, CA 90802

Matt Maust from the Cold War Kids recommended The Good, The Bad and The Queen to us and we've been listening nonstop lately.

Eat On Pine! December 3-17

I saw this great event on Save Pine! - We were up in Portland the past few weeks, and took advantage of their trolley system to attend the First Thursday open art galleries event in the Pearl after sushi on NW 23rd, since trying to find late-night parking would have been a drag! Maybe this will catch on in Long Beach. What a great opportunity to check out some great local restaurants!

Save Pine!

(image by first people)

I've watched with a touch of hope but mostly sorrow as Downtown Long Beach has soared and soured over the last 5 years.  EJ's Banana Pudding Shop, {open}, Koo's, and the Broadlind Cafe began to generate vitality and community in Downtown Long Beach  and fingers were crossed that the good work would restore the downtown area, but to no avail. These great businesses folded or moved to more business-friendly terrain. When we attended the University by the Sea Festival last year, I was dumbfounded at all the vacant buildings in Pine Square - it would not be an exaggeration to label it a ghost town.  All the while, Long Beach developers reached hand-over-fist in 2006 and 2007 to build more and more high-rise lofts and condos, paying no attention to the empty streets below.

Recent articles in the District and the Press Telegram about the Z Gallerie closing, leaving an entire retail block nearly empty, sends a clear message that something is going wrong in Downtown Long Beach.  And the residents of Pine Avenue and Downtown Long Beach have had enough. 

Enter SAVE PINE! 

We are residents, business owners and a property owners that love our town and the people in it. We live on, we eat on and we thrive on Pine Ave. and it's neighboring streets and communities. We've seen the DLBA and the CITY chop Pine down and we're furious. Only we (residents, business owners and property owners) can turn this around and we must demand it.

We have seen the same meetings held for 7 years with no answers and no accountability.

SAVE PINE consists of 12 contributors that have lived on Pine for an average of 10 years. We do not have individual profiles on this network. We've elected the BIG GRIZZLY BEAR as our cover because our Council Members, DLBA and the City have made an art form out of avoiding the tough questions from the most demanding people and finding creative ways to marginalize/punish and/or wear down those that speak out. We've agreed that it's best that we be able to move freely and motivate the residents and business owners' from within our community. If together we stand up for the good of the street, if together our voices ring in unity then the more they must act. Our goal is to push for positive changes on our street.

Since none of us have political aspirations or affiliations you can trust that our intentions are true and for the best of the street...We are every where and we are the growing voice of change for Downtown Long Beach.

Who are we? WE ARE PINE!

This is one of my favorite things: People of Long Beach, working together for change!  Hats off to YOU!

University by the Sea, Sunday, 10/5, 10am-10pm

The University by the Sea is a neat one-day educational festival, with tours, classes, workshops, bands, weddings (?!), etc.

Come out and support a really unique event in the city of Long Beach.

On October 5, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., local artists, musicians, educators and activists will flood the transformed downtown streets with creativity and insight. Restaurants will open their doors to host classes ranging from sushi making to wine tasting to ballet.

And everything will be eco-conscious, right down to the facilities used at Schooled in Song II-Long Beach's most anticipated music event of the year. Featuring Sustainable Waves' solar-powered sound and lighting and a carbon dioxide-eating main stage, this Schooled in Song's set-up is U-Sea's centerpiece of sustainability.

Stroll through the Goods Gallery, made entirely out of recycled shipping containers. Lollygag around the Live Arts Corridor, where hundred of local artists will be impromptu-creating. Mosey over to Momentum Mobile Galleries-converted U-Haul moving vans coordinated by Flood, the world-renowned arts organization behind SoundWalk. Renew your wedding vows at House of Hayden-which will lapse back in time to its days as a wedding chapel.

But whatever you do, don't be late for class!

You can buy your tickets online at www.universitybythesea.com.

I took photos for Gregorio Luke, lecturer and recently installed part-time curator of the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture, from last year's University by the Sea presentation on Che Guevara.











and my favorite photograph of Gregorio, which I shot on his last day at molaa:

Remembrances of things past...Long Beach Modern

Farmers Market at the Promenade.

Gorgeous Garden, Cal Heights, Long Beach.

The Little Nest, Downtown Long Beach.

Provence-Boulangerie.  You are missed.

Pirate ships on fire mural, MLK - across from molaa.

Oatmeal at the Village Cafe.

Summer moonlight to Fall.

4th and Broadway.

Wheatpaste Girl, Broadway and Cherry, across from Rite-Aid.

Meaningful directionary, downtown Long Beach.

405 South, very early in the morning.

4th and Linden during filming.

the girls, Bixby Knolls Block Party.

Alamitos Beach.

Pediatrans, Keep Out!

End of workday, molaa parking lot, view of St. Anthony's Church.

Previous images lovingly shot with Canon Powershot SD300 DigiElph- O, how I would love to try the Canon G10~

Show at Shelter! Surf Shop, Saturday, 9/27 at 7pm

See the Art and listen to the charmingest Long Beach band, Tijuana Panthers! on the Toy Records label.