Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 23, 2011

10

ARTS & ENTERTAIMENT

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 23, 2011 


CONGRATULATIONS TO MY YOUNG FRIEND "RED ROSIE" WHO BEAT OUT 20 OTHER 
CONTESTANTS TO WIN THE COVETED CROWN OF DOO DAH QUEEN 2011 

 

SUN. 4/24 - BARRY "BIG B" BRENNER @ FIREFLY BISTRO IN SOUTH PASADENA, 11am - 2pm. 1009 El 
Centro. 626-441-2443. Sunday BLUES Brunch! http://www.bigbbrenner.com

 

SUN. 4/24 - "OPERA TO BROADWAY" VOCAL PERFORMANCES @ CAFE 322 IN SIERRA MADRE, 
7-10pm. 322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. 626-836-5414. Full bar and great Italian food. Every Sunday evening. Get 
there early - they pack 'em in! 

 

TUES. 4/26 - "JC & Friends Songwriter Serenade" @ MATT DENNY'S ALEHOUSE & RESTAURANT IN ARCADIA, 
7 - 9:30pm. 145 E. Huntington Dr., between 1st & 2nd Aves. 626-462-0250. Full bar & kitchen, all ages. 
A weekly acoustic show of songwriters playing original songs, either as a solo or duo act, outside on the covered 
patio. This week's artists: Kevin Fisher, Jill Freeman, Byron Gore, Susan Reeves. http://www.jchyke.com/

 

4/26 - "TUESDAY NIGHT TRIVIA" @ CAFE 322 with QUIZMASTER DEANNA, 7pm*. $2 per person to play, 
up to 4 on a team, CASH or gift certificates to the top 3 teams. Fun and educational! 322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. 
626-836-5414. *...with live music immeditately following from NEW ASTROTURF, Folk/Rock, Classic Country.

 WED. 4/27 - LISA FINNIE & JOHN PALMER @ RED CARPET WINE & SPIRITS IN GLENDALE, 7 - 8pm. 
400 E. Glenoaks Blvd. Indoor musical delights and three-option tastings via the in-house Enomatics in the Red 
Carpet Wine Bar. www.redcarpetwine.com

 

"WEDNESDAY NIGHT PLATTER PARTY" @ THE BUCCANEER, 9pm. Bring your favorite vinyl records and 
play an entire side on the house turntable, commercial free! 70 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. 626-355-9045. No cover, 
full bar, friendly service!

 

THURS. 4/28 - BARRY "BIG B" BRENNER @ FIREFLY BISTRO IN SOUTH PASADENA, 6 - 9pm. 1009 El 
Centro. 626-441-2443. Burgers, Brews & BLUES most Thursday nights. http://www.bigbbrenner.com/ 

Check out this incredible triple-bill and note early start time:

FRI. 4/29 - CAFE 322 in Sierra Madre, 322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. Great happy hour discounts on food and 
drinks from 4:30-6:30.

THE MELLOW D'z , 5 - 7pm. 

and then - SNOTTY SCOTTY & THE HANKIES, 7 - 8:30pm.

but wait - there's more! LOVE (REVISTED), 8:30 - 11:30pm. 

$10 cover at some point. Call for info. & reservations: 626-836-5414.

Love Revisited consists of original Love guitarist Johnny Echols plus Baby Lemonade members Mike Randle, 
Dave Chapple and David Green, with occasional special guests (Forever Changes/ Da Capo era drummer), Michael 
Stuart and (Brian Wilson Trumpeter and Love tour member) Probyn Gregory. If you ask me, they might 
as well just have Snotty Scotty as their frontman since he does all their best songs and learned all his moves from 
Arthur Lee!

 

SAT. 4/30 - THE OCCASIONAL DOO DAH PARADE #34.5 - 11:00am in East Pasadena - on Colorado Blvd. 
between San Gabriel Blvd. & Altadena Dr. with Queen Red Rosie and Grand Marshal Ron Stivers, owner of Poo 
Bah Records (so why aren't we calling him the Grand Poo Bah?) Fab after-party at the American Legion at 179 
N. Vinedo Ave., featuring Snotty Scotty & The Hankies and Horses On Astroturf, $5 cover - goes to the bands. 
It's not to late to sign up as a parade entry: pasadenadoodahparade.info or volunteer to help: hurleypanne@
yahoo.com 

 Please remember to call and verify all info. before making plans. Everything is subject to change. This is show biz, 
after all... Hope to see you out & about, SierraMadreSue sierramadresue@yahoo.com

SEAN’S SHAMELESS 

REVIEWS: 

The Five Best Songs Of 2011 

That You Haven’t Heard


Thursday – 
“Sparks Against 
The Sun” – Off 
their sixth 
studio album, 
No Devolución, 
Thursday have 
completely reinvented their artistry. Once upon a 
time they spearheaded the bygone era known as 
“emo”, but failed to make an indelible impression 
with the mainstream masses. They still had some 
great material in their back catalogue, but now in 
2011, they’ve creatively expanded on their ever-
so-evolving style. With “Sparks Against The Sun”, 
it’s one huge leap forward for a band that always 
seemed to have the aptitude to reformulate 
themselves. Ingrained in this song is some 
ambience and traces of their post-hardcore roots 
included with beautiful dark melodies and plenty 
of reverb. Make no mistake, Thursday created an 
arsenal of powerful tunes on their latest opus. 
“No Devolucion” needs your undivided attention. 

 New Animal – “Last Winter” - Born in Atlanta, 
GA., New Animal is the intrepid duo of Derek 
Burdette and Kris Hermstad. Together they’ve 
created an incandescent, expansive, and hypnotic 
self-titled record. Beautiful and daring, this is a 
rhapsody that translates vision into meaning. 
Take a little voyage into the wonderland of “Last 
Winter” – a new breed of sound to captivate all 
your inner sensibilities. I personally believe there 
aren’t any boundaries for how far their artistic 
endeavors may go. And whatever journey they 
travel, I’ll be along for the ride. You can download 
their entire debut LP for free at http://newanimal.
bandcamp.com. Don’t hesitate; go discover what 
will seemingly become the most underrated (and 
unfortunately overlooked) album of the year. 

 Work Drugs – “Sunset Junction” - Despite 
never visiting the city of Philadelphia, I’m 
starting to love what the city has to offer in the 
sense of independent music. First it was Sun 
Airway and now it’s the sedative-wave / smooth-
fi group, Work Drugs. The virtually unknown 
duo of Benjamin Louisiana and Thomas Crystal 
has assembled such soothing, consolatory, and 
ethereal tunes. “Sunset Junction” is an intoxicating 
track that’ll put you on a mind-bending trip with 
no drugs required. Can’t beat that. Despite only 
a handful of songs in their repertoire, I suggest 
stop following the herd toward mainstream 
mediocrity and check out Work Drugs as soon as 
possible. 

 Young Dreams – “Young Dreams” - I stumbled 
across this effervescent, tropical, electro-pop 
melody a few weeks ago. Kind of reminds me 
a little bit of Animal Collective in fragments. 
Anyway, Young Dreams (also the title of this 
song) hail from Norway and should be making 
quite the impact stateside in the near future. 
They are set to release two EPs this year. Their 
2-song debut EP, “Young Dreams” arrived on 
iTunes this past February. Blast this song when 
you head to the beach. Guaranteed to get your 
senses churning and mind free of all unnecessary 
distress. 

 World Tour – “Sparks” - Recently signed by 
Cascine, World Tour may just become your 
favorite band of 2011. “Sparks” is right up my 
alley — blissful, serene, and pensive. This is a 
sound to fall in love with over and over again. 
You won’t find a more honest, ethereal or divine 
tune like this around. It’s the quintessential 
dream-pop song to navigate you during the most 
memorable summer nights. 

Sean Kayden

1. Thursday - “Sparks Against The Sun”

2. New Animal – “Last Winter” 

3. Work Drugs – “Sunset Junction”

4. Young Dreams – “Young Dreams”

5. World Tour – “Sparks”


The Book Report

The Moonflower Vine: A Novel

 by Jetta Carleton

 A timeless American classic rediscovered, an unforgettable 
saga of a heartland family. On a farm in western Missouri during 
the first half of the twentieth century, Matthew and Callie Soames 
create a life for themselves and raise four headstrong daughters. 
Jessica will break their hearts. Leonie will fall in love with the 
wrong man. Mary Jo will escape to New York. And wild child 
Mathy’s fate will be the family’s greatest tragedy. Over the decades 
they will love, deceive, comfort, forgive and, ultimately, they will 
come to cherish all the more fiercely the bonds of love that hold 
the family together.

A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout 

by Carl Safina

 Carl Safina has been hailed as one of the top 100 conservations 
of the 20th century and A Sea in Flames is his blistering account of 
the months-long manmade disaster that tormented a region and 
mesmerized the nation. Traveling across the Gulf to make sense 
of an ever changing story and its often nonsensical twists, Safina 
expertly deconstructs the series of calamitous misjudgments 
that caused the Deepwater Horizon blowout, zeroes in on BP’s 
misstatements, evasions, and denials, reassesses his own reaction 
to the government’s crisis handling, and reviews the consequences 
of the leak and what he considers the real problems, which the press 
largely overlooked. Safina takes us deep inside the faulty thinking 
that caused the lethal explosion. We join him on aerial surveys 
across an oil coated sea. We confront pelicans and other wildlife 
whose blue universe fades to black. Based on extensive research 
and interviews with fishermen, coastal residents, biologists, and 
government officials, he has some surprising answers on whether 
it was “Obama’s Katrina,” whether the Coast Guard was as inept 
in its response as BP was misleading, and whether this worst unintended release of oil in 
history was really America’s worst ecological disaster. Safina writes: “In the end, this is a 
chronicle of a summer of pain and hope. Hope that the full potential of this catastrophe 
would not materialize, hope that the harm done would heal faster than feared, and hope that 
even if we didn’t suffer the absolutely worst, we’d still learn the big lesson here. We may have 
gotten two out of three. That’s not good enough. Because: there’ll be a next time.” 


Acting classes for REAL people, at the...
Join the “FOR THE LOVE OF ACTING” class.
Saturdays 2:00 to 5:00pm on our STAGE. No experience necessary! 
NEW BEGINNERS class starts APRIL 02. 
For reservations and class info, call June Chandler (626) 355-4572