Library Visioning Meetings

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Next week the California State Librarian will be conducting a library visioning process centered around the future of the Pomona Public Library. The process is to determine what the community needs and expects from their library. It is hoped that this process will allow the library to function, in the future, in a manner that is best suited for the way the community uses the library.

This process is being funded by the state so no city funds are being used.

The process only works if the citizens show up and express what they think of the library. Please, I encourage you to attend one of these meetings if at all possible. For more info go to the city's web site and scroll about half way down the page.

AND, be sure to vote YES on X on November 6

Human Trafficing Film at Fox

I received an email from Nathan Neighbor of Mosaic Community who have an art gallery on Thomas Street and conduct weekly Church services at the Pomona Fox Theater on Sundays. I think that this may be of interest to some of you. Here's Nathan's message:

My name is Nathan Neighbour, and I work with the Mosaic community that meets in the Fox Theater each Sunday.  Next Sunday, January 29th at 2pm we are hosting a community awareness event at The Fox around the issue of human trafficking, a huge problem in the Pomona Valley.  Thousands of girls as young as age 12 are bought and sold in the sex trade industry right here in our city.  

 We will be screening a film called FLESH: Bought & Sold in the US and will have a panel of film makers and community leaders joining us (including the mayor and chief of police).  The Fox has graciously partnered with us to make this event happen and get the word out to the community.

Maltese Falcon--Sunday at 2:00 pm

 

  Sunday Nov. 13
The Maltese Falcon  

Friends of the Pomona Fox in association with the Pomona Big Read 
THIS Sunday, November 13       

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The Maltese Falcon

       

Doors open at 1:00 pm -- Film Screens at 2:00 pm 
 

1941 Directed by John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook, Jr., Gladys George, Barton McLane, and Lee Patrick.

TICKETS: Adults $5, Children $3

The Maltese Falcon is considered a classic of the Film Noir genre. With a screenplay by director John Huston, based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, the film tells the story of hard-boiled detect, played to perfection by Humphrey Bogart, in search of the elusive black bird, "The stuff that dreams are made of." For the past year the citizens of Pomona have been encouraged to read the same book, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

The Big Read program is put on by the Pomona Public Library with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This screening of the classic 1941 film is the culmination of a month of events inspired by the book. A murder mystery dinner, a trivia contest, a Chalk Art contest are but some of the events of Pomona's Big Read program. The program has included discussions by individuals who have been associated with detective literature including authors Denise Hamilton, Judith Freeman, Tom Nolan, Patt Morrison, Hector Tobar, and Gary Phillips, as well as Hammett's Granddaughter, Julie Rivett.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Discussion following the film with Denise Hamilton author of Los Angeles Noir, Los Angeles Noir 2, and her latest Damage Control. Denise will discuss the impact of authors like Hammett on the detective film and the Noir genre in particular. Denise will also be available to sign her books. Books will be available for purchase. Sorry, not credit cards (there is an ATM in the theater lobby)

Thanks to our Sponsors for helping to make this program possible:

Food and Beverages at the Pomona Fox

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Friends of the Pomona Fox operates a concession stand at all of our programs which provides a selection of Popcorn, cold sodas, and candy favorites. For more "Adult" options, Drink, the bar just off the theater lobby, will be open with a full-service bar and a menu of tapas items all of which can be taken into the theater for your enjoyment.

After the Movie

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We invite you to head to any of the fine establishments in our downtown area, including our sponsor, dba256 Wine Bar as well as 2nd on Second Street Bistro, Vive, Joey's BBQ, Fox Sports Bar. For more information on the amenities in Downtown Pomona, visit the DPOA's web site, MetroPomona.com Please walk around our historic downtown. 

Monsters to Invade Pomona

2011 is the 80th Anniversary of the Pomona Fox Theater and what better way to honor that anniversary than with the presentation of the 80th Anniversary screening of both Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931)  on Sunday, Feb. 20. The Fox lobby will be decorated with displays of memorabilia and artwork celebrating the world’s greatest movie monsters. Materials from Famous Monster of Filmland, the classic Monster magazine; Monsterpalooza, the ultimate yearly monster convention; Art of Clay Scupture Studios; and Creature Features, will be displayed.

In addition to the lobby displays, Phantom Coaches Hearse Club will be bringing some vintage hearses which will be on display in front of the theater. PCHC is an organization of owners of car enthusiasts who just happen to enjoy beauty of professional cars - hearses, flower cars, limousines, and ambulances. Their motto is “Putting the ‘fun’ in funeral since 1994.”

Early online ticket sales have come from as far away as Fresno, Arleta, Moorpark, and Torrence. This promises to be a unique experience for the Pomona downtown, as well as for the Pomona Fox Theater.

The doors open at 2:00 pm with the screening of Dracula at 3:00 pm followed by the panel discussion and then the screening of Frankenstein scheduled to begin at 4:45 pm. Moderated by film historian, author, and instructor at the University of La Verne, Scott Essman, the panel will also include confirmed guests:

• Sara Karloff, daughter of Frankenstein lead Boris Karloff
• Bela Lugosi, Jr., son of Dracula lead Bela Lugosi
• Ted Newsom, film historian, producer of Ed Wood—Look Back in Angora, video biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley, and was writer/director of the 26-episode series 100 Years of Horror, with Christopher Lee as host and narrator.
• Bill Warren, movie/monster historian, contributor to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, author of Death Is a Lonely Place
• Craig Reardon, makeup expert/artist, Without a Trace, Wild Wild West, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X Files among others
• Special Effects master Shane Mahan, Cowboys and Aliens, GI Joe, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, War of the Worlds, Big Fish, Galaxy Quest, and The Lost World; Jurassic Park among others.
• Actor Dan Robuck., Matlock, Lost, Glee, NCIS, CSI, Bones, Desperate Housewives, The Late Shift playing Jay Leno, Halloween, Agent Cody Banks, Final Destination, The Fugitive and US Marshalls among others.
• 'Monster Artist' Frank Dietz

All guests are subject to availability.

In addition to the panel, several special guests will be attending the event as well:

• Don Shay, publisher of Cinefex Magazine in Riverside - magazine about the makeup/special effects/visual effects industry since 1979.
• Mick Garris, director of many Stephen King TV adaptations, including The Shining and The Stand plus the theatrical feature Sleepwalkers and creator of the TV series Masters of Horror .
• Tom Woodruff, Jr., co-founder of Amalgamated Dynamics, who have created practical creatures and makeup effects for Alien films of the past 20 years, including Jumangi, Starship Troopers, Santa Clause and many more

Sponsors for the February 20 program include: Downtown Pomona Owners’ Association (DPOA), Creature Features, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Art of Clay Sculpture Studio, Monsterpalooza, Rhino Records in Claremont, Claremont 5-Second Film Festival, Antique Gallery Pomona • Braunstein & Schowalter "Antiques - Estates – Ebay,” UPS Store, Greg’s Refrigeration, Pomona Heritage, and Historical Society of the Pomona Valley.

November 2--VOTE

Tomorrow, November 2 is election day.

While M-M-M-My Pomona is a place where diverse opinions often clash, I'm sure that all of us here at can agree, your vote counts. Regardless of party, candidates supported, or issues, PLEASE, get out and vote.

In Pomona, we have two tax initiatives, one for an increase in the utility tax, and a parcel tax for schools in PUSD. In Districts 2, 3, and 5 we have council seats up for election.

If you need to know where to vote, you can get polling place information at http://www.lavote.net/LOCATOR/. Just type in your address and it will tell you where to go and vote.

The message? VOTE.

Charter Review Meeting Wednesday Oct. 20

When I was appointed to the Charter Review Commission, I promised that I would periodically give you updates as to what is going on. While it's now been over 5 months since our first meeting, we're still in the process of gathering information and developing ideas. That is about to change.

As a recap, the Charter Review Commission is charged with reviewing the city's charter and coming up with an amended charter (if needed) to present to the voters at a future election. Whatever comes out of the commission will be placed on a future ballot and the voters will decide if they want whatever comes out of the commission. The commission has 1 year to come up with such a document. (April 2010)

The 15 member commission has been meeting both as a group and in smaller subcommittees to formulate such a document. Each subcommittee is responsible for doing the research and coming up with plans that will be put forward to the entire commission for possible inclusion in the final document.

The first subcommittee recommendation was made at last month's meeting. This one dealt with proposed changes to Article XVII, which created the charter review commission. Because of the drama that surrounded the formation of the current commission, it was felt that certain things, like the number of commissioners and how they are chosen, should be codified within the charter itself. No action was taken on this item, whether to approve or not, and it was held over to the next meeting, which is Wednesday.

All sections of the charter were assigned to subcommittees, with the exception of Article IV, which deals with elective offices, the city council, how vacancies are handled, districts, and compensation and expenses. You can read the charter HERE (pdf file).  Because this is such an important issue, it was decided that the entire commission would take it up as a group instead of going to subcommittees. This Wednesday's meeting is when that will occur. It is anticipated that we will be getting a lot of public input, especially from those who are pushing for a new plan for district elections. To accommodate anticipated public input, the meeting will be held at the Ganesha Park Community Center at 7:00 pm.

If you have input on how you feel districts elections should be held, or if you don't want districts at all, or if you feel that we should have more or fewer council seats or anything else regarding Article IV, please be sure to attend the meeting and let us know. We value your input.

Charter Review Commission
Wednesday, October 20
7:00 pm
Ganesha Park Community Center
1575 North White Avenue, Pomona

Some of the issues that are currently being discussed in the subcommittees include the formation of an Ethics Commission, a Police Commission, and a wide variety of minor and major adjustments to the current Charter. The Commission meets the  4th Wednesday of each month, usually in the Council Chambers annex (to the south of the council chambers where the council usually holds their closed session meetings). Because of theIt's a Brown Act Commission so the public is always welcome.

What's Opera, Fox?

Just returned from the first performance of grand opera at the Pomona Fox Theater. OK, I admit that I went because I want to be supportive of this type of use of the Fox (no I wasn't at the Marilyn Manson concert). But I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed the afternoon immensely.

I'm afraid that I'm musically challenged and don't know a contralto from a contra bassoon. As a result I wouldn't even begin to attempt a review of the performance, but I can comment on the experience. 

First off, we sat in the front part of the balcony (the mezzanine?) with the extra wide leather seats. The $30 price was general admission anywhere in the balcony and we were there early enough to get into those great seats. I've been to a lot of venues and have never had seats that comfortable, even for movies! Yes, I was able to sit on my ample back side without twinging during the entire 2.5 hours. I'm also a little hard of hearing (what?) and am pleased to say that the acoustics at the Fox were surprisingly good without a lot of extra amplification.

The music was provided entirely by piano and musical director Brian Farrell. The staging was very minimalist with just a few boxes and steps providing the scene and then a lot of hand props and costumes adding the flavor to the action.

While the singing was mostly in Italian (with a few wink-winks of English to help with key plot elements) there was also some English narration provided by Robert Arce and Rochelle Firestone which helped if you got lost. The main way to follow the action was to read the two page synopsis of the storyline BEFORE the start of the performance. 

The story follows Nemorino, Matt Dunn, who is in love with Adina, Leslie Dennis, but is too shy to approach her due to her beauty. Along comes Belcore, Raul Matas, who is a soldier who enchants Adina. Nemorino  is crushed and seeks the help of snake-oil salesman Ducamara, Arthur Freeman, who sells him some bordeaux rebranded as love potion. Of course that's when things get interesting. The comic parts, especially  with Ducamara or Belcore, were quite enjoyable and you didn't need to understand the language to enjoy it.


Of course everything comes out well in the end.


I learned that the presales for this performance were about 300 (we bought out tickets at the door). Hopefully that will be enough to encourage the Repertory Opera Company to use the Fox in the future. During intermission we saw councilman Tim Saunders and is wife Dawn, as well as DPOA director Larry Egan. They had VIP seating in the orchestra area of the auditorium which was set up with tables and plastic chairs. Upon arriving at home, we had our Pomona Heritage mail (our membership director collects it once a week so we don't see it in a timely manner) and we had received an invitation to attend as VIP guests. Considering everything we're glad we paid and got to sit in the comfortable seats. We're also glad we were able to help support opera at the FOX!

Community cultural events at Pitzer College

Ooh, these look like a fun events. (Wha wha what? Some of the spam I receive is actually interesting?! It's a new day!)

Free yoga this weekend

On the look out for cheap and fun activities for you and yours this weekend?

The Om Sweet Om Pilates & Yoga studio in Claremont is offering lots of free yoga and pilates classes as part of their open house (not quite as cool as the hot dogs at the F&H Tire open house, but perhaps worth a visit anywya). Here's a link the studio's website; the freebie class schedule appears in the bottom left corner of the page.

Note the kids' class on Sunday from 2 - 3 PM. That class will be taught by yours truly. Swing by and say hey.

HPC Meeting Update

Last night, Wednesday, Feb. 4. was the first Pomona Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) meeting since November 2008 and the November elections. We lost three commissioners in the electoral process. Former commissioners Jim Kercheval, Tad Decker, and Scott Hillsman received Goddess Awards at Monday's council meeting and they will be missed. I, personally, wish to thank them for their years of service, at no compensation, in what was often a difficult job.

In addition, Ramon Zavala, is moving away from the area to accept a new job position. While I wish him well, he also will be missed very much. He was a gentleman and always was deliberative in making the tough decisions.

This leaves two seats left to be filled. Councilwoman Christina Carrizosa needs to replace Ramon Zavala, and the Mayor still needs to make his appointment. If you're interested, be sure to fill out an application with the city clerk.

So, out with the old, in with the new.

The new commission retains commissioners Mitch Elias (district 4), Dawn Van Allen (district 5), and Udit de Lange (district 2). New commissioners who were attending their first meeting last night were: Dee Dee Brookshire (district 1) and Ethel Gardener (district 6). Both new commissioners were attentive and worked around a short agenda "learning the ropes" of the electronic voting system and the procedures of the commission.

The first order of business for the new commission was to choose an interim chair for the evening as both the chair and vice chair of the previous commission were no longer there. Dawn Van Allen was chosen to chair for the evening and did a commendable job. At the end of the meeting, the commission chose new leadership and chose Mitch Elias as chair and Dawn as vice chair. Congratulations to them both.

There were two items of interest at the meeting.

TREE REMOVAL: A resident of Lincoln Park, after cutting down a birch tree without a permit, asked to be able to remove 4 trees (including the birch) from their back yard. The residents (bought about 1-1/2 years ago) want to get rid of the trees to "make their yard more usable." Since the trees are living and show no signs of disease or that they are doing damage to the property, the tree ordinance is very clear that cutting down trees should only be a "last resort" measure. Since the birch was deemed to have been dead prior to being cut down, the commission approved that removal and asked that another tree be planted, at a location of the homeowner's choosing, but didn't allow for the removal of the other living trees. A 50+ year old gum tree was of particular concern as it was very mature and a part of the historic landscape. The commission did allow that the resident could move two Queen Palm trees to another location on the property to make their yard more usable. The resident didn't appear happy with the commission's decisions so I'm pretty sure we'll hear more of this in the future.

HISTORIC SIGN ORDINANCE FOR DOWNTOWN SPECIFIC PLAN: Staff gave a report to the HPC on progress toward a sign ordinance to be included as part of the Downtown Specific Plan. This would affect the area of the downtown that includes the Arts Colony and Antique Row, as well as some of the adjacent areas. Staff was just asking for input as the downtown specific plan moves through the process.

An additional public meeting on this subject is in the plans to be hosted by Pomona Heritage and the Historical Society of the Pomona Valley. I'll be sure to let everyone know when this gets scheduled.

All-in-all a good meeting. It looks like the new commission is poised to do a lot of good work. Good luck.

Old Home Restoration Workshop--August 9

It's time again for the annual Pomona Heritage Old Home Restoration Workshop. Our 10th workshop will be held on August 9 beginning at 9:00 am and run until 4:00 pm. Additional information is in the press release below:

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The 10th Annual Pomona Heritage Old Home Restoration Workshop will take place on Saturday, August 9 at Trinity United Methodist Church. The program will begin at 9:00 am and continue until 4:00 pm. The program is made up of a series of seminars (four different ones going on simultaneously) and will include a wide array of information on issues of interest to owners of older homes. In addition, there will be a keynote address at noon on the progress of the restoration of the Pomona Fox Theater, and a special seminar on Pomona’s implementation of the Mills Act.

It was 10 years ago that the board of directors of Pomona Heritage decided to extend their outreach program to the entire community. It was felt that they needed to help in the education of Pomona’s citizenry of the value in protecting the historic fabric of our city and ensure that those who were interested in preserving their homes had the tools to do so in the appropriate manner. Thus was born the Old Home Restoration Workshop.

This year’s workshop will include many favorite seminars from the past along with a several new ones. The workshop committee has put together a program that should have something for everyone who lives in a historic districts, or just lives in an older home and wants to know how do simple repairs. Subjects on tap for this year’s workshop include: Repairing and replacement of wood windows, Herb gardening, Planning your restoration project, Gardening with California native plants, Repairing wood floors, Plaster repair, Repair and maintenance of stained glass windows, and several others not confirmed at press time. A full schedule will be available online at our web site once it has been confirmed.

In addition to learning the important hints and tricks for maintaining and updating your historic home, the workshop will offer the opportunity to meet artisans and craftsmen who can assist in answering questions regarding old homes. Members of the city’s building, code enforcement, and planning staff will be available as will artists from Red Wing Glass, Dominguez Floors, and many others.

With the recent revamping of Pomona’s version of the Mills Act, city planners Sandra Campbell and Judy Kollar will be presenting a seminar on how the Mills Act works and what the procedures are for those interested in taking advantage of the potential 40-60% tax savings that the act provides for the renovation and maintenance of historic properties in the city of Pomona. For those planning on ever doing a major renovation project, this seminar is a must as it will show how a good, historically sensitive renovation can be done, using tax savings to do it.

Each year the Restoration Workshop looks for a keynote speaker of general interest to the entire community. In 2007 Jerry Tessier gave a presentation of the plans for the full restoration of the National Register Landmark Pomona Fox Theater. This year, with construction well underway, Ed Tessier has agreed to present an update on the progress being made and a look ahead at what can be expected for the Fox. The focus will be on the challenges of a large-scale historic restoration project and how many of those challenges have been handled. With historic tax credits as one of their methods of funding, all work on the Fox must be approved by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the National Parks Service of the US Department of the Interior. This is a project that goes will beyond requirements of city codes and should give interesting insights into to how such projects move forward.

“This is our most important educational outreach program of the year,” stated Mark Gearhart, Pomona Heritage board member and chairman of the Restoration Workshop committee. “We offer this as a way to let the greater community understand the importance of the proper repair and maintenance of Pomona’s important historic resources. We invite everyone in the city to come, learn about historic preservation, and, hopefully, make their homes and our entire city environment better.”

In addition to the seminars, a Silent Auction will be held during the course of the day’s activities. It will include a wide array of goods and services geared specifically toward old home renovation and decorating. For additional information, and a full schedule of seminars, as they become available, please visit our web site at http://www.pomonaheritage.org and click on the Restoration Workshop button at the left.