Pasadena Community Orchestra by Steven

Previously we mentioned how you can attend the Los Angeles Opera and various outdoor concerts for free. However, those free performances are usually restricted to a specific season. I enjoy seeing the Pasadena Community Orchestra because their performances are also free to attend, and they occur frequently throughout the year.

The Pasadena Community Orchestra is a non-profit organization founded in 1983. Even though it is non-profit, their quality can match those of more prominent orchestras. For instance, they have a full orchestra comprising of 60 to 70 members playing strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion. Occasionally they have guest soloists such as the cellist Christopher Ahn. Even though performances are held in a church, the venue looks and feels like a symphonic hall. The church is extremely spacious, and the acoustics are splendid. When I attended the concert on January 25, the Pasadena Community Orchestra played a wide range of music from classical, romantic works by Robert Schumann to more modern interpretations by Henry Cowell. Cowell’s “Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 3″ definitely revealed his exposure to world music since the piece sounded like a fusion of Asian and Native American music. The night was also educational with the composer providing a short historical introduction to each composer. As a result, attending their performances is a terrific way to spend time with kids and adults.

The Pasadena Community Orchestra is located in the First Church of the Nazarene on 3700 E. Sierra Madre Boulevard with plenty of parking around the church. You can also take Metro bus #487/489. The next concert will be held on February 24 from 2PM to 5PM. Please visit their website for the complete concert schedule. For more photos, please visit our Facebook page. Please remember to follow us on Twitter @SurvivingLA for more entertainment!

Until next time,

Steven

NASA JPL Open House by Golda

Every year, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory opens its doors to all earthlings during its open house. This year’s event was themed “Great Journeys” and took visitors on a “ride” through the wonders of space over a two-day weekend for FREE. The event was a great place to learn a thing or two about astronomy but beware of long lines and exhaustion from heat and extensive walking.

When I first arrived at JPL, I was impressed by the beauty of the location of the facility. Nestled right next to the San Gabriel Mountains, the laboratory is in a great location. Unfortunately, as it is in Pasadena, this also means that it is quite inland, and on these two days in early June, it was extremely humid outside. I was directed to park in the far lot, which made things much more confusing for me later on, as I entered the event from the back rather than its entrance.

Some of the highlights of the open house were the life-sized Mars Science laboratory, the spacecraft bound for Mars; demonstrations from numerous space missions; JPL’s machine shop and the Microdevices Lab, where engineers and scientists use tiny technology to revolutionize space exploration. I also got a chance to explore the Earth Science Center, which screened 3D videos of our planet and earth science missions. In the lab, there was a large glowing orb with data from NASA’s Earth-orbiting satellites.

An event like this is clearly aimed at youth in an attempt to make science accessible to budding scientists and engineers. There were many opportunities to speak to actual professionals and hands-on activities specially designed for kids. One particular aspect I enjoyed was the mobile scavenger hunt, which asked for mobile phone users to look for QR codes all around the exhibits to unlock secret codes.

I also enjoyed watching JPL’s intro to the solar system and beyond. Unfortunately, since this event was only two days, the lines to go into every building and screening were incredibly long. Although some moved particularly fast, with the intense heat that I mentioned earlier, this was definitely frustrating. If you really want to see all of the different buildings, I recommend coming before noon to beat the heat and the crowds.

Overall, the JPL Open House is a great event to learn about science for both the robot geek and the casual fan, as long as you can stand the heat and long lines. For more pictures from this event, check out our Facebook page. For all the latest summer events on a budget in Los Angeles, follow @SurvivingLA on Twitter. Stay tuned later this week for Steven’s post on cheap salsa lessons!

Thursday Night Lindy Groove by Golda

I know it’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me! With the coming of summer, life has caught up with me but soon I hope to get back to attending LA events! In the mean time, I figured I’d write about an event I haven’t been able to go to regularly, although I’d like to: Lindy Groove!

There is a whole swing dancing network in Los Angeles, and this is one of their favorite venues. Lindy Groove is held every Thursday night from 7:30pm to midnight at The Masonic Temple in Pasadena. It’s only $8 to meet some cool people and dance the night away! If you come around 7:30pm, you can catch a lesson in beginning or intermediate swing from the experts. But after 8:15pm, the lights dim and the music starts and you’re somewhat literally thrown to the wolves, as random people will come up to you and ask to dance.

The lessons are helpful and a great way to meet new people, as everyone is paired off and switches partners when learning each new move. It is perfectly acceptable to attend the lessons alone since they rotate you anyway. I won’t say that the moves are easy to pick up, as it differs person to person, but you can get the gist of a basic 8-count from the first lesson. The best way to learn is probably to keep coming, and not be intimidated by the goood dancers at Lindy Groove (boy there are a lot of them!)

Generally, I have found people to be welcoming at Lindy Groove, even for non-dancers like me. I guess I sort of have an advantage as a girl, as we usually follow anyway. If you have a good lead, even if you’re not sure what you’re doing, you can still attempt to follow along. The best ones teach you the steps so that you can keep dancing!

I suggest wearing comfortable shoes and bringing water. After dancing for an hour or so, you definitely get thirsty. Wear closed-toe shoes as it is likely that your feet will be stepped on. Usually they sell water for $2. Sometimes there is a masseuse that gives 15 minute massages and food trucks often stop by to feed hungry dancers. There is free parking across the street in a lot.

Birthday parties are a great deal at Lindy Groove because you get free cupcakes and can invite up to 10 of your friends to come to Lindy Groove for free. Overall, it’s a great way to spend a Thursday night, learning some steps and meeting new people!

626 Asian Night Market and Springfest by Steven

It’s Spring in Los Angeles, and there are numerous new events springing forth all over the county. We examine two of these events that occurred last weekend, the 626 Asian Night Market in Pasadena and Springfest in Chinatown, and see how they hold up as first timers.

The 626 Night Market last Saturday was not just the first Asian night market in Pasadena. It was marketed as the first Asian night market in all of Southern California. As someone who studied abroad in Hong Kong for three years, I was more than excited. While there weren’t any neon lights like there are in Hong Kong and Taiwan, there were plenty of Asian t-shirts, stuffed animals, cellphone covers (which you can find all over Hong Kong), lamb skewers, dragon beard candies (made of peanuts, sugar, and honey), takoyaki (Japanese squid dumplings), egg puffs, azure red bean pancakes, Taiwanese beef rolls, and milk tea to give everyone a taste of the East. Unfortunately, the market also replicated another similarity to Asia, the dense crowd. There were approximately 10,000 attendants reported, and for those in charge of the 626 Night Market to have projected that number prior to the event, they should have arranged it to occur in a location that’s larger than a block or two. Don’t even ask me about possible fire hazards. In addition, food vendors were understaffed and understocked, resulting in unforgiving lines and food that were sold out within the first few hours. For instance, I love dragon beard candies, but when the guy making them was also the cashier, you would expect long waits as a result. Furthermore, I attempted to order red bean pancakes. I was given a number and told to return in two hours. Two hours later, I came back to find them out of pancake batter. The night market had a large variety of Asian food to satisfy patrons, but it’s useless when it’s impossible to purchase them.

The Springfest in Chinatown last Sunday had a different problem. There were hardly anyone attending the event, and it’s hard to blame them. There were no food vendors except for a man selling cotton candy, and the only booths present were an artist gallery, a booth for LA Weekly, and a booth for free massages. A beer garden was not enough to captivate visitors. However, there was apparently a rib-eating contest earlier, but we missed it because we couldn’t find the schedule for it prior to the event. It was also difficult to find the event since it was hidden within an alleyway half a block from N Spring St and Cesar Chavez Ave. However, Stephen Sowan’s performance on stage definitely brought back energy to the festival.

It’s also worth noting that there were some wonderful new startups present. As I was passing through the crowd in 626 Asian Night Market, I discovered Cake Bar. Created by Grace Juhn a year and a half ago, Cake Bar offers tasty alcohol infused cupcakes like margarita cupcakes. Definitely keep a look out for them.

As with all new ideas, the 626 Night Market and Springfest both need time to improve. Now that they have a sense of the crowd, they should adjust accordingly, whether that requires moving or hiring more staffs. I wish them the best and hope last weekend wasn’t their first and only events.

Please remember to check out our Facebook page for more photos, and follow us on Twitter @SurvivingLA.

So what is your favorite new event this year?

Until next time,

Steven

ArtNight Pasadena by Steven

Many LA locals might remember last week for Downtown LA Art Walk, which Golda previously wrote about. However, Art Walk was not the only large-scale art event that occurred in LA County. Last Friday night, Golda, Julie, and I also attended ArtNight Pasadena with our friend and blog partner, Holly Winn.

Like Art Walk and Venice Art Crawl, ArtNight raises awareness of independent artists and organizations. Unfortunately, we only had time to visit two venues, the Pasadena Museum of California Art and Alliance Française de Pasadena. Unlike Art Walk and Art Crawl, the various art exhibits and food trucks were too spread out to walk. Even though ArtNight provided free shuttle services between venues, buses were infrequent. In addition, the size of most exhibits were so huge that one could spend most of the evening attending just one site.

The two venues we attended were quite different from each other. For the Pasadena Museum of California Art, we saw two out of three exhibits, “L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy” and “Project Room: Nancy Baker Cahill: Fascinomas.” The content was explicit to say the least. There were video footage, paintings, and sculptures portraying destructive naked bodies to reflect violence, rape, and political outrage in society. It might be for this reason that photography was not permitted in the area. On the other end of the spectrum, we had a very tame showcase at the Alliance Française de Pasadena, a French language school and cultural center. The cultural center displayed mainly tranquil paintings of landscapes. A musical performance was also held outside, but unfortunately, we arrived just as it ended. We also managed to catch a glimpse of some of the artwork shown near the entrance to the Armory Center for the Arts right before they closed. The paintings we saw were by design students, and their creativity definitely shined through with most of their works delving into surrealism and mythology.

Looking at so much art also made us hungry so we stopped by some food trucks. Like usual, the lines were long. It didn’t help that they were spread out in different parts of Pasadena, limiting the choices one had for each location. Golda ordered some milk tea from The Mighty Boba Truck. Holly purchased some tacos and mini churros from Border Grill while I ordered a feet-long Vietnamese sandwich from Nom Nom. The combination of baguette and cucumbers made my Vietnamese sandwich really crunchy. The liver spread tasted much better than it sounds. It provided a tangy sweetness with the mayonnaise, marinated carrots, and daikon radish to perfectly complement the meat. The cilantro and jalapenos also brightened the whole meal without being overly spicy. However, having eaten Vietnamese sandwiches of the same quality from other places, I do believe that $7+ was too much. I also purchased a bottle of GuS Grown-up Soda to go along with my sandwich. It’s a natural cola that puts both Coca Cola and Pepsi to shame. Using cane sugar instead of syrup also guarantees the taste is not overpowered by its own sweetness.

Overall I did enjoy the amount of museums ArtNight Pasadena offer compared to other art events. However, their distances from each other really limit how much one can see in a night. It’s free though so it’s definitely worth checking out! There are numerous paid parking lots throughout Pasadena. The streets are also filled with metered parking, but unfortunately, they’re enforced until midnight. There are some free parking along South Pasadena Ave if you look close enough.

Please check out The Social Bug for Holly’s perspective on ArtNight and more! We will also upload more photos of the event on our Facebook page soon so do “like” our page.

Until next time,

Steven

Pasadena Food Crawl Round Up by Steven

Last Wednesday night, our tastebuds received a sensual overload from the variety of food the Pasadena Food Crawl provided. Set up by the Pasadena Magazine and Yelp, this event allowed Yelpers the chance to experience food from various local Pasadena establishments that included Le Grande Orange, the Luggage Room, Dog Haus Biergarten, the Pita Jungle, AKA, and Sushi Roku.

We checked in at Le Grande Orange at 6:30PM, where we were given a tote bag with the recent food and wine issue of the Pasadena Magazine, some flyers, and a pair of Yelp fingerless gloves. As I was carrying a conversation with one of the Yelpers at the event, I was astonished to find out that she has heard of our blog before. It may be a new blog, but this proves that word of mouth can still be a very effective tool. After that, it was onwards to the food tastings.

Since the Food Crawl was a free event, I originally thought that they will hand out tiny samples with toothpicks. However, they served a really generous portion, and after the first two restaurants, my stomach was already feeling satisfied. Le Grande Orange offered a cool, refreshing white sangria with freshly cut fruits. The Luggage Room made margherita pizza (roasted tomatoes, cheese, and basil), the gladiator pizza (housemade sausages and salumeria biellese pepperoni), and the mushroom party (duxelle of crimini and oyster mushrooms, sweet onion, and fennel). Since the Luggage Room was the first restaurant we visited and I assumed most of us arrived with empty stomachs, the pizzas were devoured as soon as they’ve arrived. As a result, Golda and Olga were only able to taste the margherita. I was also able to try the mushroom party, which was sweet, filling, and a perfect alternative for vegetarians along with the margherita.

Afterwards we moved on to Dog Haus Biergarten, where we sampled various draft beers, fries, a slider, and one of their specialty hot dogs called “The Cowboy.” I am a big fan of hot dogs wrapped with cheese or bacon so it’s pure bliss to find a pub that wraps their dogs with cheese AND sprinkle them with bits of smoked bacon. They even had a $1 special on most food and drinks the following Friday to commemorate 11/11/11, which I sadly was unable to attend due to lack of time. I still prefer the more exotic dogs and larger selection of beer offered in Wurstküche, but for those residing in Pasadena, Dog Haus Biergarten is affordable with dogs at $5.95, fries at $1.95, and sliders at $1.50. It’s the perfect place to eat and drink beer with friends on a Friday evening.

We then walked to the Pita Jungle, where we tried their wood-fired lavish pizza. I love how thin and crispy the crusts were due to the use of flatbread. You can hear it crackle in your mouth as you bite into it. Both AKA and Sushi Roku brought out glasses of cocktails to the group. If the Pasadena Magazine and Yelp were attempting to get us drunk with all those alcoholic drinks, then I approve. The Blood Orange Cosmos from AKA and the Roku Fusion from Sushi Roku were sweet with heavy hints of fruits, but the Roku Fusion definitely carried a stronger alcoholic taste. On a side note, I found it strange how despite us already checking in to this 21+ event earlier, a waitress from Roku Fusion still asked me and only me to show her my ID. At AKA, I only ate one and a half portobello fries with truffle aioli dipping because I did not want to fill up my stomach with hot fried batter. Instead, I was saving room for the spicy tuna hanabi at Sushi Roku, which was a thin slice of spicy tuna placed on top of a chunk of fried sticky rice. The hanabi is definitely a catering dish that would be popular in parties and other functions.

The Pasadena Magazine and Yelp have both done a terrific job teaming up to set up the Food Crawl, allowing food lovers in and outside of Pasadena to try out what locals businesses have to offer. These establishments are good alternatives to the mundane franchises we’ve been used to, and after this evening, you can rest assure that you will see me frequent Pasadena more often.

Until next time,

Steven