South Bay high school surf league kicks off with high expectations
The top High School boy’s shortboarders congregated last Thursday at 38th Street in El Porto for the opening rounds of the Kick Off Classic, launching the 2015-2016 South Bay Scholastic Surfing Association Presented by Subaru Pacific season. “This is the biggest start with the most amount of surfers we’ve ever had at a kick off […]
Tucker builds on experience
At a recent Hermosa Beach City Council meeting, Peter Tucker was peppering an engineer with questions. He asked about drainage, elevation and angles. He brought up materials, costs and man-hours. Scenarios were played out, questions were settled, new ones were raised. It was an unusual level of involvement for the council member, who mostly steers […]
Larson prefers olive branch
Trent Larson recently reached out to the Sierra Club. He was seeking an endorsement in the Hermosa Beach City Council race in advance of the Nov. 3 election. He knew it was a long shot, and he ultimately did not get the nod. But the gesture is one made by a man convinced that […]
Former councilman Jeff Duclos, once more into the fray
Jeff Duclos never imagined himself on the other side of the dais. Duclos moved to Hermosa in 1979, and spent much of the next two decades in environmental activism. He grew up a surfer in San Diego, and wanted his kids to be able to enjoy an ocean with vibrant kelp beds and […]
Keyboard Sonata: concert pianist Anli Lin Tong performs Friday with the Beach Cities Symphony
There was, as the saying goes, a sudden change in plans. In 2011, pianist Anli Lin Tong was all set to perform Béla Bařtók’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” with the Beach Cities Symphony. Yes, the piece is difficult, but the musicians had learned their parts. It was also the season’s opening concert. “We went […]
Water man: A new biography of Duke Kahanamoku reveals the long shadow he casts on surfing and South Bay culture
Duke Kahanamoku was not one to suffer from butterflies. Kahanamoku was a native Hawaiian whose ocean-bound childhood enabled him to dominate competitive swimming in the early 20th century. And at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, his first, he nearly missed the finals of the 100-meter freestyle. But Kahanamoku was not psyching himself out in the […]
Remembering Hermosa Beach’s Al Barrera
Reporter’s note: Alfonso Barrera Jr., a longtime fixture in the Hermosa pier area and known for his friendly smile, succumbed to respiratory failure and pneumonia late Monday night on Oct. 12 at Little Company of Mary Hospital.
The Dan Band Lights Up Saint Rocke
by Sean Carroll If you have seen the 2003 film Old School, then you are probably familiar with the scene featuring a wedding singer performing an unconventional rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” If have seen the 2009 film The Hangover, then you are probably familiar with the scene featuring the same wedding singer performing […]
Letters 10/22/15
Thanks for the memories, Manhattan Dear ER: I am sad to say the “small town feeling” in Manhattan Beach has long gone. It’s much too late to think about bringing it back. It should have been addressed 10 or 12 years ago. Here is what we have now: lots of wine flowing, expensive restaurants, huge […]
RESTAURANT REVIEW – House of chicken
A French name and Lebanese recipes add up to California fusion at Chicken Maison There are at least a dozen Lebanese restaurants in the South Bay, though you wouldn’t know that from driving past some of them. Many are named after their specialty, which is called franrej when you order it on the streets of […]