Getting Near to Vermeer

With Vermeer, as with Raphael and Mozart, we are inches closer to the Divine when in the presence of his work. Perhaps it’s our eternal sunshine that draws them, but periodically a Vermeer painting will vacation in California; a few of them live in New York and Washington, D.C., also Boston and Philadelphia, but pretty…

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Rosa Blasi stars in Hermosa Beach’s ‘Sound of Music’

Television actress Rosa Blasi is a true beauty – sensuously radiant and voluptuous. So let me see now, says the journalist as he wipes his fogged-up glasses, You’re playing the part of Maria in “The Sound of Music” this weekend at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse? In this musical you’re appearing as a nun, right? Isn’t…

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New gallery for Old Torrance

In the entire state, is there a more prestigious-sounding name for an art venue than the California Museum of Fine Art? Hearing it, one may imagine a sprawling complex in Balboa Park, Golden Gate Park, or even adjacent to Disney Hall on Grand Avenue. But this new home for the visual arts is located here…

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Dead Ball Era comes to life at Suzy’s in Hermosa Beach

Dead Ball Era – and we’ll get to the origins of that name shortly – is a three-piece band that’s been together longer than they’ve been on this planet. How did Alex Strahle, Jack Strahle, and Blake Russell pull that off? Well, as Blake explains, “We’ve known each other all our lives – and our…

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‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

Experimental and obscure operas have been finding a port of refuge with Long Beach Opera for nearly 35 years. At times the company barely scrapes by, but thankfully there are enough – although always barely enough – fierce supporters who recognize how much poorer we’d be without its reassuring presence. There was a decent turnout…

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