This weekend marked the annual Pasadena Chalk Festival, which drew over 500 artists of all artistic backgrounds and ages who created colorful pictures for all to see. Spectators watched the artists at work, and were able to check out portraits, political commentary (blended in tribute to animation favorites), and all sorts of drawings on the ground of the Paseo Colorado.
Sidewalk Scenes: Pasadena's Annual Chalk Festival
ArcLight Pasadena Will Open May 7
With initial speculation pointing to a launch sometime this summer, ArcLight's Pasadena location appears to be heading for a May 7th opening date, according to the ArcLight site. Closed for the renovation since April 1, the Pacific Paseo Theater in the Paseo Colorado is being converted to provide ArcLight patrons with their signature experience of movie-going on 14 screens. The grand opening will be Friday May 7th to welcome ArcLight to the Paseo with a 12:01 a.m. showing of Iron Man 2, and movie-lovers to their third all-reserved location in the LA area. The venue will feature a Gift Shop and a 45-seat Cafe.
Tonight in Rock: Pinback, West Indian Girl, Entrance Band
LA Weekly points us to some hot picks for tonight. About Girl in Coma: "Joan Jett knows a thing or two about rock & roll, and her latest protegees, Girl in a Coma, on her Blackheart label are one of the best and most interesting bands to come out of Texas in a long time," writes Falling James. They also play Alex's Bar in Long Beach tomorrow night. Also, Brian Wahl picks the "rare appearance" of Buddy Collette Big Band, who will be playing at the Terrace Court on the second level of Paseo Colorado at 8 p.m.
New Years Resolutions - Explore Pasadena!
I didn't want to just do a "best of" list. So this year, I've decided to take a years worth of personal New Year's Resolutions, ask around for those of friends and put a call out to readers (email me here) about things you've always wanted to know, always wanted to do and then take those requests and ask an expert, an insider to help out. The result? Here goes...
Wine Novice: Bodega Wine Bar
Bodega Wine Bar is all about making wine as unpretentious as possible. The owners opened the bar after searching high and low for "a casual place to grab a glass of wine...somewhere that didn't require us to be wine experts, spend a lot of money, or even talk about wine much (if at all)" but found nothing. Ah - a wine philosophy this wine novice can get behind entirely! So, of course, I had to check it out.
You can look, but you can't touch Incendio
While LAist was checking out the malls on Black Friday (Century City and Paseo Colorado were easy to navigate), we stumbled across a live performance by Incendio. The Los Angeles based Latin Guitar band was jamming in Pasadena, playing kind of music that makes us wish we could play guitar. If you want to be treated to one of their performances, check out their schedule on Myspace....
A Beer Education
The Yardhouse 330 East Colorado Blvd. Suite 230 (at the Paseo Colorado) Pasadena (626) 577-YARD. Other Southern California locations: Costa Mesa, Irvine, Long Beach, Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Mirage, and San Diego.
The Grove in Glendale: Goodbye Galleria
Which is bad for the Galleria.

