Posts by Mark McDermott
Vitality cities: the Beach Cities’ quest for longer, healthier lives
The revolution began at Eat at Joes. Its leaders included a man with a grey handle-bar mustache who wore a bright yellow vest, an exuberant college professor from Iowa who came bearing the gifts of smaller plates, and a long-legged explorer who’d once bicycled from the arctic to the end of South America but who…
Read More2011: The Year in Review
2011 in was a year of doings and undoings, actions and inaction in the Beach Cities. The Easy Reader each year takes a year-end look at the people and issues that passed through our pages. This year, in addition to the Year in Review compilations for Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach, we singled out 11 stories, including three people whose actions significantly impacted the community, the top issues that commanded each respective city’s attention, and the community leaders who passed away in 2011.
Read MoreRedondo Beach: a postal crisis, tragedy, and sardines
Tragedy and turmoil were in the headlines in Redondo Beach this year, as an ebullient little boy named Jeremy Perez lost his life after a delivery truck accidentally ran him over on his bicycle and two families were forced to leave their homes on Knob Hill when stray voltage was discovered emanating from an electrical substation. The city also coped with millions of dead sardines in King Harbor.
Read MoreMusic previews: jazz and blues for the holidays
Jazz for the holidays The best kept musical secret in the South Bay for the last two years has been the ongoing residency of the Richard Sherman Trio featuring Bili Redd at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes Estates. Those in the know flock to The Living Room – the large room with couches and…
Read MoreMusic previews: The return of Electric Blue, and a blues apostate
Electric Blue was almost famous. They were a locally-based band whose humble roots were playing gigs in the back of flatbed trucks at Grateful Dead shows in the 1980s but who later toured with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, the Blue Oyster Cult, and Greg Allman. Electric Blue founder and lead guitarist Dave Rizzo recalls…
Read MoreTony’s on the Pier agrees to lease extension with Redondo Beach
Tony’s on the Pier is staying on the Redondo Beach pier for at least two more years and likely the next 40. The Trutanich family, owners of the iconic pier restaurant, last week agreed to enter into a two-year lease extension with the city of Redondo Beach and unveiled plans for renovation that would solidify…
Read MoreMusic previews: Dokken unplugged, Guitar Shorty untethered
Dokken acoustic Three words that usually don’t go together: Don Dokken unplugged. The legendary heavy metal icon Don Dokken is performing locally for only the second time in the last 30 years in his native South Bay stomping grounds at Brixton in Redondo Beach for a show he has dubbed his “Two Many Acoustic Jam.”…
Read MoreChef Jack Witherspoon’s Stuffed Mushrooms
You won’t be able to resist these stuffed mushrooms. I made them for both of my Cooking Up Dreams fund-raising events, and each bite is a morsel of cheesy, garlicky, herby bread crumbs in a baked mushroom cap. This might be my all-time favorite appetizer. Makes about 35 stuffed mushrooms; serves 10 as an appetizer…
Read MoreTwist It Up: Chef Jack Witherspoon cooks his way through a battle with leukemia
Aspiring chef Jack Witherspoon has overcome leukemia three times in his 11 years. And now he’s written a cookbook. Jack Witherspoon was feeling an uncharacteristic lack of appetite as Thanksgiving approached this year. In fact, he had to force himself to eat, something that was particularly concerning to his family. Jack is 11 years old.…
Read More70 grievances filed against Redondo Beach Post Office
Carriers at the Redondo Beach Main Post Office last week filed approximately 70 grievances against management for what union leaders are describing as a hostile workplace. Many carriers have continued to deliver mail well after dark and sometimes as late as 10 p.m. in the wake of a round of consolidations that reduced the number…
Read MoreCity sues Civic Light Opera for rent
The city of Redondo Beach last week filed a lawsuit against the Civic Light Opera of the South Bay Cities, seeking $209,000 owed in back rent. The city in August evicted the CLOSB after not receiving payment for the use of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. City officials say that rent is owed for…
Read MoreA tree family affair
Architect Peter DeMaria’s home in Manhattan’s tree section is more quietly daring than his famed Container House On Pine Avenue in Manhattan Beach is the house that two brothers named Michelangelo and Luciano built. Granted, Michelangelo was about six years old and Luciano was not quite yet born seven years ago when the house was…
Read MoreTensions boil at post office, leading to hostile work environment and mail dumping allegations
Problems within the United States Postal Service have led to local postal carriers being forced to deliver mail late into the night and supervisors allegedly ordering the dumping of bulk mail at the Redondo Beach Main Post Office.
Read MoreBeach Volleyball Hall of Famers, as photographed by Robi Hutas [PHOTOS]
[scrollGallery id=253] The Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame will hold a kick-off party Friday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Hermosa Beach Community Center, the site of the new exhibit. The California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA) founded the Hall of Fame in 1992 but until recently lacked a location. The party will include a…
Read MoreRedondo Unified School District’s Knob Hill property to go out to bid, again
The Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education Tuesday night tentatively moved to send the former school property at 320 Knob Hill out to bid. The district hopes to garner new lease revenue from the site and has at least one interested bidder, Fountain Square West, a senior housing developer that specializes in assisted…
Read MoreFeast of the Jaguars: Mayan artist’s ‘End of Days’ show contemplates 2012
In the village where she grew up, Carlotta “Tita” Giangualano was known as the granddaughter of the witch. Other children in Coba – a town of 1,200 located amidst the Mayan ruins in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo – were told not to play with her. The old Mayan ways had all but passed…
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