The folks over at The Hashtag — that Tower District work space full of interesting people — have a sense of humor about their second anniversary. They celebrated it by creating a gallery of internet sensation Grumpy Cat in their hallway.
Hashtag member Tessa Williamson of simplyDesign hand painted this picture and hung up the other prints. Check out the rest of the prints on Hashtag’s website here (scroll down a bit to see their photos).
Marcos Dorado has been busy recently on his latest ambitious project: a salute to veterans. He’s been drawing local ones in graphite, and you can see the results tonight at Boling Fine Arts Gallery with the opening of his Veterans Portrait Project. There also will be a special reception Saturday in honor of Armed Forces Day. After the show closes, the veterans will get to take their portraits home. What a treat!
The winner of this season’s “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” will be announced May 19 and it all comes down to magician Penn Jillette and musician Trace Adkins.
Win or lose, Adkins is happy he’s been on the reality competition show twice. He’s convinced that its introduced him to people who weren’t fans of his music.
“They like the way I represented myself on the show and that made them start listening to my music,” Adkins tells me during an NBC party. It’s loud in the hotel lounge but Adkins has the kind of deep voice that can be easily heard. “I have people who come up to me in airports and the TV show is the only place they know me from.
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The CW Network will add three new show’s to its lineup when the 2013-2014 season opens: “The Originals,” “The Tomorrow People” and “Reign.”
It’s obvious the network has noticed the success it has had with fantasy and supernatural programming like “Arrow” and “The Vampire Diaries” as “The Originals” looks at Louisiana vampires while “The Tomorrow People” deals with humans born with paranormal abilities. “Reign” is the story of Mary Stuart, the woman the world would come to know as Mary, Queen of Scots.
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My brother shared this video (actually, Audi commercial “Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy: “The Challenge” that was posted May 6 on YouTube) with me on Facebook and I just had to share it with you. It made this sci-fi girl happy. Plus, it gives me an excuse to tell everyone how much I loved “Star Trek Into Darkness.” It’s AWESOME! Beehiver Rick Bentley shares that enthusiasm, read his “A” review here. You can also watch video interviews with cast members Simon Pegg, John Cho and Alice Eve here. Enjoy.
The Triangle Drive In celebrated its 50th anniversary this past weekend.
The little burger joint with the walk-up window on Belmont just west of Highway 99 has all types of regulars who love the place, the manager tells me. And $2.39 for a regular burger? $3.55 for a jumbo burger? Can’t beat that. The collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia adds a nice charm. Most of it is brought in by customers, by the way.
Anyway, I want to know what you like about this place. A restaurant around this long surely has some longtime fans, and I’d love to hear some of your memories from years past. When did you come here and why? Maybe I’ll include them in an upcoming column in the newspaper.
There’s a second Triangle Drive In in Ivanhoe, by the way, and plans are under way to open a third one on the east side of town near Clovis. More on that when it happens.
I would like to express gratitude to the ‘Guardian Angel’ who discovered my motorcycle keys left in the ignition. They turned them in and then the keys were returned to me. It would have been a long walk home without them.
So, have you ever been blessed by the honesty and goodness of someone? A guardian angel perhaps? Share your story if you have one.
Passions Boutique has opened its third location, this one at Bullard and West avenues in the same shopping center as The Manhattan Steakhouse & Bar. The store sells women’s clothing, jewelry and purses, and caters to women of all ages. The store gets many mother/daughter/grandmother combos coming in together to shop because of its variety, manager Ruby Tello noted. Passions also carries plus size clothing, including plus-size LA Idol jeans with blinged up pockets.
Passions opened its first boutique nine years ago downtown, at 2027 Tulare St., near Fulton Mall. It has another, 2-year-old store at 1085 E. Herndon Ave., near First Street. Tello said customers repeatedly requested a new store in northwest Fresno.
Once upon a time there was a young-ish, moderately attractive, devastatingly intelligent yet incredibly humble woman who worked in corporate America. She was a woman with simple-yet-refined tastes, who embodied the simple-yet-refined desire to communicate her thoughts and ideas to others who likely suffered from similar slings and arrows of corporate American life. To sum it up: this woman’s life dream was nothing more than to tell her deeply average tales to a general public that might perhaps occasionally have their interest piqued.
Beyond that, she cared nothing more than to continue on and live her simple yet refined life, caring for her family and feeding her dog and peppering her diction with self-important phrases about her “audience” whose “interests” she had mildly “piqued.”
And so — naturally — the woman began to blog.
Then one day, this young-ish, moderately attractive, devastatingly intelligent woman (now with a penchant toward verbosity) was presented with an opportunity: A rogue band of ninja bloggers were looking to increase their ranks. She could join this group — but she’d have to have something to offer in return. “What could she give,” they queried, “to those toiling away at their desks across corporate America?”
Her answer: munitions.
This may come to shock you, dear reader, but I am that very same young-ish (now older), moderately attractive (meh), devastatingly intelligent yet amazingly humble woman (still with a penchant toward verbosity); and this is my first post here at The Beehive — the not-so-secret lair for that aforementioned crazy-awesome band of ninja bloggers.
In short: I’m quite excited to be here, blogging about all the nifty DIY stuff you, too, can get up to.
And, as promised, I give you munitions: a DIY desktop archery set. Enjoy!
What I’ve been told by actors is that the process of bringing a character to life doesn’t change whether they are sitting in a restaurant booth for a scene in a small, independent production or trying to survive the blasts and carnage that comes with being in a big summer movie. Acting is acting.
Guy Pearce has starred in both kinds of films. He’s gone from the brain-twisting “Memento” in 2000 to this summer’s blockbuster, “Iron Man 3.” Although the comic book-inspired film comes with all the bells and whistle of a Marvel Comics film, Pearce tackled the part of Iron Man’s foe, Aldrich Killian, like any other job.
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Thank goodness for our politically courageous and oh-so-wise Fresno County Board of Supervisors, which is attracting a great deal of attention after vigorously debating on Tuesday whether it should support our community’s children. (A watered-down resolution was passed only after axing the part about supporting children’s programs.) As we all know, the board wields tremendous power with every resolution it passes — the citizenry wakes each morning in an anxious tizzy wondering what great new earth-shaking proclamation has been promulgated — and it’s good to know that greedy children won’t be able to raid our treasury under the watchful eyes of our no-nonsense elected officials.
With that in mind, we used our patented Beehive Time Machine™ to look forward at the Board of Supervisors’ coming resolutions on five other hugely controversial issues:
MOTHERHOOD: In June, the board will wrestle with this always sticky concern. A resolution supporting mothers in general will be tabled, replaced with one lauding only those with good sugar-cookie recipes.
GEORGE WASHINGTON: Sure, you might expect this one to be a no-brainer. But in July, board members will express concerns about wooden teeth. By passing such a resolution, could it be construed as coming out in support of free dentures under Obamacare?
PHOTOSYNTHESIS: In August, things get downright scientific with a spirited back-and-forth on this heated topic. Do plants really have the right to “take” light and convert it into chemical energy? Sounds a little socialistic to us.
WASHING HANDS BEFORE SURGERY: Don’t people in this country have the right to have their open wounds probed by doctors who just licked their hands clean after lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings? Highlight: Supervisor Judy Case, a registered nurse, will demand that the complete minutes from the 1719 annual meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of London be added to the September resolution.
FRESNO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: In the ultimate meta-resolution, the board in October will debate whether it should approve of itself. Steven Spielberg has already bought the movie rights.
The continued success of CBS means the network will be adding only five new shows in the fall — four comedies and one drama. And, those new shows will feature some big names: Robin Williams, Anna Faris, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Will Arnett, Toni Collette, Tony Shalhoub and Dylan McDermott.
Joining the network are: “Hostages,” a short-run series about a surgeon kidnapped before operating on the President; “Mom,” a comedy with Anna Faris playing a newly sober single mom raising two children; “We Are Men,” an ensemble comedy starring Shalhoub, Kal Penn, Chris Smith and Jerry O’Connell; “The Millers,” Will Arnett plays a man who must deal with his mother moving in with him; and “The Crazy Ones,” Williams and Gellar are a father-daughter team that runs an ad agency.
The other big news is “Mike & Molly” will be a mid-season replacement.
Not returning to the CBS lineup are “Vegas,” “CSI:NY,” “Rules of Engagement,” “Golden Boy,” “Partners” and “Made In Jersey.”
Here’s what the 2013-2014 CBS schedule will look like:
Monday: “How I Met Your Mother,” 8 p.m.; “We Are Men,” 8:30 p.m.; “2 Broke Girls,” 9 p.m.; “Mom,” 9:30 p.m., “Hostages,” 10 p.m.
Tuesday: “NCIS,” 8 p.m.; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” 9 p.m.; “Person of Interest,” 10 p.m.
Wednesday: “Survivor,” 8 p.m.; “Criminal Minds,” 9 p.m.; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” 10 p.m.
Thursday: “The Big Bang Theory,” 8 p.m.; “The Millers,” 8:30 p.m.; “The Crazy Ones,” 9 p.m.; “Two and a Half Men,” 9:30 p.m.; “Elementary,” 10 p.m.
Friday: “Undercover Boss,” 8 p.m.; “Hawaii Five-O,” 9 p.m.; “Blue Bloods,” 10 p.m.
Saturday: Repeated programming, 8 p.m.; “48 Hours,” 10 p.m.
Sunday: “60 Minutes,” 7 p.m.; “The Amazing Race,” 8 p.m.; “The Good Wife,” 9 p.m.; “The Mentalist,” 10 p.m.
Sprouts Farmers Market opens its first store in Fresno at 7 a.m. Wednesday with all kinds of hoopla. The store is in the former Sports Authority store on Blackstone Avenue, in the same shopping center as Bed Bath & Beyond. Here’s what you need to know about Sprouts.
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I wasn’t able to attend the Fresno Philharmonic’s last concert of the season, a pops offering featuring The Texas Tenors, but I’m told by management that it featured significantly better sound than in the past. (The “Rat Pack” pops concert in February was not a stellar sound experience.) The key: bringing in outside sound equipment. I asked Stephen Wilson, the orchestra’s executive director, to explain. He writes:
The Texas Tenors put on a great show and the sound was in my view (and theirs) excellent. The Texas Tenors travel with their own sound engineer, so I trust their opinion on this. The sound equipment brought in to Saroyan by the Fresno Philharmonic for this concert achieved a significant improvement in sound quality for our audience.
For years I’ve been writing that the Saroyan Theatre’s acoustics aren’t really the cause of sound woes: It’s more about equipment and expertise. In bringing in its own equipment, the Fresno Philharmonic now joins the vast majority of presenters at the Saroyan. (A house sound system does exist, but it’s problematic.) The other important thing is a good sound engineer who has enough time to learn the idiosyncrasies of the house. (That’s something that doesn’t always happen with touring Broadway productions.)
Anybody else at Saturday’s concert care to share an opinion about the sound?
After the jump: the word on the orchestra’s configuration on stage.
Super Water Sympathy‘s singer Ansley Hughes is totally approachable and super friendly. Nothing to get intimated by, which is awesome if you’re an outgoing fan and say, need a ride to the band’s show.
Which actually happened to the Shreveport, La. five-piece recently. A guy connected with them on Facebook. He wanted to see them and he needed a ride, and they were like, “Well hell, you live 20 minutes away. We’ll be there,” Hughes says.
Eventually, a band can’t maintain that sort of control over its career, she says. Like, once you’re touring on a bus (or on a plane) instead of a van and you don’t do the driving yourself. It’s one of the drawbacks to being, you know, super popular and famous. But right now, they are in control of everything they do. “I just want to be able to hold on to that for as long as I can,” Hughes says.
In April, Super Water Sympathy released its sophomore album and is in the midst of a West Coast tour before heading East with the Vans Warped Tour this summer. The band is in Fresno Thursday night, playing at Audie’s Olympic Tavern. It’s one of the trio of shows I wrote about in today’s paper.
We’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away. Just leave a comment below. Tell us the best experience you’ve had meeting a band. Contest closes Thursday at noon. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email. No repeat entries, please.
Either way, you should go stop by and say hello to the band. In the mean time, check out the video for the song “”Oh Oh!” after the jump. Also, the complete contest rules. Read more
It should be called “Newspapers: The Next Generation” because there are a bunch of people — including myself — who are boldly going into areas we didn’t have to face in the past. One of those barely charted territories is the shooting of video while doing an interview for the newspaper. The Internet is a ravenous beast and no longer are the printed words enough, there’s a growing demand to show the interview subject talking.
Most of the time, it’s a simple process. If a person I’m interviewing agrees, I’ll use a flipcam to ask a question or two. An easy edit later and the video is out there to be enjoyed.
When I asked to shoot video during my interviews with Alice Eve, John Cho and Simon Pegg for “Star Trek Into Darkness,” Paramount agreed but the video would have to be shot by a TV crew. I could have four minutes with Eve and four minutes with Pegg and Cho combined.
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As Stefon on “Saturday Night Live” might say (and, by the way, word came today that Bill Hader is leaving “SNL”), this Bee story by Chief Waterfowl Correspondent George Hostetter has it all: Charming baby creatures in peril. Big bad bureaucracy. Anguished neighbors. The heartstring-tugging motif of sad little wading pools instead of a big, abundant lake. Plus, it’s hot. We all know what it’s like to stew in our Fresno juices.
The one thing this story does not have, as Kyle Lowe correctly points out on Facebook, is Ryan Gosling. Or his immediate relatives. We would not want to be known, after all, as the city that puts the (nearly) Sexiest Man Alive in imminent danger.
Pro tip for those in the information biz. Don’t get sick. A lot can happen in a day. Here’s some stuff that y’all may have missed on Monday, because I’m getting caught up.
You can check out the full schedule bands the fair has confirmed on its website, but it includes John Mayer, Tim McGraw and Huey Lewis and the News. Granted, The Fresno Fair has only confirmed three acts, so far, but I wonder how you think the lineups are looking in comparison? Read more
ABC’s 2013-2014 TV schedule will feature eight new shows including “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” from Joss Whedon. Other shows joining the ABC lineup in the fall include “Back in the Game,” “Betrayal,” “The Goldbergs,” “Lucky 7,” “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,” “Super Fun Night” and “Trophy Wife.”
Returning to the scedule are “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “The Bachelor,” “Castle,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Last Man Standing,” “The Middle,” “Modern Family,” “Nashville,” “The Neighbors,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” “Scandal,” “Shark Tank,” “Suburgatory,” “The Taste” and “20/20.”
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Fresno ice pop maker Ooh de Lolli has a new product: The pooch pop. These popsicles for doggies are made from tofu, peanut butter and almond milk. Instead of a popsicle stick, they use dog chew sticks. The dog pops, which cost $2.50, same as the human pops, sold out at Ooh de Lolli owner Donna Mott’s recent trip to Bella Frutta on Saturday. Just check out the cuteness that ensues when you combine a hot dog and a cool pop:
The canine creamsicles are selling so well Mott is considering trying to sell them at stores. You can get them, along with the human ice pops in flavors such as in flavors like watermelon cilantro and kiwi strawberry, at the Kaiser Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Wednesday and at Bella Frutta, at Willow and Shepherd avenues, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m every Saturday. Ooh de Lolli also attends Engelmann Cellars Friday night events.
Bee reporter Pablo Lopez has a choice read in today’s Bee comparing the search for Fresno State’s next president, which is secret, with Fresno State’s recent successful search for a business school dean, which was public:
CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White and trustee Pete Mehas, who is the chairman of the Fresno State search committee, said keeping a lid on the selection process yields a bigger pool of candidates. If the search were open to the public, they said, an established university president could lose job security and donors might stop giving if the president indicates interest in a post elsewhere.
But a finalist for business dean put a dent in that argument when he said his boss supported his decision to apply. ”My boss is one of my references,” said Kenneth R. Lord, associate dean at the Kania School of Management, University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Reedley College on Thursday presented three finalists for its own presidential position. Funny how there doesn’t seem to be any need for secrecy at the community college level.
I have no doubt the CSU brass will push the secrecy thing through to the bitter end. But the holier-than-thou approach just emphasizes the point that the Cal State system is far too top-heavy and centralized. (I think the secrecy has a lot to do with ego. You feel more important as an institution if you get to play the clandestine game.)
Plus: a letter writer calls the Bee’s continued focus on the secrecy of the presidential search “petulant.” Yes, how dare we ask for openness in a government job search?
PREVIOUSLY: Most ridiculous CSU chancellor quotation ever
Fresno now has its only “authorized” Rolex dealership with the opening of Wickersham Company in River Park. The 112-year-old jeweler from Bakersfield recently opened its second jewelry store/Rolex dealership, this one between Sur La Table and Panera Bread.
Rolex watches start at $5,000 and run up to $275,000. They are “the finest watches in the world,” says Wickersham president John Abrams. The store also sells William Henry knives, some made with dinosaur bone and mammoth tooth and costing up to $8,900, and its own line of jewelry made in Bakersfield. The store has the security to go with such high-end items too, including a vault that holds all the merchandise at night. Customers must ring a bell and a security guard behind glass will buzz them in, and then buzz them through a second door.
Every time I write about a high-end retailer like this one someone says to me, “Oh, Fresno can’t support that.” We’ve definitely got our fair share of poor: One in four residents in Fresno lives below the poverty line. But we also have had Haron Jaguar selling $90,000 cars here for years. Posh in Fig Garden village sells fur coats that cost thousands of dollars and bathrobes at La Rouge in Fig Garden run over $100. The owner of Posh once told me that Fresno’s wealth is quiet, and tends to travel out of town to do a lot of its high-end shopping. The Wickersham president agrees there’s enough wealth to support a Rolex dealership here (obviously) and says companies give the watches as awards.
So just who do you think it is in this town that would buy a Rolex? Is it doctors and lawyers? Farmers?
It wasn’t a shock when NBC announced there would be no third act for “Smash” canceling it after only two seasons. Once original episodes of a show get moved to Saturday, the end is near. If you want to see what will now be the series finale, it will air at 9 p.m. May 26 on KSEE (Channel 24.1).
The series became a little confusing in the second season, especially for those of us who aren’t followers of the theater. Often, it felt like there comments made that only those who have love the theater would understand.
The biggest thing I got out of the two seasons was getting to see and hear Megan Hilty as Ivy Lynn. I never got to see her stage work in “Wicked” or “9 to 5: The Musical” but was lucky enough to get to be introduced to her through the TV series. When I ran into Hilty at an NBC party, I told her that there are three female artists who give me goosebumps when I hear them sing — Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenowith and her.
After thanking me for the compliment, we talked about TV, how tough it is to work on Broadway and her new album.
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The 2013-2014 TV schedule for FOX won’t look that different as the only programs that have been canceled include “The Cleveland Show” and “Touch.” They join the previously axed “The Mob Doctor” and “Ben and Kate.” This was also the final season for “Fringe.”
After airing “Cops” for 25 years, the reality show moves to Spike TV.
Once again, FOX will have a fall season lineup and then shuffle programming at mid-season.
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Comedy is killing NBC. Once the home for some of the best TV comedies — “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” “The Cosby Show” — NBC is struggling to find good shows to make viewers laugh. Heading into the 2013-2014 season, NBC will return only two comedies — “Parks & Recreation” and “Community.”
Gone are the comedies “The Office,” “Whitney,” “Up All Night,” “Animal Practice,” “Are You There, Chelsea?,” “The New Normal,” “Go On”,” “Guys With Kids” and “1600 Penn.”
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