“I have always been a storm.”– The High Priestess Stevie Nicks at the Hollywood Bowl, October 3, 2022
I spent countless hours singing along to Stevie Nicks’ music in my childhood bedroom in Las Cruces, NM. I had a perfect dress, my mom’s shawl, a moon necklace, and any other accessory I could find. I learned to read tarot cards, won a History Day competition on my report of The Romani, and was constantly trying to grow my hair longer. Of course, I have always wanted to see Stevie Nicks in concert. My first attempt to see her would have been in Las Cruces when Fleetwood Mac was doing a reunion and playing the Pan Am Center. I had connections, really good connections because I was a hostess at the Village Inn restaurant. This meant I had power, real power because I controlled where and when you got a table. So I was getting 2nd row tickets and backstage passes. Continue reading →
Heritage Farm Long Beach. Photos by Karin E. Baker for The LA Beat.
Long Beach’s Heritage Farm celebrates its recent opening with an ongoing dinner series in collaboration with acclaimed local chefs.
A charming urban farm and event space, Heritage Farm is owned by Chef Philip Pretty and his sister Lauren. The duo also owns Heritage, the acclaimed zero-waste, fine-dining restaurant. Heritage is one of only five Long Beach eateries to be awarded Michelin Plate status in 2022.
Complete with chicken coop and garden boxes growing fresh produce, Heritage Farm supplies more than half of the produce used at nearby Heritage. “We plan to grow 42 varieties of produce by spring,” Chef Pretty told me when I attended one of Heritage Farm’s Saturday night dinners.
That dinner, a collab between Chef Pretty and Chef Yoya Takahashi of Kodo in Downtown LA’s Arts District, was an exquisitely prepared four-course meal focused on using produce grown on the premises.
“Night Gallery: Season 2” (1971-72, Kino Lorber) Sophomore season of the Rod Serling-hosted horror anthology series essentially follows the same template as its predecessor, with a respectable number of effective episodes and a sizable number of out-and-out duds. That ratio reflects the breakdown of most TV anthology series, save perhaps Serling’s “Twilight Zone,” to which this series couldn’t help but be compared. But “Night Gallery” wasn’t “Twilight Zone,” largely because Serling’s hand was off the reins: he wrote and hosted while Jack Laird, a capable but eccentric TV vet, oversaw the production and was responsible for the majority of its “humorous” vignettes, which are represented in this set by such dire efforts as “Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture” (Lovecraftian riffing with Carl Reiner) and blackout bits like “Phantom of What Opera?” with Leslie Nielsen.
Five top LA restaurants and bars will offer Mini Martinis made from Kástra Eliónvodka from October 11-16 for as little as $5 each!
If you’re unfamiliar with Kástra Elión, it’s a family-owned premium sipping vodka. Artisanally crafted in Greece, Kástra Elión is distilled from hand-picked Greek olives, then blended with curated grains.
Each Mini Martini is $8, but you can get one for an even better price – just $5 – if you print the Kástra Elión passport here and present it a participating bar or restaurant (listed below) during Mini Martini Week.
Each participating restaurant and bar will offer its own unique take on the Mini Martini, so you can enjoy a variety of sippable experiences.
One night my husband was at band practice, and I was just scrolling thru The Facebook when I saw a friend post a news headline about how Rammstein’s show in England could be heard over ten miles away. I went immediately to Twitter for more news and there were reports of people thinking the stadium had blown-up, scientists at the PETRA III particle accelerator in Belgium sharing seismometer readings.
Within five minutes I had purchased tickets to their show in Los Angeles.
Can I get a – HELL YEAH!!!
If you asked me to name a single Rammstein song, I can’t. But I have seen the Rammstein documentary and now I have seen them live and all I can say is – HOLY SHIT! Continue reading →
When you think of the Cat and Fiddle you might think of late nights throwing back pints of Guinness, or maybe their Sunday roasts. Now you can also enjoy a civilized afternoon tea with three tiers of traditional treats. We were recently invited to try out the experience in their relatively new location. The Fiddle’s baked goods are as good as any bakery. The orange-glazed scones are proper British scones, not the cake-like pastries Americans call scones. Naturally, it was accompanied by clotted cream and their own homemade cinnamon orange marmalade, making it technically a “cream tea.”
Also stellar is the traditional Tottenham Cake, a classic sponge cake topped with pink icing. But what really blew me away was the shortbread, which was tender and buttery, but strong enough to be cut out with a whimsical cookie cutter without crumbling. As you might expect, the sausage roll, wrapped in flaky pastry, was also absolute perfection. The tea was rounded out by a trio of little crustless tea sandwiches — curried egg salad, minted cucumber with marscapone, and their tender roast beefwith a jalapeno jelly and grilled onions.
And what is tea without a hot cuppa? Served piping hot, PG Tips black English tea is the perfect accompaniment, but if you prefer you can order Earl Grey, Chamomile, or Peppermint. Hell, order a Guinness if you feel like it. Afternoon tea is offered Saturdays and Sundays from noon until 4 pm. and costs $38 per person.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here at The Los Angeles Beat, and I’ve been waiting for a local event that I think music fans in our fair city would want to know about. And of course, there was that pandemic thing. Bill German, the author of what is widely considered the most heartwarming book ever written on The Rolling Stones, “Under Their Thumb” is coming to Los Angeles for a book signing!
If you’ve read his book, you know that the timeline in it is the period in the 1980s when the band was going through what they called, “World War III”, the most acrimonious period in Stones history. They weren’t recording, touring, or really speaking, except to sling mud at each other in the press. In the middle of this melee walked a squeaky-clean, self-described, “Nice boy from Brooklyn.” It is precisely that unlikely juxtaposition of innocence and drug-soaked jadedness that makes German’s account of these times so compelling. The book is a real page-turner and is almost impossible to put down. It’s the real-life version of “Almost Famous”
The book was updated earlier this year to coincide with the band’s 60th anniversary, and it answered all those questions that fans were left with after reading it the first time around, questions like, “What did the band think of the book?” or, “Do you still speak to Ron Wood?” Show up for the book signing for answers to these and more.
If you haven’t read the book, Saturday, October 15th is going to be your lucky day, because Bill German will be at the Musichead Gallery on Sunset from 1pm to 3pm, signing books and regaling the crowd with readings from the book and kibbitzing with fans. Admission to the event is $30 and it includes a signed copy of the book. This is a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes with The Rolling Stones.
A new outdoor bar devoted exclusively to tequila and mezcal recently opened in Newport Beach. Located on a waterfront patio offering views of Newport Bay, The Tequila Bar at A+O Restaurant|Bar is an excellent place to savor difficult-to-find agave-based spirits while escaping the heat and bustle of LA.
The Tequila Bar is part of Balboa Bay Resort. Recently named the #1 Resort in Newport Beach by U.S. News & World Report, Balboa Bay Resort is both luxurious and approachable. It’s the only Forbes Four Star and AAA Four Diamond Luxury Waterfront Resort in Newport Beach.
The sips aren’t the only thing that make this bar special. The expansive waterfront setting is a perfect spot for watching a gorgeous sunset, relaxing in the ocean air, and toasting some of your favorite people in front of gorgeous fire tables.
The collection of dozens of tequilas and mezcals includes numerous limited editions and rarities. Sip one in the form of a one-ounce shot or enjoy one of five tequila and mezcal flights. Mezcal flights are offered in gorgeous shot glasses made of pink Himalayan salt. Flights range in price from $50 to $1000, and you can share a flight with a friend if you’re so inclined.
Phil Manzanera, left, and Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music perform at the Kia Forum. Photo by Matthew Becker, used with permission.
Roxy Music’s 50th Anniversary Tour, which had its final performance in North America last night at the Kia Forum, has at its heart a somewhat fascinating premise. It is less of a roaring, victorious affirmation that “we’re back,” than a question to the artists on the stage. That question is, “now that your lead singer’s distinctive voice has been diminished to little more than a whisper, what kind of show can you possibly put on?”
And the answer turns out to be, “we’re going to let him whisper all night long, and make the best of it.” When you have the right band, the right catalog, and the right whisperer, you can make quite a bit out of that.
Bryan Ferry’s unmistakable voice has always been a major part of this band’s magic, and there was no getting around the fact that in this iteration, he’s lost a lot of that remarkable instrument. But he still whispers in tune, and has adjusted his phrasing to suit his new way of doing things. A lot of the songs were re-set in lower keys. Someone pointed out that there were no songs from the monumental 1973 album Stranded in the set list at all, which surprised me until I realized, most of those are among his most croony, gymnastic vocal performances. There would have been no way to pull off a tour de force like “Song For Europe” today. Continue reading →
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here at The Los Angeles Beat, and I’ve been waiting for a local event that I think music fans in our fair city would want to know about. And of course, there was that pandemic thing. Bill German, the author of what is widely considered the most heartwarming book ever written on The Rolling Stones, “Under Their Thumb” is coming to Los Angeles for a book signing!
A new outdoor bar devoted exclusively to tequila and mezcal recently opened in Newport Beach. Located on a waterfront patio offering views of Newport Bay, The Tequila Bar at A+O Restaurant|Bar is an excellent place to savor difficult-to-find agave-based spirits while escaping the heat and bustle of LA.
