Archive for the ‘San Pedro’ category

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Dodson House – San Pedro

December 20, 2013

Last week we had the opportunity to tour the Dodson house on 13th Street in San Pedro. Here is the entry from sanpedro.com

Built in 1888 by the Sepulveda family as a wedding present for their daughter Rudecinda and her husband, James Dodson, a merchant and one-time postmaster. Rudecinda Dodson dwelled in the home for the duration of her long life, becoming a notable local figure. Dodson House, one of San Pedro’s best examples of Victorian architecture, was originally located at the corner of 7th and Beacon Streets. Since then, it has been moved twice and has undergone restoration. Private residence, not open to the public.

Here’s an article written by The Daily Breeze writer Donna Littlejohn.

The two-story, gingerbread Victorian house — built in the 1880s by one of the port town’s early families — is getting some lively interest from potential buyers since it was put on the market and open for public viewing a couple of weeks ago.

Normally, the house has not been open to the public, but for weekends during the month of December it has been open for viewing. The reason it has been open is that the house is up for sale for a tidy sum of $800K. Such a bargain.

Here are some pictures.

The house has been beautifully restored. Someone probably put a lot of money into it. Here are some interior shots. Note the stain glass windows. Most of the plumbing has been updated except for the claw foot bathtubs. I can’t for the life of me figure out why one would replace all of the sink fixtures with ultra modern ones and leave the antique bath tubs.

So, who would pay $800K for this gem of a Victorian house? Not me certainly. The house is on the historic register, so you can’t change almost anything. The location stinks. It is right across from the San Pedro HS athletic field. Not exactly a tony upscale neighborhood.

Bed & Breakfast perhaps? Maybe, but there is no parking to speak of.

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Location:San Pedro, CA

Categories: California, San Pedro
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Little Fish Theatre – Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!)

December 6, 2013

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
 


 Thus began the play “Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And then Some!)” at the Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro. And it went downhill into silliness after that. Of course to my ear, tuned to Boston accents, it sounded to me like “Molly is dead”. Who the hell was Molly? Oh Marley, I get it. And then it goes down hill into serious silliness.
 
 So in two hours the cast of Chris McNair, Daniel Tennant and Stephen Alan Carver proceed to mash up just about every Christmas Story ever told. The full house hardly stopped laughing through out the entire show.
 
 They covered the Grinch. They talked about Christmas traditions from other countries. Particularly funny was the Netherlands. The Dutch Santa Claus (named Sinterklass) had helpers named Black Pete and arrived by way of steam boat from Spain. Tis true, look it up on Wikipedia. Actually right now, the Black Pete’s are causing a bit of a stir in the Netherlands.
 

 So the play continued, hitting on The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, and many other beloved Christmas Characters and stories. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer became Rudolph the Green Nose Reingoat due to copyright issues.
 
 So Chris kept trying to get back to Marley, but never got far. It somehow got mashed up with George Bailey (“It’s a Wonderful Life”). The audience was asked for their input on Christmas traditions. They even mentioned the Red Rider BB gun. (You’ll poke your eye out, Ralphie).
 
 The Little Fish Theatre is a cozy little theater in San Pedro that seats 65 people. The theater is located at 777 Centre Street. There is limited parking next to the theater. The prices are very reasonable. ($20 for students and seniors, $23 for everyone else) Donations are welcome. Seeing as yesterday was the first Thursday, many of the galleries on 6th and 7th streets were open late. Also, several food trucks were on hand for your dining pleasure.
 
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Location:San Pedro

Categories: Reviews, San Pedro
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SS Lane Victory

November 16, 2013

This afternoon Paula, Mary and I attended the annual meeting for the San Pedro Historical Society (See http://sanpedrobayhistoricalsociety.com/)
 The meeting was held at the Limani Taverna (previously known as Papadakis Taverna).
 
 After lunch and brief business meeting we got to hear from Capt. Greg Williams, US Merchant Marine (ret). The subject was the US Merchant Marine in WW2 in general and the SS Lane Victory.
 
 During WW2, the merchant marine was called upon to transport most of the supplies needed to run the war. Sometimes, new Liberty ships would not get far out of harbor before being sunk either by mines or German Uboats.
 
 Capt Williams told us the during the war, the press was prohibited from writing about the loss of Merchant Marine ships at sea. Indeed, the loss was great. The fatality rate in the Merchant Marine far exceeded that of the other services. Over 700 merchant ships were sunk during WW2.
 
 Click here for the wikipedia article on the Merchant Marine.
 
 The SS Lane Victory is the last operational Victory ship in existance. The Lane Victory saw service in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam providing the delivery of much needed supplies to our armed services. It is moored at pier 49 in San Pedro.
 

 The Victory ships were much like their predecessors the Liberty shops. They were mass produced in shipyards around the country. The Victory ships were faster than the Liberty ships (making 15-17 knots) and had a longer range. This made them less vulnerable to Uboat attacks. Click here for the Wiki.
 

 The Lane Victory is open for tours six days a week (closed on Thursday). Admission is $5 for and adult and $2 for children. The Lane Victory runs several day cruises around LA Harbor each year. Donations and volunteers are much appreciated. It costs a lot of money to keep the ship operational.
 
 Every five years, the ship goes into dry dock for inspection, bottom cleaning and painting. The Lane Victory is scheduled for dry dock in 2014 and they have a ways to go to raise the $900K for the overhaul and inspection.
 
 For additional info, click here for the Lane Victory web site.
 
 
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Location:San Pedro

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Fame – The Musical at the Warner Grand

July 22, 2013

This post is two reviews in one. The first part is about the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro. The second is about the production of “Fame – The Musical”.

The Warner Grand Theater on 6th St in San Pedro was built in 1931. It was designed by the architect B. Marcus Priteca and designer Anthony Heinsbergen in an Art-Deco style.

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It fell into disrepair by the 1990’s. Efforts to restore the theater started in the late 1990’s. The theater is currently used for film festivals, stage and music productions.

Here are some pictures of the interior. I sometimes get distracted looking at the beautiful art-deco facades and ceiling panels.

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Go to the Wikipedia entry on the Grand for more detail.

Paula and I were at the Grand on Saturday night for the Scalawag Productions “Fame – The Musical”. Scalawag Productions is a non-profit group that provides professional theater training for teens and young adults (ages 14-22).

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Okay, Fame is not one of my all time favorite musicals. I don’t walk out of theater with any of the tunes stuck in my head. For instance, in “Les Miz” or “Chicago”, I was hooked at the get go. But that being said, I loved this production. The kids in the cast were all fantastic. One standout was Kyra DeCastro who played “Miss Sherman” the english teacher. Kyra is 14 years old. She nailed the part.

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It is so nice to have the opportunity to attend productions like this at reasonable prices. I look forward to more productions from Scalawag.

Finally, here is the link to the Wiki entry for “Fame – The Musical”

Categories: California, Music, Reviews, San Pedro
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