In London, Fashion Takes a Back Seat

LONDON — They may have kept calm and carried on, but life hasn’t been easy this week for London’s designers and brands, which have been showing their spring collections against a backdrop of terror and protest.
Most chief executive officers, designers and journalists interviewed said they didn’t alter their plans in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attack in which a crude, homemade bomb exploded on an Underground train in west London. The event, however, put a damper on the first day of London Fashion Week, and left visitors and city dwellers alike spooked, although they remained resilient.
“You and I take the Tube. We all do. Nothing has changed. You get on with life,” said London retailer Simon Burstein on the sidelines of the Alice Archer presentation.
“It’s sadly an ongoing situation that we’re all sort of living with daily,” said designer Phoebe English, who presented a monochromatic, sombre lineup on puppets. “It’s sadly a quite regular situation in London and a real part of living and working here. It’s a case of carrying on and not being run down by it.”
“It’s really sad and horrible, but that’s the reality of the world now,” reiterated British milliner Stephen Jones.
On Friday morning following the

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18.09.2017No comments
2 Orange County motorcyclists killed in head-on crash; Ortega Highway reopens

Two Orange County residents were killed in a head-on motorcycle crash Sunday morning on the Ortega Highway west of Lake Elsinore, authorities said.

The mountain road, officially known as Highway 74, was shut down in both directions from Grand Avenue in Lake Elsinore to the Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano. Just after 1 p.m., the highway reopened to westbound traffic, quickly followed by eastbound lanes.

The names and ages of the people killed have not been released, but California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Lassig said the man heading east was a La Habra resident on a Yamaha sportsbike, and the man heading west was a Buena Park resident on a BMW sportsbike.

The crash was reported just before 10:30 a.m. near the Ortega Oaks Candy Store. The rider going east was traveling at an unsafe speed as he approached a curve, Lassig said. He crossed the double-yellow line and hit the westbound rider head-on. Both were killed at the scene.

Though the day was overcast with some drizzle Sunday morning, Lassig said the highway was dry.

The CHP is investigating the crash.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

18.09.2017No comments
Green Day delivers a terrific night of punk rock and positivity Saturday at the Rose Bowl

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  • Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Mike Dirnt of Green Day performs during the ‘Revolution Radio Tour’ stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Mike Dirnt of Green Day performs during the ‘Revolution Radio Tour’ stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • TrŽ Cool of Green Day says hello to the crowd at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    TrŽ Cool of Green Day says hello to the crowd at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day perform at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day perform at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Jason White of Green Day performs during the Revolution Radio Tour stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Jason White of Green Day performs during the Revolution Radio Tour stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Drunk Bunny makes an appearance before Green Day hits the stage at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Drunk Bunny makes an appearance before Green Day hits the stage at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Green Day performs during their ‘Revolution Radio Tour’ stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Green Day performs during their ‘Revolution Radio Tour’ stop at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Tré Cool of Green Day performs during the Revolution Radio Tour at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Tré Cool of Green Day performs during the Revolution Radio Tour at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Drunk Bunny makes an appearance before Green Day hits the stage at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Drunk Bunny makes an appearance before Green Day hits the stage at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

  • Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

    Van McCann of Catfish and the Bottlemen opens for Green Day at the Rose Bowl. KELLY A. SWIFT, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

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Early in Green Day’s tour finale at the Rose Bowl on Saturday singer Billie Joe Armstrong paused on stage to address the crowd as the rest of the band riffed on the song “Letterbomb” behind him.

“I’m so sick of the negativity that’s going on out there,” Armstrong declared. “The cynicism, the corruption. Not tonight! Tonight is going to be about compassion and love and the truth!”

It was a message that Armstrong and Green Day repeated throughout the 27 songs and 2 1/2 hours they were on stage, in the songs and in the singer’s frequent exhortations to the crowd: Don’t despair. Fight for what’s right. Love each other. Live your truth.

And most of all, at least on this night with this iconic American punk band, have fun, an order that was a breeze to comply with for the fans in the not-quite-full stadium, given the kind of show this band can deliver when it’s at its peak as it was on Saturday night.

The band kicked off the night with a burst of energy, blazing through “Know Your Enemy,” and then a pair from the current “Revolution Radio” album, “Bang Bang,” and the title track. They’ve been touring this album nearly a year now, and the performance showed it.

This isn’t your sloppy, drunk, just-messing-around punk rock — you don’t get to the arenas and stadiums without being professional, and three decades into a career that’s seen Green Day inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool — augmented on tour by three additional musicians — know how to give the fans a show.

Armstrong, in particular, is a showman, running back and forth across the stage almost without pause Saturday, leaping off his sound monitor to finish off one song or another — at 45 it’s impressive that his knees can take it — and interacting with the fans almost nonstop, making a connection between the stage and the stands that was truly exciting, even endearing to watch.

“Up on your feet, this is not a (bleepin’) tea party, this is a rock ‘n’ roll show!” he shouted early on, and the crowd responded with a roar then and throughout the night when they weren’t singing along to one Green Day hit after another.

Standouts in the top half of the show included “Holiday” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” the first of eight tracks performed from the landmark “American Idiot” album, and “Longview,” a signature song from the group’s 1994 breakout album “Dookie.” But older, more obscure songs — “2000 Light Years Away” and “Armatage Shanks” — got almost as big a response and almost as much singing along from the fans.

Four times throughout the set Armstrong pulled fans onto the stage to sing or play guitar, and it didn’t matter that much how good they were — my favorite was the guy who said it was his birthday and nailed his vocal and performance on “Longview” but totally flubbed his stage dive back into the crowd — because it really felt like it was more about the community of band and fans — and the fun both wanted to share — than anything else.

Other songs, such as “Welcome to Paradise,” “Minority” and “Basket Case,” remind you of how many hits Green Day has scored on alternative radio over the years, but as the show wound down, the band returned to a pair of tracks from “Revolution Radio” to show how relevant and fresh its albums remain today. “Forever Now,” the final number of the main set, on album and on stage Saturday, is showpiece, a three-part mini-rock opera with a hint of the influence these guys have drawn from such forbears as the Who, and absolutely not the kind of song a band reaches for if it’s on cruise control.

A pair of encores wrapped things up with a lovely bookend of all the things that make Green Day special. The first came with all the power the group could muster, a pairing of “American Idiot” and “Jesus of Suburbia,” two epic anthems built for the big stages these guys play.

But the second encore sent the crowd home with some of that love and kindness that Armstrong had preached all night, as he walked on stage alone with an acoustic guitar to sing “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” one of the gentlest numbers in Green Day’s catalog, followed by “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”

That song’s refrain includes the lines, “It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right / I hope you had the time of your life,” and heading home you just know it summed up how all these fans felt about the show they’d just experienced together.

The British rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen have been rightly making a mark in the United States over the past year or two and were picked to open for Green Day on part of its tour, including Saturday. Unfortunately, the usual Rose Bowl traffic mess kept me from getting there in time to catch their 30-minute set, but based on the albums alone they’re definitely worth a listen.

Green Day

When: Sept. 16

Where: Rose Bowl, Pasadena

18.09.2017No comments
Townshend’s ‘Quadrophenia’ is a classical rocker at the Greek Theatre

  • Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

  • Billy Idol, left, and Alfie Boe perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Billy Idol, left, and Alfie Boe perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

  • Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

  • Billy Idol performs Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Billy Idol performs Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

  • Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Alfie Boe, left, and Pete Townshend perform Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

  • Alfie Boe performs Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

    Alfie Boe performs Saturday at the Greek Theatre. (Photo courtesy of the Greek Theatre)

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Nobody smashed a cello. No tympani were blown up.

Make no mistake, though. “Classic Quadrophenia,” complete with orchestra and choir, is a rock show.

It’s a classical-ized version of what Pete Townshend acknowledges to be his most thoroughly satisfying work, The Who’s “Quadrophenia,” which was released as a double-album in 1973 and would become a stage show and a movie. Townshend finished his brief U.S. tour of the show Saturday at the Greek Theatre.

Even with the robed choir and the orchestra complete with oboes and double basses and even a guy playing the triangle, the music thundered like rock music and the rhythms and beats were rocking rhythms and beats.

“Quadrophenia” is the story of Jimmy, a British lower-middle-class adolescent in 1964 London whose life is in crisis. It’s the second of two Townshend-penned rock operas, the previous being “Tommy.”

Some might think “Tommy’s” story the more coherent of the two, making it superior to “Quadrophenia.” But in music, lyrics, recording and performance, “Quadrophenia” shines brighter.

“Quadrophenia,” too, might connect better with its audience. Jimmy feels awkward and that he really doesn’t fit in. It’s the same desperate loneliness just about every teen goes through.

The Who, for whom Townshend has been guitarist, part-time lead vocalist, chief songwriter and unquestioned leader, has performed “Quadrophenia” in its entirety on a couple of tours, with a most-recent rendering at Honda Center in 2013. This is its first go-around without Who lead singer Roger Daltrey and with a full-on orchestra playing arrangements created by Townshend’s classically trained partner Rachel Fuller.

Saturday’s “Quadrophenia” looked like a classical music performance – a large orchestra arranged in a traditional U-shape with conductor Robert Ziegler on a platform and a choir of around 40 in the back.

We even got classic-concert touches like the first-chair violinist taking her position later and separately from the other musicians. This usually draws loud applause at a symphony performance, but this was a rock audience so only a few in the crowd recognized the moment and clapped their hands.

The ’73 “Quadrophenia” record begins with an overture of sorts, “I Am the Sea.” Saturday’s “Classic Quadrophenia” started with an overture, too, but a more formal one with the coming themes fused together more intricately and delicately.

Then the show took the on-ramp to rock ‘n’ roll with “The Real Me” and the arrival of British tenor Alfie Boe, “Classic Quadrophenia” singer since a 2014 recording of these renditions who also is on the 2015 Royal Albert Hall performance that became a DVD.

Boe sang like the singer he is, an operatic type with the big voice needed for such roles as “Les Miserables’” Jean Valjean, for which he received his first acclaim several years ago. Those sustained “Love, Reign o’er Me” notes that Who singer Roger Daltrey sometimes struggles to hit were easily reached by Boe, with power to spare.

The rocker in him came out, too. Boe did some Townshend-in-his-prime-like leaps and a couple of touchdown spikes of the microphone, and plenty of fist-pumping, too. He seemed to enjoy shouting the naughty words in the lyrics and even gave everyone the finger at the end of “Is It in My Head.”

Townshend did not make an appearance until the concert’s fifth piece, “The Punk Meets the Godfather” – sort of an oddity, as on the original album he has a prevalent lead vocal on its fourth track, “Cut My Hair.”

That would continue during the night. Parts that Townshend sang on the ’73 album, like on “Sean and Sand,” were sung Saturday by Boe. And just when you figured that Boe was going to do all the Daltrey vocals, Townshend handled Daltrey’s parts on “Drowned.”

But this was a good idea. Boe sung all the Jimmy lines, with Townshend and Billy Idol singing the parts of the other “Quadrophenia” characters – Townshend as the bus driver, for example.

Idol took the stage a handful of times, to great applause and cheers, to sing the parts of the “Ace Face,” the leader of the Mods gang to which Boe’s Jimmy character belongs for a time. He brought with him a light-hearted, even goofy, attitude, especially when doing the “Bell Boy” parts that belonged to the late and nutty Who drummer Keith Moon.

There wasn’t an electric guitar in the place, with Townshend sticking with an acoustic guitar on a couple of songs. He was especially good on that instrument on “Drowned,” as usual.

There was a well-stocked percussion section but no rock-ish drum kit. To keep the rhythm and beat going, there was plenty of pizzicato supplied by the string section.

After the final, crashing notes of “Love, Reign o’er Me,” sung by Boe with the appropriate power and passion he brought to the stage all night, a second and somewhat looser rendering of “The Real Me” served as the encore. Boe, Idol and Townshend took turns on the lead vocals.

It was an entertaining show, more for the ears than the eyes. It perhaps serves as validation, too, that with “Quadrophenia,” Townshend produced a work of music with the stamina and vitality rarely created by his peers. When Townshend would turn and look joyfully at Ziegler and the orchestra and choir, it was apparent he felt that way, too.

Townshend rejoins The Who for shows in South America later this month. It’s difficult to imagine that he is going to enjoy that as much as he seemed to enjoy Saturday night at The Greek.

‘Pete Townshend’s Classic Quadrophenia’

Where: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles

When: Sept. 16

18.09.2017No comments
L.A. Kings’ goodwill trip to China took months of planning

When last season ended, one arm of the Kings organization immediately began the search for a new coach, president and general manager.

Another arm simultaneously launched into its own extensive project, planning the first ever NHL games in China.

The Kings and Canucks leave for Shanghai on Sunday to begin a groundbreaking week in China that has been a long time in the making.

Whether planning an excursion to the top of the 1,536-foot tall Oriental Pearl TV tower in Shanghai or calculating the ideal sleep patterns for the Kings, the fleet of employees designing the trip needed to account for nearly every minute of the coming week.

In addition to preseason games on Thursday in Shanghai and Sept. 23 in Beijing, the Kings will participate in youth hockey clinics the organization has been conducting in China for more than two years.

With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the country has set in motion a massive movement to develop youth sports of the winter variety.

Estimates are that China will have more than 500 hockey rinks completed less than three years from now, meaning only Canada, Russia and the U.S. will have more.

“Our goal is to go over there and grow the game and introduce the game to 1.3 billion people,” said Mike Altieri, the Kings Senior Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting. “I think that’s the critical component of this whole experience.”

Given that the trip is taking place during training camp, which began on Wednesday, another critical undertaking for the Kings is making sure their preparation for the regular season isn’t compromised. There is a 15-hour time change in Shanghai, to which the flight from LAX is nearly 14 hours.

There have been great measures taken to ensure minimal jet lag, among many other concerns addressed by the Kings staff.

A sleep expert was consulted about how best to pattern the Kings’ rest. The decision was made to sleep only four or five hours of the flight to Shanghai. That leaves nine or ten hours to fill.

“We’ve got lots of work to do,” Kings coach John Stevens said. “It’ll give us an opportunity to sit down with each player. Coaches can talk with D pairs or lines. (Head strength and conditioning coach) Matt Price has even put together a dynamic warm-up, an activity that’s available to them if they want to get up and move around.”

Plans for in-flight activities required relatively short-term planning compared to the effort to ensure that each player sail smoothly through customs when they arrive in China.

While players were scattered around the world during the offseason, the Kings were charged with arranging a Chinese visa for each. Obtaining the necessary documents, including each player’s passport, was no small undertaking.

On top of arranging for interpreters and drivers in China, the Kings have given the players a number of options for excursions during their down time.

Some may tour a 780-year old temple while others will shop on Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s version of New York’s Fifth Avenue.

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the itinerary yet, but I think I’ll have a little bit of time on the plane,” Kings forward Dustin Brown said on Friday. “It’s going to be a long one.”

Said center Anze Kopitar, “I really like the mongolian beef. I’m sure that will be on my menu at some point.”

The one activity in which all Kings employees will participate is a trip to the Great Wall of China while in Beijing, a excursion completed only when they bobsled from the top to the bottom.

“It’s a great opportunity to spend some time together, hopefully really root some relationships within our group,” Stevens said. “We’ll get some quality practice time, play two games and experience a culture that most if not all the players haven’t had a chance to experience.”

18.09.2017No comments