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LADIES NIGHT OUT

ANNUAL EVENT SPREADS ITS WINGS FOR 10TH ANNIVERSARY

BY JULIA SHAPERO

Acancer support organization’s annual Ladies Night Out event will last an entire week this year.

Cancer Support Community Pasadena will be hosting Ladies Week Out from October 26 to October 31 for the 10th anniversary of its Ladies Night Out event.

CSCP is a nonprofit organization that provides free programs to families facing cancer, said Patricia Ostiller, the executive director of the organization.

The organization offers free support groups led by licensed therapists, educational workshops and healthy lifestyle classes to address the emotional and social needs of cancer patients, she added.

“Our primary goal is to ensure that nobody in the San Gabriel Valley goes through cancer alone,” Ostiller said.

For the past 10 years, Ladies Night Out has typically been held at the beginning of October each year to honor the women who have been affected by cancer, said events manager Kim Ferreira.

However, with the coronavirus pandemic, CSCP is unable to hold the event inperson in its standard format, leading them to create a week-long event instead, Ferreira said.

“We decided that it was time for us to be able to give back to the community that has given so much to us in the past,” she said. “So, we have built an entire week of celebration in order to do so.”

Each day throughout Ladies Week Out, three to 10 different restaurants and shops in the area will give back to CSCP whenever someone shops or dines in their location and mentions CSCP or brings a flier, Ferreira said.

She said to make the events inclusive to their members facing cancer, they are also offering options to shop online.

The organization has also produced passports that can be purchased, which list the shops where people can receive stamps as they attend events and dine in the restaurants, Ferreira said. At the end of the week, participants will have the chance to win prizes, she added.

“This is our way of hopefully being able to bring new faces and new customers to the shops, as well as still being able to have the fundraiser that we need to have this year in order for us to continue to provide the free services that (we offer),” Ferreira said.

Since they also wanted people to be able to get active, Ferreira said they will be hosting a virtual run, walk or ride.

“Whether you’re walking around the block, or you’re biking 50 miles, whatever it is, all we need you to do is just tag us (and) shoot pictures of your progress,” she said. “And then that gives people the chance to get active in this quarantined life, where we’re all just locked down at home.”

CSCP will also hold a Halloween bingo on October 31 over Zoom to celebrate both Halloween and the event, Ferreira added.

“The goal of this event was to do something a little bit different, celebrate our community, celebrate Cancer Support Community, and then also give people an option to be able to do something in the socially distanced world that we’re in right now,” she said.

Ostiller added that it is particularly difficult to face cancer during COVID-19.

“Imagine receiving a cancer diagnosis in the midst of a pandemic,” she said. “It’s been a challenging year for all of us in Pasadena, in the world. But imagine facing cancer during COVID-19.”

While most people have experienced isolation this year, Ostiller said that cancer patients are even more isolated, given that they are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their compromised immune system.

The coronavirus pandemic has also caused disruptions and delays in the treatment of cancer patients and led many people not to have preventive screenings, she said. Ostiller added that health care providers are now anticipating a surge in later stage cancer diagnoses next year.

She said that the funds from Ladies Week Out are key to allowing them to continue to provide their services, including 12 weekly support groups facilitated by licensed professionals and over 100 educational workshops and healthy lifestyle classes per month.

“Pandemic or not, cancer is not stopping,” Ostiller said. “And we need to continue to have the funds so that we can support these families who are facing cancer in our community.” n

PASADENA FATHER BRINGS THE CREEPY HOLIDAY INTO HOMES

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

Pasadena father has developed an Ainnovative way for children to safely experience Halloween during the COVID-19 pandemic, and even extend the spooky celebration through out the month of October. Inspired by his 8-year-old-son, Miles, Rob Mitchell has launched - Photo courtesy Rob Mitchell Halloweenville at mytrickortreat.com, an online destination where children can decorate their own page, complete activities and play games while safely accumulating candy from family and friends.

“It started toward the end of July,” Mitchell said. “We have him home Miles Mitchell, left, inspired his father, Rob Mitchell, right, to every day and we’re trying to figure bring Halloween into homes virtually with mytrickortreat.com. out how to entertain him. I thought it would be fun to involve his family and friends online.

“Once I saw the domain was available, I figured out how to make it work.”

In Halloweenville, children can reveal their costumes, create their own avatar, play games such as Moto X3M Spooky Land, build their own scary Halloweenville and watch their personal trick-or-treat bag fill with candy. Family and friends are invited to purchase candy for virtual trick-or-treat bags using a private code, with snack-size candy available in six different bundles. When their bag is full, parents can have it delivered to their home.

“Halloweenville is a safe space to celebrate Halloween during these unprecedented times,” said Mitchell, a part-time artist who sells health insurance for Cigna. “Parents want a safe alternative to traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating, and this not only provides that but offers additional Halloween-focused activities to help children celebrate the holiday for a longer period of time. Miles is already excited to watch his virtual trick-or-treat bag fill up with candy and read messages from friends and family.”

Kids can sign up for free and then parents send a link to family and friends. Once they hit 150 candies, it’s free shipping. Those who don’t quite hit 150 must pay $7 for shipping and handling.

My Treat Bag LLC helps parents and children safely celebrate all occasions, including birthdays, milestones and other holidays. Through the process of creating Halloweenville, it quickly became apparent to him that this format serves a purpose beyond one holiday.

“Parents and children are looking for new forms of positive interaction and entertainment with their close friends and family,” Mitchell said. “With or without COVID-19, many of us live busy lives or are separated by distance. My Treat Bag LLC will offer an effective way to stay connected through all of life’s occasions and celebrate each other.”

Parents can register their children for Halloweenville at mytrickortreat.com. Once registered, children can begin creating their avatars and building their own Halloweenville using backgrounds, characters and props. n

PASADENA’S LARA LIGHTBODY BRINGS POSITIVITY TO THE PANDEMIC

BY JULIA SHAPERO

hen the United States started to feel the repercussions

Wof the coronavirus pandemic in March, Lara Lightbody reached out to her friends in Asia who had already been dealing with the virus for several months.

“I think a lot of us were quite fearful of what was happening,” said Lightbody, a British expatriate who moved from China to Pasadena in 2018. “And the first thing I did was pick up the phone to all my friends in Asia and just said, ‘How are you guys doing? How does this play out?’”

She said the conversations she had with her friends when the lockdowns began in March were particularly comforting.

“I thought to myself … what would happen if you didn't know anyone who was going through this already and had no one to talk to?” she said.

These experiences led Lightbody to create and produce her podcast “Coexisting,” a collection of audio stories about people sheltering at home around the world. Since she began interviewing in March, Lightbody has talked to people from 32 countries about their experiences with lockdown.

“Instead of the stories that I think a lot of us are hearing about people on the front lines, I was quite interested in hearing about what people are all doing as they sit at home,” she said.

The episodes, which are released twice a week on Apple Podcasts, each feature an interview centered around the same eight questions.

A lawyer by training, Lightbody said she hadn’t produced a podcast before but had always been interested in it.

“I've kind of learned it on the job, almost everything I've done,” she said. “I've learnt as I go along.”

She added that she had been working on preproduction for a podcast about working mothers before the pandemic. However, due to COVID-19, most of the women she was set to interview were unable to speak with her and she changed her focus.

Michelle Gardiner, who met Lightbody through an expatriate group in Los Angeles, said she helped Lightbody get the message out about the podcast.

“When Lara started to bring it all together having produced it all remotely from her apartment down in Pasadena, (with) my background within the entertainment, marketing and media arena, I just offered my help.”

The podcast has been ranked a Top 10 Documentary Podcast in Hong Kong; and Singapore, Top 40 in the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, Sweden and Norway; and Top 50 in France and Germany, according to the press release.

Lightbody said she thinks the podcast has resonated with people because of its positive focus.

“I think we are all in dire need of some positive news, even in the midst of this,” she said. “People are really having a hard time in lots of ways, but actually there is a certain joy that comes out of living differently for a short period of time, and there's comfort that people are finding.”

Gardiner added that the podcast is also comforting because it reminds people that they are not alone during this time.

“Hearing those stories, I suppose in a strange way, it's a sound to say, it's not just me that is feeling this,” Gardiner said. “It's not just my community that's affected and … knowing that everyone else is going through similar versions creates a feeling of peace.”

By editing each episode to about 15 minutes, Lightbody said she hopes to keep the podcasts from becoming too long.

“I want it to be like a little bright interlude in your day, so you can listen to it very quickly while you're washing the dishes or playing with kids or something,” she said. “And it's just something to lift you up a little bit.”

She added she plans to do a second series, talking to people in industries that have completely changed their practices in order to deal with COVID-19, such as the theater, film and restaurant industries.

“I think it's a really fascinating thing how things are pivoting, things that never change and haven't changed for decades, like the airline industry, overnight is changing,” she said.

She said she also plans to talk to people who have changed what they’re doing in life as a result of COVID-19 in a positive way, such as starting new businesses or leaving their homes, going on the road and traveling with their families.

“One thing I really want to do with a podcast is to make it positive,” she said. “I know that sounds really glib to say this when people are really suffering and losing their jobs and all this, but the truth is, I think we all need that injection of positivity.” n

‘Love & Desperation’

COVINA SINGER-SONGWRITER RICK SHEA CELEBRATES NEW ALBUM DURING WEEKLY LIVESTREAM

BY BLISS BOWEN

Veteran Covina songwriter Rick Shea’s song “(Down at the Bar at) Gypsy Sally’s” evokes late club nights from the pre-COVID-19 past. “Just be cool, you’ll be alright,” he assures us as we enter. “You can pick your pills or pick your poison/But you sure don’t pick a fight.” Easy enough to imagine Shea nodding from a corner stage toward the formidable owner of the joint (“She’s got a shotgun Rick Shea stands alongside Terry Allen’s sculpture of a car. in the corner/ She keeps a shiv behind the bar”).

Gypsy Sally’s peopled by volatile characters—Stagger Lee, Little Walter, Lightnin’, Thelma—plucked from the blues canon, benfiting the smoky grooves set out by drummer Shawn Nourse and bassist Jeff Turmes and the taut atmosphere sketched by Phil Parlapiano’s accordion. Just after Shea’s tension-slicing guitar solo he warns, “The Wolfman’s on the prowl/ …You might hear him start to howl,” then steps back for an explosive coda from Turmes, whose saxophone speaks that language too elusive to be constrained by words.

It’s the creative camaraderie between players that evokes Shea & Co. performing on Southland stages. They’ve performed together in numerous configurations, and their intuitive feel for where and how they will place notes flavors that song and the album from which it comes, “Love & Desperation,” being released October 23 by Tres Pescadores. In addition to Nourse and longtime bassist Dave Hall, Shea is joined by guests such as keyboardist Skip Edwards, trumpeter Probyn Gregory, accordionist David Jackson, singer Dan Navarro, and fiddler Jim Shirey.

“I could tell all the parts were good as they came in,” Shea said, describing the process of “building” tracks recorded and emailed from individual home studios. “These guys were so great. It really does sound like a bunch of guys playing together.”

The album connects with essential touchstones: love, community, nature, music. Country-blues tunes have long been a staple of Shea’s repertoire, but there’s a more pronounced blues element than has been heard on his previous recordings.

“I think that’s because of everything that’s going on,” Shea acknowledged with a laugh. He said he was “affected more than inspired” by current events, but 2020’s troubles inevitably echo behind tracks such as the smoldering “Blues at Midnight” and a rollicking cover of Al Ferrier’s “Blues Stop Knockin’ at My Door.” Gilded with Shea’s pedal steel and co-written with Kim Ringer, daughter of late California folk songwriter Jim Ringer, “She Sang of the Earth” celebrates the Golden State’s natural and musical heritage. Like “Gypsy Sally’s” (a name borrowed from Townes Van Zandt’s “Tecumseh Valley”), it seems to speak of a far-away world that’s never heard of COVID-19.

“That’s kind of where it came from—thinking about all of these places,” said Shea, who first developed his musical chops playing bars and truck stops around San Bernardino before graduating to LA honky-tonks and sideman gigs for Dave Alvin and others. “It’s a fantasy. All of those people for the most part are gone. But some nights, I would look out and imagine if maybe all of those (characters) were there. Even if they’re not, a lot of times there would be people that to me were like them.” n

Rick Shea celebrates the release of “Love & Desperation” at his weekly concert 5 p.m. Saturday, October 24, livestreamed on Facebook Live. For more info, visit rickshea.com.