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Among Laguna Beach’s 20 hotels, Aliso Creek Inn may well be the lone holdout to lack flatscreen TVs in its suites. In two of its 62 rooms, guests still dial on rotary phones. Reviews on Tripadvisor alternately rave about its unspoiled natural splendor or rant about smelly, dated...

America is a place of turmoil.  While I was growing up in Newport Beach, there were TV stories of fire hoses spraying black people and race riots in Los Angeles. Then there was war in a place called Vietnam and my parents worried I would be called up and killed. None of it was...

The iconic Wigwam Motel, vintage gas stations, dilapidated coffee shops, countless other structures along the storied highway Route 66 are subjects that inspire painter David Milton. His oil and watercolor works find patrons at Laguna Beach’s art festivals and further afield, at...

The Laguna Dance Festival’s annual fundraising event drew 185 guests on June 20 to celebrate dance and Desmond Richardson, a renowned choreographer, dancer, artist, actor and co-artistic director of New York’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Local audiences may well be seeing...

Mayor Leads Off Concert Besides mayor and former tavern owner, Kelly Boyd will add a new title to his repertoire when he conducts the Community Band in “God Bless America,” opening the 5:30 p.m. concert Monday, July 8 on the Festival of Arts’ grounds Boyd’s love for music...

Finding Inspiration in the Mix of Art and Music Art Talks kick off at noon Thursday, July 11 with  “Noteworthy,” a discussion on art and music led by Scott Moore with exhibitors Tom Swimm, Breck Rothage, and Marlo Bartels on the Festival of Arts’ grounds. They’ll discuss not only...

Chosen from among 900 submissions, “Moscow,” by playwright Lojo Simon of Laguna Beach, will be presented at the Samuel French Inc. Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival in New York’s Clurman Theatre. Of 30 plays presented, six finalists will be chosen to receive publication and...

Have you noticed that if you attempt to care deeply about everyone and everything, you end up stretched so thin that you become brittle, numb and uncaring? On the other hand, if you decide to live with a protective attitude, limiting your caring to only a few people, places and...

Ticket Sales Begin for Girls Night Out Benefit Tickets are on sale for a night of pampering, noshing and silent auction shopping during the fifth annual Girls Night Out benefit for the Boys and Girls Club.  Tickets are $150 each for the event on the grounds of Wilson’s...

Joie Pierce Jones, age 72, passed into the light on June 23 after several years of failing health. As a high school student in Abilene, Tex., Jones won the National Science Fair using a rocket he built to measure radiation in the upper atmosphere. The rocket rose 52 miles, a...

Recently I spent two 10-12-hour days at the California Coastal Commission meeting in Long Beach’s City Council Chambers.  Had my schedule permitted, I would have attended the third and final day of that meeting. I attended because of my growing interest in protecting the Golden...

Laguna Beach’s Beautification Council honored aesthetic improvements to homes and businesses last week, the 45th annual awards Receiving commercial awards were: Bank of America, for its rose garden; Hotel Seven Four One for its contemporary excellence; Joe and Jane Hanauer for...

By Mark D. Crantz   Gilligan has an island and wants to be found. I have a paradise, Laguna Beach, I don’t want found out.  Wish me luck with that because there are spies among us.  Recent news has revealed that NSA is looking into everybody’s business. NSA says it is...

  Weekend Lineup at the Festivals: Sawdust Festival, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. 935 Laguna Canyon Rd. 949-494-3030 www.sawdustartfestival.org Fri. July 5: 11:30 a.m., Denise Rosier, Larking Project; noon, Trevor Green; 5 p.m., Chris & Sue, Ted Vautrinot Duo; 5:30 p.m., Full...

Were the famous founding fathers who wrote and voted for the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate this week just like some of the leaders of our home-created organizations? It’s hard to imagine but in the 1770s there were only 2.5 million people in the whole country—then...