The OC Register
Original Article -- http://goo.gl/n1VYXt

The premise sounds like something drafted in the notebook of a daydreaming teenager, the kind of thing that starts with, "You know what would be totally radical?"

It's the stuff of fantasy; Journey is onstage at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by a full orchestra. Guitarist Neal Schon is shredding on his custom green Paul Reed Smith, and just as he launches into the loudest part of "Anyway You Want It," with the entire crowd singing along, fireworks start to illuminate the sky. They're silent at first, but as they rise higher and creep over the crowd, thunderous booms accompany the white spirals, red flares and purple bursts that now spread to all four corners of the horizon.

Luckily, the notebook containing this rock fantasy belonged to the opening-night committee for the Hollywood Bowl, and on Saturday, Journey played with a full orchestra for the first time in a career that has spanned four decades.

Perhaps the group has never played with an orchestra before because every Journey song is an anthem already, and the five members of the band have had no difficulty filling arenas with their sound. Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor Tom Wilkins, a rock star himself in the eyes of Bowl regulars, understands that dynamic. That's what made the pairing work; his orchestra was there to complement, not upstage.

On massively popular tracks like "Wheel in the Sky" and "Who's Crying Now," Wilkins directed his players to let the band work its well-honed magic, only really stepping out of the shadows during guitar solos. The format made for a cohesive performance.

Aside from the monster singles, the band went for lesser-known tracks that could be reinterpreted with an orchestra without leaving the audience feeling defrauded. Singer Arnel Pineda won the crowd over with his passion for his Philippines homeland on the song "City of Hope." The band veered even further from the karaoke bar with the 1978 song "Winds of March." As the seven huge LCD screens behind emanated a sinister red, the song's harder prog-rock elements paired especially well with Wilkins' conducting.

As the crescent moon set over the tree line, leaving a very visible Jupiter and Venus on the horizon, those onstage, including the 20-member choir from the Youth Orchestra LA, may have had the best view of the night. When a gentle breeze picked up during the calm opening chords of "Patiently," it seemed as though Wilkins' baton had some authority over nature.

The few moments in the band's 2 1/2-hour set that lacked energy didn't last. By the end of the restrained "Mother, Father," the crowd was ready for fireworks. When the pyrotechnics began during "Anyway You Want It," they were incredible. As the explosions multiplied in size and volume, all eyes were turned skyward. Drummer Omar Hakim, filling in at the last minute for Deen Castronovo, leaned across his kit to catch a glimpse from under the Bowl's iconic arch.

The band left the stage after the fireworks and returned faster than you could say, "Yeah right, like they're not going to play 'Don't Stop Believing.'" The Bowl audience didn't need fireworks to get inspired this time, not for the best-selling song in the digital era. And they didn't need sheet music to sing along to an anthem so catchy that it was still being sung long after the orchestra's final bow.

"Let the 21-gun salute begin!" With those words, Pyro Spectaculars by Souza has once again started the countdown to July 4 as we celebrated Flag Day, June 14, in all our operations across the country.

CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Jim Sousa, reported "We are thrilled to once again be celebrating the land of the free and the home of the brave, quite literally from 'sea to shining sea.'" In addition to continuing the now-iconic execution of Macy's July 4th Independence Day Fireworks Spectacular in New York (the nation's largest), the Souzas are well into the final steps of preparation at locations spanning from San Diego to Atlantic City to the Pacific Northwest. This promises to be another Pyro Spectacular year of Independence Day celebrations.

 Although not an official federal holiday, Flag Day is celebrated throughout the country with the display of our national banner, as well as parades, picnics, and pyrotechnics. It marks the unofficial opening of the Independence Day Celebration season for patriotic Americans nationwide.

It was on June 14, 1777 that the Second Continental Congress adopted the American Flag. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 as "Flag Day." In the words of President Obama, "Over farmlands and town squares, atop skyscrapers and capitol buildings, the American flag soars. It reminds us of our history -- 13 colonies that rose up against an empire -- and celebrates the spirit of 50 proud States that form our Union today. On Flag Day and during National Flag Week, we pay tribute to the banner that weaves us together and waves above us all."

A pyrotechnics wiz takes us behind the scenes at the 38th Annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show — for insight, history […]

Click Here for the Orginal Article. 

Universal Studios Hollywood will usher in its annual “Grinchmas” holiday season today as Mayor Eric Garcetti tries his hand at Seussian rhyme while presenting a proclamation to Whoville Mayor Augustus Maywho and helping a host of Whos light the curving Whoville tree.

The Grinch — star of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” — will be on hand for the ceremonial event, along with his faithful antlered dog, Max, who will be portrayed over the 20-day run of “Grinchmas” by 11 dogs rescued from Los Angeles animal shelters.

“Spy Kids” actress Alexa PenaVega and her husband, Carlos PenaVega of “Big Time Rush,” will also take part in the event, as will actress Yvette Nicole Brown of “Community.” About 200 Los Angeles Unified School District students will also be brought to the ceremony.

The park’s “Grinchmas” attraction will open to the public Saturday and Sunday, and again Dec. 13-14. It will be open daily from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3.

The attraction features cookie- and ornament-decorating stations, story readings by Cindy Lou Who, photos with the Grinch and other Whoville denizens, musical performances, falling snow and the nightly lighting of the 60-foot twisting tree. Admission to the theme park provides access to the attraction.

Also during “Grinchmas,” riders on the park’s Studio Tour will get a view of sets used for the film “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” along with musical performances by the Whoville residents.

The attraction also includes a Whoville Post Office, which features a charitable “Grow Your Hearts 3 Sizes” campaign. Visitors can list their good deeds on a postcard they can mail to the Grinch. For each card sent, Random House Children’s Books will donate a book to a child in need, according to park executives.

Original Location -- http://www.pe.com/articles/inn-755271-lights-hotel.html 

A sea of spectators – as many as 60,000, according to estimates by event officials – roared its approval as fireworks erupted from the roof of the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in downtown Riverside on Friday night and applauded the energizing of the 4 million LED lights festooning the historic landmark.

The cheers – accompanied by the amply amplified Christmas music – reverberated through the streets surrounding the hotel as the throng celebrated the kickoff of the Festival of Lights’ 22nd season.

For the crowd, it was actually a do-over. The hotel’s light bulbs were turned on briefly about 5 p.m., half an hour before the scheduled start of the event in an apparent test of the system. “Oohs” and “ahhs” burst from the crowd and more than 400 animated pandas, elves, angels and carolers mounted in nooks and crannies around the hotel sprang to life – only to be shut down moments later.

It was the only hitch in what turned out to be a spectacular show, featuring a performance by the Riverside City College marching band and an announcement that the band had been invited to perform at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1.

“It was phenomenal,” Larissa Chavez said of the event, which is one of the city’s biggest tourism draws. “The lights are beautiful.”

Valerie Salazar of Riverside watched the lighting ceremony for her third year.

“I thought it was awesome,” she said. “The fireworks were great. The band was awesome.”

The one difference, she said, was that she thought the ceremony was more crowded. But the fireworks show, which lasted nearly 15 minutes, was even better than prior years, Salazar insisted.

As the lights came on and the fireworks went off, the crowd in the streets seemed to be responding with a light show of its own. Smartphone lights and flashes flickered as visitors held up electronic devices to snap selfies and photos of the hotel.

The streets, especially in front of the inn, were jammed so tight that the crowd could not move. A handful of spectators watched from the roof of a parking structure a block away and photographers perched atop surrounding buildings.

Gloria Muro, 62, of Whittier said she was awestruck by the event.

She came to town Friday to visit a tamale factory and was handed a brochure touting the Festival of Lights when she was turned away from the factory. And, in a nice bit of out-of-towner luck, she wound up with a choice viewing spot in front of the hotel.

Margie Haupt, arts and cultural affairs manager for the city of Riverside, said 12 months of planning went into the logistics of shutting down seven streets in a three-block radius of ground zero, at Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street, and arranging everything from the positioning of firefighters and police to a host of vendors.

Riverside came up with something new this year, she said: souvenir T-shirts being sold on Mission Inn Avenue for $20.

In the middle of it all was Mission Inn owner Duane Roberts, who mounted a platform and thanked the crowd for turning out.

The festival “increases Riverside’s influence,” he said, “but more than all, everybody is able to enjoy it. This is Disneyland without to having pay (for) a ticket.”

The show goes on nightly through Jan. 6, with live carolers making the rounds of the inn Thursdays to Sundays and the ice rink open through Jan. 3. Reindeer will be on site beginning today and will be housed in a pen on Main Street at what Mission Inn sales director Shannon Walters described as a “looking, rather than petting, zoo.”

Santa will pose for photographs starting Sunday through Christmas Eve.

Contact the writer: dsantschi@pe.com or 951-368-9079

Check out Judy Chicago's awesome "A Butterfly for Brooklyn" from Saturday night! Thank you to our wonderful crew and sponsors for making the show happen! 

Head over to the New York Times ArtBeat to read all about the event. http://goo.gl/bmtOds

Updated with new photos, please see below.

Orginial Post by http://gothamist.com/ -- http://gothamist.com/

Fireworks come in all sorts of scintillating varieties—there are the normal ones, the rainy ones, the crackly ones. Sometimes they form simple images like lopsided smiley faces and off-kilter hearts, massive designs drawn by the hand of some invisible but vaguely stupid child. They don't usually look like vaginas. (Don't Google "vagina fireworks," it won't get you where you think it will.)

Sensing the lack of "feminist" fireworks displays, artist Judy Chicago—best known for her work "The Dinner Party," in which plates are adorned with images of female genitalia—has gone ahead and created one, set to go off in Prospect Park's Long Meadow on April 26. Chicago waffles on whether the images in her work are to be interpreted as vaginas or butterflies, but this is America and we will see a vagina where we want to, damn it, whether it's an actual butterfly or a peculiarly shaped almond or a broken tire iron.

“The butterfly imagery is very basic to 'The Dinner Party,' so I kind of like that idea of that form getting out of the museum, escaping the confines of the plates and liberating itself into the air,” Chicago told DNAinfo.
The installation, called "A Butterfly for Brooklyn," will consist of a 20-minute "fusion of color and dazzling visual effects" in the park's Long Meadow. Chicago has a long history of working with pyrotechnics in her art, though with "hundreds and hundreds" of fireworks, 1,200 road flares and 1,600 feet of LED lights, she said this installation will be her most ambitious to date.

The show will start at 7:30 p.m. Check the Prospect Park Alliance for more information.

Orginial Posting -- http://goo.gl/jNgd0i

We arrived at Judy Chicago's hotel room expecting to be greeted by a handler or assistant, but were surprised to find that the soon-to-be 75 year-old artist answered the door herself. She was wearing a sweatshirt from Pyro Spectaculars, the fireworks engineers working with her on her upcoming large-scale performance piece in Prospect Park, A Butterfly for Brooklyn. The sweatshirt was the same sort of baggy, pastel memento worn by women of her age to commemorate a trip to Las Vegas or Fort Lauderdale—but instead, this one had a small embroidery of fireworks over the heart.

 A Butterfly for Brooklyn is the capstone event of what Chicago refers to as her year-long "national retrospective." This year, she has shows at the Mana Contemporary, Harvard's Schlesinger Library, the Palmer Museum in Pennsylvania, the Oakland Museum of California, and several others around the country. "Chicago in L.A.," which just opened at the Brooklyn Museum, is one of the larger and more exciting ones, as it sheds light on Chicago's first 10 years of artistic practice in Los Angeles in the 1960s. It was a time and place where women in art were not taken seriously, and, as Chicago explained, a body of work that her magnum opus The Dinner Party overshadowed.

To celebrate her seventy-fifth birthday, artist Judy Chicago will create A Butterfly for Brooklyn, a monumental pyrotechnic performance piece drawing inspiration from her earliest explorations of feminist imagery, in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. The site-specific work, measuring approximately 200 feet wide by 180 feet high, will appear to levitate, swirl, and move. Presented by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, the project is an outdoor component of the exhibition Chicago in L. A.: Judy Chicago's Early Work, 1962-74, on view in the Sackler Center at the Museum from April 4 through September 28. A Butterfly for Brooklyn will transform the imagery Chicago used most famously in her iconic installation, The Dinner Party, into a twenty-minute fusion of color and dazzling visual effects on the Long Meadow of Prospect Park.
 
This program is organized by Catherine J. Morris, Sackler Family Curator, with Jess Wilcox, Programs Coordinator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Major support was provided by Barbara and Eric Dobkin. Additional support provided by Barbara Lee.