Thursday, March 22, 2012

Anaheim, Laguna, Fullerton, Dana Point, etc.

You see?!? This is why we can't have nice things! Look what happened to Pearson Park's 1935 statue of actress Helena Modjeska as Mary, Queen of Scots by sculptor Eugen Haier-Krieg.

According to a Native Sons of the Golden West plaque, "This statue is the oldest Public Works of Art Project of its type in Orange County. Sponsored by the State Emergency Relief Administration, the Anaheim Rotary Club, and the City of Anaheim, it was originally dedicated on September 15, 1935. ...Modjeska... established an artists' colony in Anaheim in 1876. On the reverse side are four vineyard workers, representing the agricultural nature of the original Anaheim Colony."
You'll notice that the vineyard workers got the same "St-Peter's-cross-on-the-forehead" treatment from the village idiots. I can at least understand a lot of bad and stupid behavior, but I can't begin to understand this kind of pointless vandalism.

“Lila Zali and the Laguna Beach Civic Ballet” will be the topic at the Laguna Beach Historical Society’s meeting, March 27, 7:30pm, in the City Council Chambers at Laguna Beach City Hall, 505 Forest Ave. The speaker -- former soloist, ballet mistress, and resident choreographer of the Laguna Beach Civic Ballet (now called Ballet Pacifica), Kathy Kahn-- will also be joined by Merilee Magnuson Blaisdell, Mary Hanf Monzingo, and June Budd. The program will also feature a 20-minute documentary, “A Loving Tribute,” by Jennifer and Steve Baker.
Sunday is the last day to see the exhibit, "Citrus Crate Labels: An Artistic Overview," at the Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave. I'm sort of kicking myself that I haven't driven up to Fullerton to see this yet.

Jay Jennings will present “an exhibit of  1950s-inspired photographs” of  Knott’s Berry Farm this Saturday, March 24, 1pm to 4pm, in the north wing of Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Prints will be available for sale.

The new documentary, “Dana Point: My Home Town,” will be shown at the March 28th meeting of the Dana Point Historical Society, 6:30pm, the Dana Point Tennis Center, 24911 Calle De Tenis.

And finally,… I need YOUR questions about Orange County (past or present) for my monthly “Orange County Answer Man” feature in Orange Coast Magazine. E-mail your questions to me, and I’ll do my best.
at

5 comments:

  1. Connie Moreno7:29 AM

    I try to live a life free of hate but sometimes, it's hard. I hate vandals. I do. I hate them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stephanie9:22 AM

    Oh, shameful!

    I spent countless hours at that park in my youth and loved looking at those sculptures.

    Let's hope the city attempts to repair them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. walterworld5:55 PM

    Find the little darlings and have them publicly beaten. That should discourage this sort of behavior.

    Ooops! JK! I momentarily forgot that the poor dear lads or lasses are probably just miss-understood. Hey! Maybe the government should go ahead and pay them NOT to deface public property?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chris Jepsen10:55 PM

    WalterWorld: If there isn't a program for that, I'm sure there will be soon.

    It amazes me that some people want to excuse or make light of this kind of behavior. Come to that, we seem to excuse behavior that's a LOT worse than this. There's nothing wrong with these miscreants that can't be solved with a gunny sack, a cinder block, and a trip to the lake.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous2:50 PM

    Hello - Thanks for bringing attention to this act of vandalism and a small note. The name of the sculptor is misspelled in your post. It's Maier-Krieg.

    ReplyDelete

Sadly, I had to shut down comments (my favorite part of the blog) thanks to endless spam. Most of my posts are linked from my FB page, so feel free to comment there or to email me. If I can find a more secure way to do so, I will bring back normal commenting later.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.