Compelling stories highlight Claremont’s unique residents

In the world of arts, entertainment and feature stories, the COURIER covered a lot of ground in 2017.

We wrote about everything and everyone on our pages, from far away Poland (the Warsaw Uprising film at the Claremont Film Festival), to home-grown war heroes (Claremont WWII vet Jack Barrett), all the way out to Oklahoma for indie-rock giants the Flaming Lips.

Early in the year we published a feature on adorable chanteuse Janet Klein, who performed February 11 at the Folk Music Center. Ms. Klein was in town with her group, the Parlor Boys, playing a joyous set of early 20th century-style Americana.

In March, 2012 Claremont High School graduate turned 23-year-old Ford Motor Co. wünderkind Victoria Schein was profiled. At the time she had filed nine patents during her short time with the Dearborn, Michigan corporation.

March also saw a story about Claremont’s Dr. Timothy Dauwalder, Executive Medical Director for VNA Hospice and Palliative Care of Southern California. The feature focused on how palliative medicine brings comfort to end-of-life patients and their loved ones through the reduction of pain and suffering associated with disease.

Indie music titans the Pixies made a rare appearance in the COURIER in April, as drummer David Lovering was profiled in front of an appearance at Pomona’s Fox Theater.

In May, the film Warsaw Uprising—which combined powerful original footage of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising with a new, fictional audio storyline to create a hybrid documentary-narrative feature—screened at the Claremont Film Festival at the Laemmle Theater: The COURIER spoke with one of its producers.

In June the COURIER talked to Rock ‘N’ Roll Billboards Of The Sunset Strip author Robert Landau, who was in town for an in-store at Rhino Records. Growing in in Hollywood in the 1960s, the photographer single-handedly captured the heyday of outsized rock ‘n’ roll advertising from its explosion in 1967 to its sputtering demise in the late-1980s.

In July we featured newly-minted centenarian Evelyn Edwards, who recalled raising her family among the orange groves and smudge pots of 1960s Claremont. The 100-year-old was still spunky, independent, and living in her home.

August saw a book review and feature story focusing on Claremont-raised Bradley K. Rosen, whose excellent debut novel, Bunkie Spills, had just been published. In October Mr. Rosen came to town to read from his book at the Folk Music Center.

In fall, the COURIER profiled longtime local artist and teacher Dee Marcellus Cole, then 85, whose new show, Carnival?Seekers, was opening at the Claremont Museum of Art. We also showcased the Claremont Chorale on the occasion of its 50th season.

Wayne Coyne, of Oklahoma psychedelic rock kingpins the Flaming Lips, ruminated on the band’s “songs about death and life and love and what it means to really be alive,” prior to his October performance at the Fox.

Also in October, the COURIER ran a rare two-part feature story on then 93-year-old World War II veteran and 54-year Claremont resident Jack Barrett, who survived a horrific injury to thrive and raise a family.

Other 2017 highlights include a profile on Claremont High School’s remarkable Chamber Singers, who are still raising funds for their upcoming trip to an international competition in Sydney, Australia, and a new business profile on Ironbark Ciderworks, who opened up shop in December.

—Mick Rhodes

mickrhodes@claremont-courier.com

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