Artists from all walks of life, in conjunction with Downtown Santa Monica participated in AMP (Arts, Music, and Promenade) set-up small booths to showcase their artwork along the Promenade.

Handmade jewelry, handmade winter hats, paintings, and photography were displayed and for sale for reasonable prices.  

One booth included photographs of the local oceans and the tubes inside the waves.  The photographer, when asked how he photographed such dramatic pictures, he said, “I actually get in the water, with my waterproof camera, and take the photo as the wave crashes over me.”

Music lovers can enjoy the atmosphere as well.  There is a live DJ that is pumping out music that appeals to a wide range of listeners.  There are seats arranged in front of the stage where people can take sip a coffee, watch the happenings, and enjoy the musical and artistic atmosphere.

Mayor Lana Negrete was on site to promote the event. She was overheard saying, “This is a fun filled event….that will help generate revenue for local artists and businesses.”

Getting to and from the event is easy. The Santa Monica bound train terminates at 4th and Colorado. It is a short walk from there. You can also exit the 10 Freeway West at 4th Street and turn right. Parking in downtown Santa Monica is easy too.  Public parking lots are located on 4^th and 2^nd streets.

The students on the stage, the students working behind the scenes, and the students playing in the musical pit wowed the audience with the talented capabilities. With a cast and crew of over 150 students, the shows went off without a hitch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

Jeffrey Huls, the Director of the show, always wanted to produce a musical that featured dance. Huls said he momentarily thought about doing Cats but ultimately decided to go with CHICAGO. Huls knew that he had the female and male student talent that could both sing and dance well enough to do justice to the musical.

The student actors did more than justice to the numbers they performed. They danced and sang their way into our hearts and allowed us to suspend reality for a few hours and enjoy the theatrical experience.

For the uninitiated, CHICAGO, is the story of two women, Roxie and Velma, who have committed crimes and find themselves in prison. While the women yearn for fame and fortune, they have to somehow get back outside to the real world.

Enter, Billy, the corrupt lawyer. Billy promises that he can get Roxie released by manipulating society through the use of the newspaper media. While he ultimately gets Roxie released from prison, his plan fails because Roxie’s trial is eclipsed by yet another sensational murder that consumes the public’s interest.

If you’re a fan of CHICAGO, a fan of community theatre, or just want to see the many talented students at Santa Monica High School, there is still time to see the show. There are three more performances this weekend. You can purchase tickets by clicking this link.

On March 7 and March 8th, the show begins at 7:00 pm PST. On March 9th, the final show time is 3 pm PST.

Some content courtesy of SMMUSD, The New York Theatre Guide, Youtube and Wikipedia. This post is proudly sponsored by:

In an interview with Variety this week, Saldaña noted that sequels now exist for films across all genres, not just superhero movies.

“We’ve been living the last 20 years in the world of sequels. Usually, you thought that sequels were only for action movies or superhero movies, and now, sequels can live in all kinds of genres,” Saldaña, 46, observed.

The “Avatar” star said she would be happy to revisit her character in “Crossroads,” a teen road trip movie written by Shonda Rhimes before she found fame with “Grey’s Anatomy” and the following slate of Shondaland shows, from “Scandal” to “Bridgerton.”

“Why not?” Saldaña said of a “Crossroads” sequel.

“But I feel like it would only work if Britney comes back and plays her character again,”she said. “And Taryn Manning does as well, and Anson Mount. And that we write realistic sort of scenarios for them. That would be beautiful.”

In the original film, Kit (Saldaña), Lucy (Spears), and Mimi (Manning) take a road trip to California after their high school graduation, with plans to visit Kit’s fiancé Ben (Mount) at UCLA. Lucy had dreams of becoming a singer, and the film featured the hit song “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” by Spears, now 42.

“It was so fun, but it was also, like, the first time that I was around a big pop star,” Saldaña said of filming “Crossroads” alongside Spears. “And she was just so sought after, and yet, she was so down to earth and kind and approachable.”

Spears wrote about her acting debut in “Crossroads” in her recent memoir, “The Woman in Me,” saying she may have slipped a little too far into “method acting.”

“I think I started method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person,” she wrote. “I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed Crossroads. Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, She’s a little … quirky. If they thought that, they were right.”

Some content courtesy of TMX and YouTube.

“Last Monday, I had surgery to become a little bit more of a machine: I got a pacemaker,” the “Terminator” star, 76, said during an episode of his “Arnold’s Pump Club” podcast.

“First of all, I want you to know I’m doing great! I had my surgery on Monday, and by Friday, I was already at a big environmental event with my friend and fellow fitness crusader Jane Fonda,” the former California governor said. “Nobody would ever have thought I started the week with a surgery.”

Schwarzenegger, who has a genetic heart condition, has had multiple heart surgeries in the past. In 1997, he underwent surgeries to replace his pulmonic and aortic valves, which was expected to last between 12 and 15 years. He ultimately underwent additional surgeries to have them replaced in 2018 and 2020.

“I want to thank my whole team at the Cleveland Clinic. All of the doctors and nurses took amazing care of me and made the surgery as painless as possible,” he said.

He noted that he has been “very diligent about staying in touch with my doctors and listening to them,” because his mother died in 1998 after she didn’t get a necessary valve replacement surgery.

“I stayed in touch with my medical team and visited in person at least once a year to get a full check-up and see how my heart was doing,” he said. “That’s life with a genetic heart issue. But you won’t hear me complaining.”

Scar tissue from his last surgery caused him to develop an irregular heartbeat, which he was told to monitor closely.

“I went in for my normal checkup at the beginning of March on my way to the Arnold Sports Festival, and they did a full series of tests,” he said. The results indicated he needed to get a pacemaker as soon as possible, especially if he wanted to recover ahead of the start of filming on “FUBAR” Season 2 in just six weeks.

“I told them I’d stop in Cleveland on my way home from the U.K., and we’d do it. Monday, I went under and got my new machine part installed,” he said. “I can’t do my serious training in the gym for a while, but I will be 100% ready for ‘FUBAR’ next month.”

He said that sharing his personal health struggles goes “against so much of my upbringing in Austria,” but that so many fans have told him learning about his heart surgeries helped them with their own health struggles.

“I could have kept it a secret. But I know that we have more than 750,000 subscribers now — the village is a city now — and a lot of you are probably dealing with your own health challenges,” he said. “I want you to know you aren’t alone. And if you’re putting something off out of fear, I hope I inspire you to listen to your doctors and take care of yourself.”

Some content courtesy of TMX and www.fansofarnold.com.

The “Ripley” star has been acting since childhood, becoming the youngest Screen Actors Guild Award nominee at the age of eight for her role in the 2001 film “I Am Sam.” Now 30, she says she has set up her life so that she’ll always have the “option” to have kids when the opportunity arises.

“Being an actor is a huge part of my identity. I don’t really know who I am without it,” Fanning revealed in a recent interview with Porter.

“But I also have a desire to set up my life and career so that I always have a choice,” she said. “Having kids is probably more important to me than anything, even being an actor. If somebody said I had to choose, I would choose having kids. I’m one of those people who has always felt that pull.”

Foreseeing the possibility that she won’t have as much time and energy to take on projects once she has children, she says she’s loading up on experiences now.

“I’m trying to push myself to keep saying yes to things that make me uncomfortable, to keep going to places for long periods of time that maybe I’m scared to do because — God willing — one day, it won’t be as easy,” she said.

Content courtesy of IndieWire and TMX.