The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium stands as more than a shuttered venue awaiting revival—it remains an active force in global performance architecture and cultural memory, its influence reverberating through concert halls from London to Tokyo […]
By CHARLES ANDREWS TOROSIS, ZWICK, HALL, ZERNITSKAYA Why am I starting this music column off with the boldface, all caps names of four Santa Monica City Council members? Because they made themselves legendary a week […]
What were they thinking? On Wednesday morning at 12:30 am on October 15th, we were blindsided when the Council voted four (Jesse, Caroline, Dan, Natalya) to three (Lana, Barry, Ellis) not to extend RPG’s exclusive […]
Saturday, 10-18-2025, BE THERE CuriousCity: SANTA MONICA SELL OUT By CHARLES ANDREWS Only one CURIOUS CITY column in the last year. It’s good to be back. Thank you, TJ, and Dolores. But first, this important […]
By CHARLES ANDREWS THE RESURRECTION OF CURIOUS CITY: FRIDAY! HONEST! Long promised, finally delivered. Every other Friday now, in print in the Santa Monica Mirror, and online. Best way to get it, plus my weekly […]
By Marc L. Verville, Former Audit Subcommittee Chair, Sunset Park, Santa Monica This note is to strongly urge you to select Staff Option #1, Approve a six-month extension (two consecutive 90-day periods). As staff notes, […]
By CHARLES ANDREWS THE RESURRECTION OF CURIOUS CITY NEXT FRIDAY! Expect miracles, wisdom of the ages to lead us all from this dark place! … right. Maybe a better bet is Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony on […]
The process of restoring the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is definitely moving forward. As you can imagine, there are a complex series of steps to complete a multi-million dollar project of this scale. RPG (Revitalization […]
By Alan Levenson, Sunset Park In The Argonaut (Oct. 2), City officials — with the apparent support of the Great Park Coalition — reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment” to close Santa Monica Airport on Dec. 31, […]
Santa Monica operates under a council–manager system where an elected council establishes policies but delegates day-to-day operations to a professional city manager. While meant to ensure stability, this setup has resulted in staff-driven outcomes, weak […]