Photo by wolfro54

Tickets are now on sale for the Downtown Long Beach Associates’ (DLBA) massive New Year’s Eve celebration taking place on Pine Avenue and Broadway. Kicking off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 31, 2011, the high-energy street party will encompass two-square blocks and feature live music by Wayward Sons and Love Fool, covering hits from the ‘70s, ‘80s and the ‘90s.

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The Grand Marshall is Gene Rotondo, the President of the Belmont Shore Business Association for the past 13 years and owner of Legends and the Port of LB will be our Business Grand Marshall celebrating 100 years. Rotondo is being honored for his contributions to the Belmont Shore Business Association and the POLB for their commitment to a Green Environment!

A celebrated holiday tradition, the parade features approximately 100 entries including marching bands, local personalities and dignitaries, floats representing Long Beach businesses and associations. Knott’s Berry Farm will be back with Snoopy and other characters!  Celebrities include: Kim Amadon of The Wave  (94.7) and the popular Disney star Daniel Curtis Lee, two Long Beach residents and of course bringing up the rear is Santa Claus himself.

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And, don’t miss the annual holiday village set up in the grassy median as well. The display stays up all month for folks driving through Wrigley to enjoy while out scouting for lights.

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“The Daisy Avenue Parade is special in that it is the only holiday parade that runs down a residential street and not a commercial corridor,” councilmemeber Johnson said. ”This year, neighbors are coming together to re-energize the parade in order to continue its tradition of bringing outstanding entertainment to the Wrigley area and to Long Beach.”

Read the rest of Holiday Parade Signals Start of Entertainment Nights in Wrigley

The Holiday Celebration concerts feature guest Symphony POPS! conductor Stuart Chafetz and special guest vocalist Michele Ragusa (Broadway’s Young Frankenstein and Ragtime) along with Southern California Master Chorale (under the direction of Dr. Sheridan J. Ball), Southern California Children’s Chorus, and the Azusa Pacific University Handbell Choir.

This special concert is designed to delight audiences of all ages, and includes multi-cultural favorites like Mele Kalikimaka, Feliz Navidad, and Chanukah songs, along with jazz standards, holiday movie music, and orchestral favorites from Bizet to Mannheim Steamroller. And, of course, there will be a visit from Old Saint Nick!

Read the rest of LBSO Holiday Concerts Ring in the Season at the Terrace Theater

Holiday events tend to crowd together once the season of shopping and celebrating really gets under way. So, mark your calendars now and be sure to attend the holiday preview sale or harvest table and wreath workshop.

Read the rest of Holiday Shopping Preview and More at Rancho Los Alamitos This Month

For those that decide a trip to the pub is in order, here are some Long Beach bars and restaurants that are uniquely suited to help you get in touch with your inner Irishman.

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Just after sundown on December 5, Phantom Galleries L.A. switched on Let There Be Light, a stellar display of artists and art installations, including video, neon, and kinetic light sculptures. Each exhibition and site-specific installation is accompanied by a Guide by Cell Audio Tour, allowing viewers to listen to an illuminating description of the art on view.

Seven days a week, from dusk till dawn, Long Beach locals and visitors, holiday shoppers, and art-minded and art-curious alike can embark on a self-guided Art Walk and Audio Tour of Let There be Light.  At each storefront, viewers can connect via cell phone with a personalized message from the exhibiting artist or curator through the Guide by Cell Audio Tour, presented in partnership with The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.

Trifold map of the exhibition sites are available at various Downtown Long Beach restaurants, vendors, hotels, as well as at various exhibition locales.  Maps may also be downloaded from  DowntownLongBeachArtWalk.com  or PhantomGalleriesLA.com.  The exhibitions are on view 24/7 however, it is recommended  that the exhibits be viewed  from 5 pm- 1am order to see all the works turned on and at its best and brightest.  Richard Godfrey and Susan Chorpennings work is best viewed at various times of the day.

Highlights from the Let there Be Light installations include:

Returning Phantom Galleries L.A. artist Richard Godfrey’s TwentyFourSeven installation is an exciting integration of light, space, and motion.  His piece, TwentyFourSeven, is in constant rotation  and infuses the storefront in a vibrant hue. (on view thru March 1, 2010)

Susan Chorpenning will present Fiat Lux IV, her most ambitious installment of her series Fiat Lux (“Let There Be Light,”), three in the series presented through Phantom Galleries L.A.  The dazzling new work expands 11 ft x 35 ft, and will invigorate the space with the joyous commingling of numerous brightly-colored twinkle lights, lava lamps, collored bulb and light based works, both wall-bound and strung. (On View thru March 1)

Known for his iconic neon sculpture set atop the Hayward Gallery in London, Philip Vaughn will present the West Coast debut of “Color Chart 1” featuring a colorful cascade of neon tubes.

Nancy Braver will display an enchanting mobile-like piece comprised of die-cut luminous butterflies, made of mirror that float, swirl, and cast a warm glow.

Laddie John Dill, a Los Angeles native, who was born in Long Beach, creates a new site-specific work of silica sand mix and neon.

Phantom Galleries L.A. is a Los Angeles County-based organization that transforms properties in transition into 24/7 public art galleries. Each installation forms a unique collaboration between the participating artist, curator, and property owner. Exhibits are curated by local arts organizations, galleries, independent curators, and artists.

For more information on Let There Be Light and Phantom Galleries L.A., please visit www.PhantomGalleries LA or  DowntownLongBeachArtWalk.com.

Let There be Light hosts an impressive array of 28 artists, both emerging and renowned, including: Richard Ankrom (neon sculpture),  Kent Anderson Butler (video), Laddie John Dill ( Neon and Sand installation), Nancy Braver (sculpture/installation), Enrique Chiu (neon), Susan Chorpenning (site-specific installation), McLean Fahnestock (site specific installation) , Candice Gawne (neon), Richard Godfrey (Sculpture of light and Movement), Parichard Holm (video installation) Beth King (glass sculpture), Helen Lessick  (site specific intallation) Karen Lofgren (light based sculpture) Justin Lui  (light based sculpture) Joella March (neon), Eric Medine (video), Uudam Nguyen (Light Based Sculpture) , Rebecca Niederlander  (Light based Sculpture),  Christina Pierson (video instllation) Astra Price (video installation),  Jeremy J Quinn (video), Deanne Sabeck (ligh based sculpture),  Ben Shaffer (site specific installation),  Klutch Stanaway (sculpture)  Kazumi Svenson, David Svenson (neon), and Philip Vaughan (neon works and installation), Meeson Pae Yang (site specific installation).

Additional Daisy Avenue Entertainment Nights are planned for December 18-20 starting at 7:00 p.m. on the green at 20th Street and Daisy Avenue.

Santa will be on the lane from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m. each night. Entertainment will also be provided by:

Read the rest of Christmas Tree Lane holiday events plan for Santa and Snow

In addition to the traditional Las Posadas ceremony with participation from Holy Innocents Catholic Church, the holiday event features live music, great food, and a celebration opportunity for the whole family — including the traditional piñata.

Las Posadas is a celebration of the Nativity that brings together family and neighbors for a holiday celebration.

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From now until December 17, the Queen Mary, Good Neighbor Park and Rose Park Neighborhood Association will all host celebrations centered around that shimmering, green Christmas icon.

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Long Beach has a month-long celebration planned for December. The holiday events start the first weekend in December and continue through the season — not to mention all the Long Beach Christmas parades!

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Below is a list of participating merchants and a schedule of events throughout the day. Or, visit www.4thstreetlongbeach.com for more information.

Read the rest of Santa Claus is coming 4th Street’s Holiday Open House

For a holiday event to remember, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Shoreline Village, and The Pike invite the public to come and enjoy the sights, sounds, and tastes of a white Christmas by the bay.

Many of the events — including the holiday harbor cruises and ice skating — take place daily and are already open. Be sure to mark your calendar for weekend celebrations such as the tree lighting and snow day.

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Queen Mary guests will also enjoy a dusting of snow, holiday carolers and steel drum band, and cookie decorating onboard every day and evening from Dec. 9 through Dec. 30.

Holiday celebrants are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to the Long Beach Fire Department’s “Spark of Love” Holiday Toy Drive.

Read the rest of Queen Mary decks its decks for the holidays; tree-lighting party December 9

After getting searched by an over-zealous security crew (hey guys, this isn’t a Metallica concert!), we are immediately greeted with an array of hair-raising sights and sounds. To our left, there’s the obligatory graveyard — freshly dosed with billowing fog, headstones ominously jutting up here and there, a hearse immersed in cob-webs and skeletons, and a DJ spinning blood-curdling melodies (?). As the night falls further, the graveyard will morph into the Club Dead dance floor. That’s when the real horror show begins.

Read the rest of Queen Mary Shipwreck: Ghosts rise again aboard haunted ship