Segerstrom

Lolita Harper COSTA MESA -- The Segerstrom family announced Wednesday it will donate $2 million to Costa Mesa high schools and middle schools if its development deal for Home Ranch is approved by the city. In an effort to raise community support for the Home Ranch project -- proposed for the final piece of farmland held by the dynasty family -- the Segerstroms offered to set up, or contribute to, educational funds for students in seventh through 12th grades.

Jennifer Kho COSTA MESA -- C.J. Segerstrom & Sons donated $10,000 to the Costa Mesa Senior Center on Monday. "The Segerstroms have long supported programs and agencies that have public benefit in the city of Costa Mesa, and our contribution today recognizes our belief in the importance of the Costa Mesa Senior Center," Segerstrom spokesman Paul Freeman said, adding that the company also donated $10,000 two years...

The face of Costa Mesa today owes a great deal to the efforts of Henry Segerstrom, the man who has led the growth and development of South Coast Plaza as a retail giant. The Peninsula Point resident was also the founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and continues to be closely involved in the expansion of The Center. Segerstrom recently donated land to The Center for the development of what will eventually become a $200-million concert hall.

48, Laguna Beach ... The voice of the Segerstrom dynasty ... Is the spokesman for all things Segerstrom and is most well known for his role in approval of the Home Ranch development in Costa Mesa ... Stayed at late-night council meetings, fielded numerous press calls and met with the community regarding the final piece of undeveloped lima bean farm from the Segerstrom's agricultural days ... No matter what side of...

After the letters exchanged between C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and the Wimbledon Village board of directors, I was afraid our chances of opening a dialogue to address the noise and traffic problems Home Ranch and Ikea are going to cause had a slim chance of succeeding. Whether the Segerstrom management believes it or not, [Segerstrom consultants] Government Solutions agreed to provide some sort of sound attenuation and traffic control measures "after the project is approved by the city."

A 19-year-old Orange Coast College student lost control of the car she was driving, rolled it over, and damaged a fence around the old Segerstrom family farm on Fairview Road on Saturday, police said. No one was injured in the accident. The college student was driving southbound in the 3300 block of Fairview Road shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday when she lost control of her car, said Costa Mesa Sgt. Greg Scott. Traffic slowed in front of the woman as she tried to change lanes, so she swerved and struck a curb, Scott said.

The Newport Harbor High freshman boys' basketball team recently won the Segerstrom and La Habra tournaments. In the La Habra Tournament, the Sailors pulled off an upset with a 62-52 win over Santa Margarita in a semifinal. Santa Margarita had beaten Newport Harbor earlier in the season. But the Sailors exacted revenge with the 10-point victory over the Eagles. Newport Harbor eventually won the tournament by downing the host, La Habra, 60-54, on Dec. 16. Chris Anderson led the Sailors (11-2)

Lolita Harper The Cost Mesa Planning Commission will look at three possible alternatives to a proposal by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons' plans for Home Ranch. Dozens of concerned residents attended a public hearing regarding the Home Ranch project at the commission's Monday meeting. Although a presentation was not made by C.J. Segerstrom officials, many residents came to address concerns about the environmental report prepared for the project. In fact, so many people had comments, the staff voted to close the public hearing and continue public comment to the next meeting, Aug. 27. Staff was concerned about the amount of time it would take to respond in writing -- something that is mandatory in the process -- to each public inquiry, Commissioner Bruce Garlich said.

Lolita Harper September 1982 -- First architectural concept for the Home Ranch master plan was designed. It included two 400-room hotels and 2.7 million square feet of retail and office space. March 1984 -- Approval of the Home Ranch master plan and certification of the environmental report. September 1985 -- C.J. Segerstrom & Sons submitted to the city One South Coast Place, a 32-story office building with 75% of the area freed for open space.

HOME RANCH C.J. Segerstrom & Sons has requested changes be made to the 1990 General Plan and to the zoning to accommodate residential, industrial, and commercial uses at a site that currently hosts the Segerstrom family's lima bean farm. With the changes, the company would like to add: 29 residential units per acre in an area that would be High-Density Residential zoning; 252,648 square feet of industrial uses; 308,000 square feet of retail uses, which includes a 17-acre Ikea furniture store; and 791,050 square feet of office space.

Broadway luminary Barbara Cook is in for a treat. During her one-night-only performance at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Saturday, she will be presented with a birthday card. Yes, birthday cards are common, but not ones filled with best wishes submitted by fans nationwide. Since Saturday's performance is to celebrate the year of Cook's 85th birthday, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts created a way for fans to wish her well via Twitter and Facebook. (Her actual birthday is Oct. 25.)

When Jody Williams took the stage Wednesday night at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, he didn't dive into a rendition of the blues standard "Don't Start Me to Talkin'. " But it might have been appropriate. The 78-year-old Williams, a longtime guitarist for Howlin' Wolf, walked in slowly from stage right after Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson introduced him. A stagehand set a chair down, and then Williams sat down and began playing. Period. Over the course of four numbers — an instrumental, two Wolf tunes and an encore — Williams played soulful, blistering guitar and uttered just a pair of terse "thank yous," which fell silent without a microphone.

Ask Jody Williams about Howlin' Wolf's legacy, and he'll rattle off remarkable numbers about the old Chicago bluesman. Not chart statistics. Measurements. "Well, he was a pretty big man," said Williams, 78, who played guitar for Wolf (a.k.a. Chester Arthur Burnett) in the 1950s. "He wore about a size 16 shoe, I think. He was a good showman, a really commanding presence. I mean, he had about a 100-foot cord on his microphone. That meant he would walk all around the club, up and down the bar. " Wolf, who died in 1976, made a shtick out of being large and fearsome; a typical snarled lyric went, "When you come home, you can eat pork and bean / I eats more chicken any man seen.

Napoleon Gladney is no stranger to wearing several hats. A tree, emotions, the wind, a prince, a vampire, and even music notes - these are just a few roles that the Los Angeles-based professional dancer has enacted. Now, as part of the ensemble of the popular Broadway musical "Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz," Gladney plays multiple parts in the same production, spinning in and out of gear as a student, towns person and flying monkey. "'Wicked's' music, costumes, light and scenery are all phenomenal and can stand on their own," Gladney, 25, said.

Natalia Kaliada has faced rejection from arts facilities, endured police raids, been arrested and lived in exile for more than two years. All of that for one cause: a relentless commitment to free thought and expression. As the founding co-artistic director of Belarus Free Theatre, the sole 25-person acting troupe in a population of nearly 10 million people, Kaliada, along with her husband, Nicolai Khalezin, and director, Vladimir Shcherban, were forced out of their home country, Belarus, in 2010.

When asked about her ardor for music, Lea Salonga replies, "Why not music?" Having grown up needing little to no encouragement to take on an audience, the Tony- and Olivier Award-winning Filipina singer calls her career choice a "no-brainer. " "My mother recalls me standing on the living room table with the end of a plug as a microphone, and I'd sing at family parties," Salonga said. "It apparently didn't take much prodding to get me to perform. " Salonga will sing for the first time at the Segerstrom Center at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Alfred Hitchcock was once quoted as saying, "I enjoy playing the audience like a piano. " And so does Eileen Jeanette. The vice president of artistic and orchestra operations for the Pacific Symphony keeps a keen eye on how many people have bought tickets for every show at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. It's not just a matter of fretting about the crowd's reaction; Jeanette needs to know how many human bodies will occupy the seats, because that will indicate how much she needs to shift the room's acoustics to accommodate them.

"Cabaret," the title number from Liza Minnelli's greatest screen musical, is a fight song as much as a showstopper. Midway through its celebration of a carefree life, the lyrics describe a girlfriend of the narrator who died of "too much pills and liquor," but who looked content laid out in her coffin. "I made my mind up back in Chelsea," the narrator resolves at the end of the bridge, "when I go, I'm going like Elsie. " It's a defiant tune, and sometimes it shows up in settings that render its message of against-the-odds cheer even more poignant.

It's a label Liza Minnelli cherishes, and one she's never fully understood. "Gay icon. " Ask her to explain it, and she'll come up empty. On Google, Minnelli's name alongside that two-word phrase cues up 117,000 results. When she performed back east this spring, the Huffington Post's headline even credited her with economic clout: "Liza Minnelli's Borgata Hotel Performance Helps Renew Gay Travelers' Interest In Atlantic City. " A 2009 survey from http://www.onepoll.com named her the fifth-biggest female gay icon in history (her late mother, Judy Garland, beat her for first place)

CORONA DEL MAR - Natalie Perales has acted as a one-player roadblock to the Corona del Mar High girls' basketball team the last two years. The Segerstrom High senior point guard has met the Sea Kings in the semifinals of the CdM Tip-Off Classic twice. Each time, she has put on a big performance to dump the hosts from championship contention. CdM Coach Mark Decker asked Segerstrom Coach Jeff Watts after Thursday night's game if Perales was a senior. Decker smiled, simply saying, "Good," after he was told that this is Perales' last year of high school.