Looking for Something to Do? Free Pasadena Events November 10 to 16

Here are events scheduled Saturday, Nov. 10, to Friday, Nov. 16.

All events are free, to take a look -- and don't you dare say there's nothing to do in Pasadena!

Adaptive sports for all ages will be celebrated during the Pasadena Adaptive Sports Festival Saturday, Nov. 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Brookside Park. Competitions will include quad rugby, handcycling, pickle ball, tennis, beep baseball, boccia ball and more. Equipment will be provided, and coaches and instructors will be on hand to teach participants how to play the games. Register here. Spectators of all abilities are welcome to this first-ever event.

The Caltech-Occidental Wind Orchestra will perform a program titled Brass and Bernstein at 100 Saturday, Nov 10, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 11, at 3:30 p.m. at Ramo Auditorium in Caltech's Baxter Hall (#77 on this map). Works will include Dukas's Fanfare to La Peri, Leonard Bernstein's A Musical Toast, Bernstein's A Simple Song, Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and brass showcase selections for horn, trumpet and tuba with Euphonium Choirs. Parking in Caltech lots and parking structures is free on weekends.

The annual Veterans Day commemoration at Centennial Square in front of Pasadena City Hall Sunday, Nov. 11, beginning at 10:30 a.m., will include patriotic music, Blair High School JROTC presenting the colors, a flyover of vintage of World War II planes, special guest speakers and more, followed by free refreshments, including hot dogs grilled by Pasadena firefighters.

Admission to the USC Pacific Asia Museum is free the second Sunday of every month. On Sunday, Nov. 11, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., explore the connections between textiles, status and ceremony through the history and culture of Korea. Learn about the king who used his status to develop the Korean alphabet; enjoy artmaking activities, storytime for children and docent tours of the museum's galleries. (There will be a $10 fee if you want to attend a related live performance.)

Irish poet and author Eavan Boland will speak about her career and read from some of her works Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the lounge at Caltech's Dabney Hall (#40 on this map). Boland, director of the creative writing program at Stanford University, is a 2016 inductee to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the recipient of the Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and the PEN Award for creative nonfiction. Parking in Caltech lots and parking structures is free after 5 p.m.

Baritone Cale Olson will perform Wednesday, Nov. 14, from 12:10 to 12:40 p.m. for the popular Music at Noon recital series at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

The Pride of Jesse Hallam (191, NR) starring starring Johnny Cash and Brenda Vaccaro will be shown Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 1 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library in commemoration of National Family Literacy Month. When his daughter needs life-saving surgery, an illiterate coal miner in rural Kentucky takes her to Cincinnati where he is determined to support his family in the big city. But first he must learn how to read and write.

On Golden Pond (1981, PG-13) starring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn will be shown Friday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center. On summer vacation at their cabin on a lake in New England, a cranky retired professor with memory problems and his understanding wife agree to look after the 13-year-old son of their daughter's (Jane Fonda) fiancé. See the trailer here. You do NOT have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend but  you do have to be 50 or older.

SAVE THE DATE!

The 2018 Pasadena Doo Dah Parade -- the twisted sister of that other parade -- will include a memorable cast of merrymakers Sunday, Nov. 18, beginning at 11 a.m. on Colorado Boulevard between Altadena Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard. Bring a lawn chair and plan on arriving by about 10 a.m. to claim your spot on the sidewalk.

Photo credits: Mary Free Bed, Friendship Circle, The 42, Leonard Bernstein Estate, Gator Guards, USC Pacific Asia Museum, AZ Quotes, Brock University, The Königsberg Company, IPC Films