'The Voice' After Party Rocks Saint Rocke Stage

The contestants perform on stage after the show's season finale.

An after concert party took place at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach Wednesday after The Voice season finale. The concert featured more than a dozen contestants from season two of The Voice, including Tony Vincent, Jamie Lono, Anget Taylor and more, according to a report on Buddy TV. The event was organized by by Team Cee Lo’s Justin Hopkins—a resident of Redondo Beach—and Team Adam's Pip.

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Blossom Chronicles

Sanders Captures Faces of Vietnam War

Redondo Beach photographer Tom Sanders will feature local veterans' stories and photographs in a new book about the Vietnam War.

Tom Lasser served as a helicopter pilot; Pete Whalon as a lifeguard; and Rick Parker as a combat photographer. The three were among the local Vietnam veterans who posed for pictures in front of clumps of bamboo at Redondo Beach Veterans Park last Thursday. The all-day event was to record the faces and stories of South Bay veterans for a new book on the war by Tom Sanders, 27, whose first book, The Last Good War: The Faces and Voices of WWII, was named non-fiction book of the year in 2010 by Forewords Review Magazine and praised by Publishers Weekly. Sanders—a slender, soft-spoken man who listens to each subject as if his or her story is the most enthralling of all—began photographing WWII veterans while studying at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo…

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LUNAFEST Comes to Town

The travelling film festival makes a stop at the Hermosa Beach Community Center tonight.

LUNAFEST, a festival of short films by, for and about women, is making its annual stop at the Hermosa Beach Community Center tonight with eight short films from around the world. The festival is sponsored by Luna Bars and hosted by different charitable groups around the country. Soroptimist International of Manhattan Beach has hosted the local festival for six years now. "One of the members stumbled onto this festival," said Monica Frey, the club member in charge of the festival. She explained that since the Soroptimist mission is to raise funds and awareness of women's issues, the festival fit in neatly with the group's goals. This year, in addition to the films chosen by the LUNAFEST committee, a 14-minute version of Flesh: Bought and …

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Blossom Chronicles

'Hunger Games' Opening Night Excites Fans

Brutality and murder don't phase the youngsters who devour The Hunger Games series of books and love the new movie.

Accompanying eight, super-hyped-up girls, all 12 or 13, to the opening night of The Hunger Games isn’t for the faint of heart. Especially when the girls scream with glee and applaud at the brutal murders of kids their own age. Note: Spoiler Alert! My granddaughter, Jordan Fideler, 13, of Redondo Beach, couldn’t contain her joy when one teen was torn to pieces by ferocious hounds. “I actually cheered when Cato was thrown off the cornucopia,” she said, clapping her hands in the ecstasy of the moment. (More on characters and plot later.) As for the four adult chaperones, we were as anxious to see the movie as the girls. None of us was overly concerned about the violence involved, something several critics described as inappropriate for young …

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Justin Hopkins, Tony Vincent Battle on 'The Voice'

Redondo Beach resident Justin Hopkins appears in the final battle round of Monday's episode of "The Voice." SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't watched the episode, stop reading.

Redondo Beach resident Justin Hopkins faced off against Broadway singer Tony Vincent on Monday night during the final battle round of NBC reality show "The Voice." The pair belted out a cover of Journey's 1983 song "Faithfully," and though Hopkins impressed Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, Vincent ultimately won the battle. "Justin, you really impressed me today … You've got all the heart and soul of anybody, any coach, anybody in the audience," said Cee Lo Green, the duo's coach. Calling the decision "tough," Cee Lo decided to go with Vincent because of his versatility. The battle was the final round of the fourth and final episode showcasing the show's battle rounds, where two singers from the same team sing a duet. Once the song finished…

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Blossom Chronicles

Justin Hopkins Rocks 'The Voice'

Cee Lo Green deems Justin Hopkins' voice "unique" when welcoming the Redondo resident to his team on NBC's "The Voice."

Justin Hopkins, the Redondo Beach resident now competing for a recording contract on The Voice, says there is a major difference between the NBC reality show that airs Mondays at 8 p.m. and Fox’s American Idol. "Idol is looking to find new singing talent," Hopkins, 31, said. "The Voice is about finding established artists … giving them a platform. Most people on the show have had proven professional success." With his reddish beard, spiked hair and bawdy laugh, Hopkins, who sizzles with stage presence, is a perfect example of the latter. Performing professionally since his undergraduate days at the University of Oregon, he is an all-around musician who not only sings bluesy rock and writes his own songs, he also plays piano, bass, drums …

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Katharine Blossom Lowrie

10:05 pm on Monday, March 26, 2012

Justin Got Robbed on The Voice! He was just awesome!   more ›

Local Singer Justin Hopkins Earns Spot on 'The Voice'

Redondo Beach musician Justin Hopkins earns himself a place in season two of NBC's hit singing reality show, "The Voice."

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Adam Levine. It has been corrected in the text below, and we regret the error. Redondo Beach resident Justin Hopkins took the stage Monday night on NBC's hit reality show The Voice, singing a version of David Gray's "Babylon" and earning himself a spot on the team of Cee Lo Green. "There was no one I would have rather worked with on this show, PERIOD!" wrote Hopkins, 31, on his official blog for the show. "I would have enjoyed Blake's twitter support, Adam's modern approach, but there is nobody on that panel with more experience (than) the LO'." The Voice sets itself apart from other singing reality shows like American Idol through its blind audition process. During the blind …

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Hermosa Sounds

Nick Shattuck Lives in 'Chorus and Verse'

"I’m very autobiographical when it comes to songs ... I can’t write music without feeling it," the local singer-songwriter tells Patch.

In Southern California, many musicians strive for that moment of honesty when the artist becomes the art, and the art lives in the artist. Nick Shattuck, a 28-year-old Beach Cities transplant from Wisconsin, has found it. In his debut album Chorus and Verse, the singer-songwriter offers a fresh take on the blues. His lyrics recall family struggles, heartbreak, finding love and frustration, while all recounting the last eight years of his life. Now Shattuck, who moved to California in September, is working on his second album. He told Patch he hopes to record it in Hermosa Beach. "It’s more like a life album, and just kind of realizing that it was my choice to move to L.A. No one else could do it for me ... It’s called Times Like These," …

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'Animal Movers' Spotlights Local Business

The employees of Pacific Pet Transport in Redondo Beach are the stars of the new online reality show "Animal Movers."

Spike TV has Bar Rescue. The History channel has American Pickers. A&E has Storage Wars. Syfy has Ghost Hunters. And the Internet has Animal Movers, a web-based reality show following South Bay resident James Nelligan and his Redondo Beach-based business, Pacific Pet Transport, which moves family pets and exotic creatures all over the world. "With a distinctive California vibe, the show takes viewers on an inside look of moving everything from race horses to the Kentucky Derby to the family dog overseas," according to a news release from the production company, P3 Productions. Ten-minute portions of episodes are posted every Friday. So far, the show has posted all three parts of the first episode—"Paws Over Maui"—and the first two parts of…

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