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     Welcome to summer #24 on www.dorothyswebsite.org! For those of you who are return visitors, welcome back! Welcome, too, to those of you who are here for the first time. This page is THE place to find important reminders and news about the site! This includes information about what's new during the summer and about the month-to-month changes taking place. Please check back periodically - you can get to this page directly from the Home Page and all the other major sections of the site. Also if you enjoy the information you find throughout the site, please consider making a donation using the PayPal link below. (Latest Update: August 16)

FOR FIRST-TIME VISITORS: This site contains a monthly listing of free concerts and music-related events in Orange County and parts of Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire. There are two phases to the site: Fall/Winter/Spring, and the Summer version of the site which is here now through September 30. Most of the events listed are offered to the general public or residents of certain cities free of charge. Events in clubs, bookstores, cafes and other similar venues covered elsewhere generally are not included. You can start your visit to the concert listings by clicking on the "Free Concerts" link above. There is no fee to access the information, and more than 120 venues in the Orange County, Los Angeles County and Inland Empire areas are included in the listings. Last-minute updates can always be found on Facebook, too, and you can scroll down a little further on this page to find that information. Please take the time to look through some of the other areas of the site as well: read an essay or a poem, view the work of the summer guests or take a look at some of the "Extras" (a few other things you can find for free during the summer). NEVER BEEN TO A SUMMER CONCERT? It's simple . . . pack a picnic dinner or buy a meal at the concert venue, bring a blanket or beach chair (or call the venue to ask about their seating policy), and sit out under the stars and listen to some great music!

FOR EVERYONE:: The events and "Extras" keep coming . . . All pages have been updated for this week, with still more to come for this month and for the summer. If you jhaven't already, don't forget to take a look at the works of the first Guest Artist of the summer, photographer Michael Graves. His Route 66 photos are now found on the All Cities by Date concert page. You also can read more about him on the Guests page. This week the Featured Artists page continues the 2026 Spotlight Festival, the 84th Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival in Little Tokyo in downtown LA. Since events are spread out over this weekend as well, the Festival also remain at the top of the page for this week. Read more about the Festival on the Featured Artists page. As with every year, the site is a continual work in progress throughout the summer, with new materials added through the end of September. Information on those new materials always will be available here. Remember, too . . . in addition to this page you can find other recent news and notices on the site's Facebook page, which is now found at www.facebook.com/gotodorothyswebsite. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great summer!

Finally, as you think about how you have enjoyed the summer, please consider the opportunities for you to help keep the site going. There are two ways you can help. You can purchase a T-shirt or other site-related items and gifts at the website's Cafe Press storefront, "dorothyswebshop", or you can donate through PayPal by clicking the link below. Donations through PayPal are not tax-deductible, but they are much appreciated.

Thank you so much for your support and your generosity!

Also, those of you who have been with the site for any part of the last 20 summers know that Dorothy completed a book about the site back in 2013. In conjunction with the website book, all past summer sites from 2003 - 2013 were recoded and reposted. Summer editions since that time also have remained posted. Visitors can view those past summer sites through 2024, as well as a book preview, by visiting the "Website Book" page.

A NOTE ON THE CONCERT SPONSORS: Many of the concerts and other activities taking place (movies, etc.) are able to continue only through the generous support of program sponsors. If you enjoy the programs and want them to continue, please support and thank all the sponsors of these programs, whether they are cities, community organizations or area businesses.

2026 SUMMER THEME: "ROAD TRIP: JOURNEYS, DESTINATIONS, ROUTES"

     Earlier this year I kept hearing about the Route 66 Centennial - 100 years of what is often referred to as "America's Main Street." I didn't think much about it until I came across a display of Route 66 memorabilia. It was only then that I realized how much I didn't know about what - or where - Route 66 was. A simple map showed, with streets clearly labeled as Route 66, that it included Foothill Boulevard in the Inland Empire and Streets like Colorado Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard in LA County, streets which I had crossed or driven on many times in the past. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled seeing the little historical Route 66 marker signs posted on some of those streets but never paid much attention to them.

     What is (or was) Route 66? Commissioned on November 11, 1926, US Highway 66, called Route 66, it eventually became the first U.S. highway to be fully paved. It was not a new road but linked several auto trails and local, state and national roads. Nicknamed the "Main Street of America" or "The Mother Road," it has quite a storied history that has extended into many aspects of popular culture. The road began at Lake Michigan in Chicago, and after a few re-alignments, came to end in Santa Monica, for a total of just under 2500 miles. It became a major route for tourism and travel until the construction of the first Interstate Highway System in the 1950s.

     There are plenty of sources of Route 66 history and trivia, and after reviewing a few of them, I decided to take a road trip over a small portion of Route 66 from San Bernardino to Santa Monica, stopping at several of the historically designated sites along the way. Most of the images on the site are derived from photos taken during the road trip. The drive is easy in that the streets are easy to find and travel, but difficult in that they are entirely stoplight-based surface streets, mostly covered with modern strip malls, shopping centers and only a few stretches of lightly developed roadside. I had to break the trip up into several sections over several days since it took too long to drive it any other way. What is left on the current stretches of local Route 66 is a mish-mash of older hotels/motels, restaurants and diners, and a couple of historical service stations that have retained the original gas pumps, along with a few more significant structures that have lasted over the years like the Beverly Hills City Hall and the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasasdena. At first it seemed odd that the preponderance of remaining structures were dominated by diners, restaurants, and hotels/motels, but I guess that is what made the road what it was. I tried to imagine driving the route at a time when there weren't many other ways of getting from place to place, and back then Route 66 had what travelers likely needed the most: the gas stations to fill up their tanks, places to stop for a meal and a place to rest overnight before continuing along the route. Could you still eat and sleep your way through the current course of Route 66? Most definitely. On the leg of the trip from Santa Monica through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, one of my last stops was the newest addition to Route 66 - the Tesla Diner. When I first heard about the diner I wondered why it had been placed where it was built. After driving Route 66 the location made total sense - a modern update to the concept of the Route 66 diner complete with a modern "fueling" stop - an entire parking lot of Tesla charging stations. A couple of photos of the diner, including two large screens at the back of the parking/charging lot which were screening episodes of Jetsons cartoons, are included below.

     Also, a few credits where credits are due. First, the image closer to the top of the page here is of a postcard purchased at a Route 66 gift shop at one of the stops on the road trip. Credits due for images on the second level pages, (the pages reached by clicking the links on the home page), are as follows: 1) the background is derived from a photo taken of a map painted at the back of the interior of the Cucamonga Service Station in Rancho Cucamonga. The artist names listed on the map are Dick Wire and J. Balderama, with a date of 2016; 2) the image on the far left is a scan of the "Your Passport to California Route 66" published by the State of California; 3) next to that are images from a deck of Route 66 playing cards purchase at a Route 66 gift shop; and 4) the image on the right side of the page is a scan of the current Route 66 postage stamps from the USPO.

ONE FINAL THOUGHT ON THE CONCERTS: All of the concerts in the listings are free to the general public, and there are some truly outstanding programs. However, many of the groups and organizations sponsoring these concerts incur substantial costs in bringing them to you year after year. Several concert support organizations have had to begin charging a ticket price for entry to some, if not all, of the performances. Donations which allow organizations presenting the concerts to continue their tradition of bringing quality music to the general public at no charge are always appreciated.

. . . AND ONE REQUEST FOR VISITORS: Survey forms are sometimes passed out at concerts/event venues, and the question "How did you hear about this event?" is often asked. If you are attending an event you found on this site and receive such a form, it would be much appreciated if you let them know that you found the information on www.dorothyswebsite.org. Thank you!

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