On the Town: Car show thrills, Levee honored, comic slays at Elks Lodge
Community car enthusiasts gunned their engines on their way to the 2019 LA Auto Show at the L.A. Convention Center.
Although car lover and La Crescenta resident Suzette Van Sleeuwen isn’t in the market for a new car, she was front and center at the show on Nov. 24 with son Erik.
The show featured nearly 1,000 vehicles on the show floor with more than 70 new models.
“I can dream, can’t I,” said Suzette Van Sleeuwen, who currently drives a 2007 Hyundai Elantra.
First on her to-do list was checking out the show’s novelty vehicle — a car made entirely out of Legos that can drive a whopping 19 mph. It took 16 people more than 13,000 hours to put together the car over 10 months.
The engine and body are Lego-built. What aren’t made of Legos are the tires, wheels, seat belts and battery. Suzette Van Sleeuwen turned down a test drive of the car.
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Glendale mover and shaker Camille Levee doesn’t know when to quit, even if she is retired. Recently honored as a “Woman Achiever” by Business Life magazine, Levee spends much of her time as a board member for Wellness Works, the nonprofit organization that supports service veterans and their families.
Levee is also on the board of the guild at Adventist Health Glendale, board secretary for Healwithin and membership chair for Glendale Noon Rotary. Levee even cooks breakfast every Thursday for the late-start kids at Rosemont Middle School.
And this is what Levee does in her spare time.
She has been executive director of the Dental Foundation of California, Women at Work, time out inc., Glendale Healthy Kids and All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
“I enjoy connecting people and resources to make local communities better places to work and play,” Levee said.
Camille Levee has certainly made Glendale a better place.
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Off Broadway — very, very off Broadway — is the Glendale Elks Lodge, stuffed elk’s head and all.
In an out-of-town tryout, Vietnam veteran Tim Colceri starred in his “Get Some” tour. The one-man comedy recently played to a packed audience at the lodge.
The Elks Lodge was sold out at $20 a head. Adult beverages were liberally poured and economically priced at the lodge bar before the show. That set a welcoming mood for the vet turned actor.
Colceri served two tours of duty in Vietnam as an ensign and then naval officer. He described his experiences in Vietnam, including being discovered by movie director Stanley Kubrick. Colceri played a door gunner in Kubrick’s 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket.”
Among those in attendance was Burbank resident Brian Cutler, Colceri’s acting coach. Cutler is also an actor and sometime director. Colceri’s friends on hand included Dave Underwood and Michael Biehn.
After several changes of uniforms and more funny stories, Colceri’s one-hour performance came to an end to big applause.
Colceri’s future plans include a possible short film of “Get Some” and a feature film of the same.
“If it’s got legs,” according to Cutler, who would be the producer-director of the project.
