Atmospheric River   
January 26, 2021
A pair of powerful winter storms are headed for Central and Southern California expected to begin later this week. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the conveyor belt of moisture called an “Atmospheric River” is a strong flowing column of condensed water vapor that moves through the atmosphere and cools, producing heavy amounts of rain and snow. The predicted storms represent a strong low pressure system from the Aleutian Islands being pushed into the California coastline by an active Pacific jet stream.
 While up to 10 feet of snow might fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, coastal areas southeast of Santa Cruz could see eight to 10 inches of rain. According to NOAA meteorologists, “On a scale of one to five ranking, the back-to-back storms have been rated as a Category 5 Atmospheric River. Hereabouts in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, two to four inches of rain or snow is possible, while higher elevations may experience more than a foot of snow.
Because atmospheric rivers transport moisture thousands of feet above ground level, mountain peaks cause the air to uplift, cool, condense and then dump torrents of rain and snow. According to a 2018 study written in the journal Nature Climate Change, “As the climate warms, a dramatic uptick in precipitation volatility is expected in California, despite little change in yearly precipitation amounts. Climate Change is exacerbating the pattern of all-or-nothing precipitation extremes in California.”
As the storms move southeast, they are expected to stall over San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties delivering up to 10 inches of rain. Being farther away from the moisture plumes, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties will receive diminishing amounts of rain on Thursday and Friday.
Keeping my fingers crossed, I’m hoping that with nighttime temperatures here below freezing, we get more snow than rain. That’s because moisture from snowfall slowly penetrates into the ground instead of rapidly cascading away. That’s the best remedy following a very hot summer for native vegetation to recover from desiccation. It may also help natural aquifers to become more stable after years of over pumping.
Ever since the bankrupt housing subdivision at the south end of Mountain Road in Piñon Hills was abandoned without legal compaction or proper drainage infrastructure in place, the natural vegetation never grew back after fragile topsoil was scraped away. While the barren hillside has been a good firebreak on numerous occasions, it will remain an eyesore well into the future.
If by chance the Atmosphere River doesn’t quite stall as predicted, I would rather see the slopes buried in snow instead of eroding downslope through nearby creek beds and roadways. A moment of hope for everybody is that the Category 5 loses its punch.  

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Decmber 10, 2020

December 2, 2020

Dolly Parton A National Treasure

Country music legend Dolly Parton started singing shortly after she could talk and scripted music lyrics when she learned to write. She has now written more than 3,000 songs. To celebrate six decades of songwriting, Parton has assembled a 380-page book of concert photographs, images of people she interfaced with, handwritten lyrics for music, and fascinating stories about her hit songs.
Entitled Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, the book is more than a memoire. It is a window into the life of a woman who transcended music industry constraints and became a pop-music crossover success as an inspiration for generations of music fans. Growing up in a large family, there was plenty of competition from siblings. However, Dolly learned at an early age that when she sang, people listened.
Although Dolly sang at many events as a young teenager, her father would not allow her to go professional until she had graduated from high school. That’s because he was illiterate and wanted his daughter to be educated. After fulfilling his wish, Dolly moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the day after she graduated from high school where she met Johnny Cash, who launched her professional career.
In 1990, as a tribute to her father, Dolly Parton founded the Imagination Library, a book- gifting program, which provides free books to children from the age of birth to five years. Parents of children who are registered can receive up to 60 books to create a home library where early childhood reading sessions prepare children for kindergarten. Since it was founded, the Imagination Library has gifted 130 million books in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Ireland.
In April of this year Dolly Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to advance scientific knowledge in the battle against COVID-19. She hoped to create a bridge treatment to save lives until a vaccine was identified. Last month she learned a portion of the gift to VUMC was used to fund Moderna’s promising vaccine. In response to the news, Parton commented, “I just felt so proud to have been part of that seed money that will hopefully grow into something great and help to heal this world.”
Just recently on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert, former president Barack Obama admitted he had dropped the ball when it came to honoring Parton. While acknowledging that he should have awarded Parton with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he blamed the “screw up” on the assumption that she had already received one. In an attempt to correct the mistake Obama promised, “I’ll call Biden and recommend that Dolly Parton receives the Nation’s highest civilian honor.”                             

Written 9/8/2020

A Very Gehry Neighborhood  

Just one week after I wrote about the transformation of Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles with the construction of the Frank Gehry designed complex called “The Grand,” Gehry Partners released to the Los Angeles Times images of yet another project in the neighborhood for the Colburn School of Music and Dance. In an article written by Times Classical Music Critic Mark Swed, architect Frank Gehry, conductor Eza-Pekka Salonen, and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who championed the success of Walt Disney Concert Hall, now face similar challenges to provide the Colburn School with two state-of-the-arts performance halls.

Bridging over Second Street between Olive and Hill Streets, the large performance hall that looks like a melting glass cube and a separate smaller hall shaped like a silver box, will be anchored in an expansive public plaza connected to The Grand and the existing Colburn School on Grand Avenue. The large hall, which will seat 1,100 in the round with a curved floating balcony, will be used by the Colburn Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and L.A. Dance Project. The smaller boxy hall has steep seating for 700 with an orchestra pit, and will be used for dance and chamber opera performances.

In what appears to be a situation of déjà vu to the financial challenges of Disney Hall, the cost estimate of $300 million forced Colburn officials to suspend fundraising. On the good side of the equation, Eza-Pekka Salonen, who is the Director of the Colburn Conducting Department, was very successful in charming Lillian Disney and other philanthropists to the tune of $274 million for the cost of Disney Hall.  Since then, Frank Gehry has certainly proven to be a provocateur in design as well as an aficionado in use of materials.

Testing the waters once again on how sound travels and how sound can be redirected without having the need for solid walls in the concert hall, acoustician Toyota and Gehry have designed the glass exterior to accommodate ground floor windows, bringing warm illumination into the concert hall, lobby, and dance studios. For students of the Colburn School and the community at large, the trilogy of large, medium, and small concert halls on Grand Avenue is a priceless contribution to music appreciation, so let’s do it.

In his article Mark Swed commented, “Two new concert halls and a public plaza by Gehry are the keys to making Grand Avenue an arts arena like none other in America.” For music fans, the choices provided by Gehry represent his feelings of democracy. When everything is accomplished on Grand Avenue, while there will be opulence for some, there will be music for all, and free art museums embracing pedestrians.  

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Written 9/1/2020

 MOCA Masks And More  

While the nation is divided over wearing facial masks to prevent Coronavirus infection, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Downtown Los Angeles has stepped up to the plate not only to endorse wearing masks, but also in commissioning  artists to create a line of unique masks. Museum Director Klaus Biesenbach hopes the MOCA Mask Project will bring levity and joy during difficult times.

As Coronavirus restrictions continue with MOCA temporarily closed, L.A, based denim brand Citizens of Humanity and MOCA trustee Karyn Kohl have collaborated on a fundraising project in which all production costs have been donated so that MOCA benefits from all sales. Every mask manufactured in Los Angeles represents a limited edition available only from MOCA.

It was Biesenbach who imagined the Mask Project as a vehicle to bring art into daily life during the Pandemic. According to the Downtown News, “Each artist saw making masks as a very serious opportunity to bring art into daily life and make it a caring gesture to others while protecting oneself, which is what I think masks should be.” Biesenbach also hopes it will serve as a wider importance of art, which is a means of finding comforting moments.

The MOCA Mask Project includes nine images created by Virgil Abioh, Yoko Ono, Pipilotti Rist, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie, and Hank Willis Thomas. Also included, the Andy Warhol Foundation has licensed his image of “Flowers” for international sales to benefit MOCA. Some of the most compelling images include: Catherine Opie’s  humorous photo image of “Bo from Being and Having” that depicts a well-groomed mustachioed mouth. For those guys who look into the mirror with other masks and find something missing, this mask will help you return to the comfort zone.

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Yoko Ono brings an ethereal moment to “A Piece of Sky.”  On a practical level addressing those who feel masks are unnecessary, the literal graphics of Barbara Kruger remind everyone “Better Safe Than Sorry.” On the same thread, Thomas is a bit more poignant with his text “Life, Handle with Care.” For formal wear, the Grotjahn “Creamsicle COVID-19” mask is a delightful wavy geometric abstraction. Go to www.moca.org/masks to purchase a mask for every mood.

Looking to the future in Downtown Los Angeles, although the Pandemic has reduced activity considerably, “The Grand,” a $1 billon collection of buildings designed by Frank Gehry situated across Grand Avenue from Walt Disney Concert Hall, has reached the halfway mark. As iron workers and cranes assemble the framework for mid-rise towers anchored in a series of terraces with dramatic setbacks, now is a good time for architectural fans to view the new neighbor to Disney Hall, The Broad, MOCA, and The Coburn School of Music.

August 24, 2020

August 19, 2020

August 5, 2020

July 30, 2020

Black Magic Woman

The song “Black Magic Woman”, written by British guitar virtuoso/songwriter Peter Green catapulted a number of bands to fame. Green, who passed away last weekend at the age of 73, acknowledged the tune had been influenced by the music of American Blues guitarist Otis Rush. Bands that covered the song for hit singles include John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, and Santana.
After filling in for Eric Clapton at four Bluesbreakers concerts, the 19 year old Peter Green was chosen by John Mayall to replace Clapton. According to Mayall at the time, “It wasn’t that Green is better than Clapton, but rather he has the potential to become the best.”  Unfortunately, a long bout with mental illness cut short that opportunity, but not before Green had written and performed some of the most inspiring songs in the blues/rock genre.
Less than two years after Green joined the Bluesbreakers, his performance on lead guitar for his instrumental song “The Supernatural” became the first #1 hit single for Mayall’s band. Music fans who had been critical of Clapton’s departure quickly realized Green was the new superstar. According to Premier Guitar Magazine, “The instrumental for Mayall created a sonic dreamscape three months before Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced.”
As a blues guitarist, Green studied Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and B.B. King. It was King who stated, “Peter Green has the sweetest tone I have ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”
Meanwhile back at the Bluesbreakers, after Mick Fleetwood replaced Aynsley Dunbar on drums, a certain chemistry began to develop between Green, John McVie and Fleetwood. Shortly afterwards, the three departed from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to form a new band.
Initially, the name for the band was coined by Peter Green with zero interest in self promotion. He combined the name “Fleetwood” with a phonetic pronunciation of McVie morphed into “Mac”. His intention in doing so was to give credit to Mick and John, who he felt would outlast him. However in so much as he was clearly the leader of the band, the record company chose to release the debut album in 1968 as “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.” In the same year, the song “Black Magic Woman” was released as a single peaking at #37 in the UK Singles Charts. Two years later, the Carlos Santana cover of the song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
After spending three years with Fleetwood Mac and recording three albums, Green’s health deteriorated and he left the band. Green’s legacy includes the songs: “Man of the World”, “Stop Messin’ Around”, “Oh Well”, “Black Magic Woman” “The Supernatural” and “Albatross.” Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Peter Green and Santana performed “Black Magic Woman.”     

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July 22, 2020

Dirty Handoff

As the COVID-19 Pandemic has claimed the lives of 145,000 Americans, we as a nation should be alarmed that the health care system has failed and become a political football in this election year. While the death toll increases by 1,000 per day, any semblance of national unity has been shattered by partisan politics. If that’s not bad enough, politicians using the Pandemic to further their personal agendas as they ignored credible scientific knowledge is clearly despicable.
From the very beginning according to Vox News, “The ultimate goal of the White House was to shift responsibility for leading the fight against the Pandemic to the States, referred to as a State Authority Handoff.” After all, for the White House, reelection was of the upmost concern.
     As States were forced to bid against each other to purchase essential medical supplies, some Red States were rewarded with shipments from the U.S Medical Stockpile. That loss of national unity gave the Pandemic an opportunity to rage uncontrolled, while the U.S. economy plummeted.  Faced with perhaps the greatest challenge of his life, Donald Trump needed to create a distraction to shield him from accusations of mishandling the Pandemic.
Unfortunately, the death of George Floyd and the ascension of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) nationwide unity demonstrations, also provided Trump with the perfect distraction. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the DHS Task Force to Protect American Monuments, under the leadership of Acting DHS Secretary Chad F. Wolf. For the record, Trump appointed Wolf, who has not been legally vetted nor confirmed by the Senate.
As peaceful BLM demonstration increased in Portland Oregon, Wolf deployed 600 personnel to “Defend and protect federal facilities.” However, the point of contention is that unmarked federal agents in camouflage, driving unmarked vans, have been arresting peaceful demonstrators with no charges filed.  While it was perfectly legal for Trump to invoke the State Authority Handoff for the Pandemic, the activities in Portland violate that 10th Amendment provision of the U.S. Constitution.
With several lawsuits filed against DHS, the contention is the 10th Amendment was intended to limit the authority of the Federal Government by declaring, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
According to Thom Hartman for Common Dreams, “Trump’s secret police are following Richard Nixon’s 1968 ‘Southern Strategy’ to provoke violence and then promise to keep white people safe with law and order.”
The most likely scenario for a Trump comeback, according to Ross Douthat of the New York Times, “Involves a fading of the virus’s worst effects, or a surge in crime and disorder.”    

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July 15, 2020

July 8, 2020

June 11, 2020

Live Music Pause

Hereabouts in the Tri-Community as well as throughout Southern California, live music under the stars has always been my favorite summertime activity. For me, enjoying the sunset, feeling a cool breeze, and hearing music serenading the stars has been the ultimate reward for the cultural escape. This summer, however, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the reopening of live concert venues in California will not occur until Stage 4 activities are considered to be safe. 

Although Stage 3 high-risk businesses such as gyms, hair and nail salons, and movie theaters will be allowed to reopen on June 12, social distancing and the wearing of face masks will be required. At this time there has been no date set for the reopening of Stage 4 venues for concerts and conventions, nor for sports and swimming facilities with live crowds in close proximity.

In regards to live concerts, it appears it will be some time before those venues reopen. That’s because, by nature, tight seating and crowded concession stands for drinks and food are the antithesis of social distancing and the wearing of face masks. If safety measures were strictly enforced, there would not be enough people in the audience to cover all the costs associated with the musical production.

Aside from the risk of spreading the virus, there remains a huge risk of liability for the concert producer should someone in the audience or their relatives become fatally infected. That issue has yet to be defined by legislators and insurance companies, but in all likelihood will not be resolved until a vaccine is discovered, produced, and distributed.

Talking with music impresario Dan Campbell, the aforementioned obstacles facing Wrightwood’s Music in the Pines Summer Concert Series are particularly worrisome.  Social distancing would reduce the audience size by 75 percent if the event was held at the Community Service District parking lot.  Further complicating the numbers, the percentage of senior citizens prone to infection exposure reduces the audience size to below 100.  The number of participants who typically contribute financially to pay for production costs and musicians also plummets. 

When Stage 4 requirements for live concerts are established, face masks will most probably be mandatory. That would preclude the casual dinner style of bringing picnic baskets of food and beverages or purchasing those items from local restaurant vendors onsite.  Removing masks to eat or drink, even for a brief period, is dependent on social distancing to be effective and requires another layer of monitoring for concert promoters.

Sadly, a certain percentage of people are not wearing face masks, bandanas, and scarves properly. As the only protection currently available against a deadly germ, get serious and do it properly so you will be alive next summer when Music in the Pines resumes.  

May 28, 2020

Written May 4, 2020

Fifty Years Ago   
   
On May 4, 1970, a demonstration against the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia turned violent when Ohio National Guard Troops fired 67 rounds of ammo into students of Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine others. That incident was followed 11 days later when Mississippi National Guardsmen fired 460 shots at students of Jackson State University where two were killed and 12 were wounded.
Addressing the carnage, students at 450 American colleges went on strike and classes were cancelled for the spring semester. Marking an end to the age of innocence and the altruistic dreams of the ‘60s, the execution of protesters was more akin to Third World dictatorships than to American college campuses. The Neil Young song “Ohio,” written for the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young single, was first performed on June 4, 1970. Fifty years later, it remains a poignant anti-war song.
Sadly, the Vietnam War has come back into the news recently, with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic now claiming more lives than were lost in the Southeast Asian conflict. As with the Nixon Administration and our modern day “Wartime President,”    conflicting reports, distractions, and political leverage are just as apt to occur today as they were then.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic is an insidious enemy that knows no borders. There are no troops marching into battle, nor Napalm explosions incinerating the horizon. As we have experienced, COVID-19 travels everywhere, surges and retreats, and might have many curtain calls. While there appears to be a pause in the action, that can only be verified with truthful statistical testing. So here we are months after President Trump promised testing for every American, and there remains a shortage of test kits that perform accurately, as well as laboratories that can produce speedy results.  Modifying shelter at home and safe-distance protocols without scientific proof that COVID-19 is receding is not acceptable.
Meanwhile, while states compete with the federal government to acquire test kits and protective clothing, our wartime president has been accused of being preferential to those states that truly appreciate him. However, let’s be candid here. America First isolationism might have some traction here, but it is a nonsequitur abroad. On May 4 at a pledging conference to fund test kits, protective clothing, and to develop, manufacture, and distribute a vaccine for COVID-19, the European Union, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Norway and Spain, raised $8 billion. With $1.25 billion given to the World Health Organization (WHO) for vulnerable nations, that amount vastly surpasses what Trump took away from the WHO.
After being hard hit and rebounding, the European nations are not resting on their laurels or murmuring, “You like me!”  Instead, they are preparing for Act II of a continuing siege.    

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Written  April 22,2020

 United At Home   

Last Saturday, in the parlance that politics or religion should not be the topic of conversation at family gatherings, more than 100 musicians and vocalists in their homes entertained 20.7 million viewers of the One World Together At Home live stream broadcast, without crossing that line. After all, the concert was intended to pay tribute to frontline workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic and to celebrate their heroic bravery through the universal language of music. The event, presented by Global Citizen (GS), generated $127.9 million in donations pledged before the broadcast from 68 worldwide corporate sponsors.

After Lady Gaga announced the two-hour broadcast special on April 6, the list of guest performers who wanted to participate swelled from 24 to more than 100. The solution to the conundrum was to schedule a six-hour segment featuring international acts with videos of world citizens cheering healthcare workers every night at 7:00 p.m. from their balconies as they sheltered at home. Following that telecast, the original cast of superstar U.S. and U.K performers was aired for two hours hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon. From Lady Gaga, her testimony was, “This is really a true love letter to all of you, all over the world.”

Highlights from the first segment included Hozier and Maren Morris singing her country song “The Bones.” Following up, Rita Ora sang “Lonely Together” with multi-screen visuals of healthcare workers and elderly patients waving to their relatives. Continuing in that emotion, Hussain Al Jassmi sang “I Miss You” in Arabic with English subtitles for the lyrics. Keysha then sang her powerful anthem “Rainbow” with children from around the world holding up images of what has become the logo of hope in the fight against the pandemic. Danai Gurira then made a compassionate plea stressing that patients needed proper care and healthcare workers needed essential supplies. Delta Goodrem from Australia then followed up with a stunning rendition of “Together We Are One.” 

Opening up the second portion of the broadcast, Lady Gaga continued with her effort to make the event fun and engaging for everyone by singing the Nat King Cole rendition of the song “Smile.” Playing a bluesy piano, she accelerated at times into a Broadway musical tempo. Following up in that tone was Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Kasey Musgraves, and Elton John. For one of the most imaginative performances, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots filled the screen with a montage of 11 images for the song “Safety Dance.”

Getting back to inspirational songs, Camila Cabeello & Shawn Mendes performed “It’s A Wonderful World,” Lizzo delivered a riveting performance of “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and Jennifer Lopez channeled Barbara Streisand for “People.” Most poignant for those sheltering at home was the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Later on, appearing on split screen were Laura Bush and Michelle Obama. Bush commented, “We stand with the people of the world”. Obama followed remarking, “We will get through this crisis together.” Continuing, Billie Elish & Finneas performed a soulful “Sunny” followed by Taylor Swift singing “Soon You’ll Get Better.”  Another dynamic performance followed with Jennifer Hudson stunning everyone with “Hallelujah.” A very special finale included Andrea Bocelli, John Legend, Celine Dion, and Lady Gaga singing “The Prayer” with Lang Lang on piano. 

The concert raised $55.1 million for the World Health Organization, and $72.8 million for 46 organizations funded by Global Citizen.   

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Written April 15, 2020

Sheltering With Music

     Although sheltering at home to prevent spreading of the Coronavirus has not been  difficult because I generally spend a great deal of my time there anyways, there have nevertheless been some exasperating situations. After continuous rainfall with my landline telephone service out of order for nine days and my cell phone breaking up and dropping calls, I was beginning to feel isolated. Thankfully, the Internet remained viable and www.pastemagazine.com provided me with an array of music and film selections.

     Scrolling through The 50 Best Movies on YouTube (Free and Paid), I came upon three documentary films with each crediting a specific locale as the birthplace of new music genres. From Muscle Shoals Alabama to Hollywood and Van Nuys, California, more than 500 Top 40 singles and albums were recorded during the 1960s and 1970s.

     Rick Hall, who was white, grew up in poverty in Muscle Shoals hearing black laborers singing in the fields as they picked cotton. Aspiring to be something special in life, the producer/songwriter/musician/ remembered those melodies and rhythms when he opened Fame Recording Studio. Forming a house band called “The Swampers,” the multiracial cast of musicians created a sound unique to Muscle Shoals with roots connected to gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and country music. Arthur Alexander’s song “You Better Move On,” which was the first gold record, was later covered by the Rolling Stones. After that, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Etta James, Duane Allman, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, and many more recorded at Fame.  Google: Muscle Shoals-YouTube.

     In narrating The Wrecking Crew documentary,  Dick Clark mentioned the name came about because the core house band of producer Phil Spector, “didn’t wear suits and ties to sessions, embraced rock and roll music, and were going to wreck the music industry as ghost players without receiving credits on hundreds of hit songs.” All being accomplished musicians with classical and jazz backgrounds, they were masters at improvising.  Glen Campbell and Leon Russell emerged from The Wrecking Crew to become superstars. As ghost players, because session time was highly in demand and expensive, Wrecking Crew musicians actually created musical scores for The Monkees, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds, and then taught the youngsters how to play the song when it became a hit. Others included Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, and The Mamas and the Papas. Google: The Wrecking Crew-YouTube.

     In 1969 after Tom Skeeter and Joe Gottfried purchased a state-of-the-art recording console for $75,000 from British electronics engineer Rupert Neve, Sound City Studio became famous for a distinct sound produced by the Neve Electronic 8028. The drums popped like nowhere else. Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, and countless others liked that sound. Google: Sound City-YouTube.

Written April 8, 2020

One World Together At Home Concert  

     The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide on this planet who will need apolitical financial assistance in order to survive. Collectively, the profession of being a Rock Star generates the magnitude of wealth necessary to fund such a recovery. On Saturday April 18, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Citizen (GC) present 25 musicians and performers who have come together to support and celebrate healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic, for what could be the most widely broadcast concert in history.

     The epic world TV special will be produced by WHO and GC and curated in cooperation with Lady Gaga. The global broadcast will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and the cast of Sesame Street.  Featured performers include: Lady Gaga, Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, David Beckham, Eddie Vedder, Elton John, Finneas, Idris &Sabrina Elba, J. Balvin, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kerry Washington, Lang Lang, Lizzo,Maluma, Paul McCartney, Priyanka, Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh, and Stevie Wonder.

     During a virtual interview last week between Lady Gaga, Jimmy Fallon and CEO Tim Cook, it was confirmed Apple will be donating $10 million. To date, $35 million had also been donated by 68 companies. Last week, GC provided hundreds of thousands of protective medical gear and 1.5 million diagnostic kits.

     Gaga also explained the event is not intended to be a fundraising telethon since all solicitation to fund the COVID-19 Pandemic response had already been made to corporate leaders, Tech companies and philanthropists. Instead, Gaga commented, “We want to raise the money before we go on the air. When we do go on the air, put your wallets away, put your credit cards way and enjoy the show.”

     Establishing another broadcasting first, the One World Together At Home Concert will be simultaneously aired on ABC, NBC, Viacom CBS, iHeart Media, BBC, Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Disney Chanel, Yahoo, YouTube and other global platforms connecting the  entire world. The concert will be aired at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

     Global Citizen is an advisory organization focused on providing information on the novel Coronavirus, and to pressure governments into taking action. Additional information can be found at www.globalcitizen.org/togetherathome .

     The WHO is committed to defeating the Coronavirus Pandemic with science and public health measures, which support the health workers who are on the frontlines of the response. All donations will go the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.

     Mark your calendar now for a concert recognizing brave health workers, who risk their lives every day, to save ours.      

Written April 2, 2020

The Distraction Game

     As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic rages out of control, world leaders have initiated a dizzying array of actions, perhaps intended to gain political traction. At the same time, our attention is riveted on the health hazard. Key players entering the stage of international chaos are the United States/Iran, Russia/Saudi, the United States/Venezuela, and Hungary. Interestingly enough, after a telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Russia airlifted 60 tons of ventilators, masks, protective clothing, and respirators to New York City.
Continuing a week of political distractions, when the only topic that really matters is the worldwide pandemic, world financial markets already hammered by the heath crisis plummeted lower with the Russia/Saudi Arabia wild oil production war. The price per barrel declined to $20.00 decimating the U.S. fracking business. While that was bad for American oil industries, it did not bode well for Venezuelan oil exports. However, the government of President Nicolas Maduro supported by Russia, China, and Cuba, remained in power despite the U.S. Courts’ indictment for smuggling drugs. A point in case, if a sitting U.S. President cannot legally be indicted, what makes the White House think it can indict another president.
Following up that action, President Donald Trump believes that Maduro would take advantage of the COVID-19 situation to smuggle more drugs, doubled the U.S. military forces in the Caribbean. Trump offered to begin easing economic sanctions against Venezuela if Maduro formed a coalition government that was not socialistic and did not include him.
Further saber-rattling of the week occurred on Wednesday when Trump accused Iran and its proxies of planning an attack on U.S. forces in Iraq. If that was to happen, Reuters News reports, Trump warned, “They will pay a hefty price” without disclosing any details.
On the very same day that Putin pulled off a dynamic public relations coup with the airlift to New York City, Trump could have been equally magnanimous in offering to cease economic sanctions against Iran, in order to expedite shipment of medical supplies to that nation, hard hit by the pandemic. That might have been what Putin was hoping for as an ally of Iran. However, with the White House lacking in diplomacy skills, that opportunity was fumbled.
Meanwhile, in Hungary, the government of President Victor Orban citing concerns for the COVID-19 Pandemic, declared a state of emergency, giving him the right to rule by decree. With no time limit on the additional powers, democracy and freedom of the press were sidetracked, outraging the European Union.
With the entire world tragically affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, this should not be an opportunity for grandstanding or regime change. It should be a time when all world powers unite for one cause-to save lives.                        

Written March 25, 2020

Doctor, Doctor

Now that there are knowledgeable adults in the room at the side of President Donald Trump in the form of Doctor Anthony Fauci and Doctor Deborah Birx, it appears that Trump is growing frustrated with their candid assessments of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While we as a nation have only weathered through the first week of practicing social distancing, sheltering at home, and self-quarantine for those testing positive, the number of those complying with Presidential directives is being eclipsed by new cases in the second week.
During a live townhall broadcast on the Fox News Channel this week, Trump said he would like to have businesses open their doors again by Easter on April 12.  His exact words were, “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Trump disclosed he was not happy about his public health expert’s recommendation, but he reluctantly accepted two weeks of restrictions because, “We would have been unbelievably criticized for not doing it.”
Following up today, as has been the case for many of Trump’s press conferences, Doctor Fauci and Doctor Birx were less optimistic. They explained that Trump’s Easter proposal needed to be addressed with flexibility, depending on what kind of data was available now and what data would be soon be available. As Doctor Fauci commented, “This is a big country. There are areas we need to know more about before we ease restrictions.”
In viewing a map of the Unites States provided by Reuters News, there are states with a minimal number of COVID-19 infections and no deaths. West Virginia has 20 reported cases, Wyoming has 28 cases, and South Dakota has 30. While those states have a decent chance to curtail the pandemic, they certainly are not major contributors to the national economy that Trump hopes will return to work as soon as possible to prevent financial collapse.
Most people like to work and few like to be confined to their homes for what could be weeks.  Doctor Fauci has disclosed that lockdowns in China were successful because it is an authoritarian country. There was no discussion with the population when draconian measures were the only option to prevent complete decimation of the national workforce.       
The COVID-19 Pandemic is neither a hoax nor a deep state conspiracy. It is something that has never been experienced in the United States since the 1918 Influenza Pandemic killed 675,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide. There will be no returning to normal by Easter. This is not like the wildfire will crest the mountain in hours, or the hurricane will make landfall next week. Nobody knows how to stop COVID-19 until a vaccine can be produced.

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Written March 18, 2020

 What To Do   

With most activities and events cancelled as health precautions for the Coronavirus (COVID-19), my first reaction to the “Shelter in Place” declaration made by President Donald Trump was “What am I going to do?” As a journalist here in the Tri-Community, a great amount of my time is spent attending public meetings and events where I scribble copious notes and shoot photographs of the activities. Later on at the home computer, I spend hours researching additional material, editing photographs, and writing articles.
For each feature article of 500 words, I spend approximately six hours from start to finish. In addition to that time spent, preparing clothes and commuting to events, are activities for each assignment. As a teenager attending Catholic military school, I fell into the life-long habit of ironing a shirt and trousers every morning before heading out the door. And while I have since abandoned the military creases on the shirt, the mindless task of ironing clears my mind for each day’s new adventure.
Under the present circumstances with nothing to do and nowhere to go, I am particularly at a loss. What comes to mind first are the lyrics of George Harrison’ song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”… “I look at the floor, and see it needs sweeping”. There will be spring housecleaning like never before. With my accelerated lifestyle grinding to a halt, the former procrastination mantra of, “I can’t do that until I do this,” is totally irrelevant.
Secondly, my workshop needs cleaning and organizing. After constructing it, the space never quite transitioned into being an art studio. So now is the time to crank up the heat and the music and enjoy being productive. With the insidious COVID-19 secretly wafting around, I can use that threat as a stimulus to stay home surrounded by the safe environment I have created.
However, until the weather here in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains becomes warmer to work outdoors in the garden, a journey to view Southern California native plant gardens already in bloom has been cancelled. Instead, the Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF) 2020 Garden Tour will be conducted online rather than in-person. On Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., a virtual journey through Southern California native plant gardens can be experienced for those who have WhatsApp Smartphone features or Skype video feed capabilities.
On those days, there will be a live stream opportunity to meet and interact with garden owners, designers, and TPF staff. There will be 42 residential native plant gardens featured in the Westside, Mid-City, South Bay, San Gabriel Valley and San Fernando Valley virtual guided tours. Go to http://www.nativeplantgardentour.org for information and a prelude.

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Written Mach 11, 2020

Written March 4, 2020

Spring Ahead   

This Sunday, March 8, Daylight Saving Time begins and we steadily progress towards the Vernal Equinox first day of spring on March 19. And although there will probably be additional rain and snow, my rosemary bushes have started to bloom and I spotted the first blush of California poppies in Santa Clarita last weekend. I listen to Tom Waits: “Spring ahead or fall behind, you can never hold back spring.”
Thank you, Tom for the bluesy serenade, which always gets me anxious to open up the windows so I can hear the music outdoors as I work in the garden. A bit premature, perhaps, but I can still plan springtime activities and excursions for warmer days and longer sunshine.
One thing for certain on my list is checking in with the Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF) Wild Flower Hotline each week. For 37 years it has had free weekly recorded and online updates posted every Friday from March through May. It lists the best locations to view spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California, with all sites easily accessible on public lands. Call (818) 768-1802 Ext. 7 or go to www.theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline for a PDF format of locations with vivid photographs.
     Another way to enjoy the passion of the preeminent horticulturist of California native plants is to plan a day trip from the High Desert to the TPF located at 10459 Tuxford Street in Sun Valley, California 91350. The most scenic route in the springtime when wildflowers are in bloom is to drive east on Angeles Forest Highway from the 14 Freeway near Acton, traveling over the San Gabriel Mountains to Big Tujunga Road, continuing to Sunland Boulevard and then to Tuxford.
Once there, the 22-acre grounds feature a retail nursery, Wildflower Hill hiking trail, a native plant demonstration garden, a fire management demonstration garden, gift shop/ seed store, art gallery, and a nature education center for classes and workshops. If all this seems a bit fatiguing, bring a picnic basket and enjoy lunch on tables positioned under ancient oak and sycamore trees.
I usually spend as much time in the gift shop and art gallery as I do in the nursery. In addition to books and unique cards and stationary, there are gardening tools, clothing, and hats. In the gallery each year, a chosen Artist-in-Residence creates a body of work inspired by nature with an exhibit scheduled from September through December. During their residency, each artist also teaches one or more art classes.
TPF also sponsors an adult education program for native plant horticulture, and annual garden tours. The Theodore Payne Foundation is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm.                           

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Written February 26, 2010

Written December 18, 2019

Impeachment Eve 2019

It’s Tuesday night December 17 and today 700 historians released an open letter coordinated by the advocacy group Project Democracy, demanding the U.S. House of Representatives vote for impeachment of President Donald Trump. Across the nation tonight on the eve of the historic debate and vote, demonstrators rallied in 600 cities supporting impeachment. However once that is accomplished, there are several theories on how the U.S. Senate will handle the impeachment trial.
     Last week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News he did not intend to be impartial and “Everything I do during this I’m coordinating with White House Council.” In other reports, McConnell indicated he has the power to simply block legislative issues as he did in the past with the Supreme Court nomination of Garland Merrick and other House-passed bills.
However, according to Slate.com news, it is not McConnell who will be in charge of the Senate Impeachment Trial. Based on the Senate’s “Rules of Procedure and Practice” and as per rules framed to organize the trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will preside over the trial, removing Vice President Mike Pence as the Senate’s presiding officer. For that position, Roberts will take the oath of office within 24 hours of the bill of impeachment being passed over to the Senate.
As presiding officer, Roberts will direct all forms of the proceedings. If a Senator objects to Robert’s ruling on relevancy, materiality and redundancy of evidence, he could call for a vote to overturn Robert’s ruling. It would be perfectly constitutional for McConnell to push through sweeping changes to Senate rules, but that action would have to be initiated before the 24-hour deadline. That would probably force Senators to spend Christmas Day in session. With these powerful mechanics Roberts could overturn McConnell’s attempt to seize control.
Once the trial begins, House attorneys and Trump’s lawyers would have an opportunity to state their cases. It would then be up to House attorneys and Senate attorneys to cooperate in the selection of witnesses. The president has the right to testify in his own defense, with House lawyers given the right to cross-examine. As per Slate.com, “If President Trump decides to boycott proceedings and refuses to allow a legal team to represent him, the trial shall proceed, nevertheless, as upon a plea of not guilty.”
According to Slate, “The Chief Justice is a serious jurist, dedicated to sustaining the Supreme Court’s central position in our system of checks and balances. He takes the Constitution seriously and does not appear to be a pawn in McConnell’s scheme. How Roberts conducts the trial may well be a defining moment in American Democracy.”

Written December 11, 2019

Written December 4, 2019

Written November 26, 2019

Written November 19, 2019

More On Chet Noll

In my feature article on Chet Noll and his many talents, I mentioned parallel aspirations of fine woodworking and music. However, there were so many details involved in explaining the intricacies of creating his three-dimensional wooden butterflies, that I felt a separate dialogue was needed for his music. In most people’s lives, a single direction is adequate, but for multitasker like Chet, it seemed perfectly natural to dovetail many facets of creativity.
Chet Noll began piano lessons at the age of six. In seventh grade wood shop his project was building a violin. Continuing with a string instrument, he began cello lessons at the age of 13. Later on, in college, he would earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Piano Performance and Early Keyboard Instrument Building. At the same time, he was constructing clavichords, harpsichords and fortepianos on which he and other students performed.
In comparing those instruments, Chet explained the clavichord struck the strings very softly and could only be heard in a very small room. In contrast, the harpsichord plucked the strings and was considerably louder. With the invention of the piano, the keyboard returned to striking the strings with more volume produced. With those three instruments, musical composition evolved from the Renaissance and Baroque eras to modern periods of Bach and Mozart.
In 1976, Chet Noll opened his piano studio and has been teaching ever since. Later, he was trained as a Montessori teacher and learned the art of teaching very young students. In 1993 he founded Keyboard Art School of Music in Wrightwood. Over the years, in conjunction with the guidance of Joyce Wonderly, the original enrollment of 15 students being taught piano and cello by Chet expanded to 150 students being taught a full complement of the arts by 15 teachers.
Observing there have been a few former students who have excelled in college and concert venues, I queried Chet about those successes. He explained that in identifying a few prodigies that walked through the door, “I gave them the tools to excel and the freedom to explore music. I taught them how to capture attention and how to make them proud of their progress.”
Continuing, Chet spoke about composing choral pieces sung by a choir in Riverside. He explained, “In writing the overall concept for different instruments, there are factors of color, texture and timbre involved.” He then smiled and confided, “I like that sweet gravely sound of pencil on paper.”
Concluding with a practical solution when creativity does not pay all the bills, Chet Noll has a day job. For the past 25 years, Chet has been a computer software engineer and feels “An elegant computer code is not an antithesis to art.”

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Written November 13, 2019

Written November 6, 2019

Steve & Ali Saga Continues

Sometime after the incident at the Kinney Estate, in which Steve McQueen & Ali MacGraw roared through on a Harley and ended up in a shouting match with Roland and Kathy Kinney, I encountered Ali once again at Trancas Market. She confided on never having been so embarrassed in her life and thanked me for negotiating an apology before the Sherriff deputy allowed them to drive off. She also questioned if I did landscape work for other clients because she and Steve were having a problem with a crazy and loud next-door neighbor.
After following her home to their Broad Beach residence, I met McQueen. After brief introductions and recollections of the motorcycle incident, he began a verbal tirade about loud music, wild parties and bright lights shining in their windows, emanating from next door. I gulped when I heard that from the “Bad Boy” of Hollywood motion pictures. However, McQueen was now living a sedate lifestyle of being married with young children in the household. When I asked about the neighbor, I gasped. It was Keith Moon, drummer of the British band The Who, and yes indeed - the “Bad Boy” of Rock ‘n’ Roll music.
After thinking about the situation, I suggested a dense pine forest of mature boxed trees. I knew that Johnny, the construction manager for the nearby Herb Alpert Estate, had laborers and heavy equipment needed for the job. He was well experienced at handling boxed trees and repositioning them constantly at Alpert’s. He even moved the redwood forest from the local Methodist Church, across the road from Shangri-La Ranch recording studio where I used to listen to the music at night, to Alpert’s home. As for McQueen’s pines, they would be purchased from Wensel Gibbs Wholesale Nursery just a couple miles away.
The difficult part of the project was digging the holes and setting the dirt aside to be backfilled later, while the easy part was having the trees delivered and lifted into place with a crane. I’m not sure what Keith Moon thought about the operation, but in one fell swoop he could no longer be seen parading around in a Nazi uniform to the drumbeat in his head. Additionally, the thick vegetation damped the noise from next door and the height of the trees blocked any sight of the adjacent home.
Sometime later, I again ran into Ali at the market, and when I asked how effective the sound buffer was she laughed and said, “Steve and I hardly heard any of the construction noise for the ramp. “The ramp I questioned?” Still laughing Ali replied, “Evel Knievel cleared the pines, splashed down in the swimming pool and ran out the gate.”                                  

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Written October 30, 2019

Steve McQueen & Ali MacGraw

     With the recent death of motion picture luminary Robert Evans, there have been many photographs of his third wife, Ali MacGraw, on the Internet. After all, she was married to him longer than the other six wives, gave birth to Evans’ only child, and starred in “Goodbye Columbus,” and “Love Story.” Those films launched her career, and they orchestrated a financial turnaround for Paramount Studios under the leadership of Evans.  When the revolving door of romance turned, Ali MacGraw moved on to Steve McQueen.
I was pushing my shopping cart down the aisle of Trancas Market one evening when I approached the stunning beauty of Ali MacGraw. I quietly passed without staring, turned down the next aisle and OMG she had done the same and this time as we passed one another, she smiled. Without a trace of makeup, she was the most gorgeous looking actress I had even seen.
Sometime later when I was the landscape manager of the Kinney Estate, Roland & Kathy were cruising around in the golf cart one morning when a man and woman on a Harley roared through. Slamming on the brakes the man shouted, “Get out of the way old man. Pack your bags and get out. I’m going to buy this place!”  When I heard all the commotion, I called the Sherriff and ran up the driveway towards Pacific Coast Highway. Much to my surprise, the intruders were Steve McQueen & Ali MacGraw, and everybody was involved in a heated shouting match.
When the officers arrived, Roland insisted that McQueen should be arrested for trespassing and for insulting him in front of his wife. As one officer spoke to me and the other to Roland Kinney, the big questions were, “Does Mr. Kinney know who these people are?”  and my retort, “Do Steve & Ali know who Mr. Kinney is?”  Anticipating a legal skirmish between an older Los Angeles millionaire, and prominent California Club member, versus nouveau riche film stars, the officers convinced Steve & Ali they would lose. And so, they apologized and were allowed to depart.
A few months later, I saw McGraw again at Trancas Market. This time Ali was gushing with embarrassment and as we chatted she asked if I did landscape work for clients other than the Kinney’s. When I explained I was also a landscape designer, she appeared delighted. I followed Ali home to the Broad Beach residence where McQueen did not mince his swear words about a crazy and loud next-door neighbor. Ali desperately hoped I could create something that would prevent the two antagonists from seeing or hearing one another, because ocean front life had become miserable.
Next week, the story continues.

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Written October 23, 2019

Written October 16, 2019

Written October 9, 2019

Written October 2, 2019

Pinon Hills Chamber

     As summer wanes and fall colors begin to emerge with the cooler weather, this is the finest time of the year. My energy level, which I thought to be permanently singed from heat waves has returned and that’s good for this productive season. I attended the Pinon Hills Chamber of Commerce potluck meeting on Tuesday evening, to catch up on all the upcoming activities, and was surprised with the good attendance and impressed with inclusion of so many diverse community members from the Tri-Community.

The Victor Valley Community Services Council presents The Great Duck Race 2019, Sunday September 22 at 3:00 p.m. at Hesperia Lake Park. Take a chance to win $1,000. Call (760) 243-9646 for information.

On October 5, the Phelan Chamber of Commerce presents Phelan Phamily Phun Day on Phelan Road in Downtown Phelan. Pinon Hills Chamber presents the Desert Visions Art Show and Sale on October 26 with an Artists’ Reception on October 25 at 6:00 p.m. in the Chamber Building located at 10405 Mountain Road Pinon Hills 92372. Artwork for the show must be submitted on October 12. Register at

www.PinonHills

ChamberofCommerce.com, or call (760) 868-5801. The Chamber office is open M-F 10:00 am until 2:00pm.

High Desert Keepers President Scott Brown announced a fundraiser to be held on Sunday October 27 from 2:00 until 5:00 p.m. in the Phelan Community Center, with food, music, and an opportunity to thank those who are removing trash and debris from the desert landscape.

     October 31, the Phelan Chamber, Pinon Hills Chamber, Tri-Community Kiwanis and other community organizations host a Safe Trick N Treat at 5:00 p.m. in the Stater Bros. parking lot.

     Pinon Hills Chamber President Lori Weston and Phelan Chamber President Jeanna Mills discussed plans for a Town Hall Meeting being coordinated with Susan Drake, Field Representative for Supervisor Lovingood. The meeting is intended to address security in the community and will involve representatives from the Sheriff, Code Enforcement, Fire, and other SBC departments. An announcement will be forthcoming late in October.

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Written September 11, 2019

Written September 4, 2019

Written August 26, 2019

Nature To Heal Barrier Reef

On August 7, an underwater volcano near Tonga erupted producing round volcanic pumice rocks that can float. As the large mass called a “Raft” drifts towards Australia, an array of marine life will become attached to each rock. It is hoped, by the scientific community, that healthy coral and other reef dwellers will hitch a ride to the Great Barrier Reef and stimulate renewal.
Although there is a great deal of supposition to this story, first published by BBC, there are also huge amounts of pumice drifting in the Pacific Ocean. The lightweight bubble-rich rock is produced when lava from a shallow water eruption goes through rapid cooling and loss of gases. The pumice raft was first discovered by an Australian couple sailing their catamaran to Fiji. “The rubble slick went as far as we could see in the moonlight and with our spotlight,” commented Michael Holt and Larissa Brill. At daybreak, the two collected samples of the pumice ranging from a marble to basketball size.
Currently, satellite images show more than a trillion pieces of pumice, all floating together, covering 58 square miles or the equivalent of 20,000 football fields. However, in time the raft will break up and disperse. If it were to survive relatively intact, ocean currents would push it to Australia in one year. In the meantime, each chunk of pumice will become home to beneficial marine life.
Based on scientific studies conducted in the past 20 years, there is evidence to support a potential mechanism to restore the Great Barrier Reef with healthy coral. After unprecedented bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, regeneration collapsed. Although that bleaching was caused by warmer waters, there have also been other damaging factors.
Climate change warming the ocean water, poor water quality from land-based agricultural runoff, pollution from coastal development, and illegal fishing operations dragging nets and anchors, have all accentuated coral decline. A number of incidents also included large ships crashing into reef systems.
According to Business Insider, “More than 50 percent of the Great Barrier Reef perished in the 2016/2017 heat wave.” That impacts 25 percent of salt water fish species that spend part of their lifecycle in reefs. It also reduces the oxygen we breathe, of which 80 percent comes from the ocean.
Although researchers have been able to plant coral larvae for successful regeneration, the pumice raft of Mother Nature has the potential to greatly surpass those efforts. If nothing is done, Business Insider predicts, “Coral reefs around the world could be mostly wiped out by 2050.”
Let’s hope those chunks of pumice that don’t make it to Australia will find other reef systems in need along the way.

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Written August 21, 2019

New Female Quartet

Ever since the electrifying performance of Brandi Carlile at the Grammy Awards this year had 21,000 audience members in Staples Center on their feet cheering as she closed the event, it became apparent that indeed her time had come. No youngster to the music business, at age 38 Carlile  has been performing and recording with the same band for 15 years. For the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Carlile was nominated in six categories and won three Grammy Awards.
As quite an unusual musical team, Carlile and her electric bass player Phil Hanseroth and his twin brother Tim on electric guitar share equally writing credits and royalties. Having recorded six studio albums and one live album in multi-genre pop, rock, alternative country, and folk styles, Carlile’s strong vocals surprise listeners with a multi-octave range, while three-part vocal harmonies of the trio have become legendary.  
It was Phil who wrote “The Story” on the 2007 album of the same title, which was awarded Gold status in 2017 with 500,000 copies sold. On that song, Carlile’s voice travels from soothing to raucous as she plays a blistering lead guitar, and the band with drummer Matt Chamberlain becomes a wall of sound. After years of steady acknowledgment, Brandi and the twins replicated that intensity at the Grammy’s when they performed “The Joke” and finally were catapulted to fame.
So, what does a super star do next to match that acclaim? Well, Carlile reached back into her country music roots and contacted a few friends and came up with a new configuration. Along with Amanda Shire who sings and plays fiddle, Carlile co-founded an all female quartet featuring Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby, who perform incredible four-part harmonies. The quartet known as The Highwomen is up front at the microphones while Carlile’s band plays the music.
After songwriting sessions with everyone participating in March, just one month after the Grammy Awards, The Highwomen recorded 12 songs featuring guest performers Yola Carter and Sheryl Crow on vocals with Jason Isbel playing guitar. The next part of this story was a closely guarded secret as Carlile orchestrated a debut. It had to be due to Carlile’s newfound status for this dream to come true, and she was the first to admit it was more than a dream-it was a movement.
Flying below the radar, The Highwomen was booked to appear at the Newport Folk Festival on July 26.  Midway through performing the album of songs at the event, Brandi Carlile announced her special guest was Dolly Parton, and the rest was history as Parton joined in for five-part harmonies. The album will be released on September 6. In the meantime, Google search The Highwomen for an array of YouTube videos.     

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Written August 15, 2019

Written July 24, 2019

Written July 17, 2019

June 26, 2019

June 12, 2019

Written June 5, 2019

Summer Music Details  

With all the announcements for the Wrightwood summer music venues last week, there just wasn’t enough space remaining in this column to include much detail about the performers. While there will be some familiar acts returning to Wrightwood stages, a few newcomers with impressive career achievements will add to the alure of the Alpine Village as a music destination.
Music impresario Dave Cimino has pulled out all the stops for this year’s Red Barn Opry. Country rock Al Anthony Band features famous Nashville session guitarist Kelly Moore. For a taste of bluegrass music, five musicians of The Brombies will take you there. Following that, 2016 North American Country Music Association “Female Entertainer of the Year” and world-class yodeler, Maddie Leigh will be every cowboy’s sweetheart. Concluding, country southern rock band Brad Johnson & Killin’ Time have opened for Toby Keith, Jason Aldean, Merle Haggard and Keith Urban. Be there at Wilkensville Corner on June 22 at 5:00 p.m. for the exciting lineup.
The following evening at 7:00 p.m., the Wrightwood Classical Concert Series presents Jazz in the Garden featuring one of Southern California’s most talked about young jazz vocalist, Lia Booth. She will be accompanied on upright bass by Dylann Asa, who studied with Marshall Hawkins. In 2018, Asa was chosen as a featured artist in the Young Artist Showcase at the Washington D.C. Women in Jazz Festival. Completing the trio on piano, Danny Gutierez has performed with the award-winning RCC Jazz Ensemble. For ticket sales and location of the magical garden call Joyce Wonderly at (760) 249-3487.
Highlights for the 2019 Music in the Pines season that begins on Thursday June 27, include the increasingly popular Grateful Dead cover band from Wrightwood known as Universal Dudes. Along with them on opening night, Honey Buckets bluegrass band from Rancho Cucamonga is guaranteed to increase the heartrate and cause sudden euphoria.
On July 11, John Burcher with Anton Switzell and the Merry Makers will create surprise theatrical excitement for the audience. If that is not enough to have you gyrating wildly, please do so for the all female folk band Merry Wives of Windsor. Blending British Isles and Americas vocal harmonies on songs from their eight albums, the 11 members will also play folk instruments that include accordion, fiddle, upright bass, French horn, bouzouki, mandolin, percussions, guitar, flute, piccolo and bodhrán.
Returning to the Music in the Pines stage on July 25, Kelly Zirbes of Kelly’s Lot will perform her brand of sizzling Roadhouse Blues. Rocking the house after that, Wild Thing hearkens to the 80s and days of Rodney Bingenheimer.
Closing night on August 8 includes a salute to Motown, followed by the multi-talented Matt Coleman & Hobo Jazz.                    

Written May 29, 2019

Written May 22, 2019

Church of Music

Well, for the third chapter of Tyrone Merriner’s monthly feel good Church of Music revival at the Wrightwood Community Building, there were clouds hanging on the San Gabriel Mountains, but the weather was definitely better than it had been on my prior failed attempts to join the congregation. And so, with Tom Waits singing, “A little rain never hurt no one” on the car stereo, I motored up Highway 2.
Tyrone has a new look. It’s a departure from his former long hair and cowboy hat appearance, or if you will, a transformation into an evangelical crooner. With short slicked back hair and vestments of a long black tailored Edwardian coat and floppy white silk trousers, the always mysterious Wrightwood musician was in his element to reinterpret his songbook.
After a wild piano flourish, Tyrone welcomed audience members, exclaiming, “Brethren and sisters, you all love music, hallelujah all night!” With Merriner on keyboards and lead vocals, additional musicians included, Dave Pruit on electric guitar, Craig Kupka on trombone, John Burcher on saxophone, Toby Williams playing drums, Pammy Armstrong on bongo drums and vocals, with eight-year-old Logan Brown keeping the beat on tambourine.
As the trombone led into the introduction for “Just A Little” Merriner mimicked the Roscoe Gordon piano shuffle as he sang, rather than Etta James or Little Milton arrangements for the Blues standard, while Pruit wailed a shrill guitar. Following up with Duke Ellington’s “I Ain’t Got Nothing But The Blues,” Merriner played a bluesy piano and sang in a raspy voice, with a trombone stacatto in the background. Later on, with another Ellington classic “Take the A Train,” Williams played a long drum solo accompanied by a muted trombone.
After the B.B. King arrangement of “Woke Up This Morning” with a flurry of instruments playing, the inspirational Louis Armstrong song, “What A Wonderful World” was an audience favorite. After the finale, Merrriner remarked, “The mission of church music is to make people feel good.” Later, Williams sang a soulful rendition of the Muddy Water’s song, “Honey Bee.”
Concluding the first set, Pammy Armstrong and Tyrone Merriner belted out the lyrics for the Staple Singers’ locomotive liturgical power house standard, “I’ll Take You There.” Plan now to attend Church of Music on June 16 at 4:30 for complimentary music, beverages and Southern food prepared by Francoise Cooper and Mila Maren.

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Written May 15,2019

Alzina Toups & Cajun Food

A couple weeks ago at the classical music concert in Wrightwood, Tyrone Merriner was telling me about his Church of Music scheduled at the Community Building on the third Sunday of each month, until November. The event features Tyrone and fellow musicians elevating the spirit through music, with Francoise Cooper and other ladies in the kitchen elevating the palate with Southern food. That brought to mind a photo essay I had seen on BBC Travel entitled, “Louisiana’s Best Kept Culinary Secret,” with perhaps some recipe ideas for the kitchen.
Alzina Toups, age 92, learned to cook from oral history recipies handed down from her French Cajun fisherman father and her Portuguese chef mother. In 1977 she opened Alzina’s Kitchen, housed in a windowless steel shed that was formerly a welding shop facing Bayou Lafourche in Galliano Louisiana. Years ago, the letters for her sign rusted and fell off the building leaving the restaurant with no signage.
There is no menu displayed at the door to Alzina’s Kitchen and there are no hours posted, yet through word-of-mouth acclaim for her amazing Cajun cuisine, reservations are booked one year in advance. Dinner guests, of no fewer than 10 or more than 30, eat family style on cafeteria tables in the same room as the kitchen. Surrounding the restaurant are vegetable gardens growing all the produce needed for the kitchen. On the same 20-acre parcel handed down from her father, Alzina lives in a cottage near five generations of family members, who harvest the vegetablles and catch seafood in the bayou. In her spare time, she also hosts a local television cooking program in the French language.
In the BBC essay Alzina commented, “We cook with very simple natural ingredients, but we know how to use them. The food is uncomplicated fresh and bright Cajun in spirit and not Creole like that of New Orleans. Cooking forever makes me happy.” In addition to fresh produce and seafood, Alzina makes her own pasta and breads. Her 42-year-old granddaughter, Jenny, has been her assistant for 10 years and will eventually take over the business.
In the meantime, cullinary pilgrims from around the world savor her crabmeat lasagna, heavenly black-eyed pea jambalaya, amaretto yams, feather light potato rolls and fig tarts, all agreeing there is no comparison. Breaking with the tradition of limiting recipes to oral history, Alzina Toups has published her own 288-page cookbook, Cajun’s Joy Cookin’ ‘n Eatin’ Recipes: Alzina Toups, available from Amazon.com Books.
Stop by the Wrightwood Community Building the third Sunday of each month from 4:30 until 8:00 pm for non-religious yet spiritually-uplifting music, and perhaps a taste of Alzina Toups recipes, presented by Tyrone Merriner & Francoise Cooper.

Written May 2, 2019

The Stage is set

On Monday April 29, members of the Phelan Pinon Hills Community Services District (CSD) Engineering Committee, and members of the Sheep Creek Water Company (SCWC) Special Engineering Committee met at the Phelan Community Center to initiate discussion regarding the possible consolidation of the two water systems. Representing the CSD were General Manager Don Bartz, Committee Chair Mark Roberts, committee member Charlie Johnson, and Engineer George Cardenas facilitating a speaker phone conference call with State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) representatives Sean McCarthy, Kim Dinh, Hector Cazares, and NV5 Consultant James Owens. Representative SCWC were General Manager Chris Cummings, Committee Chair David Nilsen, committee member Bob Howard and shareholder Don Fish. Audience members included representatives from the Mojave Water Agency, CSD customers and SCWC shareholders.
At issue facing SCWC is a SWRCB Compliance Order which prompted a moratorium on service connections and building permits, and a Source Violation regarding maximum daily demand, fire flow and metering capabilities. At the meeting, while Nilsen cited various SCWC assets, which included the Tunnel, a right-of-way from Wrightwood to Phelan, and water adjudication rights dating back to 1933, his primary concern was that shareholders receive fair market value for their shares. However, Bartz commented, “The CSD does not wish to take over SCWC or buy its shares. Shareholders need to decide between implementing the California Rural Water Association (CRWA) report and Infrastructure Engineering Corp (IEC) feasibility study recommendations to upgrade the water system and drill new wells costing up to $12 million, or consolidate with the CSD.”
For the first option, Bartz mentioned grants, low interest loans and forgiveable loans are available to SCWC, but the CSD is not going to invest millions of dollars for improvements. For the second option, grant funding of $5 million from SWRCB is available for consolidation. However, as Kim Dinh stressed, “State funding is intended only for upgrades or consolidation, not to compensate shareholders.”
Later, Charlie Johnson noted, “The CRWA report is a diagnostic roadmap while the IEC report is entirely different - focusing only on source capacity. However, the numbers are not from the CSD or SCWC but rather from professionals.” What was recommended is that SCWC needs to commission an appraisal of assets and debts and formulate an improvement plan submitted to LAFCO, if it intends to remain a private company. On that point Bartz commented, “The biggest issue is valuation of the system. We as a committee would like to review that before the full CSD Board and State are involved.”
     The stage is now set for SCWC to generate an engineering assets appraisal to be submitted to the regular CSD Engineering Committee on the second Wednesday of June. If necessary, “Forwards” on the agenda will postpone action.

Written April 24, 2019

L.A.’s Best Grant Applicants

I just received an email from the Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF) encouraging me to support their grant application for $100,000. For years now, I have been inspired by their mission to instill awareness of California native plants at the TPF nursery in Sunland and various community outreach programs throughout Southern California. Their current goal is to create 1,500 native plant gardens in Los Angeles County that will attract 15,000 butterflies in economically distressed neighborhoods.
Aptly titled City of Butterflies / Ciudad de Mariposas, the proposal is part of an array of 155 community empowerment nonprofit organizations competing for a $100,000 grant to finance their project for one year. Funding in the amount of $1 million for the “My L.A. 2050 Grants Challenge” is made possible by the Goldhirsh Foundation.
To my surprise when I went to the Internet web site www.LA2050.org, anyone over the age of 14 who lives, works or travels in Los Angeles County is eligible to vote in each of five categories of aspirational goals. The designations for projects and programs, which will improve the quality of life throughout Los Angeles County are: Learn, Create, Play, Connect and Live. From the 155 proposals, there will be 10 finalists with two applicants per goal each receiving $100,000.
The TPF proposal briefly quoted will, “Empower children to become environmental stewards who make their communities safer, more life sustaining and playful by planting butterfly gardens to enjoy with their families and neighbors. Partnering with TPF, 2,500 students in After School Enrichment Programs will learn how California native plants support butterflies as they beautify vacant spaces.” After going to the web site, click on ‘Vote by April 29, 2019’ and then go to ‘Browse by Goal Category,’ click on ‘Vote,’ and continue to ‘Check Out the Entries.’ After that, select one goal from each category and then click on ‘Vote For This Proposal.’
The exciting thing about this process is that in addition to supporting the TPF application, which I strongly recommend, there are an additional 154 projects and programs focusing on just about every facet of life in L.A. County. Browsing through each of the proposals that could generate empowerment for a particular community goal, also places the reader in the position of being a philanthropist of sorts. Donating our time to research projects and programs that will strengthen places we have been or venues we may travel to, and then voting for them, also empowers us.
In this chaotic world, it’s inspiring to know that the grant process and private philanthropy is able to fund the aspirations of nonprofit organizations to strengthen the fabric of Los Angeles County much more efficiently than public funding.  

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Written April 17, 2019

JM Veazey
Song and Video Release

Wrightwood singer/songwriter John Mark (JM) Veazey will be releasing a new song and video to raise the awareness of homelessness in America, on Friday April 19 at The Yodeler. Veazey will perform his song, “What The,” live at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00 p.m. At the same time, the song will be launched on Internet sites Spotify and YouTube.
Raised in a military family that was deeply religious, John Mark spent his early years singing in church choirs and receiving instruction for piano, French horn, trumpet and music composition, while his father was stationed in Oklahoma, Turkey, and Georgia. In later life, Veazey would also sing in the Riverside Master Chorale. In between those years he partially broke free from the religious genre in finding his way to energetic pop rock and songwriting for two albums.
Although his traveling rock song “Revenge of My Parents” chronicles that point in life when we pack up and move out, sensibilities remain fond in “Father and Son.” There is also a sense of empathy in the song, “We Are Brothers,” and a tinge of resemblance to a David Bowie-like anthem for “Fragile.”  Go to www.jmveazey.com to hear his music.
During an interview, John Mark spoke of encountering homeless situations when he visited the U.S. cities of Miami, Boston, and Los Angeles. He spoke of including national statistics and other facts on homelessness at the end of his video, to share with his music audience as a way of educating them and perhaps encouraging them to help in some way.
In addition to contributing factors of mental health illness, alcoholism, drug addiction or military Veterans’ trauma affecting the homeless, Veazey alludes to yet another homeless population in his song lyrics of “What The.” There are certain percentages of the homeless who choose to drop out of society and create their own world in hidden away encampments, until injury or sickness brings them out for help. About inner-city issues Veazey commented, “There is no reason why more effort cannot be made to address alcohol and drug disabilities.”
Overall as this journalist witnessed, when living in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles bordered by Skid Row, the number of homeless vastly eclipses the ability of public assistance. Although the missions provide temporary assistance, and organizations such as Skid Row Development, Skid Row Housing, and SRO Housing are converting old hotels into permanent housing, the number of those helped is in the hundreds, while there are thousands camped out in tents on the sidewalks.
The bottom line is, society must address the homeless population, discover what caused them to become homeless, and provide what they need to break the cycle.

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Written April 12, 2019

LACMA Demolition Approved
On Tuesday April 9, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors certified the final environmental impact report for a new $650 million Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and in doing so, approved the demolition of four existing buildings. While there might be some nostalgia for the demise of William Pereira’s spacious configuration for the Bing, Ahmanson, and Hammer Buildings, no tears will be shed when the wrecking ball swings through the Arts of the Americas Building designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer. Indeed, that example of fortress mentality, constructed to the property line on Wilshire Boulevard, provided only a dark passageway into the plaza formerly bathed in sunlight before the stone behemoth turned its back to the Miracle Mile.
Not to worry about that factor with the new design from Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The serpentine shaped architectural form will curve around the La Brea Tar Pits, elevated 20 feet above grade on piers, hovering in the sunlight as it crosses Wilshire Boulevard to Spaulding Avenue. There is no turning its back to the famous roadway here. Instead, the car culture of Los Angeles approaching from either direction will pass underneath LACMA providing motorists with a glimpse up into the galleries. However, the most phantasmagoric vista to be enjoyed will be for those traveling west with the gleaming red and silver Peterson Automotive Museum undulating skyward at Fairfax Avenue.
The rationale for the elongated form of the new museum is one of spatial continuity. LACMA Director Michael Govan believes the museum experience is diminished when interrupted by stairs or elevators. Therefore, in order to compensate for the replacement of existing multi-story buildings while staying far enough away from the Tar Pits, the decision was made to cross Wilshire. However, the quest to create a single level museum elevated above gardens and plazas to accommodate the bridge was an expensive proposition. In the end, the new LACMA will be less not more.
The new building will be 105,108 square feet smaller than the existing configuration, with 54,000 square feet less gallery space, reducing the ability to hang some 1,500 works of art. In a similar contraction, the existing Brown Auditorium and Bing Theater will be combined into one venue with a net loss of 400 seats. Even with those reductions, the new LACMA will cost $1,873 per square foot, making it the most expensive museum construction project in America.
In spite of criticism, Govan hopes to compensate for the loss of gallery space by creating satellite locations elsewhere with the first being at L.A. Wetlands Park. While distributing LACMA’s artwork to suburbia is admirable, creating a boutique museum on Wilshire Boulevard to fulfill an architectural pipe dream is not. 

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Written April 2, 2019

High Tide In Florida
Continuing the dialogue from last week on the rise of ocean levels accelerated by melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, the Yahoo News article entitled “It’s over: Miami Beach tries to outrace climate change’s rising seas,” describes a unique situation with a possible solution underway. Flush with tax income from real estate development and robust tourism, the City of Miami Beach has budgeted $650 million to raise streets and sidewalks by two feet in the city’s most vulnerable neighborhood. While the Sunset Harbor project seems totally inadequate to University of Miami Director of Geological Sciences Harold Wanless, the effort will assure continuing cash flow without flooding for 10 years.
Situated on barrier islands, where U.S. Government projections indicate a sea level rise of 11 to 13 feet by the end of the century, only three percent of Miami-Dade County is higher than 12 feet above sea level. On the bay side, the average elevation is just 2.4 feet above sea level, while the ocean side, which attracts 9.2 million tourists annually, rises up to 11.4 feet. However, the downside in raising streets and sidewalks by two feet every 10 years, is exactly that.
Homes and businesses will end up below sea level, and although the city will be installing hydraulic pumping stations and allow property owners to connect to the network for free, there are some doubters. According to Yahoo, realtor Jean Marie Echemendia believes the climate change problem is overblown and danger to her home will not occur in her lifetime. Another resident Kimberly Green commented, “I was a property owner in the Sunset Harbor area, and my family owns some retail property there and raising the streets destroyed all of the businesses.”
In general, merchants in other neighborhoods are fearful they will lose line of sight eye contact with passing motorists, looking for an interesting restaurant or gift shop, and with strolling window shoppers. Overall, the thought of modifying frontages every 10 years to accommodate more stairs and ramps down into properties, has alarmed others.  When Sunset Harbor Drive was raised two feet, becoming a template of sorts for future projects, the sight of the Statesville Fish Bar with its patio remaining at the former elevation posed concerns for realtors. They asked, “What will happen if banks decide 30-year mortgages are too risky?”
Although Miami Mayor Dan Gelber commissioned studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Urban Land Institute to make certain the Sunset Harbor Drive project would be cost effective, that plan merely protects the street and sidewalk infrastructure. In the race against higher tides, private property remains in a hole. If the pumps fail, structures valued at $6.4 billion will be damaged.

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Written 3/26/2019

High Tide

Two news articles about melting glaciers and polar ice sheets, and the effects they will have on rising ocean levels, recently peaked my interest. I will write about the first article this week from High Country News entitled, “The true vulnerability of coastal California, revealed” and continue the dialogue next week with the second article from Yahoo News entitled, “It’s Over: Miami Beach tries to outrace climate change’s rising seas.” While I’m not alarmed about the numbers involved in a sea-level rise, because I lived on the beach for 16 years and experienced the power of ocean tides and waves, most laymen should be terrified of the impending catastrophic damage to coastlines should climate change be ignored.
For all oceanfront parcels, the seaward property line is defined by wet sand and is referred to as the Mean High Tide Line (MHTL). Where I lived in Malibu, the cottage had been constructed on a pad cut into the toe of the coastal bluff and elevated about eight feet above the MHTL. Seaward from the landscaped terrace of the cottage, there were massive sand dunes covered with ice plant and sand verbena. Beyond that was a sand volleyball court and closer to the water was a fire pit. With all things considered, the cottage built on a concrete slab was some 150 feet inland from the MHTL.
Each year, the January King Tide has pulled the ocean level as much as 6.9 feet above the MHTL. During my residency, high tides rarely coincided with storms and the white water just sloshed between the sand dunes. However, in the 1982/83 Super El Nino, it was the perfect storm combination with high tides, storm surges, and 25-foot rogue waves washing everything away. The cottage survived, hanging 10 feet above the water, and was saved by the subsequent owner buttressing huge granite boulders under the slab.
Now that climate change has been identified, that freak occurrence back then presents a model of what can happen. On Broad Beach Road north of Zuma Beach, multi-million-dollar homes built 150 feet away from the water are now hanging over the edge, shored up by piles of boulders. With that being the new normal, the USGS’s Patrick Barnard predicts ocean levels will rise 19.75 inches above normal by mid century. When combined with aforementioned tide and storm factors, more than $30 billion in property could be lost each year. If anyone out there lives until the end of the century, expect ocean levels to rise 79.0 inches causing $119 billion annually in property loss.
Looking back on those halcyon years in paradise, I fear future generations will be saddled with the wrath of the oceans rather than the magic, unless political bickering ends and climate change is addressed.      

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Writen 3/20/2019

Dick Dale and Bob’s Big Boy
Some 59 years ago in Burbank, older brothers or neighbors would drive younger teenagers to The Wedge in Newport Beach for body surfing. It was there we listened to a different type of music on transistor radios and met new friends who told us about Saturday night dances at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. It wasn’t long before Dick Dale created a truly unique Southern California sound as the king of Surf Rock Music playing his anthem, “Let’s Go Trippin’.”
Initially Dick Dale became a test pilot of sorts for Leo Fender, developing a Stratocaster guitar and custom guitar amplifiers that could withstand his pulsating beat. The owners of the Rendezvous and the City of Newport Beach had agreed to weekly concerts, as long as alcohol would be prohibited and a dress code would be implemented.  The surfer dances soon attracted well dressed music fans and dancers, filling the ballroom to its 3,000-person capacity every show. Although the British Invasion and the Folk Music era would soon overwhelm the music scene, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones maintained their popularity in Southern California with the surfing subculture.
At that time, as teenagers from Burbank traveled to the Rendezvous, a classmate of ours who called himself “Spider” was unparalleled on the dance floor. He learned to interpret the relentless tremolo and reverb of Dick Dale’s guitar playing in dance steps, and in doing so was frequently praised as a true member of the band. Returning from Balboa one night on the 5 Freeway with Danny, Faun and Valerie, we noticed a traffic accident up ahead and exited to surface streets. We didn’t learn until the next day that Spider died in that accident when his car hit the Glendale Boulevard Bridge support.
In a few days, classmates, who included the mayor’s son, the police chief’s son, and the school board president’s son, were told Spider’s funeral was to be private and we should stay away from Forest Lawn and perhaps go to Bob’s Big Boy Toluca Lake for our own memorial. And so, on the day of Spider’s funeral, teenagers flocked to Bob’s and called into local radio stations requesting Dick Dale songs, which were then blasted on car radios throughout the drive-in.
With all that happening so long ago, I hope memory serves me well; because all of the cast I knew, including Dick Dale, are now in Guitar Players’ Heaven. However, I do recall Dick Dale was there, not actually performing but instead strolling through the drive-in, holding a Stratocaster and air strumming as his music played on radios, with everyone hoping the spirit of Spider was also cruising Bob’s Big Boy.                         

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March 20, 2019

Written Mach 13, 2019

Filibuster and More

During the month preceding the 2018 Presidential Election, I became riled with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s deal cut with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to approve 15 District Court candidates in exchange for an early recess of 21 days so Democrats could return home to campaign. After being energized by that speedy transaction, McConnell now wants to change the rules of approval to a simple majority, thereby negating the two thirds majority vote should a filibuster occur. On another issue, the House of Representatives, emboldened by an array of political reforms forwarded to the Senate in the bill H.R.1, are likely to experience rain on their parade because McConnell says, “I get to decide what we vote on.”
According to The Hill in regards to the McConnell/Schumer deal, “15 lifetime federal judges were approved with two minutes of debate on each nomination equally divided between the two parties.” One of the candidates nominated by Donald Trump -Jonathan Kobes- was ranked unqualified by the American Bar Association because “He had neither the requisite experience nor evidence of his ability to fulfill the scholarly writing required of a U.S. Circuit Judge.” There was no issue about the integrity or temperament of Mr. Kobes.
In contrast, the 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court by Barack Obama was blocked by McConnell because he would not allow the Senate to hear or confirm any nominee until the country had elected a new president. However, in telling Obama, “Don’t even nominate anyone,” that is exactly what then Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Joe Biden told George H.W. Bush in1992.
Garland was a centrist judge who was well-liked on both sides of the aisle, well- qualified and in his mid sixties, so his lifetime appointment would not extend for 30 or 40 years. However, with Trump installing reliably Republican judges rather than those who are intellectually qualified, there are 128 District Court vacancies that could be filled with judges seated for life. That’s 20 percent of the entire body carrying on the conservative tradition for a long time.
In this ever-changing world, it seems that judicial positions and the clergy are the only lifetime positions, and yes, I know I was always advised not to discuss politics or religion. However, with the paradigm shift away from the notion that a lifetime of intellectual experience assures stability and continuity, a lifetime of puppets responding to political whims instead of the rule of law doesn’t seem to be the democracy I was raised in.
     The only inspiration from the youngsters is Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Although a conservative Republican,  he has been willing to work with liberals and is considered a key swing vote.

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Written March 6, 2019

A Perfect Day
 
 I woke up this morning expecting rain but sunlight streaming through the window pane indicated something different. It was warm inside the Cabin and mild outdoors and I wouldn’t have to decide which jacket to wear. A long sleeve shirt would be just fine if a breeze came up, but for today there would be no biting cold.
As I headed out to the newspaper office, Stater Brothers, and TrueValue, I was thankful to have more time to prepare for the impending Atmospheric River that was predicted to hit sometime somewhere. I did run around late yesterday afternoon securing tarps, cleaning out ashes in the woodstove and bringing firewood indoors, but with articles to write I decided the attention to chores had been good enough.
Upon returning home, I grabbed my shovel and leather gloves and proceeded to reinforce the berm alongside the north side of the dirt road. It prevents a flooding east creek from running into landscaped areas and the meadow of penstemons. As I shoveled there was no wind, the warm sunlight felt good and the exercise was invigorating. Occasionally, as neighbors drove or walked past they stopped and we chatted. It was the first time in months people were out in the weather and with the rain stalled for the moment, it felt like spring.
For the past week, around home and in my travels, I have noticed a few monarch butterflies beginning their migration to the Pacific Northwest after wintering in the west coast area of Southern California. Triggered by warmer temperatures and increased daylight, monarchs begin their migration in March. As they fly north, the butterflies lay eggs, on milkweed plants, that hatch into caterpillars for which milkweed is their only food source. In addition to eating the leaves, caterpillars ingest a toxin that is converted to a chemical compound passed on when they become butterflies, which sickens its predators, mainly birds.
I am certain the efforts of Transition Habitat Conservancy board member Gina Charpentier and Girl Scouts, to create Monarch Butterfly Waystations abundant with milkweed plants for hungry caterpillars, will prove a tremendous success. In spite of a perilous migration journey and environmental threats, there is a flyway of hope for monarch butterflies in Pinon Hills.
Later in the afternoon, as I was eating lunch, I noticed something flying past the kitchen window. What started with a few turned into hundreds of Painted Lady butterflies, fluttering between the Cabin and my workshop. Painted Ladies (PL) are often confused with Monarchs, as they are the same color, but the PL is smaller than the Monarch. Illuminated by dazzling sunlight and silhouetted against the sage green painted workshop, I had never seen anything so glorious. The air was still with no chirping from the trees because the butterflies were on parade and the birds were afraid.

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Written February 27, 2019

March Music and More

Well, as another calendar page is turned, the month of March brings more live music performances to Wrightwood. Starting off this Saturday night at The Yodeler, Tyrone Merriner & Friends will rock the house with timeless cover songs and original music. Showtime is 8:00 p.m. for a chance to get beyond the weather with sizzling music and warming spirits.
On Sunday, March 10th, the Center Stage music series at the Wrightwood Community Building, presents the band called Bodie Mountain Express whose members have performed with many of the legendary recording stars of Country and Blue Grass music. For a good old-fashioned foot stomping afternoon of music, a minimum $20 donation will benefit a Wrightwood Blues Society (WBS) music scholarship, with the Village Grind also catering food and beverages. The concert begins at 2:00 p.m. and tickets can be purchased online at www.centerstageww.com  or at the door.
     The Wrightwood’s Got Talent audition application deadline is March 30 for auditions to be held mid April. The competition, sponsored by WBS, is open to all ages K-12 in the categories of dance, music, comedy, and visual arts. The finals for the competition will be held on September 8, 2019. To request an application, go to the Wrightwood’s Got Talent Facebook page or call WBS President Greg Jones at (760) 574-8231.
Most importantly, the Paradise Camp Fire Benefit Concert will be held Sunday, March 31, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Wrightwood Community Building, located at 1275 State Highway 2. Tickets are $20 per person at the door, with beer and wine available for purchase from the Village Grind. Featured performers include Gayle & Company, George Keene, and Loren & Michelle, with special guests to be added. Concert proceeds will be distributed to victims of the Paradise California Camp Fire by the Chico Boys and Girls Club.
As news of the devastating Paradise Camp Fire has been broadcast worldwide, the plight of thousands of survivors remains an ongoing concern. Most particularly affected have been children who lost their homes and schools, with 481 kids also losing their Paradise Boys and Girls Club.  For those, the after-school activities and camaraderie provided a safe and healthy locale until working parents could pick them up.
With many families now living in trailers, campers, and the homes of other people who have taken them in, children have also been transferred to schools in other school districts. The only constant in this turmoil for children is the Boys and Girls Club of Chico. Now open 10 hours a day, serving three meals a day to kids and providing trauma counseling, children are reunited with their friends and slowly begin to heal through the generosity of others.

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Written February 20, 2019

 Oh, Brandi

In so much as the Cabin is small and a robust fire in the woodstove can easily overheat the habitat, I have used slow burning avocado wood for years purchased from Mark & Nellie’s Nursery in Victorville. A couple of pieces burned nightly, when outside temperatures fall below 40 degrees, is the perfect addition to the wall furnace in keeping everything warm and comfortable.
The other caveat to the equation is that I only have a small amount of space in the shed for wood. I’m not a fan of purchasing a large quantity of wood and storing it under a tarp outdoors primarily because of the ever-present hazard of a wildfire, and secondly because I already have tarps covering my tractor and a large wood sculpture. As for tarps, they aren’t what they used to be and seldom last longer than one year before intense summer heat, winter rain / snow, and punishing winds reduce them to shreds.
And so, the solution of buying a wheelbarrow full of wood meets my needs and fits nicely in the back of the Mini Cooper. Over the course of an average winter season I was buying less than a cord of wood in increments at a comparable price, with none of the storage problems. However, during the drought years temperatures were warmer so I burned less, and with various pruning around the property, ended up with an ample supply of firewood.
I drove over to Mark & Nellie’s this winter to restock, and much to my surprise the nursery was gone. Formerly located at the southwest corner of Bear Valley and Topaz Roads, next door to Almond & Sons Colored Rock, there was nothing left except a vacant lot. No office with a cozy fireplace burning, no nursery stock, no sign, just gone. That was a real bummer and last winter was not so cozy here in the Cabin, burning less firewood from Stater Bros. and paying much more.
And then two weeks ago the phone rang early in the morning with a lady saying, “This is Brandi from Mark & Nellie’s…” Although she had dialed a wrong number, and as fate would have it, that wrong number led her to me. Before she finished her introduction, I interjected, “Brandi, this is Michael, where are you?” Brandi then explained they had lost their lease and had to move, and every time they put a sign up with the new address, someone stole it for the lumber.
For a variety of firewood in quantities from a wheelbarrow full to a truckload, Mark & Nellie’s is back in business at 15942 Outer Bear Valley Road in Victorville (760) 956-3900. Turn left on 9th Avenue and then right at the first cross street.
                

Written February 13, 2019

Green New Deal
In spite of the fact that a majority of Americans, including Republicans, now acknowledge Climate Change, President Trump mentioned nothing about it in his State of the Union speech. Instead, as Trump recited achievements of his administration, which have increased the carbon footprint of the United States, there was thunderous applause from both sides of the aisle. There were exceptions however, particularly from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) who has become the bold and unyielding voice for a Green New Deal.
According to EarthTalk The Environmental Magazine, the term Green New Deal (GND) was first coined and established as a concept in a 2007 New York Times op-ed written by Thomas Friedman. That was three presidential administrations ago, so it is little wonder that recently elected Ocasio-Cortez came to Washington DC demanding immediate action to address the climate crisis. The goal of GND is to put America at the forefront of green technologies to meet or exceed provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump pulled the United States out of.
Much like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s original “New Deal” that pulled Americans out of the Great Depression by creating millions of jobs through the Civilian Conservation Corps, GND intends to reach net zero emissions by 2050, while the youth-oriented mobilization known as the Sunrise Movement urges omnibus economic stimulus legislation that would put millions of Americans to work facilitating a transition to 100 percent renewable emission-free energy by 2030.
While Ocasio-Cortez has championed 100 percent clean and renewable energy, she also espouses clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and preservation of national parklands. However, in addition to creating green jobs for public lands and waterways, there is an obligation to retrain Americans currently employed in the polluting extraction industries of petroleum, gas and coal.
In contrast, the Trump Administration and Interior Department disclosed last week, “The ‘Energy Revolution’ has unleashed $1.1 billion in oil and gas leases in 2018.” Additionally, during the past two years, millions of acres of national monument lands in Utah and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been opened to oil exploration.
The truth of the matter remains, according to Yale Environment 360, “70 percent of Americans now accept that Climate Change is happening.” Of those, The Hill reports, “92 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans believe the Earth’s climate is changing and is mostly caused by human activity.”
In a paradigm shift that has definitely rocked the status quo of both political parties, GND acknowledges that time is running out for the planet Earth if immediate action is not undertaken.
For additional information go to: www.earthtalk.org or www.sunrisemovement.org or contact Ocasio-Cortez at www.ocasio-cortez.house.gov

Writteen February 6, 2019

Bernie and the Believers

In 2016, when singer/songwriter Essence Goldman finished a concert tour and returned home to San Francisco, she realized as a single mom supporting two children, that it would be necessary to enroll more students for vocal lessons. After posting an ad on Craigslist, the first reply came from musician/songwriter Bernie Dalton who was a single dad in his mid forties living in Santa Cruz. In addition to writing songs and playing guitar, Bernie was an avid surfer who supported his teenage daughter Nicole by doing swimming pool maintenance. When Bernie first contacted Essence, he was inspired by Freddie King, Lucinda Williams and Otis Redding and wanted to learn how to sing the blues.
As he attended each lesson, Bernie brought songs he had written and was eager to learn vocal techniques that would expand his range. However, two months after beginning the lessons, Bernie began to have difficulty swallowing and then lost his voice. At first, Bernie and Essence thought it might be laryngitis or a reaction to chlorine fumes from the pool business, but when the condition persisted they consulted a neurologist. The diagnosis was Bulbar-onset ALS, the most aggressive form of Lou Gehrig’s disease with a prognosis of one-to-three years remaining to live.
When Essence suggested doing a fundraiser so that Bernie and Nicole could travel to visit relatives, while he was still mobile, Bernie instead expressed the desire to record an album of his songs and asked Essence to be the voice for his music. After much soul-searching, Essence gave it a try, and the result was magical and spiritual, for Bernie and the Believers.
While continuing to attend lessons, even though he could no longer sing, Bernie enrolled Nicole, who learned to sing harmonies and backup vocals from Essence. Bernie became the creative director supervising everything from written notes. In the meantime, Essence started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $20,000, and assembled a team of eight musicians, producers and engineers for the recording process, which began in 2017.
In the recording studio, one song per day was accomplished adding composed music to lyrics sung by Essence and Nicole. By each evening, the process was complete with a master cut for each song on the album entitled, “Connection.” Shortly afterwards, Bernie lost motor control for all parts of his body except his eyes. He now communicates with an “Eye Gaze Devise” attached to a special computer screen, which allows him to type short phrases directed by his eye movement, with a computer voice repeating words. The album is available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, and in music stores. For an inspirational view, Google Search: NPR Tiny Desk Concert Bernie and the Believers.

Written January 30, 2019

Regime Change   

When the United States scurries around the world orchestrating regime change, we unfortunately always seem to support the wrong side in terms of longevity. The most classic example was the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled that country from 1941 until the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Although supported by the Unites States and Great Britain, Pahlavi’s government was not above offending those nations when the Iranian oil industry was nationalized, until a minor U.S. and U.K. coup d’état brought back Western oil companies.
While Pahlavi was being criticized by the populace for his reckless, extravagant and wasteful life style, his drive to modernize the nation was mostly concessions made to quiet the opposition. Initiatives such as expropriating large farms from the land-owning elite to be given to small farmers, creating literacy programs, expanding universities, and championing women’s right to vote, further angered Shiite clerics, especially Ayatollah Khomeini, who believed political decisions should be made by religious leaders.
In the meantime, the Shah’s wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi, was busy overseeing the construction of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) and filling it with more than 300 works of modern Western and Iranian art. A recently published book entitled Iran Modern: The Empress of Art written by Viola Raikhel-Bolot and Miranda Darling, details in particular international journeys to meet famous contemporary artists and purchase 150 modern Western artworks.
Excluding major museums, the collection amassed exclusively by Empress Pahlavi is valued at $3.0 billion, which matches the value for the private collection of brothers Ezra and David Nahmad. Ranking third in the world is the David Geffen collection valued at $2.3 billion, with fourth place going to the Eli & Edyth Broad collection at $2.2 billion.
One the front cover of the book is an image of the Empress Pahlavi, created by Andy Warhol one year after they met at the White House. On her acquisition journeys, the Empress consulted with curators at The Met in New York City as well as the Maeght Foundation in the south of France to determine quality and value. She also met several artists she admired, including Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, and British sculptor Henry Moore.
The book also includes illustrations of artworks by Alberto Giacometti, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marc Rothko, Paul Gauguin, and Roy Lichtenstein, among its 150 images. While the sheer value of the art collection discourages the anti-Western Islamic theocracy from destroying the art works, many pieces that were considered irreverent or controversial have remained locked in vaults since the revolution.
     However in Tehran, with a somewhat moderate government in power, more of the  Western art banished to the vaults for 40 years is being displayed.       

Written January 22,2019

Monarch Butterfly Decline   

The elegant beauty of Monarch butterflies in our gardens, with dazzling orange and black coloring silhouetted against blue skies, provides a moment of delight for everyone as they flutter past. In the United States, the Eastern Monarchs spend winters in Mexico and summers in Canada while the Western Monarchs fly between Southern California and the Pacific Northwest, with the Rocky Mountains dividing the two populations. Along the way, all Monarchs display characteristics that can only be described as remarkable.
In its lifetime, each Monarch butterfly mates and then lays eggs on milkweed plants while traveling north approximately 200 miles. Nourishment on the journey comes from plant nectar. With that portion of a larger cycle complete, the butterfly then dies. However, simultaneously eggs have been transforming into larvae, caterpillars, pupa/chrysalis, and a new generation of butterflies knows instinctively where to fly for the summer. On the return flight south, Monarchs do not mate or lay eggs but glide on warm thermal winds some 2,000 miles returning to the same tree as their ancestors to hibernate for the winter. In the spring, they mate, lay eggs and die-completing the larger cycle.
Critical to the survival of Monarchs is nectar for the butterflies and milkweed leaves-the only food of caterpillars. In recent history, the decline of Monarchs was blamed on urban sprawl reducing the amount of milkweed plants, spraying of pesticides and herbicides, and the plowing under of milkweed for agricultural crops. However, in a recent study from the University of Michigan, co-authored by Stanford University, a new factor, which could lead to the extinction of Monarch butterflies, has been discovered.
According to the scientific journal Ecology Letters, climate change attributed to carbon dioxide (CO2) exhaust fumes from industry and vehicles has tainted medicinal properties found in milkweed, which kill deadly parasites found in caterpillars. Furthermore, in addition to the parasites being passed on to Monarchs, the effects of CO2 prevent production of a toxic scent that discourages predators from attacking the butterflies.
Collectively, even if the use of pesticides and herbicides ceased, and milkweed habitats along migratory routes were restored, CO2 remains the gasping canary in the coal mine. So how do you slam the brakes on, when 90 percent of the Western Monarch population is already disseminated? Well, doing nothing is not an option.
All that we can do is to fill our gardens with nectar producing plants and lots of attractive milkweed. Restoring vast pathways of native milkweed where CO2 is less intense may be the only hope for the survival of Monarch butterflies. For information on obtaining native milkweed seeds or plants, contact Transition Habitat Conservancy Board member Gina Charpentier  www.gina@TransitionHabitat.org or (760) 964-0273.

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Written January 16, 2019

Rainfall and More

Well, it certainly is relaxing to sit by the crackling wood stove while writing and hear raindrops on the roof and rain gutters for an extended period of time. So far, the rainfall has been gentle and intermittent for the past few days here in the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. With breaks in between storms, the moisture has had an opportunity to penetrate into the ground without much runoff.
     That’s just what was needed to prime the upper level of soil and allow it to absorb more rainfall. Although I suppose the five-year drought officially ended last year, it will be some time before underground aquifers are replenished. According to my indicators here on the property, the rainfall of last year was not sufficient enough to begin that process.
It has been many more than five years since water flowed through the creek beds on either end of the property. Even with grading the dirt road to direct rainfall towards those glens, there wasn’t enough water to do much more than create puddles that dried up in a few hours. During those years, a neighbor and I collected small boulders to reinforce the north side embankment of the road, without ever knowing if we did a good job. No water from the road, no water from the mountains, I’m growing older and my memory is beginning to fade as to how many years it has been since trees and bushes in the glen were nourished with flowing water.
And so, I’m keeping my fingers crossed hoping for a robust rainy season and preparing myself for the inevitable voice from my mind saying, “What am I going to do to replace the outdoor gardening activities?” It’s kind of like cruising along for years and then suddenly slamming the brakes on. The only appreciable benefit to the lack of rain has been the lack of weeds to pull. However, I will gladly accept that chore, if it has been preceded by colorful wildflowers blooming in the field.
I have been working on a project out there for a couple of years. As I pruned trees and vegetation, I created an enormous pile in the field alternating the trimmings with a layer of dirt from my tractor. The idea was to build up an irregular shaped form much taller than a berm, which in time with ample rainfall and snow would decompose and collapse upon itself, looking like a natural earthquake fault rather than a huge lump of dirt.
Hopefully, that will begin to take shape this spring. In the meantime, I have plenty of groceries and firewood and books to read, as raindrops glisten on bare winter trees.

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Written January 9, 2019

  Fences and Walls

Not since artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude proposed the 24.5-mile long by 18-feet high “Running Fence” in northern California, has there been as much controversy as that of the current discussion about a fence or wall separating Mexico from the United States. In terms of comparison, the Berlin Wall was 12 feet high, Running Fence was 18 feet high, the Great Wall of China averages 24 feet in height, and the Trump Wall is proposed to be 30 feet high.
As for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude environmental art piece of a billowing white nylon curtain suspended from steel cables traversing rolling hills and ranchland of Sonoma and Marin Counties and then disappearing into the Pacific Ocean, the planning and permit procedures were extensive. In spite of the fact the duo had an international reputation for completing monumental projects, which stimulated regional tourism for the brief display; three years were consumed at a cost of $3 million defending the project against opposition.
After nine attorneys secured leases from 59 landowners, and represented the artists during 18 public hearings and three Superior Court trials, permits were issued and construction began in April 1976. For the next five months, 400 paid employees worked seven days a week stretching fabric onto the framework of poles and cables.
Finally, in September, Running Fence was completed and thousands of spectators converged on 14 major roads and in the town of Valley Ford to view the spectacle during the 14-day show. In the end, ranchers had been paid rent for the temporary right-of-way, received any of the materials they wished, and then everything else was removed. At the conclusion Christo remarked, “The real story is how the vast fence, rather than separating people, embodied togetherness.”
Within the parlance of “Good fences make good neighbors,” Christo and Jeanne-Claude transformed the perception of a utilitarian object into attractive environmental art by incorporating the proper sense of scale. As Running Fence curved over the horizon, it was always subservient to the landscape and rolling hills. In contrast, the proposed Trump Wall, which has already been validated by the construction of eight 30-foot high prototypes in San Diego, at its finest will be an oppressive barrier not artistically designed.
Let’s not forget that the $5.7 billion that Donald Trump has requested is merely a down payment towards an estimated total cost of $21.6 billion, according to Department of Homeland Security records released to Politifact California. As for the prototypes, Business Insider reports the $1.6 million cost per eight panels could easily increase to $4.0 million when difficult to access/rough terrain is considered.
Even if the design is changed to steel slats, American residents in border towns will be looking at the tallest barrier in the world. 

Written January 2, 2019

 Hoppin’ John New Year’s Luck

For most of my adult life, the classic Southern dish of black-eyed peas and rice has been a traditional meal on New Year’s Day. Known to those in the South as “Hoppin’ John,” the name can be traced back to 1841 in Charleston South Carolina where a hobbled man called Hoppin’ John sold peas and rice on the streets. Folklore portends that eating Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day, along with collard greens and corn bread, will ensure a prosperous year filled with good luck, in so much as the peas represent coins, the collards represent greenbacks and the cornbread represents gold.
I first learned about Hoppin’ John when Faun, a high school classmate of mine, invited me to a New Year’s gathering. Her parents John & Bunny were very different from mine and their multi-ethnic circle of friends was definitely unusual in Burbank during the early1960s. There were artists and writers, entertainers and musicians, all enjoying the annual elixir for good fortune.
For the most part in their youth, they had all been students at UCLA and had met one another at Pearson’s Wine & Spirits in Brentwood where John was the wine salesman and Bunny was the window decorator. That’s where UCLA students and aspiring stars crossed paths and became friends at the famous liquor store near the campus. However, being from Massachusetts, I don’t think John & Bunny learned about Hoppin’ John until they met Noel Smith.
Noel, a Southern gentleman from New Orleans, was a theatrical journalism student at UCLA and a gourmet cook living in Brentwood and frequenting Pearson’s. So, he was probably the source of Bunny’s recipe and the folklore. At any rate, that generation became mentors to a select number of Faun’s generation, gathering initially in Burbank every New Year’s Day for Hoppin’ John. I never missed a year because quite honestly, such a successful group heralding in another year was an inspiration.
In the meantime, since Noel had moved to Malibu, a second orbit was created and depending on where people had scattered, it was either head to Burbank or to Zuma Beach for Hoppin’ John. In the years since John, Bunny, and Noel passed away, I have missed that annual tradition. So, this year I purchased all the fixins and just in time for the freezing weather, the cabin is warm and steamy with that once familiar aroma and memories wafting throughout.
For the beginning of 2019, thinking especially about Noel, “Sing the Delta” lyrics of Iris Dement come to mind, “So you’re headed down a Southern way, passing through the Delta some time today…It’s a language my spirit understands.”

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Written December 26, 2018

All Alone with Darlene   

It’s Christmas Eve and a certain Donald at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been complaining about being all alone in the White House. Once again perhaps unwittingly this time, Donald who is no stranger to using recording artist’s songs without permission, has stumbled and triggered a national nonsequitur. In so much as I yearn to wake up some morning and hear nothing about Donald in the media, a veritable Day without Donald if you will, today came close as my mind shifted gears and I reached for the 1992 original soundtrack album for the motion picture Home Alone 2: Lost in New York featuring Darlene Love singing the song “All Alone on Christmas.”
That song written and produced by Steve Van Zandt of The E Street Band, has a YouTube video with Van Zandt playing guitar and the late Clarence Clemons playing tenor sax along with other E Street band mates, and Darlene singing vocals. Also included is a young Macaulay Culkin pretending to be the infamous Phil Spector complete with those dark sunglasses mixing the “wall of sound” song on the sound board as Darlene sings and makes reference to her own famous song, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” There are also film clips from Home Alone 2. Incidentally, the photograph of the legendary look of terror on the face of Culkin from Home Alone went viral on the Internet today as millions of viewers also took notice of Donald’s faux pas.
As for Darlene’s song originally recorded in 1963 on the album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, it has been embedded in the consciousness of music fans everywhere after being performed on the Late Show for 28 years beginning in 1986. After David Letterman retired in 2014, the tradition continued with Darlene singing the song on The View bringing the total to an unbelievable 32-year run. For this year’s edition on December 14, Brian Adams played guitar and sang vocals with Darlene.
I never get tired of that song and found myself returning to YouTube videos of all those annual performances. Although the Paul Shaffer band, an orchestra, choir and dynamic saxophone solo present an incredible volume of sound, Darlene Love’s powerful voice always stands out. For this year’s Paste Magazine Music survey of the “15 Best Christmas Songs Ever” Darlene’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” song came in at #1.
With First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron being marooned in Florida after Donald cancelled the 16-day vacation to remain in Washington, I would like to imagine in the spirit of sensibility, that Donald stopped tweeting for just a moment and got on the phone to say “Baby Please Come Home.”

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Written December 19,2018

Winter Solstice  

This Friday, December 22, the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, known as the Winter Solstice, will occur. And while a possible U.S. Government shutdown may coincide on the same day, I prefer to write about light rather than darkness. In the plant world, it’s the close of another year as the season for Nature’s regeneration arrives.
     With the recent abundant rain falls, plants that were in stress have rebounded and native lilac bushes are already forming new flower buds. While deciduous trees shed their leaves and go to sleep for the winter, there is more sunlight streaming into the garden and through window panes beckoning me outdoors to rake leaves, repair tree basins and soak up that wonderful Vitamin D.
With that in mind, there is no better place to enjoy the Winter Solstice than at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants (TPF). In addition to thinking about plants and seeds for springtime, the immediacy of finding last minute gifts for the holidays can be solved at one magical locale. Nestled in a 22-acre canyon of Sun Valley, the plant nursery, seed room, demonstration gardens, hiking trails and picnic areas under towering oak and sycamore trees, are open to the public. In the sales yard, the TPF staff has created a custom selection of native plants potted in ceramic containers of all styles and sizes.
Inside the book store, holiday gift ideas include books, socks, gloves, tools, note cards, candles, soaps, honey and ceramics from California producers and artisans. There are also free gift bags and tissue available for smaller items. This Saturday, the holiday spirit abounds with free cookies and hot cider. Or, if you can’t decide on a gift, TPF memberships, gift cards, and special priced “Early Bird” tickets for the 16th Annual TPF Native Plant Garden Tour on April 6 and 7, are available.
 In the Art Gallery, an exhibition of photographs by artist-in-residence Julia Paull continues through December 29. Coming in the New Year, an installation of collages on vellum, by local artist Pat Warner, entitled “Floragalora” opens on January 29 with a reception, artist talk, and refreshments served from 1:00 – 3:00pm.
Beginning on December 29 and continuing until spring, a wide selection of winter classes are scheduled for adults and families, with in-classroom programs for children also being offered. As a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, donations to TPF are fully deductible and help to fund sustainable native landscapes for schools, libraries, and public housing sites.
The Theodore Payne Foundation is located at 10459 Tuxford Street in Sun Valley Calif. 91352 (818) 768-1802. Winter hours are Tuesday through Saturday 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

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written December 12, 2018

 Holiday Gift Music   

With the holiday season upon us, after traditional music has run its course there is always a hankering for something new. Whether it be a gift, companion music for running errands or just something to relax with into the New Year, here are a few selections to consider primarily in the Blues music genre.
Strange Angels: In Flight with Elmore James is a tribute album released last January to coincide with the 100th birthday of Elmore James. His traditional music has been interpreted by Rodney Crowell, Keb Mo’, Chuck E. Weiss, Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer and others, with a long instrumental jam between Warren Haynes, Billy Gibson and Mickey Raphael on “Mean Mistreatin’ Mama.”  In yet another career reincarnation NPR reports, “Tom Jones brings enough grit to the table to make “Done Somebody Wrong” resonate anew.” Proceeds from the album go to MusicCares, and Edible Schoolyard NYC.
From Paste Magazine Music two interesting selections from The 10 Best Roots & Blues Albums of 2018 caught my ear. Coming in at #7, Lonnie Holley and his new one-hour and 20-minute album entitled Mith combines experimental blues music and first-person narrative stories that pull the listener in as a co-conspirator. Paste comments, “This may well be the closest thing we’ll ever get to a sequel to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks’ vocal repetitions.
Coming in at #1, the album entitled Vanished Gardens featuring Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams, was considered, “The year’s most audacious album.” The combination of the jazz saxophone influence that Lloyd experienced from John Coltrane, and Williams’ early career-influenced covers of Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson and Memphis Minnie blues songs have united. Williams adds language to jazz in nine songs co-written by the duo, plus the Jimi Hendrix song “Angel”-for this major accomplishment.
Moving in an entirely different direction, the music of singer/songwriter/ performance chanteuse Maggie Rogers has been germinating for years while she attended high school, New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Berkley College of Music, and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Rogers began playing the harp at the age of seven for classical music, learned to play guitar and piano in middle school, and then banjo in high school, where she wrote and self-recorded her first album of folk music in 2012 entitled The Echo.
For her second album in 2014 entitled Blood Ballet, Rogers began to evolve from folk music to electro folk-pop heavily influenced by Patti Smith and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. Incorporating modern dance with vocals, Rogers’ 2016 single “Alaska” went viral on the Internet and catapulted her to fame. A new album in January and international concert tour will confirm her stardom.

Written December 4, 2018

Parkland Can Saves Lives

While scanning through the Los Angeles Times a few days ago, I came across an article titled, “Three women fought to create the Santa Monica Mountains parkland now burned by the Woolsey Fire.” Accompanying the article was a photograph of Jill Smith, Sue Nelson and Margot Feuer, considered to be the “Mothers of the Santa Monica Mountains.” I found myself smiling as I spotted Margot because 45 years ago we were fellow board members on the Malibu Township Council.
I was always impressed with Margot’s eloquent parlance yet tough and determined attitude in the manner of Katharine Hepburn. Back then, Margot was the persona of choice to represent the Township Council at public hearings concerning issues of the times, which included a freeway through Malibu Canyon, an LNG terminal offshore from Leo Carrillo State Beach, as well as rampant coastal and canyon residential development. With each juncture of opposition voiced against ill-suited projects, Margo stressed the Santa Monica Mountains should be a dedicated parkland.
After serving on the Township Council, Margot Feuer went on to serve as board member of the South Coast Regional Commission of the California Coastal Commission, and then was chosen by the Sierra Club to become a lobbyist for the proposed Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. After Feuer made several trips to Washington to testify before Congress, 150,000 acres stretching from Franklin Canyon in Los Angeles to Point Mugu was signed into existence as parkland by President Jimmy Carter.
After living through a 1970 Malibu fire, Feuer was adamant that taxpayers’ money was being wasted to restore infrastructure for hilltop properties that would be rebuilt, considering fires as simply part of Nature. Indeed, that conundrum resurfaced last week when the National Park Service reported that 88 percent of the federal parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area had burned.
The reality now is that the 14-mile-long Woolsey Fire tore through the Santa Monica Mountains destroying 670 structures inside the Malibu city limits including more than 400 single-family homes with a total market value of at least $1.6 billion, according to aerial imagery conducted by the Los Angeles Times, and Zillo the real estate website.
Aside from the personal loss and trauma experienced by residents, that’s a huge loss of tax revenue and infrastructure for the City of Malibu. Added to those situations NPR reports, “Insurance companies will begin to charge considerably higher rates for homes at increased risk due to surrounding dense vegetation.”
With that scenario unfolding, the future of Malibu might best involve tourism where more people visit and fewer live within the national parklands. If high density development had prevailed in Malibu rather than chaparral parkland, more lives would have been lost.

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Written November 28, 2018

Anomalies or Changes

Back in 1965 when folk singer Bob Dylan wrote, “You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows…” we were young and carefree here in Southern California. As surfers we could feel the weather and knew a dry offshore wind blowing down canyons to the Pacific would hold the face of a wave up a bit longer forming perfect tubes. On the other hand, a cool moist onshore wind produced larger surf crashing faster.
Today, with weather satellites telling us how the wind will blow, there are many more factors to consider. A weather anomaly, such as the 1862 flood in which Los Angeles experienced 28 days of continuous rainfall, certainly preceded any notion of climate change. But then with all the technology, the 1982/83 El Nino came as a surprise to scientists who learned that rising ocean water temperatures could affect weather conditions.
For this winter, a moderate El Nino has been predicted for Southern California, if the Pacific jet stream remains above the lower half of the United States. Added to that and perhaps countering El Nino, the scientific journal Nature Climate Change has predicted a “precipitation whiplash” in which drought or drought-like conditions will alternate with an intensely rainy winter.
However, “Rain and snow will become concentrated in narrow windows of time at the peak of winter, instead of being spread between October and April.” If that occurs, warmer winters and summer droughts will play havoc with California’s water storage contingencies, while warmer ocean temperatures orchestrate the next deluge.
UCLA climatologist Daniel Swain and the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the 1862 flood was probably a 500 or 1,000-year storm. However, because warmer ocean temperatures increase the atmosphere’s capacity to hold more water vapor during the rainy season, Swain predicts, “It goes from being something that might have happened once every other century, essentially, to happen maybe multiple times over the next 80 years.”
When that sort of time-frame is considered, nonbelievers of the Fourth National Climate Assessment Executive Summary, released by the Trump Administration on November 23, may have several opportunities during their lifetime to reconsider climate change, rather than kicking it down the road for future generations. Although this discussion of El Nino and precipitation whiplash has focused solely on California, the damage from rising sea levels, storm surges, torrential rainfall and drought caused by carbon emissions, would have international impacts.
The Climate Assessment document cited, “The United States has already warmed an average of 1.8 degrees over the past century and without drastic emissions reductions, it will warm at least 3.0 degrees and perhaps as much as 9.0 degrees by 2100, shrinking the U.S. Economy by 10 percent.”

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Written November 20, 2018

Midterm Election Turnout

Although there were massive voter registration efforts for the 2018 midterm elections, as well as record breaking sums of money spent for political advertising, I was totally astonished to learn what percentage of voting-age Americans actually voted. According to BBC World News based on preliminary figures, the percentage was almost the highest turnout in more than a century.
However, before you raise your glass and cheer, keep in mind the 2018 turnout of 49.2 percent was less than that of 1914 when 50.4 percent of registered voters cast their ballot.   When taking into consideration the national average for midterms has hovered around 40 percent for decades, the 2018 numbers make it the best turnout in 50 years.
Historically, the wealthy have always eclipsed other demographic groups in registering and voting because they have more at stake. For this midterm election, white collar voters casting their ballots amounted to 69.4 percent in Washington, 65.5 percent in Colorado and 64.3 in Minnesota.
For others who are struggling to provide their families with food, clothing and a safe place to live, their sense of dignity and self esteem may be tattered to the point where they are skeptical that voting can affect a change in their lives. The young uneducated and unemployed are especially prone to resent a system they feel is stacked against them.  
Well, consider this for a moment. The power broking elite have been more than satisfied for decades to have their finely honed and mobilized base capture the majority of 40 percent while other apathetic Americans stay home and don’t vote. Think of all of the accomplishments that have been realized here in the past 100 years in the fields of communication, manufacturing, technology or space missions to other planets, and then think about voting machines. The most reliable form of voting remains the paper ballot and a ball point pen.  
It wasn’t until this midterm election year that the downtrodden transcended onerous voter registration procedures, voter suppression, and voting machine malfunctions as well as missing electrical extension cords with their, “Legally registered and I’m here to vote,” attitude.
Realizing that an unpopular presidency could be somewhat countered by seizing control in the House of Representatives and Governors’ Mansions, voter registration and participation soared. In Texas, participation of eligible voters increased from 28.3 percent in 2014 to 46.1 percent this year. And with the contentious governor’s race in Georgia, voter participation increased from 38.6 percent in 2014 to 55 percent this year.
I’m not saying that the battle is won because as a democracy the numbers remain a frightening disgrace. Nonetheless, we have learned that midterm elections are important and definitely influence strategies for the Presidential Election in 2020.

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Written November 14, 2018

Written November 7, 2018

A Sense of Balance

While I have always enjoyed the interaction of a good race or a competitive game, my usual reaction to a lopsided victory is merely ho-hum. Leading into the 2016 Presidential Election, neither candidate appealed to me because Hillary Clinton represented a crotchety old political machine and Donald Trump was an ebullient grandstander who knew how to promise Nirvana to desperate voters. As it turned out it was the antiquated Electoral College that seated Trump, not the popular vote.
     And so, for the past two years my attitude has mainly been one of resignation as redistricting, gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws have been accomplished by the majority party. Those were some of the hurdles Democrats encountered in the current midterm races. Yet historically, those mechanisms have always been the spoils awarded to the victor.
Nonetheless, the season of conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated claims, false accusations and divisive strategies continued to boggle my mind as I suspected it had for other rational thinkers. Thankfully on election night as the results were tabulated, it seems that voters turned out in record numbers indicating the last two years of domination and polarization, have indeed upset others.
In addition to the Democrats securing the 23 seats necessary for a majority in the House of Representatives, interesting demographics also emerged. Rural red portions of the nation voted heavily Republican, while urban blue and purple regions voted predominantly Democratic.
While Democrats made advances in gender, younger age and ethnicity categories indicating checks and balances diversity, they also won a number of state governor’s positions. In a changing world and an era of accountability Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric, while energizing his core base with false hope, has galvanized a new generation of Democratic activists. In the heat of the campaign battle, both political parties registered unprecedented numbers of voters with historic voter participation to follow. That’s what Democracy is all about!
However, with the shoe now on the other foot, it is time for the Democrats to address catawampus voting district lines. In states where Democrats hold a majority of the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office, gerrymandering should be abolished and replaced with fair and legal redistricting commissions.
As for the federal House of Representatives, the Electoral College mechanism of winner-takes-all should be replaced with the proportional method for allocating votes. To function properly, the number of House Representatives would have to be increased allocating more Electors to large population states and reducing the number of Electors to small population states, which are over-represented.
It’s all in the numbers and if Democratic politicians are truly concerned about representing their constituents with fair election practices, rather than political influences, Democracy will be strengthened.

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Written October 31, 2018

Less Than One Week

It has been 53 years since the Voting Rights Act took effect in 1965, so here we are with less than one week remaining until the midterm elections and there is more confusion than ever before over who will be allowed to vote, and who should not be allowed to vote. A recent New York Times (NYT) article that I read entitled “What If Everyone Voted?” addressed the thorny issue quite succinctly. Although enforcement of the Voting Rights Act is a federal issue administrated by the Department of Justice, interpretation of that law on the state level, leading to arduous voter registration practices and endless litigation, is clearly in control of the majority political party for each election cycle.
According to NYT, “While some states make registration simpler or even automatic, others make it more difficult by curtailing the election calendar or adopting strict ID laws.” For the 2018 midterms, citizens of Hawaii, Illinois and Vermont who haven’t registered yet, will be able to do so on election day and vote. In California and Oregon, voter registration is automatic based on interactions with state Department of Motor Vehicles registration.
However, in Indiana, Mississippi and Georgia, the registration deadline is now weeks past and voters who turn up will have to show a voter ID. That would not seem to be a problem for most, but look at your driver’s license and if it has a post office box address instead of a street address-you’re included in the problem. In the State of Georgia, which has recently become the epicenter of voter registration controversy, Secretary of State Brian Kemp is accused of holding up 53,000 voter registrations that didn’t “Match Exactly” a voter’s record on file with the Social Security Administration or Georgia’s driver’s license agency.
Last year, Kemp was accused of purging 534,517 voters according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, or 340,000 voters according to Rolling Stone Magazine, for missing two election cycles. That was legal according to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling reversing the National Voter Registration Act, but the post card notification procedure, which required citizens to prove they were not deceased, had not registered under duplicate names, were not felons, had not moved out of state and had voted, known as “Opting In” was considered to be arduous. In states of automatic registration, citizens are registered unless they are “Opting Out.”
It all boils down a simpler process, which many political scientists regard as making our American democracy more representative. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claims, “Tailoring our laws to political couch potatoes, would lead only to bloated voter rolls, likelier more fraud and a more uninformed government.”

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Written 10/24/2018

Terry “Big T” DeRouen

Legendary guitarist Terry “Big T” DeRouen, who played with or recorded with the greatest stars of Blues Music, has passed away at the age of 77. Greatly appreciated by Wrightwood musicians and music fans since 2005, Big T frequently drove up the hill from his San Bernardino home to perform in Wrightwood.
It was Wrightwood musician Tyrone Merriner who heard DeRouen performing at Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que in Rancho Cucamonga and invited him to play at the 2005 car show. Later that evening, Big T accompanied Merriner at the Wrightwood Inn and then was invited to Merriner’s home to play some more. After playing together for nine hours that day, a long-lasting friendship was established and Terry “Big T” DeRouen had a second home in Wrightwood.
Looking back on that experience, Merriner recently commented, “After hearing Elmore James playing slide guitar and not knowing about the glass finger tube, Big T used his strong fingers and thicker guitar strings to create his own unique sound.” It was that sound that attracted the attention of Willie Dixon, Etta James, BB King, Little Milton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and an array of others with whom he performed.
     When I first met Terry, a routine developed during breaks between musical sets when he stepped outdoors to smoke a cigarette. I would follow to smoke a pipe and as we puffed away he would tell me stories about his career of 40 years. On one occasion he mentioned Big Mama Thorton and that he had been interviewed for a book about her authored by Michael Sporke. After reading the book, I realized I had been there at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles when he played with her in 1968.
Continuing, there was the story of Terry and Etta James sitting around munching on weight-reduction chocolate candy until the moment of reckoning came and they both agreed, “This stuff don’t work.” After undergoing gastric bypass surgery, changing their ways and losing weight, the term “Big” only applied to their talent. On Etta’s final album, Terry played a scorching guitar.
Over the years, Big T introduced Bernie Pearl, Barbara Morrison, Bobby “Hurricane” Spencer and, more recently, LaNeika Gallon to Wrightwood audiences. On another occasion, Terry asked if I knew about “The Kid.”  He was referring to teenage guitar prodigy Ray Goren for whom Terry played rhythm guitar on the “Live From Lucy’s 51” album. Sitting in on multiple nights, it was inspiring to see the respect Goren paid to Big T and to Jamie Powell his mentor, and encouraging knowing their memory lives on with a new generation.
Funeral services for Terry “Big T” DeRouen will be held on Thursday October 25 at 1:30 pm in the Galleria Chapel of Inglewood Park Cemetery 90301.   

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Written 10/16/2018

                                     The Devil Winds   
     It’s that time of year again here in Southern California when high pressure air masses in the Great Basin begin a downslope journey to the Pacific Ocean, traveling across the desert and funneling through the San Gorgonio Pass, Cajon Pass and Soledad Pass. As the winds become warmer and increase in velocity they blast the coastal plain around Santa Ana, for which they are named. For some residents who feel a sense of disturbance and chaos over a more expansive area a couple of days before the winds are predicted, the term “Devil Wind” is more appropriate.
     As the first Santa Ana Wind of the season developed this week, I found a website called Witness LA, which features criminal justice journalism and an essay tracing the 62- year history of the Devil Wind in Southern California at:  http://witnessla.com/you-me-joan-didion-and-the-devil-wind/. Leading off with Raymond Chandler’s account he wrote, “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.”
     Following up a little closer to home, Joan Didion opined, “The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but the eerie absence of surf. The heat was surreal. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called earthquake weather.”
     Some five years after Joan wrote about those peacocks in “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” she hired me to radically prune and thin out the olive trees, in hopes the wild peacocks would have less protection from the wind, and simply go elsewhere to scream. Five years later on October 23, 1978, I awoke to hear the eucalyptus trees being shredded by a ferocious hot wind. I had begun to feel uneasy the day before sensing that fire weather had arrived, before turning on the Rain Birds surrounding my cottage.
     On the morning of the Agoura-Malibu Firestorm, I connected fire hoses to the hydrants, pulled the generator and pump onto the pool deck and was ready for action shortly after noon. Within two hours, the fire raced 13 miles and crossed Pacific Coast Highway onto the property. While the city water pressure was still high, I agreed to hose down the neighbor’s house if he agreed to hold the fire hose with me, but then John panicked and left me thrashing while he tumbled down the bluff hollering “Michael’s dead,” while Katherine Ross led her horses up the beach to safety. Turning off the high-pressure line, I then pumped the pool into the hose that saved my house. 

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Written October 10, 2018

Prince: Piano & Microphone 1983
When the musical genius known as Prince died, he left more than 1,000 unreleased songs in his Paisley Park Vault. After reviewing that vast archive, the Prince Estate decided the first posthumous album release titled “Piano & A Microphone,” which was also the name of his final 2016 concert tour, would journey back to 1983 and showcase Prince’s ability to spontaneously compose and record quick sketches of songs as they came out of his head and onto the keyboard.
The 35-minute album of nine songs finds Prince in his home recording studio with a cassette recorder, a piano, a microphone and his voice careening through blues, funk, gospel and jazz compositions, while his engineer at that time Don Batts, simply adjusted the lighting and flipped the tape on Prince’s request. While the piano playing is strong and relentless, his vocals range from normal and falsetto to his Jamie Starr pseudonym caricature of James Brown. On those songs according to his band keyboardist Lisa Coleman, “He eventually created the spin-off band, “The Time,” because the Jamie Starr humor didn’t fit the image he was creating for himself as Prince.”
In another instance of song development, a 90-second sketch of “Purple Rain” on the new album was originally intended for others. Quoted from BBC music reporter Mark Salvage’s interview with Lisa Coleman, “Prince originally thought “Purple Rain” was a country song. He thought it would be good for Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton. When guitarist Wendy Melvoin played that famous intro in a rehearsal, those inversions of the chords are what really sold Prince on developing the song for himself - because somehow it started to sound like his band and he got really happy and we recorded the song. I think it worked out alright!”
On the new album the song, “17 Days” has a locomotive jazz piano, while Prince’s vocals drift into and out of falsetto. One year later, it would be the flip side of the single, “When Doves Cry,” that became Prince’s first number one single. For another song entitled, “Strange Relationship,” the rambling staccato piano score would not be transformed into a completed multi-track recording for his band until the 1987 release of the album Sign Of The Times.
Slipping in some cover songs, Prince scats through Joni Mitchell’s song, “A Case For You” in an entirely different interpretation. Following that, Prince plays a blues piano for his arrangement of the traditional spiritual Civil War song, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” in which he pays tribute to victims of gun violence. Although Prince played this song in concert, the discovery from the Vault remains the only studio recording in existence.  

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Written October 3, 2018

Spinal Cord Injury Cure

When I was 20 years old, I met a southern gentleman named Noel Smith who lived in a wheelchair. As a Naval Air pilot, Noel’s spinal cord was damaged in a plane crash in 1945 when he was 22 years old, paralyzing him from the waist down. For me it was always easy to calculate how many years Noel had lived in that wheelchair, because it was as long as I had been alive. When he passed away in 2006 Noel had been a paraplegic for 60 years.
While undergoing prolonged rehabilitation for his spinal cord injury at the Veterans Hospital in Long Beach, Noel met Marlon Brando who was staying there for one month researching the role he played in his big screen debut The Men. The rugged good looks, sharp mind and fierce independence of Smith closely mirrored the lead character Brando would play, and Noel was selected to be the technical advisor for the film.
Following that exposure to the film industry, Smith enrolled at UCLA to pursue a career in theatrical journalism. Later, Smith became a story analyst for screenplays at CBS Television where his magnetic personality attracted friendships with the giants of the film industry.
Over the years, Smith’s friends always hoped for medical breakthroughs in spinal cord injury research that could possibly restore his leg mobility. Although, in spite of being a champion in accepting his disability, Noel was less optimistic. However, he had arranged, with UCLA Medical Center, to donate his body for research when he died, hoping to help others in the future. Within two hours of his death, Noel’s body was transported to UCLA where it became part of the research for future paraplegics.
That was 12 years ago and just last week BBC reported that U.S. research teams at the University of Louisville and the Mayo Clinic UCLA had been successful in helping people paralyzed from the waist down to walk again. The cure involves an electrical implant patch that is placed below the spinal cord injury. According to BBC, “The patch does not repair the damage but stimulates nerves lower down in the spinal cord.”
This appears to allow signals from the brain to reach the targeted muscles so the person can voluntarily control their own movements again. When the stimulation was switched off the conscious movement didn’t happen.
Although we don’t realize it, the brain sends a message down the spinal cord that commands the legs to move. Therefore, in extensive therapy, patients learned to tell the legs to move in tandem with the electrical impulse. One patient commented, “I was walking with the trainer’s assistance, and when they stopped, I continued walking on my own.”                      

Written August 15, 2018

For-Profit Colleges Rebound   

While chaos and character assassinations run rampant in the White House, creating a huge distraction from issues of national importance, appointed agency heads are carefully unraveling rules and regulations from the Obama Administration. Last week, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved to rescind the Gainful Employment Rule (GER), which was intended to force for-profit colleges to prove their curriculum provided essential skills needed for students to secure employment.

To me, it is really a no-brainer. If I was enrolled at a facility like the Corinthian College chain and received federal student loans for classes that frequently were more expensive than those at public colleges, it just seems logical that upon graduating, my diploma would ensure getting a well-paying job to support myself and repay the student loans. If that’s not the case, the for-profit college is not only defrauding the student by not providing viable curriculum, but it is also defrauding taxpayers because the student will never earn enough to repay the loans.

When the GER was approved in 2015, it appeared that many for-profits, including Trump University, would close and go out of business permanently. However, with the election of Trump and the appointment of DeVos to the Department of Education (DOE), it now appears that some of those institutions have merely circled their wagons to change names and wait for the GER to be rescinded. 

For the past year, DeVos has blocked implementation of the GER in spite of the fact that 18 state attorneys general have sued for delaying implementation, which was meant to revoke federal funding and financial aid for underperforming for-profit schools. In addition to protecting for-profits from being held accountable for defrauding students, DeVos has also implemented a plan to make it more difficult for students of for-profits to get debt relief.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has found that “Graduates of for-profit schools have worse outcomes than those of public or private colleges and universities.” Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren commented on the situation as follows, “Secretary DeVos just issued a new rule that would ensure for-profits face no consequences for graduating students with huge debt and no job prospects.”

With student loan debt second only to housing mortgage debt in the United States, rescinding the GER will open the floodgates to aggressive advertising, targeting older students working in low paying jobs who believe the for-profit diploma will change everything in their lives. In reality, the DOE action risks more defaults and jeopardizes the national economy, while benefitting the corporate education industry.

My advice to all potential students is to avoid get-rich strategies, and research career placement and debt information at a community college. After that, seek a viable career. 

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Written August 7, 2018

Architects and Engineers   

Although I favor curves in architecture, sculpture, landscaping and furniture, there has been one exception over the years that remains constant. The private residence called “Fallingwater” that was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann and designed by Architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 and constructed in 1937, is the antithesis of a curve with its elongated angular concrete terraces cantilevered over a waterfall in the Bear Run Creek of rural Pennsylvania. After removing the July 2000 page from a Wright calendar with an illustration of Fallingwater, I hung it on the wall above my desk where I have enjoyed it daily.     

     However, during the years since then, embedded concrete beams enabling the cantilever to extend 15 feet over the waterfall with no visible support, cracked and caused the first floor terrace to sag seven inches, which in engineering terms is known as a “deflection.” When Engineer Robert Silman was retained to analyze the problem, he found the builder didn’t use enough reinforcing steel (Rebar) to support the first-floor concrete skeleton and cantilever.

From historical archives two stories emerge as to what occurred in 1937. From the first account, Kaufmann did not feel the plans specified enough rebar and so he retained his own engineer who agreed. From that point, the accounts continue to differ with Wright resenting the second opinion, dismissing the claim and forging ahead. On the other hand, rumors indicate Kaufmann secretly ordered the builder to add more rebar. However, as time has proven, it was not enough.

To solve the problem, according to the New York Times, “The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy allowed Robert Silman to remove the floor and concrete slab to expose the concrete beams and perpendicular joists below. After the excavation, five large steel cables were attached to major beams with six smaller cables attached alongside the joists. This steel network was then anchored to the existing concrete piers under the house, and tautened to restore structural integrity to the cracked beams.”

With that accomplished, Silman has been credited with saving Fallingwater and preventing what has been acclaimed as one of the most breathtaking homes of the 20th century, from collapsing onto the waterfall. According to the director emeritus of Fallingwater Lynda S. Waggoner, “Silman’s solution to the faltering cantilever was elegant. It preserved the material integrity of the building and minimized any incidental damage while preventing future deflections.”

With construction completed, the entire house was restored, including all of the built-in furniture designed by Wright. Today, Fallingwater remains the only Frank Lloyd Wright structure to be restored with all of the original furniture and artwork, and once again is open to the public and will continue to amaze visitors for generations. See the home at: https://franklloydwright.org/site/fallingwater/.

Written July 31, 2018: 

Downtown Parking Woes   

With all the new museums, galleries, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues opening in Downtown Los Angeles, the gentrification of the area attracts thousands of visitors every weekend. Unfortunately, the car culture of Southern California has not melded well with expensive off-street parking, so drivers from the suburbs park on the streets and leave all sorts of things in plain view that criminals can easily grab after smashing a window.

When I lived Downtown in the Arts District, all of us early gentrifiers learned our lessons the hard way. Although we were not displacing anybody in the desolate industrial neighborhood, the sight of newer cars parked on the streets attracted the homeless and criminals. I remember my friend Steve, who was a food photographer, complaining that once again he left a pack of cigarettes on the car seat and “Wham there went another window!”  I lost my car stereo on Bunker Hill, while parked next to MOCA, so a sign on the dash board saying “No Radio” ended the problem.

In these times, the Little Tokyo Business Improvement District (BID), Arts District BID, and the South Park BID have been especially hard-hit with vehicle break-ins, despite  24/7 patrols. In the South Park area of Pico Boulevard, Hope Street and Grand Avenue near Staples Center and L.A. Live, reliable and safe outdoor parking lots have been lost to residential development and hotels, forcing drivers who do not wish to pay over $20.00 for venue parking into dicey neighborhoods.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Central Division, there has been a 29.4 percent increase in vehicle break-ins this year as compared to the same period last year. Out of 893 incidents, the numbers are almost even between isolated parking lots and street parking, with most of the crimes occurring on Saturdays from 6:00 PM until midnight, when visitors flock downtown. 

The solution to this problem involves the recognition that all of the new venues are within a short walk or bicycle ride from historic crime neighborhoods. Anything left in plain sight including sun glasses, clothing or that pack of cigarettes, means more to the criminal than your broken window. On the high end with the theft of lap tops, cell phones and chargers, the LAPD estimates the average cost to repair a vehicle and replace stolen property is $1,885.00.

There are many things to enjoy in the new Downtown Los Angeles with many of the safe parking structures at museums, shopping centers, hotels, office complexes and entertainment venues open until midnight on weekends, all with walking distance or a taxi ride from other venues. Google search your destination, and then parking arrangements, for a good time Downtown.

Written July 17, 2018

 Musical Notes   

Last week, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article on progress being made by the estate of the late rock star Prince. The astounding news is, more than 1,000 unreleased songs have been discovered in the Paisley Park Studios Vault. Meanwhile, Archivist Angie Marchese and her team discovered stage outfits including the red-and-black suit, hat and boots Prince wore at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his 2004 scorching guitar solo on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

     According to Hall of Fame Producer & Director Joel Gallen, Prince was to be inducted and George Harrison was posthumously inducted. Since Prince was there anyway, perhaps he could play guitar for the final song. Prince agreed and joined Tom Petty, two of the Heartbreakers, Jeff Lynn, Marc Mann, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison, and others. However, at rehearsal the day before the ceremony, there was a wrinkle.

Marc Mann played Eric Clapton’s first guitar solo from the album version of the song, and then later began to play the final solo that Prince was going to play. Prince simply stated, “The entire world knows the first Eric Clapton solo so you do that and I’ll just strum some rhythm and step in for the last three minutes.” With that he assured Gallen everything would be fine at the performance. Gallen said, “He never really showed us what he was going to do, basically telling me not to worry, and then he left.” 

On the evening of the performance, Prince essentially stood almost offstage strumming a few leads, until the spotlight illuminated him and with one shrill guitar note that identified him as Prince, and the rest is history. From that point on, at center stage the show was entirely his. 

Prince’s fingers moved so rapidly up and down the guitar neck it seemed the strings were hot, and in that moment he redefined the term “scorching” with his incredible sound. In a subsequent New York Times interview Tom Petty remarked, “You see me nodding at him, to say ‘Go on, go on.” “I remember I leaned out at him at one point and gave him a ‘This is going great!’ kind of look.” Petty added, “He just burned it up. You could feel the electricity of ‘something really big is going down here.’” 

Additionally, in a fabled quote from Eric Clapton, when asked how it felt to be the greatest guitar player alive, Clapton said “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Prince.” With his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” Prince confirmed he was the greatest.

July 10, 2018

Saxophone Heaven   

If you like the sound of the saxophone you will be in heaven on July 21 when the Wrightwood Classical Concert Series presents the City of Angels Saxophone Quartet (COASQ) performing for their “Jazz in July” concert and dinner party. As the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones meld their harmonic sounds, guests will embark on a musical journey through the history of the instrument, which will include much more than jazz. There will be examples of classical chamber music, pop, jazz, big band and swing era selections, as well as music of the cinema.

Founded in 1990 at California State University Northridge, members of the ensemble include Bill Wilson on soprano sax, Sean Stackpoole on alto sax, Cynthia Swanson on tenor sax, and Matt Germaine playing baritone sax. While all of the members earned Bachelor’s Degrees in Saxophone Performance, Wilson advanced to graduate studies at the USC Thornton School of Music.

As individual musicians, each of the COASQ members has achieved stunning recognition playing with major symphony orchestras, performing at concert venues from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall, and backing up music industry giants such as Tony Bennett and Cab Calloway. Collectively, the ensemble has appeared at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission concert, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival in Florida with Itzhak Perlman, Bella Fleck, and the Dover String Quartet.

On Saturday July 21, the concert begins at 5:30 PM in a spacious Wrightwood home overlooking the scenic vista. In addition to the music, COASQ members will guide the audience through a musicology lesson of sorts, which establishes the saxophone as a much more significant instrument than just part of a marching band. On occasion, COASQ adds an upright bass and drums to its lineup and according to their website notation for Events, the Wrightwood concert is listed as “COASQ + Rhythm.” 

That would be great, and further indicates that Wrightwood is once again on the radar as a musical destination of merit. Concert and four course Chef’s Dinner with wine pairings tickets are $125.00 with dinner reservations and ticket sales finalization due before July 14. Concert only tickets are $65.00 and usually sell out quickly with 50 guests attending.

To receive information on the stellar musical and epicurean event of the summer email Director Joyce Wonderly joyce@keyboardart.com, or telephone Joyce at (760) 249-3487, or purchase tickets at http://www.keyboardart.com/calendar-of-concerts/.

For those who attended the opening night of Music in the Pines, there just wasn’t enough of that wonderful saxophone music with a total of 18 various musicians on the stage. Jazz in July will refine that experience and focus on the myriad of sounds the saxophone can produce, in an intimate setting.

Written June 13, 2018

Give Peace A Chance   

After months of taunting one another with insults and saber rattling, United States President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un were all smiles as they shook hands in front of alternating American and North Korean flags at the Grand Capella Hotel in Singapore. What a welcomed change of strategies to meet in a historic summit, rather than threats of nuclear obliteration. Will the seat-of-the-pants diplomacy of Trump, who has a habit of unvarnished exaggeration, and Kim a dictator not known for keeping his word, create a meaningful dialogue for the Korean Peninsula? 

Regardless, what cannot be disputed is that never before has a sitting U.S. President met with a Kim Family patriarch. Past deals made under former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all collapsed after North Korea backtracked on promises and resumed ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Perhaps after years of international sanctions and the economic decline of the nation, Kim is ready to embrace peace, which could result in stability. Or, as happened for China when former president Richard Nixon visited in 1972, will that diplomacy orchestrate the transformation of North Korea into an economic giant.

After the handshake on Tuesday, Trump and Kim met briefly with the press and Trump commented, “It’s my honor, and we will have a terrific relationship, I have no doubt.” Following with his response Kim remarked, “It was not easy to get here. The old prejudices and practices worked as obstacles, but we’ve overcome all of them and we are here today.” After that brief exposure, Trump and Kim held a private 45-minute meeting with only two translators present. For that moment, every journalist in the world would have liked to be a fly on the wall and report just exactly what concessions Trump offered Kim to denuclearize. 

Later, during a working luncheon, some of Trump’s cabinet members, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and their North Korean counterparts, including Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong, negotiated a treaty, which was signed after lunch but not immediately released to the press. However, after the signing ceremony, Trump commented, “We have signed a document that will see the denuclearization of North Korea beginning very quickly.” Kim added, “We’ve decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”

In the realm of “never before,” the world has not seen such a rapid de-escalation of a nuclear threat and a joint statement of peaceful intentions signed in one day. Let’s hope the pathway to accomplish a denuclearization plan is truly enlightened, because intense dialogue with everybody smiling and talking ensures that peace will have a chance.

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Written June 6, 2018

Who Do You Believe?   

Some politicians claim the recent $1.5 trillion tax cut will not add to the federal deficit in the next decade, yet Democratic lawmakers and AARP predict that when it occurs, budget cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits will be orchestrated. Well, the 2018 Social Security & Medicare Trustees Report was released on June 5 and there have been wildly different opinions on the survival of the entitlement programs and the use of clever semantics in regard to the timing of fiscal demise. 

To begin with, this year’s report indicates the combined trusts have an accumulated surplus of $2.9 trillion. At the current pace of spending, that’s enough to fund Medicare until 2026 and Social Security until 2034. At each point in time the report states the trusts will become “insolvent,” while various news media correct the terminology to “Experience shortfalls.” Economist Dean Baker for the Los Angeles Times commented, “While the Medicare report stated the fund will be depleted in 2026, it will be able to pay 90 percent of benefits. This is a shortfall not insolvency.”

At the same time, CNN reports the Social Security Trust will have to cut benefits by 21 percent in 2034 while the Trustees Report states the combined trust funds will run dry at that point and will only be able to pay 79 percent in promised benefits.

While Congress has historically punted the issue for years to shore up the solvency of both programs, that situation will continue due to the Trump agenda and mid-term elections. Contrary to some current claims, but indisputable according to the numbers, spending for both programs slowed under Obama, and increased with reduced income during the Trump Administration. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The Trustee’s Report indicates policies of Congressional Republicans and the White House have damaged the financial prospects of both programs. 

Furthermore, Forbes reports, “The $1.5 trillion tax cut will reduce the Social Security and Medicare programs income from the Federal Insurance Contribution Act. Refuting that claim in the New York Times, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remarked that “President Trump expects a strong economy to improve the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. In time, both programs will be revamped to ensure benefits for Baby Boomers.”

What I’m concerned about now, as a Baby Boomer, is that the government has borrowed nearly $2.8 trillion as of 2014 from the Trust Fund and used the money for other purposes. According to Politifact-winner of the Pulitzer Prize- “George W. Bush borrowed $1.37 trillion from Social Security surpluses to pay for his tax cuts and the war in Iraq, and never paid it back.”

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Written May 28, 2018

Wrightwood Summer Music 

It’s almost summer and outdoor concerts in the Wrightwood Alpine Village begin on June 14. Nestled between mountain peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains and towering pine trees, each musical venue in the Village has its own unique allure and acoustics for live music. As a musical destination, Wrightwood has been attracting an ever-growing audience for 18 years.

On Thursday June 14 at 6:30 PM in The Apple Farm, Music in the Pines launches its 14^th season with an evening of The John Burcher Big Band Bandits. As 18 to 25 top professional musicians from the Los Angeles area join in a high energy swing ensemble, Burcher leads the dynamic horn section playing saxophone and flute.

Continuing on Thursday July 12 at 6:00 PM, electric bass player Alex Peterson reunites with some of her former band mates from the legendary all female band Precious Metal to form a new band called “Wild Side.” There will be dance music and classic cover songs featuring vocalists Claudia Campbell, Gayle Dowling and Stephanie Santos- Owens. Following them at 8:00, The Greg Jones Band takes the stage with Jones, president of Wrightwood Blues Society (www.wrightwoodblues.org), singing lead vocals and playing keyboards. Accompanying him will be Irwin Williams on bass, former Motown musician Dave Pruitt playing guitar, Toby (Chicago) Williams on drums, Richard Cole from the famed Solomon Burke Band playing saxophone, and Andrew Carney on trumpet-playing dance music from oldies funk to Top 40’s pop.

Concluding an abbreviated season on Thursday August 9 at 6:00 PM, Cypress Bottom Boys will fly in from Louisiana to play foot-stomping Cajun music, which was a popular favorite at past Wrightwood Music Festivals. And then at 8:00, Roger Whitten & Friends will thrill music fans with a performance of classical and Americana music, as well as original compositions from the masterful pianist. 

The Apple Farm is located on State Highway 2 at Rivera Drive. Shuttle service is available from the Wrightwood Community Building and disabled parking is available on site. With local restaurants delivering to the concert venue and overnight accommodations nearby, Music in the Pines is a perfect cool mountain get-a-way. 

For additional musical enjoyment, Red Barn Opry celebrates its 11^th season on Saturday June 23 at 5:00 PM in Wilkensville Corner located at the intersection of Oriole and Willow Streets. Country Music in an Old West architectural setting will be the fare hosted by Dave Cimino and the Wilkens family. Featured musicians include the High-D Boys, Full Monty Cash and A Band Named Sue, with Jarett James and The County Line being the headliner. Bring a lawn chair and go to the Red Barn Opry Facebook page or (cimino923@gmail.com) for more information.  

                         

Written May 22, 2018

Endangered Healthcare for Veterans   

As Memorial Day approaches and we prepare to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives to defend our nation, Americans should be aware that the Trump Administration has little regard for living veterans who require healthcare from the Veterans Administration (VA). Instead, far-right corporate minions who successfully lobbied the House of Representatives last week to pass a bill that will begin privatization of the VA, will most likely prevail once again this week in the U.S. Senate. Under the guise that S 2372-VA Mission Act will be beneficial to living veterans, Trump has actually failed to address a system in need by leaving 49,000 VA positions nationwide unfilled since he became president.

While the Washington Post opinion writer Richard Cohen has called Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton “The new Doctor Strangelove,” with his saber rattling against North Korea and Iran, veterans with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, PTSD, and mental health problems from all the recent continuing wars, face endangered healthcare in the near future.

In spite of the fact that a recent RAND Corporation study, commissioned by the VA, found that the VA medical system is working as well or better than non-VA care, the Trump Administration is hell bent on pushing veterans out the door into private care. According to www.thestand.org, “92 percent of veterans want increased funding for the VA, 80 percent do not want vouchers to go elsewhere for medical treatment, and only 13 percent of providers are even capable of treating veterans with war related injuries.”

In addition to those with war related injuries, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports 39,471 veterans are homeless on any given night, and one veteran dies from suicide every 65 minutes. No civilian can fully understand what military veterans of foreign wars experienced, and it is solely the responsibility of the nation to preserve and increase the services of the Veterans Administration to those in need for their entire lifetime.

Throughout recent history, it has been the Military Industrial Complex that has benefited from undeclared wars. This Memorial Day, turning veterans’ healthcare over to private insurance companies is a hypocrisy.

Written May 16, 2018

Not a joke

How difficult would it be not to say something thoughtless and stupid if we were not allowed to murmur, “I was only joking?” During the past 15 months that phrase along with another, “I really didn’t mean that,” have been used far more by politicians and their staff members than the former record breaking term “I don’t recall.” Across the nation, apologies have become so commonplace in frequency that they are rendered meaningless.

Granted, it requires some intelligence and a sense of consideration towards others to think a situation through before verbalizing a denigrating comment about a U.S. Senator. That’s what is expected of civil servants who unfortunately are more inclined to say something out of school for shock value and then backtrack about it being a joke or misinterpreted. Furthermore, the only thing worse than an insincere apology, is no apology at all.

When White House Aid Kelly Sadler dismissed Senator John McCain’s objection to the nomination of Gina Haspel to be CIA Director by saying, “It doesn’t matter he’s dying anyway,” Republican Senator LIndsey Graham commented, “It’s a pretty disgusting Thing to say. If it was a joke it was a disgusting joke.”

From the other side of he aisle former Vice  President Joe Biden’s response was quite succinct in declaring, “Decency has hit rock bottom.” On Friday, May 11, according to Thompson Reuters, “White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders refused to confirm or deny what Sadler had said. Instead, she berated White House staff for leaking the information to the news media.”

Thank goodness there remain in the White House individuals who have the societal consciousness to speak out. At issue is the fact that John McCain as a prisoner of was was tortured, thus creating a difference of opinion on the effectiveness of torture between McCain and Haspel.

Last Wednesday during her Senate confirmation hearing, although Haspel pledged she would not approve of torture again if named CIA Director,  McCain remarked, “Her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.” 

From his new book entitled, “The Restless Wave,” to be released later this month, the Washington Post reports, “McClain recounts and defends his efforts to expose and prevent torture.” At the same time, Richard Cheney told Fox News, “The CIA’s action did not amount to torture and I’d do it again.”

In bringing everything back to national attention, Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that John McCain is very much alive and yearning for bipartisan dialogue with a consciousness for doing what is moral. Shame on you Kelly Sadler for thinking otherwise.

Written May 9, 2018

Forces of Nature   

With international attention riveted on the volcanic eruption in Hawaii, there is a certain sense of awe to the forces of Nature when destruction occurs. As human beings, we often forget that planet Earth has its own scheme of things, some of which can be modified by mankind and others that only humble the observer. While we have seen past images of the Kilauea volcano and crater eruptions, those lava tubes extending some 20 miles underground and then surfacing first as steaming gas through fissures, and then as a spatter of flames spouting hundreds of feet into the air, followed by a river of lava oozing through housing subdivisions nestled in verdant jungles, are truly mysterious.

Although scientists have known of the existence of those lava tubes for years in the East Rift Zone, each eruption of Kilauea can be entirely different. The crater can either fill with molten lava and then stop, or overflow, or if the crater is filled and the floor collapses, the lava will be injected into hose-like tubes destined to surface elsewhere. When magma and gas build up pressure underground, an earthquake movement indicates that lava has to be vented somewhere. With scientists purporting this to be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, multiple earthquakes, eruptions and movement of lava through tubes could continue for some time.

Hereabouts, in the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, one can observe cinder cones on the floor of the Mojave Desert, which never fully developed into full scale volcanoes eons ago. Although friction from the movement of the Pacific Plate against the North American tectonic plate created significant land movement of the San Andreas Fault at Mormon Rocks in the Cajon Pass and the Devil’s Punchbowl in Pearblossom, underground magma did not heat enough to erupt as a volcano. Instead, pressurized magma and gas vented on the desert floor in the form of highly perforated black basalt rocks that when cooled formed cone-shaped hills. With the fountain of debris evolving over months or years to form the cone, the shape was determined and maintained by landslides, which created the 30-degree slope or the angle of repose for basalt.

Other places in California have a much more recent history of volcanic activity with the Mono Lake craters, domes and cinder cones last erupting 600 years ago. More recent than that, a shallow intrusion of magma uplifted the bottom sediment of Mono Lake between 100 to 230 years ago. The most likely area for a future volcanic eruption on the North American Plate is situated on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains surrounding Mammoth Lakes. 

In the case of Kilauea, the volcano’s high activity dates back some 35 years.

     

Written May 1, 2018

Yodeling WalMart Kid

There are some things in life that require a keen imagination and careful planning. Although 11-year-old Mason Ramsey has wanted to become a famous Country Music singer since he started playing guitar and yodeling at the age of six, there were not too many opportunities for stardom in his hometown of Golconda Illinois, with a population of 670.  For some time, Mason’s only performance gig was singing Hank Williams songs acappella and yodeling at the local Wal-Mart, where the management allowed him to entertain shoppers.

All of that changed on March 24 when someone in the audience of almost a dozen shoppers created a music video of Mason singing Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” in the aisle of Wal-Mart and posted it on YouTube. Faster than anybody could imagine and certainly beyond the most carefully made plans, Mason was catapulted to fame when the music video on YouTube received 17 million views.

During the month of April, the precocious and charming musician was invited to perform at the Coachella Music Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival and appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. It was on the Ellen Show that Mason sparkled in a real casual manner when Ellen asked him about his future dreams. “Well,” Mason replied, “I want to be famous, save my money and go to college and perform at the Grand Ole Opry.”  Without appearing to be too condescending Ellen confided that would take a great deal of work, and then Mason performed “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” for the cheering audience.

After a commercial break Ellen approached Mason and commented, “We have a lot of friends and a lot of connections. We talked to the people at the Grand Ole Opry and they want you to perform on Saturday night. After that, Wal-Mart will sponsor a free concert to be broadcast live on Facebook.”  As a stunned Mason wiped a tear off his cheek, a stagehand appeared with a large check for $15,000 from Wal-Mart for his college education. Way to go Ellen for a magical surprise!

If all that wasn’t enough, Mason Ramsey was signed to Atlantic Records shortly afterwards and one day later recorded his first single entitled “Famous.” Last Friday on the Times Square video screens Mason was featured singing his lyrics, “If I’m gonna be famous for somethin’, I wanna be famous for lovin’you…”  

As a star was born Mason commented on Twitter, “28 days ago I was yodeling inside my local Wal-Mart to 11 people. This past weekend I performed in front of 100,000 people at Stagecoach. It’s amazing what can happen in just a month. Thanks to all my awesome fans.” 

Thanks for being such an inspiration Mason, Hank Williams is smiling!

Written April 25, ,2018

April Accord?

With just a few days remaining in the month of April, world situations have been particularly dour. I say that, thinking of the opening lines for T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland, “April is the cruelest month breeding lilacs out of the dead land.” Certainly, lilacs herald in a more pleasant season and this month, circumstances have helped to slow the decline of environmental issues.

I was pleasantly surprised to see American President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron planting a European Sessile Oak tree on the south lawn of the White House. The tree was a gift from the French Nation to strengthen friendships and commemorate a World War I site in the Belleau Wood of Northern France, where 9,000 U.S. Marines were killed in a 1918 battle against German troops. Perhaps, the gift was also a reminder from Macron to Trump that his leaving the Paris Climate Accord needs to be revisited. 

Just days before Macron’s visit, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $4.5 million to pay what the United States had pledged to the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, before withdrawing. Last year, the Bloomberg Philanthropies also contributed $15 million to cover a separate climate change shortfall.  

In times such as this, the French President will undoubtedly be lobbying Trump to rethink withdrawing from the Paris Accord as well as his threats to cancel the Iran nuclear agreement. The month of April has also seen advancement in the North Korea nuclear disarmament negotiations. These are the real issues that Trump should sign onto and hopefully the first state dinner of the Trump Administration hosting Emmanuel & Brigitte Macron, will cement a centuries-old alignment between France and the United States, when each country was dependent upon the other for survival.

Behind the scene, Melania Trump is in a good position to exert her international allure, as the event coordinator, and perhaps with the added sensibility of Brigitte Macron, the two of them  can do some lobbying of their own in a charming manner to steer the Good Ship America in a positive direction.

There is nothing more important than climate control or nuclear disarmament. We all live on the same planet, breath the same air, will be affected by rising ocean levels and unprecedented storms and certainly, will be incinerated to toast if a nuclear war occurs. As much as politicians from both sides of the aisle would like to dismiss these notions as fake news to distract attention away from their despicable agendas, we are all in this conundrum together.

Everything else occurring in Washington DC- all the lies, all the deception and all the war mongering-takes a back seat to saving the planet.

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Written April 17,2018

3D Printed House  

Within the past month, the technological field of computer operated 3D printers has taken a giant leap forward from the traditional extrusion of small objects in plastic. At the Milan Design Week in Europe and SXSW in Texas, giant 3D printers squirted concrete out of a nozzle following a pre-determined pathway to create the footprint and walls of small structures, which cost 50 percent less than other construction methods. While innovative shapes can be achieved easily, the main thrust at this time is to produce conventional looking low-cost housing for those in poverty or victims of natural disasters.

Beginning above a concrete slab, an overhead trestle, 33 feet wide by 22 feet tall, is assembled around the slab and mounted on a rail system. After that, the nozzle moves on a track and is guided in any direction according to the computer program. Following the exterior footprint of the house, the material whether it be concrete, polymer or glass fiber reinforced gypsum cement, is pumped into place through the nozzle. Applying layer after layer in a continuous stream, a 3D house printer can complete a 1,000 square foot structure in one day. 

In Milan, a Cybe mobile 3D concrete printer used CyB mortar, which set up in five minutes and achieved maximum strength in 24 hours instead of 28 days needed to cure Portland cement. In Texas, a Vulcan 3D printer created a four-room house in less than one day for a cost of $10,000.

From other places in the world, equally stunning examples also emerged. In France, the initial shell with openings for doors and windows was made using a liquid polymer and then hollow walls were filled with concrete. In China, WinSun Design Engineering -a pioneer in 3D printing - incorporated an open web triangular patterned design sandwiched between interior and exterior walls. Reminiscent of the pattern common in the fabrication of metal trusses seen everywhere for stage lighting, the walls are exceptionally strong using glass fiber reinforced gypsum cement without rebar. WinSun’s mission is, “Building affordable and dignified housing.”

While the size and shape of structures has so far been limited to survival housing, organic shapes, which can be quite expensive in conventional frame construction, flow easily using 3D printers. Although the cost of a Vulcan printer at $100,000 currently limits the size of structures, larger homes can be created in modular sections and then bolted together as is common with tilt-up concrete structures.

With the overall textural appearance on walls quite attractive, and the ability to create curving walls at a fraction of previous costs, 3D printing ushers in a new era. Search ‘3D printed house’ online to see examples and videos of housing for the future.

Written April 4, 2018

For-Profit Colleges Rebound

Never before in history have the wheels of government, which were spinning forward with reform during the Obama Administration, been derailed so efficiently by the next presidential administration. It was just two years ago that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) lost its authority from the Education Department to evaluate the quality of for-profit schools. However, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could soon reverse that decision.

It wasn’t until the collapse of ITT Technical Institute with 35,000 students receiving financial student aid, and Corinthian Colleges with 16,000 students also receiving student loans that the magnitude of failing for-profit schools became known. According to a New York Times (NYT) article, ITT and Corinthian were the largest institutions out of 240 others that were favorably accredited by ACICS and received $4.7 billion in taxpayer money. During the Obama Administration, the Education Department fined Corinthian $30 million for falsifying job placement rates. 

Across the United States, reports www.buzzfeed.com, 11 percent of all for-profit colleges, or 366, have closed or have stopped getting federal financial aid. Many shut down because of the Obama Administration’s “gainful employment” rules, which pulled financial student aid eligibility where students assumed too much debt for curriculum that did not deliver favorable outcomes such as jobs and careers.

Although the pro-profit sector felt it had been targeted and reinstatement of the banished ACICS would correct unfair treatment by the former White House, the numbers indicate otherwise. Once again from NYT, “For years the accrediting body gave its seal of approval to institutions plagued by complaints and oversaw for-profit schools that had some of the lowest graduation rates in the country and some of the highest rates of student loan defaults.”

However, on March 23, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled the Obama Administration had failed to take into account 36,000 pages of supplemental information as it deliberated on the fate of ACICS. But choosing not to overturn the Obama Education Department’s decision, Judge Walton instead sent the case to Betsy DeVos to be reconsidered.

That could not have happened at a worse time, because here we are two years later and ACICS is now eligible to be reevaluated after demonstrating effective compliance. Oh sure, the Obama attorneys screwed up in regard to those missing 36,000 pages, but then 20 state attorneys general in letters to the Education Department purported that letters of support for the reinstatement of ACICS had largely come from for-profit institutions, which it had accredited. 

     Now that we have seen banking industry deregulation, with the repeal of Dodd-Frank, faulty mortgage instruments combined with default of student loans will make the Great Recession of 2008 look mild.   

Written March 228, 2018

Pinon Hills Chamber   

Back in the mid 1960s when Mom inherited the Cabin from her Uncle Ernest, my parents became weekenders in Desert Springs, later to be renamed Pinon Hills. On occasional weekends, holidays and summer vacations Mom & Dad would drive out to the Cabin and leave me at home in Burbank. That was fine because I was a surfer, owned my own car, and had little interest in the desert. The first time I visited the Cabin it was like déjà vu because it was exactly the same floor plan as the small home Uncle Ernest had built in Granada Hills with the exception that, instead of being nestled in an orange grove, it was surrounded by sagebrush.

At that time, the closest neighbors were Kate Biersach to the north-who wrote a gossip column for the Mountaineer Progress- and Doctor Douglas to the west. They both were members of the Chamber of Commerce and it wasn’t long before Mom & Dad likewise became members. Although it was more of a social club then, the Chamber made some astute decisions that would benefit the community enormously. The most important action was purchasing a vacant lot to the north of the Chamber building to be used as a parking lot. 

In 1985, when Fire Chief Hedden and SBC Special Districts proposed constructing a new fire station, community center, and park, there was a major glitch. They had no space on their parcel for a parking lot. The solution was to lease the Chamber’s parking lot for one dollar a year and in return the Chamber would be allowed to lease the community center for the same amount per year. After that was accomplished, the Chamber then purchased tables and chairs for the building, and cooking utensils for the kitchen.

That was the beginning of a new era in which many of the aging chamber members spun off into the Pinon Hills Seniors using the community center, while the Chamber attempted to reinvent itself across the parking lot as a business and commerce entity.  Leaping forward to 2018, the Chamber is now at a similar juncture. Membership has increased so much that the Chamber was awarded a $20,000 tourism promotion grant from SBC. Funds from the grant will be used for digital “Welcome to Pinon Hills” signs promoting tourism. 

For Chamber members who, like myself, are now ageing, it is refreshing to realize that a critical mass, which is essential in urban planning for success, has now been achieved. The Chamber, The Door Ministry Church, the fire station, community center and park have become the epicenter with the Victor Valley Transit Authority bus making frequent daily stops at the complex. There is a new generation, continuing to build on the foundation of some 70 years.                                           

Written March 21, 2018

Wood Skyscrapers?   

Although wood has been used as a construction material for centuries, it has generally been replaced by concrete and steel to create tall buildings. In the United States, building codes mostly prohibit traditional wood frame structures more than 85 feet tall. In cities such as Los Angeles where earthquakes factor into construction regulations, wood frame structures are limited to five stories in height attached to a concrete podium.

However, according to a recent article in The Atlantic Magazine, advanced technology in the field of laminated wooden beams has been expanded to produce floor and wall panels as well. Although at this time the process is more expensive than concrete or steel construction, producing cross-laminated timber (CLT) has a significantly lower carbon footprint than using those materials.

As trees grow, carbon in the atmosphere is stored and it remains there forever in milled construction lumber, unless it decomposes or is burned. According to the Journal of Sustainable Forestry, “Substituting wood for other materials used in buildings and bridges could prevent 14 to 31 percent of global carbon emissions,” whereas the manufacturing of concrete and steel has been estimated to produce 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Addressing two major concerns for wood skyscrapers, clear grain wood slabs, up to 24 feet in length, are glued together with fireproof glue into a massive beam. To create CLT panels, layers of kiln-dried wood are stacked in alternating 90-degree angles that are then glued and pressed to form solid panels for walls and floors. In USDA tests-intended to create a rebirth of the timber industry- wood beams and panels were subjected to fire, explosion and earthquake tests and fared better than concrete or steel. Those findings brought back to mind a woodworking textbook image, from Forest Products Laboratory, in which the photo taken after a fire shows a laminated wood beam that had not burned supporting melted and twisted steel I beams.

In Portland Oregon, a completed 4-story wooden building, “Albina,” is a prelude to a 12-story mixed use tower called Framework, which will be completed in 2019. Meanwhile, Canada currently holds the world’s record for wooden buildings, with an 18-story/164-foot tall structure. Across the world, a 24-story building is under construction in Vienna, while a 35-story building has been proposed for Paris. In the future, a 70-story building is planned for Tokyo, and the London skyline will one day be graced with an 80-story, 1,000-foot high tower. Additionally, where deforestation has become a threat, bamboo that grows five times faster than wood, has been found to be stronger than timber for making CLT panels because of the fibers.   

Written March 14, 2018

Another Contested Beach

Throughout my entire lifetime, there has never been such a halcyon experience as living on an isolated beach in west Malibu for 18 years. As a teenager when I was learning to surf, the singular bonding effort with my parents came about on Sundays when they would drive me to Surfrider Beach, Leo Carrillo State Park or County Line Beach. At the time, those were the only public beaches for surfboard use along a 21-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway. Not fully understanding the economic disparity between Burbank and Malibu, I used to ask my parents, “Why can’t we live here?” 

In 1972, voters approved the California Coastal Act, which established the fact that all beaches in California are open to the public up to the “mean high tide” defined as the portion of the beach where the sand is wet. That meant that 1,100 miles of California coastline were accessible to the public but presented the conundrum of how to get to the wet sand across private property?

Since then there have been numerous legal battles focused on creating access easements with the latest coming from Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, who purchased 89 acres of beachfront property in 2008 at Martins Beach located near Half Moon Bay. Although the prior owner had allowed public access to the beach, a general store, and restrooms, Khosla determined the beach was underutilized by the public and locked the gate and posted the property against trespassing. 

In 2017, the California Coastal Commission sued Khosla for not having a permit to close the beach access road that had been open to the public for nearly 100 years, and he countered with an offer to sell the State an easement for $30 million. Since then, the local San Mateo County Court ruled that Khosla had violated the Coastal Act and that decision was upheld by the First District Court of Appeals in a 3-0 vote. That ruling was then appealed to the California Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, and has now been appealed by Khosla to the U.S. Supreme Court, with his legal team being anchored by Paul Clement-the nation’s preeminent conservative private property rights attorney.

According to The Mercury News, the Surfriders Foundation has commented, “If Khosla is successful at the U.S. Supreme Court level, beach access for millions of Americans could be jeopardized.”  If that were to occur, the California Coastal Act would be invalidated and public access to our beaches would be pummeled. 

When I lived on that beach, I supported the Coastal Act because I knew one day I would again become “the public” but could always come back to walk that beach. Unfortunately, that may not occur. 

Written March7, 2018

Russ Solomon: Tower Records   

Back in 1971 when Mike and Danny were restoring that old farmhouse on Flower Street in a desolate industrial neighborhood of Burbank, the work routine usually involved driving to Standard Brands Paint Company for more paint and wallpaper and then cruising over the hill to Tower Records on the Sunset Strip for the latest rock album.  With Tower being open until midnight during the week and 1:00 am on weekends, there was always enough time to peruse new selections and then return home to spin the vinyl for the Altec Lansing “Voice of the Theatre” speakers, as the two worked through the night.

That work schedule would have never been possible without being energized by Tower Records, and the Sunset Boulevard neighborhood had never seen such excitement as when the store earned the Guinness Book of World Records listing for being the, “Largest record store in the world.” Built from the ground up by Tower Records founder Russ Solomon, the one story building occupied half of the lot, while the remainder was a parking to accommodate throngs of customers.

Painted bright red and yellow, the iconic store’s exterior was also covered with huge reproductions of the most recent album covers. During Tower’s 35-year lifespan, record companies constructed stages with truss lights in the parking lot for free pop-up concerts to launch new albums. Among those who performed were Rod Stewart, Prince, David Cassidy, Duran Duran, and Randy Newman. Frequently on other occasions, up to 1,000 music fans would line up to have their just-purchased album autographed by equally famous musicians.

     After opening more than 200 Tower Record stores worldwide with an annual income of $1billion per year, the music empire of Russ Solomon- that began in Sacramento next door to the Tower Theater- slowly began to collapse with the advent of big box retailers, and eventually went bankrupt. In spite of demolition and development proposals and failed preservation efforts, Gibson Guitars finally purchased the site for $35 million to be used as a guitar showroom.

However, before Gibson moved in, Colin Hanks restored the building to its original quirky state for his documentary film “All Things Must Past: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records.”  Following that in the restored glory, Elton John took the stage with Lady Gaga for the final pop-up free concert at Tower Records. Leading off, Elton commented, “I could have probably bought Los Angeles for the money I spent in Tower Records.” 

Rolling Stone Magazine has reported, “Russ kept finding himself in the right place at the right time with the right attitude.” And so it was, last Sunday at the age of 92, that Russ Solomon peacefully passed away at his Sacramento home, as he watched the Oscars on T.V.

Written February 28, 2018

Revisiting Student Loans  

It can be difficult sometimes analyzing a current situation, which was purposely avoided in former years. I never had a student loan while attending college during the Vietnam War because I was uncertain as to how I could repay it after graduation. In order to maintain my military deferment, I had to be a full-time student, and to pay for that it was necessary to have a mostly full-time job. In order to juggle everything, I slept an average of five hours a night, of real quality sleep, for years because I was on a mission to get an education and avoid a lifetime of debt.

However, for those who succumbed to the societal pressures of being married, raising children, purchasing a home or just having a good time on campus, student loans were the salvation. Since those times of the 1960s, 44 million Americans have amassed $1.3 trillion in student debt. And contrary to the notion that a college degree secures everything, many are discovering that career incomes may be insufficient to pay down their loans.

The reason I’m addressing this issue is because clearly more than 40 percent of those who benefited from student loans are either in default, delinquent in payments or postponing repayment. Since the Trump Administration took office one year ago, traditional safeguards of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) have been invalidated by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). 

Formerly, those who chose to become government employees or work for 501(c) (3) nonprofit organizations after graduation could have the remainder of their loans forgiven if they completed 120 monthly payments over ten years. However, the DOE under the leadership of Betsy DeVos has changed the definition of the term “public service” disqualifying million of PSLF participants.

As the pendulum swings back to predatory loan tactics, Bloomberg and NPR report that an internal DOE memo issued under Secretary DeVos argues that, “Student loan servicers and debt collectors should be exempt from state regulations and oversight.” The perfect example of why this should not occur is Trump University, where students were encouraged to draw heavily on student loans to pay for worthless real estate curriculum that neither increased their incomes nor their ability to repay the loans.

In view of all this, Bard College researchers have determined that cancelling student loan debt would stimulate the economy and increase the GDP. With the numbers in student loan debt being equal to Trump’s tax cut, this could be a beautiful concept that would increase the GDP by $86 billion to $108 billion per year for the next ten years. That’s just the same as Trump’s tax cut benefit and would also increase disposable income for those forgiven.   

Written February 22, 2018

A View of The Freeway   

A friend of mine-historian John Crandell-recently forwarded an article to me from the Los Angeles Times concerning a proposed freeway that would in time extend 63 miles from Palmdale in Los Angeles County to Apple Valley in San Bernardino County. Although the view of the Mojave Desert floor from the North slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains as seen today from Pinon Hills and Phelan, hasn’t changed much since the 1841-42 expedition of John Fremont and Kit Carson passed through, a 500-foot wide right-of-way for the “Fremont-Carson Freeway” as Crandell has coined it, will be clearly visible.

With the environmental impact report already approved for the High Desert Corridor, the California Department of Transportation in conjunction with a joint powers authority, will begin purchasing land in June for the eight-lane freeway, rapid transit rail and bicycle path. In Los Angeles County, funding of $274 million generated from the sales tax increase of Measure M will start the project. Eventually, public-private partnerships, which could include designating the freeway as a toll road, would finance the San Bernardino County portion. 

Running parallel to Highways 138 and 18, the High Desert Corridor would provide an additional link between the 14 Freeway on the west to the 15 Freeway on the east, and beyond to Apple Valley. And while development on both ends of the proposed route has increased dramatically in recent years, there is more at stake than a transportation artery.

Palmdale/Lancaster would love to move east with annexation, and Adelanto has already expressed intentions to march 13.6 miles west and annex 62 square miles surrounding El Mirage. Once again, it’s more than a transportation artery at stake, although related development, around three proposed off ramps, of gas stations, motels and convenience stores is enticing. However, Adelanto is a thirsty city and encroaching on El Mirage would include securing water rights.

In the past, the formation of the Phelan Pinon Hills Community Services District (CSD) prevented Victorville and Hesperia from marching west to the Los Angeles County line and securing additional water rights for their thirsty cities. Keep in mind that intense development cannot occur in the Mojave Desert without water and that is one of the most important reasons why El Mirage has remained an isolated enclave with a population of 1,000 residents.

Over the years, the El Mirage aquifer has supported a number of dairies and the sparse population. After the CSD was formed, one of those dairies was purchased for water rights, and to be developed into a solar farm. For the next 20 years, it will be like a game of chess. Whatever the outcome, we will be observing the game from our 2.5-acre density.                               

Written February 14, 2018

 Winter Concerts   

Although cooler weather has put a chill on most of the winter music options, the Wrightwood Classical Concert Series has been provided with a spacious home, overlooking mountains, desert, and the setting sun for their February 24 event. Combine those elements with the stunning vocals of soprano Christa Stevens and tenor Marco Antonio Lozano along with hors d’oeuvres’ and wine tasting, and it will be a signature evening of entertainment and warmth.

In between musical selections, Chef Christopher Durbin of the Stone Baloney will create four cheeses, both vegan and dairy, to cleanse the palette and be paired with wines selected by Terry Briot of Cabin Fever. Although it appears at this time the concert has sold out, it is not too soon to contact Joyce Wonderly at (760) 249-3487 for the April 22 presentation of The Ace Trio, featuring piano, flute, and clarinet. 

Coming up on Friday March 9^th at 7:30 PM in The Yodeler, the Wrightwood Blues Society presents Allison Scull & Victor Martin in concert. Growing up in Belgium, the English-speaking singer/songwriter Allison Scull danced around the house with her sisters while their mother played Burt Bacharach tunes on the piano. Later on, when her older sister left guitar sheet music around, she learned the American folk music of Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens, while becoming fluent in French at the same time.

After meeting and playing with Victor Martin on saxophone, Scull realized her voice was most suited to jazz music and she added the Spanish language to her songwriting repertoire. While her command of English, French and Spanish is alluring, Enjoy Magazine comments, “Scull & Martin blend elements of folk, jazz, blues as well as European and Latin music.” 

Additionally, Jefferson State Vibes gets more technical in reporting, “She switches octaves constantly elevating and descending syllabic verse like no one else.” If that isn’t enough to peak your interest, the North County Times of San Diego simply states, “Magical would be a good place to start in describing their music.”

They are scheduled to perform selections from three CDs and a new one just released; the previous one entitled Cool Like The Breeze, also features The Midnight Band on keyboards and percussions performing “Sips Of Coffee” or “Le Matin” in French. Scull also sings covers of Bob Marley, Louis Armstrong and Cat Stevens adding an international pizzazz to the mix of her original songs and jazz standards.

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience such a talented duo, widening the scope of music appreciation brought to our Alpine Village by the Wrightwood Blues Society. The Yodeler is located at 6046 Park Drive and show time is 7:30. There is no cover charge and the new CD will be available.

Written February 6, 2018
A Double Standard   

It seems as if each day arrives bringing a word or phrase to the forefront that eclipses common sense. We have heard the term “fake news” so many times that it becomes a mantra of sorts for politicians when someone disagrees with them. Yet in reality, for those who peruse a wide spectrum of news media, especially with the ease of the digital age, the truth can easily be verified. Google search anything on the computer and you will find an array of information both pro and con that will lead to an informed opinion.
Historically, tabloids have been notorious for printing a sensational front-page headline that is not true, followed shortly afterwards by a retraction buried in the back pages, which gets them legally off the hook. Even if they are sued, they have garnered more attention from the fake news than they will pay out in a settlement. Likewise, for politicians who say something outlandish and then issue a retraction or murmur an apology, but unfortunately nobody is suing them.
For those who have not taken the time to investigate a topic, it is easier to believe a grandstanding politician’s claim that dissent is fake news. However, keep in mind that the congressional approval ratings fluctuate between 10 and 13 percent, while Donald Trump has a rousing 40 percent approval rating. How can we teach students to get passing grades when the president, the house and the senate have flunked?
Just this week, while speaking to an audience at an Ohio factory, President Trump accused Democrats of, “Treasonous behavior” for not applauding his accomplishments at the State of the Union address. Keep in mind that while Donald Trump was the first President in history to file for reelection on the first day of his presidency, the White House billed his 47-minute speech in Ohio as an official event rather than a political one, according to www.thehill.com .
That means, what the President of the United States said was an official statement accusing the opposition party of treason and being un-American. However, is there wiggle room here when Trump seemed to be coached by an audience member? His precise comment was, “Someone said treasonous. Yeah I guess. Can we call that treason, why not?”
What Trump was really trolling for was mindless adulation that he did not receive at the State of the Union. He went totally off-script from talking about tax cuts, job creation and the economy, allowing himself to be coached into crossing a red line in American history. Read the definition of “treason,” and think about the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs.
In history, there has been State of the Union dissent from both parties, but never such rancor.

Written January 30, 2018

LACMA Set To Expand

     The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will be creating a satellite campus at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park located on Avalon Boulevard near Slauson Avenue. Last Friday, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a 35 year lease to LACMA for an 84,000 square foot former train and bus garage built in 1911. The museum intends to use the building for art programming, a live performance space, art galleries and a storage facility. Rather than paying rent, LACMA will invest up to $30 million renovating the concrete building to serve an area of 24 neighborhoods representing a population of 67 percent Hispanic and 31 percent African-American residents.
     For LACMA Director Michael Govan, the South Los Angeles project represents a déjà vu of sorts, to when he was director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York and discovered an abandoned Nabisco factory situated on banks of the Hudson River. The renovation of that building led to the creation of the Dia: Beacon, an internationally renowned museum for contemporary art.
     With the renovation scheduled to be completed in two years, the South Los Angeles campus also provides a solution as to where the permanent collection of the Wilshire Boulevard campus will be stored when three buildings there are demolished to make way for the futuristic architectural design of Peter Zumthor. Estimated to cost $650 million, Govan has already championed $450 million in fundraising and it now appears certain that both projects will move forward greatly increasing the cultural footprint of Los Angeles.
     As for the nine acre Wetlands Park that opened in 2012, the native vegetation landscaping has matured into an opulent forest surrounding ponds and waterways that can be traversed on gravel walkways and bridges. Urban storm drain runoff supplies the water from which trash and pollutants have been removed. After that, water flowing through the marshlands provides additional purification. During the rainy season, the wetlands can purify up to 680,000 gallons of runoff daily-the equivalent of an Olympic size swimming pool, which is then pumped into the Los Angeles River. In the dry season, existing water is simply recirculated throughout the park.
     For the neighborhood of older homes and warehouses, creation of Wetlands Park provided a much needed recreational venue to the underserved community. With the addition of LACMA as an anchor, Los Angeles County is scheduled to invest $50 million for a large event center and improved trails. In addition to that, The Ford Foundation has provided LACMA with a $2 million grant to provide community based programming for 9,500 students.
For local residents, the view of Wetlands Park is something they never imagined, and soon the new museum will further enrich their lives.

Written January 24, 2018

Gerrymandering

     Looking at a map of the United States, yes indeed the shape of each state is rather straightforward and mostly conforms to a uniform grid. In contrast, the shape of U.S. Congressional Districts within each state looks more like a small child’s coloring book page with odd shaped distorted squiggles of color meandering everywhere except within the grid of counties, parishes or boroughs. The best way to understand gerrymandering is to observe that district lines were not drawn by children but rather by taxpayer paid legislators, with the intention of one political party seizing a partisan advantage in the two party system.
     Gerrymandering occurs when the political party controlling the House of Representatives changes district maps in secret committees. Mechanisms for gerrymandering include: Cracking - diluting the power of an opposing party’s supporters across several districts, Packing - concentrating opposing party’s voting power to one district to reduce voting power in other districts, Hijacking - redrawing two districts to force two incumbents to run against each other in one district, ensuring that one of them will be eliminated, and Kidnapping - where the incumbent moves it’s physical address into a more favorable district.
     Unlike Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, where non-partisan organizations are authorized to prevent gerrymandering by setting constituency boundaries according to census population data, the U.S. House of Representatives can change district boundaries in between elections orchestrating yet another mechanism. When voters go to their traditional polling place, they realize they are in the wrong place according to redistricting, and historically will give up and not vote.
     During the past year, redistricting maps in the states of Maryland, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have been invalidated and declared unconstitutional by lower court decisions, which are now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In North Carolina, Republicans won 77 percent of House seats while only receiving 53 percent of the statewide vote. Just this week, the Supreme Court blocked redrawing of those congressional maps until after the 2018 midterm elections.
     Also this week, a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters in Pennsylvania, citing the principles of state rights in New Federalism, argues that gerrymandering violated the equal protection and free expression guarantees of the State Constitution, rather than U.S. Constitution-blocking appeal rights to the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, court justices gave GOP lawmakers until February 9 to submit a new map, or else they will develop a new map themselves before February 19, in time to be implemented for the May primary election.
     That is lightning speed for courts, however New Federalism or not, Republicans will attempt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although legislators are poor draftsmen,

Written January 17, 2018

Winter Chores

     With the most significant rainfall in nearly one year, the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Pinon Hills just soaked up the moisture with very little run off. It felt really good to emerge from the fire season unscathed and have gentle rainfall nourish the parched vegetation. Although I have survived occasional wild fires and floods in my lifetime, those memories pale in comparison to what California has experienced recently. It makes me truly thankful to be where I am now.
     After the rain here, it was the strong winds that reminded me some garden chores needed revisiting. There were broken tree branches everywhere and my Red River Eucalyptus sapling had blown over pulling guy wires out of the ground. To remedy that, I had to prune it way back leaving just a few wispy branches at the top, before I could stand it upright and secure new wires. I’m always concerned that guy wires will make the tree dependant on that support, but then a Eucalyptus spread out on the ground is not very attractive.
     As for the other trees that lost branches, it was because I had not been vigilant in pruning and shaping them this summer, due to recuperating from hand surgery. As for those winds, I also discovered that the rain gutters were filled, not only with leaves, but with dirt from dust storms. Historically, the strongest storm winds blow downslope from the south and it’s always important to maintain a balance with the Arizona Cypress that my Great Uncle Ernest planted some 58 years ago alongside the road.
     The trick is thinning them out to reduce fuel in a firestorm while maintaining enough foliage to provide a windbreak for the Cabin. Years ago when I was living in Los Angeles, neighbors called to say the living room window had blown out. Don’t know if it was the wind initially that broke the glass or broken branches that became projectiles, but it certainly alerted me to the necessity of a manicured windbreak.
     Another thing that occurred last week was that tarps protecting a large wood sculpture, my tractor, and on the roll up door on my workshop functioned well in the rain, but then were shredded by the wind. So I have been busy cleaning rain gutters, pruning branches away from windows and installing new tarps, in the sunny and mild weather before the next storm.
     One last chore to be completed before predicted snowfall is to cut firewood from dead Juniper bushes, since I discovered my source of avocado firewood-Mark & Nellie’s Nursery in Victorville- has gone out of business.  But not to worry, because it’s good exercise, and cleans up the acreage.  

Written January 10, 2018
Deporting Refugees

     Ever since the Statue of Liberty - formally titled “Liberty Enlightening the World” -was dedicated in 1886, the colossal sculpture in the New York City harbor has become a welcoming symbol to immigrants from around the world. When the inscription written by Emma Lazarus was added to the pedestal in 1903, the message became an unconditional pledge of shelter for those seeking freedom and democracy.
     Originally, the Statue of Liberty was a gift financed by the citizens of France, while 120,000 Americans, who contributed approximately one dollar each to construct the stone base, paid for the pedestal. For them, it was a way to give something back to America, their new home.
     The inscription reads, “…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” That indeed became an all inclusive welcome for those aspiring to a better life.
     Just this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will revoke temporary protected status (TPS) to 200,000 natives of El Salvador, 50,000 Haitians, 2,500 Nicaraguans and 57,000 Hondurans. That action follows Donald Trump’s rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
     Those 458,200 refugees, from devastating earthquakes and civil wars, who were allowed to live and work in America without fear of removal, must either leave the United States before September 2019 or face deportation. And while their children who were born in the U.S. are citizens and can legally remain, that would lead to fractured families. The truth of the matter is, America welcomed those refugees and now the Trump Administration has decided the time is up for a TPS designation.
     In the case of 700,000 in the DACA Program, children who entered the U.S. illegally are being held hostage by the Trump border wall request for $18 million over the next 10 years. In reality what this means is that Democrats will be afforded a humanitarian comprise for DACA if Trump gets his border wall. If all does not go well in negotiations for TPS and DACA, a total of 1,158,200 individuals face deportation.
     In so much as DHS immigration policies date back some 18 years, there are an array of options. From El Salvador alone, 195,000 are working people and parents of 192,700 U.S. born children. The U.S gross domestic product would lose $109.4 billion over 10 years without these workers.
     For those who crossed the border with something to contribute to the American fabric of life, compassion is needed. For other who came to the United States for a free ride or a life of crime, the time is up.

Written January 2, 2018

Public Art Loss   

In Downtown Los Angeles during the holiday season, Scrooge came to town as four Robert Graham bronze sculptures were removed from the Wells Fargo Center atrium, and a granite waterway created by renowned Modernist landscape architect Lawrence Halprin was demolished. As part of a “renovation” of the atrium, two additional artworks, sculpted by Joan Miro and Jean Dubuffet, were also removed.  I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand how a renovation of the indoor garden could equal anything more significant than what existed.
Back in 1983 long before a public art in public places policy was mandated by the City of Los Angeles, developers Robert F. Maguire and James A. Thomas initiated an arts component in the construction of Crocker Court located at 333 South Grand Avenue, now known as Wells Fargo Center and owned by Brookfield Office Properties (BOP). At that time, Maguire/Thomas commissioned Halprin to design the indoor forest and granite watercourse featuring four cast bronze figures, created by Graham, of female athletes each posed on tall pedestals situated in small square reflection pools.
As water sheeted down the pedestals there was a subtle trickling sound and as that water flowed between the sculptural elements in granite runnels, dappled sunlight streaming through the glass ceiling and the reflection of foliage on the rippling current produced a tranquil and magical setting. Initially the arts element provided a place of solace for office workers in the frantic city. Later on, a small wine and sandwich restaurant with tables and chairs was positioned in between the runnels and pools.
That was the beginning of the publicly accessible courtyard becoming more private but that didn’t matter to me because the restaurant was only open in the afternoon. Later in the evening, Downtown residents who frequented McDonalds in the atrium would simply order their meal to go and enjoy elegant seating amongst sculptures, runnels and landscape. Although building security guards tried to discourage people from using the tables and chairs, the “public” was always courteous and didn’t leave a mess.
During that era I had a special affinity for Robert Graham, having met him in the bronze foundry, used his metal fabricator to design a hanging devise for a bas relief fountain, and later on interviewed Graham in his Venice studio for a writing project. After swimming laps at the nearby YMCA, there was nothing more serene than dinner in the atrium surrounded by world-class art and landscape.
The Los Angeles Conservancy called the atrium’s sudden overhaul, “An outrage.” In a telephone interview, BOP Legal Counsel Mark Philips simply stated, “The sculptures were removed for a renovation with no ultimate disposition.” Go to http://archpaper.com/2017/12/lawrence-halprin’s-only-atrium-renovation/ to view before and after photos of this artistic loss.

Wriiten 12/27/2017
Environmental Gift   

 In December, although the Thomas Fire devastated portions of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties and became the largest wildfire in California history, and unrelated spot fires caused by rocket testing at Vandenberg Air Force Base burned to the south fence line, the headland, coastal bluffs, canyons and forests of Point Conception-situated roughly in between the two fires- were spared. That was fortunate because the California Coastal Commission had just obtained 36 acres to expand Jalama Beach County Park on November 13 and there was a much larger acquisition to be disclosed.
Last week, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) announced it had purchased the former Bixby Ranch Tract of 24,000 acres or approximately 38 square miles on Point Conception, made possible by a $165 million gift from Jack & Laura Dangermond of Redlands California. In addition to acquiring eight miles of pristine bluffs and beaches, the transaction ended the threat of commercial development.
According to The Atlantic Magazine, “Over the past decade, the land was owned by a real-estate hedge fund from Boston that has specialized in coastal-development projects. Under the terms of that sale, the land could have been broken into more than 100 parcels.” In recent times, the Coastal Commission cited the hedge fund, for grading and drilling water wells without permits. Thus, in addition to receiving 36 acres to settle the case, the Coastal Commission was awarded $500,000 cash to improve public access to Jalama Beach.
Point Conception, which the Chumash Indians considered to be a portal where spirits entered the next world, juts into the Pacific Ocean where cold currents from the north meet warm currents from the south creating a unique coastal zone of weather patterns that supports the most diverse collection of animal and plant life in California. As a surfer, I appreciated Jalama Beach; the most isolated, scenic and halcyon locale of my teenage years. At night, it was definitely spiritual as the campfire flickered and the wind whistled in that vortex.
Coincidently some 50 years ago, the Dangermonds spent their honeymoon camping there. To The Atlantic Magazine Jack commented, “We were just kids, and that was our first connection to realizing it was a special place.” In a rare public announcement of their philanthropy for the Dangermond Preserve, the Dangermonds expressed their hope of becoming an example for other wealthy people in much the same tradition as the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Mellons, and Fricks. He also remarked, “We can’t do this by ourselves. We’re telling the story to set an example of what others could do.”
In saving one of the last great places in California, it is truly awesome to realize that future generations will experience the same magical environment of Point Conception that I have.

Written December 20, 2017

Winter Solstice And More   

The season of winter begins today, December 21, when Winter Solstice 2017 occurs at 8:28 AM in the Pacific Time zone. It will usher in the longest night and the fewest hours of daylight as the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest away from the Sun. Aside from folklore and celebration at Stonehenge, where the spacing between giant stone monoliths is perfectly aligned to frame the setting sun on the Solstice, there are astronomical predictions that are not quite sweetness and light.
The dailymail.com.uk reports, “Winter Solstice will be the most awful day of 2017 because for the first time since 1664 the Sun and planet Saturn line up.” Translated this means that tasks can feel more difficult and energy levels will be at their lowest ebb of the year. The only remedy is to take care of business in a methodical fashion and do your best.
For those who follow astrology, just when we thought the doldrums of December would pass as the planet Mercury turns direct to Earth on Friday December 22 after being retrograde since December 3, the negative influences of the Solstice strengthens the “shadow period” for another two weeks. Mercury, known as the messenger or communication planet, casts a dour spell when retrograde or appearing to move backwards in an opposite direction to Earth.
Many believe that retrograde Mercury causes disruptions, verbal misunderstandings, drama, travel delays and computer/technology glitches. It is not a good time to sign contracts but it is a good time for careful review of documents. Likewise, it is not a bad time to reunite with old friends, redecorate a room or rekindle a romance. The best bet is to complete unfinished projects, tie up loose ends and focus on a clear vision of the future with renewed energy when Mercury goes direct.
The sun.com.uk reports, “Astrologers believe that when the planet Mercury is retrograde, the areas of life it governs assume a sleeping or resting state when the planet closest to the Sun can create arguments and misunderstandings.” And so, if all of this seems a bit farfetched or superstitious, think about the past three weeks and determine whether activities have been frantic, disconnected or entirely nonproductive.
Mercury goes retrograde four times a year and influences identical scenarios. However this year combined with the special Solstice, most religious holidays into early January are particularly affected. The solution in addition to the aforementioned suggestions is to slow the pace, become more procedural and allow extra time for everything.
When you really think about it, all of this will make the holiday season more enjoyable and less stressful for everyone. There is light at the end of the tunnel, which will reward patience.

Written December 13, 2017

Christmas Music Selections   

Well, the holiday season is here and the gift of music is always appreciated. Whether intended for someone special or as background music for social gatherings, my selections include rock, country, a Christmas album and music from local musicians. Don’t forget that winter weather will eventually arrive and it’s not indulgent to purchase a few albums to enjoy by the fireplace when the snow falls.
Leading off, the new U2 album Songs of Experience debuted at #1 for the best sales of a rock album in the first week on the Billboard 200, and also ranked #3 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s Best Album of 2017 chart. As the senior rockers strive for relevance, guest musicians include Kendrick Lamar, Heim, and Arcade Fire for the blistering anthem “Get Out Of Your Own Way.”
For Rolling Stone’s Best Country & Americana Albums of 2017, three female singer/songwriters shine brightly. In her first solo album in 18 years entitled Windy City, Alison Krauss is accompanied by the best Nashville session players in a sentimental journey back to the songs she grew up listening to, which include those by Brenda Lee, the Osborne Brothers and Roger Miller-for a debut at #25.
Coming in at #18, Kelsea Ballerini’s new album Unapologetically, ranked #18, comes two years after she became the most successful new female country solo artist since Taylor Swift. The supple vocalist from Tennessee sings tenderly of heartbreak and lament, rebounding in true form with the song “Miss Me More” as a solid Top 40 hit.
Topping the chart at #1, the Margo Price album All American Made shoots from the hip with her “Fierce protest album about the ways that the American dream has failed so many.” From one of the most talented songwriters in Nashville, there is a sweet duet with Willie Nelson that recaps the heyday of country music in the 1970’s. Additionally, Rolling Stone observes, “No other country artist and precious few from any other genre went nearly so deep as Price did this year.”
During a recent interview, Gwen Stefani commented, “Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year to listen to old and new music. Perhaps one of my Christmas songs will become a classic for listening enjoyment.” On her new album entitled You Make Me Feel Like Christmas, Stefani wrote seven songs of which three are contenders to be classics and she covers five traditional classics in her unique vampy style. On those, White Christmas pulls ahead with a nod to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound and Darlene Love.
Support Wrightwood musicians by going to www.mountainmusic.net to purchase Blue Skies & Red Wine by Coyote Keene and Gayle Dowling or Greg Jones Band with all-star musicians.        

Written December 6, 2017
The Plaid 138   

     Although Caltrans and elected officials hosted a community appreciation event on November 16 to celebrate the completion of the $52 million State Route 138 West Widening Project, Tri-Community motorists and those who commute through the area continue to be at risk on an unsafe roadway. Originally scheduled for completion in August, and then extended through November, here we are in December with the grinding of asphalt to smooth uneven surfaces and the spraying of tar on those areas erasing yellow traffic lane lines, and white fog lines on the shoulders. In addition to white glare on freshly ground areas and shinny glare on the freshly oiled surfaces creating a visual distraction and patchwork of plaid, there are skid marks on the pavement where motorists became confused by the lack of lane indicators and slammed on their brakes.
     It has now been ten years since Yeager Skanska, one of the largest public works contractors, completed the controversial widening of Highway 138 between Highway 2 and Beekley Road with very little grinding necessary. Instead on this new project, it seems as if the contractor has been learning how to pave with asphalt, at the expense of taxpayers. From Phelan Road west for one half mile, workmen have completed their shift and gone home without installing temporary lane indicators or reflectors along the shoulder.
    Just look at all the skid marks between Phelan Road and the Big Rock Inn as an example of motorists perhaps driving too fast and then becoming totally disoriented. The same situation holds true for the signaled intersection and then traveling east on Phelan Road for one-fifth mile from the intersection of Highway 138, there has been new asphalt for weeks but no lane indicators.
     Farther east towards Beekley Road on the north side, grinding and oiling has intermittently erased the fog lines and yellow lines as well as damaged recessed reflectors.  As for the glare, the worst situation is found traveling up Highway 138 towards Highway 2 where the angle of the roadway and bright sunlight create a blinding effect.
     Granted, in time the grinding will be completed, the shiny black will fade, all the traffic lane lines will be repainted and center median reflectors will be installed. However, the facts remain that the project has not been completed on time, and because workmen go home each day without installing temporary lane indicators, hundreds of cars are forced to pass through an unsafe construction zone on a daily basis.
For decades, Tri-Community residents have yearned for a solution to the carnage occurring on “Blood Alley.” And just when we were in sight of a happy ending to that era, the patchwork plaid with a rainstorm could cause more injuries.

Written November 29, 2017
Holiday Music Shows   

There’s frost in the air and the holiday season has arrived with plenty of options to enjoy music and the warmth of fellowship here in the Tri-Community. With something for everyone, holiday venues include a classical guitar recital, and dinner show fundraisers presented by Snowline Players, Serrano High School Choir, and Music in the Pines.
Coming up this Sunday in the United Methodist Church at 3:00 PM, the Wrightwood Classical Concert Series presents twin brothers Sean & Ian Bassett in a classical guitar tour de force. After hitting the Southern California music scene as rock guitarists, The Bassett Brothers changed directions and earned Masters of Music degrees in classical guitar from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have since become aficionados of all music genre with two guitars sounding more like four instruments; sample the unique sound of The Bassett Bros. guitar duo on YouTube.  For ticket information call Joyce Wonderly at (760) 249-3487 or go to www.mountainmusic.net
Also scheduled this Sunday, at 6:00 PM in the Wrightwood Community Building located at 1275 State Highway 2, the Snowline Players present the LUX Radio Theater production of Miracle on 34th Street. Audience members will be transported back to 1947 when this Christmas classic first aired. Enjoy the performance and a hearty meal for $17.00. Advance tickets are now on sale at www.snowlineplayers.org with no tickets available at the door.
Scheduled for two weekends on December 8 & 9 and December 15 & 16 at 7:00 PM, the Serrano High School Choir presents their annual Christmas formal dinner show entitled “SHS News Night.” The three-course-meal will be served throughout an original show written by students with full choral performances, small group songs and solo numbers by selected choir members. For tickets ranging in price between $20.00 and $30.00 depending on proximity to the stage, go to www.brownpapertickets.com and then type in 2017 Serrano High School Choir Dinner Show for the “Find an Event” box.
Additionally, Music in the Pines will present their holiday fundraiser show on Sunday December 17 from 5:00 until 8:00 PM in the Wrightwood Community Building located at 1275 State Highway 2. Entertainment for the first set will be the Greg Jones Band featuring vocals by Brittan Egnozzi and Claudia Campbell, as well as Loren &Michelle Schneider. After intermission, the Jeff Steinmann Band will perform a Rock & Roll Christmas. Tri-tip dinner and wine is priced at $25.00 with advance tickets purchased at the Village Grind. There is no charge for those not eating dinner with the caveat they bring their favorite dessert to share with others.
As the holiday season approaches a New Year, give thanks to all the talented people who enrich the Tri-Community.

Written 11/22/2017

Threat Of Nuclear Weapons  

Growing up in Burbank after 1945, signs of the war lingered on in the form of ant-aircraft gun brackets mounted on the roofs of Lockheed Aircraft buildings. Although Germany and Japan had been defeated it didn’t take long before the Soviet ally to Western Powers in World War II became the Cold War enemy. On the last Friday of every month, air raid sirens being tested would wail across the San Fernando Valley at 10:00 in the morning.
At the time, there was no defense against nuclear missiles with a warning of just eight minutes, if fired from Soviet submarines. I remember my brother and I being awakened one night by the air raid sirens, and running through the house we discovered our parents were not there. We ended up on the front porch cradled in each other’s arms crying as the street lights flickered and went dark. The only light came from a flashlight held by the civilian defense warden as he ran past looking for communists.
As it turned out, Dad & Mom had been next-door playing cards and although they came home in an instant, an important sense of trust had been lost. Later on in school during the 1950’s there were “Duck and Cover” drills in which we dove under our desks, assumed a fetal position, and waited for what – the communists or the blast?
Apparently, Donald Trump’s threat to “Totally destroy North Korea” and Kim Jong Un’s threat to “Turn the United States into ashes and darkness” negate the awful truth we learned from the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For heads of state to rant about such a sensitive outcome, displays absolutely zero respect for civilian populations.
We are at the point in history where several countries with nuclear weapon capabilities have reached the threshold of the Cold War Doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. In essence that means that nobody wins. With several military leaders conceding U.S. defense systems might not be able to thwart multiple simultaneous missile launches, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held the first nuclear authority hearing this week, since 1976.
Additionally, the top U.S. nuclear commander-Air Force General John Hytem- said he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an “illegal” launch of nuclear weapons. Never before has the world been so close to a nuclear weapon ultimatum due to unstable heads of state. For all the world’s leaders of nuclear states and all the warmongers, just listen to Roger Waters’ lyrics from The Wall-Live in Berlin in which Joni Mitchell sings: “I used to look in on the children at night, in the glow of their Donald Duck light, and frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning.”

Written November 15, 2017
Lifetime Judicial Appointments   

Although the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency has passed without significant legislative victories, it’s almost like that was an intended smokescreen to distract attention away from a finely tuned political machine that has been packing federal courts with lifetime appointments at an unprecedented rate. In our transitory world where nothing is permanent and everything is designed to become obsolete, what else other than federal judicial appointments is guaranteed to last forever?
Just when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should be lauded as a hero for refusing to schedule confirmation hearings for more than 100 federal court vacancies including that of Supreme Court Justice during the final two years of the Obama Administration, Former White House Advisor Steve Bannon is intent on throwing McConnell under the bus for not successfully advancing the conservative agenda. In reality according to the Los Angeles Times, Trump said last month, “The judge story is an untold story. Nobody wants to talk about it but when you think of it, Mitch and I were saying, that has consequences 40 years out, depending on the age of the judge-but 40 years out.”
Approval of just 22 judges, since the Republicans took control of the Senate, is the lowest total in 66 years. Since becoming president, Trump has nominated 59 people for federal court positions and last week that “judge story” surfaced as a compelling reason for a Constitutional Amendment to discard Article III, Section 1 regarding lifetime judicial appointments.
     On November 9, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a lifetime judicial appointment for 36 year-old Brett J. Talley, who has practiced law for only three years, has never argued a motion or tried a case and admitted during his confirmation hearing, “I participated as part of the legal team in one hearing in federal district court in the Middle District of Alabama.” In spite of being unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association judicial rating committee, Talley is expected to be approved on the Senate floor along party lines.
On the positive side, Talley graduated from Harvard Law School, served as a law clerk for two federal judges, was a speechwriter for Mitt Romney, and was a deputy to Republican Senator Luther Strange (R-Ala.)
Without prejudice, The Atlantic Magazine makes a case for an 18-year, rather than lifetime, appointment based on diminished productivity citing, “Supreme Court Judges have cut their number of full opinions each year in half, over the last two decades.”  Somewhat similar, CNN has suggested that a 20-year term would allow judges to complete their best work, with more energy and fresh ideas resulting from the turnover. Either way, the legal destiny of the nation would not be so imperiled.

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Written November 8, 2017

Bending The Los Angeles River   

     For several years now, artist and architect Lauren Bon and hydrologist Mark Hanna have been collaborating on a project entitled, “Bending the River Back into the City.” As envisioned by Lauren Bon when she founded Metabolic Studio on North Spring Street near China Town of Downtown Los Angeles, treated wastewater flowing through the concrete armored L.A. River will be harnessed during the dry season by an eight-foot- high inflatable dam creating a small lake from which water will be drawn. After additional purification, water will be piped to Los Angeles State Historic Park, Albion Riverside Park in Lincoln Heights and nearby Downey Park to irrigate landscape and wetland features.
     Along the way as Bon navigated through 40 regulatory agency permits and secured $10 million in funding from the Annenberg Foundation, Hanna designed the infrastructure that will include the rubber dam to create a 1.92 acre lake under the North Broadway bridge, boring through the concrete wall of the riverbed for a 42-inch pipeline, which will operate a 70- foot water wheel or “La Noria.” After purification to Title 22 irrigation standards, by ultraviolet lamps to kill bacteria and viruses, water will flow along a streambed and wetlands on the Metabolic Studio property, and then on to the aforementioned 32 acres of parks through pipelines.
     According to 89.3 KPCC, “Only two entities possess water rights to the L.A. River. One is the City of Los Angeles. The other is Lauren Bon.” That water rights permit acquired from the California State Water Resources Control Board, allowed Bon to divert 106 acre-feet from the L.A. River each year.
     Additionally, the Los Angeles Times reports, “No other water right has been issued on the river since the city opened the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. Los Angeles has not had a water wheel on the L.A. River since the 1860’s.”  Although the use of rubber dams to recharge water aquifers or create lakeside recreational districts is not a new concept, Bending the River Back to the City incorporates a historical reference to what the banks of the L.A. River looked like before the L.A. River was channelized-only situated out of harm’s way overlooking the river.
     The seven-story-high aluminum and steel water wheel adds the artistic touch, looking like a giant Ferris wheel positioned next to the historic North Broadway Bridge, which will be reflected on the body of water. With the containment dam creating the equivalent of 30 cubic feet of water per second pressure, the water wheel and pipelines operate by hydraulic pressure instead of pumps.
     With a nod to the historic past when the L.A. River produced the water that nourished the City of Los Angeles, Lauren Bon addresses how to irrigate its riverside parklands.

Written November 1, 2017
 Cooler Than The Devil Wind   

With clouds streaming in from the west, the sunsets of the past two evenings have been a colorful montage of bright orange clouds superimposed on blue skies, reaching a crescendo of magenta, and then softening into the very pale bluish gray and pewter of dusk.  Finally heralding in a change of weather, there was moisture in the air and the epic Santa Ana wind condition, also known as the Devil Wind, which has pummeled California, would be remembered for some time.
In my life, the most succinct description of the Devil Wind came from Raymond Chandler in the opening of his story Red Wind. Chandler wrote, “There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana’s that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.”
Second to that was Joan Didion’s essay “Los Angeles Notebook” from her book, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. In the Notebook she wrote, “I recall being told, when I first moved to Los Angeles and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew. I could see why. The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf.”  
There remains nothing more poignant in my mind than that quote because quite by happenstance, I moved to that isolated beach and was a neighbor of Joan, her husband John Gregory Dunne and their daughter Quintana Roo. And yes indeed, the peacocks screamed from their olive trees and sleep patterns were obliterated. You see, it takes quite some time adjusting to the sound of crashing waves before sleep can be restful. And then suddenly, the Devil Wind arrives with such force that the waves are flattened in a disconcerting manner and there is no sound and nobody sleeps.
With the recent release of the Netflix documentary “The Center Will Not Hold” starring Joan Didion, there were so many remembrances of John and Joan and Quintana in the trailer and subsequent reviews. The iconic Julian Wasser photograph of Joan leaning against her Daytona yellow Corvette Stingray brought back memories of me driving Joan to Downtown Los Angeles in the Corvette for the test case of the California Coastal Zone Conservation Act of 1972, in which we were Friends of the Court (South Coast Regional Commission vs. Higgins).
Additional photographs of the family posing on their bluff-top deck overlooking the ocean and others of them walking on that storied beach, reminded me of looking after Quintana and her classmates swimming, from my house on the sand.         

California Bullet Train   

A recent exposé in the Los Angeles Times regarding the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CaHSRA) and its Bullet Train, indicates the proposed speedy ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco, might never connect those cities. Instead, the “starter system” or first construction increment moving south from San Jose might exhaust all funds currently available in laying tracks 31.7 miles to just beyond Gilroy, leaving nothing of the $21 billion intended to reach Chowchilla, some 54 miles past Gilroy. In that case, the Bullet Train would become a novelty ride confined to the Central Valley.
The first problem is that high-speed trains must travel in a straight direction on a level track. When the infrastructure reaches a mountain range, a tunnel must be bored, and that’s what is required for 1.5 miles of track just east of Gilroy and beyond that for 13.5 miles under the Diablo Mountain Range heading towards Merced. If that much could be accomplished, all available funding would be used up. That leaves the starter system traveling considerably short of the anticipated 240-mile route to Wasco passing through Merced, Chowchilla and Fresno.
     The second problematic factor is that CaHSRA has projected ridership on the 240-mile starter system to be three million annually beginning in 2025. That would ensure that issuing bonds supported by future greenhouse gas fees in the amount of $10.5 billion would be viable and profitable to bond investors. However according to the Los Angeles Times, “Michael Thom, a public finance expert at USC, said those funds are not a reliable source of revenue…I can’t imagine why a rational investor would take that kind of risk.”
Additionally, the risk is apparent when considering the fact that the entire population of all the cities served by the starter system amounts to 1.7 million, meaning that every resident would have to ride the Bullet Train, which is unlikely.
     Moving south, the track infrastructure would pass though Bakersfield and then under the Tehachapi Mountains to Palmdale and again under the San Gabriel Mountains to Los Angeles, requiring an additional 36 miles of expensive tunneling. Additionally to the north from San Jose, another 1.3 mile tunnel would be required passing under downtown San Francisco. Just the construction of all the tunnels is estimated to extend for ten years once started with no cost estimate from the rail authority other than to say the first section from San Jose to beyond Gilroy is anticipated to experience a 1.7 billion overrun.
The fallacy of all this is that CaHSRA did not anticipate that the starter systems in the Central Valley would not realize enough ridership to show profit for investors.

Written October 18, 2017

Fall Colors

The fall season is my favorite time of year here on the North Slope of the San Gabriel Mountains, with warm days of golden sunlight and cool nights. It’s the cooler nighttime temperatures, down to 40 degrees, that trigger two magical botanical events. As non-native broadleaf trees began to change colors and prepare to go to sleep for the winter, native sagebrush sometimes referred to as an “evergrey” is waking up from summer dormancy with new growth and colorful blossoms.
In the domestic landscape hereabouts, deciduous broadleaf trees lose their green color when chlorophyll production slows and sugars that are trapped in the leaves as veins close, stimulating color change. Granted, because this locale is in the foothills of the high desert, there are not a wide variety of trees that do well in dry summer heat and thus produce a limited range of colors in the fall-mostly yellow, orange and crimsome.
Because of those conditions, poplar, elm and mulberry trees are now spattered with clusters of both green and yellow leaves. And therefore once the eye has enjoyed the vertical delight, the real focus is closer to the ground with rust colored buckwheat and grey Artemisia tridentata sage blooming in golden yellow. There is also another variety of Artemisia arbuscula sage with grey to silver foliage and tan flowers, which has an open branch structure growing to five feet in height, for an elegant background feature.
Another colorful addition to the drought tolerant garden is salvia Greggii, which belongs to the mint family and has bright red flowers and shiny green leaves that smell like sage. In summer heat, those leaves lose some of their luster while the plant sleeps until cooler weather arrives and then rebounds in full glory. Salvia Greggii also attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and is deer resistant.
Every year is different for the ancient apricot tree my great uncle Ernest planted some 57 years ago. However, since I built my studio, it is well protected from chilling winds and the leaves remain on the tree longer and turn vibrant crimsome. While I enjoy the yellows, the apricot tree is the color value I most appreciate. I find myself murmuring, “Look at that.”
I have found that pruning and shaping the sages increased their growth and flowering, and in the late afternoon, golden light as I sprayed some water on them; it was almost like an optical illusion at first when I saw something rustling on the branches. It turned out to be a wild finch, and then more, and then hundreds of the tiny birds pecking at the flowers and water droplets.
It doesn’t get much better than enjoying the colors and the creatures in the fall.

Written October 11, 2017
Tom Petty   

After completing 53 concerts celebrating 40 years as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the band took what was to be their final bow at the Hollywood Bowl on September 25, not knowing that Petty would pass away just one week later at the age of 66. As a prolific songwriter, Petty composed and recorded 192 songs for 16 albums, out of an estimated 400 songs written during his career. While some of those tunes simply did not make the cut, there were others written in collaboration with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynn for two albums as the Traveling Wilburys super group.
As a high school dropout in Gainesville Florida, the longhaired blonde Petty hung out at the local music store where he took guitar lessons from Don Felder, who would later become lead guitarist for the Eagles. Five years later, Petty started a garage band called Mudcrutch and invited a younger piano player Benmont Tench to join the band. In his first diplomatic coup, Petty convinced Benmont’s father, a circuit judge, to continue financial support when he dropped out of college to join the band. With that accomplished, the results were outstanding as Mudcrutch became a local sensation.
The greatest trip of Tom Petty’s life was his cross-country road trip from Gainesville to Los Angeles with his Mudcrutch band mates in 1974. Upon arriving in Hollywood, he called record companies from the phone booth outside Ben Frank’s Diner and piqued the interest of Leon Russell at Shelter Records. In addition to offering Petty a recording contract, Russell introduced him to George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, and Bruce Springsteen, a dream come true.
Along the way, Mudcrutch evolved into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for two albums with Shelter, which ironically sold better in Great Britain. And then in 1978 when Shelter sold his contract to Universal Music, Tom Petty became the champion of the underdog in refusing to be, “Bought and sold like a piece of meat.” Instead he spent $500 thousand recording the third album himself and then refused to turn over the tapes to Universal. After that he was sued for breach of contract and filed bankruptcy.
When the dust cleared, a solution to form a new record company as a subsidiary of Universal Music met with everyone’s approval and Tom Petty signed with the new label Backstreet Records. At that juncture, the release of the album “Damn the Torpedoes” on Backstreet Records became a turning point in Petty’s fame.
In Petty: The Biography, Warren Zanes writes, “When Petty and Harrison met and collaborated, it was the happiest he had ever been.” That fulfilled the magic in music he had pursued.


Written Octobe 4, 2017
Wooden Cars Again?

     Back in April of 2016, a BBC report of a wooden roadster created by Toyota Motor Corporation for the Milan Design Week, fascinated me. And then recently, another BBC article about wood pulp making cars lighter, included a photograph of a wooden replica of a Citroen 2CV. Both the Toyota Setsuna and the Citroen replica have peaked interest in a giant leap backwards for automobile production through the use of wood.
     Although the Setsuna was designed as a concept car to show off Japanese woodworking and was not street legal, the Citroen created by a French woodworker over six years was deemed by French authorities to be street legal and hit the road four days ago. However in both cases, the cars were significantly lighter and more fuel-efficient than those made of metal.
     When cars were first produced, a great deal of wood was used to make the carriage, but everything else was metal. As time passed however, more sophisticated designs shifted the emphasis to the strength of steel and metal. With little or no concern for weight or fuel efficiency, cars were then modeled into stylish behemoths.
     However in new technological advances, wood pulp mixed with plastic materials could be as strong as steel but 80 percent lighter. According to BBC, a Kyoto University team, led by Professor Hiroyuki Yano and involving the Japanese Government and carmakers, uses wood pulp, which consists of millions of cellulose nanofibres (CNF) and disperses these CNFs into plastic. Professor Yano claims, “The hybrid material could be used to make door panels, fenders and car bonnets.”
     Although competition with commercially established lightweight options of carbon fibre and fiberglass materials does exist, CNF could be less expensive to produce. Likewise with lighter parts made from wood pulp, vehicle emissions could be reduced and the range of electric cars could be increased. Currently using old technology, BMW is fabricating reinforced carbon fibre for roofs and Jaguar is using aluminum for body panels.
     Seeing the images of wooden cars brought back memories of when I was a teenager repairing surfboards in the garage, while an older neighbor Rick and his high school friend Jack restored Rick’s 1944 Ford Woodie, across the street.
     I used to hang out there but since I was not mechanically inclined, Rick put me to work refinishing the wood side panels and roof struts. In time, the Woodie became a neighborhood project with my dad, an upholsterer, making a new canvas top for the car.
     And since Rick’s family was religious and his father was an FBI agent, my parents felt it was safe enough for me to accompany Rick and Jack on surfing trips in the Woodie. Indeed, those were the days.



Written September 27, 2017

Bernie Casey   

It seems so very long ago now, since the Burbank home and salon of John & Bunny Millar had become a fountainhead of multiculturalism. Nestled in the Verdugo Mountains above Sunset Canyon Drive with a breathtaking view of the San Fernando Valley, that’s where I first met acclaimed pro football player, artist, poet and actor Bernie Casey, who passed away last week at the age of 78. Off the playing field, Casey was quiet and creative; my fondest memories are dinner parties Bunny prepared for his girl friend of the time - jazz dancer and actress Paula Kelly, and myself-as birthday buddies.
A true Renaissance man, Casey attended Bowling Green State University, on a football scholarship, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Art Education. He also excelled in high hurdles for the track team and competed in the 1960 Olympic trials, placing sixth. After retiring from football in 1968 at the age of 30, Casey returned to Bowling Green to receive a Masters of Fine Arts degree and launched a new career as a graphic artist and painter.
During his football years, the NFL wide receiver played six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, scoring 40 touchdowns during his career. In 1964 Casey told Life Magazine, “I think of myself as an artist who plays football, not as a ball player who paints.”
It was during the heyday of the La Cienega Boulevard gallery row that Casey’s artwork was featured in the first group show for black artists presented by Ankrum Gallery. After that, Joan Ankrum gave Casey a one-man-show, which created a sensation for the Monday Night Art Walk with brick sales.
Following the Los Angeles debut, Casey was afforded 40 one-man shows at various galleries during his art career, resulting in Sidney Pointer, Burt Reynolds, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, the Beverly Hills Library, and the Hirshorn Washington D.C. Museum, among others becoming collectors. Additionally, Casey authored three illustrated books of poetry published by Doubleday & Co. and created the graphic design for Nina Simone’s album Here Comes The Sun.
And then turning a new page, as an actor Bernie Casey was featured in 35 motion pictures and 22 TV shows with his first film appearance in the 1969 movie “Guns of the Magnificent Seven.”
Throughout all those years, Bunny Millar did not drive and John chose me as her escort to many events. We were there in 1966 at Ankrum Gallery, where I was fortunate to purchase one of Casey’s small paintings entitled, “A Tribute To The Forgotten Places.” And we were there at the L.A. Coliseum in 1967 for Bernie’s best-known touchdown. Above everything his motto rings true, “I can do this.”




Written September 20, 2017

Rocket Man

I would much rather be writing about Elton John’s song “Rocket Man,” than where this column is going but no, it refers to the latest not-so-funny sneer from President Donald Trump in regards to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The occasion was the successful North Korean launching of an ICBM missile that flew 2,300 miles, which prompted Trump to ask South Korean President Moon, “How is Rocket Man doing?” Not so humorous was the fact the missile flew past Guam and was well on its way towards the continental United States when it splashed down in the ocean.
It wasn’t too long ago that North Korean ICBM’s were exploding in air after flying only a few hundred miles and then a quantum leap occurred.  According to the Boston Globe, a rare potent rocket fuel known as unsymmetrical dimethydrazine (UDMH) has come into the hands of North Korea that vastly increases long-range capabilities. Just add nitrogen tetroxide and liquid oxygen to get the biggest bang possible in rocket fuel.
Formerly used by the United States and Russia until its unstable and extremely volatile nature produced catastrophic explosions, it was replaced by a safer rocket fuel. However as with other petroleum products, China has been exporting UDMH to North Korea for years. It was no secret to the Bush and Obama Administrations this was going on, but they did not disrupt the supply through sanctions, diplomacy or covert actions.
It may have been that former North Korean missile capabilities were being controlled by the availability of UDMH from China but then something occurred that nobody expected. Just as it has been supposed that North Korea is close to miniaturizing nuclear warheads, it is now confirmed that North Korea has achieved the technology to manufacture UDMH. Maybe everyone hopes a catastrophic explosion will set Kim Jong Un back for years, but here again that has not happened.
Instead, in shades of the Cold War we have been told that North Korea is faltering economically and unable to fulfill its military boasting and threats. In reality, North Korea has maintained a stable economy for years with China providing everything they need. As for their military capabilities, that scares me.
For all the billions of dollars spent on missile defense systems, U.S. Commanders accept that their defenses are not fully missile-proof and a country possessing a sizeable arsenal of missiles might overwhelm them. Instead of all the brow beating and threats of fire and furry, it’s time for the United States to abandon notions of regime change and remind China that we buy their products, as leverage for de-escalation.   

Written September 12, 2017

   Road Kill And Ravens   

It’s been years since motorcycles, dirt bikes and quads frequently raced up and down Mountain Road, in Pinon Hills, at unsafe speeds, producing horrendous noise levels. In the interim, those culprits grew up and moved away or moved on to college or military service. However, it seems like a new generation has arrived with the roar of engines punctuating late afternoons and weekends in the otherwise quiet locale.   
Although Mountain Road is a residential street beyond the Fire Station, Community Center, Park, and Chamber of Commerce, the speed limit as with most San Bernardino County-maintained paved roads, is 55 mph. It is also a dead end street terminating at the foothills, which means all the vehicles, including cars racing up and down, belong to our neighbors who live on the paved road or adjacent dirt roads in the rural community.
It is not uncommon to see residents walking their dogs or jogging and children riding their bicycles. Not too long ago as I was driving up Mountain Road, a small boy chased his soccer ball into street. Fortunately, I was driving much slower than the speed limit and was able to avoid hitting the boy or his ball.
With those on motorcycles it’s a different story. They pull wheelies up hill and stand on their foot pegs downhill, while traveling at least 70 mph. On the dirt roads leading to Mountain Road, they churn up billowing clouds of dust before they hit the paved road with their pranks.
As for the dust and dirt for those in cars, the bigger the dust cloud the more likely a car will make a rolling stop on crossroads of Mountain Road where there are no stop signs. If the driver actually saw oncoming traffic, it would be impossible to stop due to the lack of tire traction on dirt. I’ve been here long enough to know that when I see that dust cloud from an approaching speeding car, I slow down on the pavement and let them slide through the intersection.
And so, what this story is about, in addition to the excessive speed of cars and motorcycles on Mountain Road, is the evidence of skid marks and road kill. Normally, several ravens in the neighborhood are content to raising a ruckus in Joshua trees, eating black seeds from the white pods. However being scavengers, they can be spotted on Mountain Road eating fresh meat when speeding vehicles kill your pets, as well as quail, chipmunks, rabbits, and squirrels.
As we all know, accidents happen, and drivers should never swerve off the roadway to avoid hitting wildlife, especially those unlucky critters that make a u-turn to oblivion. Slow down and enjoy the outcome.

Written 9/5/17 

 

Written September 6, 2017

This Week’s Hurricane   

     Since Hurricane Harvey made landfall and with the subsequent flooding in Texas and Louisiana, there has been plenty of discussion from both sides of the Climate Change issue as to whether it is appropriate to bring up the subject while so many people are suffering. Without being insensitive to those affected, I always question the cause and effect of damage from natural disasters in an attempt to learn what could be improved with manmade development. At this point, I can accept the reality of a 1,000-year flood plowing through infrastructure that was designed to withstand a 100-year flood.

     Throughout history, there have been many severe hurricanes and 1,000-year floods that just occurred without a figure being pointed as to the cause. Today, scientists can prove that Atlantic and Caribbean Ocean water temperatures are abnormally warm and that could result in more frequent and more severe hurricanes. Whatever the reason, it will be scientists, not politicians, who predict natural disasters and establish a timeframe for evacuation

     However, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt commented, “It was misplaced to discuss Hurricane Harvey’s link to Climate Change.” At the same time, EPA Public Affairs Officer John Konkus, who was a political appointee of Donald Trump after serving as Leon County Florida campaign chairman, now reviews every EPA grant, with no scientific expertise, and is critical of Climate Change.

     Well, as Hurricane Irma becomes this week’s hurricane, scientist Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has called satellite images of Irma, “One of the most incredible things I have ever seen.” And then, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have classified Irma as, “The strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.”

     With a monstrous eye and sustained winds of 200 mph, Irma is well above the 157-mph threshold for Category 5 strength hurricanes. These are figures measured by NHC and NOAA without prejudice for or against Climate Change. They are merely the facts presented by scientists, who in a better climate, received grants from the EPA to conduct research.

     However, as Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of the petroleum industry, and now, as Administrator of the EPA, he is more intent on dismantling the agency than funding research on the cause and effect of warmer oceans.

     As taxpayers pay the bills for recovery, Irma may hit the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico directly affecting 3.5 million American citizens. It is there that predatory U.S. hedge funds have become the sole investors willing to lend to the Commonwealth, and now own $4.5 billion in Puerto Rico government guaranteed bonds.

     As with Greece, Wall Street wins and citizens loose.                      

 It Makes No Difference 

     For quite some time I have believed the powers of the President of the United States are not painted in brushstrokes as broad as we might imagine. I have also maintained that early in his administration, representatives of the FBI, CIA, Department of Defense, Pentagon and State Department sit the President down to explain their ongoing agenda while outlining just what he will be allowed to do. It seems as if it makes no difference who the president is, or what political party he represents, there are also the courts and the Congress to balance his powers.

     And then Donald Trump, who intended to change everything and drain the swamp in Washington D.C., entered the picture and, along with Steve Bannon, had hopes to orchestrate a revolution of sorts obliterating the status quo. Initially, Trump packed the White House with family members and those considered to be allies with no prior political experience, but amongst all those divergent minds there was a great deal of antagonism.

     We have seen the courts and Congress stall Trump’s agenda, and members of the Republican Central Committee fall by the wayside only to be replaced by military generals. For a civilian president as was Barack Obama with no military experience, that places the power of the Military Industrial Complex squarely in the hands of the military. And with so many State Department positions yet to be filled, the emphasis is on aggression rather than traditional diplomacy.

     In his address to the nation from Fort Myer in Arlington Virginia, Trump confirmed he would increase troops in Afghanistan, which was approved by the military generals but opposed by Bannon before he was fired. Otherwise he was vague, which conforms to his belief of not disclosing military strategy. That’s acceptable, but keep in mind the increase of perhaps 3,900 is a drop in the bucket compared to Obama’s surge of 30,000 in 2009, which did not overthrow the Taliban.

     Since the United States deposed the Taliban in 2001, 16 years have passed and at this point the Taliban has retaken 50 percent of the country. During the 2016 election campaign Trump commented, “We made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place. We had brilliant thinkers that didn’t know what the hell they were doing and it is a mess.”

     Well, some equally brilliant thinkers guiding Trump to a decision this week, failed to recognize that Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been fighting a sectarian religious war for centuries. With corruption rife in the government and security forces, coalition forces will have to remain there forever, in a nation building mode. We’ve had surges and dumped billions of dollars, with no success.

                                    

Written August 16, 2017
It Takes Initiative   

Let’s face facts. Bigotry and hatred and racial persecution were not eliminated by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and they were certainly not triumphed over in World War II or the American Civil War. When I saw images of protesters carrying Nazi flags and Confederate flags and flaming torches across the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville Virginia, my heart was torn with grief for the millions who defended the rights of people considered to be inferior, with the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives.
To me, those images simply convey the distorted beliefs of Adolph Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan. I was further incensed to learn that as recently as May of this year, there was a similar protest march in Charlottesville. On that occasion, Richard Spencer president of the nationalist group National Policy Institute, who made popular the term “Alt-Right” commented, “I love the torches. It’s spectacular; it’s theatrical and mystical and religious, even.”
Let me make one thing clear, Spencer was not talking about the Olympic torch but rather that certain illumination, which has become symbolic of the torture and murder of Black people. Likewise for the Nazi flag, that touches a sensitive nerve in the memory of 18,587,000 allied troops who died deposing Hitler.
Here in America, we value the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression and certainly the core issues of the demonstrations and casualties should not be ignored. In Charlottesville, the impending removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee united the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups in a demonstration that at the onset received permits from the city and university.
My response to that issue is simply the sculpture should remain with a new plaque that reminds everyone that yes indeed, Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general in the American Civil War that cost the lives of 618,222 soldiers opposing or defending slavery.
The truth of the matter is, the Union Army prevailed, the Confederate Army was defeated and the American Flag is the flag of our united states. It’s as simple as that, and life should have moved on a long time ago for those who think differently. The results of the Civil War are not fake news that can be changed by Civil War II.
However President Trump, in his initial reluctance to identify and condemn the hate groups, thrilled former KKK leader David Duke in blaming both sides for the violence. Every politician should take the initiative to denounce haters, and publically reject their voting base. This is America Mister President, where all lives matter.

Written August 9, 2017
Glen Campbell’s Magic   

Few modern day musicians have ever achieved the success of Glen Campbell, who passed away this week at the age of 81, based solely on their intuitive feelings of how a guitar should sound rather than through formal training. At the age of four Campbell’s uncle gave him a guitar and he became influenced by the innovative European jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt. When he was 14, he dropped out of school in Arkansas and became a roaming troubadour eventually ending up in Los Angeles where he auditioned for the legendary group of studio session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew.
During the 1960’s and early1970’s, Campbell and another Wrecking Crew musician, Leon Russell, perfected their talents while working for union scale with no recording credits. At that time, both Campbell and Russell devised a subtle hook in their playing that would identify them for future calls. Campbell described that technique as, “I learned it was crucial to play right on the edge of the beat…It makes you drive the song more. You’re ahead of the beat, but you’re not.”
The formula worked enormously well for Campbell and in 1963 he played rhythm guitar for 586 recording sessions. Looking back on those times, Tom Petty commented in a Rolling Stone Magazine interview, “He had a crystal-clear guitar sound, playing lines that were so inventive. It moved me.”
Included in those sessions, Campbell learned every nuance of country, pop, jazz, and rock music that would serve him well in the future. In the meantime, he played for Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, the Beach Boys, Eric Clapton and virtually every performer of that era who needed The Wrecking Crew to burnish their recordings to perfection, including the Grammy Award winning “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” of Simon & Garfunkel.
In down time between recording sessions, Campbell was known to joke around and sing, to which his band mates would shout, “You’re going to be a star,” not realizing that beautiful tenor voice had a direction. However once again it paid off when Brian Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown while on tour with the Beach Boys and relied on Campbell to replace him on bass guitar and falsetto harmonies. In another Rolling Stone interview Wilson confided, “He fit right in. His main forte is he’s a great guitar player, but he’s even a better singer than all the rest. He could sing higher than I could.”
From that beginning, “Gentle On My Mind,” “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Galveston,” and “Wichita Lineman,” would follow, not only cementing Glen Campbell’s allure to the American Heartland, but also crossing over to pop and rock fans and selling 45 million records.                           

Written August 2, 2017
Rainy Day Tuesday   

I never thought 90 degrees and moist would feel much better than 100 and muggy, but it definitely was cooler as rain began to fall.  It is darker than usual at 6:00 pm with the sun already obscured behind a cloudbank off to the west. That is good because for the first evening in quite some time I don’t have to be concerned about watering the landscape and instead can enjoy watching hummingbirds and dragonflies dart past my window as I write.
     It’s not like it hasn’t rained somewhere in Southern California during the past month but I am growing weary of the predictions for 20 percent chance of rainfall. Here in Pinon Hills tucked away into the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, a 20 percent chance really means all the dust on my car will be splattered with a few big rain drops, and 80 percent odds I’m still going to need to water the plants.
Hereabouts, the best chance of rainfall is from “monsoonal moisture” streaming in from Baja. For you see, the clouds don’t have to climb over the mountains as they do with storms coming down the coast from Alaska. That also eliminates another situation of living in the shadow of the mountains, which snag moisture from the clouds, because the trajectory from Baja is more direct.
There is a caveat to all of this for those who live in Wrightwood. In the past mostly due to those Cajun Voodoo nuances of Dan Campbell, Music in the Pines and other concerts forged ahead with 20 percent chances of rain only to be pummeled by drenching rain. I recall driving home from Wrightwood one time hoping the Cabin had not been flooded because I left the windows open, only to find things perfectly dry.
While I have been writing, I noticed the National Weather Service has bumped up the percentage of likely rainfall to 40 percent and that seems to indicate that Wednesday will be a wet day. It’s a clear shot from Baja for monsoonal moisture to drench Southern California and although we have been told the drought has ended, a good August rainstorm would help heat stressed vegetation, and reduce the fire hazard.
As for here, it has been years since the two creek beds on my property have flowed, and likewise years since the percolation terraces I created to capture rainfall have filled up. There is nothing like pure rainwater to cleanse the soil of salts, minerals and chemicals. Just days after a cool drenching, shiny new growth appears everywhere on the vegetation; that just can’t be achieved by turning on the hose.

Written July 25, 2017

More Summer Music   

Although the month of August is quickly approaching and that means back-to-school issues for many, the Wrightwood summer concert season does not appear to be slowing down. Instead, many new musical events have recently been scheduled that will make August 2017 a month to remember.
     Coming up on Friday August 4 at 6:00pm, the Village Grind presents an evening with George “Coyote” Keene. The singer/songwriter will perform his special brand of country western music that has established him as a preeminent Wrightwood musician. Following that on Sunday August 6 at 6:00 pm, the Wrightwood Blues Society orchestrates a gala send off for Annie Fleming, who will be traveling to Italy to study abroad for a semester. Both events at the Village Grind include sit down dinner, wine and entertainment. For reservations call Greg Fleming at (760) 249-5501.
On Thursday August 10 at 6:00pm, Music in the Pines concludes its season at The Apple Farm with the opening act being Yo Mama’s Voodoo Cajun Blues Jam Revival. Performing Zeidico, Cajun and blues music, scheduled musicians include: Terry “Big T” DeRouen on lead electric guitar, Gary Sizemore on guitar, Walter Foley on bass guitar, Dan Campbell playing squeezebox and singing vocals, Sean Vivirito singing vocals, Mark Rodenborn playing scrub board and tit- fers triangle, Jeff Mitchell on drums, with John Burcher & Friends performing the second line horns.
The closing act will be an unusual quartet called Streetlight Cadence, which weaves clever storytelling with cello, violin, accordion, and guitar instruments for busking superb.
Just two days later, a Wrightwood tradition of celebrating the birthday of Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia, takes the form of the Fire on the Mountain Music Festival presented by Tommy & Gayle Dowling. The free event at the Village Grind from 11:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Saturday August 12th, features nine different performances from musicians that over the years have formed the cornerstone of the Wrightwood music scene.  A special treat for music fans will be the performance by Fred Stuart who was the Senior Master Builder at Fender Guitars for many years. Performing as “Grateful Fred,” his virtuosity on guitar matches his keen ability to construct world-class guitars.
One week later on Saturday August 19th from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., The Apple Farm hosts a Summer Dance Party and tribute to Buddy Holly and Ray Charles with special guests The Fontane Sisters. Channeling the spirit of Buddy Holly, Adam Webster will be Buddy Holly and Greg Jones will be Ray Charles, with Gayle Dowling, Brittan Egnozzi and Michele Schneider performing as The Fontane Sisters. Admission is free and all ages are welcome on two dance floors. For additional information go to www.mountainmusic.net  

Written July 12, 2017

Hard As A Rock 

     In the realm of building materials, which have always held a particular interest to me as a sculptor, I learned early on the difference between cement and concrete. In a recent BBC News report, the use of cement as a mortar, for gluing and waterproofing clay blocks, was first attributed to Bedouins in Syria and Jordan around 6,500 BC. Centuries later, ancient Romans discovered the mixing of mineral elements with water created a liquid concrete that produced a chemical heating reaction, which would cure into a mass nearly as hard as rock.

     At the onset of building materials, rocks were quarried into blocks, or where there were no rocks, clay was formed into bricks that were hardened in kilns. The invention of concrete provided architects with the freedom of transporting raw materials to what is now regarded as a “batch plant” where elements were mixed, heated and ground up. When binders of crushed rock, sand and water were added, the liquid slurry could then be poured into forms onsite to create solid concrete walls.

     According to BBC, scientists have recently discovered a vastly different formula of concrete, used to construct Roman sea walls and harbours, from what was considered to be the invention of modern day concrete patented in 1824 as Portland cement. So named because of similarity in color to Portland limestone quarried from the English Isle of Portland, it consisted of limestone, ash, sandstone, chalk, iron, and clay heated to form a product called “clinker” and then ground up with gypsum.

     Unlike Portland cement, which requires steel reinforcing rebar for strength and corrodes over time, researchers found the ancient Roman formula contained lime and volcanic ash combined with aforementioned elements, plus a few surprises. After wooden forms were removed and concrete walls were exposed to seawater, the Roman mixture generated heat and produced a rare mineral called aluminum tobermorite. In turn, the chemical reaction produced crystals that kept growing over time, reinforcing the concrete and preventing cracks from developing.

     During an interview with BBC, lead author of the report Marie Jackson from the University of Utah commented, “Contrary to the principles of modern cement based concrete, the Romans created a rock-like concrete that thrives in open chemical exchange with sea water.” Jackson also believes the planned Swansea tidal lagoon power plant in South Wales should be built using the ancient Roman knowledge of concrete, to harness the power of ocean tides.

     Additionally Jackson remarked, “The Roman technique was based on building very massive structures that are really quite environmentally sustainable and very long-lasting.” It is truly amazing that modern technology has produced the equipment to analyze Roman concrete poured thousands of years ago.

Written July 3, 2017

Fourth Of July   

Growing up in Burbank, observing Independence Day was always second nature to celebrating Dad’s birthday because he was born on the Fourth of July. There would always be a barbeque dinner served to the extended family on the patio under the old elm tree. Afterwards, as everyone gathered around the baby grand piano in the living room, Dad would play the piano and everyone would sing Americana songs, mostly those of Stephen Foster.
For Dad, it was fantastic to have all his family members present and as dusk fell the entire sky lit up as the City of Burbank launched fireworks from Starlight Bowl, nestled high in the foothills above. We could not see the actual pyrotechnic display because of the elm tree and for all the kids it was boring to simply see the sky changing colors, when throngs of spectators were enjoying the real view from McCambridge Park just two blocks away.
That went on year after year, even after us kids had moved out and were on our own, simply because as Mom always said, “It’s your father’s birthday and your presence is required.” Years later, I had the perfect excuse for not attending because I was in Paris France. While there, much to my surprise friends who were fashion photographers took me to a Fourth of July party near the Pompidou Museum. It was quite an affair with streets closed off for blocks and tables set up for hundreds of ex patriots and tourists, with the cuisine being all-American. Late that night when the peach colored sky finally turned crimson and the fireworks were ignited, I smiled and murmured, “Happy Birthday Dad.”
Over the years as memories of those times have been adjusted; I have come to appreciate what was really important and what was merely a flash in the sky. It was the music and singing, not particularly patriotic but instead well-burnished Americana tunes from a time and place that many family members had moved away from. Today, when I listen to the music of Stephen Foster, especially “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Swanee River,” and “Oh! Susanna,” I think of those priceless moments back then in the living room.
The neighbors must have thought we were crazy because we were not singing “God Bless America,” but we went to church every Sunday and knew in our hearts this was not the only place God had to look after. And so for this 2017 Fourth of July, I am glad all the old folks at home have moved on now that North Korea has the ability to hit the United States with a missile. Diplomacy is the only way America will have a Happy Birthday!

Written 6/28/2017
Fire Precautions

     Well, the month of June has been a real scorcher here in Pinon Hills with the desert influence keeping daytime temperatures over 100 degrees for the better part of two weeks. Triggered by the heat, relative humidity plummeted, as did the moisture content of vegetation. With the potential for brush fires ever present, now is the time to take inventory of fire hazards around the home and landscape.
     After five years of drought, vegetation is rebounding after this winter’s rainfall. However, most shrubs and trees experienced die back from the dry years, which is a fire hazard that needs to be removed. For example, in the recent Placerita Canyon Fire temperatures reached 110 degrees with relative humidity dropping to five percent. That put the moisture content of vegetation at roughly the equivalent of kiln-dried hardwood.
     A significant amount of dry branches continues to sap nutrients and can be volatile. Scattered around my property, there are several groves of Antelope Bitterbrush that have shiny green leaves and tiny yellow blossoms. One unique characteristic of the tall shrub is that wherever a branch touched the ground, it will root. So, that requires removing all dead wood so everything is green and somewhat fire retardant.
     Likewise for native Juniper bushes, that will spread branches on the ground to root and expand the vegetation into a grove over several decades. In both cases, cultivating the duff into the soil and then soaking it infrequently, while keeping the vegetation pruned into wispy filigree, reduces but does not eliminate the fire hazard.
     I have also noticed that my pine trees, even with fertilizing and deep watering were affected by the drought and may be suffering from bark beetles as well. At any rate, there are dead branches that need to be cut off and the incision sealed with pruning tar. If nothing else, perhaps I can manage to keep the pines vital until we have a drenching El Nino and massive snowstorms, should that ever occur again.
     Closer to home, dead leaves and debris should be removed from rain gutters and all tree limbs overhanging the roof need to be removed. Over the past 50 years, I always envisioned a canopy of black locust and elm shading the roof of the Cabin in a picturesque manner. However, I compromised and settled on shade for the bedroom and living room walls, and pruned the trees away from a potential flambé canopy.
     Being practical, dappled sunlight streaming through the windows is by far more comforting than worrying about a tree limb crashing on to the roof. As time goes by, pruning the trees farther away from the Cabin makes sense.  

Written June 14, 2017
Litigation Central   

Never, in recent history, has the Executive Branch been involved in so many personality changes, career terminations and legal actions when confronted with unfavorable situations. A great deal of Donald Trump’s misfortune of the past five months could have been avoided had he assumed the presidency with a full complement of qualified cabinet members, each one backed by an expansive team of civil servants who were well steeped in the nuances of governance. Instead, promises to his constituency to streamline government and push forward key agenda legislation have been stalled.
The latest Gallup Poll indicates 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance while 36 approve of his performance as president. That would seem to infer he should have fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions instead of FBI Director James Comey. The Russian Issue is simply not going to disappear and the fact that Sessions did not disclose his meetings with Russian officials while under oath, during his confirmation hearing to become Attorney General, was a fatal mistake.
Although Sessions was confirmed and agreed to rucuse himself from anything related to the Russian Issue in the future as Attorney General, he next colluded with President Trump in the firing of James Comey, who was investigating the Russian Issue. During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday June 13, Sessions commented, “I do not believe it is a sound position that if you recuse yourself from a single case, you can’t make a decision about the leadership of that agency.”
Well, that was a clever way for an intelligent attorney to redefine recuse and perhaps save grace with President Trump, who was opposed to Sessions resigning or recusing himself. And although Trump commented on June 9 that he would be willing to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Washington Post headline, “Calling Comey A Liar, Trump Says He Will Testify Under Oath,” speaks for itself.
     The next challenge for Trump will be to navigate around rumors that he wants to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which was disclosed by Chris Ruddy to Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour. That could only be orchestrated by Attorney General Sessions or Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or Trump himself through an executive order that would revoke the Department of Justice regulation dating back to 1999.
However, with the only one untarnished at this time being Rod Rosenstein, he seems unlikely to fire Mueller but then he could be fired by Trump, as was Sally Yates. And that could go on ad infinitum until someone in the Department of Justice waffles in favor of Trump. The Russian Issue is not going to disappear and the Republican agenda is a pipe dream.   

Written June 6,2017
Landline and Internet issues   

Ever since Verizon sold their copper wire infrastructure to Frontier Communication effective April 1, 2016, I have been cautiously optimistic and yet waiting for the next shoe to drop. That’s because I’m basically adverse to change and was satisfied with my simple landline telephone and Internet connection.
Here in the Tri-Community where the desert meets the mountains, aging infrastructure can, in many situations, be at the mercy of severe weather conditions. For the most part here in the oldest residential neighborhood of Pinon Hills, I have been fortunate with the Cabin being served by an underground cable connected to a telephone pole on Mountain Road that dates back to when General Telephone was the provider.
Overhead lines, coming in from all directions that mostly followed a maze of dirt roads that no longer exist, serve other neighbors. So in wind, sleet and snow conditions, those homes are more apt to experience service interruptions while my cable is safely buried underground and theoretically rodent proof. For that reason, when the telephone or computer ceases to function, I’m fairly certain it is not my infrastructure at fault.
During the year and two months of Frontier Communication’s service, my Internet connection failed four or five times ranging in duration from a few hours minimum to 72 hours maximum. In comparison, a neighbor across the road lost Internet for four days. In my situation, the computer indicated the problem was “The DNS Server isn’t responding.”
After dialing 611 on the landline and being transferred between customer service agents, I was told my computer was at fault and was then prompted to fidget with the modem. One agent asked for my mailing address and promised she would overnight-mail me a new modem. That never happened and when service resumed I knew it wasn’t the modem. In all cases, because I depend on the Internet to email my journalism articles, I inquired about a credit on my monthly bill for lack of service. Likewise, that never happened. In the most recent incident of June 5, neither my landline nor computer would function.
So here’s the scoop. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Frontier Communication experienced one of the bumpiest telecom takeovers ever.” The Better Business Bureau (BBB) reported, “DSL Broadband service using traditional copper wire and even Frontier Fiber-Optic service, failed to meet advertised speeds.” Following a BBB link, the State of West Virginia received a $160 million customer-protection settlement for those offenses and was also ordered to pay monetary bill credits for interruption of service based on customers’ daily service rate.
And so with the settlement reached by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a precedent has been established for those who demand bill credit.

Written May 31, 2017
Good Times Ahead   

     I can’t believe the month of June is already here. With summer landscape chores beckoning here in Pinon Hills, the “June gloom” weather with wispy clouds and moist air will be perfect for accomplishing those tasks. However, when things heat up, the real treat of summer will be the 12-mile drive to Wrightwood for the cool outdoor concert season in the pines.
     Once again, the apricot tree my Great Uncle Ernest planted more than 50 years ago has survived climate whims and is filled with ripening fruit. Over the years, the landscape rewards at the Cabin have been juniper greens and berries for Christmas decorations, lilac blossoms in the spring, and apricots for early summer enjoyment.
     This year it seemed as if the tree blossomed early and had there been frost or heavy snowfall, as with many times in the past, there would be no fruit. Instead, mild weather prevailed in the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, and although the five years drought ended, I have been deep watering the tree to produce golf ball sized juicy fruit that is the true essence of apricot to the taste buds.
     And while everything else in the landscape benefited from winter rains, the total rainfall this season was much less than in other Southern Californian locales. That’s good because there were no weeds to pull out during the drought. What did suffer however, is the meadow of brilliant colored penstemons that was decimated by last summer’s record breaking heat waves.
     And while I am thankful for the better than average rainfall, it was not enough to penetrate into the root systems of mature trees and shrubs. That will require rebuilding tree basins and deep watering. In so much as I prefer to work outdoors during the late afternoon and early evening hours, I will soon be rescheduling those activities around Wrightwood concert dates.
     The outdoor music season kicks off on Thursday June 15 at 6:00 pm when Music in the Pines celebrates its 13th year of free concerts and inaugurates a new dance floor and sound system in The Apple Farm venue. The music continues on June 29, July 13, July 27, and August 10 at the intersection of Highway 2 and Rivera Drive, from 6:00 until 9:30 pm.
     On Friday June 23 at 5:30 pm, Mike Troeger and the staff of Mountain Hardware host the annual customer appreciation concert. There will be live music, free hotdogs and soft drinks as a way of saying, “Thanks!”
     The Red Barn Opry returns to Wilkensville Corner on Saturday June 24 at 5:00 pm with free music & food. Step back in time to the country twang of an Old West town.

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Written May 22, 2017

President Trump’s 2018 Budget   

     Most of President Trump’s proposed 2018 fiscal year budget represents a wish list that will not entirely be realized. As a continuation of his “Skinny Budget” prelude released in March, dramatic increases in military spending and the protection of the Southern Border by the Homeland Security Department can indeed be funded through draconian budget cuts to federal agencies, social programs and the complete dismantling of 19 other agencies. However, within the framework of what is intended and what is possible, it will be Congress that ultimately decides who tightens the federal purse strings.
     In a perfect scenario, the Republican controlled House, Senate and White House could easily steamroll opposition to the military buildup. After all is said and done, we know the Military Industrial Complex will prevail, especially when the terms national security and terrorism are inclusive. However, when military spending for endless undeclared wars places the quality of life at risk for millions of Americans, a chink in the armor can be expected.
     As an outsider to the Washington Beltway procedure of accomplishing things, Donald Trump failed to recognize that draining the swamp would expose unforeseen quicksand and impediments to his redevelopment plans. I don’t need to say much more about what occurred in the first 100 days of his administration or what will play out in the future. Instead I would like to focus on proposed budget cuts and the elimination of 19 small and independent federal agencies.
     To begin with, 44 million Americans receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), could experience a 25 percent reduction to the biggest government anti-poverty program. Medicaid and Food Stamps could also be prone to real budget battles and feigned fake battles alike, because at the end of the day politicians of both parties realize voting against Food Stamps and Meals on Wheels, is political suicide.
     All of the 19 federal agencies facing proposed extinction, currently have bipartisan Congressional oversight of their programs. In total, these agencies have 2,374 full time employees providing job training, community development, legal aid, business investment advice and an array of services that define the American fabric.
     Being an artistic/literary type, I am particularly incensed with Trump’s intent to abolish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (NPR/PBS), National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Eliminating our cultural foundation places America on the same level as a banana republic.
     The no brainer for Beltway Insiders is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which helps American businesses invest in emerging markets. With zero government funding, OPIC has generated funds to the U.S. Treasury for 39 years in the amount of $3.7 billion.
     Go Figure, Donald.

Written May 17, 2017
June Blues Society   

The Wrightwood Blues Society (WBS), a community-based organization supporting appreciation for all genres of Blues music, will meet again on Saturday June 3 at the Jones Chateau. Headlining the dinner party will be Blues vocalist extraordinaire LaNeika Gallon. Critically acclaimed as possessing “The energy of Tina Turner, the attitude of Aretha Franklin, and the vocal range of Whitney Houston,” those are just the parameters to which LaNeika inserts her own sultry dynamics.
Nothing compares to Blues music for cushioning the fall of a broken romance, hard times or emotional miscalculations. No sense mincing around when you’re feeling down and out because others have been there as well, and their narrative ballads and soulful guitars will guide you up to a higher level.
Along the way on that journey since the early 1900’s, Blues music tore at the heartstrings, while Jazz moved away from lyrics into the freedom of improvisational horns, and Rhythm & Blues (R&B) carved a niche in between with less of the heart and more emphasis on dance music. Nonetheless, the three African American genres contributed immensely to the Great American Songbook.
Laneika Gallon began her singing career in a church choir singing religious spiritual music. After that, she gravitated to the more secular Delta, Chicago and West Coast Blues music, which provided a better platform for her vibrant personality and choreography. Introduced to Wrightwood music fans by legendary guitarist Terry “Big T” DeRouen, Laneika performed with him at the Mountain Hardware Customer Appreciation Concert, and with the Seville Street Blues Band at Music in the Pines. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience her up close with songs from her new CD on June 3.
Starting with dinner at 6:30 pm, Greg Jones will play keyboards while guests dine. Brittan Egnozzi will sing and play acoustic guitar at 7:15. Following that at 8:00, the “Universal Dudes” Dave Leicht & Mark Barrera will perform with vocals and guitars. And then at 9:00, Laneika gallon hits the stage for more than an hour of Blues music that will astound the audience. If that’s not enough, there will be an Open Mic session at 10:15 for those who wish to contribute their talent to the soirée.
The WBS evening of Blues music with ample amounts of Jazz and R&B influences includes dinner and entertainment for a suggested $20.00 donation. The Chateau Jones is more than spacious with Greg’s traditional piano the centerpiece of the entertainment space and plenty of room for musicians and guests alike.
Outside on the deck surrounding the great room, commanding views of the San Gabriel Mountains in the setting sunlight add to the allure. To be included on the guest list, call Greg Jones at (760) 574-8231.

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Written May 10, 2017
Sally Yates Prevails Big Time!

     For an attorney who served as Acting Attorney General of the United States for just ten days before being fired by President Donald Trump for refusing to implement his Executive Order Travel Ban, Sally Yates has since been propelled into a position of national importance. For those who viewed her Senate Confirmation hearing to become Deputy Attorney General in March 2015 during the Obama Administration, her eloquent poise, encyclopedic knowledge of legal precedents and her command of the English language, was astounding. There was a certain feeling of déjà vu on Monday May 8 when the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism topic of the Russian connection to the 2016 election was redirected back to the Immigration Ban, however after three hours of testimony Yates prevailed.
     Back in 2015, then Senator Jeff Sessions asked Yates, “What would you do if the President asked you to do something improper?” Yates responded, “I would uphold the law and constitution.” Sessions then replied before Yates was confirmed, “I hope you feel free to say no.” As it turned out on Monday when the travel ban subject resurfaced Yates testified, “I made a determination that I believed it was unlawful and that is what I promised you I would do, and that’s what I did.”
     Yates, born in Atlanta Georgia, and a 27 year career veteran of the Justice Department, speaks with a cadence that is like a metronome’s measured timing, slowly addressing a question and then commenting, “However, let me make one thing clear,” before carefully deconstructing that question with reasoning more precise, while at the same time never losing her composure.
      It was that way on Monday when according to The Boston Globe, Senator Ted Cruz cited a law that allowed Trump the right to execute his first travel ban. However, Yates then cited a more recent law, which she said specifically did not allow Trump to issue that executive order. As Cruz’s logic was unraveled, there were groans from the audience indicating he may have launched a political career for Sally Yates.
     And then when the testimony returned to the Russian issue, the nation learned that in her brief position as Acting Attorney General, Yates was the first to identify that deposed National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was lying about his interactions with the Russian Ambassador. After that discovery, Yates went to the top lawyer of the White House Donald McGahn with the findings, “The Justice Department knew Michael Flynn had lied to Vice President Pence, and so most likely did the Russians, who could blackmail him.”
     And so, Sally Yates will go down in history as a strong woman who told the president “No,” and hopefully others will be inspired.           

Written May 2, 2017

Wrightwood Songbook   
     Last Saturday afternoon, Wrightwood musicians Gayle Dowling and Walter Foley held a CD release party for their latest creative endeavor entitled Catalyst. With the exception of two instrumentals written for guitar by Foley, the musical selection included covers of classic standards and arrangements of a few pop songs all sung by Dowling in the “smooth jazz” genre. The event was held at the home of Tommy & Gayle Dowling and the locale of Tommytech Studio where the CD was recorded, mixed and mastered.
     With musicians performing on the deck and guests seated on the lawn, it was the first outdoor concert of the 2017 Wrightwood music season bathed in golden afternoon sunlight and surrounded by blooming lilacs and towering pine trees.
     In a departure from Gayle & Company with her son Adam Webster and daughter Brittan Egnozzi, her own original songwriting, and the CD entitled Blue Skies & Red Wine recorded with Coyote Keene in Nashville, Gayle looked radiantially different and sounded different- sometimes wispy and other times sultry. On guitar, Foley never sounded better scatting around in Latin and Flamenco territory where Ella Fitzgerald and Dionne Warwick once roamed. On other arrangements, there were new twists for The Mamas And Papas, Bee Gees, Cat Stevens and most interesting “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome” written by Bob Dylan. Stop by the Village Grind and purchase the new jazz from Dowling and Foley.
     Later on, Brittan Egnozzi and her band Lipstick Red took the stage to continue the songbook of hit songs from Eric Clapton, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Mama Thornton, with an original song written by Brittan and Ferraro. Musicians included Brittan on lead electric guitar and vocals, Joe Ferraro on electric guitar, Eric Arellano on bass guitar and Tony Egnozzi on drums.
     After that, there was a feeling of reunion in the air while Gayle, Adam and Brittan hit the stage with acoustic guitars and vocals as Gayle & Company. After knowing each other and performing together for so many years, there was real energy in the guitar playing and impeccable vocal harmonies. The set included songs from Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
     Concluding the afternoon of music, 14 year old guest performer Lauren Beckman on lead electric guitar, was accompanied by Eric Arellano on bass, Greg Jones and Toby Williams on percussions and featured eight year old Sofia Egnozzi (Gayle’s granddaughter) reciting improvisational stream-of-consciousness lyrics with poise and confidence obviously gained from the Snowline Players theatrical group.
     Don’t miss every performer mentioned in this column plus many more during the 2017 Music in the Pines season at The Apple Farm in Wrightwood. For additional information, go to www.mountainmusic.net.       

Written April 26, 2017
Salton Sea Plan   
     Quite by coincidence recently, the term “brackish salt water” appeared in two separate articles I was reading. As it turns out, Mangrove swamps adjacent to bodies of saltwater may hold the secret to the restoration of the Salton Sea. That’s because Mangrove shrubs, trees and palms thrive in water up to 100 times saltier than most other plants can tolerate.
     On March 17, the California Natural Resources Agency released the new $383 million Salton Sea Plan, which is intended to construct canals, ponds and wetlands to submerge portions of the lakebed that have become dry, dusty and toxic. When completed in 10 years, restoration along the north and south shores will create habitats for migrating birds.
     As California’s largest lake measuring 35 miles long by 15 miles wide, the Salton Sea is a terminal lake with no outlet situated 235 feet below sea level. Filled up and evaporated over millions of years, the Salton Sink was last replenished in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through levies and flooded the area for one year. Since then, inflow from the Alamo and New Rivers as well as agricultural runoff, has been outpaced by evaporation and increased salinity.
     A Pacifica Institute warning in 2014 that 100 tons of fine dust laden with agricultural chemicals could be blown into the air each day also included the prediction of increased respiratory illnesses for population centers downwind. And so, short of remedies involving piping brackish water from Southern California, or saltwater by canal from the Sea of Cortez or Pacific Ocean - costing billions of dollars-the lake will be reduced to two thirds of its current size.
     Under the Salton Sea Plan, water from the Alamo and New Rivers will be diverted into canals and ponds, with the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians also building shallow wetlands. The key element to success is finding salt tolerant plants that will take root.
     Later on in reading a BBC article entitled, The Trees Keeping Vietnam Afloat, Mangrove trees were, “Considered the superheroes of the arboreal world, the roots filter salt water while the foliage pulls unparalleled amounts of carbon dioxide from the air.” And while Mangrove vegetation is acting as a living seawall preventing the briny and polluted waters of the Mekong Delta from pushing inland due to rising ocean levels, I thought perhaps identical vegetation could anchor future wetland of the Salton Sea.
     Granted, Mangrove shrubs, trees, and Nipa Palms are tropical plants, just add water to the desert heat and a microclimate could evolve in time. As for the dust, it would be filtered into briny mud and so much the better for a plant that does so well in a hostel environment.

Written 4/18/2017
 Reassessing Oroville Dam …
     I hate to sound like an armchair structural engineer, but most of the information I wrote about in early February concerning the collapse of the Oroville Dam Main Spillway, has come true. At that time with no prior engineering experience other than one situation, I predicted the spillway would collapse if it wasn’t anchored to solid bedrock. The caveat was the term “anchored to solid bedrock,” which I became quite familiar with during the 1982/1983 El Nino event on the California coastline.
     Back then, as 25-foot waves pummeled the Malibu ocean front home of Henry Mudd, I discovered as property manager that telephone poles supporting the living room, dining room and kitchen structure, had not been driven to and anchored into solid bedrock. Imagine if you will a circus tent-like room with massive curved laminated beams rising to a cupola, constructed on a podium supported by telephone poles, which according to architectural plans, extended 20 feet below the normal sand level to bedrock.
     The only problem was that as sand eroded with each high tide, there was actually only four feet of pilings remaining, and when the structure shuddered violently from storm surf, it listed seaward. The miracle of the event was that everything was built so strongly it did not break apart as pilings sunk unsupported by bedrock.
     The immediate solution was to construct a granite sea wall to prevent further sand erosion with the eventual outcome being to jack up the building and support it with new concrete pilings anchored into bedrock. To make a long story shorter in regards to the seawall, the sand was excavated to bedrock, holes were drilled to accommodate gluing two inch diameter rebar into the rock formation, and then 1,100 tons of granite boulders were stacked in place while concrete was pumped in between the rocks, creating a solid mass reinforced with steel.
     In the past two months, as photographic images of the damaged Oroville spillway have been seen in the news media and on the Internet, the very hard blue granite is where the spillway should have been anchored, instead of grading fill of decomposed crumbly orange granite as a base for the spillway. And then, the floor and side walls were inadequately thin and reinforced with rebar just one half the diameter used on the Mudd seawall.
     There is not a Band-Aid large enough to patch the damaged area, nor enough confidence for the upslope portion of the spillway. Someone miscalculated in the 1960s and did not anchor the spillway to solid bedrock. State officials should admit it and construct a new spillway. At risk are the electricity generated by the dam, and the water flowing into the California Aqueduct.                       

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Written 4/10/17

Wrightwood Blues Society   

     Last Saturday evening, Blues music enthusiasts enjoyed dinner and a concert featuring singer/songwriter and pianist Lynn Davison, presented by the Wrightwood Blues Society (WBS). The event was held in the spacious home of Greg & Sandy Jones, who have championed the appreciation of Blues music in the community for several years. In addition to fine cuisine prepared by Sandy and great music from Greg and Lynn, there was anticipation in the air with the announcement that WBS has filed an application to become a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization.
     Expected to be finalized this summer, the mission statement reads, “In a world where intellectual capital is becoming our most important commodity, WBS strives to encourage, celebrate and disseminate a variety of Blues traditions and creativity. By combining inspiring artists with veteran performers, we sing, dance and extend honor to our community of friends.”  
     During a brief interview prior to the entertainment Greg explained, “Although Sandy and I have enjoyed contributing to this effort, the response and attendance has been overwhelming. A nonprofit will better support the musical goals of six performances this year and be able to cater dinner when Sandy will be absent for two of the concerts. Above everything, the success of WBS will attract more legendary musicians to Wrightwood.”
     After dinner, Greg sat down at the piano and warmed up the audience singing and playing a medley of Al Jarreau songs. Accompanying him were Irwin Williams on bass guitar, John Burcher on saxophone, Toby Williams on drums and Brittan Egnozzi on vocals.
     After that, Jones and Egnozzi sang and vocally scatted their way through “It’s Alright” by The Impressions, Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues” with Burcher wailing on saxophone, and Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.” On that finale, the audience was singing and the ladies were dancing.
     Up next, Jones introduced Lynn Davison, a native of Queens New York who studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a Wrightwood resident for the past seven years, Davison has performed with Terry “Big T” DeRouen, Greg Jones and Walter Foley. On June 15, she will headline the opening concert of 2017 Music in the Pines with her band Class X.
     For her set, Davison played electric keyboards and sang with Vic Padilla on electric guitar joining the house band. Mixing things up between cover songs of The Impressions, Joni Mitchell, The Shirelles and The Ronettes, there were also original selections from her new CD entitled Outside The Box, all performed with a strong voice and dexterous fingering of the ivories.
     Plan now to attend the next session of the Wrightwood Blues Society on June 3. For additional information, call Greg Jones at (760) 574-8231.
                     

Written 4/3/17
Smoketree Junction 

     Last Saturday in Pinon Hills, spring was in the air and there was no April foolin’ with haggling for bargain prices at Smoketree Junction Antiques. Being that it was the first Saturday of the month, the flea market featuring 56 arts & crafts vendors spilled into the parking lot and surrounding areas. The weather was perfect and with the addition of food vendors, shoppers could relax and eat lunch while contemplating their next purchase.
     Permanent businesses of Smoketree Junction, open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, include the Antique Studio, Furniture Box, Plant Nursery & Garden, the Main Building, The Garden House and The Hen House for vintage clothing. Future developments being planned by owner Sandi Hemingway include the Trailer Park and Tin Shed.
     As warm sunlight streamed through skylights, The Garden House operated by Shreen Flores and featuring indoor plants and succulents, was at its prime. Everything glistened in its greenness as the healthy and happy plants waited to be appreciated in a new home. Additionally home and garden décor, as well as the structure itself, presented so many creative ideas.
     Nearby, flea market vendor Deadwood Mercantile offered an array of wood birdhouses and welded metal sculptures. Another vendor, Wayne Pitzler of Phelan, presented a fascinating display of sculptures created from repurposed horseshoes welded into creative designs. Wine bottle holders, mirror frames and boot racks are just a few designs of more than 20 items, which can be viewed by going to “Horseshoe Kreations” on Facebook and Pinterest. And then just a few steps away, hand painted rural mailboxes in a variety of themes definitely caught my eye.
     What’s for Lunch? Well, there were juice drinks and smoothies from Maui Wowi, a turkey sandwich lunch with potato salad, chips and cold bottled water from another vendor, and apple juice, apple crisp and other delights from yet another vendor. For those who had shopped up a real appetite, Up In Smoke BBQ Catering provided an array of substantial meals cooked fresh while you waited under umbrellas. And for those who wished to go no further than this exciting excursion, a nearby display of sumptuous locally grown produce provided everything needed for a light supper at home.
     For the ideal locale to shop for antiques, collectables, furniture, salvaged items, precious junk, clothing, and plants of all types, Smoketree Junction is located at 815 State Highway 138 near Oasis Road in Pinon Hills 92372. For additional information call (760) 868-8806.
     Plan now to attend the next flea market on Saturday May 6 from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm, when the selection of arts & craft items increases dramatically. Coming up this summer, sunset dining in the garden resumes on Fridays.



Written 3/29/17
 The Traveling Wilburys   

     One of my all-time favorite bands, so regarded for their rollicking good friendship as band mates, was The Traveling Wilburys. In troubled times such as these, it is refreshing to travel down memory lane to a different time and place with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. While each was a superstar in their own right, they ditched all pretenses and contractual restraints by going anonymous and becoming the Wilbury brothers.
     According to Chairman Emeritus of Warner Brothers Records Mo Ostin, the name came about when Harrison and Lynne were co-writing a B-side single for the song “This Is Love.” After experiencing equipment malfunctions and recording mistakes for the new song “Handle With Care,” Lynne quipped, “We’ll bury ‘em in the mix,” and that morphed into Traveling Wilburys when Harrison, Lynne, Petty and Orbison traveled to Dylan’s Malibu recording studio to lay down the track.
     When Ostin heard the recording, he thought it was much more than a B-side single and instead proposed an entire album. Shortly afterwards during an interview on Bob Coburn’s Rockline Radio Program, Harrison let the cat out of the bag when he mentioned a new band called The Traveling Wilburys.
     The actual recording for Volume One came together at the Wallace Neff designed house in Coldwater Canyon, owned by Eurythmics band member Dave Smith and documented in a YouTube video, The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys. It was there during ten days that the Wilburys took up residence, writing and performing a tune each day in an epic stream-of- consciousness session. In regards to that accomplishment Mo Ostin remarked, “Everybody sang, everybody wrote, everybody produced, and had a great time doing so.”  Added to the band were Jim Keltner on drums, Ray Cooper on percussions and Jim Horn playing saxophone.
     The cast was in their prime, often sharing a single microphone and magically sliding into animated vocal harmonies as they played guitars. In retrospect, the album orchestrated a long overdue recognition for Orbison who passed away just two months after the release of Volume One. It was the surprise hit of the year, initially selling two million copies and winning a Grammy Award.
     Followed up in 1990 with Volume Three and the sequence intentionally skewed by Harrison as a prank to, “Confuse the buggers,” the absence of Orbison was depicted with a guitar in a rocking chair. And then out of print since 1995, a Rhino Records box set debuted at #1 on the UK Album Chart and #9 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in 2007.
     In total, all the songs and videos of Volume One and Volume Three are a fresh and engaging testimonial to The Traveling Wilburys.

WRITTEN 3/21/17
The High Desert Keepers

     In a relatively short period of time, a new organization based in Pinon Hills, named The High Desert Keepers (THDK), has made an impact at exposing the incredible amount of trash being dumped along isolated roads in our community. While dumped items include the ubiquitous trash bags of household refuse, the overall blight is much more dramatic. There are thousands of tires and mattresses, furniture items, appliances, vehicles, boats, construction debris and landscape greenery, scattered everywhere in the terrain.
     Founded by photographer/filmmaker Scott Brown, the core purpose of THDK is cleaning up illegal dumping in the High Desert. Back in 2009, Brown was instrumental in cleaning up a massive dumpsite parallel to Highway 2 between Desert Front and Scrub Oak Roads.
     More recently, the organization has focused on a clean up in the Pionero and Smoke Tree Roads area of Pinon Hills. To date, “Operation Pionero” stats include: 35 tons of trash collected, more than 900 tires removed and one stolen car recovered. In both instances, CR&R donated 40-yard dumpsters, and community volunteers filled them up.
     During a recent interview Brown commented, “Most of the evidence points to unlicensed contractors who dump construction debris and large residential clean-up items in the desert after being paid to transport those items to the dump, and instead pocket the money.” With the use of drone aircraft to photograph the extensive blight, which can be viewed at www.highdesertkeepers.org, Brown as President of THDK has commanded attention from governmental agencies and community members alike.
     This Saturday, March 25, THDK joined by the Phelan Pinon Hills Community Services District, San Bernardino County Code Enforcement, and CR&R are hosting a tire and electronic Amnesty Day from 8:00AM until 12 Noon at the CR&R facility, located at 9828 Buckwheat Road in Pinon Hills. It has been confirmed that nine or fewer tires will be accepted for free from each person wishing to legally discard them.
     At the same time, THDK volunteers will clean up trash on Buckwheat Road and then move on to Operation Pionero until 3:00PM. And then on Sunday March 26 from 9:00 until 3:00PM, the clean up continues in the Pionero Road and Smoke Tree Road area.
     With gracious thanks to an individual who donated $1,200 to facilitate formation of a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization, THDK is now five weeks away from achieving that goal. That will create eligibility to receive grants and provide a tax deductable donation status for those who wish to support the massive undertaking of restoring beauty to our desert.
     In the meantime, call Scott Brown at (760) 792-7399 for information on a GoFundMe fundraising platform. Cleaning up the desert one dumpster at a time can be achieved.

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Written 3/15/2017
Congressional Budget Office Bomb   

     So much for Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration promise when he told the Washington Post, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody and that coverage will be much less expensive and much better.” But then who do you believe when Democratic and Republican politicians alike and their staff members and their families all have health insurance subsidized by U.S. taxpayers?
     When you add law enforcement officers, firemen, members of the military, judges, school board trustees and a plethora of other positions to the mix, the numbers dwarf those the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated, on Monday March 13, would not be covered by the GOP healthcare plan, known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and nicknamed “Trumpcare.” In the long awaited report published by the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation, it was reported that the AHCA would not cover 24 million Americans while reducing the federal budget by $337 billion in the year 2026.
     In comparison, the current Affordable Care Act (ACA)-pronounced the same as AHCA with or without a tongue depressor, but known as “Obamacare”- is reputed to have extended health coverage to 20 million previously uninsured Americans with a $130 billion reduction to the federal budget by 2025. Any way you look at it, what is saved on healthcare in the next nine years will be eclipsed by a proposed $486 billion increase in defense spending.
     As for the CBO report, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price commented on Monday, “We think the CBO simply has it wrong.” That was a repetition of GOP criticism to the 2010 CBO analysis of Obamacare, in which expectations did not match results. In regards to the present and past reports White House press secretary Sean Spicer remarked, “We don’t believe it. Look at the CBO past score of Obamacare.”
However, the CBO is the only independent scorekeeper that is considered relevant when lawmakers formulate new policy, and current Director Keith Hall is a former George W. Bush White House official who received his current position with Paul Ryan’s and Tom Price’s support.
     Let’s be candid here, recent decisions by the Electoral College and the CBO have been unpopular, but neither side of the aisle has any intention of addressing a change. Those who have healthcare insurance provided by their employers, who can negotiate medical and pharmaceutical costs, are fortunate. In the meantime, those who do not have health insurance, those who are unable to leverage reduced medical costs, are left to founder.
     In countries around the world that have government-subsidized healthcare, wellbeing and productivity exceed the situation here in America. Politicians should be reminded who pays for their health insurance and extend common decency to their constituents.

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Written 3/8/2017
Distract Attention And Move On   

I’m sorry, but the white-knuckle thrill of this roller coaster ride is gone. After successfully navigating a much-needed change of direction in his address to the joint session of Congress, President Trump enjoyed two days of praise before that pesky Russian topic resurfaced. Unfortunately, the lyrical phrase murmured by White House press secretary Sean Spicer on February 27, “How many people have to say there’s nothing there, before you realize there’s nothing there?” actually defused nothing.
     That statement, intended to end the discussion on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ alleged contact with the Russian Ambassador, was reinforced by President Trump on Thursday March 2 while he visited the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding. When questioned by journalists, Trump stated he felt there was no reason for Sessions to recuse himself from a potential Justice Department investigation, or resign.
     However, the only problem was that while he spoke, Sessions was recusing himself in a hastily called press conference-on the advice of his staff, not the president. I give him credit for that, and as an attorney and orator, he handled the situation professionally. That did not bode well with the president, and on Friday there was a meltdown at the White House. According to CNN, “Trump is extremely frustrated with his senior staff and communications team for allowing the firestorm surrounding Attorney General Sessions to steal his thunder in the wake of his address to Congress…Nobody has seen him that upset.”
     At that point, the strategy should have been to hunker down and ride out the storm. But instead, Trump employed his mechanism of distracting attention away from an issue with tweets early Saturday morning of unfounded accusations that former president Barack Obama had wiretapped his phones at Trump Plaza during the 2016 Presidential Campaign.
     For many, including Obama, former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), President Trump crossed the line with unsubstantiated accusations.
     What should have occurred is Trump citing his source, and if it was Breitbart as reported, he would be off the hook by simply stating, “According to Breitbart…” Instead after the fact, Whitehouse Spokesperson Sarah Sanders commented, “He’s made it very clear what he believes, and he’s asking we get down to the bottom of this.”
     As of March 6, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway stated, “He has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not have.” In the mean time, 65 percent of Americans say an independent prosecutor should handle an independent investigation (CNN-ORC Poll). That will happen and certainly impede Trump’s ability to move on.

Written 2/28/17
A Trace Of Spring   

     Although spring is just three weeks away, it is certainly too early in the season for my apricot tree to start blooming. It’s that magical weather cycle I wrote about not long ago of plentiful rain alternating with sunny warm days. And while that pattern is good for wildflowers-which will begin to bloom in mid March- the apricot tree may have some problems setting blossoms and fruit.
     Every year is different for fruit trees here in the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In years like this when tenacious white blossoms sparkle in the winter sunlight, the perils of strong cold winds, frost and snowfall remain a constant threat to my springtime bowl of sliced apricots in vanilla ice cream. As singer/songwriter Nick Drake wrote, “Fruit tree, fruit tree, no-one knows you but the rain and the air.”
     In traveling to the San Fernando Valley last week, I was amazed with how green and opulent the hillsides in Acton have become. That bodes well for the upcoming wildflower walk sponsored by Transition Habitat Conservancy (THC) and the California Native Plant Society at the THC Portal Ridge Wildlife Preserve in Lancaster, scheduled for March 18.
     The walk begins at 9:00 am just west of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve where Lancaster Road intersects with 190th Street. Driving north on the I-14 Freeway, take Avenue I west for 15 miles where it becomes Lancaster Road. After that, proceed to 190th Street where you will see ribbons directing you to the meeting location.
     Celebrate the arrival of spring in the outdoors, and bring a lunch, snacks, and drinking water. It is best to wear layered clothing and a hat, as the weather could be cool in the morning and warmer in the afternoon. Most importantly, don’t forget your camera.
      For those who wish, THC will be carpooling from the Phelan Rite Aid to Lancaster at 7:15 am. For additional information, call Wendy Walker at the THC office at (760) 868-1400 or on her cell phone at (760) 220-6141.
     To enhance your day of natural beauty, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is open from sunrise until sunset at 15101 Lancaster Road. For the latest information on the poppy bloom, call the Wildflower Hotline at (661) 724-1180. At this time due to heavier rainfall than normal, the poppy bloom starting in mid-March will be moderate.
     It has been predicted that spring of 2017 will be an exceptional year to enjoy California wildflowers. To obtain the latest Southern California and Central California wildflower information every Friday beginning in March and continuing through May, go to www.theodorepayne.org/education/wildflower-hotline.
     After years of drought, it will be refreshing once again to enjoy the wonderful palette of color.
    

Written 2/21/17
Rare Earth Elements Debacle   

In our modern high tech world, rare earth elements (REE) are needed to manufacture an array of products ranging from the ubiquitous cell phone to ballistic missile guiding systems. REE are also essential in the production of electric cars, wind and jet aircraft turbines, LED lights, TV flat screens, computer hard drive magnets, smart bombs, nuclear submarines and electro-magnetic aircraft launchers. Ever since the bankruptcy of Molycorp Inc. in 2015, China has controlled 75 percent of the world’s REE supply and 90 percent of all processed REE sold to U.S. consumers, including the Pentagon (foxness.com).
     Located in Mountain Pass California, Molycorp was the only REE mine in America and the poster child of the industry with its state-of-the arts facility. However, after spending $1.3 billion to upgrade productions and secure environmental permits, Molycorp could not sell its minerals cheaper than state operated Chinese mines. Even with a $3 million earmark secured by former Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) in the House Defense appropriations bill citing national security concerns and a $540 million loan from a hedge fund- Molycorp defaulted. Lost were 400 jobs and scores of career training students at Barstow Community College, who would have become the next generation of employees at Mountain Pass.
     During the Obama administration, and in spite of a feature topic on CBS’ 60 Minutes in regards to Molycorp’s importance to national security, it was decided not to approve a $1.4 billion federal bailout. Instead, millions of dollars were appropriated to solar panel company Solyndra, which was importing REE from China and even then went bankrupt.
     For stockholders of record, who believed the U.S. Government would bail out Molycorp as it had for Chrysler Corporation during the Vietnam War when Chrysler was the sole producer of Army tanks-they were mistaken. The big difference then was the country was involved in a war, and the greater illusion now with all the saber rattling and tension in the South China Sea, is that in spite of everything, China will continue selling REE to the United States and its allies.
     History repeats itself, and just like in 2010 when China cut off REE sales to Japan during a territorial dispute of the China Sea, it could easily happen to the United States. As a result of that incident, Molycorp sales and stock prices soared, only to plummet when diplomacy resolved the situation.
     Later this month, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) will introduce legislation that will require the U.S. Military to obtain REE produced in America. The bill would divert funds from military aircraft and missile systems to activate abandoned facilities such as Molycorp Mountain Pass. That’s just in time, as foreign investors bid on Mountain Pass in Bankruptcy Court.
      

Written 2/15/17
Contemplating Oroville Dam   

     Along with all the accomplishments of designing exceptional dams, there have also been some miscalculations that threatened the performance of those structures. While observing the continuing saga at the Oroville Dam in the past week, I have been fascinated with the towering 770-foot high dam that seems to be functioning properly, contrasted by poorly constructed water release spillways. In the worst-case scenario, tremendous runoff from rainfall and spring snowmelt could carve a new watercourse west of the dam, resembling a smaller version of Niagara Falls.
     To begin with, there needs to be some clarification of semantics used by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the news media. The main concrete spillway is a 3,000-foot long by 300-foot wide chute extending from the lake to the Feather River, while the “Emergency Spillway” is a 1,700-foot long concrete wall or weir, extending west from the main spillway to a parking lot. There is no actual spillway structure between the weir and the river.
     Last week as water releases from the lake roared down the main spillway, a pothole in the concrete floor quickly grew to a cavern measuring 300 feet long by 500 feet wide by 45 feet deep. As the sidewalls collapsed, water spewed out both sides and into the air exposing a giant rock formation. Obviously, the main spillway had been constructed on fill dirt graded over the boulders without being anchored to bedrock. As erosion continued, deterioration of the spillway occurred both upslope and downslope.
     When the main spillway was shut off, the lake level rose to 901 feet sheeting over the weir and flowing directly down the 30-foot high face to the barren hillside below. As velocity increased due to 20 inches of rainfall, topsoil eroded exposing more rock formations. There was white water everywhere as water flow created a hole that began creeping upslope towards the base of the weir. Fearing the weir could collapse and send a 30-foot wall of water down the canyon, DWR then ramped up outflow on the damaged main spillway to 100,000 cubic feet per second-lowering the lake and eliminating water flow over the weir.
     At this point, someone needs to produce construction drawings of the weir to determine if it was built on fill or anchored into bedrock-especially the west end at the parking lot. If it was not properly constructed, it could very well collapse and develop into a new watercourse. That’s where the emergency is combined with a factor called hydraulic uplift, which may imperil both the main spillway and weir.
     If that occurs, Lake Oroville will initially be 30 feet lower until the Feather River scours a new canyon around the dam.
     



Written 2/6/17
Lady Gaga’s Kinetic Super Bowl

     Always captivated by which persona Lady Gaga will embrace next in concert, I was reasonably certain she would channel dignity as headliner of the Super Bowl half time concert. After all, her stunning rendition of the National Anthem at last year’s Super Bowl Game definitely played a part in being chosen to return this year as headliner. And although Lady Gaga rarely confines herself to traditional norms, I knew she wouldn’t waste any of her very precise 13 minute set ranting some political diatribe, which would tarnish one of her lifelong dreams of headlining at Super Bowl.
     Instead, as Lady Gaga positioned herself atop the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium dressed in a shimmery body suit with red, white and blue drones flying in the background, her political leap of faith amounted to singing the opening stanzas of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” followed by reciting the final verse of the Pledge of Allegiance... “One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
     In doing so, Lady Gaga avoided politically overt statements and instead quite cleverly wove the nationalistic tone of Berlin and the more socialist lyrics of Guthrie into a single fabric of inclusion and diversity. After that, she added aerial acrobat to her talents of singer and dancer by quite literally leaping into the air and gliding down to the stage below suspended on cables, as 111.3 million viewers worldwide watched in amazement. That in itself was certainly a dynamic introduction to what was to follow.
     Onstage, there were 20 dancers mirroring every dance step of Lady Gaga, basked in white-hot klieg lights and colorful fireworks. On the football field surrounding the stage, thousands of adoring fans waved flashlights creating a sea of golden light as the diva sang her heart out.
     The medley of her greatest hits, included: “The Edge of Glory,” “Poker Face,” with a nod to Texas, “Born This Way” - her anthem to diversity in which she sings, “I’m beautiful in my way, because God Makes no mistakes,” and “Telephone.” Continuing, Lady Gaga sang “Just Dance” while playing a keytar electronic keyboard on a shoulder strap and strutting around a male dancer holding her microphone. After that, Lady Gaga descended from the stage to a piano and sang a new song entitled “Million Reasons” before wading into the audience to shake hands with and hug fans. On the finalé of “Bad Romance,” Lady Gaga pranced up a staircase while singing, caught a football and dove off the stage.
     Indeed a phantasmagoria of kinetic singing, dancing and acrobatics- Lady Gaga achieved everything she intended without shooting herself in the foot.        
     

Written 1/28/17
 Things To Consider   

In his pedal-to-the-metal effort to affect rapid change in the Washington DC political scene, President Donald Trump is risking alienation. Forget about what he might accomplish in the first 100 days and simply focus on what has occurred in the first eight days. In that short timeframe, Trump has become the first U.S. President since Ronald Reagan to achieve a majority disapproval rating with 51 percent of voters opposed to his policies.
According to the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center, Bill Clinton reached that disapproval threshold on day 573 and likewise with Ronald Reagan on day 722, Barrack Obama on day 936, George Bush on day 1,205, and George H.W. Bush on day 1,336. Excuse the minutiae but it indicates that all those other presidents succumbed to disapproval well into their terms with a full complement of cabinet members and other political appointments in place.
To date, with 1,100 positions in the Executive Branch to be filled-700 of which are deemed critical-President Trump has only nominated 33 individuals. With all the far-reaching executive orders that have been signed, it seems inconceivable that adequate research was conducted to determine if legal ramifications were defensible.
According to the Associated Press (AP) in regards to the immigration ban, “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation as head of the State Department, were not aware of all details of the executive order until Trump signed it.”
In related incidents, Patrick Kennedy, State Department Undersecretary for Management since 2007, resigned along with the entire Senior Management Team. Additionally, dozens of career diplomats who signed on to an internal State Department dissent cable were told by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, “I think they should either get with the program or they can go.”
And then in late breaking news on Monday January 30, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates who ruled against and stated she would not defend the executive order on immigration, was fired by President Trump. In doing so, the White House stated, “Yates betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designated to protect the citizens of the United States.”
In total, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, construction of a wall on the Mexican Border, the immigration and travel ban against seven Muslim majority nations and an executive order requiring federal agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced-are agenda items currently being addressed without a full complement of expertise.
In regards to a flurry of reportage on aforementioned issues, Chief White House Strategist Stephen Bannon stated on Monday, “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.”

Written 1/30/2017
 Things To Consider   

In his pedal-to-the-metal effort to affect rapid change in the Washington DC political scene, President Donald Trump is risking alienation. Forget about what he might accomplish in the first 100 days and simply focus on what has occurred in the first eight days. In that short timeframe, Trump has become the first U.S. President since Ronald Reagan to achieve a majority disapproval rating with 51 percent of voters opposed to his policies.
According to the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center, Bill Clinton reached that disapproval threshold on day 573 and likewise with Ronald Reagan on day 722, Barrack Obama on day 936, George Bush on day 1,205, and George H.W. Bush on day 1,336. Excuse the minutiae but it indicates that all those other presidents succumbed to disapproval well into their terms with a full complement of cabinet members and other political appointments in place.
To date, with 1,100 positions in the Executive Branch to be filled-700 of which are deemed critical-President Trump has only nominated 33 individuals. With all the far-reaching executive orders that have been signed, it seems inconceivable that adequate research was conducted to determine if legal ramifications were defensible.
According to the Associated Press (AP) in regards to the immigration ban, “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation as head of the State Department, were not aware of all details of the executive order until Trump signed it.”
In related incidents, Patrick Kennedy, State Department Undersecretary for Management since 2007, resigned along with the entire Senior Management Team. Additionally, dozens of career diplomats who signed on to an internal State Department dissent cable were told by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, “I think they should either get with the program or they can go.”
And then in late breaking news on Monday January 30, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates who ruled against and stated she would not defend the executive order on immigration, was fired by President Trump. In doing so, the White House stated, “Yates betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designated to protect the citizens of the United States.”
In total, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, construction of a wall on the Mexican Border, the immigration and travel ban against seven Muslim majority nations and an executive order requiring federal agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced-are agenda items currently being addressed without a full complement of expertise.
In regards to a flurry of reportage on aforementioned issues, Chief White House Strategist Stephen Bannon stated on Monday, “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.”

Written 1/25/2017
 Replace Your Divots 

     I would like if I may, to draw a comparison between a golfing term and the Highway 138 reconstruction project. You see, when a player hits the golf ball a bit low with his club and also scoops up a clump of turf commonly referred to as a divot, the sod will take root and regrow if replaced in the divot hole. According to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, “Replacing a divot greatly speeds up the healing process of turf.”
     Likewise, we all know that the completed reconstruction of Highway 138 will greatly reduce the hazards of “Blood Alley” ranked as the most dangerous two-lane road in California. However with construction ongoing until August, the roadway has become more treacherous. For lack of a better term, I have come to associate those indentations in the asphalt on Highway 138 that once contained reflectors indicating traffic lanes, with divots.
     As construction progressed and K-Rails were moved around, abandoned divot holes that could be seen in daylight created a confusing and bumpy ride. At night and in rain or snow, the divot holes become impossible to see along with the faded temporary lane paint. While local motorists tend to be aware of the situation and obey a reduced speed limit of 45 mph, others race ahead until they encounter rough pavement and the uncertainty of the lane boundaries.
     There is however a real contrast between work performed by different contractors in CalTrans District 7 (west of the L.A. County line) and CalTrans District 8 (east of L.A. County Line). In District 7, when the reflectors were removed the pavement was also excavated and replaced with new asphalt. That created a smooth roadway, which allowed motorists to focus on narrow realignment of lanes through K-Rails.
     Look at the tire skid markets on Highway 138 between the L.A. County Line and the I-15 Freeway and that’s where you will find the divot holes. Signs that read “Construction Next 15 Miles” and “No Shoulder” should also include “Rough Pavement” wherever reflectors were removed and divot holes were ignored by the contractor. Particularly treacherous areas at Phelan Road, near Sheep Creek Wash and between Beekley Road and Highway 2, should be traversed with reduced speed and attentive caution.
     Different phases of the Highway 138 reconstruction project have been progressing now for several years. Every mile accomplished reduces the carnage, but it will not be eliminated until both Districts 7 and 8 have double lanes in each direction, or passing lanes. Until then, impatient drivers will continue to pass slower traffic on the wrong side of the road or on the shoulder. With winter weather conditions here, divot holes accentuate the hazard.

Written 1/18/2017

Theodore Payne Foundation Redo  

     After years of planning and construction, the Theodore Payne Foundation (TPF) has recently completed a nearly $1 million expansion to its headquarters campus and native plant nursery situated on 22 acres in Sun Valley, California. Initially, a $930,000 grant from the California Department of Parks and Recreation was used to upgrade the Nature Education Center, gardens and trails. A subsequent grant of $10,000 from the Community Foundation of the Verdugos funded trail improvements and signage for Wildflower Hill, while a $50,000 grant from the Ahmanson Foundation was directed to the Nature Center and trails project.

     Driving north from Tuxford Street, native plant enthusiasts are now welcomed by a new decomposed granite (DG) parking configuration and circular drive around the existing 1960s era headquarters/bookstore /art gallery/ building, which was extended to incorporate new restrooms. To the west, two separate education classrooms have been constructed facing the DG driveway. Between those structures, a pathway leads to a demonstration garden nestled in a grove of sycamore and oak trees.

     Farther up the canyon, the year-round nursery features more than 400 species of native plants, which were introduced into cultivation for public use by Theodore Payne during his lifetime. Beyond the nursery, hikers pass by seed propagation rooms on their way to Wildflower Hill.

     This Saturday on January 21, wildflower paintings created by Joan Keesey will be displayed in the art gallery with a reception from 1:00 until 3:00 p.m. and an artist talk at 2:00. Prints and cards by Keesey are available for sale throughout the exhibit, which continues until April 22.

     The following weekend on January 26, 27, 28, TPF holds its 2017 Winter Plant Sale with members receiving a 15 percent discount on plants, seeds, bulbs and clothing, with non-members also receiving a 10 percent discount after 11:00 am.

    The Theodore Payne Foundation is located at 10459 Tuxford Street in Sun Valley 91352, (818) 768-1802. Regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. For complete information on nursery stock, classes, demonstrations and garden tours throughout Southern California, go to www.theodorepayne.org.

     Celebrating 51 years in Sun Valley, TPF has a new look steeped in the historic tradition of its founder, who opened his first nursery in 1903 at 440 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. Some 114 years later, the message of Theodore Payne remains the same, “Be a good Californian; be loyal to your state and keep your landscape Californian.”

     Plan now to spend a day of discovery at the Theodore Payne Foundation and although the one thing missing is food, the picnic area under a canopy of shade trees is the perfect setting for your alfresco meal in the open air.

Written January 4, 2017
A Thorny Issue

After completing their studies in college, trade school or graduate school, 44 million Americans who financed their education with student loans are realizing that career incomes may be insufficient to address the debt. And while student loan debt at $1.3 trillion ranks second to real estate mortgage debt, it exceeds auto loans, credit card debt or home equity loans. Clearly, more than 40 percent of those who benefited from student loans are either in default, delinquent in payments, or postponing repayment.
     For some, the employment marketplace simply did not pay an amount that borrowers thought to be commensurate with a degree. For others enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF), a change in the definition of the term “public service” disqualified millions of participants.
     The PSLF program initiated in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Education provided a partial loan forgiveness track for those who would choose careers as employees of governmental agencies, employees of 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations, or employees of other groups who provide “qualifying” public service jobs.
     The guidelines of the program stipulated that after borrowers completed 120 monthly payments over a 10 year period, the balance of the loan would be forgiven. However, as cited in lawsuits by the American Bar Association and several attorneys who were disqualified, “The Department of Education changed the rules in regards to acceptable careers and redefined the scope of public service.”
     For those who were disqualified, many had chosen governmental or nonprofit jobs with a lower pay scale as a pathway to paying off their loan in 10 years. However once disqualified, they had the option of starting over again under the new rules, but were cautioned that any amount forgiven would be subject to income taxes as a “profit.”
     In a New York Times editorial, a single payment plan was recommended based on a percentage of the borrower’s income. It was felt the mechanism would provide relief for millions and increase economic stimulus, and that excessive student debt reduces disposable income spending. Additionally, “Repayment rather than default, would guarantee a steady source of income to taxpayers’ coffers.”
     On another side of the issue, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Democrats have proposed forgiveness of student loan debt and income tax for “Severely Disabled Americans,” which the Treasury Department has rejected. As borrowers age, earn less and become more infirm, nearly 500,000 have been pushed into the poverty level, while last year alone 110,000 seniors had their Social Security benefits garnished to repay student loans.
     It’s a thorny issue because many students like myself, went to school and worked jobs and did not take advantage of student loans. In retrospect, pay as you go was more rewarding.

Written December 27, 2016

New Year Resolute   

     I really mean it this time, I’m fully determined to rummage through all the clutter and remove boxes of things in the closet that have lingered too long. It’s more than a New Year’s resolution, which turned into a mere suggestion for action over the years…it is now an imperative to reclaim square footage. With the completion of my studio/workshop this year, the cabin is now designated for living, reading and writing, while the studio is a workplace where the cat is not allowed.
     In past years, I always placed more emphasis on an upcoming birthday as the impetuous for completing unfinished projects. And so upon turning 71 in October, the studio had been completed and the grand reorganization of my life was well under way. Thanks to the reappearance of my woodworking mentor Kirk who I had not seen for 20 years, the contents of a storage container were moved into the workshop and the container was removed.
     Inside my new workspace, all the things that had been packed away for 20 years since departing from my Downtown Los Angeles studio, were resituated as they once were. Framing the workbench were pegged mortise and tenon shelf brackets made from European timbers supporting a real strong shelf some 15 feet in length. Another component made by Kirk was a four foot by seven foot work table constructed of redwood timbers held together with pegged mortise and tenon joinery.
     And then, two identical three foot by eight foot shelving units, one in the cabin and one in the storage container were moved into the studio. After that, a secretary’s desk was moved into the cabin for bookkeeping chores and to contain photograph archives. I could go on and on about everything that was shifted around, however the basic objective was simply to recreate a sense of order that existed in the Arts District.
     With that accomplished in the studio, my focus now in the cabin is to shred boxes of outdated business records that will be recycled in the landscape. For some time, I have been creating a tall berm with my tractor, layering tree trimmings as compost with soil. With all that frozen for the winter, I will busy myself indoors shredding and bagging everything for another layer.
     It’s called “Lasagna Gardening” or sheet composting and consists of alternating layers of brown leaves, soil, shredded paper and pine needles, with green garden trimmings. In time, it compacts and decomposes, creating a unique profile to be capped eventually with ornamental vegetation.
     With everything now separate but equal, I am committed to spending a little time each day discarding what is no longer needed, with the mantra being, organize and simplify.

Written December 19, 2016
Conclusion At Last
     For better or not, the American presidential campaign that extended itself for just short of 20 months, is over. The Electoral College confirmed the presidency of Donald Trump on the day the planet Mercury turned retrograde, something that would have certainly caught the attention of Nancy Reagan as she flipped through the pages of her astrology books. Followed closely by the shortest period of daylight in the year ushering in the beginning of winter, the white middle class has prevailed even if they have to burn the furniture to keep warm before their manufacturing jobs return to America.
     However in the land of endless campaign promises, Trump has the ability to pull a rabbit out of his hat if he follows successful business models, such as those of Germany and Japan. Although the terms “technical education for the young” and “reeducation for older workers” were not spoken to his rust belt constituency- simply because the mere promise of returning jobs garnered thunderous applause-those words need to be clearly enunciated before workers whose jobs were outsourced to foreign countries, stand on the curb expecting a ride back to shuttered factories.
     The German model of manufacturing is dependent upon an apprentice program that trains high school students in technical trades beginning from the age of 14. Students who are non-college bound spend one half of their school day working with craftsmen, until they graduate from high school. In the end, students are trained for real jobs that exist, rather than being pandered upon by pie-in-the-sky for profit colleges that provide insufficient training for valid careers.
     Older workers should have known some 40 years ago that the Japanese concept of “just-in-time manufacturing” would eliminate their jobs as well as the opportunity for their children to work at the same plant. Everybody in those high paying jobs should have been saving their money and going to night school to learn a second trade that would have equipped them with the knowledge to rebound.
     In Japan, the concept of just-in-time manufacturing efficiently incorporated a tightly woven relationship between manufacturers and suppliers. There was no need for expensive warehouses and costly inventories because the part was delivered to the assembly line by outside suppliers, just in time for production.
     Here in America where innovation and inventions once made the country strong, we are better off retraining the workforce to repair infrastructure, create new businesses and explore new directions of employment. Shuttered factories are merely tombstones marking the place where our inventions were copied and manufactured cheaper at offshore locales.
     Where does the funding come from? Well, $5 trillion spent on wars and $125 billion wasted by the Pentagon, comes to mind.

Written December 14, 2016
Music For The Holidays

The holiday season is upon us and I like sharing the music I have enjoyed throughout 2016 with my readers. With the exception of one timeless holiday CD, these suggestions are more about just relaxing with music during the holidays, perhaps selecting stocking stuffer gifts or watching YouTube videos. And then there are the options of downloading selections from the Internet, or purchasing CD’s of local musicians from Wrightwood merchants.
My all time holiday favorite is “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” sung by Darlene Love. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it #1 of the greatest rock and roll Christmas songs ever, and Love performed the song on the David Letterman Show Christmas episode for 29 years. Originally recorded by Phil Spector, it featured Leon Russell on piano. Since his death, obscure videos of him playing and singing from that era on Shindig! have surfaced.
From Music in the Pines summer concerts, I was entranced with Jeff Toto Blues performing selections from his Death Valley Blues album accompanied by the Kelley’s Lot band. It’s magical how a Frenchman channels American roadhouse blues so perfectly. I ordered CD’s for gifts from jeff.toto@wanadoo.fr enclosed Euros and received the music in 10 days.
In the country/folk music genre, Iris DeMent is rambunctious on her “Infamous Angel CD, soulful on “Sing The Delta” and ever so peaceful on “The Trackless Woods.” She is very accomplished on piano and a champion of twangy vocals. For intricate folk guitar picking and ethereal vocals, “Time Of No Reply” by Nick Drake includes 10 previously unreleased tracks.
For the most remarkable electric guitar solo that established Prince as the greatest electric guitarist, second only to Jimi Hendricks, Google search: Prince While My Guitar Gentle Weeps, to view his dynamic performance at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The all time feel good recording of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty performing under the fictitious name of The Traveling Wilburys, teams close friends and super stars in marathon songwriting and recording sessions with stellar four part vocal harmonies. Volume One included Orbison shortly before his death and Volume Three represented the survivors. As a joke, equally mischievous as the name of the band, George Harrison suggested there should be no Volume Two, “To confuse the buggers.”
There are plenty of YouTube videos of those musicians having a wonderful time together creating stream of consciousness lyrics combined with wild guitar playing. The Traveling Wilburys Collection with a DVD is everything you could wish for from those musicians in their prime.
 Shop locally for the holidays, with CD’s by Walter Foley, Greg Jones Band, Megan and William Fiorella, Gary Sizemore and Adam VanOstenbridge available at the Village Grind.

Written Decembe 7, 2016
Ghost Ship Fire   

     The tragic warehouse fire in Oakland that killed 36, requires a keen understanding as to why those who lived there, worked there or visited the Ghost Ship Artist’s Collective would risk their lives in such a dangerous labyrinth of clutter. For those artistic Young Turks, it was an escape from societal norms and skyrocketing rents in the fourth most expensive city in the United States for housing. Unfortunately, the magical allure of an environment filled with boundless creativity prior to the fire as viewed at www.oaklandghostship.com, blindsided them to the apparent hazards.
     Some 30 years ago in Oakland as well as Downtown Los Angeles, artist sought out the large spaces of abandoned warehouses to create large paintings and sculptures. The rent was dirt-cheap, there were no neighbors to complain about nighttime noise and nobody ever discussed the issue of living in the space. However unlike the Ghost Ship, there was little attention focused on dividing the building into micro living quarters.
     Instead, our spaces on desolate streets bordering the Los Angeles River were filled with woodworking machinery, cement mixers, air compressors and pneumatic chisels. Some buildings that photographers leased had elaborate dark rooms and were large enough to drive cars inside for photo shoots. We ate out, frequented the Downtown YMCA for bathing, and seldom were there more than two or three persons actually living in a warehouse or storefront.
     What we have now learned from the media coverage of the Ghost Ship Fire is that 23 artists, craftsmen, musicians and writers lived there full time, with an additional 10 to 20 others having daytime studio or gallery space. Additionally, there was a tattoo parlor and a manicure salon in the warehouse. Rents varied from $500 to $1,500 per month.
     On the first floor, a warren of artist work spaces and apartments had been constructed with five motor homes and travel trailers also serving as living quarters. In cold temperatures, electric space heaters and propane heaters were used to heat individual areas. When electrical circuits shorted out, tenants used gasoline-powered generators for lights and heat. There was only a single bathroom and no kitchen.
     The second floor contained a 2,500-square foot dance floor, performance space and musicians’ stage area, surrounded by overstuffed furniture. A permanent stairway downstairs had been covered with electrical wires and was blocked off leaving a random stack of shipping palettes as the only access and exit.
     All of this occurred not in an abandoned neighborhood but on a busy Oakland street across from a Wendy’s Restaurant. The allure of the Ghost Ship was the camaraderie and synergy that inspires artists to a higher level. Cannot this be achieved in safe buildings?    
      

Time To Be Winter Wise   

     Now that a dusting of snow on the San Gabriel Mountains has signaled the arrival of winter, there are probably some outdoor chores that were postponed during the past few weeks in lieu of delightful beach weather. I’m not predicting the drought is over, but the entire Tri-Community is likely to experience some wind, rain and snow. And so it is time to address tree limbs hanging over roofs and rain gutters, as well as storing firewood and cleaning chimneys and stove pipes.
     With most trees and plants now slumbering through the winter, branches that provided shade in the summer should now be pruned away from roofs and rain gutters. It’s a relatively easy task to accomplish in fair weather instead of wondering what to do when a branch heavy with snow collapses on the roof, or when rain gutters and downspouts are clogged with leaves and no longer function.
     Garden hoses for the most part should be rolled up and stored indoors where in the case of a fire they will remain pliable instead of frozen. Hose bibs and exposed water pipes should then be insulated with foam sleeves, which are available at all hardware stores. If left outdoors, garden hoses are susceptible to being nibbled on by critters during the long winter, or frozen brittle under ice.
     On the subject of firewood, signs of the drought are evident with termites in oak and bark beetles in conifers. For that reason, a large supply of firewood should be covered and stored outdoors where freezing weather will kill any remaining insects. And then to be especially cautious, I store firewood indoors in a covered metal container. Likewise for hot ashes that go into another metal container and remain there for a few days, before I spread them around plants and shrubs as a nutrient.
     If you burn pine or other conifer firewood, it is essential to have a chimneysweeper periodically remove the resins that accumulate in chimneys and wood burning stovepipes. At the same time have the spark arrestor on the top inspected. The first remedy eliminates chimney fires, while the second prevents sparks from igniting the roof or surrounding vegetation.
     Each winter before using wall furnaces, accumulation of dust should be removed before lighting the pilot. On heating systems, mechanical parts should be inspected annually when filters are replaced. For other electrical heating devises, they should be placed far enough from furniture and curtains to avoid a fire, and should be closely monitored if there are children or pets in the household.
     Wintertime has a magic sparkle and I enjoy writing with the woodstove crackling and outdoor tasks completed –prepared for rain or snow.       

Written November 20, 2016

Leon Russell   

Few modern day musicians have achieved the immense stature of Leon Russell, who passed away on November 20. As a piano virtuoso, he mastered the musical genres of blues, jazz, gospel and rock music while playing anonymously for the famed recording session orchestra known as The Wrecking Crew. At the same time Russell recorded several country albums written and performed under the nom de plume of Hank Wilson, became a rock star with Elton John opening his concerts, and wrote songs that were recorded by more than 100 musicians.
At the age of 14, Leon Russell was proficient on piano, guitar, baritone horn and trumpet as he performed in Tulsa Oklahoma nightclubs. And while his underage status was accepted because Oklahoma was a dry state with no liquor sales, he would need fake ID for a two-month concert tour with Jerry Lee Lewis and many other gigs until he was legal age.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1958, Leon Russell spent the next ten years as a studio musician for Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound Orchestra-The Wrecking Crew-that recorded 140 top ten hits and forty number one hits. From those recording sessions, Leon Russell and Glen Campbell stood out as musician’s musicians and also became immensely popular solo acts.
After that, Russell performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends with his first commercial success as a songwriter being “Delta Lady,” sung by Joe Cocker. That was in 1970 the same year Russell released his first self-titled album, which included musicians Mick Jagger, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
It was a big year for Leon Russell who was then called upon to salvage a fallen apart seven-week Joe Cocker concert tour, which, if not performed, would place Cocker in trouble with the Musician’s Union, immigration authorities and concert promoters. And so Leon threw together a ten-musician band with a rhythm section, horn section and choir of 11 singers. After four twelve- hour rehearsals the band and entourage called Mad Dogs & Englishmen flew off to Detroit for their first concert, and musical history.  
During his career, Leon Russell wrote 430 songs and recorded 35 albums. Several YouTube must hear cover songs include: Rolling Stones’ “Get A Line On You,” (with Leon Russell) written and recorded by Russell in 1969 with Jagger on lead vocals. It did not make the cut for Leon’s first album and later appeared in Exile On Main Street by the Rolling Stones as, “Shine A Light.”
And then from the Mad Dogs & Englishmen album, Joe Cocker sings Leonard Cohen’s “Bird On A Wire” with intense soul.  Most popular of all is Leon’s “A Song For You.”

It will complete a trio of new phantasmagoric buildings in the neighborhood extending along Wilshire and up Fairfax Avenue.   

Written October 18, 2016

Just Like Bob Dylan   

While there were many who were surprised last week to hear that Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, I smiled in joy for his body of work spanning 54 years, with 37 studio albums released, which had achieved the ultimate recognition. And although there were some critics who did not equate song writing to be on the same level as literature, it was just like Bob Dylan to put that issue to rest in 1964 when he sang, “Yippee! I’m a poet and I know it. Hope I don’t blow it.”
Back then for those who were listening, Bob was sharing his literary influences in song and action. Initially, he changed his last name from Zimmerman to Dylan in homage to the English poet Dylan Thomas. After that, there were references to Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, as well as French symbolists Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. As Dylan absorbed the surrealistic imagery and cadence of those writers, he reprocessed the information into his own song lyrics with folk, country, blues, gospel and rock musical scores.
I was first introduced to his music by my best friend Valerie, in 1964. At that time, the prolific Dylan had released four albums since his debut in 1962. Late at night when it was time for the parties to end, there was always a single formula that triggered an exodus of our peers. I would simply play Dylan on the stereo and then Valerie and I would be left alone to dote over every phrase searching for the meaning while jotting down the names of the aforementioned poets for our next visit to the library.
That was the year in which Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, and it signaled an exodus for some and a baptism for many more. And then beginning in 1965, Dylan launched a frenetic trilogy of albums with Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde all written, recorded and released within 14 months. Collectively, the lyrics and album notes of Dylan reached a pinnacle of literature that would not be repeated by him or others.
Musically, Blond on Blond was burnished to perfection with Mike Bloomfield, Al Cooper, Charlie McCoy and Robbie Robertson performing for the recording sessions. As rock and roll’s first double album and considered one of the greatest albums of all time, the songs Visions Of Johanna, One Of Us Must Know, Absolutely Sweet Marie, and Just Like A Woman were the finest and the remainder are just great.
For those of us who learned so much from Bob Dylan about every somber mood and exhilaration, it was always poetry and literature.

Written 10/11/16

Locker Room Talk  

     Certainly there was vulgar language being spoken in my high school locker room, particularly by a fellow named Dave who had a tarnished girl friend. Back then, maturity moved much slower for my classmates, except for Dave, and me and we were quite frankly shocked by his language of conquest at a school site.
    At the time, I was infatuated with an athletic cheerleader I met in Latin Club. I always felt like a champion approaching the finish line in track and cross-country races with Pam waving her pompoms and cheering for me. We were a romantic team but in a wholesome way with no disrespect.
     Later on in college at Cal State Los Angeles, the locker room crowd was much larger and more diverse but there was little profane language. We were all competitive athletes and mostly commuters with part time jobs, and that left little energy to blather a lot of sexual jive.
     And then nightly at the Downtown Los Angeles YMCA for ten years, the locker room was filled with young attorneys from O’Melveny & Myers law firm, artists from the Art District and married professionals from the Financial District. That is where I encountered zero crude bantering language. Everyone was focused on healthy exercise and developing friendships with those from different backgrounds.
     It was there I met the chaplain for the Motion Picture & Television County House and Hospital, who drove Downtown frequently from the San Fernando Valley to exercise and converse with new friends in the steam room and Jacuzzi. Most recently in Burbank and Apple Valley at 24 Hour Fitness, there is a family atmosphere without any creepy innuendoes.
     I was therefore stunned last Friday when the audio recording of Donald Trump talking with Billy Bush that denigrated women was released and included explicit sexual language. I had not heard that phrase with the “P” word in it for 52 years. I was shocked back then when teenager Dave blurted out the same words, but never thought it would surface again in a presidential campaign. And then for Trump to dismiss it simply as common locker room talk, I’m sorry but I’ve only heard it once before and that was from perverted Dave.
     In the recording Trump can be heard saying, “I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her.” That comment subsequently led to the response, “Tic Tac respects all women. We find the recent statements and behavior completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We can’t help you. We do not want to be involved with the Trump campaign.”
     To quote the words of Walter Cronkite, “And that’s the way it is” until another Election 2016 surprise emerges.

Lemmings And Glass Houses   

Just before exiting Washington D.C. for their fall recess and not to return until after the November 8 Election, Congressmen and Senators voted en masse to override President Barrack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).  Prior to enacting the bill into law, which would permit 9/11 victims and families to sue Saudi Arabia, nearly one fifth of the Senate released a letter expressing concerns but then they voted for it anyway.
In doing so, Congress ignored warnings from the U.S. Intelligence Community and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and instead being caught up in the emotionalism of the 9/11 tragedy, struck down the principles of Sovereign Immunity that protect our armed forces, officials and diplomats from foreign court proceedings.
After the bill became law, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell commented, “It appears there may be some unintended ramifications of this bill.” He then blamed Obama for not explaining things. However, the damage was done and the halls of congress went dark after anti-Arab sentiment was increased.
Prior to JASTA, U.S. nationals were permitted to sue a foreign state for injuries, death or damages from an act of international terrorism if that state was designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. Department of State. However, the American military ally of Saudi Arabia has not been named as such.
What JASTA allows is for 9/11 victims and families, who opted out of the Victims Compensation Fund approved by Congress in late 2001, to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for pain and suffering, based on the fact that 15 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi citizens. In the Victims Compensation settlement, claimants received up to $8.5 million individually with total payouts reaching $7 billion.
In vetoing JASTA, Obama contended the bill takes authority to determine if a state has become a sponsor of terrorism away from the Federal Government and places it in lower courts, which may have incomplete information. For 9/11 victims and families who opted out of the Victims Compensation Fund, the entire process is a gamble to receive more than $8.5 million with attorneys eagerly circling to represent them through years of costly litigation.
For politicians, it was absolutely despicable to vote on something they had not researched. Like lemmings stampeding into the abyss, there was zero consideration for the pandemonium that would ensue. The United States had hoped that Arab partners could intercede in the wars of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen.
However in the theater of glass houses, negation of sovereign immunity can be turned around against the United States if not respected. Drone victims and their families worldwide will be the first to sue.    

Written September 26, 2016
First Presidential Debate   

Reflecting back on my column of last week, I was greatly relieved during the first Presidential debate that there was a definite emphasis on fact checking forced upon Donald Trump by Hillary Clinton. In the past week, there has also been considerable chatter from the Commission on Presidential Debates and the news media on whether it is their responsibility or the viewers, to discern the truth.
At any rate, the topic made a quantum leap and Clinton was adept in focusing on her intended policies if elected, while sources indicate Trump stretched the facts more than Clinton. That may have been because he seemed less prepared and more inclined to fall back on past transgressions, including bullying the debate format. On the positive side, Trump scored on the subject of outsourcing American jobs and calling Clinton “A creature of the political past.”
On the other hand, Clinton was in an attack mode as she reminded Trump that he supported the invasion of Iraq and taking that country’s oil, which he denied, yet his exact quote from the 2002 Howard Stern Show was, “Yeah, I guess so.” Although that comment mirrored Karl Rove’s viewpoint, it would have been illegal under international law. When moderator Lester Holt insisted, “Records show you supported the war” Trump shouted, “You are wrong.”
     He then countered that Barrack Obama and Clinton created a vacuum in removing troops from Iraq that led to the birth of ISIS. That is technically true because the head of ISIS was incarcerated until U.S. troops withdrew. However, there were many more factors of unrest created by the war, which led to the rise of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
When Clinton pressed Trump to release his tax returns that would reveal his six bankruptcies, his income, and his charitable contributions, he retorted, “On several occasions I took advantage of the laws. That makes me smart.” However that flies in the face of a 40-year precedent for presidential candidates to release their tax returns. It also was in conflict with his view that relaxing corporate regulations and reducing their taxes from 30 to 15 percent would encourage corporations to bring their current offshore wealth home. Let’s be candid Donald, they are just as smart as you.
And then in a break from GOP and NRA gun policies that could cost him votes, Trump agreed with Clinton that guns should not be sold to those on no-fly and terror watch lists, which Congress is opposed to.
Lastly, Trump, who has denied climate change as a hoax commented, “The nuclear threat, not global warming, is the worst evil.”  So here we are with Cold War jargon in the ninth month of hottest temperatures ever recorded.

Written September 20, 2016

Beyond The Confusion 

With just 50 days remaining until Election Day, a sizeable number of voters are confused if not wallowing in ennui, about the leading Presidential candidates. Two national polls indicate one third of likely voters age 19 to 29 are considering voting for a third party candidate. In addition to that age group, there are probably a sizeable number of voters who at one time participated in protest votes but have since become more pragmatic.
As a result we now have the Green Party and the Libertarian Party and Ralph Nader was able to be a Presidential candidate on four occasions. Currently, Bernie Sanders galvanized the third-party notion with his progressive movement “revolution” appealing to a large number of voters, but not enough.
I was relieved last week when in a Washington Post interview Sanders commented, “Think hard before casting a protest vote. Elect Hillary Clinton and the day after, begin to mobilize millions of people around the progressive agenda that was passed on the Democratic Platform.” And while that means it will be some time before Sanders and Elizabeth Warren affect a change, it should encourage those on the fence to participate in that goal.
On another issue pertaining to Presidential Debates, I have no vote of confidence for the mainstream news celebrities who just cannot steer either candidate towards pertinent issues that Americans are concerned about. And then reading an article by Bill Moyers I found the reason.  Beginning in 1976, the League of Women Voters conducted Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates. But then in 1988 the League pulled out stating, “We firmly believe that those who report the news should not make the news.” At the same time, Walter Cronkite agreed and wrote, “The debates are part of the unconscionable fraud of our political campaigns...the candidates participate only with the guarantee of a format that defies meaningful discourse.”
The official debates are now conducted by the Commission on Presidential Debates-a private corporation owned and controlled by the Democratic and Republican Parties, which dictates the format to news media moderators and forbids real time fact checking.
And so, American voters are not only tethered to two leading candidates that are not presidential material, they are force fed a desirable image that supports the two party system. During the Commander-in-Chief Forum, lies were told with no accountability for the truth.
For debate viewers, a first impression remains valid unless accuracy is questioned immediately. Afterwards is too late for fact checking. People move on in their busy daily lives and will continue to believe what Donald or Hillary said on TV as the truth.  The position of a moderator is to preside over a debate and to question radical or extreme accusations.

Written  September 14, 2016

Written August 25, 2016

Evacuate or Don’t?  

As another wildfire threatened the Tri-Community and surrounding areas, that reoccurring question arose, “Should I go or should I stay?”  First of all, mandatory evacuation orders issued by fire officials are a logical tactic that is not a legally binding policy. They are designed to remove civilian residents from impending danger while the going is good on escape routes, and before a possible firestorm hits.
Secondly, few residents of fire prone areas have ever experienced a true firestorm or lived to tell of it, as fire personnel have. If you have a spouse, children or animals, your responsibility to them mandates an exodus.
Aside from that, any individual resident who chooses to stay has the legal right to remain and defend their property. However with the decision to stay, don’t expect the firemen who ordered you to leave to come back later and park a fire engine in your driveway and protect you. It’s a tough decision, but once made you are on your own because things could change in an instant and prevent escape.
What that means quite clearly is you might survive if you have a defensible space around your residence, a water supply, a generator/pump and fire hoses. In the Village of Wrightwood, very few structures have those resources in the tinder dry forest.
     On the morning of October 28, 1978, I was living in Malibu on an eight-acre ocean front estate and awoke to 60 mph winds gusting down Decker Canyon through the property. At noon, the 25,000-acre Agoura-Malibu Firestorm started at the Ventura Freeway and by 2:30 PM the fire jumped Pacific Coast Highway. I had decided to stay based on the facts that the estate had two-inch fire hydrants on the grounds with plenty of fire hoses, a swimming pool with a generator/pump, and fire sprinklers on the structures.
When the firestorm hit it sounded like a train wreck and all the trees alongside the highway exploded in flames. As water pressure dropped, I turned off the city water and began pumping the swimming pool back into the water lines. In the worst-case scenario I would escape to the ocean. However, with the resources I had, I was able to save the main house, my cottage and sculpture studio.
Everything else at Roland Kinney’s seaside Sherwood Forest, including the caretakers home, garages, greenhouses and tool sheds, was totally vaporized out of existence, as was the opulent landscaping.  Think of a moonscape and that is what everything looked like.
And so, the message here is firestorms create their own wind and the intense heat can ignite objects well ahead of the actual fire. The decision to stay is a true risk.

Written August 18, 2016

I’m A Believer   

For quite some time, the sun has felt hotter to me than ever before. That’s quite a statement coming from someone who lived on the beach for 18 years and spent a considerable amount of time swimming, surfing and sunbathing. As for now, my bare skin can take about ten minutes before I feel a burning and itching sensation.
When I moved to the High Desert 20 years ago, it took some adjustment in spite of the fact I had been a weekend warrior for years before that. However, with caution and plenty of sunscreen I remained in quest of a golden suntan. It’s just in the last couple of years that I would rather sleep late and began my outdoor day late in the afternoon and into the cool evening. Thanks to my baseball cap with LED headlights, I am perfectly happy to begin my gardening and watering as the sun sets.
Well, this will be the week that substantiates my belief that it is better to just stay out of the sun. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an ultraviolet (UV) alert for Southern California, which on a scale of zero to 11 ranks ten or a “Very High” likelihood of damaging skin in 15 minutes of exposure to the sun.
According to the EPA, “Depletion of the ozone layer by carbon dioxide and methane gas, as well as seasonal and weather variations, causes different amounts of UV radiation reach the earth at any given time.” That information, combined with new findings to be released by NASA on August 17, indicate the sun’s rays through the depleted ozone have caused the Earth to become hotter than ever before.
Last month according to NASA, was the warmest July in recorded history dating back to 1880. Additionally, every month of this year so far has experienced a record breaking high. If that’s not bad enough, The New Republic reports, “Carbon dioxide and methane gas have created record setting droughts.”
So here I am in my golden years trying to conserve water by giving my plants and shrubs a little less to survive on and what happens? Well, the lilacs that normally lose the shinny luster on their leaves but will instead just turn a dull green, totally fried in the hot sun. And then the penstemons in the glen that looked like a meadow of tiny purple gladiolas also fried and turned brown all the way to the ground. Normally, after cutting off the dead flowers and broadcasting the seeds, compact tufts of green survived with infrequent irrigation and summer rainfall, to bloom again the next spring.
It’s hotter than ever before here in the foothills and I will miss the color.                                       

Written  8/9/16
  Jean-Francois Thomas  

     Not since Plastic Bertrand captivated rock and roll fans worldwide with his French-language hit single entitled Ca Plane Pour Moi, have I been so excited about music that I don’t understand. It is somewhat magical and liberating to be free from the lyrics and empowered instead by musical instruments and the rhythmic beat. Don’t get me wrong because the lyrics are still there and can be mesmerizing, but if you don’t understand much French, the song is dependent on those other elements.
     In the case of Ca Plane Pour Moi, which translates as “This life or level is for me,” or “everything’s going well for me,” it topped the charts at #1 in France and Switzerland, # 8 in the United Kingdom and #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. The classic three-chord punk/new wave recording sold 900,000 copies worldwide and has had 2.5 million YouTube viewers.
     And so I am hoping the French-language CD Death Valley Blues of Jean-Francois Thomas (aka Jeff Toto Blues), who performed last week at Music in the Pines with Kelly’s Lot, will become a similar musical phenomena. As with Plastic Bertrand’s Greatest Hits album, Jean Francois included a few song titles in English and that was just enough of a hook to get the audience cheering and applauding when he sang the phrases “Death Valley Blues,” “Down in Mississippi,” or “California forever.”
     Of those three songs, “California” passed muster to be considered an anthem. With a pulsating drum beat, syncopated organ passages, screeching electric guitars and continuous repetitions of the word California, the audience was raising their arms skyward and singing the chorus “California forever” with Jean-Francois. Google search California (Album Death Valley Blues) for a dynamic YouTube video.
     In concert, Jean-Francois sang with a raspy forceful voice and played a mean electric guitar. The music was American blues and rock channeled through the consciousness of a Frenchman. At one point, he sat down on the stage with the blue guitar on his lap and went into a slide guitar mode, once again amazing the audience.
     On the Death Valley Blues CD there is a romantic ballad entitled Passer du Temps in which Jean-Francois sings with a gravelly voice that rivals Louis Armstrong singing What A Wonderful World. It is absolutely beautiful and has me reaching for my French dictionary to learn the lyrics. What a blissful diversion from our American election from hell!
     Jean-Francois Thomas is currently touring California with Kelly’s Lot during August. It is a concert worth experiencing and for those who attended the Wrightwood concert at The Apple Farm, it was a night to remember. Buy Death Valley Blues and get back to your roots.

Written 7/18/16

 UCLA Art Studios Gift 

     For many years Los Angeles art dealer Margo Leavin eked out more than just a living from her gallery. In spite of the constant relocation of galleries throughout Southern California, Leavin maintained a unique presence at 812 Robertson Boulevard for 42 years representing cutting edge artists of New York and Los Angeles. On Tuesday July 19, the U.C. Board of Regents will formally accept her donation of $20 million to rebuild the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture graduate art studios in Culver City. The donation is the largest ever gifted by a single alumna within the U.C. System.
     From 1970 until she retired in 2012, Leavin represented the rising stars in the art world. Among those were Donald Judd, Martin Puryear, Linda Benglis, John Baldessari, Claes Oldenburg, Alexis Smith, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Moses, Ellsworth Kelly and David Hockney. When the gallery closed, the Getty Research Institute received archives of 400 solo exhibits.
     For her next project, Margo Leavin became the catalyst for remodeling an aging World War II era bow-and-truss warehouse owned by UCLA and used for graduate art studios. There had been plans, which never materialized, to provide proper ventilation, light, and a roof that didn’t leak.  However, when Leavin learned of the fallow effort, she dove in asking many questions and wanted to meet the dean.
     During an L.A. Times interview Leavin commented, “It’s crucial. Most universities do not have a problem raising funds for medicine, stem cell research, health, etc. But the arts do not have as wide of an audience. And UCLA is a jewel of a school.” Earlier this year, U.S. News and World Report ranked UCLA masters of fine arts program number two in the nation.
     Situated on an acre and a quarter parcel of land, the original warehouse will remain while subsequent additions constructed over the years will be demolished. And then, the architectural firm Johnston Marklee & Associates has designed classrooms, artist-in-residence studios, gardens, a gallery and a communal kitchen flanking the warehouse with its roofing material removed but trusses remaining. The entire complex will then be wrapped in a translucent polycarbonate box with indoor and outdoor areas protected by a singular roof.
     When completed in 2019, the Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios will increase existing useable space by 40 percent. Although the project is estimated to cost $31 million, Leavin’s contribution represents two thirds of that amount and certainly will garner the remaining donations from the art world-at-large.
     In thanking Los Angeles for her success Leavin commented, “Instead of giving just small amounts in different places, I thought it would be better to have an impact on the community. What’s more important than the artists?”                     

Written 7/11/16 

Assault Rifles And Death  

     There appears to be a serious disconnect in our society when we hear more and more frequently about atrocious violence committed with assault rifles followed by the statement, “The gunman legally purchased the weapon after a background check.” And then as equally absurd we hear, “The gunman had no criminal record or indications of mental illness.” With those comments being said over and over by law enforcement agencies, it seems anyone can purchase an AR-15 assault weapon until they commit a crime or go nuts and massacre a group of people.

     At the time of the Orlando shootings President Obama commented, “The FBI often knows about sympathizers of the self described Islamic State but can’t limit access to firearms due to contentious gun laws in America.” Well, it’s time for every rational citizen, politician and even the President of the United States to say, “Enough is enough,” to the National Rifle Association (NRA).

    There is absolutely no justification for the NRA to play the 2nd Amendment card in defending the sale or ownership of any firearm other than a non-automatic handgun, a conventional rifle or a shotgun. An expert marksman can fall a deer or drop a bird from the sky with one shot. Any of these weapons is plenty enough firepower for hunting, skeet shooting, target practice or stopping an intruder in a home invasion.

     On June 16, 2016 in an exclusive NBC News interview, the family of AR-15 inventor Eugene Stoner spoke out about the weapon. They commented, “Our father Eugene Stoner designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the Russian AK-47.” During his lifetime, the ex-Marine and sportsman, hunter and skeet shooter never used his invention for sport.

     At the same time in a Washington Post article Hillary Clinton remarked, “Orlando reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets.” In reality, all attempts, to regulate possession of AR-15 assault weapons through gun control legislation have been totally ineffective. In our society transfixed and mesmerized by violent motion pictures and video games, there is a certain allure to the rapid fire that eclipses the now boring pastime of shooting at tin cans on a fence.

     With no certain way to determine when someone with an AR-15 might snap and fire into a crowd of victims, the only solution is to outlaw all sales and possession of that weapon, except for law enforcement and the military. In time if there were only handguns, shotguns and rifles in America, police would have less of a need for assault weapons. That would leave only the military so armed, for which the AR-15 was invented.

July 7, 2016

Music Everywhere 

     Since the 2016 Wrightwood summer concert season began last month, additional musical choices being scheduled have created a buzz of excitement in the Alpine Village. In addition to Music in the Pines, which begins on July 7, indoor performances include Terry “Big T” DeRouen at The Yodeler, Mark Barrera and Dave Leicht at the Village Grind (both on July 8), The Wrightwood Blues Society on July 9, and a Wrightwood Classical Concert fundraiser on August 6.

     Music in the Pines begins on July 7 and continues on July 21, August 4 and August 18 at 5:30 PM in the Apple Farm at Highway 2 and Rivera Drive. Go To www.mountainmusic.net for a complete schedule.

     The Terry DeRouen Band continued their summer residency at The Yodeler with riveting performances every Friday night at 8:00 PM and just added on Saturday July 30. Last Friday, musicians included Big T on lead guitar and vocals, Walter Foley on second guitar, Joe Ferraro on rhythm guitar, Mike Webster on bass guitar, John Burcher on saxophone, Georges Flores on keyboards, Orlando Reynolds on drums, Dave Leicht on harmonica and guest performance from Jessica Gonzalez on drums and Mark Valdez on bass guitar. Mike Webster performs with Seville Street Blues on July 21 at Music in the Pines.

     At the Village Grind, Mark Barrera and Dave Leicht will appear on Fridays July 8 and July 15, from 5:00 until 7:00 PM, to sing covers and original compositions with guitars and harmonica. Don’t miss these very talented Wrightwood musicians.

     Greg & Sandy Jones host the Wrightwood Blues Society in their home on a monthly basis with the mission of promoting blues music as a cultural legacy and showcasing blues performers in Wrightwood. Last month, legendary guitarist Dave Pruitt and his band were the guest performers.

     Attendance is by invitation only due to parking restrictions at Jones Chateau. For additional information on the Wrightwood Blues Society or to be included on the guest list for an evening of fabulous food, music and an art auction, call Greg Jones at (760) 574-8231.

     On Saturday August 6, the Wrightwood Classical Concert Series presents an evening of great jazz music, a chef-prepared four-course dinner with wine parings, and a spectacular view of the sunset from a unique Wrightwood home. Musicians include Program Director Walter Foley on guitar, internationally acclaimed Marshal Hawkins on upright bass, Wynell Montgomery playing saxophone, Lynn Davison on keyboards and Frederick Dotson on drums.

     Admission for this fundraiser is $75.00 for dinner and concert, or $25.00 for the concert. For reservations contact Joyce Wonderly at (760) 249-3487 or (cell) (909) 831-0082 or Go to www.KeyboardArt.com

     There is music everywhere in Wrightwood this summer. Make it your destination.

    

June 30, 2016
Brexit For Breakfast   

Not since the British Government imposed draconian income tax on rock stars years ago, has there been such a divisive economic repercussion as Brexit. For the 54 percent of Americans who have no knowledge of Brexit, the term is an abbreviation for a British exit from the European Union (EU). Voters in England last week had a choice on a referendum called for by Prime Minister David Cameron -to remain in the EU or leave- and they decided to bail out.
According to Bloomberg.com, “In the mid 1960’s the top rate for British taxpayers reached 83 percent with the wealthiest paying a 15 percent ‘Super-tax’ on top of that pushing taxes as high as 98 percent”. And so, the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Bad Company, Sting and countless other rock stars transferred their assets to other countries and became tax exiles, with the British Government receiving nothing.
In many ways, the majority vote to “Leave” was a knee jerk reaction to EU immigration policies and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The British Government pays billions of dollars per year as dues for EU membership and in return receives millions of dollars to finance infrastructure projects and educational programs for EU citizens who have migrated to England with residency work permits.
The County of Cornwall receives $82 million per year in EU subsidies and is heavily dependent on those funds. In spite of the fact that “Leave” campaigners assured the county it would not lose any subsidies that will not be the case. And so, as Britons eat their breakfast each day since the vote, there has been some buyer’s remorse and a spike in Google searches to determine what they voted for.
Once again, the British Government receives nothing for demanding too much. EU subsidies will cease and with the high level of animosity towards the EU during the election campaign, many guest workers fear they will have to leave.
For hundreds of thousands of EU workers, England had become an adopted home and many are attempting to get British passports. The Financial Times reports, “If Britain’s current immigration rules were applied to EU nationals, an overwhelming majority would lose their jobs and be forced to leave the country”
That in itself does not bode well for Polish workers who number 850,000 out of an estimated 3 million EU citizens in England. Since the election, there has been a sharp increase in xenophobic incidents and racial hate crimes urging Poles to go home.
With Great Britain becoming the first country to leave the EU, it will have to train its own citizens to be the workforce. That will require a stiff upper lip.      

June 16, 2014



June 9, 2016
Under the direction of Dan Campbell for eight years and now Claudia Campbell for three years, Music in the Pines has evolved into a spectacular family summer event. It never could have been such a success without community support and the contribution of Eric Steinmann in creating The Apple Farm.

June 2, 2016

May 19, 2016:

                                           Media Election Fanfare

 

     The 2016 presidential campaign is beginning to appear like a runaway train with the brakeman sound asleep. The accusations will certainly be NSFW nor resplendent with family values. Back in the days when it was a man’s world, politicians conducted extramarital affairs with full knowledge of their security personnel and the press corps, which were secretly dismissed because “Boys will be boys.”

     In recent history, the list of U.S. Presidents who had affairs includes Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton. However in this election year according to the New York Times on May 16, “Donald Trump plans to throw Bill Clinton’s infidelities into Hillary’s face on live TV during presidential debates this fall purporting she enabled his behavior and sought to discredit the women involved.”

     If that is not bad enough considering there are far more important national and international issues to address in the presidential campaign, mainstream media reported today, “Hillary has been really ugly in trying to destroy Bill’s mistresses.”

     I’m sorry, but in my worldly experiences here in California, this type of situation goes on all the time. Anyone who knows wealthy people knows that the husband and wife have separate bank accounts and when one gets caught in a transgression, punishment amounts to a transfer of funds. While divorce is an option, hitting the offending spouse’s bank account establishes independence and leverage.

     In the past, I respected Hillary’s intelligence for having graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School. After Bill’s White House affairs when she started inserting her maiden name Rodham in between Hillary and Clinton, I thought she was asserting her independence in advance of a divorce. However that did not happen and then when she forgave Bill, I wondered how much it cost him.

     And while Hillary has years of experience as an individual and a long list of accomplishments, there remains a great deal of old baggage. If Hillary can deflect humiliation from Trump, that will amount to a major accomplishment in her lifetime. In the meantime, all this provides fodder for tabloids and social media, and is not what most Americans find acceptable in a presidential campaign.

     On the other side, Trump claims he cannot release his income tax returns because he is being audited by IRS, and his trial for a Trump University fraud case, which may begin as early as this fall, would occur in the middle of the presidential campaign.

     All of this portends to be an unsavory situation heading into the Republican and Democratic Conventions in July. To me, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appear to be tarnished and not Presidential material.

May 12, 2016
Looking back, the best time of my life was spent in the Arts District, where rents were cheap and camaraderie abounded. However, times have changed and it remains a great place for day travelers.   


May 5, 2016:

   Great Guitarists  

 

     In the music business, the recording process often includes musicians who are brought into the session to enhance the sound. After all, an album is intended to be a commercial product and the better it sounds influences sales, merchandizing and concert tours. And while the Wrecking Crew and the Session Players Club stand out as the magic behind so many headliners, there have been some dazzling performances in rock and roll music that were less structured.

     My all time favorite pairing was Eric Clapton inviting Duane Allman to share lead guitar riffs on the single “Layla” from the album of the same title. Allman joined Clapton’s band Derek and the Dominos as a friend and guest on lead guitar and slide guitar. While Clapton and Allman played together on the front end, it was Allman’s scorching high notes on slide guitar with Jim Gordon playing piano at the conclusion that catapulted Layla to #27 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time chart.

     Two years prior, George Harrison invited Clapton to play lead guitar on the Beatles single “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Although Clapton quipped, “Nobody ever plays on the Beatles records,” Harrison convinced him to play lead on a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar that had been a gift from Clapton. The music industry secret for the White Album released in 1968 was that Clapton was not credited for his part and it would be years before we as listeners discovered it.

     One of the most amazing covers of that song occurred in 2004 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to George Harrison. Musicians included Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynn, Dhani Harrison and others.  The YouTube video of that performance, which was mostly a sleeper for years, has now gone viral since the death of Prince with more than 15 million views.

     During rehearsal, Marc Mann (Jeff Lynne’s guitar player from Electric Light Orchestra) played the traditional Beatles (Clapton) lead guitar parts while Prince graciously deferred to playing rhythm guitar and said, “I’ll just play the final solo.” In a New York Times interview last week reflecting back on that performance Tom Petty commented, “You see me nodding at Prince to say ‘Go on, go on.’ I remember I leaned out to him at one point and gave him a ‘This is going great’ kind of look. He just burned it up. You could feel the electricity of, ‘something really big is going down here.’”

     At the beginning of the three-minute solo, Prince plays perhaps five notes that identify him and then powers into a blistering tribute to George Harrison that eclipsed anything he had ever played before.

April 21, 2016

Wooden Masterpiece On Wheels

As the antithesis to the digital age of high-speed automobile concepts, Toyota Motor Corporation debuted its “Setsuna” at the Milan Design Week on April 12. Intended to create, “An enduring relationship between people and their cars,” the two-seat roadster designed by product planning department manager Kenji Tsuji is sculpted almost entirely of wood. The handcrafted vehicle is more akin to a work of art that can be handed down through generations.
With the exception of metal used for steering and wheel assemblies, axels, and undercarriage support, wooden birch timbers create the framework and are attached using blind double-wedged mortise-and-tenon woodworking joinery. On top of that, the exterior skin is made from 86 pieces of Japanese cedar attached using housed-dovetail joinery. If one piece of the paneling is damaged, it can be easily slipped free, without tools, and replaced.
The seat frames are constructed of polished castor aralia, which is known for its silky smoothness that will not damage the woven leather sling. Known for its strength and durability, Japanese zelkova wood is used as flooring.
Also in the interior, the dashboard is exactly that made from one continuous timber. The name of the car, meaning “moment,” is incorporated in the radial clock/meter that ticks away for 100 years under successive ownerships. Accents of aluminum on the dashboard, steering wheel, wheel covers, and a band around the entire car, are the only traces of the industrial age for the otherwise 19th Century auto making wood components.
As the wooden skin ages, the hand lacquered finish surface develops a unique texture and patina. However like a fine piece of furniture, the Setsuna is not particularly suited to intense sunlight, heat or humidity. Furthermore, as a concept car it is not street legal. But then, with a driving range of 16 miles at top speed of 28 miles per hour, the battery powered Setsuna is not something you would want to drive on city streets or leave in a hot parking lot.
Instead, this is the ideal car-flash forward several decades-to be safely housed in an opulent garage and occasionally driven around the grounds of Downton Abbey by a new generation of green heirs.
And while the Toyota Setsuna is not intended for production, we all know that it will be love at first sight for those who have the money and influence to demand one. For the remainder of us that have no place to garage or drive such an exceptional beauty, there is always the appreciation of various woods and the Japanese technique of wood joinery that does not require nails or screws, called Kusabi and Okuriari.       

March 24, 2016

How Many Easters?

As the Christian world prepares for Easter, one might think the most populous religious community would have more of a calming influence on events through its clergy and political leaders. It is a good time to step up to the plate, because Islam will equal Christianity by 2050 and then eclipse it 20 years later. In the United States during that timeframe, Islam will replace Judaism as the second most popular religion.

And so 13 years after American peace advocate Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza, nothing has changed there in the peace process. Quite to the contrary this week, American presidential candidates spoke to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) seeking their endorsement. Most notable in the presentations was Donald Trump reversing his past pledge to remain neutral in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, and instead pledged an “Unbreakable U.S. alliance with Israel.”

Both Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz criticized him for waffling and in doing so just perpetuated the incendiary carte blanch support for Israel. In reality, if the citizens of Israel and Palestine were allowed to vote on their destiny and that of their children, they would probably vote for peace, after decades of chaos. We should all be neutral and put an end to the profits of arms dealers and land grabbing settlement contractors.

On a similar incendiary subject this election year, the United States was on the wrong side 57 years ago supporting the Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. At that time in an assessment of Fidel Castro, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. opined, “The corruption of the government, the brutality of the police, and the government’s indifference to the needs of the people…is an open invitation to revolution.”

However there were stronger forces influencing U.S. support of Batista. American organized crime syndicates controlled alcohol, drug, gambling and prostitution, as well as hotels, casinos and nightclubs. At the time of the revolution, U.S. companies owned 40 percent of sugar plantations, all of the cattle ranches, 90 percent of the mines, 80 percent of the utilities and nearly all of the oil industry.

And so, there were some tense moments between Barack Obama and Raul Castro when Castro alluded to “U.S. double standards” during an American style press conference. You can be certain that both men were uncomfortable but remained committed to repairing diplomatic relations between the two countries. That may play into election year rhetoric to garner votes from Cuban Americans and Catholics, but then in spite of Communist austerity, Cuban doctors have invented medications, which may cure cancer, and in my opinion that is a fair trade for past United States imperialism.

This Easter in every way, tolerance for all should prevail. 

March 17, 2016

Election Year Pandering  

 

     The nature of the election year beast is that most politicians will tailor their strategies to what voters in the next state on the campaign tour want to hear. Hoping that voters have forgotten about their past position on an issue or are not astute enough to verify the facts on the Internet, these politicians will do whatever is necessary to garner thunderous applause and press coverage. And while the pandering of impossible to keep promises goes on, some legislators not seeking the presidency seem to have a better voting record and common sense than those in the race.

     While everyone knows that millions of Americans have lost their manufacturing jobs, it is totally simplistic for presidential candidates to promise they will create new jobs. Factory jobs were lost as a result of advancements in computer technology, robotics, free trade agreements and cheaper labor costs abroad. For those who lost their jobs in the prime of their working career, reeducation is the only pathway to new employment.

     Senator Elizabeth Warren has been instrumental in exposing for-profit colleges that deliver worthless diplomas and the incompetence of the U.S. Department of Education for approving student loans for those institutions. According to Forbes, “There is an outstanding student loan debt of $1.2 trillion to 40 million borrowers averaging $26,000 each.” And then the Brooking Papers on Economic Activity reports, “For-profit colleges represent one half of student loans and account for 70 percent of the defaults.”

     Politicians should be promising factory workers who lost their jobs, “I will shut down fraudulent for- profit colleges and will reeducate you at accredited trade schools, community colleges and colleges, and that will prepare you for a new job.” Oh, but that sounds a bit socialist and only one presidential candidate has proposed free college to replace the fraudulent billion dollar capitalistic for-profit industry.

     On the subject of healthcare, Hillary Clinton has questioned Bernie Sanders’ voting record on healthcare during the 1990’s when she attempted to champion the issue as First Lady. However quite magically, Sanders produced a photograph of himself and Clinton with the inscription, “Thank you for your commitment to real healthcare access for all Americans and best wishes-Hillary Rodham Clinton 1993.”

     And with the issue of trade agreements, Clinton approved of NAFTA and then TPP as Secretary of State, but recently while campaigning in Michigan and Ohio, she expressed opposition to TPP. Of the other candidates, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ted Cruz approve of TPP while Sanders claims it will cost another 500,000 jobs. Donald Trump believes NAFTA has, and TPP will, add to the decline of jobs and income.

     I challenge politicians to focus on real issues instead of pandering.

March 10, 2016

Just In Time 

With this past month becoming the warmest February in recorded weather history, there was a great deal of concern as to whether or not El Nino had fizzled out. While hereabouts in the North Slope foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains spring-like daytime temperatures gradually exceeded 70 degrees, the Los Angeles Basin and Inland Empire broke records with temperatures feeling more like summer. Down the hill, plants and trees exploded with colorful blossoms and then began to leaf out.

If you are so inclined to believe the fuzzy prediction of Punxsutawney Phil, he did not see his shadow on Groundhog Day and therefore spring weather would be early this year. Elsewhere in Canada, Staten Island and Georgia similar groundhogs concurred. And so we are on track with temperatures but sorely lacking in moisture here in SoCal.

Fortunately, sporadic rainfall since last fall has sustained shallow-rooted vegetation, but the true indicator that the drought has receded is the mountain snowpack. That has been nice to view from the Cabin at 4,600 feet, but it has been virtually a snowless winter here at the lower elevation.

During the last two weeks of February, my apricot tree bloomed and set fruit, the lilacs began to pop with blossoms and the penstemons sprouted shinny new leaves. Additionally, the elm and poplar trees began to leaf out, while the rosemary bushes exploded in cascades of blue flowers. 

All of this is a delicate balance of Nature that can go either way. Just in time, El Nino has returned with plentiful rain that has saturated the soil. However, I am hoping since the warm weather pushed all the plants into spring that there will not be a cold snap or lasting snowfall. If that were to occur, the lilacs are the only plants that would enjoy it.

Elsewhere, Death Valley is currently experiencing a super bloom of wildflowers not seen in 11 years. The best locale to enjoy the colorful vista is the southern portion of Death Valley National Park, south of Furnace Creek along Badwater Road. Closer to home, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve opened on March 5 with a scattering of blossoms and much more to come until April. Call (661) 724-1180 for the latest updates.

Beginning on March 4, the Theodore Payne Foundation launched its annual California wildflower hotline, which is updated every Friday. Go to http://theodorepayne.org/education/wildflower-hotline for information on what is blooming in Southern and Central California, along with stunning photographs.

The March Miracle we hoped for has arrived and in addition to nourishing plant life, El Nino also produces uncommonly large ocean waves, which are the ultimate power of Mother Nature to observe.

                                                

                                          

February 18, 2016

 

January 28, 2016

This Land Is..

When renowned singer/songwriter Woodie Guthrie wrote the lyrics to his song “This land is your land and this land is my land...from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters…this land was made for you and me,” without being specifically religious he was referring to a higher power than mankind that created natural splendor. And then, not to diminish private ownership of many of those lands, the creation of the National Park Service was intended to preserve a few of those special places for all time.

And then harmony abounded between mankind and Mother Nature until the National Park Service was caught in a trademark dispute with outgoing concessionaire “Delaware North.” It seems that Delaware North was awarded registered trademarks to several places in Yosemite and those places will have to change their names. 

Effective on March 1, the Ahwahnee Hotel will become the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, Curry Village will become Half Dome Village, and the Wawona Hotel will become the Big Tree Lodge. According to The Los Angeles Times, Dan Jensen who was tasked with managing facilities at Yosemite and then became a consultant for Delaware North commented, “We’re not threatening to keep the names, but we are entitled to fair value.” 

What that means to those of us who are not attorneys is Yosemite National Park is being held hostage for $51.2 million in merchandizing claims. To make matters worse, Delaware North who lost renewal of their contract to another concessionaire asserts the National Park Service can continue to use the names until litigation is settled.

     It’s no big secret that for quite some time, creative minds have registered catchy names and then just waited for a trademark infringement to issue a Cease & Desist to receive a payoff for the name-or don’t use it. However, this is not the case at Yosemite. The venerable names of the aforementioned park sites have been in existence since the late 1800’s, and while Delaware North has been the concessionaire since 1993-their application for and approval of the names by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office occurred just last year.

In my opinion, it was simply an exit strategy should their bid to renew the contract not meet with a favorable outcome. The National Park Service has cowered and the U.S Patent & Trademark Office should be investigated. These are not names that were coined by Delaware North but rather are synonymous with Yosemite National Park being U.S. Government property being administrated for the public.

Be it an act of Congress or a Presidential Declaration, this land was made for you and me. In this election year, vote for the candidate who will restore dignity to Yosemite National Park. 

January 21, 2016

Iris DeMent And Russian Poetry   

American country and folk music singer/songwriter Iris DeMent has recorded her sixth album, entitled The Trackless Woods, in which she set to music 18 poems written by Russian modernist poet and acclaimed writer Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966). During her early life, the aristocratic, beautiful and alluring Akhmatova enjoyed recognition and fame as a writer. Upon traveling to Paris, she befriended the artist Amedeo Modigliana, who created more than 20 drawings and paintings of Akhmatova.

However when she returned to Russia, Akhmatova’s literature was condemned and censored during the Stalinist era. She was named an enemy of the state, banned from the Writers Union and her pension was revoked-leaving her destitute. At the same time, her first husband who was a staunch monarchist was executed by the Soviet secret police. Later on, her son was incarcerated in the gulag where her second husband died. It was not until 1958 that her status was reconfirmed when 50-year-old poems were published worldwide.

Shortly after Iris DeMent and her husband adopted a five-year-old Russian girl in 2005, she became interested in translations of Russian poetry as a way to connect with the child. When a friend loaned her a book of poems, she discovered the work of Anna Akhmatova and placed the open book on the music stand of her piano to read.

In a video trailer for The Trackless Woods album, DeMent explained, “I was sitting at the piano and felt someone next to me on the piano bench. After reading the poem “Like A White Stone” for the second time, I felt like somebody had started to talk to me. What I heard was, ‘Set that to music.’ So I did.” After that the presence encouraged her to “Keep going” and DeMent played the music for three additional poems as she sang the lyrics. 

Following that initial inspiration, Russian to English translators Babette Deutsch and Lyn Coffin translated an additional 14 poems that were set to music by DeMent over a period of four years, while she wrote and recorded songs for her fifth album, entitled Sing The Delta. That album was ranked #124 on the Billboard 200.

Years ago, British essayist John Bayley opined that the verse of Akhmatova was “grim, spare and laconic.” In many ways, Iris DeMent has seized the opportunity with her vocals and piano playing to add grandeur. Her Southern accent remains twangy with traces of girlish charm, but just when the listener thinks that voice will crack-her voice soars majestically. With Leo Kottke playing electric guitar, and an upright bass, B3 organ and pedal steel guitar in the background-the album is a spiritual awakening of American country music to an international level. 

1/14/16

Remembering David Bowie In Los Angeles   

    Late Sunday night as I was sampling the music of Iris DeMent on the Internet for this column, an email news alert came in from The Washington Post stating, “David Bowie dies at 69.”

Situations change rapidly and as my focus shifted, I was stunned. He died just two days after his 25th studio album was released on his birthday and the recording entitled Blackstar along with the music videos, were intended to be his requiem.

     After viewing Bing Crosby & David Bowie singing duets on a 1977 PBS Christmas show, I always imagined he would be the Maurice Chevalier of my generation and live well into his eighties. With a voice that ranged from baritone to falsetto, he could easily settle into being a crooner when all the alter egos and costumes faded.

     As a singer/songwriter, David Bowie was an innovator in rock, glam rock, soul, funk, disco and jazz music. In an NPR interview Bowie explained, “I wanted to manufacture a new kind of vocabulary. The actual words and subjects I’ve always chose to write are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety-all of the high points of one’s life.” And so, he was space oddity Ziggy Stardust, astronaut Major Tom and an inspiration for the divided city of Berlin with his anthem/hymn entitled “Heroes.”

     Today on January 11, the German Foreign Minister commented, “David Bowie is now among heroes and I thank him for helping to bring down the wall.”

Although I liked all of his music, that song in particular resonated with me for the lyrics “I wish I could swim like dolphins can swim.” For as it was, at night in the pool of the Downtown Los Angeles YMCA- the lifeguard would play “Heroes” on repeat as he taught me the butterfly stroke.

     And then for me, the ultimate David Bowie performance occurred just three blocks away from my Arts District studio. Early in the morning before the produce trucks lumbered through on their way to City Market, an old warehouse at Mateo and Palmetto Streets became the vortex for music industry glitterati and plenty of Downtown artists.

     It was 1987 and in the middle of the night, a steady stream of Mercedes and BMW’s would indicate the illegal pop-up music venue called L.A. Dirt Box was happening. On one such occasion, music impresario Tom Atencio called me from Dirt Box and said, “Michael, get over here for something special.”

     As I walked up Mateo Street, the word was out and the gritty industrial neighborhood had come alive to see David Bowie with Siouxsie and the Banshees, onstage at Dirt Box. Thank you David- for a night to remember. 

Happy For 2016   

It’s hard to believe another year has flown by and in just a few days we will be welcoming 2016. I’m not really into New Year’s Day resolutions, having made them instead on my birthday in October. By the time all the revelry occurs on the first day of January, I am already immersed in mindsets and projects that will be a continuum for 2016. At this time, what I am really excited about is that the shortest daylight of winter has passed.

With the exception of the vibrant fall colors in the landscape, I prefer winter for accomplishing what must be done. That’s because with the vegetation being frozen and asleep, the greatest demand of my time in watering all the plants has now ended. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the mindless task and an opportunity to commune with wildlife, but there are more important things to focus on until spring.

I recently turned 70 and in spite of anticipated mixed emotions on crossing that threshold, there was little to fear. I’m in excellent health and swim laps once a week when I travel to Burbank. Last week as I entered the pool, my mind was elsewhere and that was good because there was no trepidation about swimming the entire length underwater and I just did it. I used to do it all the time and was pleased to be back in the swim of 20 years ago.

Aside from the benefits of improving mental clarity in swimming underwater, the overall exercise has likewise improved my stamina for other physical tasks. And now that I have completed most of items on my birthday list, the compelling project of finishing my studio/workshop is beckoning for the New Year. 

After I constructed a low bulkhead on the down slope side and leveled a pad with my tractor, Shed World built what amounts to a two car garage with a roll up door. After that, I painted the exterior and hung rain gutters. Moving inside, I hung insulation and then paneled the walls with sheets of oriented strand board (OSB). It’s like particleboard but with larger compressed cross-oriented strands of wood that when sanded and shellacked-has a warm amber color.

Along the way, I was surprised that my dormant woodworking skills and problem solving abilities were awakened. There of course was always the conflict of just doing the work or finding the proper tool that was stored away. And so after finishing one section, I moved my workbench in and hung pegboard for tools and progress increased.

It’s truly a joy to get everything unpacked at last on my own property and be planning so many new creative projects.

December 24, 2015:

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A Holiday Gift   

    The most significant holiday gift citizens of the world might wish for in 2015 is the assurance that this Planet Earth will continue to sustain life for future generations. That in itself represents a significant challenge for mankind and requires a paradigm shift away from adverse conditions, which could otherwise prevail. While natural disasters are mostly the workings of Mother Nature, climate change and wars are clearly within the realm of correction by mankind. 

     It was just 315 years ago with the invention of the coal-powered steam engine that the world was transformed and progressed into the Industrial Revolution. Since then, additional energy sources of oil and gas have increased advancements and productivity. However, prosperity as we know it has also produced elements that are warming the planet. 

     And while it was full speed ahead for developed nations, many undeveloped nations that lacked natural resources or the technology to develop energy sources for their own advancement-languished. And just about the time it was their turn to emerge into the world marketplace, they were told the planet could not absorb their pollution.

     And so in a startling coincidence, while the Paris Climate Agreement formulated a policy to bring carbon based emissions down to a net zero by 2050, a “red alert” was triggered in Beijing because dramatic air pollution reduced visibility to 30 feet. It’s the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel era and time to leave coal, gas and oil in the ground. But then just in time, the great equalizer of solar power enters the world stage with the ability to provide affordable energy for everyone.

     That does not mean that world temperatures are going to decline immediately or that ocean levels will not increase from the melting of arctic and Antarctic ice. Nor does it mean that methane gas produced by microbes in ocean floor sediment trapped under the ice for 35 million years, will not escape into the atmosphere, producing greenhouse gases and more planet warming. 

     Its mind boggling to conceive that 315 years of pollution could wreak such havoc, but then as places on the earth become submerged by the oceans, there will be fewer disbelievers. In the meantime, expect to see Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations dump oil at low prices to garner an increased market share-a truly suicidal venture because if temperatures are not lowered, those countries will be too hot for humans.

     As for the wars, innovations in solar power technology can stimulate clean energy, power desalination of oceans for clean water, and reduce the disparity and hatred.

     May the much needed peace and tranquility of the holiday season prevail for you and your loved ones.

December 17, 2015:  

Wrightwood Christmas 

Music Show   

     Music in the Pines will be presenting a spectacular Christmas music show this Sunday December 20 beginning at 4:00 pm in the Wrightwood Community Building. The doors open at 4:00 pm for dinner catered by the Village Grind with the musical performances starting at 5:00. Tickets for dinner and music featuring John Burcher and Jerry Ripley are $15.00, or free tickets for concert seating only are available at the Village Grind.

     The entire production will bring Wrightwood’s finest musicians and performers together to raise awareness and support for the 2016 Music in the Pines concert season. Opening the show, Lora Steinmann will lead Snowline Players youth singing Christmas carols. After that, Stephanie Santos-Owens and Mike Owens will perform a medley of songs from Frozen.

     Continuing, teachers and students from the Keyboard Art School of Music will join Gayle & Company performing traditional songs and carols. Next up, Greg Jones & Friends will take the stage and perform nine holiday selections. Scheduled musicians include Greg Jones, Walter Foley, John Burcher, Toby Williams and Gene Thorpes with a special medley featuring Brittan Egnozzi, Tony Egnozzi, Claudia Campbell and Lora Steinmann.

     Later on during intermission at 6:30, all the guests will be invited to sample an astounding selection of desserts donated by the community-at-large while Jerry Ripley plays the harp. Or, if you have an extravagant confection in mind, bring it along to share with everyone. There will also be a raffle drawing and three Christmas gifts donated by Wrightwood Village businesses.

     After intermission, the Keyboard Art Quartet will perform additional holiday songs, followed by solo vocals from Stephanie Santos-Owens and Claudia Campbell. And then, pianist extraordinaire Rodger Whitten will delight the audience with a Christmas medley on the keyboard.

     Almost concluding the Wrightwood Christmas music show- Lora Steinmann, Brittan Egnozzi, Claudia Campbell, Sandy Jones, Stephanie Santos-Owens and Kelly Foley will lead an audience sing-a-long for three traditional holiday songs. But then here in Wrightwood, where every conclusion signals there is yet more to give, Santos-Owens will mesmerize the audience with her finalé of “Ave Maria.” Everything then really concludes while the Keyboard Art Quartet leads the audience in “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” as they exit. With a cast of 30, the winter edition of Music in the Pines is guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit.

The Wrightwood Community Building is located at 1275 State Highway 2 with parking between the banks. Please Note: Dinner is served promptly at 4:00 and concert seating is available before 5:00. To avoid disruption of the performance and blasts of freezing air into the building, doors will then be closed until intermission at 6:30-for standing room.

The Nashville Show   

Last Wednesday evening at the Wrightwood Community Center, The Nashville Show featured a live performance of the songs George “Coyote” Keene & Gayle Dowling recorded earlier this year in Nashville, for an album entitled Blue Skies & Red Wine. After the concert, the documentary film Music City Makeover created by Dennis Nadalin, followed the journey of Keene & Dowling from Wrightwood to Nashville for the recording process. During a question and answer segment afterwards, the topics of songwriting and filmmaking were discussed.

For the performance of ten songs, Keene & Dowling played acoustic guitars and sang lead vocals. Back up musicians included Walter Foley on electric guitar, Todd Griffin playing bass guitar, Fred Stuart on pedal steel guitar, Tristan Sherman playing violin and banjo, with Toby Williams on the drums.

Leading off, Dowling played harmonica as the introduction to her song about Wrightwood entitled “Back Home” with Sherman featured on banjo. Later on, Keene sang his Wrightwood song “Blue Skies & Red Wine” accompanied by the banjo. In between, there were frolicking songs from Keene with the audience clapping to the beat on “Devil Train” and “The Whiskey.” And then there were songs of ill-fated romance and heartbreak with Dowling singing “Carmen” and Keene swooning through “You Only Call Me When You’re Lonely.” Throughout those songs, as lyrics pulled on the heartstrings, the pedal steel and violin resonated with the country music sound of Nashville.

Next up, the screening of Music City Makeover presented an intriguing view of recording sessions at the Grammy Award winning Sputnik Sound studio. It was there as Nashville’s finest session musicians penciled in changes on music charts that the songs of Keene & Dowling were burnished to perfection. The task at hand for music producer Mitch Dane was to broaden the listener base by adding more instruments synonymous with the Nashville sound, and vocals of singer/songwriter Ryan Horne-who previously had released eight well received albums.

Later on, highlights of the question and answer period moderated by Karen Nadalin included Keene & Dowling admitting there was a great deal of magic involved in songwriting. It wasn’t as simple as writing the music and lyrics in one session and in most situations, could not be forced but required stepping away from the process until inspiration returned. 

When asked if there were any surprises, Keene replied, “I learned that really good musicians write intricate charts.” Continuing Dowling commented, “I couldn’t believe how much better my songs sounded,” and Nadalin was amazed that every take was so precise. Nadalin then commented that the documentary would be entered in film festivals. Until then, purchase the music CD online at www.mountainmusic.net or at the Village Grind. 

10/15/2015:  As The Salton Sea Dries Up   

Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Van Halen   

It was a blockbuster concert, last Saturday evening at the Hollywood Bowl, featuring renowned blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd opening for the hometown rock band of Los Angeles-Van Halen. The weather was perfect and an adoring audience was primed with excitement for two bands that had achieved the top of their game. Shepherd has been credited with the longest running album on the Billboard Blues Chart, and Van Halen has had more #1 hit songs on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart than any other band.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd began his professional career at the age of 14 being praised by and playing with Albert King, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Junior Wells, Freddie King, and Bo Diddley. In addition to writing his own songs, Shepherd became a loyal advocate of authentic blues musicians in his 2007 back roads tour featuring surviving members of Howlin’ Wolf’s, Muddy Waters’ and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s bands as the house band for B.B King, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Pinetop Perkins and others. On his 2014 album “Goin’ Home” Shepherd covered vintage Blues classics with an all-star cast of musicians. 

For the Hollywood Bowl, Kenny Wayne opened with six of his own songs blazing a course on guitar through rock and fuzzy electric blues. His longtime association with Noah Hunt on lead vocals allowed him to focus singularly on his dynamic musical performance. The strong voice of Hunt on “Déjà Voodoo” was a powerful potion counter balanced with shrill guitar licks. On “Shame, Shame, Shame” the mood shifted to heavy blues with Hunt’s voice and Shepherds guitar playing channeling the spirit of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

After that, covers of “I’m A King Bee” continued the blues, while the song “Oh Well” was faster and more poignant than the Fleetwood Mac rocker. Concluding with Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” Shepherd was all over the stage with his guitar- playing it backwards on his shoulders, raising the neck to the sky, crouching to his knees and then powering into a machine gun staccato finale. 

When Van Halen hit the stage, it was a time warp into the past. After playing 40 cities prior to Saturday night, Eddie Van Halen was still energized and lived up to his ranking by Rolling Stone Magazine as the world’s #8 greatest guitarist. Also gone was his bickering with David Lee Roth who pranced, danced and sang like he did 35 years ago. And as the audience of 17,000 cheered and relived the happiest times of their lives for 140 minutes, the band ripped through 23 hit songs, with “Drop Dead Legs” and “Dirty Movies” being played live for the first time ever.  

     

Darlene Love Rocks Grammy Museum   

Several years ago when Darlene Love was performing at The Roxy nightclub in Hollywood, there was a commotion in the audience as she sang the Bruce Springsteen song “Hungry Heart”. As it turned out, the ruckus was caused by The Boss and his guitarist Steven Van Zandt from the E street Band, who were dancing and cheering for one of the most powerful vocalists in rock and roll music. Later on backstage, Van Zandt told Darlene he would like to produce an album for her, and Springsteen signed on as an advocate for the legendary voice that Rolling Stone Magazine proclaimed to be “One of the greatest singers of all time.”

As life would have it, there were many twists and turns in her career as a prolific recording session backup singer that did not lead to fame as a solo artist. However, everything changed for Darlene last week at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles as 200 guests in the Clive Davis Theater celebrated the release of her first solo rock album, produced and arranged by Steven Van Zandt. 

Songs on the album were written for Darlene by Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Elvis Costello, Joan Jett, Jimmy Webb, and Linda Perry, among others. The album title Introducing Darlene Love, was intended by Van Zandt to be a quip for music fans that didn’t know that strong voice behind The Blossoms, The Crystals, Tina Turner, Righteous Brothers, Sam Cooke, Elvis, Cher, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and countless others-was Darlene Love.

During those years when fame as a solo performer was allusive, Darlene was featured in all four Lethal Weapon films, debuted on Broadway in Hairspray, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and starred in the Oscar winning documentary film 20 Feet From Stardom. And through those years, Darlene was featured in many Springsteen concerts, and performed the only song she received royalties from Phil Spector-“Christmas, Baby Please Come Home”-for 29 years on the David Letterman holiday episode.

     After his in depth interview with Darlene Love, Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli announced, “Tonight will be the biggest thing ever to hit the stage of the Clive Davis Theater.” And then with Darlene Love on lead vocals, Steven Van Zandt on lead guitar, and three backup vocalists-that was the real volume. Behind them, three additional guitars, a bass guitar, a saxophone, piano, organ, drummer and percussionist created a “Wall of Clarity” sound that never overpowered Darlene.

The audience was on their feet cheering for six songs and fulfilling Darlene’s dream, “I always knew my day would come.” Google search the first single “Forbidden Nights” for a dazzling video.

Frank Gehry At LACMA   

     If you’re interested in architecture, the Frank Gehry exhibit that just opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) traces his entire career from residential commissions to cityscapes. Be prepared to spend several hours viewing the impressive body of work, which includes more than 200 drawings, 65 scale models, and video presentations. While it was Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles that propelled him to fame hereabouts, the exhibit includes examples of smaller architectural jewels in the Los Angeles area, and eight new projects that will add Gehry’s signature to the skyline of Southern California.

     As a native of Los Angeles, I was filled with civic pride last Saturday afternoon upon entering LACMA’s massive Resnick Pavilion, and overwhelmed by the long overdue tribute to Frank Gehry, an “Angelino” for 68 years. There were times between 1989 and 1994, when policy makers of Los Angeles were not so kind to Gehry on the Disney Hall project. During that time when anticipated costs for curved limestone panels skyrocketed and fundraising stalled, L.A. County attempted to fire Gehry and maintain ownership of the plans.

     However, a court ruled that in commissioning Frank Gehry and donating $50 million, Lillian Disney was owner of the plans. What L.A. County owned was the $110 million underground parking structure and debt to bondholders if Disney Hall was not constructed to generate income. While the project was halted for two years, Lillian Disney’s contribution and an additional donation of $25 million from Walt Disney Company plus interest accrued to $100 million. After that, private fundraising provided “paid-in-full” status for the project-with Frank Gehry.

     In the interim, Gehry Partners developed computer aided three-dimensional interactive applications, enabling them to use less expensive stainless steel panels on Disney Hall. At the same time, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain was well underway with titanium panels, and within budget. The two structures catapulted Gehry into international fame with the complexity of curved forms colliding into and enveloping one another-as two of the most significant buildings in the world.

     The LACMA exhibit covers six themes spanning Gehry’s career that began with use of economical materials such as galvanized corrugated metal, exposed plywood panels and chain link fabric used as design elements. Over the years as computer technology advanced, the architect of angles and cubes became a sculptor of curves-applying software formerly used in aeronautic and automobile industries to design unique buildings.

     With a huge photographic backdrop of “Gehry Partners in the studio” new project scale models include mid-rise developments on the Sunset Strip and in Santa Monica, a new Jazz Bakery performance space in Culver City, and the Children’s Institute in Watts.

September In Los Angeles   

Just as New York City scored a major cultural advantage with the opening of the expansive new Whitney Museum of Art, Los Angeles will be catapulted into the international Art world at three venues in September. In the span of one week beginning on September 13, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) hosts a Frank Gehry retrospective, NYC gallery owner Michele Maccarone opens her second venue in Downtown L.A, and The Broad Museum opens on Bunker Hill. If being an art maven results in hunger pangs, the venerable Clifton’s Cafeteria also reopens that week Downtown. 

     On September 13, LACMA opens the Frank Gehry exhibition featuring 200 drawings and more than 65 scale models, many of which have never been seen by the general public. Admission is free to those under 17 years of age, and members. Adult tickets are $15.00 and can be purchased at www.lacma.org.

Maccarone Los Angeles opens on September 19 at 300 South Mission Road in Downtown Los Angeles. The 50,000 square foot gallery with a vacant lot for outdoor sculpture, features edgy and funky contemporary art that put the West Village gallery on the radar of international art collectors. Admission is free. Call (917) 371-5023 for information.

Bigger is not necessarily better and the new Broad Museum on Bunker Hill represents a small jewel box of a museum similar in size to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) across the street. As with MOCA, which has 90 percent of the permanent collection in storage, The Broad will rotate art from its five story renovated telephone-switching building in Santa Monica, where the Eli Broad Family Foundation has more than 2,000 artworks displayed privately for museum groups, curators and scholars.

The new museum at 221 South Grand Avenue opens on September 20 and is an architectural wonder where admission is free. Call (213) 232-6200 for information.

After being closed for four years and a $10 million renovation, Clifton’s Cafeteria at 648 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles will reopen on September 17. The four story restaurant with interior motifs inspired by the Santa Cruz Mountains has a large stone waterfall, a huge replica of a hollow 40 foot redwood tree, which functions as a fireplace in the center of a three story atrium. The second floor features a neighborhood bar, the third floor has a Gothic bar, and the fourth floor at the tree tops is also a bar.

The 50,000 square foot Clifton’s was renovated by Andrew Meieran, owner of the Edison Night Club- also located Downtown.

For world-class art and the most exotic restaurant of yesteryear, September is the month for Los Angeles. 

8/06/15: Highway 138 Construction Perils