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Landscape Photo
In the 1950s, Abraham Maslow said humans care about their aesthetic or intellectual needs only after all their other basic needs -- food, shelter, security and social approval -- are met.
Researchers have since challenged this theory, suggesting that human needs are far more complex than Maslow realized. Author Kenneth Helphand's new book "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime" offers ample evidence that this is almost certainly true.
This lovely book offers an overview of gardens created under the most adverse conditions during the turbulent 20th century. From soldiers who raised vegetables in the trenches of World War I to Jews who built kitchen gardens in the ghettos of Warsaw to the Community Gardening Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Helphand (pronounced Helfand) explores how gardening, even in the worst situations, provides solace for the human soul, as well as sustenance for the human body.
In a recent telephone interview, Helphand, who is a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon in Eugene, reflected on the process of writing "Defiant Gardens."
"Over and over people in these horrible circumstances would describe the beauty of some small aspect of this and how it was more important than food," he said. "To me that inverts the idea that gardens are superficial or only necessary after you've done everything else.
"For anyone who is a designer or an artist, you essentially believe in your gut that art matters," he added. "It doesn't mean it's the most important thing, but it matters."
The idea for "Defiant Gardens" started with a photo Helphand found of World War I soldiers working in their garden. As he describes it, the image festered under his skin, but it ultimately took 15 years for the book to come to fruition.
Helphand said the process of creating this book has deepened his understanding of gardens and landscape. In particular, he has an appreciation for the active relationship humans maintain with the environment when they garden.
What he finds significant is that many of the people who created these defiant gardens did so knowing there was a strong chance they wouldn't be there to see the fruits of their labors. "It was a paradox," Helphand said. "People were still trying to be hopeful even when they knew there was no hope."
At its core, "Defiant Gardens" reads like a deeply political treatise. That's probably not so surprising since Helphand's undergraduate degree was in political science, but the author is quick to point out that he's not offering up an anti-war message. Rather, he believes it's impossible to discuss war and not think about the politics underlying all of them.
"If you think of war and gardening as a kind of war and peace, then gardening is a state of peace," he said. "The garden in the time of war is trying to bring back a state that is not violent and where people are not being killed."
Helphand believes gardens can offer people healing in times of great trauma, but he also understands that they don't always reach every person. For some, it is music or visual art that sustains them through traumatic times. His point is that the human need for the beautiful transcends time and place.
Ultimately, Helphand has concluded that life, home, hope, work and beauty are all equally important to the human spirit. The proportions of those ingredients change from situation to situation, but they underlie all basic human needs.
"I can honestly say that I started with hope," Helphand said of the process of writing the book.
"I knew that already. Lots of people have written about that. It was the others that I came away with. I was amazed at people's ability to try to make a home when thrust into horrible situations, but the one that surprised me the most was how much the work meant to people."
Gardening is fundamentally creative and ultimately satisfying to the human spirit, he concluded. And of course, there is the power of the beautiful which seems to have the power to sustain human beings.
"It doesn't matter how big something is or how long it is in duration. A single plant can be as meaningful as an acre," he said.
As for future projects, Helphand says there are books waiting to be written about gardening in Soviet gulags and South African prisons, but he hopes to focus on an exploration of the English painter Derek Jarman's gardens.
"My hope is that other scholars and students will read 'Defiant Gardens' and do more because there's a lot more out there," he said.
Landscape Photo
Richard and Kathy Niemi don't need an excuse to throw a party at their Banning home.
But last Sunday they did things a little differently. They hosted an open house in their front yard.
That's because their daughter Jan Niemi, a party planner, orchestrated the Tuscan-themed soiree from canopy to candles.
"It was a great way to incorporate under the tent their gorgeous water fountain," said Jan Niemi, 31.
As owner of An eLaMenopea! Event in Banning, she combined several trends to enhance her parents' hospitality: a Mediterranean motif; an olive bar; lighted canopy; globe lights, lots of candles and flowers in hurricane lamps on each linened table.
Time was when socializing on the front lawn summoned images of yard sales.
One of the biggest trends this year is homey outdoor spaces that conjure your living room with a better view and breeze, party planners say.
There are revelers who resort to the front yard out of necessity.
"Some people landscape their front yard first because their backyards are just dirt," said Jan Niemi.
Some, such as Eva Mayer, of Riverside, say partying in the front yard offers the best view of the street and attracts friendly neighbors.
Other houses are bursting at the seams. Niemi is helping one Cherry Valley couple plan their nuptials at home.
"I really like the idea of having the wedding in back, the cocktail hour in the large foyer, then moving them out in front for a large reception," Niemi said. "We're utilizing every square inch of space."
Shrinking housing lots are forcing more front-yard shindigs, said Janice Petersen, owner of A & H Party Rentals in Riverside. "Orange Crest yards aren't even 30 or 40 square feet."
Clever hosts drape fabric over a few branches for an instant canopy, hang lanterns from trees, arrange couch-style seating and intimate dining sets with candles that encourage drawn-out meals and kicking back long after sunset.
Mayer, who lives on a cul-de-sac in the LaSierra section, started with a portable fire pit and folding chairs in her driveway for impromptu gatherings
"But I got tired of looking into the mess in our garage, so my son dug a fire pit and encircled it with rocks," said Mayer, 55.
They set up wooden chairs around the perimeter and bordered it with espaliered fruit trees. Her son Eli Mayer, 32, welded rebar for the climbing vines and roses that enclose a cozy seating area with tables, chairs and an umbrella.
Four, eight, ten neighbors began drifting over and before Mayer knew it, every weekend her front yard became Margaritaville. Friends dropped by with potluck dishes or Mayer whipped up a bean dip or the ice cream man pulled up.
"The street isn't pretty," allowed Mayer, who works at a bowling company in Anaheim, "but the fruit trees hide us. I can't convince anyone to go into the backyard, because they'd rather keep an eye on the house than lock up."
For something more elaborate, throw a pirate party, just in time for the July 7 release of Johnny Depp's new movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
Other top themes are Hawaiian luaus and beach parties, also known as "island escapism." Petersen said they're inexpensively and easily coordinated by decorating with palm frond clippings, bagged sand from Home Depot or Lowe's, tents and tablecloths trimmed with grass skirts and lots of big umbrellas.
Also popular with parrot heads, fans of singer/songwriter/producer Jimmy Buffet, are "Cheeseburger in Paradise" bashes. "Everything is parrots, Polynesian, beach balls, sand and more parrots," Petersen said.
Retirees Rod and Barb Nelson have a foolproof party plan at their Riverside home: 1.66 acres, gorgeously landscaped with a pond, a red bridge, a yellow brick road, a fire pit, a patio and two spits.
Add a 60-pound roasting pig and 60 friends from their camper club, 30 rigs parked on their land, and the result is an annual three-day party on the Nelsons' estate. The itinerary goes something like this, Rob said:
Friday night: The rigs find a campsite. Everyone gathers around a wood fire in the barbecue pit and eats pizza.
Saturday: Morning coffee and pastries on the patio. At 9 a.m., Rod fires up 20 pounds of briquettes, and stuffs, seasons and starts browning the pig. The gang plays Mexican train dominoes, Texas hold 'em and catches crawdads in the pond using poles rigged with pieces of hot dogs. As soon as there's a bucketful, they boil the crawdads. At 5:30 p.m., Rod carves the roasted pig. Its head, adorned with a neckerchief and sunglasses, an apple stuffed in its mouth, is placed on a platter for weekend photo ops. (Vegetarians may run for cover.)
After an elaborate potluck, the disc jockey arrives and everyone dances until midnight.
Sunday: On a large aluminum griddle, Rod Nelson fries eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage for the campers. After breakfast, the party is officially over.
"Pick the right people to come in the first place," said Rod Nelson. "But you have to have the right atmosphere, which we do."
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Landscape Photo
July 4, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Ventura's downtown area comes alive on Independence Day with the 30th Annual Street Fair featuring more than 300 artisans over a dozen-block area of the cultural district. Booths offer handmade arts and crafts and food from local restaurants, while live entertainment, a children's parade and children's activities complete the day. Pushem-Pullem parade begins 10:30 a.m. at Cemetery Park, proceeding west on Main Street to Plaza Park. Parade participants decorate wagons, strollers, bicycles and anything that can be pushed, pulled or pedaled. Free shuttle service from the Ventura County Government Center parking lot. 654-7830. Visit online at www.venturastreetfair.com.
What Internet Neutrality Matters To You
July 2, 3-5 p.m. Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions hold their monthly meeting featuring a screening of the film Tangled Web, a PBS special on Net Neutrality, and a discussion by Gary Orthuber, director of Cal-Pac Technology, who discusses the civil rights issues at stake and how you can help preserve net freedom. Foster Library's Topping Room, 651 E. Main St., Ventura. 850-5849.
Holiday Happenings
MOORPARK Monday, July 3, 9 p.m. The City of Moorpark presents their annual Fourth of July Fireworks Extravaganza $2. Arroyo Vista Community Park, 4550 Tierra Rejada Road, Moorpark. 517-6300.
CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR Tuesday, July 4, 11am-10pm. Show your patriotic side and celebrate our nation's birth at the Ninth Annual Channel Islands Harbor Fireworks by the Sea display and celebration. Fun activities, live entertainment, an arts and crafts fair, sand castle building contest, Make Your Own Aquarium, inflatable fun zone, a 10K and 5K Fun Run/Walk, children's activities, great food and an old fashioned Fourth of July B-B-Q, and a spectacular fireworks show complete the day. Children's parade begins 11am at Fisherman's Wharf. The day's celebration kick off with a 10K & 5K Fun Run/Walk along the water's edge. Registration starts 7am, races begin 8am. Celebration continues with a parade starting at 11 a.m. Visitors can watch the parade as it travels on Harbor Boulevard from Harbor Landing Shopping Center to the Port Royal Restaurant, adjacent to the Channel Islands Yacht Club. The parade will feature youth groups, classic cars, musicians and much more! Free viewing from the Harbor. 985-4852.
FOURTH OF JULY TRAIN RIDE Tuesday, July 4. The Fillmore & Western Railroad celebrates the Fourth of July with a day full of festivities, including the Sespe Creek Car Show presented by the Fillmore & Western. This classic car event is as much a tradition in Fillmore as the annual sale and show of fireworks. Plenty of food and activities plus one hour train rides, spend the day and cap it all off with the Firecracker Dinner Train departing at 6:30 for a BBQ Tri-Tip and Chicken dinner on board while waiting for the fabulous Fillmore fireworks show. Adults, $69.00, Youth 4-12, $39, and Children 0-3, $20. Reservations for this fun train need to be made early. (800) 773-8724. Visiting online at www.fwry.com.
OJAI CELEBRATION Tuesday, July 4, 5pm. The annual celebration takes place at Nordhoff High School stadium with live music by the Road Dogs, followed by fireworks at 9:15pm. Tickets $10 adult, $5 child. The Lion's Club presents a Fourth of July breakfast from 6-10am., Chaparral Auditorium, 414 E. Ojai Ave., followed by a parade from Country Club Drive to Park Road at 10am. Picnic in the Park festivities, including Pony League baseball games and live entertainment starts at 11:30am., Sarzotti Park, 510 Park Road. St. Thomas Aquinas Teens present a tri-tip and chicken dinner Sunday, July 3, 4-7pm, Libbey Park, followed by a free Patriotic concert at 6:30pm, Libbey Bowl. 646-4295.
RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY Tuesday, July 4, 10am-4pm. Come celebrate the Nation's birthday with a day of music, family entertainment, games including a pie-eating contest, water balloons, egg toss, water wars, presidential look-a-likes including Washington, Jefferson, Reagan, face painting, storytelling and more. Free with museum admission. $5 general, $3 seniors 62 and over, free for children 15 and under. 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley. (800) 410-8354.
THOUSAND OAKS Tuesday, July 4, 5-9 p.m. Thousand Oaks celebrates the Fourth of July in grand style with a Free Concert in the Park, featuring the Conejo Pops Orchestra, 5pm, Conejo Community Park, 1175 Hendrix Ave., Thousand Oaks. Fireworks spectacular hits the skies from 9-9:30 a.m. Best viewing from The Oaks Mall. 495-6471.
VENTURA COLLEGE Tuesday, July 4, 6-9:30pm. Ventura Rotary Club and Ventura College present their Thirteenth Annual celebration, including a stage show, community picnic and fireworks display. The community is invited to bring blankets, lawn chairs, picnic baskets, and enjoy an afternoon of food, fun, games, live entertainment including Blue Latitude and The Ojai Valley Boys. This is non-alcoholic event, security check at gate. No glass containers. Gates open 5pm. $8 adults advance/$10 gate, $4 children ages 4-12/$5 gate, children under 3 free. Ventura College Athletic Field, 1667 Telegraph Road, Ventura. 654-6462.
Film
BIG SKY DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL ACCEPTING ENTRIES The premier venue for nonfiction film in the American west is seeking submissions for a festival that will take place February 15-21, 2007 in Missoula, Montana. The competitive event is open to non-fiction films and videos of all genres, subject matte, lengths and production dates. Awards and cash prizes given for Best Documentary Feature (over 50 minutes), Best Documentary Short (15-50 minutes), Best Mini-Doc (under 15 minutes) and best documentary about the American west. VHS, DVD, DVCAM and miniDV accepted for preview. Fees vary by deadline and length of film. Deadline September 1. www.bigskyfilmfest.org.
INSIDE IRAQ: THE UNTOLD STORIES Thursday, June 29, 7pm. Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions and Hope Dance Films presents a screening of the award-winning documentary by Mike Shiley, an adventure traveler and filmmaker who decided to go to Iraq by himself to see what was really going on. Shiley, who previously spent a year in the Middle East, was upset with the way the media and the government focused on car bombs and press conferences. $6. Foster Library's Topping Room, 651 E. Main St., Ventura. 544-9663.
Performances
SUMMERDANCE SANTA BARBARA June 21-July 29 SUMMERDANCE, one of the few festivals of contemporary dance on the West Coast, will feature performances with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Aszure Barton and her company, and more, performing a body of work heralded by critics as 'among the most compelling in the contemporary repertory.' www.summerdance.com or 568-0865 for more info.
RANCHO SIMI SUMMER CONCERT SERIES Saturdays, 6-8pm. Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District invites the public to pack a picnic basket and bring the family for a free summer concert. Set against the serene and gorgeous Rancho Simi Community Park, the concert series is free and continues through summer. Oak Park. 584-4453.
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE Deadline August 1. The Alliance for the Arts is offering the Richard Carpenter Performing Arts Scholarship for interested high school and college students throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The top four finalists in each category will compete on stage in the Fred Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks. Applications: www.allianceforthearts.org. 449-2582.
SUNDAY CONCERTS AT PLAZA PARK Sunday, July 2, 3-5pm. Local residents and summertime visitors are invited to enjoy quality music at Oxnard's newest entertainment attraction. The ten-week summer series features an eclectic line-up of free entertainment for the entire family. July 2: Raymond Michael pays tribute to Elvis and more. Food and beverage available, bring blankets, lawn chairs and a picnic. Oxnard Plaza Park, Fifth and B Streets, Oxnard. 486-6074.
Theater
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK May 6-September 13. Gypsies in a Trunk open their 12th season of Fairytales in the Park with a new twist on an old favorite. Westlake Village: May 6, 11am, at Foxfield Park. Simi Valley: May 6, 4pm, at the Rancho Simi Bicentennial Amphitheater, Rancho Simi Park. Channel Islands: May 7, 2pm, at Harbor View Park. Camarillo: September 13, 11:30am, behind the Community Recreation Center, 1605 E. Burnley Street. Ventura: September 13, 4pm, at Barranca Vista Park, 7050 Ralston. www.gypsyplayers.com. (661) 718-3968.
DIAL 'M' FOR MURDER June 2-July 15. The Stage Door Theatre in Agoura Hills presents the classic play revolving around Tony Wendice and his plan to have his wife murdered. Creating a foolproof alibi for himself, he finds that events take an unexpected turn that requires a 'plan B' to have his wife arrested for murder' Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Sunday June 4, 11, 25 and July 15, 2pm. $12-$15. Stage Door Theatre, 28311 Agoura Rd, Agoura Hills. (818) 889-5209.
GODSPELL June 9-July 16. The Elite Theatre Company of Oxnard proudly presents one of the biggest off-Broadway and Broadway musical successes of al time. Through clowning, pantomime, charades, acrobatics and vaudeville, the play addresses universal truths in a non-traditional plot. Friday, Saturday 8:30pm, Sunday 2pm. $20 general, $17 seniors/students. 730 South 'b' Street, Oxnard. 483-5118.
BANDIDOS DE AMOR Friday, June 30, 6-8 p.m. The band performs Latin and oldies as part of the 2006 Heritage Square Summer Concerts Series held every Friday through August 18. Call for table reservations or seating options. 715 S. A St., Oxnard. 486-6074.
URINETOWN Fridays-Saturdays, 8pm, and Sundays, 2pm, June 3-July 9. Actors' Repertory Theatre of Simi presents the Ventura County Premiere production of the three-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy fresh from its current Broadway run. Suitable for all ages, although younger audience members may not get the more subtle humor and references. Special Deaf and Hard of Hearing interpreted performance Friday, June 16, 8pm. $20 adults, $16 seniors-students, $14 children 12 years and under. Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley. 583-7900. Visit online at www.urininetown.com.
OPEN SECRETS Wednesday-Sunday, June 15-July 19. Rubicon Theater presents the premiere of two one-acts by Dale Wasserman and Directed by Artistic Director James O'Neil. One of America's most important and prolific living American playwrights, Wasserman's thought-provoking, scintillating, superbly crafted stories come to life on the Rubicon stage. Stallion Howl is a comic curtain-raiser where an attractive woman receives a surprise inheritance from a mysterious millionaire and refuses to reveal to her husband, an inquisitive newspaper editor, the reason for the gift; Boy on Blacktop Road follows an investigation taking place related to the arrival and subsequent disappearance of a young boy. Subject matter may not be appropriate for younger audiences. Starring David Birney, Cliff De Young, Karen Grassle and Eric Lange. Performances: Wednesday, 2 and 7pm; Thursday-Saturday, 8pm; Saturday-Sunday, 2pm. $49-$26. Rubicon Theatre Company 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. 667-2900. Visit online at www.rubicontheatre.org.
WIT Friday-Saturday, 8pm, Sunday, 2pm, June 16-July 1. Transport Theater, Ventura County's newest theater troupe, inaugurates their first season with a production of Wit by Pulitzer Prize Winner Margaret Edson, produced by John Procter and sponsored by Ventura Area Theater Sports. Linda Livingston stars as Vivian Bearing, a brilliant scholar balancing her cancer with wit, humor, profundity and self awareness. John Slade directs the strong cast featuring Ron Rezac, Gina Hugo, Christopher Fielder, Regina Mocey, Das Baker, Kristin Storey and Parker Brown. $15 general, $20 opening night. Circus Theater, Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura. 672-0334.
IMPROVISATIONAL COMEDY Friday, June 30-Saturday, July 1, 8pm. Friday: Last Improvisor Standing-12 players compete to be the funniest; Saturday: Independence Day Event- Players tell stories from American history. $7.50 Friday, $8.50 Saturday. Livery Theater, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. 643-5701.
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH June 16-July 15. The Conejo Players Theatre, Inc presents the foibles, fantasies and faults of a man whose wife and daughter have gone to the shore for the summer, leaving him to deal with high-flying libido and the temptress upstairs, while the voices of his conscience 'C three women from his everyday life 'C try unsuccessfully to keep him on the straight and narrow. $14-$18. Thursday=Saturday, 8pm, Sunday matinee July 9, 2pm. 351 S. Moorpark Rd, Thousand Oaks. 495-3715.
THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE Saturday-Sunday, July 1-2, and July 8. Gypsies in a Trunk continue their 2006 season of great fairy tales and classic children's stories to delight the young and old alike. See the Wizard of Oz as you've never seen it before. Join the fun as Dorothy and Toto search for a way home with the help of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. Hopefully they will make it past the awful Wicked Witch and finally see the Wizard of Oz and home. Saturday: Foxfield Park, 31965 Foxfield Drive, Westlake Village, 11am; Rancho Simi Bicentennial Amphitheater, corner of Erringer and Royal Avenues, Simi Valley, 4pm; Sunday: Channel Islands Harbor, Harbor View Park, 2pm. Saturday, July 8: Camarillo Recreation Center, 1605 E. Burnley St., Camarillo, 11:30am, and Barranca Vista Park, 7050 Ralston St., Ventura, 4pm. Free. (661) 718-3968.
TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY June 24-July 15 Conejo Players Theatre, Inc presents a tale of loss and hope, of one weekend in Nantucket where a grieving widower is visited by his late wife, and their well-meaning friends force him to go on. $10. Saturdays and Sundays, 2pm, evening performance July 9th, 7pm. 352 South Moorpark Rd, Thousand Oaks. 495-3715.
Art
AROUND THE CORNER GALLERY 7 days a week, 11am-5pm. 105 S. Montgomery St., Ojai. 640-8844.
ARIA SALON & DAY SPA Hours: Tue.-Sat., 9 am-6 pm, Sun.-Mon. by appointment. 307 E. Matilija St. Suite C, Ojai, 646-5006/646-1300.
ARTS COUNCIL BOARD AND FRIENDS ART SHOW June 5-July 7. Reception for public June 17, 4pm-7pm. See Set Design, Photography, Sculpture, Paintings, Pen and Ink and more. www.hillcrestcenter.org. Hillcrest Center, 403 W. Hillcrest, Thousand Oaks. 381-2747.
ARTIST'S UNION GALLERY presents their second annual June Gloom exhibit, starting Saturday, June 17. Bursting through the gloom, this juried exhibit has been judged by Michele DePuy Leaveitt and is expected to be as successful as last year. The Artist Union asked artists from Ventura and surrounding counties to come share some of their gloomiest artistic expressions. Gallery hours Thursdays and Sundays, 12pm-6pm, Fridays and Saturdays 12pm-9pm. 330 S. California St, Ventura. www.venturaartistsunion.org. 643-3012 or 650-8252.
BEATRICE WOOD CENTER FOR THE ARTS Hours: Fri-Sun, 11am-5pm. Ojai, Ca. 646-3381. www.beatricewood.com.
BROKEN OAK GALLERY 1414 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 213, Thousand Oaks. 497-4022 or www.brokenoakgallery.com.
BUENAVENTURA GALLERY Gallery Hours: Tuesday'CFriday, 12 'C 5 pm, Saturday 11am'C5 pm. 700 E Santa Clara St, Ventura. www.BuenaventuraGallery.org. 648-1235.
CAF' ZACK presents oil paintings by Hilda Kilpatrick. Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11:30am-2pm, 5:30pm-9pm; Friday, 11:30am-2pm, 5:30-9:30pm; Saturday, 5:30-9:30pm. 11:30am-2pm. 1095 Thompson Boulevard, Ventura. 643-9445.
CALIFORNIA STREET GALLERY 40 S. California St., Ventura. www.CaliforniaStreetGallery.com. 653-0321 or castgallery@sbcglobal.net.
CARNEGIE ART MUSEUM From June 25- August 20 the museum will host 'Documenting China', a photography exhibit chronicling China's industrial evolution, and 'Box Full of Happy' a critique of consumer society in Los Angeles. General Admission $3. Open Thurs. 'C Sat., 10 am 'C 5 pm, and Sun. 1 pm 'C 5 pm 424 South C St., Oxnard. 385-8157.
DAVID GLENN through June. 'Liquid Cities' is on display at the Channel Islands Harbor Gallery. Hours, Sunday-Friday, 11am-7pm. 984-2816.
THE FRAMEWORKS FEATURING CHIU AND ZORTHIAN June 22nd- August 5th. The Frameworks Caruso Woods Fine Art is hosting new paintings by Sally Chiu and Seyburn Zorthian in the Caruso Woods Fine Art Gallery. Tuesday-Friday 10 am- 5 pm, Saturday 11am- 3 pm, Closed Sunday and Monday. 131 E. De La Guerra, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, www.carusowoods.com
FREDERICK R. WEISMAN MUSEUM OF ART May 20-September 3, On Location in Malibu 2006: Paintings by the California Art Club. Features nearly 60 works by 51 artists. Reception to meet the artists Saturday, May 20, 6pm-8pm. No admission fee. Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. (310) 506-4055.
HARBOR VILLAGE GALLERY Gallery hours: Wednesday- Sunday 12pm-6pm. 1591 Spinnaker Dr , Suite 117C, Ventura. 644 'C 2750.
HERZOG WINE CELLARS A new series of diverse art work will be shown at Ventura County's new winery offering tours, tasting, classes, shopping and fine dining. Work includes oils, watercolors, photography and digital art by local artists. 3201 Camino Del Sol, Oxnard. 983-1560.
HILLCREST CENTER FOR THE ARTS GALLERIA Admission is free. Mon.-Fri. 9am-5pm. Call for extended evening and weekend viewing. 403 W. Hillcrest Dr., Thousand Oaks. (805) 381-2747 or www.hillcrestarts.com.
HUMMINGBIRD NEST GALLERY June 1-July 31. 'Out of the Past' is a photography exhibit by Fred Magness and Susan Vernand Magness, a collection of images of ghost towns, historical buildings and ancient ruins taken over the last few years. Gallery open everyday, 9am-9pm. Artists' reception Saturday, June 3, 3pm-5pm. 1208 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. 642-5400.
JOHN NICHOLS GALLERY Wed.-Sat. noon-5pm. 916 E. Main St., Santa Paula. 525-7804.
KATHLEEN DINAN GALLERY Hours: Thurs-Sun noon to five or by appointment (805)646-6205 located within the Ranchos Trading Co, 928 E Ojai Ave, Ojai.
KWAN FONG GALLERY OF ART AND CULTURE Free. California Lutheran University. Call 493-3316 or go to www.thedistilleryla.com.
MUSEUM QUALITY FRAMING 2120 E. Ponderosa, Camarillo, 389-9928.
NATHAN LARRAMENDY GALLERY June 10-July 30. 'More Playgrounds.' Photographer Aaron Plant presents his first solo exhibition here. The exhibition is accompanied with a catalog of Plant's work with essays by Lisa Le Feuvre and Laura Richard Janku. 107 S. Signal St, Ojai. 646-2750.
ODYSSEY May 8-June 30. Ner Bicarme's collection of 18 black and whites and sepia photographs on display. Bank hours Monday-Thursday, 9am-4pm; Friday 9am-6pm. Ojai Community Bank, 402 W. Ojai Ave, Suite 102, Ojai. 646-9909.
OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM May 12-August 12. 'Encounters: 60 Years of the Ojai Music Festival' includes archive photos of legendary music artists, a gallery of commemorative posters, and a tribute to the Festival Women's Committee. Cocktail party and reception on Friday, May 12, 5:30pm-7:30pm, $60 per person. 646-2094, ext. 104.
OVERTON HALL Free. California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks. 493-3316.
SAN BUENAVENTURA ARTISTS' UNION 330 California St. Plaza, Ventura. 658-4726.
SANTA PAULA'S CALIFORNIA OIL MUSEUM May 7-August 27. #Norton, Von Dutch, & Co: Legendary Motorcycles from the Schoenewald Collection# is presented. At the Sunday, May 7 reception from 1-3pm, collector and owner Daniel Schoenewald will speak about the motorcycles in this collection. Some of the greatest names in motorcycle racing, design, and history are on display, including Norton Commando, Von Dutch, Triumph, BSA, Brough, and Vincent. This is the first public exhibition of this collection in California. 1001 E. Main St., Santa Paula. $4 Adults, $3 Seniors, $1 Children. 933-0076.
SEA BREEZE ART GALLERY June 23-July 21 Island Life - New Work featuring one of its talented resident artists, C. Lynn Tegenfeldt. The exhibition is a series of new and evocative riffs on the natural world, with a focus on common objects that are linked to both the Hawaiian locale and its Asian heritage which the artist shares through a variety of media and techniques, the paintings explore the hidden in everyday life. Includes interactive wall where the artist invites her guests to participate by rearranging groups of small modular abstract paintings. Candlelight reception Saturday, June 24 5-10pm. 255 S. Laurel St, Ventura. 643-3973.
STUDIO 84 WEST Thurs.-Sat., 6-8pm. 602 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. 646-3812.
STUDIO CHANNEL ISLANDS ART CENTER Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, noon-3pm, or by appointment. Cal State Channel Islands, Building 18, Ventura Street, Camarillo. www.studiochannelislands.org. 383-1368.
THE STUDIO GALLERY Exhibiting paintings, prints, ceramics and sculpture by international and local contemporary artists. Daily, 10am-6pm. 2741 S. Victoria Ave., Oxnard. 985-1546.
SUPER! MINIATURE, PAINTINGS weekends June 24-August 20, 1pm-5pm. Recent works by more than 35 California Central Artists will be on display. Also: works by American landscape master Ray Strong, and 'Lifetime Achievement' Academy Award-winner, Down Iwerks. Weekdays by appointment. Weldon Art Ranch, 958 Weldon Rd, Santa Barbara. 965-5486.
UPFRONT GALLERY Gallery hours: Fri.-Sat. 1-5pm, Sun. 2-5pm, or by appointment. 267 Laurel St., Ventura. 648-7878 or 340-1448.
VALLEY OF THE MOON FINE ART REPRODUCTION Hours: Mon.-Wed. & Fri.-Sat., 9am-5pm; Thurs. 12-5pm; Sun. by appointment. 201 Bryant St. #12, Ojai. 657-2959.
VENTURA HARBOR VILLAGE GALLERY Gallery hours: Noon-6pm, Wednesday-Sunday. 1591 Spinnaker Drive , Suite 117C, Ventura. 644-2750.
VENTURA HEALING ROOMS Featuring Lee Hodges as artist-in-residence. Tuesday & Thursday, 9am-4pm, and by appointment. 701 E. Santa Clara St., Suite 11, Ventura. 647-6641 or www.LeeHodgesArt.com.
YOUNG AT ART STUDIOS The missing link in art education presents the student's drawings, paintings, and mixed media pieces at the 2006 annual art shows. www.youngatartstudios.com. Exhibits on display Monday-Saturday, 3pm-6pm330 N. Zachary, Suite 106, Moorpark. 529-6274.
Museums
CALIFORNIA OIL MUSEUM Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm. $4 general, $3 seniors, $1 youth. Free for members. 1001 E. Main St., Santa Paula. (805) 933-0076. www.oilmuseum.net.
CARNEGIE ART MUSEUM 10 am-noon. Suggested admission: $3 adults, $2 senior/students, $1 children 6-16. Free Fridays 3-5pm. 424 C St., Oxnard. 385-8157. www.vcnet.com/carnart.
CEC/SEABEE MUSEUM Historical artifacts, multi-media installations and vintage uniforms. 8am-4:30pm Monday to Friday, 12:30-4:30pm Saturday. Closed Sunday and national holidays. Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center, Sunkist entrance. 982-1249.
DUDLEY HOUSE Corner of Ashwood and Loma Vista, Ventura. 644-3286.
FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE: FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS TWOSOMES May 9- September 10. The George Stuart Historical Figures on display include Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and Benedict Arnold and his wife Peggy Shippen. The one-quarter life-size portraits of historical personalities are renowned for their meticulous wardrobes and expressive faces. Ventura County Museum of History & Art, 100 East Main Street. Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm. $4 ages 18-61, $3 seniors and $1 children ages 6-17. Free for children under 5 and museum members. 653-0323.
GULL WINGS MUSEUM The county's only hands-on learning museum for kids. 10am-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. 418 4th St., Oxnard. 483-3005 or www.gullwingsmuseum4kids.org.
OJAI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM Thurs.-Fri. 1-4pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, Sun. noon-4pm. 130 W. Ojai Ave., Ojai. (805)640-1390.
PORT HUENEME LIGHTHOUSE The Lighthouse is open to the public the third Saturday of each month from 10am-3pm. The current structure was built in 1941, with the original having been built in 1874. The fresnel lens was made in 1897 and is still in operation. Admission is free. Adults age 18 and up require photo ID. Last shuttle pick-up at port gate is 2:30pm. 120 W. Port Hueneme Rd., Port Hueneme. (310) 541-0334.
RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM Admission: free-$7. Hours: 10am-5pm daily. 40 Presidential Dr., Simi Valley. (800)410-8354. www.reaganfoundation.org.
SANTA PAULA'S CALIFORNIA OIL MUSEUM Adults, $4, seniors, $3, children, $1. 1001 E. Main ST., Santa Paula. Call 933-0076.
VENTURA COUNTY MARITIME MUSEUM This Open daily 11am-5pm. Free; donations appreciated. 2731 S. Victoria Ave., Oxnard Fisherman's Wharf, CI Harbor. (805)984-6260.
VENTURA COUNTY MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND ART $1-$4; Hours: 10am-5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. 100 E. Main St., Ventura. 653-0323.
Kids/Seniors
THE INVITATION Thursdays, June 29-July 28, 3-5pm. At-risk teen girls have a place to go every Thursday where they can write, make art, discuss books, and talk about life with poet Gwendolyn Alley, artists Lynne Okun and Melissa Pereida. At the end of the free six week, drop-in program, the girls make an Art Life-style publication, hold a reading, and hang an art show in the Artbarn including ceramic mirrors and other projects they've made. Kid's Art, Ventura. For more information please call 338-2576.
CHUMASH YOUTH PROGRAM Monday-Friday, June 19-23 and June 26-30, 9:30am-noon. The Ventura County Museum of History and Art offers these two, one-week programs for fourth and fifth graders. Participants immerse themselves in traditional Chumash culture through stories, hands-on crafts and traditional skills, with time also spent exploring the Museum's collection of Chumash artifacts. $40 week. 100 E. Main St., Ventura. 653-0323.
ROCKY J. HALL'S ONE-ON-ONE BASEBALL CAMP Monday-Friday, June 19-23, June 26-30, and July 10-14, 8:30am-1pm. Three camps offered by age. June 19-21: ages 7-7; June 26-30, ages 9-10; and July 10-14, ages 11-12. $150. St. Bonaventure Baseball Field, Wells Road and Henderson, Saticoy. 477-0235.
SUMMER DAY CAMPS Weekly through Aug. 25, 7:30am-5pm. Oxnard's Recreation and Community Services Department offers day camps for children ages 5-12.Camp Serendipity Summer Vacation Day Camp is jam-packed with sports activities, arts and crafts, games, and field trips. Each week features a different theme. $65-$85, covers all activities. Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard. 385-7995.
MATURE MINGLERS Thursdays. The Ventura Avenue Adult Center invites seniors to their weekly gathering. Reservations required. Fixed menu price for meal, soft drink, tax and tip. 71 Palm, Ventura. 648-3035.
SCRABBLE THURSDAYS Presented by the Ventura Avenue Adult Center. They provide the game, dictionary and the place, you provide the brainpower. 550 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura. 648-3035.
BUILDING BLOCKS OF ART Saturdays, 10:15am-12pm. The Carnegie Art Museum is offering a series of art workshops for kids ages 7-12 and their adult guardians. Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard. $1 per child. Reservations required. 385-8171.
C.A.T.S. SUMMER CAMP Roxanne Diesel, local drama and manners instructor, offers, for the 7th annual Camp Broadway Bound this summer, plus Harry Potter Literacy and
Wizardry Camp, Commercial and Film Boot Camp, Comedy and Improvisation Boot Camp and Crime Scene Investigators Camp. Camps held in partnership with local Ventura County recreation districts. The following camps are offered this summer for ages 7 -13: Camp Broadway Bound - a week long, day camp finds students cast in a production of Peter Pan; Harry Potter Wizardry & Literacy Camp - students become residents of Hogwarts for a week as they journey through reading, writing and acting; Comedy and Improvisation Boot Camp - Week long, half-day camp utilizing a similar format to the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway; Commercial and Film Boot Camp - Students experience the thrill of being filmed for each day of camp, learn how to hit a mark and slate their name, master cold readings of a script, use their voice and body to portray a character and sell a product or idea on camera, and audition for stage or film; Crime Scene Investigators Camp - students investigate a mock crime scene. (661) 718-3968.
CLUB SOCCER TRY-OUTS Looking for girls born on or after Aug. 1, 1992 for competitive Team. 890-8532.
CALL FOR ART Oxnard students are invited to 'Celebrate the Rhythms of Cultures' through art in the annual art contest, sponsored by the City of Oxnard. Participants must be Oxnard residents 6-18 years old, and must incorporate the festival theme. The deadline for entry has been extended to Monday, July 17.
SUMMER YOUTH ATHLETIC CAMPS AT CLU Lu Dawg Baseball Camp (www.ludawg.com, 493-3398); Hoop Rat Point Guard, Perimeter Play Basketball Camp, Hoop Rat Shooting, Individual Offensive Moves Basketball Camp (www.kingsmenbasketball.com, 493-3404), Total Tennis Academy (495-0111), Team Soccer Direct (www.teamsoccerdirect.com, 494-1747), All-Sports Camps (www.create-a-camp.com, 494-1747).
Lectures/Seminars
TIDEPOOL TALK Saturday-Sunday, July 1-2, 11am and 3pm. Join National Park Service Rangers in the Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center as they show and tell about the many fascinating animals and plants in the marine life exhibit. Free.1901 Spinnaker Drive, Ventura. 658-5730.
Classes/Workshops
PAVING THE WAY: NEW HIRE DOCUMENTATION, POSTERS & POLICIES Friday, June 30, 7:30-9am. Join workshop speakers Alfred J. Landegger, Esq., Managing Partner, Landegger & Baron, and Michael S. Lavenant, Esq., Attorney, Landegger & Baron. Free. Continental breakfast included. Camarillo Hampton Inn & Suites, 50 W. Daily Drive, Camarillo. 987-7128.
ARGENTINE TANGO Monday, July 3. Argentine Tango is completely improvised, two bodies, intimately connected, co-creating a unique and spontaneous expression in time and space. First and third Monday of each month. Beginners, 6-7pm, $10 per person. Open practice for all levels, 7-8pm, admission by donation. Social dancing in nearby Los Caporales, 8-10pm. No partner, reservation or prior experience necessary. Gallery, Ojai Art Center, 113 S. Montgomery, Ojai. 646-7355.
IMPROV CLASSES The Livery Theatre, home to Ventura TheatreSports, offers classes in comedy improv for youth, teens and adults. First class is always free. 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. 643-5701. Online at www.venturaimprov.com.
POWER AND PEACE Wednesdays through July 19, 7:30-10pm. The Bodysattva Healing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks presents Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Embodied Wisdom, Scott Coady, who with the assistance of Dr. Shana Berger hosts four evening workshops designed to help individuals create more exciting and fulfilling futures by strengthening their capacity to produce more powerful results while experiencing more peace as they continue to lead full and busy lives. $25 each session, $75 course. All donations go directly to Interface Children Family Services. 497-0300. Bodysattva Healing Arts Center, Thousand Oaks. www.embodiedwisdom.com
Health
ADHD: MEDITATION OR MEDICATION Thursday, June 29, 1:30 and 7:30pm. Dr. James Grant, Western Director for Consciousness-Based Education, ADHD Researcher and Harvard-trained educator, discusses the safe, alternate treatments for ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Free lecture. The Ewell House, Maharishi Enlightenment Center, 143 S. Figueroa St., Ventura. 653-2798.
CANCER HEALTH CARE DECISIONS Thursday, June 29, 6:30-8:30pm. Speaker Sue Coleman discusses health care decisions and answer important questions facing cancer patients today. She explains how to get a second opinion, which web sites are reputable sources of information, how to find experts, what questions to ask, what kind of records to keep and much more. Wellness Community Valley/Ventura, 530 Hampshire Road, Westlake Village. 379-4777.
GATEWAYS THROUGH MOVEMENT Friday, June 30, 7:45pm. Come move and groove, twirl and swirl, lighten and brighten, using movement, breath, sound and music, play and have fun while opening your spirits and bodies. $12. Ventura Yoga Studio. 110 N. Olive, Ste. P, Ventura. 640-7442.
Literature/Poetry
AMATEUR POETRY CONTEST Deadline July 22. The Talent Literary Guild sponsors a competition with 50 prizes in all, with a $1,000 grand prize. Poems may be written on any subject, using any style. Send one entry of 21 lines or less. (The Editors reserve the right to publish the winning poems in a pamphlet and send it free to all entrants, along with a winner's list.) Free. send to: www.freecontest.com, or Free poetry Contest, 1257 Siskiyou Blvd., #4, Ashland, OR, 97520.
FAVORITE POEMS PROJECT Third Monday, 5:15pm-6:30pm. Open mic: all poets and non-poets invited to read a favorite poem (not their own) or two. Hosted by Lois Klein. The Blue Agave, 20 E. Cota, Santa Barbara.
OPEN MIC Tuesdays, 6:30-10pm. All ages welcome. Selah Caf', 40 Day Road, Ventura.
OPEN MIC Tuesdays, 7:30 pm. Host: TL Cabrera. Artists' Union Gallery, 330 S. California St., Ventura, 320-3524.
OPEN MIC Wednesdays (except the first of the month), 7:30 pm Hosted by Miss Marissa. Kava Dume, 5653 Kana Rd., Agoura, (818) 865-8602.
MUSICIAN'S NIGHT OUT Wednesdays, 7:30-11pm. Traditional gathering of writers and performers. California Taco Co., 469 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. 646-7174.
POETRY WORKSHOP Every second and fourth Wednesday. Barnes and Noble, Ventura.
WRITING WORKSHOP Thursday, June 29, 6pm. Free workshop offered by Local Hero bookstore and FictionWeek.com. Meets weekly. 254 Ojai Ave., Ojai. 640-6865.
MUSICIAN'S NIGHT OUT Wednesday, July 5, 7:30-11pm. Traditional gathering of writers and performers. California Taco Co., 469 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. 646-7174.
POETRY READING Thursdays, 7 pm-10 pm Hosted by Daniela Schonberger. Giovanni's, 6583 Pardell Rd., Isla Vista, 968-2255.
REDS HOT POETRY First Thursday of every month, 7pm-9pm. Open mic. Hosted by Sojourner Rolle. Red Hot Coffee House, 12 Helena St, Santa Barbara.
SOAP BOX POETS Second Thursday of every month, 7:30pm. Open mic. Hosted by Kathleen Roxby. Borers, Camino Real Shopping Center, Goleta.
OUTLAW POETS OPEN WORD First Friday of the month, 7pm. Bart's Books, 302 W. Matilija, Ojai. 646-3755.
LATTE 101 First Saturday of every month, 8pm. Open mic with music. Hosted by Nurse Bob. 5722 Telegraph Rd., Ventura.
THE POETRY ZONE Second Saturday of every month, 2pm-4pm. Karpeles Manuscript Museum, 21 W. Anapamu, Santa Barbara.
POETRY OPEN MIC Sundays, 5 pm-8 pm Hosted by Paradox and Mama Val. Every second Sunday is Ventura SLAM 101 with $101 prize. The Underground, 3367 Telegraph Rd., Ventura.
Farmers' Markets
CERTIFIED MARKET- VENTURA Wednesdays, 9am-1pm, Pacific View Mall West Parking Lot, Ventura. 529-6266.
CERTIFIED MARKET- THOUSAND OAKS Thursdays, 3pm-7pm. The Oaks Shopping Center, Wilbur Rd. & Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand Oaks. 529-6266.
CERTIFIED MARKET- DOWNTOWN VENTURA Saturdays, 8:30am-12pm. Corner of Santa Clara & Palm, Ventura. 529-6266.
CERTIFIED MARKET- SANTA CLARITA Sundays, 8:30am-12pm. College of the Canyons, Parking Lot 8, Santa Clarita. 529-6266.
Stepping Out
BALLROOM DANCE Thursday, June 29, 7:30-10pm. Live band. Singles and couples welcome. $7 non-members. Oxnard Community Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard. 647-9471.
THOUSAND OAKS DANCE CLUB Saturday, July 1, 7:30-10:30pm. $7 non-members. First and third Saturday Goebel Senior Adult Center, 1385 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks. 381-2744.
50+ BALLROOM DANCE Sunday, July 2, 2-5 p.m. Gloria and The New Boys perform music of the 30's and 40's at this 50+ senior ballroom dance on the third Sunday of every month. $5, includes refreshments. Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, 550 Park Ave., Port Hueneme. 483-6890.
INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCING Monday, July 3, 7:30-9:30pm. Weekly dance, all ages. First night free. Conejo Elementary School,. 280 Conejo School Road, Thousand Oaks. 497-1957.
COUNTRY WESTERN DANCE Tuesday, July 4, 7pm. Country Lovers Western Dance Club host their weekly dance party. $3 visitor. Family Center, 10269 Telephone Road, Ventura. 647-1893.
SALSA DANCING Tuesday, July 4, 8pm. Salsa dancing and lessons every Tuesday. Free lessons with cover charge. Beginning 8-8:30pm, advanced, 8:30-9:15pm. Occasional age restrictions. $7. Borderline Bar and Grill, 99 Rolling Oaks Drive, Thousand Oaks. 446-4435.
WEST COAST SWING Tuesdays, 7pm. Poinsettia Swing Dance club hosts their weekly dance and lessons. Under 21 welcome. 7pm: beginning West Coast swing lesson; 8pm: intermediate lesson; 8:30-10:30pm: West Coast Swing Dancing. $10 before 8pm, $6 after 8pm. House of Dance, 3007 Bunsen Ave., Ste. E Ventura. 643-0788.
SALSA LESSONS & SALSA DANCING Wednesday, July 5. Come learn Salsa dancingand play and practice afterwards. Beginning Salsa, 6:30pm; Beginning with 1-2 intermediate moves, 7:00 pm; Intermediate Salsa Moves, 7:45; Advanced moves, 8:30pm; Salsa Dancing 9pm. $10 for salsa class, $5 dance after 9pm. Lobster Trap, 3605 Peninsula Road, Oxnard. 405-2946.
Shows/Markets
ARTS BY THE SEA Saturday, July 1, 10am-4pm. Weekly art show features mostly fine art including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, ceramics and jewelry. Held outdoors between the Holiday Inn and the Artists' Union Gallery, where California St. meets the sea. 340-0609.
Clubs/Groups
ALMAVIA OF CAMARILLO FASHION SHOW & BRUNCH Thursday, June 29, 11:30am. The residents and staff of AlmaVia of Camarillo, an assisted living community, show off the latest summer trends during their Summer Salsa Sensation Fashion Show & Brunch. Residents and staff model attire from Drapers & Damons, a leading retailer of women's clothing for over 70 years. Representatives from the Camarillo store present their lines for misses and petite's, complete with accessory items. $10, includes Mexican-style brunch and entertainment. AlmaVia of Camarillo, 2500 Ponderosa North, Camarillo. 388-5277.
PING PONG Thursdays, 7:30 pm-9:30 pm Open play. Rec. Center, Park Road, Ojai. Call 646-8162 for more information.
LESBIAN AND GAY SUPPORT GROUP Thursdays, 7:30-9:30pm. Singles and couples welcome. Cope with hostilities and concerns in the workplace, society, community and family. Morbrook Institute, Camarillo. 484-7867, ext. 44.
WOMEN'S SUPPORT GROUP Tuesdays, 4-6pm. Create friendship, courage, personal growth and healing. Morbrook Institute, Camarillo. 484-7867, ext. 44.
OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS Meetings daily in the Ventura, Ojai and Santa Barbara areas. (888) 702-0202. Visit online at www.oa-ci.org.
AAUW Coffee & Chats First Saturday of the month, 9 to 11 a.m. Prospective members are welcome. Side Street Caf', 996 Lawrence Drive, Newbury Park. 495-9669.
Landscape Photo
Like a lot of Kim Juda's canvases, "Carnival" started out as a photo. The dark oil painting, which shows two figures dancing under lights in what looks like a club, is a blurred, softened version of a snapshot Juda took.
But, like a lot of Juda's paintings, a little creative license was taken with "Carnival." The figures, two of Juda's friends from Montana State University, aren't in a glitzy dance club ' Bozeman's nightlife wasn't quite that evolved.
"We were in my living room," she said. "But we pretended like we were in a club."
That idea ' turning something most people see as the ordinary (like a living room dance party) into the extraordinary (like a night in Rio) ' is a goal for Juda, this month's featured artist at the OASIS Gallery.
Juda, who's hanging paintings for the show, said the exhibit is more about form than realism.
It's not that Juda can't do realism. Take a look at her portraits or murals, like the mural she painted on the side of a building in Broadway with green grass and an old covered bridge that stretches 12 feet by 43 feet.
The lush, flowering, landscape of the mural is far different from many of her oil paintings. Take, for instance, "Creeping in," a small canvas filled only with a pair of antlers poking in from the right side.
Juda likes the painting better than some of her landscapes, where she's tried to capture vast views of Montana and Virginia scenery.
"Some things are so beautiful when you're there and you see it but when you try to paint it sometimes you lose that splendor," she said.
Juda, a 28-year-old Mt. Crawford native and graduate of Eastern Mennonite High School, isn't painting full time. When she moved back to Virginia she took a job teaching art at a middle school in Manassas. It wasn't for her, she said.
Now, she's got a few odd jobs, including caring for a boy with disabilities, something she's come to view as much as an experience as a job. "It's made my life so much richer," she said.
As much as she enjoys caring for the boy, painting is her passion.
"Something magical kind of happens when I get ahold of a canvas," she said.
That magic causes a lot of odd effects, she said, like a complete stoppage of time.
"The day can pass and I won't even know what time it is," she said. "I just get started and I go.
"It's weird, it wears me out but I haven't really done anything physical."
One thing Juda doesn't like doing is dreaming up names for her paintings. Take "Vegetation," a picture that depicts a cat munching on a houseplant. Her artist statement: "The title for this painting was the most complementary one I could think of.
"I really can't stand titling my work," she said. "It's really hard to fit everything I wanted to say in just, like, three words."
"Untitled paintings drive me crazy," she said. "I like titles, especially when I don't understand something."
Juda's two months as the gallery's featured artist will begin at a party held from 5-7 p.m. on Friday at OASIS Gallery on Main Street. Juda's friend Scott Murray will play acoustic guitar at the event.
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Landscape Photo
Graphical navigation screen for the online comics section at ScottMcCloud.com, by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud's 1993 book Understanding Comics has been hailed as seminal work in the field of comic art. A hypersmart but eminently approachable guide to the medium's history, theory and aesthetics, it's a comic book about comic books -- with McCloud wittily narrating from within the very form he's explicating. His follow-up book released in 2000, Reinventing Comics, employs the same visual vocabulary to peer into comics' digital, online future. McCloud currently maintains several creative projects on his sprawling and ambitious website, ScottMcCloud.com, and stays busy with a seemingly endless schedule of public appearances, lectures, and guest scholar appointments.
McCloud recently spoke to PopMatters about the digital marketplace, newspaper funny pages, and comics' dimensional Z-axis.
In Reinventing Comics, you advocate digital distribution as a way to serve both the creator and the reader of comics by cutting out the middleman. That was six years ago. How has the webcomics scene developed since then?
The overall webcomics scene is basically a validation and a victory for those who had confidence in digital distribution as a powerful way for the medium to grow. It definitely serves both creators and readers to have a much more efficient connection between points A and B. Even though the economic side of it is still looking fuzzy, there are some ways that people have found to make a living at it. And the medium has been growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, overall comics readership has been growing tremendously. There are far, far, far more people reading comics in the world today than there were 10 years ago. And the Web has had a lot to do with that. The core of the scene these days doesn't have too much to do with my kind of "frontier theories." It's more about the settlers than the pioneers.
Are comics generally finding a wider, more sophisticated readership?
What's been happening creatively in the last few years has completely changed the demographics. When it was just superheroes and the daily newspaper strips in, say, the late 1980s, the content was radically different. The Web is not the only factor in that growth, of course; there are other forces. You also have the literary graphic novel movement, which has grown considerably since then. Then you have this massive influx of Japanese comics. Their readers, the manga readers, have represented a tremendous demographic shift, too. You see a lot more girls reading comics than ever before. In my day, when I was first getting into it, the skew was probably 90-10 percent, with 10 percent being girls or women reading.
Part of that is genre diversity. When a new genre appears on the Web, it doesn't have to compete for shelf space. If a new comic has just 20 readers at a given time, it can build on that to become 40, to become 80, to become 800, to become 8,000. And it's a nice frictionless slope. Whereas in the physical marketplace, if you have 20 readers, you don't get shelved at all, and that 20 is driven down to zero.
So the Web allows for comics to develop that might not otherwise find a readership in print?
That's the big difference with digital distribution and webcomics -- there's no penalty to having a small readership. If you have a small readership, you have a small readership. But you get to keep it, because your work is always available. If you go into an average comics shop -- or even a Borders or Barnes and Noble, for all their tremendous variety and selection compared to previous eras -- it's a different situation. A comic which isn't expected to sell at least a few thousand right out of the gate will not be seen at all. It will never appear.
It's the principle that any given square inch of shelf space needs to generate a certain amount of revenue for a shop to survive. And so the people who buy the material for that shelf quite reasonably try to skew their ordering toward those products that are going to sell to the highest number. And if you have five genres, and one sells to 40 percent of the fans, one to 30 percent, and one to 10 and one to five, etcetera, the one that sells to the 40 percent is going to take up 80 percent of those slots.
I just boil it down to: There's no shelf space in cyberspace. We've seen that principle played out all over, especially in music. There's this flowering of genres, and ever-increasing genre cell-splitting. These developments -- they're not coerced. It's natural creative evolution. Artists don't have to worry about crossing from one bin to another as they would in the music store. They don't have to worry, is this hip hop? Is this rock? Is this R&B? Nobody cares. Genre has evolved seamlessly.
For example, the gamer comic genre made it safe to do comics about a couple of guys just sitting around talking. But once that happens, even though we could identify that as a genre -- "Oh, that's just a gaming comic" -- suddenly another comic can come along and have a couple of guys who aren't talking about gaming at all, but talking about music. Then that leads to something like [indie webcomic] Questionable Content, where you see people just sitting around and talking about anything. [laughs] But that was a seamless evolution from one to another. And there was nothing to stop it because there was no market slot that they all had to fit into. What you've removed, essentially, is the feedback loop of the traditional market, where the slightly more popular in terms of sales becomes much more prevalent until you have a market that's basically composed of one genre.
You've long been a proponent of micropayments [paying a few cents at a time to access online content] as a way to establish a fair market for webcomics. Is this catching on as a way for webcomic artists to make a living?
Well, right now merchandising and advertising are the only real success stories on the Web. Certainly subscriptions and micropayments are still marginal. These are still experiments on the frontier that haven't really caught on. I think subscriptions have been entrenched for longer and have had some success with things like the Modern Tales site. [The micropayment concept] is me sitting on a mountaintop just pleading that this is a really good idea. [laughs] We gave it a good shot a few years ago, but that's still a pretty marginal part of the business landscape. Merchandising -- selling t-shirts and art -- is particularly common right now.
Are you still optimistic about micropayments?
Well, sure. Anytime I get discouraged I just click over to iTunes. [laughs] It depends on how you define micropayments. With iTunes you have millions of people a day paying small amounts for content. The whole idea of paid content is not alien to the Web as we have it right now. Bitpass and PayPal are being used every day, but on a smaller scale. Again, this is something that, on the first pass, didn't catch on enough to change the marketplace completely. But it's still an idea and a technology that's out there. Things are mutating on the Web at such a rate that it's hard to predict whether some version of this won't still come about.
The iTunes model is not the model I wanted to see become dominant in every way, because I don't like the idea of a single vendor. That's a potentially toxic situation there. Right now we have a relatively benign presence in Apple, but that doesn't mean things couldn't turn ugly. It's not a good thing to have just one company able to turn off the spigot at any time.
I read on your blog that iTunes is partnering with an outfit called Clickwheel to sell digital comics for mobile devices.
That's something that's still in its embryonic stage, doing comics for that format. It does particularly illustrate one of the reasons I wanted to see an independent form of payment, rather than a form of payment tied to a single vendor. Because that vendor now gets to choose what format those comics will come across in, what they'll look like. If iTunes becomes the primary vendor for comics, all of a sudden we have this one company deciding what all comics have to look like -- what format they have to be in, what spatial metaphors they have to use. And I'm not sure that that's a good thing. That's not to say that Clickwheel isn't an interesting foray into the territory; I certainly wish them luck. They have some good cartoonists involved. But I do worry about the one giant middleman.
You're using the micropayment model for your ongoing webcomic The Right Number, which incorporates an interesting approach to spatial sequencing. Instead of scrolling down or across, you click right into the picture and drill down into the image.
Right. As CGI people will tell you, you're moving along the Z axis instead of the X or the Y. That one 90 degree rotation creates this really alien-looking interface. But the idea is the same -- that as you're moving through space, you're moving through time. Which I think is the fundamental idea behind all comics.
The nomenclature of comics can get confusing -- comic books, comics strips, cartoons. In Understanding Comics, you define comics as "juxtaposed pictoral and other images in deliberate sequence." But this seems to exclude single panel newspaper or editorial cartoons.
Well, you just said it, calling these cartoons. I think that that's cartooning, when you talk about things like The Far Side or Family Circus. I see that as a branch of cartooning, and I think those guys generally call themselves cartoonists. It's no knock on them to say that they're working in a slightly different medium. The reason I made the distinction is not because I have anything against Gary Larson or Bill Keane or whatever. It's because I didn't like the idea that "comics" was tied to a particular style of drawing. If they're comics just because they're sitting on the same page, and drawn in the same style, then that excludes a lot of interesting stuff that's being done in comics. Or is about to be done. You know, some people use photo collages as comics. I think that certainly qualifies -- comics can include any number of stylistic approaches and media. And it's important that we break out of that notion that it all has to look like that stuff on the newspaper page.
You know, no one can ever really take a meaning away from words. When I suggested that we think of comics as putting one picture after another, as sequential art, I thought of myself as adding another definition to our little mental dictionary. I wasn't trying to erase anyone else's. If you look in the book, my proposed definition is one of four definitions I arrived at once I got through debating myself. The words "comics" can mean those floppy magazines you buy at the newspaper stand, or the little cramped boxes on the newspaper page, or the guy that stands up and tells jokes on the stage.
What do you think about the state of newspaper comics -- the funny pages -- as opposed to what we're seeing in webcomics, or more generally comic books and graphic novels?
Well, all are entirely legitimate, of course. I grew up more reading comic books than comic strips, and sometimes there's that prejudice from either side of the fence. But I think I'm on pretty solid ground - and I think a lot of good strip artists like Patrick McDonnell ("Mutts") would back me up on this -- that the comic strip has had a hard time of it in the last couple of decades. Certainly there are a lot of very good, very creative people working in the field, but it's been much more restricted than, say, graphic novels. We've seen less experimentation, and clearly there's less latitude [on the newspaper page] for cutting-edge or potentially troublesome content. There's just not as much variety of style. I mean, we do have people like McDonnell, who are extremely talented and gifted in the tradition of a Charles Schultz or a Bill Watterson. But generally speaking, there's a lot of dead wood there. And it seems kind of sad.
The newspaper comics page seems inherently conservative, because of the syndication system and reader feedback. There have been a lot of articles describing the massive outcry from older readers when a newspaper tries to replace an ancient strip like "Blondie" with something new.
Right, well, you know the average comic book artist or graphic novel artist has an editor. The average newspaper comic strip artist has about 10,000 editors, in the form of the individual newspaper editors. In one sense, they have many millions of editors because newspaper readers have a great deal of power to kill that which upsets them over morning coffee.
You've got a new book coming out in the fall called Making Comics Can you talk a little about that?
Well, September 5 is the "pub date," as they call it. I'm starting to learn these terms. [laughs] It's 255 pages, all about the art of making comics.
Is it designed to be part of a series, with Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics?
Well, it certainly looks like the others. It's the same size and shape, and it has me narrating. But it's pretty different from the first two, just as the second was wildly different from the first one. This takes a different tack; this time it has a more practical eye toward the art of telling stories with pictures. But because it's me, of course, I stray into all sorts of theoretical territory along the way. It's hard for me to stay on that yellow line. I'm writing while under the influence -- always driving over the line and getting arrested. [laughs]
It's really for anyone interested in creating comics, telling stories with pictures, or just interested in the process behind it -- the various crafts and disciplines that making comics touches on. It's a pretty long list, of course. Because anyone that wants to make comics essentially has to be actor and director and set designer and cinematographer and writer and artists, all at the same time.
I see you're planning a pretty ambitious tour when the book comes out.
Yes, we're going to go for an entire year -- my whole family; my wife and our two little girls, 11 and 13. We'll be hopping in our van and seeing every state in America, plus four or five Canadian provinces, and London and Barcelona. It's terrifying but exciting, and I think it'll be a great experience. We're lining up lectures and seminars, and we'll be blogging it. My older daughter will be doing a video podcast, interviewing various artists around the country who are making comics about their creative process. It'll all be up at the website.
Anything else coming up?
The thing I want to do next is a graphic novel based on a story that I've had in mind for more than 20 years. One of the reasons I did this last book on making comics is because I wanted to finally teach myself everything I didn't already know, in preparation for doing this book. It'll probably run to about 400-500 pages and it'll be a true graphic novel.
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Homeowners, designers and builders across the United States are beginning to incorporate outdoor fireplaces into their landscape designs. The Concrete Network's online outdoor fireplace photo gallery offers an extensive collection of photos exhibiting various concrete outdoor fireplace design options.
Yucaipa, CA (PRWEB) June 23, 2006 'C As temperatures begin the upward climb across the country, the appeal of outdoor entertaining has also begun to rise. Outdoor fireplaces have become a staple of outdoor living spaces. Homeowners, designers and builders are turning to The Concrete Network, the largest and most comprehensive source for concrete information, online outdoor fireplace photo gallery for a collection of photos offering different design ideas and options for incorporating outdoor fireplaces for everyday entertaining.
The appeal of outdoor fireplaces comes from the fact that back yard entertaining does not have to stop once the sun sets. These outdoor fixtures are great for providing light and warmth for friends and family as the evening air begins to cool, and are great as outdoor barbeques and pizza ovens.
They can be easily incorporated into landscape design plans around pools and patios. From rustic, natural pieces incorporating faux rocks to sleek, sophisticated fixtures, these outdoor fireplaces can transform any landscape into an entertainer's paradise. With concrete, their color options and design possibilities become limitless.
Building with concrete offers long lasting durability, versatility and requires minimal maintenance. It is the perfect option for withstanding outdoor weather. Outdoor fireplaces can be wood or gas burning. Many of the works in these photos can be replicated and/or tailored to meet the needs of the individual, the home, and space restrictions.
The concrete photo gallery is updated every Friday offering new photos of custom and unique designs and applications. Photos for the photo gallery have been collected from contractors around the country and are for design idea purposes only.
Established in 1999, The Concrete Network's purpose is to educate consumers, builders, and contractors on popular decorative techniques and applications including stamped concrete, stained concrete floors, concrete countertops, polished concrete, and much more. Over 750,000 visitors research The Concrete Network Web site each month.
The site excels at connecting buyers with local contractors in their area through its Find-A-Contractor service. The service provides visitors with a list of decorative concrete contractors throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is fully searchable by 22 types of decorative concrete work and 198 metropolitan areas throughout North America.
News image photo courtesy of Bomanite Corporation. Attached photos courtesy of Advanced Concrete Enhancement and Tom Ralston Concrete.
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Faux rocks and artificial boulders made of concrete can transform virtually any landscape into an island paradise. Homeowners, designers and builders can browse through The Concrete Network's online water features photo gallery and find the perfect feature for their landscaping project.
Yucaipa, CA (PRWEB) June 16, 2006 'C- The Concrete Network, the largest and most comprehensive source for concrete information, offers an online concrete water features photo gallery featuring design ideas for creating artificial rocks and boulders from concrete for waterfalls, swimming pools, and other outdoor environments.
Homeowners, landscape and swimming pool designers, and contractors are turning to faux rocks for water feature construction because of their aesthetic appeal and convenient installation process. While landscapes are often easy to alter by adding flowers and trees, today's innovative water features offer homeowners a resort-like setting right at home.
Artificial rocks made of concrete offer a multitude of design possibilities without the hassle of having to transport heavy materials, and can often be created on-site. It is clear to see that virtually any landscape can be created through decorative water features. From waterslides in the forms of rocks to fountains decorating a garden, these features can be designed to enhance any existing landscape.
These features offer long lasting durability, are versatile and require low maintenance, and are the perfect option for withstanding outdoor weather. Many of the works in these photos can be replicated and/or tailored to meet the needs of the individual, the home, and space restrictions.
The concrete photo gallery is updated every Friday offering new photos of custom and unique designs and applications. Photos for the photo gallery have been collected from contractors around the country and are for design idea purposes only.
Established in 1999, The Concrete Network's purpose is to educate consumers, builders, and contractors on popular decorative techniques and applications including stamped concrete, stained concrete floors, concrete countertops, polished concrete, and much more. Over 750,000 visitors research The Concrete Network Web site each month.
The site excels at connecting buyers with local contractors in their area through its Find-A-Contractor service. The service provides visitors with a list of decorative concrete contractors throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is fully searchable by 22 types of decorative concrete work and 198 metropolitan areas throughout North America.
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TV commercials are becoming a turn-off. Liz Hoggard joins a remarkable gathering of executives and film stars to debate the future of the industry
Actor Martin Sheen is looking startled. It's not the panel's eye-watering discussion of anal sex in Sex and the City that has thrown him. He simply he has no idea what Manolos are. Fellow guest Arianna Huffington takes off her shoe and shows him the label. 'Now that's what creating brand awareness is all about,' laughs Craig Davis of ad agency JWT, who is chairing the discussion.
It's not often the Cannes International Advertising Festival gets a taste of Hollywood glamour. Sandwiched between the film and porn festivals in the Cannes calendar, it is very much an industry event. But today the Debussy Theatre in the Palais building is packed.
Top creatives are here to see Sheen, best known as President Bartlet in TV's The West Wing, debate what advertising can learn from popular culture with Sex and The City (S&TC) writer-producer Michael Patrick King, and Arianna Huffington, whose news and current affairs blog, www.huffingtonpost.com, has become a US phenomenon (Time recently named her one of the 100 People Who Shape Our World).
It's a particular coup for JWT to get Sheen, a veteran political activist and outspoken critic of the Iraq War, and not known for his love of all things corporate. But this is not just a clever stunt. The agency genuinely believes advertisers have a great deal to learn from entertainment specialists - because the advertising industry is in crisis.
'We are all of us fighting for our very lives,' admits Davis. Consumers increasingly see TV advertising as irrelevant to their lives. The days of passively sitting on couches is over. The rise of digital media and the sales of devices from iPods to TiVos and Blackberrys means they can control their own media world. What's more, consumers can make their own entertainment, from blogs to broadband videos distributed over the internet. As Davis sees it 'There are just so many ways to say no to advertising.' The most desirable consumer (the one advertisers all want) has a knack for choosing the good stuff as well as for blocking commercial messages. The solution, Davis says, is to study the 'big ideas' that have shaped pop culture. '
Both The West Wing and S&TC were shows that created iconic role models with wide appeal. Carrie Bradshaw was recently voted the most influential woman of the past 10 years by British women, even though she doesn't exist; Sheen is the man most Americans would love to see as president. Crucially they reached - and held - the audience that advertising is failing to engage.
So what can the industry learn from zeitgeist shows like these? For Sheen, it's all about daring, no-holds-barred writing. 'We knew that the attraction was big issues not being discussed in other drama. We were like a parallel universe. The real administration is conservative, Republican and reactionary; we were liberal and Democratic.'
Sex and the City's King agrees: 'We brought sex into the living room.' As for the criticism that real women wouldn't be as frank as Carrie et al, he says, 'Maybe they weren't saying it, but they were thinking it. And the great power of TV is we can get it out maybe a week before they're actually ready to say it.'
What both shows also had in spades was authenticity. For King, the winning formula was to create a character that had real human frailties. Carrie was flawed and therefore readily identifiable for the audience at large.
Sex and the City became one of the world's biggest brands, with the power to shift any product (Manolos, Cosmopolitans, Jessica Rabbit vibrators) but as Davis tells me when I interview him later: 'They were never paid endorsements; it was just a natural part of the storytelling.'
And JWT want to learn from that. Because the days of the 30-second TV spot are numbered. TV advertising in the UK could decline as much as 5 per cent this year (advertisers have stayed away in droves from the World Cup).
A new UK marketing body, Thinkbox, has even been launched (funded by ITV, C4, Five, Sky and Us media giant Turner) to try to bring ads back to TV. Tess Alps, its new chief executive, believes passionately that if broadcasters are forced to look for money away from advertising, the quality of free-to-air programming may plummet.
This means a new bar has been set for advertising, says Davis. Not only must their output be fresher, cleverer, edgier, but ads must become an art form in their own right, or at least move closer to the entertainment space. 'The challenge to us is to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in,' he says - or 'make coitus interruptus the real intercourse,' as Huffington puts it bluntly. That means goodbye to internet pop-ups, which drive the consumer mad, and more investment in '360-degree' communication strategies - emails, text messages, flyers, chatrooms and podcasts which the consumer chooses to view. Customers are now co-authors of a brand's 'story'.
For the past week JWT has been streaming nine advertisements on Huffington's home page as an experiment. The idea is that bloggers download video ads for Levi's and HSBC, share comments, then forward them to friends.
'Digital investment is growing for marketeers,' confirms Guardian Unlimited head of commercial development, Adam Freeman. Interactivity means advertisers can 'literally track what's happening', he says. He cites the latest viral campaign for Minis, where consumers add in a friend's name and different phrases about them, then pass the video on. 'The guy on the screen is talking about you and it's all about the quality of the Mini. How cool is that?'
It's not just the marketing landscape that has become a consumer-driven phenomenon, of course. Arguably, in 10 years' time we will all have phones or mobile devices that are connected to the internet. We will be able to choose our content just as fast as the networks provide it. No wonder the Guardian and the Times have taken the decision to break foreign news as it happens online.
Consumers will happily spend time with branded communications but only on their own terms - and only if the content is engaging. It's a brutal, Darwinian market out there, as veteran ad man Maurice Saatchi observed in his keynote speech, 'The Strange Death of Modern Advertising', given at Cannes last week. Only strong brands will survive, he insists. 'The intellectual rigour of advertising - paring and editing down to a brutally simple thought - has never been more in demand.'
'It used to be the company that owned the brand; now the consumer owns the brand,' adds Freeman. 'They can either kill it or love it. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing channel.'
In his speech, Saatchi identified the rise of the 'digital native', a new generation of consumer who multi-tasks and edits ruthlessly. During a 30-second TV commercial, teenagers can take a phone call, send a text, receive a photo, play a game, or download music. It's what neuroscientists call 'CPA': Continuous Partial Attention.
So how has Huffington managed to establish a global brand after only a year? And why are people choosing her group blog over mainstream news brands such as CNN and ABC? Speed and intimacy, she says simply. Her network of 750 bloggers (which includes ordinary members of the public, frustrated journalists who can't get edgy stories in their own newspapers, and celebs such as Norman Mailer and Nora Ephron) can instantly contribute and get the conversation going. Huffington's bloggers are encouraged to be passionate rather than polished. The site's mantra is 'first thoughts, best thoughts'.
'Nothing does it like humour,' she claims. 'Remember when Cheney shot his friend? We had video and blogs up so fast and were days before Jay Leno and David Letterman got onto it. Sometimes people deserve to be satirised in real time.' And everything is free. 'Don't try the New York Times model of putting your best content behind walls. This is the old model.'
The big message from Cannes is that advertising must respect the intelligence of its audience - if it does not prompt consumers to think smart, it will be instantly dismissed. Advertisers want your brain as well as your wallet. As Saatchi observes: 'It's the modern equivalent of having the best site on the high street, except the location is in the mind.'
Where commercials go next
Product placement
We're going to see a lot more product placement (or PPL, as it's called), where real commercial products are used in fictional entertainment. But the creators of TV content will make the decisions.
Sex and the City executive producer Michael Patrick King says he was happy to use brands when it was authentic. It's far less distracting to have a character drink Diet Coke than hold up a 'generic fizzy cola', he argues. Similarly, he was happy to show Samantha brandishing Trojan condoms ('I had to pick the shot that was most instantly, definably, a rubber') - but when a liquor company offered $1m to have lead character Carrie Bradshaw order a well-known drink, they turned it down. 'Carrie would never order that drink,' says King scornfully. Interestingly, when the show ended and retail chain Gap attempted to co-opt the S&TC brand by having Sarah Jessica Parker front their campaign, it failed: crucially, Gap had got Parker - not Bradshaw, her character. 'The ownership and soul of a show lies in the convergence between the writer and the actor who carries the personality,' says Marian Salzman of US ad agency JWT.
Sponsorship
Branded content and sponsorship is the way forward, says Guardian Unlimited's Adam Freeman. 'If consumers are tuning out of advertising, content becomes the best way to engage consumers. So brand owners are becoming content owners.' He cites the example of Nike getting involved in events around the world: 'The brand becomes about much more than a single product; it's about experience.' TV sponsorship will also have to become more sophisticated, argues JWT's Craig Davis. Consumers are alienated by clumsy ads, such as the sexed-up Herbal Essences shampoo campaign that ran around Desperate Housewives. More successful was a Unilever campaign for Sedal (Sunsilk) created in Latin America. Researchers found that Latin American women were less obsessed with self-image and more focused on friends and families. Sunsilk's 'Life Messes Your Hair Up' campaign consisted of stories about real-life women; it was so successful that a group of Latin American writers were commissioned to write short stories around the campaign and the book became a bestseller.
Texting
Ad content on mobiles is a huge growth area. Of course, no one wants their phones going off all the time, but the occasional, cleverly targeted message that engages the recipient with its content - such as the Make Poverty History campaign - can be highly effective. Best of all, it gets passed on. Advocacy - recommendation from a friend - is the most powerful and credible influence on consumers.
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They came to support the mission. They came to share stories on the work they have done. And they came to sing.
About 100 people, ranging in age from 5 to 65, and consisting mostly of members of the Nassau Presbyterian Church, gathered Sunday for a fundraiser to support the church's rebuilding effort in Biloxi, Miss. ' an area ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Gretchen Sword, a resident of Princeton and member of Nassau Presbyterian, organized the event she called "Karaoke for Katrina," which is just one of many she and the church are involved with to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.
"The initiative started because we wanted to do these two projects for these two churches," Ms. Sword said. "The project is for two churches we partnered with on the Gulf Coast. The idea is to raise $15,000 for each church to help them rebuild. So the karaoke night was just one part of this larger initiative."
Ms. Sword arranged for refreshments, sent out invitations and scheduled DJ Rockin' Ron of Bridge Music Co. to raise money for the relief effort.
Attendees could choose from thousands of songs in Rockin' Ron's catalogue, including "Macho Man" by the Village People, "Reach Out" by Burt Bacharach, "Circle of Life" by Elton John and many, many more.
As the people sang, pictures of the devastated landscape of Biloxi flashed above them on a projection screen, keeping the purpose of the evening in perspective. Copies of some of the pictures can be purchased through the church.
"The photos were taken because we thought there would be people interested in seeing the real story on the Gulf Coast. The photo exhibit will hang in the conference room at Nassau Presbyterian through August," Ms. Sword said.
All proceeds benefit Two Projects for Two Churches, she added. The two churches are First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs, and Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church of D'Iberville.
Ms. Sword, who returned May 9 from a weeklong trip to assist in the rebuilding of Biloxi, said the church has organized seven trips to the area since October and plans two more this summer.
The Rev. Dave Davis of Nassau Presbyterian, who attended Karaoke for Katrina, said of Ms. Sword's efforts, "I think Gretchen has it right. This evening is a more informal way to get together and have a fundraiser."
The Rev. Davis auctioned his singing services to the highest bidder. At the end of the night, because of a $250 donation, he sang "I Feel Pretty" from the musical "West Side Story."
Princeton resident Zachary Gilmore, who has been a part of the church's mission trips to help rebuild Biloxi, noted that he came to Karaoke for Katrina with his family to give support.
"It's a good cause," he said. "I'm glad we could all make it out."
To kick off the evening, Ms. Sword sang the first song, "Bring It On Home To Me" by Sam Cooke.
She sang, "Bring your sweet loving, bring it on home to me."
Many others followed her singing lead, including a group of five girls from the church's Youth Group who sang, "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.
But the evening was not all fun and games.
Holly Hardaway, as she was writing a donation check to give toward the relief effort, said, "I can't emphasize enough how much help the people down there on the Gulf Coast are going to need for years and years to come. We can't give up."
Sunday's effort raised about $1,700.
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Stephen Poole is realising his dream. It's been a long-time dream, over a decade to date, but it has survived the disappointment of a false start. Now it has gone from promise to reality. In doing so, Stephen's dream might just show us a better way to live.
Stephen is not a stereotypical business director. He isn't tall, doesn't wear a suit and wears his hair long to his shoulders. Nor does he drive a prestige car: for Stephen, his 4WD ute is more appropriate. He could easily be mistaken for one of the surfers who patrol the Gulf of St Vincent shoreline in search of the perfect swell. Catching waves is something Stephen does on occasion, but his prime motivation these past few years has been getting his pet project off the ground.
Originally, the dream was a shared one. It began well over a decade ago when a group of like-minded individuals, wanting somewhere to settle, got together and talked about the possibility of developing an urban-like settlement in a rural area. Practical people rather than dreamers, they wanted the advantages of urban living with space for a little primary production.
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A town called Burra, long since past its heyday as a mining centre, looked promising. Burra offered the advantages of cheap land reasonably close to Adelaide.
Plans were drawn up and the project was publicised - attracting interstate interest. This new village was to be an example of how people could live on the land while improving it and, for some, deriving at least part of their livelihood from it. The idea was to create a new type of settlement that brought together the advantages of a village with the best in modern environmental design.
But Burra was not to be. A new government introduced policies which ended plans for the village.
Learning from experience
Swiss-born Max Lindegger used to talk about combining rural living and village life back in the 1980s. He espoused much the same ideas as Stephen and like him went on to create it. By late in the decade, residents were starting to move into Crystal Waters Village, near Canondale, in the hills of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Environmental design was an important criteria for the planners and architects behind Crystal Waters and other similar developments, hence they soon became known as 'eco-villages'.
The next development of its type was Kookaburra Park, near Bundaberg. Jalanbah followed, a smaller development near the northern NSW town of Nimbin. The eco-village was at last an Australian reality: a new way to enjoy rural life that was substantially different to life in a country town.
By the time the Burra project began there was already a number of ecovillages planned or in existence around the country, and there was much to learn from their experiences. This Stephen Poole did.
Finding Aldinga
Although Burra failed at the hands of political policy, and although they were disappointed, they weren't completely discouraged. Stephen and his team decided to persist with their dream and search for an alternative site.
Eventually, they discovered Aldinga. They approached council with their idea for a village only to learn a group of artists in the area already had a similar idea. Council thought it might be worthwhile talking to the artists. This they did. The outcome was the Aldinga Arts Eco-village - the 'Arts' in the name recognising the presence of the artists.
The place
The highway from Adelaide passes through countryside the colour of dried grass. Most people describe this as flat country: others, noting the land's rise and fall, might call it undulating. Whatever description, a low range parallels the highway through this part of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It forms a natural boundary separating the coastal plain from the lands beyond. Here and there the range is topped with open forest but the coastal plain along which the road takes the visitor has a paucity of trees and gives the impression of land cleared long ago to make way for grazing animals and walnut orchards.
The Fleurieu Peninsula is a long finger of land that projects southwards, and it is here where the turnoff to Aldinga Beach is, about 45 minutes from Adelaide. Aldinga is one of a series of coastal towns stretching back towards Adelaide to form a ribbon of development along the foreshore of St Vincents Gulf.
The road to Aldinga Arts Eco-village passes through the undistinguished looking town and leaves it via a long, straight road that passes a new subdivision. Here, Stephen slows the ute and explains how the streets have been constructed with no regard to the free solar energy readily available in this mediterranean climate. It will mean years of high energy bills for residents.
It's a different story when we reach Aldinga Arts. Here on 34 hectares of north-sloping land the streets follow the contours of the terrain, allowing houses on the 152 lots to be aligned towards the sun. A total of 16ha is devoted to residential development and about 44 per cent of the site is set aside as community land and common facilities, including the small pocket-parks with young fruiting fig, quince and persimmon trees.
All the houses have solar water-heating - reducing the cost of most energy consumption. They must, according to village by-laws, store a minimum 10,000 litres of water to cope with hot, dry summers and with drought. Sensibly, most houses store about twice that volume.
There is a diversity of housing options to suit Australia's changing demographic. Lots of 650 square metres for larger families, and 450 and 200 square metre lots for smaller households, will soon be complemented by the construction of the village's first townhouses.
The village is financed through the sale of lots - Stephen says about 30 per cent of total sales were made before work started on the village. Infrastructure development has been made in advance of housing construction and in the three years since building began, many of the lots in stages one and two have been sold and built on. Stage three was recently released and already two houses have been built and occupied. There is a market area and according to Stephen, markets will eventually be held more frequently than every quarter.
Conserving water in the landscape is a priority and a drive through the village discloses wide drains lined with rock known as rip-rap. These take winter's rainwater to storage in the small dams seen throughout the village. As the weather warms through the summer, the dams become muddy wetlands, the water being held in the soil.
Aldinga Arts is two kilometres from Aldinga Beach - the sea can be glimpsed between low headlands from the higher parts of the village.
At present, a 12 hectare area accommodates the village's sewage treatment system, the treated wastes to be used to irrigate a wood lot. Eventually, the farm area will house an education centre and livelihood opportunities, such as the planned community kitchen. Already, one family is planning to make use of the kitchen as part of their livelihood mix. They hope to purchase organically certified produce from local farmers and process and bottle it in the community kitchen. Their market will be specialty retailers in Adelaide.
Another resident is planning to take advantage of passing traffic by developing a site at the entrance to the village as a cafe and bar. Stephen explains that the village will also feature artists' studios and performance space.
Demonstrating renewable energy - the Heij hut
Elizabeth Heij, with her husband, bought a lot at Aldinga Arts and built a state of the art, modern house of modest size. Upstairs is Elizabeth's office - she teleworks for the CSIRO. In her front yard is a vegetable garden that yields fresh, organically grown herbs and vegetables for the household. The side yard conceals two buried 10,000 litre water tanks. Water is also harvested from the garage and greenhouse roofs and stored in above-ground tanks.
Not only is the home's roof insulated against the hot South Australian summers, so too are the walls which consist of what Elizabeth calls a 'reverse brick veneer'. On the outside is rendered blueboard; inside which has air-cell insulation - it's like bubble wrap mounted on rigid panels. The hollow-core concrete bricks, rendered in a pale yellow reminiscent of the dessicated-looking countryside seen through the window, are on the inside. With the exception of those carrying conduit, the hollow cores have been infilled with concrete to increase their thermal mass and hence their ability to insulate the interior of the house from the heat of the summer or cold of winter.
Utility rooms, such as laundry and bathroom, have been placed on the western side of the house, further insulating the main living areas from late afternoon sun in summer. On the sunward side, the eaves are of just the right width to admit warming sunlight into the interior as the season moves into winter. There, the heat of sunlight is stored in solid, thermal mass floors which release the heat energy as the evening cools, reducing the need for supplementary heating.
Elizabeth's house is no McMansion - it is of modest-size and is a high-performance dwelling suitable for two. Whether in the heat of summer or the cool of winter her house is comfortable, and unlike those unfortunate homes in that subdivision closer to Aldinga, Elizabeth's attracts much lower energy bills. In fact, the energy authority pays her for power derived from the array of photo-electric panels on her roof. Elizabeth is data-logging the thermal performance of her building to assess its year-round performance.
A compact melange of homes
Aldinga Arts Eco-village is a compact melange of architectural styles but common to all is energy and water efficient design. As well as reverse brick veneer, houses are made of building materials such as timber plank, galvanised iron, timbercrete - a sawdust and concrete brick - and the economical, but durable, rendered straw-bale. Architecturally, they are of modern design, reflecting the type of people who live in the village - middle-class professionals and service workers, artists and tradespeople.
The eco-village is close to job markets, specialist services and the big-city amenities of metropolitan Adelaide including the suburban train network which terminates only ten or so kilometres away at Noralunga Centre. Aldinga Arts is also close to Aldinga township and the beach. It demonstrates in a most practical way that affordable, energy and water efficient housing of differing size, suited to the full range of modern Australian families, does not need to result in urban sprawl but can offer the benefits of private home ownership in a village-like atmosphere.
For Stephen Poole it has been a long journey from Burra to Aldinga, a move away from the drylands to the sea. But Stephen is not yet ready to move onto his lot in the village - he still lives in town.
Every now and then, though, when driving through the village, he stops his ute at his vacant lot, gets out and, fittingly for someone who likes to catch the occasional wave, looks towards the blue waters of St Vincents Gulf, just over a kilometre away.
Russ Grayson has a background in journalism and in aid work in the South Pacific. He has been editor of an environmental industry journal, a freelance writer and photographer for magazines and a writer and editor of training manuals for field staff involved in aid and development work with villagers in the Solomon Islands.
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