Ojai Quarterly — Summer 2019

ojai

SUMMER 2019

QUARTERLY

SATYA & HER HATS

Taking Care of Her Mother, Business

THE BARD IS BACK

‘Much Ado’ About

Shakespeare’s Return

THE LAST VAQUERO

OJAI’S NOMAD

Dan Lopez & Ojai’s Rancho Days

Leslie Clark Ready for Next Adventure

$5.95

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Wilde Thacher Road | 31 Acres | 9 Homes | 1st Time to Market $9,000,000 | pierpontcottages.com

Larry 805.640.5734

Erik 805.830.3254

11+ Acres - Two Parcels | Mid-Century Estate Incredible Views! | 1071RanchoDr.com

SOLD

Classic Charm | Walk to Town 1.7 Acres | $1,775,000 | www.westeucalyptus.com

2065 Los Encinos | Ojai Mid-Century Home with Pool | 2065LosEncinos.com

SOLD

Charming Meiners Oaks Home $445,000 | 135lomita.com

Country Farmhouse | Pool Adjacent to 80 Acres Ranch | $917,500

Downtown Ojai | Great Location Guest House | $975,000

Saddle Mountain | Two Private Acres Impeccable | $1,575,000 | 825azure.com

Larry Wilde began his real estate career in Ojai in 1975, and by 1978, together with his partner Dennis Guernsey, formed their own Real estate business. Today it is the premier brokerage in the Ojai Valley.

East End Ojai Craftsman | $1,925,000 | 1615McNellRoad.com

Downtown Ojai | Private | 1.5 Acres $1,349,500 | 811canada.com

20 Acres | Equestrian Ranch $3,385,000 | 12150mountainlionroad.com

Downtown Ojai Fully Renovated Custom Home | $779,000

Downtown 2.5 Acre - Persimmon Hills Great Views - $579,500 | 380longhorn.com

IN ESCROW

IN ESCROW

Downtown Ojai 2/1 with detached guest unit | $575,000

1930’s Meiners Oaks w/pool | $649,000

727 W. Ojai Ave. - Ojai - CA 93023 - Larry - 805.640.5734 - Erik - 805.830.3254 wilde-wilde.com - lwilde@west.net - erikw@west.net Larry Wilde DRE:#15216270 - Erik Wile DRT:#01461074

Donna Sallen

Located on the prestigious East End of Ojai, down a private lane, sits an elegantly modern home.

Beautiful, flat useable lot, just under an acre, located in the heart of the City of Ojai. Great views from this lot. Zoned C1 − come build your dream!!

Desirable location, close to Soule Park Golf Course, so you have plenty of visibility for your business. Build Live/Work, or just Work...many possibilities.

There’s no place like home ...

Let me find yours.

Sitting perfectly on over an acre of land with citrus fruits and a driveway of Cypress trees.

Located minutes away from trails, organic grocer, coffee shops and yoga studio. This home has the modern design that unites family spirit, cozy atmosphere and large open spaces. Recently renovated, this light filled house has a spacious floor plan with vaulted ceilings, polished concrete floors and custom doors leading out to a private backyard. The property’s meandering paths lead to an artist studio and a sleeping cottage.

This home is made for a true Ojai lifestyle.

Donna Sallen 805-798-0516 w w w. D o n n a S a l l e n . c o m D o n n a 4 re m a x @ a o l . c o m

G A B R I E L A C E S E ÑA

CAL BRE# 01983530 Realtor | Luxury Specialist Berkshire Hathaway

Unwavering commitment to my clients’ satisfaction.

Driven by passion for the work I do 805.236.3814 | gabrielacesena@bhhscal.com Gabrielacesena.bhhscalifornia.com

Extraordinary downtown living! This stylish, luxurious Tuscany townhome located conveniently in the highly sought-after Los Arboles enclave offers an exceptional lifestyle within moments of Ojai’s best dining, hip coffee shops. $820,000

This meticulous Mediterranean Townhome Villa commands one of the most desired locations in Midtown Ojai. Set against a backdrop of vast mountain views & surrounded by romantic Tuscany inspired gardens, stunning pool & jacuzzi, this unparalleled property embodies the essence of Ojai with unrivaled sophistication & natural beauty in abundance. $1,495,000

Imagine yourself in this revitalized modern ranch house!

Located in Ojai’s exclusive Arbolada neighborhood, the property invites you to live the ultimate country life while still only moments to both excellent hiking trails & downtown Ojai. $1,780,000

12980 Ojai Road Offered at $3,995,000

Luke Ebbin 805.705.2152 luke@lukeebbin.com DRE 01488213

This awe-inspiring Upper Ojai estate is located in a gated, private enclave off Ojai Road, offering an ideal sanctuary for both a weekend getaway or full time residence. Nestled on 10.58 private acres, this legacy property offers refined, yet informal country living and boasts head-on, unparalleled views of the Topatopa mountain range and the famous “Pink Moment.� No detail was overlooked in the impeccable renovation of the Hacienda-style house, which has been transformed into an organic, yet contemporary jewel offering 4 bedrooms, 2 full and 1 half bathrooms, mountain views from nearly every room, a separate studio with its own bathroom, 65 foot pool/spa, and a host of other exceptional amenities.

MontecitoSBrealestate.com/12980ojairoad Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. License Number 01991628. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and is compiled from sources deemed reliable but has not been verified. Changes in price, condition, sale or withdrawal may be made without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate.

L ov i n g l y h a n d c ra f te d in Ojai, CA Jes MaHarry Store 316 East Ojai Avenue, Ojai California 93023 877.728.5537 jesmaharry.com jesmaharryjewelry 8

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Photo by: Rylann Smith

One & Only

105th Year LA Times Says Don't Miss It!

www.rainsofojai.com

218 E Ojai Avenue

(805) 646-1441

PERALTA

R E A L E S TAT E TEAM

Modern Farmhouse $949,000

Arbolada Family Compound $1.785m

Spectacular East End | 19 Acres| Privacy $7m

Ojai’s “Hollywood Hills” $1.485m

Rachelle Giuliani, Serena Handley & Tonya Peralta BRE#s 01862743, 01994892, 02047608

ILiveinOjai.com | (805) 794-7458 | Team@PeraltaTeam.com 10

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...for boutique sty le service

@PeraltaTeamOjai

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OJAI QUARTERLY

58

60 78

p.58 OJAI’S NOMAD Leslie Clark’s Next Adventures Bret Bradigan p.78 ELLE’S ELEMENTAL Local Musician’s Search for Sounds Betty Nguyen

ojai

SUMMER 2019

QUARTERLY

ON THE COVER: Satya Twena photographed by Cole Wilson.

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SATYA & HER HATS Taking Care of Her Mother, Business

THE BARD IS BACK

‘Much Ado’ About Shakespeare’s Return

THE LAST VAQUERO

OJAI’S NOMAD

Dan Lopez & Ojai’s Rancho Days

Clark Ready for Next Adventure

$5.95

OQ / SUMMER 2019

1

FEATURES p.42

74

SATYA & HER HATS

Of Mothers, Daughters & Fashion Robin Gerber

106

p.74

THE BARD IS BACK

Shakespeare Returns for ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ Richard Camp

p.98

118

OJAI’S INFLUENCERS

These Social Media Stars Are

Bringing Ojai Into the Limelight Jessica Pregnolato

p.106

FOUNDING MOTHER

Alee Barbee Sanford’s Vision for Ojai Included Music Festival, Gables Craig Walker

136

p.118

THE LAST VAQUERO

Dan Lopez Keeping Alive Ojai’s Rancho Traditions Mark Lewis

p.136

CHANGING THE TIDE

Four Remarkable Women on One Epic Journey

Michelaina Johnson

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11020 Rodeo: With an enviable ridge-top 2 acre setting & sweeping mountain views, this solar powered Mediterranean estate offers over 6700 sq ft on 2 gorgeous low maintenance acres and includes pool, spa, and paddle-ball court. Truly one of Ojai’s best values at $1,995,000 !!!

MICHAELS + MCCLUNG OJAI REAL ESTATE TEAM W W W. O J A I H O M E S 4 S A L E . C O M 805.620.2438 DRE# 00878649

10990 Alto Ct: Modern Perfection!! 2 Acres of exquisite privacy unfolds behind the gates of this 4,200 sq ft contemporary modern masterpiece. Highly upgraded interior with sophisticated technology translates into a relaxed 1 level lifestyle where both the main house & luxurious granny flat enjoy their own private pools. This is a must see!! $3,395,000

Ojai

For Beauty Home Nature •

•

Arts Investment Community Lifestyle Everyone •

•

•

•

Live the life in this gorgeous gated Rancho Matilija estate on 2 lush acres with meandering gardens, outdoor kitchen, waterfall pond, mountain views and your own private well. More than 6,300 sq.ft. of elegance to enjoy in this big, beautiful home. Enjoy limitless possibilities with spacious outdoor living area, separate detached home gym/studio and beaitful one-bedroom guest house at 861 Oak Grove Court.

Serene mountain views can be enjoyed from this spacious .5-acre lot that includes pathyways, new rock walls, low maintenance/water-conscious yard, a multitude of fruit trees, raised garden beds and patios. Single-level easy living in this tastefully upgraded 3+2 ranch-style home with large raised hearth fireplace and picture windows. This is an entertainer’s delight at 870 Oakwood Street.

DON & CHEREE EDWARDS

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Enjoy country living close to town in Oak View, surrounded by tall, wispy trees, peek-a-boo Pink Moment views and a large, open adjacent lot for a total of .65 acres. Charming 2-bedroom, one-bath well-cared-for home. Also includes separate detached garage with 1/2- bath and great possibilities. Call us today — asking price $650,000. 201 & 197 East Portal Avenue

CALL US TODAY!

Ojai’s Top Real Estate Team living and working in Ojai Valley for 30 years!

Platinum Club, Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement RE/MAX GOLD COAST REALTORS 21 W. Baldwin Rd. Ojai, CA 805.340.3192 www.LivinginOjai.com 805.340.7575 DRE # 01053877 DRE # 01823802 OQ / SUMMER 2019 2001 & 2017 Ojai Valley Realtors of the Year!

OQ | DEPARTMENTS

p.66

Music Round-Up Betty Nguyen

OJAI LIFE: p.28 Editor’s Note

p.70

Off the Shelf A Church By Any Name Kit Stolz

p.29 Contributors p.35 Ojai Notes p.80 Artists & Galleries

p.86

Food & Drink Ojai’s Favorite Hosts

p.92 Ojai’s Wine Trail Map p.96 Ojai’s Gems

Ilona Saari p.132

Healing Arts Somatic Stretch for Body, Mind Sultana Parvanka

p.122 Beyond the Arcade Map p.132 Healers of Ojai p.128 Ask Dr. Beth

p.134

Scaling Down Finding Our Reptile Neighbors

By Chuck Graham

p.143 Top Ojai Hikes p.148 Calendar of Events

p.152

Nocturnal Submissions Tales From Ortonville Sami Zahringer

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960 E Ojai Ave Suite 106/107, Ojai, CA 93023 805-646-6673

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RESIDENTIAL- HOSPITALITY - CONTRACT

DANSKI SUMMER 2019

Adventures in Fashion O P E N DA I LY 1 1 - 5 : 3 0 3 2 1 E AS T O J A I AV E N U E | 8 0 5 . 6 4 6 . 1 9 2 7

FINE JEWELRY 453 East Ojai Avenue • (805) 646-1997 • Hrs: 11am - 6pm Thurs - Sat • susancummings.com

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EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL LAYOUT SYSTEM See the actual layout of the stonework before we make a single cut!

celebrating

23 years of business

(805) 648-4098 www.PacificStoneworks.net 31 Peking Street, Ventura, CA 22

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Cheryl & Ray Deckert Broker Associates

Maria DePaola Sheryl Whipple Robert Perron Paul Johnsen Realtor Partner Realtor Associate Realtor Associate Realtor Associate

111 S. Poli Street, Ojai - $699,000

This Meiners Oaks home could be utilized as a large 3 bed/2 bath, 1,764 sq. ft. home with two kitchens and living areas, or as two units - providing a stream of income for the live in owner or investor. The front portion of the home is a larger 2 bed/1 bath space with saltillo tile flooring, wood-beamed/barreled ceilings, fireplace, large living area with vaulted ceilings, 2-car garage, private patio, and its own yard. The back portion features 1 bed/1 bath, plus a flexible space for an office or a 2nd bedroom. Also featured are a large family room with saltillo tile floors and fireplace, wood-beamed ceilings, and a kitchenette. This back portion also has its own private yard space. The grounds and layout of this property give the sense of being on a tropical island, yet you’re steps from all the best M.O. restaurants - Don Lalo’s, Papa Lennon’s, Farmer & the Cook (and more) all within 2/10ths of a mile. This hidden darling could be your nest egg or simply - YOUR nest!

1003 N. Drown Avenue, Ojai - $829,000

This 3 bedroom home boasts original, refinished hardwood floors, newer quartz counter tops and cabinets in the kitchen, spacious rooms, and partial mountain views. Behind the main home you will find a 1 bed/1 bath, 252 square foot legal second dwelling suitable for a studio, guest quarters or whatever your needs may be. Sitting on almost one-half acre of level land, this property has plenty of room to accommodate horses, a gentleman's farm, or a delightful vegetable or flower garden. This one has location, land and looks.

Don't let it pass you by!

522 Pleasant Avenue, Ojai - $795,000

This modern-meets-classic 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home has been customized and remodeled, sparing no expense to quality and detail. Stepping into this home you’ll instantly notice the light and airy feeling you get from the numerous dual-paned windows and open floor plan. With a slate fireplace, designer kitchen with quartz countertops and large center island which doubles as a breakfast bar, recessed lighting, quartz counters and glass subway tiles in the bathrooms, tankless water heater, coiffed grounds, fruit trees, and partial mountain views - you’ll know you found your dream come true with this spectacular home. It’s also located near the best Ojai hiking trails (Shelf Road, Pratt, & Fox Canyon), yet close enough to the center of downtown (1.1 miles) to walk, should your hiking routine include fine dining or shopping.

318 N. La Luna Avenue, Ojai - $649,000

Country charm with an architectural twist is what this roomy 3 bed/2 bath home is all about. Just past the artistic front fencing you’ll step into a beautiful & private drought-tolerant front yard which leads you to the home's entrance. Once inside you’ll notice the smartly designed interior offers plenty of light with several clerestory windows, skylights & up/downstairs open space. Your eye is drawn to the custom crafted wooden spiral staircase, which leads to the loft-style family room & master suite. The master suite with full ensuite bath opens to a balcony which overlooks the lush back yard. Also not to be missed are the stone floors in the downstairs bedrooms & bathroom.

www.BestBuysInOjai.com ~ Phone: 805.272.5221 ~ Email: Team@DeckertDePaola.com

DRE #01761150, 00780642, 01877842, 01962884, 02019595, 02018091, 01859199

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Š2019 Ojai Valley Inn

The magic of a California moment has never been more tangible than at Ojai Valley Inn. It’s a place where time slows down, memories are crafted, and life itself has the space to hit its highest notes.

Come explore THE FARMHOUSE at Ojai, a brand new one-of-a-kind epicurean and event destination designed to connect you to world-class food culture. Reserve a moment today.

855.780.0388 OjaiValleyInn.com

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

OJAI QUARTERLY Living the Ojai Life

SUMMER2019 2019 SUMMER Editor & & Publisher Publisher Editor Bret Bradigan Bret Bradigan Director of of Publications Publications Director Ross Falvo Ross Falvo Contributing Editors Editors Contributing Mark Lewis Mark Lewis Jerry Camarillo Camarillo Dunn Dunn Jr. Jr. Jerry Jesse Phelps Phelps Jesse Creative Director Contributing Designer JuliaStanton Weissman Paul Columnists Columnists Bennett Barthelemy Barthelemy Bennett Chuck Graham Dr. Beth Prinz Dr. Beth Prinz Ilona Saari Ilona Saari Kit Stolz Kit Stolz Sami Zahringer Sami Zahringer Director of Sales

Circulation Laura Rearwin Ward Target Media Partners Circulation

Target Media Partners

CONTACT US: CONTACT US: Editorial & Advertising, 805.798.0177 Editorial & Advertising, 805.798.0177 editor@ojaiquarterly.com editor@ojaiquarterly.com sales@ojaiquarterly.com sales@ojaiquarterly.com The contents of the Ojai Ojai Quarterly Quarterly may may not not be be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any any means means without without the the written written consent consent of of the the by publisher. publisher.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to the OQ, visit To subscribe to the OQ, visit ojaiquarterly.com or write to ojaiquarterly.com or write to 1129 Maricopa Highway, B186 1129 Maricopa Highway, B186 Ojai, CA 93023.

Ojai, CA 93023.

Subscriptions are $24.95 per year.

Subscriptions are $24.95 per year.

#OJAIQUARTERLY #OJAI QUARTERLY: Steph Sara TorresSlovon enjoystakes a birthday at Summer Camp’s bathroom.

Jamie a selfiesoak in Shop Ecotopia Hot Springs in Matilija Canyon.

Personal IG: thestephtorres IG: thestephtorres Business IG: ten70Vintage

You can also e-mail us at You can also e-mail us at editor@ojaiquarterly.com. editor@ojaiquarterly.com.

Please recycle this magazine when Please recycle this magazine when you are finished. ©2019 2019Bradigan BradiganGroup GroupLLC. LLC.All Allrights rightsreserved. reserved. ©

Taking Care Of Our Community

Friendly, smiling faces

Skilled and compassionate physicians

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

Dedicated to comfort and healing

Neighbors caring for neighbors

Care in the

Ojai Valley • Standby 24-hour Emergency Department • Outpatient laboratory services • Outpatient imaging & x-ray • Rehabilitation services including physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapies • Family care and specialty health centers • Outpatient services

Now and in the future

• Skilled nursing facility

cmhshealth.org/ovch

OQ / SUMMER 2019

A not-for-profit organization.

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O Q | E D ITOR’ S N OT E

THE LITTLE ORANGE “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

— F. SCOTT FITZGERALD A magazine as packed with insight and information as the Ojai Quarterly does not happen by accident; it takes the whole of our valley. Our readers thirst for the culture, history, arts, culinary delights and astonishing natural beauty of our community. The Ojai Quarterly holds up a mirror so that we can see ourselves in this light.

Our cover story by Robin Gerber about hatmaker Satya Twena finds that special place where joy defeats despair.

With her mother battling cancer — through all of chemotherapy’s dire side effects — Satya wanted to make her a gift that was both stylish and useful — and in doing so, an Ojai business was born. It took a massive “all hands on deck” effort to fulfill an order from Neiman Marcus, and now her hats now being sold in New York City. This is the essential Ojai story — from the Little Orange to the Big Apple — a very personal journey that ends up having a reach far beyond our smiling vale.

In much the same way, Leslie Clark, Ojai’s nomad, has bridged a divide of 8,000 miles and thousands of years of technology to bring light and beauty to Niger’s Taureg and Wodaabe tribes, a cultural exchange that enriches us as much as them. She’s closing her gallery after 23 years, but stay tuned; we have not heard the last of her. Dan Lopez, the last standard-bearer for California’s vaqueros, as witnessed by Mark Lewis’ talented pen, keeps alive what was once a key part of Ojai’s identity. Our Rancho past is now on display at the Ojai Valley Museum. Then we have Michelaina Johnson’s fascinating account of four Ojai women who think and act both locally and globally with the March to the Ocean coming June 7. Craig Walker, who has his own long history with Ojai, illustrates one of those vivid personalities, Alee Sanford Barbee, who was instrumental in creating two of Ojai’s most distinguished institutions — the Ojai Music Festival and the Gables of Ojai.

Betty Nguyen’s fast-paced yet thoughtful survey of Ojai’s astounding local music scene brings home the fact that we have more talent, per capita, than anywhere else we can name. Ilona Saari, with her profile of two of Ojai’s gregarious, hilarious hosts — Nigel Chisholm and Russ Brunelli — highlights two people who, with their hospitality and gift for connection — help makes us all, residents and visitors alike, feel at home. And our backcountry adventurer, Chuck Graham, gives us a glimpse of our scaled neighbors in our backcountry.

After a long, green Spring, the tawny-hued hills, rippling with summer heat, are back for a few months. Let’s make the most of it. Summer doesn’t have to be endured, it can be enjoyed. It rarely matters how hot it gets during the day, though, as our evenings are redeemed by masses of cooler air from the nearby ocean, drawn into our closed valley, replacing the heat with light breezes and cooler temperatures. It’s not uncommon for temperatures to fall 25-30 degrees between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

This is why Ojai is so famous for our al fresco lifestyle. It’s through these convivial gatherings that we become even more connected with each other, strengthening the bonds of friendship and community. Already famous for our patio dining (people come up from Los Angeles just to eat under Boccali’s oaks), we now have Sage Mindful Meals, which, as far as we can tell, is the first time that patio behind the Arcade has been used in its 40-year history. When it comes to dining outdoors, we are spoiled for choice.

As Orwell said, “to see what is in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle.” We hope that getting through these pages isn’t a struggle, but a joy. As we put the finishing touches on this issue, I feel immense gratitude that I get to call this place home. I hope you, too, can give thanks.

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

3bed/2bath

Condo

Riki Strandfeldt CA DRE Lic. # 01262026

(PUD)

(805)

794-6474

.Riki4RealEstate.com

www

Creekside Village

riki4realestate@aol.com

www.Bear-Creek-Ranch.com

3000 sq ft Industrial Bldg Orchards & Outbuildings

Cabin + more on 39 amazing acres

Stunning Vistas

We List & Sell

Luxurious privacy in Upper Ojai

Starters to Estates

~ Coming Soon ~

This one just

SOLD

Two downtown Ojai Bungalows

Vivienne Moody CA DRE Lic. # 00989700

12 + acres & own well

(805)

798-1099

www.

OjaiViv.com

vmoody10@sbcglobal.net

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OQ | C O NT R I BU TO R S

SERGIO ARAGONÉS

began drawing for Mad Magazine in 1963 and he has drawn tens of thousands of cartoons since. He is regarded as among the world’s most distinctive and prolific cartoonists.

ROBIN GERBER

is the author of four books and a playwright.

Check her out at robingerber.com

MICHELAINA JOHNSON

is an environmentalist and freelance journalist with Ojai roots. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2017, she started working for the World Wildlife Fund as a John Gardner Fellow.

JESSE PHELPS

grew up in Ojai and has written extensively for and about the town. He enjoys freelance projects and throwing things.

Jesse can be reached at jessephelps@outlook.com

30

BRANDI CROCKETT is an

JERRY DUNN

LOGAN HALL

LINDA HARMON is

Ojai pixie tangerine peelin’ native and an editorial and destination wedding photographer.

Check out her work at fancyfreephotography.com

was born in Hawaii bur raised in Ojai. He was most recently chief photographer for the Ojai Valley News and Visitors Guide.

MARK LEWIS

is a writer and editor based in Ojai. He can be contacted at mark lewis1898@gmail.com.

JESSICA PREGNOLATO

is a writer of plays, songs, food memories and to-do lists. She also sells and buys wine at Point De Chene Wine Shop in Ojai. She can be reached at jelatop@ gmail.com.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

received the 2011 Gold Award for best travel column from the Society of American Travel Writers. His latest book is “My Favorite Place on Earth.”

a freelance writer and artist. You can email her at lhart412@ roadrunner.com, or visit her website at highergroundart.com.

BETTY NGUYEN works as

a creative consultant to help clients rebrand.

Offering fresh copy, engaging photos and impactful marketing strategies. Follow @ chironhouse

DR. BETH PRINZ

has lived and worked as a doctor in New York, London and locally. If she were president, she’d make fruits and vegetables free for everyone, and end chronic disease.

Until then, she hopes to persuade with words. askdrbeth@ojaiquarterly. com

ILONA SAARI is

a writer who’s worked in TV/film, rock’n’roll and political press, and as an op-ed columnist, mystery novelist and consultant for HGTV. She blogs for food: mydinnerswithrichard. blogspot.com.

KIT STOLZ is an award-winning journalist who has written for newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and online sites. He lives in Upper Ojai and blogs at achangeinthewind.com.

JULES WEISSMAN is a

member of Ojai Studio Artists and runs local marketing agency Lunch Box; lunchboxcreative.com. Follow her on Instagram @ wooltowool.

OJAI HUB Your Central Source for Events, News & Living the Ojai life.

SAMI ZAHRINGER is

an Ojai writer and award-winning breeder of domestic American long-haired children.

She has more force meat recipes than you.

WWW.OJAIHUB.COM

805.798.0177

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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buena

518 E. Haley Santa Barbara tel : 805.963.8638 32

tile | stone | design OQ / SUMMER 2019

1717 Palma Drive Ventura tel : 805.650.1252 buenatile.com

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OQ | OJA I N OTES Thornton Wilder, author of “Our Town,” was a student at The Thacher School, his first experience with small-town life.

Though set in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, the time frame and even the people in “Our Town” were reminiscent of Wilder’s experience in Ojai.

CARTOON CONTEST WINNERS NAMED The cover of the Spring issue of the Ojai Quarterly, featured many characteristic Ojai scenes such as Ojai Day, Tennis Tournament, Wednesday Band Concert’s Balloon Parade, Art in the Park as well as Ojai’s renowned Independence Day Parade. It was drawn by famed cartoonist Sergio Aragoñes, for nearly 60 years one of Mad Magazine’s most popular and prolific contributors.

In it, Sr. Aragoñes placed a number of items as a contest, similar to the many picture puzzles he has drawn over the years. The Ojai Quarterly received several dozen entries. After much consideration, the following entries were declared winners: Phil Caruthers, Vanessa Luna, Nancy Dreier, Bruce Vincent, Lisa Larrabee Duncan, Cesar Aldana and Oliver Ayala. Winners will receive a full-sized, signed poster of the cover drawing by Sergio Aragoñes.

41 ARTS & LITERATURE Artists, Galleries, Exhibits & More 83 WINE & DINE Chef Profiles, Ojai Restaurants, Etc 97 YESTERDAY & TODAY Beating the Fire, Collecting History 125 HEALTH & FITNESS Healers, Hikers & Ojai-Based Medicine 148 CALENDAR What’s Going on this Season

THIS YEAR’S LAVENDER FESTIVAL MAY BE FINAL Organizers unable to find replacements For 16 years a small, dedicated group of locals has organized, managed and staged a wildly popular annual event to celebrate all things lavender in the Ojai Valley.

As a non-profit entity, the Ojai Valley Lavender Festival, Inc. has supported the community by awarding dozens of scholarships and grants to Ojai resident.

While the use, production, and passion for local lavender has not diminished in the least, OVLF’s small, hard-working team has come to the difficult decision to dissolve the non-profit, end the festivals, and focus individual energies elsewhere.

Ideally, OVLF had hoped new members would come forward to join the organization and lead it into the future.

But, alas, that has not been the case. So this year OVLF will host its final Ojai Valley Lavender Festival on June 29th.

OVLF is currently seeking volunteers for its final festival (mariadepaola@ kw.com) and entries for the art contest (jempson@rcn.com). Learn more at ojaivalleylavenderfestival.org.

Held in Libbey Park the last Saturday in June, the festival annually draws over 5,000 visitors to Ojai, where for one magical day the park transforms into a fragrant, colorful and bustling marketplace where over 100

2

TWO DEGREES

of

OJAI

OF SEPARATION BETWEEN

vendors offer food, handcrafted wares and many forms of lavender. Live music, demos, speakers, games and prizes provide entertainment, while free admission, free parking and free shuttle service make the festival an affordable, convenient and family-friendly day for all.

In addition to park activities, Ojai restaurants, hotels, wineries, breweries, shops and other merchants enjoy lavender participation and boosted business. This year will be no different — other than the fact it will be OVLF’s last hurrah. So be sure to save the date: Saturday, June 29th, 2019.

For more information, or to help organize the 17th annual Lavender Festival for 2020, reach out to Maureen Volland, 717-682-5189; vollandmo@earthlink.net.

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ZACHARY LEVI’S “SHAZAM!” CAREER BEGAN ON OJAI BOARDS

If you happened across the cover of the April 2019 issue of Men’s Journal magazine, you may have seen a familiar face, Zachary Levi, who starred in the DC Comics blockbuster, “Shazam!” which has grossed more than $150 million and still counting.

ONE: Zach Levi has had a stellar career by most measures; starring for five years on television as the eponymous “Chuck,” an office drone/superspy, as well as on Broadway, he was nominated for a Tony award in his role of George in the revival of “She Loves Me.” OQ / SUMMER 2019

TWO: But the former Ventura resident’s career began back in the 1990s in musical theater at with key roles in such shows as “Grease,” “Oliver” and “The Wizard of Oz” and “Big River” on the Ojai Art Center stage.

Congratulations!

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OQ | OJA I NOT ES ‘MARKED: THE UNFORGIVEN’ SET FOR TELEVISION Novel’s Author Will Also Act in Show As His Former Mentor

BY BRET BRADIGAN People may notice the absence this summer of a familiar figure around Ojai, the grizzled yet amiable George Christie, often seen on the bike trail walking his small dogs with a nod and wave to passersby. But not to worry, he will return soon, both in person and onscreen. Christie has optioned the rights to his novel, “Marked, The Unforgiven” and it will be coming to a major streaming service in late September as a series.

The show, produced by WandaHalycon Television International, follows the premise of Christie’s book — a Marine Corps sniper returns home to find a different country then when he left — but updated it from the Vietnam War to the Afghanistan war. Christie also takes a turn acting as “Old Man John,” based on his real-life mentor when he was a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club in Los Angeles.

Christie kept his bags packed this spring in anticipation of heading out to London’s famous Pinewood Studios to put the finishing touches on the pilot for “Marked.” The show has been funded for its first eight-episode season and is shooting in Marbella, Spain.

Christie said, “They sent me photos of the location,” Christie said. “I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t Ventura!” Pat Andrew, an executive producer, agreed, calling the resemblance “uncanny … the choice was also driven by some lucrative tax rebates offering in Spain, following the footsteps of “Game of Thrones,” and “Berlin Station,” among others.

G E O RG E C H RI STI E PHO TO B Y B E TI N A L A PL A N TE

Andrew said the “first task is to have all of us in a room for a week at Pinewood and hammer out the writing of the pilot episode,” at the same studio which has the home for the “James Bond” franchise and many others.

Andrew said that Christie’s character Big John, “has a long-term relationship with the leader of the Chicago Outfit who is semiretired in Palm Springs. The Club gets into operating illegal gambling and loan sharking in the Ventura area in conjunction with the

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Chicago syndicate.

“With this turn of events comes the usual good things and bad things, all with the backdrop of the opiate epidemic that is particularly rife among veterans,” he said.

Andrew said they loved Christie’s book and “We think that the audience will really connect with this drama as we develop the characters of the club and show how these AllAmerican young men lose their innocence in Afghanistan and Iraq and come back to an America which is unrecognizable to them anymore.”

There were quite a few twists and turns to get the project to this stage. Andrew said he read Christie’s “Marked” years ago and, shortly after, was in a meeting with a soon-to-be top executive with The Discovery Channel, which owns the History Channel. They talked about Christie’s incredible story and charisma, which was confirmed when Christie was featured on six of the most popular episodes of “The Outlaw Chronicles.”

“So I contacted him and the rest was history,” Andrew said.

Christie said his daughter, Moriya, an attorney, worked diligently to represent her father’s interests during negotiations. “So much so they ended up hiring her as their attorney,” he said.

The first episode will be aired at the end of September or beginning of October 2019, His professionalism and work ethic are second to none. He does the Marine Corps, Ventura and the Hells Angels proud!

America is a country of second chances and George has embraced who he is and his background and shared it with us in a uncompromising and open way.” ≈OQ≈

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OQ | A RTS & L I T ER ATURE

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Greg Penny in his Ojai studio Photo by Betty Nguyen.

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Satya’s hats

MUSIC ROUND UP

OFF THE SHELF

A Daughter, A Mother & Lives Brimming Over

Three Local Bands That Deserve a Wider Audience

Book Ends Owners Creating Community

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Ojai’s nomad

THE BARD IS BACK

ELLA’s ELEMENTs

The Next Chapter in Ojai’s Long History With Shakespeare

A Musical Journey Continues in Ojai

Leslie Clark Closing Gallery To Begin New Adventures

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Photo by Nick Onken for Satya Twena.

SATYA’S HATS

BY ROBIN GERBER

THE CALL CAME IN 2010, when Satya Twena’s life felt unsettled, even chaotic. Just 27 years old, she had been married for less than three years, and now she felt up-ended by her parents’ divorce. She had been working in New York City for Bill Sofield, a high-end designer. But working on multi-million dollar homes didn’t feel fulfilling.

Satya signed up for a smorgasbord of courses at FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, searching for what to do next with her creativity. She had taken apparel design, sewing, just finished hat-making, and moved on to gemology when the phone rang.

In that cluster of accelerating heartbeats it takes to absorb bad news, Satya learned that her adored mother, the Ojai artist Pamela Grau, had breast cancer.

What do you do when your mother is three thousand miles away, and like her mother before, Satya’s grandmother, you know this disease might kill her? And your mother tells you she’s started chemotherapy, and that her hair is falling out so she shaved it, and that her bare head is cold?

If you’re Satya, you think about that cool millinery class you took. You think about how you loved hats since you were a kid, and how your husband wears one. You think about making a hat to keep your mom’s head warm, to make her feel hip and cute. You think about designing a hat that only a daughter could make to protect her mother’s head. To protect her mother.

The hat was a dark brown fedora, with a wide, tie-dyed, grosgrain trim, that made Pamela’s large brown eyes look larger. Satya made it in her apartment with a Jiffy steamer and her home oven. The hat made Pamela smile, a broad, joyful, unabashed smile that’s a mirror image of Satya’s.

“My mom,” Satya says, “is accomplished, smart, independent, and always lived her dreams with grace.” And just at the moment that Satya was questioning what to do with her own life, she saw a change in Pamela.

“After she had cancer,” Satya says, “she went from living life for everyone else to living life fiercely the way she wanted.”

Satya quit her interior design job, after Pamela gave her advice that Satya never forgot. “Stop doing anything that isn’t bringing you immense joy,” Pamela said. “Do what you love.” In a miracle of unintended consequences, Satya realized that she loved making hats, like the one for her mom. Her inner entrepreneur, a force since she was a child, kicked in, and she decided to become a milliner.

Satya Twena Fine Millinery was born.

Satya launched her company at ABC Carpet and Home in Manhattan, a place she calls, “one of the best stores in the world.”

Despite their name, ABC sells an eclectic mix of products in lavish displays. “They gave me the mezzanine for my opening, and mom flew out.” Satya remembers. “She was still going through treatment, so she needed to wear a mask on the plane. Her immune system was very weak. Her doctor had advised her not to go.”

Satya started showing up at events with her husband Jeffrey Zurofsky, a restaurateur and chef. She wore her hats, and she got noticed.

Satya remembers that two women she met fell in love with her creations. They told her that the Central Park Conservancy had a hat event every year. “You have to make hats for us and our friends,” they said.

Satya thought of her hats as “art pieces on headbands with veils.” But soon rich, chic eighty-year-old women were walking up the long flights to her apartment, where she was experimenting with making hats using pots, 44

pans, some hat blocks and a steam table to turn out one-of-a-kind pieces. “I was good at trying, failing, and figuring it out,” Satya says.

She also hired two women off Craigslist as sewing assistants. “My husband came home from a trip to San Francisco to find two strangers in our living room.” Satya laughs.

“That’s something my mom would have done.”

Soon a friend from the fashion industry told her that she had to visit Makins, a hat factory on Thirty-fifth Street. Satya remembers going to this, “unkempt workshop, up on the 12th floor, in the middle of the Garment District. There were hats everywhere, even on the floor, as well as cloth, ribbons, thread, wooden hat forms, sewing machines, steam tables, pipes sticking out of walls.”

In the industrial chaos, the employees were making hats.

For forty years, Makins had been making hats by hand.

FRANK SINATRA, SAMUEL L. JACKSON, BILL CLINTON, AND BRUNO MARS HAD WORN MAKINS’ HATS. Marsha Akins founded the factory after working out of her East Village apartment, just like Satya. But her son, a Harvard lawyer, had taken over. He agreed to make private label hats for Satya, and she started branding everything, the hats, hatboxes, labels, cards, and thank you notes, as “made by Satya Twena.”

Meanwhile, Satya launched her website, and Huffington Post, Cool Hunting and others wrote about her. “I had always been good at drumming up publicity,” Satya says. She got a good order from Treasure & Bond, a new concept store started by Nordstrom. Henry Bendel’s gave her a trunk show table for a week in the front of the store, and Satya “knocked it out of the park.” Her “fascinators,” OQ / SUMMER 2019

a kind of small hat or headband with large ribbons, flowers, or other attachments, like the Queen wears in England, were selling well.

She had ‘influencers’ on Instagram boosting her brand. But she was only making enough money to cover her costs.

After two years, Satya felt frustrated, burnt out, and overwhelmed by the responsibility of having employees who relied on her. She kept the business going, but took off for a couple of months in Paris. She needed time to think and get inspired. Shortly after she returned in 2014, while she was visiting Pamela in Ojai, she got a call from a Makins’ employee who said, “come and get your stuff before it’s all lost or stolen.” Makins had closed down.

Makins was the last hat factory in Manhattan. Satya had gotten to know the highly skilled employees. “I learned how to make hats by watching them,” Satya recalls, “and if I didn’t like something I could go to them and have them explain why they did the production the way they did.”

Makins’ closure stunned Satya. She saw it as a sign that she should stop making hats. But Jeffrey said, ‘why not ask how much it would cost to buy the factory?’”

Makins was behind in their lease, the space needed work, and the owner had lost his passion for the business. He agreed to sell to Satya.

With the support of Jeffrey, and Satya’s younger cousin, Malka, and with loans from her mom, her aunt, and a few friends, Satya came up with just enough money to take over the factory’s lease and buy the assets of Makins. Her mom flew out when the deal was closed. She scrubbed floors, and bought Satya her first industrial vacuum.

Satya decided to launch her first Kickstarter campaign. She needed money to get the business running again. She promoted the campaign by inviting people to make their own hats at her new factory.

All hats start with the hair of animals, like rabbits, sheep or beaver. Beaver fur would make a softer hat than rabbit. In an age-old process, the animal hair is ‘felted’ into the basic hat body. First, the raw hair is fluffed in a big pile, and then put into a machine with a large mound-shaped mold in the center. The fur fibers get whipped around and are matted, pressed and condensed together as they stick to the mold.

This hat body would be taken by Satya and her team who used steam and brute force to form it to the wooden hat molds. This is called ‘blocking,’ and gives hats their shape.

Color and decoration are then added. “You

Satya with her mother, artist Pamela Grau.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Photo by Nick Onken

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

can’t automate quality hat-making,” Satya says.

“Start to finish, a lot of hands have to touch a hat to get it made right.”

For the Kickstarter, Satya reached out to her tastemaker friends, offering them a chance to create a limited edition collection of their own hats. Kelly Framel, the Glamourai, who has a hundred thousand followers, came to the factory and made a hat. She loved the experience, as did Stacy London, from the TV show “What Not To Wear,” and Jamie Beck from Ann Street Studios. “We got hundreds of thousands of eyeballs on the Kickstarter campaign,” Satya says, “because the influencers talked about the experience, and encouraged people to support keeping the factory alive.”

Satya was part of the ‘makers’ movement, where crafts people were opening their studios to allow the public to experience their process first-hand. But no one had done that for hats.

“It was an adrenaline rush,” Satya says. “People would come in, and we had a showroom of different styles. They would pick their style, then we’d take them to a material room to pick their color, and then they’d watch the hats threshed with steam, and formed over the hat molds, and then they’d go to the next station. People who watched on social media wanted to do it too.”

For nearly five weeks, everybody’s feed on Facebook and Instagram was about Satya’s factory. She also had about two thousand hats left over at Makins that she sold as part of the campaign. “It was hard work to clean and prep those hats,” Satya says, “but it was a really fun time.” Her goal on Kickstarter was $75,000, but she made $171,966. Nearly 1400 people backed the project by buying hats.

Suddenly, celebrities discovered Satya’s creations. A friend was touring with Madonna, and asked Satya to make the singer a hat. Satya was getting calls asking, “Can you make Lady Gaga a hat? Can you make Oprah a hat for the cover of her magazine?” Satya’s hats were featured on two Oprah covers backto-back.

By mid-2016, two years after taking over Makins’ factory, Satya’s business had taken off. That’s when the landlord called to say he wasn’t going to renew her lease. Undeterred, Satya thought they could find a factory space in Brooklyn, but Jeffrey suggested they hold off on finding a new location.

Satya was pregnant with their first baby, and Jeffrey thought it would be great for her to be near her mom when she gave birth.

Satya agreed, and they started going back and forth from New York to Ojai where they

found their midwife, Mary Jackson. They also looked for a place to spend a few months after the baby arrived.

“OUR INTENTION WASN’T TO MOVE TO OJAI,” SATYA SAYS, “BUT WE FELL IN LOVE WITH THE PEOPLE, THE ARTISTS, THE LAND, AND THEN, OF COURSE, THERE’S MY MOM. My mom and I used to joke that she would move to New York, and we’d be neighbors because we wanted to see each other every day.” Suddenly, Ojai appeared as the place to bring Satya and her mom’s dream to life.

“After I got pregnant, and she had beat cancer, this was our chance. Now I see my mom every day. It’s the best blessing. It’s super special.”

Satya settled into Ojai, but a huge opportunity back in New York still loomed.

She had been working for several years with Neiman Marcus to create her own hat shop inside their first New York City store in Hudson Yards, the new Manhattan retail space. People would be able to design and make their own hats, or buy ready-made creations.

Neiman Marcus was set to open in midMarch of 2019, but in 2018, with a toddler, and pregnant again, Satya felt like, “There was no way I could do it. I hadn’t done a large production of hats since the factory closed.”

OQ / SUMMER 2019

But Jeffrey encouraged her, and two days before her son was born, when the President of Neiman Marcus called and said, ‘are you going to do this or not?’ Satya said said, “Yes.” Satya gave birth on Saturday in midJanuary. On Monday, she was in her studio with four strangers from Ojai who had answered her call for helpers posted on an Ojai community Facebook page. As Jeffrey made coffee for the crew, Satya showed them the various steps in making a hat. “They jumped right in, and were amazing and perfect,” Satya says. They had three weeks to get the hats done.

Susan Bruce, who lives on Foothill Road, was one of the first to offer to work for Satya. “She was amazing,” Susan says, “I did hand and machine work on the hats, and I learned a lot. Sometimes, Satya needed to lie down or nurse her baby, and we’d go to her with questions. Her energy and drive were incredible.” Just in time for the Neiman Marcus opening, Satya sent one-hundredand-ninety-two hats, including some that required six hours of hand-stitching, from Ojai to New York.

On March 13th, Liza Minelli sang, Arianna Huffington chit-chatted and Whoopi Goldberg posed for pictures at the grand opening of Neiman Marcus in Hudson Yards. In a fifth floor boutique space, on an enormous white wall, the name “Satya Twena” stood out in bold white letters. Underneath were hats. A burgundy beaver felt hat with metallic gold starburst stitched on the brim.

Another in brown, and one in cream with Matilija poppies. An oversized floppy straw hat, with graceful curves, sat on a stand surrounded by fun accessories.

Satya was at the opening wearing a floorlength, black Wendy Nichol sleeveless lace dress, and her burgundy Panama sun hat.

Pamela was at her daughter’s side, her hair now a thick mass of glorious white curls. Her head may not be cold anymore, but she still loves to wear Satya’s hats. ≈OQ≈

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Dancing About Art

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

Art About Dancing

BY BRET BRADIGAN

DUANE EELLS BRINGS NEW SHOW TO ART CENTER Portrait artist Duane Eells joined the Ojai Studio Artists recently, but he brings a classic sensibility to his paintings — darker hues, meticulous shadings between light and dark, capturing personality and essence with finely tuned strokes.

The Ojai Quarterly recently had a conversation with Eells about art, Ojai and the future, beginning on the next page:

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Ojai Quarterly: You recently sold your business, is that right? If so, why?

Was it to paint full time?

Duane Eells: Yes, I sold my design and marketing business in June of last year. I started the business in 1984. I had a few life-changing events over the past few years and my heart was not in the business as it once was. When the opportunity arose to build a new chapter in my life, I jumped at it. I had always dreamed of being a full-time fine artist, and here I am. I have not looked back.

OQ: One thing people love about your portraits is that they are people they recognize around town. Much like John Nava’s tapestries, there’s something ennobling about your portraits of Ojai regulars. Why is that?

What is the alchemy of canvas that makes these everyday Ojai friends and neighbors seem so grand and eternal?

DE: When I paint or draw a person, I focus on what is meaningful to me about that person. I have painted a lot of people that I have known for many years, and knowing who they are is so important to bringing them to life in a painting. People often compliment my paintings by saying that I capture the spirit and essence of the subjects in my portraits. That is my goal, but it is not anything I consider when I paint.

It just happens. In the struggle to achieve a likeness, mixing the right colors, applying paint, and the other technical aspects of the craft itself, it is critical to me to make sure that I pare down all but the essential.

And I think that is why I am able to capture people as I do.

OQ. Who inspires you? Not just Grand Master painters (but those, too) but any local artists? Who have been mentors or influences?

DE: You mentioned John Nava earlier. He is certainly one of my art heros. Ernesto Seco is another local artist who passed away in 2011. I found great inspiration in his work. Other artists that I am influenced by are Lucian Freud, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth. There are a slew of contemporary artists that I admire and follow. Robert Liberace, Jenny Saville, William Wray, Steven Assael, Daniel Sprick and Vincent Desiderio are just a few. If I had to name mentors I would choose two instructors from Ventura College back in the eighties, Bernie Dietz and Richard Phelps. Dietz was very rigid in his teachings and taught drawing in a very academic way, while Phelps was more free and abstract. I have always felt that the combination was important to my growth as an artist.

OQ: Can you describe your process? The preparations of the canvas, brush selection, etc?

DE: After selecting the model, I have a sitting to take photos. I work from photos that are taken specifically for the painting. I will either go to the model’s location or they will come to my studio.

For my dance series, we photographed at several dance studios.

We’ll shoot several hundred photos and select from those. Currently I stretch my own canvases, which is something that I swore I would never do again because, to me, it is harder than the actual painting, but I persevered and have gotten pretty good at it. My dance series is painted exclusively on double oil-primed linen. I buy large rolls in bulk.

I love the texture of linen. I use a medium weave and the brush floats so beautifully on the surface. If I paint with light pressure the paint will cling to the top of the weave and underpainting will sparkle through it.

There is also a special sound when a bristle brush flows across the linen,

Duane Eells in his studio. Photo by Deborah Lyon

and I just love that.

I begin by washing a color on the linen surface and then I will paint a monochromatic underpainting, usually in burnt umber, though sometimes raw umber depending on how warm or cool I want the shadow areas. I take care to draw as accurately as I can at this stage because there is nothing worse than having to repaint an area because the drawing was off. When the underpainting dries, I begin with the flesh tones. I start with the lights first. It is important to establish the lightest lights and the darkest darks at the beginning stage in order to maintain consistency of value. Value and temperature are the most important aspects to me when I paint. If the light area is warm, then shadow areas will be cool, and vice versa. I paint exclusively in oils. I love the

texture and smell of oil. I have settled on a basic palette of colors, but I will add others as needed. I start painting with the largest brush possible to block in the largest masses.

I use large filbert bristle brushes. The bristle brushes are fairly stiff and allow me to apply the paint on the surface in a way that easily blends and scumbles the paint. Also I love the feel of the bristle brush on the linen surface.

As I go into more detail, I reduce the size of the brushes. Closer to the completion of the painting, I will often use softer hair filberts in order to achieve certain effects and blend colors more smoothly. In the fine detail areas, such as the eyes, I will use really fine Kolinsky sable brushes.

I am also a big fan of anything that will lay the paint down and create a texture that I am searching for. I use palette knives, old credit OQ / SUMMER 2019

cards, rollers, squeegees, scrapers, fingers, and the wrong end of the brush to achieve feeling I’m looking for.

OQ: You are one of the new cohort that’s bringing new energy to the Ojai Studio Artists. Can you talk about that? What are the advantages of being a tour member?

Given that art is often an isolating craft, is the camaraderie important? The scholarships, the meeting new people?

DE: I am very grateful to be part of the Ojai Studio Artists. It is a dynamic group of diverse artists who are very supportive of one another. I have been a member for about three years now and as a group we continue to grow and try new things to enhance and expose the arts in the valley. The scholarship program is also an important part of what we 53

do. We work hard to encourage younger artists to continue and grow in their craft. I think one of the greatest advantages to me by being a member is that it gave me great exposure to a whole new set of artists and collectors. I do not think I would be where I am as an artist today without my involvement with OSA. OQ: When did you first see yourself as an artist?

DE: Well I know it is a cliché amongst artists, but I have always drawn and been artistic since I was quite young. My mom apparently saw some talent early and sent me to oil painting classes when I was ten.

I have always hesitated to call myself an artist, probably because it seems so presumptuous. For many years I was a designer who painted evenings and weekends. But now I paint full time, I sell my art, so I feel comfortable calling myself an artist, and have for about the past seven years. Though if someone asks me what I do, I say that I am a painter rather than say I’m an artist. I think that is more accurate, though I do clarify that I am not a painter of broad surfaces.

OQ: How would you like to be known?

DE: Well, that is a tough one. I think one important, if not the most important, aspect of art is to bring beauty to the world. And I don’t mean ‘pretty.’ I mean beauty in a transcendent and sublime way. There is a place where your heart, spirit and soul goes when you listen to music that profoundly moves you deep in your bones. Same with a play, a musical, a movie, a book — anything that makes you see the world in a deeper, more meaningful way, and lifts your spirit to a place of wonder and inspiration. That is what I mean by beauty. I don’t know if I achieve that yet, but it will always be my aspiration.

OQ: Anything else?

DE: YES! DANCE! I am excited to have my first solo show, called DANCE, in July at the Ojai Art Center Gallery. This is a whole new body of work. It is a very ambitious undertaking for me. These paintings will be on the largest canvases that I have ever painted on. This series is a part of my search for beauty and the sublime through representations of the human figure.

In these paintings I am looking to find a balance between the figurative and the abstract. The design-driven spaces and bold colors create vibrance and vitality; the dancers’ movements and expressions reveal their passion and emotion.

I chose dance as a subject because I felt that I needed to move beyond simple portraits and paint the figure. In years past I’ve done many figure drawings and paintings, and I felt that dancers would be a great subject through which to explore the body in motion. It was amazing to me how this grew. When I first decided to begin this series, I called Cassidy Linder who has a dance studio at the Ojai Arts Exchange here in Ojai. I asked if we could come in and take photos of a class, but she was kind enough to bring in dancers specifically for the photo shoot. The first four paintings in the series is from that event.

The show runs from July 6 to 31 and the opening reception is July 6 from 5-7 p.m. We plan to have special performances during the opening from some of the dancers that I painted in this body of work. ≈OQ≈

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JULY 6 - 31 OJAI ART CENTER GALLERY

OQ / SUMMER 2019

In this new body of work, Eells searches for beauty and the sublime through representations of the human figure in dance.

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, July 6, 2019 • 5 - 7 pm Special Performance at 6 pm Ojai Art Center • 113 S. Montgomery St. Sneak peek at eells.com

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

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OJAI’S NOMAD

BY BRET BRADIGAN

Nomad Gallery will close at the end of June, ending its 23-year run with a month of sales, parties and bittersweet reminiscences. For one small retail space perched on the eastern edge of the Pacific Rim, it looms large in the lives of thousands of people in a country 8,000 miles away.

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“I have always called Leslie the female version of the image John Wayne portrays in his movies. Cool, calm and collected. Does not panic, even when being robbed in the middle of the desert, with her head down in the sand for four hours.

She thought to dig deep and bury the money belt she was carrying.”

the nomads. “Rapidly moving rhythmically around ONE EXAMPLE OF HOW LARGE: us, the men were chanting ‘Bimbia,’ a name they had BEFORE 2008, ONE IN SEVEN WOMEN long ago given Leslie, meaning ‘of the dawn.’ I was in Niger’s most remote region would die during totally dumbstruck, as though I had been transported childbirth. Today, the number has fallen from back in time.” six percent to zero. Hundreds of women are The center has also begun an adult education class. alive today because of the midwife training The past year, 30 young nomadic men learned the art program developed by Nomad Gallery owner (and craft) of motorcycle repair. “They are exchanging Leslie Clark and Ojai obstetrician Dr. Robert their camels for the faster-moving motorcycles,” she Skankey and sustained by visiting doctors and said. A motorcycle actually costs less than a camel. “madrones,” teaching themselves hygiene, pre“But they don’t know how to repair them. After the natal nutrition and emergency procedures. program, they will have the skills plus basic tools to None of it would be possible without the start a business as motorcycle mechanics.” determination of Clark, the renowned artist and founder of the Nomad Foundation, a 501c3 — BARBARA BOWMAN CONNECTING THROUGH STORIES organization created to promote and protect Clark set a lofty goal for herself. “One of my the artisans of one of the world’s most remote missions in opening the gallery was to show the human side of these regions. While the gallery is closing, the foundation will remain active. ‘exotic’ people — to tell some of their story and introduce them as The midwife program is only one of many efforts — another is the individuals.” She says the Wodaabe, in particular, love a good story. school at the Tamesna Center, all students are boarders, as their families “When I first stayed among the Wodaabe and tried to learn their roam in search of grazing for their livestock. It is the sole educational language — I never laughed so hard in my life. I rarely heard them opportunity for many miles around. argue, but they were always talking and laughing.” They especially love Leslie Clark, rest assured, will stay busy. “I’m ready to retire, to the story of how Clark weathered a storm. She was wrapped like a write my memoir, paint more, travel and paint while traveling as I once mummy in plastic tarp, strapped to a folding bed, hoping that someone did,” she said. She and husband Michael are also fixing up a vintage would remember where she was. “I was suffocating and then the storm Airstream trailer. “My goal is more creativity and less stress.” blew in with full force, sand and fat drops battering the tarp — me The Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life is a waystation for the sweating inside … I wondering if anyone would remember to release me Taureg and Wodaabe tribes, who still follow the ancient rhythms of from my cocoon. “At last Peroji came and I emerged into the coolest a herding life, following the rains with their livestock from pasture to air I had felt in weeks … this incident was recalled for years around the pasture, chasing forage for their cattle and camels across the Sahel and campfire accompanied by hysterical laughter. It still is.” southern Sahara Desert. The desert may be harsh and inhospitable — The nomads love her stories, too. “One of my favorite stories to tell temperatures climb past 130 degrees during the summer days, while is ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ They love it, but they always insert characters winter nights regularly drop below freezing — but the cultures created from their own knowledge — often me and one of the many handsome from these conditions are vivid, artistic and resilient. nomads who have proposed marriage. By the nature of their lifestyle, The Tamesna Center gives them an opportunity to have their children they are obliged to fall in love at first sight — not much time for educated while remaining true to their peripatetic culture. The cohort courting.” of students are now in junior high school and enrollment has increased Dr. Skankey witnessed the bond between the fourth-generation Ojai to 45. The center also hosts an annual festival of nomadic tribes — with resident and her nomad friends. “I caught a picture of her sitting in a camel races and festivities, which also serve the purpose of informing the tent with six Wodaabe and Tuareg women all lovingly lying close with nomads about the health and education services available at the center. their arms around her,” he said.

The festival has become one of the area’s leading events. The Her first of more than 50 trips to Niger was inspired by the Carol Wodaabe festival participants left a vivid impression on Barbara Beckwith book, “Nomads of Niger,” which came out in 1983. “I found Bowman, one of dozens of Ojai residents who have traveled to Niger her guide and he took me out to meet my first Wodaabe nomads — the with Clark as a guide. “… I realized we were the only westerners among families of (the guide) Peroji became my go-to people for the next 15 more than 900 camel-riding nomads. The full moon shone down on us years,” Clark said. But it was clear that the best guides for the interior like a spotlight. Drums in the distance drew us to an enormous circle of regions Clark sought were Taureg. But the Tuareg were in open revolt male dancers, fully made up in yellow and white paint that exaggerated against the Niger government and were prohibited from doing business their eyes and teeth, a single feather coming up the back of their in the country. After the revolt settled down, she found a guide named braided hair, all moving and stamping their feet to the rhythm of their Mohammed. “His skill in navigating the desert was uncanny … he was pounding,” she said. the best at his trade, handsome and charming. We worked together for She also learned that Clark has earned a special place in the hearts of

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Wodaabe people in full festival regalia.

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eight years and I helped him start a travel agency — Egarow Voyages which worked in partnership with my own Nomad Adventures.

“He took good care of all of us in the desert, but eventually he stole my car and stopped paying our personnel so that was the end of that.”

Her next guide was Sidi Mamane. “We had a rough start in 2005, stuck up to our ears in mud, broken windows in the car, trying to help in a very serious famine. This same disaster attracted the attention of Rotary Clubs because of widespread media coverage. They continue to fund projects for us.”

In fact, Clark said, Mamane, also the mayor of Agadez, founded a thriving Rotary Club in that part of Niger in 2006, the first in that turbulent region, which was recently shut down because of another rebellion. “He has been to the United States any times at our invitation and was featured on the cover of Ojai Quarterly when he came for the premiere of the documentary, “Roadtrip Niger.” (See Spring 2017 OQ.) The documentary, produced and directed by Benedicte Schoyen and her husband, Ned Clark, who is also Leslie’s nephew, intended to tell the story about Clark and her foundation, but it quickly became clear it was too big a story for a 70-minute documentary. “So it turned into a travel story about the trials of novice travelers to Niger, their observances of the nomads and the work of the foundation,” Clark said. One of the high points of the entertaining, informative film is Ned Clark, a countrywestern musician, jamming with the nomads, exchanging melodies and rhythms between two cultures 8,000 miles apart — finding a common language through their guitars, voices and other instruments.

BOMBINO GETS HIS VISA For the Taureg, music is the language of their rebellion, of their fight for independence. “A whole generation played music — trained as part 62

of the Tuareg rebellion — it was music that brought them together and how they communicated their cause and even where to come to train for the fight,” Clark said. “The culture was illiterate — there were no cell phones, but the clever rebel leader brought guitars — the first Taureg guitarists trained others to play and wrote songs which were sent around on cassettes to remote camps to explain to the nomads what was happening.” It was eventually banned by the government, “which served to make it even more popular,” Clark said.

She has acted as a cultural ambassador, bringing many of these musicians to America. Clark herself got to meet her own icons — Mickey Hart and Bonnie Raitt. At a fundraiser, Tidawt — a group of Taureg musicians including Bombino, Hasso Akotey, Bibi and Anana — were rocking the crowd with their distinctive desert blues, which led to a recording on which world musicians — including Tidawt — recorded Rolling Stones songs in their own style. “Hasso wrote the lyrics in Tamacheq, the Tuareg writing which is one of only two (systems) ever developed on the continent of Africa,” Clark said.

Bombino was the first musician from Niger to be nominated for a Grammy award in March, 2019 — Clark hosted a party for him at her Ojai ranch.

His first trip to the United States went a little differently. He came at the invitation of the Nomad Foundation in 2005. His visa had been turned down by the consul until Clark called to explain that he and his group were going on tour … “He took in his guitar and played — rocked the embassy — the ambassador came in to dance and Bombino got his visa,” Clark said. “He may be the only visa applicant ever to have interviewed for a visa with a guitar.”

As if sporadic fighting and famines weren’t enough for the nomads of Niger, terrorism has shut down their nascent tourism industry. Clark

OQ / SUMMER 2019

explained that the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in neighboring Libya has created chaos through the region, with widespread smuggling of weapons, and now “destabilization has led to more criminal activity like drugs and human smuggling.”

Without alternative sources of opportunity and money in an area with high youth unemployment, the allure of terror cells or smuggling is strong. “Thus programs like the motorcycle repair training and an ongoing microcredit providing $200 to start small businesses are key,” Clark said.

PAINTING THE PEOPLE Even with all these enterprises and ventures, Clark continues to paint her distinctive, richly hued portraits of nomads. Bowman has seen that dedication vividly. “She is an artist first. Capturing the faces, dress, jewelry, scenery on canvas was what motivated her from the beginning. Seeing their huge needs, she easily fell into wanting to make a difference in their lives,” she said. “They live simply, often on the edge of starvation, but with a rich community culture that depends on each other.”

While working on her master’s degree thesis at George Washington University, Clark took a year off to travel to the south of France, “I lived there for a year and was asked to have my first show in Monaco, where I sold many of my thesis paintings. That set a pattern for all my painting life. I took a trip, painted my experience and came back to try to sell the LEFT: A GROUP OF OJAI RESIDENTS AND ROTARY CLUB MEMBERS HELPED BUILD THE “OJAI SCHOOL” AT THE TAMESNA CENTER.

paintings to earn enough for the next trip.

Some friends in Ojai, Denzyl Feigelson and Pam Murphy, “badgered me into opening a gallery in partnership. The old Bank of America was renovated and I got the corner spot, which I now feel is the best spot in town.” Enter Norman Rem, who sold Clark’s paintings at his gallery in the Arcade, Artist and Outlaw. When Norman closed the gallery, he joined Leslie as her gallery manager and Nomad Gallery was born in 1996. Norman Rem, then owner of Artist & Outlaw Gallery in the Arcade, had been selling Clark’s nomad paintings, and he was about to close the gallery to help raise his son.

She talked him into managing her gallery, and he’s been there ever since. “Leslie always has wonderful stories to tell about the pieces and how she came to acquire it. It was a history and a geography lesson and never dull,” Rem said.

On her fourth trip to Niger in 1997, Clark bought a cow for a nomad. When she returned the next year, she saw the huge difference the modest gift had made for the family. “They were able to remain nomadic herders — the only skill and life they had ever known — instead of moving to the city,” she said. Because of these simple, unmet needs, Clark started under the umbrella of the WILD Foundation before establishing her own nonprofit group in 2005.

DANGER ZONES Clark is drawn again and again to Niger despite the many perils. “On my first trip, I got caught in a tribal war in Ghana and had a bow and arrow pointed at my face,” she said. “Several years later, I groveled in the cold sand, hiding behind a bush listening to shots from AK-47s as bandits threatened everybody in my group of tourists … I didn’t know if those bullets were killing someone.”

There’s a poetry to the remoteness, the isolated splendor of being

ABOVE: A SCENE CLARK PAINTED FROM MEMORY IN 2000, DONE FOR THE POLICE, WHICH HELPED WITH THEIR EVENTUAL ARREST OF THE BANDIT LEADER. HER MEMOIR WILL BE TITLED “MEMORIES AND A PAINTBRUSH.” OJAI ARTIST LINDA TAYLOR TEACHES STUDENTS ABOUT PAINTS, BRUSHES AND THE ARTISTIC IMAGINATION.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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so far off the grid, Clark said. “It’s fantastic.” There have been incidents, though such as September 2001. “The only way to call home is to wait in a telecentre, wait sometimes hours for a connection to go through and pay $50 to $100 for a call of less than 10 minutes. This was the situation when I learned about 9-11 and I miraculously was able to get through in only an hour — I found out my family was well, but I could not leave Niger as there were no planes flying.” She stayed with her Wodaabe hosts, who wondered “if the bad guys flying the planes were all dead, what was the problem?”

Another misinterpretation happened when her Wodaabe hosts came running up with their transistor radios broadcasting the BBC in the Hausa language to warn Clark that a war had broken out in the United States. She didn’t understand the language, but she did hear the words “Mike Tyson” and “Las Vegas” and figured out that it was a big boxing match. “The Wodaabe use the same word for fight as for war — their battles being on a much smaller scale than ours.”

Leslie Clark has brought dozens of people to Niger, including many Ojai residents — Amanda McBroom, Barbara Bowman, Bob Davis, Linda Taylor and others. She has also brought many Niger residents to Ojai, including the Tidwayt musical group, which recorded with jazz legend and Ojai resident Roger Kellaway. The distinguished guests also included Sidi Mamane, mayor of Ingall, and Boucha Mohamed, Niger’s Minister of Agriculture.

Ojai’s Jill Townsend was asked by Clark to make a trip in 2006 for relief efforts after “After a few hot days in the a severe drought. “She told me, ‘We have desert seeing patients, at to go and make sure these rebuilt wells are dinner she excitedly surprised working. Are you coming?’

“It was an extraordinary trip; one month, us with ice to put in our drinks, 1,800 miles traveling with the Taureg made from a miniature icebox across the desert, carrying our own water, powered with solar electricity.” sleeping on the sand, no toilets, no modern conveniences of any sort,” Townsend — DR. BOB SKANKEY said. “It was amazing. Every second.

Leslie has gifted us with the challenge and opportunity to help an ancient people keep their culture and survive. Aman Iman.

Water is life.”

The two main nomadic tribes in the region — Taureg and Wodaabe — are both herders and fiercely proud of their cultures. But their differences, Clark said, can be neatly summed up by the way they describe each other. “The Tuareg think the Wodaabe are magicians and shape-shifters. The Wodaabe think the Tuareg are thieves. Both have an element of truth.”

As Clark winds down the Nomad Gallery after 23 years, the occasion will be marked.

On June 21, the monthly Third Friday event with downtown merchants, “we will be open late, with increasingly lower prices. The Third Saturdays will be patio sales to benefit the foundation as we have done for 20 years. And our closing party will be a concert on June 21 with Karyn 805 performing on the patio, followed by the final patio sale on June 22.”

Clark will continue to paint — Human Arts Gallery will represent her work. It won’t be the same for some collectors, such as Paul Finkel of Westlake Village. “Visiting Nomad over the past 15-plus years was always exciting and great fun. It allowed us to bring to our home a small but beautiful part of African Art and culture. And I have so enjoyed the longstanding friendship with Leslie that was both meaningful and inspirational.”

Someday, maybe after her memoir is published, Clark would love to have a retrospective at the Ojai Valley Museum, which would feature her colorful family history, four generations in Ojai, plus her own work as an artist. “I would bring some Tuareg musicians and jewelers for that since they feel the connection between Ojai and the nomads — but that is only a fantasy — I haven’t been invited.” ≈OQ≈

TOP: Tamesna Center north of Agadez. BELOW LEFT: Ojai doctor Bob Skankey with his armed escort. BELOW RIGHT: Visiting Nomad leader Alhassane with the late, great Larry Hagman. BOTTOM LEFT: Leslie in the dunes of northern Niger. BOTTOM RIGHT: Tuareg nomads ready to race their camels.

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OQ | MU S I C ROU ND - U P WORDS AND PHOTOS BY BETTY NGUYEN

difference between imagination or reality, so if we chant these intentions, we will call them into action.

Sometimes it can be confusing to chant words that we don’t necessarily understand but as Shiva Preet explains,”You don’t have to know the meaning of what you’re saying for the mantra’s magic to work. It’s a sound current. The experience of imitating and making the sounds you hear puts you into that sacred vibration. The goal is to be present in that moment with the beauty of the mantra.

You can achieve feelings without thinking about how it works.”

Shiva Preet teaches you how to embody your life’s purpose at Light & Space Yoga, Friday’s 10:30 a.m.

Shiva Preet

A MILLION VOICES of ancient wisdom call upon us and infiltrate every cell of our beings. Restoring hope. Annihilating any blockages. This is what it feels like when Shiva Preet plays on the Chiron gong. “The gong encompasses all the sounds of the universe. These vibrations and tones cause our brains to slow down, and our parasympathetic nervous system relaxes into a healing state.

We literally melt after a few minutes upon hearing it.” The gong is divided into four quadrants; elevated energy (yang) rises on the top half; focused and grounding on the lower parts. When struck, it balances stimulating the upper chakras and moving energy down the lower chakras. Raising the volume of the gong in short spurts expels old energies out and enables movement of some really deep, subconscious and karmic patterns. The rubber gong mallets emit sounds similar to whales singing or sounds that exist in deep space. Professor Elvira Brattico at the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University in Denmark acknowledges, “It’s an ancient tradition to use sound to alter our state of consciousness.” After thousands of years of 66

shamans conducting gong baths, she is planning to conduct the first scientific research into the effects of sound baths on the mind.

Shiva Preet’s musical practice demonstrates how powerful the medium of sound can truly be, by connecting and transforming the entire physical body, including our chakras, into an instrument. Drawing upon the ancient wisdom from Sikhs in India who created “kriyas” or exercises for the royal court of India, their sacred chants and intentional breath work can help us access our highest potential and spiritual powers. Through the repetition of words, we can activate the energy inside ourselves. Shiva Preet guides this alchemic activity, conducting sounds that open up channels to the universe where we are meant to connect to the higher realms and ultimately, our higher being. Using Gurmukhi words like “Sat Nam” in the Sikh language of prayer (originating in 1500 AD), we call in our true identities, literally. By saying, “Sat Siree Siree Akaal Siree Akal Maha Akal Sat Nam Akal Moorat Wha Hay Guroo” we call in courage to go after our life’s purpose and abundance. The body doesn’t know the OQ / SUMMER 2019

PINNR ARE PART OF OJAI’S YOUTH bearing witness to the changing face of their home town and using music to express their identity and malcontent to audiences.

For every person that asks, “What’s it like to live in Ojai?” the counter question from locals is, “How long have you lived in Ojai?” demonstrating the contentious divide between affluent transplants causing economic disparity versus the community that knows its history and darker side. The soundtrack to Shangri-La may project gauzy slide guitar and jug band vocals, but PINNR’s unhinged sound and energy is hardcore, raucous and laced with political charge. Against the grain in every way, they are intent on breaking with the media’s depiction of Ojai as a pixie wonderland. Their lyrics put both personal and global issues on the table and question societal norms. PINNR is debunking the myth of their hometown and letting the hot air out of controversial issues song by song in tongue-incheek fashion.

Tracks like, “Circumcision at Thirteen” encompasses a friend’s personal story of undergoing surgery to appease peer pressures.

Ilis Geronimo’s bass line stitches a round of rapid fire while Sean Edwards screams, “You’re turning me against myself ! In the name, of public health? My face is stained with a frown. My di**’s a king without a crown.” I first heard this song when they

infiltrated Topa Topa Brewing. All the young “locs” came out to support. Their opening ballad to their live sets, “Sangre Seca,” recalls a childhood memory by Ilis, of her Mexican family processing meat in their backyard — dripping bloody cuts of sliced beef hanging out to dry on the same line next to bedsheets rustling in the wind. Relating self-care, flesh and the realness of handling butchered meat and the taboos shaming another norm, a woman’s menstruation, a guttural incantation in Spanish begins with,”Por qué ando sangrando? Todos andan matando. Animales para comer. Es el tiempo del año o del mes?

Yo corto el pelo del cuerpo. Yo corto el cuero de los huesos. Y el resto se lo damos los perros.”

As the only female in a six-person band, (Sean Edwards, vocals and guitar, Brendan Houseman, drums; Grant Whitman, trumpet; Rem Martin, guitar, Jared Bergmann, guitar), Ilis holds her ground and discusses the evolution of the band’s sound. She uses words like, “intense, noisy and gross” to describe the sounds that feel right to them and their audiences. “Ojai used to be accepting of every art form, every kind of person, every different taste.” That’s what she learned when she attended the Aldous Huxley-founded Besant Hill high school. She explains that that’s where they truly embraced diversity. Referring

PNNR

to taking music and art classes there, “They kinda forced you to play and grow. It pushed you out of your comfort zone.” Their band wants to let Ojai know that, “Hey, we are still here. We have something to say. We aren’t all pretty little ladies in sun hats. We wanna remind people that Ojai is gross. Like last year a guy was shot when he was gambling with someone at his house.” It makes me remember how a local told me that about eight years ago, a man was skinned alive by Soreños who were running meth through the Hells Angels at a local nightclub. He was mouthing off at the wrong place and to the wrong people. His organs were hanging out when he showed up at the emergency room where he received over 200 stitches.” Make a song about that.

Ironically, this band is going to put Ojai on the map @PINNR805 AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGMENT, I like Sophie Holt. One of my goals in this section was to give Ojai the unexpected. But here is Sophie, wielding an acoustic guitar, with her long, flowing hair and little Mexican cotton shirt... yet there is a darkness that lurks and pulls at you when she performs.

She’s going through a transformation, as we all miraculously are. (It’s in the stars.) So, she questions, “Have I ever given 100 percent to my art? Have I ever been 100 percent consistent? Do I show up every day as if this is my job? And the answer is, ‘No.’ I haven’t done that yet.” She confesses to making an effort here and there; diving into recordings. But she never quite got on with it in a continuous way.

Oftentimes, this is reflected by self-doubt and a constant effort to maintain self-love. “There’s a daily challenge; well, hopefully not daily, but I fluctuate with self-hatred and asking myself, ‘Am I good enough? Who am I? Who cares?’ There’s so many singers. Everybody’s doing it. What do I have to say?” As an artist there’s always that envy trap of comparison especially in a world of social media where you can see “likes” like stats for how much you are loved, by fans and friends alike. It’s hard to shut that down and keep creating to prove to yourself that you are important. Your work has meaning.

When it comes down to it, those questions are crucial but they can also keep a person from making art when you get stuck in that OQ / SUMMER 2019

mind set. “When you’re feeling inspired, you know exactly why you’re doing it. You don’t question it in the moment. Just in the moments where you’re trying to succeed and be some kind of business person.” I tell Sophie that in my natal chart, it says that if I can release envy, I can slip into my super power.

She asks my sign and tells me about a dream she had with a white scorpion crawling on her genitalia in her bed. “It means I have an

Sophie Holt

enemy in the place where I live but something will change soon.” I ask who she lives with but also tell her that sometimes the enemy can be ourselves. Our worst enemy can be our own fears. And its good to recognize our challenges because it can help us confront them in order to move forward. It’s like our Karmic partner.

When someone pisses us off, it’s this blessing to be able to step back and ask, “What can I learn from this person or situation to better myself ?” Treating every person, every thing, like a lesson to be grateful for.

The lesson here is to move forward and step into the unknown. She is about to embark on a different scene away from folk and into jazz, R&B, electronic music. “I want to put together a trio that I can have a bit more fun and freedom singing with.” She cites Little Dragon as an inspiration for melding jazz vocals with polyrhythmic drums and groovin’ baselines.

Artistically, she craves experimentation.

For new single releases coming soon, check sophieholtmusic.com ≈OQ≈ 67

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having

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• PLANES FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED SINCE 1979 221 E. Matilija Street in Downtown Ojai (805) 646-2585 Open Monday - Saturday, 10 - 5:30 Sundays from 10 - 3

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OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F A CHURCH BY ANY OTHER NAME Meiners Oaks Bookstore Caters to Community

BY KIT STOLZ

Bookends from South Pueblo Avenue. Photo by Laura Guenther.

GLANCE AT THE SUBSTANTIAL whitewashed structure — with a steeply pitched roof — standing at a corner in downtown Meiners Oaks. One might wonder: what’s up with that church? For the building, in fact, once was a church, but now is surrounded by icons and curios, including a backyard-sized Statue of Liberty, draped in festive lights, a small Airstream full of nature and outdoor living books, and an attractive garden patio.

If you don’t see the “Bookstore and Curiosities” sign posted high over the front door, you might wonder: What’s going on here?

At a glance, one thing is clear — this entire property has been remade with love, for the sake of attracting visitors to this literary haven 70

in Meiners Oaks. .

Inside the big white building you’ll find 20,000 volumes, each and every one neatly and thoughtfully shelved and, it turns out, thoroughly clean and dusted. This is Book Ends, one of the larger used book stores in the valley. Marcia Doty, one of the two partners who own the business goes over every incoming book with a large dry paint brush, wipes its covers clean, and, if the “gently read” used book deserves it, adds a collector’s style clear cover, of the same sort used by libraries.

This is a sanctuary, it’s clear, for books and for people who love books.

“People come in here every day and look around and often what they say is, wow, this is a real bookstore,” says Celeste M. “It’s a real compliment, and also it’s something I think OQ / SUMMER 2019

that people are missing in their lives.”

“A lot of people think we’re a library, when they first come in here,” Marcia notes. It’s a fact that the uniqueness of Book Ends takes more than a glance to appreciate. Among the thousands of books are small but well-curated exhibits, of Apple computers, going back to their early days in the l980s, as well as a wooden phone booth full of vintage phones, and a well-curated display of uranium glass dishes, which glow as if lit from within. It’s not your usual bookstore.

Celeste Matesevac and Marcia Doty, the owners, moved to Ojai from Orange County in the 1990s, where they had worked in corporate jobs. Marcia had long had a professional interest in books, and haunted antiquarian stores and book fairs for decades,

thinking about a bookstore of her own, and dragging her partner Celeste along. Even the grim business of the Great Recession could not crush her dream, a dream that Celeste says eventually won her over. The partners bought the building in Meiners Oaks in 2011, and spent nearly a year and a half in preparation for opening.

During this time Ojai was losing bookstores.

“We had a dry spell,” Marcia says. “Bart’s was the only [bookstore in Ojai at that time], and they didn’t offer many new books. It forced you to drive to Santa Barbara, and even on State Street bookstores were closing.”

The fact that independent bookstores — in Ojai as well as around the country — were failing, and that even the national chain store Barnes and Noble was repeatedly threatened with bankruptcy, did not shake her optimism.

“I did not see the death of the printed word,” Marcia says without the slightest smidgen of doubt in her voice. “That was not in my consciousness.”

“I will say that this store could never happen in Orange County,” Celeste remarks.

Book Ends opened in December 2013, and turned the corner towards profitability for the first time last year, the partners say.

“Marcia always said that there would be room for a bookstore like ours, even in a small town like Ojai, because we were going to be different from a store like Bart’s, and were going to focus on a different kind of book,” says Celeste.

“People love their books and when the time comes to pass them on, they want them to go to a good home,” she adds. “We respectfully acquire books. When someone is divesting of their Civil War collection, they want to know that those books mean something, and that they’re going to the right place. They know that Marcia will find them a good home.”

Celeste and Marcia stress that they are not in competition with other book outlets in Ojai.

“All of us help each other,” Marcia says.

“Bart’s sends customers to us, and we send customers to Bart’s, as well as to Twice Told Tales [the library outlet] and to the Krotona and the Krishnamurti libraries.”

Book Ends specializes in books on conscious living — with sections on philosophy, Buddhism, and Krishnamurti —

as well as books on the history of ideas, and also offers a substantial non-fiction section, and sections on Ventura County history and the Chumash. Marcia is particularly proud of the children’s book section, the popularity of which took her somewhat by surprise.

Marcia and Celeste stress almost as one that they attribute their success to the “village

in Meiners Oaks, including Papa Lennon’s, Greater Goods, the Farmer and the Cook, and Book Ends.

Book Ends won “Merchant of the Year” for 2018 from the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce. Celeste notes this with satisfaction, pointing out that a mentor in the bookselling business — who for decades

Marcia and Celeste. Photo by Laura Guenther.

environment” of Meiners Oaks and Ojai.

“Meiners Oaks has always been a bohemian community,” says Celeste. “We’re living in a resort here. That’s my perspective. It’s a way of life and a way of business and it’s part of what makes Ojai, Ojai.”

Celeste sees the tourist trade as central to Meiners Oaks and their business from the start.

“Los Angeles people have been coming to this area for years, to go to Matilija Hot Springs, to eat here, and now they find us,” she says, adding that Ojai Chamber of Commerce took concierges from Ojai hotels and inns and other accommodations on a tour of attractions

OQ / SUMMER 2019

owned three bookstores in the Pasadena area — told Marcia that she was “absolutely insane” for having exhibits in the store, because it substantially reduced the amount of storage available for books for sale. But Marcia really didn’t care.

“She especially loves taking kids over and showing them dial telephones and typewriters,” Celeste says. “This is more than a business for us. It’s fun to be here. We’re living our dream.”

“It’s not about getting rich,” Marcia says.

“This is about enrichment.” ≈OQ≈

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BY RICHARD CAMP

His legacy has been celebrated in the worlds of literature and theater for more than 400 years. His plays and poems have been studied, dissected, performed, updated, downloaded, quoted and noted throughout the world. He has spawned festivals far and wide, in every season featuring midsummer dreams, winter’s tales, autumn reveries and spring rebirth.  74

OQ / SUMMER 2019

SHAKESPEARE I N

O J A I

SHAKESPEARE HAS ALSO BEEN a perdurable presence in Ojai, well, ever since there’s been an Ojai, and another production plays this summer with the enduring, romantic tale of jealousy and love, “Much Ado About Nothing.” More about that later, but let’s take a quick look at how Shakespeare has shaped theater in Ojai.

The revels began in the late 1800s when a group of women at Thacher School created a Shakespeare Club. Originally, it was a study group that met once a month at a member’s home. Screwing their courage to the sticking place, the group decided to perform an all-female production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but after dressing in diaphanous costumes as fairies, the members cancelled the show because they felt the costumes were too revealing to be seen by the men in the audience.

The sufficiently self-chastened club member persisted, though.

In the late 1940s, a group of thespians under the umbrella title of “The Chekhov Players” arrived in Upper Ojai. Named for Michael Chekhov, the nephew of one of the most important playwrights not named Shakespeare, this group initially met in Dartington Hall in England, then migrated to Ridgefield, Connecticut with a touring company. In 1946 they landed in Ojai and started the High Valley Theater Workshop and Dramatic School, which in turn birthed the Ojai Festival Players. One of the most recognizable names in this venture was Iris Tree, born into a theatrical family in London. Her father, mother, and two sisters were actors and her uncle was the famed satirist and cartoonist Max Beerbohm. Iris naturally grew up among the literati and artistes, and was the model for one of Modigliani’s most famous paintings, “Nude, Iris Tree.”

Ms. Tree counted among her friends Aldous and Maria Huxley, whom she had known in London. In Ojai, the Huxleys introduced her to Krishnamurti and to Christopher Isherwood. She became the inspiration for the character of Charlotte in his book, “A Single Man.” The Ojai Festival Theater’s first offering was Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” in which Ms. Tree played the blood-spotted Lady opposite noted actor, Ford Rainey. In addition to the names already dropped, we can add Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo, friends of Ms. Tree who came to see her perform and presumably reveled with her in the rave reviews she received.

In the next several years, the company produced a few more plays, then quietly dissolved. Meanwhile, throughout all this drama, the fully

clothed Shakespeare Club continued its sturdy, steady studying.

In the early 1980s several members of the Shakespeare Club, notably President Tish Winkworth, along with Charlotte Bronstein, again initiated a performing group. Winkworth had been a professional actress and operated an antique store in Ojai. Bronstein was a veteran of 50 years acting, writing and directing for television, film, radio and the stage. Her innovative approach to teaching earned her a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts by the City of Ojai.

In 1982, the club changed its name to the “Royal Shakespeare Revels” and produced “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Charlotte Bronstein, at the Libbey Bowl.

By the late 1980s, new expansion took hold with a goal to be more professional without losing its sense of community. Paul Backer, who taught at USC, was hired as Artistic Director. The productions staged over the next quarter century or so at the Libbey Bowl were truly a community effort. A small but dedicated group of about two dozen did everything from acting and design to ticket sales and set building.

Wayne Francis, Dana Kilgore and Jaye Hersh became members.

According to Hersh, the group had to change its name because England’s Royal Shakespeare Company had a legal claim to anything “royal” in the name. Thus was born the Ojai Shakespeare Festival (OSF) to highlight the “spirit and the beauty of Ojai.”

HERSH, WHO HAD ARRIVED FROM LUBBOCK, TEXAS, PREGNANT AND CLUELESS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE, SPENT MORE THAN 20 YEARS INVOLVED IN THE FESTIVAL, EVENTUALLY BECOMING ITS LEADER.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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She was also instrumental in creating the Madrigali singing group, dedicated to Renaissance music, which still exists today and performs at various functions throughout Ojai, dressed in colorful Renaissance-inspired costumes.

The Festival developed an internship for high schoolers, who learned every aspect of staging a show. This interaction between the adults and the students evolved into a program whereby the adults would do a show at the Libbey Bowl and the students would do a show on the lawn, dubbed “The Green Show.” It was a fertile time indeed, and many Ojai students cut their theatrical teeth on the education they received from the dedicated instructors.

The non-profit group created a board of directors. Mary Wolk was hired as the Managing Director, and she drove the festival forward with her marketing and publicity skills. In the ensuing years, the managing director position was ably filled by Geoff Foley, Susan Kelejian, Phil Casanta, Jaye Hersh, Kathleen Kaiser, and other notable names.

Kelejian’s story resonates with anyone who loves theater. While living in Santa Monica, she answered an audition call for Prospero in “The Tempest” at the OSF. After landing the role, she remained in Ojai, subsequently directing a mainstage show and running the internship program for the OSF before becoming Managing Director and Board President for a time.

The productions were financed entirely by

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ticket sales, which was, in retrospect, “not the best way to do things,” says Hersh. By 2006, the Festival was faced with higher rental fees for the Libbey Bowl, and tried to save money by performing at the Ojai Art Center Theater with a co-production of “Romeo & Juliet,” directed by John Slade. Slade and his wife, Laurie Walters Slade, had been drawn to Ojai from Los Angeles by the Festival. They remained, John teaching at Nordhoff High School, while Laurie eventually re-invented the Shakespeare Club, initially calling it the “Second Century Shakespeare Club.” To this day it’s still going strong, although the name is now the Shakespeare Salon. It meets the first and third Mondays of every month, at 7 p.m. at the Ojai Library.

The never-say-die core members coproduced three more shows with the Art Center Theater in 2007, but realistically, “The Ojai Shakespeare Festival was homeless,” says Walters. “We were artists, really, not business or management people. But the Festival had a great run of producing plays for more than 25 years, and there were golden times, for sure.”

After going dark in 2008, the members scraped up enough money to again stage “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Libbey Bowl in 2009, with actors presumably unconcerned about the suggestive costumes.

But that was the Festival’s last hurrah. In the ensuing years there have been various attempts to revive the Shakespeare Festival but none has come to fruition. Shakespeare, though, continues to be a presence.

The Ojai Performing Arts Theater (OPAT) headed by Joan Kemper, is another driving force in the Ojai theater world and in recent times has co-produced Shakespeare with the Art Center Theater. In 2014, Michael Addison directed “Twelfth Night,” and his “Macbeth” was one of the highlights of the 2018 season. Addison’s Shakespeare productions have been staged at the Oregon, Colorado and Utah Shakespeare Festivals as well as the California Shakespeare Festival where he was Artistic Director for nine

OQ / SUMMER 2019

seasons. And he’s back on the boards now with a new production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” for OPAT this summer.

So, why are we still crazy for Shakespeare, after all these years? According to Addison: “he has such an acute understanding of human emotions, desires, drives, hates and passions.

He speaks truth and reveals our truth. In

Michael Addison

addition, his language is vibrant and poetic. …

You can’t help but find yourself swept into an engagement with the reality he creates.”

“Much Ado…” has been updated to the Roaring ‘20s, and, says Addison: “It kicks off with a joyous welcome to soldiers returning from a military action and moves on to a party and love. Certainly the Roaring ‘20s had that carefree spirit too… (and) the music of the time is fabulous!”

What does this play offer to today’s audiences? Addison feels that it “explores love, open and immediate for some… resented and hated by others who attempt to destroy love with lies and deceit. In short… (it’s) playful and life-affirming (and full of verbal fireworks), but also shows how much damage can be done by jealous liars. A play for our times, as the damage done by potent liars plays out on our national stage ... a play that gives us hope that love/life/truth will prevail.”

In our idyllic valley, brushed by the benevolent lips of nature, where we are nourished in the enveloping comfort of the arts, Shakespeare endures. His line from sonnet 81 speaks for his own legacy: “Your name, from hence, immortal life shall have.” ≈OQ≈

FORD RAINEY WITH IRIS TREE IN A CHEKHOV PLAYERS PRODUCTION OF “MACBETH”

FORD RAINEY WITH IRIS TREE IN A CHEKHOV PLAYERS PRODUCTION OF “MACBETH.”

OQ / SUMMER 2019

77

Ell a's ele me nts ‘The Rose I Swallow’

STORY AND PHOTOS BY BETTY NGUYEN

SOME “INVASIVE” PLANTS start to settle into the landscape and feel indigenous after time, even if it’s only in our subconscious. To some traditionalists, the palm, the eucalyptus and even the mustard plant covering our hillsides with its edible neon yellow, are not as beloved as our sherbet-colored poppy, or revered as our riparian Oaks, but they do conspire to be “Californian”. That’s how I feel about ELLA. She belongs to Ojai because she contributes. She’s a force.

There is a hole when she is gone. Since her first visit to Ojai, on a day trip with her progressive high school to the Ojai Foundation, this place made a lasting impression on her, as it does many passersby.

She felt the calling to return years later following her heart here and then meeting kindred spirits in ecology, permaculture and tending to the land. East End Eden is one of her peripatetic homes. Between 78

here and New Orleans, she finds romance, grounding and a place for exploring creative identities within her own nature. And she’s in full super bloom, baby. We discuss the incarnation of her music life born here.

The creative process is an energy that flows through us like a tree sucking up water. It nourishes our selves, our “voice” and purpose.

It can materialize thoughts like branches unfurling, ideas drop like leaves and play with poetic expressions capturing the wind. With music, the spoken word can enrapture its maker and connect directly with an audience. The greater the vulnerability, the more authentic the expression and deeper the cut. When you hear ELLA sing, you’ll be nostalgic for it instantly. “There’s a violence and beauty, held in the exact same place in New Orleans. I feel so comfortable there

OQ / SUMMER 2019

artistically. All the textures of that kind of space where you don’t need to seek anything out; it is all there before you.” ELLA is back and forth between here and New Orleans because both feed her in different ways, like oxygen feeding a fire. “I came here to visit a girl and went to a party on Sulphur Mountain. That’s where I met Sage (Stoneman) and Connor ( Jones). I immediately felt a familiarity with Sage and felt home, in myself.” ELLA’s thesis in college was “Social Permaculture, Conflict Theory and Egalitarian Designs,” so their conversation spiraled deeper. They invited her to a two-day workshop at East End Eden, Connor’s family property and educational farm. She “felt it in her bones” that she needed to live there.

Serendipitously, there was a vacancy, so she returned to New Orleans, offloaded all her belongings unto the sidewalk where those fairies of New Orleans’ paraded past sweeping up all her baggage, like angels responding to the call. A little bit lighter, she drove crosscountry back to Ojai.

“OUT OF NECESSITY, I FEEL TETHERED TO OJAI. IT JUST MAKES MY POSTURE BETTER. It’s my altar in that way. I’m from this region.

The Pacific horizon is the most familiar thing to me. I mean, I want to go back to New Orleans. I have changed so much, that during my last visit, I wasn’t so affected by the energy there.” When you’re grounded in your own identity, like a tree, it’s hard to be swayed.

Songwriting for ELLA evolved out of writing poetry. “I’m a very rhythmic person. My father is a drummer and my mom is great with words. She can be a rapper.”

Her guitar acts as a kind of metronome, a trellis for letting her thoughts wrap around it.

The words she utters while strumming aren’t necessarily English but enable her to spit out syllables. After listening to it, she goes back in and adds ideas, words, that fill in the sounds to create the poem that wasn’t there before.

“I record on an iPhone and when I put in

the words, I realize that those are the exact words I was trying to express initially. I’m just not filtering or being heady about it, so it can release in its rawest form.” She then refines it over and over. For the being, a phantom, of love untold. For the subtleties, of wind’s invisibility. How haunting now, not to think of you ... only space knows, what we know, as lost as a candle. For the art of losing tender mercy. You told me so, and swallowed me. The only truth I’ll ever have, is when you choose abstraction, from a block away — your name — a word, a phantom.

The chapters of her life are titled like books. “These past few months have been about buoyancy — coming out of a dense place. From the fall into the winter, the theme was, ‘The Fear Is a Rose.’” Paraphrasing her psychologist who spoke the words, “when the fears arose...” at her weekly group meeting in Ojai teaching self-love, she heard, “The fear is a rose. It’s a rose I swallow,” which appears in a song. What a beautiful way to befriend fear– ingesting and transmuting its stronghold over us as a plant and honoring it gratefully like food, devouring it whole. This resonates with me, as I have been listening to Brené Brown on Netflix, a researcher on themes of “Shame, Vulnerability and Courage.”

Lyrics like, “Watch the waters erode me,” remind us to not get hung up on the illusion that we are fixed in time or that someone that you think you know is going to be that person forever. “How can you express yourself at all if you’re constantly postulating the future? My songwriting is a catharsis and complete ode to that. It is founded on improvisation. Not only feeling what my body needs to move stagnation but being able to intuit how the people listening are affected by what I’m singing in real time.”

It brings to mind Krishnamurti and so many other philosophers who encourage living in the moment. Being free.

“It’s so affirming to share my songs. It’s one thing to sing your heart out alone, out of necessity, but to share your sense of self and feel your voice leaving your body and entering into other person’s ... you can feel them being grateful and I’m so grateful to be a part of that.” We climb up into a handmade house, as she finds her guitar. She sings and you can feel her standing on the shoulders of Patti Smith, Kim Gordon and Cat Powers. She pours her being into the swagger of her voice.

It’s powered by beauty and violence, from that tall, strong rose and those many, many thorns.

She grips it close to her heart.

Ojai can serve as a comfy resting ground for people, a place to temper this deep wanderlust OQ / SUMMER 2019

for the world. Our vital, intimate valley is a safe playground where our inner child can thrive and experiment away from the competition. “I’m tapping into my adolescent self. I feel like my music fulfills this guilty pleasure that I felt growing up.”

Her music is instantly gratifying. Not as indulgent as a summer-pop anthem that may burn out or feel of-a-time, but more like playing a favorite record and kicking up your feet; letting the breeze just move freely through your hair while the sun hits your face; giving into the inertia of the day after last night’s fulfilling party. “I sing a lot about war.

An internal war or between two people or two opposing ideas. ‘Does it break you? Does it take you? Does that make us wrong?’ I’m asking things like, ‘Can desire be experienced without conventional connotations? Can you be taken by something without shame or guilt and just be with that feeling?” In a world of binary sexuality and gender identifications, ELLA simplifies all societal’s fingerpointing to, “How about love?” She sang for the first time at Folk Steady with her friend and confidant, Sage. “When I sang Leonard Cohen’s ‘There is a War,’ I felt like I wrote it.” There is a war between the rich and the poor. There is a war between the man and the woman ...” They later played a show together at Greater Goods. “It was a whole era of falling in love, between two people who built together, played music together and figuring out what we meant to each other.”

They continued their songwriting as a way to communicate their feelings to each other.

“Sage would write these songs and sing them to me, as if we were having a conversation. He would share how he felt and I would sing along with him. And then we would perform those songs in front of people. It was so intimate and awkward like reading your journal aloud to people but it also felt so good.”

Those shows led to recording an album called, “To Lose My Muse.” Most of the songs were written by Sage with both of them singing. ELLA embodied the sentiment of the album as she felt the same way about a another girl. She asks, “Universally, do we need to define our love or is love enough?” She also contributes songs to the album, and will possibly rerecord them differently. Friends and local talent, Josh Moreau guest star. What’s next, ELLA? “Now, I’m getting comfortable in my body with my voice and performing.

I’m ready to bring a whole new life and energy to my music.”

Have you ever loved a friend, a little more? ≈OQ≈ 79

OQ | VIS UA L ARTI STS Perhaps it was potter and “the Mama of Dada” Beatrice Wood’s influence, going back nearly 90 years. Maybe it even goes back further, to the Chumash people’s ingenious and astounding artistry with basketry.

It’s clear that Ojai has long been a haven for artists. The natural beauty framed so well by the long arc and lush light of an east-west valley lends itself to artistic pursuits, as does the leisurely pace of life, the sturdy social fabric of a vibrant community and the abundant affection and respect for artists and their acts of creation.

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OQ | FOOD & DR I NK

RAISING THE BAR

BY ILONA SAARI

materialized at his table and I FIRST LEARNED what a turned the sconce back on. After saloonkeeper was while watching a few friendly words, Elaine old B&W westerns on TV. They returned to her nightly post at were mostly men who owned the end of the bar and Norman bars (a.k.a. “saloons”) with girls in again turned off the sconce. satin dresses and feathers in their Elaine scurried back and turned hair entertaining the patrons — it on — Norman turned it off cowboys and gunslingers — while — Elaine turned it on … It was someone played a piano wearing her restaurant, after all. Friendly a gaudy garter on his sleeve. words turned to angry words, (Before I was prime-time age, angry words turned to yelling and there was, of course, Miss Kitty of yelling turned to fisticuffs (well, “Gunsmoke,” but she stands alone a little skirmish anyway) — the as a female saloonkeeper legend.) clash of the titans!

Hitting the bars of Manhattan The next thing I knew, Elaine as a career girl changed that rough picked up Norman by the scruff western image. Gone were girls in of his neck and dragged him out satin dresses with feathers in their of the restaurant. He returned hair unless they were working Russ Brunelli and Nigel Chisholm; photos by Ilona Saari. the next night, of course, and was the city streets and cowboys and back at his table (not Siberia), but the sconce stayed on. Elaine definitely gunslingers didn’t come barging through swinging saloon doors. But, could play with the big boys! saloon-keepers were still mostly men who owned or ran restaurants/ No, this wasn’t Damon Runyon’s Manhattan, but the Manhattan of bars, and their larger than life personalities brought in the patrons. the ‘70s and early ‘80s. But, shortly after I moved to California in 1985, They regaled you with stories as they greeted you warmly at the front the foodie era began and chefs became all the rage. Gone were the great door or table hopped, checking to make sure you were happy and sated.

LA saloonkeepers like Dave Chasen, though his chili lives on. I missed I was fourteen when I first heard Toots Shor’s booming voice as he them … that is, until I moved to Ojai. Here in our glorious valley, we chatted up customers while I hung out at the bar sipping a scotch sour. are blessed with two great saloonkeepers who know what it takes to OK, I lied. I just felt that young to be in a place where Frank Sinatra keep a saloon running. was known to hold court, a hipper bragging right in NYC than “George I first met Russ Brunelli when I interviewed him for the Taste of Ojai Washington slept here.” Sitting on a bar stool at Toots’ made me feel website shortly after he became General Manager of The Ranch House.

I had arrived. I didn’t know to what I was arriving, but it was a heady As a girl from Queens, I instantly connected to this boy from the Bronx. feeling. But, when Toots toodle-oo’d to that big saloon in the sky, I soon Russ has “saloons” in his DNA. His grandparents were bar owners discovered other dynamic saloonkeepers. There was legendary Vincent and two uncles are bartenders, but Russ veered from that genetic path Sardi, who was old, but still toodling, and the great Elaine Kaufman, and became a recreational therapist at Bronx Hospital Psychiatric Center the only female saloonkeeper (bar/restaurant owner or manager) I ever and at New York Hospital, Cornell. After a decade recreationing, knew. his “roots” took hold in Rockland County, New York when he One night at Elaine’s, I was sipping a vodka martini when I spotted bought a tiny pizza joint (4 tables). His saloon-keeping life began.

Norman Mailer with a couple of people at a table along the right-hand He eventually left Rockland County for Manhattan where he wall just before the doorway into the “Siberia” room (reserved for those ran restaurants/bars before leaving NYC with two trash bags of in disfavor or people Elaine didn’t know or want to know). On the wall clothes and his guitar to become the general manager of a saloon in above Mailer was a lighted sconce which, for some reason, bothered Chicago. He returned to Manhattan some years later and opened him to no end. He turned it off. Within a nano-second, portly Elaine 86

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of local pubs that represent an extension of home. But, as much as Brunelli’s, his own Italian restaurant, with a full bar, on York and 75th.

Nigel enjoyed the show, he didn’t see owning a pub in his future.

His “front of the house experience,” as well as his stint as a restaurant At twenty-four, he left England and crossed the pond, first to owner in Rockland, had turned him into the quintessential saloonkeeper, Canada, then to the U.S. exploring life, seeking adventure, picking up where patrons became regulars because of his warm, welcoming nature odd jobs along the way. He waited tables at The Fish Shack in Key and ability to spin a good story.Tom Clancy was a regular who dined on the West and helped renovate a motel where he lived for free. He went to kitchen’s popular veal with pesto and melted mozzarella. Antonia Bennett Colorado to learn how to ski and stayed for the winter cleaning condos (yes, Tony’s daughter) sang there. But, after 10 years and the 9/11 tragedy to pay for it all. He also spent time in Nicaragua during the Contra that kept the bridge & tunnel crowd out of Manhattan, business began War to see for himself what was happening there. to slip. Russ sold the restaurant and soon found himself back in Chicago.

Then, down to his last $10, he found himself in a Santa Cruz He was just finishing up a stint running a placed called The Joint when brewery with a fellow Brit behind the bar. Hours and many beers Steve Edelson beckoned and brought him to Ojai to run The Ranch House. later, Nigel still had his $10 and had found gainful employment. But, This city saloonkeeper who once hiked on cement pavements among in 1991, he left the states again, this time for Japan where he lived and a forest of skyscrapers fell in love with pastoral Ojai with its towering coached soccer. oak trees and dirt hiking trails. He embraced founder Alan Hooker’s Years later, back in America, Nigel farm-to-table approach to the found himself in Ojai’s land of milk and restaurant’s menu, (now being LEMON VERBENA honey, but opted for wine and whiskey deliciously realized by Chef CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL: when pub life beckoned and he started Logan DeBone), that includes a a career as a bar owner. He bought The daily Alan Hooker “special,” as Jester in 2007. The space was perfect: a well as the restaurant’s history 1 brown sugar cube bar (of course), tables, a stage for bands with Krishnamurti and Beatrice A dash orange bitters to play, a dance floor and an outside Wood. (Beatrice created pottery Prosecco to fill patio. Beer was on tap and in bottles, dishes for the restaurant when and a full selection of hard liquor was it opened in 1949 and not long Garnish with a lemon twist and available. His Irish coffee became a ago, while cutting back the thick verbena leaf favorite Jester drink. Pub food and tidbits ivy on the property, the staff were on the menu — but it was the 12 different burgers that intrigued discovered a “2001 Space Odyssey(ish)” monolith made from Beatrice’s me, including a Gentlemen’s Burger. The ingredients were kept secret, broken pottery). but you were asked if you had any food allergies before you could order Even some of the bar’s signature drinks are “farm-to-table.” Try one, just to make sure you didn’t have a seizure on the bar stool. Nigel its lavender gin martini, made from Empress gin and a bit of simple promises The Jester will reopen, so I hope to try that burger. sugar with a twig of lavender as garnish. Or owner Angie Edelson’s Not long after The Jester closed, Nigel opened The Vine where he homemade version of limoncello dubbed, “Angiecello” … or the Lemon still hosts a trivia night, as well as bands and musicians who play there.

Verbena champagne cocktail — an Alan Hooker recipe consisting of a Tapas and salads, tortizzas and quesadillas are among the items on the brown sugar cube, orange bitters, Prosecco, a lemon twist and verbena menu. leaf. And while you’re sipping your drink or dining on a gourmet meal, Recently, Nigel has opened the bar during the day for wine tasting, or both, Russ will make sure you’re happy, plated and sated. where townies and tourists can come and have a glass or try a flight of his own wine, Feros Ferio, made from grapes grown in Paso Robles, As a food writer who is forever seeking the perfect cheeseburger, Los Olivos and other local appellations.

I asked my new Ojai friends when I first moved here where I should Nigel also works as an actor from time-to-time and played “Banquo” continue my quest. They all said The Jester, a pub owned by Nigel in last season’s production of “Macbeth” at the Ojai Art Center Theater.

Chisholm. They regaled me with stories of music, dancing, drinking A strong believer in giving back to the community, he recently was and a menu of burgers that would end my questing forever. But, alas, awarded the Hope Frazier Award by the Ojai Arts Commission, in before I could sink my teeth into any of these touted burgers, broken recognition of his contributions to the cultural life of Ojai. The vital pipes in the street flooded the restaurant, as well as the town’s movie music scene at the Vine was cited, of course, but also his creation of a theater. My achy, breaky cheeseburger heart was shattered. special Monday night program featuring young artists, his display of Then I discovered The Vine, Nigel’s bar/restaurant in the Arcade, paintings by local artists, his hosting of poetry readings, and a number a dark and moody place with live music and a full bar with plenty of of one-of-a-kind fundraising events for local individuals in need, or stools where you can get comfortable and enjoy a cocktail or a glass of local non-profit entities. wine. The perfect definition of a Manhattan saloon.

His saloonkeeper philosophy: provide a safe and friendly Growing up in England, Nigel loved the TV show “Cheers,” environment for customer and staff alike … to be a place where even if which featured a bar where everyone knew your name and a barkeep/ everyone doesn’t know your name, you’ll feel welcomed. saloonkeeper who welcomed his customers, listened to them, talked to Russ Brunelli and Nigel Chisholm — get to know their names and them and kept them happy. they’ll get to know yours as well. ≈OQ≈ In England, folks called Cheers a neighborhood pub, in the tradition

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Celebrating 32 Years Breakfast

•

Lunch

•

Dinner

Open Daily 8 am to 10 pm (Call for summer hours) Home of the $2.50 Mimosas and $4 Bloody Marys and Margaritas. All Day, Everyday.

Sea FreSh SeaFood

Restaurant, Sushi Bar and Fresh Fish Market

805-646-7747 88

• 533 E. Ojai Avenue, Ojai OQ / SUMMER 2019

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Ojai Cafe Emporium Ojai’s favorite gathering and eating place for over 30 years.

Voted Best Bakery, Breakfast & Lunch Place ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16

805 646 2723

108 S. Montgomery Street / off Ojai Ave www.ojaicafeemporium.com BREAKFAST Served All Day Every Day LUNCH Served Daily11am-3pm BAKERY & COFFEE BAR Open Daily 6:30am-3pm

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OQ | OJA I W I N E M A P CASA BARRANCA ORGANIC WINERY & TASTING ROOM Historic Downtown Arcade. Stop by and relax in Casa Barranca’s Craftsman style-designed tasting room.

Taste our award-winning wines made with organically grown grapes, also our USDA certified wines containing no added sulfites! Join our Wine Club!. 208 East Ojai Avenue, 805-6401255. OPEN DAILY: Sunday — Thursday 1 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday until 1-7 p.m. CasaBarranca.com or facebook.com/casabarranca.

VENTURA SPIRITS Ventura Spirits is a California Craft Distillery specializing in distilled spirits inspired by the native and cultivated flora of California’s Central Coast. We offer distillery tours and tastings of our award winning spirits in our new onsite tasting room. For more information or to contact us please visit: venturaspirits.com, email to: info@venturaspirits.com or call us at: (805) 232-4313

TOPA MOUNTAIN WINERY Topa Mountain Winery offers handcrafted wines made from grapes grown on its estate in upper Ojai and sourced from other premium vineyards in the region. Located on two acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, Topa Mountain Winery has been voted Ventura County’s best Tasting Room two years in a row, is family and dog friendly and offers live music every Saturday and Sunday. TopaMountainWinery.com

OJAI OLIVE OIL Ojai’s no. 1 rated visitor experience, our Olive Mill & Tasting Room is open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free tastings and shopping. We also offer free guided tours on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Visit an organic family permaculture farm and learn everything about extra virgin oil. We also have balsamic vinegars, olive trees, skin care products and more. No reservations required, pets welcome. 1811 Ladera Road , Ojaioliveoil.com, 805-646-5964.

BOCCALI VINEYARDS & WINERY is a family-owned and operated winery located in the scenic Upper Ojai Valley.

Father and son winemakers DeWayne and Joe Boccali are the driving forces behind the label. Boccali Vineyards produces 100 percent estate wines; grown, produced and bottled at Boccali Ranch. Visit us in Ojai’s East End on weekends for a tasting at 3277 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai. Visit us on the web at BoccaliVineyards.com.

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OLD CREEK RANCH WINERY Old Creek Ranch Winery is Ventura County’s only rural winery situated on an 850-acre ranch in the Ojai Valley. A tasting room as well as lawns and guest areas with handcrafted chairs and couches, surrounded by lush landscaping, have been designed for relaxing and enjoying fine wines. Pack a picnic, gather up the kids and dog, and head to the Ranch! A selection of 25+ red and white varietals are available for wine tastings and purchase.

Check oldcreekranch.com for a schedule of live music and food trucks.

Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Located at 10024 Old Creek Road, Ventura, CA 93001. 805-649-4132. OldCreekRanch.com OQ / SUMMER 2019

MAJESTIC OAK VINEYARD Hidden in the stunning Ojai Valley, the Majestic Oak Vineyard is deeply rooted on land our family has held for decades. As fifth generation Ojai-ans, we had a dream of bringing you the quintessential Ojai experience — something as beautiful and unique as the Valley itself. We believe a great bottle of wine represents the hard work that goes into it. From the land, to our hands, to your table, we are proud to offer you our labor of love. We invite you to be part of our legacy.

321 East Ojai Avenue (downstairs), 805-794-0272, MajesticOakVineyard.com.

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OJAI ALISAL’S handcrafted wines are made only with grapes we grow in Upper Ojai. We grow Syrah, Grenache, Malbec and Viognier in our beautiful vineyards dotted with California walnuts and sycamores (or Alisal in Spanish), bringing the spirit of the Rhone region to California. Please visit our Weekend Tasting Room at Azu Restaurant, 457 East Ojai Ave, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m.. For more information 805-640-7987 or online at OjaiAlisal.com and AzuOjai.com.

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ojaihub.com

Ojai’s community website 94

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Events • News • Explore

Ask us about our Honey Clu b!

Visit our Honey Tasting Room 206 East Ojai Avenue, in the Arcade, downtown Ojai www.heavenlyhoneycompany.com | 805-633-9103

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JES MAHARRY Artisan and famed Sundance jeweler Jes MaHarry has teamed with her sister Wendy MaHarry to create the perfect space for their magical creations.

Walk into the boutique and you will instantly feel surrounded by beauty.

316 East Ojai Avenue 877.728.5537 JesMaharry.com

HUMAN ARTS GALLERY

OJAI’S GEMS

ORMACHEA JEWELRY Specializes in hand-made, artisan jewelry creations; offering custom and unconventional engagement ring design in precious metals with unique gemstones.

Each piece is slow-crafted in our studio by the sea.

432 E Main Street, Ventura 805.652.0484 Info@ormacheajewelry.com OrmacheaJewelry.com

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OQ / SUMMER 2019 ADVERTISEMENT

Ojai’s most interesting and eclectic contemporary jewelry by nationally known artists, plus exciting new ideas for custom designed wedding rings by owner and resident jeweler Hallie Katz.

246 E Ojai Avenue.

805.646.1525 humanarts@sbcglobal.net HumanArtsGallery.com

OQ | YEST ER DAY & TODAY

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Photo by Brandi Crockett/Fancy Free Photography

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Ojai’s influencers

Founding mother

Bringing Ojai’s Talents to the World, and Back

By Jessica Pregnolato

Alee Barbee Sanford & the Ojai Music Festival

By Craig Walker

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The Last Vaquero

OQ BEYOND THE ARCADE MAP

Dan Lopez & The Rancho Days

By Mark Lewis

Street Map & Landmark Businesses

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Bringing the talents of Ojai out to the world and backÂ

With our faces glued constantly to screens and gadgets, we are longing for the true connection to the people that make and inspire our valley. Here are 5 extraordinary people contributing their artistry and vision to Ojai, and using social media to help elevate and connect them to their market and the world beyond Ojai.

BY JESSICA PREGNOLATO

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DAREN THOMAS MAGEE ILLUSTRATOR + MURALIST

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@REALFUNWOW

YOU’VE MOST LIKELY SEEN THE POSTCARD. It resembles a ‘70s album cover with an orange peach sky above a pink moment mountain range of Topatopas and the word “Ojai” written in old-fashioned large script. It lives on my desk and is a gentle reminder of the place I am lucky enough to live in. Daren Magee created this as a calling card when first arriving to Ojai just over two years ago. It also helped Daren gather a massive following and fan base while he was starting to grow his business, Real Fun, Wow! Daren credits the shop Summer Camp in helping catapult his growth. When he came in to get a piece of artwork framed, he befriended the owners Michael and Rachel, and was soon asked to do a mural on the side of their shop. That helped put him on the radar. Soon, Daren went from his detailed hand-drawn illustrations, and switched to the efficiency of working with a computer and illustration software. With a child on the way, time would be limited. Now, he could produce more and still feel connected to what he was creating.

Talking with Daren, one can see he has an infectious and creative spirit, as well as a true work ethic. He is focused and still in wonder that he is making a living for himself selling his prints and products to help support his young family. Magee has found Instagram to be an instrumental tool in the growth of his business and the support base he has accrued. His Instagram page shows cohesion and consistency, easily showing off his color palate and inspired patterns. He is recognized by online customers when they come into town, delighted to meet the maker, and we are delighted to have him here.

Photo of Daren, Vyana, and Daelu by Sam Stenson @she.is.water. All other photos by Darren Thomas Magee.

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@PLANTASCO

MPASS

WHEN YOU FIRST WALK INTO LIGHT AND SPACE, the new yoga studio on the East End of town, it is impossible not to be struck by the beauty and peace emanating from the room. You can feel the amount of work, love and sweat that transformed an old gas station into a serene community space for healing.

Amber Lee, who helped owners Serge Bandura and Samantha Garrison with the renovation, acts as the Healing Arts Director for the studio. A bodyworker who trained at Esalen in Big Sur, Amber describes her nurturing practice as “providing space to be held, to be seen, to be touched, to be helped.”

Amber first came to Ojai on a whim, camping in Rose Valley Falls, eating her first meal at Farmer and The Cook, and being struck by the beauty of the valley. She quickly found a sanctuary. Her bi-coastal practice in New York and Los Angeles was thriving, but the lure of Ojai kept her coming back and it became clear that Ojai would become a synergistic home for her to put down roots and give back.

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Her work organically led her to become a community organizer of sorts, which Light and Space will fulfill with a multitude of classes, workshops, gatherings and visiting teachers and healers to gather and share wisdom. Amber’s Instagram page allows her to stay connected with current and future clients, as we can witness her travels and life journey, showing her devotion to nature, humility with grace and compassion.

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Photo of Amber Lee and Carlotta Mastriojanni by Mariana Mae. Pasture photo by Nitsa Citrine. Photo at the Turtle Conservancy

by Arthur Armont. Light and Space photo by Jiro Schneider @jiro_sc. Cover photos by Julia Corbett and Rebecca Burns.

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@SHELTERSOCIALCLUB KENNY OSEHAN swore she would never enter the motel business. Her parents were live-in managers at a motel in Santa Barbara, where she shared one bedroom with her sister and parents from age 9 until she was 18. Thankfully, she did enter the business, and in the process created a new model for stylish boutique motels that allow visitors to have an incredible stay while being immersed in the art and vibe of the locals.

The philosophy of starting Shelter Social Club was to create community, and to gather like-minded creative individuals together. She has bridged the gap for Ojai locals to mingle with visiting tourists at the Ojai Rancho Inn, which she and her ex-partner renovated, creating an idyllic hub for musicians, crafters, concerts and community events that have steered and helped Ojai evolve as a creative mecca for artists.

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KENNY OSEHAN HOTELIER

Both Amber Lee and Rachel and Michael Graves cited in their interviews that the Rancho Inn and Kenny were instrumental when they first landed in Ojai, giving them an immediate support system and inspiration to create and curate their own dreams.

Her Instagram showcases her inspirations from around the world, hotels and buildings, details in decor, silent still moments that encapsulate light and moments of meditation in a divine setting.

Kenny brings that essence into all her projects and is now working on a renovation of the Capri Hotel, bringing together a talented team to breathe life and style into a neglected Ojai landmark.

Photo of Kenny Osehan and the pool by Nancy Neil @lovenancyneil. Photo on the porch by Willie Kessel for Slowtide @slowtide. Photo at Deck the Halls by Rhiannon Griego @rhiannonmgriego.

Illustration by Madeline ODonoghue @madelineodonoghue_creative.

Cover photo of Fanny Penny is by Kenny Osehan. Cover photo of the pool is by Nancy Neil.

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KATE PEPPER ARTISAN BAKER KATE PEPPER IS A HOUSEHOLD NAME well beyond Ojai. Never setting out to become the queen of sourdough in these parts, her passion, skill and long nights gave way to a successful cottage business that has reached all corners of the globe and grabbed the attention of renowned bakers and chefs alike.

Her Instagram is a sensual smörgåsbord of dough and flour and a glimpse into the bread-making process. It also gives her customers a preview of her mouthwatering choices: sourdough boules spiked with olives, lemons and sea salt, multi-seed loaves made of oats and barley, cinnamon raisin bread that cries out for a smear of butter.

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Kate feels Instagram is a great venue for introverts. Because she is working through the night and often alone in her bakery, she reaches for it as a venue to express a raw portrait of her life and the baking process. She is not afraid to show the mess and hard work that baking requires and along with the lack of sleep and exhaustion that comes with an all-night bake, it can produce some hilarious and captivating results.

Formerly a massage therapist and art history major, she wouldn’t call herself a photographer, but it’s undeniable she has a gift for photography. Her framing and use of light draw us in to a world beyond bread.

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All photos including Justin Andrew Johnson are by Kate Pepper. Photo of Kate on cover by Justin Andrew Johnson.

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@SHOPSUMM

ERCAMP

MICHAEL & RACHEL GRAVES VINTAGE + LIFESTYLE GOODS /// CUSTOM FRAMING 404

WHEN RACHEL AND MICHAEL GRAVES came to Ojai on a mini-honeymoon right after getting married, they were eager to make a shift of some sort. They immediately fell in love with the town and took their honeymoon money and put two months rent on a building which became Shop Summer Camp.

It was a slow love of labor, improving upon the shop whenever they could, both keeping their jobs in Los Angeles and taking turns commuting five days a week and still running the shop, all while Rachel was pregnant.

Shop Summer Camp, which doubles as a frame shop, is a beautifully curated venue for local handmade treasures, and is one of the first shops that welcome you when you first roll into Ojai proper. With its new and vintage selection of clothing, candles, accessories and crafts, it beckons you with its originality and warm, delightful vibe.

Michael has been a framer since 2004 and Rachel became one in 2008, so it was a natural fit to have a frame shop connected, supporting local artists and collectors. A week after the Thomas fire they opened the shop up, with masks on, hoping some customers would need framing for the holidays, hoping to keep the business alive and take care of their local fan base.

With years of experience being in retail, both agree the best form of advertising is to do a good job, be friendly, and people will come back and also tell their friends. Giving their customers a special experience is a priority, as well as allowing their price point to be accessible so visitors can always leave with something special. ≈OQ≈

#MADEINOJAI

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@MARGINS_IMPRINT @GOODVIBESCANDLECO

@NICO.77.CERAM Tintype Photo of the Graves Family by Matt Alberts @Matt_Alberts_. All other photos by Mike or Rachel.

ICS

@EASYTOBREATHE OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Modern Living.

Smart Savings.

SONNETTE™ CELLULAR ROLLER SHADES

REBATES

Hunter Douglas shades with PowerView® Motorization move automatically to schedules you set.** Save now on qualifying purchases with the associated smart hub.

150

$

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on qualifying purchases June 29–Sept. 9, 2019

Chisum's Floor Covering 118 Bryant St Ojai, CA M-F: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Sat: By Appointment Only Sun: Closed (805) 646-2440 www.chisumsfloor.com Contractor Lic. #242944 Ask us about special savings on select Hunter Douglas operating systems.

*Manufacturer’s mail-in rebate offer valid for qualifying purchases made 6/29/19–9/9/19 from participating dealers in the U.S. only. Each window fashions unit must include PowerView Motorization to qualify for rebate.

Rebate will be issued in the form of a prepaid reward card and mailed within 4 weeks of rebate claim approval. Funds do not expire. Subject to applicable law, a $2.00 monthly fee will be assessed against card balance 6 months after card issuance and each month thereafter. See complete terms distributed with reward card. Additional limitations may apply. Ask participating dealer for details and rebate form. **PowerView® App and PowerView® Hub required. ©2019 Hunter Douglas. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are the property of Hunter Douglas or their respective owners. 19Q3MAGSOC3

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810 EL TORO ROAD OJAI, CA $2,500,000

Presented by Ojai's finest Real Estate Team

Lisa Clark & Cameron Clark Lisa Clark

Wish

805.698.5986 lisaclarkojai@gmail.com DRE#01880476

Cameron Clark 805.606.4048 camaclarkojai@gmail.com DRE#01869702

Cameron Clark: Realator Associate at LIV Sotheby’s // LisaClark: Realtor Associate at LIV Sotheby’s. Each office is independently owned and operated.

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Alee Barbee Sanford: FOUNDING PATRON OF THE OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL AND GREY GABLES

BY CRAIG WALKER

During its early years, the Ojai Music Festival put itself on the map by featuring international classical and contemporary music superstars such as Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. But the venture would never have succeeded without the enthusiastic early support of local Ojai residents such as Alee Barbee Sanford, a founding patron of the festival who also founded Grey Gables.

SANFORD, A RETIRED CONCERT SINGER, first came to the Ojai Valley from Connecticut in 1941 to study Theosophy at the Krotona Institute. The next year she returned with her daughter, Louise, and two close friends — Maria Redfield and Jennie Webster — to continue her studies at Krotona and find a way to contribute to the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual evolution of mankind. With an inheritance from her husband’s family (Sanford Ink Company of Chicago), she bought a house on West Eucalyptus Street where she and her small entourage began their Ojai adventure Born in 1890, Alee Barbee Sanford spent her youth performing in concert halls throughout America and Europe. Her voice was a lyric soprano with a range of two and half octaves. A New York critic once wrote that her coloratura singing was “like a string of pearls,” and her diction “was superb — whether in English, French, German, Spanish, or Italian.” She was a highly cultured woman — well-read and dignified — who collected fine art and rare books.

She was not only an accomplished musician; she was a scholar who studied the philosophers and religions of the world — both ancient and modern. In her later years she studied Theosophy, dabbling in spiritualism and working to bring about Theosophy’s main goal—the brotherhood of man.

She was especially fascinated by the occult, and considered herself to be a mystic with visionary powers. She occasionally hosted séances at her home, which led many in the small town of Ojai to view her as an eccentric.

Sanford had always been grateful to her own teachers for the wonderful gifts of knowledge they bestowed on her. She decided to create a place where teachers could live, enrich their knowledge and skills, and devote themselves to their teaching duties without the drudgery of daily chores.

She wanted to surround them with fine art, music, literature, philosophy, and cultural events. Sanford decided to create a resident teacher’s club where she, her daughter, and her friends would provide rooms, meals, cleaning services, and cultural events at no cost to the teachers. She also wanted it to serve as a community cultural center, with a fully stocked library and performance hall.

In 1944, Sanford was drawn to an old, gabled house for sale on the corner of Montgomery and Grand, at that time owned by prominent Oxnard businessman Harry Staples. She saw in the old house an opportunity to fulfill her dream. She hired local builder Sam Hudiberg to help her renovate the old house. Sam Hudiberg was one of Ojai’s most reputable builders; he built the Ojai Library, San Antonio School, Frost Hall at Ojai Valley School, and the Ojai Masonic Lodge. Sanford paid him $50 a day, an unheard-of sum at the time.

Building materials were scarce and expensive during World War II, but Sanford purchased everything without concern for the cost. She directed Hudiberg to divide the large house into several apartment units and expand the structure to include a professional kitchen, dining room, salon, music room, and library.

The project did not proceed smoothly. Sanford was not only eccentric; she was controlling and frequently changed her mind. Late local historian David Mason’s father, Pete Mason, assisted Hudiberg on

the project. “My father came home frustrated nearly every night with another story about Mrs. Sanford’s eccentric designs and endless doovers,” Mason recalled. “He said that walls were added and later moved or eliminated entirely! At the last minute she changed the color of several rooms from blue-green to green-blue, an imperceptible difference to everyone but Mrs. Sanford.”

Once completed, Alee Sanford furnished Grey Gables with expensive draperies, chandeliers, and antiques. She stocked the library with her personal collection of rare books and first editions, books from 1492 to the latest biographies — including Shakespeare’s “Second Folio.” She covered the walls with paintings from the 16th Century to the modern period, and filled the rooms with objects d’art she had collected during her travels. She named the new music room Coleman Hall after her friend, Alice Coleman (Batchelder), a pioneer in the world of Chamber Music.

The first teachers moved in during the summer of 1946. They appreciated Mrs. Sanford’s warmth and generosity, but they discovered that her eccentric and controlling personality made life difficult for them. They were required to eat their meals in the dining room, and dress up for dinner.

Sanford began orchestrating the lives of the residents to fit her vision of culture and style. Most of them found her benevolent control too restrictive; in spite of the free room and board, they soon moved out.

Many of the apartments she built were never occupied.

It was Sanford’s intention that Grey Gables also offer cultural benefits for the people of Ojai. She hosted public lectures, philosophical discussions, and dramatic readings in the salon. She invited musicians and singers to perform at Grey Gables, including young California artists whose interests and careers she promoted.

Sanford began the process of incorporating a foundation — The Ojai Foundation for the Advancement of Learning — to raise funds and expand her operation. She hoped her new foundation would become a nationally recognized organization so she could create more resident teacher clubs across the country. A fundraising letter from the group stated: “We hope here in Ventura County to prove the need and practicality of such resident clubs so that throughout the United States it can be used as a pattern and through this course to encourage more men and women of high ideals to join the teaching profession and to establish a greater dignity of appreciation in the hearts and minds of the citizens of the United States for individuals as teachers and a deeper meaning of those in the profession of their high responsibility.”

In 1948, her friend and partner Maria Redfield died. With Miss Redfield gone, Sanford dropped her ambitious plan to take Grey Gables national. By then, however, she was already involved in a new project.

When John Bauer founded the Ojai Music Festival in 1947, Alee Sanford became a major supporter. She not only donated much of the festival’s start-up funds, she housed its musicians, hosted patrons’ concerts, and even opened a festival office at Grey Gables.

Sanford began constructing a large, three-story building behind Coleman Hall. The first two floors were to be apartments for housing a

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performance hall. It would boast Ojai’s first elevator. Construction on this building did not go smoothly, either. According to Freda Dunning, one of Grey Gables early resident teachers, “Her building plans were really strange. She built rooms around existing rooms. Of course, this led to the inside rooms having no windows! When the elevator was placed in the location she wanted, she then changed her mind and ordered it put in a different location.”

According to Freda’s daughter Karin (Hays) Crilly, who was twelve at the time, Mr. Hudiberg quit several times but always returned. In spite of all the delays, the new building was completed in 1948.

In October of 1948, Alee Sanford held the Ojai Music Festival’s first patrons’ concert at Grey Gables. Performing were the acclaimed American soprano Regina Resnik and Swedish tenor Set Svanholm, both stars of the San Francisco and Metropolitan Opera companies.

Mrs. Sanford hosted several other Music Festival fundraisers at Grey Gables, and continued to be a patron every year until 1964. Grey Gables housed the offices of the Ojai Music Festival during the late 1940s.

Although Alee Barbee Sanford arrived in Ojai with a large inheritance, cost overruns and excessive spending on her overly ambitious and ill-conceived project quickly depleted her financial resources. By 1953 she was under water and sinking fast. The few teachers who still lived at Grey Gables offered to contribute toward the expenses, but Mrs. Sanford would not hear of it. In late 1953, Grey Gables was closed by the bank and placed into foreclosure.

As fate would have it, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, the eventual founder of AARP, was on a speaking tour of California in late 1953. She was raising money for her own dream — to build a national home for retired teachers. She was also searching for the ideal location to establish this home. On her way out of town after making a fundraising appeal to the teachers at Nordhoff High School, she spied Grey Gables and knew immediately that it would be the perfect location for her retirement home. Sanford, in creating a vibrant cultural center and residence for working teachers, had created the ideal residence for retired teachers as envisioned by Dr. Andrus. Andrus saw in Grey Gables not only a model for modern retirement homes, but also a new model for retirement

living based on independence, dignity, and purpose. (See “The Age of Reformation: The Founding of AARP in Ojai,” Ojai Quarterly, Spring 2012) Ethel Percy Andrus purchased Grey Gables in early 1954 on behalf of the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), which she founded in 1947. Because Dr. Andrus stressed the importance of a dynamic retirement lifestyle, including service to one’s community, Grey Gables continued to be an important Ojai community center. Dr. Andrus promoted Grey Gables nationally as “the future of retirement living in America.”

In 1959, Bertha Adkins, the Undersecretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, proclaimed Grey Gables to be the finest retirement home in the nation and an example for others. A scale model of Grey Gables was a featured exhibit in AARP’s Dynamic Maturity Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

As part of the Grey Gables lifestyle, the retired teachers who lived there assisted Dr. Andrus in running her two national organizations: the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) and later the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) — which Dr. Andrus founded at Grey Gables in 1958.

After selling Grey Gables, Alee Sanford moved to Missouri, where she and her daughter lived on a farm. According to Freda Dunning, “It was near a large tribe of Indians who made Mrs. Sanford an Indian princess, which seemed to delight her.” Sanford also took much satisfaction from her role in creating Grey Gables, that it continued to serve teachers, and that it had become a national model for retirement living. Alee Barbee Sanford died peacefully at her home in Missouri on December 22, 1965.

Today, Grey Gables is owned by The Parsons Group, a Santa Barbara company that manages several retirement homes in California and Texas. The Gables, as it is now known, is still one of the most beautiful and gracious retirement homes in America, thanks in part to the vision and creative abilities of Alee Barbee Sanford.

One of Mrs. Sanford’s favorite poems, which she quoted often, is a fitting tribute to her legacy: Grey Gables postcard

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Purpose,

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

The Last 118

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Vaquero HALL OF FAME HORSEMAN DAN LOPEZ IS A LIVING LINK TO OJAI’S NINETEENTH-CENTURY RANCHO ERA WHEN RANCHEROS AND VAQUEROS RULED THE ROOST.

BY MARK LEWIS

OQ / SUMMER 2019

119

MANY VISITORS to the Ojai Valley Museum’s current “Founding Familias” exhibit will encounter photographs of living people they know very well, amid the sepia-tinged images of long-gone Rancho Era pioneers. The exhibit connects the dots from the original Rancho Ojai pioneer Fernando Tico to his great-great-granddaughter Susana Arce, retired Nordhoff High School vice principal and past president of the Ojai Music Festival. Another section connects original Rancho Santa Ana co-owner Cosme Vanegas with Robert Vanegas, proprietor of Bob’s Backhoe Service.

There’s also Margaret Price, whose great-greatgreat-grandfather Rafael Lopez built the Lopez Adobe near the mouth of Matilija Canyon back in the 1830s; and Ynez Parker LaDow, who works to preserve the distinctive Camarillo White Horse breed associated with her great-grandfather Adolfo Camarillo; and Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, tribal chairperson of the Barbareno/ Ventureno Band of Mission Indians, whose Chumash grandparents worked for local rancheros, and whose ancestors inhabited the valley for thousands of years before the coming of the Spaniards and the Mexicans.

But among the living links highlighted in the exhibit, only one — Daniel R. Lopez — has followed essentially the same career as his storied progenitors. As a fourthgeneration California vaquero, Dan Lopez (no relation to the Lopez Adobe Lopezes) embodies the culture that gave birth to that cherished American icon, the cowboy. (The English word buckaroo derives from the Spanish word vaquero, meaning cowman.) But there may not be a fifth generation. Lopez’s son and daughter are expert riders, as is at least one of his granddaughters, but they do not make their livings on horseback. In that respect, Dan represents the end of his line.

“I’m the last of the Mohicans,” he says.

BEFORE THERE WAS A WILD WEST, there was a wild north — El Norte, Mexico’s northern frontier. In California, Franciscan missionaries led the push north starting in 1769. Then Mexico won its independence from Spain, and California’s mission lands were distributed to well-connected former soldiers and traders, who took up cattle ranching on a large scale. That’s what brought Dan Lopez’s vaquero great-grandfather north, back in the days when California was still part of Mexico.

“That’s when they were giving all this land away,” he says. But no one gave any land to Lopez’s ancestors: “We were just workers.”

The Rancho Era ended by the 1870s, but the cattle business continued. Dan’s grandfather Leonardo Lopez was known for his skill at braiding horsehair ropes for hackamores, the horse headgear to which the reins are attached. Dan’s father, Ernest Lopez, trained horses for Adolfo Camarillo and later for Charles C. Perkins, and worked as a wrangler during the annual Rancheros Visitadores trail ride in the Santa Ynez Valley. Ernest also competed in local rodeos as a bronc rider, and he rode in Santa Barbara’s annual Fiesta Historical Parade.

(When the parade was over, Ernest and his friend the actor Leo Carrillo would ride their horses into their favorite cantina, as was the custom during Fiesta. “There were a couple of bars there where they’d put out rubber mats” to accommodate the horses, Dan says.)

Dan Lopez was born in Santa Paula on April 7, 1934, on a ranch in Wheeler Canyon. That’s where he learned to ride, on a Shetland pony 120

Dan’s father, Ernest Lopez, in Santa Barbara’s Fiesta Parade.

with a mean disposition.

“He’d buck me off every morning, and I’d cry,” Dan says.

“Get back on,” his father would order, and Dan soon became an accomplished rider.

“My dad was showing horses all the time,” he says. “We had little horse shows everywhere here in Ventura County, even in Casitas Springs.”

In the early 1940s, the Lopez family moved to Charles Perkins’s Ojai spread, Rancho Dos Rios on Creek Road. Dan attended Ojai Elementary School, in the building that now houses Chaparral High School and the school district offices.

“I liked it because the bakery was right across the street,” he says.

(That would be the famous Bill Baker’s bakery, in the building that’s now the Azu restaurant.)

By this point, Dan had traded in that Shetland pony for a full-size Palomino gelding named Corregidor, and he was increasingly inclined to follow his father into the family business. He loved to accompany Ernest to Los Angeles for the big All Palomino shows at the old Horse Palace near Griffith Park. Dan was entranced by all the excitement, as thousands of onlookers cheered for the winning horses and riders — and also for the cowboy movie star Roy Rogers and his famous horse Trigger, who were on hand to entertain the crowd.

For Dan, this was a revelation. Being a cowboy was not just a job; it could be a path to glory. Here in the heart of Hollywood was an arena where real-life cowboys were the stars, while movie cowboys like Rogers played supporting roles.

“That kind of impressed me as a youngster,” Dan says, “because Roy Rogers was our half-time entertainment!”

Dan attended Nordhoff High School for about a year before the family moved on from Ojai. Eventually, Dan ended up at Ventura High School, but left early to volunteer for the Army in 1952. The Korean War was raging, and Dan wanted to do his bit. But instead of sending him to Korea, the Army shipped him to Berlin, where he served in a

OQ / SUMMER 2019

motorpool in the shadow of the Iron Curtain.

When his hitch ended, he returned to Southern California and hired on as a cowboy at a cattle ranch near Lompoc. Dan had lost his father to heart disease several years earlier, but he was still following in Ernest’s footsteps. Nevertheless, he found the Lompoc ranch too windy and too isolated for his taste.

“I didn’t like cowboying like that,” he says. “I wanted to come back to town.”

By this point, he was married to the former Rita Feraud, and was the father of two children, Dione and Danny Jr. Rita’s relatives co-owned the Las Palmas Chili business in Ventura, so Dan went to work at their factory on North Garden Street. But he also kept his hand in as a horseman by working part-time as a trainer. Finally, around 1964, Dan quit Las Palmas and struck out on his own as a full-time trainer. Just three years later, he won his first world championship, in Sweetwater, Texas, riding an Appaloosa stallion named Ditto Sid, which he trained at a stable on Burnham Road near Oak View.

“That got me started,” Dan says, and he has never looked back.

Dan retired in 2000, when he and Virginia sold Oak Tree farm and moved to Tehachapi. But they soon returned to Ojai, and Dan went back to training horses and giving riding lessons. Virginia died in 2016.

Over the years, Dan Lopez has won 16 world championships and 15 national championships. He was named Trainer of the Year in 1994, is a member of two different horse-related Halls of Fame, and led the 2012 Fiesta Parade in Santa Barbara as that year’s Honorary Vaquero. (He has ridden in the Rose Parade three times as well.)

These days, Dan lives in a spacious doublewide in the Ojai Villa Mobile Estates in Mira Monte with his partner Kathleen Marshall. He describes himself as semi-retired, but notes that he still has a Palomino gelding called Chex This Shiner and an Appaloosa called Badger Lee, which he stables on Boardman Road near Soule Park. He has distributed most of the swag from his legendary career — trophies, silver belt buckles, trophy saddles, etc. — to his children and grandchildren.

The stuff he still has on hand is currently on loan to the Ojai Valley Museum for its “Founding Familias” exhibit, which runs through July 28. The exhibit highlights a vintage pair of spurs that once belonged to Dan’s father, and to his grandfather.

Will future generations of Lopezes uphold the family tradition? Both of Dan’s children rode as children, but both ended up making their livings in other fields. His daughter Dione and her husband own the Rubio’s chain of taco restaurants, while his son Danny Jr. forged a career at State Farm Insurance. But Dan notes that Dione “rides just about every day,” and that Danny Jr. seems to be reverting to type: “When my boy retired from State Farm after 40 years, he turned back into a cowboy.”

“They won’t be trainers,” Dan says “They just ride for enjoyment.”

But the possibility remains that one of Dan’s grandchildren will keep the Lopez vaquero tradition going, in one way or another.

“I think somebody in the family will keep taking it on,” he says. “We’ll see what happens.” ≈OQ≈

WORKING MOSTLY WITH APPALOOSAS, Lopez forged a legendary career as a horse trainer. Ditto Sid was only the first of many of these spotted horses that Dan guided to national and world championships in reining, roping and other “working cowhorse” categories. One of his favorites was TV Writer, a champion mare that belonged to, yes, a television writer, Paul Pumpian. Over the years, Dan trained many horses for Hollywood folks, including the film actresses Christine Lahti and Kate Capshaw (Mrs. Steven Spielberg) and the television stars Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry of “LA Law” fame.

They all appreciated his gentle, thoughtful approach to horse training.

“I don’t believe in spurring them, or whipping them until they’re bloody,” he says.

Instead, he employs horse psychology. To get a horse to do something, “you’ve got to get them to think it’s their idea,” he says.

Celebrity clients were a common sight at Oak Tree Farm, the Upper Ojai horse ranch that Dan and his second wife, Virginia, operated from about 1980 to 2000. When Lopez rode one of their horses to victory, the client took home the trophy, but it was Dan who basked in the applause of the crowd and the admiration of his peers.

“I was lucky because a lot of my clients came out of L.A. and the horses were a write-off for them,” Dan says. “And I got the all glory!”

Founding

Familias The Ojai Valley during the

Rancho Era

MAY 17 - JULY 28 at the OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM

OJAI BEYOND

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OQ / SUMMER 2019

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Medications have side effects. How do we manage those? More medications! As the years go by, and problems add up, the pills pile on, a situation we call “polypharmacy.” It’s difficult to keep track of all the pills, much less avoid drug-drug interactions, and side effects.

C

onsider Mr. Jones, he’s 5’11” 229 pounds. With a body mass index of 32, he is obese. He dislikes vegetables, rarely cooks at home. Daily diet is mostly meat and dairy, processed and fast foods. He has “pre-diabetes” and takes a diuretic, an ACE inhibitor, and a beta blocker for high blood pressure, a statin for elevated cholesterol, a proton pump inhibitor for chronic acid reflux, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory for chronic knee and back pain.

A few years later and he didn’t change his diet. Now at 253 pounds, he is morbidly obese with a BMI of 35. He is diabetic and taking two medications for his blood sugar and may need to start insulin soon.

His back pain has worsened from the excess weight, and the NSAIDs have worsened his heartburn symptoms (and increased his risk of cardiovascular disease). He has a chronic cough at night from the reflux, and vitamin B12 deficiency anemia from chronic acid suppression from the PPI. He takes an occasional narcotic pain medication for his back, which OQ / SUMMER 2019

has worsened his constipation and caused hemorrhoids. The statin is causing muscle aches and depleting Co-enzyme-Q so he takes a CoQ10 supplement. He has developed fatty liver disease from over-eating compounded by the statin which is toxic to his liver. The beta blocker and statin are causing sexual dysfunction. He starts a phosphodiesterase inhibitor (Viagra). This causes headaches and depression. He starts an antidepressant, which affects his libido and causes him to gain weight.

He is chronicaly fatigued and a sleep study shows obstructive sleep apnea. He must wear a CPAP machine at night or risk early onset dementia.

Thanks to the statin, Mr. Jones may not have to worry as much about his cholesterol, but he does have to worry about muscle aches, weight gain, fatigue, anemia, liver toxicity, sexual dysfunction, and diabetes — all side effects of his medications.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

What’s the primary objective of all these pills? To spare us from bad outcomes, like the number one killer: heart disease. Take statins (some of the most profitable and widely prescribed drugs in the world): published data shows for primary prevention (people without existing heart disease) about 100 people would have to take a statin for three years in order to prevent one heart attack (Number Needed to Treat). During that time, about 1 in 10 suffer harm: mitochondrial damage from impairment in electron transport chain

function, (CoQ10 carries high-energy electrons from one complex to the next, statins inhibit CoQ10 production). Statin-induced myopathy, also cognitive loss, neuropathy, pancreatic and hepatic dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction, and diabetes are all associated with statin use!

Back to Mr. Jones. If all he did was take a statin, and not change his diet, 3 years later he might the 1-in-100 statin-takers who avoided a heart attack. But he would still have obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, depression, diabetes, chronic body pain, and sexual dysfunction.

If he had switched to a plant-based diet three– years ago instead, he would have prevented a heart attack and reversed his diabetes and his hypertension. He would have lost weight, come off the medications and the CPAP machine, improved his sex life, his chronic pain, his hemorrhoids, constipation and depression and reduced his risk of cancer.

A whole-food plant-based and oil-free diet has been proven to prevent or reverse heart disease (Esselstyn CB Jr. “Resolving the Coronary Artery Disease Epidemic Through Plant-Based Nutrition.” Prev

Cardiol. 2001 Autumn;4(4):171-177) So why isn’t this the first thing we prescribe?

For my patients who seem curious and open to it, I reach for my special blue prescription pad, the “Prescription For Life.” I prescribe a whole-food-plant-based diet. Signing the pad and handing it to the patient crystalizes the importance, placing diet on par with medications.

It’s purely symbolic, although I have been asked if it was meant to be taken to the pharmacy! Actually, take it to the produce section of your grocery store or the Farmer’s Market (the Farm-a-cy!).

Ojai has an extraordinary selection of plant-based eateries for a town of its size: the old favorites Rainbow Bridge, Farmer and The Cook, Food Harmonics, Nest, Azu, Noso Vita, and new standouts Sage Mindful Meals, The Ojai Pub, and Hip Vegan Café. All have delicious plant-based selections, perfect for newbies-looking-for-inspiration and established plant-based-eaters alike. Go ahead, give it a try. The Prescription For Life doesn’t cost a penny and the worst side-effect is increased vitality.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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OQ | HEA L I NG A RTS l ook in g for sen sations

How We Are in Our Bodies; How We Are in The World

BY SULTANA PARVANTA, Ph.D Ojai has long been blessed by a tradition of visionaries, teachers, and healers who have graced our valley to share of their diverse methods of health and spirituality.

Among these, we are grateful to welcome Sarah Grace, a somatic educator and healer, who has initiated a somatic-based healing and movement arts center named Somatic Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary was created for the nourishment, integration, and connection of mind, body, and soul, where boundaries of healing innovations are stretched to greater inclusivity.

Among its various healing modalities, Somatic Stretch classes, aka as the Jarvis Technique® offer participants a way to journey within and open their bodies by learning to stretch in a slow, personal way, using internal sensations as guides.

In stretching this way, your focus is on sensations you feel, or experience within your body, rather than on aiming for a specific pose, or position.

From the outside, the process may look simple, but what happens on the inside is profound and uniquely informative to each individual.

Somatic Stretch® is the brain-and-body-child of former Canadian prima ballerina, Lilian Jarvis, now 87 years old, who is still stretching and teaching a method of exercise she developed after her dance career. The style of this work first appeared in the family with Lilian’s father, Otto Järvinen, a Finnish-trained masseur who emigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and whom Lilian remembers doing stretch and strengthening exercises on the floor when she was a child. Non-aerobic in quality, the work could be compared to regular tune-ups for your car so it drives safely and well for the length of its life.

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Somatic Stretch® arrived in Ojai in 2004 with Meredith Sands Keator, Lilian’s daughter, who grew up with this work and later studied Acupuncture and Shiatsu. Following her mother’s approach, she added her own understanding and experiences of the body’s energetic systems and applied the concepts of ‘Fractal Anatomy’ and Sacred Geometry to inform and guide the stretching process.

My interest in this work grew exponentially as I personally observed and applied this technique, grasping its extensive positive impact on my body and mind, and as I saw it experienced by others.

I then chose to obtain my certification so that I could support others in improving their health, wellbeing, and vitality with this method.

How does the technique work? Less is more in this style; you don’t push your body past its limits and you don’t compete with anyone else.

Instead, you remain aware of resistance in your body and judgments in your mind about what you “should” be able to do, while gently coaxing your body in a safe, health-generating direction.

A special aspect of Somatic Stretch® is its working with the “stretch reflex,” which greatly helps protect the body from over-stretching and injury. At the same time, it sets the body into a state able to direct blood, nutrients and energy into places that were sluggish and tired, rejuvenating our sense of vitality and well-being; also as a means of going safely beyond your natural flexibility limits.

The technique starts with simple stretches, positions, and movements that most babies can naturally do but which become lost to us in later years. It holds the view that releasing tension and

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developing flexibility are the first objectives. As tension is released, muscles relax and elongate and joint mobility increases, enabling the body to move with less effort. Such a condition reduces muscular and skeletal strains, affecting the overall body in a calming, yet energizing way.

In our fast-paced world, Somatic Stretch® solves an essential dilemma: It provides a space for us to slow down, bring awareness to our movements and discover the immensely pleasurable experience of connecting with, and being in our own “soma,” the Greek word for “body.” In somatic parlance, it refers to the “inner, or internal” body of muscles, joints and sensations rather than the external body that can be seen.

Since muscles record memories of our experiences and are an integral part of experiencing emotions, by learning to relax, unlock muscles and joints, we can regulate our bodies both physically and emotionally. This work also offers tremendous opportunities for working with PTSD. In generating greater awareness and increasing one’s perception of neurological information, neuro-pathways can be walked back from trauma.

I have discovered that through this work that how I am in my body is how I am in the world: A rigid body generally houses a rigid mind, while a flexible body is apt to have a flexible mind.

Imagine moving and living with complete ease, freedom and strength; Somatic Stretch® offers this.

Sultana Parvanta, PhD is a Somatic Instructor, Somatic Sanctuary. For more information, call 805633-9230 or support@somaticsanctuary.com or www.somaticsanctuary.com

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Scaling Down

WORDS AND PHOTOS

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

WINTER WAS LINGERING in the backcountry of the Sespe Wilderness. Winter rains had done their job and the open bookshaped canyons and chaparral-choked mesas were an acid green. My stepson Kyle and I were moving quickly down the Sespe Creek, rock hopping southeast of the Red Reef Trail junction. Destination: the Sespe Hot Springs.

Kyle was following me, several strides behind, on a crisp, late spring morning. The grasses along the narrow, single-track trail were knee-to-waist-high and the sun was far from cresting the Transverse Range. As soon as I rounded a sharp bend in the trail, I heard it. It happened so fast but as soon as I heard it rattle off, I knew a southern Pacific rattlesnake was close.

Almost too close, according to Kyle.

“When it struck,” said my amped-up stepson, “it came within a few inches of your lower left leg.”

The menacing snake with a purple forked tongue had been asleep next to the trail, concealed in the tall, green grass. The fourfoot-long reptile must’ve detected us by our impact tremor and instinctively lunged once it felt threatened.

It then coiled up tightly between Kyle and me in the middle of the trail, ready to strike and not giving an inch. We both backed off, giving it plenty of space before it relaxed and 134

slithered off into the impenetrable chaparral.

A BAD RAP Reptiles get a bad rap in the animal kingdom. Some slither and others can bipedal. Some appear downright scary. Let’s face it. They are not warm and fuzzy. They’re not going to curl up in your lap or purr. They eat insects, rodents and sometimes each other.

Arguably more than any other reptile in the backcountry, the southern Pacific rattlesnake doesn’t receive a fair shake. Sure, they’re venomous. That rapid rattle sends the heart rate through the roof, and they always seem to look just plain mean.

However, their purpose is vital to a functioning forest. They are the bottom dwellers of the chaparral and they are one of the cleaners of the woods, helping to sustain a natural balance when it comes to keeping rodent populations down, especially rats.

They also provide fascinating moments.

Once on a trail run, I came across a kingsnake and a rattlesnake tightly intertwined in mortal combat. The edge here went to the kingsnake. The colorful constrictors are immune to rattlesnake venom and it had a firm squeeze on a rattlesnake that was roughly the same length. While it continued to constrict, the kingsnake had already begun OQ / SUMMER 2019

the long process of devouring its meal. Too long for me to watch so I continued down the trail.

On another occasion, while backpacking from New Cuyama back to the coast, a friend and I ran too low on food somewhere in the Dick Smith Wilderness. Summer was approaching and it was getting hot. A southern Pacific rattlesnake began rattling off just off the trail. We stoned it, skinned it and used one of the Dutch ovens at a backcountry campsite.

We laid the tender meat across glowing coals, pure protein to get us over the coastal range.

And of course it tasted like chicken.

SLEEPING BAG SLEEPOVER Sometimes it’s just better camping out without a tent. Sometimes that backcountry air near a flowing creek provides the best sleep, crisp and cool. However, I wasn’t intending on sharing my sleeping bag. There’s only room for me, or so I thought.

In the middle of the night I made room for one more. The horned lizard is one of my favorite reptiles in the entire backcountry. I was sleeping near the Sespe Creek with my sleeping bag zipped up as far as it would go.

I’m only guessing that this horned lizard miscalculated its thermoregulating regimen during a late spring day and didn’t gather

enough warmth to survive through the night.

When I initially felt something wiggle mightily into my sleeping bag, I thought snake immediately, so I didn’t budge.

However, as the horned lizard searched for its sweet spot, I realized it wasn’t a snake. I could tell by the way it moved that it was shorter and compact. The horns on its stubby frame

are not thorny. The entire lizard is actually very soft, especially its underbelly.

I carefully rolled toward it as to not crush it and gradually cupped my palm over its back. It didn’t squirm and flee, instead it settled in and stayed the night. It was chilly outside my sleeping bag, and it was the best place it could be.

The next morning was a little tricky and required some effort. I grabbed the horned lizard as I came out of my sleeping bag. The morning sun was cresting above the creek.

I slid the little bugger inside the pocket of my down jacket, carried on with packing up, while waiting for the sun to warm the rocks.

Finally, it was time to transfer the horned lizard to a warm spot on a sandstone slab. I carefully placed it on the gritty rock but kept my hand delicately over its entire body so it would stay put and begin thermoregulating. I threw my backpack on and slowly continued down the trail. I looked over my shoulder before the first bend in the trail, the horned lizard was still there basking in the warm morning sun.

WEST COAST NATIVE After scrambling up along an unmaintained trail in the Sespe Wilderness, ravaged by an El Niño storm, I had a real clear look at the nameless, seasonal tributary down below. There was a broad, prominent

sandstone boulder sticking out of the middle of the creek. It had a dry patch where the water rushed around it, a convenient basking spot for a group of western pond turtles.

There were five or six of the olive-colored turtles piled up on the sandstone utilizing every speck of warm rock to thermoregulate.

I was approximately 50 to 60 feet above them, but when I stepped out into a clearing several of them dove into the water vanishing into its deepest, darkest depths.

California has approximately 189,454 miles of river, of which 1,999.6 miles are designated as wild and scenic — a meager one percent of the state’s river miles!

Fortunately, the Sespe Creek and River fall within that one percentile. This is one of the best places to see California’s only native freshwater turtle species.

The 31.5-mile-long Sespe Creek and River flows freely, unscathed by dams and cement culverts. More than 30 creeks and springs feed the Sespe Creek.

During the summer months when ponds and seasonal creeks dry up, these resourceful little turtles possess the capability to breathe mud for survival. They’ll dig into the mud and draw oxygen through their skin, and they

can spend around 200 days a year away from the water.

THE LEOPARD HUNTS IN DARKNESS, OR NOT It was a fuzzy, downy-feathered, bedraggled chick, a songbird of some sort dawdling in the middle of dusty Elkhorn Road, located on the outer eastern fringe of the Carrizo Plain National Monument. It’s where I was introduced to my first bluntnosed leopard lizard. The tiny chick had obviously left the nest too soon.

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Wobbly in the middle of the road, the scrawny chick teetered back and forth like it had a hard night on the town. I stopped my truck to shoo it across the road, and that’s when I saw one of the American West’s most striking lizards.

The female blunt-nosed leopard lizard was lying in the shadows, ready to pounce on the

Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management

hapless chick. However, right when I realized I had just disrupted her hunt, she became completely distracted by a hard-charging male suitor. Larger but not as striking, the yellowish male stirred up dust and gravel with the intent to mate with the female. Although she was sporting her bright orange breeding plumage spots, she wasn’t responding positively to the male’s advances. She puffed herself up to make herself appear larger as they grappled momentarily in the shade.

Then she appeared to grow bored with him.

She scurried her way and he went another.

But she stuck around long enough for me to see how leopard-like she was.

The range of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard has been greatly reduced. Its last, best habitat is found on the Carrizo Plain and in pockets of the Cuyama Valley. They’re not an easy lizard to locate, but morning seems to be optimal as they enjoy basking in the sun.

Blunt-nosed leopard lizards are large lizards — 3-to 5-inches from head to rump — but their tails though are longer than their actual bodies.

Once she ran out into the sun the female’s spots really stood out. After her brief encounter with the male, she turned her focus back to hunting, lying in wait, the sparse, arid vegetation of the grasslands providing just enough cover for this reptilian, high plain predator. ≈OQ≈ 135

Changing the Tide FOUR WOMEN SHARE THEIR VISION FOR A HEALTHIER OCEAN AND COMMUNITY

BY MICHELAINA JOHNSON

FOUR LOCAL WOMEN are turning the tide of environmental destruction in Ventura County and beyond.

All environmental activists and mothers, these four women have achieved remarkable feats for the love of the planet: Dr. Andrea Neal has explored over 8,000 nautical miles on scientific expeditions studying trash in the ocean; Piper Presley has crossed the Santa Barbara Channel multiple times in an outrigger canoe; Dr. Sarah Otterstrom waded through an icy cold river in the Costa Rican mountains all night to survey salamanders; and Kimberly Rivers was one of the first journalists to break stories on hydraulic fracking in Ventura County.

Individually, these women are ambitious; together, they are pioneering. For the second year in a row, they are organizing Ventura’s World Oceans Day in coordination with March for the Ocean, but this time around the event will be larger in scale and scope.

Last year’s event — a sister gathering to the March for the Ocean in Washington D.C. attracted more than 150 attendees and put Ojai on the map with the 140 other locations worldwide that joined the March.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be associating with passionate and accomplished women from Ventura County to put our region at the forefront of ocean conservation,” said Dr. Otterstrom.

The four women will play a critical role in this year’s World Oceans Day, speaking on a panel of experts, representing their nonprofits in the ocean-themed booths, and joining numerous families to celebrate the blue body that covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.

In the following series of complementary interviews, Presley, Neal, Otterstrom and Rivers reveal how the challenges facing the oceans shape their lives and drive them to make our planet habitable for future generations.

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DR. ANDREA NEAL & PIPER PRESLEY

Dr. Andrea Neal is the Chief Scientific Officer with the Ojai-based company Primary Water Resources and founder of Blue Ocean Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Lipid Biochemistry from the Swedish Life Sciences University.

Piper Presley has nearly 15 years of experience volunteering and working with numerous outdoor companies and conservation nonprofits. When not solving environmental issues, she can be found camping, hiking, or playing at the beach with her family.

MJ: Tell me about how both of you came together and coorganized the f irst March for the Ocean in Ventura County in June 2018.

AN & PP: We met dropping off our children at the Montessori School of Ojai. Both our boys and we became friends. As we learned more about each other’s backgrounds, we found out that we had been working on some of the same environmental topics, which included putting on the first Day Without a Bag in Santa Barbara in 2008. Over many playdates, we realized it was time for us to get back into the environmental game. We decided to form the Ojai Island Foundation to do activism locally in the areas we are most passionate about, which is the decentralized sustainability of food, water, and energy.

When David Helvarg [Executive Director of Blue Frontier] asked us to help out with World Oceans Day, we knew it was something we had to do. But with little ones we couldn’t make the trip to Washington D.C., so we decided to put on a sister march in Ojai, which was one of only two sister marches in California. The other was in San Francisco.

As with any movement, the march grew out of our connections. Locally we connected with Dr. Sarah Otterstrom whom I [Dr. Neal] knew through the Spirit of Entrepreneurship [both were award recipients]. When we approached Sarah about working with us to make March for the Ocean happen in Ojai, she stepped up to the plate and invited her network, which is how we met Kimberly Rivers.

MJ: Dr. Neal, you have nearly two decades worth of experience studying marine-related pollution, including advising JeanMichel Cousteau and serving as the lead scientist on multiple at-sea scientif ic expeditions, including Project Kaisei. From these experiences, what have you concluded are the most pressing problems facing our oceans?

AN: The most pressing problems I observe today, unfortunately, are ones people can’t see. It’s the visual things that make movements: It’s the turtle with the ring of plastic around its neck or the fish caught in a bottle. However, every day our air, water and food are being inundated with tiny micro and nano filaments of plastic. While these particles are really small, they are coming from products we touch and see everyday, including

trash from our home, synthetic clothing that we wash, and packaging.

It’s difficult for us to grasp that our waste breaks down into very small pieces and ends up in the ocean’s food chain and eventually back onto our plate. At this point, there is no water or food product out there that doesn’t contain either microscopic bits of plastic or phthalates [chemical added to plastics].

MJ: Both of you are working moms with young sons. You’ve struggled to address your environmental concerns in your daily lives due to the demands of parenting. What can people, specif ically parents, do in their lives to help the health of the oceans?

PP: It’s impossible when you have a child to not put some of your personal waste reduction efforts aside, and we both did. Every parent has to have a level of forgiveness for themselves because perfection is not easy. If I remember my reusable bags half the time, then that’s 50 percent less plastic I used. The small things that you do everyday, or every other day, make a difference.

I’m scared of what the planet’s going to be like in 10, 20, 30 years and further down the line. What sort of legacy are we leaving future generations?

A lot of what matters in parenting is raising a person who understands their connection with the environment. My son, Nolan, is only four. If we see trash, we pick it up. We make a game out of it.

Teaching them to love the outdoors and the ocean, and to clean up our area are what matter. If he loves the environment, then he’ll want to care for it.

MJ: After last year’s success with March for the Ocean, you both decided to expand your vision and move the event to Ventura to reach a larger and more diverse demographic. What is the message of Ventura’s World Oceans Day this year?

PP: our question reminded me of why we are inviting all these groups to the World Oceans Day. My husband and I were driving in Ojai the other day and saw a bumper sticker that read, “Save the turtles. Save the planet.” My husband said, “It’s really over-simplifying things.” But I countered that it’s because, in your effort to save turtles, you will save beaches and marshlands, which will save other species. It has a compounding effect. We all may have different goals or a very myopic picture of why the ocean matters to each of us, but the end game is really all shared — and that’s a livable planet for years to come.

AN: People often see things like climate change and think it’s so big they can’t do anything about it. However, it’s the small, individual steps that accumulate into big change. As our climate continues to change, we will also see economic changes as well because the economy is directly linked to the environment. We see this pretty clearly in our home community of Ventura County where resources like clean water supplies directly impact property values and the growth of businesses and development, which support the county’s growing population. Without a thriving ecosystem, we won’t be able to ride out the changing climate.

OPPOSITE PAGE: LEFT TO RIGHT: Kim Rivers, Piper Presley, Andrea Neil and Sarah Otterstrom. Photograph by Brandi Crockett/Fancy Free Photography.

This year’s World Oceans Day will take place on Friday, June 7th from 2-6 p.m. at Harbor Cove Beach in Ventura. The event will feature live music, a presentation by Ocean Hero and famous skater Peggy Oki, food and drinks (all plastic free, of course), and a live demonstration of the “InvestEGGator.”

Visit https://worldoceansdayventura.org/ for more information.

The background efforts to organize World Oceans Day in Ventura County led several other concerned locals to step up to the plate, including Rosanna Garrison (Whale Wars Producer and Ocean Panel speaker), Kathleen Nolan, Alice O’Connor, and Eliza Woolley, who also are on this year’s planning committee. The partners include Paso Pacífico, Origami Whales Project, Surfrider Foundation — Ventura County Chapter, Ojai Island Foundation, March for the Ocean, Merito Foundation, Channel Islands National Park Service, Turtle Conservancy, and U.S. Navy Seabees.

DR. SARAH OTTERSTROM MJ: Your passion is the conservation of forest and coastal ecosystems in Central America. When did you realize this was the f ield to which you wanted to dedicate your career?

SO: For many years I knew I wanted to work in conservation.

When I started my doctoral research in Nicaragua, I was working with a cultural anthropologist and a forest ecologist to look at the ways that communities traditionally use fire in farming and hunting, and how those types of fires affect forest health. My research was at an important coastal nature reserve in Nicaragua, the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge, a place where many traditional farming communities live and where the olive ridley sea turtles nest on the beach by the thousands. By day, I was counting plants and trees in the forest. At night, I was up observing nesting sea turtles.

This is when I came to realize that conservation is more complex than simply saving a species. I watched as Nicaraguan soldiers patrolled the beach, firing their AK-47s when turtle egg poachers neared. Yet, these soldiers, together with government park rangers, were themselves trafficking eggs for profit. As community members were denied beach access and struggled with economic poverty, hostility between the community and the reserve increased. There had to be a better way.

I decided after graduate school that I wanted to start a small and nimble conservation organization that could work closely with rural communities and also interact with the private sector. The nonprofit would find solutions to conservation that did not leave communities powerless and would improve opportunities for biodiversity conservation.

MJ: That dream evolved into the nonprof it group Paso Pacíf ico, whose projects span environmental entrepreneurship, education and wildlife protection. To honor World Oceans Day, please tell me about your organization’s marine-related work.

SO: Paso Pacífico focuses on protecting key areas and species in

Nicaragua and El Salvador, such as sea turtles, corals, and seagrass communities. We employ community rangers to protect green and leatherback sea turtles at six beaches in coastal region of southwestern Nicaragua. We’re really proud to have five female turtle rangers on staff, the only ones in Nicaragua.

MJ: On many Central American beaches, poachers destroy more than 90 percent of sea turtle nests to sell the eggs into the illegal wildlife trade.

In 2016, Paso Pacíf ico created the InvestEGGator, to address this problem.

Tell us about this innovative project.

SO: What we have found through the years is the turtle egg trade is really widespread. Even though we can be effective with our community rangers on the beaches we protect, it’s not enough. We developed 3D eggs that are printed out of plastic and embedded with a GSM tracker.

The eggs are placed in nests that are vulnerable to poaching. If the nest

Dr. Sarah Otterstrom is a conservation scientist and the founder of Paso Pacífico, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and protecting the tropical forests and coastal habitats of western Central America. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis.

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stolen, then we can track the movement of that nest as it moves up the market chain and through the international egg trade. We are hoping by the end of 2019 we’ll be ready to put the turtle eggs on the market and sell them to other conservation groups in the region.

MJ: As an activist who has split her time between California, Nicaragua and El Salvador for the past two decades, what connections do you see between the marine ecosystems of the two regions?

SO: The Pacific really is an amazing body of water because it’s so huge, yet everything is connected. A lot of marine life, like humpback whales, migrate from the coast of California to Central America every year. We know that sea turtles from the eastern tropical Pacific are coming up into Southern California and Baja California. With climate change, we also are seeing a lot of tropical fish species and populations coming northward.

Kimberly Rivers is a local reporter and the former Executive Director of the environmental watchdog non-profit Citizens for Responsible Oil & Gas (CFROG). When not reporting, Rivers is on a horse or with her husband and son.

MJ: From working in the conservation f ield for more than twenty years, what do you think are the most effective solutions for reviving marine biodiversity while also sustaining the communities that live off of their ecosystems?

SO: I absolutely think that aquaculture is one of the most important food production systems that we need to develop now and into the future, especially aquaculture of shellfish. Traditional peoples have long been able to sustainably grow and harvest shellfish. We have moved away from that and overharvested the majority of our native shellfish species. As a solution, Paso Pacífico is supporting 38 women fishers in running two oyster farms in Nicaragua.

Another thing is that fish stocks are declining around the world.

Marine protected areas are a great tool to reverse this trend. Here in Southern California we are learning this through the return and recovery of the Channel Islands National Park’s marine areas. In Central America we are working with fishermen to protect important reefs; a biologist from the National Park Service office in Ventura helped us establish a long-term monitoring program for these reefs.

Collaborations across the Pacific are invaluable.

KIMBERLY RIVERS MJ: For eight years, you have been reporting on environmental issues in Ventura County on topics ranging from hydraulic fracturing to local solutions to climate change. Why did you start covering these issues?

KR: Around 2011, my son was starting kindergarten at Summit Elementary School in Upper Ojai. During that time, I witnessed the oil and gas activity happening up there and hearing stories from locals. I started looking at Google Earth and seeing how large the oil fields are.

Many people who’ve lived there their whole lives didn’t know the extent of the drilling or the proposed expansions. No local reporters were covering these issues. I decided to fill the gap.

I began writing pieces on how the county government was advocating for the oil companies instead of the public and on the renewal and expansion of oil and gas permits in Upper Ojai for the Santa Paula Times, VC Reporter and the Ojai Valley News.

MJ: From what you have observed, what are some of the worst environmental challenges we face in Ventura County?

One of the main challenges is a lack of studies on how oil drilling impacts our water and air quality. The most productive oil field in the County is along Ventura Avenue in the Ventura River Watershed.

Thankfully new state legislation - SB4 - has led to a statewide research program aimed at understanding how oil drilling impacts groundwater resources. Initial results from the research indicate a connection between extraction activities and water sources. The next step is to see if those connections result in contamination and if the oil extraction is the cause.

Also, most of the oil and gas activity is happening without proper oversight. If the people charged with making sure oil companies in the County are following the rules don’t believe public health and safety are their number one concern, then you get a culture of working to skirt the rules, of hiding information from the public and generally putting the interests of the oil company above the public interest. When that type of culture exists in a public

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agency there will be impacts to air quality and our watersheds. And the oceans are downstream from every waterway.

MJ: For two and a half years, you served as the Executive Director for the nonprof it, Citizens for Responsible Oil & Gas (CFROG), where you led a team to acquire a nearly half million grant to fund an air monitoring program in two environmental justice communities (Oxnard, West Ventura) and an overly burdened community (Upper Ojai). How will this project help to ameliorate the challenges to regional air quality and public health?

KR: Currently air monitoring is limited regionally. There are only five air monitoring stations in Ventura County, and they are not in areas where people live. The end goal of the grant is to educate and engage community members on how to deal with poor air quality issues in their neighborhoods. The community members will use hand held monitors that track and record the concentration of particulate matter in the air. That data will be mapped and used to identify new locations for stationary air monitors, which will gather more robust data once installed. That data enables us to locate the sources of air pollution and equip the affected communities with the necessary information for them to determine how to move forward.

MJ: Last year Dr. Sarah Otterstrom invited you to participate in the March for the Ocean as a representative of CFROG. What inspired you to assume a volunteer leadership role this year?

KR: Sometimes it is our friends and mentors who compel us to get involved. When women you respect put out the call - like the line from the Beyonce song ‘Okay, ladies, now let’s get in formation’ - you do it.

I think a lot of people understand the importance of healthy oceans but consider that to be protecting the whales and dolphins and keeping healthy salmon populations. What’s lacking is an understanding of how the health of the oceans impacts the air we breathe and the atmosphere we live in. Our oceans are a keystone to the health of our planet. This movement and event will help draw people together and build awareness of local efforts to save the ocean and how they can get involved. Who wouldn’t want to help with that? ≈OQ≈

Consume less plastic packaging

Bring reusable cups and bags

Use the Seafood Watch card before purchasing

Purchase clothes made of natural fibers (cotton, hemp & wool)

Do not buy exotic animal products

Clean up coastlines & support ocean-friendly Enjoy the beach! policies OQ / SUMMER 2019

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OQ | HI K I NG M AP 1

SHELF ROAD 3.5mi EASY | Elev. Gain: 200 ft | Overlooks downtown Ojai.

2 VENTURA RIVER PRESERVE | 7mi EASY TO MODERATE | Elev. Gain: 520 ft (Wills-Rice) 5 HORN CANYON 5.5mi STRENUOUS | Elev. Gain: 1,600 ft | Goes to the Pines.

8 ROSE VALLEY 1mi EASY | Elev. Gain: 100 ft Rose Valley Falls.

3

4

PRATT TRAIL 8.8mi STRENUOUS | Elev. Gain: 3,300 ft | Goes to Nordhoff Peak.

GRIDLEY TRAIL 6-12mi MODERATE | 3 mi to Gridley Springs (Elev. Gain: 1,200 ft) 6 mi to Nordhoff Peak.

6

7

COZY DELL 2.2mi MODERATE | Elev. Gain: 740 ft | Cozy Dell Creek & Ridge.

MATILIJA CANYON 12mi MODERATE | Elev. Gain: 1,200 ft | Middle Fork.

9

10

SISAR CANYON 22mi STRENUOUS | Elev. Gain: 4,800 ft |Topa Topa Bluffs.

SULPHUR MTN. 22mi MODERATE | Elev. Gain: 2,300 ft | Sulphur Mountain Road.

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A Taste of Ojai

The Glass Man Professional Window Washing Company

Noah Crowe, Sunrun Home Solar Consultant

Awhai Pottery

GoOjai.com

Parker Jellison Realtor

Axxess Ventura

Greyfox Investors

Rowsie Vain

BeCalm of Ojai

Jennifer Keeler, Hair Stylist

California Solar Electric

Lorraine Lim Catering

Chamber on the Mountain

The Southern Los Padres Trekking Company

Char Man Brand Hot Sauce

Mary Nelson Skincare & Massage Studio

Tobias Parker, General Contractor

Dogs Fly Design

Mooney Creative

Gabriela CeseĂąa, Berkshire Hathaway

Ojai Quarterly

Alojai Creations

Sol Haus Design

Tonya Peralta Real Estate Services, Inc Watercolors by Patty Van Dyke

Together, our community will help protect Ojai’s trails and open spaces for everyone to enjoy, forever. business 144 Visit a participating Wild About Ojai OQ / SUMMER 2019 today and take part.

ojaihub.com

Ojai’s community website

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Events • News • Explore 145

“The best auto shop I’ve ever worked with in my 30

years of

car ownership... % ... I trust them 100 ”

Marijuana Dispensary Now Open

- Kenley N., Ojai

10% O FIRST V FF ISIT In our new location:

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Ojai Valley impOrts

(805) 640-6464 No appointment needed, for our menu please visit us online at

996 E Ojai Ave Ojai 805-646-6106 • Fax 805-646-6434 ovimports@sbcglobal.net

146

www.slcc.info State permit # M10-18-0000182-temp

OQ / SUMMER 2019

OJAI VALLEY

Trail Riding Company

Private Guided Trail Rides in the Ventura River Valley and the Los Padres Forest.

3 miles from downtown Ojai

Reservations: 805-890-9340

ojaivalleytrailridingcompany.com

The leasing office is now open

Assisted Living.

Memory Support.

Just Like Home.

203 E. El Roblar Drive, Ojai 805.628.3132 www.TheArtesian.org RCFE# 197609506

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OQ | E VE NTS CA L EN DAR

JUNE

6.14-7.14

7.4

TO 8.4

6.1 THORSTEIN VEBLEN & The Theory of the Leisure Class” | SAT 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. agorafoundation.org

6.6-9 OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL | THU-SUN 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. @ LIBBEY BOWL, other venues ojaifestivals.org. 805646-2053

6.9 OJAI WINE FESTIVAL | SUN 12 noon to 4 p.m. ojaiwinefestival.com 805-646-3794

6.15 “SELECTIONS FROM NEWTON & EINSTEIN” | SAT 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

805-231-5974 agorafoundation.org

148

‘MAMMA MIA’ | THU-SUN 7:30 p.m. (2 p.m. Sunday) @ OJAI ART CENTER Theater | OjaiAct.org

INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION PARADE & FIREWORKS| THU 4thofJulyinOjai.com

TO 7.28

TO 6.16 CHARLES & NATALIE ARNOLDI NOON TO 5 P.M. THU-FRI, 11 to 5 SAT, 9:30 to 1 SUN @ PORCH GALLERY. porchgalleryojai.com

6.8-7.2 FIBERVISION 12 noon to 4 p.m. FRI-SUN @ OJAI ART CENTER. ojaiartcenter.org

OJAI LAVENDER FESTIVAL | SAT 10 a.m.

TO 5 p.m. @ LIBBEY PARK ojaivalleylavenderfestival. org

8.4-8.11

‘FOUNDING FAMILIAS’ EXHIBIT | THU-SUN @THE OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM ojaivalleymuseum.org

OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE READINGS | MON-SUN @ BESANT HILL ojaiplays.org

8.3

8.10

BEYOND GOOD & EVIL, PART II | SAT

MUSIC: THE TEMPTATIONS | SAT

9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m, @ agorafoundation.com

5:30 to 9:30 p.m. @ LIBBEY BOWL www.libbeybowl.org/event

8.3

6.29

‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’ - JULY 26 TO AUG4 | THU, FRI & SAT @ 7:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. SUN | @ Ojai Art Center Theater

MICHAEL MCDONALD | SAT @ LIBBEY BOWL 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. libbeybowl.org

OQ / SUMMER 2019

8.17 AIR SUPPLY | SAT @ LIBBEY BOWL 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. libbeybowl.org

j u ly - a u g u s t

OQ | ONGOING CERTIFIED FARMERS MARKET Every Sunday Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Contact: 698-5555 Location: Matilija Street city parking lot behind the Arcade.

Open air market featuring locally grown produce, as well as plants, musicians and handmade items.

8.25 KRIS KRISTOFFERSON | SAT @ LIBBEY BOWL 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. libbeybowl.org

HISTORICAL WALKING TOURS OF OJAI Every Saturday, October through June Time: 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Location: Departs from the Ojai Valley Museum, 130 W Ojai Avenue.

Contact: 640-1390 ojaivalleymuseum.org

8.31 HERMAN & THE HERMITS | SAT @ LIBBEY BOWL libbeybowl.org

FULL MOON MEDITATIONS Dates: To be announced. Check website. Location: Meditation Mount, 10340 Reeves Road Contact: 646-5508 ext.103, meditationmount.org Open meditation at the Full Moon.

9.6 WAR | FRI @ LIBBEY BOWL libbeybowl.org FOR MORE LOCAL

‘EATING OJAI’ FOOD TOUR Date: Call to schedule Time: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Location: Varies Contact: 295-8687 venturafoodtours.com

EVENTS:

OJAI HUB Your Central Source for Events, News & Living the Ojai life.

WWW.OJAIHUB.COM

805.798.0177

OQ / SUMMER 2019

OJAI SEEKER’S BIKE TOUR Date: By reservation, 48 hrs in advance Time: Varies | Location: Varies Contact: 272-8102 or email ride@themobshop.com Ojai bike tour features agricultural, artistic, culinary, cultural, and historical landmarks in Ojai.

Riders are guided to eight stops where they answer questions about each place.

OSA SECOND SATURDAYS Free, Self-Guided Studio Tours Every Second Saturday 10-3 For maps & directions: www.ojaistudioartists.org 149

October 31 - November 10

2019

20th Anniversary!

• Features, Documentaries, Animation • Screenplay Competition and Live Table Read • Lifetime Achievement Awards • Women in Film Legacy Series • Industry Insiders, Rising Filmmakers, Professional and student workshops, parties, surprise guests and honorees • Opening Night Carnivale!

Free Halloween Movie in Libbey Bowl, Children’s Faire, Live Music, Poetry, Prizes, Trick or Treating, Costume Contest – October 31

OjaiFilmFestival.com

805.640.1947 ENRICHING THE HUMAN SPIRIT THROUGH FILM 150

OQ / SUMMER 2019

Explore Ojai Valley’s History, Art and Culture 130 West Ojai Avenue (805) 640-1390 www.OjaiValleyMuseum.org

OQ / SUMMER 2019

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OQ | NO CT U RN A L S U BM I SS I ONS TALES FROM ORTONVILLE: (first in a series)

Recently, a friend of mine was driving home on the 33, when on his GPS map, he noticed, near Casitas Springs, a place he’d never heard of before. It’s name is Ortonville. Look it up. Really. It’s there.

I GOOGLED ORTONVILLE and found a Wikipedia page describing it as an “Archaic Populated Place Name” which met its demise during the floods of ’69.

But what was this mysterious Ortonville?

I asked my dog aloud on our morning walk.

Who were its people? What could Ortonville teach us? For the sake of Investigative Obscurity I had to act. Putting on my best kevlar vest and some cute spring sandals, I set out on a journey that would reveal things to me for which neither I nor my dog could be prepared.

The first stop was the library.

(A cinematic trope montage of swirling old “Ortonville Gaz≠ettes” ensues: Here is me making careful notes from dusty library books; now here is me climbing dangerous topple ladders in fearless pursuit of The Truth; now here is me locked in illicit embrace with dishy librarian, Bob; now me squinting at microfiches, while forgetting to eat lunch because am dogged reporter in search of Truth no matter what; me emerging, blinking into the daylight with the triumphant smile of the successful library mole.)

This is what I learnt.

Ortonville was tough. Thundering Sally, was it tough! Whooo-ha, oh yeah,

By G. Rover Particular L. Ellwood (I’m probably going to talk like this for the rest of the column) Ortonville was a place so hardscrabble, roughity-tough that old ladies punched ponies for lookin’ at ‘em wrong, and the babies all had holsters in their diapers.

Pa and Ma Orton, who both had family trees that were as much noose as branch, moved there from Meiners Oaks in the 152

Spring of 1834, driven out by Meiners Oaksters for alleged — never proven — irregularities of behavior around mules (Ma) and seamstresses (Pa.) Ma Orton was a large, handsome woman with a snap in her garters and no slack in her rope. Curiously, she had no sense of smell. None at all. Pa at one time had been a dashing pistoleer before life’s appetites had their way with him. When he laughed, it was a strange sound, as if giants were tickling each other very far away. He had a danger to him that women found irresistible; he gave a girl the same feeling you get when, in the silence of the night, a twig snaps somewhere just beyond the campfire’s dancing glow.

He was a dream when he first hit town, a maiden’s song in the key of Dashing and his only flaw as far as anybody could tell was a chronic, near Beelzebubian case of flatulence.

Only the girl with no smell could tolerate this devastatingly handsome stinker for more than half an hour at a time.

They chose the spot of their new homestead on the basis that no-one seemed to want to shoot them. Then, with a fecundity scarcely seen outside of rabbitdom, they swiftly populated their little homestead until it became a hamlet … and soon, with the help of some wandering cowpokes — a village ... And then, with the help of a band of handsome, rough-hewn renegades, and Mary from Casitas Springs, finally Ortonville became a small, bustling town. Oh, but it was tough. Tough as stewed skunk with a side of boiled stones.

To wit: By age 8, Ortonville girls wore earrings made of dangling varmints, sometimes still twitching; they could pick any lock with a horse-glue hardened pigtail OQ / SUMMER 2019

BY SAMI ZAHRINGER

end; and, if they’d forgotten their horse-glue, would head-butt to death any door that dare not open to them. (I picked age 8 for these examples because children seldom made it to 10 without pistol-whipping each other to death at recess.)

By age 8, Ortonville boys had full, flowing mustaches which caught the winds as they raced their fly-scabbed, broken-nosed ponies (you will recall the pony-hating old ladies of a few paragraphs ago) much the same way as the streamers flowed from the handlebars of the bicycles they didn’t have.

But here’s the thing and it is a thing worthy enough to the history of Ortonville to be sealed in history forever as A Thing. For, it was while the squinty-nosed ponies galloped and galloped across the wind-blasted vistas of Near Ventura, that Old Pa Orton — now grown corpulent with good-eatin’ and baddrinkin’ — bouncing around on the back of Peppercorn, realized that when all the ponies galloped at a certain rhythm the wheezes of the different sized steeds together made a beautiful, haunting music that sounded like the theme song to popular 1970s sitcom “Happy Days,” if “Happy Days” were in any way a haunting song.

Being on the back of a pony who is breathing the melody to a hit sitcom which you will never see because you are born way before television is often not the best time to have both an epochal musical revelation and a sudden million-to-one-but-it-might-justwork business model appear fully in front of one’s face, and this time in fact it wasn’t.

Pa Orton’s gazing, visionary eyes never saw the low-hung branch that beaned him right between them, sending his pink body flying off into the long grass like a sort of airborne

Easter ham.

When at last Pa Orton awoke from the coma three days later, he leapt from his bed in the Ortonville Infirmary Shed, giddy with the possibilities his comatose brain had been storming over since the fall, and promptly bumped his head on the head of the priest peering over him to give the last rites. “What the actual fu …?” he barely had time to inquire before falling immediately back into a coma for a further five days.

By the time he awoke again, the business plan was fully formed in his mind and The SmashMouth Ponies band was formed.

It was a concept never before seen and maybe never will be again. A shining idea on a hill, melding man’s ingenuity and art with the noble, mutilated sinuses of the animal world. The way it worked soon became a marvel across the tri-counties area.

A 17-piece equine ensemble stood in a half circle, each mounted by a freshly-scrubbed, spur-sportin,’ tame-ish child. At Maestro Orton’s baton signal, the children would squeeze and kick tuneful whinnies from their great snorting instruments creating a sound so complete and pure that wildflowers would bow their heads in reverence, rabbits would stop copulating for one god-damned minute to listen, and local Gods playing chess on nearby mountains would stop and weep at the sheer, unutterable beauty of it.

Feeding the ponies the wild kale that grew in abundance round Ortonville, also resulted in a deep flatulent bass line and soon the children learnt to harness the trumpeting of the ponies with skilled squeezing of their heels, achieving a mastery of the equine anus seldom equalled, even in Texas. By punching a few raccoons and squirrels, then tying them to a creatively malevolent child, Pa Orton found he could achieve ever higher, sweeter notes, increasing the band’s musical range.

They practiced long and earnestly until one day he smiled a long, not-unattractive but definitely no longer attractive in any way smile, and he knew that The SmashMouth Ponies were ready to go on the road.

The acclaim was immediate. People would travel for days to see the show and the money started flowing like tears in an onion shop run by depressed congenital lachrymosers.

These days, flabby young men who don’t get enough daylight will often argue that the

SmashMouth Ponies were technically the Old West’s first Folk-Metal Fusion band, but screw those people.They prattle and opine but people like that could never imagine the transporting magic that is the music of the shattered equine sinal cavity.

But wasn’t all this horrifying animal abuse of the worst order? You might well ask that.

Yes, you might. And yes, sometimes animal welfare inspectors from San Buenaventura did come to town to issue writs against the punching of ponies for monetary gain.

Actually that really only happened once, the well-meaning voluntary inspector’s name being

WINNIE PLEASANT, WHO, TO BE FAIR, WAS A WOMAN WHO INSPIRED ALMOST EVERYONE’S INNER SERIAL-KILLER. You see, Ortonville ponies, as boxer-nosed and squinty-muzzled as they were, were loyal.

Hot dangnabs, they were loyal and, what’s more, they knew that their broken faces were their fortune. Fat on kale and carrots, and with the right to demand hot stone massages and bi-curious donkey-porn in the green-rooms of the venues they toured, the SmashMouth Ponies had become entitled and, if need be, vicious. It was, then, with a screaming neigh and massive slavering teeth, that Pooky (Stage name Pukather Van Goodnads) the very savagest of the ponies, trotted right up to poor Mrs. Pleasant, and without so much as a by-your-whinny, ripped the spine from her neck like it was some kind of convenient Fed-Ex envelope opening tab. As she screamed, the rest of the ponies looked each other warily in the eye for long moments, gathered around her, snuffling and nosing, and maybe — or so folks say — doing something terrible with their teeth… It was a day they would never be able to forget.

Soon, all screaming stopped and there was just the wind and the satiated, gurgling whickers of the world’s first vampire ponies.

Allegedly. They dispersed, staggering as if drunk, and in the middle of the dusty, hoof-scuffed circle, all that was found was OQ / SUMMER 2019

a crumpled, slightly nibbled bonnet and a trampled copy of “Know Your Pony!” inscribed “To Winnie, for excellence in Sunday School.”

Well, that’s what Folks say, but you know Folks. They’re like People but with poorer dental care and People will say anything. I, for example, am a People.

But what of Ma and Pa Orton? One day, soon after Pleasantgate, Ma Orton fancied that she spied Pa leering at the Assistant Beekeeper’s Daughter (he was) and, with a howl of rage, she stormed the hives like a wounded, petticoated rhino, knocking them hither and — disastrously — thither. You see, the thither-knocked hives were where the Assistant Beekeeper was keeping all the angry, radicalized bees with friends from the Socialist East who were threatening to form a union, and who, that day, had not yet been smoked into a soothing, torpor the better to exploit their economic docility in the name of the filthy Capitalists at corrupt Big Honey. Incensed anew by the fresh outrage of a blundering Ma on top of their hopeless yearning for an autonomous collective, they stung the life from her as horrified Pa looked on. The swelling was terrible. By the time the bees had finished, Ma’s body was spread out like a medieval cold meat banquet. All who saw her were transfixed with the hideousness and slightly hungry for a Ploughman’s Lunch.

After that, Pa was a broken man for truly had he loved Ma. (That’s the syntax they would use in the song of Ma and Pa, if there were such a song, and by God’s own criminny-hellbells, no man nor woman may mess with the syntax of such a love.) Seven bottles of whisky later, old Pa went crazier than a bag of hammers, and staggered off into the wilderness, screaming at the pitiless sky and shooting dead every bee he could find. He was never seen again.

Without their founder, and filled with horrified guilt following the Pleasant incident, The SmashMouth Ponies were never the same and split up citing creative differences, although everybody knew nettle-abuse was a major factor.

The Sad End. (I’m not getting paid enough for happy endings.) ≈OQ≈ 153

“Homegrown Environmentalism” A panel discussion on curating an eco-friendlier Ojai

Featuring: Dr. David White, Lanny Kaufer, Mary Maranville, Tara Saylor & Connor Jones

Tuesday, June 11th 6:00PM – 8:00PM at the: Jewish Community Center 530 W. El Roblar, Ojai, CA 93023 for more information: www.ojaiwomensfund.org

2019 ANNUAL STUDIO TOUR OCTOBER 12, 13, 14 10AM - 5PM 65 OPEN STUDIOS Come meet our artists!

“ORIGINS” AUGUST 16TH - OCTOBER 14TH OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM

www.OjaiStudioArtists.org 154

130 W. Ojai Ave. Ojai

OQ / SUMMER 2019

ASPEN GROVE RANCH - OJAI, CA The incomparable Aspen Grove R anch is a luxur y ranch estate that incorporates the best that California has to offer. On 177 prime acres of rolling hills and fenced meadows, flanked by the iconic Topa Topa Bluffs, it feels like a world unto itself. Panoramic views throughout the proper ty reveal lush, oak-studded valleys and soaring mountains. • Newly built, finely- crafted main residence finished with the finest materials and built with exquisite attention to detail • Large pool, jacuzzi, BBQ area & gated driveway • Two large guest houses on four legal lots • Equestrian facilities: two barns, pristine stables, arena, round pen, hot-walker, bridle paths and turnout pastures AspenGroveRanchOjai.com Price Upon Request

PAT T Y WALTCHER

(805) 340-3774

pattywaltcher.com

Patty Waltcher 25 ye a r s o f e x p e r i e n ce m a tc h i n g

p e o p l e a n d p ro p e r t y i n t h e O j a i Va l l e y

A SPEN G ROVE R ANCH An incomparable estate on 177 prime acres of rolling hills and fenced meadows, flanked by panoramic views. Includes a newly-built, finely-crafted main residence, four legal lots, a private driveway, two large guest houses, two large barns, pristine stables, a large arena, a round pen, a hot-walker for exercising horses and extensive bridle paths.

AspenGroveRanchOjai.com

I will help you discover the home that brings peace to your mind and heart ( 8 0 5 ) 3 4 0 -3 7 7 4 ~ pa ttywa ltc her. c om 156

OQ / SUMMER 2019