Ojai Quarterly - Summer 2023 by Ojai Quarterly

M SU

MER 20

ARA’S OJAI ENCORE TALES OF FIRE, PESTILENCE & PERSISTENCE THE BANSHEE OF OJAISHIRE

There's no place like home. Let me find yours.

OJAI COMPOUND $4,250,000

Perfectly situated on just under four acres lies the historic and unique Casa de La Luna compound. Comprised of over 8,000 sq. ft, with 11 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, this magnificent estate is likely the best value estate compound available anywhere in California.

RARE FIND $3,550,000

Welcome to a rare find in Ojai. This lovely four bedroom, three bath home has vaulted ceilings and a spacious open floor plan. The seller’s built the home in 1992 and it was designed well before it’s time. There is a fireplace in the living room which is open to the kitchen and dining room with French doors leading to magical gardens. A large library is off the living room and two offices upstairs.

DONNA SALLEN 805.798.0516 d o n n a 4 rema x @ a o l.co m www.d o n n a s a l l e n .co m

do nna4 re max @a o l .co m w w w.d onnas a l l en .co m

DONNA SALLEN #01162226 805.798.0516

ITALIAN VILLA $3,200,000

Nestled on over an acre of land, this Italian Villa inspired estate is just minutes from downtown Ojai. This impressive family home is perfect for entertaining with the formal dining opening to the light-filled formal living room with an elegant marble fireplace. The kitchen is open to the den with a large fireplace and overlooks the huge covered deck.

GREAT LOCATION $2,795 ,000

ABOUT THE PROPERTY

PROPERTY DETAIL

4 + 2 BEDROOMS

GUEST HOUSE

3 + 1 BATHS

& ARTIST STUDIO

www.donna sa llen.com

Located on one of the best streets in downtown Ojai, this charming home feels like Tuscany or Provence, only a few blocks from shops and restaurants and close to the Pratt and Shelf Road trail heads. Surrounded by majestic oaks and wonderGATED PROPERTY ful rock walls, this private, custom estate cottage was completely rebuilt and includes the original rock fireplace and old wood ceiling beams.

donna4remax@aol.com

Let’s work together to sell your house in 2023 TYLER BROUSSEAU

EAST END 4685 Grand Avenue, Ojai Active | 3 Bed | 2 Baths | 2,128 Sq Ft | 0.50 Acres List price $2,495,000

Tyler Brousseau O J A I VA L L E Y N AT I V E

DOWNTOWN OJAI 411 W Aliso Street, Ojai Active | 3 Beds | 2 Baths | 1,314 Sq Ft | 0.26 Acres List price $1,350,000

TYLER BROUSSEAU 805.760.2213 Cal DRE 01916136 OjaiForSale.com

© 2023 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. All data, including all measurements and calculations are obtained from various sources and has not and will not be verified by Broker. All information shall be independently reviewed and verified for accuracy. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty is independently owned and operated and supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act.

GAB R I E LA C E S E Ñ A THE NEXT LEVEL OF REAL ESTATE SERVICES 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 | CAL DRE# 01983530 Gabrielacesena.bhhscalifornia.com | BHHS DRE #01317331

257 S. Montgomery Street | $1,425,000 | VMU | In the Heart of Ojai Extraordinary luxury Village-Mixed-Use Ojai downtown living! This stylish, luxurious Townvilla, located conveniently in the highly sought-after Los Arboles enclave, offers an exceptional lifestyle within moments of Ojai’s best dining, hip coffee shops, wineries, boutiques, culture, and entertainment.

Libbey Bowl & Park, Art Center, tennis courts, bike, and hiking trails, the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, and an upscale athletic club are steps away. Pride in ownership is exquisitely showcased in this VMU-zoned villa, thoughtfully designed by award-winning architect Marc Whitman.

1175 Cornwall Lane | $1,395,000 | Open Floor Plan | Pierpont Beach Delightful 2&1 Pierpont Beach Bungalow, located only 7 homes away from the Beach, will capture your heart and imagination. Ventura’s historic district, with its glorious San Buenaventura Mission, is minutes away. BLISSFUL BEACH LIVING AT ITS BEST!

310 E. Matilija Street | $3,800,000 | Midtown Classic Victorian | Sold THE MONTGOMERY HOUSE est. 1874, with its sunny wrap-around porch and large windows overlooking downtown Ojai, home to the famous Porch Gallery, unique as a historic and eclectic gallery space, is ready for its next steward to carry on its storied legacy!

OQ / SUMMER 2023

eralta

Real Estate Team

THE TRUSTED NAME IN REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS

SOLD

New Listing

Authentic Spanish in Ojai’s desirable Arbolada $3.45M

Let the Good Life begin! $1.275M

Refined ranch living on two 31+ acre parcels with a myriad of opportunities. $11.5M

ILiveInOjai.com |

@PeraltaTeamOjai | DRE#01862743

New Listing

Upper Ojai Rarity ~ stunning views, privacy & A nature-rich environment on 10 acres $2.695M

♦ 4th generation Ojai resident, voted Best Realtor in the Ojai Valley for 10 years ♦ Over a decade of Real Estate Appraisal experience ♦ Harvard trained negotiator ♦ Our team is recognized as America’s Best - Top 1.49% of Realtors worldwide (RealTrends) ♦ We’ve earned Top Listing Team, Top Listing Agent and #1 Team (Keller Williams Realty)

Tonya Peralta | Tonya@peraltateam.com | 805.794.7458

OQ / SUMMER 2023

EXCLUSIVE MUD LOTUS DESIGNS ETHICAL, SUSTAINABLE, NATURAL & VINTAGE CLOTHING Hand block printed cotton, silk kimonos, kantha

Tribal & artist jewelry

Unique Ojai Tai Dai

PHONE: 805 252 5882, 305 E. MATILIJA, SUITE G, INNER ARCADE’S COURTYARD

themudlotus

themudlotus.com

The Ivy rst opened its doors on Ventura Blvd in Studio City in 1993 and closed in 2011 as so many corporate stores were opening, and it didn't feel right for The Ivy a nymore. But now we discovered the magical town of Ojai and thought that this would be the perfect place for The Ivy to re-open. Our wide range of items includes antiques, ne estate jewelry, sterling silver, European porcelains and pottery, linens, and exceptional antique furniture from around the world. As always at The Ivy, tabletop a ccessories abound in ne dishware, crystal, and silver to nish oﬀ your table in style. Come see our newly expanded showroom featuring exclusive, very modern, and unusual furniture, art, rugs, and accessories. If you need to nd the elusive "perfect" gift, The Ivy in Ojai is the one-stop-shop for all your needs. Come join us, after all: 'Everyone shops at The Ivy.'

theivyinc.com 805.272.8912 OQ / SUMMER 2023

OJAI QUARTERLY p.23 Editor’s Note p.24 Contributors p.25 Ojai Notes p.31 p.36

Art & Artists Section

BUILD A HOUSE

p.59

Rhiannon Giddens’ Childrens’ Book

Food & Drink Section

Story By Kit Stolz

p.75

Brings Song to Life

Yesterday & Today Section p.103 Top Ten Ojai Trails p.107 Healers of Ojai p.109 Calendar of Events

p.44

ARA’S ENCORE Music Festival’s Artistic

Director Returns to Ojai Story by Mark Lewis

p.64

LODGE TO LOUNGE Deer Lodge Owner Expands to Downtown Ojai

Story By Ilona Saari

FEATURES & departments

98 PASADENA, NOT JUST FOR OLD LADIES Th e Capital of Southern California Culture By Jerry Dunn

p.50

BANSHEE OF OJAISHIRE

MMER 2023

COVER Ojai Will Survive

The Irrepressible, Irreverent

Original Abstract Art

Sami Zahringer

by Uta Ritke

Story by Peter Fox

TALES OF FIRE, PESTILENCE & PERSISTENCE THE BANSHEE OF OJAISHIRE ARA’S OJAI ENCORE

FIRST AMERICANS MUSEUM

BYRON WINERY

OPUS ONE WINERY

WALL HOUSE

www.johnsonfain.com Architecture | Urban Design + Planning | Interiors

info@johnsonfain.com | 323 224 6000

Et h ica l l y handcrafted i n Oja i, CA

F l a g s h i p S to re, 3 1 6 Ea st O j a i Ave, O j a i C a l i fo rn i a , 9 3 0 2 3 I n q u i r i e s & a p p o i nt m e nt s 87 7.72 8 .5 5 37 ~ j e s m a h a rr y . c o m ~ j e s m a h a rr y j ewe l r y

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OJAI QUARTERLY Living the Ojai Life

SUMMER 2023 Editor & Publisher

Bret Bradigan Sales Manager David Taylor Director of Publications Bret Bradigan Creative Director Uta Ritke Ojai Hub Administrator

Jessie Rose Ryan Contributing Editors Mark Lewis

Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr.

Jesse Phelps Columnists Chuck Graham Ilona Saari Kit Stolz Sami Zahringer Circulation Target Media Partners

CONTACT US: Editorial & Advertising, 805.798.0177 editor@ojaiquarterly.com David@ojaiquarterly.com The contents of the Ojai Quarterly may not be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher. SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to the OQ, visit ojaiquarterly.com or write to 1129 Maricopa Highway, B186 Ojai, CA 93023. Subscriptions are $24.95 per year. You can also e-mail us at editor@ojaiquarterly.com. Please recycle this magazine when you are finished.

#OJAI IG #ojai.quarterly Photo by Miki Klocke @mikiklocke

1458 FOOTHILL ROAD $4,679,000 | 3 BEDS | 3.5 BATHS | 2,890 SQ FT

305 W. ALISO | $1,875,000 | 6 BD 3 BA

Tucked behind a private gate, nestled amongst the Oaks within the charming Foothills, is a 2022 single-story New Build with the design features of a modern/contemporary home. Private, enchanting, serene, is the description of this “destination home’’ with just steps to the Pratt trail, yet just a jaunt from downtown Ojai.

36 KUNKLE STREET | $1,299,000 | 4 BD 2 BA

Amazing 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home on 1.44 acres! This beautiful Oak View property, situated between The Ojai Valley and Ventura Beaches, sits on two legal lots with potential to build additional home or units. The kitchen has been tastefully renovated with quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and large walk-in pantry.

Downtown Ojai mid-century triplex for sale. All units have a laundry room and a single car garage with storage. Units A&B are 2 BD/1 BA. Unit C is also a 2 BD/1 BA plus a den/office, a large screened in porch and separate fenced in backyard. All units have newer mini splits, original and refinished hardwood floors along with new roof, paint and newer copper plumbing and electrical systems.

385 Burnham Road - Sold | $1,295,000 | 3bd 3 ba

This Oak View, turnkey, beautifully renovated, 3 bedroom 2 bath home, sits on more than a third of an acre. An attached 2 bedroom, 1 bath in-law suite, with a full kitchen, living room, separate yard and entrance is perfect for extended family or additional rental income. The opportunities are endless! Desirable and conveniently located between Ojai and Ventura. A must-see property!

Dave Lynn

REALTOR | PROPERTY MANAGER 805-207-8122 ojaipropertygroup@gmail.com CAL BRE #01962466

OQ / SUMMER 2023

Valerie Fasulo

805-640-5014 ojaipropertygroupom@gmail.com DRE# 02028690

HIGH SCHOOL MINI PROJECTS:

Mindful Archery, Sound Recording, Pneuma Breathwork, Surfboard Painting, Cooking, Improv, Hiking, & Sewing

The Art of Living and Learning

At Oak Grove School, our challenging college-preparatory curriculum is balanced with a comprehensive enrichment program - encouraging students to use their minds, bodies, and hearts well.

OAK SCHOOL GROVE SCHOOL OAK GROVE of Living and Learning TheBY Art J. of KRISHNAMURTI LivingThe andArt Learning FOUNDED

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOL, GRADES 9-12. 20

oakgroveschool.org/discover OQ / SUMMER 2023

Ojai’s newest female owned boutique offering Ladies Clothing, Hats, Shoes, Jewelry, Candles & Home Goods. A curated Collective of small female led business brands featuring Cleobella, Port Sandz, Reset by Jane and more.

OPEN DAILY 10AM - 6PM 305 E Matilija Unit 101B Ojai , CA crescentmooncollective.net

Follow along @crescentmooncollectively

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | E D ITO R’ S N OTE

OJAI WITHOUT US ‘The species will continue, whatever apocalypse we manage to unleash. It just won’t be much fun to live through.” — Naomi Alderman My former boss, friend and mentor, Bob Wick, died last year, and I am still struggling to fill the hole. I’ve known him since I was 10, and we became especially close eight years later when his son Stanley, my best friend, died tragically at age 18. (As if there’s any other kind of death for an 18-year-old). My own father had died two weeks prior, so we bonded over grief. Few substances are more durable. Bob’s family owned three dozen newspapers, including at one time the Ojai Valley News, which is how I, circuitously and fortuitously, ended up here. Best decision I ever made, though I thoroughly enjoyed working for Wick Communications as an editor and publisher for 15 years. It didn’t just feel like family. It was. Bob was a well-known sculptor of monumental bronzes, often representing female nature forms, with built-in earth elements. He showed the cycle of birth and death in layers of that expressive metal, many incorporating cacti and desert plants, like 10-foot-tall hybrids of vegetable and mineral. Bronze is an interesting substance; an alloy of tin and copper that takes on a beautiful patina with age. Alan Weisman’s book, “The World Without Us,” reports on what would happen to the world should humans vanish overnight. For example, the first rain will take out New York City’s subway system, where dams hold back 13 million gallons of water every day. Our homes, depending on where they’re built, will fall apart in 50 to 100 years and completely vanish in 500 years. But bronze will likely be the last man-made trace remaining, surviving as long as 25 million years. So it’s not implausible that all the future may know about us and our time is through the art of Bob Wick. With his expansive kindness, wisdom and enduring artistry, I can think of no one I’d rather have represent us to that far-off future. This sense of impermanance and ephemerality comes often when I’m down to the last stages of assembling the Ojai Quarterly. It’s not the stories we cover — they are eternally relevant. As in Ecclesiastes: “What was will be again. There is nothing new under the sun.” The persistence and resilience of Ojai’s downtown during the twin tests of the Thomas Fire in late 2017 and the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 showed the substance behind our mystique. These businesses are critical to Ojai as a living community because nearly two-thirds of our city budget comes from tourism. Ojai Music Festival Artistic Director Ara Guzelimian makes reference to that ineffable, even mystical quality to Ojai as he prepares for June’s highly anticipated return of Rhiannon Giddens, this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in Mark Lewis’ profile. So we’re happy to also have Kit Stolz’ interview with Rhiannon on the publication of her children’s book, “Build a House.” Of course a bright talent like hers would be appreciated in Ojai. And from where else but the “Little Orange” could the antic word-slinging talents of someone like Sami Zahringer come together? Peter Fox takes us deep inside the mind of this comic legend. As always, Sami caps the issue with her highly anticipated column. We will not hold it against you if you start from the back of the issue and read your way forward. It’s hard to resist. In some sense, the Ojai experience ranges far and wide; Jerry Dunn takes us on a tour of Pasadena, the once-stolid exemplar of what passed for the Old Guard in California and is yet a vibrant intersection of money, art and history. We are proud to publish Chuck Graham’s journey into the Mountains of the Moon as he travels vertically through the diversity of Africa’s terrain and wildlife. Ilona Saari’s profile of homegrown restaurauteur Sophia Miles of Deer Lodge and now Tres Hermanas fame brings all those themes together; resilience, persistence, talent, enduring values and a place to call home. I have every hope those Ojai values will last as long as Bob Wick’s bronzes.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | C O N T RI BU TO R S

BRANDI CROCKETT is an Ojai pixie tangerine peelin’ native and an editorial and destination wedding photographer. Check out her work at fancyfreephotography. com

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

JERRY DUNN

CHUCK GRAHAM’S

worked with the National Geographic Society for 35 years and has won three Lowell Thomas Awards, the “Oscars” of the field, from the Society of American Travel Writers.

work has appeared in Outdoor Photographer, Canoe & Kayak, Trail Runner, Men’s Journal, The Surfer’s Journal and Backpacker.

UTA CULEMANNRITKE

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.

is an independent artist, designer and curator. She is a member of Ojai Studio Artists and runs utaculemann.design.

KIT STOLZ

JESSE PHELPS

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.

grew up in Ojai and has written extensively for and about the town. He enjoys freelance projects and throwing things. He can be reached at jessephelps@ outlook.com

SAMI ZAHRINGER is an Ojai writer and award-winning breeder of domestic American long-haired children. She has more forcedmeat recipes than you.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | ojai n ot es CONNECTING OJAI’S WILDLIFE

The village of Ojai takes it name from the Chumash village of Ahwa’y, in upper Ojai. It means “Moon,” according to Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, Chumash elder. Remains of a village site in what is now Libbey Park date back to 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Check out our full-length interview on the Ojai Talk of the Town podcast.

Beth Pratt, California director of the National Wildlife Federation, came to Ojai and on the podcast recently to talk about co-existing with mountain lions. She recently organized the memorial service for P-22, the mountain lion that roamed Los Angeles for 12 years. She also spent ten years getting the wildlife corridor over U.S. 101 at Liberty Canyon. She talked about Ojai’s wildlife coexistence issues and much more.

IN BRIEF: OJAI TALK OF THE TOWN PODCASTS

TENNIS WALL OF FAMER

INGRID BOULTING’S VARIED CAREERS

Brian Teacher joined the podcast to talk about his professional tennis career on the day he was honored by the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament with entry on to the Wall of Fame in Libbey Park. Teacher, an Ojai champion while at UCLA, won the Australian Open in 1980, and reached No. 7 in worldwide rankings. He also recently launched Full Court Tennis, a tennis teaching app. We talked about Ojai’s importance to the tennis world as well as saving whales with a friend’s technology.

Ingrid Boulting has been photographed more than all but a handful of people during her years a top model with Eileen Ford’s agency and as an actor in “The Last Tycoon” among other roles. But her work as a visual artist has been the constant theme. She is also a well-known yoga teacher at her Sacred Space Studio. The podcast conversation covers those subjects with deep dives into her youth in South Africa and England and Ojai life.

INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT WITH OJAI’S OWN KIMBERLY CLUFF Kimberly Cluff is the legal director for the California Tribal Families Coalition and was present for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court during Haaland v. Brackeen, a test case which threatens the Indian Child Welfare

THE FAMOUS FLYING TIGERS & OJAI

Act of 1978, which protects Indian children from centuries of being taken from their families and put up for adoption. A ruling is expected this summer. She is also an Ojai native, whose parents owned the Oaks

at Ojai spa for decades. Cluff said if the Brackeens succeed, it could mean the end of Native American sovereignty as we know it, leaving their lands subject to takings for oil and gas extraction, mining and water rights.

2of OJAI TWO DEGREES SEPARATION

BETWEEN

ONE: Claire Lee Chennault was a master of the air, developing many of the techniques fighter pilots use to this day. He became a household name in the early days of World War II, even before the U.S. officially entered the war, for recruiting volunteer pilots and forming the 1st American Volunteer Group, aka “the Flying Tigers,” to assist the Chinese against the invading Japanese Imperial Army. Frequently outnumbered, Chennault’s exploits led to unexpected victories, boosting morale on the homefront, badly battered after Pearl Harbor. After seven heroic months flying routes from bases in Burma, the Flying Tigers were absorbed

into the 14th Air Force, with Chennault as their commander. They continued to score important aerial victories for the Allied cause. TWO: Post-war the Flying Tigers garnered further fame and laurels, with several films depicting their exploits. The survivors would hold reunions every year, events that were notorious for being rowdy and raucus. Many of those reunions were held at the Ojai Valley Inn and form part of the folklore of Ojai old-timers. The widow Madame Chennault, a controversial social fixture of the Washington, D.C. scene, carried on that Ojai tradition into the 1980s. OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ / SUMMER 2023

VILL ANOVA

Middle School

VILLANOVA MIDDLE SCHOOL OPENING AUGUST 2023

Villanova Preparatory School is a Catholic boarding and day school founded in the Augustinian Tradition in 1924. After a century of educating students to be critical and conceptual thinkers, effective communicators, and self-directed lifelong learners, Villanova Prep is excited to be adding Villanova Middle School to our beautiful 130-acre campus for the 202324 school year! Villanova Middle School will provide academic rigor with a small school feel, including many extracurricular opportunities in the arts, athletics, community service, and leadership.

SPACES AVAILABLE FOR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR - APPLY TODAY! OUR PROGRAM Safe, supportive school community with dedicated teachers and staff. Student-centered approach with class sizes of no more than 20 students.

Do you have a child who would be eligible to attend Villanova Middle School in August 2023? Contact us today! Learn more at: villanovaprep.org/apply

A well-rounded, challenging curriculum that educates the mind, heart, and body.

Any questions? admissions@villanovaprep.org

Access to science labs, art center, theater, gymnasium, pool, makerspace, and computer labs.

12096 N. Ventura Ave | Ojai, CA, 93023 | VillanovaMiddleSchool.org

OQ / SUMMER 2023

PRE-KINDERGARTEN TO 12TH GRADE

TWO CAMPUSES | DAY & BOARDING

Ojai Valley School: Small in size, big on outcomes. Here, you’ll find a friendly, fun-loving community that embraces our differences — and our similarities, too. We do that through: • A challenging college preparatory curriculum • Small classes taught by supportive and dedicated teachers • A robust College Counseling program that emphasizes the “college of right fit” for each individual student • A diverse student body, hailing from five continents • Equestrian and athletic facillities on-campus • A vibrant visual and performing arts program • Numerous opportunities for hands-on learning through outdoor exploration and community service

LEARN MORE AT OVS.ORG

Healthcare

Help Care

High-quality care that’s convenient, compassionate and comprehensive. Ojai residents deserve healthcare services that are as outstanding as their community. That’s why Community Memorial Healthcare offers a full range of services to help you get and stay well, along with acute care resources should they be needed. We have three Health Centers in the Ojai Valley to provide primary and specialty care. Our Ojai Hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient care. Patients can count on our 24-hour Emergency Department, on-site imaging and laboratory services, plus skilled nursing and rehab services in our Continuing Care Center. We’re here for you with the care you need, right where you need it.

With Community Memorial Healthcare, you can truly expect more. Learn more at mycmh.org.

Camarillo ~ Fillmore ~ Oak View ~ Ojai ~ Oxnard ~ Port Hueneme ~ Santa Paula ~ Ventura

an Ojai tradition since 1964

Open Every Day 9:30 - Sunset

302 W. Matilija Street | 805-646-3755 OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | a rts & l i teratu re

50 50

ara’s call of duty

the banshee of ojai-land

Ojai Music Festival’s Ara Guzelimian on Music & Meaning

Peter Fox Prof iles Sami Zahringer, Verbal Gymnast

32-44

Building the house

Boutiques & lodging

artists & galleries

Pulitzer Prize-Winner Turns Talents to Children’s Book

Where to Stay, Where to Shop

The People, Places That Make Ojai an Arts Destination

OQ / SUMMER 2023

Full Service Fitness Facility

406-Q Bryant St. 805 -646-2233 INFO@BRYANTSTGYM.COM

Cycling . Pole Dance . Yoga . HIIT . Kickboxing Female Weight Training . Dance . Senior Fitness Circuit Training . Pilates . Personal Training Water Shiatsu (Watsu) . Nutrition Counseling

Bryant St. Gym Presents a Dance Performance & Charity Fundraising

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Ojai Art Center Theater

Scan for Info

Silent Auction proceeds directly benefiting Nates Place a Wellness & Recovery Center 32

OQ / SUMMER 2023

Steeped in a rich foundation of over 45 years-experience, Kerry Mormann & Associates is the Gold Standard for Ranch and Lifestyle properties along the Central Coast of California. Our team encompasses decades of experience in not only real estate, but the highest level of hospitality, community relations, and environmental conservation.

RANCHO MONTE ALEGRE

RANCHO CANADA LARGA

2,862±AC | CARPINTERIA | $29,000,000

6,500AC | VENTURA | $27,650,000

8 buildable lots ranging from 40-160 acres. Miles of hiking and horseback riding trails. Ag & Building envelopes in place. Panoramic ocean, island, and mountain views.

Rolling hills, streams, and pastures. Currently used for cattle grazing. There are 18 legal parcels (17 Certificates of Compliance). Possible conservation tax benefits.

THE POE RANCH

1 ZACA STATION ROAD

3,000±AC | SIMI VALLEY | $12,000,000

98±AC | LOS OLIVOS | $9,900,000

Wide-open land ideal for a large ranch, or multiple smaller ranches. Developed & natural springs. Trails connecting to Chumash Park, Rocky Peak, Chico Canyon, and others.

Represents the gateway to the Los Olivos & Foxen Canyon Wine Trails. Approved 20,000± SqFt winery development plan. Property has 23 acres currently planted, with 9 additional acres plantable.

Kerry Mormann & Associates | (805) 682-3242 Office DRE #00598625 | info@coastalranch.com

coastalranch.com © 2023 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS.

Buddhas to Birthday Cards

OJAI HOUSE m

and a Huge Selection of Crystals

est. 2000 ...

Bumperstickers to Beeswax

ys tical empori

INTUITIVE READERS DAILY Tarot Readers Spiritual Counselors Astrologers Chair Massage & Energy Healing

OPEN DAILY 11-6

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2 blocks north of Ojai Avenue & A World Apart!

805.640.1656 • OjaiHouse.com •

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OQ / SUMMER 2023

Two Distinct Hotels the

Rooms, suites & Cottages in-Room sPa seRviCes fiRePlaCes & wood stoves Clawfoot oR whiRlPool tuBs

Emerald

One Unique Vision the

Blue

Rooms, suites & Bungalows Continental BReakfast lush gaRdens, Pool & sPa P iCtuResque CouRtyaRds

The Essence of Ojai

Escape the Ordinary

805.646.5277 iguanainnsofojai.com

Boutique Hotels & Vacation Homes

Providing the Highest Quality Custom Residential & Commercial Architectural Design and Construction Services.

Whitman Architectural Design “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Winston Churchill

OQ / SUMMER 2023

805.646.8485 www.whitman-architect.com

OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F

OQ / SUMMER 2023

STORY BY KIT STOLZ

RHIANNON GIDDENS, the musical innovator and MacArthur Award “genius,” who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize this May, and who will direct the Ojai Music Festival this June, spent most of the pandemic at home in Ireland with her family. Despite the isolation, far from the Piedmont in North Carolina where she grew up, and despite the cancellation of a planned musical tour, Giddens’ career developed in new and surprising ways while in isolation, including her writing a picture book for children, called “Build A House.” The book is based on an earthy folk song Giddens wrote early in the pandemic, expressing her frustration, both with her situation, and with racial politics back home in the U.S. “I wrote the song out of frustration with being locked down in Ireland and watching the [George Floyd] protests and just thinking about my life’s work, which has been dealing with so many of these topics,” she said. “I got a bit salty, and I sat down

and asked — you brought me here to build your house. Why?” “Build a House” is the African-American story told from the perspective of a young Black girl living in the South, who sees her parents working on a plantation, gathering cotton under the watchful eye of a distant white overseer in a suit, and doesn’t understand why.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F

ALL IMAGES SHOWING SAMPLE PAGES OUT OF RHIANNON GIDDENS BOOK “BUILD A HOUSE”

“You brought me here — To build your house — and grow your garden fine,” she sings, in the words of the song and of the book. “I laid the brick — to build your house — and raised the plants so high. And then you had the house and land — the house and land — and then you told me: GO.” The book, beautifully and subtly illustrated by Monica Mikai for publisher Candlewick Press, uses the facial expressions of the characters to elicit without trauma or melodrama the emotion of the story. The young girl sees her parents working in the fields, sees them forced to leave their home and start over, but doesn’t understand. Even as they sit in a horse-drawn wagon with their few possessions, her parents faces’ clouded with worry as they head down the road to a dangerous future, the child gestures at the lights she sees in the darkening sky, her face lit up with delight. The unspoken contrast between her parents’ fear and her joy brings a touching poignance to the tale. 38

Giddens, who has always delighted in collaboration and the contributors of fellow artists in the many forms of music she has fruitfully explored — from blues to opera, for which she won the Pulitzer — has nothing but admiration for the work of the artist Mikai who illustrated the picture book. “It’s just such an incredible thing to see another artist interpret what you have done and add her own contributions,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better representation of my words. I think that’s what makes a good picture book, is that it shows what kids look at, and those expressions that say so much. All [the little girl] knows is what’s in front of her.” Giddens, who has won multiple Grammy awards, mostly recently for her album “They’re Calling Me Home,” recorded in six days in a home studio in Ireland with her multi-instrumentalist partner Francesco Turrisi, admits that she never expected to become a writer of books. “I never knew I was going to become a writer, but I’ve always been obsessed with words,” she said. “Quotes, poetry, the words OQ / SUMMER 2023

to Sondheim musicals — all that kind of stuff. And I’ve always been one to condense, so every word counts. That’s a form that suits picture books, because basically you have two lines to a page, to represent everything you want to say.”

Although Giddens has not yet planned in detail her schedule, she expects to sing “Build A House” at the Music Festival. “It’s part of my set, and I play it in every show now, but when I’m introducing the song I don’t tell the whole story anymore — I will just say “Here’s 500 years of history in three and a half minutes. Which cuts to the chase, because that’s kind of what it is.” Written in simple, declarative sentences, using repetition reminiscent of the blues, “Build a House” has the purity of a folk song, a bit like the classic spiritual “I Shall Not Be Moved.” That hallowed song Giddens learned from her mentor on the banjo, Joe Thompson, whom she met in North Carolina after graduating from Oberlin College with a musical degree

focused on opera. “When I’m writing stuff that’s close to my heart, and part of my mission, I default to the folk idiom, because I have a lot of pride in that form,” she said. “I can write in other idioms, but I’m highly influenced by the work songs, the blues, and that whole musical family, including “I Shall Not Be Moved.” Because Giddens has found prominence and success in the music industry, she is often asked for advice by younger musicians. “It’s always a bit of a game of chess when it comes to the industry, but when it comes to art, there can’t be any of that calculation,” she said. “It has to be about how I make this creation. What is going to happen to it is what is going to happen to it. That’s kind of how I have lived my life. What I have discovered is that without fail, sooner or later an opportunity comes along.” In the case of “Build a House,” Giddens said that shortly after writing the song — which was released in June of 2020 for a Juneteenth celebration of Emancipation — she received a call

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minstrelsy and blackface.

RHIANNON GIDDENS

“I knew that including that theme might give me some opproprium but I’ve always been an advocate for the cross-cultural working-class collaboration that is at the heart of American musical culture,” she said. “I’ve been talking about that for many years. So I felt I had to bank on people seeing that for what it was, which was a specific form of theft, and even worse, of erasure. So I had to dig into that, and keep after it, wherever that led, and ultimately that’s what we’re going to keep on doing because we (Black people) aren’t going anywhere.”

from Yo-Yo Ma, who asked her if she had anything on which they could collaborate.

On the phone, Giddens laughed a little, surprised perhaps by her own fervor.

“He asked: Do you have anything you would want to do with me? And I said, well, I just wrote this song. So I sent him the song and he was like, yes, let’s do that. And so I made a video and he made a video and we put it out on our social media for Juneteenth. And I was like, well, I don’t know what that did, but it felt nice to have something out there. And then somebody said: Hey, this ought to be a kid’s book. And I thought that was a really interesting idea. I’ve always wanted to write kids’ books. And so we arranged some meetings with book publishers and Candlewick saw something in the ideas I had, and that’s how I ended up with a four-book deal to write children’s books.”

“So I’d say it’s a little salty,” she said. “I get that way sometimes.”

The duo of musical stars performs in the background of a gently animated version of “Build a House” available online through a QR in the book. Despite enjoying the final result, Giddens remains focused on the tragic history of Black people in the Americas. In the children’s book she boldly includes a depiction of the loss of their innovative music — in particular the stringband music featuring the banjo — which in the 19th-century despite worldwide popularity was largely taken from the originators and bowdlerized by 40

RHIANNON GIDDENS - BOOK COVER

Find the animated version here: https://rhiannongiddens.com/build-a-house OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ / SUMMER 2023

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STORY BY MARK LEWIS

AS 44

the Ojai Music Festival’s artistic director for most of the 1990s, Ara Guzelimian presided over its 50th anniversary festival. More than two decades later, he returned to Ojai and presided over last year’s 75th anniversary festival. Now, he’s guiding this cherished Ojai institution through its latest self-reinvention.

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JOHN ADAMS WITH ARA GUZELIMIAN IN OJAI IN 1993 PHOTO BY BETTY FREEMAN

JOHN AND ARA TAKE IN THE 2022 FESTIVAL

countries. Ara’s great-grandparents joined the diaspora.

ARA GUZELIMIAN was sure he knew what the phone call was about. The caller was Jerry Eberhardt, chairman of the Ojai Music Festival board of directors. It was October 2019, and the venerable organization had just unexpectedly lost its new artistic director, Chad Smith. Ara had remained involved with the Ojai Festival in various ways since his 1990s tour as artistic director, and he was very well-connected in the classical-music world, so he assumed that Eberhardt was calling to solicit his advice on whom the board might consider as Smith’s successor. Unprompted, he began to offer that advice. “Well, actually, we have a different idea,” Eberhardt said, and offered Ara the job.

One branch of the family emigrated to America, sailing past the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island and ending up in Boston. Ara’s branch settled in Egypt, where he was born in Cairo during the rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser. But the family would not remain there.

“No one generation of my family has lived their entire lives in one country for four generations,” he said. Cairo in those barely post-colonial days was a very cosmopolitan city. “It was an incredible cultural stew,” Ara said, and music, including European classical music, was a big part of the mix. “It was always something I loved passionately,” he said.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted,” Ara said. Spoiler alert: He said yes. Now, three years into his second tour as artistic director, this time with the additional title of executive director, Ara reflected upon the differences between the festival he led in the 1990s and the one he leads today. He also recounted some of the unlikely twists and turns of his life’s journey, which keeps bringing him back to Ojai.

THE STORY BEGINS with one of history’s horrors. Ara is of Armenian descent, and his ancestors lived in the Ottoman Empire. During World War I, the Ottoman Turks turned on the Armenians and began killing them. Many who survived the slaughter fled to other

The city boasted the Royal Opera House, where Verdi’s “Aida” had debuted decades earlier, after the completion of the Suez Canal. But after Nasser took power, he seized control of that canal, touching off the brief war known to history as the Suez Crisis. Then Nasser began nationalizing Egypt’s businesses, including the one belonging to Ara’s father. It was time for the Guzelimian family to move on. “We left dramatically,” Ara said. “One morning my brother and I were woken up and told we were leaving the country.” To get out of Egypt, the family joined a Coptic Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They ended up in Beirut, where 8-year-old

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Ara began studying English. A year later, they joined their American relatives near Boston. “We arrived as refugees,” Ara said. The family soon moved on again — to Los Angeles, another multicultural stew, where Ara found that he fit right in. “I felt very much at home from the moment I arrived there,” he said. Music was part of the attraction. Ara’s older brother, an accomplished pianist, let Ara tag along with him to see Zubin Mehta conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and at the then-brand-new Music Center. There were also the Monday Evening Concerts, featuring cutting-edge classical music programmed by Lawrence Morton, the longtime artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival, and a future mentor of Ara’s. “L.A. was an amazing place musically in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Ara said.

After graduating from Hollywood High School, he went on to UCLA with the idea of studying engineering or something along those lines – something practical that would lead to a career. But Ara took music classes too, just for fun, and he joined the university’s A Capella Choir, which in 1974 performed at the Ojai Music Festival under the direction of a young Michael Tilson-Thomas. Studying math and science paled in comparison. One day, while walking from a chemistry class to a seminar on Russian opera, Ara had an epiphany: “If this is what I love so much, why am I not doing it? So, I majored in music history.”

IT TURNED OUT that studying music history also could lead to a career. After graduating from UCLA in 1976, Ara started contributing music reviews and articles to The Los Angeles Times. This led to his being hired as program director at KUSC, the classical-music radio station. KUSC was associated with the L.A. Phil, which led to Ara’s longtime association with that orchestra, first as producer of its national radio broadcasts and later as its artistic administrator. Meanwhile, he began his longtime association with the Ojai Music Festival, when Lawrence Morton in the early ‘80s recruit46

ed him to write program notes. It was Morton who had established Ojai’s reputation as a place to hear new and challenging music. Morton also had initiated the practice of bringing in a different musical director each year. “Lawrence created the DNA of the festival,” Ara said. But Morton died in 1987, and by 1990 the festival seemed to have lost its way. There was even talk that it might not survive to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Things began to turn around when Joan Kemper took over as executive director. During the same period, Ara was named artistic director. “Joan and I came in at the same time,” Ara said. “The festival in the early ‘90s had a lot of turnover, and it was really teetering on the brink. Joan, I think, really helped save the festival.” Ara did his part by tending to the music. For openers, the 1992 festival brought back the acclaimed French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez as musical director, with Peter Sellars as stage director. (That was the year Sellars memorably reworked the staging of Igor Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire du Soldat” to reflect the recent Los Angeles riots.) The following year, Ara brought in the composer John Adams to program a festival that featured the Kronos Quartet among other performers. Other musical directors during Ara’s six-festival tenure included Tilson-Thomas and Kent Nagano. (Not all the partnerships Ara forged were musical. On a whale-watching trip in Baja California, he met a nurse from Chicago named Jan, whom he married. They have a son, Alec.) By 1997, the 50th anniversary year, the Music Festival was on solid ground again. Ara moved on after that year’s festival, landing in New York at Carnegie Hall, where he served as artistic advisor and senior director from 1998 to 2006. Next stop: the Julliard School, where he was provost and dean for 13 years. But Ara never severed ties completely with Ojai’s festival, where he served for a time as director of the Ojai Talks.

In June 2019, Ara announced that he would be stepping down from the Julliard job. It was time, he had decided, to launch “the freelance part of my career,” working with a number of different organizations, including the Marlboro Music Festival and School in Vermont, and the Music Visiting Committee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. OQ / SUMMER 2023

In Ojai, meanwhile, Thomas Morris that same month had concluded his distinguished 15-year tenure as artistic director. His already announced successor was Chad Smith, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s chief operating officer. But only four months later, in October 2019, the orchestra’s CEO abruptly quit. Smith was promoted to the top job, which placed too many demands on his time to allow for a side-gig in Ojai. Suddenly, the Ojai Music Festival board had to find a new artistic director. Thus Jerry Eberhardt’s phone call to Ara, who unexpectedly found himself adding his old Ojai job to his new, post-Julliard portfolio.

PHOTO BY EBRU YILDIZ RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI

FOR THE FIRST festival of his second tour in Ojai, Ara brought back John Adams as musical director in 2021, and Adams turned the spotlight from himself to shine it on six younger composers whose work was highlighted that year. Youthful energy and innovation were prominent again in 2022, when Ara brought in AMOC — American Modern Opera Company, an interdisciplinary and collaborative group of dancers, singers, musicians, writers, directors, composers, choreographers and producers — to serve collectively as musical director. “Neither of these things would have happened in the ‘90s,” Ara said. “The times have changed. The great thing about the festival is that it can reinvent itself each year. We’re not stuck in the past — as illustrious as that past is.” While the festival “remains rooted in classical music,” it is also defined by “a sense of adventure and discovery in music,” he said. This year’s festival ( June 8–11) will crisscross many musical borders under the direction of Rhiannon Giddens, a remarkably eclectic musician who recently won a Grammy for best folk album, and also recently won a Pulitzer Prize for music for co-writing “Omar,” an opera commissioned by Spoletto Festival USA. “She defies categorization,” Ara said. “She’s uncontainable in a genre.” Giddens was a featured performer at the 2021 festival, after which Ara invited her to return to Ojai in 2023 as music director.

“And to our delight, she said yes. She felt at home here. Ojai allowed her to be all the musical things she is without having to pick and choose.” Ara feels at home here too, although he resides in Hastings-on-Hudson, an Ojai-sized village in New York’s bucolic Hudson Valley. Ara spends a lot of time in Southern California, and he is always delighted to return to Ojai. He even has an image of Matilija poppies as his iPhone and iPad homescreen. “That’s my homing beacon,” he said. “The sense of connection runs very deep.” Ara first visited Ojai as a teenager with his parents, and then (as noted earlier) performed in the 1974 festival with the UCLA choir. That performance was almost 50 years ago, and he keeps coming back. “I’m not particularly of a mystical bent,” Ara said, “but I think there is something that creates an open and adventurous atmosphere in Ojai. Something in the air and in the community.” That “something” will again become audible this June in Libbey Bowl, where the magic happens every spring. “The basic character of the Ojai Festival hasn’t changed,” Ara said. “Very serious art; freewheeling creativity and openness; an utterly informal and unpretentious atmosphere. That’s the formula. And I think it could only happen in Ojai.”

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STORY BY PETER FOX 50

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Ojai is an unusual place with more than its share of quirky people. When I first arrived here in 2005 from Hollywood I went to Bart’s Books and asked where the self-help section was. Because, you know, Hollywood. The person behind the counter pondered for a moment, then said “If I told you where the self-help section is, wouldn’t that defeat your purpose?”

SAMI ZAHRINGER

Following the quirky thread, years later when I first picked up a copy of Ojai Quarterly I paged through to the end and saw an article, no, a word rodeo, accompanied by a picture of the woman who wrote it. It was a hazy, ghostly photo of this woman gazing up with eyes as black as licorice subway tokens, or Tolkiens? My immediate reaction was “This is a banshee.” Banshee

derives from the Scots word ban sith meaning “Woman of the fairyland.” Turns out to be not so far from the truth. This year I have read everything written by Tom Robbins whose talent with words and storytelling astounds me. This woman, Sami Zahringer, shares some primordial DNA with whatever

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that muse is. And coincidentally she is a Hebrides-bred Scot. In 1880 the census recorded one Zahringer family in Pennsylvania representing 100 percent of the Zahringers in the United States. They appear to have spread and we have one. Sami’s bio describes her as a “writer and award-winning breeder of domestic American long-haired children.” And although Ojai may or may not be a “fairyland,” it’s usually a relatively peaceful burg blithely refusing to acknowledge the tectonic leviathan awaiting us to the east, I desired to know more about this fellow “ink-stained wretch” who writes for us. So, I asked our publisher for permission and he replied, “Good luck getting her to do that.” Tracking her down was easy. We are big fans of Danny McGaw and the 33 who played “anthemic, Celtic rock” every Sunday night downtown at The Vine for two years. There she was, the banshee, dancing and seeming to know everyone in this throbbing, steaming room. And now, three years later, she has somewhat reluctantly agreed to my request to find out who this Sami is and what the hell is a Zahringer? I asked her the following questions and told her to do a full Zahringer. She did ...

What is your background? My background is colorful. I am an intergalactic, time-bounding cautionary tale from both the past and the future. Why I am here, not even the gods can say. Only that I’m definitely some sort of warning. I both exist and don’t exist. I am at one and the same time Schroedinger’s Outer Hebridean and Heisenberg’s Uncertain Leodhaiseach (that’s Gaelic for “person from the Isle of Lewis” if you happen to be sneezing at the same time.) I’m very pale, almost bluely so, so probably come from the cold North of the universe somewhere. Also, I am since 2008 an American citizen.

Why choose America? Growing up in the Hebrides most of our weather came from the west. We were always peering out of the window looking at 52

the west and wondering how wild it was going to be today and should we bring the washing in from the line. Most of the flight paths from Europe go over the Hebrides to get to the west, and a good deal of our films and music came from the U.S. To the east was the Old World but I already knew about that and I was more ensorcelled with the idea of a young country still being forged. I loved the names of wide-open places that were strange on my tongue — Wyoming, and the Dakotas, Idaho. In the UK, after all, we call our places things like Auchterarder or Achiltiebuie or Bishop’s Inch or Great Snoring or Little Dribbling on the Wold. Seriously. So at 21 I came over to the U.S. for the first time to work for three months and travel for one. I was not prepared for either its size or its variety or its foot-long tubes of meat, but I already knew I relished its contradictions.

What is a Zahringer? A Zahringer is a robust German lineage which unfortunately found itself on the wrong side of history many times. A MacDonald, which is my maiden name, is a kind of wild-eyed, hairy creature whose hair streams out away from the direction of the prevailing wind, even when its not windy. You can’t often see our faces therefore, but we all have beards. Even the women. Especially the women. We drink orange drinks and have orange cows and squirrels and we emit a low keening sound when surprised or frightened.

Which writers do you admire and why? Many, so many, and I like bouncing around through the centuries when I’m selecting things to read. As far as contemporary fiction authors go, off the top of my head, I love George Saunders, Karen Russell, Jennifer Egan, Mohsin Hamid, Anne Enright, Jenny Offill, Elena Ferrante, Colm Toibin. There are countless more though. Far from literature dying, I believe it’s in a wildly creative moment. The writers I love from through the centuries are very different from each other but they all do something in their work which leaves me feeling like I’ve got very close to whatever the place beyond human understanding is — pressed up against the veil between the everyday and The Great Mysteries, able to dimly make out their shapes. They make me stare at walls for a long time after reading them, trying to figure out how they did it. I never do.

What is your writing process, and have you always written? OQ / SUMMER 2023

My process is just sitting down to work, no excuses. Sometimes it’s blood from a stone; hair-tearing, clothes-rending, teeth-gnashing torment. Sometimes things write themselves but I’ve learnt over the years that simply gritting your teeth and sitting down for however many hours it takes, and typing out any old crap until you finally like something is more useful and fruitful than simply waiting for an idea. Often other things entirely will occur. Often you end up writing stuff you would never have expected, and that you never would have written, had you just passively waited for something to arrive in your head. I always had fun writing, but had more fun reading. I still do. I read voraciously from a very early age and was encouraged to do so. In my schoolgirl years I wrote daft wee things and some truly, steamingly, reekingly awful offal. Around the time of entering university, they were trying to get more girls into STEM programs and I loved science so I did a degree in Cell Biology. I had so much to write for my courses anyway that I didn’t write much else at uni. Then I did a second degree in Literature at the University of Minnesota. Still no time to write for fun. It wasn’t until my children were about two or three that I began writing again in a blog called problemchildbride. Usually at nighttime, bleary-eyed, but not able yet to sleep. Through that I met incredible people from all over the world but, especially, the US, UK and Ireland — people that have become life-long friends and enriched my life enormously.

Do you have any spiritual inclinations and thoughts about afterlife? I’m an agnostic fundamentalist.

Besides yourself, if you could come back as a person or thing, what would it be? David Attenborough although that’s a bit of a liberty given he’s not done with his own life yet so, sorry Sir David if you’re reading this. (He’s not.) Or the River Thames. That might be quite interesting and I know the language.

What is the perfect Ojai day for you?? All my best Ojai days have been entirely unplanned but, if it could include some combination of my dog, my loved ones, music, and a ham and rosemary baguette, that would be swell.

If offered, would you go to Mars? No. Not much interest in doing that at all. I get horribly seasick besides, so rocket-sickness would probably do for me a few miles past the atmosphere. Everybody else would want to boot me off at the moon.

Your favorite thing to do? Reading. Writing. Walking on a windy day in Scotland. Being with loved ones. Playing with my dog.

Besides your kids, what’s your greatest achievement? My friends. I’ve got some really good ones, here and in the U.K., and I feel lucky and grateful every day for them.

What three things, besides people and writing instruments, would you take to a desert island and why? 1. A knife. It will last and can be kept sharp on a stone. Uses: Making other tools. Prepping food. Defense from beastie or beasties unknown. Shaving legs so potential rescuers do not think am sasquatch and run away without rescuing me. 2. A shiny pot. Will last and can be put on head if really scared. Uses: Purifying water. Cooking food. Sterilizing knife for when one has had enough and wants to stab self dead. Boiling fungi and interesting leaves to make experimental teas to offer potential rescuers. One cannot let one’s stan-

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dards slip. Making fire by glancing sunlight off it. Signaling to passing ships, also with glancing sunlight. Watching your careworn eyes hollow out and lose all hope. Checking for things in teeth. My reflection keeping me company. 3. First aid kit. Won’t last but containing useful items like Band Aids for sticking things to other things and hanging Found Art up in one’s rudimentary shelter; plus cotton-wool to rub on one’s nose when sad. Uses: Wound protection. Tweezing things. Saving self when one changes mind after stabbing self to death goes wrong. Soaking the alcohol from the sterilizing pads for lonely, good times.

Your favorite piece of music and why? This varies with the hour and the light. If I were in a windowless room with no lights or clocks though I’d quite like the company of any one of Bowie, Vivaldi, PJ Harvey, The Cure, The Velvet Underground, Beethoven, Mozart, Leonard Cohen, Tanita Tikaram’s first album “Ancient Heart,” Tom Waits, Blondie, Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Bob Dylan, Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” There is a song by Leonard Cohen called “Teachers” that hasn’t left me alone for very long since I first heard it about 20 years ago. Is it my favorite? Impossible to say. I’m finding this question really quite impossible to answer.

What are your best and worst qualities? Not really for me to say. Self-reflection is a necessary thing (very) but, I think, to be done by oneself or with somebody very close to you. I have a lot to work on, put it that way.

What are the chances the human race will last through the 21st century? I think we’ll last, for better or worse. We’re a tenacious species. I’m probably more worried for many of the other species on the planet. We are doing terrible, destructive things everywhere but we are also doing brilliant, heartening, life-enhancing things too. “What a piece of work is man” and all that. I’m not a Pollyanna but I’m 51 percent optimistic. For many years I have subscribed to “The New Scientist” magazine and have found 54

it immensely good for my mental health. In it are many of the consequences of what we have done wrong but also some of the truly incredible work going on all over the world to try to make things better. I remember in the ‘90s various news broadcasts started to end the program with “good news” stories. “How hokey,” I thought. “Why do we need to be coddled so much? We should be able to face the harsh realities of life without needing to be ‘uplifted’ hearing about the man who knits sweaters for penguins or the woman who opened a bakery that only hires people with a criminal record. What a deeply foolish thing to think that was. I was stupider then about some things. I’m stupider now about others.

What would you want served at your Last Supper and who would be there? It would last for three days and have lashings and lashings of wine. Across these days I’d serve herring fried in pinhead oatmeal (not a fish in porridge — pinhead oatmeal is a nutty whole grain you coat the herring in), new potatoes and carrots. Turbot in a sage butter sauce. Sausage rolls. Venison in red currant sauce. Chicken Madras. Wholewheat crust quiche. Kedgeree. Haggis, tattoos and neeps. (Yes, really) Then Eve’s pudding and Bananas Foster and a very tipsy trifle. Aside from Shakespeare who would probably be in great demand for other people’s last suppers so might not make it, I’d like Christopher Hitchens, Sister Wendy Beckett, Wisława Szymborska, Rainer Maria Rilke, David Mitchell, Billy Connolly, Emily Dickinson, George Saunders, Elizabeth I, both Obamas, Abraham Lincoln, Alan Coren, Victoria Wood, David Attenborough, Tom Stoppard, David Bowie, Stephen Fry, Karen Russell, Judi Dench, Leonardo Da Vinci, Lee Mack, Mackenzie Crook. That’s quite a lot. Might have to have more than one last supper.

Your Motto? Only connect. It’s from “Howard’s End” by E. M. Forster. There is an awful lot to be had from just these two words together. They’re endlessly ponderable and endlessly useful.

THERE YOU HAVE IT. YOU’VE BEEN ZAHRINGERED.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | A RT i sts & GA L L E RIES 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

FIRESTICK GALLERY

Firestick Pottery provides classes, studio/kiln space and a gallery abundant with fine ceramics. 1804 East Ojai Avenue. Open from 10 am to 6 pm every day. Gallery Open to the Public. FirestickPottery.com 805-272-8760

NUTMEG’S OJAI HOUSE

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.

CANVAS AND PAPER

paintings & drawings 20th century & earlier Thursday – Sunday noon – 5 p.m. 311 North Montgomery Street canvasandpaper.org

KAREN K. LEWIS

Featuring local artists, including William Prosser and Ted Campos. American-made gifts and cards, crystals, and metaphysical goods. 304 North Montgomery nutmegsojaihouse.com 805-640-1656

On a road trip to our new home in 1964, my children kept asking, “Are we there yet?” Our new town was integrating its schools. Reviewing these diverse faces in 2021, I ask myself, “Are we there yet?” KarenKLewis.com

OVA ARTS

CINDY PITOU BURTON

40+ LOCAL artists with a unique selection of contemporary fine arts, jewelry and crafts. 238 East Ojai Ave 805-646-5682 Daily 10 am – 6 pm OjaiValleyArtists.com

JOYCE HUNTINGTON

Intuitive, visionary artist, inspired by her dreams and meditations. It is “all about the Light.” Her work may be seen at Frameworks of Ojai, 236 West Ojai Ave, where she has her studio. 805-6403601 JoyceHuntingtonArt.com

Photojournalist and editorial photographer, specializing in portraits, western landscapes and travel. 805-646-6263 798-1026 cell OjaiStudioArtists.org

LISA SKYHEART MARSHALL

Colorful watercolor+ink botanical paintings with birds, insects and joy. Open studio June 10. Info at: OjaiStudioArtists.org or SkyheartArt.com

OQ / SUMMER 2023

POPPIES ART & GIFTS

You haven’t seen Ojai until you visit us! Local art of all types, unusual gifts, Ojai goods! Open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 323 Matilija Street

DAN SCHULTZ FINE ART

Plein air landscapes, figures and portraits in oil by nationally-acclaimed artist Dan Schultz. 106 North Signal Street | 805-317-9634 DanSchultzFineArt.com

MARC WHITMAN

Original Landscape, Figure & Portrait Paintings in Oil. Ojai Design Center Gallery. 111 W Topa Topa Street. marc@whitman-architect. com. Open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

TOM HARDCASTLE

Rich oils and lush pastel paintings from Nationally awarded local artist. 805-895-9642

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OQ | W I NE & DIN E

80 64

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Lodge to Lounge

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Sophia Miles Lays Claim to Downtown By Ilona Saari

Ojai’s Essential Restaurants, Products By Staff

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Explore Ojai Valley’s History, Art and Culture 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805 640-1390 OjaiValleyMuseum.org

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FROM LODGE TO LOUNGE

OQ | FO O D & D RI N K

OQ / SUMMER 2023

FROM

authentic Mexican south-of-the border fare to Mexican Americanized dishes… Ojai offers it all. The latest kid on this culinary block is Tres Hermanas, a blend of New Mexico Mexican-style and Native American ‘flavors,’ owned and operated by Ojai’s very own Sophia Miles and her husband, Will Withrow. STORY BY ILONA SAARI

SOPHIA MILES, THE OWNER OF TRE HERMANAS AND THE DEER LODGE

Many of you may know Sophia as the young entrepreneur of Ojai’s famous Deer Lodge on Maricopa Highway which originally opened its doors in 1932 as a gas station/grocery to serve weary travelers. Eventually, it morphed into the popular tavern/ saloon it is today. As in the iconic Western television show “Gun-

smoke” with its Long Branch saloon, Sophia is a 21st century real-life “Kitty” overseeing the Lodge’s kick-ass bar and its live music, from jazz to rock’n’roll with a little C&W thrown into the mix. The menu harks back to the hunting/gathering Wild West days, offering delicious beef or Buffalo burgers made from freshly

OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | FO O D & D RI N K

ground meat on a brioche or pretzel bun, to the tenderest of flank steaks or tri-tip sandwiches, not to mention its buttermilk brined fried chicken, plated or sandwiched on a toasted hoagie. Starters/sides include the Lodge’s legendary mac & cheese, and not so “Old West” fare, including white truffle fries and white truffle, parmesan-fried Brussels sprouts. Brussels and Truffles and Fries, oh my! There’s also homemade bacon jam, as well as a vegan polenta dish and much more. Sophia has preserved the Lodge’s rich flavors of a bygone era, but has also updated the kitchen with new farm-to-table flavors for “today.” Having settled-in at the Deer Lodge, Sophia nurtured another dream that was dear to her heart: ownership of a cocktail lounge … a place where the ladies might not be wearing a pink satin slip dress and strappy silver heels, nor the gentlemen dressed in black-or-white tie, wearing patent leather dress shoes … but where customers could enjoy cushy comfort sitting around a fire pit or at intimate table settings, engaging in conversation while sipping a craft cocktail or craft beer. When she and Will saw the empty space in the Arcade, they were smitten. It was the perfect setting for that dream.

Tres Hermanas (translation: Three Sisters) is an Indigenous North American practice of companion planting, whereby New Mexico continues to honor Native Americans by planting corn, beans and squash together because each plant helps the other by creating a fertile soil that resists damage from diseases and insects. As explained on the restaurant’s website: The corn stalks provide a pole for the beans to wrap themselves around which, in turn, stabilizes the stalks and helps the corn to survive the wind. The beans also provide nitrogen that fertilizes the soil. The squash forms the shade shelter that helps keep moisture in the soil, stop weed growth and discourages insects from invading. These three sisters are stronger together than apart. And, when eaten together, corn, beans and squash create a balanced meal: Corn=carbohydrates. Beans = protein/fiber. Squash = vitamins and minerals. Nutritious AND delicious. 66

TRES HERMANAS — PATIO

The harmony created by that planting, coupled with the breathtaking landscape of New Mexico, created the harmonic “feel” that Sophia and Will wanted for their new cocktail lounge and restaurant. Thus, Tres Hermanas was born. Sophia engaged her Ojai schooldays friend, architectural and interior designer Courtney Werber, who worked with Sophia and Will to design the restaurant and kitchen. Father/son duo Matt and Jeff Sanders did the gorgeous copper bar top. Sam Morris made the interior tables and bar shelves, Sespe Power Solution did the electrical work, and Mike Doran the plumbing. All local Ojaians. Will installed most of the kitchen himself. The interior bar area with leather woven bar stools and chairs, and hanging chili and basket ‘chandeliers,’ is a great space to meet up with friends and sip a house margarita, or perhaps one of the bar’s specialties such as Bitter Bandaid, made with Mezcal, Campari, sweet vermouth and a lime peel. The lovely patio boasts comfy outdoor seating around the fire pit and intimate table arrangements with chairs adorned with pillows made from vintage Native American blankets, creating a romantic setting, especially after sunset. Sophia and Will’s executive chef, Kanaan Tupper, worked at the Deer Lodge when Sophia first became its owner. He was excited to use his talents in creating Native American bites and entrees and New Mexico Mexican fare. His creations include the Tres Hermanas Bowl of pinto beans, roasted corn and squash with hominy, greens and crema, and Green Chili Stew made with pork, potato and green chili. There’s sopapilla, a puffy fried dough OQ / SUMMER 2023

TRES HERMANAS, BOWL

DEER LODGE — TRI-TIP SANDWICH + TRUFFLE FRIES

DEER LODGE — FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH

TRES HERMANAS, TACOS

DEER LODGE

TRES HERMANAS, COATED CHIPS

stuffed with a choice of filling, topped with red or green sauce or a combination of New Mexico chilies creating a red-and-green Christmas-style sauce. (Tres Hermanas chilies are from a farm along the Rio Grande in operation since the late 1800s.) Vegan diners will be pleased to find posole, made with white, yellow and purple hominy, green chili broth with cabbage, onion, cilantro, radish and lemon. Among the menu’s other selections are salads, handmade blue corn tortilla enchiladas and tacos, a ‘Frito PIE’ (frito chips topped with ground beef, chili and cheese), and even a menu for kids.

Tres Hermanas was inspired by the mystical and enchanting state of New Mexico with its vivid sunsets, and stunning desert and mountain terrain that offers a mixed cuisine that honors its European, Mexican and Native American heritage. Visitors also enjoy a laidback environment and warm hospitality that embody the spirit of Ojai. Sophia and Will aspire to continue that Ojai spirit in Tres Hermanas, believing that good things DO come in threes.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

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OQ | y est e rday & to m or row

96 mountains of the moon

78 Ojai to Pasadena

Ojai Correspondent in the Footsteps of Burton & Speke in Rwenzori Mountains By Chuck Graham

A Rendezvous With Southern California’s Cultural Capital By Jerry Dunn

109

110

Events

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Live Music Focus of Ojai’s Busy Summer Schedule

To Dream the Impossible Dream for Love & Laughter By Sami Zahringer OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ / SUMMER 2023

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OQ / SUMMER 2023

STORY BY BRET BRADIGAN

THE 78

Thomas Fire began Dec. 4, 2017, chasing people out of their homes by the thousands and destroyed hundreds of those homes within a couple of days. Just as Ojai got back to some semblance of normal in the spring of 2020, came the quarantine orders for Covid-19. People were being chased back into their homes.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

Few people felt more direct impacts than Ojai’s merchants and retailers. Not only were their homes at risk, but their livelihoods. Despite the odds, they have shown remarkable resiliency and style, finding new ways to adapt and thrive. There’s a lot at stake. Of the City of Ojai’s $10.2 million budget in 2022-23, an estimated $4.9 million will come from the hotel tax, with sales tax earning another projected $1.92 million. Tourism directly contributes more than two-thirds, 67 percent, of city revenues. Remarkably, sales tax revenues declined only seven percent from 2019 to 2020; a decrease of $124,083 from 2019’s $1,687,878 to 2020’s $1,563,795. Then, even more remarkably, in 2021 sales tax revenues reached record highs of $2,213,067 before slipping slightly to $1,927,300 in 2022. That quick recovery seemed unlikely. Those first ashen days after the Thomas Fire left many residents and retailers feeling despondent, “so the first order of business was to try to get everyone back together as a family,” Jamie Fleming, chief executive of the Ojai Chamber of Commerce, said. He credited Liz and Jeremy Haffner, then Azu owners, now Ojai Valley Brewery, for organizing and hosting meetings of business people at their restaurant. As many as 100 people attended the weekly meetings, in which resources and information were shared. “People felt this camaraderie that built up among the businesses as a real positive spirit. You could feel the momentum of people coming together, that we were going to make it through this thing together,” Fleming said.

One sign was that the flow of visitors to Ojai resumed even as the ash was still settling. When Fleming was working the visitor information table at the Libbey Park fountain plaza, he had “a battery of six shocking photos of downtown” with the smoke and fire surrounding the village. “Lots of visitors came just from curiosity, ‘Wow, what was it like? Did you have to evacuate?’” Amara Bessa was doubly hit by the fire. She owns Kariella bou-

tique, with two locations, the first on Main Street in Ventura, the newer location in Ojai’s iconic Arcade. “I evacuated Ojai around 9 p.m. (Dec. 5) and looking back at the hillsides from Ventura and everything was ablaze. It looked like an apocalypse, it was terrifying and sad.” Victoria Johansen, owner of Fig Curating Living and Fig Boutique, was first worried about her 90-year-old neighbor as the Thomas Fire raged. “I wasn’t concerned with the stores at first, I thought it was done, it’s over.” She left town for 10 days. “When the dust settled, well, the ashes actually, as Fig is an outdoor store, we were covered in ashes,” she said. Fortunately, her insurance company allowed her to use her employees in the arduous task of cleaning, re-cleaning and cleaning again the store’s inventory. “We cleaned the store three times over.”

It wasn’t long before customers returned. Then left again, as ash falls swirled around for weeks afterwards. Ojai recovered in fits and starts. The #OjaiStrong symbol proliferated like, well, wildfire, with ubiquitous bumper stickers and more than 6,000 Instagram posts. Be-tagged trucker hats were a bestseller, as were the two books that came out of the fire. On was the collaboration of Elizabeth Rose and Deva Temple for “From the Fire,” which featured hundreds of photos and essays from Ojai residents. The other was the art book, “Scorched Souls: Ojai Studio Artists Respond to the Thomas Fire,” with more than 60 plates of original art inspired by the fire. These items are still available in Ojai stores and at the Ojai Museum. The Arcade lost familiar fixtures; Khaled Al-Awar retired Primavera Gallery, Stan and Hallie Katz retired Human Arts Gallery after 47 years and Kathy Francis’ Kindred Spirits closed after more than 25 years. Kindred Spirit owner Kathy Francis retired after a quarter-century in the Arcade, just weeks before the

OQ / SUMMER 2023

Covid-19 outbreak. Michele Bosch and Misty Gerry leased the Kindred Spirit site during the early days of the pandemic and on Labor Day weekend, opened Cercana. Bessa opened her Ojai location in December 2018, just a year after the fire, just over a year before the pandemic.

of when they could, or would, resume, and how. On the other, people were despondent and isolated. “It was disarray,” Fleming said.

“It was doom-and-gloom there for awhile,” she said. “Definitely a discouraging time. It was really challenging sitting on inventory for an extended period of time. But once the lockdown let up, there was a huge rush of people into Ojai. I know it made a lot of people nervous at the time, but it was great for business after such a long lull.”

Once again, Ojai’s businesses rose to the challenge. Some pivoted to online sales and delivery, using e-commerce platforms to reach customers who were stuck at home. Others embraced the new normal, redesigning their stores and offerings to meet the needs of a socially distanced world. And still others got creative, launching new products and services that spoke to the challenges of the moment.

Fleming said that when the state mandate came down in March 2020, “the first thing we did is call James (Vega, the city manager) and Chris (Kandziora — Ojai Valley Inn’s senior vice president) and we needed to figure out a protocol right now, the covid protocol for businesses so stores could still function, and customers would feel protected.” Also involved were city council members and doctors and hospital staff.

Dreams delayed are not always dreams denied. After years of planning and narrowly averting a financial catastrophe, Deborah Yahner expanded Ikat & Pearls to 323 East Ojai Avenue in the Arcade, opening on July 18th, 2020. “We were carrying four rents. Our savings dwindled. From going from near-bankruptcy to a new, dream store was remarkable! I had seen so many friends and business associates close their doors.”

This included the signs on doors about the crisis, with city logos, as well as the portable hand-washing stations. “How many people, how far apart, wearing masks, communicating with store owners and employees to make sure they had the right sanitation, liquids, plexiglass shields, it was pretty comprehensive,” he said. “James Vega sent ours to Ventura County, and they submitted theirs with ours (to the state). That was great validation,” Fleming said.

The path to recovery from the pandemic for her Ventura location was greatly aided for proximity to Lure Fish House. As stayat-home orders were relaxed “people from Los Angeles were coming up and waiting up to three hours to dine at Lure. Can you guess where they waited, and shopped?” Yahner said. “We sold 17 large driftwood candles in one day! The rush to shop, feel it, touch it and try it one was like a feeding frenzy!”

Those first few weeks in March and April 2020 were frenzied. On one hand, businesses were shuttered without any clear idea 80

An early step for the Chamber and City was getting local residents to come to the aid of Ojai restaurants. Help of Ojai developed an innovative program, supporting local restaurants OQ / SUMMER 2023

by purchasing food for their Meals on Wheels program, which had become an even more critical lifeline. At its peak, the Great Plates program was delivering more than 2,600 meals each week. The city then opened up patio and sidewalk spaces for outdoor dining, placed signs for the all-important pickup lanes for to-go orders. The chamber put together marketing materials and listings with restaurant menus and information, “whether they were a chamber member or not,” he added. Johansen had an advantage with her dual locations; her North Montgomery store had windows that opened to the outside, and she could display merchandise within reach; customers could shop with minimal exposure to the virus. “We restructured the entire store,” she said. “We were taking credit cards with plastic gloves. People were coming from everywhere, coming up for the day, asking where to buy property, saying ‘We need to move here now!’” During the early days at Kariella Boutique presence. “I fulfilled tried to stay busy, like lot, exercised more, read to keep my spirits up. We into a roller skating rink that

said the gifts brought a and connection during a dif-

of the lockdown, Bessa boosted her stores’ online orders from home and everyone else I cooked a books and generally tried did turn our living room first week. That was fun!”

Several shops offered collections of locally made items; candles, soaps, and ceramics. The response was overwhelming, customers

sense of joy ficult time.

“People generally seemed to be and sympathetic. It felt like people to appreciate the small business and all that we deal with in a crisis Bessa said. Yahner was featured NPR’s “All Things Considered” “Unpacking our plight as business owner was … the risk is

supportive started owners like that,” on program. a small an honor real, small businesses need your help entire towns would everything that makes us

or lose a community.” Johansen said her online orders also rose during the lockdown, and that she and her staff made many home deliveries for baby

OQ / SUMMER 2023

showers, anniversaries and the celebrations of life that continued. “It took a lot more work to keep everything going. You’ve got to pay attention to everything to make it work,” she said.

The Thomas Fire crisis and reaction might well have helped Ojai’s economy recover more quickly from the pandemic. Solidarity and resilience are learned behaviors. Bessa said that her dread began to lift about three months after the lockdown, in the summer of 2020. “We got slammed! We had three or four people working the floor at a time and it was still not enough. To put it in perspective we normally only have one person working the floor. I just remember walking into my shop on a Saturday and feeling so relieved that the good energy was back.” Fleming said one lesson from both the fire and pandemic is that what Ojai has to offer has great value. “In this world with the changing landscape of Amazon and online, it’s just the mass low-end stores like Dollar Stores and CVS hanging in. But because of our mom-and-pops and local brands, people come to visit stores they don’t see in their own downtown.” Fleming also mentioned the festivals as another big draw for Ojai, one that took time to recover. With “The Ojai” tennis tournament back to full strength, the Ojai Music Festival expanding its reach, and the return of the Ojai Storytellers Festival and resumption of normal programming for the Ojai Film Festival, Ojai weekends have again taken on a festive air. Not that everyone agrees that it’s a good thing.

found themselves reflecting on the challenges they had overcome. They realized that their resiliency and creativity had not only helped them survive the fires and lockdowns, but had also strengthened the bonds of their community and inspired a new sense of pride and purpose. The Oaks at Ojai spa closed during the Thomas Fire as the Cluff family decided to exit the business after 40 years. With its 60 rooms and a tradition of annual get-togethers and reunions of friends, its absence was felt all along Ojai Avenue. Johansen said “We had groups from the Oaks in the stores that came every year.” The re-opening of the El Roblar Hotel is expected in 2024. Fleming said, “I cannot wait. It will bring such needed commerce to the west end of downtown. The way I look at it, it’s going to infuse energy and economic vitality.” El Roblar Hotel partner Jeremy McBride said the property will re-invigorate downtown much the same way the original El Roblar Hotel did when it first opened in January 1920. It will have been seven years from the Oaks at Ojai spa closing to the El Roblar Hotel’s expected reopening. A lot has changed in between. Bessa, an Ojai native, said, “I’m excited! I think it will be great for visitors to have an amazing place to stay right in downtown. It will only add to the success of all businesses downtown.” Yahner expressed much the same sentiments. “As the tide rises it lifts all the ships. We are grateful for more folks to discover the magic of Ojai. I think this can only help us all in the long run.”

Try making a left turn onto Ojai Avenue virtually anytime of night or day for proof. Fig’s Johansen said the parking is a chronic problem, and the opening of the El Roblar Hotel might make it worse. Fleming argues that it’s not the fault of retailers. “People seem to lose this realistic perspective that the people who live in or visit Ojai did not choose to come to Ojai because of its stores and restaurants. They’d come to Ojai even if those establishments did not exist! The way I look at it, Ojai with its beautiful setting, this unique offering, is just designated to always be a special place. These are things that bring people to Ojai, then when they’re here, they fall in love with the stores and restaurants and patios, the olive oil tasting, the hiking, bike riding and those are the things that pull people together.” As the pandemic slowly began to recede and life returned to some semblance of normality, the merchants and retailers of Ojai

OQ / SUMMER 2023

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STORY BY JERRY CAMARILLO DUNN, JR PHOTOS BY GRAHAM DUNN

hen I was a teenager in Los Angeles, L.A. was the coolest place on the planet. Everything seemed to start there. The Beach Boys made California surfing so popular that even kids in Phoenix were driving around with surfboards on top of their cars.

In contrast, the nearby burg where my grandmother lived was an urban sleeping pill. A starchy town for the elderly, it was lampooned in the 1964 hit song, “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena.”

1880s and the building of grand hotels, easterners could escape to Pasadena’s gentle climate, enjoying year-round sunshine and breathing fresh air scented with orange blossoms.

I used to drive there to see my high school girlfriend on the winding Arroyo Seco Parkway, which was California’s first freeway. Its concrete chute spilled out into a realm of handsome houses and seriously manicured lawns, a genteel haven for well-mannered men and women. In a humorous tune of the day, a smooth singer crooned “Paaaas-a-dena/Where people wear nice clothes . . .” Now it’s almost 60 years later. L.A. has become a maelstrom of crazy drivers, shrieking sirens, and bad attitude, and I’ve come to appreciate Pasadena. Spreading trees shade its wide streets. Whole neighborhoods are like outdoor museums, permanent collections of houses designed by the great Southern California architects. Not long ago, I happened upon an entire street lined with Arts and Crafts bungalows by the legendary Greene and Greene. Pasadena owes its comfortable but polished personality to location, location, location. Tucked against the San Gabriel Mountains and perched above an oak-studded arroyo, it became the winter resort of well-heeled families from the East Coast, including brand-name visitors such as William Wrigley, Jr. of chewing gum fame. Thanks to the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in the

Many visitors decided to stay, hiring noted architects to build elegant homes. Among those on “Millionaire’s Row” along Orange Grove Avenue, the massive Renaissance-style Wrigley Mansion is now the headquarters of the Rose Parade, Pasadena’s famous export to the world. Cultured citizens also built world-class gardens and art collections. If a bit clubby, the new settlers were highly refined, and their homes distinguished themselves from the show-off houses in Los Angeles. (It’s been said that the Westside has square footage, but Pasadena has architecture.)

Going for the gold, I arrived one morning at the Gamble House, considered the most complete original example of the work of architects Charles and Henry Greene. They designed it in 1908 as the “ultimate bungalow” for David Gamble — as in Procter & Gamble. (His father invented Ivory Soap.) A “Behind the Velvet Ropes Tour” sounded veddy Pasadena posh, so I signed up for the two-and-a-half-hour exploration. Our docent guide donned white gloves to open doors and draw-

OQ / SUMMER 2023

ers that folks on the standard public tour never get to see. (Take that, commoners!) The Gamble House was a rustic residence of hand-split shingles and broad eaves. Described as a “symphony in wood,” the interior glowed with rich mahogany, oak, and Burmese teak. All this wood made the house so dark, though, that our group was issued flashlights so we could make out the details: interlocking wood joinery on the staircase, art glass in a dining room door, ebony pegs covering all the nails and screws. I couldn’t help wondering, if David and Mary Gamble moved to Pasadena for the sunshine, why was their house sooooo dark? Our guide enlightened us: In the early 20th century, electricity was brand new; Americans were accustomed to soft candlelight, so even a 16-watt light bulb seemed bright. (For authenticity, the house still burns 16-watt bulbs.) The public was also wary about 88

the effect this newfangled electricity might have on the human body, so they wanted it deflected away from them. This explains why the Gamble House’s chandeliers direct light up toward the ceilings, not down into the rooms. Attitudes were indeed different back in the day, as we discovered upon opening the front hall closet. Inside it a secret door led to the servants’ area. Domestic staff would dash through to greet guests at the front door and then literally fade into the woodwork. The Gambles themselves never wanted to see or hear the help — and they never set foot in the kitchen, even to grab a sandwich. Family members lived in the house until the 1960s, when they considered selling it — at least until a potential buyer observed how dark it was inside and his wife was overhead to say: “Don’t worry, dear, we’ll just paint it white.” Realizing that they had to preserve Greene and Greene’s jewel-box legacy, the famiOQ / SUMMER 2023

GAMBLE HOUSE, LEFT ROSE BOWL FLEA MARKET, BELOW

No velvet rope required. Pasadena has a wealth of houses, from the Hillcrest Avenue mansions designed by superstar architects such as Wallace Neff to the Bungalow Heaven district with its eight hundred craftsman cottages from the early 1900s. So, I wondered,

WHERE DO LOCALS buy stuff to furnish these nice houses?

There’s always the venerable Pasadena Antique Center on Fair Oaks Avenue, packing 33,000 square feet with items from 130 dealers. But early one Sunday morning I headed for shopping’s center ring, the monthly Rose Bowl Flea Market, which attracts 2,000 vendors and 20,000 buyers. This granddaddy of all swap meets fills the famous stadium’s sprawling parking lot. In the antiques area I walked into a whirling kaleidoscope, a swirling spectacle of stuff thrown off by American culture: a 1940s Boy Scout handbook, old rusty license plates, a TV script from The Simpsons, every conceivable model of Zippo lighter, a metal mailbox turned on end and planted with ferns, a 1960s Jimi Hendrix poster, a painted carousel horse, and the front radiator and headlights of a 1939 truck, perfect for that wall in your man cave.

ly handed the house over to the city and the USC School of Architecture, which have handled it with care. (Workers restoring the outside rafter tails actually scraped out dry rot with dental tools.)

All around me people enjoyed the age-old game of bargaining. A man picked up a 1970s pink dial telephone and examined it. “I really hate this!!” he exclaimed. “How much?”

As I stepped outside, the warm breeze and broad lawns around the house summoned up the atmosphere that drew people to Pasadena in the first place. After leaving the Gamble House, I strolled along nearby Arroyo Terrace and Grand Avenue — and discovered an astonishing 10 more Greene and Greene houses, including Charles Greene’s own residence. It was an Arts and Crafts retrospective in the open air. OQ / SUMMER 2023

Actress-model types and their boyfriends bought vintage clothes and cool furnishings; one vendor offered upcycled lamps made from old-fashioned steam gauges and other antique gizmos he’d fitted with Thomas Edison-type filament bulbs. I also saw an abstract painting in appalling shades of brown and yellow going out the gate under a shopper’s arm. Oh well, one man’s trash . . .

A HIGHER LEVEL OF ART greeted me next, but not at Pasadena’s acclaimed museums, such as the Norton Simon and the Pacific Asia. Instead I drove from the Rose Bowl up through a hillside neighborhood to one of the world’s top schools for creative pursuits, the Art Center College of Design.

At the Pasadena campus I parked near the renowned “bridge building,” designed in 1974 by modernist architect Craig Ellwood. A long black box of a structure, it spans a wooded arroyo in one dramatic leap. Lucky for me, the school still maintains a gallery of student art. From a clever product designer came a dog carrier that unzipped to become a padded dog bed. A graphic design student’s print advertisement showed nothing but an empty closet, labeled “$925.” The tag line at the bottom: “Clean Up. eBay.”

In the 1960s the school was small and located in L.A. near my house. I used to pop into the lobby gallery to see the students’ work: scale models of futuristic cars by tomorrow’s Detroit designers, wild re-imaginings of parking meters and drinking fountains from industrial design students, a stunning pencil rendering of Bob Dylan with ruffled feathers for hair. (I also discovered that the school’s life-drawing classes had nude female models, offering another type of education to a 13-year-old boy.)

ART CENTER WORK

ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN’S FAMED BRIDGE BUILDING

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The student projects were already professional caliber: a wheelchair that operates on ice and snow; a Star Wars prop helmet realistically scarred as if from battle; a human-powered washer-dryer shaped like a stool and operated with your foot. The work snap-crackle-and-popped with innovation and creativity. Things are going to look a lot better when these kids get out into the world.

AT MY NEXT STOP

I encountered an alien world, apparently having landed on a planet populated by odd-looking creatures. With green tentacles waving, the Stenocereus resembled the giant squid from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Nearby rose skinny life forms covered in white hair and sporting pink noses. These fanciful beings were from an alien world, all right — the deserts of our own planet. I was standing among the cactuses and succulents at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, part of a triple-threat cultural institution that includes a world-class library and art collections, just across the Pasadena line in San Marino.

BRIDGE BUILDING INTERIOR

HUNTINGTON BOTANICAL GARDENS

As Californians have learned by necessity, the plants in this desertscape survive on minimal water. They store moisture in their leaves and stems, protecting their liquid assets with sharp spines. Barrel cactuses were mounded like green cannonballs. Agaves sent colossal flower spikes 30 feet high. Hummingbirds flitted (carefully) among the cactus needles to sip from flowers. Rabbits hopped along the garden paths. Here, the desert seemed a peaceable kingdom. Only a few steps away from the gardens, fine British and American art was displayed in a 1910 Beaux Arts mansion built for Southern California railroad and real estate tycoon Henry Huntington. His library, one of the world’s great research institutions, holds 400,000 rare books, including a Gutenberg Bible, as well as letters written by Abraham Lincoln and Thoreau’s original drafts of “Walden.” As I left the Huntington, it occurred to me that in this one place, the spirit of Pasadena comes full circle: a graceful residence, cultural refinement, and a garden blooming in the California sun.

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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN PASADENA Walking around Pasadena’s Prospect Park neighborhood one afternoon, I peered through an iron gate. Past a lily pond stood what looked like a house in a science fiction movie — and in fact, it once doubled as one for an episode of Star Trek. It was La Miniatura, the first Frank Lloyd Wright “textile block” house in Southern California, built in 1923. Wright cast the blocks of concrete, which he called “the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. Why not see what could be done with that gutter-rat?” In the mood to experiment, he turned his back on European tradition to produce an architecture that was distinctly of the Americas. (In its wooded ravine, La Miniatura calls to mind a Maya temple in the jungle.) Lucky for Wright, his client, rare-book dealer Alice Millard, wanted something daring. I was allowed to explore the house only because it was on the market. (It has since been sold.) The 2,400-square-foot building had three levels: a kitchen and dining room below, a living room and guest room on the second level, and the master bedroom on the third. A separate studio, designed by Wright’s son Lloyd in 1926, was reached by a bridge.

observed: “He designed everything to human scale. That would be 5 foot 7, like him.” But the view over the living room made any flaws fade away. Crosses of glass embedded in the upper blocks let shafts of sunlight pass through. A row of tall glass doors opened onto a balcony that overlooks the pond. No wonder La Miniatura has been called a masterpiece of siting and design. Sure, okay, like so many of Wright’s creations the house leaked. One evening Alice Millard’s guests had to slosh through six inches of water in the dining room. It also had a serious shortage of closets. Yet La Miniatura seems to float above care, in a world and time apart. Said an always self-satisfied Wright: “I would rather have built this little house than St. Peter’s in Rome.”

In the main house I climbed the stairs to a balcony overlooking the living room. The ceiling was so low that I had to crouch. As one Wright chronicler

PASADENA PRIMER

ROSE BOWL FLEA MARKET:

Visitor information: www.visitpasadena.com, (626) 795-9311

Second Sunday of each month, www.rgcshows.com/rose-bowl

GAMBLE HOUSE:

ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN:

4 Westmoreland Place, https://gamblehouse.org, (626) 793-3334

GREENE & GREENE HOUSES: On Arroyo Terrace: 368 (Charles Sumner Greene), 370, 400, 408, 424, and 440. On N. Grand Avenue: 90, 210, 235, and 240

1700 Lida St., www.artcenter.edu, (626) 396-2200

BOTANICAL GARDENS: 1151 Oxford Rd. in San Marino, www.huntington.org, (626) 405-2100

LA MINIATURA:

645 Prospect Crescent; nearby Rosemont Avenue offers a better view of the house, studio, and pond

OQ / SUMMER 2023

DESCRIPTION

OJAI VALLEY

2477 Fordyce Road Looking for a peaceful retreat in the heart of Ojai's East End? Look no further than this charming Craftsman estate, surrounded by fragrant citrus orchards and offering unparalleled privacy and space. As soon as you step inside, you'll be greeted by an open layout featuring a spacious dining area that flows seamlessly into the gourmet kitchen, complete with a generous pantry. The living room is a cozy oasis, featuring a fireplace and soaring cathedral ceilings, with breathtaking mountain views visible through the grand picture window. The primary bedroom offers a true sanctuary with unobstructed views of the garden, pool, and mountains, while the other bedrooms and television room/study provide ample space for relaxation and privacy. The upstairs office/studio is a perfect creative space, providing complete seclusion from the rest of the house. Outside, the beautifully landscaped backyard and gardens offer a welcoming area for dining and entertaining, with plenty of room to relax and take in the stunning surroundings. Plus, with a separate dwelling offering more office/studio space downstairs and a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom granny flat above with its own entranceway, this property truly has it all. Don't miss your chance to own a piece of Ojai paradise, just a short distance from town!

Price Upon Request © 2023 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. All data, including all measurements and calculations are obtained from various sources and has not and will not be verified by Broker. All information shall be independently reviewed and verified for accuracy. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty is independently owned and operated and supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act.

Anne Williamson Realtor®, DRE 01448441 805.320.3314

Cassandra VanKeulen Realtor®, DRE 01929366 805.798.1272

S OT H E B YS R E A LT Y.C O M

LIV Sotheby’s International Realty 727 West Ojai Avenue, Ojai CA 93023 805.646.7288

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110 FOX STREET | $1,995,000 Spanish contemporary home located in Downtown Ojai with attached studio.

952 E. OJAI AVENUE | $1,950,000 Commercial building located on Ojai Avenue.

1015 MORENO DRIVE | $1,195,000 3 bed, 2 bath main house with attached 2 bedroom, two bath ADU in a great neighborhood. Direct access to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.

448 MOUNTAIN VIEW AVE. | $424,000 Build the home of your dreams with majestic views on this .27 acre residential lot in the Ojai Valley.

Cathy Titus DRE 00173283 805.798.0960 ctitus@livsothebysrealty.com © 2023 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. All data, including all measurements and calculations are obtained from various sources and has not and will not be veriﬁed by Broker. All information shall be independently reviewed and veriﬁed for accuracy. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty OQ / SUMMER 2023 is independently owned and operated and supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act.

In the Real Estate Industry Since 1986 95

STORY AND PHOTOS BY CHUCK GRAHAM

CHAMELEON

IT 96

SCARLET TUFTED MALACHITE SUN BIRD

It was raining monkeys. Colobus monkeys, that is, flinging themselves through the air, 50to-70 feet, from tree to tree, leaves drifting downward on top of us. Between the cascading river and the colobus thrashing through the treetops, the rainforest of Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains was nearly deafening. OQ / SUMMER 2023

PHOTO BY SAM D’CRUZ

COLOBUS MONKEY

SAINT JOHN’S WORT

This was just one of the many unexpected moments experienced while trekking in the Rwenzoris. It was a journey full of unknowns through knee-deep muddy bogs from 10,000-to-14,000 feet, across open moorlands and up steep glaciers to its highest summit of Mount Stanley, Margherita Peak, at 16,763 feet the highest point in Uganda.

I had good luck convincing friends Craig Fernandez, 52, and Danny Trudeau, 65, to accompany me in February 2019 on my 15th trip to Africa, the Rwenzoris having played on my mind since February 1990, when the film “Mountains of the Moon” was released, starring Patrick Bergin and Ian Glen as British explorers Sir Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke.

OQ / SUMMER 2023

RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

MOUNT SPEKE, RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

for the Nile’s source. After several more difficult expeditions into Africa’s central interior, Speke was credited with the discovery of Lake Victoria, the true source of the Nile, although a small portion of the Rwenzoris also feeds the Nile. Later, in 1906, an Italian, Luigi Amedeo, Duke of Abruzzi, led a team on the first successful ascent of Margherita Peak, naming it after Queen Margherita of Italy. Today the mountain range is known as a World Heritage Site.

The film follows the men on an epic quest to discover the source of the Nile in 1857-58. It was a brutal journey full of hardships and with the men eventually becoming bitter rivals.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS

The Rwenzori Mountains were mentioned on multiple occasions in the writings of Burton and Speke as they searched

The Rwenzori Trekking Services website didn’t lie. It sternly warned potential trekkers and climbers that the terrain is steep,

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difficult with lots of muddy bogs and that there was a certain fitness level required to complete one of their many treks. After summiting Mount Kilimanjaro twice (1996, 2009) and Mount Kenya once (1997), it became clear to me early on that to reach the tallest peak in the Rwenzoris required more effort. In fact, the Rwenzoris possess six of Africa’s ten highest summits, with Margherita Peak the third highest in all of Africa. For me, the mud was the biggest surprise. On Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya it was located closer to the bottom, in the dense tropical rainforests at their base. That wasn’t the case in the Rwenzori’s. The only region we didn’t encounter huge swaths of mud was at Margherita Camp (14,700 feet), the last camp before going for the summit.

From the moment we left the Trekkers Hostel in Kilembe (4,785 feet) with our guides Samuel and Rogers, we began our ascent through the incredible vegetation zones for which the Rwenzoris are known. The walk leading into the rainforest was brimming with smiling, laughing and playful Ugandan kids, my digital camera being all the rage when I played back all those beautiful, curious smiles. There’s a lot of wildlife in the Rwenzoris, but spotting any of the forest antelopes, reptiles, birdlife and raucous primates was another matter. The rainforest was dense, and wet and the steady rush of creeks and waterfalls helped conceal the sounds of the forest.

TREKKER HOSTEL — KILEMBE — RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

without a smile on the ever-changing terrain, and they always offered a hello even when the terrain was at its most challenging. We were in a transition zone at the Kalalama Camp. The bamboo was on the wane and the tall canopy of the heather forest was hovering above our first significant plateau. Wisps of usnea beard lichens clung to the heather trees offering much-needed shade on a precipice where cozy cabins awaited several tuckered-out trekkers. But fatigue was soon forgotten with our first sunset and the next morning’s sunrise, a fireball of orange rising above Uganda’s sweeping eastern savannah. The dawn of a new day in the Rwenzoris was thoroughly enjoyable holding a cup of hot tea and a brimming bowl of porridge with honey and chunky peanut butter, fuel for the trek to the next camp.

TRANSITION ZONES

OF BOARDWALKS AND LADDERS

Beyond the rainforest, thick stalks of bamboo sure came in handy as we ascended the narrow spines of so many rolling ridges. They provided sturdy hand-holds when the ground became steep and slippery. It felt like we were trekking the back of some type of sea serpent, its up and down spine never ceasing until we reached our first overnight at Kalalama Camp (10,276 feet).

The long stretches of muddy bogs were something to behold, especially above 12,000 feet. The guides and porters, doubling as trail crews, had constructed long sections of boardwalks above some of the worst of the bogs and also built ladders up and down the most challenging ascents and down-climbs. We were trekking above treeline, leaving the wisps of the heather forest in our wake, and forging ahead through the impressive moorlands of the Rwenzoris.

What was most impressive during this time were all the mountain guides and porters lugging huge packs, bags of food and other essential items to all the camps hidden throughout the vegetation zones and up to the higher elevations. Not one of the porters was

Trekking across the moorlands was stunning. The throng of otherworldly vegetation that cloaked those daunting peaks sometimes made us forget about the mud entirely. Every now OQ / SUMMER 2023

GIANT LOBELIA

Lake. It seemed every lake was an excellent place to spot some of the impressive birdlife in the range. More than 1,000 species of birds have been documented in Uganda, representing over half of the species found on the entire continent. One of those is the brilliant scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird, endemic to the high-altitude zones of East and Central Africa. Its curved beak, forked, elongated tail and shimmering feathers make it stand out against the vegetation, especially around the nectar-rich giant lobelias.

SUNRISE — KALALAMA CAMP

Well above Bugata Lake we took several moments to soak in the epic views from Bamwanjara Pass at 14, 685 feet. We had the first real look across a deep valley toward Margherita and the high peaks of Mount Stanley, Mount Baker, and Mount Speke with swirling plumes of wispy clouds ascending skyward. Then it was a slow, muddy, 2,000-foot descent eventually leading around a couple of tranquil lakes, then down a series of well-placed ladders. From there, it was a 500-foot ascent to Hunwick’s Camp at 13,114 feet.

and then we would stop and simply look around the 360-degree mountain views were utterly breathtaking. Giant lobelias, forests of giant groundsel trees, endless mounds of tussock grasses, Saint John’s wort and other vegetation dominated the mountain landscape.

INTO THE MIST

Above 13,000 feet we began to experience the alpine lakes hidden in the Rwenzoris. The first one we came to was Bugata

Hunswick’s Camp is situated on a plateau overlooking a boardwalk that crosses a valley splitting two vegetated peaks with

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BAMWANJARA PASS — RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

MARGHERITA PEAK

SAMALIRA CAMP, RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

MARGHERITA CAMP, RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

MARGHERITA GLACIER — RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

three lakes. The giant groundsel forests are tall and clustered leading to Margherita Camp. It was our shortest day of trekking, and we were grateful to rest for the ascent to the summit.

The high camp was busy with climbers finishing their summit push, resting, eating, and packing up for destinations unknown. All the eating cabins have wood-burning stoves and Margherita Camp is no different. We found it the place to be, to huddle up and stay warm, sort gear, and tell stories, the guides and porters chiming in with their own tales of the Rwenzoris. We were up at 1 a.m. It was clouded over but unusually warm outside. Headlamps burning bright, Craig, Danny, and I placed

one foot in front of the other. I’ve always theorized that it’s better to ascend in the dark because you can’t see how far you need to go, and the darkness doesn’t reveal how difficult the terrain might become. I relayed my theory to my companions, and they bought into it with a subtle nod or a reluctant thumbs up as we traversed our first glacier, our breaths wafting above our headlamps. We kept on our crampons while scrambling through a rocky section toward Margherita Glacier. Samuel warned that this glacier was steep, a 70 percent grade and that it would take nearly two hours to traverse. Samuel, Danny and I were tied together and in a good rhythm. Rogers and Craig were tied in

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While we made the arduous descent from Oliver’s Pass, we did enjoy some nice diversions. The first, the best, albeit brief — the sight of a red duiker, a small, stocky, but shy mountain antelope. Once back in the rainforest, the head porter, Paul, and I veered off briefly on an alternate route for more bird sightings. That produced a cinnamon-chested bee-eater and another sunbird, this one of the red-chested variety. Further along, Paul spotted in dense vegetation a pair of blue monkeys tight roping with utter aplomb on a narrow branch. They were across the river from us, but when they spotted us, they made a point of creating a lot of noise either by their own vocalizing or thrashing through the rainforest. ICE CAVES ON THE GLACIER TRAVERSE

together just behind us. One other small group was ahead of us from Switzerland.

All the other climbing teams were behind us when visibility deteriorated to less than 25 feet. Because a series of crevasses crisscross the glacier, Samuel and two of the other lead guides set ice screws into the glacier and fixed lines for everyone to follow. Steadily we traversed, giving each crevasse a wide berth, visibility virtually nonexistent.

Danny, Craig, and I had made a special request of the guides and porters. We wanted to see a chameleon, which initially felt like spotting a dime at the bottom of the ocean, but they came through in a pinch, showing us not one, but two different species of chameleons in the rainforest all within a few feet of each other. A young, three-horned chameleon scaled Rogers’ sleeve. The other species was a giant chameleon. Away from vegetation

Once we reached the overhanging portion of the glacier visibility slightly improved. From there it was a snow-covered, rocky scramble to the summit. If it had been a clear morning, we would have been able to look across the valley towards Bamwanjara Pass from where we stood two days prior. Instead, we settled for milling around the summit post at 16,763 feet.

AN ANIMALISTIC DESCENT Sometimes it’s tougher coming down than going up, BLUE MONKEY

That was clearly the case in the Rwenzoris. Many of those descents were in slippery mud. We’d also been lucky up to that point in not having to endure any rain. However, when we left Hunswick’s Camp we were in a lot of mud, steady rain, and some snow. Plus, we were on a different route and two days away from the trekking hostel. From Hunswick’s it was almost a 2,000-foot ascent to the top of Oliver’s Pass (15,000 feet), through narrow gorges to each plateau where giant groundsels soaked in all the moisture. They acted as natural water catchments, and I sipped occasionally from those smooth, thick leaves. 102

it flashed at least six different colors. Once back in the trees it blended in only like a chameleon can, vanishing in the rainforest of the Rwenzoris, a mountain range brimming with natural wonders from its highest peaks to its smallest inhabitants.

Rwenzori Trekking Services: www.rwenzoritrekking.com. Rwenzori Mountaineering Service: www.rwenzorimountaineeringservice.com OQ / SUMMER 2023

Design. Art. Furniture. Window Coverings

Down Home Furnishings 250 E Ojai Ave Ojai Ca 93023

Downhomefurnishings.com 805.640.7225

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OQ | HEA L I NG A RTS JACALYN BOOTH Certified Colon Hydrotherapist Ojai Digestive Health With more than 30 years of experience in healing modalities, Jacalyn brings a deep level of caring to the art of colon hydrotherapy. Professional, nurturing, experienced. OjaiDigestiveHealth.com 805-901-3000

LESLIE BOUCHÉ, C.HT. Cert. Hypnotherapist Find your calm center. Release negative thinking, emotional reactivity, anxiety, fear and unhelpful behaviors. Improve sleep and comfort. Safe, loving, rapid change. It’s time to feel better! leslie@lesliebouche.com LeslieBouche.com | 805-796-1616

DR. NANCY DOREO is a naturopathic doctor and chiropractor specializing in Applied Kinesiology. Modalities include: IV therapy, Homeopathy, Flower Essences, CranialFacial Release, Gentle Manipulation, Acupuncture Meridians, Massage Therapy. DrDoreo.com 805-777-7184

LAURIE EDGCOMB Lic. Acupuncturist since 1986, voted best in Ojai! Natural medicine including Microcurrent, nutritional and herbal consultation, Facial Rejuvenation. LaurieEdgcomb.com 805-798-4148

AUBRIE WOODS A graduate of USM's Master’s Program in Spiritual Psychology, a Certified SafeSpace trauma facilitator, and certified Theta Healer. Trained in pre-natal support, transformational parenting, pleasure mastery, relationship and intimacy coaching, chakra clearing, and Inquiry Method. AubrieWoodsCoaching.com

DR. JOHN R. GALASKA Dr. John R. Galaska, PsyD, BCN, Cht, university professor of Psychology, Neurofeedback, biofeedback, hypnosis for past troubling experiences and enhancing subjective life experience. BeCalmOfOjai.com facebook.com/BeCalmofOjai 805-705-5175

NUTMEG’S OJAI HOUSE Functional Art for Heart & Home - American Made Fair Trade - Psychic Tarot and Astrology Readers, Energy and Crystal Healings daily by appt. Walk-ins welcomed: Open daily 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 304 N. Montgomery Street OjaiHouse.com | 805-640-1656

VIBRANT WELLNESS MASSAGE We bring a specialized massage that takes a holistic approach to treating stress in the body, all from the comfort of your home or office. With skillful hands & intuitive heart each session will unlock your inner Vibrant Wellness. VibrantWellnessOjai.com 916.204.9691

MICHELLE BYRNES Elemental Nutrition Nutrition & Wellness counseling focused on anti-aging, detoxification, personalized nutrition, & weight loss. For more information, visit elementalnutritioncoach.com 805-218-8550

LAUREL FELICE, LMT Offers Swedish, deep tissue, reflexology, reiki, cranialsacral and pre and post natal massage with a reverent and joyous balance of hands and heart. laurelfelice54@gmail.com 805-886-3674

NAN TOLBERT NURTURING CENTER Pre-birth to 3; pre/post-natal wellbeing; infant/toddler development; parent education/support. BirthResource.org info@birthresource.org 805-646-7559

JULIE TUMAMAITSTENSLIE Chumash Elder Consultant • Storyteller • Spiritual Advisor • Workshops Weddings & Ceremonies JTumamait@hotmail.com 805-701-6152

TO ADVERTISE HERE: please call or email David Taylor at david@ojaiquarterly.com or 805-798-0177

OQ / SUMMER 2023

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SEASIDE SUNDAY FLEA MARKET VENTURA COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

Vendor Spaces

18’ X 17’ $65.00 - $85.00

“Everything From the Sublime to the Ridiculous”

Price subject to change

SCHEDULE DATES

JUNE 25 JULY 9 SEPT 3 NOV 12

HWY 33

OR TH

W MAIN ST

E MAIN ST

E THOMPSON

RON

FIGUEROA

VENTURA COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

BL VD

H UT

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Fairgrounds Parking $10

GOING NORTHBOUND Exit California, Make Left, Right on Harbor, Left on Figueroa

GOING SOUTHBOUND Exit Ventura Ave., Right on Thompson, Right on Figueroa

Admission $5 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children 13 & Under Free

Sue 818.59 818.590.5435 0.5435 OQ / SUMMER 2023

OQ | EV ENTS CA L ENDA R J U N E - J U LY - A U G U S T annual events

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL | JUNE 8-11 | OjaiFestival.org JUNE 3

OVLC Hosts National Trails Day Date: Saturday Times: Multiple Events Locations: Ojai Art Center 113 South Montgomery Street Contact: OjaiArtCenter.org The Shawn Jones Band and many others will get deep into this American art form. JUNE 8-11

Ojai Music Festival with Rhiannon Giddens Dates: Thursday through Sunday Times: All Day Locations: Libbey Bowl and various local venues. Rhiannon Giddens returns to Ojai, this year as the music director. An integral part of the immersive Ojai Festival experience is the free community activities that occur in the Libbey Park and throughout Ojai. This will include Morning Meditations, Music Pop-Ups, and a Family Concert. TO JUNE 11

Alfred Wallis Exhibit Date: Every Saturday Time: 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Location: canvas & paper gallery 311 North Montgomery Street Contact: 805-798-9301 info@canvasandpaper.org JUNE 17

libbey bowl

JUDY COLLINS & SOPHIE B. HAWKINS | AUGUST 20 | LibbeyBowl.org

The 35th Annual Ojai Wine Festival Time: 12 noon to 4 p.m. Location: Lake Casitas Recreational Area 11093 Santa Ana Road Contact: OjaiWineFestival.org Overlooking scenic Lake Casitas, the Ojai Wine Festival is an idyllic venue to taste award winning wines, amazing craft beers, ciders, seltzers and fine spirits. Purchase a meal. The Ojai Wine Festival is organized by Ojai Rotary-West and supports their many charitable projects. JULY 1 The Gin Blossoms Time: 7 p.m. Location: Libbey Bowl, 210 South Signal Street Contact: 805-272-3881 The platinum-selling Grammynominated alternative are back on the road, stopping by Ojai for a Saturday evening. Doors open at 5 p.m. AUGUST 20 Judy Collins and Sophie B. Hawkins Time: 7 p.m. Location: Libbey Bowl, 210 South Signal Street Contact: 805-272-3881 The twin bill of legendary singers Judy Collins, (“Send in the Clowns,”) and Sophie B. Hawkins, (“Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” ) return to Ojai. Gates open at 5 p.m. OQ / SUMMER 2023

BELINDA CARLISLE | AUGUST 24 | LibbeyBowl.org

AUGUST 24 Belinda Carlisle Time: 7 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. Location: Libbey Bowl, 210 South Signal Street Contact: 805-272-3881 The founding member and lead vocalist of the Go Gos, the most successful all-female rock band, comes to Ojai for a Thursday show. RECURRING EVENTS

Historical Walking Tours of Ojai Dates: Saturdays Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: 130 West Ojai Avenue Contact: 805-646-1390 Coffee & Cars Dates: Second Sundays of the month Times: 8 to 10 a.m. Location: Westridge Market parking lot

THURSDAYS

“Ojai: Talk of the Town” Podcast

New episodes come out Thursday evenings through OjaiHub.com newsletter. Guests have included Malcolm McDowell on the 50th anniversary of “A Clockwork Orange,” and Sergio Aragonés on his 60 years as a cartoonist at Mad Magazine. Sign up at OjaiHub.com for a free newsletter of Ojai events, news, arts, entertainment, history and culture. 109

OQ | NO C TU RN A L S U BMI S S I ONS

HOW TO WIN A LADY’S FAVOR, VARIATION 284 (BUDGET VERSION) A Housewife’s Log

BY SAMI ZAHRINGER

FIRST

find yourself a lady whose favor you are interested in winning. Start a conversation with her, preferably a witty, pithy, banter-filled detente indicating a meeting of minds that foreshadows a possible meeting of the bodies in both your minds. But “Hi, I’m Dennis and I’m a Scorpio” will probably do if that’s all you’ve got. You’ll find this budget-friendly variation is adaptable to the quirks of your individual wooing style.

Once you have her attention, you’ll want to keep it. (This holds for all the Variation packages from 1 through 357. Variations 358 to 390 don’t require the lady to pay any attention to you at all but since they require the administration of powerful drugs these approaches to love aren’t legal in the contiguous USA.) Tell her a joke to lighten the mood. Women love men with a great sense of humor. Steer away from body-part jokes if you can. If it’s an emergency and all you can think of are body-part jokes, try replacing the body-part with a badger at the last minute. The comic effect will be lessened naturally but this is better than falling at such an early fence. Next, ask the lady out for a meal. Studies show that women love to eat and many do so every day. To make her feel special, pay attention to the small things: open doors for her; bring 110

her a rose; remember to zip up your fly; try not to smell like a breathing pork-pie. That sort of thing. At this point you might want to consider purchasing our considerable list of “Dining Do’s and Don’ts”, available this month at the special rate of $99, OR double your order and add “Moving Into The Bedroom For Dummies” at 30 percent!! off for a total savings of $50!! At table, you’ll want to showcase your ease with people and familiarity in pairing complex dishes and wines. Ask to smell the cork. Even if she scoffs and says what a load of old tosh all that carry-on is, this will give her a chance to watch your nostrils flare manfully, taking in great gusts of air, thus allowing her to approximate your lung capacity and determine whether you are a healthy specimen she might want to breed with. She herself will be unaware she is doing this, say Studies. At some point during the meal, be sure to reach out and lightly touch her hand, while laughing and throwing your head back in delight at her impossible cuteness. Make sure your laugh is booming and manly. Girls don’t like squeaky laughers. Tell her how you love the way the light plays on her collar bone and that when she smiles her nose crinkles so adorably it makes you want to weep. Weep if necessary.

As the wine flows inhibitions will naturally lessen. This is the time OQ / SUMMER 2023

to show her your physical prowess (all these hours at step class will really pay off now!!). Look around the restaurant for another male of approximately your weight and height. Tell him he is an asshole and his wife looks like his mother. If, in fact, this is a family gathering and she is indeed the man’s mother, insinuate that you have previously enjoyed coitus with her and his sister. Imply it was rubbish. At this point the other male will leap to his feet and attempt to punch you on the nose. Rip off your jacket and shirt (you will have oiled up earlier in the bathroom) and randomly fling a chair aside. Apologise to any occupant the chair may have as it sails through the air. Within clear earshot of your wooee, offer to pay for their dry-cleaning and a day out at the zoo for four. Women love good manners and generosity even in the heat of battle. Punch the other fellow in his nose. He will punch you back. Stagger slightly and touch your hand to the corner of your mouth to check for bleeding. Wince. Wincing men with big shoulders and no shirts on in the middle of nice restaurants invariably bring out nurturing feelings in the female. Don’t be

surprised if she reaches out a gloved hand to you and cries “Oh!”

(This is where your prep work will really come in! Oh, we know it seemed tedious at the time LOL but you’re beginning to see that good dating technique requires good planning, aren’t you? Nod to the waiter you will previously have bribed to substitute OQ / SUMMER 2023

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OQ | NO C TU RN A L S U BMI S S I ONS the restaurant’s ambient music with your own selection. Michael Bublé or Neil Diamond are safe bets here; many customers report success with ‘80s Canadian crooner, Bryan Adams, too. Stay away from polka and Finnish death metal whenever possible. Both are death to seduction, even in a scene of restaurant violence.) Quick as a flash tie your tie around your forehead dew rag style. Lower your head slightly and glower at your foe. Say to the lady “This won’t take more than a minute, miss, then I’d sure be pleased to escort you to your door.” Grab the other man, and run with him toward the restaurant’s large glass windows, crashing through them in as slow a motion as you can manage before resuming the fight on the shard-strewn sidewalk. As the other diners jostle at the broken window, reach in your pocket and slip on the knuckle-duster you will have concealed there earlier. Only one more punch should be needed at this point. Your hapless opponent will sprawl unconsciously to the ground. Take a step back and look up to the heavens as if to ask the gods “Why, why

must you test me so?” and then do a praying hands, collecting thoughts thing. As your lady rushes to your side, which she is sure to do if you’ve followed all the previous instructions properly, lift her up and twirl her in the middle of the road as if she were as light as a daisy, ignoring the screaming ambulances that will no doubt be starting to arrive.

Whisper gently to her “I did it for you, baby. I did it for you.” She will be forced to fall instantly in love with you and you may bed her at the hour of your choosing. For further instructions, proceed to the next module.

Please Note: This approach is only recommended for one partic-

ular kind of Woman. For a fuller discussion on all four different kinds of Woman, we recommend our primer-pack “Which Woman?” available through our catalogue.

YOUR OJAI REAL ESTATE DESTINATION AWAITS Based in our Ventura and Ojai offices, son-mother team Cameron Clark and Lisa Clark communicate often to work together to help clients buy or sell distinctive homes throughout the region. Cameron and Lisa teamed up 10 years ago as the Clark & Clark Group to bring their incredible knowledge of Ventura County real estate to buyers and sellers alike. As new Luxury Specialists in the Luxury Homes Division of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, Lisa and Cameron are top-producing area experts.

LISA CLARK 805.698.5986 | 805.477.4274 LisaClark@bhhscal.com Lic#: 01880476

CAMERON CLARK 818.606.4048 | 805.677.2004 CameronClark@bhhscal.com Lic#: 01869702

© 2023 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.

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INVITE THE FAMILY!

VOLUNTEER PROJECTS & POOL PARTY In celebration of American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day, OVLC is hosting a number of volunteer opportunities on Saturday, June 3, 2022 including good old trail maintenance, trail cleanup, and some trail restoration work too. This is the perfect opportunity to get out in nature with the people you love and give back to the trails that bring us together. Join us in the afternoon for our annual Volunteer Appreciation Pool Party at our historic Ventura River Steelhead Preserve.

To learn more and to RSVP, scan the QR code or visit: ovlc.org/nationaltrailsday2023 OQ / SUMMER 2023

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ASPEN GROVE RANCH A luxury ranch estate on 177 prime acres of rolling hills and fenced meadows, ﬂanked by the iconic Topa Topa Bluffs. Main residence with large great room, grand ﬁreplace, chef’s kitchen, wrap-around veranda, pool/spa, and outdoor BBQ/entertainment area. The ranch is comprised of 5 legal lots and has 2 large 3bd/2ba guest houses. Equestrian facilities include two large barns, pristine stables, a large arena, a round pen, and a hot-walker for exercising horses. AspenGroveRanchOjai.com

Offered at $18,500,000

Over 25 years of experience matching people and property in the Ojai Valley

PALATIAL PERSIMMON HILL ESTATE This magniﬁcent 12,000 sqft, three-level, Mediterranean-style home, designed by Marc Whitman, has ﬂowing cur ves, arched door ways, cathedral ceilings and 11,000 sqft of balconies, terraces and decks. Perfectly appointed on the 4-acre lot, it takes full advantage of the pristine natural setting and sweeping views. Every detail has been custom-designed and sourced with an emphasis on craftsmanship and quality. 561SaddleLaneOjai.com Offered at $14,500,000

I will help you ﬁnd the home that brings peace to your mind and heart

www.pattywaltcher.com pattywaltcher@mac.com (805) 340-3774 DRE# 01176473

© 2023 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

Over 25 years of experience matching people and property in the Ojai Valley

DEL ORO MAGICAL

This gorgeous, private, one-acre compound commands stunning 360 degree views. The turnkey, light-filled 4br/2.5ba modern home has been completely designer-remodeled with top-of-the-line kitchen, luxury bathrooms, wood floors, large windows and gas fireplaces. Lush grounds include a brand new pool/spa, multiple entertainment areas, pristine landscaping, family orchard and room for an ADU. 565DelOroDrOjai.com Offered at $4,725,000 I will help you discover the home that brings peace to your mind and heart

w w w. patty waltc h er.com pa tt y waltc h er@mac .com (805) 3 40-37 74 DRE # 01 17647 3

Ojai Quarterly - Summer 2023

Articles inside

VOLUNTEER PROJECTS & POOL PARTY

GENERAL & FAMILY DENTISTRY

HAVE AN UNFORGETTABLE OJAI SUMMER

FROM

OQ | ARTists & GALLERIES

We’re lifelong residents.

RHIANNON GIDDENS,

Healthcare Help Care

VILLANOVA Middle School VILLANOVA MIDDLE SCHOOL OPENING AUGUST 2023

OJAI WITHOUT US

OJAI QUARTERLY SUMMER 2023