Stringing it together Duo of former students open ursday concert series

Megan Moureaux Roundup Reporter

The Pierce College concert series began Thursday, Sept. 25 with two former students performing their solely instrumental music to a full audience.

Associate professor James Bergman has been in charge of putting on the Pierce College concert series for students for about five years.

Bergman finds the performing artists through fellow colleagues, former students and people who contact him wanting to perform. Bergman said he likes to use the same artists because they bring

Vintage market a success

Cristina Pimentel Roundup Reporter

The Topanga Vintage Market held another enjoyable event at Pierce College with vendors selling antique collectables, jewelry, and memorabilia on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Every last Sunday of the month, rows and rows of booths are set up with countless vintage goods, hand painted artwork, clothing, and even different kinds of furniture.

Co-founder Patrice Curedale, who has helped run it since April 2012, enjoyed celebrating the flea market’s one year anniversary as she watched happy customers walk out with their purchases.

“People come in to shop and they become vendors eventually because they buy so much,” Curedale said. “We have a constant stream of people asking about how to be a part of the market.”

Originally stationed at the Westfield Promenade Mall, the Vintage Market grew larger in size over the last year as more local shoppers attended and more collectors became interested in selling their own antiques.

“We’ve been saying since the beginning that we’d love to have student groups come as well, so we can set up tables if they want to advertise their cause to the community.,” said Curedale.

Keegan Alan, a 22-year-old vendor, sold restored collections of luggages, painted wooden signs, and home goods that were spread across the bed of his truck adding an extra touch to the vintage atmosphere.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Alan said. “My mom took me dumpster diving for the first time when I was three because I was small enough for her to lift me over, so I’ve just been collecting and collecting since.”

Marissa Lauren and a 7-yearold girl named Ava alongside him, helped organize the booth two months in a row and greeted the wide variety of customers with warm smiles.

“I’d say majority of my customers are hipsters and young couples who see this kind of stuff online but don’t know where to find it.” Alan added. “The rest of them are store collectors or avid collectors.”

One of the vendors named Don Wippert was a Pierce student himself and he began his love for collecting historical glass bottles when he found some in an old truck.

“I thought they were cool, brought them home, and then started going to swap meets,” Wippert said.

The oldest piece in his collection was a musty green bottle from the 1700s. However, one of the items he has still kept over the years was a milk bottle from the Pierce dairy creamery, when there once was one on campus.

The men and women had great energy in their booths, which came from being in the atmosphere of the flea market itself.

“This is my first experience here and I love it,” said Artist Ann Storc. “I found that the people here have a heart.”

She was an art teacher for 43 years and was known as the “queen of the garage sales.” Storc found enjoyment in discovering the different passions each customer shared with her, as she did the same by selling art supplies and artifacts.

The sound of music filled the air of the Vintage Market, as well as the smell of food coming from four different food trucks provided for customers every year.

Dedicated customers and yearly goers always come as early as opening to get the best unique antiques.

“I love it here and I think that this has a really great price structure compared to the other ones, like in Santa Monica,” said Grace Culberton, customer. “There’s a really great variety of vendors with great things and it’s fun to find things.” good music, performances and they’re professional.

The Vintage Market is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. located in Parking Lot 7 right on Mason Ave and Victory Boulevard. There is a $2 admission fee and children under 12 are free.

The flea market will be back Oct. 26 and Nov. 23, on the last Sunday’s of the month.

“We also have two Pierce concerts which are Pierce students performing and that’s a free for all. It’s Broadway tunes, rock songs and some people rap so it’s sort of like a hodgepodge but students seem to like those concerts best.”

Guitarist Adam Werner and Hammered Dulcimer player Adam

Howe, formally called ‘Adam and Adam’ opened the concert series with a unique instrumental performance. They describe their music as “Apocalyptic Acoustic World Metal” and hope they inspire students to try new things.

Werner has performed at Pierce multiple times as a student as well as a guest artist both solo and with Howe. They started performing together around three years ago when the Adam’s felt they were in a “musical funk.”

“Adam and Adam is absolutely original, you’re not going to hear anything like it anywhere else,” Werner said.

Adam and Adam use a variation of instruments including an iPad application called “Morph Whiz.” This application allows Werner to feature a more electronic side to their music as well.

“We thought about how cool it would be to incorporate that into our sound so it’s like we’re using acoustic but also the technological aspect to kind of merge that all together,” Howe said. Students were very appreciative to the Adam’s for performing at the concert series.

“Personally I loved the show because I play guitar myself. I can really tell that they were feeling it and how they created it,” said 19-year-old computer engineering major Alana Parks. “It just sounded like they’ve worked on it for a long time and got it to sound how they wanted it to.”

Werner and Howe expressed their gratitude to Pierce and Bergman for asking them to come back to perform again.

“I appreciate that Pierce College is giving us the opportunity to play here again and I hope music students enjoy what we are presenting,” Werner said. “It’s a little different but I hope they get inspired to try new things.”

The concert series will run through December and the next show will be on Oct. 2 where the Los Angeles Baroque Players will be performing at 12:45 p.m. in room MUS 3400.

Art Beyond The Classes

Aspiring artists traced their creative linages at Meet Your Mentors: Faculty Exhibition 2014 Sept. 25. Attendees enjoyed art, music, food and wine during the opening reception.The Art and Architecture faculty showcased their drawings, paintings and sculptures. Art history professors included their dissertations. Accompanying their submissions were personal statements about who their mentors were when they were attending school. Installation was assisted by the Art 519 Exhibition Design students. The Exhibition will be open to all from Sept. 26 to Oct. 30 at the Pierce College Art Gallery in room 3300. Admission is free.