There's Nothing To Do In Ojai! (Wrong!)

This week, my social calendar is tapped out, thanks to an amazing number of opportunities to get out there offered by incredibly talented people right here in our own little town. From films to comedy to running for a worthy cause, the first weekend in October promises to get us moving, laughing and thinking.

It all starts Thursday night with the Ojai Film Festival’s free opening night film: In the Shadow of the Moon. I just love the magic of the Ojai Film Festival and look forward to the Libbey Park special screening every year.

On Friday night, another group of graduating students from Theater 150’s stand-up comedy class will perform at Giorgio’s. My good friend Sheila Murphy is among the half-dozen performing comics, as is our own Bret Bradigan. Under the direction of professional comedian Cary Odes, last season’s acts were a riot, and this one promises not to disappoint. More info here.

Saturday morning (I’ll have to remember to keep the beer consumption at Giorgio’s down) is the annual October Classic Run. Registration starts at 7:15 a.m., the 10K starts at 8:00 a.m. and the 5K starts at 8:45 a.m. If you pre-register by Wednesday, October 3rd, the fee is $25 for adults and to register the day of the event, it’s $30. My husband, Bill, is running in the 10K and I am working the registration table for those who did not pre-register, so I’ll know if you procrastinate (but I will be delighted to see you supporting a worthy cause)! It doesn’t matter if you walk or run, because all proceeds support our hospital. To register, call (805) 640-2317.

And on Sunday afternoon, I will be screening The Price of Paradise at the Ojai Film Festival. This documentary has had three festival screenings to date, and this is the first time it will be shown in Ojai. There has been a lot of talk in Ojai about affordable housing. What does that mean to you? Who should have it? What should it look like? Where should it be built? The documentary, The Price of Paradise, does not seek to answer these questions, but rather engage a dialog.

Film's synopsis: Santa Barbara County, paradise to some, has seen a dramatic escalation in the cost of housing, thus displacing the community's critical workforce. The experiences of those workers and the impacts to families, community and employers provide insight and an understanding of the need for affordable workforce housing. Interviews, artistic cinematography and a percussionist soundtrack are featured.

Locals Michael Anderson and Austen Collins of Extra Mile Productions worked with me for about 10 months on this project and we are really proud of the film's acceptance into our own hometown’s festival. For more information, related articles and trailers, go to the film’s Web site.

Gorilla Drummer

Tom Ewing, a music critic who writes for Pitchfork Media, my daily stop for a music fix, had an epiphany about an advertisement for a chocolate bar, albeit Cadbury's Dairy Milk. He is referring to the viral youtube video with the gorilla drumming to a Phil Collins' song. It has received millions of hits and spawned a couple of clever knock offs.

"The drum moment in "In the Air Tonight" is, much like a gorilla sitting at a drumkit, incongruous and showy and absurd and powerful and violent and crude and pathetic, all at once. But if you had been a critic, writing about Phil Collins, and had said something like, "He smashes at the drums like an unleashed gorilla," it would not have worked. The reader would only have picked up on one part-- the unleashed-ness or the gorilla-ness (i.e. the power and violence), and ignored the fact that the animal is sitting at a drumkit (i.e. the showiness and absurdity). You could have found words to point out the absurdity, and stressed that it links with the violence rather than detracts from it-- maybe by talking about Collins' usually toxic combination of unpretentiousness and self-importance...but by now you're losing your reader and really, far better to just get someone to dress up as a gorilla and hit a drumkit and then say, "Look! That's what I'm talking about!"

Punk Rock Pinup Girls

Punk pock, given its anti-glam posturing, has a surprising share of sex symbols - from Chrissi Hynde to poseurs like Suzie Quattro. Now the modern punk revival, going on in various forms at least since the mid-1980s with Mudhoney and Nirvana, has produced Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs.

Punk's anti-aesthetic has appealed to me since the first time I heard the Dead Boys play at Dingwall's on the Camden Locks in London in 1983- stripping back the layers of album-oriented rock to the raw, beating heart of rebellion. Of course, it takes only a few years for the rebels to begin their own march to comformity. As Eric Hoffer so eloquently wrote, "When people are free to do whatever they please, they usually end up imitating each other."

Anyway, here is the latest in a series of really cool videos with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Gold Lion."

Hot Chip Off The Old Block

Here's some fun for your Monday pleasure ...


British electro-pop sensations Hot Chip haven't been around long - they formed in 2000 and are just now working on their third album, but they have redefined and expanded a rather tired genre.

And their approach to videos is quite inventive and fun. In Over & Over they basically take a green-screen setup and make mockery of all the sci-fi high concept conceits. And the tune is quite catchy.

Free Willie

Willie Nelson, the red-headed stranger, has long been one of my favorite songwriters and performers, ever since I learned back in the 1970s that he wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy."

He is also a masterful guitar player, for which he gets little credit. His fingerpicking prowess rivals Leo Kottke and Chet Atkins. Herein is embedded a great video from Willie's 60th birthday celebration (1993! for godsake's!) of two legends, Willie and Bobby D, performing one of Townes Van Zandt's classics, the Ballad of Pancho and Lefty.

While this video does not put Willie's great guitar playing front and center, it is still great fun watching two greats at the top of their game.

New Queen of Anti Folk

Regina Spektor has to be one of the most prodigiously talented musical performers on the modern stage. Born in Russia, she learned piano and violin from an early age, moving to America at age 9. Now only 27 years old, she has already written 700 songs, though few have actually been recorded.

Her lyrics are sweet, touching, and often make odd literary allusions to high Greek tragedy, like Oedipus Rex, or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway, in "Poor Little Rich Boy."

While she has attracted a loyal fan base, including yours truly, she has barely broken out into the mainstream in the way such a rich and descriptive talent deserves. Here's my little Friday offering of viewing and listening pleasure:

Ojai Valley Market Update

The inventory this month in the Ojai Valley is lower than last month.


There are 205 homes and 25 mobile homes active on the market. 26 homes are in escrow and in the month of August, 26 homes were sold.
The lowest price was $330,000, for a 2 bedroom/1 bath, with 827 square feet, with a the lot size of 3484. This house was on the market for 225 days.
The highest price was $2,620,000, for a 3 bedroom/2.bath, 1200 square feet and a lot size of 51 acres. The house was on the market for 134 days.

Overall, average days on the market was 112, and the median price was set at $851,000

Are you a wine lover? Register at "meetup.com" to attend monthly wine tastings here in Ojai.
Next one is September 26th, 7pm at Movino's. Meet others to discuss Real Estate and other topics. For more questions you can reach me at (805)-207-5094.