Monthly Archive: August, 2009
August 28, 2009 at 1:54 pm
by dff
· Filed under attractions, events, family fun, general
Justin Pyne, one of the leads, is also the music director and plays in the orchestra.
This review and accompanying pictures are from Larry Wagner, photographer and itinerant theatre critic.
Gloriana has a hit! Pajama Game is that kind of musical that you leave humming the score, something that rarely happens with modern musicals. Ann Woodhead’s directing is nothing short of masterful. I was shooting publicity shots at the dress rehearsal on Tuesday and the show was a mess. I couldn’t imagine how it could be all together in just a few days. Yet on Saturday, the opening night, the show was on and it was wonderful.
The word that best describes this show is “engaging”. Watching the boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl sequence is fun, watching the dancing is fun, seeing the interplay between the characters is fun. The show is just plain fun.
Read the rest of this entry »
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August 21, 2009 at 7:51 pm
by dff
· Filed under Art, events, favorites
The Mendocino Art Center has been the anchor of the local art scene since the 1960s, and this new calendar is a fundraiser for them. The party on Sunday will feature Larry Wagner and the artists who posed for the calendar. You can also meet the new Executive Director of the Art Center, Karen Ely. Check it out — we’ll be there!
The Mendocino Art Center is publishing a new calendar, designed by photographer Larry Wagner.
MAC’s Exotic Calendar Unveiling Party, August 23
Mendocino, CA – Unique, exotic, sexy, funny, riveting, creative, tasteful and, above all, high quality. These are just some of the adjectives that could be used to describe local photographer Larry R. Wagner’s latest artistic project. The photographer and editor of the popular books “Artists of the Mendocino Coast Volumes 1 and 2″ recently directed his creative vision to pictorially reveal an exciting selection of the top coastal artists and community members as you’ve never seen them before in a stunningly photographed and designed 20-month calendar, featuring full color and classic black and white images.
Mendocino Art Center’s Exotic Twenty-Month Calendar, which begins in January 2010 and runs through August 2011, is a fundraiser for the Mendocino Art Center’s 50th anniversary.
Calendar Unveiling Party
The Mendocino Art Center will host the “Exotic Calendar Unveiling Party,” the official release of this artistically rendered collector’s item, Sunday, August 23, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This will be the first opportunity to purchase the hot-off-the-press calendar, and the only chance to meet the pictured models in one setting and have them autograph copies. Finger food and wine will be available.
Larry collaborated with each of the models, both men and women, brainstorming ideas for each of the months, resulting in an eclectic array of images spanning from mermaids to wood nymphs to impeccable re-creations of famous works of art, including Dale Moyer’s tribute to Norman Rockwell’s “Art Critic,” Don Paglia and Elyse Wyman’s homage to Jean-Leon Gérôme’s “Pygmalion and Galatea,” and Richard Yaski’s ode to Leonard Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” Many images portray a personal statement from the model, whether to convey a love of travel or reflect a life transition. Larry even got out from behind the camera and posed, as Adam, with his wife Marilyn, as Eve, for “Botanical Garden of Eden.”
“The calendar project has been the most challenging and thrilling adventure of my life,” said Larry. “My collaborators were so generous, open and courageous that it has blown me away. Four of the models are breast cancer survivors. Their spirit and bravery has taken my breath away. Once the artists got into the shoots and saw what we were doing, the enthusiasm was amazing.”
Calendars will be available at the Mendocino Art Center, local retail outlets and online at www.MendocinoArtCenter.org/calendar.html.
The “Exotic Calendar Unveiling Party” is a free event. For more information please call 707-937-5818, ext. 10 or visit www.MendocinoArtCenter.org. The Mendocino Art Center is located at 45200 Little Lake Street (at Kasten Street) in Mendocino.
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August 11, 2009 at 4:54 pm
by bruce
· Filed under attractions, family fun, general, parks
This is an official news release from California State Parks:
California State Parks day-use and camping fees will increase and begin to help offset recent budget reductions and help keep more parks open. Partners in the public and private sectors are still being sought, as the fee increase will help keep some parks open, but not all.
“In these dire economic times, we can no longer afford to keep our fees at their current levels,” said State Parks Director Ruth Coleman. “The people of California understand that by charging more, we will be able to keep more parks open and preserved for these and future generations.”
Beginning Aug. 17, day-use parking fees will increase by $2 to $5, and camping fees will increase by $10 – $21 a night. Camping reservations made prior to that date will be honored at the lower price. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 10, 2009 at 7:30 pm
by bruce
· Filed under birding, ecotourism, general
Internationally-known birder, photographer and wildlife biologist Ron LeValley of Fort Bragg says a local group has initiated a “citizen science project” (not official, just something created by interested locals) to monitor three populations of nesting cormorants on the Mendocino Coast.
Why? By monitoring seabird populations you can measure the health of the ocean and determine whether there is sufficient food to sustain birds and marine life, says LeValley. He and others in the volunteer-staffed science project are counting and photographing cormorant nests and chicks weekly off Mendocino Headlands State Park (Brandt’s Cormorants), Point Cabrillo Light Station (Pelagic Cormorants) and Noyo Harbor off the jetty (Brand’s Cormorants).
In the past — for decades actually — scientists have measured the bird populations at the Farallon and Alcatraz Islands and then extrapoled about the ocean’s food supplies and health, according to LeValley
“If we took those traditional measures as our guide, we would arrive at the wrong conclusion because reproduction around San Francisco Bay is the worst in a long time,” says LeValley. “By contrast, our local colonies are thriving, indicating a healthy ocean.” A healthy population of sardines is reflected in the bumper crop of baby cormorants this year.
LeValley predicts that the Mendocino Coast will become an important place for gathering information about seabird success and state’s ocean health in the future. In fact, he plans to make a presentation of the local group’s study at the 2010 international meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group in Long Beach, California.
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August 9, 2009 at 3:42 am
by bruce
· Filed under attractions, family fun, favorites, general, history
If you haven’t been to the Point Arena Lighthouse recently, then you must return for a visit. Refurbished, the Light Station is a whole new experience for tourists and locals.
The First Order Fresnel lens, until last year in the original 115-foot lighthouse tower built in 1908, is now in the fog signal building, which serves as a museum and gift shop. The property was closed for seven months while the lens was moved, the tower reinforced and remodeling completed. At one time, the fog signal building housed air compressors and horns to warn sailors away from the treacherous coatline in stormy weather and fog when the light wasn’t visible.
The Fresnel lens is a monster at eight feet tall, six feet wide and six tons. The lens is made up of 666 hand-ground glass prisms all focused toward three sets of double bulls eyes. These bulls eyes gave the Point Arena Lighthouse its unique “light signature” of two flashes every six seconds. With a navigation chart, a ship captain could time the flashes, and know they were looking at Point Arena Lighthouse. This incredible optic, which holds an appraised value of over $3.5 million, was once visible some 20 miles out to sea.
Despite efforts to keep it in place, the lens was moved for fear an earthquake would topple the light tower and destroy the priceless lens. Since the lens was removed, the tower has been repaired and reinforced and is open daily for tours – a true bird’s eye view. Point Arena Lighthouse is a must see.
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