And…if you’re in the mood, Chef Will Lee is cooking up an authentic Creole Dinner from 5:30 to 7:30 at Redwood Coast Senior Center, right next to Cotton. Only 200 can be seated for this one, so again, purchase early. Creole Dinner tickets available only at Harvest Market and the Chamber Office. Since your seats at Cotton are reserved, enjoy a nice dinner, maybe a little Mendocino County wine or North Coast Brewing Company beer, then walk a few short feet to Cotton Auditorium and the subdudes. More info? Call 961 6300 or go to kozt.com.

Friday March 12

The second weekend of Whales Festivals brings the second in the Mendocino Coast Whale Festival Concert Series. Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce and The Coast, Mendocino County’s FM, present Gene Parsons and David Hayes at Abalone Hall at Little River Inn. Show starts at 8:00PM, doors open at 7:00 with wine and beer available. Tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door and are available at Little River Inn, Harvest Market and the Chamber of Commerce office. More info? Call 961 6300 or go to kozt.com.

MENDOCINO ART CENTER RE-OPENS DECEMBER 17

Mendocino, CA – The Mendocino Art Center galleries will re-open December
17 with fun activities for the community scheduled over the weekend. The
galleries have been closed since a November 23 fire in the business
offices.

The Granite Avatars of Patagonia Presentation
Thursday, December 17, at 6:00 p.m., photographer Tom Reed will give an
insightful and fascinating behind-the-scenes slide presentation and answer
audience questions, revealing how he captured the images featured in his
Mendocino Art Center exhibit, “The Granite Avatars of Patagonia.”
Admission is free.

Free Holiday Celebration
Celebrate the holidays, the re-opening of the Mendocino Art Center and the
premiere of three new art exhibits at a free 3rd Saturday Artists
Reception, December 19, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This will be the final 50th
Anniversary Gala with raffle prizes, holiday carolers, hot cider and other
refreshments; the release of the Mendocino Art Center’s 50th Anniversary
commemorative book with a book signing with editor Bruce Levene; a Chili
Feed & Art Sale; and celebration of the Rebirth of MAC “Rising from the
Ashes.”

New Gallery Exhibits
The Mendocino Art Center has three new gallery exhibits opening December
17 and running through January 17. In the Main Gallery, all 20 images from
Larry R. Wagner’s latest artistic project, Mendocino Art Center’s 50th
Anniversary Exotic Calendar, will be showcased. The calendar pictorially
reveals an exciting selection of the top coastal artists and community
members as they have never been seen before, in a stunningly photographed
and designed 20-month calendar, featuring full color and classic black and
white images. Wagner’s exhibit will also include “The Shots Seen ‘Round
the World,” Larry’s photographs of the blue whale that recently washed
ashore on the Mendocino Coast that were picked up by the Associated Press.

In the Abramson Gallery, the Mendocino Coast Furniture Makers have given a
gift to all by dedicating their talents to make fun and intriguing wooden
toys that will entertain children and adults alike. Cherished by children
since they began playing with sticks, wooden toys have always been favored
by parents to inspire, amuse and provide quiet entertainment for their
young. Look for hoops, tops, rocking horses, rattles, mobiles, whirligigs
and more.

Photographer Tom Reed presents “The Granite Avatars of Patagonia” in the
Nichols Gallery. The featured images, captured during his visits to the
same mountains of Southern Argentina’s Patagonia over the last three
years, are also represented in his beautiful new book, “The Granite
Avatars of Patagonia.” His work is centered on the experience of awe at
the sight of a landscape, and his hope that it leads to the consideration
that nature itself is divine and sacred.

Admission to all events is free. For more information, please call
707-937-5818 or visit www.MendocinoArtCenter.org. The Mendocino Art Center
is located at 45200 Little Lake Street (at Kasten Street) in Mendocino.
The galleries are open daily, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Conducted by the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations, the Survey evaluated 133 world wide destinations considering  the stewardship provided by local involvement, plus  pollution, cultural quality, authenticity, and tourism management of each area. A panel of 437 well traveled experts participated.

Performances: November 13,14,15 and November 20,21,22
Fridays/Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2:30pm.

In keeping with Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan for keeping parks open, California State Parks is today announcing the implementation of service reductions at parks across the State. The goal is to achieve the required cost savings while minimizing the disruption to park visitors as much as possible.

All of the service reductions are consistent with the Governor’s September 25 announcement of the kinds of service reductions the public could anticipate in order to achieve the budget savings necessary to meet severe budget restrictions.

The reductions are designed to minimize disruptions for park visitors, while keeping parks open and  achieving the $14.2 million in budget savings to help close the State’s budget deficit.

To achieve savings as quickly as possible, State Parks will begin implementing these cost saving measures all across the State in the next few days.

The service reductions came about through a process wherein each of the State Parks’ District Superintendents designed a plan for specific reductions tailored for each park within their respective districts.  A summary of some of the most common service reductions across the State include:

• Reduce days of operation by two or three weekdays at selected parks.  Other parks will close a portion of a campground or outlying day-use areas.
• Close and consolidate some park offices and/or reduce hours of operation.
• Reduce off-season lifeguard levels at some beaches.
• Remove some trash cans and fire rings from the beach and close roughly half of the restrooms at some beaches.
• Close many park visitor centers two or more days every week.
• Reduce the numbers of school tours and interpretive programs at many parks.

These service reductions are intended to ensure that California State Parks achieves its required cost savings while maintaining revenues at the highest level possible for the remainder of this fiscal year and while minimizing disruptions to visitors.

Some visitors may be inconvenienced by these service reductions; however, it is hoped that park visitors will understand and appreciate that their parks are remaining open, despite the severe budget reductions. The public can assist in several ways, including by hauling out their trash and helping to keep facilities as clean as possible for the next park visitor.

For the Mendocino District, all park units will have a reduction in public safety patrols, trash services, maintenance of facilities including restrooms, exotic weed removal and wildlife monitoring. Specific service reductions for the parks within the District are as follows:

Greenwood State Beach:

• Closure of vault toilet near the beach.

Hendy Woods State Park:

• Seasonal closure of campground – December 2^nd through March 25^th.

Jug Handle State Natural Reserve:

• Closure of Jug Handle office. Relocate office to open facilities.

MacKerricher State Park:

• Reduction in Visitor Center hours. Closed Monday – Thursday.

Mendocino Headlands State Park:

• Closure of the restroom facility on Main Street. Replace with portable toilet from Big River Beach.
• Reduction in Ford House Visitor Center hours. Closed Tuesday – Thursday.

Navarro River Redwoods State Park:

• Removal of two portable toilets from the Navarro Beach campground and one at the Mill House.

Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park:

• Closure of the Visitor Center including restrooms. Relocate offices to open facilities.
• Installation of portable restroom at the Visitor Center.
• Closure of one restroom at the Light Station.

Russian Gulch State Park

• Reduction in camping season – Closed until May 14^th

Schooner Gulch State Park:

• Closure of one vault toilet.

Van Damme State Park:

• Reduction in campsites. Reduce to 20 sites from Nov 1^st – March 25^th. Only 1 restroom remains open.
• Seasonal closure of Visitor Center from November 1^st – March 25^th.

The reductions above include combining offices, reducing the number of phone lines, reducing internet connections, lowering thermostat settings, reducing seasonal staff and not filling 9 vacant full time positions. Further reductions may be necessary if unexpected facility failures occur.

St. Anthony’s Church in Mendocino throws opens its doors Saturday, November 14, for its third annual Wine and Mushroom Festival, 1-5 p.m.    The party is in the church hall at 10700 Lansing Street, overlooking the village.Tickets are $25, and that includes a wineglass; proceeds benefit the Mendocino community.  For more information, call 707-937-2406.

For the palate, guests will enjoy wine tasting from eight premier vintners, and sips of mushroom soup from six local restaurants – part of a Mushroom Soup Competition which gives guests a chance to vote on their favorite, and the winner, a handsome plaque.

To further tantalize the taste, a variety of homemade mushroom appetizers will be passed throughout the afternoon, and candy cap mushroom ice cream cones will be served.

Featured Guest Eric Schramm is extremely popular with festivalgoers.  The mushroom expert brings an educational display, and talks with them about the varieties of the fungi    They may have read about Eric’s Mendocino Mushroom Co. in Oprah’s O magazine last month.

Adding to the celebration is music performed by Starlight Trio, plus a silent auction of valuables, collectibles and one-of-a-kind finds – all up for bid.

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.

The play was originally on Broadway in the 1950s. It is the story of labor versus management. The plot is simple – will labor get it’s seven and a half cent per hour raise? Would the union win? Would the grievance committee, Babe, (played by Sarah Wagner) win over the production superintendent, Sid (Justin Pyne)? Would the hard-boiled plant manager, Hasler (Mervin Gilbert), soften his “I’m a fighter” stance? Would jealous lover and efficiency expert, Hines, use his knife throwing skills to the detriment of anyone? Well, maybe not so simple.

The plant employees are an attractive, talented lot, singing and dancing and doing a pretty darn good job of it. The casts sings songs that you may have actually heard—although those of us a bit longer in the tooth probably recall them better—Hernando’s Hideaway, Hey There, There Once Was A Man, and Steam Heat were the ones I remembered.

Do not miss how Justin Pyne, one of the leads, is also the music director and plays in the orchestra – all at once and you don’t even realize he is doing that!

The show has now started, and here’s the schedule:

• Shows Fridays, Saturdays 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm
• Thursday Performances September 17 and 24 7:30pm
• Benefit Performance for Arts For All on September 10–7:30pm
• Must close September 27!

You can find more information and buy tickets on the Gloriana Web site.

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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.

Annual Passes will go back on sale immediately at the existing price of $125. In future months, additional fee and pass increases are possible as State Parks assesses how the partnership program stretches the reduced budget funding to help keep parks open.

A list of specific parks where fee adjustments will occur will be made available when they go into effect. In deciding which parks will receive a fee increase, and by how much, park managers are evaluating attendance, with higher fees charged where demand is greatest. In that way, the fee increase will have the least effect on attendance, resulting in a revenue gain. Managers will watch revenues closely, and may make adjustments to particular fees throughout the year.

It should be noted that these increases do not raise park revenues to the level of self-sustainment for the system. Doing that would require steep increases that would price people out of their public park system. These increases are another tool in the efforts being taken by California State Parks to keep more parks open during this time of budget cuts and employee furloughs.

The department continues to seek support from cities, counties, corporations and nonprofit organizations who may want to sponsor or operate particular parks to help keep them open. Further, park managers have been reducing services and modifying their operations by closing portions of parks and reducing operating hours.

“We have loyal visitors who truly love our parks,” added Coleman. “We will do our best to maximize the use of additional funds so that parks continue to be available for public enjoyment.”

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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