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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010 | VOL. 15, NO. 9
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The La Jolla Symphony performed “Color” Oct. 30 and 31 at Mandeville Auditorium at UC San Diego. Photo courtesy of the La Jolla Symphony.
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Allison Neumann, pictured above in Montana at a sapphire mine, will be available for a meet-and-greet Nov. 12 at Mixture’s showroom, located at 2210 Kettner Blvd. for the “Kettner Nights” art event. Courtesy of John Dole Photography.
colorful
Designer takes sapphires out of Montana and into La Jolla
opener for LJ Symphony
“He got them over 20 years ago when he went on a family trip there. Needless to say, I was amazed that he still had them,” she said. Huffman and his family had traveled there many moons ago and purchased the sediment from a tourism mining company in the Philipsburg area. When they returned home, they sifted the dirt and found hundreds of sapphires. Unfortunately, years passed and the Huffman family had no idea what to do with them. “We never considered them as anything more than souvenirs — until I showed them to Allison, who said she could work with them,” Huffman said. Getting each stone cut and treated was timeconsuming and expensive. “At the time, there really wasn’t a market for these stones. Everyone wanted heattreated sapphires,” said Neumann, a graduate of Gemological Institute of America. Huffman soon suggested that the two join forces to get these sapphires out of his closet and, more than anything, to give Neumann the opportunity to fulfill her dream of using precious gems in her fledgling jewelry line. Now, three years later, Neumann’s sap-
BY CHARLENE BALDRIDGE | VILLAGE NEWS
BY LAUREN VENTURA | VILLAGE NEWS Nestled in the sedimentary layers of Montana’s Sapphire Mountains near the small town of Philipsburg are thousands of sapphires that are untouched and unseen. Until now. Allison Neumann, a savvy thirtysomething resident of La Jolla, came upon the precious gems serendipitously in San Diego this year while working at her studio at the Glashaus Artist Collective Warehouse in Barrio Logan. “One of the other artists there, Jamie Huffman, and I were talking one day over dinner, when he asked me what I really want to do with my work as a jewelry designer. I told him I’d love to work with fine jewels,” Neumann said. Before she knew it, Huffman plucked a jar of rough, uncut, untreated sapphires from a bag in his closet. Neumann was speechless. She inquired where he found them. Montana, he said.
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phire-studded and gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets are constant features in the La Jolla marketplace; her premiere line just launched in September. One can peruse her latest “River Rock” collection at Robina Boutique, located at 1261 Prospect St., or at Capricorn Boutique at 5544 La Jolla Blvd. “All of the pieces I make are inspired by my travels, the outdoors, nature,”
Music director Steven Schick launched his fourth season and La Jolla Symphony’s 57th with the ambitious program “Color,” played Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 30 and 31, at Mandeville Auditorium at the University of California, San Diego. Schick marshaled 114 musicians, including symphony players, piano soloist Noriko Kawai, color organ and video projectionist Ross Karre and members of La Jolla Symphony and Chorus (LJS&C), to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to “Candide,” Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus, The Poem of Fire, Opus 60 and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“The Titan”). A renowned percussion performer and pedagogue and champion of contemporary music who teaches at UCSD, Schick is known for his daring programming, which seems a positive fit for inquisitive audiences longing for something beyond the norm. He has also become a popular podium figure during this tenure with LJS&C, a volunteer orchestra and chorus comprising members of the community, teachers, scientists, students and working musicians. When such a program as “Color” is planned, the question of whether the amateur orchestra lives up to Schick’s extreme belief and audience hope is part of the allure. It’s akin to rooting for the home team, and as it was, hope outstripped execution in the program. All three composers led complicated lives and wrote com-
SEE SAPPHIRE, Page 12
SEE SYMPHONY, Page 12
Who: Allison Neumann, La Jolla resident What: “River Rock” collection of handmade sapphire-studded and gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets Where: Robina Boutique, 1261 Prospect St., and Capricorn Boutique, 5544 La Jolla Blvd.
Allison Neumann’s latest collection of sapphires come in a variety of colors. Courtesy of John Dole Photography.
TI DE LI N E S
Ocean sunfish are ahead of their time BY JUDITH LEA GARFIELD Or maybe it’s better said that ocean sunfish (Mola mola) are “a head” of their time. The first time I crossed underwater paths with a mola, I thought it was a gruesome sight. The fish, make that half a fish, was floating motionless on its side at the surface, presumably dead. Once my eyeballs snapped back in their sockets, I realized it was a perfectly healthy mola, the fish with a missing back end, merely basking on the surface. More recently, I have been charmed by these docile oddities making a rare appearance in the La Jolla Ecological Reserve. Round yet flat, the “swimming
heads” have silver-gray skin, thick and rubbery like a car tire, an apt comparison for animals that may grow to weigh more than a pickup truck. The missing back end is actually a broad, stiff, scalloped lobe formed from a degenerated spine, an evolutionary remodeling of the standard-issue fish tail fin used for propulsion. Having a truncated back end also makes for a more rigid body, further compromising side-to-side swimming motion like that enjoyed by other fish. But molas aren’t hampered by inflexible bodies and nonexistent tail fins because they are instead empowered with statuesque dorsal and anal fins, which do the propelling; the modified tail lobe used
instead for steering. To set their ship in motion, Molas simultaneously scull the dorsal and anal fins to generate lift-based thrust. Surprisingly, this setup makes for highly efficient swimming. Females can produce a staggering 300,000,000 eggs at a time, but for a12-foot-long, 4,000-pound adult, space likely isn’t a problem. What seems impossible is how a fish can get so big eating mostly jellyfish, which are 99 percent water. The bumper crop of jelly prey invading La Jolla may explain the visiting molas that subsequently arrived. Molas don’t chew but suck jellies in and out of Mola locomotion is unique from other bony fish. Instead of a tail fin for propeller, Molas have tall, oarlike fins they simultaneously scull to get ahead. The lobe, which replaces
SEE TIDELINES, Page 12 the tail, is instead a rudder for steering.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Bridgett