Ojai Quarterly - Summer 2021

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS MCDOWELL & KUBRICK BERNADETTE & NICK

Pro Skater Gets Down to Business 50 Years, Like ‘Clockwork’

Artist, Farmer’s Unexpected Connection

Donna Sallen

WOW, Sitting on over three acres in the prestigious Persimmon Hill area of downtown Ojai. This five-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom sprawling ranch-style home showcases open-beamed vaulted ceilings, a stunning great room with a massive brick fireplace, formal dining room, hardwood floors and a large master suite. The magical meandering pathways will lead you to an Artist’s studio where you can once again find your creative soul. Living off the grid is easy with your own private well and solar panels. This slice of Country living offers a prime location all within walking distance to Libbey Park, shops, restaurants, and the Ojai Bike/Hike Trail. Horses welcome.

There’s no place like home ...

Let me find yours.

Views! Views! Views! Located on a quiet cul-de-sac in Skyline Estates, this lovely home is waiting for you. The great room has a double sided fireplace, vaulted wood ceilings and is open and spacious with plenty of windows to enjoy the majestic mountains.

The kitchen has lovely granite countertops, a large island and an eat-in bar area. There are french doors that lead out to a private backyard with stunning mountain views where you will enjoy the evening sunsets. Watch the early morning sunrises out by the pool in the front yard. Private and quiet you will feel like you are on top of the world.

Beautiful, flat useable lot, just under an acre located in the City of Ojai. great views from this lot.

Zoned commercial — come build your dream!

If you are looking for a quintessential downtown cottage with a guest house ... then look no more. Located in the heart of downtown Ojai.

Donna Sallen

805-798-0516

w w w. D o n n a S a l l e n . c o m D o n n a 4 re m a x @ a o l .c o m

Located in the Golden West neighborhood of Ojai downtown, this incomegenerating home is very warm and welcoming. The backyard is a gardener’s delight.

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

GAB R I E LA C E S E Ñ A THE NEXT LEVEL OF REAL ESTATE SERVICES Realtor | Luxury Specialist Berkshire Hathaway

Unwavering commitment to my clients’ satisfaction.

Driven by passion for the work I do 805.236.3814 | gabrielacesena@bhhscal.com CAL DRE# 01983530 Gabrielacesena.bhhscalifornia.com

2249 McNell Road | $2,900,000 | 2+Acres | Prime East End Compound Let the romance of Ojai’s East End, with its magical lifestyle of quiet sophistication & privacy, mesmerize you! Explosive, dramatic mountain and valley views will take your breath away. Located in one of Ojai’s most priced and tranquil neighborhoods, set against a backdrop of majestic views this

exceptional property embodies the essence of Ojai with tranquility & natural beauty. With endless possibilities, this California Farmhouse is flooded w/ natural light & happy vibes. You’ll love everything about this spectacular East End property, especially Grandpa’s Lodge!

112 Canada Street | $825,000 | 4 Bd | 1.5 Bt | Downtown View Property It’s a LIFESTYLE! Nestled in the heart of Ojai’s vibrant downtown, this terrific, electrifying property encourages an active live~work lifestyle.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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SUMMER 2021

Adventures in Fashion

OPEN DAILY 11 - 5:30 | 321 EAST OJAI AVENUE | 805.646.1927 Follow Us on Instagram @danskIblUe

Summer in Ojai Rains has all you need to make the most of these bright summer days!

Family Owned Since 1914

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

|

218 E. Ojai Ave. 7

THE TRUSTED NAME IN REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS

Chic & stylish property with views of the Topas and a sparkling pool, too! $1.295m

Wake up to the ocean as your front yard with world-class surfing at Pitas Point $3.995m

ILiveInOjai.com

Team@PeraltaTeam.com @PeraltaTeamOjai

Tonya Peralta Serena Handley 805.794.7458

805.798.1286

Rachelle Guilani

Ashley Ramsey

805.746.5188

DRE# 01862743

805.302.4175

Spanish charmer on 2+ acres, large pool house and a well $2.595m

Oh-so-Sweet in downtown Ojai $789,000

Arbolada meets New York loft $1.899m

OJAI QUARTERLY

p.88

Parker Bowles Chronicles The Veterinarian & The Veteran

By Emma Parker Bowles

p.94

GENERATION INSPIRATION Artist Comes Full Circle on Reeves Road Ranch Story by Mark Lewis

p.112

getting our goats Shepherding Ojai’s Environment with Grazers

By Love Nguyen

FEATURES HOOLIGANS OF THE VELDT Ground Squirrels Home on the Plain

By Chuck Graham

134

p.40

WADE’S DEPTHS

Cover

Songwriter Returns to Pen, Poetry

By Love Nguyen

Zander Gabriel Gets Down to Business Photo by Brandi Crockett

THE NEW CONTINUING CARE CENTER AT OJAI VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL Thanks to the generosity of countless individuals and businesses across the Ojai Valley, the Ojai Valley Community Hospital Foundation and Guild were able to raise $6.7 million locally to help fund construction of the $21 million Continuing Care Center. For more information on the Ojai ovchfoundation.org.

Valley Community Hospital Foundation, please visit ovchfoundation.org

The Continuing Care Center is a patient/resident oriented facility for both short-term and long-term placement, providing daily skilled nursing and rehabilitation services.

Promoting healthy living in the tranquil setting of the beautiful Ojai Valley.

• 75 bed, state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility • Seamless access to hospital care if needed • Private and semi-private rooms • Private bathrooms with showers in each room • Hair salon, chapel and library on site • Outdoor gardens and courtyards

The New

Continuing Care Center

1306 Maricopa Hwy., Ojai 805/948-2000 cmhshealth.org/ccc

TAKE TIME TO TAKE IT ALL IN

Enrich your wellness journey at the reimagined Spa Ojai following a yearlong transformation.

Surrounded by the inspiring Topatopa Mountains, this 31,000-square-foot luxury spa features two pools, a fully-equipped gym, Mind & Body classes, Spa Boutique, Artist Cottage & Apothecary and Spa Café, offering a menu of fresh, healthy indulgences. Explore your creative consciousness, nourish your body, inspire mindful renewal and challenge your physical endurance amidst an inspired natural setting of oak trees, fresh lavender and idyllic vistas. Make a reservation and discover rejuvenating ways to unwind.

844.585.0304 OjaiValleyInn.com

©2021 Ojai Valley Inn

12251 Linda Flora Drive, Ojai - $525,000

Check out this gorgeous 2.03 acre parcel in Rancho Matilija, a quiet community located on the west end of town. Build your custom home, bring your horses, and enjoy direct access to the horse/biking/hiking trails. You’ll enjoy gorgeous sunsets, and if you’re up early in the day, stunning sunrises as well!

668 Spring Street, Oak View - $549,000

Enjoy light and bright beach vibes in this recently renovated bungalow! Perfectly situated between Ventura and Ojai, this stylish home is less than 10 miles to the Ventura Pier. Lovingly maintained and move-in ready with central air, fresh paint, newer stainless appliances, and numerous skylights.

Sale pending

330 N. La Luna Ave., Ojai

836 Monte Vista, Santa Paula

Sale pending

Sold for $925,000

144 Pasadena Ave., Oxnard

Sold for $1,700,000 P: 805.272.5218 E: ContactUs@TeamDeckert.com VenturaAndSantaBarbaraHomes.com

DRE# 01761150, 01859199

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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112 WORMWOOD ST. $749,000

michaels+associates

THE WORK IS DONE!!

With a great west-side location in the valley, this bright and airy one story boasts no-fuss tile flooring throughout and tasteful upgrades in nearly every room!

You’ll love the vaulted ceilings & river rock fireplace in the living room, remodeled kitchen with stainless appliances and fresh updated tile bathrooms!

Low stone walls in the front add instant curb-appeal while the fenced rear yard offers privacy and a large covered patio.

202 CANADA ST. $2,200,000

ARCHITECTURAL 2004 MISSION REVIVAL IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN OJAI Unique village mixed use zoning allows for a diversified live/work situation.

With 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, this two-story 2700 sqft home offers exceptional details with 2 fireplaces, impressive wood beams, Spanish tiles, enclosed hacienda courtyards, 2 balconies and mountain views! Additionally, you will find a separate 1300 sqft. commercial space with it’s own private entrance directly across from Bart’s Books. Close to all of the downtown amenities, this turn key home is ready for you!

Char Michaels 805.620.2438 char@ojaikw.com

Belinda Wynn 805.368.1820 belindawinn2@gmail.com

w w w.ojaih om es 4 sa l e.co m

OQ | DEPARTMENTS p.31

Ojai Notes

OJAI LIFE:

“Mary Poppins,” Virgil & the Thachers

By Bret Bradigan p.68

Artists & Galleries

p.27 Editor’s Note

p.28 Contributors p.74

Food & Drink

p.31 Ojai Notes

The Vine Dining Experience

By Ilona Saari

p.68 Artists & Galleries

p.83

Chef Randy

p.74

Caprese Salad, Spiced Up

Food & Drink

By Randy Graham p.106 p.54

Climate Control Ojai Author’s Activism

By Kit Stolz

Beyond the Arcade Map

p.128 Ask Dr. Beth

p.130 p.142

Healers of Ojai

Just Another Day at the Dog Park?

p.141

By Sami Zahringer

Calendar of Events

Nocturnal Submissions

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

DRE#01768956

YOU DON’T HAVE TO PUT YOUR HOME SELLING PLANS ON HOLD unless you want to. People are actively buying homes from a distance.

We are open for business and here to help you!

LET’S TALK.

805.646.6768

NextHome 307 A East Matilija Street

Jeri Becker 805.340.2846

Lynn Goodman 805.573.5927

OQ / SUMMER 2021

Ojai

Heather Erickson

805.798.3358

CA

Riley Becker

805.646.6768

19

Derby & Derby

IS NOW

DURING THE PAST 40 YEARS Derby & Derby became known for their sound financial advice, stellar customer service, and active participation in and support of the Ojai Community. In 2019 they partnered with an independent wealth management firm in Ventura - Wagner Financial. Together they formed INTEGRITY WEALTH ADVISORS. With over 150-years of combined experience, you can put trust in the experienced team of financial professionals at IWA.

HUBof SERVICES An old adage states that there is accomplishment through many advisors. Today’s complex and ever-changing financial planning and investment management world requires a process that is overseen by a team of experienced professionals. As fiduciaries we are bound both legally and ethically to act in our client’s best interest with a duty to preserve good faith and trust.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT • Asset Allocation & Rebalancing • Evaluating Portfolio Performance • Risk Management & Assessment • Portfolio Stress Testing • ESG & Socially Responsible Investing • Stock Valuation & Analysis

PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING • Cash Flow Analysis • Retirement Income Planning • Social Security Analysis • Income Tax Planning • Probability of Success Analysis • Account Aggregation Software

ESTATE PLANNING • Charitable Giving Strategies • Trust Planning • Trust Administration Services • Ownership & Transfer of Property • Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Strategies • Beneficiary & Guardianship Planning

MEET THE TEAM The entire Integrity Wealth Advisors STEPHEN WAGNER team is committed to Investment Advisor, CFP®, CPFA helping individuals, families, and businesses grow, preserve, and distribute wealth. We hold ourselves to the highest levels of integrity and accountability to ensure that we are doing our absolute best for each and every one of our clients.

VICTORIA BREEN

MARGARET MARAPAO

CHRIS WAGNER

Investment Advisor & Financial Planner

Certified Financial Planner®

Investment Advisor & Financial Planner, CPFA

BOB CHEATHAM

DOUG ECKER

LAINE MILLER

Investment Advisor & Financial Planner, CRPS®

Investment Advisor & Financial Planner, CRPS®

Investment Advisor & Financial Planner

BUSINESS PLANNING • Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan Administration & Analysis • Business Valuations • Succession Planning • Buy-Sell Agreements & Funding • Executive Compensation Planning • Employee Retention Planning

SHARON MEDINA

DONNA LLOYD

JESSAMYN LIM

FPQP®, Ventura Branch Operations Manager

FPQP®, Ojai Branch Operations Manager

Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional

JESSICA HAWLEY

MADISON WIGG

CINDY RODARTE

Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional

Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional

Client Service Assistant Ojai Branch

FAMILY SERVICES • Planning for Marriage, Divorce, and Births • Multi-Generational Goal Tracking • Education & College Planning • Risk Analysis & Planning • Planning for Incapacity

Integrity Wealth Advisors is a Registered Investment Adviser. This material is solely for informational purposes.

Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Integrity Wealth Advisors and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. No advice may be rendered by Integrity Wealth Advisors unless a client service agreement is in place.

OJAI QUARTERLY Living the Ojai Life

SUMMER 2021 Editor & Publisher Bret Bradigan Sales Manager David Taylor

Director of Publications Ross Falvo Creative Director Uta Ritke

Social Media Director Elizabeth Spiller

Ojai Hub Administrator Jessie Rose Ryan Contributing Editors Mark Lewis Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr. Jesse Phelps Columnists Emma Parker Bowles Chuck Graham Dr. Beth Prinz Ilona Saari Kit Stolz Sami Zahringer

Circulation Target Media Partners

CONTACT US: Editorial & Advertising, 805.798.0177 editor@ojaiquarterly.com David@ojaiquarterly.com The contents of the Ojai Quarterly may not be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to the OQ, visit ojaiquarterly.com or write to 1129 Maricopa Highway, B186 Ojai, CA 93023.

Subscriptions are $24.95 per year.

#OJAI IG: @rhdixon IG: #Ojai — Ojai Sunset, courtesy of Kristen Dressler Wilson @messermeister at the Ojai Valley Inn

You can also e-mail us at editor@ojaiquarterly.com.

Please recycle this magazine when you are finished. © 2021 Bradigan Group LLC. All rights reserved.

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

In the Arcade 302 East Ojai Ave, Ojai 93023 www.cercanaojai.com Phone: 805 272 8870

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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Trusting the Natural Intelligence of Children

At Oak Grove School in Ojai, California, we often share moments of silence with our students, from preschool through 12th grade, as a whole community, in small groups, and individually. We begin, and sometimes end, assemblies, events, and meetings with silence.

Silence is weaved through our learning and teaching practices, including academics, arts, and outdoor education. We trust the natural intelligence of children and believe that self-understanding is essential to the full expression of that intelligence. These things are at the core of our ethos as a school.

oakgroveschool.org/silence

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

OQ | E D ITO R’ S N OTE

THE JOYING WITH “Hold to the Now, the Here, through which all the Future plunges to the Past.” — James Joyce When we launched Ojai’s magazine 11 years ago, we had a definite purpose in mind: to share the joy of Ojai life. That’s not to say we’ve shied away from tough issues — our enterprise features on farming, affordable housing, our friends and neighbors who succumbed to Covid-19 are hardly the fluff and nonsense of an entirely Pollyanna-esque publication. We want you to feel in these pages the fullness of Ojai, be it for the oldest pioneer families or the visitor who stumbles across our smiling vale on their way to somewhere else. It must be working: we are proud to be the oldest continuously published magazine in the “Little Orange.”

Most of us are familiar with the term “schadenfreude,” to take joy in someone’s suffering or setbacks. The OQ is intended for the opposite feeling: “mitfreude,” or the joying with. We want you to take pleasure in the celebration of this remarkable community. As you read through these pages, you’ll find that the term mitfreude is a useful framing. As Nietzsche described it: “The serpent that stings us means to hurt us and rejoices as it does so; the lowest animal can imagine the pain of others. But to imagine the joy of others and to rejoice at it is the highest privilege of the highest animals.”

As you work your way through the OQ, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Malcolm McDowell’s collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on “A Clockwork Orange” is certainly worth celebrating, as is Love Nguyen’s lyrical take on poet-musician Wade Ryff, and her feature on shepherdess Brittany Cole Bush. Again Mark Lewis deftly weaves the many strands of Ojai’s past and future into his feature on the inspiration that artist Bernadette DiPietro found from the East End land which Italian farmer Nick Walnut homesteaded. Kit Stolz’ profile of Jack Adam Weber’s climate crisis activism is both global and local, including a support group for Thomas Fire survivors. That event near the end of 2017 left many bruised souls, which this group can help heal.

Our Ojai-Hollywood connections are always fascinating, as we demonstrate once again with Abigail Napp’s story on Janet Yang, who has found in Ojai the creative inspiration that has made her one of the film industry’s key players. Ellen Sklarz features exciting artist Cassandra Jones, whose newfound insights were spawned by her firstever residency at the incredible Taft Gardens on Ojai’s westside. You can learn more about this artist on the “Ojai: Talk of the Town” podcast.

Besides Ilona Saari’s profile on the young couple who have stepped up Ojai’s food (and continued its live music relevancy) game at The Vine, there’s Emma Parker Bowles’ antic, insightful column about her love of dogs and veterinarian Dr. Matt Bailey and his high-flying wife Michele. And, of course, our special treat for OQ readers, Sami Zahringer, who caps the issue with just another day at the dog park, from the dog’s point of view. I know many of you skip ahead to her column, and that’s OK. You’ll be drawn backwards into the rest of the magazine, finding Chuck Graham’s fun, fact-filled romp about antelope ground squirrels, the hooligans of the Carrizo Plain.

At the beginning of the OQ’s journey, we set out to prove that Ojai is worth cherishing. The extent to which we succeed relies on you. So please enjoy this issue and share in our mitfreude.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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OQ | C O N TRI BU TO R S

EMMA PARKER BOWLES

is a freelance writer with a background in automotive journalism.

Adrenaline sports, Mama Nature, dogs, fast cars and motorbikes are her jam.

has appeared in Outdoor Photographer, Canoe & Kayak, Trail Runner, Men’s Journal, The Surfer’s Journal and Backpacker.

Ojai pixie tangerine peelin’ native and an editorial and destination wedding photographer.

Check out her work at fancyfreephotography.com

LOVE NGUYEN

MARK LEWIS

ABIGAIL NAPP

is a writer and editor based in Ojai. He can be contacted at mark lewis1898@gmail.com.

is a freelance writer with a fondness for Italian food, passionate people and investigative journalism. Follow her @abigailnapp on Instagram

is an artist and film director, co-creating with spirit, bringing stories and images from the fringe to life. @ chironhouse

DR. BETH PRINZ

UTA CULEMANNRITKE

ELLEN SKLARZ

has lived and worked as a doctor in New York, London and locally. If she were president, she’d make fruits and vegetables free for everyone, and end chronic disease. Until then, she hopes to persuade with words. askdrbeth@ ojaiquarterly.com

ILONA SAARI is a writer who’s worked in TV/film, rock’n’roll and political press, and as an op-ed columnist, mystery novelist and consultant for HGTV. She blogs for food: mydinnerswithrichard. blogspot.com.

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CHUCK GRAHAM’S work

BRANDI CROCKETT is an

is a writer and editor who has lived in Ojai for the past 30 years.

An active community member, she is passionate about her family, friends, and any animal that needs a home.

is an independent artist, designer and curator.

She is a member of Ojai Studio Artists and runs utaculemann.design.

SAMI ZAHRINGER is

KIT STOLZ is an award-winning journalist who has written for newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and online sites. He lives in Upper Ojai and blogs at achangeinthewind.com.

an Ojai writer and award-winning breeder of domestic American long-haired children.

She has more forcedmeat recipes than you.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

blanchesylvia o j a i c a l i f o r n i a 212 a east ojai avenue

instagram: @blanchesylviaojai

75 years of

monicaros.org

JOYFUL LEARNING

Blending academic fundamentals with the richness of the visual arts, drama, and music.

Preserving the magic of childhood in Ojai’s beautiful East End. Pre-K - 3rd Grade • Toddler Program • Summer Camp 805.646.8184 783 McNell Rd. Ojai, CA 93023 monicaros.org

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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505ParkRd-Ojai.com ~ Coming Soon ~ 2142SumacDr-Ojai.com Call Riki for details.

Views!

Riki Strandfeldt

(805)

794-6474

Riki4RealEstate.com Search all Ojai Valley & Ventura County-Regional MLS Listings ( No sign-in required ) CA DRE Lic. # 01262026

Vintage Ojai Valley Home Ready for updating 4 bedroom / 1.75 bath 8000 sq ft lot Private wooded backyard

Courtyard entry

Call Vivienne for details.

Vivienne Moody OjaiViv.com

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OQ | OJAI NOTES Though she only spent a few weeks in what she called “this smiling Vale,” Annie Besant shaped Ojai’s identity in an enduring manner with her purchases of hundreds of acres of land, on which this prolific author and Theosophist planned “A New Civilization in America.”

Emily Thacher Ayala & Tony Thacher

FESTIVALS RETURNING: Ojai’s events

OJAI PODCAST FAMILY AFFAIR FOR THACHERS

calendar, shorn of much of its typically frenetic activity through the pandemic, has begun to stir alive again, with the Ojai Music Festival set for September 16-19 this year, and the Ojai Film Festival planning in-person events November 4-8.

The Ojai Music Festival is hosting a few, safely distanced events in and around town during the first week of June, but moved to September this year to include as many in-person events at Libbey Bowl as possible. This year’s music director is John Adams, and featured artists include Rhiannon Giddens.

The Ojai Film Festival wll be a shorter event with an opening film in Libbey Bowl on November 4, followed by films being shown in two theater settings from Friday morning through Monday evening (November 5-8). All festival films will then be available online Nov. 14.

WALLACE GOES BACK TO MUSICAL ROOTS The quarantine’s fallow period is beginning to bear fruit.

Kevin Wallace, the founding director of the

The fourth and fifth generations of the prominent Ojai farming family have a lot to say about this community on “Ojai: Talk of the Town” episodes 47 and 56, respectively.

Family patriarch Tony Thacher talks about the pioneering Friend family, into which he married, which came to the Ojai Valley in the 1860s, as well as his own kin, from a distinguished line of Yale graduates, one of whom was his great-uncle, who started Thacher School, to Sherman Day Thacher,

Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, not only curates but creates. Out of what he calls his “secret life” as a singer-songwriter, he has just been released his first two albums, selftitled “Virgil,” and “Waiting Home.”

The songs’ “retro vibe” is inspired by listening to his relatives in southern Ohio play “hillbilly music.” The title “Virgil” is taken from Wallace’s middle name, which he

‘MARY POPPINS’ & OJAI

2 OJAI

TWO DEGREES

of

OF SEPARATION

said “is perfect for sharing an authentic part of my identity.”

As an expert in Beatrice Wood and her late-blooming career as a ceramicist, Wallace said, “I want folks to know it’s not too late to record that album, write that novel or begin creating.” All proceeds from album sales go to support educational programming at the center.

?

BETWEEN

ONE: “Mary Poppins” appeared on the big screen in 1964 and was an instant sensation, not the least because of the captivating charm of Julie Andrews, who played the titular magic nanny. The film grossed more than $100 million on its $6 million budget and won five Academy Awards. It is said that Walt Disney cast Andrews after seeing her on Broadway in “Camelot,” and delayed the film’s production to accommodate her pregnancy. His intuition paid off.

celebrity, Blake Edwards, director of the successful “Pink Panther” franchise with Peter Sellers as well as such dramas as “Days of Wine and Roses.”

In her bestselling memoir, “Home Work,” she described their storybook courtship, which included a weekend in Ojai: “We plugged in the record player and lay on the carpet. The first thing we played was Ravel’s Piano Concerto no. 2.

The perfumed Ojai air, the romantic setting, and that glorious piece of music made for a magical evening.” Bonus: Emily Blunt, who reprised Andrews’ role in the “Mary Poppins” remake, is an erstwhile Ojai resident.

TWO: While at the height of her 1960s fame, Andrews began dating another Hollywood

his grandfather, headmaster and one of the founders of Ojai as a proper city in 1917.

He also tells a few tales, some true-ish, one about the Horn family and their hungry hogs.

Emily Thacher Ayala talks more about the future — the challenges as well as opportunities — specifically about the Pixie tangerines, which have become a prized product for discerning gourmands. She also talks about the stresses and uncertainties of farming, as well as the rewards.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

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SEAVING SRNTR RA RRA & VENTURA COUNTIES

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Buying or Selling? Contact us today: (805) 682-3242 | www.CoastalRanch.com DRE: 00598625 ©2021 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information.

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the art of organization

closets | garages | home offices | entertainment centers | wall units | wall beds pantries | craft rooms | laundry rooms | mud rooms | wine rooms ©2019 Closet Factory. All rights reserved. CA Lic. #937353

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an Ojai tradition since 1964

Open Every Day 9:30 - Sunset

34

302 W. Matilija Street | 805-646-3755 OQ / SUMMER 2021

OQ | A RTS & L I T ER ATURE

40 54 Off the SHelf

40 Waiting for the rain

Climate Emergency, Local & Global with Jack Adam Weber

By Kit Stolz

From Music to Poetry and Everything Wade Ryff

By Love Nguyen

38

68

‘Clockwork’s’ half century

artists & galleries

Malcolm McDowell on Kubrick Collaboration

By Bret Bradigan

The People, Places That Make Ojai An Arts Destination OQ / SUMMER 2021

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Frameworks of Ojai custom picture framing

An international center dedicated to understanding, harmony, and peace among all peoples, comparative studies in religion, philosophy and science, altruism and the ideals of a spiritual life.

archival quality friendly service

Hours: Monday ~ Friday 10 - 5 Saturday 11 - 3, or by appointment.

(805) 640-3601 236 w. ojai ave, #203, ojai, ca 93023 info@frameworksofojai.com

Buddhas to Birthday Cards

OJAI HOUSE m

a

and a Huge Selection of Crystals

est. 2000 ...

um

Bumperstickers to Beeswax

Krotona Institute of Theosophy

ys tical empori

INTUITIVE READERS DAILY Tarot Readers Spiritual Counselors Astrologers Chair Massage & Energy Healing

Library and Research Center Quest Bookshop School of Theosophy

2 Krotona Hill, Ojai 805 646-2653 www.krotonainstitute.org

• BOOKS

• LEGO

• SCIENCE TOYS

• PLAYMOBIL

• MUSICAL TOYS

• PUZZLES

• KITES

• ART TOYS

• PLANES FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED SINCE 1979 221 E. Matilija Street in Downtown Ojai (805) 646-2585 Open Monday - Saturday, 10 - 5:30 Sundays from 10 - 3

OPEN DAILY 11-6

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2 blocks north of Ojai Avenue & A World Apart!

805.640.1656 • OjaiHouse.com • 36

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Explore Ojai Valley’s History, Art and Culture 130 W. Ojai Ave. 805 640-1390 OjaiValleyMuseum.org

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50 YEARS ON

KUBRICK & MCDOWELL ON THE SET

STORY BY BRET BRADIGAN

Stanley Kubrick, fresh off the box office disappointment of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and unable to complete financing for his passion project, “Napoleon,” signed on as director for the film adaptation of the dystopian novel, “A Clockwork Orange.”

Expectations weren’t high, though the Anthony Burgess novel had sold well and other film adaptations had been attempted, including one with Mick Jagger as Alex and Keith Richards and the rest of the Stones as the Droogs.

But it was the collaboration between Malcolm McDowell, already a star in his native England for his role as mischievous schoolboy Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson’s sendup of the British school system, “If,” and Bronx-born Kubrick, which made the film a classic. The timeless study of violence, and its causes and cures, brought out McDowell’s portrayal of gleeful menace and Kubrick’s keen eye for design and human truths — of how fascism, corruption and misplaced idealism lurk beneath the most benign of surfaces.

“I didn’t know ‘til later how much I collaborated,” McDowell said on the “Ojai: Talk of the Town podcast.” “I was just the actor.”

Those collaborations include these memorable features:

DROOG COSTUMES:

THE EYELASHES

“I was at Stanley’s house (outside London) 4-5 times a week. We didn’t talk about locations, didn’t talk about character. I said, “What do you think I should wear?” He said, “I don’t know, Malcolm.” I asked, “Don’t we have a costumer?” He asked me, “Do you have anything?” “Stanley, what would I have? This is a futuristic movie!” He followed me out to my car, and I showed him my cricket gear. “Put it on, what’s this? What’s this? he said. “A protector.”

I told him. “Wear it on the outside,” he said. “And that’s how we came up with one of the most iconic costumes in history of movies.”

“I was looking around this amazing store for a joke gift to give to Stanley. The store mainly was for teenage girls, with futuristic clothes, fun stuff. And I found a yard of eyelash. A yard!” He

said, “Malcolm, put it on.” He photographed one eye, then two eyes. He called me the next day, “Wow, look at your face! With one eyelash, you know there’s something wrong but you can’t put your finger on it!’

“We were trying to figure out how to do this sequence, this key scene. The Droogs come to this liberal writer’s house in the country, a terrible invasion. We burst in, then rape or attempt to rape the writer’s wife.

“We had come off shooting the end of movie, the hospital scene, and there was a definite style to it. [In this scene] we were supposed to be throwing bottles through the window, and I said, ‘We can’t just do this, we have got to find a way to elevate this.’ Stanley agreed.

CAN YOU DANCE?

“He literally changed the furniture a couple times. We’d come to work, and there’d be a Harrod’s furniture van. There were these steps going down, two levels … and I was sitting on the staircase thing. As he passed me he said, ‘Can you dance?’ I said, ‘Can I dance!’ So I started doing the strikes to the beat of ‘Singing in the Rain.’ I mean, Gene Kelly? Who can ever forget?

“Kubrick, as soon as I went into this little routine, shoved me in his car, and we bought the rights to ‘Singing in the Rain’ for $10,000, and spent a week shooting this sequence. It got us over this very difficult thing — this attempted murder-rape. That was not an easy thing. We didn’t even bother throwing bottles through the window.

“Stanley and I had excellent rapport. I love the man. He was amazing, but of course he betrays me at the end, took advantage of a young actor. He wouldn’t talk to my agent about my deal.

Had me sign a waiver on my billing for the movie. But who really cares, at the end of the day?

“I knew it was extraordinary, I didn’t know how much. We were getting stuff that was outrageous!”

For more insights and observations from one of filmdom’s most impressive actors, check out “Ojai: Talk of the Town” episode 60 wherever you get your podcasts.

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STORY AND PHOTOS BY LOVE NGUYEN

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WADE RYFF

A poet resides inside this seed of contemplation. He hammers away secretly. His words cling to you like lichen, spawning a patchy, chartreuse skin lightly across your heart. Their vulnerability is rare, his wave comes at you when it’s your turn to ride it.

Wade Ryff is a quiet hourglass. What is he thinking? Always thinking. His poems, his lasting thoughts — memories rewritten on a mirror. I see him clearly in his reflection. It’s where his heart lies, underwater, his hair moving like bubbles in a glass of champagne. He’s a musician in his own right, but it’s in his poetry that I understand him, his life and feelings.

When he needed a break from music, he took to writing. “I wanted go somewhere unfamiliar and recalibrate. I put everything in storage and went to a small town in Texas. Somehow, I started writing poetry there. That wasn’t planned.” His pop songs for the bands Races or Jesse Jo Stark were opaque to me. I didn’t know what he was expressing, but his poetry felt like walking barefoot, free. When I read his new chapbook, it’s like I’m looking out through his eyes, my hands are inside his, like gloves. In one of his poems, “Reaching,” he validates his work for the day by telling us, “I saved a butterfly from the trash. I watched it free itself from the garbage and soar back into its life with purpose.”

Contemporary poems tell stories that aren’t gilt in gold, but stuck to the underside of plastic lids and weighted down by wilted chard, an urban wonderment in an unassuming backyard. If you’re paying attention, everything is poetry, especially amongst the mundane.

His love is rendered in a humility that intonates, “I couldn’t tell you what my love is like ... I know that sometimes it contributes to the goodness in the world, and sometimes, it adds to the hurt.” You can feel the tug of a relationship’s mini-wars in, “The arms that reach are the same ones that push away.”

Every one of us is there with him intimately, knowing and maybe fearing, that the very person that we open our hearts to is the same soul that can tear us up inside and send us off the rails for lengths of time. But he never shuts down. He’s doing the work. There is a hope that conveys that his arms, and our arms are, “One way or another, they are always reaching.”

Wade’s got a tattoo of the word, “S~O~U~L” on the back of his broad shoulders and he describes it to me lithely, “It was just the typical teenage urge to get a tattoo.” I ask him why the word, “soul” at such a young age. “I was on LSD for the first time and saw my shadow, huge against the wall. I felt like I was seeing my soul. In my 17-year-old mind, I thought it would make a good tattoo.” I imagine him getting this amorphous black shadow in the style of the late Japanese ukiyo-e prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

There’s no cliché bald dude with overgrown biceps in a tattoo parlor wearing nitrile gloves gunning him in the Valley. In my version, teenage Wade is lying down in some torch-lit hutch in a village floating above black water. The silhouette of a bamboo stick attached to a steel needle dapples repeatedly into his skin.

We discuss his early poetry sparks as the tides creep in. “As a child, all that Shel Silverstein stuff was it. I mean that image of a girl just waiting for it to rain in her mouth? It was the first time I was introduced to the idea that you could drink the sky.” I see lil’ Wade in that instant, out on that crumbled ledge of broken concrete, his curls stuck to the pavement as the rain lightly pitter pats onto his tongue as he sticks it out as far as it will reach, his mouth agape and eyes scrunched and determined. His jeans are drenched from the cold. I can see myself, in his poem, “Confession,” holding out my own hands, as I read, “Love, I want to tell you so much more, I just don’t have the words.” You witness the details of his life as your own, like a film. Did I tell you his truck has a bumper sticker that says, “Empathy”?

A warm-blooded clarity emerges when humanity shares its suffering, its delicate moments, through poetry. Our existence is honored. Wade’s distracted by the waves again. “It’s a new wave for me,” as we walk along the shore of my favorite beach.

He studies how they fall and each surfer ‘s handwriting as they carve their “S” s on top of one another, like a skater seeing a

When your moon is in Libra, they’re a part of you, in this gravitational force kinda way. We talk about modern poetry. I think it will be the next big thing, like at some point in time everyone wanted to be a DJ, then a cook, open a pop-up, be an artist, a bread maker, an author ... but this poetry thing, I think it’s gonna break open.

curb as a canvas. I ask him about a musician’s lifestyle, if it’s just as addictive as a surfer’s.

Poets are a different, rare breed. So, it won’t be easy. But we need more people with their radical self inquiry, who can take pause to rewrite our painful narratives with beauty, empathy and spaciousness.

Would he ever shift from music to being a full-time poet? “The Leonard Cohen film (“Marianne and Leonard Words of Love,” 2019), hit close to home for me. His reluctance to aspects of domestic life really resonated. I wrestle with that, too.”

Cohen left his behind life as a poet and partner to become a rock legend who loved women, like a woman loves flowers. Musically, Ryff ’s thrown a music festival in Slab City; toured the world playing bass for Electric Guest, who he still plays with (they’re booked for a music festival in Mexico City this fall) and splits his time between Ojai and Los Angeles. “I love living in nature, but I still have my ambitions.” I ask him if he’ll take his shirt off for our shoot.

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A lot of musicians are closeted poets; Kyle Field could probably fill a few notebooks; Phil Elverum is an island that I wanna visit; Patti Smith is undoubtedly a god amongst us. Amanda Gorman stole Joe Biden’s thunder, if he ever had any.

Wade Ryff would never give up music. It’s in his bones but I’m super psyched for his poetry to take us to where we all belong.

‘Cuz we all need to fill our brains with poems if it ain’t gonna rain no more, ya dig?

OQ / SUMMER 2021

WADE RYFF

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On Oscar night, Janet Yang sets out four gilded champagne bottles — gifts from Netflix and the Academy — on the dining room table.

STORY BY ABIGAIL NAPP PHOTOS BY BRANDI CROCKETT

Friends and neighbors arrive to watch the awards ceremony from her Ojai living room, replacing the glam and glitz of the red carpet.

The Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning producer, whose groundbreaking career took off with Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun,” executive produced a film nominated for Best Animated Feature.

“Over the Moon” was the first animated movie co-produced in the U.S. and China to receive such recognition.

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JANET YANG

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The film garnered tremendous affection, but did not ultimately win. Nevertheless, the ceremony moved her for a different reason. In her acceptance speech, “Nomadland” Director Chloe Zhao quoted the San Zi Jing, or the “Three Character Classics,” a manuscript as monumental as Homer’s “Odyssey,” written more than 800 years ago in China. Three worlds and cultures thus converged on the Oscar stage: China, Hollywood, and to some degree, Ojai, a place where she and Zhao now both reside.

“I was so shocked,” said Yang. “In what universe would I get inspired by the Academy Awards to go back to reading ancient Chinese texts?”

Yang is a first generation Chinese-American by chance. Her parents came to the United States to study at the University

of Michigan, never expecting to settle, but when the Chinese Communist Revolution broke out they stayed, living for many years in limbo. Yang grew up on Long Island in a predominantly Jewish community and attended boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

In high school, she traveled to China for the first time with her mother. She still remembers the hotel room where they reunited with family that she had never met before. They spoke in hushed tones and Yang caught only fragments of the conversation (her Chinese was limited at the time), but seeing her mother sob left her with a profound understanding of loss.

“I feel like our personal wounds really drive our professional and life experiences,” she said. “I absorbed a lot of my parents’ grief of not being able to see their families for close to 30 years.

JANET YANG AT HER OJAI HOME

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It tears me up every time I think about it. So my desire to go back and spend time in China was a way to try to reconnect and build a bridge.”

Chinese Cinema.

From then on, Yang became “obsessed” with China, graduating from Brown University with a degree in Chinese Studies. After a brief stint working for a magazine, where she met with writers like Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe, Yang moved to China in 1980 to work for the Foreign Language Press, the official publishing arm of the Chinese government. She arrived just after U.S.-Chinese relations had been normalized, and the first capitalist companies were being formed. Artistic movements were beginning. People were finding their voice. Yang started watching films and met young graduates from the Beijing Film Academy who later directed some of China’s most important films, what’s known now as “The 5th Generation” movement in

“I saw the seeds of an incredible film industry,” she said. “Growing up in the U.S., it had never occurred to me that I could work in film. That whole industry seemed completely off limits.

How would I ever get in? China changed my perception and thoughts about my future. I thought, ‘Oh, we can do this! We can act, we can be creative, we can play different roles, we can express our imagination. And by showing Chinese films in the West, the perception of Chinese and Asians will also change.”

Yang moved back to the United States in 1981 to help a Chinese friend start a life in the U.S. She enrolled in an MBA program at Columbia University and began organizing festivals around Chinese films. She hauled 35mm film canisters from the Chinese consulate across Manhattan. The screenings attracted the curious and the cultivated.

“I didn’t know what the hell I was doing,” said Yang. “But I already had a mission. I just had to start from scratch.”

Soon Yang was running a distribution and exhibition company that showed Chinese films in America — including several that were made by the 5th Generation filmmakers she had befriended years before. The company was based in San Francisco where she found a strong community of Asian-Americans.

Their traditions and ways of relating to their identity were fresh and unlike anything she had experienced growing up on the East Coast.

Before long, Yang was hired by Universal Studios to bring studio films to the Chinese market for the first time since 1949. This led to an opportunity to work closely with Steven Spielberg on the historic film “Empire of the Sun” shot partially in Shanghai. Following that, she formed a long-time partnership with Academy Award-winning writer and director Oliver Stone. Together, they executive produced Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club” (1993), the first mainstream movie with an all Asian-cast since “Flower Drum Song” (1961), and later produced “The People vs. Larry Flynt” (1996), among others.

Throughout Yang’s pioneering career, eras of political discord and tense relations between two imperial giants have often put projects on pause and left families and friends torn apart akin to what befell her parents.

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“Sometimes I am in mourning for so many things — lives lost, dreams dashed, exciting third culture communities torn asunder, the reminder that life is not always what you think it’s going to be. But I tend to be a Pollyanna, and always hope for the best.”

It’s been five years since the Academy Awards sparked outrage in the Asian community for a series of jokes during the broad-

Yang feels compelled to influence national dialogue on a cultural and community level by speaking out, making sure that no one suffers alone. In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage this month, she is working on a Jon Chu-directed PSA that is slated to screen in all 7,500 AMC theaters.

Yang’s efforts to launch broad coalitions and change Hollywood seems to come naturally. Like most things she does, adversity and activCIRCUMSTANCES ARE ism is always met with friendship and opportunity.

WHEN ASKED WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO OPERATE SIMPLY OUTSIDE OF BETWEEN TWO ANYONE’S CONTROL. CONTINENTS, YANG SAID “THINGS SOMETIMES THAT JUST ERUPT, OFTEN BOTH IN CHINA AND IN AMERICA.” SHE SAID. cast. Ironically, it was the year where there was supposed to be increased racial sensitivity after #Oscarssowhite became a meme. But for many, including Yang, seeing the three Asian children carrying briefcases as if they were accountants from Pricewaterhousecoopers, or hearing actor Sacha Baron Cohen speak of “little yellow people with tiny dongs” was just too much to bear. Ever a bridge-builder, Yang and others got to work. They protested with a letter, and then attended a meeting with Academy leadership.

Yang became a governor of the Motion Picture Academy in 2019, after years of working with the diversity committee.

A year later, she was elected to chair the Membership and Governance Committee. In the meantime, she co-founded Gold House, a nonprofit coalition that builds networks, raises awareness and invests in the projects, voices and interests of Asian and Pacific Islanders of the diaspora. It has significantly bolstered the burgeoning community of Asian American cultural creators that has also given Yang a new focus in her own career.

During the pandemic, when violence and harassment against Asians and Asian-Americans skyrocketed — and tragically continues — Yang organized members of Gold House, the Asia Society and other organizations to campaign against the hatred and vitriol. From her house in Ojai, she pushed for a grassroots approach, hosting ClubHouse discussions attended by thousands of people and Zoom panels. Growing up in an Asian household,

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“My favorite thing about Gold House is that we’ve built a true community that is so vibrant and effective. I love how committed the people are to a shared cause, and often ask, where have you been all my life?” said Yang.

Back in Ojai, neighbors and guests of all ages gather along the white wooden bannister of Yang’s new home at sunset. As the granite face of the Topa Topa Mountains turns pink, she walks down to the street to greet familiar faces and their pets, making introductions between friends on the porch and those on the sidewalk.

In the backyard, Yang awaits the completion of her pool and garden, anticipating a hot summer. She hopes to open her doors soon and welcome more members of the community, especially the musicians, artists and filmmakers of Ojai’s many festivals.

By late evening, after the guests have left, Yang takes out the frayed piano scores she saved from college when she played solo recitals and practices Chopin nocturnes, Gershwin preludes and Brahms rhapsodies into the early morning.

She talked about what’s next for theaters, just now reopening after being shuttered for the best part of a year during the pandemic. “Many of us are dying to go back to a movie theater, and we may collectively do so with a vengeance to keep the theaters alive,” she said. “Some conjecture that it may be art films which particularly benefit. The experience might be more akin to going to a museum. What can we do to ensure that Ojai’s single theater reopens?”

Her Ojai life began just a few months ago in the middle of the pandemic, but she’s found herself miraculously at home in a very short time.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

I arrived in Ojai in early 2019 from Seattle. Immediately captivated by Ojai’s beauty, tranquility and welcoming spirit, I discovered the perfect environment to expand my crystalline vision. On November 11 (11:11) this past year, my business partner and I opened The Crystal Corner, offering a large selection of tumbled stones, crystal specimens, metaphysical and spiritual gifts, jewelry, smudging tools, books and more. My expanded vision is to utilize this sacred space to host workshops and community events. I find crystals to be wonderful allies, supporting us to feel more balanced, peaceful and connected during these unprecedented times.

805 272 8402 201 N Ventura St, (Corner of W Matiljia St), Ojai Ca 93023 www.thecrystalcornerojai.com TUES - THURS: 1PM - 5PM, FRI 1PM - 6PM, SAT + SUN: 11AM - 6PM

OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F

CLIMATE KIDS IN OJAI

CHILDREN’S CLIMATE STRIKE, OJAI

ANTI-GMO PROTEST IN HAWAII

STORY BY KIT STOLZ

The news from Earth’s atmosphere is not good; in fact, the warming has become so alarming that the language used by journalists and scientists to report on the changes in the air has itself begun to change, in ways that may well become as irreversible as the steadily rising annual temperatures in Ojai and around the planet.

What was mostly called “global warming” in the 1970s and 1980s became known as “climate change” in the 1980s and ‘90s, which many scientists preferred because it reflected the uneven distribution of warming and impacts. (Some political figures also prefered the phrase “climate change,” because it sounds less threatening.)

Now some scientists use the phrase “global heating,” because annual temperatures around the world continue to jump, and because many already-warm places, including Ojai, face intensifying “hot droughts” and heat waves, according to projections.

This year a petition signed by over 12,000 climate scientists around the world called for the media to use the phrase “climate emergency,” a framing adopted by Scientific American this year.

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For Ojai author Jack Adam Weber, the rhetorical changes in the scientific language used to describe the crisis are probably overdue but aren’t likely to touch the deeper emotions, which is where he argues we must go to find the urgency necessary to meet the challenge.

In his book “Climate Cure: How to Heal Yourself to Heal the Planet,” issued in 2020 from Llewellyn Publishing of Minnesota, Weber argues that we will not meet the crisis until we feel the tragedy deeply, which means moving past the finger-pointing and the blaming and bringing the pain and loss of a planet transformed and damaged by climate change into our hearts.

Basically we’re all complicit, but some of us are more so,” he said.

“I didn’t want to harp on it. The blame doesn’t do much in terms of healing. I didn’t get into rants either — I feel the rants have all been written. The information is out there. We all know what we need to do, or it’s easy to find out. The issue is not so much what we need to do outwardly, the issue is why don’t we care enough?”

Last decade the climate emergency — most destructively seen in the form of the Thomas Fire — hit Ojai hard. Weber himself OQ / SUMMER 2021

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LAVA VIEW FROM JACK’S FARM

JACK ADAM WEBER

JACK ADAM WEBER’S BOOK

BEFORE IT CAME DOWN AND COVERED THEM THREE WEEKS LATER

BLACK LAVA FLOW IN HAWAII

PHOTO BY JACK EBNET

was thrown up against an overwhelming wave of environmental devastation, from not just the Thomas Fire, but also at a farm in Hawaii, from an outflow of lava.

After evacuating from Meiners Oaks in December of 2017, where he had been visiting family, Weber flew in 2018 back to his five-acre organic farm and handcrafted home on the Big Island of Hawaii, only to see it inundated by molten lava from the Kilauea volcano five months later. Overnight, Weber lost the farm and home that he had put 18 years into creating.

The twin disasters left Weber bereft, unsure which way to turn.

To get back on his feet he reached out, first to his neighbors.

“I formed two grief circles,” he said, in an interview conducted in Ojai’s lush, little-known neighborhood sanctuary, Daly Park.

“The first one I led in Hawaii after I lost everything. I was the only one in my small community who was wiped out completely by the lava, but I wasn’t the only one forced to evacuate. I put it out to friends, and we formed a circle and it was amazing. So

helpful. We cried together.”

In “Climate Cure” Weber puts this in the category of “Holding Space,” and credits his neighbors on the Big Island with showing him how to help traumatized others heal.

“On my home turf in Hawaii, I and a dozen other lava flow refugees were welcomed in by a loving couple who gave us a place

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OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F to stay on their farm,” he writes. “They asked for nothing in return, and we all found unique ways to contribute as best we could. Their big hearts and gestures of loving-kindness not only helped me immensely during a devastating time of loss, but impressed me and changed me in ways I’m still discovering.”

A couple of central insights came out of Weber’s grief work.

First, he argues, drawing on his experience as a Chinese medicine practitioner, that “sitting with” loss and pain, comparable to fallowing in agriculture, leads to an inner enrichment and ultimately to a rebirth of energy and spirit. A desire to start again.

“We don’t grieve; grief does us,” is how he phrases this process.

Although he has worked with a therapist in the past, and has as well intensively studied the scientific literature of climate, he believes that in the end restorative action comes out of faith in “the community as guru.”

“Embracing our sadness softens our hearts and engenders compassion,” he writes, “allowing us to connect with others. Grief and love are two sides of the same coin.”

Along these lines, back in Ojai he launched a weekly “Climate Discussion and Support Group” to share about the climate emergency, which turned out to be a good move for not just himself, but for his community, and — arguably — for Ojai as well. (During the pandemic this group evolved into a general support group to help members struggling with issues raised by the coronavirus.)

that constant background noise of tree-trimming chainsaws.”

Weber points out that most advocates and climate scientists believe that to be effective, climate action inevitably must come from the top down and from the bottom up, meaning that one of the most important climate actions a person can take is to lobby one’s own government. Along those lines, with residents Kathryn Barron and Jeff Otterbein, among others, he formed a local chapter of the UK-based Extinction Rebellion, and in the aftermath of the Thomas Fire called on the Ojai City Council to declare a “climate emergency.”

“Ojai has a reputation as a green community,” he said. “We have a chance to be exemplary, in the US and around the world. Let’s really do this thing, let’s pump up the city council members to let them know how to inspire the community to do something great.”

Encouraged by presentations from Weber and many other activists, in July of 2019 the Ojai City Council declared a “climate emergency,” and empowered a committee to bring forward recommendations for action, including asking for “high-priority strategies to achieve emissions reductions at emergency speed.”

A year later the Climate Emergency Mobilization Committee brought forward a nine-page set of recommendations, including the electrification of buildings and the banning of new gas appliances hookups, as well as support for electric vehicles and the “envisioning of an Ojai free of internal combustion engines by 2030.”

“Meeting with the group put us in touch with that place in the heart that is hard to reach in the stresses of our daily lives,” he said.

“We need the containment and the support of other people. Grief flows most easily in the compassionate company of others.”

One attendee, artist Christine Brennan, credits Weber’s climate circle with helping her face up to the climate emergency here.

‘There’s a heartbreak about knowing what is going on with our climate,” she said. “Witnessing what is going on with our trees has been painful for me. I’m a board member of Ojai Trees and we see it all the time — so many trees are coming down, so many trees are not making it. The sun has become stronger and we can’t plant a tree anymore without assigning someone to take care of it. There’s a huge increase in the bugs that attack plants that are not thriving.

Ever since the Thomas Fire the amount of trees that need to be cut for fire damage or electric lines has been never-ending, so you have 56

Betsy Stix, elected Mayor of Ojai last November, thanks Weber, fellow activists including Ojai’s prominent clean power advocate OQ / SUMMER 2021

OQ | OF F T HE S HEL F Michelle Ellison, and former Mayor Johnny Johnston for moving local government to act on the climate emergency in Ojai. She thinks back to a heartfelt letter that Weber wrote the City Council in 2020 calling on Ojai as a model city to lead in the climate emergency.

Weber wrote that “the value of Ojai becoming a climate leader is not so much for the amount of carbon we will prevent from being released to an already carbon-saturated atmosphere, but for the example we set for larger municipalities to follow suit.”

Stix said found the letter inspirational. She called Weber back, and they had a good conversation on how to motivate the necessary changes. She adds that Ojai has started to take action to meet the climate emergency.

“Ojai led the county by being the first city to embrace 100 percent clean energy,” she said. “That was a great start. We have a long way to go, however, to attain exemplar status.”

Last October the Ojai City Council followed up on the mobilization committee’s recommendations by banning gas appliance hookups in new buildings, the first such community to do so in Ventura County. The measure passed by a 4-1 vote in the City Council, but Stix still feels that much more could be done if — as Weber says — more Ojaians and City Council members took the climate emergency to heart.

Pictured to the left: Chelsea Sutula, Ron Whitehurst, Aktom, Russell Sydney, Michelle Ellison, Liz Otterbein, Phil White (back), Kathryn Barron, Jeff Otterbein, Me, Anita Hendricks (smiley face above XR sign),

that those who get climate intellectually, emotionally, and instinctually take specific, effective action without delay. Those who only get it intellectually have real trouble making the tough choices recommended by our Climate Committee that are necessary to leave our children a habitable planet. The lack of climate urgency by some on our Council indicates that they just haven’t gotten there yet.”

Stix — and many climate activists — wants to see Ojai do much more, including the replacement of City equipment, infrastructure, and vehicles that reach the end of their useful life with zero emission alternatives. She wants to encourage a transition away from fossil fuels such as natural gas in our infrastructure, and hopes residents too can find ways to use zero or low emission transportation. She wants to see delivery fleets in the valley employed by the U.S. Post Office, Amazon, FedEx, and others go to zero emissions within a few years, and wants to see Ojai increase fire safety by replacing “incendiary, ember-producing non-native trees and shrubs with natives that are more fire resistant.”

Weber supports these recommendations, but isn’t inclined to wait.

He argues that our recent catastrophic national experience with COVID will turn out in its enormity to be a trial run for what is coming from the climate emergency. This could be a silver lining, at least in theory.

“I call it Lockdown with Benefits,” he said, referencing an essay he published on Medium by the same name in 2020. “Living in smaller local communities, and riding bikes and walking is a way to reclaim this life with minimal impact,” he writes in the essay, adding that people should fight for their right to work at home, among many other changes.

“It’s uncanny that coronavirus has provided a model for surviving climate crisis,” he argues.

Margot Davis (far right, holding sign and bag). Photo by Kit Stolz.

Although he is not confident that we will take this opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — which fell a record 12 percent last year in the U.S — nonetheless he vows that “I will continue lockdown with benefits — how to open up locally for myself, how to live respectfully, with time to grieve and to care for those around me. And I will invite my friends to join me.”

“Everyone on the Council is concerned about climate,” she said.

“How could we not be? Many people get climate intellectually. The question is, does one truly feel it in the body? What I’ve observed is

Weber continues to facilitate the Climate Change Discussion and Support Group every two weeks, as well as a seasonal Grief and Gratitude Circle in Ojai. Anyone interested in participating can contact Weber at jackadamweber@gmail.com for details.

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Ethically crafted clothing made by artisan tailors in India.

Natural fabrics cotton, linen, silk & bamboo.

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Ojai’s most unique Boutique

EELLS

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Collect Online at Eells.com Studio visits by appointment. • duane@eells.com

"Best little art and gift store in Ojai" c SE S

modern vintage gypsy rock fashion 310 EAST OJAI AVENUE 805.640.8884 SOULTONIC@ME.COM 58

323 E. Matilija Street . Ojai, California OPEN DAILY 11AM - 5:30PM poppiesartandgifts.com 805-798-0033 OQ / SUMMER 2021

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Boutique Hotels & Vacation Homes

Providing the Highest Quality Custom Residential & Commercial Architectural Design and Construction Services.

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OQ / SUMMER 2021

805.646.8485 www.whitman-architect.com 59

TAFT GARDENS AND PRESERVE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM

LEUCOSPERMUM, 2021, WALLPAPER PANEL ART MADE IN RESIDENCY BY CASSANDRA C. JONES

CASSANDRA C JONES

“KEEP YOUR LOVE OF NATURE, FOR THAT IS THE TRUE WAY TO ART MORE AND MORE.” 60

VINCENT VAN GOGH

UNDERSTAND

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STORY BY ELLEN SKLARZ

THROUGHOUT history, human beings have yearned to

create, often inspired by nature. From the

cave paintings of Lascaux to the ephemeral, performative sculptures of Andy Goldsworthy, artists have observed, engaged,

and used the earth’s natural elements to create their works.

The glorious, imposing beauty of the Ojai Valley’s land, skies and wildlife offer boundless inspiration for those like contemporary artist Cassandra C. Jones, who moved to the valley in 2012 with her husband, musician Mikael Jorgensen.

TAFT LEUCOSPERMUM

Six years ago, Jones discovered Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve while tagging along with Jorgensen, who was scouting OQ / SUMMER 2021

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for a location to shoot a music video. As they toured the property, Jones found an enormous seed pod on the ground that had fallen from an Australian Banksia tree. “It was a deep-gray color, oblong in shape, hairy, and covered end to end with what I could only describe as Muppet mouths,” recounts Jones.

“It seemed alien, and I was enchanted. I had not been on the grounds for more than 20 minutes before I thought, ‘I have to do a project here someday.’ “

Jaide Whitman, whose parents are hotelier Julia and architect Marc, grew up on the land adjacent to the storied 264-acre gardens established by her conservationist grandfather, her beloved “Opa,” John Taft. After graduating from university and traveling, she has come back home to Ojai. Whitman is currently president of the board of the Conservation Endowment Fund (CEF), the

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PHOTO BY MARC ALT

PHOTO BY CASSASANDRA C JONES

TAFT BANKSIA SEED

JOHN TAFT AND JAIDE WHITMAN

nonprofit that operates the garden, founded by Taft in 1981. She quietly embraces the gravity of her position as a steward of the land and her family’s legacy.

Whitman guides visitors throughout the gardens, explaining that in the past several years, “I’ve been becoming more involved to reinvigorate, not only the organization but also the land.

Obviously, this is my grandfather’s creation . . . he’s the visionary here. But the organization needed a new vision, a new direction and someone to lead. I stepped in and have had a wonderful time with my Opa. Since we’ve have been working together, he is as energetic and clear as ever. It’s all been really rewarding and so joyful for everyone.”

This past January, amid an incomparable year, CEF announced the creation of the Taft Gardens Art in Nature, Artist-in-Residence Program, and invited Jones to launch the series.

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Her work reflects a technology-based, often-self-absorbed, modern culture and her personal experience within that.

PHOTO BY MARC ALT

As her residency progressed, Jones drew inspiration from the extraordinary gardens, surrounding nature preserve, and magic of the land. From a post-Thomas Fire and post-pandemic perspective, her relationship to nature felt more visceral and complex.

In the studio, she developed a botanical series based on the flora of the South African and Australian gardens, using digital photo-collage to reimagine various plants in the style she has become known for since 2004. Visitors were encouraged to stop by — at a well-respected social distance —to see her progress and hear her story.

CASSASANDRA C JONES AT HER TAFT STUDIO

As the staff renovated a historic studio where artists could work, a newly formed arts board conceptualized how the residency would integrate with community engagement. Says Whitman, “The Artist-in-Residence program came very naturally as we have these spaces that have been searching for their purpose for the past 10 years. With Cassandra, we have a very synergistic relationship where her vision for her art mirrored our vision for how we wanted the space to be used. What this has done for us it to allow us to launch a program that empowers our local artists, and we do hope to continue to invite more artists into the residency as it grows.”

Jones refers to herself as a digital collage artist and storyteller.

She uses photography clippings, creating large-scale compositions in Photoshop with thousands of layers. These often end up as wallpaper installations, prints with small editions, and videos.

After the massive, month-long 2017 wildfire swept through the Ojai Valley, Jones’ house, family, and extended family were safe. However, after returning home from evacuation, she was overwhelmed by the toxicity in the air, which remained unsafe for several weeks. In her lucid, reflective artist’s statement, Jones says: “All the modern-day conveniences, technologies, and synthetics of our time, in all those houses, melted. They turned to acidic embers, harmful gases, and nanoplastics, and then they rose into the air, swirling in great plumes. When they reached as high as they could go up in the atmosphere, they gently floated down onto our landscape as the softest and smallest of relics.”

With much time spent indoors, Jones would look outside at the surrounding mountains, covered in ash. She deliberated and watched, saddened by the knowledge that the ash contained fragments of the possessions of those who lost their homes.

Those particles, she realized, would now become part of the natural world and new growth for hundreds or thousands of years.

Scientists worldwide are finding that we have dusted significant portions of our planet, from land to sea, with micro- and nanoplastics. They are present in the wildest landscapes and the most manicured gardens. While the research is new, it is becoming clear that these tiny particles can accumulate in the tissue of plants. With that understanding, Jones spent her time

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TAFT BARREL CACTUS - PHOTO BY CASSANDRA C. JONES

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at Taft Gardens portraying specimens from nature, infused with the stuff of humans.

She re-created a barrel cactus using photographs of beachballs, pincushion flowers (Leucospermum) from Mardi Gras beads and slinkies, and spider flowers (Grevillea) from sherbet-colored birthday balloons.

Although plastic was initially considered a miracle material that made modern life possible, single-use disposables might not be the only culprit. Jones wonders about all the additional “con-

sumerist items we use to celebrate, amuse and express ourselves as humans. What about the party supplies, games, toys, fashion, furniture, etc., I am most interested in these particular objects because they play small yet essential parts in shaping our identities and desires. And while they have limited lifespans and most often can never be recycled, because of their potency, they don’t seem so sinister.”

Jones reflects on local and global ambiance after the first lockdown. Most everywhere, the animal world became healthier and

ART MADE IN RESIDENCY BY CASSANDRA C. JONES BARREL, 2021, ARCHIVAL INK JET ON COTTON RAG, 30 IN X 30 IN, EDITION OF 2

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multiplied, the sounds of their joy replacing the dissonance of daily traffic. Skies were clear, air was purer, and mountains often obstructed by smog were visible. However, says Jones, “The silver lining of closed factories, parked cars and canceled flights was that there was a fleeting notion, globally, of some positive environmental impact. It felt like a step forward. But then we all promptly took ten steps back. One only has to look around to witness the epic rise in single-use plastic to combat the virus’s spread.”

Although Jones’ work and reflections are environmental, she does not intend to proselytize and is far from reproach. Instead, she explains, her art simply reminds us to understand where we

are today and how each of us can probably make better choices.

Clearly, the gardens have become her immersive teacher as this accidental horticulturalist enthusiastically strolls and zigzags, pointing out specific genera and species of the surrounding trees, plants and flowers. “When I got here,” Jones reflects, “The pandemic lockdowns and lost connections created holes in my life.

My time at Taft Gardens has been mending.”

The human condition and its impact on the natural world can be intrusive and catastrophic.

Conversely, human beings have also come together to protect endangered species, clean the lakes and seas, and help to regenerate, conserve and preserve the gifts and art of this extraordinary earth.

TAFT GREVELLIA, PHOTO BY MIKAEL JORGENSEN

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ART MADE IN RESIDENCY

BY CASSANDRA C. JONES GREVILLEA, 2021, WALLPAPER DETAIL

“. . . and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is enough, what is enough?”

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VINCENT VAN GOGH

not

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OQ | VIS UAL ARTI STS Perhaps it was potter and “the Mama of Dada” Beatrice Wood’s influence, going back nearly 90 years. Maybe it even goes back further, to the Chumash people’s ingenious and astounding artistry with basketry.

It’s clear that Ojai has long been a haven for artists. The natural beauty

RICHARD AMEND

Mysterious equations of abstraction, nature, architecture, and illumination rolled into the stillness and clarity of singular, psychological moments.

“Thought Form #1: Clearing.”

Oil on canvas, 48” x 36.”

Contact: amend@pobox.com or visit RichardAmend.net.

323-806-7995

PATRISH KUEBLER

is an artist who expresses herself in two strikingly different mediums: soft pastel and rich encaustic.

805-649-3050 PatrishKueblerFineArt.com

MARC WHITMAN

Original Landscape, Figure & Portrait Paintings in Oil. Ojai Design Center Gallery.

111 W Topa Topa Street. marc@whitman-architect. com. Open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

JOYCE HUNTINGTON

Intuitive, visionary artist, inspired by her dreams and meditations. It is “all about the Light.” Her work may be seen at Frameworks of Ojai, 236 West Ojai Ave, where she has her studio. 805-6403601 JoyceHuntingtonArt.com

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framed so well by the long arc and lush light of an east-west valley lends itself to artistic pursuits, as does the leisurely pace of life, the sturdy social fabric of a vibrant community and the abundant affection and respect for artists and their acts of creation.

SUSAN STINSMUEHLEN AMEND Paints on

CINDY PITOU BURTON

Photojournalist and editorial photographer, specializing in portraits, western landscapes and travel.

805-646-6263 798-1026 cell OjaiStudioArtists.org

clear glass with kilnfired enamels, mapping unpredictable rhythms of thought. Custom commissions for art & architecture welcome.

SusanAmend@pobox. com She is also on Facebook.

DUANE EELLS

KAREN K. LEWIS

Eells searches for beauty in his work. His paintings are about energy, empathy and connections. Bold strokes with classical drawing principles drive his work. Studio visits by appointment. Collect online at eells.com 805-633-0055

Painter and Printmaker of People, Places and Things.

Media: oil on canvas and printers’ ink on paper. lewisojai@mac.com.

805-646-8877 KarenKLewis.com

ELAINE UNZICKER

ROY P. GRILLO

Creating life-like highly detailed drawings and oil paintings of ballerinas, pet and people protraits.

805-450-3329 Roygrillo.com

Inspired by medieval chain mail — stainless jewelry, scarves, purses, belts and wearable metal clothing.

UnzickerDesign.com 805-646-4877

LISA SKYHEART MARSHALL

TOM HARDCASTLE

Rich oils and lush pastel paintings from Nationally awarded local artist.

805-895-9642

An Ojai valley artist making original watercolor+ink paintings with plants and flowers, birds and insects.

SkyheartArt.com

OQ / SUMMER 2021

OQ | A RT GA L L E RIES

FIRESTICK GALLERY Firestick Pottery provides classes, studio/kiln space and a gallery abundant with fine ceramics. 1804 East Ojai Avenue.

Open from 10 am to 6 pm every day. Gallery Open to the Public.

FirestickPottery.com 805-272-8760

NUTMEG’S OJAI HOUSE

Featuring local artists, including William Prosser and Ted Campos.

American-made gifts and cards, crystals, new and vintage goods.

304 North Montgomery OjaiHouse.com 805-640-1656

PORCH GALLERY

Contemporary Art in a Historic House.

310 East Matilija Avenue PorchGalleryOjai.com 805-620-7589 IG: PorchGalleryOjai

CHIRON HOUSE

Working with reclaimed, organic, local materials such as bones, clay and drawing on fabric and newsprint. “Datura / Kanye” (2019) bettynguyen.carbonmade.com

OVA ARTS

You haven’t seen Ojai until you visit us!

Local art of all types, unusual gifts, Ojai goods! Open daily 10-6. Closed Tues. 323 Matilija Street

DAN SCHULTZ FINE ART

Plein air landscapes, figures and portraits in oil by nationally-acclaimed artist Dan Schultz.

106 North Signal Street | 805-317-9634 DanSchultzFineArt.com

CANVAS AND PAPER

40+ LOCAL artists with a unique selection of contemporary fine arts, jewelry and crafts.

238 East Ojai Ave 805-646-5682 Daily 10 am – 6 pm OjaiValleyArtists.com

POPPIES ART & GIFTS

A non-profit exhibition space showing paintings and drawings from the 20th century and earlier in thematic and single artist exhibits. Hours: Thursday – Sunday noon – 5pm 311 North Montgomery Street canvasandpaper.org

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Dr. Drew eggebraten, DDs

general & family dentistry...

“We specialize in biomimetic principles. Biomimetic dentistry is the reconstruction of teeth to emulate their esthetic and natural form and function. It is the most conservative approach to treating fractured and decayed teeth — it keeps them strong and seals them from bacterial invasion. By conserving as much tooth structure as possible, we can eliminate the need for many crowns and root canals.”

Dr. Andrew Eggebraten, USC Graduate

Dr. Drew eggebraten, DDs

...for a better smile!

805-649-1137 110 E Portal Street Oak View, CA 93022 Fax: 805-649-1919

•

ojaidental@hotmail.com

•

www.dreweggebratendds.com

OQ | W I NE & DIN E

74 Ojai & vine Young Couple Keeps the Ojai Beat Alive at The Vine

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CHEF RANDY

Ojai Wine Map

The Garden Goddess Sandwich

By Chef Randy Graham

Wineries, Breweries & More

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Espresso

Breakfast

Lunch

CIAL CAF E SO

OJA I

Love is gre ater than everythi ng.

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205 N ort h Signa l St reet

Da il y 8am-2p m

LoveS ocia l Ca f e . com

M obil e Orders

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Ojai Cafe Emporium Ojai’s favorite gathering and eating place for over 30 years.

Voted Best Bakery, Breakfast & Lunch Place ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16

805 646 2723

108 S. Montgomery Street / off Ojai Ave www.ojaicafeemporium.com BREAKFAST Served All Day Every Day LUNCH Served Daily11am-3pm BAKERY & COFFEE BAR Open Daily 6:30am-3pm

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PHOTO BY CORINA RAINER

OQ | FOOD & DR I NK

STORY BY ILONA SAARI

For YEARS I lived on 55th Street between

First Avenue and Sutton Place on New York City’s East Side. More importantly, I lived two blocks

from two landmark taverns/bars/

saloons/pubs – whatever you want to call them, you know what it means.

VINE DIN 74

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OQ | FOOD & DR I NK

PHOTO BY TAYLOR KISER - EVOIIAI

PHOTO BY MARC BABIN

N ING OQ / SUMMER 2021

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OQ | FOOD & DR I NK

THE VINE’S KALE AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH CAESAR SALAD

Billy’s, two blocks south on First Avenue, was a thriving reporters’ hangout where the lights were low and drinks were made behind an antique, mahogany bar (mood ambience). As a very young rock journalist just old enough to drink, I loved soaking up the words from weathered newspapermen (yes, mostly men) who regaled stories behind the latest headlines over a Manhattan or martini. Sadly, Billy’s closed some years ago.

Two blocks west of my apartment on Third is the one and only, original P. J Clarke’s (a/k/a P.J’s or Clarke’s) which opened in 1884 and is still a thriving New York City watering hole.

Its dimly lit bar in the front of the tavern became famous in the old black-and-white movie, “Lost Weekend.” Though I’ve never spent a lost weekend there, I was a regular, along with the famous and infamous. Cheeseburgers and scotch sours were my usual food groups.

Moving to Los Angeles erased that East Coast saloon experience and was replaced with beautifully appointed, trendy wine bars/tasting rooms, craft cocktail or martini bars. But I longed for a more moody atmosphere. L.A. is really like a sprawling suburb, so I’m sure if I had hunted, I would have found a bar that fit that description … one that wasn’t stuck in the ‘50s … but I didn’t. Then I moved to Ojai and discovered The Vine.

The Vine is a bar/restaurant after my own heart with a classic tavern/saloon vibe. Low lighting sets the mood, as does its young new owners, Sam Gay and Amber Young-Gay, who are putting their “today” take on this popular Ojai venue.

Sam is a native Ojaian who graduated from Nordhoff High School, then left when he went to Penn State. He eventually returned and settled in the valley. Amber, a Northern California girl, spent a great deal of time growing up in Ojai due to her family’s involvement with The Thacher School “horse” program. She loved the valley and, when it was time for her to be on her own, she moved here and worked for the city before being wooed away by the Ojai Music Festival as an operations and events manager. Sam and Amber met at the Jester (a once popular pub and music venue – closed by the water main rupture 76

THE OWNERS OF THE VINE AMBER & SAM GAY

Moving to Los Angeles erased that East Coast saloon experience and was replaced with beautifully appointed, trendy wine bars/tasting rooms, craft cocktail or martini bars. But I longed for a more moody atmosphere. L.A. is really like a sprawling suburb, so I’m sure if I had hunted, I would have found a bar that fit that description… one that wasn’t stuck in the 5’0s… but I didn’t. Then I moved to Ojai and discovered The Vine.

The Vine is a bar/restaurant after my own heart with a classic tavern/saloon vibe. Low lighting sets the mood, as does its young new owners, Sam Gay and Amber Young-Gay, who are putting their “today” take on this popular Ojai venue.

Sam is a native Ojaian who graduated from Nordhoff high school, then left when he went to Penn State. He eventually returned and settled in the valley. Amber, a Northern California girl, spent a great deal of time growing up in Ojai due to her family’s involvement with the Thacher School “horse” program.

She loved the valley and, when it was time for her to be on her own, she moved here and worked for the city before being OQ / SUMMER 2021

OQ | FOOD & DR I NK

CLASSIC MEAT LOAF

GIN PIXIE COCKTAIL

wooed away by the Ojai Music Festival as an operations and events manager. Sam and Amber met at the Jester (a once popular pub and music venue — shut down by a burst pipe in 2014 that also shut down the Ojai Playhouse theater) owned by Nigel Chisholm. Post-Jester, Nigel bought The Vine and continued to pour great drinks and highlight terrific musicians. During a date night at The Vine, Sam proposed to Amber. They married in 2019.

That Vine-woven kismet continued when Nigel put his bar on the market and Sam and Amber bought it.

Not long after they took possession, the pandemic shuttered the saloon doors. But these new owners wanted to use the restaurant to help those in the valley who were at risk for Covid and were forced to stay home. They joined California’s Great Plates program which provides three meals a day to those shut-ins. For Ojai, Sam and Amber coordinated their deliveries to those folks with Help of Ojai. Call it a gourmet “meals on wheels.” They also provided take-out meals, cocktails and wine. When outdoor

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PHOTO BY WESLEY TINGEY

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PULLED PORK SLIDERS WITH MANGO MUSTARD

dining returned, they enlarged the patio area, turning it into a charming, European-flavored area with strings of lights hanging above and potted plants along the fencing. Diners can now enjoy an expansive view of the open plaza beyond the patio.

Their bar/tavern/saloon/restaurant philosophy is the old ‘50s motto: “Cook like it’s for your mom, pour like it’s for your dad.”

With their doors now open (and, hopefully, to stay open) Sam, bartender extraordinaire at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa (and now The Vine), is introducing new vineyards to its wine tasting hours from 1 to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, as well as developing BLUESMAN TD LIND PLAYING AT THE VINE

78

a few Vine signature drinks such as his gin, pixie cocktail made with pixie juice, lemon juice, lemongrass syrup and Sunday gin, served in a champagne coupe.

Amber and Sam (who worked as a part-time line-cook in college) do most of the cooking and are continually experimenting and revising the small menu which they call “American Classics with a twist,” a real culinary challenge in the bar’s tiny kitchen which holds only an oven and a hot plate in lieu of a stovetop to cook on. Together they have invented or recreated new ways to serve the menu’s classic dishes, including a traditional meatloaf with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots, “grown-up” hot pockets DAN GRIMM & CREW AT THE VINE

OQ / SUMMER 2021

ROASTED TOMATOES FORM THE BASIS OF THE BURRATA AND CROSTINI DISH

(eg: vegetarian curry and southwest beef pockets) and vegetarian three-bean chili. Also included on the menu: a roasted tomato-and-burrata dish served with crostini, pulled pork sliders with mango mustard on mini brioche buns, a farmers market veggie board, three delicious salad creations, and more.

plan to bring back live and lively music as soon as it’s safe for the musicians and their patrons. They have continued the traditional Tuesday Trivia Night and have added various special event nights, including a once-a-month “Cocktails & Crafts” night in conjunction and in support of Poppies Arts & Gifts store.

The desserts: “Mom’s Cakes” which change daily and are lovingly baked by Sam’s mom … plus Amber’s “quarantine chocolate chip cookies” which comes with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry.

With its revitalized outside patio and its inside intimate table settings and a bar ready to salute and saloon you with new wines, new food choices, and new craft cocktail concoctions by fresh and some familiar faces, The Vine is ready to cook, pour and imbue Ojai with new life on the vine.

The Vine was once a thriving music venue and these new owners TUESDAY TRIVIA NIGHT

THE PATIO OVERLOOKS THE ARCADE PLAZA

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“...The feel is fun, energetic & evokes the perfect Ojai picnic...”

469 E. Ojai Ave.

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www.OjaiRotie.com

805–798–9227

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Celebrating 32 Years Breakfast

•

Lunch

•

Dinner

Open Daily 8 am to 10 pm (Call for summer hours) Home of the $2.50 Mimosas and $4 Bloody Marys and Margaritas. All Day, Everyday.

Sea FreSh SeaFood

Restaurant, Sushi Bar and Fresh Fish Market

805-646-7747

• 533 E. Ojai Avenue, Ojai

CRAFTED IN OJAI SPROUTED SNACKS, SPREADS & GRANOLA

www.larkellenfarm.com

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illage marketplace

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C H E F R A N DY

CHIPOTLE HONEY-VINAIGRETTE CAPRESE SALAD PREP 15 MIN

COOK 0 MIN

SERVES 2

EASY

Here’s a fun and different recipe for those fresh tomatoes in your garden. It is a spicy takeoff of the classic Italian Caprese Salad. It includes fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Then I substitute avocado slices for the basil leaves and add a spicy vinaigrette with chipotle adobo sauce and a touch of honey. When I first described it to Robin she asked, “Why ruin a perfectly good Caprese salad?” One taste and she understood perfectly why. One word of caution. Well, more than one word. Purchase a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and only use the sauce (not the peppers) unless you like it super spicy! This recipe makes two salads. Recipe may be doubled to serve four or more.

INGREDIENTS: • 3 tablespoons red

• 8 ounces fresh moz-

• 2 tablespoons honey

¼-inch thick)

wine vinegar

• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• ½ teaspoon dried oregano

• ¾ teaspoons salt

• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon chipotle adobo sauce • 1 garlic clove (minced)

zarella cheese (sliced

DIRECTIONS: Combine the first eight ingredients (through garlic) in a mini food processor and process until smooth. Set this dressing aside.

toes (sliced ¼-inch

Arrange tomatoes and mozzarella in a circular design around the edge of a chilled salad plate. Overlay avocado slices in the center of the plate. Drizzle chipotle dressing over salad and garnish with cilantro.

• 1 ripe avocado

Tip: Substitute agave nectar for the honey and this is a vegan recipe!

• 2 large ripe tomathick)

(peeled, pit removed

and sliced lengthwise into wedges)

• 2 tablespoons

cilantro (chopped for garnish)

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OQ | OJA I W I NE MA P CASA BARRANCA ORGANIC WINERY & TASTING ROOM Historic Downtown Arcade. Stop by and relax in Casa Barranca’s Craftsman style-designed tasting room.

Taste our award-winning wines made with organically grown grapes, also our USDA certified wines containing no added sulfites!

Join our Wine Club!. 208 East Ojai Avenue, 805-640-1255. OPEN DAILY: Sunday — Thursday 1 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday until 1-7 p.m. CasaBarranca.com or facebook.com/casabarranca.

VENTURA SPIRITS Ventura Spirits is a California Craft Distillery specializing in distilled spirits inspired by the native and cultivated flora of California’s Central Coast. We offer distillery tours and tastings of our award winning spirits in our new onsite tasting room. For more information or to contact us please visit: venturaspirits.com, email to: info@ venturaspirits.com or call us at: (805) 232-4313

TOPA MOUNTAIN WINERY Topa Mountain Winery offers handcrafted wines made from grapes grown on its estate in upper Ojai and sourced from other premium vineyards in the region. Located on two acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, Topa Mountain Winery has been voted Ventura County’s best Tasting Room two years in a row, is family and dog friendly and offers live music every Saturday and Sunday. TopaMountainWinery.com

OJAI OLIVE OIL Ojai’s no. 1 rated visitor experience, our Olive Mill & Tasting Room is open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for free tastings and shopping. We also offer free guided tours on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Visit an organic family permaculture farm and learn everything about extra virgin oil. We also have balsamic vinegars, olive trees, skin care products and more. No reservations required, pets welcome. 1811 Ladera Road , Ojaioliveoil.com, 805-646-5964.

BOCCALI VINEYARDS & WINERY is a family-owned and operated winery located in the scenic Upper Ojai Valley.

Father and son winemakers DeWayne and Joe Boccali are the driving forces behind the label. Boccali Vineyards produces 100 percent estate wines; grown, produced and bottled at Boccali Ranch. Visit us in Ojai’s East End on weekends for a tasting at 3277 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai. Visit us on the web at BoccaliVineyards.com.

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OLD CREEK RANCH WINERY Old Creek Ranch Winery is Ventura County’s only rural winery situated on an 850-acre ranch in the Ojai Valley. A tasting room as well as lawns and guest areas with handcrafted chairs and couches, surrounded by lush landscaping, have been designed for relaxing and enjoying fine wines. Pack a picnic, gather up the kids and dog, and head to the Ranch! A selection of 25+ red and white varietals are available for wine tastings and purchase.

Check oldcreekranch.com for a schedule of live music and food trucks.

Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Located at 10024 Old Creek Road, Ventura, CA 93001. 805-649-4132. OldCreekRanch.com OQ / SUMMER 2021

MAJESTIC OAK VINEYARD Hidden in the stunning Ojai Valley, the Majestic Oak Vineyard is deeply rooted on land our family has held for decades. As fifth generation Ojai-ans, we had a dream of bringing you the quintessential Ojai experience — something as beautiful and unique as the Valley itself. We believe a great bottle of wine represents the hard work that goes into it. From the land, to our hands, to your table, we are proud to offer you our labor of love. We invite you to be part of our legacy.

321 East Ojai Avenue (downstairs), 805-794-0272, MajesticOakVineyard.com.

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OJAI ALISAL’S handcrafted wines are made only with grapes we grow in Upper Ojai. We grow Syrah, Grenache, Malbec and Viognier in our beautiful vineyards dotted with California walnuts and sycamores (or Alisal in Spanish), bringing the spirit of the Rhone region to California. Please visit our Weekend Tasting Room at Azu Restaurant, 457 East Ojai Ave, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m.. For more information 805-640-7987 or online at OjaiAlisal.com and AzuOjai.com.

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Parker Bowles Chronicles

BERNADETTE & NICK

BEYOND THE ARCADE MAP

The Veteran & The Veterinarian Emma Parker Bowles

Ojai Artist & Her Pioneer Connection

By Mark Lewis

Street Map & Landmark Businesses

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BY EMMA PARKER BOWLES

I LOVE dogs. I mean I REALLY love dogs. And I love people who love dogs. Ojai is stuffed full of people who really love their dogs and it makes my heart happy. I see you, dog loving people. Driving by in your cars with your dog’s head poking out the window, enjoying the wind in its hair. Striding briskly past me down at the river bottom of a morning, or hiking up Cozy Dell or Shelf Road, or just strolling through town. I see you going hither and thither with your trusty canine companions at your side. There go my people, I say.

I would even go so far as to say that I am OBSESSED with dogs.

Obviously, I am completely obsessed with my own dogs, my motley crew, my dog-pound delights. Buddy (a.k.a. Budweasel, King Tut Tut, Budzuki Captain of 88

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the Budzukoids) who is a border terrier mix and 16 years old (sob!) and is the sweetest, kindest gentlemen you ever could meet without a bad bone in his body. Unlike Flash-Baby (a.k.a. Baby Fishcakes, Flycoco-Lion, Fig Tree, The Lion of the Lord) a brindle Dachshund and Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a long chunky body and short legs — a body type I really appreciate in a dog — who is a little shit. He is stubborn, disobedient and obnoxious and wants to bite men in work boots, but I think the sun shines out of his you know what.

He is my everything and has protected my child since the day she was born like a little gangster bodyguard.

could no longer NOT write about him. Even though he didn’t really want me to, and I had to bully and harass him into it.

Blame the baby rabbit. I happened upon it early one morning in my car. It was sitting in the middle of the road and breathing heavily. One highly illegal u-turn later, I saw that it had been through some kind of trauma, because his head was covered in lacerations and there was blood coming out of his mouth. I scooped him up, wrapped him in my hoodie and drove him to Matilija Vet Hospital, where Dr. Bailey has worked his magic since 1994. Dr. Bee started the hospital in 1955 and was the first vet in Ojai and Dr. Bailey’s neighbour.

Then I have Little Moon (Moocan the Toucan or Clunky) who looks like a white wolf but he has no eyes (f*ck you claucoma) which scares small children, but he is the bravest creature I have ever encountered. And the newest addition is an elderly German Shepherd called Erica (Erie Erie Lemoncelli) who is a hot mess but she would follow me into the raging fires of hell and lay down her life for me. Unlike Flash-baby who would possibly sell me out for a steak dinner.

I left the baby bunny at the hospital and thought it would be the case of it being

Now four dogs might seem excessive to you, but given that I have probably fostered over 100 dogs over the years, I don’t think four is an unreasonable amount to end up with.

But I am also obsessed with dogs in general. Talking about dogs, thinking about dogs, reading about dogs and looking at dogs.

Any shape or size or age or condition, show me a dog and I will love it. Tiny human babies? Leave me cold. Puppies? Transport me to another dimension of joy. The road to my heart is most definitely paved with paws. Would I run a marathon to raise money for a worthy human cause? Possibly not. But climb Mount Everest on my hands and knees, backwards, wearing only a woolly hat, to save the life of one dog? Where do I sign?

I can watch a sad human people movie like “Beaches” or “Out of Africa” and my eyes will remain as dry as the Gobi desert. Show me a sad dog movie like “Marley and Me” or, and what were you thinking when you made this film you psychopath, “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and I will be bawling like a newborn baby.

It’s not just dogs that I love, but all animals. In fact, I will probably die petting something that I shouldn’t. I just have a deep love for all creatures great and small, and my home has long been a revolving door to anything furry or feathered that might need a port in the storm. I would do anything for an animal in need, and it was such an animal that took my adoration for Ojai’s own veterinarian Dr. Matt Bailey to a whole new level, and meant I

peacefully euthanized. But no. Dr. Bailey spent half an hour tending to it, sewing it back up like a child’s toy. And when it had recovered, Lisa who works in the office took it home and released it at the end of her garden. She still sees him to this day, bouncing around with his new rabbit family and clearly identifiable by the scars he still bears on his head. Very “Watership Down. “ Obviously, we can’t all drop off every injured animal we find with Dr. Bailey, because the man already works from 8 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. with call-outs and emergencies on top of that. (And a big shout out to the rest of the Matilija Vet Hospital family — Dr. Christina Tollmie and Dr. Linda Bogart, who both have their own devotees, and Lisa, Sexy Liz, Elizabeth, Denise, Ali, Kara, Chris and Kiley.)

But the point is, this is the moment when I became a die-hard Dr. Bailey fan. Not only is he an excellent vet with a real gift with animals, but he is one of the nicest men in Ojai. I asked my

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friend Elizabeth who works at the surgery if he was as nice as he seemed. And she said he is even better. However, it is not just his clients that love him, but anyone who has met him. I can’t tell you the amount of people I have met who have a sweet story about Dr. Bailey. Even Gary, who works at Meiner’s Oaks, gas station is a fan and he is a tough crowd.

“I trained the first woman to fly an F16.” What? At this point I honestly almost spontaneously combusted with excitement.

And I am just going to put this out there, but Dr. Bailey is also a total dish, as we say back in England. And by which I don’t mean a vessel to eat off. Dishy is a man who is pleasing to the eyeballs. And I think all of his clients — woman, man, dog, cat would agree. Even though he is “poking them with needles and cutting their nuts off,” animals love him, too. I even saw a pet chicken giving him goo-goo eyes. In fact, I think I need to start a Dr. Matt Bailey Fan Club, of which I will be President. We can be called The Bailettes. And we can have T-shirts with his face on and maybe even a wall calendar with Dr. Bailey holding a different animal every month.

Of course, Dr. Bailey would be mortified by this kind of chat. Amused, because he has an excellent sense of humor, but mortified nonetheless. He is a no-nonsense, low-key dude. He is also a man of a few words. Still waters run deep. Sigh. However, he doesn’t sugarcoat stuff and will tell you how it is, but in the nicest possible way.

He is also a wild Mountain Man and when the mountains call to him, he will pack up and head out on adventures into the Sespe Wilderness and beyond. And every time he comes back he will bring his wife Michele a rock in the shape of a heart.

How romantic? It is almost more than my own heart can take. But if you have met Michele, then you would be collecting heart rocks for her, too. She is magnificent. I am obsessed with her. When I drove ‘round to their house on a sunny Sunday morning I was wondering to myself what she was like. I was not prepared for the 6-foot-tall blond goddess that came striding out of the kitchen. She had me at Hello.

That is Captain Bailey to you and I. Because Michele was a Captain in the Air Force. Originally from Sacramento, she went into the military after she got her Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, with an emphasis on space and aerospace, and then after two years working for NASA, she joined the Air Force. “I went in as an Aerospace Physiologist so I trained pilots about everything that happens to their bodies when they fly jets.”

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FORMER AIR FORCE CAPTAIN MICHELE BAILEY

Not only is it one of the coolest things I have ever heard, but as a die-hard O.G. “Top Gun” fan, this is beyond delightful. I want to scream “Top Gun” quotes at her “This Bogey is all over me” and “I feel the need for speed.” The volleyball sequence in “Top Gun” is cinematic perfection and I watched it so many times I wore out the VHS tape.

She never got to fly in the F16 — she was 15 minutes from getting ready to head out but they pulled the flight — but she flew in the T37s and T38s, which are tandem seat, twinengined supersonic jets and that is pretty cool if you ask me.

Which is why I begged her to let me include the photograph of her standing in front of the T-38 in all of her glorious, OQ / SUMMER 2021

inspiring radness so I could share it with you. You’re welcome.

So how did these two dreamboats find each other?

boots and he looked like a Californian with his bowl hair cut.”

He was also able to discuss permeating the blood-brain barrier.

Bye Bye Mr. Cowboy from Arkansas, you head on back to your cattle now.

Captain had no plans on settling down, especially with a boy from back home. “I wanted to travel. I really did fight it in the beginning. But … good catch!” So she left the Air Force in 1994 and they both returned to Ojai, where Dr. Bailey had been offered a job by Dr. Lyons at the practice where he had been working summers and weekends at for his whole life. Cut Dr. Bailey and he bleeds the Pink Moment. “We made the best decision and Ojai gets in your blood,” said Michele. They raised three children here in Ojai, all of them super humans.

Obviously, I really wanted to see a photo of them all but I didn’t want to be creepy. There is Austin (check spelling) who is 25 and a 6’10” engineer; Katie 23, who has just finished Fire Academy and is back working for Santa Barbara County this summer — “she is 6’3” and tall and strong, stronger than me,” says Dr. Bailey — and Mattie, 20, who has a poet’s heart and is at Pepperdine University.

“I always tell my kids that training fighter pilots is a piece of cake. Raising three kids? That’s the hardest job I have ever had in my whole life.” Michele has also been a teacher at Ventura College for 27 years and was swim coach for 8 years at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club and for eight years at Villanova. So, what is it like being married to the nicest man in Ojai? “He is a love.

It is like being married to the Mayor. And people have called him the Mayor. Everywhere I go people will stop me and talk to me about him.” Dr. Bailey says, “Luckily Michele is ‘a talker.’

You wouldn’t have many words if she wasn’t here.”

DR. MATT BAILEY WITH A PATIENT

Well, Captain Michele Shaffer met Matt Bailey over a quarterhorse named George. Captain Shaffer was stationed in Mississippi and Matt Bailey was studying to be a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University. “I asked when I moved to Mississippi, ‘What do y’all do for fun here?’ and they said ‘We ride horses,’ so I bought a horse.” And through George the Horse she met a friend who ended up taking her to a freshman veterinary school party.

“She wanted me to meet a boy but it wasn’t you,” she says to Dr. Bailey. “She was going to introduce me to this cowboy from Arkansas. But then I saw Matt again and we really hit it off.

And he was cute. He was wearing his short pants and his little

DR. MATT & MICHELE BAILEY

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BERNADETTE & HER FATHER, ARMANDO, IN 1952 ON THE FAMILY FARM

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UKRAINIAN EGGS ARE ANOTHER OF BERNADETTE’S SPECIALTIES

BY MARK LEWIS

Ojai’s unique natural environment — its terroir — inspires creative people to do creative things. Some make wine, some make art. Bernadette DiPietro falls into the latter category, but she also grew up with an Italian immigrant grandfather who grew grapes and made wine. So, when she found herself living on the site of Ojai’s first vineyard and winery, she was intrigued, and began digging into its history. Turns out that Ojai’s original winemaker, Nick Walnut, had a lot in common with her grandfather.

“I’VE OFTEN wondered if I conjured up the house that Nick built on Reeves Road,” Bernadette wrote in a memoir. “I knew from the moment I saw it that there was something mysterious about it.” Actually, she first was intrigued by the house’s driveway, which she drove past while

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en route to the Ojai Valley School Upper Campus, where she taught fine art for 32 years.

“I would pass its driveway twice a day on my way to work, and would look down the long curving dirt road between the orange and olive trees, and say to myself, ‘There has got to be a house down there for me.’ ”

was large, multigenerational and very Italian. As a child, Bernadette “was influenced by the cooking of her mother, the love of gardening from her grandfather, the business sense of her grandmother, and the creative mind of her father,” she wrote on her website.

The DiPietros lived in a very urban setting, Bernadette told the OQ in an interview, “but we also had a 36-acre farm that we would go to on the weekend. We as a family would go and milk the cows and feed the chickens.”

That farm also served as Grandpa Giuseppe’s vineyard and winery.

“They had about an acre of grapes out there,” she said.

Closer to home, Grandpa Giuseppe cultivated two vegetable gardens, one on either side of the DiPietros’ apartment building.

NICK NOCE, CENTER, IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE HE BUILT

“He grew beautiful red and green chard, eggplants, red and green peppers, red leaf lettuce, green beans, basil, squash, zucchini and delicious red tomatoes,” Bernadette recalled in another memoir. “How wonderful to spend time with grandfather singing as I picked weeds and he planted.”

Then as now, Bernadette lived in a charming, bamboo-shaded cottage on West Aliso Street, a short walk from the downtown Arcade. But in the fall of 1998, a new neighbor’s constantly barking dogs were annoying her, so she put out word to friends that she might be willing to rent out her place. The artist Jennifer Moses expressed interest, but Bernadette had not yet lined up a new home for herself, and she did want to move to just any place. She wanted something special.

After attending the University of Pittsburgh, Bernadette launched dual careers in art and art education. She specialized in batik, a technique originating in Indonesia that produces colorful patterns on textiles or paper. By 1971 she was leading batik workshops on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, N.Y. But winters in those parts are fierce and long. When she received a letter that spring from a friend who had moved to Santa Barbara, a lightbulb switched on in Bernadette’s brain.

“I responded with, ‘Oh, I am waiting for the house of my dreams, and then I will move out.’ With that she said, ‘Well, there is a house in the East End for rent, but it’s too far out of town for me. Maybe you would like to check it out.’ When I discovered that the rental was situated at the end of that mysteriously beckoning driveway, I didn’t hesitate for a moment in taking it.”

“She said, ‘I’m lying on the beach,’ ” Bernadette recalled. “In Ithaca, we were shoveling snow in May.”

Born in Pittsburgh in 1947, Bernadette grew up in a multistory apartment over a bar owned by her grandparents, Giuseppe and Rosaria DiPietro, who had immigrated from Italy. The family 96

Bernadette went west to visit her friend, and left winter behind for good. A visit to Ojai settled the detail of exactly where in Southern California she would land: “I came up to Ojai and just never left.”

But in 1998 she did leave downtown Ojai, for what turned out to be a three-year sojourn in the wilds of the rural East End. OQ / SUMMER 2021

NICK’S WINERY, BY BOB RENE, CIRCA 2000

he struck it rich. Alas, he fell somewhat short of that financial goal. When Ojai pioneer rancher Tom Clark visited the Santa Clara Valley in 1872 to find workers for his threshing crew, Nick readily agreed to relocate to the Ojai Valley, where gold was scarce but work, at least, was plentiful.

While threshing for Clark in the Upper Valley, Nick staked a homestead claim to 160 acres in the nearby East End, where he planted grapevines and started making and selling wine. By the mid-1880s, he was a full-time winemaker, the first in Ojai’s history.

“He was a bluff and bearded old chap, big hearted and generous, who called every woman in the valley his wife and humorously referred to all the children as his own,” E.M. Sheridan recalled in the local newspaper in 1925. “He was ranked with Robinson Crusoe because of his huge brushy beard and isolated life. He grew grapes and made wine; also he drank freely of his wine, but never hesitated to invite in the passer-by and divide his provender with him.”

Nick’s winery earned him a living, but apparently not one that much impressed his wife and sons. At some point they joined him in Ojai, but soon went back to Italy, and over the years lost touch with their paterfaBERNADETTE’S GRANDPARENTS, GIUSEPPE AND ROSARIA DIPIETRO milias. Nick never saw them again. When he died at 73 on Nov. 30, 1898, he left his ranch to a neighbor’s young son, Willie Thompson. Perhaps that was as That rental house at the end of the mysterious Reeves Road close as Nick could get to bequeathing his beloved winery to a driveway belonged to Topa Topa Ranch, which had acquired it son of his own. as part of a 160-acre parcel that once belonged to a gentleman Per his instructions, Nick was buried on his ranch beneath an who had much in common with Grandpa Giuseppe. olive tree he had planted himself, within a rectangle of native stones that mark his final resting place. Among those in attendance that day were Ventura County Sheriff Bob Clark and NICOLA NOCE County Supervisor Tom Clark, descendants of the rancher Tom Clark who originally had brought Nick to Ojai; and the three came to America from Italy in 1858 to seek his fortune in CalThacher brothers, Edward (founder of Topa Topa Ranch), Sherman (founder of the Thacher School) and William (founder of ifornia’s gold-mining districts. Noce is Italian for walnut, so he the Ojai Tennis Tournament.)

Americanized his name as Nick Walnut.

The 33-year-old immigrant had left behind a wife and several sons, apparently with the idea that he would send for them after

“Nick is at rest among the rocks of his vineyard, at the spot he chose long ago to lie in,” Edward wrote afterward in the news-

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paper. “An olive tree grows thriftily at his feet, with great rocks behind it, and his vines are all about. If the pruners will be so far indulgent, the nearer vines will send long canes over the grave and weave a canopy of luxuriant green, in token of his right to lodge there. … He walked honestly, he worked bravely, he loved and helped his fellows. Therefore his track shines behind him, and as often as we cross it hereafter, we may well think of Nick with affection, and take the sermon of human fellowship which the memory of him will ever furnish.”

In death as in life, Nick continued to exert an influence on his vineyard and winery. Or so one might conclude from the suspicious coincidence that many subsequent owners had Italian surnames (Sarzotti, Carfi, Simoni) and continued to make wine on the property. Finally, however, the place passed into the arms of Topa Topa Ranch, and grapes gave way to avocadoes and oranges. Nick’s bones still reposed beneath his olive tree, but the memory of him faded. Thus passed the years until 1998, the centennial of his death, when another person with an Italian surname rented Nick’s old house and began looking into his legacy.

“I LATER DISCOVERED that the day I moved in was exactly the 100th anniversary to the day of Nick’s death,” Bernadette wrote in her memoir. “There was evidence of Nick’s activity, ingenuity and work all over the property. Knowing that he was now buried peacefully below the spreading olive tree surrounded by the boulders he moved to his final resting spot was curiously comforting.”

Less comforting were the wild predators who disputed possession of the property with her. In place of her Aliso Street neighbor’s barking dogs, Bernadette now had to contend with howling coyotes, rattle-shaking rattlesnakes and growling mountain lions, along with rats, turkey vultures and silent black bears who left tracks in the night.

One evening, she lost her beloved cat Louise to one of these predators.

“Shortly after Louise’s disappearance I disturbed several turkey vultures on the side of the dirt driveway beyond the mailboxes as I drove home. Thinking that I might find the remains of Louise, I stopped the car and saw the remains of the vertebrae of a 5-foot king snake with its flesh eaten away. Later that day when I returned to the scene all evidence was gone. Absolutely nothing left. I then realized that in the balance of nature, substance yields to memory. On Nick’s land, this process happens very quickly.”

Nick himself was only a memory, but his remains were still pres98

BERNADETTE AT NICK’S GRAVE

ent, buried beneath his olive tree.

“I would go over and put flowers on his grave. I always sensed him still being there.”

Life in the rustic East End presented many challenges, including forest fires. The Ranch Fire of 1999 erupted a few days before Christmas, and only 10 days after Bernadette’s insurer had cancelled her renter’s fire insurance. She was forced to flee at 3 a.m. when the flames crested the hill behind her house.

“As I drove away that night with a few belongings in my car, I envisioned rows of angels surrounding the house with staffs in their hands. I returned to my house as morning broke to see it still standing, and on the living room floor sat a small book that had fallen off the bookshelf during the night, titled ‘Angels.’ ” OQ / SUMMER 2021

BERNADETTE’S “DANCING,” AN EXAMPLE OF HER BATIK

So she stayed on, and cultivated a garden in Nick’s former vineyard, and tended it as she had once seen her Grandpa Giuseppe tend his own gardens, back in the Pittsburgh of her youth.

“The house awakened new sensitivities in me,” she wrote. “I jumped out of bed at the break of dawn so as not to miss anything or any part of the day. I rushed home from work to sit on the front porch that overlooked the valley with Chief Peak adjacent to my front door so that I could observe every nuance of the changing light. I would sit alone for hours absorbing the luxurious quiet and inspirational beauty of this land. … The house that Nick built was the house of my dreams, and I would tell visiting friends that I wanted to live there until I died.”

No such luck. After only three-and-a-half years in residence, Bernadette had to move out so that a Topa Topa Ranch employee could

move in. She returned to her little bamboo-shaded place in town near the Arcade, where she remains today. This year makes her 50th anniversary in Ojai, and she has passed 45 of those years on West Aliso Street. Yet those three years on Reeves Road left their mark on her.

She still turns down that driveway occasionally to visit Nick’s grave.

“That long inviting driveway that once beckoned me also forced me into the cycles of life and death,” she wrote. “Its location was wild, sometimes brutal, and yet breathtakingly gorgeous. Only four miles from the center of downtown Ojai, I encountered the spirit of Nick Noce. In the remains of his ancient grapevines and his 100-year-old olive trees, I found a place where hopes, dreams and cold realities mixed to rebirth, regenerate and inspire. With beauty and death at the front and back doors, the house that Nick built on Reeves Road will always be a sacred space to me as I’m sure it was to him.”

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BRE License #01962469

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and private patio. With 5-bedrooms including a 2-bedroom separate entrance suite upstairs, there’s lots of room for creativity; offices, etc. With fruit trees and lots of land, just sit back or swim and savor the peace and solitude of dreamy Ojai living. Incredible views, exquisitely designed, custom-built home, owned solar, whole house water filtration system and alarm system in place!

Joan Roberts 805-223-1811

roberts4homes@gmail.com 727 W. Ojai Avenue Ojai, California, 93023

CalBRE# 00953244 © 2020 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. All data, including all measurements and calculations are obtained from various sources and has not and will not be verified by Broker. All information shall be independently reviewed and verified for accuracy. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty is independently owned and operated and supports the principals of the Fair Housing Act.

639 WEST VILLANOVA ROAD, OJAI | $1,250,000

1489 FOOTHILL RD, OJAI |$1,999,000

165 FELIZ DR, OAK VIEW | $1,300,000

A quiet peaceful retreat, tucked away on a private elevated knoll placed to maximize the property’s 360 degree exceptional views! Nestled at the base of Ojai mountains, with hiking/biking trails, just minutes from Ojai village. The multi-room master features a walk-in closet plus a view office and private patio. With 5-bedrooms including a 2-bedroom separate entrance suite upstairs, there’s lots of room for creativity; offices, etc.

With fruit trees and lots of land, just sit back or swim and savor the peace and solitude of dreamy Ojai living. Incredible views, exquisitely designed, custom-built home, owned solar, whole house water filtration system and alarm system in place!

Amazing mountain VIEW property, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Nestled in the hills in a quiet neighborhood, convenient to Ojai, Ventura or Santa Barbara, it’s a special home with rare artistic features. Wood & travertine floors, open kitchen, massive windowed family room flowing outside to view patios. Upstairs bed and bath with mountain views and balcony. Also includes 1+1 guest quarters or home office.

Joan Roberts 805 -223 -1811 CalBRE# 00953244

roberts4homes@gmail.com 727 W. Ojai Avenue Ojai, California, 93023

Long private driveway to a park-like serene world with mountain views. Solid built 1954 3 + 2 home has massive windows to let the outside in for a natural relaxing environment. Open floor plan flows out to the patios for a seamless convenient lifestyle. You will fall in love the moment you step in! Newer expanded dream kitchen has a wall of windows for natural light, LED lighting, large island work space and plenty of storage. Fruit trees and vegetable gardens are steps out the kitchen door with room for much more. Expanded master suite, owned solar panels. A large classic AirStream is included.

© 2021 LIV Sotheby’s International Realty. All rights reserved. All data, including all measurements and calculations are obtained from various sources and has not and will not be verified by Broker. All information shall be independently reviewed and verified for accuracy. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty is inde- pendently owned and operated and supports the principals of the Fair Housing Act.

LACHELLE BOUVIER AUTHENTIC OJAI DESIGN

Now available at

frontier paint

227 Baldwin Rd., Ojai 805-646-0459

Born & raised in Ojai 93023 lachellebouvier.com 104

@lachellebouvier

www.frontierpaint.biz OQ / SUMMER 2021

Come Find Your Shangri La

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Delivery Starting June 15th Save 20% at checkout w/ Code: OjaiQuarterly20 * *One Use Per Customer - Discounts Do Not Stack

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21+ w/ Valid ID 18+ w/ Medical ID

STATE PERMIT # C10-0000474-LI 105

1. Azu Restaurant & Ojai Valley Brewery 457 East Ojai Ave. 640-7987 2. Bart’s Books 302 W. Matilija Street - corner of Cañada Street.

646-3755 3. Besant Hill School 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road 646-4343

The Ranch House

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4. Ojai Music Festival 201 South Signal 646-2094

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5. Boccali’s Restaurant 3277 Ojai-Santa Paula Road 646-6116 6. Emerald Iguana Inn Located at north end of Blanche Street 646-5276 7. Genesis of Ojai 305 East Matilija Street 746-2058

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8. OVA Arts 238 East Ojai Avenue 646-5682 18

9. Ojai Rotie 469 East Ojai Ave. 805-798-9227

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10. Ojai Art Center 113 South Montgomery Street 646-0117

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11. Nutmeg’s Ojai House 304 North Montgomery St. 640-1656 12. Ojai Café Emporium 108 South Montgomery Street 646-2723

e Oliv Ojai 20

13. Next Home Pacific Coast 307-A East Matilija Street 646-6768 14. Ojai Valley Museum 130 West Ojai Avenue 640-1390 15. Ranch House 102 Besant Road 640-2360

16. Sea Fresh 533 East Ojai Ave. 646-7747

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17. Mud Lotus 332-B East Ojai Ave. (Inner Arcade) 646-0117

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18. Treasures of Ojai 110 North Signal St. 646-2852

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3

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STAY ON HWY 150 for about 2.2 miles 1

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19. Porch Gallery 310 East Matilija St. 213-321-3919 20. Ojai Olive Oil 1811 Ladera Ridge Road (off Hermitage) 646-5964

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Claire Henriksen Certified Massage Therapist, #49626

Claire Henriksen, a 4th generation Ojai local, has practiced massage since 2012 and performed five-star services in luxury spas for 7 years. Her background in fine art and jewelry, as well as her own personal growth and healing, translates directly into her intuitive and warmly attentive approach to massage therapy. Claire supports and serves her clients with personalized care, focused attention to detail, and a natural talent for creating ease and comfort for the whole person; mind & body. She is trained in Western techniques including Swedish, deep tissue and Neuro-Structural Bodywork and has been influenced by many modalities, such as yoga, breathwork and other somatic therapies. Her greatest joy in this work is to see the transformation in each person after a visit to her table, and over time in the daily lives of the people she gets to help on an ongoing basis.

Book your massage with Claire today. ClaireHenriksen@gmail.com @clairehenriksenmassage (805) 827-0695 108

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ask dr. beth

GETTING OUR GOATS

HOOLIGANS OF THE PLAIN

Your Blood Sugar Saga

By Beth Prinz, M.D.

The Shepherdess & Her Clock

By Love Nguyen

Antelope Ground Squirrels At Play

By Chuck Graham

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Healers of Ojai

nocturnal submissions

Practitioners Healers & Helpers

Just Another Day at the Dog Park

By Sami Zahringer

calendar Ojai Gets Back on Track As Events Return

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Brittany Cole Bush, known to most as Cole, has acquired 250 goats and sheep and keeps them on a long lease ranch in Upper Ojai. Her intentions are to help manage the lands in the Ojai Valley and Ventura County, by using grazing animals, instead of spraying Roundup or directing those noisy weed whackers.

Her company, Shepherdess Land and Livestock Company, has already hit the ground running this spring, with clients like Besant Hill School to help restore the lands and the native plants 112

to come back by using graze-and-trample methods that open up the dirt to seeds in the ground and to let in more moisture. She’s also been busy securing private clients who want to graze for fire prevention.

Fire abatement and preserving the natural ecosystem have been top priority for many residents of the Ojai Valley. Now, they have another ally in Cole and her company, who can help tend to our lands sustainably.

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INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS

BY LOVE NGUYEN

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BRITTANY COLE BUSH

Trevor Warmedahl is one of her seasonal employees. When she’s out doing due diligence with clients, he tends to the flock, moving the electric fence and instructing the sheep dogs and their Mongolian guard dog, Bok. He’s a hardcore pastoral nomad who can be found where the animals are, 24-7, pitching a trailer on the properties where the flocks are grazing.

This interview took place in the spring, so puppies and kits abound, as Cole and her lean company are busy managing Ojai lands preparing for another harsh summer, as climate change brings more fire hazards and water evaporation.

So, what is your background? How did you come to being a shepherdess or shepherd?

Cole: My family had a business, and every weekend we would go south of the border to visit the factory and be with all of the workers’ families in Mexico. We shared food together and as a kid, I questioned why it was so much more fun and vibrant to celebrate with their tight-knit communities than growing up in a suburb like Torrey Pines, California, where we didn’t even know our neighbors. It felt disconnected.

I kept asking myself, where are the happiest people in the world and where is the meaning in my life? How do I celebrate culture and stay connected in our rapidly developing world?

This constant inquiry led me to understand that food brings people together. I looked at ancient civilizations and how they built their environments within nature, like earthworks to terrace and canal for moving water, for their intense farming. I took time off before college and traveled to Tanzania to be with the Masai in Kilimanjaro. I saw this Masai shepherd with a goat when I was like 19 or 20 years old, and the seed was planted. I ended up studying agroecology and environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz while living on this farm, Encyclopedia Pictura (the same studio which animated Bjørk as a shepherdess on a yak for “Wanderlust’) in Trout Gulch.

We adopted two dairy goats and befriended the manager of Star Creek Ranch. Her herding dog really took to me, so I ended up adopting her. It was through the dog that I started working at Star Creek after she left and helped them start “Star Creek Land 114

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TREVOR WARMDAHL

Stewards” which was the first grazing business in the Bay Area.

We worked with East Bay Regional Parks District, the second largest in the country, and they’d been hiring goats for contract grazing for over two decades since their big fires in the ‘80s.

I talked my friend’s dad who managed there, into going after contracts to help graze for fire prevention.

When I was 25 years old, I managed multi-year contracts with revenues of up to $300,000 annually, using goats from Star Creek to graze up to a 1,000 acres per contract. That’s how I got my start.

We expanded from the Bay Area over to Marin County. I left that to go into education and advocacy, consulting for farms. My next big inquiry was, “How can we get more people to do this?”

I was into this notion of “ancient futures” managing animals by looking at how people herded in the past and to use our updated technologies. They say that shepherding is the second oldest occupation.

Right, Jesus’s dad was a shepherd! People live closer to animals in the countryside and they still do in second-world countries. In most cities and towns, we are completely removed from animals since the industrial revolution and factory farming in the U.S. took over.

Cole: What we’re learning is that when you remove part of the natural system, the system breaks. So, we want to go back. Animals do best when they are in a herd. They’re supposed to move.

That’s the nature of these animals. They’re social.

You and Trevor have different backgrounds and experiences that really complement each other.

Trevor: I’m from Washington State, originally. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an explorer or a mountain man but people were like, “That’s not really a profession anymore.” I came to shepherding through food. I loved cooking and worked in restaurants from when I was 18 to 26. I got interested in fermentation and started making bread and then cheeses at a pizzeria.

You made fresh mozzarella for a pizzeria? That’s kinda rad and rare.

Trevor: Yeah. Then, I got my first cheesemaking job and was making cheese from milk that somehow got to me in downtown

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Seattle, and I was like, “This doesn’t make sense.” I never saw the cow.

Hmm, you were like, salt, rennet, repeat?

reevaluate the systems that I had learned in America.

I love that they pay attention to the animal behaviors rather than trying to control them.

Trevor: Basically. The idea of raw milk appealed to me, so I got a job on a farm in Monterey, California on a sheep ranch when I was 26. I fell in love with cheesemaking and got into animal husbandry through that. I also loved the idea of participating in a local economy and living on this land that we were stewarding. The land was actively regenerated from a commercial strawberry farm back to its native grasses by grazing. I saw a link where you could make food, have a positive impact on the land and produce a local economy. I got into doing the farmhand stuff for about ten years.

What brought you to Ojai?

I went to Mongolia two years ago to consult on how to make American cheeses and managed this plant, but then that didn’t make sense to me.

Cole: I fell in love with Ojai after a yearly pilgrimage to drop off my San Francisco roommates who grew up here. I fell in love with the valley and love brought me back. I moved to Ojai officially right before the pandemic to move in with my partner Clare, and manifest this dream business!

I wanted to see how the locals were producing their cheeses from yaks and check out the herding culture. So, I quit my job and saw people herding massive amounts of animals without fences.

Sounds like you’re getting closer and closer to the source and unlearning.

Trevor: Totally. As I’m shifting my paradigm for how cheeses are made closer to the source, it’s challenging my paradigm on animal husbandry and livestock. Natural cheesemaking and herding provides me with perspectives on ways humans, animals and landscapes can interact. In America, we’re really profit-driven, so we’ve manipulated the animals genetically but it doesn’t work. It’s just more expensive and the output isn’t actually more.

We really don’t need to bring all this stuff to them, to put them on a diet or genetically modify anything. You can have them on a landscape and lead them to food.

The dogs are key to shepherding in America and Europe, right?

Cole: Yes, that Star Creek dog I mentioned is the grandma to my dogs now. They are absolutely the key; the livestock guardian dogs protect the herd from predators and the border collies shepherd where they need to go. The guardians are originally from Mongolia via Wyoming.

Trevor: Yeah, these animals are like family to me. In Mongolia, they weren’t using fences or dogs. They just had a better understanding of the animals and their psychology. Basically, they trusted the animals more. There were families that lived interspersed on the land watching over these herds. It made me 116

Trevor: When I came back to the U.S., (from Mongolia), I was like, “How can I be a herder, here?” Last year, I was working at a holistically managed dairy farm in Vermont, and the wildfires were happening in California. I saw it as an opportunity to get involved with fire reduction grazing. I admire pastoral nomading especially in the modern context. It’s adaptive. We’re going to impact the land one way or another. It’s either going to be positive or negative.

Talk to me about “prescriptive grazing,” as a lot of clients are particular about keeping the natives and weeding out the invasives.

Cole: A lot of invasives and annual grasses choke out some of the desired, perennial grasses which grow deeper and cycle water and minerals through. If we graze the annuals when they try and compete for resources then we can encourage the natives. It’s all in the timing.

Trevor: To me, they’re all the same. I mean, they’re plants living on the land. They’re here.

I do question, at what point does an invasive become native, if they’ve been here for decades or longer? Also, most weeds are medicinal. I’ve learned from herbalists that weeds actually grow in response to humans’ needs for healing. I spent last spring weeding milk thistle on a friend’s property, and all that stuff was really good for my thyroid recalibration.

Trevor: Exactly.

You don’t just do fire abatement work with the animals. You have ecological goals even if that’s a bi-product of grazing.

Cole: All our projects have ecological goals. At Besant Hill, we’re doing this vernal pool restoration. The land has been untended for a while, so we’re trying to restore it back to its marsh-like OQ / SUMMER 2021

properties. So, all this thatch (pointing and stomping over it), needs to be broken up so that the soil can get sun and moisture as a fertile seed bank. The ungulates trample it to encourage that. It’s called “animal impact.” Managed properly, animals can be really beneficial to the land. We want to take all the mustard out to enhance and increase our watershed. Grazing can be controversial, but as long as it’s strategic, it can be really healthy for restoration.

Tell me about some of your collaborations that are in motion in the Ojai Valley?

Cole: The Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council 2021 is developing a Community Supported Grazing Program (CSGP). The CSGP is a multi-stakeholder approach, with public and private landowners and managers, to create a singular source of funding and management oversight for contract grazing services. They want to increase targeted grazing by sheep and goats for vegetation management and ecosystem enhancement projects in the Ojai Valley. It’s an approach that is both a practical and impactful, ecological alternative to using chemicals and fossil fuel-dependent mechanical methods. This program will engage the community by grazing in some of Ojai’s most populated areas, bolstering participation efforts to increase the Valley’s fire resilience. We want to create a grassroots model for other counties.

We’re learning that we are stronger in collaboration and not competition.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face?

Cole: A lot of people have lost their connection to animals and how they are beneficial to land stewardship. Some don’t understand how hard it is to do this as there aren’t a lot of modern shepherds. It’s also tricky to start an agriculture business without a lot of money.

Trevor: The stakes are high. There’s been some animal deaths. I mean, that can be really hard. They’re living beings and it’s a big responsibility. The challenge is also the opportunity and its reward. Also, the heat is coming, it’s an isolated life... someone has to be 20 minutes away from the animals at all times.

This herd, I imagine, is like your family. It’s a mind shift that animals, including humans, are part of an ecosystem. Would you ever apply some of that nomadic technology that you learned without fences in Mongolia, here? Cole and I talked about her trips to the Basque area and the importance of sharing information.

Trevor: We’ve been trying it out on our ranch, “circuit grazing.”

It’s cool because done strategically, you can form trails and flocks can break up dead trees. They totally go for all those old Oaks

first and can help prune the low parts to encourage them to grow upwards. Commercially, we’re so close to other people’s property lines here, though. So, we have to be aware of that.

What’s the dream?

Cole: A queer woman, from the suburbs, first-generation shepherdess can achieve success in this business. I want to impact as many acres and lives as possible. I want to create viable jobs that are rewarding.

Trevor: I want to be a modern herder. I saw this resilience in Mongolian nomadic culture where they move and can adapt. We can see how fragile lands are and you can’t adapt as well if you’re in one place defending that land. I’ve always moved around a lot.

I really admire the pastoral nomads. They know all the plants with encyclopedic knowledge that goes back generations and have an intimate relationship with ecosystems. It’s a beautiful thing. It gives you a different way of looking at the land, being immersed.

Being with animals and moving from different plant communities, I love shepherding as it’s a constant interaction with the cycles of nature and being part of a herd. It’s a beautiful thing to have work that’s aligned with my values. Can’t beat that.

Ultimately, I am looking for ways to combine this ecological, impact focused-grazing with dairying. I want to make cheese on a very small scale and have the animals on a wild feeding program to eat indigenous plant communities, not pastured monocultures.

Just releasing control and having them eat a diversity of plants which is how it’s done in a lot of other countries. The priority is the animal and land health, not how much product I can make in a year.

People seem stoked on you guys, the goats and sheep so far.

Inherently, people are drawn to these peaceful animals. I wish you luck in honoring them and the lands you touch.

Trevor: Yeah, I mean people are enthusiastic and it’s a cool way to introduce this idea of pastoralism. I see it as an opportunity to see what’s capable when you introduce animals back onto your land: you’re fertilizing in place; you’re cycling vegetation through the animals and trying to shift the land and its plant communities; reopening up the dirt with their hooves to hold grey water. After the fires, if your house is threatened, you start to open up to new paradigms. If you don’t tend to the land, you can have cataclysmic burns. Multiple strategies like strategic burning, grazing and what’s appropriate where and when for your site is a conversation.

Going back to how humans are inevitably here and impacting positively.

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PHOTOS BY BRANDI CROCKETT

STORY BY BRET BRADIGAN

ZA GABRIEL 120

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NDER

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDS

Zander Gabriel first realized that skateboarding could be a viable career when he watched a stunt person fail to perform a jump during the filming of “Easy A,” at Nordhoff High School. “I could do better,” he said. And so he has.

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ZANDER GABRIELTAKING A BREAK

PHOTO BY I DON’T KNOW

AFTER ANOTHER URBAN ADVENTURE

GABRIEL WORKS THE NOTORIOUS EL TORO STAIRS IN LAKE FOREST

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y then, he’d already been spending plenty of time skating around Ojai, including at the rickety old wooden skate park. “Skateboarding has taught me patience and persistence. If I do sometimes take a slight detour,” he said.

Gabriel is part of a lineage that extends back to the 1950s but came into its own in the 1970s when Stacy Peralta and friends, as immortalized in the 2005 film, “Lords of Dogtown,” matched up roller skating with surfing to create a distinct culture. The renegade sport, and lifestyle which went with it, soon went professional. Zander says that was a controversial moment when the sport became competitive. “The purists will tell you the only battle is with yourself, and the concrete.”

He keeps his wheels in both worlds, competing internationally and through his true love, street skating.

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ZANDER WITH TWO OF HIS FOUR BOARDS TO BE LAUNCHED THIS SUMMER.

“Most of my days are spent with friends exploring the terrain of a city in search of new skate spots,” he said.

The sport has come a long way, all the way to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. While Gabriel won’t be competing, he will be on hand to cheer on many of closest friends who are.

Thanks to his “NDB,” a never-been-done stunt, Gabriel’s reputation as a “skater’s skater” has been secured for all time. The El Toro, a 20-stair and accompanying rail in Lake Forest, has attracted many of the world’s most talented skaters, and is considered the skating world’s equivalent of the Maverick, a break off Half Moon Bay, where the 25- to 60-foot swells challenge

the top extreme surfers.

Gabriel’s devilishly difficult stunt involved launching himself, with the board under him, on to the top of stair rail, then sliding the thin railing down the length of the 20 stairs, on only the board’s back truck. Then, he had to stick the landing and roll away.

It took ten tries before the successful attempt. “Those ten falls are brutal to watch on video,” he said. “But those falls are all part of the street cred and symbolic of all the hard work it took to get there. Those street skating quests are the true trophies.”

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“ONCE YOU THROW DOWN YOUR BOARD, ALL THE DIFFERENCES IN SKIN COLOR OR THE NEIGHBORHOOD FADE AWAY.”

It’s taken awhile to master the sport, Gabriel said, and it didn’t happen alone. “It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 20 years since I first dropped-in on the rickety old wooden skate ramp in Ojai. I did work really hard but none of this would have happened without my parents and our tight Ojai skate community.”

His mother, Judy Gabriel, is the quintessential skate mom.

“She would pack the car with my brother, our friends, lunches and boards to find the next school rail or So Cal park. Those trips inspired her to get us a better skate park in Ojai.” The dilapidated wooden park was supposed to be temporary, but it took 10 years to get the concrete park approved by the city council and then built. “My mother and a lot of other dedicated parents would go to city council meetings to fight for the new concrete park and put on fund raisers. I learned a lot about community and government through all that,” Gabriel said.

into a globally successful business through branded gear, merchandise and especially the popular video game series. “I was skating against his son Riley Hawk. I definitely held my own. I beat him a few times and I think my parents believed me then when I said, “I can do this.”

In high school Zander, known as “Zman,” captained Ojai’s High School Skate Team to 2nd place in the Southern California league.

As he headed to college in Santa Barbara to study marketing and business, his list of sponsors continued to lengthen, along with his shelves of trophies. Those business opportunities were always in the back of his mind as he watched the industry grow; towns

He also credits his father’s love of bodysurfing. “I think he got the heart of what my brother Jameson and I love about skateboarding. On those road trips, he would scout out spots, take endless photos and yet let us walk into the park by ourselves … Once you throw down your board, all the differences in skin color or the neighborhood fade away.”

Now that he’s widening his entrepreneurial skills, Gabriel credits the skate-park ethos for his success. “Those social skills have translated to international contests, pub pool tables and business meetings around the world for me today,” he said.

“My brother and I both competed in contests all over California,” he said. “Few people were making a living at skateboarding back then, but we were all at one of the CASL (California Amateur Skate League) contests and my parents realized that it was more than just a hobby to me. A career was possible.”

One such moment occurred when his parents sat in the stands next to Tony “Birdman” Hawk, who parleyed his skating habit 124

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around the country added skate parks and more and more kids were riding boards.

Skating is big business, Gabriel said, more than $2 billion annually worldwide. Even though he is only 30 years old, his skater’s body has multiple pieces of metal pinning it together — like many skaters, he’s more proud of his scars than his trophies — so it’s time to plan for post-competition life.

The idea dawned on him during the filming of “Easy A” — an accomplished skater would be in demand in the entertainment business as skating culture went mainstream, so he found himself an agent. After a couple dozen auditions, he landed his first role.

It turned out to be a big one, a solo commercial for the Volkswagen Jetta. He said, “It was incredibly intimidating walking into the VW audition. The waiting room was filled with pro skaters who I looked up to and we were all asked to wear business suits.

It was a strange surreal moment. Seeing skaters in suits is a rare occurrence. My agent called me after and said, “You’ve got the gig!”

That gig, for Volkswagen Jetta, first aired in 2017, and ran during the NBA Finals and the finals of “The Voice.” All told, the commercial aired for two years and has been seen by hundreds of millions of viewers in several countries. It features Gabriel in a fitted blue suit walking amid a teeming sea of office workers on a busy Los Angeles street. He then drops his board and sets upon an urban adventure, grinding on a rail, flipping his board and is about to launch onto a staircase railing with an ecstatic flash, when the tagline appears: “That Feeling. Only Better.”

He’s still booking stunt, acting and modeling work, including most recently a photo shoot for a Miller Lite campaign for social media and print. “The timing was perfect as I’m just recovering from a broken ankle and the contest pandemification. Everyone is great on the set and we have a good time.”

In his world, he’s as big a celebrity as some of the entertainment industry titans he’s met. He met “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon through comedian Barry Sobel, with whom Gabriel was consulting on an animation about skating. “We’d go out and play pool, and have drink or two, and Barry said that Jimmy Fallon was in town, ‘Would I want to go have a drink with him?” he asked.

“Would I!” Gabriel replied. Fallon, preparing for hosting the Golden Globes the next night, asked Zander and Barry to help

him workshop his jokes, so they met up at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Fallon invited Gabriel to the Globes’ after party, and they have built a friendship from there.

“I’ve met all kinds of people on my travels and had some crazy experiences. The people are what makes it all worth while. I try to leave a situation better than when I arrived and the people happier.

I like to hang with those who do the same.”

This past year off from traveling and contests has also given him a chance to heal. As with many competitive athletes at the highest rank, Gabriel is equally as proud of his scars as his medals, pointing out the four surgeries he’s endured; breaking his wrist in the X-Games, gifts from Prague and Hiroshima of metal plates in both collarbones, and his recent tumble at the bottom of a 22-stair rail, ending in a spiral fracture from his ankle up to his knee.

“Broken bones come with the territory, but I’m happy if the streak is over. I don’t need to visit a hospital on every continent.”

From those modest beginnings as an Ojai skater kid, he’s traveled the world; Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China, Japan and all over Europe. “It’s been a long journey, really fun, but I’ve been working my butt off, and now it’s finally happening.”

By happening, Gabriel means Sugar Skateboards is officially launching his pro board, four of them actually. In addition, Destructo is coming out with a Zander Gabriel Pro Truck. Even though he has competed for the last five years around the world in international pro contests, the pandemic has given him the time and space to make the next step in his career, and to celebrate, and accelerate, his professional status.

“It really is a celebration. So many of these shops, like 5 Points in Ventura which were my first sponsor, have supported me over the years when I was just stringing it all together. I’m so grateful.

It’s really a dream come true,” he said. “Hopefully, by the time this publishes, my boards will be available on my site and in stores.”

Gabriel plans to host a small gathering in Ojai later this summer to “do a little event, hang with old friends, meet new ones, have a barbecue, give away a few boards, just saying ‘Thanks,” and celebrate his success at the site where it all began.

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OQ | A S K D R . B ET H THE RISE & FALL OF BLOOD SUGAR DR. BETH PRINZ Contact: doctorbeth@ojaiquarterly.com The Food Doctor M.D. – Dr. Beth Prinz is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and passionate about preventing disease through healthy living and a whole-food, plant-based dietary approach to health.

I do not have diabetes, but I know I have higher-than-average risk because my mother has it, and so did her father. To keep tabs on my status, I get tested often — because type 2 diabetes occurs on a continuum.

It develops slowly over years. By the time someone is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, there has been usually a decade of worsening insulin resistance, also called glucose intolerance. If we identify glucose intolerance early, we can do more to prevent diabetes.

Recently I had the chance to wear a continuous glucose monitor for 10 days. This device constantly measures subcutaneous blood sugar and transmits the readings to your phone every 5 minutes.

My mother started wearing one several months ago, when her memory was becoming impaired, and we needed a way to help manage her insulin. This device was the primary reason she was able to reduce from 80 units of insulin a day down to no insulin at all, because we could follow along remotely and make prompt insulin adjustments as her diet improved and her blood sugars lowered.

I was curious what my diet and exercise habits were doing to my blood sugar and jumped at the chance to sample the Dexcom G6. Dexcom has a very user-friendly appbased interface. The sensor is applied to the abdomen with an applicator that pops the tiny sensor wire into the skin and attaches the adhesive-based holder for the transmitter,

all in one quick snap, that does not hurt at all.

From there on, you’ve got a flat, oblong piece of plastic the size of your thumb attached to your abdomen that’s hardly noticeable.

For me it stayed on fine for ten days of showering, swimming and exercising.

My first meal wearing the Dexcom was a quinoa-vegetable hot dish at Veggie Grill.

I thought this was a pretty safe meal, but I did eat it quickly, and was surprised to see my blood glucose rise to 165 or so. The next day I was traveling and had to eat on the road. For lunch I purchased an individual pizza, veggie, no cheese and this was my first meal of the day. Again, I ate very fast, and my blood sugar peaked at 237 within 2 hours. I know it’s best to keep blood sugar under 180, so this revelation was dismaying as well as a surprise. However, I registered a sensation of brain fog with blood sugar this high, and now could objectively tie this feeling to a blood sugar number, which was a good thing.

For the next 9 days, I became somewhat obsessed with my blood sugar. What happens when I drink my homemade smoothie? What happens when I drink wine? (Nothing.) What about those potato chips? (A spike) I discovered that yoga, even deep knee bends, can reverse the direction of the rising blood sugar. Twenty standing squats did the trick if my glucose was rising rapidly.

I noticed that feeling hungry has little to do OQ / SUMMER 2021

with my blood sugar and everything to do with daily habits: genuine hunger at lunch time, and hedonic hunger at bedtime as usual, even if my blood sugar was higher.

But one morning after I went running on an empty stomach, my brother texted me to ask if I was OK, my blood sugar was 55, yet I felt energetic and not the least bit hungry. (You can share your readings with whomever you choose.)

I found wearing the glucose monitor reassuring, and actually missed it when it expired at the end of the ten days. I felt like it was teaching me to pace myself, wait longer between meals, eat smaller portions, take in more fiber. It was like a game, and I didn’t want my blood sugar to rise above 130 to 140 after meals. I wanted my fasting and between-meal blood sugar to stay below 100.

The biggest limiting factor for the Dexcom is the price tag. Insurance will only cover for people who require multiple injections per day. Otherwise, the price is prohibitive for most. However, there are non-pharmaceutical grade imitators on the market, and I expect the technology will become more affordable and widely available over time.

In a world where we casually measure our heart rates, oxygen saturation, number of steps, or hours of sleep with our myriad of devices, I anticipate blood glucose monitoring will become an essential tool for everyone.

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WHITE CROWNED SPARROW

LITTLE HOOLIGANS OF THE VELDT

STORY AND PHOTOS

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

SHE convulsed mightily standing watch on the fringe of her burrows.

Her black milk ducts protruded through buff, tan fur as her belly full of rich milk warbled while she belted out a series

of quavering trills warning her kits of potential danger.

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The watchful San Joaquin antelope ground squirrel (Ammospermophilus nelsoni) guarded her territory with utter aplomb.

Standing 8 inches tall, she feasted on new green growth as spring hovered across California’s San Joaquin Valley.

She also kept a keen, attentive eye on all six of her tiny, frenetic kits who were busy feeding, but between nibbles they also roughhoused through and around their complex series of burrows —

the entry and exit points ideal for seemingly infinite games of chase.

However, once a red-tailed hawk soared overhead, the mood surrounding the burrows quickly shifted. The presence of the majestic raptor cast shadows over the antelope ground squirrel burrows, sending all the rambunctious kits scurrying underground in the high desert veldt.

SAN JOAQUIN ANTELOPE GROUND SQUIRREL’S GRASSLAND JUNGLE GYM AT CARRIZO PLAIN

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SAN JOAQUIN ANTELOPE GROUND SQUIRREL KIT

THEIR TIME IS FLEETING Their pace was feverish, cheeks full of blades of brome grasses.

Then, running back to their maze of burrows, they stashed their precious morsels. Their actions appeared as if they were performing a daily chore, and they were. After all, the average lifespan of San Joaquin antelope ground squirrels is only one year, so they’re busy squirrels as if every moment counts, except in times of extreme heat when they choose to lay low.

Their habitat throughout the San Joaquin Valley has greatly diminished over the last couple centuries, mostly due to agriculture. In California they are listed as a species of special concern, but on the IUCN Red List, they are listed as endangered due to habitat loss. Pockets of habitat remain though, and California Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) environmental scientist Craig Fiehler, is in the process of translocating antelope ground squirrels back to their old stomping ground, attempting to reestablish historic habitat.

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“I have wanted to study San Joaquin antelope ground squirrels for some time,” said Fiehler, who has worked for CDFW since 2006. “I had been thinking about testing translocation strategies for antelope ground squirrels.”

In 2011-12 the CDFW accepted the 12,000 acres of mitigation land that was secured as part of the Topaz solar farm project.

Fiehler was placed in charge of managing those lands north of the Carrizo Plain National Monument. These lands were finally designated as the North Carrizo Ecological Reserve (NCER) in 2020. Most of those lands had been in dryland farming and cattle grazing, some right up until the lands transferred to CDFW. This was a similar situation with the lands that eventually made up the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

However, the disturbance of lands on the NCER was much more recent and a lot of the ecological components that are present on the monument are not present on these newly acquired lands. The biological surveys on the property showed the CDFW that there was a population of kit foxes and some OQ / SUMMER 2021

SAN JOAQUIN ANTELOPE GROUND SQUIRREL KIT

burrowing owls, but they did not have giant kangaroo rats in any significant numbers, no blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and no San Joaquin antelope ground squirrels on the property.

Initially, Fiehler and his team collared three groups of 20 squirrels. One group remained in the National Monument as a “control” group, and they were not moved. One group was moved up to the NCER into an area with no giant kangaroo rats (GKR).

The last group moved to a neighboring parcel that is under conservation and managed by Sequoia Riverlands Trust. This area had GKR present. Fiehler was interested in determining in what way underground habitat (GKR burrows in this case) affected translocation success. It was learned that having an abundance of excess burrows in the translocation area would benefit newly translocated antelope ground squirrels.

“In general it seems like the squirrels like to expand to adopt burrows that have been already dug by GKR or even Heermann’s kangaroo rat (HKR).” Continued Fiehler. “These burrows serve as a refuge for the squirrels during daytime activities and at night as well when they are sleeping.”

Currently, this study is still occurring in the Carrizo Plain and the surrounding regions to the north. Until the study is finished, squirrels will not be moved throughout the San Joaquin Valley. It is hoped that the results of this study will inform future conservation efforts for antelope squirrels in the Valley.

Although there is suitable habitat throughout the San Joaquin Valley, it is a patchwork of isolated islands of disconnected habitat. Moving forward, natural corridors would be created to allow connecting to viable habitat.

“However, as some lands go into retirement from agriculture,” said Fiehler, “there is some hope in connecting these islands and perhaps connecting larger squirrel populations together.”

Fiehler continued by saying that there are many areas in the San Joaquin Valley that have robust populations of antelope ground squirrels but not giant kangaroo rats. Those squirrels may rely heavily on old existing burrows, but it was too early in their research to make a definitive call on that.

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To supplement locations lacking in burrow densities, Fiehler and his team have constructed ready-made burrows to encourage further colonization. Most of this has taken place in the NCER. Where no burrows are available, antelope ground squirrels will find themselves disoriented and confused. Fiehler also said feeding stations were built and wood pallets were affixed to create shady habitat. All shrubs in the region had been lost to ranching degradation.

“We hand augered burrows in the release sites that were lacking GKR in an effort to soften the blow of translocation,” explained Fiehler. “These animals used the constructed burrows to some degree but quickly expanded out looking for better burrows.”

A fair number of the NCER animals were taken by predators, including a badger and likely a raptor. This could be due to the lack of extensive underground refuge and/or the unfamiliarity of the area. Fiehler said he was awaiting a second season of data before drawing too strong a conclusion from this.

OF GRASSLANDS, BURROWS AND RANCHLAND RELICS For over 150 years ranching took place on California’s historic grasslands. Old ranchlands in the San Joaquin Valley that have come and gone are then sometimes reclaimed by wildlife. A perfect example of this is the Carrizo Plain National Monument, a 250,000-acre grassland haven that possesses more endangered species than anywhere else in California.

Historically, the San Joaquin antelope ground squirrel ranged from northwestern Merced and eastern San Benito counties south to the northern border of Santa Barbara County, skirting the edges of the Los Padres National Forest and the Cuyama 138

OQ / SUMMER 2021

Valley. Prior to cultivation, the area within which this species was distributed was approximately 3.5 million acres. In 1979, an estimated 680,000 acres of uncultivated habitat remained and only about 101,962 acres was of fair to good quality.

“In general, I am impressed with just how tough these animals are,” said Fiehler. “They are physiologically adapted to a desert environment and it’s fascinating to me that they can persist with no water to drink for months at a time. They can be active during the heat of the day and use their little tail as a parasol when there is not shade available. I also find it interesting that they live in loose colonies and look out for each other.”

Current populations are found at elevations of 50 meters (165 feet) on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley to around 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) in the Temblor Mountains. In 1979, substantial populations were located within the areas around Lokern and Elk Hills in western Kern County and on the Carrizo and Elkhorn Plains in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Since 1979, San Joaquin antelope ground squirrels have disappeared from many of the smaller habitat clusters on the Valley floor.

However, the Carrizo Plain offers a look into how the entire San Joaquin Valley once appeared, and observing wildlife like the antelope ground squirrel reveals just one of many inner workings of a grassland habitat. Once their burrows are established and parental bonds are confirmed, the best entertainment begins when the kits (or pups) arrive. An average family size consists of 6 – 9 kits. After 30 days, those kits are on their own, weaned from their mother and off foraging around their burrows.

Some moms are more tolerant than others and will accept the presence of a low-lying photographer. Scooching along on elbows and toes is well worth experiencing the ongoing antics of the tiny kits. Mothers are known as “does” and dads are known as “bucks,” and like diligent sentries, stand watch while the kits frolic. They are multi-taskers, eating while standing watch.

Especially eventful is observing their antics in and around old

ranching implements such as piping, rakes, trailer hitches and the like. The more kits around, the more entertaining the antics become, and the rusty relics transform into grassland jungle gyms. Beyond chasing each other, adults and kits alike perform series of planks and stretches while reveling in furious dust baths.

However, once either parent lets out a warning trill, the parents and kits will scamper for cover believing a threat is in the area. They also respond to the warning calls of white-crowned sparrows and horned larks, both of which are abundant in the Carrizo Plain National Monument and can be seen around antelope ground squirrels. Once a potential threat subsides, the kits can’t help themselves, their curiosity forcing them to venture outside their burrows once again.

“It would not surprise me that they would use the alarm calls of co-occurring species as an early warning system,” said Fiehler. “

Horned larks are especially common on our study sites. Since our sites lack a shrub component, the white-crowned sparrows are not present in any appreciable numbers.”

With so much habitat fragmentation in the San Joaquin Valley, I asked Fiehler if he felt it was only a matter of time before the San Joaquin antelope ground squirrel goes the way of the dodo?

He answered my question by referring to a study he did back in 2008 on an oilfield in the San Joaquin Valley.

“At that time, we found that antelope squirrels were able to persist up to moderate habitat disturbance levels,” he said. “This leads me to believe that they may not have as narrow habitat requirements as some of the other rare species in the valley. If this is the case, I don’t fear for their survival as long as there are enough pockets of habitat and more of a focus of connecting newly acquired conservation lands to the other pockets of existing habitat. The results of our current study may help in developing strategies in which areas of the valley could potentially be repopulated with antelope ground squirrels. This could end up in an increase in the antelope ground squirrel population, which would be great to see.”

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U N IQU E PRO GR A M S

F lourish Ojai

CENTER FOR INSPIRED LIVING

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L I V E S T R E A M & A .V.

W W W. F LO U R I S H OJ A I . C O M

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OQ | EV EN TS CA L ENDA R j u n e - j u ly - a u g u s t - S e p t e m b e r

| OnGOING WEEKLY

galleries

CANVAS AND PAPER | THU-SUN | info@canvasandpaper.org

talent sharing inspiring stories on the theme of connections - the necessity of deeper and more sustainable human connections. Contributing writers include Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Aidly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, James Morrison and his son Seamus Morrison, as well as Jeanine Tesori and Charlayne Woodard. A star-studded cast will perform.

Contact: ojaiplays.org, info@ojaiplays.org

THROUGH JUNE 2 “Together/Apart” Dates: Tuesdays through Sunday Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 12 noon to 4 p.m. weekends Nine Ojai artists exhibit work made during 2020, and the put on display the effect this challenging year made on their creative process.

The Ojai Art Center is presenting a group exhibition of Ojai artists Mark Thompson, Carlos Grasso, Peter Fox, Bruce Tomkinson, and Gayel Childress Location: Ojai Art Center, 113 South Montgomery

JUNE 12 “Piedra Blanca Nighthike” Time: 5 to 8 p.m.

Contact: 805-310-1461 Website: Venturawild.com Ages: 7 – adult. Instructor: Heather Moderate hike, 4 miles total.

Fee: $25. A hike into the white rocks of the Sespe Wilderness. Gorgeous evening as the sun goes down and the stars appear. Terrific views with casual socializing and potential for sharing stories. Trail is well maintained but requires stability and some river crossings. No cell service.

Every Sunday Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Contact: 805-698-5555 Location: Matilija Street city parking lot behind the Arcade.

Open air market featuring locally grown produce, as well as plants, musicians and handmade items.

OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL | SEPT. 16-19 | LIBBEY BOWL

MAY 27 – JULY 25 “Paintings by Jean Metzinger” Times: Thursday – Sunday, 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Location: canvas and paper, 311 North Montgomery Street Contact: canvasandpaper.org canvas and paper is a non-profit exhibition space showing paintings and drawings from the 20th century and earlier in thematic and single artist exhibits.

JUNE 12 “Connections” — Ojai Playwrights Conference Benefit Time: 5 to 8 p.m.

Location: Online This show features an impressive lineup of

CERTIFIED FARMERS MARKET

events

SEPTEMBER 16-19 75th Annual Ojai Music Festival Times: Varies Location: Libbey Bowl and other Ojai venues Music Director John Adams is hosting a program that puts the spotlight on young composers. Artists include Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, OQ / SUMMER 2021

Every Day Farmer & The Cook Location: 339 West El Roblar Avenue, Meiners Oaks Times: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This popular farm-to-kitchen destination has reopened, with usual precautions in place to reduce exposure to coronavirus.

Dylan Mattingly, Gabriela Ortiz, Rhiannon Giddens, Carlos Simon, and Gabriella Smith. Artists making their Ojai debuts include Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, Attacca Quartet, violinist Miranda Cuckson, and recorder player Anna Margules.

Program features the world premiere of Sunt Lacrimae Rerum by Dylan Mattingly along with the West Coast premiere of Samuel Carl Adams’ Chamber Concerto. To commence 75th anniversary celebrations, the Festival will present a series of summer events in Ojai and online.

Contact: 805-646-2094 Email: info@ojaifestival.org THURSDAYS “Ojai: Talk of the Town” Podcast New episodes come out Thursday evenings through OjaiHub.com newsletter. Sign up at OjaiHub.com STAY TUNED Tierra Sol Institute’s “Muses on the Mount” The institute is curating shows for the benefit of Meditation Mount, which recently re-opened its doors after the Thomas Fire. Recent Muses on the Mount performances included RyX, Orpheo and Rachel McCord, and also painter Vera Long and sound bowl artists Trinity of Sound.

Contact: To be notified of Summer events, go to tierrasolojai.org and meditationmount.org.

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OJAI DOG PARK. A TUESDAY IN SPRING. A Housewife’s Log PRESENT: Pepper - a dog of indeterminate lineage.

Winston - a dog of determined labradority Helmut - a very determinate dachshund.

A selection of humans, to be determined.

BY SAMI ZAHRINGER

WINSTON: “Hey. Mind if I sniff your butt?”

PEPPER: “Hey, Winston, isn’t it? Of course not, I’ll just go and sniff y… Yes, it IS you! I’d have smelled you anywhere! I’m so glad you got adopted! But, you look gloomy. What’s the matter?”

WINSTON: “I’m in disgrace. I am suspected of eating a priceless ear.”

PEPPER: An ear? Whose ear?

WINSTON: Well what’s the most famous pre-detached ear you can think of ?

PEPPER: Not…? No! Van Gogh’s ear? YOU ATE VAN GOGH’S EAR? WINSTON: I thought it was a sun-dried tomato. The evidence is damning I’m afraid because faced with the enormity of what I’d done, I nervously coughed up a little piece of ginger ear-hair.

I’m new to Mr Winkle, a noted collector of rare antiquities, and, whereas last week I was fighting with three raccoons for half a mouse, now I live surrounded by priceless historical artifacts of formidable world importance, and it’s difficult to know which ones I can’t eat. I mean, if there’s a big-toe bone just sitting there on the coffee-table how, how am I, a labrador, supposed to know 142

it was once the toe of St. Jerome and is revered as a sacred relic throughout all Christendom? I didn’t even know what Christendom was before it was hysterically rasped at me this morning!

I have to pad very carefully now. The last dog — Roger - mistook Mary Magdalene’s spleen for a Nutripup which was bad enough but then he got worked up at the sudden delivery of Napoleon’s taxidermied favorite horse and did an excitement pee on the Queen Mother’s ermine yoga mat, a treasure beyond compare. The cat caught a wool-end and unraveled one of Che Guevara’s socks last night and, after the ear, my own collar is on a very shaky peg as it is. I can’t afford to eat a single other piece of history.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. Possibly literally. They are waiting for me to poop and then they are going to attempt to extract Van Gogh’s DNA from that using cleverness. It will look a lot fresher apparently. Look, there’s Mr. W. now, waiting for me to produce the ear, only I can’t do it when I’m watched.”

The dogs turned their heads to look at the slight, anxious figure of Mr W. encouragingly rustling a biodegradable poo-bag at Winston as six white-coated scientists and a number of Dutch VIPs did urgent standing around an idling mobile laboratory.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

slammed doors and weeping and finally there was the flinging of the bottle of wine at the wall.

PEPPER: “Wow, Winston. That’s a lot. I’m not having much luck with my person either. She’s the one over there in fathomless gloom. Her name is Exalted Mistress To Whom I Owe All Love And Waggy Devotion, but most people call her Emily.

Our Covid year started really well, actually. She was safely home with me all the time and we watched a lot of pithy British period dramas. (Our suspicions aroused by the jaunty incidental music in some of these productions, we researched with Amnesty International and discovered the world’s reserves of pizzicato cello are being hoarded by the BBC to indicate to its flagship show audiences that a moment of humor/irony is occurring, just in case we hadn’t spotted it. There are cellists toiling under duress in the sweatshops of the Royal Academy, breaking their fingers just to keep up with Dame Maggie Smith’s wry asides alone. Every time she clutches the sofa arm and fans herself, another young cellist is broken. It’s a scandal waiting to blow.)

Then began the petty theft. I pretended not to notice at first the odd avocado etc. but before long she’d moved on to melons and toasters. Nobody reported her even when they caught her.

Anyone can recognize an animal in distress. After that, there was nothing else for it. She pulled back her shoulders, swiped on some lipstick and with a toss of her lovely nose, she resorted to men. It’s not gone well. A dog’s delicate furry ears are not meant to have noses blown on them and tears rung out from them.

I have had two prescriptions for impetigo ointment since her taking up of men.

With Paul it was torrid and burnt out fast. There was yelling and

With Stephen it was more about listening to Stephen.

He was handsome and had many things to explain. He explained the maverick intelligence and steely nerve he needed daily to blithely outwit the imbecile herd in his day-trading-from-home career. He explained the female hormone cycle, and how income equality in the US is way overblown as a concept. He explained how she could improve the meals she was cooking for him, at one time going so deep into the cultural history of fennel that we started to emerge near celery. It was around then that she began to tear at her hair and the throwing of wine at the walls resumed. The last time I saw Stephen he was exiting the door and she was screaming “AND

BY THE WAY, Microwave ovens do NOT cook food from the inside out by exciting a special resonance of water molecules in the food but RATHER by dielectric heating! FURTHERMORE, 2.45 GHz microwaves can only penetrate approximately 1 centimeter into most foods and the inside portions of thicker foods are mainly cooked by heat conducted from the outer portions, YOU ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE!!!”

James lasted longer but he was prickly about things like facts and before long the passive aggression in the air was nearly scorching the whiskers off my face. I had to go and plunge my head into the toilet more than once and not even because toilet water is delicious. Now after slamming the door she would slide down with her back to it, clawing her fingers down her mascara-ruined face: that’s true angst. He wasn’t for my Emily and a secret little bite or four on the arse helped see him firmly on his way. “You don’t need a man,” I tried to gently woof at her. “You just need a freshly baked baguette with some good quality butter, and the love of a good dog.” She took a while longer to see that.

OQ / SUMMER 2021

143

By the time Kevin came along there was now a whole shelf dedicated just to throwing wine. She kept the good stuff in the fridge. I was fully prepared to hate this new wastrel but Kevin was actually titanically incredible. I immediately smelled deep love coming off him beneath his sandalwood beard oil, but by now Emily was simply exhausted with the dance of love, a stormtoss’d husk of her formal self. Kevin would tell cute Pythonesque jokes like “If you bang two horse hooves together it sounds like a coconut approaching.” Emily would intellectually understand that this was funny and try to laugh, but her desiccated, dissociated heart wasn’t in it. She was already half-boarded up in the part of her mind best described as “wind-wracked Finnish outhouse in November.”

I let myself hope though. Kevin was the kind of Renaissance man who could knock up a serviceable canoe, tell the consistency of cement just by its smell, and write a good poem about both these things, somehow incorporating the loveliness of Emily’s freckles into it, all before lunch. In the evening he would don some crisply effortless Smart-Casual and shoot off to be the witty, rakish scourge of sommeliers and croupiers alike. Women would bite their lower lips and strong men lower their eyes at his approach.

Husbands, seeing their wives lingering glances, would dash in herds to Neiman Marcus to try to replicate his trousers.

After six martinis and a mere five hours of untroubled, infant-quality sleep later, Kevin would bound out of bed, lightly sauté some parsleyed chicken livers for me, and cook Emily a breakfast kedgeree. Then, secretly, after the washing up, he’d arrange for roses, interspersed with a selection of spa-quality loofahs to be delivered to Emily later that day, when he’d gone to volunteer feeding orphaned baby accountants or or counsel overworked sparrows. He was perfect for us. But it was not to be.

One fateful 11:44 a.m., Emily, plop-footed her way into the kitchen.

“Hi, honey!” mumble-beamed Kevin, doing something industrious with a hammer and holding three nails between his full but still very masculine lips. “Phthoo! phthoo! phthoo!” he said.

(Spitting out the nails.) “I’ve just memorized pi to 50 decimal places, had some really great bonding time with Pepper (me) and finished making these arm braces for the Mira Monte chapter of the Tennis Elbow Support Group. How’s your morning going, darling?”

144

Emily, Ophelia-like and slightly unhinged-looking in her nightie said simply “I found a slipper” and, with tears welling helplessly in her eyes, she showed him the lone slipper, uncertainly, as if it were a drawing she’d done of a tree and she was 6. This could never work, she knew it, I knew it, and even Kevin could now see it.

He took it with just the right combination of husky emotion in his throat, moist eyes, and manly jaw-clenching. He fondled all four of our ears as he went that morning, telling us he loved us both and that, although he couldn’t fix her because only she, etc. etc., he hoped one day that Emily could be free of her plumbless sadness, and to call him when she was. God, he was magnificent.

Now Emily lives in a misbuttoned, self-doubting fog most days.

She is having some trouble with reality. Especially trying to unpick the knotty relationship between lockdown, comfort, and glazed donuts.

She mostly stays at home in our now scrofulous hovel painting pictures of herself in a mossy shelter in a haunted woodland guarded by ravens black as night who serve as her liminal beaky familiars existing (obviously) outside of measured time, and who raid nearby castles and bring her silver daggers and bright jewels and small voles for breakfast. She’s going to forget to worm me again this month, I know it. In desperation I even tried to call Stephen for advice but ran up against the - you know - the opposable thumb problem.

So you see the fix we’re in, Winston. I just want to see her smile again. I love her so much. I wonder… I wonder whether in your master’s vast and esoteric collection he might have any silver daggers or bright jewels to bring her out of herself, back to the world? Even a taxidermied vole might spark something.

WINSTON: “Hmmm. There is a room I haven’t been in yet.

According to the cat, it contains the cirrhotic liver of Ludwig Van and the Venus de Milo’s arms, but there are many more treasures.

If vole or dagger there be, by Dog, I shall find it! We must cheer our lonely humans by bringing them together in ways they would never suspect us capable of, as in a movie. When eventually they fall in love, they will pause occasionally to look at us and shake their heads… “Could they have…? No, but that’s ridiculous.

They’re just dumb animals. OH! Wait…hold on! I think…, yes, I think something’s happening! Pepper? Pepper, I think I’m about to have an ear…!”

OQ / SUMMER 2021

CAFE EMPORIUM

Ojai’s Cafe Emporium is a turnkey, well-established breakfast and lunch restaurant, located in the heart of downtown Ojai. Prime location steps away from all of Ojai’s events and attractions. Ojai Cafe’ Emporium has for more than 34 years addressed the need in the community for a warm and friendly dining experience for family, friends and business. A family tradition for every generation serving high quality, fresh and healthy food. And if you crave something sweet, there is an adjoining bakery producing fresh baked goods every morning. Take advantage of this prime piece of commercial real estate with a fully operational up and running business.

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The Legacy of Paul Williams Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980) was a pioneering African-American Los Angeles architect who designed myriad celebrity homes, churches, municipal buildings and hotels. His designs include private estates for Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, the Los Angeles County Courthouse, the Beverly Hills Hotel and the iconic modernist Theme Building at LAX. A master of proportional space, his designs were characteristically balanced, intimate and elegant. He always endeavored to seamlessly integrate a building into its natural and human environment.

Good architecture should reduce human tension by creating a restful environment and by changing social patterns.

Paul Williams

H IS T O R IC H O M E

ICONIC PAUL WILLIAMS DESIGN Originally built in 1927, this Spanish Colonial Revival home has been lovingly restored in the spirit of its famous architect while upgrading all infrastructure, wiring and plumbing to modern standards. One of only two Paul Williams homes in Ojai, it perfectly encapsulates his values of balance, purpose and proportion to create an intimate family home that takes full advantage of its ideal location and natural environment, including views of the Topa Topa mountains. With 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, an office, a detached studio, a pool and an expansive veranda, it combines spaciousness, functionality and aesthetics in a rare blend.

Custom original tiles decorate the many fireplaces and bathrooms, designed to integrate with the architecture. The lushly landscaped, park-like grounds include a grape arbor, an orchard and a bocce court. The beauty and wholeness of this truly unique refuge will bring effortless peace to your heart.

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Offered at $7,250,000

PAT T Y WALTCHER

(805) 340-3774

pattywaltcher.com

Patty Waltcher 25 ye a r s o f e x p e r i e n ce m a tc h i n g

p e o p l e a n d p ro p e r t y i n t h e O j a i Va l l e y

ICONIC PAUL WILLIAMS DESIGN Designed and built in the 1920’s by legendary African American LA architect Paul Williams, this Spanish Colonial Revival masterpiece is characteristically balanced, intimate and elegant. Completely restored and modernized, it includes 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms an office, a detached studio, a pool and an expansive veranda. Integrated into a lushly landscaped Foothill Road parcel with Topa Topa views, this is a rare and magical home.

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Offered at $7,250,000

I will help you discover the home that brings peace to your mind and heart ( 8 0 5 ) 3 4 0 -3 7 7 4 ~ pa ttywa ltc her. c om