VILLAGE NEWS
Scott Appleby & Kerry ApplebyPayne
LA JOLLA
A Family Tradition of Real Estate Success
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
DRE#01197544 DRE#01071814
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 17, Number 44
QuickHits
Hometown
Police search for Barbarella safe thief
kayaker attempts to make Olympic history
Carrie Johnson got her start kayaking on Mission Bay. She will compete in her third Olympics starting on Aug. 7. Courtesy photo
BY MARIKO LAMB | VILLAGE NEWS ith the Olympic Games in full swing in London, San Diegans across the county are tracking Team USA and its athletes’ every move as they vie for the coveted gold in their respective sports. One particular athlete to keep an eye on this summer is two-time Olympic kayaker Carrie Johnson, a hometown girl who got her start right here in La Jolla’s backyard. Throughout her life, the San Diego born-andbred athlete was always dabbling in sport — from running track and cross country at La Jolla High School to competing as a gymnast for more than a decade — until she found her true calling in sprint kayaking. “I was introduced to kayaking through the San Diego Junior Lifeguard program in 1997,” she said. “My interest in paddling began as a chal-
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lenge. The boats are very tippy and take months to learn how to balance.” After a lot of practice paddling in the waters of Mission Bay at the San Diego Canoe and Kayak Club, Johnson mastered the fundamentals and found her footing in the sport. “It grew into a passion as I continued to train and compete,” she said. “I have loved challenging myself in training and testing myself in competition.” In 2001, Johnson began competing internationally at the Junior World Championships, where she got her first taste of the high stakes international realm of competitive kayaking, placing 13th in the K4w 500-meter race. In the subsequent years, she continued to master the sport and went on to compete in both the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Olympics
in Beijing. Yet again, Johnson, now 28, has earned herself a spot on the 2012 Olympic canoe/kayak team, where she will represent Team USA in the K1 500-meter and K1 200-meter sprint kayak races. Until Aug. 4, she will be training in Pusiano, Italy before jetting off to London for the games themselves. “Right now, almost all of my training is on the water and focused on race preparation. I paddle twice a day. Generally, one workout will be higher intensity and the other will be a lower-level recovery paddle,” she said. “I also lift weights twice a week. Lifting is focused on power and explosiveness.” With two Olympics under her belt, Johnson is more prepared than ever before for the games and SEE OLYMPIAN, Page 5
San Diego police and Crime Stoppers are seeking help in identifying and locating a suspect wanted for commercial burglary at the Barbarella restaurant, located at 2171 Avenida de la Playa. According to police reports, a 30- to 40-year-old white male with a medium build broke into the restaurant at about 1 a.m. on July 12, stealing a safe The suspect in the from the back theft of a safe from office that conBarbarella was tained an undis- caught on the closed amount of restaurant’s cash. The suspect surveillance camwas caught on era. Images courtesy of San Diego Crime Stoppers Barbarella’s surveillance camera, and he was last seen wearing a baseball cap, horizontally striped white and grey polo-style shirt, dark pants and white tennis shoes. Anyone with information about the identity or location of this suspect should call SDPD’s Northern Division at (858) 552-1700 or Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at (888) 5808477. Crime Stoppers is offering a SEE BRIEFS, Page 7
Playhouse revisits a classic, leopard sharks make their debut and Salk makes music BEYONDlimits JOH N NY MCDONALD La Jolla Playhouse’s upcoming “An Iliad,” a one-man adaptation of Homer’s classic tale of the Trojan War, is really an expanded version of mankind’s centuries of conflict. A co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, “An Iliad” features Henry Woronicz as the Poet with Brian Ellingsen as the Musician and runs Aug. 11 through Sept. 9 in the Mandell Weiss Forum. Adapted by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson (director of the Playhouse’s “Surf Report”) it’s based on a translation by Robert Fagles. Peter-
son has directed 10 productions at the Playhouse. A storyteller will emerge from the back of the theater to retell “The Iliad,” one of the oldest stories in Western civilization. The elements are familiar — the 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks and Trojans locked in a brutal combat, and a final battle between Achilles and Hector. But the storyteller points at something more as the audience is taken to the front lines of every major war in history, reliving a futile struggle that has been replayed for thousands of years. Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, “An Iliad” has received rave reviews by the Philadelphia Enquirer and
The New York Times. Woronicz has appeared on Broadway in “Julius Caesar” with Denzel Washington. He is currently the Head of MFA Acting at Illinois State University.
Here come the leopard sharks Summertime means the return of leopard sharks to La Jolla Shores. Never fear, say scientists, they’re the friendly type. Speaking at an Ocean Science Series lecture last month, Andy Nosal, a Scripps Ph.D. student, explained the gadgets he uses to track the sharks and learn what makes La Jolla the animals’ preferred hangout. SEE LIMITS, Page 3
Missed the
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See what the fashion industry’s elite were wearing as they walked the red carpet for the third annual festival, which took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art last weekend, Page 9