WEEKEND EDITION
INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
REINFORCING SEAT BELT PRACTICES PAGE 3 LOOKING WAY AHEAD PAGE 4
JULY 19-20, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 213
Santa Monica Daily Press
GOOD EATS SEE PAGES 12, 13
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE GROWING PROBLEM ISSUE
Prices are rising at Farmers’ Markets BY CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
VIRGINIA PARK For many residents, walking to Farmers’ Markets on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays is a time-honored tradition, made even more valuable these days by the fact that it requires little driving. Astronomical gas prices, however, have begun to affect even the local markets, as sellers find it more costly to make the weekly trip from their farms to the stands. “It’s ridiculous,” John Nichols of Nichols Farms said. “We’re thinking of quitting.”
He grows plums, eggplant and peaches, and has sold his produce at the Virginia Park Farmers’ Market every Saturday for five years. Nichols, like many of the farmers at the local markets, comes in Fresno County. He drives about four hours each week to hit the Los Angeles-area markets. Nichols said that the gas prices for his pickup truck have doubled in the past year. City Hall places no pricing restrictions for farmers, except for a state law that prohibits price fixing among groups of farmers. Still, sellers are well aware that drasti-
cally raising prices at the markets may scare away even their most loyal customers. “The farmers are very very reluctant to raise prices,” Laura Avery, the Farmers’ Market supervisor for the city-run markets, said. “Obviously if you raise the cost customers won’t buy from you,” Leyla Coban said. She works for Summer Harvest Farms, which sells peaches, heirloom tomatoes, plums and watermelon at Saturday’s market. In the past year
GOING UP: The prices for some products includ-
SEE PRICES PAGE 11
ing fresh produce has been on the rise at local Farmers’ Markets due to soaring gas prices.
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
Networking for tech nerds made simple BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
of Glow’s organizers. While working together on a temporary art installation two years ago, Cusick and Marc Pally, Glow’s artistic director, began to discuss the possibility of creating a largescale art event. “We were going through a cultural planning process and hearing that people really wanted to see a signature cultural event in Santa Monica,” Cusick said. “We were really fascinated with the concept of allowing artists to be the people to help us rediscover the city in a time and place when you
OCEAN AVE It was like that scene from the cult classic “Revenge of the Nerds,” when the boys from Lamda Lamda Lamda and their female counterparts of Omega Mu rocked the Greek Carnival, incorporating synth beats with a little breakdancing to steer attention away from the jock fraternity, the Alpha Betas. Using the latest in technology and some old-fashioned fireworks, the nerds turned the tables and suddenly became cool, taking control of the Greek Council. In a way, that’s what happened Thursday night at the ultra-cool Viceroy hotel where hundreds of hipsters gathered to check out the latest Internet-based companies as part of Twiistup, Southern California’s largest networking event for the tech elite. In just a few short years, the event has garnered the attention of media outlets and venture capitalists as the place to be to find the hottest talent, giving those in Silicon Valley, the cyberspace Mecca, a run for their money. “It’s like a trade show hyped up on steroids,” said Stanley Lan, CFO for Project Possibility, a nonprofit developed by students from USC Stevens Institute for Innovation that creates software to help the handicapped navigate the Web, including closed captioning for YouTube videos.
SEE GLOW PAGE 10
SEE TECH PAGE 15
Photos courtesy Fabian Lewkowicz
LIT UP: (left) Artist Dave Quikand sets up 'Solar Koi' at Palisades Park. (right) 'Camera Projecta' will also be on display at Glow this weekend.
Artists light up the night BY CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
SANTA MONICA PIER As the sun dips beneath the horizon on Saturday, the lights and sounds of over 100 original art pieces will fill the night sky at Glow, the city’s firstever overnight art event. From 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday, Glow will take over Santa Monica Beach, the pier and Palisades Park to provide free, interactive art and music experiences to wandering visitors. From a live Ferris wheel orchestra to an illuminated “tumbleweed” made of recy-
cled materials floating in the ocean, Glow is designed to provide unique, tactile surprises to tourists, art fanatics and local residents alike. The event embraces the essence of collaboration, with more than 15 nearby restaurants and bars offering longer business hours and food and drink specials, shuttles provided by the Big Blue Bus and DJs from local public radio station KCRW spinning music on the pier. Organizers hope that the success of Glow this Saturday will lead to a biannual return. “It’s really an intersection between art and popular culture,” said Jessica Cusick, City Hall’s cultural affairs manager and one
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