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Laguna Talks with Artist Jorg Dubin · Laguna Talks

0:00
Speaker 1: I'll be back next week with another installment, and everybody
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Speaker 1: take care out there.
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Speaker 2: Notifying listening audiences that any opinions expressed in our shows
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Speaker 2: are not representative of Laguna Radio, Inc.
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Speaker 3: its management, or its board of directors.
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Speaker 4: Hey there, what's up, Laguna? Janice Murray here with news.
0:16
Speaker 4: An icon of Laguna's history of surfing is coming home
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Speaker 4: with a big weekend of celebration. It's the Surfing Heritage
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Speaker 4: and Culture Center. More than 20 years ago, It was
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Speaker 4: started in a second-floor apartment in the village where surf
0:33
Speaker 4: legend Dick Metz and curator Barry Hahn had a tiny
0:37
Speaker 4: office in a walk-in closet. It moved to a warehouse
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Speaker 4: in Costa Mesa, then to San Clemente. Now, Shaq, as
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Speaker 4: it's called, is back in a prominent location on Ocean
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Speaker 4: Avenue in Laguna Beach. The homecoming weekend kicks off Friday,
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Speaker 4: September 18th, with a ribbon-cutting Then the center will open
1:00
Speaker 4: to the public with a large display of surfboards and
1:03
Speaker 4: surf memorabilia. The open house for all is Saturday, September
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Speaker 4: 19th from 1230 to 7 p.m. The peak will be Sunday,
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Speaker 4: September 20th with a grand opening fundraising gala with live music, tributes,
1:20
Speaker 4: and auctions. For tickets, go online to shack.org. That's S-H-A-C-C
1:29
Speaker 4: dot org. The museum is just steps from Main Beach
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Speaker 4: on Ocean Avenue with the best collection of surfing history
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Speaker 4: and culture for generations to come. I'm Janice Murray for
1:44
Speaker 4: News on 104.7 KXFM. And now, here's Dave.
1:50
Speaker 5: Janice, it certainly doesn't feel like Laguna Beach. We are
1:53
Speaker 5: in the control of the tropics. Marie continues to hang
1:57
Speaker 5: well off the coast, but it's enough of a circulation
2:00
Speaker 5: to keep us kind of soupy out there. Mostly sunny
2:03
Speaker 5: skies this afternoon. It's warm.
2:05
Speaker 1: It's humid. There will be a bit of a breeze.
2:07
Speaker 5: We'll take that. 82 at the beach. How about 85
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Speaker 5: on the hilltop of the canyon?
2:12
Speaker 1: 84. Clear skies.
2:14
Speaker 5: Very humid this evening and overnight. 71 Wednesday and Thursday.
2:18
Speaker 5: Got to keep it going. Sunny, warm, and humid. 83
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Speaker 5: Wednesday and again on Thursday. High surf advisory continues until
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Speaker 5: late tonight, but the ocean will start to calm down
2:28
Speaker 5: and will really calm down as we get into Wednesday
2:31
Speaker 5: and again on Thursday. In fact, it's fairly quiet starting
2:35
Speaker 5: Wednesday for the next week or so.
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Speaker 1: That's my forecast. I'm meteorologist Dave Murray. Tune in.
2:39
Speaker 5: Turn on to KXFM. 104.7 Laguna's Community Radio.
2:44
Speaker 6: I'm familiar with unrequited.
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Speaker 2: I know you've got a heart that's undecided just like mine.
3:02
Speaker 1: It takes its sweet time.
3:07
Speaker 2: I've been trying to dive into the deep end Cause
3:09
Speaker 2: I don't really want to lose a good friend But
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Speaker 2: I might find something divine It's electric every time we
3:20
Speaker 2: touch I've been living for this head rush But sometimes
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Speaker 2: it's too.
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Speaker 7: Much If we never try Give me a sign If
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Speaker 7: I'm on your mind I don't wanna fall.
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Speaker 6: In love alone.
3:53
Speaker 2: I wish that I could tell what you were thinking
3:56
Speaker 2: I hate that I slip up when I've been drinking
3:58
Speaker 2: But oh well, I can't help myself course i mean
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Speaker 2: there's something between us it's electric every time we touch
4:18
Speaker 2: i've been living for this head rush but sometimes it's.
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Speaker 7: Too much if we never try how will we.
4:31
Speaker 3: Know And hey now, everybody. It's 2 o'clock on a Tuesday.
4:38
Speaker 3: And you know what that means. It's time for Laguna
4:41
Speaker 3: Talks with your host, Billy Farid. How's everybody doing on
4:48
Speaker 3: this hot, hot day? Have we felt weather like this
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Speaker 3: in our lifetimes here in California? I don't think so.
4:57
Speaker 3: This is a first for me. Man, oh man, it
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Speaker 3: feels like my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland out there. Muggy, thick, hot, greasy,
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Speaker 3: like cotton candy, folks. Better crank up those ACs, and
5:11
Speaker 3: if you don't have one, maybe it's time to consider it. Anyway.
5:16
Speaker 3: I'm joined briefly by the previous host of Art Matters,
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Speaker 3: George Dubin, here. He was kind enough to sit in
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Speaker 3: with me so we can talk about the big program
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Speaker 3: tomorrow night at the Rivian Theater.
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Speaker 1: Right, right, right, right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you haven't gotten tickets yet, you can go
5:30
Speaker 3: on the KXFM website, which is kxfmradio.org slash artmatters. George,
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Speaker 3: can you tell us why we're making a physical program
5:42
Speaker 3: based on your radio hour?
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Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I thought folks had to go
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Speaker 1: to the Rivian website.
5:49
Speaker 3: We redirect them. We want them to stop at our
5:51
Speaker 3: website first. Their domain is very long and hard to
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Speaker 3: say on the radio, so you do. You can go
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Speaker 3: to the Rivian website, Rivian South Coast Theater, and they
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Speaker 3: have a whole lineup of programs, and you can click
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Speaker 3: on Art Matters. Or just go to our website, and
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Speaker 3: we'll redirect you there.
6:07
Speaker 1: Got it. So, Billy, again, this is another one of
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Speaker 1: your brilliant ideas of ways of– generating interest not only
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Speaker 1: in the radio station but also in in our our
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Speaker 1: art community and and uh it's a really a celebration
6:24
Speaker 1: of of our local artists and art culture here in
6:26
Speaker 1: laguna beach and so uh this is you know a
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Speaker 1: special uh one night event at the at the beautiful
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Speaker 1: rivian theater that uh has got some interesting things coming
6:37
Speaker 1: up we've got uh i think three or four short
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Speaker 1: films uh happening uh There's also, what else was added
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Speaker 1: to that recently?
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Speaker 3: Well, okay, so in breaking news, we thought the great
6:50
Speaker 3: filmmaker William Kirkley, who made the film Orange Sunshine about
6:56
Speaker 3: the radical brotherhood of eternal love here in the late 60s,
6:59
Speaker 3: that ended up selling to Amazon prime and might be
7:03
Speaker 3: still being made into a streaming series because it's such
7:06
Speaker 3: a colorful story about Laguna's past. Um, we were hoping
7:09
Speaker 3: cause he's making a film that you and I have
7:12
Speaker 3: been involved with producing about what happens to a creative
7:16
Speaker 3: community when the money starts rolling in and the price
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Speaker 3: of real estate gets so high that the artists, the
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Speaker 3: very artists who founded the town can no longer afford
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Speaker 3: to live there. And, um, That was serendipitous as well.
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Speaker 3: That started over a year ago, that conversation, and he
7:32
Speaker 3: jumped in with both feet with his own money and thought,
7:36
Speaker 3: this is a great story because it's not just about Laguna.
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Speaker 3: It's an allegory for Soho, Brooklyn, the Marais, so many
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Speaker 3: interesting areas that usually are degraded when artists find them
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Speaker 3: and they gentrify them. Usually they can find industrial spaces.
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Speaker 3: In the case of Laguna, it was part of our
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Speaker 3: founding charter. And then when they get popular because artists
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Speaker 3: make them cool, then money rolls in. And what happens
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Speaker 3: to those artists and what happens to that community? So
8:08
Speaker 3: he's been working on a documentary. And I thought this
8:12
Speaker 3: would give him sort of an impetus to get a
8:14
Speaker 3: two-minute trailer together. And he just called me and said,
8:17
Speaker 3: it's more like 12 minutes. And it's not quite what
8:20
Speaker 3: he wants it to be. He's not ready. So I said,
8:22
Speaker 3: don't worry. Because really, George, we were talking about the
8:26
Speaker 3: conception of this idea. two things kind of converged at once.
8:30
Speaker 3: One was my friend and fellow broadcaster, Tom Bach, who
8:34
Speaker 3: is on Fridays, contacting me and say, you know, I
8:37
Speaker 3: know this artist, Elizabeth Turk, I've bought some of her work. She's,
8:41
Speaker 3: you know, things are kind of challenging at the moment.
8:44
Speaker 3: How can we help her get more exposure? I'd love
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Speaker 3: to have, and I said, well, you can certainly have
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Speaker 3: her on your show. And it was at the same
8:50
Speaker 3: time that you and I had completed production on the
8:54
Speaker 3: film about our large-scale installation that we put out at
8:58
Speaker 3: the Salton Sea. And I thought, man, we need a
9:01
Speaker 3: venue to show this because we're so proud of the work.
9:05
Speaker 3: And it's such a cool story. And it also has
9:09
Speaker 3: some relevance to this whole idea of stewardship of Laguna
9:13
Speaker 3: and their community land trust because of the efforts put
9:17
Speaker 3: out by a few concerned citizens to form this land trust.
9:21
Speaker 3: We were able to acquire several parcels live work in
9:24
Speaker 3: the canyon one of which is your live work space
9:26
Speaker 3: right and this this uh installation piece that you conceived
9:31
Speaker 3: of was so ginormous that you pointed out because you
9:35
Speaker 3: have a light industrial space in east laguna with land
9:39
Speaker 3: with with parking area that you know and and also
9:42
Speaker 3: uh willing uh neighbors and co-tenants because you blocked so
9:47
Speaker 3: much of that driveway with this installation but you pointed
9:50
Speaker 3: out without the help of the land trust if you
9:52
Speaker 3: weren't able to maintain their We could have never built this.
9:55
Speaker 1: No, because it, you know, I mean, I have six
9:58
Speaker 1: parking spots there and it took up all six. of them,
10:00
Speaker 1: you know. So fortunately, because that enclave there, you know,
10:05
Speaker 1: we all know each other, and we all support each other.
10:07
Speaker 1: And it really is like a really special little spot
10:12
Speaker 1: in the canyon where, you know, there's– I think there's
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Speaker 1: 18 units there and, and, uh, everybody who occupies them,
10:18
Speaker 1: you know, has been there for quite a long time
10:20
Speaker 1: and all artists are craftsmen, you know, and, and it's,
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Speaker 1: and it is a, it is a very supportive little
10:26
Speaker 1: community there. And so, you know, even though I was,
10:29
Speaker 1: you know, I had to move my cars at my
10:31
Speaker 1: fleet out of the way in order to accommodate, uh,
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Speaker 1: this piece, uh, everybody was, uh, very supportive.
10:39
Speaker 3: Not like if you'd been in a neighborhood here.
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Speaker 1: Oh, people, you know, then, you know, I, I, I
10:44
Speaker 1: couldn't have done it.
10:45
Speaker 3: Code enforcement would have been on you so fast.
10:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, so, you know, by virtue of, of, you know,
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Speaker 1: everything transitioning to the trust, looking at land trust, um,
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Speaker 1: you know, it, it, it allowed us to feel confident that,
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Speaker 1: you know, we could do this piece there and without, without, uh,
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Speaker 1: Being worried about, you know, a new landlord going, oh, no, no,
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Speaker 1: you can't. Right. You know, this is not what this
11:09
Speaker 1: place is going to be about anymore.
11:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and raise the rents to significant levels if indeed
11:16
Speaker 3: they even kept it the same. But, you know, you
11:19
Speaker 3: make a great point. And I think it's hard for
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Speaker 3: the layperson, including myself, to imagine sort of the alchemy
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Speaker 3: of happens when you're in a collective of artists that
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Speaker 3: you live amongst and the magic that can happen in
11:31
Speaker 3: that environment and the collaborations. And there's been misconceptions, I believe,
11:38
Speaker 3: out there about people thinking, well, they chose the wrong
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Speaker 3: complex because it doesn't have enough residential and it doesn't
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Speaker 3: have enough live spaces. But the reality that people forget
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Speaker 3: is A serious working artist needs studio space.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 3: Even if they live somewhere else, they need studios. And
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Speaker 3: that's what this largely is comprised of as well as
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Speaker 3: the other two units, right?
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Speaker 1: Well, there is. Because it's one of those things that
12:03
Speaker 1: most people, they drive by going through the canyon to
12:07
Speaker 1: go to work or go shopping or whatever it is.
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Speaker 1: And they don't really experience what's really going on out there.
12:14
Speaker 1: And so the complex I'm in, there's one, two... There's
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Speaker 1: five living spaces there right now. So it's not like
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Speaker 1: it's devoid of that. One of the things I keep
12:28
Speaker 1: hearing sort of through the grapevine that is the bubble
12:32
Speaker 1: of Laguna Beach is that somehow this is my project.
12:36
Speaker 3: It was a buddy thing with your great friend Mark
12:39
Speaker 3: Orgel who I like to point out to people you
12:41
Speaker 3: didn't even know until he entered public office.
12:43
Speaker 1: Well, I mean we knew each other but not close.
12:46
Speaker 1: But I just want to make this comment really– briefly
12:50
Speaker 1: and that is if you look at the um project
12:54
Speaker 1: or vision 2030 project that happened when was that in
12:58
Speaker 1: the early 2000s yeah there was a there was 1500
13:02
Speaker 1: or 2000 people community members who participated in putting that
13:06
Speaker 1: together and if you look if you if you study
13:09
Speaker 1: it now because a lot of it a lot of
13:11
Speaker 1: it got put into a nice package and then very
13:13
Speaker 1: little of it became realized There's a lot of things
13:17
Speaker 1: in there that talk about, you know, artists live work projects.
13:22
Speaker 1: They talk about close Lower Forest Avenue and make it
13:26
Speaker 1: a pedestrian plaza. There's all these things in there that,
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, and I'll just say Mark is, you know,
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Speaker 1: he's become a friend. But he's using that as like
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Speaker 1: his Bible to, you know, the things that he's working
13:41
Speaker 1: on trying to get done for the community. They're all
13:45
Speaker 1: right out of Vision 2030. It's really, it's not, these
13:50
Speaker 1: aren't new ideas. And these are ideas that, you know,
13:52
Speaker 1: like I say, up to like 2,000 residents here in
13:55
Speaker 1: Laguna Beach participated in putting this thing together. So, you know, it's,
14:00
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sorry if people feel like, you know,
14:04
Speaker 1: I mean, we're in a small community, so we all
14:06
Speaker 1: know each other.
14:07
Speaker 6: Yeah.
14:08
Speaker 1: And, you know, some of us are going to be
14:10
Speaker 1: involved in politics or on various commissions or whatever. And,
14:15
Speaker 1: you know, by virtue of the fact that we know
14:17
Speaker 1: each other doesn't mean it's like a special project for,
14:20
Speaker 1: you know, buddies and stuff like that. Yeah. It's really
14:24
Speaker 1: being guided by things like Vision 2030 and other– there
14:30
Speaker 1: was an art document that was put together by a
14:33
Speaker 1: group out of Minnesota that was commissioned, I think, by
14:36
Speaker 1: the Arts Commission.
14:37
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
14:38
Speaker 1: What does Laguna need to maintain a healthy artist community?
14:42
Speaker 1: And that's another document that's full of all kinds of
14:46
Speaker 1: great ideas based on what these folks came and worked,
14:50
Speaker 1: spent a week here.
14:52
Speaker 3: I listened to one of the city council candidates, one
14:56
Speaker 3: of the new ones being interviewed on the other radio station, Ed,
15:01
Speaker 3: and all she kept saying was, I'm just going to
15:03
Speaker 3: follow the code. We have the code that's been written,
15:08
Speaker 3: the master plan, all these things that are already there.
15:13
Speaker 3: There is a blueprint out there. We too frequently forget
15:16
Speaker 3: about it. We let it mothball and they forget the
15:18
Speaker 3: amount of time and energy that went into it. One
15:21
Speaker 3: of the questions I'm going to ask tonight at the
15:23
Speaker 3: City Council Forum, which is another topic, is whether or
15:28
Speaker 3: not they're in favor of each candidate, whether they're in
15:32
Speaker 3: favor of undergrounding the power lines, no matter what the
15:35
Speaker 3: cost as a matter of public safety and preparedness. And
15:38
Speaker 3: then once we do so, are they in favor of
15:42
Speaker 3: creating a dedicated bike slash express transit lane where they
15:49
Speaker 3: can now with the open space, but not increase the
15:52
Speaker 3: lanes because there was so much time that went into that.
15:56
Speaker 3: whatever it was, 2014 when Bob Whalen was mayor and
16:00
Speaker 3: he asked 13 different stakeholder groups to convene and do
16:03
Speaker 3: these workshops that I was part of at Transition Laguna
16:06
Speaker 3: with Chris for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks
16:08
Speaker 3: and weeks. And it was a rare time when there
16:11
Speaker 3: was an absolute, not even a majority, it was unanimous.
16:16
Speaker 3: Looking at all the research, do not widen the road
16:18
Speaker 3: in or out. First of all, you're messed with the
16:21
Speaker 3: bucolic nature of the entries. Plus, there's something called induced demand.
16:26
Speaker 3: So the more easy you make it to come in,
16:28
Speaker 3: more cars are going to come in. So keep it quaint.
16:31
Speaker 3: Keep it single lane. But at the same time, create
16:34
Speaker 3: this– this is the benefit of– what can you do
16:37
Speaker 3: with that increased median strip or shoulder when you take
16:41
Speaker 3: the power lines down? Well, let's have a dedicated bike
16:44
Speaker 3: lane that could go as far as the Irvine train station.
16:46
Speaker 3: But certainly out to Barber's Lake, nice and flat, something
16:49
Speaker 3: for us to go and ride and give us a
16:52
Speaker 3: real safe place to ride.
16:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, safety being the buzzword I was going to throw
16:56
Speaker 1: in there because I've known three people have been hit
16:59
Speaker 1: on their bikes out there.
17:01
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so dangerous. And you know a lot of
17:04
Speaker 3: power lines that have been hit too.
17:07
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's another big part of it is that since
17:11
Speaker 1: I've been out in the canyon, there's two power lines
17:15
Speaker 1: that are about a hundred feet from where I am
17:19
Speaker 1: that have been hit probably 20 times and knocked into,
17:23
Speaker 1: knocked into the road, which it takes at least, I'd
17:27
Speaker 1: say a minimum of six hours and sometimes up to
17:30
Speaker 1: 10 hours before they can reopen the road because of
17:33
Speaker 1: the crews have to get out there and they have
17:34
Speaker 1: to reestablish the lines and stuff like that. So you
17:37
Speaker 1: can imagine if, you know, in a In the worst
17:41
Speaker 1: case scenario, we're having a... Evacuation. Or a Santa, you know,
17:46
Speaker 1: we're having Santa and all of a sudden there's a
17:48
Speaker 1: fire in Laguna Beach. Somebody, you know, scrambling to get
17:52
Speaker 1: out of here or somebody coming into town not knowing
17:56
Speaker 1: what's going on. Hits a pole, goes into the canyon road.
17:59
Speaker 1: Those fire trucks... Those fire trucks are not getting into town.
18:02
Speaker 3: No, and we're not getting out.
18:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's, you know, because we only have these
18:08
Speaker 1: three routes in and out of town, it's like, you know,
18:11
Speaker 1: Why we haven't done it yet, it's... That's the thing.
18:13
Speaker 3: I don't see how we can say no to this.
18:15
Speaker 3: It's such an important issue. And if we don't do
18:20
Speaker 3: it and something tragic happens, we're only going to have
18:22
Speaker 3: ourselves to blame. And when the opponents say, well, it's
18:26
Speaker 3: a matter of budgeting, we can't afford it, we can't
18:28
Speaker 3: afford not to.
18:29
Speaker 1: Well, yeah. As you've pointed out, we have another 93-level
18:34
Speaker 1: fire here in Laguna Beach, losing almost 400 homes.
18:37
Speaker 7: Well.
18:39
Speaker 1: How much is each home worth now? You know, right.
18:42
Speaker 1: Average wet three or $ 4 million. Sure.
18:45
Speaker 3: Times, you know, 10, 20, you've already equaled the cost
18:48
Speaker 3: of undergrounding.
18:49
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:50
Speaker 3: So that's, you know, one of the questions we're asking,
18:52
Speaker 3: but I think going back to the, the program tomorrow night, um,
18:56
Speaker 3: we saw it as a great opportunity to debut this film,
18:59
Speaker 3: not only as a statement of, of, you know, what
19:01
Speaker 3: artists can do in the Canyon, but also what a
19:03
Speaker 3: collective group of people who we recruited to help move
19:07
Speaker 3: this thing. And then the, the satisfaction we had, uh,
19:12
Speaker 3: assembling it, uh, out there in this forsaken landscape and
19:16
Speaker 3: then turning it into a nightclub at night, which was
19:19
Speaker 3: just one of the coolest things we've ever done.
19:21
Speaker 1: Well, I was, you know, it's, it's, it's like, I, uh,
19:24
Speaker 1: was asked about that recently and it's like, how, what
19:26
Speaker 1: is the, what is the connection to, you know, making
19:30
Speaker 1: this statement about, you know, the, the detritus of, of
19:34
Speaker 1: a old vessel, um, Being beached and cut up into
19:38
Speaker 1: pieces and, you know, the impact not only on the environment,
19:42
Speaker 1: but on the human cost of that. And then all
19:44
Speaker 1: of a sudden it gets revitalized into this place where
19:48
Speaker 1: people come together. They're, they're integrated. an environment, they're celebrating
19:54
Speaker 1: life basically. That's a really cool message. Gives us hope.
20:01
Speaker 1: With all the stuff that we waste as human beings
20:04
Speaker 1: and all the products and all the plastics and all
20:06
Speaker 1: the stuff that How.
20:08
Speaker 3: Can we upcycle things?
20:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you take something that could potentially just
20:14
Speaker 1: be a rusting hulk into a place of celebration? Sculpture.
20:21
Speaker 1: And creating community.
20:23
Speaker 3: And if I may, that was kind of your original inspiration.
20:26
Speaker 3: I know these were first paintings for you because you
20:28
Speaker 3: love the sculptural beauty of them. What we're referring to
20:31
Speaker 3: are these ship-breaking yards in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan. that
20:35
Speaker 3: you may have seen out there on various documentaries, and
20:39
Speaker 3: how they bring these giant freighters that have plied the
20:42
Speaker 3: seas for decades and decommission them, dry dock them on land,
20:47
Speaker 3: and then dissemble them with, you know, cutting them up
20:51
Speaker 3: into scrap metal to sell, and a lot of it
20:54
Speaker 3: is very exploitative. That's why it's done in those third
20:56
Speaker 3: world countries, because the labor's cheap. But we were taking
21:00
Speaker 3: the meta view of it, saying, Isn't it ironic that
21:03
Speaker 3: these are the ships that are carrying global goods across
21:05
Speaker 3: the planet and causing a lot of the pollution and
21:08
Speaker 3: degradation of plastic that is a result of globalism? And
21:13
Speaker 3: they themselves become the detritus, as you mentioned. So I
21:16
Speaker 3: think it's a really interesting reminder. And for us to
21:19
Speaker 3: place it on the Salt Sea, which those of you
21:21
Speaker 3: who know, is also a toxic landscape, very much threatening
21:26
Speaker 3: our environment all over Southern California. And to place it
21:29
Speaker 3: there is really something where the power of art makes
21:32
Speaker 3: you think about how we're treating the land, for our
21:36
Speaker 3: benefit through globalism, so that the next day we can
21:39
Speaker 3: have Chilean sea bass at our door, and in the
21:43
Speaker 3: meantime we're destroying our environment.
21:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there's a lot of messages contained in that,
21:52
Speaker 1: and it's something that– you know, as artists and, and,
21:57
Speaker 1: you know, I was very happy to see, you know,
22:00
Speaker 1: us create a little group of people who were, uh,
22:03
Speaker 1: you know, they weren't necessarily involved in the fabrication part,
22:06
Speaker 1: but they were involved because they cared about it and,
22:09
Speaker 1: and they saw the value in, in doing something that
22:13
Speaker 1: was for art for art's sake instead of art for
22:16
Speaker 1: financial gain, you know, because, you know, there was no
22:19
Speaker 1: financial gain in it.
22:20
Speaker 3: No, we had to come out of pocket ourselves. We
22:22
Speaker 3: were hoping to get a grant and, um, you and
22:25
Speaker 3: me and Chris put up the lion's share of the money,
22:27
Speaker 3: but it was a labor of love because how many
22:29
Speaker 3: times do you get to do this in your life?
22:30
Speaker 1: Well, that's the whole thing. Like, uh, I've, I have
22:33
Speaker 1: had people while we were building it go, uh, yeah,
22:36
Speaker 1: I'd tell them, you know, cause they'd drive by and go, what,
22:38
Speaker 1: what's going on in there? They'd see some, something being
22:41
Speaker 1: erected in the parking lot and they're not sure what's
22:43
Speaker 1: going on. And I, they said, I, I would explain
22:46
Speaker 1: it to them and they go, well, well, you know,
22:48
Speaker 1: who's funding that or who's, how much are you getting paid?
22:50
Speaker 1: And I said, There's no money in it. It's, it's,
22:53
Speaker 1: it's purely for the experience of, of doing something in
22:56
Speaker 1: your life that you could look back on and go, yeah,
22:59
Speaker 1: we did that thing. You know, it's like, and, and
23:01
Speaker 1: it was, you know, two and a half months of,
23:05
Speaker 1: and then three days of experience. And then, and then
23:08
Speaker 1: we walked away from it basically. You know, and it's,
23:10
Speaker 1: it's like, how, how do you put a value on that? I,
23:13
Speaker 1: I've never understood that.
23:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
23:14
Speaker 3: Art for art's sake. And it's the most purest form
23:17
Speaker 3: where we're doing it for the love of it and
23:18
Speaker 3: you have total freedom. And I know if those of
23:21
Speaker 3: you who are listening are thinking, this reminds me of
23:23
Speaker 3: Burning Man, and ironically Burning Man ended two days ago.
23:28
Speaker 3: But it's very different in the sense that, well, Burning
23:31
Speaker 3: Man has become commodified and people are just going bigger, louder,
23:35
Speaker 3: more smoke, more fire, more sound, this, that, and the other.
23:38
Speaker 3: But it all comes down and then gets taken away.
23:41
Speaker 3: Whereas this piece, ironically, gets left. And this is, I think,
23:47
Speaker 3: just beyond cool that there's a place overly regulated California,
23:51
Speaker 3: but this is an imperial county where there's no authority,
23:54
Speaker 3: there's no regulations. People are really coming out and making
24:00
Speaker 3: art and turning this degraded place into something really special,
24:03
Speaker 3: Bombay Beach.
24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And that was the draw for me personally,
24:08
Speaker 1: is after experiencing it for a couple of years of
24:12
Speaker 1: just being a spectator, so to speak, you know, it's like,
24:16
Speaker 1: you know, if we're going to go down there again,
24:18
Speaker 1: let's contribute. Let's be part of the visual part of
24:23
Speaker 1: what's going on down there. And the fact that, you know,
24:26
Speaker 1: the little town of Bombay Beach, there's no, you know,
24:29
Speaker 1: it's not like there's a city hall and there's a
24:33
Speaker 1: city government and there's none of that stuff. So you
24:37
Speaker 1: have this complete artistic creative freedom to do whatever you want.
24:42
Speaker 1: And it's pretty amazing because there isn't too many places
24:45
Speaker 1: like that left.
24:46
Speaker 3: No, it's totally unique. So the film, you know, you'll
24:48
Speaker 3: see a little bit of it. Full disclosure, it's still
24:52
Speaker 3: a somewhat secret event. They don't advertise it. They never
24:56
Speaker 3: list the dates. If you are so inclined that you
24:59
Speaker 3: want to go, I don't think there'll be one next
25:01
Speaker 3: year because it is a biennale every two years. But
25:04
Speaker 3: when it happens, you just have to want to go
25:07
Speaker 3: and you'll find out if you put it out there.
25:10
Speaker 3: And it's purposefully kept small and intimate because they don't
25:13
Speaker 3: want it to be Burning Man. They don't want it
25:14
Speaker 3: to be overly commercialized. So our filmmaker, Bushin Thacker, was
25:21
Speaker 3: not only there from the inception and I think really
25:24
Speaker 3: did a great job of telling the story from inception
25:27
Speaker 3: to the end. He was also one of our DJs
25:30
Speaker 3: and loves to play. He plays all over town here
25:33
Speaker 3: as Bush, DJ Bush. So we had three other locals,
25:37
Speaker 3: Pat Parnell– Not completely local, but Kayo, while he's moving here,
25:43
Speaker 3: and Sean as our four DJs. So we rotated them through. And,
25:48
Speaker 3: you know, what I loved so much about it was
25:50
Speaker 3: the curiosity of people who were not involved in it
25:53
Speaker 3: but came over and were convinced that it was a
25:55
Speaker 3: steel-hulled ship. And credit goes to you and Deb for
26:00
Speaker 3: applying the paint that you knew could look like rust.
26:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, she did the lion's share of it. I
26:08
Speaker 1: have to give her credit for it. And it was
26:11
Speaker 1: not cool out there. It was hot sun and up
26:14
Speaker 1: on big ladders to make that happen. And I did
26:19
Speaker 1: a little bit of it, but she did the lion's
26:21
Speaker 1: share of it. I think I had to come to
26:24
Speaker 1: my radio show and I just cut her loose and said,
26:26
Speaker 1: you know, be careful, don't fall off the ladder and,
26:30
Speaker 1: you know, just, uh, enjoy yourself. And she did, she, she,
26:33
Speaker 1: and she did a great job, you know, when she
26:35
Speaker 1: kind of got the rhythm going, it was a great artist,
26:37
Speaker 1: you know? So, um, it really was a collaborative effort
26:41
Speaker 1: from top to bottom. And, and, uh, you know, we
26:43
Speaker 1: couldn't have done it without the 10 or 12 people that,
26:47
Speaker 1: that participated in the assembly.
26:48
Speaker 3: Who became a gang known as the Bombay burritos. We
26:52
Speaker 3: christened ourselves. And, um, hopefully a bunch of us will
26:55
Speaker 3: be there tomorrow night. Um, The program will start with
26:59
Speaker 3: an hour of socializing. And really, when we did go
27:02
Speaker 3: back to the genesis of this idea, well, we've got
27:04
Speaker 3: some content. We've got Elizabeth. We've got George. Let's recruit
27:08
Speaker 3: Casey Parlette, who's done so much for our town. He's
27:10
Speaker 3: a great sculptor. He makes a lot of marine life
27:13
Speaker 3: into beautiful sculptures. He shows at the Festival of Arts.
27:16
Speaker 1: Well, he also used to save people's lives here, too.
27:19
Speaker 5: As a lifeguard.
27:19
Speaker 3: Ironically. He would be so busy this summer, he wouldn't
27:22
Speaker 3: make any art. He was still doing that. And then
27:25
Speaker 3: we got the executive director of the Laguna Art Museum,
27:28
Speaker 3: Julie Perlin Lee, to moderate it, which is great to
27:31
Speaker 3: have the museum kind of put their imprimatur on this. But,
27:34
Speaker 3: you know, I took a step back and I thought,
27:35
Speaker 3: what's our mission at the radio station is to amplify
27:39
Speaker 3: the good, the positive in Laguna. And I can't think
27:42
Speaker 3: of anything more good and positive than art and music.
27:46
Speaker 3: And so those two things I think we want to
27:50
Speaker 3: lean into, whether or not it's radio shows devoted to
27:53
Speaker 3: it Or live gatherings. And I thought this is an
27:57
Speaker 3: ideal time to gather the artists in town because the
28:02
Speaker 3: 300-some-odd artists that exhibited our three shows are concluding, albeit
28:07
Speaker 3: just concluding. So for some people it's a stretch because
28:10
Speaker 3: they're taking their booths down and they have to come
28:12
Speaker 3: on tomorrow. It might not be congruent. And honestly, we
28:16
Speaker 3: didn't get word out to them until over the weekend
28:19
Speaker 3: when I spoke. Found out that I could scrape all
28:21
Speaker 3: the email lists using ChatGPT. Took me like 30 seconds
28:26
Speaker 3: to get every single email of it because.
28:28
Speaker 1: They publish it anyway. It's on the website. That's true.
28:30
Speaker 3: So it's not like I'm doing something. And then I
28:32
Speaker 3: sent out a mass email to all of them, and
28:34
Speaker 3: we got a great feedback. But a lot of people said, oh,
28:37
Speaker 3: I can't make this one. And so we're hoping that
28:39
Speaker 3: this will be a quarterly series.
28:40
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, yeah, this is not
28:42
Speaker 1: the last one.
28:43
Speaker 3: No.
28:44
Speaker 1: I think the idea of, of creating, uh, uh, these
28:48
Speaker 1: special nights that are in celebration of our creative community
28:51
Speaker 1: is really, it's really needed. It's really a great thing because,
28:54
Speaker 1: you know, so often, you know, artists work, you know,
28:58
Speaker 1: primarily by themselves and, and, uh, you know, if they're,
29:01
Speaker 1: you know, they either participate in things like the, the
29:05
Speaker 1: three summer shows here, or some of them are in
29:08
Speaker 1: some galleries or some do, uh, big commission work and
29:12
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but it's pretty rare that outside of
29:16
Speaker 1: what they do that they actually have evenings that are
29:21
Speaker 1: about celebrating. About them.
29:25
Speaker 3: So we expect members from all three, Festival of Arts,
29:29
Speaker 3: Saldus Festival, and Art Affair to all be attending, many
29:34
Speaker 3: of whom donated pieces for our silent auction, which is
29:38
Speaker 3: just a modest fundraiser for We're getting wine donated by Bianchi.
29:31
Speaker 3: We're hopefully getting beer from Laguna Beach Beer Co., I
29:48
Speaker 3: just went all the way to Santa Ana to get
29:51
Speaker 3: our one-day liquor license. That was really fun.
29:54
Speaker 1: How was that experience talking to the ABC folks?
29:57
Speaker 3: I was expecting– well, I thought it was going to
29:59
Speaker 3: be deep in Santa Ana, like First Street, Fourth Street
30:02
Speaker 3: where the government buildings are. Thankfully, it's off MacArthur, so
30:06
Speaker 3: much closer to South Coast Plaza in a very spiffy high-rise.
30:10
Speaker 3: And I walked in and I thought, oh, this is
30:12
Speaker 3: going to take forever. Nobody was there. It was so quiet.
30:16
Speaker 3: And Lex armed me with the right paperwork. But there
30:20
Speaker 3: is paperwork. I had to get something signed by Rivian.
30:23
Speaker 3: I had to produce her nonprofit and another application. And
30:30
Speaker 3: they were very, very helpful. And then I asked, I
30:33
Speaker 3: was curious just to know what's going on at Festival
30:35
Speaker 3: of Arts. I said, are you familiar with what's happening there?
30:38
Speaker 3: And he goes, yeah. And I go, so what is
30:41
Speaker 3: happening in terms of liquor permit? He goes, well, I
30:43
Speaker 3: know they were allowing it on the tennis court. I go,
30:46
Speaker 3: can they bring it into the premises as long as
30:49
Speaker 3: it's not opened? And he goes, no. And I thought
30:52
Speaker 3: to myself, well, that's news. Now, I can say this
30:55
Speaker 3: freely because the show is over. But going forward, we
30:59
Speaker 3: had an event planned on October 30th, our Halloween party.
31:02
Speaker 3: And it looks just too hard. I mean, we can't
31:05
Speaker 3: imagine a Halloween costume party without alcohol.
31:09
Speaker 1: So that's the big drawback for doing it on the Festival.
31:12
Speaker 3: Of Arts ground. Yeah, that's the biggest drawback is that
31:15
Speaker 3: it's just not going to be a party. And frankly,
31:17
Speaker 3: we're trying to keep the ticket prices down. So we
31:20
Speaker 3: were relying on alcohol sales to help supplement some of that.
31:23
Speaker 3: But more importantly, it's the first time out. And if
31:28
Speaker 3: we're going to do it annually and build on it,
31:30
Speaker 3: it's got to be a great experience. And I fear
31:32
Speaker 3: that too many people are going to walk out of
31:33
Speaker 3: there saying, what? No alcohol. They closed at 10. At
31:37
Speaker 3: least if we're going to close at 10, let's get lit.
31:41
Speaker 5: Yeah.
31:42
Speaker 1: So, I mean, is any of that close to even
31:47
Speaker 1: being resolved? I mean, I know there's a big bill
31:50
Speaker 1: owed to the State Board of Equalization, apparently.
31:53
Speaker 3: Right now, George, it does not seem to be a
31:56
Speaker 3: clear pathway. I've been told various things from people in
31:59
Speaker 3: the know. $ 400, 000 is owed in back taxes. But I've
32:04
Speaker 3: also heard that even if we were to retire that
32:06
Speaker 3: debt tomorrow, it would not qualify us for the liquor
32:10
Speaker 3: license because we're being penalized for nonpayment. And allegedly, they're
32:14
Speaker 3: putting it up for auction. That's what ABC does. That
32:18
Speaker 3: would be a big blow to the festival. Huge blow.
32:21
Speaker 3: And so there's going to be a reckoning. And I
32:25
Speaker 3: don't want to get too much into the weeds because,
32:27
Speaker 3: quite frankly, I really don't know. But if you read
32:31
Speaker 3: what's out there publicly, Mo Honaker, who has the master
32:35
Speaker 3: lease and the liquor permit for the entire grounds, is
32:39
Speaker 3: digging in and saying that he doesn't owe the money.
32:43
Speaker 3: He was forced out. And this criminal group that he
32:46
Speaker 3: aligned himself with were the ones that ran it when
32:49
Speaker 3: this debt was incurred. So he doesn't believe it's his responsibility.
32:53
Speaker 1: And they're in jail, or one of the principals is.
32:56
Speaker 3: They're not going to settle that bill up.
32:58
Speaker 6: No.
32:59
Speaker 3: And so you wonder if, at the end of the day,
33:01
Speaker 3: does the FOA write that check? Does the city write
33:04
Speaker 3: that check? And if so, does that get the liquor
33:06
Speaker 3: license back? That's not even clear. Those are big unanswered questions. Well,
33:11
Speaker 3: they've got nine months to figure it out now. And
33:13
Speaker 3: I know that this was a blow to the festival
33:16
Speaker 3: and the artists that showed this past summer. Many of
33:18
Speaker 3: them said their sales were off, and they think it's
33:20
Speaker 3: because of that. And in fact, when I walked around
33:22
Speaker 3: the Sawdust Festival on Sunday night and Saturday and Sunday,
33:27
Speaker 3: most of the artists told me they had a really
33:28
Speaker 3: good year. And the festival people are saying they did
33:31
Speaker 3: not have a good year. So what's the difference? Well,
33:33
Speaker 3: one served alcohol.
33:35
Speaker 1: Well, the other part of it is that, you know,
33:38
Speaker 1: the environment at the Sawdust Festival is just so much
33:41
Speaker 1: more fun.
33:42
Speaker 3: It's joyous.
33:43
Speaker 1: You know, you go over there and it's.
33:45
Speaker 3: It's wild.
33:46
Speaker 1: It's music everywhere.
33:47
Speaker 3: They got good food now. They have a taco loco.
33:51
Speaker 3: And what's the Asian place over at the montage across
33:55
Speaker 3: the street?
33:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
33:58
Speaker 3: Here we go. Showing our senior bona fides.
34:02
Speaker 1: Starfish.
34:02
Speaker 3: Starfish. Yeah, they did a great job bringing some of
34:05
Speaker 3: our local restaurants in. As you know, many of the
34:09
Speaker 3: artists this year were put two stories on their booths,
34:12
Speaker 3: so it looks really cool, and they're allowed to leave
34:14
Speaker 3: them up for two years. Right. So they're making some
34:17
Speaker 3: great steps, and I honestly don't know how Art Affair
34:19
Speaker 3: can compete with that because they have 100 exhibitors just
34:23
Speaker 3: like the Sawdust, but they don't have that level of
34:25
Speaker 3: entertainment or even just the cool vibe.
34:29
Speaker 1: Right, right. Well, you know, it was something that I
34:33
Speaker 1: was very happy to see having been a former– 10-year
34:37
Speaker 1: exhibitor at the Sawdust Festival back in the 80s. But,
34:41
Speaker 1: you know, back then it was, you know, booth building
34:44
Speaker 1: was a big part of the sculptural environment of that place.
34:48
Speaker 1: Like people were building wild, crazy booths down there. And
34:52
Speaker 1: that had kind of waned for a while, like through
34:55
Speaker 1: the 90s it had gotten a little bit more homogenous
34:57
Speaker 1: and stuff. So to wander down there this year and
35:01
Speaker 1: see these two-story booths and just the energy that that
35:05
Speaker 1: created was it just felt like, wow, you know, okay.
35:09
Speaker 1: So there's some people inspired to do, to do something bigger,
35:14
Speaker 1: bigger and better. And, you know, the festival of arts,
35:17
Speaker 1: you walk through there and, you know, after the pageant
35:19
Speaker 1: gets let in and it's a ghost town, you know, and,
35:22
Speaker 1: and people, you know, people are showing up for the music.
35:25
Speaker 1: I mean, of course they have great, great bands playing there,
35:28
Speaker 1: you know, but, uh, You know, you look at the
35:31
Speaker 1: people wandering around and all of a sudden the dinner
35:33
Speaker 1: bell rings and they go into the bowl and the
35:36
Speaker 1: place is a vacant lot.
35:38
Speaker 3: And I was talking to some board members over there
35:41
Speaker 3: and they were saying just that. They said, you know,
35:42
Speaker 3: the pageant is the draw. That's why people come there.
35:45
Speaker 3: And it was a popular show this year. And, yeah,
35:50
Speaker 3: the artists are kind of just the tag along. And
35:53
Speaker 3: it's become, as you said, somewhat of a music festival
35:55
Speaker 3: on the green stage.
35:56
Speaker 2: Right.
35:57
Speaker 3: But it's a wonderful outing. I don't see– quite frankly,
36:00
Speaker 3: I do not see young people there. It's very much
36:03
Speaker 3: an older generation. But maybe they're the ones that spend money.
36:06
Speaker 3: But they come out. They bring their booze with them
36:09
Speaker 3: and their food and they make an afternoon of it.
36:12
Speaker 3: Even over at the tennis courts, they did well with
36:14
Speaker 3: that temporary restaurant because you have a captive audience. So
36:17
Speaker 3: if you go in there at 5 o'clock to make
36:19
Speaker 3: a night of it, you got to eat. And that
36:21
Speaker 3: was the place to do it unless you brought food
36:22
Speaker 3: with you. So– This is a great time to kind
36:26
Speaker 3: of have a wind down. And as you said, bring
36:28
Speaker 3: everybody together, not in silos, but together as the arts community.
36:33
Speaker 3: And I think Julie Perlin Lee is going to talk about,
36:36
Speaker 3: of course, art and nature, which comes up in November.
36:39
Speaker 1: Right.
36:39
Speaker 3: And we're going to show a film, I believe, that
36:41
Speaker 3: mostly highlights Elizabeth Turk's uh installation whatever it was 10
36:46
Speaker 3: years ago with the led umbrellas.
36:49
Speaker 1: Yeah and that one you know what they had 2
36:51
Speaker 1: 000 people something like that that that each got an
36:54
Speaker 1: umbrella i mean that was i remember going down there
36:57
Speaker 1: and of course your your guys were down there we
36:59
Speaker 1: were drumming yeah and uh i just remember seeing how
37:04
Speaker 1: many people were down there participating and thinking wow that's
37:08
Speaker 1: That's magical. You know, it's.
37:10
Speaker 3: A great testament to the power of art that all
37:12
Speaker 3: these people volunteered. I saw Elizabeth recently when you and
37:15
Speaker 3: I met with her and I was saying, how did
37:17
Speaker 3: you recruit all these people, you know, to take their time,
37:20
Speaker 3: you know, be sold on this idea. Hey, would you
37:22
Speaker 3: be part of this moving kinetic art installation for an
37:26
Speaker 3: hour and walk around on the sand holding an umbrella?
37:28
Speaker 3: And somehow people made it down there. And, you know,
37:32
Speaker 3: there's been some great, great renderings of art and nature.
37:35
Speaker 3: I think as you and I have discussed, it's really,
37:37
Speaker 3: I think, Laguna's greatest or certainly the museum's greatest exhibition
37:42
Speaker 3: because so much art today is interactive. It's obviously people
37:46
Speaker 3: want to be able to interact with it, immersive. They
37:50
Speaker 3: want to obviously Instagram it. That's a big part of it.
37:54
Speaker 3: So you've got to go where the audience is. And
37:56
Speaker 3: young people want to, you know, they go out to
37:58
Speaker 3: Desert X in Palm Springs or Joshua Tree for the
38:03
Speaker 3: big installations there and Burning Man. Probably Burning Man really
38:07
Speaker 3: set the template for this kind of art. And it's
38:09
Speaker 3: great that the museum would do it. And you and
38:12
Speaker 3: I have always said I wish they would expand on it.
38:14
Speaker 3: And that's why I know when you were talking to
38:18
Speaker 3: John Zegowitz just before this, the idea of integrating that.
38:22
Speaker 3: We're all talking about how can we build upon art
38:25
Speaker 3: and nature. When you look at Desert X, it's 15
38:29
Speaker 3: or 20 or more giant large-scale installations. Granted, they have
38:33
Speaker 3: the land in the Coachella Valley area. But it's up
38:35
Speaker 3: for a month or two, and I find that the
38:39
Speaker 3: discovery is so much– the reveal. Right. You get that map,
38:42
Speaker 3: and you're driving down a dirt path in the middle
38:44
Speaker 3: of nowhere, and all of a sudden there's this looming
38:46
Speaker 3: piece of art that changes the landscape.
38:50
Speaker 4: Right.
38:50
Speaker 3: It's really a fun experience.
38:52
Speaker 1: Well, yeah. I remember the several– well, it was probably
38:56
Speaker 1: pre-pandemic when they did the installation through Heisler Park of
38:59
Speaker 1: the hanging.
39:00
Speaker 3: Oh, they're very colorful.
39:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I remember– Because they have to go through
39:06
Speaker 1: a temporary use permit process. And I just remember the
39:11
Speaker 1: artist group that did that. They were talking about how
39:16
Speaker 1: it gets attached to the trees and all that stuff.
39:18
Speaker 1: And it was a really pretty complex installation. And it
39:23
Speaker 1: was only there for four days. And I'm like, why
39:26
Speaker 1: isn't this here through? like because it's in November like
39:29
Speaker 1: why don't we have it here through Thanksgiving like have
39:32
Speaker 1: it be here for three weeks where it was so
39:34
Speaker 1: beautiful when you know we have a four day weekend
39:37
Speaker 1: coming up in a couple of weeks you know and
39:39
Speaker 1: why not leave it and let people who are coming
39:43
Speaker 1: here for Thanksgiving on the holiday enjoy that as well
39:47
Speaker 1: and it's always there's always some But, well, it's just,
39:51
Speaker 1: you know, it's only going to be there for four
39:52
Speaker 1: days and that's it. And I'm like.
39:53
Speaker 3: And by the time word gets out, it's done.
39:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. And especially something that's, you know, that was a challenge.
39:59
Speaker 1: I mean, so.
39:59
Speaker 3: I watched them dismantle that. That was a mission. Yeah.
40:03
Speaker 3: You know, those, what do you call them, cherry pickers?
40:05
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah. They had the, you know, scissor lifts
40:07
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. You know, to de-install the piece.
40:10
Speaker 1: And so. You know, I mean, it was cool. I
40:15
Speaker 1: thought it was one of the more successful ones. And yet,
40:18
Speaker 1: why are we doing these for four days? They should
40:21
Speaker 1: at least be two weekends.
40:24
Speaker 3: Two weekends.
40:25
Speaker 1: I agree. With a week in between. Yeah, yeah. I
40:27
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know why it's formatted that way
40:31
Speaker 1: or why it can't change.
40:33
Speaker 3: Come out tomorrow. This is a great chance to ask.
40:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
40:37
Speaker 3: So as far as the format tomorrow, I'm saying we
40:39
Speaker 3: have an hour of socializing. I think it starts at 6.30,
40:42
Speaker 3: around 7.30 or so. We're going to screen first Global
40:45
Speaker 3: Schism to start the program. Well, before that, we're actually
40:47
Speaker 3: going to have a couple of members of the Laguna
40:49
Speaker 3: Beach Land Trust, Community Land Trust.
40:52
Speaker 1: Are they coming?
40:53
Speaker 3: They're coming.
40:54
Speaker 1: Great.
40:54
Speaker 3: They're going to get up and sort of just explain
40:56
Speaker 3: to everybody what they've done and what their goals are
40:59
Speaker 3: and Hopefully they'll get a big round of applause because
41:02
Speaker 3: of their support of artists, recognition of artists. Then we're
41:05
Speaker 3: going to show Global Schism. Then Julie's going to talk
41:09
Speaker 3: to you about that. Then I think we're going to
41:11
Speaker 3: move into Art and Nature and talking to Elizabeth and
41:15
Speaker 3: then Casey. So it's great because you kind of represent
41:19
Speaker 3: installation art. You've got about seven pieces in Laguna, I believe.
41:23
Speaker 3: Six or seven.
41:23
Speaker 1: A little more than that.
41:24
Speaker 3: Is it? Okay. So, I mean, but speaking to the
41:27
Speaker 3: whole process, I mean, clearly Global Schism was completely different
41:31
Speaker 3: because it was not a commission. Right. But you have
41:33
Speaker 3: a lot of experience in that, and I hope they
41:35
Speaker 3: touch on it because there has been an issue raised
41:38
Speaker 3: recently that recent commissions, including the new firehouse and the
41:42
Speaker 3: piece of art on the promenade, were not given to
41:45
Speaker 3: local artists. And why is that?
41:48
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I– listen, I don't– I don't disagree
41:53
Speaker 1: with the concept that, that, um, public art installations in
41:59
Speaker 1: Laguna beach don't have to be all done by Laguna
42:01
Speaker 1: beach artists, you know? I mean, um, but we've, we've
42:05
Speaker 1: had a, we've had a, uh, a couple of things happen, uh,
42:10
Speaker 1: by world-class artists that, that ultimately got rejected by the
42:15
Speaker 1: city or the pop or the residents or whatever. And
42:17
Speaker 1: that was Mark Fornes's piece at the, at the, uh,
42:21
Speaker 1: village entrance. And then more recently, uh, the Norman Foster
42:24
Speaker 1: pavilion that, uh, was part of the Pacific project. As
42:28
Speaker 1: far as the fire station and what happened on the promenade, um,
42:33
Speaker 1: the fire station, it was put out like a, uh,
42:36
Speaker 1: a request for qualifications, you know, so, you know, uh,
42:40
Speaker 1: local artists as well as artists from around the country
42:42
Speaker 1: could apply for it. And the arts commission made their
42:47
Speaker 1: choice of three different, uh, artists to submit, uh, more
42:51
Speaker 1: formalized proposals. And they picked three people who were not
42:56
Speaker 1: in Laguna beach for the fire station. And, you know,
42:59
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily fault them for that. It's it's, there's
43:02
Speaker 1: no prerequisite that they can't do that kind of stuff. And,
43:05
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with having some work by, uh,
43:08
Speaker 1: other artists outside the community to be part of our,
43:11
Speaker 1: our art collection, our public art collection here, as far
43:14
Speaker 1: as the promenade goes, that, that's, that was a whole different, uh,
43:18
Speaker 1: situation that, uh, you know, um, I don't know how
43:22
Speaker 1: people feel about the piece that's down there. I, I, yeah,
43:25
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say it. I personally think it's
43:27
Speaker 1: rather mediocre and, and it doesn't, it doesn't draw any attention.
43:32
Speaker 1: It's just sort of this thing that's abstract. It's not, well,
43:35
Speaker 1: it's the color. There's no color. There's no reflection. There's,
43:38
Speaker 1: there's no, there's nothing about it that you kind of go, wow,
43:42
Speaker 1: that's a really, let's go check that out. It's, it's
43:45
Speaker 1: just kind of there. And it's, um, and it was, uh,
43:49
Speaker 1: you know, The circumstances around that were kind of complicated.
43:54
Speaker 3: You can't really speak to it because not only are
43:56
Speaker 3: you on the planning commission that had explicit directions sent
44:01
Speaker 3: to the arts commission, which they overruled, but also you
44:06
Speaker 3: are an installation artist. Not that you would have bid
44:08
Speaker 3: on that. But I'll say that– It was unfortunate that
44:14
Speaker 3: because I think there was a desire amongst a lot
44:17
Speaker 3: of people that the Forest Avenue Promenade would be one
44:20
Speaker 3: of the most prominent places for an art installation. And
44:23
Speaker 3: I think the community would have embraced, as long as
44:26
Speaker 3: it was good, really would have preferred a local artist
44:29
Speaker 3: be recognized in that location.
44:31
Speaker 1: Well, you know, conceptually it was something that potentially would
44:35
Speaker 1: change every three or four years, too.
44:37
Speaker 3: Which is cool.
44:38
Speaker 1: You know, where you would have a nice piece there
44:40
Speaker 1: and maybe it would get reoccurred. relocated, you know, somewhere
44:43
Speaker 1: else in town and then a new piece could be there.
44:47
Speaker 1: So there was an ever, ever evolving, uh, uh, place for, for,
44:52
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's local artists or maybe there would
44:55
Speaker 1: be some artists from out of town, but when you
44:59
Speaker 1: do something that that's, that's, you know, temper, when I
45:02
Speaker 1: say temporary, I mean, three or four years, five years, whatever,
45:05
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it's temporary, but it's there for long
45:07
Speaker 1: enough to where it's, it's not like a weekend.
45:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.
45:10
Speaker 1: And I think it allows you to do things that
45:15
Speaker 1: are maybe a little bit more outside the norm. In
45:18
Speaker 1: other words, you don't always have to have thematic things
45:21
Speaker 1: around the ocean or around our hillsides or around nature.
45:25
Speaker 1: It could be something that's a little more aggressive in
45:29
Speaker 1: terms of its content, because even if people hate it
45:33
Speaker 1: or if they love it or if they don't have
45:34
Speaker 1: any opinion about it, it's only going to be there for,
45:37
Speaker 1: it's a temporary piece. So it's, it's going to get
45:39
Speaker 1: moved off site to somewhere else. And then new piece
45:42
Speaker 1: will show up and, you know, we can have conversations about,
45:45
Speaker 1: you know, well, the one from two years ago was cool.
45:49
Speaker 1: And this new one, I don't know about that, you know, but,
45:52
Speaker 1: but that's the nature of art, you know, art, art is,
45:54
Speaker 1: you know, if you have no reaction to it, then
45:57
Speaker 1: I think that's a fail. I think if, if you go,
46:01
Speaker 1: it's great, or I hate it, you know, That means
46:05
Speaker 1: it's affecting people.
46:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like my column in the paper.
46:10
Speaker 3: Most people hate it, and I love that.
46:13
Speaker 1: I don't know if most people do.
46:14
Speaker 3: No, I'm kidding. But they react to it. They react
46:17
Speaker 3: to it. You want that more than anything. It means
46:19
Speaker 3: they're engaged. Right. They don't have to like it. But, George,
46:22
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that our listeners know that
46:24
Speaker 3: we're closing out, but this is KXFM and Laguna Talks,
46:29
Speaker 3: and thanks for sticking around. So we've got Art Matters tomorrow.
46:33
Speaker 3: Tickets are for sale right now. They're only $ 25, so
46:36
Speaker 3: we're not gouging. And you get a lot of content.
46:39
Speaker 3: You get to support the creative community in Laguna Beach
46:43
Speaker 3: and see artists both in the audience and on stage
46:47
Speaker 3: and really understand, I think, how important this community is
46:51
Speaker 3: to our town. Tonight, however, we are doing the candidate
46:56
Speaker 3: forum for city council and for the school board over
46:59
Speaker 3: at the Neighborhood Congregational Church. And this one is free.
47:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.
47:04
Speaker 3: But we're asking people to bring a dish. We're calling
47:07
Speaker 3: it the Good Luck Potluck. We're trying to make it
47:09
Speaker 3: a little different because we are the radio station and
47:11
Speaker 3: we're a little different. And we know there's going to
47:13
Speaker 3: be something like eight or nine debates. There's going to
47:16
Speaker 3: be fatigue. So we're doing it a little differently. In fact,
47:20
Speaker 3: I have asked the city council candidates, of which there's nine,
47:24
Speaker 3: as far as I know, eight are coming.
47:27
Speaker 1: Oh, who's not coming?
47:29
Speaker 3: Joy, but I asked her to have somebody get up
47:31
Speaker 3: and read a statement. And so I'm just going to
47:35
Speaker 3: let people know what we asked them tonight. We're looking
47:38
Speaker 3: for a little more insight into who you are as
47:40
Speaker 3: a person and how you got here. Feel free to
47:43
Speaker 3: write and read your response. Please limit it to no
47:45
Speaker 3: more than five minutes as we have a lot to
47:47
Speaker 3: get to and want to have time for questions. And
47:50
Speaker 3: you don't have to recite your answers question by question.
47:53
Speaker 3: Think of it as a short story you're reading. Make
47:55
Speaker 3: it colorful. Style matters. And audiences love a good story
47:58
Speaker 3: that reveals your vulnerability and authentic self. So we're asking
48:02
Speaker 3: them to describe their childhood, where they grew up, family dynamics, spiritual,
48:07
Speaker 3: religious beliefs, education. What events and or activities informed their
48:12
Speaker 3: youth and young adulthood? What brought them to Laguna? In parentheses,
48:17
Speaker 3: no extra points for being born here. You didn't have
48:19
Speaker 3: a choice, but tell us why you stayed. Fantastic. What
48:23
Speaker 3: was the biggest or series of challenges or setbacks that
48:26
Speaker 3: changed you as a person? How did you deal with
48:28
Speaker 3: it and use it for personal growth? What was the
48:31
Speaker 3: biggest or series of achievements that changed you as a person?
48:34
Speaker 3: How did either or both of those things set you
48:37
Speaker 3: on a new trajectory in life? What's the best thing
48:40
Speaker 3: about your life today and the best thing about living
48:42
Speaker 3: in Laguna? What's the single worst thing that you'd like
48:45
Speaker 3: to change and not the usual tent poles of public safety, fire,
48:49
Speaker 3: and ocean quality, please? Be specific. And finally, why are
48:52
Speaker 3: you seeking public office? Oh, and if you're an incumbent,
48:55
Speaker 3: why does change matter? If you're not an incumbent, why
48:58
Speaker 3: are we in such need of personal change?
49:01
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's great because I think the, you know, because,
49:05
Speaker 1: you know, every organization in town wants to have their
49:08
Speaker 1: own forum and format it the way they want it.
49:12
Speaker 1: But they generally start becoming rather redundant.
49:15
Speaker 3: Same questions.
49:16
Speaker 1: You know, it's, you know, what's the priority? Well, public safety.
49:20
Speaker 3: Listening to our community. Who doesn't listen to the community?
49:24
Speaker 3: I'm not going to listen to the community if I
49:26
Speaker 3: get elected.
49:30
Speaker 1: Well, when you run, Billy, you can make that statement.
49:33
Speaker 3: Right, exactly. So one more thing then, George. So after it,
49:37
Speaker 3: I'm kind of Playing my hand here, but I feel
49:40
Speaker 3: like it's okay because if any of those city council
49:44
Speaker 3: candidates are listening, you get an advantage. You can prepare
49:48
Speaker 3: for this. But these are only going to be yes
49:50
Speaker 3: and no, and they're only going to raise their hand
49:53
Speaker 3: as a collective group, yes or no, on each of
49:55
Speaker 3: these questions, and then we're going to have it for prosperity.
49:59
Speaker 3: Number 10. Should the city add a 3% tax on
50:02
Speaker 3: restaurant gross receipts to primarily raise money from visitors? Number 9.
50:09
Speaker 3: That's not the right one. Uh-oh. Ooh, number nine. Should
50:13
Speaker 3: we build a multi-story parking lot at the village entrance
50:17
Speaker 3: near the digester building, or should we build one at
50:20
Speaker 3: Act 5? In other words, should we build one?
50:23
Speaker 1: Right.
50:24
Speaker 3: Number eight. Should we have a prominent large-scale installation marking
50:28
Speaker 3: our village entrance as previously proposed, especially if paid for
50:32
Speaker 3: entirely by tourist funding? And you just touched on that.
50:36
Speaker 2: Right.
50:37
Speaker 3: Do you recall back in the day, was that simply
50:39
Speaker 3: a proposal or did it get voted in? What was
50:42
Speaker 3: the status?
50:43
Speaker 1: I think my recollection, and I could be wrong, so don't,
50:47
Speaker 1: you know, if I misstate, you know. The Arts Commission,
50:53
Speaker 1: I think they had, you know, saved up enough money
50:56
Speaker 1: to reach out to somebody on the level of a
50:59
Speaker 1: Mark Fornes. And he actually made the proposal and they
51:04
Speaker 1: were already recommending to city council. Let's go ahead with this.
51:09
Speaker 1: And when the concept images showed up and got spread
51:14
Speaker 1: around town, people freaked out. And it caused, I believe,
51:19
Speaker 1: the council at the time to shelve it. Yeah, that's
51:22
Speaker 1: what I thought. And I think he even came back
51:25
Speaker 1: with a smaller version of it. And they still rejected it.
51:28
Speaker 1: And so it just went out the window. And recently,
51:32
Speaker 1: you and I had some contact with him.
51:34
Speaker 3: Which is why I want to float this again. You
51:37
Speaker 3: and I, quite frankly, because we're old, been here a while,
51:40
Speaker 3: we have more institutional knowledge than most of these candidates
51:43
Speaker 3: and some of the current council people. Right. who probably
51:46
Speaker 3: won't even remember this, but this is why I want
51:48
Speaker 3: to bring it up again. Right. And kind of, even
51:51
Speaker 3: if it threatens funding to the land trust and to
51:54
Speaker 3: the radio station because it gets diverted, I think that
51:56
Speaker 3: this piece is important enough that we revisit it. Number seven,
52:02
Speaker 3: are you in favor of installing e-bike rental kiosks in
52:05
Speaker 3: key locations downtown and around our neighborhoods as a congestion reducer,
52:10
Speaker 3: mood escalator, and a proven way for the city to
52:13
Speaker 3: make money? Six, are you in favor of roundabouts, roundabout
52:18
Speaker 3: the whole city in places like Thalia and Glen Eyrie,
52:20
Speaker 3: the intersection of Broadway and Forest at El Toro and
52:23
Speaker 3: Laguna Canyon Road, or strategic places on Laguna Canyon Road
52:27
Speaker 3: provided they could be legally and safely engineered? Because I
52:30
Speaker 3: don't want anybody saying, well, if they do this and
52:32
Speaker 3: that and the other, or if we can afford it.
52:34
Speaker 3: I just want to know conceptually if you're in favor
52:37
Speaker 3: of it. Number five, should the city continue to support
52:40
Speaker 3: the community land trust in pursuit of more artist-senior relationships?
52:43
Speaker 3: and worker housing around town. Number four, should St. Catherine's
52:47
Speaker 3: School be converted to affordable housing to help meet our
52:50
Speaker 3: state mandate of 248 more units? And if not, I'll
52:55
Speaker 3: leave it to other debates to ask what your best
52:57
Speaker 3: use case is for it.
52:59
Speaker 1: It's 394.
53:00
Speaker 3: Is it?
53:01
Speaker 6: Yeah.
53:01
Speaker 3: I'm so glad I'm reading this to you now. I
53:04
Speaker 3: don't know where I got that number from.
53:05
Speaker 1: I don't either.
53:07
Speaker 3: No, but I saw it somewhere.
53:08
Speaker 1: Oh, really?
53:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. People are spreading false things.
53:11
Speaker 1: Well.
53:12
Speaker 3: Number three, should we acquire Laguna Canyon Road to underground
53:15
Speaker 3: the power lines no matter the cost as a matter
53:17
Speaker 3: of community safety and preparedness, then build a bike-slash-transit express
53:22
Speaker 3: lane but keep the road single lane each way as
53:24
Speaker 3: originally favored unanimously by a subcommittee of 13 different stakeholder
53:28
Speaker 3: groups who then-Mayor Bob Whalen convened over several months of
53:32
Speaker 3: focus groups to determine the best use after undergrounding the
53:35
Speaker 3: power lines. It's a lot. It's a long sentence, but
53:38
Speaker 3: I just wanted to let people know. Again, institutionally, this
53:40
Speaker 3: has all been vetted. We don't have to go through
53:43
Speaker 3: it all over again. Two, are you in favor of
53:47
Speaker 3: legal cannabis dispensaries in Laguna with parameters set forth by
53:50
Speaker 3: city officials now that the data is conclusive that it
53:54
Speaker 3: raises tax money without impacting crime or increasing usage and
53:57
Speaker 3: in some cases makes safer with their spiffy gentrification, lighting,
54:02
Speaker 3: and additional security? And finally, number one, do you believe
54:06
Speaker 3: the city should provide a level of financial support for
54:09
Speaker 3: its nonprofit community radio station that produces daily news, weather, music, talk,
54:14
Speaker 3: award shows, cultural events, and, of course, live music, all
54:17
Speaker 3: celebrating our town, and especially because of the station's utility
54:21
Speaker 3: in the case of any emergency, but especially when the grid,
54:24
Speaker 3: the cell towers, and the electrical go down and your
54:27
Speaker 3: only information source is from a battery-operated or hand-cranked radio station.
54:32
Speaker 3: tuned to 104.7 on your FM dial?
54:37
Speaker 1: Those are all really relevant questions, I think, and things.
54:41
Speaker 3: That no other debate will probably ask about.
54:43
Speaker 1: Well, that's true too, but it'll be interesting to see
54:47
Speaker 1: if you can get them to be either a hand
54:49
Speaker 1: raise or just a yes or no without a lot of, well,
54:52
Speaker 1: let me explain.
54:53
Speaker 3: We're not going to allow it. But then if there's
54:55
Speaker 3: time at the end, I'll allow them each to have
54:57
Speaker 3: a closing statement, two minutes, and if they want to
54:59
Speaker 3: address any of these issues because they have a you know, a, uh,
55:03
Speaker 3: what about, or something, you know, a caveat, right. That'll
55:06
Speaker 3: be their chance.
55:07
Speaker 1: Well, that's great. No, I, I, I like the format.
55:10
Speaker 1: I remember, uh, I think it might've been in our last, uh,
55:14
Speaker 1: city council cycle. Um, there was one debate that, uh,
55:19
Speaker 1: was more like a debate where they allowed the candidates
55:22
Speaker 1: to go back and forth with each other. And I
55:25
Speaker 1: thought it was way more effective, you know, because you really,
55:28
Speaker 1: you really got a much deeper perspective of where people
55:33
Speaker 1: were at, and also the differences between the candidates. And
55:37
Speaker 1: I hope.
55:37
Speaker 3: They do that in some of these. I felt like
55:39
Speaker 3: we were too packed because we added the school board debate.
55:43
Speaker 3: So if we'd had two hours for this, maybe we
55:45
Speaker 3: could have taken a different tact. Also, we're calling it
55:49
Speaker 3: the good luck potluck, and we're hoping it'll be less,
55:51
Speaker 3: you know, sort of fractious than some of those kind
55:54
Speaker 3: of debates. But I agree with you. There's a definite
55:57
Speaker 3: place for this. See how people handle themselves under pressure
56:00
Speaker 3: and on their heels if they get accused of something.
56:03
Speaker 3: And I think there are issues for sure that certain
56:07
Speaker 3: candidates want to take on with other candidates.
56:10
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the one thing that I've been noticing,
56:13
Speaker 1: especially in social media is some of the candidates who
56:16
Speaker 1: are posting videos and things is that they just pose
56:21
Speaker 1: a lot of questions. Well, what do you think of this?
56:25
Speaker 1: Or what if, Is there something we need to do?
56:30
Speaker 1: Instead of going, here's what I stand for and here's
56:32
Speaker 1: what I want to do. Here's my three major issues
56:36
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's more like, is this the right thing
56:38
Speaker 1: to do? Did they do this correctly? Who's responsible? It's
56:44
Speaker 1: all these sort of posing these very negative questions to
56:49
Speaker 1: people who are listening to this. And I think it's...
56:51
Speaker 1: I don't think it's productive and I don't think it's
56:53
Speaker 1: really very helpful to clarify who they are and what
56:56
Speaker 1: they want to do.
56:57
Speaker 3: And the other thing that I think falls short on
56:59
Speaker 3: a lot of these debates because there's no time is
57:03
Speaker 3: there's so many things that candidates will say. I'm in
57:06
Speaker 3: favor of this. I want to do that. On complicated
57:09
Speaker 3: issues like Mission Hospital or St. Catharines or undergrounding the
57:13
Speaker 3: power lines or this, that, and the other. And the
57:15
Speaker 3: one question there's never time for is, okay, how? Right.
57:20
Speaker 3: How are you going to do it? Because I hear
57:21
Speaker 3: all these people, the current city council is not listening
57:25
Speaker 3: to residents. Okay, how are you going to listen to
57:27
Speaker 3: residents differently? I see them listening to residents all the time.
57:31
Speaker 3: That's all they do is walk around and get an
57:33
Speaker 3: earful from residents. And that's one thing that long-form radio
57:38
Speaker 3: does do, and I intend on doing if I have
57:41
Speaker 3: enough time. Uh-oh, here's George's phone. If there's enough time
57:46
Speaker 3: in this election cycle to have all– Maybe I won't
57:50
Speaker 3: have the incumbents on. They'll be last because they've been
57:53
Speaker 3: on so many times. But the six new candidates.
57:57
Speaker 1: Sorry about that. That's all right.
57:59
Speaker 3: The six new candidates, if I have enough Tuesdays. Because
58:02
Speaker 3: when you have an hour, you can go a lot deeper.
58:04
Speaker 3: We learned a lot about Peter Blake on the radio
58:07
Speaker 3: a few years ago and certainly all the other candidates.
58:10
Speaker 3: Because to a certain degree, I hold their feet to
58:13
Speaker 3: the fire. I don't make it a hit job. But
58:15
Speaker 3: I do press them on things that they say like, Well,
58:18
Speaker 3: how are you going to– do you understand the machinations?
58:20
Speaker 3: Do you understand the process? Because everybody can come in
58:24
Speaker 3: the city council bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and then the reality
58:27
Speaker 3: hits that there are– Well.
58:28
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that you have to really
58:30
Speaker 1: deal with, and then you start to discover all your
58:32
Speaker 1: sort of ambition or the things you aspire to.
58:33
Speaker 6: Gosh.
58:34
Speaker 4: Gosh.
58:44
Speaker 3: And you can only do one thing at a time.
58:45
Speaker 3: You know, it's not like you can take on all
58:47
Speaker 3: these issues at once.
58:49
Speaker 1: I know somebody's trying to get a hold of me.
58:50
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
58:53
Speaker 3: George, your laundry is ready to be thrown in the dryer.
58:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, um, but yeah, so, so, you know, you
59:00
Speaker 1: get on, you get on something like council or, or
59:02
Speaker 1: any of the appointed committees and all of a sudden,
59:05
Speaker 1: you know, you're dealing with, you know, people's projects, people's lives, uh,
59:10
Speaker 1: all kinds of things that, uh, you know, like I say,
59:13
Speaker 1: you can be aspirational about these things when you're running
59:16
Speaker 1: for something, but when you get into having to deal
59:18
Speaker 1: with the nuts and bolts of running a municipality, that's
59:22
Speaker 1: a whole different program.
59:23
Speaker 3: And so many of these candidates have not really put
59:26
Speaker 3: in the time. They don't know what goes into it.
59:28
Speaker 3: For instance, if you look at most agendas, at the end,
59:31
Speaker 3: there's always one or two or three appeals by a
59:34
Speaker 3: property owner or by a neighbor over a building project,
59:38
Speaker 3: which is not in your kind of overview of things
59:40
Speaker 3: you want to do to change the city, but it's
59:42
Speaker 3: your responsibility, which means you've got to put time in
59:45
Speaker 3: you've got to go visit the site and understand what
59:47
Speaker 3: the issues are because as you pointed out it's very
59:50
Speaker 3: important to the homeowner or to the buyer or to
59:53
Speaker 3: the neighbors and so that's part of the job and
59:57
Speaker 3: that gets in the way of trying to do big
59:59
Speaker 3: projects well it's