Latest / Laguna Talks / Jorg Dubin and Louis Longi

Transcript

Jorg Dubin and Louis Longi · Laguna Talks

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Baby Mama sing a song.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I'll sing the baby there.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Won't say me love. She wants a dream till the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: spell the dream. That's what I'm going to bous love
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the Street. M Son. We ain't bir fat. You
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: look at the ram the f seven. We ain't cur fat.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: You look at the rams.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: There's not a bad deserted land that has no law
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: enforcement and no government that the world and time forgot.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, and that's it's it's environmentally can be kind
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: of hostile, but at the same time, you know, because
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: it's it's so free that that's what draws creative people
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: to places like that, whether it's the place we were or
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: other places around the country or globe where you know
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: they're just is no. There's nobody saying no to you.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: As long as you're not hurting somebody, you know, you
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: can do kind of whatever you want.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: And you know what really came through for me this
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: weekend was the fact that you were coming out on
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Saturday morning.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I got there Friday night.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I called you around eight am and said, George, I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: not sure you should come. I know, in a devastating
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: house fire immediately next to the place where we're staying right.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We were awakened at six am to the sound of
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: propane tanks exploding. Nice and but what really can through
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: for me was how much community was there. Because when
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: I went outside and we grabbed everything and ran to
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: our car, you don't want to mess around. You don't
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: know if this thing's going to come engulf you in
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: any second, if the winds shift. But luckily the winds
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: were not coming our way. But it was literally two
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: doors down Lewis. I mean, that was just huge plumes
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: of black smoke, but the entire community was running towards
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the fire and they were pulling their hoses and they
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: were working together to put the fire out because they
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: don't have any fire department there.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, and the interesting thing, you know, because
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: you know, we know, you know, the emeritus mayor of
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: this particular place, and he's he's really worked hard at
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: creating creating community down there, and it's it's it's really
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: it's really interesting. It's really special, you know, because you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: people do come together and they watch out for each other,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: and it's a it's a very small place, so you
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: can do that, but it's you know, create community and
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: creating uh, uh, and an environment for for uh, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: people to be creative is it's so special and it
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: makes it it makes a place cool. And that's that's
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: why the only reason I brought it up is just
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: just to kind of have a comparison to to our
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: art colony and and how many rules and regulations and
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: guidelines there are that sort of restrict creator creativity. I mean,
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: you've run up against it with the the fest of
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: the Vine Bowl.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: So I know you don't want to.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: Divulge the location, but it the location is get a
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: little closer to that mind.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I know you don't want to divulge it at the location.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: But it comes down that that, you know, because you
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: want to create that creativity. But it's out in the
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: areas and there East Jesus and and Slab City, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: so it's a space that that is coming under a
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: lot of environmental concerns.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Are you aware of that that they're no?
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I know, I've been coughing ever since I got back.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: That wasn't from the environment, because if the water dries up,
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: if the water dries up, it'll want to be the
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: most it will be. And it's on part within the
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: next six or seven years it will be one of
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: the most environmental, largest environmental catastrophes in California. So I
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: think it's obvious we're talking about the Sultans, the Sultancy.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, okay, we're you just gave it away. No, there's
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: other places there. No one will know where.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, do you really think that the city of Laguna
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: is going to mobilize to go to what we call
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: a post apocalyptic wasteland?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Probably not.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: It must be barns out, double wide trailers, graffiti strewn.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not exactly analogous to the life here.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: But that's I think also what we enjoyed so much
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, that's it's It is the draw for
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: anybody who's wants just to have the freedom to not
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: only create stuff, but just to kind of like your
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: freak flag fly once in a while.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and shout out to Laguna because we brought about
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: nine ten people, all of whom had special skills, right,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: and we went to the beach and set up our
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: own mobile nightclub.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Right, And that was amazing. I mean, I mean, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: can't imagine that happening here in Laguna. You know, like
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: I think, like you know, with you know, the hoops
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: that you have to go through to try to put
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: on an event, let alone a very organic event that
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: involves things that you know might freak out, you know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: the police department or the fire department, or the you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: the people in city hall or whatever it's. But you know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: it's those things that you know, like, can you imagine
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: the Christmas festival that happened in sixty nine or seventy
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: ever happening in this town?
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Ever?
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Again, I can't imagine it. I mean talk about a
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: talk about a funny event. I mean I was there,
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: so I remember it, you know. Yeah, it's like you know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: I just I was like.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Sixteen, nothing bad could happen. Yeah, I spent a couple
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: of days there. But even that ended dramatically with the
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: police came in.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Oh, they scraped everybody out of that place. Yeah, they
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: were decided they weren't going to have any any more
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: You know, forced them into buses and sent them scurrying.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: And even that ended badly. Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: And the thing is is there was nothing bad going on.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: You know, there was no.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Soft fear based you know, people they want order, and
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: especially when they dropped millions on their home, they want
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: to feel safe, and there's a perception that, you know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: the streets are clean and you have to have order.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: I've never quite understood why alcohol is prohibited on the beach.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: This to me seems like the very best place to drink.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: It's sunny and hot. You should be able to enjoy
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: a beer or a my tie or a pina colada.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: But no, you have to walk across the street onto pavement,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: and then you can get completely blotto and do stupid things.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Well again, you know, It's just it's the evolution of
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: a place where the demographics have changed so much over
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: the last forty or fifty years, you know.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Or is it because we are descendants of Protestants from
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: England who lack self control and common sense and will
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: only evolve into badness if they're allowed to drink.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't know, because you know, I would
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: say where we were over the weekend, you know, I mean,
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: there was certainly plenty of people enjoying themselves on all levels,
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: you know, but you know there was nothing. I mean,
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: I've only been down there twice and there was nothing
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: bad that I witnessed happening. There wasn't people fighting, there wasn't.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Well, there was a little bit of arson.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Well there's that, but you know that's crazy people who
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: do crazy.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: There is mental illness there because many of those people,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: as you know Lewis, have been there for the last
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: fifty or sixty years. They were there when it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: in its heyday as a water based resort for the
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: residents of Palm Springs.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they had they had piers, they had buildings, they
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: were doing you know, little boats out there, the little
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: you know, little paddle boats they had.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: It's a magnificent looking lake. I mean when you see
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the mountains in the background.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Beautiful it is. But it's it's a little toxic. I think.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's a whole nother story of how that
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: all occurred, right from agriculture and the breached Colorado River
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: that filled it up and then all the all the
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: toxins that blew into it. What I'm curious about is
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: is that why there is allegedly a repository of lithium there.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Did it happen because of the environmental disaster or was
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: it there naturally?
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: I think he's there naturally there naturally, And then what's
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: happened is is now that that's a resource that they've
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: seen that it can be something.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, who knows, which is so fitting for this
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: little art colony, because this little art colony rose out
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: of nothing, out of detritis, which artists could then live
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: cheaply or come too cheaply and make things out of it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: And yet isn't it ironic that we all know because
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: we talk about it on the daily, that the malaise
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: of this town, like so many artist colonies that started
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: out of creative freedom, is when the money rolls in
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: and it gets gentrified, and then the artists get forced out,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: and then it becomes what we just said, it becomes
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: stale and conservative and too many rules. And so the
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: prospect of this being the biggest lithium deposit on planet
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Earth and what that might do to this very community
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: is ripe for artistic exploration.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Well, it's also you know, we learned something over the
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: weekend from the individual who is sort of the emeritus
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: mayor down there that once uh, once they start really
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: mining this you know, lithium deposit that it requires it's
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: sort of like a fracking process. So they're going to
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: be using uh. He said, about twenty five percent of
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: the lake water is going to be absorbed in you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: using the mechanics for extracting the lithium, which means you
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: know that water level is going to go down and
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: it's going to become even more salient and toxic probably,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: you know. So you know that will that will affect
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: what's what's happening down there place? Well that and or
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: you know is it is development going to happen all
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: over the place, you know, to accommodate people who are
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: you know, working and extracting the casinos. Yeah, I don't
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: know about casinos, but.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Well look at look at I gotta have something to
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: dods extract.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: Well, look at it. I mean you even get it
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: in Los Angeles. I mean you get you get like
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Joshua a good example. You know, you have Noah Purfoy,
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: who is this prolific artist during you know, the sixties
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: and seventies in Los Angeles and then was part of
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: the any national Endownment for the arts under the Clinton administration.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: I mean, this guy was a prolific social artist and
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: he was brilliant, and you know, you get to a
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: retirement age, you know, he couldn't do anything in LA anymore,
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: and he bought land out there in Joshua Tree, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: he's got like what four or five acres out there
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: that he kept all of his his work that he
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: had very very cutting edge you know, sixties social you know,
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: sculptures there, found materials, you know. Yeah, and it's like
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: you you move out to areas where no one's watching
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: over you, no one's got the restrictions, no one's and
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: you can set up, you know, five acres of art
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: all over your property and not worry about anything.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: It's pretty amazing. Well that's that's also you know what
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: was cool about where we were is that artists have
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: come down there and installed sculptures, like some of them
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: major out on the beach, just in random places, and
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: they just leave them there. Nobody, nobody messes with them.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: It's like and it's the equivalent of BLM land, but
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: it has another acronym.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It's it's public land.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: And yet you know, they they could easily be taken
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: apart if you know, some government agencies said they don't
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: belong there. But nobody's out there, is it BLM. It's
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: not BLM, but but it's like a Bureau of Water
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: or something has to do with the lake itself and
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: it's at the very top of the beach though is
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: private and so that sub club is privately owned land,
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: as well as the Bombay Beach Club where we went
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: to a grateful Dead Seller party.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: You just let the cat out of the space boy.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Anyway, it's it's in India, right, Ah boy.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: It's hard to keep anything a secret with anyway.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: But I will say that being on that beach with
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: all these cool lights that were illuminating this giant tentacle,
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: this sculpture of a squid tentacle coming out of the sand,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: and with like you know, great technology, incredible speakers and
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: lighting for a bright, shining moment, I thought I was
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: in the greatest dance club on planet Earth because the
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: views of all of the sculptures in the sea and
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: it was just magnificent and we just had a great time.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: It was like the freedom as we started off talking
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: about which we and we have those same musicians or
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: DJs looking for a place around here where they can
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: do that, and they're coming up empty.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, because I was thinking like, ah, God,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: do we have some do we have some space in
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: the canyon to to designate as a as a place
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: to do, you know, to have the freedom. I mean,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: can you imagine like the tell that Mark Mark Chamberlain
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: did you know back to you know, like could that
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: even happen again here? You know, it's like you just
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: you just wonder, like there's so it's like the restrictions
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: are just compressing the creativity more and more and more.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: And I think it's bipartisan. It's not a Republican or
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Democrat thing, because plenty of these groups are are liberals,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: that are environmental groups that are always worried about the
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: impact on and you know, we all agree, but there's
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: nuance and there's discernment. There's like, yeah, one little patch
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: of degraded area we could designate as the public parties.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: But any don't do it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: I mean, really, isn't it about just going and doing
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: it and you've got everything.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: It kind of is like like if you hadn't built
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: your complex, we could have done it.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Believe me, it was an acre there. We we had
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: many opportunities to do stuff. I know, none of us
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: didn't it.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: I know, I know, well too late now, But you know,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: there's just isn't there isn't those kind of spaces unless
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: the city was willing to allow, you know, more use
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: of like certain beaches maybe or whatever to really do
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: you know, I mean art and nature you know, yeah,
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: I mean it's okay, but it's not. I mean there's
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: been some pretty great ones. I admit that part, but
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: We should expand on it, not contract it.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Well, that's the thing is, like, you know, it should
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: be you should be able to you know, whether it's
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: just like hey, I want to sign up for the
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: weekend of such and such. We're going to do this
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: in this full installation and have a have you know,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: DJs and just have a community party of that was
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: sort of free from all the things that cause those
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: things to not happen, you know, and it would be
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: just amazing.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, what is the harm? You know? Well, I'll
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: tell you something. You know, in that community as well.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: As the High Desert Joshua Tree, what I've felt, you know,
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: having a place out there, is that when people make
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: noise in their house or at their house, the neighbors.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Don't complain, Well, they embrace it because they understand that
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: if they complain, then the next thing that they do
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: something you're going to be complaining about.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: That to being a good neighbor. I mean nobody and
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: so nobody abuses it. But like you know, in that
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: time where we were last weekend, it's not a complaint
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: driven culture. No, no, you know, you know, I think
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: they show up with it, you get air plugs.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: With them with a with a gun and tell you
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: that time to turn it down.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Well, but nobody even does that. That's that's sort of
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: the interesting thing. Although you know, it wasn't nearly as
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: crowded as when we were there last year because of
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: you know, their special event they hold. But even then
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: when there was you know, there was what two or
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: three thousand people, you know, besides the folks that live
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: there full time, you know, and it was there was
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: nothing was out of control. I mean there was no.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: No, there was.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: People are responsible, well they're responsible and they're not I think,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: I think the minute you try to control something or
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: you you have a you know, a security presence or
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: some sort of authority that sort of overseeing the thing.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Like you know, it's like when we were kids and
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: you you know, you were having a party when you
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: you know, first got interested in girls, and you're like
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: having a makeout party or something at some one of
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: your buddy's house and spin the bottle and yeah, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: all of a sudden, you know, you know, the mom
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: comes down at nine o'clock and turns the lights on
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: and goes, Okay, the party's over.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Everybody goes you have to go home and doing what
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: you're doing, you know, and it's like, my chair's fading.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And then they go over and they look at the
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: liquor bottles where they drew the pencil line of where
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: the level.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I see it's gone down. And then you're grounded. Yeah,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: you're grounded on top of that.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: So anyways, it's it's an interesting thing to think about.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: It's you know, as Lewis, you know, you said a
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: few times when we were talking earlier that you know,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: maybe maybe we're beyond the point of being able to
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: to change direction here in Laguna Beach and actually do
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: some of these kind of fun one off events, you know,
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: once or twice a year, just just as a just
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: to let the community kind of cut loose in that well.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: I think the Laughy Awards was as close to that
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: as we could get. You know, it's certainly not a
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: slap dash kind of you know, crowdsourced affair.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: On the beach.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: It's was a little more organized, but my god, it
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: was definitely letting people let loose and have fun and
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: celebrate this community. And I think you know, we and
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: I say collectively wee Lewis, because I made sure that
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: you were included in the thanks and the shout outs
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: for your collaboration on the Laffy Award, that beautiful piece
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: of hardware.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: I'm just sorry I missed it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: It's like it is definitely a was it fumu fear
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: of missing was like, man, I think I want to go,
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: but only was sick.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I was sick. It was like, man, it just wasn't.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, but it allowed a lot of us
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: and some of the same people that we were with
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: last weekend, including your buddy over here, George, to flex
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: their creative And you know what I love about George
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: just he you know, he loves creative challenges. He doesn't
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: always have to get paid when he knows it's me
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: never gets paid, which is.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Fine though, because you know, for me at this stage
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: of my life and career, it's like I want to
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: be involved in cool stuff. I mean, I mean, I've
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: I've got my own personal work and things I want
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: to do. But when it comes to like extracurricular stuff
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: that it would be just as easy to go, Oh,
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: it's going to be a lot of work, and we
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: have to put time in on it, and there's going
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: to be some financial requirements, you know.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: But but right now, like I'm like, I'm all in.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: It's like and and if we you know, as long
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: as we have a core group of people who are
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: willing to, you know, put the effort in, yeah, it's
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: so worth it. And everybody, you know, you can create
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: these events and even if you know, even if you're
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: you know, there's four or five people doing all the work,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: but the reward is when you see four hundred people
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: show up and go, this is the best thing that's
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: happened in Laguna and maybe ever you know.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: And you think, well, okay, so you know we got
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: to build on that.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I think you and I share that joy, George
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: of like sort of being facilitators of people's enjoyment, you know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: because we do a lot of work behind the scenes.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: And it's funny that we work so hard on the
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Laffy Awards, this swanky pseudo black tie but with little
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: tweaks here and there little little send ups. I don't
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: know if you know what we're referring to, Lewis, But
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: nobody's we haven't gotten any any comments about our step
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: and repeat, which was the backdrop, which was filled with
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: fabulous Fortune five hundred logos, and but nobody really knows.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Nobody's looking closely. I know that was that was sort
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: of funny.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: And I wonder how many you know, people who got
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: their picture taken in front of that, if they, if
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: they you know, took a harder look at it afterwards
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: and went, hey, wait a second.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Or if the magazines that are now going to use
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: those pictures for their pay just because we've gotten requests
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: and we've sent those in, you know, diffical event pictures.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: If anybody's going to notice, Well.
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: The question will be next year, Billy, Yes, will you
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: compromise and take off those taglines?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Right? So it becomes going to stand on it? Yeah, exactly.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: That's the point is you've got to expand them on
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: it is. Yeah, is what are you going to do next?
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, you set the bar and then you
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: got to keep pushing the bar.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we did set the bar, and you know, we
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: had the most illustrious group of presenters that you can
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: imagine in Laguna Beach. Who's who and you know, some
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: of those people you want to alternate, but some of
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: them will bring back. And somebody had mentioned that anybody
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: who won an award should not be a nominee maybe
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: for the next three years so that it can be
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: spread out, which I also like we learned a lot
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: how to do the voting a little bit better.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: But all in all, I.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Mean, we had an interesting variety of entertainers and these
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: older women who are the thirty years or forty years
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: into being belly dancers here in Laguna JJ and the Habibis.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: That was very fitting for the kind of entertainment offering
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: that we think is appropriate for the laffies and a
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: couple of musical numbers, but we'd love to have theatrical And.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mean there was a lot of tweaks.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Did you know Jack himself came up to accept the
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: award for best Late night Dining Jack in the Box.
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: I heard about Jack in the Box that he actually
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: made an appearance.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Jack made an appearance and he you know, we thought
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: he was going to thank everybody, but he was the
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: first one to say there was a sale on burgers
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: going on until midnight.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, two for one at our local Jaquelin Box. Right,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: how long has Jack in the Box been here?
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: I mean, you want to talk about the staple of
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: Laguna Beach, Well, it's Taco bell is the staple. But
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: that's gone, right, But that was here back that was
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: one of their first franchises.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: So I understand.
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: Oh really, but Jack in the Boxer has been here
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: for how long? I mean it is it has been.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: It's been here at least I want to say thirty
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: plus years before you were here. I don't know if
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: it was. I can't remember that. I know because my
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: my late night spot back in those days was was Denny's.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: That was actually here at Bluebird and Coast.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Highway, back when we actually had a place you could
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: sit down and dine late at night, like at two
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: in the morning with all these.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Would be the Howard Johnson and the Old There was
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: a Howard Johnson in the Old where what's his name
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: was in the building there was it wasn't there.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Another place too that was late night was a Jolly Rogers.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Jolly Rogers. Yeah, yeah, that one. It was Jolly Rogers.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: You know, I love the Jolly Rogers just because you know,
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: it was like the Penguin. To me, it was like
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: one of those places, you know, you could just go
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: in there and get that average breakfast, you know, with
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: the hash browns and the whatever and sausage and stuff.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: A yeah, you know, and it's and I was trying
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: to think, you know, Denny's was you know, was obviously
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: the one of the few late night you know, after
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: midnight places you could go and still eat if you
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: needed to.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: And as I heard from Steve Wood, this is where
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: all the musicians ended up. Yeah, I'm sure a lot
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: of the service industry, the cooks and the chefs, you know.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: I think of it as a public service because if
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: you've been drinking, it's a place to go sober up.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: And there was there was that faction in there as well,
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: you know, but it was you know, it was like
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: you could go sit in there for an hour and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: a half and then go home at three thirty in
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: the morning and sleep until noon or whatever.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: It even happened in Dana Point with the Harbor House.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: That was the only place around here that was open
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: twenty four to seven. And I don't know what's happened culturally,
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: everything is earlier and earlier now, the restaurants.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: It's just it's.
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: Unfortunate, you know, because you know that's part of what
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: defines communities as well, you know, is you know, and
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: you know, we all travel.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, Billy you travel a lot. I do a
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: little bit, but.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: You know, you go to other places where you think, oh,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: there's not going to be much call mature or whatever,
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: you know. And the example, the recent example for me,
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: is in Bosier City, Louisiana, which is where I had
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: to go to install this sculpture I did this year.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: And I thought, you know, this is kind of you know,
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: it's a it's across the river from Shreveport, you know,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: and I don't know really anything about that part of
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: the world other than you know, I think oil was
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: their big industry for a long time. But but they
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: had this beautiful building.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: It was there.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: It was their Arts Council building, and you know, it
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: was run by artists. There was there was an old
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: warehouse that had been converted to lofts, like you know,
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: things you talked about about doing in like Detroit, you know,
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: and I thought, this is weird. You know, It's like
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: there's there's actually a pretty good art community there. And
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: they had, you know, a couple of streets where they
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: had where all the you know, the restaurants and bars were,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: you know, And you know, again, you don't expect that.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: And when you think of you know, Louisiana or some
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: places you go and.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Or as I told you, I went to Biloxi, Mississippi,
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: and it was a frank Erie museum there of this
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: great ceramicist from the turn of the century named after him,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: with his permanent work. And you know, you don't expect
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: a town Biloxi, Mississippi, had been devastated by Katrina to
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: have the will to commission a world class museum.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: But this comes back to that.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: I think what you guys were talking about earlier, and
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: you alluded to Lewis saying it can't happen, it won't
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: happen in Laguna, And it's the fact it comes down
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: to the money. It seems like every community that has
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: a vibrant arts scene has at least part of that,
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: some neighborhoods that are affordable where young people go after
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: college and they want to have late night entertainment, they
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: want to dine out, they want to have experienced a minute.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: Those people are exiled, you lose so much of the
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: vitality of the town. And the people that remain want
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: it quiet because they don't go out and they all
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: they see is chaos when they look at Ocean Avenue
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: and see people spilling out of clubs and noise, and
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: it hurts their ears, hurts my ears.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: I was talking to Lewis about you know, the art
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: losts to to see. Uh, you know what the demographic
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: was there in terms of age and and and are
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: people there participating, uh in some of the you know,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: whether they're even members of the museum or or if
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: they're going to school, or they in any of the
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: festivals or galleries and stuff like that. And it's and
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: you know there are there are some students that live there,
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: so that's you know, some of the youth culture. But
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: you know, they're going to school and they pretty much
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: their life is from the main campus to your complex
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: and that's about it. They don't really come.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Into they come into town to buy food. Some do,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: but some don't even do that. You know.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: It's like you know, because they well or or you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: are they you know, I don't know for sure. But
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: I know that my conversation with Steve Britton some months back.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: You know, he had actually asked a group of students
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: how many of them, you know, at least came into
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: town to have lunch or something once in a while,
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: and most of them don't because they can't afford it,
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: you know, lunch. Lunch now is you know, if you
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: don't have twenty bucks, you can't really eat in town anymore.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Well, and this goes to my point of how can
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Laguna be saved? Because let's agree that our cultural institutions
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: are run by older people who are aging out, who
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: aren't in touch with what's happening in the world, with
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: the you know, bringing young people that are interested in things,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: and you know, to be blunt the kind of aertia
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: that's occurred over at the Festival Arts, like just thinking
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: every year we're just going to do Pageant of the
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Masters because it's Pageant of the Masters, right, you know,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: and who would want to miss this?
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: And in the face of a lot of people apparently right.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: And so with declining interest in a nineteenth century French
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: tableau vivonne where nobody moves, they just stand there frozen
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: like statues when you would go to other cities, like
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: when I was recently in Santa Fe and saw this thing,
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: mil Wolf.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, you should check this out. It's unbelievable.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: It's about twenty creative people that lived in Santa Fe
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: that bought a bowling alley and made it into what
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: they call a multiverse. And so there's just room after
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: room after room that changed dramatically when you enter it.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: So like, let's say you walk into a recreation of
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: a living room of a nineteenth century arts and crafts
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: house and it's perfectly rendered, and then you open the
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: refrigerator and it's a portal and you walk in and
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: suddenly you're in a space age planetary zone with floating
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: saddle planets around you, all black lit, and on and
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: on and on a maze of these things. Now we've
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: mentioned it to you, you'll see it. They expanded. They
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: have one in Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, and now most
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: recently New York and LA. And this happened because of
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: a small community of creative people that just didn't know
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: the word no and just came up with an idea.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: So then now what happens Now they become a corporation.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: They mimic it and they broadcast it and put in
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: every other city, and then.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: These people get rich, and then the real estate crisis
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: in Santa Fe go up, and then there's no new
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: generation of young creative.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: Rates and so this idea, but that's typically when it
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: comes to creatives, is that is that you evolve and
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: then when you see success of something, you kind of
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: just want to mimic it and kind of repeat it.
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: And that's usually what happens.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: And it's.
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: The state of Laguna Beach is how can we as
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: artists create something that kind of pushes the boundaries without
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: getting in trouble?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Well let me so let me respond to that.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: By the way, this is k XFM Radio and I'm
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: talking to the two of Laguna's most esteemed artist, sculptor
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Lewis Longey. I know people often say LONGI, which must
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: really chafe your okay, okay, And of course my other
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: guy needs no introduction, he's everywhere, George Dubins yea. Anyway,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: and I thought to myself, well, how could something like
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: this be birthed in Laguna? An equivalent of creativity And
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: we don't have the talent currently or the will, I
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: don't think or the I think it's the will we
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: have the talent, okay, or the facility or the resources.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: And I feel like the only thing that could make
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: that happen is if we somehow really draw in the
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: college and make it so these kids so you just said,
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: can't even afford to have lunch here can live here
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: after college. Whatever that looks like, whatever subsidy could come
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: in an artistic grant and create things at the festival
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: grounds at Sawdust that these creative space is not anything
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: like we've ever seen before that can be rotated pieces
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: of installation art or on the beach, you know, incorporating
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: that's what. Actually you only get that kind of output
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: from young people. Well and you too, Yeah, and look
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: you have the Festival of the Arts, the grounds, the
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Festival the Arts. It's vacant majority of the time. There
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: is no reason there shouldn't be some type of installation
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: that you go and say, I'm just going to do
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: a pop up for a month and this is what
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: I want to do and really push that envelope.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: That's really you think about it. That's the venue. But
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: they won't let you.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Right, well, this is where we this is Our only
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: shot is that we have to take over the board there.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: You know, how do we get on the board, Well,
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: we have to get a lot of people to become
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: members of the festival, like thousands of people who we
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: know that like us, and then vote us onto the
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: board because it's voted.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: By the membership.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: And I'm being partially serious here that there is a
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: pathway and even Alex Runagi has mentioned it. It'll probably
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: be pissed that I said it, but the reality is
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: you've got an entrench board that's not doing anything differently
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: because well they feel like it's just fine the way
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: it is, or they're not interested in doing the work.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: But if you want to keep those grounds relevant as
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: an artistic destination, as an experience, sometimes you have to
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: acknowledge that things have run their course and it's time
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: for fresh ideas.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: I think you know, if you if you were able
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: to do even if it was a long weekend or
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: two weekends or something where you know, you'd bring in
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: artists like the desert EXX level artists or people from
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: la people you know, and people from here in Laguna.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: I mean I'm not excluding.
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: Why not just you use this is this is the
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: thing is, we've got the access to everything.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Why not you? I mean, why not me? Well, you
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: and I do a lot of free work.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: I know, I'm not excluding as I'm just saying, like
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to show where the bar should be set,
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: you know, and and give you know, give ten creative people.
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: You know, you've got you know, a twenty by twenty
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: space on the festival grounds to install an interest in
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: you know, temporary sculpture or whatever, you know, and just
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: and you know, find some sponsorship to cough up the
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: you know, one hundred grand or a couple of hundred
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: thousand dollars to do something and advertise it as a
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: as a multimedia experience, you know, and and let it fly,
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: you know, like like, don't you know, put too many
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: restrictions on what people can do there, and just have
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: these like a couple of weekend events down there that
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: would just blow people's mind.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, think about those temporary tents that are
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: set up for those Chinese acrobatic shows, you know, and
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: those these light shows, and then of course Miao Wolf
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: and then the thing we went to the amusement park.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't remember what that
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: was going real or Luna Luna Luna.
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: We even like the Bloom Museum in La you know
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: that's it was only up for six months. And at
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: first I think, and you know, I went to this
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: balloon museum and the thing is the balloon museums, kids
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: and everything.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Man, that was the coolest cool I heard about. Man,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: it was the coolest thing. That thing's going on the
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: road too. It's different destination, yeah, but but.
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: It's so unique and am our guard that is, like ever,
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: things have to do organically, Like I know, you got
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: to have the funds be able to build stuff. But
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: you I got my welder, you got materials, you got things.
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: You have to the best things you're done organically without
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: the sponsorship. I know, you've got to get the money
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: and bring it in. I get that, but but those
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: are the elements where you got the energy.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: I got the energy. I'm young enough.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: You're young enough, yeah, to be able to do this,
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: be able to do something creative that pushes the buttons.
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: That's really what it comes down to, invoke, provoke and revoke.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: Well, it's all, you know, It's it's also something that
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: you know, could changed the how people perceive Laguna Beach too,
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: if you if you did something that was on that
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: level of creativity where you know, I remember I went
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: to that. I don't know if you guys remember this.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: And this was a bunch of years ago, but there
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: was an artist that got sponsorship by I think by
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: Rolex or somebody like that, and he created a it
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: was a container portable container museum and it was set
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: up in somewhere in Santa Monica, I think, uh for
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: like a month and inside he had like projections of
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: you know, it was it was sort of self angrandizing.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: It was him swimming with elephants. Oh, that's it. I'm
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: very familiar with that.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, And it traveled.
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: It traveled to several places in the States, and I
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: think it was on its way to like Australia.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: It was essentially his photography, right, It was all large
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: scale in Africa with animals and people.
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: But it was it was super cool and and and
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: you know, like something like that, like why why can't
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: we you know, propose and do stuff like that. We
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: just have to have the space to do it in
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: and we have to Yeah, we have to have some
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: deregulation going on. So that so that you know the
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: doors will be open to that level of creativity.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: Well, George, this is reminds me of where we're sitting
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: here right now. We're coming up with issues that that
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: that that need to be done, and and I think
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: it remind how long ago did you run for mayor
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: or not mayor.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: For city council. That was twenty eighteen. Okay, so you
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: think about that.
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: We were sitting here and Billy, you were it was
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: us three, yep, And we were sitting here and you
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: were complaining. You were giving positive feedback on the circumstance,
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: and I said, you know, George, shut up.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: Or put up. Yeah, and then you ran for city council. Yeah.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: I did the same thing with Peter Blake. Yeah, I'm
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: on my show and decided to run and then he
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: got on. You know, you take the good with the bad.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: So then George, you you didn't get elected in city council,
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: but you moved on to so here we are.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: But he had a lot of write in votes, but
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: we had but two and fifty five.
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: My point is that here we are in a situation
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: where we know that there is something that we need
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: to do.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: So it's a matter of just let's go do it,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: calling all artists.
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, or us let's come up. How do we how
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: do we get in touch with the festival years? How
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: do we do this to where we can do an
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: installation next year?
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: You know, we're working on it, and this is what
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: I The good thing that's happening is we're raising the
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: awareness right now on the radio, but also in general,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: we see little chinks in the armor that we got
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: the guys up at Wilbo, which is this little clothing
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: retailer in North Laguna, that are putting on events for locals,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: bringing people together. You know, they got a real good
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: ethic of trying to activate things in town. We got
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: Scottie with Club two two two putting on events in
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: remote places, you know, trying to do some cool things,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: young guy. And then of course the Rivian is kind
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: of you can't discount the vitality that that's brought to
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: our town and our little radio station and these things
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: I believe is activating a small nucleus of people that
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: don't want to see Laguna die.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think people that come.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: I just wonder to myself when people come and stay
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: at these twelve hundred dollars a night, hotels that are sophisticated.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: They're coming here for the beauty of the place, surf
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: and sand, montage and all that stuff. And when they
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: look at that air entertainment offering and they're told, oh,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: you got to go see the pageant of the Masters,
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: I just think that they that it makes this town
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: look really old fashioned. And maybe that's what we are,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: but you know, I don't think so. I think Laguna
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: has evolved with the times over the years, and I
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: think it's time for the next phase of creativity.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: We see so much of it out there. We've got
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: the talent.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: We just have to you know, I think we have
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: to really sort of fill the boards of these institutions,
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: whether it's the Laguna Art Museum or the saught Us
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: and that Saught Us a festival of arts with younger people,
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: and I think it's somehow the old guard has to
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: recognize that it's time to step aside.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: Well that, you know, one of the one of the
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: gentlemen that was with us this weekend, one of the DJs.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: I was talking to him and he said, I've got
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: this idea, and let do you think it could happen here?
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: I don't know if he spoke to you about it,
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: but he was talking about like getting a group of
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: DJs together, maybe ten, and finding venues around town that
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: will allow them to set up but then also have
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: a DJ on on or a couple of DJs on
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: a couple of the different trams so that you know,
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: this is a this is a night of of of
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: dance music or whatever, or weekend of dance music that's
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: and and people could park at the act five, they
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: can be picked up on a tram with with music
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: already going on, maybe some lights, and be driven around
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: to these different venues, enjoy them and you know, not
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: have to drive around. Maybe some of them could even
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: be walked to or whatever.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: But he goes he was like talking about it, and
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: I was thinking that'd be super cool.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: It's just it's not for everybody, but but it's it's
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: something that's that's a very vital and interesting idea, and
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: it's just a question of like, okay, you know, there's
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: there's the idea, and now how do you put it
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: in motion? You know, And I think that's what you're
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: talking about too, Like let's quit talking about it and
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: figure out how do you really make these things happen?
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: You know, the city did something like that one time
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: where they ran now they had a bus on the
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: on the bus.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was during COVID daytime thing, right, and it
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: was pretty cool.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: It was cool.
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: I had to go to certain destinations to know that
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: they had a map and they said it's going to
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: stop here and they're going to perform.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It just takes creativity.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: And you know, he's the same guy that had an
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: idea to do a some sort of DJ booth that
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: had a lot of lights and a lot of because
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: he's a lighting guy too. Yeah, and he's the one
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: that told me to go see you and he thought
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: you had a room that was like all walls. I
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: think it was the what you have your gallery sace,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: but didn't seem quite right, yeah, for what he was
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: talking about.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean these are the kind of ideas
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: that we need to embrace and then figure out how
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: to make them happen, you know, without you know, going
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: up to the counter at City Hall and going, hey,
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: we want to do this thing and they just go, uh,
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: it's not in the book.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: So no, Well, I happen to think this trolley idea,
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: we wouldn't even have to go to the city because.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: You can rent these trolleys out for parties. Yeah.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: So if you somehow the city trolleys city trolleys when
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: they're not in use. I mean, I've done it before
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: for corporate groups that wanted to just have transportation to
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: go sightseee oh. And it's not even that expensive. It's
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: like three hundred dollars an hour or something, maybe even less.
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: But you know, I think things like that, and I
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: can say it out loud on the radio, you don't
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: want to involve the city in any chance. You can
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: do it without the city, and they'd probably tell you
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: the same thing. If there's a legal path to do it,
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: don't involve us because we'll mess it up.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: Well, it's about it's about doing things organically and allowing
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: them to kind of grow, you know. And yes, there's
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: going to be some liability along the way.
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, we all I mean, I mean if people
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: aren't driving, right, I mean I mean Peter pub Crawl
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: with DJs.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know exactly, that's kind of what we
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: were kind of how it got framed, you know, But
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: I mean, I know Peter years ago was even talking
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: about the festival grounds is like why why why don't
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: we have like a like, uh, you know, a world
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: class art fair there for like a long like four days,
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: you know, like where you have big galleries from LA
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: all over the place coming coming and put on a
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: put on a you know, like an art basal level.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: And what's the one that just finished up in La
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: that are in La No, not our in La Freeze freeze, Yeah,
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: but those and then if you look at the timing,
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Freeze is in February, I think, or March. Yeah, but
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know of any art festival. Maybe I'm not
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: really in that world. But in the fall, and then
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: like November, when the when all of our hotels need business.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: The slow reason you get LA galleries down here, and
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: it's the best time of year to be and it's
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: a great time to be for October November is the
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: best time. Yeah, art buzzles in early December, but that's
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: maybe you push it up even to October, but that's
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: gotten too big. Even collectors don't like going to our
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: Miami Bozle because.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: It's just too much.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Boy though, if you can point to something that stokes
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: an economy for what that has done for the city
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: of Miami, just as an example of what a well
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: run art show could do for this town.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well they're also proferring money. Really, they're whatever.
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: I think I think through uh, through create creative ideas,
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: creative events, things that are not just sort of your
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: normal run of the mill thing. If you had I'm
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: just gonna throat a random number, say you had six
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: of those a year, whether they're at the festival grounds
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: or at the beach or at the you know, various
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: restaurants or venues around town or seven Degrees or whatever.
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: You know, the impact it would have not only on
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: how people view Laguna Beach, but on the economy I
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: think would be pretty substantial, you know, because these would
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: be things that people would constantly be looking forward to,
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: especially if they weren't just the same old, same old thing,
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: you know, if they were if they were really unique
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: events where people were just like wow, I've never seen.
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: Imagine if we coupled it with you know, desert X
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: style installations at all of our parks. Right, So you
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: can get on a trolley or an electric bike, and
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: you have a map, and you go up to Crescent
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Bay and there's an amazing installation overlooking you know, seal
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: Rock and the whole coastline. Because really what we're marketing,
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: why come the Laguna because it's freaking beautiful and and
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: then you get to see great art and see the
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: community as well. And you'd have one a Bluebird Park
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: and one a Top of the World and all these locations.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: You know, you have a booklet that you get stamped
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: every time you go to one of these places.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: And actually, on a very small level, that happened many
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: years ago with Cheryl Extrom. I don't know if you
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: remember her Warrior. She actually got permission to set up
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: like twelve of them up the up on top of
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: the world and it was a super creative and interesting
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: thing that she did. And it was and that kind
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: of stuff needs to happen more often, and we can't
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: be always going well, it doesn't it doesn't fit into
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: the to the square hole in the.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: You know, well, we have our best shot right now
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: with twenty seven year old mayor who wants to also
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: activate things?
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Is he mayor now? Yeah? Wow, youngest mayor in Laguna history. Wow,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: probably in county history. Men.
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think his values are lined with ours.
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: Well, I think it's you know, I think the time
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: is right, especially you know, with I know that our
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: good friend John Ziggowitz is now involved with the Peace
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: of Laguna to try to revamp how they present Laguna
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: to the world, which I think is a great thing.
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: And I think I think there's a lot more energy behind,
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: you know, sort of rethinking what we are now and
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: what we're going to be going forward. And I think
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: it's I think there's you know, even the Coast Film
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: Festival guys. I mean, everybody's thinking in a very different way.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: And I think people like Dan mcinnernie and other folks
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: that have been interested in getting involved in the community landterest.
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: people who are who are waking up to the idea
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: that you know, we've we've we've been stagnant for a
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: long time and we need to we need to recreate
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: what we are and show the show not only the residents,
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: but the world that we got to going on.
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: Here and yes, and for the thousands of people that
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: are listening live to the radio up on the hill
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: here who we haven't met yet, that are living in
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: this fabulous place and probably moved here from somewhere else.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: Get involved, man, you know, don't just sit in your
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: fabulous path us with your sunset view and you know,
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: and smoke a pipe. Come on down and get involved
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: because you know, really, or invite us over or have
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: a party. Yes, and we'll bring the DJ, We'll bring
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: the art and the lights and everything else.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: And that's actually you know, this is an open invite
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: because those guys from club to to too, they're always
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: looking for a dramatic house too. And where we are responsible,
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: we don't drink much a little bit, but but yeah,
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is what we need is a coalition
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: of people that want to see this town thrive as
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: a creative community.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: That's what our DNA is all about. You're looking at.
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: Well, we're talking about what Perry Ferrell did with Lallapalooza. Yeah,
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: you know, and when you really think about it, that
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: was so groundbreaking what he did and then he had
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: I'm sitting here looking at the Lallapalooza. My first wife
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: was with Geffen Records and she called it lots of
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: losers to her. But anyway, that was in the beginning,
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: but it became something bigger. But The whole point is
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: what he did is he had a freak show that
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: went with it. Did you guys know this, Yeah, there
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: was a freak show that went along with it where
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: there were people where they had nails in their nose,
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: like going down their nose, like it was bizarre. It
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: literally was a freak show and I'm not joking, and
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: it became this huge thing. So here we need to
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: do something similar where it's like what can we do
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: to create and have creatives with no limitations? And that's
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: really the festival seems like a great ground to do it.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: You know, this is an aside, but I was thinking
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: as I was driving in the Laguna last night coming
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: back from the desert, and I got into the Village Entrance,
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: which they proudly call the Village Entrance, and it's basically
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: just some landscaping along the canal and some parking. And
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: you had talked about this piece that what they were
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: going to put there, this giant canopy.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: If I'm an artist that doesn't Mark fourn I mean
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: talk about a world class how great would that piece
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: have been?
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: It would have been amazing. And all these old farts
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: in this town were like, it looks like a giant mushroom.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: It's too big for the you know, you know all
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: that stuff. They killed it and talk about. You know,
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: this is the kind of thing that just infuriates me
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: about this community, is that here we had again, the
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: funding was in place, the guy was willing to do it.
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: He even scaled from the original one. He scaled it down,
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: you know, to try to appease the naysayers in this town.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: How do we get that resurrected?
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know at this point, because you know,
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: I'm sure he just threw his hands up and went,
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: you know what is wrong with that town? I don't
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: want to have a piece there.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: You know, it's like, well we go back the three
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: of us in beget on our hands and the yeah, well.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Or develop something that we can do.
• 50:49
  Speaker 5: I mean, I mean the thing is that you've got
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: the people here that can do them.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, This is what I mean.
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, if you guys were to do scale
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: model and then you know, design things that need a
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: team of people, that's where you go to the college.
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: And I think our lifeblood of creativity has to come
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: from our own art college, right, And how do we
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: keep them here and thriving and if we had these constant,
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: as you said, evolution of events and experiences, that was
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: we found the funding.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: For there's your there's your labor force. Let them at it.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: You know, you got all these digital designers now and
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: lighting and all this stuff that is so cool.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: Well, they're also you know, they do a lot of
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: outreach to other companies and organizations, so they're they're connecting
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: a lot to two groups that are into sustainability and
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: all kinds of interesting stuff and those you know that
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: could that kind of thing can be incorporated into an event,
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: you know where where you know, it's beyond the fun
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: and and potential wildness of it, there could also be
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: like an educational component to it sure, which you know,
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: all this stuff ties together. Just it's just it just
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: requires individuals to decide to try to make it happen
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: and then go through the process of pounding your head against.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: The wall energy and time. I mean, it's really what
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: it comes down to. But I you know, I'm up
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: I know that because I think you know, the more
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: you know, you and I and Lewis we do things
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: that you know, end up being whether it's a weekend
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: up at your place in Joshua Tree or wherever it is.
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: It's like to do things as a group that allow
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: people to come and be part of that, and then
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: and then they're blown away by it. You know, they're like,
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: this is the coolest thing that I've done all year
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: or maybe in the last ten years or whatever, you know.
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: And I think those that kind of energy and that
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: that kind of interest and creativity is you know any artists.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: Do you think do you think in a practical sense
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: that if we if there was a redesign of the
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: Arts Commission, like a whole new group of people, would
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: they have the wherewithal the money, the power to do
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: some of these things?
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: And I you know, I I know I've probably disparaged
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: most of the members.
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can't do any worse than you already have.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: Nolmore what you say, now, Yeah, that's true.
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: You know, he was kicked out of the Festival of
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: the Arts, and I keep bringing that upsode.
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for life, but whatever. But yeah, no, I
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: think you know, because they do they do, you know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: depending on what's going on with our hotels and stuff,
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: they do, they do. They are able to sustain a
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: budget to do certain things, and I think, you know,
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: we need to get away from I mean, they love
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: their banner contests and their palette contests and all that stuff,
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: which is just part of our tradition here, I guess,
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: but like you got to start thinking way beyond that,
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: like you know, to to where you know, let's let's
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: do some outside of the box events and let's take
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: some of that money that that comes from the cot
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: or whatever from the hotels and put it towards Like
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: even if we take a year's budget and spend it
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: on a two weekend event, I mean, I mean, that's
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: going to do more for the community than a bunch
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: of little stuff.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: Let me ask you this as we wind out. If
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: I get these numbers right, there's about three point six
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: million generated by the tot half of which goes to
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: visit Laguna one point eight Now they're kicking half a
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: million of that back to the city to clean up downtown.
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: The other half goes to the arts one point eight million.
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: Well it goes that's my question. Who does it go to.
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: The museum gets a piece of it, the school, I think,
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: the playhouse, and then the I think there's four or
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: five categories, and the Arts Commission gets a chunk to
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: use for you know, public.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, playhouse, the museum, the Arts Commission, the school, the school, right.
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: I think the I think the sawdust might get a
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: piece of it too, Okay. But but what's happening is
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: uh Mark Orgill. I know you have other feelings about
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: Mark maybe, but he's been he's been really pushing to
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: create us.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: That wasn't directed to me, by the way, that was
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: just just for our list. I was pointing over that way.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: But I love you, Mark, I love you too, Mark. Yeah.
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: Sometimes anyway, anyways, he's he wants to create a six
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: category that's specifically for artists and artist needs in.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: Lagoon of Beach, you know, which is a really big deal.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's you know, I you know, when he
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: told me that, I thought, you know, I'm thankful that
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: you decided to throw your name in the hat and
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: get on because a lot of this stuff, including the
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: community of land Trest, probably would not be happening if
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: it wasn't for Mark. So and I know he doesn't
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: like to take credit for it all because he's you know,
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: he's been working with you know, the city manager and
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: staff and and and they've been, you know, spending a
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: lot of time working out the details and stuff. But
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: you know he's really the driver behind trying to change
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: the environment for our community here and to ensure that
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: we have one in five or ten years.
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: Okay, So I think we have a clear plan of action.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: We've got to have a meeting with Mark and the
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: mayor Alex Runag, and we say we want to focus
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: on three organizations, the Arts Commissions, the Museum and the
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: Festival of Arts, and we want to reform all three
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: of them and bring new leadership and new ideas that
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: are x y Z. Incorporating as much as possible the
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: college and bringing them really into the fold, and thinking
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: about how we could even create out of that land
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: trust some housing for graduates of the college.
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: Right well, you know, and that's that is part of
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: the picture. I mean, the trust is it is you know,
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: a third of it is directed towards artists, you know,
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: work live environment that's affordable. The other two categories that
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: people talk about is senior housing and workforce housing, which
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: is critical too, you know. I mean, I think when
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: you have most of the staff of City Hall, including
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: the fire Department and the police department, who don't live here.
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: You know, it's it's hard for them to really be
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: part of the community outside their job, you know.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: So correct.
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: Anyways, Lewis, what do you think anything to add to
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: that other than I've lost a whole lot of advertisers.
• 57:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think that I think it needs to
• 57:33
  Speaker 5: be grassroot. I think that that you can sit and
• 57:37
  Speaker 5: have meetings and pull all these bureaucrats together and all
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: these and all of a sudden, it's just going to
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: get stalled. I think it's a matter of just trying
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: to get some space over there at the Festival of
• 57:45
  Speaker 5: the Arts and make some art that kicks ass.
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: That's okay anyway, That's one of the tolerable.
• 57:51
  Speaker 5: It really is brings attention to it, kind of like
• 57:54
  Speaker 5: a desert X. It has to grow organically, I think
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: going through bureaucracy and everything like that, I think it
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: stales it.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: I think it. I think it hurts it.
• 58:04
  Speaker 5: I think that take our resources, what we have, and
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: let's do it again gorilla style.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Gorilla style. It's the best way, I think.
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: I think so. I think so on a lot of
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: levels too. Is you you find the space or the
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: spaces and you just kind of you just kind of
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: do it organically, and because what what ultimately happens is
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: because if it's a cool thing, the city will go
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: from well you didn't you didn't ask permission to wow that,
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: you know, La Times just came down and did a
• 58:38
  Speaker 4: major article about that that. You know, all of a sudden,
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: Laguna is not the provincial little art town that it
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: used to be. It's like, all of a sudden, these
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: guys did this thing, or this group did this thing,
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: and it was so cool that it got a lot
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: of attention. And so now, how can we have that evolve,
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: you know, instead of like trying to push it out.
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: You know, it's like it's too late for that. It's
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: too it's too cool of a thing to to to
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: make it.
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: Well, when you guys find that location, be sure to
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: call me. Well, I'm sure something exists out in the
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: canyon that we don't know about.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: I mean we could.
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: I was just in the Act five parking lot recently
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: because I had to go look at some samples for
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: the for the plaza paving and whatnot, and I thought, well,
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: most of the most of the year, this place is empty, ye,
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: and there's a spot you know that you could do something,
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: you know, festival grounds of course, even the sawdust an
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: off season. You know, there's there's what a couple of
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: acres of property there. I mean, I think, and we
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: have our beaches, you know, we have like we could
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: do something, you know, do something on Main Beach. I
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: mean when uh, what's her name with the umbrellas? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: I think I can't think of her name right now.
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: You know how many people were down there for that,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: you know, there was what a couple thousand people who
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: showed up for that, yeah, you know, I mean, and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: it wasn't a big deal, nothing got damaged, but it
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: was a really amazing fun event for the community. And
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: I think, I think, I don't think we should steer
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: away from like utilizing it's like you know, burning man.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, they have a crew of people who clean
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: that place up afterwards and make sure there's no signs
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: that it ever existed. But we could do the same
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: thing on Main Beach. You know, even if it gets
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 4: a little messed up or a little disturbed, like the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: next couple of days, we have crew come down there
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: and you know, rake the beach, clean it all up,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: make it look like nothing ever happened. So, I mean,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: I think these things are doable. It's just so you
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: have to have the will and and people who aren't
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: going to take no for an answer.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: The cones. Yeah, that too.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: Well, this has been a fascinating conversation. I'm sure it's
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: going to reverberate and probably accomplish.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: Nothing, but I don't know. That time.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: At least it started us thinking, No, it's a great
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: conversation and I really appreciate it. Man, what are great
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: illustrious guests? I had Lewis Loungey of the great art
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: as Art Lofts and credible sculptor and also athlete and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: lover of life, and of course George Dubin, maker of
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: Artists of the Year, send up of the Kennedy assassination,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: riding through town during the parade in his suicide or
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: close to it, Lincoln chauffeuring JFK doing that kind of
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: subversive art. Also the guy together these two doing the
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: Last Supper rendering of the city Council debate, candidate debate
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: with George in the middle playing Jesus. That got a
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: lot of mileage, and most recently George wearing a fez
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: and a fabulous Jacket at the laugh He Awards as
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: our creative director and inspiration for mirth endless amounts of mirth.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: Got to have that, we got to have. We've got
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: to continue to have some laughs, man, because make Laguna
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 4: Murphy again.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: Murphy, Yes again.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys are listening to KXFM Radio. As always,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: we depend on you, our listener, for support. So if
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: you're feel inclined to support these kind of conversations, if
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: they entertain you and all the great music, please go
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: to our website kxfmradio dot org and click donate. There's
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: all kinds of benefits and we will see you next week.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Thank you everybody, Thank you, Billy, My pleasure.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: That are important to all of us. Remember that's every
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: third Friday at noon on KXFM