Attorney Keith Turner has won a 2010 Sparkplug Award from the Community Council for organizing the live music concert held at the Palisades High School football stadium before the Fourth of July fireworks show.   ’I was shocked. I didn’t even know I was nominated,’ Turner, 46, said. ‘The award should have gone to Rob Weber because he’s done so much.’ Weber was president of PAPA (Palisades Americanism Parade Association) in 2008 and 2009. The two men grew up in the Chicago area, went to Chicago-Kent College of Law and both worked for a few years at the same Beverly Hills firm after graduation.   Weber urged Turner to get involved with PAPA, but Turner put him off, telling him, ‘Only when you’re president of the organization.’ When Weber indeed moved up to that position, Turner attended his first PAPA meeting.   ’Rob asked me to help out with insurance issues,’ Turner said, but he also recalls Palisadian-Post editor Bill Bruns, who knew that Turner was a member of a local rock band, whispering to him, ‘Why doesn’t your band play before the fireworks?’ That was the start of the Pacific Palisades pre-fireworks show.   In 2009, the field was opened up to spectators because the fireworks were shot from a different location (the high school’s quad), and three local bands’Turner’s The House Band, The Mayberrys and the Elevaters’played on a small stage before the show. The concert was an instant success.   Last year Turner worked to expand the show, bringing in FourWayFree, singer/songwriter Peter Himmelman, That and the Palisades High Concert Band. Many neighbors who had previously watched the fireworks from their homes came down to the field. ‘We saw a lot more people close up their barbecues and come over around 7 p.m.,’ Turner said.   He is already organizing this year’s show and seeking a corporate sponsor. ‘I also need people who can help with talent selection, marketing, fundraising and setting up the stage’whatever they want to do. I also need someone who can help organize the VIP tent for performers, including buying food and hosting them.’   Turner knows that many name musicians live in the Palisades, and he would love to have them perform, but understands that working for a community event might not be what a ‘star’ considers a great financial or career move.   ’It would still be nice if they could help,’ Turner said. ‘Our original idea was to get the best professional and amateur talent we could get in the Palisades.’   If you have ideas for the pre-fireworks show or want to volunteer your time, contact Turner at kjt@turnerlawapc.com.   In addition to his volunteer activities, Turner is also a family man and has a thriving law business here in town.   After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1986 with a degree in philosophy, and attending law school, Turner came to Pacific Palisades by way of his wife Michelle, whom he met in 1994.   ’She grew up here and she knows everyone,’ he said. ‘Her parents (Bruce and Fran Rubin), her brother and her best friend still live here.’ The couple married in the Rubin backyard in 1995.   ’This place [Pacific Palisades] is special,’ Turner said. ‘When you take off in a plane at LAX and it circles over this area, you can see how isolated we are.’ He speculates that perhaps this isolation results in more of a community feel.   When Turner’s daughter Emma (now a freshman at Palisades High) started preschool at the Methodist Church, several of the moms formed a group. Then one of them, Lisa Stewart, suggested that the dads form a band because she knew some of them had been in rock bands.   Turner, who began playing drums and percussion in the fifth grade, continued to play through college. He helped gather the dads for the beginning of The House Band, which has stayed relatively intact these past 10 years.   ’We still play about six times a year,’ Turner said. ‘Two guys in the band write songs, so about 80 to 90 percent of our music is original.’   Turner, who lives near the Asilomar bluffs with Michelle, Emma and son Max, a fifth grader at Marquez Elementary, is a local attorney who specializes in view-protection cases.   ’A good view can add a $1 million to a home’s worth,’ Turner said, noting that he works with homeowners and developers in the Palisades areas of El Medio, Sunset Mesa, Marquez Knolls and Castellammare, but also Palos Verdes and Malibu.   With attorney Don Franzen, Turner has set up a Pacific View Resource Center Web site to collect and exchange information about view-related issues.   Visit www.pacificviewcenter.com.

Before speaking to a gathering of Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce members last Wednesday morning, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talked about his western outpost as he ate a light breakfast at the Aldersgate Lodge on Haverford.   ’I want to move here some day,’ said the mayor, who currently lives in Mt. Washington, near Dodger Stadium. ‘I love the Palisades and I love riding in the parade’it’s the best community parade in the city, people are so nice and friendly.’   After opening remarks by Chamber president John Petrick and an introduction (in Spanish) by real estate agent Holly Davis, Villaraigosa reiterated his appreciation of the Palisades.   ’You know, I come out here a lot; my brother lives not far from here, we go to church at Corpus Christi. I love this town because it’s a real community.’   The mayor then turned to the grim task at hand: trying to assure his audience that there are a few things to cheer about amidst the financial carnage left by the great recession. ‘ ’The city is safer than at any time since 1952, ‘ Villaraigosa said. ‘The last time that we had 109,000 Part 1 crimes (which includes homicide, violent crimes and serious property crimes) was in 1952, on a per capita basis.’ Homicides were 488 the year he was first elected (2005) and 297 last year, the lowest since 1967. ‘ ’I know what the traffic is like in the Palisades’it’s horrible,’ the mayor said. ‘But Measure R, which approved a half-penny sales tax, is going to generate $40 billion, double the size of our rail system and start to get us to where we need to be in the city.’ ‘ ’I tell people all the time: public safety is my priority, but public education is my passion,’ Villaraigosa said. ‘We’re going to hold our schools accountable, we’re going to support our teachers, we’re going to bring in our parents and we’re going to dramatically turn around our low-performing schools.’ ‘ ’Something very important: Our [DWP] rates are almost 25 percent lower than Southern California Edison, and lower than San Diego Gas and Electric and Pacific Gas and Electric,’ the mayor said. ‘We have to continue to invest in our infrastructure, and that costs money.’   Eventually, of course, the mayor had to focus attention on the city’s $400 million deficit and the impact of the state’s overwhelming financial crisis. While assuring his audience that ‘we’re going to protect public safety as much as possible,’ Villaraigosa also emphasized that ‘we’re going to balance our balance and it’s going to be tough; we can’t be all things to all people.’   In order to solve the state’s $25 billion deficit, where lawmakers ‘have been cutting for five years running and have already cut $12 billion, I think it is appropriate for us to extend current taxes for five years so we don’t have to cut core funding from our schools,’ Villaraigosa said. ‘My hope is that the small group of Republicans in Sacramento who are holding the state hostage will allow [the governor’s proposal] to go on the ballot and let the people decide.’

Brian Noori was teaching English to eighth-grade Japanese students at the Sekimoto School in Kitaibaraki on March 11 when the 9.0 earthquake struck. The town is located 84 miles from the epicenter and 43 miles from the imperiled nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi.   ’There are a lot of quakes in Japan,’ said Noori, a Pacific Palisades native, who graduated from Occidental College last May and moved to Northern Japan last July. ‘Most of the students stayed at their desks for the first few seconds, but then it got stronger and continued, and they got under the desks. I also got under a desk and I could hear students screaming and things falling.’   After the initial shaking stopped, the students exited the school and went to a nearby dirt field. ‘It was orderly; they formed lines,’ Noori said, and then another aftershock hit. Students and teachers watched as the school shook and glass windows seemed to bend. A teacher drove his car to the field and turned on the radio, so that everybody could hear news.   Since it was raining, teachers went inside and brought out tarps to cover the children until their parents in this mountainous coastal village arrived to pick them up. Noori then drove to his apartment, which had no power, gas or water. He tried to drive into town to speak to his supervisor at the board of education, but a roadway much like the California Incline had collapsed. After driving back home, Noori walked back to town. The four-story City Hall building was evacuated and Noori’s supervisor told him to go back to his apartment.   Noori checked his phone for messages and texts and was able to access Facebook. He left a message, ‘If someone finds this please contact my family [Palisadians Fazzy Noori and Cindy Seiler-Noori] and let them know I am okay.’   A friend of the Noori’s younger son, Kevin, contacted them five hours later, and let them know their son’s status.   ’Apartments are not well insulated in Japan and the temperature was close to freezing,’ said Noori, who went to bed early. ‘There was nothing else to do.’ Saturday morning, Noori’s phone died and he walked around the streets of Kitaibaraki. ‘I knew the earthquake was bad because roads were cracked, bridges had shifted, brick walls had fallen over and shingles were missing from the houses. Water was being distributed and the market was open.’ Initially he didn’t buy anything, because ‘I didn’t feel hungry.’ But on Sunday he purchased yogurt, canned tuna, canned coffee and bottles of vitamin water. He didn’t worry that his refrigerator wasn’t running; room temperature was cold enough. On Monday, Noori went to school and found most of the teachers already there. They broke into groups to ascertain the damage and afterwards told Noori there would be no school before Wednesday and sent him home. He walked back to the board of education, where the military was cooking rice balls and miso soup. Noori was given five rice balls, which he took home, eating one with Spam’his Monday market purchase. Later that evening he drove to Takahag to visit a friend. As he drove, he noticed few gas stations open and was glad his tank was nearly full. Finding that his friend had power, Noori charged his phone, and then called the Palisades. ‘I found out how bad it was with the power plant and the tsunami.’ By the time he drove back to his apartment, electricity had returned and he was able to e-mail, check Facebook and finally stay warm under his electric blanket. Tuesday morning, Noori’s parents urged him to come home. Others in the JET (Japanese Exchange Teaching) program told him he shouldn’t believe ‘the Western media, it’s a lot of hype.’ ‘People say it’s not that bad,’ Noori told his mom, but since he had not seen news for five days, he went on the Internet to CNN, which reported a third explosion at the nuclear plant. ‘That’s when I decided I should leave.’ Buses and trains were running intermittently, which meant he drove most of the way to Narita to catch a flight, noticing ‘more lines to purchase gas and more damage to buildings.’ He stayed in a hotel close to the airport and had his first hot shower in five days”the best shower I’ve ever had!’ Noori arrived in LAX on Thursday afternoon. ‘I’m glad I left,’ he said, noting that he is following the news of the power plant. When asked if he felt that the Japanese government was not forthcoming with the residents about the power plant, Noori felt that it wasn’t a deliberate effort to deceive citizens, but rather the government was dealing with too many problems in too many areas. Nevertheless, ‘I want to go back in the next few weeks,’ said Noori, who was contracted to teach English until July 2011, but recently added a year to his contract. ‘I like the language, the people, the food and the more traditional aspect of Japan,’ said Noori, who eventually wants to go to graduate school. Lessons he learned last week? ‘Always have money in your pocket, have a flashlight ready (and batteries) and have a tank full of gas.’

This wasn’t Amelita Dolorico’s first trip to Antarctica, but it was her first time entering the Palisadian-Post Travel Tales contest with ‘Stuck in the Antarctica Ice.’   Dolorico, who has lived in Pacific Palisades since 1975, wins a night for two at the Fairmont Hotel and Bungalows in Santa Monica and dinner for two at Ray Garcia’s FIG bistro.   Her article (published on page 3 in this week’s special supplement) was one of 12 entries this year, competing against other well-written stories that transport readers to six countries and four continents.   ’Our first trip [to Antarctica] was in 2008 and we went to the peninsula, but this was different,’ Dolorico said about the trip she and husband Christian Fronsdal, a physics professor at UCLA, completed last month.   ’My husband is a passionate sailor and wants to sail on all the important oceans, and the Southern Ocean is supposed to be the roughest in the world,’ said Dolorico, who wanted a trip that would satisfy her husband. She consulted with Shane Paquette at En Route Travel on Sunset and he came up with a luxurious but challenging trip.   The ship held just 88 passengers, served by 82 crew members, and included 24-hour room service, but the seas were so rough that Dolorico wore a patch behind her ear for the entire voyage and still didn’t feel good. ‘I missed the Captain’s dinner because I was ill.’   There’s a short window of opportunity for people to visit Antarctica, usually December through mid-March, but the weather often dictates a shorter season. (This year, the McMurdo Station closed a few days after Dolorico and Fronsdal left on February 17.)   While visiting the continent, passengers endured temperatures around freezing and nonstop winds. Several freelance journalists and photographers onboard hoped they could record the trip and sell the adventure to a television channel such as Discovery.   ’What a [risky] investment,’ Dolorico said. ‘There is no guarantee.’ (Trips on luxury ships to Antarctica can run from $10,000 to $40,000 per person.)   The retired schoolteacher said that because the trip was so magical and meant so much to her husband, she decided to write the story for the Post’s annual contest. In 1961, when she was 16, Dolorico emigrated from the Philippines to Saratoga Springs, New York, to attend Skidmore College. After graduating with a degree in biology, she worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York before moving to Los Angeles in 1972.   She married and had two daughters, Jenny Llacer, who graduated from Berkeley High, and Lillian Llacer, who graduated from Palisades High as the class valedictorian in 1984.   While her children were small, Dolorico stayed at home, but eventually returned to the work force after receiving her teaching credential from Mount St. Mary’s. She taught at Hoover Street Elementary and, before retiring in 2006 from LAUSD, spent four years working as a literacy coach.   In 1986, Dolorico married Fronsdal in Paris. After retiring, she was a trainer at the Palisades exercise studio Curves until it closed. She also joined the UCLA Faculty Women’s Club, which offers book groups and luncheon opportunities.   This past week, Dolorico enjoyed a different type of trip: visiting her daughter Lillian, son-in-law Eric Anderson and grandchildren Tenaya, 6, and Julian, 3, in Nevada City to bake a butterfly birthday cake for Tenaya.   A third grandchild, Isabelle Christine, 12, lives with daughter Jenny and son-in-law Paul in Santa Clara.