After a productive zero week scrimmage against Washington, the Palisades High football team kicks off the season Friday at Hollywood High. It will be the fourth year in a row that Palisades has opened the season against Hollywood. Palisades beat the Sheiks 28-6 at home last year, won 22-2 at Hollywood the year before (the Dolphins later had to forfeit the victory for using an ineligible player) and won 20-13 at Stadium by the Sea in 2006. Hollywood won its first game, 14-10, over Manual Arts and is led by quarterback Steven De Guzman, running back Sergio Sibrian and wide receivers Miguel Navarro and Bryan Silva. The Sheiks went 5-5 last season and finished third in the Southern League. “This is a very important game,” Palisades Coach Kelly Loftus said. “Not only does it set the tone for the season, but it’s one we really need to have. We have probably our toughest opponent [Santa Monica] the next week and I’d like for us to go into that game with confidence and momentum.” Kick-off for the junior varsity game is 4 p.m., followed by the varsity at 7 p.m. Directions to Hollywood High: Take PCH south to I-10 East. Exit off the La Brea Avenue North ramp. Merge onto S La Brea Ave. Turn right onto Edgewood Place. Turn slight left onto S Highland Ave. School is on the left at 1521 N Highland Ave. Estimated distance: 18 miles.
Leaving His Options Open
His Legs Are His Biggest Asset but PaliHi QB Preon Morgan Will Look to Pass First
The future was looking bright for the Palisades High football program last spring. The Dolphins were coming off a 5-5 season (four more wins than the season before) and looked forward to more production from an offense seemingly on the verge of flourishing under the leadership of returning quarterback Conner Preston. The scenario changed in a flash when Preston unexpectedly transferred to Gardena Serra, leaving Head Coach Kelly Loftus wondering who would step in and be his starting quarterback. Well, he didn’t have to wonder for long. It was pretty clear who Preston’s successor should be: none other than Preon Morgan, the back-up signal caller last year and maybe the most versatile athlete on the varsity team. Morgan gets his first opportunity to show that versatility when the Dolphins play under the lights at Hollywood on Friday night, a game he has looked forward to, and diligently prepared for, since winning the job in May. “He’s a different style quarterback than Conner,” Loftus said. “Conner is extremely accurate when you give him time in the pocket, while Preon is more of an instinctual runner. He makes things happen with his legs and we like him doing that.” Though he’s not shy about tucking the ball away and scampering for the sticks, the 6′ 0,” 175-pound senior insists he will look to pass first. “One of my individual goals is to have more passing yards than rushing yards,” Morgan said. “Hopefully, being a threat to run will make the defense have to keep a linebacker home to guard that, which should free up a receiver down the field. The key is to take what the defense gives me.” Little did he know it back then, but playing wide receiver himself last year was invaluable experience for Morgan, who learned the importance of running precise patterns and now has a better understanding of when and where to deliver the ball. He wound up with 19 receptions for 217 yards and, by the end of the season, was a reliable target for Preston, who threw for 2,026 yards and 16 touchdowns as a sophomore. Morgan’s arm strength has always been there (he routinely throws 60-yard spirals in practice) but it is his improved timing on shorter throws that has surprised Loftus and new offensive coordinator Kris Hawkes most over the last four weeks. “Preon throws a real catchable ball and I think he’s going to surprise people with his arm,” Hawkes said. “He can get it there on the money, where it needs to be, and if the other team stacks the box he’s got the green light to air it out.” Morgan is no stranger to the position. He played quarterback for his Pop Warner team, the Inglewood Jets, and he took his share of reps in the back-up role last season. Now, the spotlight is squarely on him and he wants to make the most of his time on center stage. One of the first battles he won was earning the respect of the teammates charged with protecting him–Palisades’ offensive linemen. “Preon loves football and he is one of the hardest working guys out here,” said guard Juan Climaco, one of the Dolphins’ “Three Amigos” along with center Devyn Reyes and tackle William Goldberg. “We definitely have his back and I’m excited to see what he does when we protect him like we should.” Preston was not the only player to leave Palisades for another school. Starting wideout/defensive back Tyquion Ballard and tight end/linebacker Deandre Nelson also departed, meaning several Dolphins–Morgan included–will be asked to play ironman football this season. Despite Preston’s desire to play defense, Loftus was hesitant to play him both ways. This year, it’s a different story. “We don’t have a choice,” Loftus admitted. “Preon is one of the best athletes we have and we need him out there. He knows the situation and he’s a competitive kid. He understands the risks but he wants to be on the field any chance he gets.” Morgan proved himself at cornerback last season, making 53 tackles (including a team-high 11 solo tackles in a 21-0 shutout of Granada Hills), then intercepting a pass and blocking a punt in Week 5 against Reseda. He hopes to play 50 percent on offense and 50 on defense. Even though it was only a scrimmage, Morgan looked sharp running Palisades’ spread offense last Friday against Washington. He directed the first team on several long drives that likely would have ended in scores had the Dolphins not run out of downs (teams were allowed four sets of 10 plays, starting at their own 20). Varsity assistant coach Al Heath liked what he saw in the practice game and is confident that Morgan will display the same poise and execution under center in tomorrow’s season opener: “He made some nice reads, some nice throws, and moved the chains.” Whether throwing quick slants or long bombs, Morgan is eager to show he is not merely a one-dimensional quarterback. If it means pitching the ball on an option, standing his ground in the face of a blitz or putting his head down and running, he will do whatever it takes to win. “I can’t wait to get the season started,” he said. “I believe we can go 7-3 and make the playoffs. Being a good quarterback is about making the right decision. Whatever the situation calls for I’ll do.”
Judi Johnson, PaliHi Graduate
A memorial service will be held on September 4 at 11:30 a.m. for Judith Simili (Judi Johnson) who grew up in Pacific Palisades and was a 1974 graduate of Palisades High School. The service will be held in Thousand Oaks at the Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic Church located at 155 E. Janss Rd.
Owen Signs and Discusses Her ‘Way Back to Eden,’ Sept. 11
Author Zo Owen notes that the concept of paradise has been with people since the earliest days, and that every religion mentions it. ‘We were thrown out of paradise and we have to find it again,’ says Owen, explaining the title of her book of poems, ‘Finding Our Way Back to Eden.’ She will read from her book on September 11, 7:30 p.m., at Village Books on Swarthmore. ‘Paradise is the home we long for, but we need to know that it has never left us,’ says the 14-year Pacific Palisades resident, who also serves as a spiritual counselor. One of the poems, ‘The Black Queen,’ has become a favorite among the women who have read it. The poem goes, ‘Psyche visited last night. She says the Black Queen would have her due./This is not the loving mother or compassionate friend./ This is the unforgiving warrior who takes no prisoners,/who remembers transgressions and omissions.’ Owen explains that, like most women, she sees herself as a good mother and person. But there is another side, the part of her personality that can be demanding and won’t back down; an asset she considers necessary to grow and survive. ’If we go for wholeness, we must look at all aspects of a person,’ Owen says, explaining that there is power to owning your dark side and that, on occasion, it is good to know you can call on it’especially when you’re going eyeball-to-eyeball with a nasty person. ‘Our humanity is as blessed as our spirituality,’ Owen adds. Another poem, ‘The Cocktail Party,’ is based on an interaction between a husband and wife that Owen observed. She writes, ‘The shame of it, lay/not in his withholding from her,/small kindnesses and courtesies,/nor in his thinly veiled attacks on/her opinions in the company of others,/no, anger, would have at least been honest.’ Owen thought about the couple, and the poem’s conclusion was based on her insight: ‘The shame lay in his not being courageous/enough to own, he envied her ability to feel.’ Her work has won praise from Louisa Calioco, the director of Poets Piazza, who notes: ‘Owen writes with depth, compassion and patience.’ The mother of three grown children, Owen says her poems reflect her own journey, which began as a registered nurse and medical administrator for Cond’ Nast wellness programs in Manhattan. Owen, a divorce’ at the time, was sent to a 10-day conference in Arizona. While waiting in the Phoenix airport to fly to Prescott, before driving to the final destination at Pauldin, she met Palisades resident James Owen, a personal injury attorney, who was going to the same conference. They struck up a conversation, which continued on the plane, the car ride and then at the seminars. It was the start of a year-long courtship between Los Angeles and New York, at the end of which they decided to live in same town in order for their relationship to continue. They decided that it was easier for Owen to relocate. ‘I gave up my job, put my furniture in storage, and left my mom, daughter and granddaughter on the East Coast,’ Owen says. A year later, she married Jim in Kona, on the big island of Hawaii. After moving to the Palisades, Owen received her master’s degree at the University of Santa Monica, which offers degrees in soul-centered education. She began work as a spiritual counselor. ’I don’t do [typical] therapy,’ she says. ‘I work with people who have started to look at self-realization, and ordinarily it is not a long period of interaction between us. We talk, look at where the person is at and then the person moves on.’ Owen has noticed that whenever she works with someone, she also finds out something about herself, which brings us back to her poetry. She has written more than 500 poems and, after the first line drops in, she says that something happens. ‘I know it’s an overused expression, that I was born to do something, but that’s how it feels,’ Owen says. ‘When I write, I lose time, I look up and hours are gone. I feel that this has allowed me to know myself.’ The author is already working on another book of poems titled ‘Blessings of an Ordinary Life.’
Wendy Graf Ponders Strict Orthodoxy in One-Act Play
By LIBBY MOTIKA Senior Editor In June 2008, playwright Wendy Graf made a long anticipated trip to Israel, a country that not only had become palpable in her imagination, but whose history has informed so much of her work, including ‘The Book of Esther’ and ‘Lessons.’ Her two weeks in the country stirred strong emotions that prompted a new play in which she explores these feelings. ‘This play reflected my feelings about Israel,’ Graf says, struck by the weight of its history. ‘This is where David fought Goliath, where Jesus was condemned. Some people suffer Jerusalem fever, where they actually get physically ill because of the extreme emotionality and religious fervor that exists around such sacred sites.’ Graf wrote the play in October of 2008. In January, she noticed a call for submissions to the Attic Theatre’s One Act Play Festival. ‘I hadn’t workshopped the rest of the play, so I sent off the first act and forgot about it,’ she says. Now, a year later, Graf is a finalist with three other playwrights whose one-act plays will be given fully staged performances from September 11 through October 3 at the Attic Theatre, 5429 W. Washington Blvd. The festival, known as the Denis Ragan Wiesenmeyer One Act Play Festival, was co-founded by Wiesenmeyer and James Carey. The Attic’s Theatre’s Literary Committee screened over 150 plays for this year’s contest, rating each on plot, character, theme and quality. The winners this year include two West Coast playwrights and two East Coast writers. The winners will be announced at the closing night celebration on October 3. Graf calls this first act of a full-length play, ‘Behind The Gates,’ she expects to produce in 2010, controversial, mainly because of the strong feelings people have about Israel, both inside and beyond its borders. While in the country, both Wendy and her husband Jerry learned as much as they could about the political and social history, especially from their guide, who escorted them around the country. ‘I’d ask him about politics and what he thought the most pressing issues were,’ Graf says. ‘He became a symbol for me of the guy who loves Israel.’ Steeped in the discovery of the country, Graf nevertheless avoids polemics, guided instead by her strong sense of narrative and her continuing search for self-awareness. Her one-act is, in fact, a 25-minute monologue that traces the journey of a 17-year-old Palisadian girl who is floundering in the confusion and alienation of the material world of the 21st century. Bethany Leiberman is appropriately pierced and reckless, numbing herself with drugs and sex, cutting school, and driving her parents to their wits’ end. They finally decide to send her to a summer program in Israel, which results in her radically turning away from her rebellious life but, equally alarming to her parents, also losing herself in the hermetic world of the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem. Bethany becomes completely absorbed into this world, changing her name to the Hebrew name Bakol, adopting a new identity, cutting off all contact with her parents, and ultimately disappearing into the haredi (Ultra Orthodox Jews) community. That is the first act. The play asks questions, says Graf, who is a confirmed Brechtian, believing that theater should contribute towards social change, rather than merely reflect or portray society. That theater should be experimental, progressive and dynamic, not normative, reactionary and static. ‘My play asks questions about orthodox communities, whether it be Muslim, Catholic or Jewish. In Israel, these communities have locked themselves away from the outside world. But when Bethany is invited by a rabbi she meets at the Wailing Wall and accepts his invitation to Shabbat dinner, she feels the relief of absolutes. She is reborn in this haredi society; feeling honored and revered as a woman, a shayna maidel (‘pretty woman’) in this new community. She discovers that these things speak to her,’ Graf says. ‘She is a part of a family, relieved to be seen for herself instead of what she wears or owns.’ In the course of the monologue, Bethany undergoes her transformation, symbolized by slowly shedding her ‘Goth’ attire in favor of the long-sleeved, modest clothing for women. ‘This is a story about the coming of age of a young girl and the emotional journey of a family,’ Graf says. Graf, a Mandeville Canyon resident, grew up in Brentwood and graduated from Palisades High. Her Jewishness was dormant, as her parents felt it was more important to be an American than a Jew. Through her work, Graf has used the journey of discovering her own identity to explore the questions of identity. ‘The story is about a family,’ she says. ‘The context is identity.’ Performances will be on Friday and Saturdays at 8 p.m. For tickets ($20) call The Attic box office at 323-525-0661 or visit attictheatre.org/tickets.
Rabbi Lewart Promotes ‘Change’ at Village Books
Rabbi Sheryl Lewart is looking forward to mid-September, when the Jewish holiday season kicks off. The arrival of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is a time for change and renewal for Jews worldwide, and Lewart recently addressed the subject in a new book. She will sign and discuss ‘Change Happens: Owning the Jewish Holidays in a Reconstructionist Tradition,’ on Thursday, September 10, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Previously the editor on various anthologies, including ‘Jewish Alive and American’ (1991), Lewart says that ‘Change Happens’ is the first book she has written. A Pacific Palisades resident and member of Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Congregation on Sunset Boulevard for 12 years, Lewart teachers various classes addressing Jewish-American values at the Sunset Boulevard temple. Since 1997, Lewart has been married to Bob Auerbach, an environmental auditor. Lewart has a son, Mark Shulewitz, 34, a biochemist residing in the Bay Area, and a daughter, Judy Amidor, 32, a lawyer in Tel Aviv. Lewart’s book makes for a good primer that walks the reader through ways of personalizing Jewish holidays and traditions”from Passover and Purim to the weekly Jewish rituals such as Shabbat (the weekly Friday/Saturday-sundown-to-sundown time during which Jews break from everything wordly and material to worship) and Havdalah (the end-of-Shabbat ritual). Naturally, ‘Change Happens’ offers a perspective particular to Lewart’s branch of Judaism. Reconstructionist Judaism is an American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan (1881’1983). Originally a radical left branch of Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionism views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. The movement, which embraces aspects of modernism, developed from the late 1920s to 1940s, and established a rabbinical college in 1968. Simply put, Reconstructionism takes some contemporary liberties to involve its community in a process of education and gleaning values from traditional Jewish sources. ‘Reconstructionism takes more of a civilization view of Judaism, not as a religion but as a way of life; the cultural aspects,’ Lewart explains. ‘Jewish values can infuse our lives as Americans, and American values would infuse our view of Judaism. The movement has been at the forefront of equal rights for women, LGBT rights, and the tenets of democracy.’ The goal of Reconstructionism and her book, Lewart continues, is to give the religion a contemporary context that is relevant 21st-century Americans. ‘People want to take ownership of the traditions and have it work in the context of the kind of families they have, the friends they have, the availability of time,’ she says. ‘It’s so important that we don’t lose the baby with the bathwater, to not have Jewish traditions be difficult, onerous and intimidating.’ ‘Change Happens’ ‘streamlines the holidays and traditions and it opens it up,’ the rabbi says. ‘The book offers meditation or the chance to offer your great-grandmother’s recipe. It suggests ways to make the holiday memorable, meaningful and your own.’ For the Jewish New Year, ‘If you have the type of garden that can support an apple tree, grow an apple tree,’ Lewart says, alluding to apples and honey, symbolic foods of Rosh HaShannah. For the Day of Atonement, Lewart recommends creating one’s own ‘soul candles. ‘You can go to a crafts store,’ she suggests for Yom Kippur, ‘and pick up wicks and make a candle that has multiple wicks, one for every member of the family that you’d like to remember. So this is an expression of making your own soul candle and this becomes an experience for your entire family.’ During the High Holy Days, Lewart will conduct services at the sanctuary at KI, while alternative services will be held at Westwood’s Wadsworth Theatre. For more information on services, visit www.kellihatisrael.org.
Marcia W. Lebow, 90; Renowned Musicologist
Pianist, musicologist, teacher and writer Marcia Wilson Lebow passed away on August 6 The former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades was 90. Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, Lebow was a product of the Boston Latin School, where she learned Latin, French and German before entering Radcliff College in 1940. Enjoying a full scholarship for four years, Marcia became the only woman in Nadia Boulanger’s Harvard composition seminar, which also included her high school chums Leonard Bernstein, composer Irving Fine and composer Harold Shapero. In 1947, Marcia married Ralph Lebow, an MIT engineering graduate, and followed his career opportunities, first to Ohio, where their two children were born, then to Pacific Palisades in 1953. After Ralph’s death in 1965 and with two teenaged kids, Marcia earned a Ph.D. in systemic musicology from UCLA. She started the docent program for the L.A. Philharmonic and later hosted a series of private lectures-recitals, many at her home in Castellammare. After re-reading novelist George Elliot, Marcia began to research the author’s use of music and musical devices in her works. Though Marcia completed several chapters of a book and presented scholarly papers at conferences here and in England, encroaching Alzheimer’s disease over the last eight years prevented her from completing the book. Beside her husband, she was predeceased by her daughter Lisa, who died at age 49 in 2002. She is survived by her son Roger (wife Wendy Schorr) and grandson Theo, of Sierra Madre, a tenor whose voice she loved, and who carries on to the next generation the musical art she held so dear.
Dr. Louis Paul, 90; Former Palisadian
Dr. Louis Paul, a former 20-year resident of Pacific Palisades, died peacefully in his family’s company at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills on August 19. He was 90 years old. Born in Cleveland, Ohio to Jacob and Gertrude Paul, Louis was raised in Lakewood, Ohio where he graduated from high school in 1937. After graduating from Antioch College in 1942, he earned a medical degree from Western Reserve Medical School. Louis married Betty Hazel Kimble in 1943 and they moved in 1951 to Pacific Palisades, where they built a house overlooking Temescal Canyon and the Pacific Ocean. Louis and Betty raised five daughters who all graduated from Palisades High School. Louis loved books, and visits to the Palisades library, first on Via de la Paz and later at its current location on Alma Real, were a family affair. After serving proudly in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Louis worked 10 years in the public health service before establishing a private practice in psychiatry. He was a dedicated doctor, pursuing his profession in a variety of ways including training and mentoring social workers and physicians. He was an educator and clinician for the L.A. County Mental Health Services for 19 years, an educator and trainer at Camarillo State Hospital, and worked for the California Department of Social Services Disability Evaluation Division until his retirement in 2005 at age 86. He moved to Beverly Hills in 1970. Louis was a generous and civic-minded man who supported many environmental, civil rights, human justice and liberal political causes. He had a deep interest in American literature, opera, film and theater. He also enjoyed the outdoors, taking family vacations to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Saturday jaunts to the Santa Monica Mountains. Predeceased by his wife Betty and brothers Sherman and Julius, Louis is survived by his daughters: Susan Davis of Washington, D.C., Deborah Kuryan of Long Beach, Sage (Kathyrn) Waters of Nooksak, Washington, Elizabeth Paul (husband Scott Smay) of Boise, Idaho, and Margaret Lazar (husband George) of Piedmont; and seven grandchildren: Eleanor Davis, Rachel and Benjamin Kuryan, Travis Holland, Shawn Landden, and Hannah and Max Smay. Louis Paul’s ashes will be interred in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. No services have been scheduled.
Pacific Western Bank Buys Affinity Bank
Pacific Western Bank, based in San Diego, took control of failed Affinity Bank on Saturday and assumed responsibility for its customers as of Monday, August 31. This includes the Affinity branch office in Pacific Palisades, which hosted the Chamber of Commerce mixer in March. Ventura-based Affinity, which had about $1.2 billion in assets as of July 31, was shut down on August 29 by the California Department of Financial Institutions after failing to maintain an adequate level of capital, spokeswoman Alana Golden said. Representatives of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took immediate control of the bank and accepted Pacific Western’s bid to assume the deposits and most of Affinity’s assets. Under the terms of the loss sharing agreement, the FDIC will absorb 80 percent of losses and share in 80 percent of loss recoveries on the first $234 million of losses, and absorb 95 percent of losses and share in 95 percent of loss recoveries on losses exceeding $234 million. Originally known as San Francisco Thrift and Loan, Affinity Thrift and Loan was purchased by Affinity Group in 1995. The name was changed to Affinity Bank in 1997. In November 2001, Affinity Bank acquired Westcoast Savings in Pacific Palisades at its current location, 15310 Sunset. Westcoast originally opened in 1985 with one deposit branch. Affinity grew to have seven branches in Southern California, including Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Irvine and two in Ventura. ’We welcome Affinity Bank customers to the Pacific Western Bank family,’ said Matt Wagner, CEO of parent company PacWest Bancorp. ‘We look forward to providing strength and service, for which Pacific Western is known, and ensuring new customers from Affinity Bank have the best possible banking products and services at their disposal.’ Affinity Bank customers and Pacific Western Bank customers should continue using their existing branches until Pacific Western can fully integrate Affinity’s systems with the Pacific Western network. After this transition period, Affinity Bank customers will gain access to Pacific Western’s 59 existing locations throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. Pacific Western, which was founded in 1982, has 59 locations in five Southland counties and is a wholly owned subsidiary of PacWest Bancorp, a bank holding company with $4.5 billion in assets as of June 30. The merged banks will provide full-service community banking and commercial banking commercial banking services, including real estate, construction and commercial loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
Thursday, September 3 – Thursday, September 10
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s weekly Family Fun Campfire Night, featuring nature tales, campfire songs, games and, of course, marshmallows, 7 p.m. in Temescal Gateway Park. Parking is $7, but the campfire is free. Pacific Palisades screenwriter/director Nicholas Meyer discusses and signs ‘The View From the Bridge: Memories of ‘Star Trek’ and a Life in Hollywood,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
Theatre Palisades presents Larry Shue’s ‘The Nerd,’ 8 p.m. at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. The character-driven farce centers on a dinner party interrupted and brought down by the titular houseguest from hell. Performances continue Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. through October 11. (See story, page 13.)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
Monthly meeting of the Pacific Palisades AARP chapter, 2 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. Guest speaker Ted Ashby will talk about the Old West, and Palisades Rotary Club president Sanda Alcalay will talk about Rotary International’s international campaign against polio. The public is invited.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, 7 p.m. in the Palisades Branch Library Community Room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited. Rabbi Sheryl Lewart of Kehillat Israel discusses and signs ‘Change Happens,’ a beautifully illustrated ‘how-to’ guide for the Jewish holidays, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. (See story, page 12.)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
Pacific Palisades resident Zo Owen discusses and signs ‘Finding Our Way Back to Eden,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. (See story, page 13.)