Palisadian Joe Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, addressed the fate of the YMCA pool during his talk at the annual meeting of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The aging YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon, closed since February and facing extinction, gained a reprieve Monday night, and may even receive a new lease on life. Speaking at the 50th annual meeting of the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, Joe Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said he was making an important concession. ‘We’re going to withdraw our application to the California Coastal Commission, at least temporarily,’ requesting permission to pack the empty pool with fill material that would have protected the Conservancy’s liability, but would have prevented the pool’s eventual restoration. When Edmiston arrived to speak at the meeting, the Woman’s Club was packed, mostly with Palisades-Malibu YMCA members and dozens of kids holding ‘Save Our Pool’ signs. ‘There’s a vicious rumor out there that I hate swimmers and that I’m trying to spike the pool, but that’s not true,’ Edmiston rumbled. ‘The Conservancy board will hold a public meeting on December 1 in Temescal Canyon that will give you plenty of opportunity to express your views.’ Towards the end of the meeting, an audience member asked Edmiston why he wasn’t more sympathetic to the community’s desire to save the pool in Temescal, by working out a new lease with the YMCA. ‘It’s not a question of my sympathy,’ Edmiston responded, ‘it’s a question of reaching an agreement that is legally bullet-proof,’ in terms of surviving scrutiny by the state attorney general’s office and other state entities. He then proposed to Carol Pfannkuche, executive director of the YMCA, who was in the audience, that he was willing to recommend a new five-year lease to his board, conditioned on the YMCA agreeing to take over immediate liability for the pool, making the necessary repairs, and agreeing to a long-term planning and EIR process at the end of five years. ‘I want to see that in writing,’ said Pfannkuche, who in early September asked Edmiston for a ‘very short lease on the pool and its grounds, for as few as five years,’ providing that Edmiston ‘commit to provide community access to the pool for a minimum of 20 more years.’ She said she was still awaiting a response to this request.
‘Food Network’ star Giada de Laurentiis signs copies of ‘Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites’ at the Paley Center for Media. Photo: Kevin Parry
Like water for chocolate, celebrity chef Giada DeLaurentiis packed 150 foodies into a Beverly Hills museum on October 28 for ‘An Evening With Giada.’ The event focused on the Food Network star’s various cooking shows, cookbooks, and live ‘Today Show’ spots. The ‘Everyday Italian’ author pulled an everyday L.A. crowd into the Paley Center for Media, multiethnic and hungry for Italian fare prepared in the first episode of DeLaurentiis’ latest series, ‘Rock the Block,’ a screening of which kicked off the evening. In the pilot, DeLaurentiis (in what appears to be a simulation of her Pacific Palisades kitchen) prepares a three-course menu: the chicken-and-shrimp skewers with pancetta chimichurri; Italian fried olives; orecchiette with greens, garbanzo beans and ricotta salata; and blueberry-and-mascarpone turnovers. The show’s premise is how to prepare quick, inexpensive Italian fare for outdoor parties, and as she revealed during the Q & A session, DeLaurentiis did not merely hire extras for the party sequences, she peopled them with her friends and neighbors (presumably Palisadians) and their babies and kids (DeLaurentiis herself has a 7-month-old daughter, Jade). Indeed, the outdoor scenes appeared to be near the Via bluffs, where a bench honors her late brother, Dino A. DeLaurentiis, who succumbed to cancer in 2004 at the age of 31. (Palisadian-Post, April 10, 2008.) During the interview, conducted by Paley Center Director Barbara Dixon, the petite DeLaurentiis, with her beaming smile, chestnut hair and short black dress, charmed the audience. The genial granddaughter of Italian movie producer Dino DeLaurentiis (the 1976 remake of ‘King Kong,’ Sam Raimi’s ‘Army of Darkness’), said that her yen for cooking came from her Italian family”primarily her mother, aunt and famous grandfather, who opened short-lived restaurants in New York and Beverly Hills in the 1980s and staffed buddies from Naples as the executive chefs. Born in Rome, DeLaurentiis moved to America when she was eight years old. As a young adult, after majoring in anthropology at UCLA, she decided to buck the de facto DeLaurentiis profession (‘Everyone in my family is in the movie business’) and move to Paris to attend Cordon Bleu and pursue a cooking career. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she struggled with her own catering business, and finally became a private chef. ‘Ron Howard was my first client. But I got bored’not because he was boring!’ said DeLaurentiis, 38, eliciting laughs from the audience. Her career took off after a profile on the DeLaurentiis family in Food One magazine grabbed the attention of Food Network executives, who offered DeLaurentiis her own program. The opportunity forced her to come out of her shell, which she did with the encouragement and coaching of her late younger brother. DeLaurentiis spoke about the behind-the-scenes of her shows: how she and her staff create the episode themes and recipes and run them by Food Network executives for approval. She offered an interesting philosophy on why the plethora of cooking shows in recent years: September 11. ‘People started looking at our families,’ she said. ‘We would not go out, we would entertain at home.’ One perceptive fan asked DeLaurentiis how much of her wardrobe comes from Anthropologie. The connection: her amiable husband, Todd Thompson, a clothing manufacturer with Anthropologie who cheered her on from the front row in a red plaid shirt, blue jeans and glossy black shoes. Inevitably, when an audience member asked DeLaurentiis which of her grandfather’s films are her favorites, she offered two answers: ‘Orca’ and ‘Flash Gordon.’ She facetiously added that the famed film producer was proud of his granddaughter and ‘shocked and amazed that he didn’t have a direct hand in making [her career] happen.’ Another attendee wanted to know what her favorite cuisine was outside of her specialty Italian. ‘I love Japanese food. It’s dainty, it’s colorful and it’s meticulous. It’s almost a piece of art.’ In fact, DeLaurentiis was quite nervous and self-conscious before taping a ‘sushi party’ episode because of her lack of experience making Asian food. Her husband was put on the spot when asked what dish of hers he favored. From his seat in the audience, Todd vouched for her pasta with sausage and peas. DeLaurentiis added that her hubby was the prime beneficiary of all of the food created for her shows. ‘I don’t have any hard time getting rid of the food,’ she said, laughing.
In an effort to save the YMCA pool in Temescal Canyon, a handful of Friends of the Temescal Pool members drove downtown on Monday night to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s board meeting and asked to lease the pool. ‘The pool can be renovated,’ said Palisadian John Yeh, who helped create Friends of the Temescal Pool, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. ‘The pipes are leaking and the heater needs to be replaced, but its shell is good.’ Yeh gave the Conservancy a proposal for a suggested lease agreement, saying his organization would be willing to lease the pool and purchase liability insurance so that the Palisades-Malibu YMCA can once again operate it. The pool has been closed since February because the 50-year-old pipes need to be replaced, and the Y and Conservancy have been unable to reach an agreement about the pool’s future. At the exact same time as Yeh’s presentation, Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston addressed the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, announcing that he would be willing to negotiate a short-term lease agreement with the Y. Edmiston told a crowd of residents gathered at the Palisades Woman’s Club that he had withdrawn his application submitted to the California Coastal Commission to fill in the pool with dirt, and that the Conservancy will host a public hearing on December 1. In spite of the news, Yeh told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday that his proposal to sign a lease agreement with the Conservancy still stands. ‘We’re doing this for the YMCA,’ Yeh said. ‘If Edmiston and the YMCA can negotiate a lease, that is fine. If the SMMC would like Friends of the Temescal Pool to be the intermediary, we’re willing to do it.’ He believes the pool can be repaired for as little as $200,000 and added that the Y is willing to raise the money to rehabilitate the pool. Friends of Temescal Pool members Jennifer Grant, Jean Rosenfeld and David Olson also rallied to save the Temescal pool at Monday’s Conservancy meeting held at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens. Rosenfeld shared statements from senior citizens and disabled residents who used the pool for therapy. She presented the board with about 75 letters protesting the pool’s closure and a petition containing 1,000 signatures. ‘This represents our community’s wishes, and we have only been gathering signatures for two weeks,’ Rosenfeld said. Sam Lagana, the Y’s Board of Managers chair, heard by cell phone the news of Edmiston’s announcement. He thanked the Conservancy board for withdrawing its application for a coastal development permit waiver to fill in the pool. The Coastal Commission would have decided whether to grant the waiver at its November 14 meeting. Lagana is hopeful the Y and Conservancy can now move forward in the next 20 days with a lease agreement. He reiterated the Y’s promise to assume liability and pay for repairing and maintaining the pool. ‘We would like to work in a collaborative fashion with you, so we can serve all Californians,’ he said. ‘We come in a spirit of neighborliness.’
California legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for keeping state parks open, but they decided not to include the California State Park Access Pass in the 2008-09 budget. Assembly Budget Committee Chair John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) introduced the Access Pass concept to provide funding for state parks in light of California’s $17-billion budget shortfall. The pass would have allowed Californians who operate a noncommercial vehicle to pay a $10 surcharge on their license fee in exchange for entry into any park with a valid state license plate. Many parks charge $6 to $10 day-use fees, and under Laird’s plan, those fees would be eliminated. Laird projected that the surcharge would generate about $282 million in annual revenue, assuming that more than 28 million vehicle owners would pay the $10 fee. The bill was approved by the Assembly, but ultimately was not included in the final budget. ‘While the Legislature’s passage of the state budget avoided closure of California’s state parks, it’s only a one-year reprieve and does not solve the long-term budgeting problems facing state parks,’ said Lucinda Mittleman, who led the Campaign to Save Topanga State Park (CSTSP). The access pass, she said, would be ‘a good way to have a stable, sustainable source of funding that our state parks need.’ Traci Verardo-Torres, legislative and policy director for California State Parks Foundation, said her nonprofit organization will continue to advocate for an access pass or a similar funding mechanism. ‘While we’ve been able to keep parks open, we are concerned,’ she said. ‘We can’t assume this year or early next that they won’t be closed. We can’t sit around and hope the general fund will provide sustainable funding for state parks.’
Virginia (Ginny) Wagner, a Pacific Palisades resident since 1947, passed away October 28 at the age of 92. She died at her home on Alma Real Drive surrounded by her husband and three children. Born in Antwerp, New York, on December 19, 1915, Ginny soon moved to New York City, where she grew up in the Bronx. After graduating from Georgian Court College, she met her future husband, Francis (Frank) V. Wagner, also from New York City. They were married in Manhattan on April 14, 1941. In 1944, Frank and Ginny drove across the country to California, as Frank had been hired by North American Aviation as an aeronautical engineer. They first lived in Hermosa Beach before moving to the Palisades. In 1953, they moved to the house on Alma Real where Ginny lived until the day of her death. The Wagners were among the first parishioners when Corpus Christi Catholic Church opened in 1950. Their three children, Trina and twins Michael and Frank, attended Corpus Christi School. Corpus Christi became the center of Ginny’s life. She attended daily Mass for most of her life and worked tirelessly as a volunteer at the school, serving hot dogs once a week (very popular in the 1950s!), and helping out anywhere help was needed. She was a devoted mother to her children. She attended every baseball game her sons played at the Palisades Recreation Center, and was a den mother for various Cub Scout and Brownie troops. When her children attended St. Monica’s High School, she drove them and several of their friends to school daily, and to many sporting events. Neighborhood children were always welcome at the Wagners’ swimming pool. Ginny hosted many fundraising luncheons for the church’s Mission Circle Group, and continued hosting monthly potluck dinners for her church friends until shortly before her death. Not known for her culinary skills, Ginny surrounded herself with friends who were excellent cooks! In later years, Ginny was a loving grandmother to six, and great- grandmother to seven. She always kept lots of toys and games on hand. She loved playing board games and working on crossword and jigsaw puzzles. Ginny enjoyed taking long ocean cruises, traveling around the globe several times, but she always loved coming home to her family and friends in the Palisades. She was a loyal and generous person who would do anything for her family and friends (except share her favorite 31 Flavors ice cream and chocolate desserts!). Ginny was also upbeat and positive, always seeing the best in people, and had a wonderful sense of humor that remained intact until the day she died. She always found a way to have a good time. Her family, friends and church will miss Ginny, but are comforted in knowing that Ginny made a difference in the lives of many, and is now enjoying her reward in heaven. She is survived by her husband, Frank, and her children: Trina Pate (husband Bud) of Pacific Palisades, Michael Wagner (wife Jolon) of Los Altos Hills, and Frank Wagner (wife Karen) of West Linn, Oregon. Funeral services and a party to celebrate Ginny’s life were held on November 4.
Sylvia (Sylvie) Gibson Phelps, a 23-year resident of Pacific Palisades, died November 8 at the Phelps family’s summer home in Paradise Valley, Montana. After a 19-month struggle with brain cancer, Sylvie passed away while surrounded by her family. She was 58. Sylvie was born a ‘preacher’s kid’ on September 14, 1950 in Glendale. She was the youngest daughter of Phil and Ruby Gibson, founders of Village Church in Burbank and Village School, now located in Sun Valley. After graduating from Burroughs High School, Sylvie attended California Lutheran University; the Defense Language Institute/Monterey; and Cal State Northridge, where she received her bachelor’s degree in French. She met Joe Phelps in 1979, when they were team members on the Honda account at Grey Advertising in Los Angeles. She later became the alumni director for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Sylvie married Joe in 1982 and became a founding director of The Phelps Group, one of California’s leading marketing communication agencies. For years, while raising their two children, Douglas and Emilie, she held various positions in the agency, including accountant, proofreader and mentor to many young mothers. A staunch conservationist, she led the agency’s sustainability efforts, which included its investment in solar power. The solar-energy system installed on the company’s building at 901 Wilshire accounted for 70 percent of the commercial solar panels installed in Santa Monica last year. Sylvie was a mom who sewed whatever Halloween costumes her kids imagined, made dinner from scratch every night and would go to any lengths to support her kids’ dreams. She was a linguist, antique collector, violist with the Santa Monica Orchestra, and a certified court-appointed special advocate (CASA) for children going through the court system in L.A. County. A member of the Brentwood Presbyterian Church, she especially enjoyed her ‘Mustard Seed’ spiritual study friends. Sylvie was a clever writer. When the family moved to the Palisades in 1985, she wrote, ‘If you’re rich, you live in Beverly Hills. If you’re famous you live in Malibu. If you’re lucky, you live in Pacific Palisades.’ She put it on a T-shirt and sold them to help pay for the kids’ nursery school. Now, 23 years later, it still sells steadily. Who you are shows in the things you love. Sylvie loved romantic comedies; the viola; bicycling to work; big dogs; small dogs if big dogs weren’t available; the grace, smell and thunder of horses; clients who pay on time; good grammar; proper punctuation; the Palmer method of handwriting; the lilt of French; Shaker furniture; subtle humor; puns; her numerous collections of little old things; blue jeans; and the ‘Big Sky’ state, Montana. Above all, she loved God, her family and friends. Her favorite saying was by John Wesley: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’ Sylvie did just that. Sylvie is survived by her husband Joe, daughter Emilie, son Douglas, sister Susan Jacob, cousin Doug Jeffrey, seven nephews and seven nieces. Condolences to the family may be sent to memorial@thephelpsgroup.com. Memorial contributions may be sent to UCLA Brain Cancer Research, c/o T. Cloughesy, M.D., 710 Westwood Plaza, Suite 1-230, Los Angeles, CA 90095. A memorial gathering will be scheduled for January.
You May Have Never Heard of Bernie Grundman, But You’ve Heard His Work Millions of Times Over
Bernie Grundman at his Hollywood studio.
Carol King’s ‘Tapestry,’ the monster 1970 hit that launched a thousand folkies, 25 million records sold; Prince’s 1984 R&B blockbuster ‘Purple Rain,’ 13 million records sold; Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic,’ arguably the blueprint for contemporary rap, 8 million sold; Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ the biggest-selling album of all time, more than 45 million units sold. All of these iconic albums”and many more on your CD tower and laptop”have one man in common: Bernie Grundman. This Pacific Palisades resident is not a record-label executive or a producer or even a musician. But in the recording industry, you can say that he is a mastermind. Grundman, in his mid-60s, is one of the biggest names in mastering in the world, and he has directly or indirectly (via his team of sound engineers at Bernie Grundman Mastering) mastered hundreds of gold- and platinum-selling recordings. In addition to the aforementioned albums, Grundman personally mastered milestone recordings by the Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Sergio Mendes, Joe Cocker, Steely Dan, Supertramp, Ludacris, Mos Def, Mary J. Blige, Lucinda Williams, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Fergie, Gwen Stefani, 50 Cent, and the Pussycat Dolls. Aside from Nashville, where the country scene is ‘almost like a closed community,’ Grundman tells the Palisadian-Post that his team handles the lion’s share of today’s music: ‘In the East Coast, there are three main people back there, but on the West Coast, we’re the biggest.’ Mastering is a post-production process of sound-balancing. ‘Some people think we’re mixers, we’re really not,’ Grundman says. ‘We’re the last creative process in the production of a compact disc and the first part of manufacturing. ‘We do the adjustments. Sometimes the whole band is here. They sit in and we deal with what can be done to make it a complete experience for the listener. It’s all about the emotional impact of the recording, trying to decide if there’s any way to heighten that experience.’ In the past decade, another generation of Grundmans has taken to the soundboards. Bernie’s son, Paul Grundman, works as a technician for his father/mentor. ‘Take a band like U2,’ says Paul, 35. ‘We’re currently doing U2 re-masters. We play back their music. We then do as little as we can to hurt it and as much as we can to help it and mix it as loud as they want it or as quiet, and then we make that master. We can add extra bass. Most mixing consoles can’t get that loud. We’re able to make it so much larger.’ He pegs Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation 1814’ (which Bernie worked on in 1989) as the album which sparked an escalation of super-sizing sound. ‘Unfortunately, it’s become a contest of who’s the loudest,’ Bernie Grundman says, cautioning that ‘going loud interferes with the musicality. You stop when you start hurting the music. There is degradation that occurs going louder. ‘We’ve built a lot of our own equipment,’ he adds. ‘Or we’ve modified existing equipment. We do a lot of work on our system to keep an album’s dynamics.’ ‘He masters everything from bluegrass to death metal,’ says his son. ‘Bernie is known for being a minimalist. He doesn’t turn knobs just to turn knobs. He balances according to what he feels is right unless you’re the artist and you have your say. Then he listens to you.’ Born in Minneapolis, Bernard Grundman, a second-generation American with ancestry from Germany, Sweden and Norway, moved with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was 8. He first experienced high-quality sound at 14 and became obsessed with audio. In his early 20s, Bernie entered the Air Force, working on electronic warfare. ‘When I got out of the service, I decided I wanted to be a recording engineer,’ Grundman says. While attending Arizona State University, ‘I went to a studio in Phoenix. One of my Hollywood idols was working there: Roy Dunann.’ A recommendation got Grundman an interview with Lester Caning, owner of the Hollywood jazz label Contemporary Records. After two years there and a growing reputation, Grundman joined the burgeoning A&M records (founded by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss) to head their mastering department. After 15 years at A&M and more than 100 gold and platinum albums, Grundman opened his Hollywood studio in 1984 with his artist wife Claire and former A&M head of maintenance Karl Bischof. In 1997, Grundman opened a new mastering facility in Tokyo, and the following year his current 20,000-sq.-ft. home base on North Gower Street. Despite the commute to Hollywood, Grundman loves the Palisades, where he has lived since 1977. Grundman, who worked on the Doors’ third album, 1968’s ‘Waiting For The Sun,’ remembers that Doors producer Paul Rothschild lived here, as did ‘Waiting”s producer/engineer, Bruce Botnick. ‘He lived on Via de la Paz at the very end at the bluffs in a very modern Neutra house for many years.’ Grundman digs ‘Mayberry’s, Caf’ Vida. We were at Kaye ‘N’ Dave’s just a couple nights ago. ‘You can’t easily find a place in L.A. that has a small village feel,’ he continues. ‘It’s quiet. That’s why a lot of creative people live in the Palisades. You get a sense of being farther away than you are from the city.’ Grundman has fond memories of working on many of the biggest-selling albums in recording history. ‘[‘Tapestry’ producer] Lou Adler told me, ‘Here’s a preliminary tape; we want to hear what we have,’ Grundman recalls. ‘There’s an infectious thing about it. I feel good when I listen to it. That’s why it’s so simple; it was a demo. It had a magic thing.’ Carol King’s album clung on the charts for more than six years, grabbed 1971’s top Grammy Awards, and became history’s biggest selling album until ‘Thriller.’ ‘Prince is a funny guy,’ Grundman remembers. ‘He was based in Minneapolis. He didn’t like the music industry. He’d come in for one day, then go back and there’d be new stuff. He was already working on his next project. He was very withdrawn and quiet. When I saw him on TV in concert, I couldn’t believe he was the same person.’ The 1992 smash ‘Chronic’ came into Grundman’s hands intact as a G-Funk masterpiece. ‘I worked on that one less than any of them,’ Grundman says. ‘We ran that thing once, made a disk.’ Despite uber-producer/rapper Andre Young’s menacing Dr. Dre persona, Grundman notes, ‘He’s a real gentleman. Sophisticated, talented.’ This year, Grundman garnered his second Grammy when Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year for ‘River: The Joni Letters.’ ‘That was a surprise, a long’shot,’ says Grundman, who also mastered rap duo Outkast’s 11-times-platinum double album from 2004, ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,’ which spawned ‘Hey Ya!’ And, of course, there was the King Kong of albums, produced by Quincy Jones. ‘Not that we didn’t add to it, but it came in great shape,’ Grundman says of the landmark 1983 album ‘Thriller.’ ‘That went back out for remix. It came in past deadline. They didn’t care. They took two more months, fine-tuned it. It came back in. ‘Everyone knew it was going to be big. You put it on and every tune was so powerful and dynamic and beautifully done.’ Paul Grundman is charged up: there’s a unicorn running through Bernie Grundman Mastering that he’s bursting to talk about. A unicorn called ‘Chinese Democracy.’ On this day in early October, only hearsay floats online (since confirmed) that the new Guns ‘n’ Roses album (in truth, a glorified Axl Rose solo project with some hired Guns) will come out on November 23. Were this any other much-anticipated album, this would generate excitement free of cynicism and skepticism…except that news of this oft-delayed CD’s arrival has broke so many times that ‘Chinese Democracy,’ 15 years in the making, has become an industry punchline. But Paul knows better because he’s already heard it: ‘Chinese’ exists, it’s completed, and it’s at his father’s studio. At Grundman Mastering, Paul, who lives on the Malibu/Palisades border, works in that rarefied environment where he gets to preview such releases. ‘Today, our studio makes up sometimes more than 40 percent of the Top 10 charts,’ Paul notes. ‘That’s pretty beyond amazing.’ Outside of mastering, Paul drums for his singer wife, Celeste Csato, a lifelong Palisadian. ‘Celeste’s father, Peter Csato, had been cutting my father’s hair for 15 years at Le Studio on Via de la Paz,’ Paul explains of how they connected. After three years, Paul and Celeste’s work relationship grew personal. Married on August 23, the pair continues to record and tour locally (see ‘Local Songbird Soars Again,’ July 17). Paul sums up his father’s success: ‘He’s so good and has such a love for his work. I feel incredibly honored and lucky to be near him. When you’re a kid, your father is just your father. When you grow up, you look at your father differently. On a month-to-month basis, I’m constantly blown away by how great he is. ‘He is the fairest guy I’ve ever met. That’s what I learn from him”how to be fair to people”just by example.’ Visit his Web site BernieGrundmanMastering.com. For information on Paul’s recording services and Celeste’s vocal coaching, visit www.PaulGrundman.com.
Abronia graminea terrestrial arboreal alligator lizard endemic to Mexico. Photo by Ian Recchio
The Chautauqua Series presents Ian Recchio, curator of reptiles and amphibians for the Los Angeles Zoo, at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18, in Woodland Hall (cafeteria), Temescal Gateway Park, on the corner of Sunset and Temescal Canyon Road. The illustrated talk will be sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and presented by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Recchio will discuss the reptiles and amphibians found in California and the Santa Monica Mountains and discuss the species that extend into Western Mexico. His last field study trip, completed in August, was the first of an international cooperative project called the Mexico Project. This partnership with the L.A. Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and the University of Nuevo Leon focuses on the long-term captive husbandry and reproductive strategies for Western Mexican reptiles and amphibians. For 17 years, Recchio has conducted field studies in 26 of the 32 Mexican states, primarily regarding herpetofauna with a special interest in pit vipers, including copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes and other snakes with retractable fangs. He is working on a book about Mexican reptiles and amphibians. Recchio enjoyed his moment in the sun in May 2006 when he captured the famous San Pedro alligator, Reggie, who now resides at the L.A. Zoo. The Zoo is breaking ground in January for a new reptile-and-amphibian complex that will include two new buildings. Recchio is currently evaluating the collection and planning what new species need to be included when the complex is complete. The program and parking are free.
Theatre Palisades Kicks Off 100th Production with Kaufman & Hart Pulitzer-Winner
Celebrating its 100th performance, Theatre Palisades launched ‘You Can’t Take It with You,’ George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedic play, on November 7. The winning dysfunctional-family farce arrives just in time for the holidays and plays through December 14. Consider Alice Sycamore Marilyn Munster to the eccentric Sycamores’ Munsters, the only ‘normal’ member of the family of dreamers. Alice (Ivy Khan) is in love with Tony Kirby (Brett Chapin), the son of Mr. Kirby (Tom Forrester), a successful businessman and employer of the lovebirds. Tony anxiously wants to marry Alice and introduce his parents to her family, but Alice is very self-conscious about her offbeat relatives, which include matriarch and failed playwright/painter Penelope (Cindy Dellinger), aspiring ballerina Essie Carmichael (Sarah Mahoney), her vibraphone-playing husband Ed (Steve Shaheen), and Paul (Bud Sabatino) and his buddy, Mr. DePinna (George Lissandrello), who experiment on creating fireworks in the basement. When Tony brings his parents to the Sycamore household prematurely before an appointed dinner date, comedy ensues as the uptight, well-to-do Kirbys realize that their prospective daughter-in-law is related to a bunch of kooks. Essentially an immigrant clan vs. WASP-y family t’te-a-t’te, Kaufman and Hart’s play capitalizes on humor centered on what people of all ethnic stripes can relate to”crazy relatives”and goes into ‘Meet the Parents’-style comic overdrive by Act II. The highlight of this production is Gene Smith, as Penelope’s income-tax allergic father, Martin Vanderhof, a.k.a. Grandpa. Adorable and the recipient of the play’s best one-liners, Smith (who, incidentally, has lived in Pacific Palisades for 50 years) fits his role. Mahoney energetically plays Essie as a chirpy and vacuous Victoria Jackson ‘Saturday Night Live’ character, athletically pirouetting around the stage, while Khan as Alice, the sturdy straightwoman in a family of veritable circus freaks, does a good job of navigating through the folly. Seasoned character actors Sabatino and Lissandrello provide nice comic relief, while Forrester and Cynthia Rothschild are excellent as the prickly purebred Kirbys. Sherry Coon, who will alternate her role with Julia Whitcombe, entertains as Olga. Good production values overall, with classic recordings of ‘Just A Gigolo,’ ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,’ and ‘Pennies From Heaven’ setting the mood. As the original production opened on December 14, 1936 (and played for 837 performances), the material may feel dated in places for younger audiences, as frequent references abound to Stalin’s Soviet Union, Trotsky, and the 48 United States. Yet, as are guaranteed with Kaufman and Hart, sparkling wit abounds, and the Theatre Palisades players keep the farcical antics bouncing along. Good family fare for this family-minded time of year. The Pierson Playhouse is located at 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. For tickets: (310) 454-1970; www.theatrepalisades.org.
Exercisers work out at BodyCamp, a new gym located in the Atrium Building on Via de la Paz. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
BodyCamp, the newest gym in town, offers a complete workout that includes cardiovascular and strength training. Located on the second floor of the Atrium building on Via de la Paz, the new gym offers classes that start with a 15-minute cardio workout using either a treadmill or a recumbent bicycle. The next 15 minutes is devoted to floor workout and then the process is repeated. The difference between walking on a home treadmill and going to BodyCamp is the instructor and the personal attention’it’s not easy to slack off with a person watching you work out and urging you to pick up the pace. Walkers are urged to jog on the treadmill, joggers run and runners are asked to push harder. In a small class setting, the instructor gives the exerciser the push he or she might need. After the first cardio portion of class, students pick up weights, stretch cords and a mat and go to the floor. For those who loathe doing stomach exercises (or long for the return of girdles), this segment of class may not be their favorite, but crunches (and variations of crunches for those with bad backs) make the dream of six-pack abs seem possible. The instructor wouldn’t let anyone give up, either. One exerciser put down her legs during a stomach exercise that involved lying on one’s back, bicycling with the legs, hands behind the head and touching elbows to knees. The instructor lifted the exerciser’s legs and helped her to do a few more. Once the first 15 minutes of floor exercise were completed, it was back to the treadmill. This time, the treadmill started at the previous level, a fast walk, but then added incline, making it a hill workout. The instructor asked the class to increase their pace. Individuals ran for two minutes, panting, working to a point they would not have reached if not encouraged on. Then, the instructor took the pace down, giving students time to recover. A few minutes later, students were instructed to pick up the pace again. A nice touch at BodyCamp is that individual treadmills have a fan built into the control panel, which helps keep exercisers cool. After 15 minutes and lots of sweating, it was back to the floor. By means of weights and cords, the arm muscles were exercised, and then the legs got their due. The hour goes by quickly. The workout center opened in early October after owner Joy Stanley got the idea from a similar gym in Brentwood. ‘I realized it was a great idea and we needed it in the Palisades. It’s a way to get fit fast,’ said Stanley, a Palisadian who has been practicing family law for 15 years. ‘Most people who aren’t motivated hire a trainer, but they don’t get the aerobics. BodyCamp is a circuit-training workout, but with a private instructor.’ Classes are offered seven days a week in the newly renovated space, and water and towels are provided. There are no locker rooms or showers. Visit: www.bodycamppalisdes.com or call (310) 454-6363.
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