Lise Luttgens and her daughter Kate Santulli don’t fit the classic mother/teenage daughter mold; no time is wasted butting heads. Instead, the two observe the world through like-minded lenses, as evidenced by their photographs now on view at the Hidden Cafe, 1515 Palisades Dr., in the Highlands. The images–bold and poetic, vibrant and muted–chronicle their two-week adventure in Peru last August. The community is invited to a viewing and reception in their honor taking place from 2 to 4 p.m. this Saturday, March 24. The trip, an early high school graduation gift for Kate, a senior at The Archer School for Girls, included visits to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, along with an excursion to a remote part of the Amazon jungle. ‘I wanted to travel to a place where I could speak Spanish and do photography,’ Kate says about choosing Peru. It’s not the first time these two blissfully immersed themselves in another culture, with several trips to Mexico part of their shared past. ‘When we travel, I love how we’re in the same rhythm,’ says Lise. ‘We each have our cameras and can happily wander through churches and gardens for hours.’ While Lise was drawn to the color of local markets, zooming in with her digital camera on pots of natural dyes and vintage Indian blankets, Kate’s focus quickly turned to close-up compositions of flowers and children. ‘My mom loves detail,’ Kate notes. ‘I do, too.’ When not in the zone taking pictures, Kate and her mother enjoyed plenty of excitement, too. While in the jungle, their guide spotted one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. ‘Even he was nervous,’ Lise recalls with a laugh. In an Amazon village, Kate befriended the locals by teaching them how to make lanyard bracelets. ‘There was Kate sitting cross-legged with an entire indigenous family surrounding her,’ Lise recalls. And when it came time to make tracks to another arm of the Amazon, mother and daughter hopped on the back of motorcycles and cruised through the middle of the jungle at sunrise. Kate learned the hard way not to sport sandals in the jungle. ‘I literally had 20 bug bites on my feet when I awoke one morning, ‘ she says. Off she went to the village shaman, who administered a potion of thick red clay. ‘I was golden after that; no more crazy itching,’ Kate says. A spirited and poised 17-year-old, Kate plans to study Spanish and psychology at Colorado College in Colorado Springs next fall. Lise is an executive coach and consultant, helping people of all ages to manage life changes. ‘One of the key principles in managing transitions is knowing yourself and valuing the differences in others,’ Lise says. ‘In many ways, that’s what this trip was all about.’ The photographs will be displayed at The Hidden Cafe through May 20. They are available for purchase, matted and framed, for $65. Contact: photos@LuttgensAndAssociates.com.

By ERIC VOLLMER Special to the Palisadian-Post It’s by the luck of the Irish that Snap Shots first happened to be invited to perform at Village Books. While Katie O’Laughlin was busy opening her independent Village Books 10 years ago, Snap Shots spoken-word performance series premiered in Santa Monica. In these literary cabarets, a revolving group of talented presenters introduced audiences to a wide spectrum of works by classic authors, new prose writers, poets and playwright of the world stage. By chance, a world-traveling mural artist named Gary Palmer began performing with our troupe at the same time that Katie hired him to add artistic flourishes to her new shop. Both Katie and I had been dazzled by Palmer’s unique pastel pavement art works. She commissioned him by day to paint the enchanting floor murals at Village Books, while I recruited him some nights to draw illustrations during our spoken-word cabarets. It was through Katie’s inspiration that we performed our first centenary salute, ‘Hemingway or the Highway,’ to commemorate Ernest Hemingway’s 100th birthday in 1999. That led us down the road to our John Steinbeck centenary tribute, which included a statewide library tour winding up at San Francisco’s California History Museum. For the love of Katie, we also present an annual ‘Bloomsday’ celebration of James Joyce and the Irish imagination, which features the Moynahan Boys playing traditional Irish lilts. Palmer also called to my attention to the lines of poet William Carlos Williams: ‘It is difficult to get the News from poems, Yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.’ Williams’ words go right to the heart of the matter. I see literature as a long series of love letters dating back to Homer and Helen of Troy: ‘the face that launched a thousand ships.’ Think back to all of the author dedications that you’ve read. All addressed to Loved Ones. Our role became to help those rare voices be heard over the blather of mainstream media. So, I set out to find folks from all walks of life to read aloud creative excerpts drawn from plays, prose, poetry and their own imaginations. Over the years, many talented performers (275-plus) have volunteered their talents to add a measure of joy to our proceedings. When we answered Katie’s invitation to perform at Village Books, the charm of the Palisades put us all in mind of a Thornton Wilder play. So, I asked an escaped Iowan, actor Steve Anders, to introduce our troupe with a nostalgic evocation of community life by the stage manager of ‘Our Town.’ Anders values the theatrical niche that Snap Shots fills and has become a regular in the troupe’s repertoire of actors. ‘When you put ‘literary’ and ‘spoken performance’ in a mortar, then buffer and blend them, a strange and wonderful alchemy can occur,’ he says. ‘It’s different from being in a play or film, where your lines and moves are memorized and rehearsed. Here, you were suddenly up before an audience, standing at the mike, glancing down quickly–and something about that group of words from that particular author, on that particular night, would strike you. It might make you emotional, but more often than not at Eric’s impromptu shows, you’d feel curious, appreciative, and respectful of what was in hand.’

‘Gender & Religion’ is a book that should be on every college’s women’s studies reading list. This well-researched tome details the major religions–Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity–and the part they’ve played in suppressing women’s equality. The book is not an easy read. ‘It’s written like a text,’ said Palisadian author Barbara Crandall, a UCLA professor at the School of Medicine in the prenatal genetics program. Her interest in the subject stems to when she was one of the few women in medical school in London in the late 1940s. ‘Now it’s more equal,’ she said, ‘but why was it so selective then?’ Crandall’s father was in the British Colonial Service and she attended boarding school in England. Crandall was educated at the University of London Medical School and while on a general surgery fellowship at the University of Illinois in 1951, met her future husband, Paul Crandall. He followed her back to England, where they were married later that same year. They moved to Los Angeles in 1954 after two years in Germany. After staying home with her small children (they have four) she wanted to go back to surgery, but at the time there were no women in that residency program at UCLA–women were not admitted until sometime in the 1960s. Instead of surgery, Crandall received a fellowship in genetics, which furthered her interest in gender and religion because of her patients’ varied religious backgrounds. She started working on her book part-time seven years ago. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday she saw patients, but on Tuesday and Thursday, after writing up medical cases, she devoted her time to research at the UCLA library. She wrote evenings and weekends. ‘Nobody in my family believed I’d finish it,’ she said. ‘But the more I got into it, the more passionate I got about the subject.’ Her research uncovered that there is evidence dating back to 8000 B.C. and earlier than that that goddess worship existed in Europe and the Near East. ‘There is no evidence of a father figure in any of the Paleolithic periods,’ she said. Crandall maintains there is a long history of sexual equality and in some cases; women were even viewed as superior beings. Crandall notes that as all religions developed, they incorporated male dominance into their beliefs, but that women were treated differently in the early periods of that development. ‘During the early history of certain religions, women had a fuller role and then it was lost,’ Crandall said. She cites the example that in Islam, after the prophet came he improved a few things for women. Morally, women were judged the equal of men and subject to the same religious laws. Laws of inheritance were changed so that women could inherit from their family. ‘It was better for a time, then many things they had gained were lost and they were subjugated, which has continued into modern cultures,’ Crandall said. ‘Religion is believed to be sacrosanct and immune to change.’ One way to change the subservient treatment of women is to encourage passing legislation that guarantees women’s rights, Crandall suggests. Even though women have made great strides in the United States, in many other countries women have been kept in a subservient state. She warns, ‘Women will always be threatened by fundamentalist movements that want to remake or return to a patriarchal society.’ Crandall will discuss ‘Gender & Religion’ at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore, March 29, 7:30 p.m. Contact: (310) 454-4063.

Former Palisadian Dr. Scott McIntosh will depart April 15 for a research expedition on Mt. Everest, Nepal. The son of longtime Palisadians, Jim and Jennifer McIntosh, Scott attended Methodist pre-school, Village School and graduated cum laude from Brentwood School in 1990. He was active in local sports throughout his time in the Palisades and attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Troop 223. An emergency-medicine physician at the University of Utah, Scott will be the physician on the team evaluating the physical condition of the Sherpas and analyzing their performance and blood chemistry on the climb. Six Sherpas will make the climb to the top of the world’s highest mountain, over 29,000 feet. One of the Sherpas has summited 16 times, and another has climbed from base camp at 17,500 feet to the summit in just under 11 hours, an unbelievable feat! The planned documentary film and book will publicize the little-known accomplishments of the Sherpas, who have been crucial to virtually all Mt. Everest ascents. More information may be found on the expedition’s web site: www.supersherpas.com. A resident of Park City, Scott is an experienced mountaineer who has conquered many mountains around the world, including the two highest peaks in the Americas, Mt. McKinley (“Denali”) in Alaska and Aconcagua in Argentina, Island Peak in Nepal, and the El Capitan wall in Yosemite. For the last two climbing seasons, he has volunteered with the search and rescue team on Mt. McKinley. Scott is seeking sponsors to help fund his expedition expenses of approximately $20,000. In addition to his travel costs, he will need specialized climbing and medical gear and a $10,000 climbing permit required by the Nepali government. Good wishes and contributions may be sent directly to Scott McIntosh, 
1746 Redstone Ave., Unit F, 
Park City, UT 84098. 
Checks should be payable either to Scott or to “SuperSherpas Expedition” with “supporting Scott McIntosh” on the memo line. You may follow the expedition’s progress at www.supersherpas.com.