Crews cut down six palm trees at Will Rogers State Beach Tuesday morning to make room for a new bathroom, they said. The County plans to spend upwards of $12 million to rebuild concession stands, repave the parking lot, build bathrooms and modernize the lifeguard headquarters.

Kathy Freund’s three-year-old son was run over and nearly killed by an 84-year-old driver 19 years ago. She still remembers that day with a shutter. ‘It was a nightmare,’ she said last week. But instead of suing the driver in Portland, Maine, where she still lives, Freund took another route. ‘The only way to prevent the accident from happening again was to provide choices for people,’ she said, and that led her to founding Independent Transportation Network (ITN), a nonprofit transportation organization providing alternative transportation for seniors. The program, which is about to start in the Santa Monica-Pacific Palisades-Brentwood area, is simple. ‘It is a transportation system invented by a woman based on common sense,’ said Freund, who walked with a group of supports from Santa Monica to the Palisades on November 21 to capture local attention for ITN. The cost to join ITN for one year is $35. When a senior needs a ride to a concert, the library, the grocery store, the doctor or an evening meeting, instead of calling a neighbor, or hoping that adult children can provide a ride, the person calls ITN and requests a specific time for pick-up. A volunteer comes to the door and drives the person to the appropriate venue for a reasonable cost. All drivers are volunteers with three years of driving experience, a clean driving record and are checked by ITN for any criminal record. The cost of the trip comes out of the account that the person has established so that money isn’t exchanged. The amount charged for the trip is dependent on the mileage. Trips planned beforehand are cheaper than last-minute requests. Jane Guise, who is legally blind and has osteoporosis, moved to Santa Monica from Portland three months ago. While living there in Maine, she was one of 600 riders using the ITN transportation service, which last year made 15,250 trips, using four donated cars. She has nothing but praise for the system. ‘It’s reasonably priced and they take you to the entrance of the concert hall, rather than having to park and walk through the parking structure,’ she said. ‘I was never late for anything.’ Guise has had trouble with cabs in Santa Monica. She likes to worship on Sunday mornings, but one taxi driver told her the three-mile trip was too short and told her to use alternative forms of transportation. Often cabs are not available for Palisades residents as well, but for the opposite reason. ‘The cab companies don’t want to come up to the Palisades; they say it is too far,’ said resident Milt Weiner, who has been an active promoter of ITN. ‘Or if you call them, they stall or won’t show up,’ said Carol Hurley, another active member of the Palisades AARP chapter who has been working with Weiner for years on senior transportation issues. ‘Even if you get someone to take you,’ Milt said, ‘they won’t wait around.’ Many seniors already use public transportation, but for some, getting to the bus can be an arduous trip and they resort to a car even if they know they shouldn’t be driving. Or, they simply stay at home. ‘By and large, I found it was less than it would have cost me to keep a car.’ said Guise, in discussing the pros and cons of ITN. ‘It was cheaper than using cabs.’ The average projected cost for a ride within the Palisades is $7.50 to $8.50 (depending on the distance) and would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ‘With older people, there’s a concern about being marginalized,’ Freund said. ‘The ability to come and go is essential. People who use this service love it. ‘This [ITN] is about making choices, not about seniors giving up something,’ Freund continued. She said the service will soon be available to Santa Monica and Palisades residents 65 and older or those with vision problems. The program will start when someone donates a car. Additional donated funds (and grants) are also needed to help support the program until it is self-sustaining. Freund is absolutely confident that someone from the Palisades will donate a car because in Portland, they’ve already received 16 cars since September. People donating cars can get either a tax deduction or credit towards using ITNSanta Moniica. Freund will also bake an apple pie for anyone who donates a car or gives $1,000 to ITN to help defray start-up costs. But, she said with a laugh, ‘I don’t know how we’ll get the pies here. They have to be homemade.’ Freud still lives in Maine, where the ITN program has been running successfully for 12 years. Norma Kulla, Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s district director, met with Freund and other representatives from the community who want the ITN system. ‘Bill will get behind this and energize it,’ Kulla said. ‘It is an unique opportunity.’ People wanting to learn more about ITN can call 576-2550 or contact Teresa Bond at tbond@centerforhealthyaging.org. Freund reiterated that ITN is not out to take keys away from seniors, but rather to provide an additional choice in order for them to stay active. ‘Seniors don’t need to stop driving to use a service like this,’ she said. But they should consider the following times that it could be wise to use ITN: At night, in bad weather, when not feeling well, going to the doctor and driving in an unfamiliar area.

Beachgoers passing through the underground tunnel at Chautauqua to Will Rogers State Beach have faced a challenge this month: to pass through a six-inch deep pool of contaminated water or not to pass. ‘God knows what’s in that water!’ said Hillary Atkin, a frequent yet increasingly reluctant beachgoer. ‘What if I had cut my ankle or a child fell in that stuff? It’s a public health hazard. And there’s no way you can avoid it.’ The tunnel cuts under Pacific Coast Highway at West Channel Road and is intended to give visitors a pedestrian-friendly passage to the beach. But since early November, residents have complained about the ankle-high murky water at the tunnel’s beach exit. The Flood Maintenance Division of the L.A. County Department of Public Works manages the tunnel and the adjacent storm drain, which channels the flow of urban runoff from Santa Monica Canyon. Beginning November 1 and ending March 1 (the so-called wet season), urban runoff is allowed to flow into Santa Monica Bay. But during the rest of the year, new state laws prohibit the often contaminated flow from entering the Bay and affecting beachgoers. Storm drains often collect harmful fecal bacteria that can cause large risks to public health. The common result for swimmers and surfers from such runoff is skin rash, eye and ear infections, respiratory disease and gastrointestinal illness. At Chautauqua during the beach-going season, a storm-water diversion system directs all runoff away from the beach, and berms of sand block any runoff that gets by the diversion. On November 1, as permitted by law, that storm-water diversion was turned off and the runoff began to flow toward the Bay. But the berms were not removed, creating a large pool that collected next to the underground tunnel rather than passing quickly into the Bay. ‘I think that water snuck into the tunnel underground,’ said Gary Hildebrand, the area engineer responsible for the tunnel and storm drain at Chautauqua. Last week, Flood Maintenance tractors cleared the berms, which emptied the pool on the beach and drained water from the tunnel. The tunnel is expected to stay dry for the rest of the winter season, said Hildebrand. And that’s good news for beachgoers’ health. The runoff that flows through the Chautauqua storm drain is among the most contaminated urban runoff statewide, according to Heal the Bay. In September, the Regional Water Quality Control Board forced L.A. County to stop all urban runoff from flowing into the Bay during the dry season, or March 1 to October 1. But there are local calls for stopping such runoff during the wet season as well. ‘People go to the beach every day of the year,’ said George Wolfberg, president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. ‘You have surfers, paddlers and swimmers in the water. And they should have the expectation of being in reasonably clean water.’ Wolfberg favors year-round dry-weather diversion. In other words, urban runoff would be diverted away from beaches every day without rain. For November, that would have meant diverting runoff all but the one day of rain, preventing the tunnel from being flooded. Such year-round diversion is not expected to begin until July 2009, but those plans are not yet finalized.

Everybody knows that Sally Field can draw a crowd. And the two-time Academy Award-winner might have people lining up at Century City’s AMC theater tomorrow to see her latest film, ‘Two Weeks.’ In the ‘bittersweet comedy/drama,’ which debuted at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October, Field plays a dying mother whose four adult children return home to North Carolina to be with her during her last days but find themselves trapped–together–for two weeks. Though Pacific Palisades can’t claim Field as one of its own (she’s a Malibu resident), our town is home to ‘Two Weeks’ writer and director Steve Stockman. He sat down to discuss his first feature film over matzo ball soup at Mort’s Deli on Tuesday. ‘I wanted to create a film that told some truth,’ said Stockman, a veteran commercial director. ‘And the truth is that even in a tragic situation like the one in this film, humor is a critically important part. And the way people get by’certainly, the way this family gets by’is by finding the humor in their situation. So I wanted to create something that was both entertaining and truthful.’ Apparently, Field was drawn to the material for similar reasons and signed on early, before any other cast members were attached. ‘What she told me is that there are not many films that deal with issues that are very important to people her age [60],’ Stockman said. ‘And she felt, as I do, that the idea of what happens at the end of someone’s life is a pretty important issue. I mean, we’re all going there–eventually as key players and, in the meantime, as bystanders. It’s as important a part of the human condition as birth. We ought to know a little something about it.’ The story, Stockman said, is ‘loosely based’ on his own life. Stockman is the eldest of four children and, when his mother died of cancer in 1997, they were all there with her in North Carolina. ‘At the time that it happened, I wrote a lot about it because’I’m a writer. I put it on my hard drive and locked it away and, basically, I didn’t look at it again for a long time. ‘Then three years ago, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write next and I was looking for some high concept’and I’d kind of gone through ‘Talking Dog Detective’ and ‘Invisible Woman’ and a bunch of other concepts that I just couldn’t get excited about’I kept coming back to my notes on the hard drive.’ Stockman wondered whether he could bring in a top-notch cast and crew to make the film and still have it be an independent feature. ‘And it turns out that this has a lot of the elements of a good indie feature’it’s about things that mainstream features don’t necessarily gravitate toward, and it’s small and intimate,’ he said. The film cost $2.5-million to make. Stockman initially workshopped the screenplay in a UCLA Extension class and, later, with various groups of actors. When he had raised some money to hire casting director Pam Dixon, who’s worked with directors such as Robert Altman, she got Sally Field to read it. Once Field was attached, Stockman said it was ‘astoundingly easy’ to gather the rest of the cast, which includes Ben Chaplin (‘The Truth about Cats and Dogs’) Tom Cavanagh (star of the TV show ‘Ed’), Julianne Nicholson (‘Seeing Other People’), Clea DuVall (‘Girl, Interrupted’) and Glenn Howerton (‘Must Love Dogs’). They rehearsed in Los Angeles for one week before heading to Nashville, where the majority of the movie was filmed in the spring of 2005. Stockman shot one ocean scene at Will Rogers State Beach. ‘These guys are all great actors and they bonded immediately,’ he said of the cast members. ‘It was fairly magical. Sally became the mother right away. It looked like a family before we even got to the sound stage.’ Stockman has worked for 15 years on TV campaigns for clients like Disney, Village Roadshow, Hearst Corporation, CBS and ABC. In directing actors in a feature film, he noticed how much more deeply they care about the material. ‘When you’re working with Sally Field or Ben Chaplin and you say, ‘Okay, here’s how I think this scene goes,’ their first questions are ‘Why?’ and ‘How does the character feel about it?’ and ‘What’s going to happen after this scene?’ and ‘How does that make sense with what the character does on page 74?’ So, interacting with collaborators who are working at that level is extremely rewarding and extremely challenging.’ The first day of production, Chaplin and Field were filming sequences from interviews that Chaplin’s character Keith had conducted with his mother in anticipation of her death. ‘Sally was absolutely flawless the entire day,’ Stockman said. ‘She hit every line, every speech, every nuance brilliantly. She added things that I hadn’t thought to add. She brought things from her own experience to the dialogue with Ben. Jaws dropped when she started talking. ‘It was a little tough for Ben because it was his first day doing an American accent [he’s British], so he was a little nervous about it but he was actually great. And his nervousness played well in his interaction with Sally because, in the film, she’s really strong and their relationship is a bit strained.’ Stockman joked about the similarities between Chaplin’s character, Keith, and himself: ‘I would say the key difference is that even though he occupies the chronological place that I occupy in my family, Ben Chaplin is younger, better looking and better written than I am.’ ‘Two Weeks’ will be distributed by MGM, which has rushed it into limited release to qualify for awards. The film, which is rated R, will open in major markets around the country on March 7, 2007. Stockman has lived in the Palisades for 13 years with his wife, Debbie. They have two children, Sarah, 12, and Matthew, 10, who attend Ocean Charter School in Culver City. A Syracuse native, Stockman graduated from Brown University in 1980 and began his career in marketing radio. He started his own company, Custom Productions, creating TV commercials primarily for radio stations, and eventually started directing his own spots. Stockman moved from Boston to Los Angeles in 1993 because he wanted to direct feature films. ‘I really loved commercials but they’re kind of like haiku,’ he said. ‘After a while, I found myself wishing that I could write a novel and here I was stuck in this very tight, 30-second format.’ He wrote several screenplays that never got made but which he said, ‘were about learning the craft.’ Now, having written and directed his first film, Stockman said he hopes that he’s learned enough to do it better the next time. ‘The best is going to be Friday when it opens in the movie theater,’ he said, ‘because that’s what the whole process is for’the audience.’

Most of the music that Starr Parodi writes and performs has been carefully crafted and polished to fit the confines of her film and television work. A pianist and composer, she has collaborated with her husband Jeff Fair, also a composer, on music for feature-length films, TV shows and trailers. So, Parodi decided to do something completely different when she sat down to record her latest album, ‘Common Places,’ in her home studio in Pacific Palisades–what she calls ‘piano improvisations.’ ‘My concept of the whole thing was ‘just empty your mind and play’,’ she says, sitting at her 1928 Steinway, which is rumored to have been used for the recording of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ score. Originally classically trained on piano, Parodi has played in various soul, gospel, jazz and rock bands, including as keyboardist in Arsenio Hall’s house band, The Posse. When choosing which songs to reinterpret for ‘Common Places,’ which includes the ‘Albinoni Adagio,’ Stephen Stills’ ‘For What It’s Worth,’ and the James Bond theme, she accessed her diverse musical history. However, it was the title song, an original piece, that gave her direction and set the tone for the album, which she recorded over a 10-month period between projects. Five of the 10 tracks are Parodi’s original songs. ‘I was just sitting here [at the piano], looking out,’ says Parodi, whose recording studio in her upper Chautauqua home overlooks a canyon of sycamore trees, with a view of the ocean. ‘There’s a certain light in the Palisades’a really beautiful, filtered-in, gentle light. I just love it. The wind was kicking up. Being isolated in the studio, you can’t hear the sound of the wind, but you see it and you just feel its energy.’ Parodi started playing some chordal improvisations, which she says inspired ‘a deep inner spirituality of some sort, some kind of connectedness and gratefulness.’ In that sentiment, the song ‘Common Places’ and, subsequently, the album, were born. ‘The process for recording the songs themselves was just a very free exploratory process,’ she says. Occasionally, Parodi would sit down at the piano with the intention of playing one song and end up playing something entirely different. This happened with the James Bond theme, which she and Fair had previously arranged and produced for trailers for ‘Goldeneye,’ ‘The World is Not Enough,’ ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ and ‘Die Another Day.’ ‘The way that Jeff and I did the James Bond theme for the movie trailers was very action-driven, which was fun, but I wanted to do something darker, a little bit slower and mysterious, and I wanted to do some improvisation but nothing jazzy,’ Parodi says. Her reinterpretation of the Bond theme, played in A minor, is not connected to the latest James Bond installment, ‘Casino Royale,’ though Parodi says she was inspired cinematically. ‘Basically, for a lot of the different pieces, I was thinking ‘What would it sound like in a Baz Luhrmann film?’–ethereal, magical, moody,’ she says. Luhrmann directed ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Recording ‘Common Places’ was also, at times, a sentimental journey for Parodi, who included the ‘Albinoni Adagio,’ a piece she says she hadn’t listened to since her father’s funeral in 1999. ‘When my dad passed away, I found that the way I could chill out, connect with myself and my family, and the way I could pray, was just to sit down at the piano, not think, close my eyes and play,’ Parodi says. ‘I feel like I kind of did that with this record, too. You know, all this stuff is going on in the world right now and people seem so on the edge. I was thinking about what makes us more similar than different.’ The ‘Adagio’ was written by Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni and Remo Giazotto, who arranged the famous piece in 1945 based on a fragment of Albinoni’s composition, most of which was destroyed when Dresden was bombed during World War II. ‘I took a lot of liberties at the beginning [of the piece],’ Parodi says, adding that ‘because only six measures existed anyway and it was all recreated, I felt as if I didn’t completely destroy a classical piece of music. Also, a lot of classical music grew out of improvisation to begin with. So I sort of wanted to make it a neoclassical experience.’ All of the sounds on the CD were originally created on the piano, but Parodi and Fair manipulated the natural piano sound to create other, ambient textures. For example, at the beginning of ‘For What It’s Worth,’ Parodi recorded a figure, or short succession of notes, which they then put through a filter and looped, and Parodi played the entire song over it. She included the lyrics to the 1960’s protest song in the album, which was artistically designed by Asia Dobrowner and features a poem by Palisadian Karen Leigh Hopkins. Parodi has been hearing some of her songs on various radio stations, including KCRW and KXLU, and is looking forward to opportunities to play them live. However, she first has to write down the improvisations. ‘I’ve been having to listen to the songs on my iPod and figure out what I played,’ she says, with a laugh. Parodi and Fair have lived in the Palisades since early 1997. They have a three-year-old daughter, Isolde, who puts her mom’s music second to Ennio Merricone’s score to ‘The Mission.’ Despite that, Parodi says that Isolde listens to her album almost every day. ‘She loves it. She’s made up words, and I hear her sing the melody sometimes.’ To listen to tracks from ‘Common Places,’ visit parodifair.com/commonplaces, iTunes music store, cdbaby.com or amazon.com (search Starr Parodi). The CD is also available for purchase at Village Books on Swarthmore.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5 Bob Benton hosts the Chamber of Commerce mixer, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at his sporting goods store, 1038 Swarthmore. The public is invited. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7 Palisadian Kenneth Turan, film critic for the L.A. Times, signs his latest book, ‘Now In Theaters Everywhere: A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Blockbuster,’ 7:30 p.m., Village Books on Swarthmore. (See story, page TK.) ______________________________________________ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 Rebecca Luce, a licensed speech-language pathologist, presents strategies on how to stimulate your child’s language using storybooks, 7:30 p.m., Village Books on Swarthmore. Examples of various types of children’s books along with different styles of presentation will be demonstrated. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 Auditions for Theatre Palisades Youth production ‘Bubba The Cowboy Prince,’ an original musical directed by Nancy Fracchiolla, based on the popular children’s story by Helen Ketteman, 4 to 6 p.m. today, and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow at Pierson Playhouse, corner of Haverford and Temescal Canyon Rd. Palisades Charter High School’s winter production ‘An Adaptation of 1984: A Place Without Darkness’ opens tonight at 7 p.m. in Mercer Hall. Performances are on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. for the first two weekends in December. Tickets: $10 at the box office. Theatre Palisades production of ‘Charley’s Aunt,’ 8 p.m. in Pierson Playhouse on Haverford. Ticket reservations: 454-1970. This classic comedy runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through December 17. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 Maggie Kilgore will speak about her book ‘Remember to Laugh: Writing My Way Around the World,’ an amusing and informative memoir about her four decades in journalism working in Washington, D.C., and overseas, and teaching in emerging democracies in Asia, Europe and Africa, 2 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real Dr. The community is invited to a reception to meet Russian artists Igor Tolmachev and Tatiana Khmilinina, and view their work, 2 to 4 p.m. at the Hidden Cafe, 1515 Palisades Ave. in the Highlands. This exhibit is sponsored by musician and teacher Yuliya Barsky of Yuliyard Aesthetic Center, whose own watercolors, oils and pastels will be on view. Music will be provided by Barsky’s piano students. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church will present a Gift Giving Fair, 10 a.m. to noon at the church, 15821 Sunset (corner of Sunset and El Medio). Rackets, Stars and Guitars event, noon to 5 p.m., hosted by the Palisades Tennis Center at the Palisades Recreation Center. Free to the public. (See story, page 13.) The Channel Road Inn will host its 18th annual Holiday Open House and Tea to benefit One Voice’s scholarship program, 1 to 4 p.m. at 219 West Channel Rd. The Golden Bull Restaurant will provide free parking across the street. Contact: 459-1920. Family Fun Party, including snow delivered especially for the festivities, 3 to 6 p.m. at the YMCA Christmas tree lot, corner of Sunset and Temescal Canyon Road. Public invited; admission is free. Palisades Symphony and Brentwood Palisades Chorale, conducted by Joel Lish, will perform Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio,’ Parts I-IV, 7:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church, 801 Via de la Paz. Free admission. (See story, page 21.) MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 Janeen Whalen, founder and creative director of Designing Endeavors, will be the guest speaker at the Pacific Palisades Garden Club meeting, 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. (See story, page 22.) TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5 Enjoy a full moon hike, 6:30 p.m. in Temescal Gateway Park. Bring water and a jacket, flashlight optional for this moderate one-mile hike. Meet in the front parking lot; parking is $5. Singer-storyteller Suni Paz presents ‘Latin American Songs, Stories and Culture,’ 4 p.m. at the Palisades Branch Library. Admission is free. (See story, page TK.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6 Actor David Clennon (‘Saved,’ ‘Thirtysomething’) will read Truman Capote’s ‘A Christmas Memory,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. Cookies and Yuletide spirit will be free to all. Baby and Toddler Storytime, for children under the age of 3 and their caregivers, 10:15 a.m. at the Palisades Branch Library. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7 Sasha Engelmann, a senior at Palisades High, will speak about her recent trip to Ghana, where she was part of a school-building project, 7:15 a.m., Palisades Rotary Club meeting at Gladstone’s. The United Methodist Women’s Mini-Bazaar, featuring handmade gifts, holiday decorations, collectibles and food items, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Gabrielson Hall at the Methodist Church. At 1:30 p.m., the Palisades High School Choir will present a varied program, followed by the UMW’s traditional Christmas Tea. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 Santa arrives for Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho!, an annual Chamber of Commerce event, 5 p.m. on North Swarthmore. Children are invited to visit with Santa on his sled and receive a complimentary gift. Santa’s line closes promptly at 8 p.m. The St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra and the Choir of St. Matthew’s Parish will perform an all-Vivaldi program, 8 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda. Tickets at the door: $25. _____________________________________________________________ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 The L.A. Department of Recreation & Parks will hold its Board of Commissioners meeting, 5:30 p.m. at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center, 601 Latimer Rd. The public is invited.