The name Pink Floyd didn’t mean anything to Howard Lamden before August 1980. At the time, he was a recent transplant from Baltimore working in Los Angeles as a television editor on George Schlatter’s ‘Real People,’ a comedy show featuring unusual slice-of-life stories. ‘I’d never heard a Pink Floyd song in my life,’ says Lamden, who received a phone call that fall from a cameraman he’d worked with in New York, asking him to help create and edit a documentary from footage of the band’s ‘The Wall’ show in London. On November 30, 1979, Pink Floyd had released its legendary album of the same name, which included the hit song ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ (‘We don’t need no education/ We don’t need no thought control…All in all it’s just another brick in the wall’). Filmed in and around Earls Court arena, the footage included the two-hour concert as well as the unloading of equipment and mounting of the elaborate production, performed with visual aids projected on huge screens, giant inflatable characters and gigantic foam bricks. This show was not only a groundbreaking example of a modern multi-media experience but also the last time the band’s original members played together. It was the final production of the ‘The Wall,’ which Pink Floyd performed 30 times on stages in Los Angeles, New York, Dortmund (Germany) and London. Lamden started work on the documentary in January 1981 and it took him about six months to complete, working part-time. When he was done, he sent the documentary, shot on 3/4-inch videotape, to Pink Floyd. ‘At the time, these guys had so much money that they could’ve done anything,’ says Lamden, who names The Band as one of his favorite rock groups. Lamden wasn’t sure whether some of the documentary footage was intended to be used as part of a larger project, such as the movie ‘The Wall’ (originally released in 1982), but when he didn’t hear anything, he filed it in his archives, to use for his own reel and to get other jobs. ‘This documentary was one of the best things I ever did,’ he says, referring to its linear progression of the ‘load-in,’ which begins with trucks of equipment rolling into the arena and the crew unloading giant aluminum stage pieces. ‘I wanted to build an organic story, to tell it as it was.’ The 25-minute film documents the stage construction and engineering of the concert through behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the engineer, architect, sound and monitor mixers, as well as other crew members, roadies and fans. ‘It’s miles ahead of anything else that’s ever been done in rock-n’-roll,’ a young Roger Waters (the frontman and songwriter of Pink Floyd) says about the production at the start of the documentary. Waters is the only band member who’s interviewed in the documentary, though others are pictured in sound checks and rehearsals for the show. Images of the 35-foot-tall balloon-like figures with huge lights for eyes, and the collapsible foam brick wall made to withstand 20-30 mph winds, are fascinating to see. Especially well-edited are the sequences of the crew hard at work, with the piano being sound checked; these segments add artistic color and texture to the film. Around the 20th anniversary of ‘The Wall’ in 1999, Lamden received a phone call from James Guthrie, sound engineer for ‘The Wall’ shows, who wondered if Lamden still had a copy of the documentary. ‘There was so much infighting [among band members] that source material was lost,’ Lamden says. ‘I never lost the documentary. They lost it. I had my copy, a pristine copy.’ Lamden also owned the copyright, and seriously began to consider releasing the documentary around the time he had to start paying college tuition for his daughter, Lily. A PaliHi graduate (’03), Lily is now a sophomore at Colorado Sate University. When Lamden read an article in a UK publication that discussed the ‘lost’ Pink Floyd documentary and credited the wrong people for directing and editing it, he realized that ‘this was an important piece of work, and a lot of people had heard rumors about it.’ To prepare it for release, Lamden changed the title from ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ to ‘The Lost Documentary’ and took out the 12-minute version of ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’ which had accompanied the original documentary. The two-hour concert also had to be omitted for copyright reasons. He copyrighted his work with the Library of Congress in December 2003, alerted Roger Waters to his intentions for release, found investors, built a Web site and cut a trailer. ‘I went through all the proper channels,’ he says. ‘I wanted to make money but I wasn’t going to do it and not feel good about it.’ In order to maintain control over the documentary, Lamden decided to self-distribute the DVD via a Web site in September 2004. ‘I had thought the first thousand would sell in hours,’ he says. To date, the first 1,000 pressings are almost gone. Negotiations are currently under way between Lamden and Waters to release the full concert with the documentary on DVD. Lamden’s experience in the music business includes producing and editing Bruce Springsteen’s The River concert in Tempe, Arizona (1981); directing and editing a Jackson Browne documentary called ‘Downtown,’ shot in downtown Los Angeles (1982); and editing the Doobie Brothers’ ‘Live at the Buddakan’ (1981/1982). ‘I really love being an editor,’ says Lamden, though he admits that he always preferred working in television for people like George Schlatter (well-known for the variety series ‘Laugh-In’) over working in music. ‘I learned everything about cutting comedy from [Schlatter]. He just made you feel great.’ Lamden moved to California in 1979, after working as a television editor on 20/20 and People Television in New York. He has lived in the Palisades since 1982 and currently works at Weller Grossman Productions in North Hollywood. Lamden’s 17-year-old son, Peter, attends Temescal Canyon Continuation School. To view the trailer for ‘The Lost Documentary’ or purchase the DVD for $29.95, visit www.thelostdoc.com.

Will Rogers State Historic Park has resumed its grounds tours to give the public a glimpse into the detective work used to restore the historic buildings, and to celebrate the life of Will Rogers. In the early 1930s, Will Rogers was probably the most popular celebrity in America. Successful as a daily columnist in most of the nation’s newspapers, and a star of radio and movies, the cowboy philosopher had established his career by rising through the ranks of the Wild West shows, vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies. His ranch, donated to the state in 1944, reflects many elements of his career, and is a living window on the past. Over the past four years, it has been undergoing a restoration that includes the ranch house, barn and landscaping,. It will be completed later in 2005. Among the myriad ongoing restoration efforts is the reconstruction of Jimmy’s mule barn, named after Rogers’ youngest son. The barn, situated close to the stable, had been part of the ranch operation, housing Jimmy’s horses, draft animals, most notably for the 1932 Japanese Olympic team, and guest horses. The barn was taken apart in 1943 when lumber was in short supply. Docents tell the story of how Betty, Will’s wife, gave the wood to a relative who needed to build a house on land they owned in Santa Monica Canyon. In addition to seeing the newly constructed barn, visitors will also tour the polo field, stable and riding areas, pastures, goat pen, roping corral, hay barn, and blacksmith and carpenter shops. Issues relating to the restoration of the ranch house, projected to reopen in January 2006, will also be discussed. The grounds tours are held on Tuesdays through Saturdays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The cost for parking is $7 per vehicle. Tours are free and all are welcome. Large groups (18 or more people) and school groups can be accommodated at 10 a.m. and should make reservations. The reservation fee for the group picnic area varies according to group size. For further information, including volunteer docent opportunities, contact Michael Allan, State Parks Interpreter at 454-8212, ext. 103.

Steve Brigham, owner of Buena Creek Gardens, a retail plant nursery and display garden in Vista, will speak to the Palisades Garden Club members and guests on Monday, February 7, 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. He will talk about his book ‘The Trees of San Diego and of Other Mediterranean Climates,’ (San Diego Horticulture Society), which includes 240 trees, accompanied by color photographs by Don Walker. Buena Creek is a four-acre garden and nursery that grows Southern California’s largest selection of new and uncommon flowering perennials, shrubs, daylilies and vines. Its collection of over 5,000 outstanding varieties of flowering plants attract visitors from all over the world. Brigham, a horticulturalist and nurseryman who has lived in North San Diego County since 1980, developed his interest in gardens in his childhood vegetable garden. His interest expanded to landscape gardening as a young adult, when he discovered the Sunset Western Garden Book. In college at UC Santa Cruz, he worked as a gardener, and ‘that’s when things began to change,’ he writes in ‘Birth of a Plantsman.’ ‘Tending a large collection of proteas there made me realize that there was more to the world of plants then what was commonly available in nurseries. My professor, the great naturalist and horticulturalist Dr. Ray Collett, had by then already established an enormous collection of many kinds of unusual flowering plants at the arboretum, and I was just getting to know them. ‘One day I went into one of the greenhouses to do some weeding, and I could not believe what I saw. An exotic and spectacular bright yellow flower had just been produced by a small subtropical tree that I had never paid much attention to. The next day, there were more flowers, and more after that. What I was seeing was Tabebuia chrysotricha, the Golden Trumpet Tree’a Brazilian plant that would change my life. I discovered that although this tree could grow and bloom outdoors in Central California, it was practically nonexistent in the local nursery trade.’ Brigham’s search lead him to the classic book, now out of print, ‘Color for the Landscape,’ edited by the late Dr. Mildred Mathias of UCLA, which featured pages of color photos of the best subtropical flowering trees, shrubs, vines, perennials and natives for California gardens. He determined that he would search for each plant in the book, take cuttings and seeds which would become the nucleus of his first nursery in Santa Cruz. ‘One yellow flower, then one book, and suddenly a career was born,’ Brigham writes. In the course of his 30-year career, Brigham has worked both as an employee and a volunteer for several botanical gardens and nurseries, and has introduced many flowering plants into the nursery trade. He and his wife Donna have owned Buena Creek since 1996. He says that the mission of Buena Creek is to ‘collect, grow, display, promote and distribute new and uncommon varieties of ornamental plants for Southern California gardens.’

The recent record-breaking rains raised expectations for glorious wildflowers come spring in our local canyons and deserts. A century ago this most certainly would have been a logical consequence. But in recent decades the natural landscape has changed. Many native plants have disappeared as exotic (non-native species) have been introduced and taken an aggressive foothold. As result, the native wildflowers that we are anticipating may be trumped by the exotic vegetation. ”Only about one percent of California’s native grasslands still exist, including the perennial bunch grasses, pushed out by the more than 300 invasive species that have colonized the Santa Monica Mountains, according to restoration ecologist Christy Brigham of the Santa Mountains National Recreation Area. ”Suzanne Goode, senior resource ecologist with California State Parks, the Topanga district of Topanga State Park, says that Southern California is one of the most vulnerable to invasive exotic vegetation because of its benign climate. ”All over California, natural wildlands are under attack by invasives. As exotic plants replace our native habitat, we are also losing many species of birds, insects, fish and other wildlife. ”The chief offenders, according to Goode are: ”Arundo donax, a giant reed that grows in all our canyons, consumes more water than natives, eliminates native plants and wildlife habitat and fuels wildfires; ”Cape ivy, a transplant from South Africa that has infested all coastal-facing canyons, smothers riparian vegetation, and has no natural check; ”Pampas grass, an ornamental grass used in domestic landscaping that invades and degrades habitats along the entire California coast; ”Harding grass, a nonnative that has the potential to establish in dense stands, at least in localized areas and is a constant threat to native grasses; ”Euphorbia terracina, a large shrub-like herb that forms dense thickets, which out-compete native species for space, light and nutrients. Its rapid growth and prolific seeding gives it the potential to invade areas of healthy bushland; and ”Yellow star thistle, a gray-green annual whose extensive root system allows it to survive well into summer, long after other annual species have dried up. ”These and a host of other exotics are taking over in our local canyons, such as Los Liones and Temescal. This is because neither the National Park Service nor California State Parks began focusing on the problem until about 20 years ago, and there are still too few resource people to tackle the crisis, and minimal funding. ”’We take a triage approach to start with,’ says Goode, who until September was the only permanent resource ecologist in the Topanga district, which includes parks from Pt. Mugu on the western border to Baldwin Scenic Overlook in Baldwin Hills. ”’We had no natural resource maintenance money until just three or four years ago. The legislature was going to allocate $11 million two years ago, then we had the energy crises, and we were left with $2 million among all the state’s parks, with our share under $100,000 a year. I could use $500,000 to $1 million a year for state parks in Los Angeles and five to six people for each park before we can make inroads on this problem. ”’The climate in Los Angeles is very welcoming to weeds,’ Goode explains. ‘These weeds, mostly annuals, were preadapted from other Mediterranean areas, but when they came to our canyons, they changed the look and ecological function. Our native perennial grasses are bunch grasses, which would have allowed wildflowers to grow in between. But the annual grasses have taken over the understory. Their strategy is to come up quick, suck up the surface water, produce a seed head and multiply. Our natives are not in so much of a hurry so they lose out on water, and by the time they start thinking about sprouting around February, they will already be crowded out by the aggressive proliferation of non-native grasses.’ ”One of Goode’s most vicious outlaws is Arundo, which was originally introduced in Los Angeles in the 1820s as an erosion-control agent in drainage canals, and was also used as thatching for roofs of sheds, barns and other buildings. Today it poses the greatest threat to riparian areas. It takes away the shade provided by willows, traps mud in creeks, which raises the elevation, flattens out the channel and interrupts fish migration. And it is highly flammable, whereas riparian forests once presented a natural firebreak. And, like so many successful invasive plants, Arundo grows at an incredible rate, a foot a week in its growing season, Goode says. ‘ There are a number of eradication methods that can be used, including localized use of a state-approved herbicide such as Rodeo, controlled burning, and most often, hand removal. ”Local volunteers, including the Temescal Canyon Association, Heal The Bay, the California Native Plant Society, the Mountains Restoration Trust and the Lower Topanga Canyon group, work with State Parks on weed-whacking forays. ”’There is also money available through Propositions 12 and 40 and there is funding from the Santa Monica Conservancy for the lower Topanga Arundo project,’ Goode says. Last year the state suspended using herbicides on Arundo after residents felt that it was poisoning the environment, she says. ‘We are in disagreement on the science.’ Goode believes that often a combination of herbicides plus controlled burning or mowing can control the problem significantly. ”Stephanie Landregan, chief landscape architect with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), takes a look at the bigger picture in suggesting ways to keep the native grasses thriving.” ”’Landscape architects have to come up with a balance between our desire to have an ever- verdant, tropical environment, and reintroducing an appreciation for the natives. People say the native plants look too weedy. I say, ‘So do your tomato plants.” ”Jo Kitts, program director with the Mountains Restoration Trust and inveterate weed whacker, has been battling horticultural grasses for some time. She condemns the use of fountain grass and pampas grass in gardens that are adjacent to wild lands. ‘Horticulturalists can find a number of alternatives to these weeds,’ she says. ‘For example, deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens), looks like a small pampas grass but without the bad leaf cuts and the aggressive seeding.’ ”’We have to start respecting and teaching the seasonal and climatic cycle instead of living in denial, a favorite way to live in California,’ says MRCA’s Landregan. ‘We have to figure out the best way to deal with parks and development: What is the responsibility of all of us in making sure we buffer the invasion of nonnatives in our wild areas while allowing us to have individual gardens?’

Outstanding musicians from New York and Boston will join Los Angeles artists in the performance of ‘A Quartette of Trios’ for a Chamber Music Palisades concert on Tuesday, January 25 at 8 p.m. in the sanctuary of St. Matthew’s, 1031 Bienveneda Ave. ”Music by Beethoven, Poulenc, Loeffler and Durufle will be performed by New York-based oboist Garard Reuter and violist Scott Woolweaver from Boston, joining bassoonist Judith Farmer, flutist Susan Greenberg and pianist Delores Stevens. ”Oboist Gerard Reuter, who received the Pro Musicus International Award, is a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet and a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the ensemble An die Musik. As a guest artist he has appeared at numerous summer festivals including Caramoor, Marlboro, La Jolla, Round Top and the Chamber Music Festival of the U.S. Library of Congress. Overseas, he has participated in the Flanders Festival, Dartington Festival and the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove. ”A founding member of the Boston Composers String Quartet, and winner of the silver medal at the String Quartet and Chamber Music Festa in Osaka, Japan, Scott Woolweaver is violist of the New England Piano Quartette, Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society and the Boston Baroque. In 1998 he joined the San Francisco-based Ives Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the Rocky Ridge Music Center and Telluride Chamber Music Festival in Colorado. He has toured Greece on three occasions with Alea III, a contemporary music ensemble in residence at Boston University. ”Judith Farmer was principal bassoonist of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra for 12 years and toured regularly with the Camerata Academica of Salzburg and with numerous chamber music ensembles in Vienna. ”In 1995-96 she was a visiting professor at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Graz, Austria. Since relocating to L.A., she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Opera and is currently the principal bassoonist with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. She is head of the bassoon studio at USC. ”Completing the roster of artists are flutist Susan Greenberg and pianist Delores Stevens, both long-time Palisades residents, and co-founders of Chamber Music Palisades. As a member of the Montagnana Trio, Delores Stevens toured the U.S. and Europe and as a soloist and ensemble artist has recently toured Australia, Argentina, Japan, China and the Czech Republic. She is also artistic director of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society in Massachusetts. Susan Greenberg is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and has been a frequent soloist on both flute and piccolo. She has been a guest soloist with the San Francisco and Oakland symphonies, the Casals Festival and the Hollywood Bowl. ”Dr. Alan Chapman, the popular KUSC/FM early morning host, will provide commentary before each work. General admission tickets will be available at the door for $20. Students with I.D. will be admitted free. Contact: 459-2070 or 454-2177.

Film editor Paul Hirsch, who shared the best editing Oscar for 1977’s ‘Star Wars,’ was recently nominated for the American Cinema Editors’ ‘Eddie’ award in the best edited musical/comedy film category for ‘Ray.’ And later this month, the Palisadian will be the third recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Palisades’ Friends of Film. ”Fittingly, Hirsch will receive his award in conjunction with a film that celebrates his craft: ‘The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing.’ The award presentation and film screening will take place on January 30 at 7 p.m. at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon. Hirsch will also answer questions about editing after the showing of the 90-minute documentary. The evening will open with short films from the Sundance Film Festival. ”’The Cutting Edge’ director Wendy Apple will also attend. Her film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the history and evolution of film editing. ‘It’s very interesting, a good explanation of the history of editing and what editing is all about,’ says Hirsch, who is featured in the movie. ”’We’re so honored to give the award to a strong talent who lives in the community,’ says Friends of Film’s founder Bob Sharka. ‘Like a great referee or umpire, the film editor’s performance often goes unnoticed, unless, of course, they foul up. When they put together a picture that flows so well, people don’t recognize their input.’ ”’I’m very flattered,’ says Hirsch. ‘It’s nice to be recognized this way, especially in your own community.’ ”Hirsch, who has lived in the Palisades for 21 years with his wife Jane, is gratified at the positive reception ‘Ray’ is getting from audiences and critics. ‘The whole reason we’re in the business is to contribute to people’s enjoyment of movies,’ he says. ‘You feel like you’re working on the good in the world.’ ”Hirsch’s career started in New York, editing trailers. There, he met a young director, Brian De Palma and worked with him on five pictures, including ‘Carrie.’ ‘De Palma recommended me to a friend and I worked on ‘Star Wars’ for my sixth film,’ says Hirsch, whose many other credits include ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ‘Footloose,’ ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,’ ‘Steel Magnolias’ and ‘Mission: Impossible.’ ”Hirsch is currently working on a version of ‘Ray’ to be shown on television, as well as remodeling his upper Bienveneda home. His two children, Gina, 27, an aspiring actress, and Eric, 24, a musician and composer, both live in New York.