(Non)occupational Hazards

Tracy Daly - A Potter's Tale

2009-06-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Tracy Daly takes her career seriously. As district Director of Public Affairs, she spends long hours planning marketing and government relations strategies, working with staff of the three campuses, attending board meetings, and creating award-winning publications and videos.

But when Saturday dawns, Daly can be found bent over a pottery wheel, smoothing and shaping clay into the vision hovering in her mind. She might have seen a memorable painting, a splash of color in a piece of fabric, an unusual pattern in the landscape. To work the clay into a tangible form of her vision - that is the challenge and the reward.

"I see inspiration everywhere," Daly said. "I'm on my wheel every weekend, unless I'm out of town. Hours will go by, and I'm still there." Although she is a native Californian, Daly was raised in a tiny town in Colorado, where she could ride her bike for miles past fields of corn and hills dotted with grazing cattle. It was a place where she learned the skills of crafting from her mother and grandmother: sewing, knitting and crocheting.

"I used to sew my clothes, and home decor as well," Daly said. She continued to sew throughout college, earning her bachelor's degree in journalism and master's in higher education.

"But pretty soon reality sets in, life intervenes. It's sewing machine evolution. First, the sewing machine is always set up, ready for any project. Then, it is moved to a corner, and finally, it is packed up and put away altogether."

About 25 years ago, during a break between careers, Daly took a ceramics class to learn hand building, and really liked it.

"Flash forward to 2005, when I had a little break between my MTA job (as general manager for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority) and the district. I thought, 'I'm going to study pottery again.'

"I took an Adult Ed class in pottery. There were four adults and 16 high school students. It was a fall class, and I started with the district in January. My New Year's resolution was to continue to keep ceramics in my life.

"Too often, you let your work become your vocation and your avocation."

So Daly continued taking the night class in pottery, and became close friends with the instructor.

"At one point she said, 'I think you would like learning more.' She told me about Tuscarora Pottery School."

Tuscarora Summer Pottery School is an intensive two-week workshop held in a 19th Century rooming house in tiny Tuscarora, Nevada, with a population of 35. The closest town is 52 miles away.

"You share a bathroom and have to stagger showers. You work hard and eat like a farm hand. You can't get cell phone reception. I had to walk to the post office every day to call my husband from a pay phone. It was amazing.

"A world opened up for me. I learned as much from the other students as I did from the classes. I've never looked back."

Once she got home, she invested in a pottery wheel. A year went by, and she knew she had to learn more. "You get this hunger. You have to practice, and I was producing a lot pieces. I enrolled in a Saturday class at Saddleback."

After that, she moved the elliptical machine out to make room for a kiln. She set up a workshop in one section of her three-car garage at home.

The walls are covered with artwork and pictures that have special meaning for her. "I have an album cover of the Rolling Stones' Greatest Hits; a picture of when I went snorkeling in Hawaii. There's a picture of a piece of my artwork that placed first in an art contest when I was young. I surround myself with touchstones, things that inspire me."

Each one of her pottery pieces is marked by her "chop," a signature mark that distinguishes each artist's work.

"Mine is an inside-out 'S.' My maiden name was Sprong, and my pottery is my inside out."

She makes bowls, pitchers, and vases, mostly, and continues to improve her technique. One of her most popular pieces is her dog-bone jar, a broad-based lidded vessel with a dog-bone handle.

"I went to a friend's house and her beloved dog had recently died. The dog's ashes were in a brown paper box on the mantel. When I got home, I made her a dog-bone jar to use as an urn, and mailed it to her. She loved it.

"Then another friend's dog died, and I made one for her, and got the same reaction. It's something special for people who love their dogs. Others use the jars for pet treats and toys."

Daly now has her eye on ceramic bird houses. She saw one when she was window shopping while on a business trip, and rushed home to make one like it.

"What's out there in the future is the teapot, but that takes a lot of skill."

Daly is looking for venues to display her pottery, such as the Sawdust Winter Festival, and strives to improve by asking knowledgeable friends to critique her work.

"I just love it. It comes from a special place. There are a lot of work analogies that can be learned from working at this art, statements about perseverance, about sticktoit-iveness.

"I see pots and inspiration everywhere. I have a passion for this, and I find it very fulfilling. Sometimes things don't come out exactly as you envisioned them, but they are still beautiful."
  

Nuke School was smooth sailing for Greg Dickinson

2009-05-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia says the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power School "is widely acknowledged to be the most demanding academic program in the U.S. Military today" because of the amount of classwork crammed into a short period of time.

When informed of that statement, Greg Dickinson looked quizzical and said, "It wasn't that hard."

But Dickinson, senior lab tech at Saddleback College, was equally blase talking about the time he hiked nearly the length of California, from Mission Viejo to San Francisco. Or the time he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. 

The easygoing Dickinson signed up for the Navy a year out of high school only because at 19, he hadn't a clue what to do with the rest of his life.

He attended Saddleback for two semesters after graduating from Aliso NIguel High School in 1997, but felt he had no real direction in life. "My dad had been in the Army, his brother had been in the Army, and my mom's dad was in the Army Air Force. Why not me?"

Dickinson had no plans to attend "Nuke School" when he first enlisted; he thought he might like to go into medicine. But the recruiters talked him into it, and the deal was cemented when he scored well on a series of tests.

"Then, somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to walk to San Francisco. It was by myself. Who would want to go with me?" After securing a delayed entry to the Navy, Dickinson embarked on a hike up the Pacific Crest Trail that would take him hundreds of miles over five months.

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

"It was after El Nino, so when I got to the Sierras, a lot of the passes were blocked. I saw a couple of bears in Yosemite, and ran out of water a couple of times. As soon as I crossed the Golden Gate bridge, I jumped on a bus."

He traveled by bus to Washington, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan before heading home to prepare for his Navy service.

The Navy operates 87 nuclear power plants, including 73 submarines, 10 aircraft carriers, and four training and research prototype plants. Students - made up of enlisted sailors, officers and some civilians, must attend Nuclear Field "A" School and then Nuclear Power School. Graduates train another six months at Nuclear Prototype School before serving on a vessel. Nuke School currently is located in Goose Creek, South Carolina, near Charleston.

The school is demanding because of the fast pace and depth of the studies. Students spend about 45 hours per week in the classroom. Because so much of the courses contain classified material, students can't study outside the classroom. Subjects covered include math, nuclear physics, reactor plant technology, chemistry, thermodynamics and electrical theory.

"The program is a lot like college, with classes and labs. If you weren't doing well, they would force you to study all weekend. I would just do my homework, review, and leave. I never had to do forced hours or mandatory tutorial."

Students who didn't make the grade were transferred to non-nuclear subs.

"It was a six-year contract. I enjoyed the first two years, when we were in school. It was basic nuclear mechanic work. Then we had to go operate a nuclear reactor on a submarine. There were lots of controls and monitoring.

"The Navy has a long track record with nukes, a good one. They carefully charted the people who first worked on nuke subs to determine if there were any long-term effects. The only thing I heard about with nukes and humans was that people who worked around nukes had more girl babies than boys. The same thing is true of firemen. It might have something to do with the heat."

Dickinson said he's often asked about what it's like living in a submarine. "It's like living in an office building. There's always a buzz because of the flouescent lights. Everything's fine as long as you can hear that buzz. You know you're in trouble when it gets dark and quiet.

"Once in a while the sub would be put up in the shipyard in dry dock, and that's always an amazing sight. They are huge. You don't realize how big they are until you walk around them on land."

Being out to sea for three months at a time made life monotonous, Dickinson said. He kept himself busy by studying and qualifying for jobs he wasn't meant to do, beyond his basic job as mechanic. He qualified as throttle man, clock man, and auxiliary electrician.

At the end of his six years, Dickinson said, "I was sure I didn't want to re-enlist. They were offering $60,000 and choice of duty station. Being at sea a lot gave me a lot of time to think about it and plan. I decided to move back with my parents, apply to UCI and use the Montgomery GI Bill."

Greg and his parents.

Dickinson came to Saddleback to finish up some classes, and then enrolled at UCI. "But first I decided to go to Africa." He signed up with an organization in rural Tanzania to build houses for teachers.

"It was very, very basic. No technology. There were no wheelbarrows, no shovels, no hammers. You didn't use hammers to break rocks. You used a big rock to break up smaller rocks."

After working in Tanzania for two months, he visited a great-aunt who was living in Sudan, and later climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Back home again, Dickinson transferred to UCI and began working part-time at Saddleback College. He began as student help in chemistry and currently works in Astronomy. He will graduate in May with a degree in microbiology. He's planning to apply for medical school, figuring that he will be 38 when he's through.  

All the world's a movie theater - Nina Welch

2009-04-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

In her spare time, Nina Welch watches movies. Lots of movies.

Welch, Public Information Officer for Saddleback College Fine Arts, has turned her obsession with movies, especially independent films, into a sideline that has led her from Sundance to Slamdance to INDIEROAD.net.

On the way, she has watched thousands of feature films, "shorts" and documentaries, living her philosophy of "do what you love." 
She grew up in a small, close-knit suburb in Riverside County, with a working mom and a dad who wrote a column for the Riverside Press-Enterprise called Welch Rarebits. There were friendly neighbors, block barbecues and trees to climb.

At Ramona High School, Welch was fun-loving and popular, but had no burning career aspirations. She was engaged as a senior, and married one year later. She got a job as a secretary with the Riverside County Probation Department.

Within five years, Welch gave birth to two boys, Brian and Matt, and the family moved to the tiny seaside town of San Clemente, just a few blocks from the beach.

"We got married with the idea that I would put him through school, and then he would put me through school."

But those plans fell through when the marriage foundered, and Welch was left to raise her two boys, from ages 6 and 8, as a single mom.

"I stayed good friends with my ex so the kids would not feel as if they were from a broken home. I even got along with his new wife - I called her my 'wife-in-law.'

"Once the kids were grown and self-sufficient, then it was my turn."

She moved to Arizona to attend the University of Arizona, majoring in media arts and minoring in English.

"I had a professor who ran a film festival, and he put me on the screening committee. I watched all the films submitted, worked to get film makers to submit their work, and did PR for films and film makers. He took us to Sundance Film Festival for the experience. I did that for three years."

Before she graduated from UA, she won a university-wide poetry contest and also was named Outstanding Student for the Fine Arts Department.

"After I got my degree, I got two part-time jobs - one working for the Arizona International Film Festival, and one at the Tucson Arts District. It was a great way to get into what I learned in school.

"I had taken production classes, and knew I didn't want to make films. I was a script supervisor on a film - learned I didn't want to do that. What I really loved was meeting young film makers and seeing the stories they were telling. I felt bad for them because I thought that nobody was going to see these great films."

Welch moved back to California after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "I moved in with my son and free-lanced." She worked as a film screener for Sundance Film Festival, whose main office is in Los Angeles. She also screened for the American Cinemateque in Hollywood, for their alternate screen program.

"That first summer I screened 400 shorts and 100 features in three months. You just get into a zone. I watched every one all the way through. That's one thing I learned from that professor. He told us, 'You owe it to them. They put their hearts into it.' "

After her stint as a Sundance screener, she volunteered at the information desk during the festival for five years.

Welch worked at a variety of jobs for the next couple of years, as an event planner for one company, as a temp for UCI, and even commuted to Hollywood to work for a movie studio.

Eventually, she saw an ad for a publicist at Saddleback College in the Fine Arts Department. "I looked at the job description and said, 'That's everything I do!' I love working here, promoting the arts. I love the idea of bringing people in, especially young people who don't see theatre."

During the time she worked as a screener for Sundance, Welch met Vince Di Pierro, a former Warner Brothers executive and writer for Saturday Night Live and MASH.

"We became good friends. We both had the idea that there are great films that nobody sees. So we got the idea of starting a website dedicated to the works of independent film makers. It's called INDIEROAD.net and started last year in April."

At INDIEROAD, viewers can download independent films or watch them on the internet for a small fee. "It is still in the early stages. We have about 65 films up right now, but we are soliciting and screening new films all the time."

INDIEROAD is now a sponsor of Slamdance, a film festival formed 15 years ago by disgruntled film makers who couldn't make it into Sundance. Independent film makers and their fans grumbled for years that Sundance Film Festival has turned into a mecca for Hollywood celebrity actors and directors. Christopher Nolan, director for the 2005 Batman movie, Batman Begins, had his first film at Slamdance, Welch said.

Recently, Welch helped out on a documentary about a subject close to her heart - her younger son, Matt Archbold, a former world-class surfer. The documentary, Archy, was directed by Bill Ballard and tells the story of Matt's meteoric rise to the top of the surfing world, and his subsequent problems dealing with early freedom, fame, and the surfing establishment.

"Both my sons were very sports minded. We lived so close to the beach, so they spent a lot of time there. Matt would do amazing things in the water. It was like his feet were a part of the surf board. He got a sponsorship at 16 and traveled all over the world. He is still surfing, and living in Hawaii."

Her older son, Brian, is superintendent of greens at a golf course, and lives in Capistrano Beach. "I always told them, 'Do what you love to do,' and they have done that. They are doing well."

It is the same advice that she would give to young film makers who are struggling to succeed.

"To be successful takes passion, believing in their films and themselves. They have to have a good story to tell. With independent films you see really different stories. They are not formulaic like a lot of the big Hollywood movies.

"Work hard and keep believing. That's what you have to do."
Click here to visit indieroad

 

Erik and the boys

2009-04-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

Dana Manley, left, and Erik Austin, at 16, pose with a statue of the Pep Boys. Manley, another Saddleback College staffer, was dating Erik's sister at the time.

The picture is a little grainy, but the face is unmistakably that of Erik Austin - just old enough to carry a driver's license in his wallet - posing with the plaster-cast images of the Pep Boys.

Austin was just 16 back then, unaware that the day would mark the beginning of a life-long interest - make that obsession - with Manny, Moe and Jack.

The 5-foot-high statue was a gift from his uncle, who found it in one of the rooms of a house he purchased in Los Angeles. It had been left behind by the former homeowner, and his uncle brought it by for young Erik.
  
When Austin moved to Lake Elsinore in 1992, he discovered that the statue took up too much room in his tiny house, and decided to make some extra money by selling it.

"The minute I sold it, I regretted it," Austin said. "I sold it to a guy from Burbank who lived in a castle with a moat around it."

Austin immediately started calling around to try to find a duplicate of the statue. He found a replacement statue and much more.

Today, with his home re-modeled to a roomy size, Austin has devoted an entire room to his Pep Boys collection, with the overflow packed away in boxes in his garage.

He has thousands of collectibles, from cans of Pep Boys products to watches, lighters, clocks and other knick-knacks bearing the familiar image of the three "boys."

He has 32 binders filled with photographs, catalogs and flyers from the year the first Pep Boys store opened in 1921 to today. Many of his photographs are rare and valuable in their own right. He has several panaromic pictures of Pep Boys' staff at their annual picnics, including one dated 1928, featuring Manny and Moe.

Back in the early 1920s, four friends born and raised in South Philadelphia each chipped in $200 to start an auto parts store: Emmanuel "Manny" Rosenfeld, Maurice "Moe" Strauss, Moe Radavitz, and W. Graham "Jack" Jackson.

Manny Rosenfeld, the driving force behind the group, predicted that demand for auto parts would skyrocket as the price of automobiles became more affordable. The cost of car ownership was dropping as a result of Henry's Ford's innovation of bringing assembly line production to the automobile manufacturing industry.

The four entrepreneurs named their store Pep Auto Supplies, from the name of one the of the products of the day, Pep Valve Grinding compound. It is said that locals began calling the store Pep Boys because of a policeman at 63rd and Market streets, who used to ticket motorists for driving without lights, advising them to "go see the boys at Pep" for a replacement oil wick (no light bulbs in those days).

The logo Manny, Moe & Jack was inspired by a Los Angeles dress shop called Minnie, Maude and Mabel's. Two of the original owners, Radavitz and Graham, left the company after a few years.

Austin said that Graham, the "Jack" of the trio, was advised by his father to buy out of the group. "Jack's father told him, you'd better get your money out of there, that company is going to fail." However, Jack's name and faced stayed in the logo.

Today, Pep Boys has 563 stores in 36 states, with over 6,000 service bays for auto repair.

And Austin has come to know several current and former officials in the Pep Boys organization. He is recognized by many employees in stores in the Orange County-Los Angeles area, who remember him when they dismantle advertising or holiday displays.

The internet - and eBay, especially, allows him to keep track of what is on the market and which of his pieces are the most rare.

"Although I have had offers to buy up some of my collection, I just can't part with this stuff. The only way I would consider it is if I realized my dream of retiring and moving to Hawaii. I think I could sell it then." 

Field of Dreams - Sheryl Christensen

2009-03-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

"I loved the game, but it was never my life. It's just a game," said Sheryl Christensen, IVC counselor and former standout softball pitcher for La Habra High School and University of Arizona.

But she laughed as she added, "Of course, softball gave me a free education, changed my whole world and led to my career."

Christensen first played fastpitch softball in a recreational league at 9 years old, and took up pitching four years later.

"My brother was taking pitching lessons for baseball, and I told my parents I wanted to do it. I wasn't good at pitching, but I could throw hard."

  

Soon she moved from recreational league to "travel ball," playing during the off-season. Her mom coached a travel ball team for 16-year-olds and Christensen, at 14, joined.

Christensen pitched on the varsity team as a freshman at Lowell High School and also played volleyball. Lowell closed its doors just before her junior year, so Christensen moved to La Habra High School. That year, Christensen helped La Habra win a CIF softball championship, and was named CIF Player of the Year.

The following year, La Habra won first place in the Freeway League and went to CIF finals, but lost in the championship game. However, Christensen was awarded a full-ride softball scholarship to the University of Arizona.

She played all four years of college, including summer ball for the first two years. "By the end of my sophomore year, I was really burned out. In college, you are always playing or practicing. I always wanted other interests, a balance in my life."

Renewing her enthusiasm for the sport was the arrival, at the end of her junior year at UA, of Coach Mike Candrea, who today is considered a legend in fastpitch softball.

"He was amazing. You wanted to play for him, wanted to give him everything you had. Just an amazing coach."

In 1986, Christensen's senior year, Candrea took the team to third place and was named conference co-coach of the year. Since then he has compiled an astonishing list of accomplishments in the Pac 10, one of the nation's top college conferences:

-- 8 national championships
-- 1,100 Division I victories
-- 20 trips to the Women's College World Series in 21 years

He also coached the U.S. Olympic softball team to a gold medal in 2004 and silver in 2008.

But Candrea was just one of many great coaches she played for, Christensen said, beginning with her mom. "She worked with me ever since I was in rec ball. There was no better teacher of the fundamentals. She was just athletic - she did all sports. She knew the game."

After graduating from Arizona as a psychology major, Christensen began working with athletes as a counselor at Cal State University, Fullerton, and then enrolled to work on her master's degree in psychology. She has worked for 15 years as a counselor at Irvine Valley College, specializing in athletes, and also works part-time at Santiago Canyon College, teaching career and academic planning.

When Christensen was still in high school, her mom went to work as an assistant pitching coach, and eventually taught hitting and pitching to about 100 students per week out of her back yard.

"Mom finally decided to retire, but she had built up such a big business that I couldn't see just throwing it away. I took over her students and went out on my own. I give lessons in a park, primarily at night. I am so busy now, that I have cut way back, down to one night a week. But I really enjoy the girls.

"With kids today, you can tell around the age of 12 who are the competitors. Either they will make the transition to competitive ballplayer, or they will drop out at around that age. I love the way softball shapes and molds individuals, and the way it teaches teamwork and work ethic."

Christensen says that some of her best friends today are former teammates from high school, college and travel ball teams. "There is a real bond of friendship that forms as you are sprinting your last sprint, when you are dog tired, and you look over and there is your friend, fighting just as hard to take that last step for the team."

Christensen works with student athletes every day in her job, and thinks that athletes need to maintain an emphasis on academics.

"Teachers, coaches and parents are pushing the athletes harder on the field and not in the classroom; we need to keep the perspective on students first and athletes second." 

To learn more about fastpitch softball and how important pitchers are to the game, see the post below, "Is it harder to hit a softball or a baseball?"
 

Is it harder to hit a softball or a baseball?

2009-03-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

In 2003, USA Today proclaimed that hitting a baseball was the hardest thing to do in sports.

But is it harder to hit a softball or a baseball?

The answer may surprise you.

USA Today used science to demonstrate why hitting a baseball is so difficult, quoting from the book The Physics of Baseball by former Yale University professor Robert Adair.

  

Adair says that a fastball thrown 95 mph reaches home plate in about 0.4 seconds (the pitching rubber is 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate). Adair analyzes the batter's task this way: the batter has about 0.1 seconds to look at the ball and decide whether to swing. He has another 0.1 to .25 seconds to decide where the ball is going. Swinging the bat takes about .15 seconds.

Many people think of fastpitch softball as baseball lite, with softball played on a smaller diamond (60 feet between bases, instead of 90), using a larger ball (12" versus 9"), and shorter distance between pitcher and batter (43 feet compared to 60 feet 6 inches.)

The shorter distance from pitcher to batter in softball, combined with the underhand pitching motion in softball makes softball a pitcher's game. The best softball pitchers can throw 68 to 70 miles per hour, the equivalent of a 95 mph pitch in baseball (a speed consistently achieved by a small percentage of major league pitchers).

The overhand throwing motion used by baseball pitchers is not a natural movement for the human anatomy. Pitchers are the most frequently injured players in baseball (arm, elbow, shoulder injuries) and starting pitchers usually rest four days between starts. Today's baseball pitchers rarely pitch all nine innings.

Softball pitchers, who pitch underhand, usually are pulled from a game only when their pitches are no longer working, and can pitch consecutive days without undue strain on their arms. Softball teams can get by with two top-notch pitchers.

In the 2000 Olympics, the U.S. softball team allowed only seven runs and 24 hits in 10 games. That is not so surprising, considering that the Americans were considered the best in the world. However, in six games against their top competitors - China, Japan and Australia - the U.S. team scored only six runs.

For an entertaining look at why a softball is so hard to hit, watch the FSN Sport Science video, Sports Myths. The video claims to answer the question "Is it harder to hit a softball or a baseball?" You may quarrel with the science, but the video does a good job of demonstrating the differences between baseball and softball pitching.
  

Rollin' with the derby: Elizabeth Arreaga

2009-02-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Photos by Megan Irwin.(Click to enlarge.)

Start out with fishnet stockings, old-fashioned roller skates and a punk-rock attitude. Add athleticism, aggressiveness and a bit of camp, and you have the modern-day version of roller derby.

Wildly popular in the 1950s, roller derby's fortunes had waned as the sixties came to an end. But the dawn of the 21st century brought new converts to the sport. Today's roller derby teams are made up primarily of women competing as amateurs, who combine athletic power with theater.

Elizabeth Arreaga, Saddleback sociology instructor, spent about two years skating for the Orange County Roller Girls, a four-team, flat-track roller derby league based in Garden Grove.

"I wasn't very good at it, but it was a lot of fun," Arreaga said. 
 
Arreaga learned about roller derby after striking up a conversation with a derby skater she met at a rock concert. "She invited me to join, said I didn't need any experience. I looked it up online, and it looked scary but fun."

Arreaga was not new to sports. In high school, she played water polo, swam and was a cheerleader at Gahr High School. But her skating experience was limited to trips to the roller rink as a youngster.

"Roller derby will take anybody, and teach them the basic skills - skating forward and backward, how to fall, how to transition from forward to backward, how to dodge other skaters." New skaters are called "fresh meat" by veteran skaters.

Besides learning how to skate, the roller derby athlete must create a skating persona - both a name and a costume. "It's part of the fun, creating your alter ego," Arreaga said. "Some of the names are very clever." Some such monikers include Ivanna Cocktail, Punkahontas, Jacquelyn Hyde, Janis Choplin, Eva Destruction and Juana Beat'n.

Arreaga's name: Betsy Bitch-Slap Her.

The majority of roller-derby leagues nationwide compete on flat, oval tracks, though some, as in the Los Angeles and San Diego leagues, use traditional banked tracks.

Games are called bouts and consist of three 20-minute periods or two 30-minute periods. Each team puts five skaters on the track, four blockers and one jammer. To score, the jammer must get through the other team's blockers as many times as possible during a two-minute jam. Body blocking is allowed, but not elbowing, hitting or tripping. Bouts are fast-paced, full-contact affairs.

Banked-track bouts are faster, with top skaters reaching speeds of over 30 mph, but flat-track aficionados say the flat track requires more skill and power, without a sloping surface to provide momentum.

"There is a lot of strategy and footwork," Arreaga said. "It is amazing how some of the women can move their feet in skates. The most difficult part is you have to be in condition. You skate in a squat to lower your center of gravity and keep your balance. It is hard on the thighs, physically demanding. But part of the fun is to try something that is very challenging."

Derby skaters use only roller skates, never inline (Rollerblade-type) skates. "Quads are heavier and harder to skate in than inline skates. That's why it is so amazing to watch how skillful the derby skaters are."

When she was on a derby team, she went to practice three days a week, and also hit the gym every week to build strength and endurance.

Although roller derby might seem like a blue-collar sport, Arreaga said most of the skaters have bachelor's degrees, and half, like Arreaga, have master's degrees.

At the end of last year, Arreaga dropped out of derby, partly because of time constraints. She is teaching six classes at three colleges (Saddleback, Long Beach City College, and Coastline Community College), is married with two young children, and is working on her Ph.d.

She was able to use her derby experience in her sociology classes. "Derby is a subculture, so it's easy to relate it to sociology. Students who go to watch bouts can study the differences in the feminization of women in derby and outside derby. Plus, not a lot of people know about derby, and it's fun to expose them to something they've never seen."

For more information about roller derby, visit these websites:

Click here to visit Orange County Roller Girls website.
Click here to visit Los Angeles or San Diego Derby Dolls websites.
  

Father-daughter musical theatre...Dave Anderson

2009-02-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

Dave Anderson and his 13-year-old daughter, Maddie, will appear together in the musical "Annie" at the Musical Theatre Village in Irvine. Annie will run Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays Feb. 13 through Mar. 22. Maddie will play Cookie, one of the orphans, while Anderson will play Rooster, the bad guy.

Anderson, Director of Extended Education for Irvine Valley College, said performing together allows for a little extra father-daughter bonding time. Annie is the third show they have done together.

"The first was Jungle Book in 2005. I was Baloo the Bear and she played multiple roles, including a bratty gold digger and a monkey. In 2007, we were in Charlie Brown. She played one of the Peanuts gang and I played an adult version of Pig Pen." 
Maddie, an 8th grader at Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo, has done several productions at her school, including Seussical the Musical last year. The Jungle Book was her first production.

Anderson has been in numerous shows since the 1980's, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, A Chorus Line, A Time For Christmas, Four Tickets to Christmas and The Rocky Horror Show. The theaters he has appeared in include Orange Coast College, Golden West College, Santa Ana College and the Buena Park Civic Theater, among others.

Anderson has some $12 discount tickets for the following shows: Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 PM; Sunday, Mar. 1 at 2 PM; and Sunday, Mar. 8 at 2 PM. Call him at 949-633-9432 if you would like to purchase tickets. The father-daughter Andersons will appear as Cookie and Rooster in these performances, as well as the 2 PM show on Feb. 14.

The two will appear in other roles in the following shows: Feb. 22, 2 PM; Feb. 28, 2 PM; Mar. 7, 7:30 PM; Mar. 14, 7:30 PM; Mar. 21, 2 PM.

Tickets will also be available by calling the Musical Theatre Village at 949-753-1996. Regular ticket prices are $16 for adults and $14 for children and seniors.

Anderson was profiled in this blog in June 2008.

Click here to visit Musical Theatre Village's website.
  

On Tom Robinson, Barack Obama, and the O.C.

2009-01-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

Scott Ferguson Greene as Tom Robinson in the Saddleback College production of "To Kill A Mockingbird," the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in the Depression era about racism in a small town in the south. Photo by Ken Kinder, lighting by Tim Swiss, set design by Kent McFann. Directed by Maria Mayenzet. Click photo to enlarge.

By Scott Ferguson Greene
Guest Columnist

As we usher in a new president and a new administration, we are entering a new chapter in American history. The autumn of 2008, without question, is a time I will remember for the rest of my life. There were signs that something of monumental political proportions was about to happen; and I was about to participate in a project that would coincide with that historic moment.

It was early September of last year when I was asked by director Maria Mayenzet to read for the role of Tom Robinson in the stage play "To Kill A Mockingbird." While I had been an actor early in my career, I have spent the past eleven years directing film documentaries, short films, and a TV sitcom. I am comfortable in front of the camera, having hosted many TV interviews as well as my own cable TV show. But the thought of returning to the stage was daunting.  

I read for Maria, and she offered me the part. I was thrilled. The first thing I did was rent the movie version of "To Kill A Mockingbird." Brock Peters acted the role of Tom Robinson so well that I immediately became intimidated. I thought, "What if I don't measure up to Brock Peters' interpretation of Tom Robinson?" But something even more troubling crossed my mind - how in the world is this play going to go over in conservative Orange County?

I had read the stage play as written by Harper Lee. That was the version we were going to perform. I knew the film's screenplay, written by Horton Foote, was not as controversial in language or speech as was the stage play. Had Harper Lee written the film's screenplay, the potential to create racial strife and violence in many areas of the United States in 1962 would have been of epic proportions.

Although racism in America today is not the issue it was in the 1950's and 1960's, it is still alive and well. Keep in mind that Barack Obama had been only the third black to serve in the U.S. Senate since the Reconstruction era after the civil war.

From an ethnic point of view, I can very much relate to President Obama. Through family research and ancestry DNA testing, I found out quite a bit about my very mixed heritage. Going back three generations, I am predominantly German, African-American, and Scottish on both sides of my family. Beyond that, I'm everything from Polynesian/Hawaiian and Native American to Dutch and Norwegian. As a matter of fact, it's easier to say what nationalities I'm not. And I was surprised to learn the identities of some of my distant relatives: Laura Ingalls Wilder, FDR, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert Redford, Alan B. Shepard, Sarah Ferguson, and George Armstrong Custer, to name a few.

To be of mixed heritage is always a difficult position in society. You are too dark to be completely accepted by Caucasian society, and too light to be completely accepted by African-Americans. What's more, both my parents were educated. My father graduated from a teacher's college in Millersville, Pennsylvania, getting his master's degree at Pennsylvania State University. My mother attended the same college. After my parents got married, they moved to the newer, middle-class side of town - where professional money was being earned among all ethnicities of people. As I was growing up, it was stressed never to speak "street." I was harshly discouraged from emulating chracters on TV like "J.J." on "Good Times" or "Rollo" on "Sanford and Son."

I had a problem during the prep work and rehearsal of the play. For weeks, I had been taping my own rehearsals of my character of Tom Robinson at home. Though it helped somewhat, I was not pleased with my performance - especially my Southern diction. I just wasn't used to speaking that way. I was also not used to being called the N-word on a regular basis. Every time I heard that word, it was like fingernails on a blackboard. I certainly did not hear it that often as a kid. So to hear it often and know that it was directed at me - even in character - did have an affect on me.

Sophia White as Calpurnia

Harper Lee's play held nothing back. The N-word was used quite often. The word "rape" was used. The implication of sexual desire by a white woman for a black man was there. After the first full rehearsal, I thought, "Oh my Lord, how is this going to go over with audiences in south Orange County? Are they going to protest? Are they going to write to the Dean of Fine Arts?"

I give so much credit to my director, Maria Mayenzet. She always believed that producing the play "To Kill a Mockingbird" could not have come at a more opportune time. Back in September 2008, she predicted that we would witness a historic event on Election Day. I must admit that up until that point, I still had a hard time believing that a 21st Century America would elect any man that had a little color in him. My director worked with me to believe in my character. She said that Tom Robinson had truth on his side, and that should give him strength. I thought at that moment that Barack Obama believed in his own truth and strength - and he was able to get the American people to believe in him, all the way to the top.

On the first night of performance, the McKinney Theater crowd was heavily populated with college students. I remember feeling that the young audience was closely following the story and sympathizing with the character of Tom Robinson. They were not shocked at the words used, and I could feel them incensed at the bigotry displayed by the characters of Bob and Mayella Ewell. The same was true of the two following performances.

The changes in audience reaction came during the Sunday matinee performance - when a much older audience filled McKinney Theater. It was sold out. Most audience members were over the age of sixty-five. During the performance, whenever the N-word was used, I heard gasps from the audience. I could see shocked looks on some faces during my (Tom's) testimony. After the performance, an older woman came up to me and said she enjoyed the show. But she added, "Are you really African-American? I couldn't tell. You look too mixed. You need to be darker. They need to put darker makeup on you."

Esther Bent as Scout; Richard Hawkes as Atticus

The following Thursday night high school students were invited to see the play at a discount rate on tickets. Whenever the N-word was used, we cast members could hear nervous giggles from the high school audience. We realized that the nervous laughter came because the kids didn't know how to react. On that night, as on every night, we received thunderous applause. We were so happy - as well as relieved - that the audiences in Orange County had received "To Kill a Mockingbird" so well. The very last performance was the greatest ovation. I tried to address the audience, which I eventually did, but they were very kind with their applause. We, as a cast, felt so privileged to be standing on stage at that incredible moment.

After the first Thursday night performance, we had a Q&A panel disucssion. The cast was on stage, fielding questions from the audience. Most of the questions came my way. The questions were amazing - anything from "How did you feel being a falsely accused black man in the South?" to "What's your real heritage?"

That's when I realized that times had changed and why President Obama was elected 44th President of the United States. I realized that I had underestimated people, the younger voters of this country, especially. Finally, a majority of Americans are more interested in justice than color. They are more interested in truth, change and what's right than the old ways of bigotry and prejudice. The colors of a rainbow after a rainstorm mean more to them than the colors of people causing a storm.

Are we ever going to permanently do away with prejudice in this country and the world? Unfortunately, the answer is probably "no." But with a new generation of Americans and a new president in the White House, it gives us all greater hope and the belief that no matter what color our skins may be, the hearts are hopefully gold, and that all blood runs red.
 

Yippee ki-yay - Jan Duquette

2009-01-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

During the week, Jan Duquette can be found in her Kinesiology/PE office, riding herd on 16 full time and 40 part time faculty in her job as academic chair, or teaching one of eight Kinesiology/PE courses in her class load.

But come Friday, Duquette is on the road in her F350 "dually," towing a 40-foot trailer and heading for a rodeo, where she chases down prize money and awards as a professional barrel racer. 

One of the most popular events at rodeos, barrel racing is a timed event performed primarily by women, where hundredths of a second count, and winning teams must be athletic and precise. Fastest time wins.

 

 

In the event, horse and rider must run a pattern around three barrels (usually 55-gallon drums) set up in a triangle inside a fenced area. Knocking down a barrel or deviating from the pattern results in time penalties.

In 2006, Duquette was ranked in the top 20 riders in the Pacific West, among other accomplishments. Duquette said she is proud to be able to hold down a full time job while remaining competitive against pro riders who pursue their sport full time.

"The combination of working full time - especially at such a physical job - and competing on a professional level takes its toll on your body," Duquette said. "Still, I love it."

Growing up on a ranch in Blythe, California, Duquette has been riding horses since age 5. Her dad was a competitive rodeo rider, in saddle bronc and bull riding competition in the 1950's. Her mom was an outstanding athlete for Arizona State University, and played third base for the professional women's baseball/softball team "The Cantaloupe Queens" in the 1940's and 1950's (think "A League of Their Own.") Her mom went on to become a PE teacher.

"There's nothing to do in Blythe, so I rode horses," Duquette said. She competed in 4-H, gymkanas and junior rodeo as a youngster, and started winning almost every competition she entered.

She won so many competitions and money awards at age 14 in 1965 that she qualified for the National Finals Rodeo, the ultimate rodeo competition. She placed second in California and 15th nationally.

"After finals, I was on a segment of Wide World of Sports, and I also appeared in one scene of a Disney movie called The Tattooed Police Horse. I was on for 10 seconds of barrel racing."

Following high school, Duquette enrolled in Arizona State University, where she received her B.A. She earned a master's degree from San Diego State University, and has been a professor of kinesiology and academic chair at Saddleback College since 1977.

Today Duquette rides the great-grandson of the first mare she rode in those early competitions.

She has two horses she rides at the pro rodeo level, and two four-year-old colts that will start their "futurity" year in 2009. She has a long list of awards and accomplishments.

But keeping up with the other rodeo pros is an expensive and time consuming undertaking. In addition to the full load of classes and her administrative duties, Duquette must work her horses every day. "They are athletes, and they have to stay in top shape."

Although she can ride in San Juan Capistrano, where her horses are boarded, she can't train on the technical aspects of her sport unless she drives at least an hour away to facilities in Norco, Poway, City of Industry or San Dimas.

She spends nearly every weekend competing in 4D barrel races with larges purses and rodeos. In the next year, she will travel to Arizona, Utah, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Oklahoma, as well as all across California.

"The National Finals Rodeo is where the big money is, and that is the goal for anyone who races pro. You have to have $50,000 in competition winnings just to enter."

Beginning this year, she will be seeking sponsors to help finance her pro rodeo efforts. The entry fees and fuel costs alone amount to $6,000-8,000 per year. Sponsors are attracted to rodeo because the sport is frequently televised, either live on the internet or on Fox Sports. Nationals are shown on ESPN.

Competing every weekend not only helps build the competition winnings, it exposes the horses to a wider variety of venues and arena conditions, helping them to become seasoned veterans.

Her sister and brother-in-law, Peggy and Scott Davis, own a 40-acre ranch in central California, on which they breed and raise barrel-racing horses. Duquette and her sister coordinate their schedules to transport the horses and equipment to the numerous futurity/open races and rodeos.

"The most I ever did was five rodeos in one weekend: Poway (San Diego), Pahrump, Nevada, San Bernardino, Bakersfield, and Banning. That was one tough weekend.

"There is a lot of difference between the courses - you have to be able to do everything. A lot of people don't like to race in California. The dirt is brought in, and it may be too hard-packed. New Mexico and Arizona have deep dirt."

She has been offered $50,000 for her barrel horses, but is not yet willing to sell one of them. "They are like members of the family, so I wouldn't sell them. But it's a compliment to the training I've done to know they are worth that much."

Perhaps selling horses she has raised and trained is in the future, but for now, she has to prepare for another rodeo.

"I don't think rodeo pros get a lot of respect for what we do. The typical rodeo professional makes between $50,000 and $200,000 - not a lot compared to football, baseball and basketball professionals.

"To be a top competitor in this field you must devote your life to the sport 10 months a year, be willing to travel long distances, and be away from home for weeks at a time.

"The horse must be athletic, fast, seasoned at many arenas and have the heart to give the rider their best race every time. The rider must also be athletic, ready to race at any hour, day or night, and be patient, yet intense. You must have a passion to win."

To learn more about Jan Duquette and her barrel racing horses, visit her website:
Click here.
 

Sharing the holidays: Edna Vaughan

2008-12-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

The Vaughan clan - see end of story for names.

For the past five years, the Marine Corps has had a place at Edna Vaughan’s Thanksgiving dinner table. Sharing turkey with young Marines who are away from home is her way of giving back to the community.

She and her family “adopt” the Camp Pendleton Marines for the day, showing them around the area and feeding them a traditional turkey dinner.

“They are squeaky clean, and SO young,” said Vaughan, district accounting specialist. “They wear their dress uniforms and are always at attention. After a while they lighten up and take off their hats.”

  Vaughan’s Thanksgiving guest list numbers anywhere from twenty to thirty people. Her large extended family includes two current SOCCCD employees: son-in-law Erik Austin, lead warehouse worker, and daughter Lisa Austin, senior administrative assistant, as well as Berit Funnemark, retired warehouse worker. Also joining in on the fun are Vaughn’s husband Oliver, her brother, her other two children, all the spouses and six grandchildren.

Five years ago Vaughan saw an ad in the Orange County Register asking for families to sign up for the Camp Pendleton YMCA’s “Adopt a Marine for Thanksgiving” program. Volunteer families host a pair of Marines from the School of Infantry. The Marines generally are from out of state and have just graduated from boot camp. For some, it is their first glimpse of Southern California.

“We have to pick them up from the base first thing in the morning, and have them back by 5 PM,” Vaughan said. Husband Oliver usually takes the men to Starbucks for coffee, and then on a mini-tour of the coast, visiting the San Clemente pier or Balboa Island.

Just before noon, they join the rest of the family at the Vaughan home to snack on hors d’oeuvres, play backyard games and watch football on television before dinner.

“We’re never sure how many we will have until Oliver picks them up,” Vaughan said. Last year they had five Marines; there were three in 2006, two in 2004 and five in 2005.

This year the Vaughans hosted Josh Barnhart, 19, of Notice, Idaho; and Morgan Aitchison, 18, of Witchita, Kansas. Barnhart said he enlisted because of the poor job market. “After high school I thought, I could go to college for four years, but there would be no guarantee of a job when I graduate. So I said, let’s go in the military. I can still go to college when I get out, and have it paid for.

“Recruiters said the Marines were the toughest branch – so that’s why I joined.” He didn’t tell his parents he had enlisted until a week before boot camp. “My mom was not too happy about the whole idea.”

Aitchison joined because “I didn’t have anything else going for me. My brother and dad were in the military, so I thought it was a good thing for me to do.”

The two men said they were grateful for Adopt A Marine program. “This is the first time in 19 years I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving,” Barnhart said.

The Vaughans were one of 250 local families participating in the 10-year-old YMCA Thanksgiving program this year. The program is so popular that all the Marines had been assigned to families by mid-November.

Vaughan’s husband, Oliver, a wood-working hobbyist, also makes wood pens – “freedom pens” and hands them out to troops. He sells the pins through De Nault’s hardware store and donates a portion of the proceeds to breast cancer research. In addition, he crafts wood canes and donates them to the Wounded Warrior Project, a program to help wounded service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before the Marines, the Vaughans hosted a homeless family for Thanksgiving dinner; and at Christmas, she will look for ways to help needy families have a merrier holiday.

“I’m just always looking for a way to help people out, and to contribute to the community.”

Group picture - Thanksgiving at Edna's house: From left, Mel Anderson (brother), Stephanie Swindell (daughter), Paul Austin (Erik's dad), Edna, Carol Anderson (sister-in-law), Ella Swindell (grand-daughter), Mark Swindell (son-in-law), Ivy Swindell (grand-daughter), Lisa Austin (daughter), Josh Barnhart (Marine), Erik Austin (son-in-law), Berit Funnemark (Erik's mom), Morgan Aitchison (Marine), Elvind Funnemark (Berit's husband), Oliver Vaughan (Edna's husband), and Brad Vaughan (son). The boys standing in front are Logan, Preston, and Ashley Vaughan, (grandsons) and Lance Anderson (great-nephew).
 

A reporter's life at The Register - John Westcott

2008-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

John Westcott, former Register reporter, collaborated on a pictorial history of Orange County.

American Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman sitting in a hotel room in his boxers. President Ronald Reagan speaking in Orange County on Reaganomics. A college kid trying to get into the Guinness World Records by catching donut holes in his mouth.

These are some of the scenes recalled by Saddleback journalism instructor John Westcott when discussing his 20-year career as a reporter for the Orange County Register.

The stories tend to run together and blur over the years, but he does remember vividly the sound of donut holes hitting that college student’s mouth.
  “He stood at the bottom of a 10-story building, and someone would drop the donut holes from the top. You would hear this horrible, loud plop when it hit his mouth. That was one of the weirdest stories I covered.” The unique record-setting event did not pass muster with Guinness.

In the mists of a reporter’s memory, an interview with Donald Johanson, the anthropologist whose team discovered the skeleton “Lucy” jockeys for position with the contest between two couch potatoes at the Orange County Fair.

Along the way, Westcott became a specialist in Orange County history, first writing with Orange County historian Jim Sleeper, and later producing a daily column in The Register called Millenium Moment, connecting Orange County history to the present.

Westcott used his knowledge of local history to write a book, published in 1990, titled “Anaheim: City of Dreams.” He collaborated on two other books, “The Orange Blossoms: 50 Years of Growth in Orange County,” published in 2000, and “Orange County – Views of the Past and Present,” published in 2003. He was lead writer for The Register's special historical publication for its 100th anniversary in 2005.

Even as a boy, Westcott was interested in journalism and history, teaching himself to touch type at 10, and creating his own little newspaper. “It had a circulation of two, because I gave it to my neighbor across the street.”

He was sports editor of his high school newspaper, the San Marino High School Titan Shield, and wrote sports stories for the local city newspaper. He majored in history at UC Riverside, and served as editor of the UCR weekly student newspaper, The Highlander.

Westcott interned at the Banning/Beaumont Record-Gazette, and also had an internship with Republican State Senator Robert Presley. Deciding that more education might be his ticket to a job as a reporter, he went to UC Berkeley to work on a master’s degree in journalism.

While interning at the Berkeley Gazette, Westcott wrote his master’s thesis on Berkeley politics, which he submitted to a newspaper contest sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner. Ther series won a first-place award in investigative reporting.

Shortly after, he was hired as a full time city hall reporter at the Gazette. As fate would have it, his position was one of several jobs eliminated during drastic cost-cutting measures undertaken by the newspaper. Within a year, the paper had folded.

“I’ve never had good timing,” he said.

Westcott moved back to Southern California, and discovered that The Register was thriving, easily beating its closest competitor, the Los Angeles Times, in both circulation and advertising sales. He was hired as a political reporter, but within a month had been moved to the Irvine city beat in the ever-chaotic Register newsroom.

Life as a Register reporter was sometimes stressful for a writer like Westcott, who was at his best creating the long, thoughtful articles like those featured by the Times. “Maybe my skills weren’t suited for [The Register]. You constantly churn out stories under deadline pressure; short stories, lots of them. But I think I adjusted well and made it work.”

He was assigned to night-side general reporting, working the 3 to 11 shift. “Those were hard hours. I was moved to nights right before getting married. My wife wasn't crazy about it, but we made it work until I went back to a daytime beat.”

After 20 years as a reporter, he quit The Register in 2001 after a bout with carpal tunnel. He took a quick break to write a book, and began teaching in 2002.

Westcott teaches journalism part-time at both Saddleback and at Fullerton College. In 2003 he was a finalist for Teacher of the Year at Saddleback. He’d like to continue teaching for a long time, and enjoys talking about his former profession.

“The only image most people see of reporters is on TV and in movies, and it’s mostly a negative stereotype. They see reporters as arrogant, elitist know-it-alls who only care about getting a great story and imposing their own opinions on a story. Some are like that, of course, but most are very hard-working professionals who provide a valuable public service for relatively little pay.”

He counsels would-be journalists to read, read, read.

“Other than the basic writing and reporting skills, I believe the best qualities that a journalist should have are open-mindedness, which helps keep bias out of stories; curiosity about what makes the world tick; and the determination to take as long as it takes to get the story right.”
 

News and sports with Paul McLeod

2008-11-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

Lariat advisor Paul McLeod discusses a story with student Courtney Zupanski.

To many sports fans, former Los Angeles Times sportswriter Paul McLeod had the perfect job. What could be better than being paid to watch football and basketball?

“It was fun,” the Saddleback College journalism instructor said. “But most people have no idea what’s involved. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

McLeod said he wrote about 2,700 byline stories in the nearly 20 years he worked for the Times, covering sports at all levels, from high school to the pros. He also covered daily news and worked on the Times’ website.
  He even has a legitimate claim to a piece of the Pulitzer Prize in Spot-news Reporting that the LA Times won in 1995 for its coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He was a member of the team of reporters that blanketed the city, writing about the experiences of residents in the earthquake that caused $20 billion in damages, 57 deaths and 9,000 injuries.

McLeod had just been moved to Nuestro Tiempo, the Spanish-language section of the Times.

“It was my first day reporting for that section,” he said. “I reported for duty at Times-Mirror square downtown. All the desks were overturned, and the lights were flashing. I got sent out into the street to interview people in Spanish.”

Then there was the time that McLeod was summoned to the Philippine consulate and accused of being a Yankee imperialist.

“It was the Little League World Series, and the Philippine team had beaten the Long Beach kids for the title. I had written a story about how the Philippine team had falsified the ages of some of the players,” McLeod said. “They went so far as to pluck the body hair of the players to make them look younger.

“They called me up to the consulate. It was my day off. I was driving my wife’s car, and the muffler fell off on the way up there. Eventually, I got there, and got chewed out big time.

“My reaction was, ‘Yeah, but is it true?’

“And, as it turned out, they were stripped of their title.”

In 2004, McLeod opted to have his contract with the LA Times bought out, invested the proceeds of the buyout, and turned his attention to teaching.

He had first taught a class in 1982 - a mass media course at Fullerton College. He eventually returned to college.

“I had an opportunity to get a lifetime teaching credential, and that worked out to my advantage.” He taught for several semesters, but left teaching While he worked for the Times.

“In February 2005, I got a phone call about a dire situation at Los Angeles City College and was hired to teach a night class on writing and reporting.”

In Spring 2006, he was hired as a journalism teacher and newspaper advisor at LA Harbor College. He continues to teach there.

“It’s a very small school in a rough neighborhood, with no money – in fact a $4 million deficit. But I like it a lot. It’s a challenge.”

About a year and a half ago he was also hired at Saddleback College to advise the newspaper and teach journalism.

“As far as I know, I’m the only community college journalism instructor in the state advising two newspapers,” he said. “They are two TOTALLY different programs in two TOTALLY diverse locations.”

McLeod with his second consecutive award for volunteer effort with state community college journalism association

Though he teaches reporting and writing today, McLeod did not spend much time in journalism courses in high school or college. He had what he terms a “Wide World of Sports upbringing,” and when he wasn’t playing football or baseball, he was watching all manner of sport on television. In high school, his favorite teacher was A yearbook advisor, so he ended up as sports editor of the yearbook.

McLeod got a part-time job at the Long Beach Press Telegram, taking calls from “stringers” reporting game scores, and helping put together the high school section of the sports page.

At Long Beach City College, he majored in Radio-TV, with the goal of being a dee-jay or sports broadcaster. At Cal State University, Long Beach, he continued studying Radio-TV. After graduating, he went to work in the Public Information Office for Cypress College, and later served as sports publicist.

He took a leave of absence from Cypress College in 1983 for a tryout with the Downey bureau of the Los Angeles Times, where he did page layout, took game scores, and did some sports writing.

“I worked my way up. I was already a journeyman by the time I started my career at the Times. I was a Jack of All Trades – knew something about everything. I wrote a lot of sports, did investigations, worked with facts and figures. Eventually, I interviewed a lot of tough subjects.

Early in his career, McLeod learned what it meant to meet deadlines.

“I was on the road a lot; I worked out of the back seats of cars, out of airplanes, hotel rooms. The nature of the business makes us (sports writers) very versatile. I always contend that sports writers are the best writers on the paper.”

McLeod also spent time on the editor’s desk, wrote daily news, and helped with the website.

His favorite sport to cover is college basketball.

“I like college sports,” he said. “It keeps you young. You are near youthful spectators and youthful participants. College students are mature, hip. There’s a lot of revelry.”

Working conditions can be intense, though.

“There’s nothing better than a full arena, with everyone screaming,” he said, “and you’re trying to write to deadline. You write the game story, then go out and get quotes. It can be exhausting.”

A lot of fun went out of the newspaper business in the 1990’s, as newspaper circulations declined, advertising revenues dropped, and managements changed. The Times was no exception.

“I don’t miss it,” he said. “The fun went out of it. People who were running the newspaper were mismanaging. They were poor owners and leaders. The decisions they made were horrendous. Cut, cut, cut. With it went the quality of the paper. Morale went out the window.”

So, for McLeod, the buyout offer was a no-brainer.

“I don’t HAVE to work. I WANT to work,” he said. “I worked hard to get myself in a situation where I wouldn’t have to work. “

Nonetheless, he appears pleased with his new lot.

Teaching is a challenge,” he said, “and it’s fun.”
  

Experience China with Tamara King

2008-09-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

Tamara King, district IT MIS systems manager, visited China this summer with her two daughters, Lanae and Ryana. The threesome toured the area around Beijing for one week, and spent two weeks as camp counselors for Chinese orphans. This is the story of their trip, excerpted from Tamara’s blog:

Monday, July 21
We left LAX at 1:40 am Sunday morning on a 12-hour direct flight to Beijing, China. The flight was incredibly smooth and surprisingly quick. This was the first time I flew on an airplane with a staircase and second floor! It was harder to sleep on the plane than I expected, but we got a little rest. We were tired but very excited when our plane touched down in China at 4:30 this morning!

It was fun walking down the alleyways to the main street and dodging pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles. The people here are crazy drivers and the pedestrians and bikers are fearless. We watched our taxi drivers almost run over countless people and bikes, and narrowly avoid crashing into buses and other cars. No one here seems to follow the rules of the road; they just push their way through! The white lines and yellow divider markings on the road seem to be just guidelines for totally erratic driving behavior.

As we walked down the alley, a Chinese man was cooking something in a bamboo cooker in front of his shop. “Come in! Come in!” he said to us. We looked in his pot and asked, “what is it?” The cooker contained six little round dumplings that smelled really good - 75 cents for the whole tray. So we went in and had a traditional Chinese breakfast of pork and broth dumplings. They were delicious.

  

  After our wonderful meal, we walked up the main street, window shopping, taking photos and smiling at everyone. Many people stared at us as if they’d never seen American girls before, but they were all very friendly when we smiled and said “nihao,” which means hello.

Tuesday, July 22
It is very strange being in a city where no one understands. I have a better understanding and compassion for non-English speakers in American now; it’s hard to know your way around with the language barrier.

The aquarium was very interesting and had a lot of cool architectural features. A difference between this place and any animal park I’ve ever been to is that nobody follows the signs. Huge “DO NOT TOUCH” signs were hung over every aquarium pool, but the people and their children were all over the water and the sea creatures. Ryana really wanted to see the sea turtles up close, but was hindered by one woman and her child who kept holding on to the turtle’s fin and pulling him back when the turtle tried to swim away. No employees were in sight to protect the creatures, only maintenance people, vendors and those who stood at the entrance to collect yet another fee.

The zoo itself was very strange. Some of the zoo animals were in lovely enclosures but most of the animals were in little concrete cells. Some of the zoo areas were well maintained and others looked totally thrashed and neglected. People were throwing bottles of various sodas and juices to the gorilla, who took off the screw top and drank them down. His enclosure was covered with empty bottles.

Saturday, 7/26
Today was our last day as tourists in Beijing. We’re staying in a hutong – a very old section of courtyards and narrow alleys - which gives us all the Chinese culture we wanted, and there is so much character in our neighborhood! There are very few tourists; mostly locals walking, old people sitting around, tiny little restaurants and market stalls, and always people walking, riding bikes and motorcycles.

Sunday, 7/27

Our ride picked us up at 7 this morning and took us to the Beijing train station. We left for Zhing Zhou at 11 am along with nine others from Minnesota and Fallbrook, who are serving at camp this week. It was a long 5 1/2 hour train ride from Beijing, then an hour’s ride from the train station to SIAS University campus where camp is being held.

Monday, 7/28
Today we were up at 7:30 for breakfast with all the other volunteer buddies and translators. Breakfast in China is just like lunch and dinner in China; noodles, vegetables, some type of cooked meat or breaded chicken, steamed bread and slices of white bread. Strange food for breakfast!

And then the kids arrived! All the children are beautiful and adorable and very friendly. They seem so happy to be at camp! And the camp energy is high with lots of hugs and high fives and joy! Each volunteer is assigned to two buddies and a translator who become a family for the week. The translators are very effective with the children and take care of their needs such as taking them to the bathroom, and they sleep together at night in the same room. It’s like having a nanny and makes it much easier on us!

Wednesday, 7/30
Tonight the children got to perform; they sang and two kids played the trumpet, and they did a group dance. It was amazing to see these children on stage and how they lit up with the applause and cheers from the crowd. I’m guessing that most of these children have never been in the spotlight in such a positive and affirming way

Thursday, 7/31
One of my special friends is Stone, a Down Syndrome boy. He has a constant smile, is very social and loves high fives and hugs. He is quite functional, very strong and totally adorable! When I heard that most of the kids have special needs I was a little apprehensive since I've never really worked with these types of kids before. Now that I've met them, they are just kids who want to be loved and to give love. Their disabilities fade quickly into the background until all I see are their precious smiles and fragile hearts.

Friday, August 1
After crafts, water park and lots of games, the kids started leaving to head home. I took photos for my daughters as their buddies left and it was very emotional. The kids were on the bus and suddenly realizing that camp was over and they were leaving their new friends. They all started crying and one little boy put his hand up on the window as if trying to get just a little closer to his friends. His buddy put her hand on the window just as I snapped the photo and it was very poignant.

China has the most wonderful people! The language is next to impossible for me, although I have mastered “hello” and “thank you.” Most people are incredibly friendly, especially the women and children. Some of the men are hard faced, and don’t respond to a smile, but many are also very friendly. The young adult translators at camp with us range from 18-24, mostly college students and many English majors. They must be a scary generation for the government to deal with. They are educated, technologically savvy, and do not accept many of the old traditions at face value. As these young people marry and have their own children and teach them new ideas, the nation of China will change; it has to, based on sheer numbers.

China is very modern and beautiful and clean in the tourist areas. However, just a few steps away, the difference is dramatic. This town is very dirty, the shops pile their trash in the street and leave it there until some street sweepers come by and load it into their carts and haul it away. And it is not in nice, tidy trash bags, the trash is just in piles, stinky and nasty on the street. Many of the little shops here are dirty and junky and very tiny as well.

Wednesday, August 6
We are no longer allowed to leave the SIAS campus. The government has really cracked down on foreigners wandering the streets and is very nervous about our group. Since the government is nervous, the police are nervous and that makes the University security nervous. It is interesting to see how things work here, and I am so grateful to live in America!

Thursday, August 7
Our last full day of camp! Another breakfast of veggies and noodles… I have discovered a good breakfast dish. I take the sweet white bread they serve and wrap it around a hot hard-boiled egg. It’s amazingly tasty and much better than green beans and noodles for breakfast. I am looking forward to bacon, eggs, pancakes and cinnamon rolls when I return to America! I’m also looking forward to a hamburger and fries at the train station in Beijing. Who would imagine that we’d be craving familiar and unhealthy fast food!

Friday, August 8
Lanae and Ryana are ready to come home. I could stay longer and am not as anxious to return home. We have all gained a great appreciation for our lives in America. From the simple pleasures of safe drinking water, flush toilets and TP in public bathrooms, to the greater privileges of freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and freedom to speak about our beliefs.

This trip has also reinforced my desire to not fall into the complacency of the comfortable middle-class American life. We have so much more than we need and the accumulated “stuff” can become such a burden and heavy weight. We have the power to change vulnerable and helpless lives for eternity, and this is a wonderful responsibility and privilege. I can’t wait for our trip to Kenya next year!

Tamara and her daughters will travel to Kenya next summer to act as camp counselors in a Kenyan orphanage. You can read the full story of Tamara’s China visit, and see video and more pictures in her blog.
Click here to read Tamara’s blog.

Earl Pagal: Racing with dragons

2008-09-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wanted: volunteers for the ancient sport of dragon-boat racing. No experience necessary, and no age limit. Travel optional.

Earl Pagal, risk manager for the SOCCCD, is always looking for recruits for what has become his passion, a sport that few Americans recognize: dragon-boat racing.

A dragon boat is a kind of overgrown canoe, with room for 18 or more paddlers sitting two by two. Also on the team are a caller, who beats the drum to the rhythm of the strokes, and a steerer, who sits at the back. Unlike the better-known sport of competitive rowing, dragon-boat racers use paddles, rather than oars attached to the vessel, and face the front rather than the rear of the boat.

The Rogue Warriors won the bronze medal in the Masters Mixed Division (40+) at the View Sonic Long Beach National Dragon Boat Festival in July. Earl is on the far right.

  
The sport originated in China in pre-Christian times, and today is an international sport that boasts teams in more than 60 countries. During competitions, the boats are rigged with decorative dragon heads and tails.

“A race consists of sustained paddling for 500 meters in about two minutes. It’s a very intense two minutes,” Pagal said. Even more intense is the "Guts and Glory" race, a 5000-meter test of strength and stamina.

“The biggest thing in this sport is timing – it’s all about the timing. If you are hitting the person in front of you with your paddle, that is obviously going to cause a big problem.”

Pagal first became interested in dragon-boat racing six years ago after reading an article in a newspaper. He was looking for a way to stay in shape that didn’t involve running or similar activities that would put more stress on his bad knees. He joined a team at the Newport Aquatic Center, and eventually traveled to China with the team in 2006. Later, he and a few others founded their own team, called the Rogue Warriors.

“People think you have to be in good shape first, but you don’t. It takes upper body strength and cardio for the nonstop two minutes.”

Pagal practices three or four times a week, alternating two days in the water, and two days of aerobic exercise at 24-Hour Fitness. “You do need to cross train. You don’t want to be a weekend warrior in this sport.”

The Rogue Warriors compete annually at major tournaments in Long Beach, San Francisco and Las Vegas. They have also competed in Arizona and Vancouver, Canada. Wherever there is a body of water, he said, there is likely to be a dragon-boat race scheduled sometime during the year.

He is considering joining a team of all-star paddlers who are headed for the October world championships in Poland. There is also a big race in Kenya scheduled for December. “You do get to travel. When we raced in China in 2006, that was partially paid for by the Chinese government.

“It was interesting seeing the contrasts in China. You would go from a modern city to a really rural area. I saw a farmer tilling land with a plow and a water buffalo, and he was holding a cell phone to his ear.”

Travel, food, and fun are part of the dragon-boat racing experience, Pagal said. “We like to party. It’s great meeting people from all over the U.S. and the world. Recently we hosted a team from Florida. Later, they will return the favor.”

After competing for six years, Pagal doesn’t see himself giving up the sport anytime soon.

“It’s the only sport I can keep enjoying. As I get older, I get better. It’s all technique. We race against kids from UCI, USC and UCLA, who are like Energizer bunnies – they are so strong, and they can go all day. But we paddle smarter, so we beat them. What’s better than that?”

Go to Rogue Warriors website
  

Explore the world of scuba with Shawn Shreeves

2008-09-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Photo by Karl Shreeves. Click photo to enlarge.

Ask Shawn Shreeves about scuba diving and she remembers a spot off Catalina Island.

“There are kelp forests – it’s like the California redwoods, but it’s kelp. There are tons of fish swimming among the kelp. On a clear day, the sun is streaming in through the surface of the water. It’s beautiful. There’s nothing like it.”

Shreeves, senior administrative assistant in district IT, has been scuba diving since she was 16, when the whole family took lessons in a swimming pool.
 

Her dad trained as a commercial diver doing some underwater demolition in Florida before he married her mom. The family lived in Tulelake, California, eventually settling in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was there that her dad put the family in a pool with a diving instructor.

Shreeves didn’t do much diving after earning her certification. She went to airline school, moved to Southern California, and got a job with JetAmerica (later bought out by Alaska Air).

In 1995, she started thinking about diving again, and decided to get re-certified because of the number of years that had passed since she had been in the water. She had so much fun with the open-water course that she continued taking courses, getting certified for more advanced diving, until she finished her PADI Divemaster certification, the first professional level of scuba diving.

“A group of us took the same progression of classes; we became good friends and started hanging out together, in the water and out. We were all complete opposites, who probably never would have been friends without the common base of diving. We had Christmas parties, movie nights; in fact, that’s how I met my husband.”

They met at a surprise birthday party attended by their diving friends. “We were the only two who didn’t know each other. We started dating a week later.”

Karl Shreeves is well known in the world of scuba diving. He is a technical writer, instructional designer and photographer for the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI/DSAT), the largest diving certification organization, is a Cambrian Foundation research diver (the organization promotes underwater cave exploration), has written a column for Sport Diver and other dive magazines, and photographs underwater fashion. He has contributed to a marine science high school curriculum that is being used by several school systems across the country. His diving skills include technical, cave, and wreck diving.

Karl’s scuba connections came in handy when the couple planned their November 2002 wedding.

“He writes for Sport Diver Magazine. He asked Sport Diver if they wanted a feature article about a diving honeymoon. The magazine liked the idea, so flew them to the exclusive Anse Chastanet resort in St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Because the resort was featured in his magazine story, resort officials waived the cost of their three-bedroom suite, as well. “We didn’t have to pay for boats or dives; we just paid for our own meals and massage. It was great! And the Caribbean is an amazing place to dive.”

Although she has dived in such exotic locales as the Caribbean, the majority of Shreeves’ dives have been in Southern California. “To qualify for divemaster, you need a minimum of 60 dives, and a good percentage of them have to be helping an instructor with students.”

Photo by Karl Shreeves. Click photo to enlarge.

Shreeves has helped in classes at Diver’s Cove, Shaw’s Cove and Boat Canyon in Laguna Beach, and at Catalina Island. For several years, she volunteered at the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber at Wrigley Marine Science Center in Two Harbors on Catalina Island. The hyperbaric chamber is used to treat divers with decompression sickness or air embolism, and is manned around the clock, Shreeves said.

“It is crewed during the week by locals (Catalina residents) and on the weekend by mainlanders (Southern California residents). Everyone on the crew is hyperbaric trained, and they have a live feed to LA Medical Center. Hyperbaric treatment re-compresses the patient to a certain depth. Patients remain in the chamber from 9 to 13 hours. The tender (worker) goes inside the chamber with the patient. If the patient goes in not breathing, you do CPR, sometimes for hours.”

Shreeves has also volunteered at the Long Beach Aquarium, as a diver in the enclosures. Sometimes she would talk to the crowd in full mask; other duties included cleaning the tanks and feeding the eels, leopard sharks and other fish.

“The sharks were not that aggressive; they were fun to feed. The most aggressive fish, when it came to feeding time, were the yellowtail tunas – they would act like they were going to take off your hand; and the puffer fish – they won’t leave you alone and even try to eat your hair.”

She didn’t feed the white-tipped reef sharks, Shreeves said. “They didn’t want those sharks to associate divers with food.”

Her favorite places to dive have been St. Lucia and the tropics; she would love to go shark diving in a cage, and has always wanted to go ice diving in the Arctic.

“Karl does a lot of cave exploration. He named a room (in a cave) he discovered after me - Shawn’s Room – and one after our god-daughter - Corey's Corridor - both in the Yucatan Peninsula. He does more extreme diving than I do, but he is very careful. He likes to do things that are risky, but not in a risky way, if you know what I mean.

“It’s a really fun, edgy sport. It’s a little labor intensive, but worth it.”

Shreeves gets a faraway look in her eyes when describing the pleasures of scuba diving.

“I’ve been sitting at 20 feet and I’ve had to remind myself to pay attention. You’re weightless; you’re floating; it’s so beautiful; it was completely relaxing. It’s kind of a dream world.”
  

Girlhood dream comes true: Patti Weekes and Black Magic

2008-08-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

When Patti Weekes was a little girl, she slept with a copy of The Black Stallion tucked under her pillow, and dreamed. In her dreams, it was she, not the book’s main character Alec, who rode the black Arabian stallion through adventures in faraway lands.

Fast forward to 2004. Weekes was looking for a horse to buy, a Palomino, the same kind of horse her dad had bought for her as a girl in Oregon. A friend showed her a videotape of a gleaming 31/2 year old black stallion for sale in Ventura. She thought immediately of the Walter Farley book about the beautiful Arabian stallion called simply The Black. “It was like that horse rode right out of my dreams. When I saw him, I knew it was meant to be,” Weekes said.
 
She drove up to Ventura Farms to see the stallion, bought him (he was a gift from her parents), and had him gelded. But he was young and wild – unridden and untrained. “If I were to see that video today, with him running wild in that paddock, I would think I was a little crazy to take him on,” she joked.

But Weekes never has been one to run from a challenge. When she was 12, her dad bought her a horse, a half-Arabian Palomino. The horse was 2 years old and “green broke” (unridden). “I was bucked off seven times that day, but you know, you just keep getting back on.”

She had taken riding lessons at 7 and 8, and competed in shows. When she was a teenager, her family kept two horses on 500 acres in Oregon. “I would get up in the morning, jump on a horse, and no one would see me for 10 hours. I have some Chippewa blood, so I guess it was the Indian in me, going off and exploring.”

Weekes moved to Southern California 23 years ago. “Orange County is not conducive to horses. To have a horse in this area seemed impossible, because you have to keep them in stalls. That is not a natural way of living for a horse.”

In the years since Weekes moved here, the amount of space set aside for horses in Orange County has shrunk dramatically. According to a recent article in the Orange County Register, 18 stables have closed since 1984. Today, there are about 7,000 horses in Orange County, and 31 stables.

Weekes began working at Saddleback College in 1986 in the Learning Assistance Program. She met other employees who loved horses, and began vacationing at an Arizona dude ranch regularly with a Saddleback friend.

She began taking jumping lessons at Sycamore Trails stable in San Juan Capistrano. One of her friends, Sheri Nelson, leased a horse at the stable. Weekes agreed to share the lease when Nelson was thrown from the horse and broke her leg in 13 places. Nelson’s disability left Weekes to take over care for the animal, and she began to think about owning her own horse.

“I started looking for a horse, and pretty soon I got that tape from a friend.” Enchanted with the beauty and wild spirit of her young horse, Weekes named him Black Magic and enlisted the help of veteran horse trainer Vicki Rea of Rea Equisports to help her train and tame Black Magic.

It was a daunting task. “I couldn’t ride him for six months; but we worked with him and at the end of the first year, we entered him in a dressage show, with Vicki as the rider.” While they were preparing Black Magic for his dressage debut, the horse stepped backward, putting his leg through a plastic chair. Startled, he jumped, throwing Rea, who had been climbing into the saddle at the time. Black Magic suffered a cut, the trainer broke her shoulder and a couple of fingers, and Weekes was left in charge of her wayward horse until Rea recovered.

“The first and only dressage show Magic was entered in ended before he actually got into the arena. The ambulance arriving to take [Vicki] to the hospital was the moment that sticks in my mind.”

She took him to “trail camp,” riding him in a Western saddle. “He never made it off the property; he was too high strung. He is young, and everything is new.” She and Rea continue to work with him. Her goal is to be able to ride him on all the trails in the hills of South Orange County, and to take him to horse shows.

“I see him seven days a week, and I ride him five days. One day he has a lunge line lesson, and he gets one free day – Sunday recess. With a horse that has to be kept in a stall, you have to be there seven days. When I am on vacation, I pay someone to walk him.” She goes to the stable after work, from 6:30 PM to 9:30 or 10 PM. On weekends she goes early in the morning.

“I love it. Seeing my horse and riding him is like being on vacation – a little vacation every day.” Weekes has worked at the tutoring center for all 22 years she has been at Saddleback College. “It’s a great environment. Animals and education are my two passions.”

She must rush off now, as she has made a promise to the granddaughter of a co-worker, a little girl who is the right age to fall asleep with a Walter Farley novel under her pillow. “It’s almost time to meet Black Magic,” she tells the little girl. Almost time to visit the dream horse.

  

Noon on Sunday first performance

2008-08-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Noon on Sunday played to an enthusiastic reception at the Chancellor’s Open Session on August 19. They sounded great - at least what could be heard of them. If you closed your eyes, you might have imagined being in a cavernous sports arena rather than the intimate and acoustically superior Performing Arts Center. A little more tweaking of the sound equipment will be necessary to enhance any future rock-music performances.

Speaking of future rock performances, surely there must be an event in the near future where Noon on Sunday can display its talent to a Saddleback College audience.
  
Singer and guitarist Ruben Ramirez said the group hopes to continue practicing and learning new songs so that they might even be able to take audience requests. Ruben and the others might consider adding a few songs to the setlist that those of us “of a certain age” like to call “classic rock” rather than “oldies.”

In this spirit, I am offering up the first request for Noon on Sunday: the classic rock tune “Gloria,” original recording by Van Morrison/Them. The song has been covered by such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Santa Esmeralda (latin flavor!), Patti Smith, The Doors, Rickie Lee Jones and the Grateful Dead.

See the column at right for a brief video of Noon on Sunday’s performance. Also, I added a cut from Jake Munns’ CD “The Out Of Style Innocent” to the slide show of Jackie Zimbalist’s glass art.

I will be happy to promote your music, art, or photography on this blog, as long as there are no copyright infringements in your work. This applies to staff and faculty of the SOCCCD, of course. Email me.
  

Iron women - Kristin Emmett and Brandee Craig

2008-08-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

Brandee Craig running in the Half Ironman in Hawaii. Click photo to enlarge.

Kristin Emmett. Click photo to enlarge.

With Southern California’s near-perfect weather, it is not surprising that many Olympic and world-class athletes live and train here. The ability to play virtually any sport at any time of year also lures former athletes outdoors to stay fit and to test themselves in competition. Kristin Emmett and Brandee Craig are two such athletes.

Both women compete in the demanding sport of triathlon, a competition that combines running, swimming and bicycling. Emmett, student development office assistant at Irvine Valley College, has completed two triathlons. Craig, women’s soccer coach and PE instructor at Saddleback College, recently competed in a Half Ironman competition in Hawaii.
  
KRISTIN EMMETT

Emmett comes from a family of athletes, and as a youngster was a gymnast, played soccer, skied, danced, mountain biked and swam competitively for four years, from 6 to 10 years old. She competed in track and field at Woodbridge High School (triple and long jump), and also was a varsity cheerleader.

“My father and three brothers are all athletic. My entire family skis together and my brothers and I have been ski instructors at some point in our college years. My father is a cyclist and will be competing in his sixth 200-mile race from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in September. All three of my brothers have either run marathon or completed a triathlon.”

Emmett continued to swim recreationally into her teen and adult years, and set the goal of running a half-marathon a few years ago. She completed the Irvine Half Marathon in December 2006 and then the Salt Lake Half Marathon in April 2007. During 11 months of training three to six days a week, she suffered knee inflammation and had to cut back on running.

“Because of my knee injury, I decided to join my father and brothers in the sport of cycling. I got my first road bike for Christmas 2006. I really enjoy my bike and try to get out as often as I can.”

Now experienced in the three elements of triathlon, Emmett was interested when a friend told her about a triathlon being held in Irvine. She began working out, switching between running, cycling and swimming.

“The UCI triathlon was in February 2008. I was number 123, and my race time was 1 hour, 23 minutes. This was a backwards triathlon, with running first, 3.1 miles on an off-road course; biking 10 miles and swimming 250 yards, 10 lengths of the pool. I finished fourth in my age group. After my first race, I was hooked.”

Since then, she has competed in a “sprint” triathlon, held July 4.

Kristin in UCI Triathlon.

“To be competitive in the sport takes a lot of dedication and time. I have not yet felt the urge to be competitive. For now, I just enjoy my workouts and the time I spend with friends training; I continue to look online at active.com for other triathlons in the area. For now, I am just about finishing them; maybe one day I will worry more about the time and place I get in my age bracket.”

BRANDEE CRAIG

Like Emmett, Craig grew up with sports, swimming competitively in third grade at a club at Golden West College. “I was the youngest there; the other kids were in junior high. There were no girls to swim against, so I swam against the boys.”

After swimming, she went on to basketball, softball and soccer. Once she was in high school, she had to choose a sport, and that sport was soccer. After an outstanding soccer career at Edison High School, Craig played two years at Orange Coast College, where she was team captain and first team all-conference. She went on to San Francisco State for her junior and senior years, where she was team captain, team MVP and first-team all-conference both years. In 1991 she was first team all-Far West region.

In high school, one of her Edison teammates was Olympic and World Cup soccer player Joy Fawcett, while one of her opponents at Mission Viejo High School was Julie Foudy, another Olympic and World Cup player. Edison played Mission Viejo for the CIF championship, but the game ended in a tie. In college, Craig played against Foudy, Fawcett and Brandi Chastain, another legend in U.S. women’s soccer.

Craig continued to play soccer after college, playing with the Ajax women’s team, and also joining a couple of other teams in national cup competition.

She became interested in triathlons in 2000, when friends talked her into joining them in signing up for the Newport Beach Triathlon. “My friends said, ‘Let’s do a triathlon,’ and I was the only one who did it.” She had no biking experience, and had to borrow a friend’s bike.

A year later, she entered a triathlon in Hermosa Beach, and has competed regularly in triathlons every since. Her latest venture, on May 31, was the Half Ironman on the Kohala coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Brandee with husband DJ Norman.

The Half Ironman was so grueling, Craig said, that her first reaction after finishing was, “I’m glad I did it, but I’ll never do this again. I have no desire to do the full Ironman.”

To understand just how difficult was Craig’s accomplishment, it is necessary to see the progression from novice triathlete to Ironman competitor. Beginning triathletes likely will start with the “novice” distance, consisting of a 300-meter swim (about 11 pool laps), an 8k bike ride (about five miles), and a 2k run (a little more than a mile).

The next step up would be the “sprint” distance, comprising a half-mile open-water swim, 20k bike ride (12.4 mi) and 5k run (3.1 mi). The sprint distance is said to be the fastest growing triathlon distance in the U.S.

The Olympic, or international distance is about twice as long as the sprint, with 1.5k swim, 40k bike ride (nearly 24.8 mi), 10k run (6.2 mi).

The half Ironman comprises a total distance of 70.3 miles, with a 1.2 mi. swim, 56-mi. bike ride, followed by a 13.1 mi. run. This is the race that Craig finished in Hawaii.

The Big Daddy of them all is the full Ironman – a total 140.6 miles: 2.4 mi. swim, 112 mi. bike, 23.2 mi. run. But for the Ironman competition, particularly in Hawaii, it is not just the distances that are daunting.

Battling headwinds in Hawaii.

“There was 90% humidity, the winds were 25 to 35 mph, you had to contend with head winds on the bike; and then there was the vog – volcanic smog – which made it difficult to breathe. I did a lot of walking on that run, because part of the run was on a golf course. It was difficult because the surface was soft and uneven.”

To prepare for the Half Ironman, Craig trained for six months, working out from 2.5 to 6 hours per day. She would come in early to swim in the Saddleback pool; teach a spin class (stationary bike), and also teach cardio kick boxing. Weekends she would go on a long run or bike ride. Occasionally she would have a “brick workout” – a long bike ride leading into a run. “It’s very hard going from the bike to a run – it is something you have to train for.”

The training is not only physically tough, it is emotionally draining, Craig said. “I’m fortunate. In my job, I work out. I know people who get up at 4 am to work out, work out at lunch, then work out again after work. Their spouses never see them. My husband, who is a runner, is very supportive.”

She hired Saddleback football coach Lito Soifua as a personal trainer for her 6-month training regimen. Soifua is the “backs” coach, and the strength and conditioning coach. “He kicked my butt for six months; a lot of my success I attribute to his training.”

Right after the race, she drank chocolate milk as her recovery drink, and had an ice bath. “I was not sore the next day.”

Craig already is working with the women’s soccer team, and is scheduling triathlons between soccer games. “That half Ironman was a confidence builder for me. I learned a lot about myself in that race – what my limits are, and how to push those limits.”

Why triathlons? “For me to work out and stay fit, I need to have an end goal, so triathlons are my motivation. I’m not technically ADD, but it’s hard for me to sit still.”

And although she vowed immediately after the Half Ironman that she wouldn’t do it again, Craig today is not so sure.

“I don’t know- it’s quite a commitment, and quite a challenge. But, if the timing was right, I might do it again.”

  

First gig for Noon On Sunday

2008-08-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

Noon On Sunday: from left, Sonja Wyche, Ruben Ramirez, Jim Laurie, Michael O'Meara, Jake Munns. Click photo to enlarge.

A rock group made up of district employees will play at the Chancellor’s fall opening session at Irvine Valley College on Tuesday, August 19. Called Noon On Sunday, the group members are Michael O’Meara, graphic designer, Jim Laurie, systems manager in HR, and Jake Munns, Ruben Ramirez, and Sonja Wyche, HR specialists. Noon On Sunday is first on the program, which starts at 8:30 AM.

Drawing by Greg Rankin. Click picture to enlarge.

Two of the group members, O’Meara and Munns, were profiled in the very first edition of this blog (see archives). Two others, Ramirez and Wyche, tell a little bit about their backgrounds. JUST ADDED: the elusive Jim Laurie.
  

JIM LAURIE

“I used to play drums but I am currently experimenting with an electronic drum pad called a Roland HandSonic. It is a small drum pad about the size of a large dinner plate and has different areas on the surface that can be programmed to sound like different instruments. With Noon-on-Sunday I’ve been trying to play what sounds like a normal drum kit – it’s just that I play it with my hands instead of sticks.

”I started playing in the late sixties; In the mid-seventies, I was the drummer in a rock band named Fiasco. We played for about two years and had developed quite a following; we ended up headlining a concert with three other bands at the Orange County Fairgrounds with about 4,000 people in attendance. Perhaps the fame got to our heads: we broke up shortly after that. I then worked with some friends for a couple of years on originals, but never went any further with it.

”I don’t play other instruments, but I provide sound effects and basic rhythms for my brother, who is a performance artist.

”My musical background and influences started with my dad’s record collection of musicians like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa (my dad played drums in a jazz band when he was in the air force in WWII). He bought me my first drum kit when I was 14, and the purchase came with 6 weeks of lessons - that is the extent of my musical training. For the next 5-6 years it was just me playing along with records or occasionally with some of my friends who played acoustic guitars.

”I like almost all genres of music but prefer rock-n-roll/blues, especially when you can tell that the musicians are taking risks and challenging themselves.

”I have a couple of favorite groups: King Crimson and Jeff Beck.

”I have been influenced by different groups at different times, starting with the Buddy Rich Orchestra, then in the 60s, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cream and The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa), in the 70s Led Zeppelin, The Who and Yes, 80s King Crimson and Talking Heads. Currently, it is Jeff Beck.

”The most influential group for me was Cream. I was fortunate enough to have seen them at the LA Forum in ’68 and was totally blown away.

”I find that when I am playing, there are those certain moments where it all comes together, the sound, the emotions, feeling connected to others, etc. You don’t get very many of those kinds of experiences in life and so when they do come it sticks with you.”

RUBEN RAMIREZ

“I have been a musician for over 15 years. I play the guitar, bass, piano, drums and vocals. For this District project I am singing, playing the guitar and bass. I mostly work as a solo artist singer-songwriter. My solo project is called “Casting Catastrophes” and I hope to have my album finished by mid-2009. I agreed to participate in this District project because I thought it would be fun to get all of us together and see what we could do with it.

“My personal musical background and influences vary from early punk rock to modern indie/experimental rock. Music is definitely one of the most important things in my life. It has gotten me through some pretty tough times. I have a lot of fond memories of playing in my younger years. I was an avid participant of the late 90’s punk scene in Los Angeles with my band at the time, “Negative Attention.” We played shows at the Whisky and various venues in L.A. Those were good and crazy times. My music has mellowed out over the years, though, and my songwriting mostly revolves around my tumultuous relationships with the fairer sex; in fact, the title of my debut album is “Life, Love and Other Catastrophes.”

SONJA WYCHE

“I was first introduced to the wonderful world of stringed instruments when I started playing the violin in elementary school. I gave it up after junior high, but taught myself how to play guitar when I was fifteen (with a little help from my dad), and have enjoyed it ever since. (Dad, Dennis Wyche, works at Saddleback College.)

I weaseled my way into the guys’ group here by promising them I could learn the bass. I have – sort of. It’s been a fantastic experience and I’d like to start taking lessons so I can fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a rock star.

“I love to sing loudly in the shower and also like to torture people in karaoke bars. There’s really no genre of music I don’t like, provided it’s good music. My favorite of all favorites, I’d have to say, is Bob Dylan. He is the most incredible lyricist who ever lived, in my opinion, and he has had such a profound influence on contemporary rock and pop. He’s worked in so many genres and constantly reinvented himself. More to the point, his music is just incredibly moving. I love strong female artists like Lauryn Hill and ani di franco; the blues, classic rock like Led Zeppelin, and lately I’ve been listening to a lot of modern bluegrass.

“I love music because it moves you, can make you cry, can make you feel better, can make you feel less alone, and can make you get up and dance!”

O’Meara and Munns give their take on what it’s like to play in a band with co-workers:

MICHAEL O'MEARA

“Before we got together as a band, we were friends by proximity on the third floor (district offices in the Health Science building at Saddleback College) and by working with each other.

”Usually when a band begins, it starts with one or two players; then, one at a time, you ask a musician to play with you so that you can see if you gel musically and get along. Or you might have heard someone perform and you invite them to audition with you. (Sometimes THEY audition YOU.) Some join, and others get the “We’ll call you” boot.

”But we got together on a whim—a wing and a prayer—hoping that we would sound okay. Before we ever played together, we came up with a list of songs we'd like to play. Then we decided on a few and each person learned the tunes on their own.

”We first got together for an acoustic rehearsal. Noon on Sunday — that happens to be our rehearsal time, but you can read whatever you want into it. Well, we sounded good enough to continue, so the next rehearsal we brought in the drums. Jim showed up with this electronic drum kit about the size of a 'Simon.' When I first saw it, my first reaction was like the police captain in Jaws: 'We're gonna need a bigger boat.' But as Jim played, I was astounded at how good he sounded on this 'thing.' It's going to be a hoot for the audience to experience this.

”It’s a lot of fun building something musical with people who have been your friends for years. And it’s going to be fun performing for our friends at the District and the Colleges. We're playing songs that are more recent than the songs I used to play in decades past. Who says you can't learn new tricks?"

JAKE MUNNS

“As Michael said, I think that all five of us would agree that playing in a band with a handful of people that we have known primarily as coworkers for the last 3-4 years is a bit surreal. Add to this the fact that we were born in various decades, grew up listening to significantly different styles of music, and the fact that we have everything from pros to rookies playing in this band, and the title of ‘eclectic’ is probably an understatement.

”As you and I discussed for one of your previous posts in your blog, I have had some experience with performing in bands, but that was back in college (and years immediately following); a group of guys in their early 20’s with a decent amount of free time on their hands is a lot more simple than trying to form a band in your ‘spare time,’ which is almost non-existent. That being said, playing together once a week for a couple of months makes it tough to put together a set list, especially when our first ‘gig’ is at the request of the Chancellor and the audience is going to be comprised of as many as a few dozen to a few hundred co-workers and other SOCCCD employees. Whose idea was this again?

”Apparently, word has already started getting around. Every so often, I’ll run across a fellow SOCCCD employee and they’ll say something along the lines of, ‘Are you guys really putting together a District band and playing at the Chancellor’s Opening Session? Oh, I have got to see this.’ Now, please note that some are genuinely excited, where others are probably just looking for a chance to point and laugh. Either way, this is a chance for everyone to see some of their coworkers in a way they’ve never been seen before.”

Don’t miss it!

The Noon On Sundays cartoon was drawn by Greg Rankin, an animator for Nickelodeon, who is a friend of Sonja Wyche’s. To see more of his work, click here to visit his website: Greg Rankin’s website
  

Living the life equestrienne - Linda Renne

2008-08-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

Every morning before dawn, Linda Renne rolls out of bed, pulls on her boots, and climbs into her car for the short drive to the dusty stables where her white-faced, 1400-lb “baby” waits for her. A dappled gray gelding is waiting for her to feed, groom and ride him, a routine she follows weekdays and weekends, in good weather or bad.

Two hours later, Renne (Re-NAY) hops back into her car and heads home for a quick change of clothes more suitable for her fulltime job as a senior administrative assistant in the counseling department at Irvine Valley College.

After work, Renne returns to “Guapo,” as she calls him affectionately, to clean his stall, feed him his evening supplements, and exercise him. It’s hard work. But it’s not a burden, Renne said.

“I love it.”
 
Renne rides her horse not just for pleasure, but to work and condition him for international competition in three-day “eventing,” an equestrian event comprising dressage, cross country and stadium jumping. In dressage, the first of the three phases, the horse and rider must perform a series of 15 or more different movements. The horse’s delicate footwork must be precise, his demeanor relaxed, and horse and rider must be in perfect sync.

The second phase, cross country, requires speed, endurance and jumping ability as the horse and rider navigate a long outdoor course marked by obstacles such as walls, fences, ditches, drops, and ponds. Stadium jumping is the third phase, consisting of 12-20 jumps over fences in an enclosed area.

Eventing is an arduous, often dangerous sport, mostly because of the cross-country phase of the competition. Since 2006, a dozen riders have died, both in the U.S. and internationally, while negotiating cross-country courses. Injuries and fatalities are on the rise, some say, because of the increasing interest in the sport, drawing newer and less experienced riders. Participation in eventing competitions in the U.S. alone has increased by 36 percent over the past decade, according to The New York Times.

Renne herself no longer competes in eventing, but she said her main concern is for the safety of her horse and his rider. “I walk every course that my horse competes in, to check the conditions and the hazards. I’m very careful, very conservative about it, and so is my rider.” She believes it is vital for both horse and rider that their physical and respiratory fitness levels be higher than what is required for competition performance. “A fit horse with a tired rider can result in disaster.”

Horses have been her passion since she was a young girl growing up in Southern California. “My parents bought a horse when I was 7, and every day I would walk two and a half miles to the stables. I rode bareback for two or three years until I finally got a saddle. That actually helped me develop very good balance.”

As a teenager she competed in horse shows and gymkhana, and has owned several different breeds of horses over the years. She has ridden western, saddleseat, sidesaddle and jumping saddles. Renne also has done endurance riding – races over distance. The longest she has gone has been 50 miles.

She remembers riding in the Santa Monica mountains and along the beach near Paradise Cove in Malibu. “One of the many fabulous memories I have from those days is riding bareback in my bikini and swimming my horse through the swells at high tide toward Catalina Island, and then turning around and riding the swells back to shore. The horse loved it, and so did I.”

After high school, she moved to Utah for a few years; then up to Santa Cruz after marriage. During that time, she did not ride. It was only after her divorce that she got back in the saddle again, at the urging of her cousin’s girlfriend. Then she met someone who competed in eventing, and she was hooked. Renne bought a horse and got back into the equestrian lifestyle.

“I hadn’t done much jumping, but my friend Dawn taught me all about dressage and eventing, so I did that for a while. My horse had been a race horse for a long time, but eventually, I couldn’t keep him in a stable any longer because of his health. I needed to find another place for him to stay.”

She ended up trading him to a friend for a mare named Lady, a horse with a questionable disposition. “I didn’t really like this horse at all; however, it was that horse or no horse, so I took her on. I worked and worked with her, and all the effort paid off big time - she turned out to be the most fabulous horse. I have a very good touch with horses; I understand them. Never rush with horses - it will lead to disaster. You can’t hurry.”

Lady proved to be an ideal mare – calm, responsive, eager to take on new tasks and adventures; in addition, she had proven thoroughbred bloodlines, so Renne decided to breed her. Lady’s foal is Renne’s “baby,” nicknamed Guapo, Spanish for “handsome.” As with Lady, Renne lavished Guapo with care, training, and love.

After undergoing knee replacement surgery, Renne decided to look for a rider to compete with Guapo in eventing, and found Matthias Schwarz, a former member of the German Eventing Team. “My horse adores him; there has to be a special trust between the horse and the rider to be successful in these competitions.”

Her love for horses led Renne to join the San Juan Capistrano Equestrian Coalition six years ago. The group aims to preserve the equestrian way of life in an increasingly urbanized region. She is studying to become a large-animal CERT team member, a specialized training unit built on the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which will certify her to help with large-animal rescue and relocation following major natural disasters such as wildfires and earthquakes.

She plans to continue to keep Guapo in top condition to compete in eventing as long as he seems to enjoy the sport. “If there was ever any indication that he didn’t want to compete, I’d stop. I want him to be happy and healthy.”

And so, after her workday comes to a close and her co-workers are driving back home to relax for the evening, Renne returns to the stables for another hour or two of grooming, feeding, riding, and otherwise attending to the needs of her equine companion. But it is all worth it. “There is nothing that I would rather be doing than this.”

Guapo has three product sponsors:

Triple Crown Nutrition
Ice Horse
Boeckmann of Germany

Watch a demonstration of Eventing:

  

Jacqueline Zimbalist - Renaissance Woman

2008-07-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Jacqueline Zimbalist, left, in "Dandelion Wine."

After Jacqueline Zimbalist finishes her eight hours as an administrative assistant in the district’s Purchasing Department, her day is just beginning. Depending on the day, she might head over to the co-op art gallery in Laguna Beach where she sells fused glass and other art; or buy materials to construct her booth for the winter Sawdust Festival; or go home to labor over a screenplay she is re-writing.

She might rush to a location shoot where she is volunteering on a low-budget horror film; or work on a strategy for filming a documentary for her master’s thesis project. Also on her “to do” list are the molds for the chandelier she is designing for the Irvine Valley College’s Performing Arts Center.

“I guess I do have a lot going on,” she said with a laugh. “I have a lot of interests.”
  
In a way, her abundance of talents led to her failing her freshman year at Cal State University, Long Beach. “I was bored, and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do.” But the Orange County native enrolled at Saddleback College, taking art classes along with the general education courses she needed for her bachelor’s degree; she eventually earned that degree at CSULB, and later a teaching credential from Concordia University.

“I had wanted to teach since high school; it was a matter of which subject. I was pretty good in math, but a math major required too much science, so I ended up with a degree in English.” She was sent on K-12 substitute teaching assignments for three years, but was unable to secure a permanent position.

Zimbalist finally gave up on teaching, taking a job with the INS, and later with the SOCCCD. All along, she wrote in her spare time, mostly screenplays. She had written poetry and short stories since elementary school, and had loved the movies as a child. “I would remember weird stuff, like directors’ names, or who did the costume design.”

She is in the process of re-writing and polishing a script. "I inherited it from my ex (Don). His family was in the film industry, and he wrote for MGM and worked for Warner Brothers." It is just one of the many projects she is working on simultaneously.

She has taken classes on screenwriting, video production lighting and other aspects of filmmaking, and is helping out with the making of “Homeless Joe,” a horror film being shot on locations around Orange County, including the Saddleback College campus. Volunteering on the student-made film is giving her practical experience in film production, which she needs in order to put together her own documentary on the life of Philip K. Dick, science fiction author on whose book the cult classic movie “Blade Runner” was based. The documentary will serve as her thesis proposal for her master’s degree in English.

Zimbalist is no stranger to acting, either. In 2005, she appeared at the Huntington Beach Art Center as Leona Auffmann in the play “Dandelion Wine,” a work loosely based on the life of science fiction/fantasy author Ray Bradbury. “There was no one to play the mad scientist part, so it was changed to a female one. Ray Bradbury came, and he signed our playbooks.”

On July 26, she appeared at a Drama West showcase at the Edendale Library on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, reading from “The Sunset Plays, A Trilogy: Chatter,” written by Catherine Stanley, producer at Drama West, and a classmate in one of Zimbalist’s classes at Saddleback. “I played a Valley girl,” Zimbalist said. “It’s all in the lower lip.”

The sideline on which she spends the most time is art. Besides fused glass, she has experience with photography, pastels and oil painting. Zimbalist has been working with fusing glass for about two years, and has joined with 19 other artists to open and run Artist Eye Laguna Gallery, at the corner of Cress and Pacific Coast Highway. Besides fused glass, the gallery sells paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and photography.

Besides making pieces to sell, Zimbalist donates her work to worthy causes. She donated two plates to two employees for classified employee day. She donated a glass bowl to New Hope Children’s Community, which supports an orphanage in Kenya. One of the fundraiser’s organizers is Shawn Shreeves, senior administrative assistant in IT.

“The orphanage’s children are currently in two separate locations, Kisumu and Nairobi, in the Dandora slum area. This fundraiser was to earn money to build a security wall around the Kisumu property so all the kids can live there and will be safer from the gangs and crime in Nairobi. Both orphanage locations were attacked in the recent political uprisings in Kenya,” Shreeves said. Shreeves and Tamara King, also of district IT, serve on the board of directors for New Hope.

“Jackie donated a beautiful brown and beige glass bowl which perfectly fit our ‘Nairobi Nights’ African theme,” Shreeves said.

Zimbalist is also making molds for a three-piece glass chandelier she is making for Irvine Valley College’s new Performing Arts Center. “I’m still working on that one. It’s a month-long project.” The chandelier will be donated to the college.

Over the next couple of years, she will be expanding her selling venues to places like San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point.

(Top photo: Zimbalist as Leona Auffmann in "Dandelion Wine" at the Huntington Beach Art Center; bottom photo, in costume with author Ray Bradbury.)

  

The Art of Film, Scott's Way

2008-07-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

When he’s not working his day job at Saddleback College, Scott Ferguson Greene might be networking with such Hollywood notables as actress Laura Dern or director Steven Soderbergh. Or he might be producing a short film. He might even be directing an awards show for Directors Guild of America.

Although Greene spent much of his youth as an actor on the east coast, the recession of the early 1990’s ended his nationally syndicated TV series, leaving him broke and disheartened. But he still had the acting bug. So it is not surprising that he moved west to Orange County, home to sunshine and Saddleback College, and freeway-close to Hollywood.

“I decided if I was going to be put out on the street, I was going to be where it was warm,” Greene said.
  
Perhaps it was his destiny to be in film. His hometown, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was the childhood home of The Sundance Kid (Harry Longbaugh), the western outlaw immortalized in the 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid." The 1958 movie "The Blob" was filmed at his elementary school, as was the just-released M. Night Shyamalan offering, "The Happening."

Just outside of historic Valley Forge, Phoenixville is host to History Channel trucks every summer. “It was a fantastic place to grow up for kids – football and baseball in the summer, winter snowball fights, playing in the streets with no worries about traffic. There was also a great appreciation for history and culture and the arts.”

He and his classmates put on plays for the school, and he was enlisted to be a projectionist at movie hour. “At an early age, I developed a love for the arts, film, theater and television.”

Greene’s first acting job came when he was 6, on stage in Reading, Pennsylvania. He played a salesman. “I flubbed my line, and the audience thought it was funny. From that moment on, I wanted to be an actor. I also wanted to play football and did, but I wanted to act when my football-playing days were over.”

His first television gig came at 13, in Massachusetts. “I didn’t like how I looked on TV, but I liked being in the studio.” Later, he was in commercials, including promos for the long-running classic TV series "MASH."

His acting experience led to a job as an actor and assistant director on the nationally syndicated TV show "Crime Stoppers 800," from 1989 to 1992. “I played a well dressed cop. The set was similar to the one on the series "Barney Miller." I didn’t have a lot of lines; they wanted me to look good.” But the poor economy doomed the series. “The company that backed the show ran out of money. We knew there was trouble when the makeup artists were gone, and the actors had to put on their own makeup.”

Greene says he became the stereotypical starving actor, surviving on Ramen noodles and cans of peas, working as a supermarket supervisor. He still worked occasional stage performances – "42nd Street," "Glass Menagerie," "The Wiz." But when his landlord raised the rent, it was California or bust. “I got on a bus and came out here. I had nothing to lose.”

Eventually he scraped up enough money to quit living on the beach and enrolled at Saddleback College in fall 1995. He took his first class in German (the language of his grandmother and two sets of great-grandparents) and his second class in screenwriting.

Within three years, he had directed his first documentary, "The Reel People," and won four awards. "The Reel People" profiled two actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The documentary began as a class assignment, but turned into an independent film project.

He has directed four episodes of a TV sitcom at Saddleback College – "Heartbreak Café," and recently produced two independent short films, "Second Chance" and "Remembrance." This fall, Greene directed a short film, "All Blood Runs Red," a dramedy very loosely based on him growing up with a German grandma.

Greene is a member of Film Independent, an organization that counsels and helps independent filmmakers, and strives for a diverse pool of directors. In addition, for the last four years he has directed a special project – an awards show for the Directors Guild of America. “I was privileged to work with Laura Dern, Vincent Spano, Alexander Payne and Jason Schwartzman. I enjoy the DGA project so much because I get to meet so many people and network with other directors.”

Scott Ferguson Greene Q&A on Film

Who are your favorite directors and why?
John Ford, because he used his locations as extra characters in his films. Every single one of his films was beautifully shot because John Ford carefully picked his locations for his films. He also liked to work with his ‘company’ of cast and crew – in other words, he liked to work with the same talented people whose chemistry of working each other and working well together made his films second-to-none. John Ford cared about making movies, and didn’t care about the celebrity trappings that with it. Sydney Pollack, because he was an “actor’s director.” I met him at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills three years ago and had a nice conversation with him. I was sad when I heard that he had passed. Martin Scorcese, because he not only directs really great films, but he does more for film preservation than any high profile person in Hollywood.

What are your five favorite movies?
"Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "Casablanca, High Road to China," and "The Verdict."

Who are the documentary-makers that you admire, and why?
For television, it’s Ken Burns. Every documentary that he has done for Public Television has been superb. In my opinion, he has never done a documentary that hasn’t been flawless. "Baseball," "The Civil War," and "Jazz" have been my favorites. In theatrical film, I like Michael Moore. I met Michael Moore. I know he is controversial, but he has made absolute logical and right-on observations. I think "Bowling for Columbine" was his best documentary film and I think "Sicko" may prove to be his most prophetic.

Who are your favorite actors?
Golden Age of Hollywood, male: Cary Grant. He had that smooth sophistication, that look – yet he could do comedy like no other leading man. My favorite Cary Grant films: The "Philadelphia Story" and "His Girl Friday." Golden Age of Hollywood female: Katharine Hepburn – hands down. Miss Hepburn also used to be my sister’s client at Dry Dollar Bank in New York, and wrote me a short letter, which I still have. New Hollywood – male, Johnny Depp; female, Juliette Binoche.

Movies you consider to be the most influential of all time, and why.
"The Godfather." And that’s not necessarily a good thing. Gangster films have always been popular, and they certainly were in the 1930s, but "The Godfather" took hold in a way that no other gangster film has. It’s still shown more on TV (AMC) than “Leave It To Beaver” reruns. Of course, "The Godfather" led to “The Sopranos.” Now kids 11 and 12 years old think it’s cool to have guns. Stupid. Gangster life should never be glorified.

The other film that I think was very influential right down to this day is "Saturday Night Fever." For the first time, it told young people that it was O.K. “to bring attention to yourself.” It’s been that way ever since. Forget the fact that disco died four years later, the influence of style, dress, dance, social togetherness, and self-attention never went away – and that was all because of "Saturday Night Fever."

What is the most underrated aspect of film-making?
The writing of the screenplay never gets credit, and so it’s not considered part of filmmaking – and it should. But I think that the use of lighting is a vastly underrated part of filmmaking. A good director will work with his Director of Photography and Key Grip in pre-production to get a great lighting design that speak volumes in every scene of the film. Look at the movie "Casablanca" and how the lighting is used there. And sure, it’s easier to use lights and shadows with black-and-white film. But take, for example, how the lighting is used in a color film like "The Verdict." It’s brilliantly done.

  

Teaching Math on YouTube - Larry Perez

2008-07-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

Photo by Michael O'Meara.

Back in 2002, math professor Larry Perez puzzled over why so many of his students were failing his pre-algebra class. One fact was clear: the typical Calculus student was a world apart from a student laboring over remedial math. What could he do to reach those students who had a shaky grasp of basic math skills but were afraid to ask for help?

After surveying his students at Saddleback College, talking to other math instructors, and reading widely on the subject, Perez came up with a unique style of math video that has become so popular that his videos have had more than 110,000 views on YouTube and TeacherTube in two years. And many of those “hits” have been from internet users who are not enrolled in his math classes.

At first, Perez said, he had no intention of using anything digital to help his failing pre-algebra students. “I had little faith in the digital media that existed at that time. My goal was simply to listen to what the students were saying in an attempt to define their needs.”
 
His project focuses on students who choose not to take an online class because they prefer a person in a classroom speaking to them. He wanted to bring the advantages of online materials to students who were not taking online classes. So he created these resources as supplements to his regular lectured classes. “These students need to have that human element that both challenges and engages them.” Students watch the videos at home to supplement lessons learned in class or to review concepts before a test.

Math videos have been around for a long time, and instructional CDs frequently are included with new math textbooks. However, most students said they didn’t watch the videos because they were just too boring, Perez said.

In most math videos, the instructor speaks directly to the viewer, while presentations are displayed on a board behind the presenter. Perez said he has learned from years of teaching that asking questions of students in the classroom creates anxiety. He decided to change this dynamic in his videos by having a colorful student character named Charlie; and that student would be …. him. Playing the role of teacher and student allows him to inject humor into the lesson, as well as see the lesson from the perspective of the student.

In addition to the videos, Perez provides worksheets and specially developed lecture notes as supplements for the class.

Perez, who had never taken a film production class, sought filmmaking advice from Charlie Myers, Communication Arts instructor, and got tips on equipment from Agustin Espinoza, network systems technician for Saddleback’s ITC.

“I helped him in the beginning when he was first starting. I gave him some advice on the software and hardware,” Espinoza said. “He put a lot of money in this, on his own. I am impressed with how much work he has put in on the project. He is so dedicated to his classroom and his subject.”

Espinoza’s daughter, a junior at San Clemente High School, needed help with her math homework last year. “It has been so long since I worked with those concepts. So I thought of the videos and said, ‘Let’s watch them.’ She really liked the videos – it helped.”

Perez, who was born and raised in Pico Rivera, said he was inspired by his junior high math teacher, Mr. Johnson. “No one would dare fool around in his classroom. He would sometimes talk about an imaginary student character named Charlie, especially when we did not get our homework done. Mr. Johnson would say, ‘I don’t want to hear that you left your homework in Charlie’s locker.’ “

After attending college for one year, unmotivated, Perez left and enlisted in the Navy. After serving six years aboard the USS Memphis, a Los Angeles class fast attack submarine, Perez came back to college, CSU Fullerton, majoring in electrical engineering.

At CSUF, his calculus instructor, Dr. Harriet Edwards, asked him to work in her Academic Excellence Program, emphasizing group work on challenging problems for calculus and pre-calc students. Although he had never wanted to be a teacher, working in that setting soon changed his mind. He attributes his success as a community college instructor and his current innovative methods to his years of experience working for Dr. Edwards.

In August, Perez and his team will unveil his newly revamped website, using not only his Prof. Perez and Charlie characters, but also pictures of current students. The site will be interactive, allowing students take online quizzes, showing them what topics they need to review. Students will have quick access to lecture notes, videos and video worksheets, as well.

Project coordinator is Perez; web design is by Patrick Quigley, math adjunct faculty; and Candice Jhu, adjunct faculty, who worked on lecture notes, video production and pedagogy development.

Click here to go to MuchoMath on YouTube
Click here to go to Algebra2Go
  

Rockin' Generation - Stan Breckenridge

2008-06-30T20:13:00.001-07:00

STAN BRECKENRIDGE

As a boy, Stan Breckenridge felt a little thrill when he walked by a piano, entranced by the rich wood of the instrument, and the black and white keys. Chills up his spine when he heard a beautiful song. He wangled a job sweeping up at the church, just so he could get a chance to play the church piano. Breckenridge never had a formal lesson – he played by ear.

Today, a professor at CSU Fullerton and Irvine Valley College, a performer and composer, and a Fulbright Scholar, he still is in the thrall of music, needing and loving to perform. “I just have a desire to play music. I have performed for such a long time – I can capture an audience. The secret is that people love to see you doing what you love to do. I’m up there because I love to be there.”
  Born in Kansas City, Breckenridge moved with his family to California in 1955. His father bought a house in Compton on the GI bill. He grew up just as rock ‘n’ roll was taking hold in America, and as an adolescent listened to such “Motown Sound” groups as the Temptations, the Contours, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. In sixth grade, he and his best friends formed a singing group modeled after their favorite singers, the Temptations. They wore suits and black silk shirts, and they could dance with synchronized precision. “We lip-synched back then,” Breckenridge recalled. “We didn’t quite have those intricate harmonies down, yet. But I remember we were definitely established by 7th grade, because we performed at a contest in the gym, and the girls screamed.” They called themselves The Sematics.

The following year, his parents bought a Baldwin organ from Sears, a double-level organ with bass pedals. “I knew a little about electronics, so I rigged up a headset that plugged into the back so I could stay up until midnight playing that organ, without disturbing the rest of the household.”

The Sematics continued to perform and improve. Breckenridge, also a member of the Southern California Youth Chorale, traveled to Japan with the chorale. “That broadened my horizons culturally. It was a turning point.”

When Breckenridge was a junior in high school, The Sematics won the “Super Pepsi Battle of the Bands” contest, which is comparable to today’s American Idol television show. The contest, held in the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, was hosted by radio and TV personality Sam Riddle, and featured celebrities such as Bill Cosby and Moms Mabley. The group won prize money, a car and a recording contract with Universal; the contest also led to many singing engagements and two TV variety shows. On the TV shows, they appeared with such stars as Nancy Sinatra, Greg Morris (Mission Impossible), comedians Rowan and Martin (Laugh-In) and numerous other celebrities. The Sematics also performed in the Watts Summer Festival, where they met one of their heroes – David Ruffin, of the Temptations.

Breckenridge already had decided to go to college, so he entered CSU Fullerton in 1970, immediately after graduating high school. He began to perform solo, appearing with different bands, including a disco band in the 1970’s. He performed in Japan a second time, played several engagements on the coast, and became sought after as a piano player.

After he graduated from CSUF in 1974, the Afro-Ethnic Studies department asked him to teach part-time. He taught piano, continued performing, and also taught at CSUF until 1979, when he went back to school (Claremont Graduate University) to get his master’s degree and doctorate in Musicology. “I wanted to arm myself with knowledge. I felt it was essential as an African-American to get as much quality education as I could. Arm yourself with everything possible to at least come in second place.”

In 2005, Breckenridge was selected as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Poland, where he lectured at institutions in Warszawa, Krakow, Lublin, Chelm, Pulawy, and Poznan. He has also written two university textbooks, African American Music for Everyone, and Popular Music in America: Forging the American Spirit. He has five CD’s, including a current release called This Is My Song, and a Christmas CD titled A Soulful Christmas is scheduled to be released in September.

His next concert is scheduled for CSUF’s Meng Hall on October 25. It is a benefit concert to fund international study scholarships for Afro-Ethnic Studies majors. “I was fortunate; my parents gave me the opportunity to travel to Japan. You find that people don’t see you the same way you are viewed here. You can be stifled by being limited to that viewpoint. That is something you can’t learn in college – you have to experience it.”

His goal is to annually perform one or two concerts in the U.S., and two or three concerts overseas. He is hoping to return to Poland in December for another concert, and also to travel to South Africa to participate in an international exchange program with Mandela University. He will also continue to record original material and produce other musicians.

Returning to the subject of rock ‘n’ roll, he pondered rock music’s hold on his generation and beyond. “I put a dividing line on rock ‘n’ roll before the 1950’s and after. Culture from the 1950’s on – it’s more the attitude than it is the musical style. It’s an attitude, a freedom of expression through your instrument (including voice). Rock ‘n’ roll represents a time in their lives from 14 to 18, when things weren’t as serious; when they were discovering the world, the opposite gender, themselves; you can recall the person you once were. You still have that kid inside you.”

(Pictured above: The Sematics, pictured in 1969, shortly after winning the Pepsi competition: standing, from left, Steven Rice, John Daniels, Sterling Rice. Seated: Stan Breckenridge.)

Stan's links:
Official website
Available audio CD's

  

Rockin' Generation - Ted Leath

2008-06-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

TED LEATH

If you have been walking about the Saddleback campus at lunch time, you may have encountered Ted Leath, practicing on his Martin Backpacker guitar. Looking a bit like some sort of eastern European instrument, the Backpacker is a trail guitar with a full-size neck.

Ted was born in Long Beach over 50 years ago, the same year that Disneyland opened, and lived very near the park for the next 28 years. He played accordion in his youth, and eventually took up the guitar in his teens. In 1983, Ted and his wife Melanie moved to her native Northern Ireland where he lived in worked before coming to the District in 2007. Ted worked for the University of Ulster for 21 years, and will return to the university this month after working in district IT for about three years.
 Ted had the mid-life opportunity to perform in a rock band named "The Nameless" from
1990 to 1995, writing songs, playing guitar and singing. A few of the high points
during this time would have been:

- Appearing on radio and TV.
- Playing two years at the Greenbelt Arts Festival in England, opening on main stage the second year for the likes of Bob Geldof and Tori Amos.
- Being personally presented with "Musician of the Night" at a local Battle of the Bands by Dave Fanning (Irish DJ and "discoverer" of U2. The famous DJ knelt and kissed Ted's hand upon presentation.
- Recording a CD engineered by the lead singer of well-known local punk band "The Undertones.”

Ted also had a movie review program on a local TV station in Northern Ireland named "Chris and Ted's Excellent Movie Reviews," and was a regular consultant with the BBC (radio) on technical and American matters.

In 1999, Ted created one of the largest on-line community image libraries in the world, consisting of around 3,800 images of northwest Ireland.

  

Rockin': Jake Munns, Dave Anderson, Dana Manley

2008-06-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Part Two of Three Parts

JAKE MUNNS

A football player at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, SOCCCD HR Specialist Jake Munns didn’t give rock ‘n’ roll much thought until his sophomore year. His then-girlfriend heard him singing in the car and said, “You have a good voice.” At her behest, he joined the choir, and liked it so much that he eventually quit football. He continued singing with the concert choir and the Madrigals at Golden West College. While studying for his bachelor’s degree at Cal State University Monterey Bay, he and his friends formed a band, which they named Pepperstomp.

Pepperstomp spent four years playing together – at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and in the Monterey area at night clubs, private parties, campus events and political rallies. “We played a type of alternative rock. It was unique, because each of us had significantly different musical influences. We got to play the Monterey Rock and Art Festival, and lots of college shows.

“The down side was that in Monterey, the preferred style of music is blues and jazz. (CSU) Monterey Bay is very small, so besides the small number of students, Monterey was mostly retired people and tourists. There was a small alternative newspaper called the Coast Weekly. They kind of took us under their wing because they were so glad to have a rock band around. They would write about our shows, and encourage us.”

Read on for the rest of Jake's profile, and for profiles of Dave Anderson and Dana Manley.

Munns originally had planned to stay in Monterey for only the two years it would take to finish school, but the success of Pepperstomp gave him a reason to stay in the area; and he also met his wife-to-be, who was working on a degree at Monterey Bay.

He was working fulltime in Human Resources at Monterey Peninsula Community College, a job that allowed him the flexibility to come in late the morning following his late-night gigs. “There came a point where I noticed that while I was performing, I would feel dizzy and nauseous. Finally I went in for medical tests, and they told me I had an AVM, arteriovenous malformation.”

AVMs are defects of the circulatory system, a condition of snarled tangles of arteries and veins that develops before or shortly after birth. He had a golf ball-sized artery in his left temporal lobe. “There I was, at 24, lying in the hospital with a 96-year-old man on one side, and a guy on the other side coughing out his lungs.”

The doctors decided that surgery was not necessary, but he was told to take it easy, and come in for CAT scans frequently. “I was not able to perform with the intensity that rock requires, so instead we had small, casual shows, acoustic sets.” By this time, the group had put out a CD, and they were invited by the local radio station to play live in the studio.

“That was a good experience, playing in the studio. When we started out, we did mostly covers. Later, we all started writing songs. We were able to put on two-hour shows with most of our own material.”

After his wife-to-be graduated, Munns left Pepperstomp behind, and the couple moved to Orange County. “In my free time, I started writing solo, and built my own recording studio in a bedroom; I started working on a CD.”

In the meantime, he found a job with the SOCCCD, in Human Resources. “I finally finished the CD in 2005, and started working on a second one. But then one morning I woke up at 2 AM, and didn’t feel right. I was taken to the ER, where they discovered I had had a seizure due to swelling in the brain.” The doctors said he could go ahead with his wedding, which had been planned for some time, and return for surgery after the honeymoon. However, once he was on the operating table, the doctors saw that his condition was more serious than they had guessed.

“It turned out I needed about 8 hours of surgery, followed by another two hours after I passed out in the recovery room due to a clot, and it took me 9 months to recover. For a while I was afraid I might have lost my musical ability. I finally got up the courage to pick up a guitar. I was playing the same as before, but my vocal pitch was gone.”

After having neurological problems related to the surgery, he listened when a friend suggested that he take piano lessons and learn to read music. “My brain wasn’t working right, and I was having problems with my vision; the lessons did help, because I had to concentrate on tracking from left to right.”

Munns and his wife had a son 16 months ago, so between family and work, little time is left for rock ‘n’ roll. “Music is an outlet for me. It is a catharsis of sorts. I have had a harder time writing songs since the surgery, but I keep working at it. It’s just a part of my life.”

Link to Pepperstomp:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=143701217
Link to Jake solo:
http://outofstyleinnocent.com/

DAVE ANDERSON

Rock ‘n’ roll was all about the fun. That’s what Dave Anderson, Director of Extended Education at Irvine Valley College, remembers.

Born in Newport Beach, he attended Edison High School, and sang with the Madrigals. Musicianship was apparently not in his genes. “When I took guitar lessons, the instructor said, ‘Put it down, you’re never going to get this.’ ”

However, his tenor voice was tailor-made for rock ‘n’ roll, and while studying at Cal State University, Long Beach, he and his friends started a six-member band, with three guitarists, a drummer, a saxophone player and a singer - Dave. “We did covers. We opened for club bands at special engagements like New Year’s parties or one-off concerts. We had a lot of energy.”

Energy was a necessity, Anderson said, because the band had a problem – they weren’t particularly good. “My focus was to be pitch perfect. Unfortunately, none of the other guys could sing. That meant we had to entertain people. If we were good musicians, people could just sit back and listen to us - but that wasn’t the case. So I would do things like roll around on the ground while I was singing, and put more into the performance so that people would pay attention. I would go to the audience and be interactive with folks in a way that allowed them to participate in the performance.. No one knew what to expect when we were on stage and that kept people watching.

“My most memorable concert was at the Legion Hall in Long Beach. It was a battle of the bands. I remember ripping into a Billy Idol song that required audience participation and the crowd was into it. We did five or six songs, and they really liked us. We received our first encore ever – pretty exciting. That was a high point. Usually the audience wants the band to leave when they are as bad as we were.”

After college, the band members went their separate ways. “Later, one of the guitarists and I tried to put together a group and move from pop to alternative. We started writing our own songs and ended up writing five or six. But the rest of the band lived in LA and I was in Orange County. We brought in other singers, but we never quite coalesced. Eventually, the guitarist took a couple of the songs and recorded them with another group, so that was good.

“I was more adept at being a chameleon than pursuing my own vision. It’s a lot harder to create your own songs than to just sing already established hits.”

Today, he DJs at parties and events, a pastime he enjoyed way back in high school. “I used to throw parties, and everyone said my parties were so much fun because people danced. It turns out I have a good ear for music. If you put together the right mix, people can’t help but dance.

“At first I made up tapes ahead of time, but a buddy of mine got a mixer, and that made it really easy. At some point, someone said, ‘I’ll pay you to do that.’ Then, another friend wanted us to go into business together. The two of us started Dave and Dave’s DJs. He was the mike guy, and I was the music guy. Later, he decided to pursue comedy. He is still doing comedy, but it’s on the side, because he’s now a teacher.

“So I just kept the name and I’m still doing the business today. I don’t even have to advertise any more – it’s all word of mouth. It’s fun.”

DANA MANLEY

Dana Manley, a Media Technician at Saddleback College, tells how he evolved into his current rock ‘n’ roll self:

”I played in a band in high school in 1975, but we broke up because we couldn't find a consistent singer.

“In ‘95 I got drunk at Patsy's Irish Pub in Laguna Niguel on Halloween night and stayed later than my usual two-hours-of-after-work-trivia-game-playing with my eight friends. The Karaoke started and I wanted to go home, but I was too inebriated to drive, even though I lived just 1.2 miles from the pub. My friends knew that I mimicked voices like Elvis and Willie Nelson, so they dared me to sing a song in my costume: a tutu with a Viking helmet (complete with horns). I had one last shot of Crown Royal and staggered up to the stage to conquer a childhood fear of singing. A growing crowd of Karaokers was chanting the mantra ‘Do it! Do it!’

“I sang Are You Lonesome Tonight with a thick Elvis drawl and snarled lip. It was easier to joke and exaggerate the song rather than sing seriously and be responsible for the auditory carnage. I finished and they all clapped and patted me on the back saying, “I didn't know you could sing.” They really liked it!

“About an hour later I sang Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson, they liked that, too. They convinced me that I had a good voice, so the next Thursday I stayed and sang again, and on it went, four nights a week.

“I found that singing was great therapy for a devastating break up in a relationship I had gone through. I needed as many distractions as I could find. About six months later, a visiting talent agent for Capital records signed me up for possible celebrity voiceovers and singing. I did one recording of Willie Nelson and one of Led Zeppelin. The recordings were never used, but they assured me the day would come.

“As I became better, I ventured out of my comfort zone and sang Journey, Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin and every artist I could find. I did become good and I was told by band members that I could sing the phone book. Three bands would use me for practice sessions, and when their front man couldn't be there. They all asked why didn't I have my own band? I have three jobs already and a son to support! Besides, I needed to work on my stage presence.

“I have it all wired now, but I just turned 50. Finding a band that wants a 50-year-old has been tough, and now I have been blowing off offers. Maybe if the right offer comes around, I will do it.

”I now run a Karaoke gig that I have been doing for 10 years at Patsy's #2 in Mission Viejo. I have been a sound engineer since my teens, so I have put together a serious Karaoke sound system. This attracts many talented singers who greatly out number the drunk-after-work coyotes, as I started out to be. I nurture those with talent and have contributed to quite a few lives by bringing the joy of this hobby to them. I have found it offers a sense of worth and self-confidence to people like me who are "overly sensitive" to the sometimes-callous world and through music the savage beasts of depression and loneliness can be calmed and even conquered.

“Because of the high-end reputation of the show at Patsy's, many professional singers have dropped in or become secret regulars, making Patsy's an entertainment value for regular patrons. I have had the lead singer of Poison, Eric Clapton and James Taylor at my show. One of the singers of the original Temptations is a semi-regular and leaves only after people bother him to sing the same old stuff. I am content to sing here, with this caliber of singer. American Idol Has benefited from my show and proving ground. So in my own little world, I am a 50-year-old rock star who helps others go forward to the glory!”

Rockin' Generation - Michael O'Meara, Jim Lozano

2008-06-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Rockin' Generation

People try to put us down
Just because we get around
Things they do look awful cold
I hope I die before I get old
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby…

Who could have predicted that the generation gap described in The Who’s 1965 classic My Generation would have narrowed to the point that, 40 years later, a Who reunion tour might draw as many twentysomethings as Baby Boomers?

Or that rock 'n' roll would have permeated the cultural landscape to such a degree that performing and enjoying rock music need not be abandoned to high school and college kids? Behind their staid exteriors, there are many well into adulthood who would gladly drop their briefcase and grab a guitar, if only you would ask.

MICHAEL O’MEARA

Although it has been years since Michael O’Meara has played in a rock band, he smiles at the possibility of getting up on stage again, even if it’s just to play a gig for fun with his musician co-workers. He works now as a graphic designer for the South Orange County Community College District’s public information office, but spent many years earning a living in music.

“I come from a show biz family. My dad was a TV director and producer, and my mom was an actress, first on radio, then on TV. She was the voice of Wilma Flintstone, among others. That made her an anonymous celebrity.”

O’Meara was born in Hollywood, and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He sang in the choir as a boy. He remembered his first-ever performance at the age of 4. His 5-year-old brother was in a play at Blessed Sacrament school. When his mom was picking up his brother from rehearsal one day, she told the nun that little Mikey would be a good addition to the cast. Michael auditioned on the spot with a rousing rendition of “My Darling Clementine,” and earned a spot in the play. On performance night, the pint-sized O’Meara earned an ovation. “I was half the size of the other kids, but I could really belt it out.”

Later on, O’Meara taught himself to play the guitar. “It was around the time of the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson. Rock ‘n’ roll was just starting to go mainstream, and all the kids were getting into it. I tried out for the basketball team and got cut. So I said, I’ll take up guitar and steal your girlfriends. And I did it.”

He was in a band for a few years, playing sock hops (school dances), mostly in Los Angeles and the Valley. As they got older, they played fraternity and sorority parties, and the occasional wedding.

“At 19, I discovered that if I had a fake ID, I could play in a bar. So the drummer and I put together another band and started playing in bars.”

However, it was the era of the Vietnam war, and he quit the band to serve in the Naval Reserve for two years. “After the service, I was planning to go back to school, but I got drawn back to rock ‘n’ roll. I got into a four-piece band, working six nights a week, playing Top 40 songs by Led Zeppelin, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jimi Hendrix, Cream.”

O'Meara later played in a musical revue that backed up a Las Vegas type show in Miami Beach. At the end of that run, the core of that group went on to pursue their own direction. “We had a five-piece rhythm section; we learned new songs, came up with comedy routines and choreography, and got backers to put private money in.” They hired a horn section and ended up with a musical revue with three separate shows and four dance sets. The group was called the Music Factory, and played the Playboy Club circuit in Los Angeles, Montreal and Miami Beach.

The problem was, O’Meara said, half the money went to the backers, leaving the musicians underpaid. By then he was married with two children, making little money and spending too much time on the road. He gave up the Music Factory and came back to Southern California to play in a four-piece group working six nights a week.

“At one point, someone stole my guitar off the stage. Because of that, and the thought that ‘I can’t do this forever,’ I got out of music and went back to school on the GI bill.” He started at LA Valley College and went on to Cal State University at Northridge, majoring in Fine Arts. He won a competition for design of the school flag, which, he said, validated the idea that he could transition from music to art. His first job out of college was Art Director at Martin Lawrence Limited Editions, where he designed ads for Salvador Dali and Peter Max, among others.

And although his rock-playing days are mostly behind him, he and the other former rockers in district offices are thinking about playing together, if the right occasion arose. "We're talking about it," he said.

JIM LOZANO

For Jim Lozano, rock ‘n’ roll has been a lifelong passion. In his day job, he is a network consultant for Harrod Management Solutions, and is currently working with the SOCCCD Information Technology team.

Lozano was born and raised in Pico Rivera, and attended El Rancho High School. He started playing drums at five years old. His brother-in-law was in rock bands in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, and he watched the bands rehearse. When he was 14, his sister Olivia bought him his first drum set for $100. He immediately joined a band, playing the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and early ‘80’s music. They played together all through 9th grade.

“Then, when I was a sophomore, I went to a drum clinic at Whittier Music. There was a professional drummer there named Simon Phillips. He was an English studio drummer, and played for the Who, Jeff Beck, Judas Priest. That changed my life. Before, I played just as hard and loud as I could. Simon did things (with the drums) that I didn’t know you could do.” From then on, he spent his time learning as much as he could about drumming and music, and perfecting his craft.

“There were a lot of good musicians in Pico Rivera. All of my friends were musicians; we would just get together and play. I just wanted to play – money was not the object.” Lozano said he had a lot of insecurity about his playing, never feeling he was good enough, even though he was considered by many to be one of the better drummers in the area.

In 1986, at age 20, Lozano joined the Air Force, where he spent the next four years. He wrote music on the side, never sure of how serious he should be about it. Then he met his wife-to-be – through music, because she was the singer in a band. He got out of the Air Force in 1990, married in 1993 and had a daughter. He and his wife wrote music together. Lozano went back to school, DeVry University, majoring in Computer Information Systems. With no time to play, Lozano left music behind to focus on his family and his job. “But my wife never let me sell my drum set.”

Three years ago, he and his wife, Diana, were driving home from an event and listening to a classic rock station. The song Sweet Home Alabama came on, and he liked it, though he wasn’t a country music fan. “It had a lot of energy, and I thought it would be fun to play it.” At that point, he hadn’t picked up a drum stick for ten years.

“The next day, out of the blue, a friend of a friend named Roman called me up and said, ‘We’re putting together a classic rock band – would you like to audition?’”

Click to enlarge; Photo by Nick Ontiveros

He put away the insecurities he had always felt about drumming and decided, “I’m just going to have fun.” Because of the long layoff, he decided to just play solid drums, “not try anything fancy.” He still wowed the band. “Our first gig paid $150 – for the whole band – and was at the Gem City Grill in Monrovia.” They have also played in Fullerton, Riverside and all over Los Angeles. “None of us has a lot of spare time to practice, but we try to practice new material and rehearse before gigs; we agreed not to put pressure on each other. We want it to stay fun.”

The band, called Lost Vault, plays such tunes as A Hard Day’s Night, Barracuda, Don’t Fear (The Reaper), Fortunate Son, Immigrant Song, and I Love Rock And Roll.

He bought a new drum set after starting with Lost Vault, and intends to keep on playing. “We are all having a blast. It doesn’t get in the way of our families or our jobs, and it’s just a lot of fun.” And he has passed on his love of music to his 14-year-old daughter, Christina, a guitarist who favors the tunes of the Beatles.

Jim in "I Wanna Rock"

At 18, Jim Lozano appeared in the opening scene of the Twisted Sister music video, “I Wanna Rock.” Jim is the long-haired “student” in the second desk.

“The director was choosing kids he wanted for the video from a crowd that had formed outside Montebello High School, but none of my friends nor I was picked. The chosen group was taken into the school grounds and the gates were locked. One of my friends went to that school, so he had the idea of going around through the football field and sneaking into the campus through the locker rooms - and it worked!

When they started to send people into the class, there was this young kid about thirteen or fourteen who was stopped and asked how old he was. The director said, “I’m going to need to see IDs,” so I quickly pulled out my wallet and held mine up, and he waved me into the class. Once inside, they moved us around a few times until they felt it looked right and I ended up sitting where you see me. It was a lot of fun and interesting to see the process.”