Little Ezra Storz from Salt Lake City, representing in the Ojai Face Onesie sustainable edition. Ain’t he cute?
Get your Ojai Face Onesie at Ojai House on North Montgomery. Or get your adult tee from the Ojai Village Pharmacy.
May 19, 2008
For immediate release
QUARTERMILEFiLMS’ “CHASING BAJA” TO SCREEN IN OJAI
When the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2007, Ojai-based QUARTERMILEFiLMS was there to trace one of off-road racing’s most prestigious, gritty and grueling challenges.
Directed by Steve Beebe and edited by the creative team at QUARTERMILEFiLMS, the company has scheduled an industry screening of the documentary, “Chasing Baja,” to be shown at the Matilija Auditorium in Ojai, June 20 at 5:30 p.m.
Beebe says filming a non-stop, point-to-point race from start to finish was some of the most challenging work he’s ever done. With only a few cameras Beebe and his small crew shot nearly non-stop, for several days, following the BF Goodrich race team in the November 2007 race.
“Just getting this film in the can was quite an accomplishment,” Beebe says. “But this isn’t a movie about a race, it’s a movie about people pushing themselves to the limit.”
The film captures the punishing and picturesque landscape of the Baja peninsula, and features the challenges of the race team, on and off the course, and includes fascinating footage of the BF Goodrich chase team, pit crew and driver changes.
Nearly 350 entries from more than 40 states and 15 countries, competing in 18 Pro and Sportsman classes for cars and trucks, plus additional classes for motorcycles and ATVs took part in the 2007 SCORE Baja 1000. The oldest and most well known of all desert races, it remains the single most appealing accomplishment for any racer. Since 1967, the granddaddy of all desert races has been run over the mysterious
“Chasing Baja” debuted earlier this year at the Egyptian Theater in
Beebe’s other shows include “Rides” on TLC, “Hot Rod TV” and “Livin’ the Lowlife” on Speed, and “Get Out, Way Out!” on HGTV.
For more information about QUARTERMILEFiLMS and the “Chasing Baja” screening call (805) 646-0535.
Press Contact: Chris Wilson (805) 208-9254 chris@pinkminute.com
I created an account on zazzle.com to hawk the Ojai Face Shirts for all you boys and girls.
the ojai sun, it ain’t gonna lick itselfbychristwilson
Get this custom shirt at Zazzle
Everyone needs to own the Ojai Face. It comes in T-shirts, hot-drink mugs, messenger bags, dog shirts, black shirts, sweatshirts, ringer-t’s….
you name it. Cafe Press does it all.
No true soul can deny their lover at sunset. Not in a place so amorous, that on the verge of night, even the obstinate sand-stone bluffs ripen like cherries and smolder and giggle and say, “Stop, you’re embarrassing me.”
Like an Arcade waffle cone, The Pink Moment is fleeting, butter-cream sweetness. Pink Moment’s Production adheres to a strict schedule — arriving daily 10 minutes before sunset — Pink wows Ojai rookies and comforts village lifers alike. Pink is steady, reliable, and entirely lovely and has a daily exclusive showing on the Topa Topa screens through late 2012.
Pink takes itself quite seriously, despite its ephemeral nature. Early on in its career, Pink secured representation from a cosmopolitan agency and has since become unbendably stubborn and obsessively Narccistic. Would-be partners stumble back down Sisar Road, after three days max. Their stories all the same. They say The Pink Moment spends the entire day preening in front of the bathroom mirror, then just before dusk dashes out onto the stage all snappy and stressed that the show is getting stale. After a brief, but captivating routine - that never, ever includes an encore, Pink is back, asking if the gig was OK, if the timing was off, and complaining that its face is blotchy and cracking from too much late-afternoon sunbathing.
Despite our blend of deliberate creation and subtle groveling Big Pink has yet to return any of lil’ pink’s requests for an interview. And that’s okay, we all have habits; we all resist change to some degree. And after 40 million years (give or take) of the same gag over and over and over and over and over, Big Pink has miraculously avoided carpal tunnel and detox.
But seriously, in the end, cliché as it may be, we covet Pink Moment’s schooled, nonchalance, blanketing the foothills and vanishing over the bluffs all fourth dimensional vapor. Inspired by meditation on these flexible Moments of life when the light gets long and lovers blush, a fixed Minute of subjective seconds, fiction, art and thoughtfulness can only hope to honor its muse.
And for now, The Pink Minute will continue showing up at its leisure, napping on the couch and visiting with its imaginary friends in the front yard.
Gifted Master Stylist Stephanie Lafleur is joining the team at Ojai’s premier full-service salon, Contempo Hair Design, across S. Signal from Libbey Park. Salon owner Diane Jaffe says LaFleur is a good fit for Contempo’s discriminating clientele and that LaFleur’s books for January have already begun to fill.
A certified educator for the Unite product line, LaFleur specializes in foil work, corrective colour and precision cuts.
For an appointment with LaFleur, Call Contempo (805) 646-5591.
Editor’s note: Besant Hill School teacher and blues singer, April Hendrix recently returned from a service learning school trip to New Orleans. Hendrix, 11 students and another faculty spent nine days volunteering to aid restoration efforts in the Lower 9th Ward.
Any of us raised in an American household have been touched in some way by the Judeo-Christian mythos. The stories of how God created the world in six days (yes, six, for on the seventh day He rested) and destroyed it with 40 days and nights of rain (save Noah and his crew) are familiar cultural references we can all point to. Childhood imaginations make it difficult to truly understand the impact of 40 days and 40 nights of rain, let alone four; and the horrific destruction that can be caused by a terrible flood. Adult experience, and first-hand glimpses, of the aftermath of Katrina—two-and-a-half years later—makes my inner child tremble with fear, and the New Age aficionado I’ve become, long to rediscover the innocence and security of good ole’ Christian faith.
Fresh off the boat, turned airplane, from a ten day stint in New Orleans, I find myself embodying Celie (the main character in The Color Purple) raising my fists in the air at Mister, in the form of God, screaming, “Why…Why…?” It’s hard to wrap a mind—comforted by the scent of orange blossoms, nestled on the chest of Chief’s Peak—around destruction so massive and unapologetic.
When I arrived at the Common Ground Relief’s headquarters, stationed in the Lower 9th Ward, it was well past 11 p.m., dark and humid. The residences around 1619 Deslonde, under the mask of night, appeared normal for all practical purposes. The sunlight of the next morning proved to reveal something entirely different. Situated a few hundred yards from the floodwall—where the breach in the Industrial Canal occurred—a dark patch of concrete laid over the place where a massive barge smashed through and wiped out an entire block; it was eerie. It stood out like the scar you got, from that fight you were in, that you don’t want to remember because you got your ass kicked; one of those fights that makes you hang up your gloves and take an oath of nonviolence (although you know that you’ll pull them down, if stepped to again). It serves as a daily reminder to current residents; along with the sets of steps and stoops leading to nowhere, foundations where houses once stood, replaced with signs that read “Roots Run Deep Here.” It was a ghost town, desolate and destroyed; the slabs of concrete serving as grave markers and reminders of lives that once were.
Magic shifts focus. And what that bitch Katrina took with her woman’s wrath, the river goddess, Oshun used to seed pearls in the spirits of the people. Every morning a merry mix of misfits young college-aged students with dreams of anarchy, gather with survivors and residents on the common ground of volunteerism, to rebuild the body of a neighborhood out of the bones of what’s left. The sultry cry of soul songs, mixed with the booming bass and syncopated beats of hip hop, stream from the radio and dance with the drone of lawnmowers and the steady hits of hammers driving nails into sheets of drywall. They work together in the “spirit of solidarity, not charity.” This collective ain’t giving hand-outs, they’re lending a hand to lift a community up.
Established in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Common Ground Relief started with, “three volunteers and fifty dollars.” This grassroots organization has grown to include, “over forty full-time organizers and hundreds of volunteers,” working to provide relief and support to those hit hardest by the effects of Katrina—namely minorities.
Support is what I am here to give, though in truth, it’s really what I need. At a certain point, attempts of the mind to try and fill the negative space with what once was, becomes mentally exhausting and leaves me feeling emotionally numb. I turn right off Claibourne, and cross the river turned road, onto Jourdan Avenue. The morning is so thick with fog that I am unable to discern much of anything, not even a person standing three feet away. My head tilts to the side, as spray painted numbers come into focus, tombstone markers spelling out the lost lives, of the dearly beloved, now departed. 1617 Jourdan. 1620 Jourdan. 1631 Jourdan. Don’t taste like Sweet Home, Jourdan. N. Derbigny and Jourdan. The shell of a beat down truck, rusted and in half, at 1721 South Jourdan. Next door to 1723 Jourdan. 1727 Jourdan. Some spray paint I can’t read on Jourdan. Something odd about these streets, called Jourdan. Hope heaven shows some grace and mercy for Jourdan.
In addition to their ongoing efforts in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, the group is actively involved with offering assistance to the minority communities impacted by the wild fires in San Diego. One of the founding members, Malik Rahim, a former member of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party, will be speaking in Tijuana, Dec. 7-9. The organization is currently seeking volunteers in the Southern California area to donate labor and support to complete a women’s shelter in Tijuana, which will serve as a relief center. Call Micaela (619) 422-0628 for more details.
For more information about how to volunteer and support Common Ground, call (504) 218-6613 or visit the website: www.commongroundreleif.org.
To comment on this story, contact April Hendrix by e-mail: april@pinkminute.com
Time goes by much faster than I move. So it’s been nearly 2 years since I put out an issue of the Pink Minute. Recently my friend Todd of Pastease suggested we put one together and here it is folks. We’re leaving copies in loitering spots all over town.
The pic links to the PDF. I’ll be posting the writings here and an explanation of the process we went through to publish the Pink Minute 2-1.
download the PDF (click the image)
cw
