Daily paper turning yellow? (Not because it’s been on the doorstep for two weeks)

We’ve all noticed the changes, some of them quite severe, to the Ventura County Star in the past 6 months or so. Sections cut, thinner editions overall and to their credit, a reorganized Web site with a lot of fat trimmed away. But leaner, it seams has also turned meaner, and as an editor for [...]

E.P. Foster Day

Sunday Sept. 5,  is E.P. Foster Day. For those of you who don’t know who he was, Foster was one of Ventura’s pioneers, a generous man who donated huge amounts of land to the city for public use. The fairgrounds, beautiful Foster Park, Dennison Park, Camp Comfort and E.P. Foster Library as well as the [...]

Closed Until Further Notice: Hush Lounge

As Chris Mastrovito mentioned in his most recent column, after 4 years in business, Hush has been shushed. Whether it’s a victim of what would appear to be a war on downtown Ventura’s nightlife–and specific sectors of such–remains to be seen.
Hush Lounge was an upscale nightclub with DJs, live music, and a restaurant. Dress code [...]

New Art City vs. New Bar City

In the midst of decreased funding for the arts in Ventura (the “New Art City”) and the subsequent slow death of ArtWalk, the local music scene is, as I’ve reported previously, exploding. At the same time, the bar scene–if you can call it a scene–has recently been plagued by violence which has led to what [...]

Cal Music Mess: the final word

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Well . . . it’s come and gone, and unfortunately my instincts were spot on.  Before I get  into the  gory details, I want to let it be known that even though many have called it a failure, i don’t think it was entirely. I had a [...]

Parental responsibility and the power of media

The other night at the video store I overheard a conversation between a mother and her son. The boy was somewhere between 4-6 years old.
Boy: Mommy, look there’s Scream! Can we get it?
Mother: No, I don’t think so, we watched it 6 times last week. Let’s find something else.
A few minutes later, she approached the [...]

Cal music fest continued…

Predictably, I received a less than cheerful note from Mark Rasmussen, the music festival’s organizer, in response to my previous post. And coincidentally, immediately following said post, the Cal Music Festival was updated to include much of the info that was previously missing.
I’m awaiting word from the City’s street fair coordinator Michele Godoy as [...]

Cal Music Fest: Will It Or Won’t It?

It’s just about 6 weeks before promoter and No Cover publisher Mark Rasmussen plans to fill downtown Ventura’s mission park and 18 venues with live music and a sweaty, beer-swilling audience of more than one thousand on July 4 weekend, in tandem with the street fair.
Ambitious? Just a little. I applaud anyone willing to [...]

Public art is not always pretty

Peeps and the real meaning of Easter

Last night at the Whiskey Chimp CD release party (which was an unexpectedly gratifying way to spend a Saturday night) there was talk about the meaning of Easter.
“Easter is about spring, renewal, birds and bees…”
Controversial as it might be to say, in these days of (often justified) contempt for followers of Christ, Easter is in [...]