Home Blog Page 2559

A Historic Day for PPBA

By
dev
-

50th Year begins with “Field of Dreams”

PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton stands with first-pitch throwers (back row, from left) Bill Simon, Jake Steinfeld and Mike Skinner and first-pitch catchers (front row, from left) Neal Conners, Chad Scully and Matt Scully.
PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton stands with first-pitch throwers (back row, from left) Bill Simon, Jake Steinfeld and Mike Skinner and first-pitch catchers (front row, from left) Neal Conners, Chad Scully and Matt Scully.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

While hundreds of families flocked to tables on the outdoor basketball courts at the Palisades Recreation Center Saturday morning for the Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s annual pancake breakfast, Mike Skinner was busy examining the portable fences down on the playing fields. A broad smile was on his face and understandably so–the $100,000 “Field of Dreams” project he had overseen for years was finally complete. “I really don’t know what to say except that I knew this day would come,” said Skinner, who helped 14-year PPBA commissioner Bob Benton unveil the Field of Dreams’ donation wall to kick off the organization’s 50th season. And the day was indeed as golden as the hundreds of pancakes consumed. After the pledge of allegiance, led by longtime Palisadian Ray Kirby of the American Legion, Benton thanked the Legion for its financial support of the Field of Dreams project and thanked Rec Center Director Cheryl Gray. “This was a disruptive process, but she handled it with good humor and a spirit of cooperation,” Benton said. He also thanked LuAnn Williams, a key member of the fundraising committee, and pancake breakfast organizer Lisa St. John. “The breakfast is our No. 1 fundraiser and this is our biggest year ever,” Benton said. “Lisa had never done this before, but she pulled it off.” “I found out it takes a village to feed a village,” St. John said. Finally, Benton praised Skinner for his tireless efforts once the renovation project was set into motion. “None of this would’ve been possible without our Citizen of the Year,” Benton said. “We gave him the job. He took it, he lived it and he made it a reality.” Skinner was presented with a crystal ball and a wooden bat. Engraved on the ball stand, which was hand-carved by PPBA coach Jerry Rosetti, were the words “If you build it, they will play” and engraved on the bat was the message “A world of thanks,” along with the signature of each board member. A thunderous applause erupted when Skinner took the microphone and addressed the 24 teams and the coaches, friends and families in attendance. “As they say, the coach carries the bag but players play the game,” Skinner said. “One thing about construction work is that it never goes easy. This gym is an example of what can go wrong. But this job went flawlessly from start to finish.” Skinner showed the audience a book given to him by Athletic Turfs contractors Chris Krug and Manny Adams chronicling the day-to-day history of the community-funded project. He also thanked John Bertrum and Bob Levitt, who led the fundraising campaign and “weren’t afraid to ask for money from all of their wealthy friends.” Skinner also made a pitch for more donations. “It’s never too late to donate,” he said. “There’s an ongoing need for maintenance and your money will be put to good use in the future.” Next, Benton announced the biggest surprise of the day–that Skinner would join fellow Palisadians Bill Simon (the former gubernatorial candidate) and fitness guru Jake Steinfeld in throwing out the first pitches to officially begin the landmark season. “I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world to be living in this community and to be part of a group that made this field possible,” Simon said afterwards. “My son is on the Bronco Dodgers and he got up at 6 a.m., put his uniform on and was so excited. We live right around the corner, so this whole experience hits very close to home for us.” Steinfeld, too, was excited to part of opening-day festivities. “I live in the Palisades now, but I grew up in Brooklyn where we didn’t have fields like this to play on,” Steinfeld said. “I’ve been so fortunate in my life and it’s nice to be able to give back.” Catching the first balls were three of Vin and Sandra Scully’s 12 grandchildren: 12-year-old Matthew (a “retired” PPBA player), 10-year-old Chad (who plays on the Mustang Braves) and 6-year-old Neal (who starts five-pitch in April). Vin Scully, the legendary radio voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, lives near Riviera Country Club. He and his wife made the largest donation of all to the Field of Dreams. Pinto Indian Chase Byington won a one-week session at the UCLA Baseball Camp for selling 160 tickets to the pancake breakfast, raising $480. “He was like a little sales maniac, calling all my friends on the phone,” said Chase’s mother, Jennifer. Second was Jacob Carilla, who raised $394 and earned a session at the Pepperdine Baseball Camp. After Bronco Oriole Patrick Elder gave a stirring rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Benton made the announcement everyone had waited for all morning: “Play ball!” It didn’t take long for the excitement of opening day to carry over to the diamonds. In the first game of his Pinto career, 8-year-old Dawson Rosenberg of the Tigers christened Diamond 3 by hitting the first pitch of the game to the left field fence on one bounce. The Indians ultimately edged the Tigers, 10-9, and in other Pinto Division games the Red Sox beat the Orioles, 19-7, the Phillies beat the Braves, 6-1, and the Dodgers downed the Cardinals, 18-12. In the Mustang Division, the Tigers beat the Indians, 12-5, the Red Sox shut out the Orioles, 15-0, the Braves defeated the Phillies, 11-6, and the Cardinals edged the Dodgers, 11-10. The Bronco Division featured an exciting battle between the Braves and Phillies, won by the Braves, 14-13. In other games, the Indians blanked the Tigers, 12-0, the Red Sox outlasted the Orioles, 14-10 and the Cardinals edged the Dodgers, 5-4.

The Brodie Bunch Explores Southeast Asia

By
dev
-

By JANET BRODIE

After visiting Thailand and Cambodia, the Brodies arrived in the Laotian town of Vang Viang, set in a jungly valley with limestone cliffs. Photo: Janet Farrell Brodie
After visiting Thailand and Cambodia, the Brodies arrived in the Laotian town of Vang Viang, set in a jungly valley with limestone cliffs. Photo: Janet Farrell Brodie

When my husband and I realized that our 20-something sons, Jedediah and Nathaniel, would not be with us at Christmas, the only solution was to join their exploration of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They are backpackers who have roamed the wilds of the world, happiest living as nomads; we, although hikers and car campers, are middle-aged Palisadians who like our comforts. As in any family with firm opinions, there was much to negotiate. ”From the beginning, each generation had its not-so-hidden agenda. We parents wanted to provide the four ‘kids’ (our sons and their girlfriends) with some luxury in the middle of their months of backpacking. (Both sons pride themselves on traveling cheaply; for months they had averaged about $12 a day.) The kids’ agenda was to re-introduce some adventure into our lives and to give us a taste of the ‘real’ world. Throughout the trip these two conflicting agendas engendered a quiet, good-natured rivalry. ”We parents had our small triumphs. We did not have to spend the entire three weeks in the jungle searching for tigers, but managed to include towns, art and history in our adventures. We stayed in hotels costing $12 a night rather than $2 youth hostels. It did not ruin our moral fiber. But in all truth, the victory in this friendly rivalry went to the young. What we saw, tasted and experienced in the company of the adventurous foursome gave us the most extraordinary trip of our lives. Seeing the world through fresh eyes, we learned from them. ”It started at a sheer limestone cliff at Rai Leh beach in southern Thailand (a mecca for rock climbers). One by one, the four strapped on climbing gear and muscled their way up from finger-hold to toe-hold, belayed from below. I fear heights, especially when my sons are on them. But, to everyone’s amazement, we parents agreed that it looked like fun. The kids made rappelling down a 300-foot cliff look like ballet. ”Not only were my fears of heights mitigated, but, of all things, I found myself riding a motorbike. When we realized that the only way to get to a particularly remote national park was for all of us to rent motorbikes, that’s what we all did. With a few quick lessons about brakes and curves, the Brodie Bunch provided much hilarity for the local Thais as we drove’five in single file, all oversized on our small bikes’through the countryside (me, quietly humming Christmas carols to calm my nerves). We passed sights I would never have noticed otherwise, including mats of natural rubber drying in the sun and ponds of pink lotuses. ”For longer trips we hired tuk-tuks (a cross between a motorcycle and a rickshaw). One such trip became the highlight of the entire three weeks for me. Leaving the hotel near Angkor Wat, Cambodia, before dawn, we rode 40 minutes by tuk-tuk to catch a boat downriver to Phnom Penh. The road, impossibly rutted, forced the driver to a pace so slow that in the dawning light we saw clearly into the homes of the Khmer villagers and into the boats of families in the floating village. I saw villagers light charcoal braziers for the morning meal, an old woman kneeling on a mat in front of a single burning candle, young women sweeping front yards with homemade palm-frond brooms. Roosters crowed, dogs rolled in the dirt, naked children watched the sunrise from doorways. We could have been in a time warp as a village stirred awake in an earlier century. As a historian, nothing could have touched me more deeply. ”Our final (and happy) recognition that the kids had much to teach us came after a five-hour bus ride (shared with locals and their chickens and rowdy Australians passing around bottles of beer) through Laos and some of the most beautiful and primitive country we have ever seen. We drove through mountainous jungle with bamboo villages appearing every two or three kilometers. The huts were made the same way they had been for centuries (except for the few television antennas sprouting above the thatched roofs). Finally we emerged in Vang Viang, a town in a valley so dazzling that it reminded us of Yosemite, except that the cliffs were limestone instead of granite, and covered with jungle instead of pine forest. ”We arrived in mid-afternoon and we were starving. In this, as in so much else, the kids took the lead, walking past restaurant after restaurant until somehow instinctively they located the central market. We entered the covered section where the light was shaded and the heat and humidity intensified. Finally, in the heart of heat and darkness, we found the food vendors. We picked one at random, sat down on rickety chairs around a makeshift table next to a cauldron of some type of simmering broth and a slab of raw meat, away from which a woman brushed away flies. She placed slices of the raw meat in bowls, added chopped green vegetables and the boiling broth and served us. Our kids were right: it was the best food we ate. (Janet Farrell Brodie, a history professor at Claremont Graduate University, and her husband Bruce, a clinical psychologist who works with adolescents, have lived in Pacific Palisades since 1981 in the house Bruce’s parents built in 1954, where he was raised. Their sons attended Marquez, Paul Revere and Palisades High. Jedediah is currently a doctoral student in biology at the University of Montana, spending four months a year on research in the Thai jungle. Nathaniel will enter the Peace Corps in September.)

History Professor Brodie Wins Post’s 2004 Travel Tales Contest

By
dev
-

Janet and Bruce Brodie in a tuk-tuk in southern Thailand on their December 2002 trip through Southeast Asia. Janet's story about their adventures appears on Page 3 in the Travel Tales supplement.
Janet and Bruce Brodie in a tuk-tuk in southern Thailand on their December 2002 trip through Southeast Asia. Janet’s story about their adventures appears on Page 3 in the Travel Tales supplement.

A story was brewing in Janet Brodie’s mind long before she decided to enter this year’s Palisadian-Post Travel Tales writing contest. It all started when Janet, 55, and her husband, Bruce, 56, learned that their two grown sons would not be coming home for Christmas in December 2002, which would’ve been the first Christmas the family spent apart. Jedediah and his girlfriend, Olga, were living in Thailand, conducting biology/ecology research in national parks, and Nathaniel and his girlfriend, Kelly, had been traveling in northern Thailand and Laos for two months. Instead of staying home in the Palisades, Janet and Bruce suggested another option: spending the holidays with the ‘kids’ in Southeast Asia. ‘We didn’t know if they would want us [at first], but they loved the idea,’ says Janet, a history professor at Claremont Graduate University. Thankfully, she took notes during their three-week trip through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, thinking she would want to write an article and subit it to the Los Angeles Times travel section. After returning home, however, still in the post-September 11 climate, Janet found that the Times was featuring stories ‘close to home’ more than about far-off places. Luckily for the Post, she decided to submit her story for this year’s Travel Tales contest’and won! The editorial staff thoroughly enjoyed her unusual perspective of a parent ‘seeing the world through fresh eyes”the eyes of her backpacker sons who ‘have roamed the wilds of the world, happiest living as nomads,’ as she describes them in her story. Janet’s tongue-in-cheek tone charmed us and her careful details wet our pallets. At the beginning of the story, she tells us that she and Bruce, a clinical psychologist who works with adolescents, were willing to compromise some of their usual travel comforts and experience the more adventurous backpacker life their sons prefer to lead. This not only included rock climbing and driving a motorbike but also negotiating when it came to lodging and transportation. For example, the Brodies stayed in ‘guest houses,’ which Janet compares to pocket hotels with 10-12 rooms but no provision for food. They cost about $12 -$15 a night, making them more ‘upscale’ than the $2-$5 youth hostels the boys prefer when not with their parents. ‘The guest houses were modest but charming,’ says Janet, who had never been to Southeast Asia before this trip. ‘We found them immaculately clean with spotless tile floors because guests leave their shoes on the front porch.’ The Brodie Bunch spent Christmas Day at a climbing beach in southern Thailand and New Year’s in Laos, which turned out to be Janet’s favorite country on their trip. ‘I expected Angkor Wat [Cambodia] to be most striking but it was really Laos,’ she says. ‘Laos is a country that hasn’t changed in years’it’s like being in the 19th century.’ She was especially struck by the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site where the ancient architecture has been preserved. Here, Janet saw women working on looms in their houses, families eating on the floor, people tending gardens and a line of saffron-robed monks walking in the mist. In her story, she describes a memorable afternoon when the kids led them to a Laotian market where a woman made their soup’with raw meat, vegetables and boiling broth’right in front of them. ‘The fact that [the kids] could show us so much really brought us together as a family,’ Janet says. ‘We’ve taken a lot of family trips but never had an experience like this.’ When Nathaniel, now 24, and Jedediah, now 28, were growing up, the Brodies did a lot of car camping in the States, including hiking and camping in Yosemite. They also camped through southern France when the boys were just 11 and 15 years old. Even in the Palisades, their Paseo Miramar home opens out onto the Santa Monica Mountains, right near one of the hiking trails. Janet also attributes her sons’ shared love of nature and the outdoors to their experiences as Boy Scouts in Troop 85. ‘I know that [Troop 85] was a big influence on the boys’they did major backpacking in the Sierras.’ Five years ago, Jedediah and Nathaniel spent three months backpacking through South America together. And just three years ago, they backpacked in South Africa where they worked so they could save money and travel. ‘They are well-bonded,’ says Janet. Asked what she and Bruce taught the kids during their Southeast Asia trip, Janet says, ‘[Without us there] they probably wouldn’t have spent as much time thinking about the history, like the French colonial past, going to museums and looking at the architecture.’ Janet, on the other hand, learned that when she revisits Southeast Asia, she would choose to travel by bus and tuk-tuk (a cross between a motorcycle and a rickshaw), and stay in guest houses. After the family vacation, Nathaniel and Kelly went on to Myanmar and India. Currently, they are headed to Alaska, where they will be working for the National Park Service to earn money before going into the Peace Corps in September. Jedediah, who is now engaged to Olga, is working on his doctorate in biology at the University of Montana. Janet, a North Dakota native, grew up in Oakland and has lived in the Palisades with her husband since 1981 in the house Bruce’s parents built in 1954. Janet commutes to Claremont about once a week, where she teaches U.S. history, specializing in environmental and women’s history. When we called Janet with the good news, she exclaimed, ‘You’re kidding! I’ve never won anything in my life!’ Her prize includes a two-night stay at the Inn at Playa del Rey, a bed-and-breakfast which is the sister property to the Channel Road Inn in Santa Monica Canyon.

(Get Me) Back to Africa

By
dev
-

By PEPPER EDMISTON

Well, we made it out alive, but now I want to go back. Africa’I can’t get it out of my mind. I dream of Africa every night, except when I’m dreaming about redecorating our house. ”Last August, filled with high anxiety, I went to Africa with my sweetie Joe and our sons William and Charlie. We arrived in Johannesburg after flying for 24 hours straight. To handle such a flight you assume you are in hell, this is eternity and you must accept your fate. More than any other place on earth, though, Africa is worth the agony of no leg room whatsoever. ”During our five-week stay, we saw Cape Town (a must) and Durban (a must miss), but the highlight was Botswana, a large country where thousands of acres are preserved as national parks and animals outnumber humans by the millions. In Botswana we went ‘on safari,’ an expression that can describe staying in rooms with canopied beds covered in 400-thread count linen, so long as scary beasts are nearby. ”In Botswana, wildlife is not confined to the wild. On the streets of the town of Kasane, baboons strut through the place like people. The difference, though, is baboons are stark naked. If a male is excited, his huge private parts become bright blue; if a female is ready to romp, hers turn bright pink. Sex in this city is devoid of all subtlety and impossible to ignore. While I was shocked, other family members thought this was peachy. ”It was on the tranquil Chobe River that our adventure began. We journeyed for days in slim metal boats, stopping at lodges along the way. We rarely saw another soul, except for elephant, hippo, zebra, rhino, giraffe, impala, monkey, water buffalo and other animals. It all looked so benign, but when Will asked our guide how long he’d last if he dove into the river, the answer was ‘About two minutes.’ ”Then the guide asked Will, ‘Have you seen a crocodile eating yet? ”’No,’ said Will. ”’Then jump in the water.’ ”Friends were impressed we were ‘on safari’ so long. Don’t be. Here is the schedule for the half-dozen lodges where we were guests: Sleep in a feather bed. Wake up to a mellifluous voice whispering, ‘knock knock.’ Rouse yourself. Dress in your safari finery. Have a hearty breakfast of homemade porridge. Grab your binoculars and jump in the jeep or climb on the boat for a three-hour ride, complete with snacks. See kudu, cheetah and hyena. Return to an enormous luncheon. Nap. Wake up for a vast tea. Enjoy another ride. See wildebeest, wild dog and warthogs. Stop in the bush for wine and cheese served by candlelight. Rest in your suite with a soak in the tub. Dress up. Feast on a six-course banquet while conversing with fascinating international travelers. Repeat. ”We tried our best to follow the rules, but often failed. At a lodge in the Savute area, we forgot to lock our door and returned to find baboon paw prints everywhere. Yikes! They had gotten into my well-stocked medicine bag. I was in a panic until I realized the ‘boons weren’t so smart, stealing only vitamin C and zinc tabs, while leaving behind the better class of drugs. But that wasn’t the worst thing. We wondered why at all times we had been escorted to and from our room. We found out. After we left Savute, we heard that a bartender had been eaten by a lion just before our visit, right in that very lodge. And to think we were thrown by a few baboons. ”Africa has friendlier inhabitants, though, including every conceivable type of bird. My favorite was some kind of weaver, whose mate built her a nest which, if she found flawed, she would shred. He would build, she would shred, until hubby got it just right. There was also the ‘Jesus Bird,’ who walked on water and countless others whose names, in combination, would yield a lovely ‘chanting, lesser-crested, golden-rumped, gull-billed, wooly-necked, blue-eared, long-toed, thick-kneed, bearded, pigmy shoveler snipe.’ ”We learned about every animal we saw. Impalas are called the ‘McDonald’s of the bush,’ because ‘everybody eats them.’ When preparing to mate, giraffes slam each other against the flank ‘thus, ‘necking.’ Successful mating results in a female gestation period of 450 days, making me wonder why gals don’t trot for the border at the first friendly whack. Elephant mothers, however, get the gold medal: they are pregnant for 660 days, or 22 months. I’m glad this was new information for Joe, as my nine months of bitter complaining might have seemed self-indulgent. ”After the glory of the Chobe, we were forced to fly to the rest of our destinations: the Okavango Delta, then the Kalahari Desert. Light aircraft was required; so light, in fact, six people could fit only if you held in your stomach. Remember the dusty planes in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’? The ones aliens had borrowed for decades, then returned to the desert? Those are the ones we flew in. ”But the good news was the bush pilots, wind-burned hunks from the British Empire, dazzling in their khakis. For a moment, they allowed me to feel Meryl Streepish. Flying over the plains of Africa behind a fearless pilot, I lingered in my reverie until a phrase thumped my eardrums. At first, I thought I heard, ‘My dear, praise the beauty of Botswana!’ No, not quite. It was, ‘Mom, pass the barf bag, NOW!’ In the Kalahari, we stayed in Deception Valley, which is hundreds of miles from anyplace else and is flat as a pancake. In Botswana, they say if you lie down and look ahead, you will see the next 14 days of your life in front of you. That’s how flat and isolated it is. In the Kalahari, I became so television deprived I dreamed an entire ‘Mannix’ episode. But Bushmen have lived in Deception Valley for ages and they seem satisfied. We spent a day with two of them who knew some English, but were unable to respond when Charlie asked, ‘How the hell did the leopard get its spots?’ The Bushmen posed their own question, also unanswerable. ‘Will Ahnold really be your gov’ner?’ ”We were always accompanied by a guide and, although usually in a jeep, we sometimes walked. More than once, an enthusiastic naturalist would bend down, pick up something and exclaim, ‘Oh! Fresh lion scat! Feel it, and take a whiff.’ We soon realized even the king of beasts’ droppings weren’t that exciting, though the lions themselves were. People sometimes faint the first time they hear a lion’s roar. I swooned. It is universally agreed that what the lion says when he roars is this: ‘Whose land is this? Whose land is this? This land is mine.’ You bet. ”One night there were so many lions roaring, I was afraid to stay in our cabin, despite the beckoning Egyptian bedsheets. The guys were going on a game-viewing drive, which sounded less frightening than being alone, as we probably wouldn’t see a thing. Wedged between Will, 6’2′, and my solid spouse in his pith helmet, Joseph ‘I AM BAWANA’ Edmiston, I figured I was safe. Plus, our guide had a gun. ”Just our luck, we ran into a pride of lions, 15 feet away, eating a freshly killed zebra. The guide had an enormous floodlight, so we could view the most horrible sight imaginable in bright technicolor, with surround sound. We sat there for an hour, speechless. The noise of the incessant gnawing and crunching was more terrifying than what we watched, but most frightening of all was the sound of roaring. ”The alpha lion, whose ladies were feasting, was lording it over another male, standing 25 feet away. Each time the king roared, the lesser one roared back. What were they saying? Was the big guy not sharing? Is that why the beta male was walking toward us? Joe jumped into the back seat to shelter Charlie, while 17-year-old Will climbed on my lap. Why? ‘What if the second banana is hungry?’ he asked. The fear on our faces must have made us unappetizing, because Beta changed his mind and sauntered back into the bush. I’m still in recovery. ”We learned so much in Africa. For instance, if you become poisoned, you must eat elephant dung, which contains a special ingredient that will cause you to vomit. Who knew a special ingredient was required? In Zulu Land, the word for tree is also the word for medicine. Our favorite tree was the Hanging Over Tree, whose bark you ingest in powdered form after a night of carousing. Did you know that if you discover crocodile teeth it means good luck? Why? Because there is no crocodile attached. ”We learned there are African masks to be worn for all occasions, including the ‘fault-finding’ mask, the ‘make fun of boys who dress like girls’ mask and the ‘create general and constant anxiety’ mask. We learned if you are good to nature, nature will be good to you and that the world did not start with us and will not end with us. And, mostly, we learned we want to go back to Africa. Right now. (Pepper Edmiston has been a regular contributor to the Palisadian-Post for many years. Her husband, Joe, is executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.)

Blizzard Conditions Lead to Utah Adventures

By
dev
-

By KURT G. TOPPEL

We have a two-week time share in Brianhead, way up in the southern Utah mountains’at 9,600 feet, to be precise. On a clear day the International Space Station is easily visible with the naked eye. Usually there is plenty of snow for the 10 ski lifts. I know from past experience that a 24-hour ‘mountain high’ is associated with the transport of our gear from the car, up the 40 stairs to our unit. After all, we usually include six weeks worth of food for 10, a mid-size library, ski, rain, hiking and Las Vegas formal wear and we stop just short of igloo construction equipment and spare chandeliers. There wasn’t much skiing this year. Either the slopes were too icy or a blizzard was in progress, not exactly ideal conditions for senior citizens. So my wife Haldis proposed a one-week excursion to Moab and two national parks: Canyonlands and Arches in northern Utah, near the Colorado border. Great idea! En route we stopped at Ruby’s Inn, the gateway to Bryce Canyon. We arrived just in time to see the canyon in all its red-and-white winter glory, oodles of digital photos worth. Unfortunately, Ruby’s great restaurant was being refurbished, so we drove to Foster’s, four miles away, known for their superb steaks. Just before we got there, a blizzard was beginning to dump a lot of white stuff. But I was traveling with my wife, and she has a way with the weather. The storm ended exactly when we were done eating. We even made it back to Ruby’s without chains! The next day was Sunday. We decided to drive to a place called Tropic that Haldis thought she had seen from up in Bryce. We were going to have breakfast there. Unfortunately in Utah they don’t serve breakfast to strangers on the day of the Lord. In fact, we were lucky to find a credit card- operated gas station. Since the weather seemed to be fine, we decided to take scenic Highway 12 to get to Moab. What a treat: The incredible vistas, the petrified forest park, the Anasazi ruins, the deer herds crossing the road, the Indian petroglyphs we found and studied in the last rays of the sinking sun. It was a trip we’ll never forget. We even got a belated breakfast in Escalante and bought some Indian jewelry and a gorgeous painting at depressed winter prices at the Anasazi museum. Finally we reached Moab and our destination, the Bighorn Lodge. Our hotel room had an unobstructed view of the snow-covered La Sal mountains. In our room we found a refrigerator and a microwave. A well-stocked market was right across the street. It was a perfect arrangement, and all for the incredible winter special weekly rate of $180! We spent an adventure-filled week exploring both Arches and Canyonlands. We visited the Moab museum. We took little side trips along the Colorado River and ate at a restaurant that used to be the residence of a uranium millionaire. You have to admire Mother Nature and her creativity. Here you find hundreds of sculptured rocks, single ones and entire formations. A 300-ft. Nofretete, a huge balanced rock that might tumble down from its perch sometime during the next millennia. There are the petrified giants, replicas of prehistoric monsters and even things that could be considered X-rated if you are inclined to so interpret the inkblots of a Rorschach test. There weren’t many visitors that time of the year. The air was incredibly clear. The unreal redness of the rock formations, the white of the snow and the ever-changing shadows created by the wandering sun turned the entire landscape into wondrous fairytale scenery. We discovered and used lovely little trails, and marveled at the wildlife that was everywhere, from Bighorn sheep to rabbits and amazingly well-fed rodents and birds from curious ravens looking for handouts to soaring eagles. We are still in the process of paring down our digital images to a manageable number. There is no viable target date yet, but when we get done you are more than welcome to download all of them. To top off our adventure trip, we decided to stop in Jean, Nevada, tired out by driving through blizzard conditions and torrential rains. The Goldstrike, where we got the last room available, lived up to its name. Five minutes before our scheduled departure I hit a $780 jackpot! One thing is certain: We shall go back to Moab to investigate and explore what we missed. (Kurt Toppel, a Palisades resident since 1958, has been Citizen of the Year and remains active in community affairs as a member of PRIDE and the Community Council.)

Opting for Business & Life in Taiwan

By
dev
-

By TODD LAWRENCE Special to the Palisadian-Post

(EDITOR’S NOTE: In February, we received an e-mail from Todd Lawrence, 31, who grew up in Pacific Palisades and has been living in Taiwan since June 1995. ‘The Palisadian-Post wrote several stories about Sky McMullan and me in 1990/91 when we ventured around the world for a year straight out of high school,’ Todd wrote, and he wondered if we were interested in writing ‘a short story about my current life in Asia.’ He provided some interesting details, so we happily agreed to help him craft the following story through e-mail correspondence.) After graduating from Palisades High, Sky and I took off for a year’s adventure around the world starting with a one-way ticket to Bali, with stopovers in Tahiti, Fiji, Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Then on to Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, after which we conquered most of Europe. Some highlights of our adventures that remain clear in my mind are bungee jumping and black-water cave rafting in New Zealand; scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef; exploring the Cu Chi tunnels under Ho Chi Min City (previously Saigon), Vietnam; visiting the many temples throughout Asia (especially in Thailand); trekking in the mysterious Himalayan mountains of Nepal; all of the amazing food we tried on our journey; and the many wonderful people we met off the normal tourist tracks (locals as well as fellow backpackers). We stayed mainly with local families and in guest houses in Australia and New Zealand, guest houses throughout Asia and the South Pacific Islands, and youth hostels in Europe. To save money we sometimes would sleep on the beaches, in parks, train stations, airports or from time to time even climb the drain pipes of the youth hostels in Europe and sleep on roofs. It was always about saving money so we could explore new destinations. Sky and I paid our own way through our travels around the world. This trip was a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience. Sky and I both realize this. We would love to do it again, but the question we both have is ‘How to find the time now that we are working?’ After returning to L.A. in 1991, it was so difficult to settle down and concentrate on ‘school.’ I began rock sculpting and took classes at Santa Monica College in art and international business; later I attended night classes and seminars in business. After graduating in 1994, I flew to Taiwan for the first time to visit a girlfriend. I stayed only six months, teaching English and exploring the island, but I sensed ‘I could really live here.’ The people were so kind, the culture so intriguing, and there were abundant opportunities for working in the manufacturing side of business. During my return to Los Angeles I continued to rock sculpt and worked several different jobs waiting tables at local restaurants. In 1995 I was ready for a change and decided to pack my things and move to Taiwan to study Mandarin Chinese at a university in Taipei. I picked this part of the world to live primarily for the wonderful people, comfortable living environment and numerous business opportunities. Taiwan is the center of manufacturing for most things in the world, and I have always enjoyed the creative side of manufacturing. In the beginning years, I focused on studying Mandarin while teaching English and working for several trading companies, helping mostly with client correspondence. Mandarin was a challenge to learn, but once the base was set, I improved steadily. I am currently project director for Marwin TSE Production Group, a Taiwan company producing custom-designed products in areas of tooling/molds, plastic injection/assembly and aluminum extrusion. Manufacturing facilities are located in Taiwan and China. We produce three items for Porsche AG in Germany and also the innovative Micro Ski (not yet sold in the U.S.), which fits normal, everyday boots and shoes and eliminates the need for hard snow boots. Other projects include computer peripherals and plastic hardware. I oversee all manufacturing from product design and tooling development to mass production, packaging and export. (Visit our Web site at www.marwintse.com.) Aside from my current job, I have built many business relationships with manufacturers in all industries. I ‘source’ many products in Asia for clients around the world and also help new companies develop their own designs or move production to China for lower costs. Besides work, Taiwan is a wonderful place to live. There’s only an hour flight to most of our manufacturing facilities in Hong Kong and China, so I can keep a close watch on production lines. Business trips are usually very rushed. I leave my apartment in the early morning and by afternoon I’m in Shanghai. Sometimes I?m in Taipei in the morning, Hong Kong in the afternoon and back to Taipei for dinner. I have friends in these cities, but it’s difficult to meet for more than a drink due to the tight travel schedule. Most nights consist of dinners with clients and suppliers to discuss recent projects. Fortunately, Mandarin is getting easier and I can speak enough to discuss projects and negotiate with the factories and suppliers. I recently flew to Munich for a major winter sporting goods show. Upon returning, I spent five days in Taipei before flying to Shanghai to meet a potential client I had just met in Germany. I spent four days in Shanghai showing them our manufacturing facilities, then returned to Taipei. Our German designer will meet me in Shanghai in April. During this trip we will also visit production facilities in Xiamen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, then return to Taiwan for a tour down south to Taichung, where we produce our aluminum extrusion items. This is a fairly normal month for me. When I’m not traveling and working, I try to have somewhat of a social life. I have many friends here, foreign and local, and the nightlife is quite exciting. There are numerous clubs, bars and discos that stay open until 5 or 6 a.m. and there is always something going on every night of the week. Everything is very close, only a short taxi ride away. So it takes a lot of discipline to stay focused on work and limit oneself to going out only on the weekend. I met my current girlfriend, I-Duan, here in Taipei. I live in a studio apartment with a balcony overlooking one of Taipei’s busiest streets (Hsin Yi Road) in the Da An district. On the weekend, if weather permits, I enjoy hiking in the mountains surrounding Taipei, sipping oolong tea in one of the many small tea houses overlooking tea plantations just outside of the city, attending the many trade shows at the Taipei World Trade Center, inviting friends over for a balcony BBQ, taking short trips down south to the many beautiful spots (Hua Lien being my favorite, where massive marble river beds cut through the mountains), and strolling through the weekend flower and jade markets. When I have a chance to get away for several days at a time, I enjoy taking my girlfriend to one of Thailand’s many resort/spas to relax on the beach and unwind. I return to the Palisades twice a year to visit my parents, Charlene and Richard, and my sister Pam, who lives in Santa Barbara. I talk with my friend Sky almost every week. I don’t think we’ll have the chance to take a long trip together in the near future, but we have met several times in Asia for holiday and will continue to travel. Pacific Palisades was a great place to grow up and maybe someday I will return to live and raise a family, but I honestly do not miss it. There is so much more to see in this world. It’s easy to get stuck in wonderful places such as the Palisades and let the world go by. Of course I miss my friends and family and always invite them to visit me. I appreciate the exclusiveness of the Palisades and excellent weather, but Taiwan is my home, for now.

Gilli Messer, Riley Karp Win Annual Mr. and Miss Palisades Titles

By
dev
-

The new Miss Palisades, Gilli Messer, center, and Mr. Palisades Riley Karp after receiving their bouquets and sashes at the event March 17. Miss Palisades runner-up Brittany O'Neil, left, looks on.
The new Miss Palisades, Gilli Messer, center, and Mr. Palisades Riley Karp after receiving their bouquets and sashes at the event March 17. Miss Palisades runner-up Brittany O’Neil, left, looks on.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

A new reign has begun in Pacific Palisades. Gilli Shir Messer and Riley Karp were chosen by a panel of entertainment industry judges as the new Miss and Mr. Palisades for 2004 at the town’s annual teen talent show March 17, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Messer, 15, a PaliHi sophomore, sang a powerful rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from ‘Les Mis’rables.’ Karp, 16, a junior at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, played flawless piano with Bach’s Prelude in D Minor and Chopin’s Etude in G-flat Major, which he pointed out was a study of the black keys (he also mentioned that his right hand would play only those keys). The teens each won a $2,000 scholarship from the Chamber plus a sterling silver key chain from Denton Jewelers. They will appear in events throughout the year, including riding in the Fourth of July parade, joining Santa on the fire truck for Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho! and appearing at Chamber of Commerce mixers and events. Brittany O’Neil, 15, a PaliHi sophomore who tap danced to Bob Fosse’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing,’ and Damon Cole, 16, a junior at Loyola High School who sang a classical piece, ‘Amarilli, mia bella’ by Giulio Caccini, and played Bach’s Toccata in D Minor on piano, were named runners-up. They will step in for the winners if they are not able to perform their duties throughout the year. They also each received $200. The event, which was held on St. Patrick’s Day at Pierson Playhouse, had a theme of ‘End of the Rainbow.’ Choreographer Thea White had the contestants, dressed in green T-shirts for the opening number, dance an Irish jig, then get down to OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya’ with jazz-funk moves. ‘The contestants had a lot of different talents,’ White said. ‘It made for an interesting show.’ The judges were actress Frances Fisher, Friends of Film founder Bob Sharka, post-production sound editor and mixer Bobby Mackston, talent agency owner Kathy O’Brien Sunderland and assistant director and stage manager Lindsay Weems. They had the difficult job of choosing the winners among the 10 talented contestants using the criteria of character, talent, communication, poise and presentation. The show flowed along smoothly with the help of the experienced co-hosts Cathie Wishnick and Fuad Saglie, Mr. Palisades 1990 and a KEYT anchorman in Santa Barbara. During the interview portion, each teen was asked about something from their biography and their future plans, and also had to answer the Big Question, which was: ‘Some people say they don’t vote, because one vote could not make a difference. What would you say to change their mind?’ In answer Messer said, ‘This is completely wrong’if you just sit home and don’t put your two cents in. I’m a strong believer in having a strong opinion.’ Karp said, ‘You should support the government that supports you, if they ask you to do something as simple as vote.’ Both winners are interested in international travel and the performing arts. Messer talked about being half-Israeli and half-American. ‘I spend every summer there,’ she said. ‘I see what my friends and family go through with terrorism and terrible events’it makes me want to live life to the fullest.’ Her plans include college and pursuing her ‘passion for musical theater. No matter what, I need to do theater, it’s my sanctuary.’ Karp talked about spending last summer in Japan as part of the Los Angeles-Nagoya sister city program. ‘I spent three weeks touring Japan learning about Japanese culture, lifestyle and music. I was most impressed with the Japanese respect for one another and the community.’ Karp plans to go to college and pursue a musical career. ‘I think there’s a lot more room for art in this world.’ The winners were presented with their sashes by outgoing Mr. and Miss Palisades, DJ Hance and Anne Marie Barrette, who talked about how much they had enjoyed their roles the past year. The two also gave their farewell performances. Barrette played Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C Sharp Minor and Hance presented an amusing slide presentation of the top 10 similarities between Ireland and the Palisades, based on his trip to Ireland last summer (including a jab at our town’s local paper: ‘They have their Blarney Stone, we have the Palisadian-Post’). Dancer Katie Grubiak, a friend of choreographer Thea White, performed an Irish fusion dance, in keeping with the St. Patrick’s Day theme, while the judges’ votes were tabulated. ‘I’m overjoyed,’ said Karp, who has studied piano for 12 years. ‘It was really amazing and incredible performing in front of everybody.’ His parents, Susan and Bob Karp, and older brother Noah, Mr. Palisades 1999, were there to cheer him on. His other brother, Felix, was the runner-up in 2000. When Messer heard her name, she later said ‘I didn’t think it was real, I thought it was a fairy tale. I didn’t expect it.’ She is the daughter of Chana and Stephen Messer and the older sister of Romi. They were Jessica Lee, a sophomore who sang a sweet and funky version of the ballad ‘Killing Me Softly’; sophomore Lauren Hunziker, who did a jazz dance to ‘Let the Good Times Roll’; sophomore Devon Miller, who gave an oral presentation on ‘Historic Words of America’; sophomore Mitchell Dubey, who played electric guitar and sang ‘Always Have, Always Will’ by the Impossibles; sophomore Courtney Stich, who performed a comic monologue from Mitch Hedburg’s HBO show; and junior Gavin Jones, who sang his own original composition, ‘Let Me.’ Several of the contestants were friends who decided it would be fun to enter together, said runner-up Brittany O’Neil. ‘All of the participants are such good friends. We bonded completely and had an amazing time.’ Candida Piaggi and Carol Smolinisky were co-chairs of the event, and the musical accompaniment was provided by the Triumphant Trio’PaliHi teacher Terry Henderson on guitar, and Pali students Daniel Manzoor on bass and Renata Coco on alto sax and flute. The first Miss Palisades was named in 1958, with Mr. Palisades added to the competition in 1990.

Decision on 82 Tramonto Condos Project Expected in Early May

By
dev
-

By LINDA RENAUD News Editor No decision was made last Wednesday after the Los Angeles Planning Department hearing regarding the proposed 82-unit condominium/townhouse project, which would nestle into the hillside at 17331-17333 Tramonto Drive and resemble an Italian hillside town. ”The property, which developer Ken Kahan purchased in 1999, occupies 3.98 acres overlooking Santa Monica Bay, above the Sunset/PCH intersection. It is zoned RD2-1 (multiple family), and while Kahan could build up to 87 units on the site, he has proposed 82, of which 11 are townhomes. While 20 tenants will relocate when the existing apartment building on the site is torn down, still to be determined is how many, and where, the affordable housing units required under the Mello Act will be built (on site or elsewhere). ”After hearing presentations from both sides regarding the feasibility of building the complex in a known landslide area, planning deputy Emily Gabel said she will accept written submissions from concerned citizens for three more weeks before making a decision, now expected in early May. ”’We didn’t learn anything at the hearing that we didn’t already know,’ said Paula Williams, whose husband John is chairman of the 36-unit Ocean Woods Terrace Condo Owners Association, which is directly above the proposed project. At the hearing he spoke in favor of the plans, after being assured by Kahan that none of the condo owners would lose their ocean views. ”’We’re no longer opposed to the project,’ Paula Williams continued, ‘because we trust that Mr. Kahan will carry through on what he has promised us. I think it will improve the hillside tremendously.’ ”Until recently, Kahan was battling with various neighbors over half a dozen major issues. Residents were concerned not only about losing their views, but that the project would threaten the hillside’s stability. Also at issue were the hours of construction, the increased traffic, health questions and liability’all of which Kahan managed to diffuse in recent weeks after meeting with residents and agreeing to numerous mitigating measures. These include a plan to have residents deal directly with his insurance carrier should the project cause any damage to their property. ”’Still to be resolved is the density problem,’ said Andrew Martin, president of the Castellammare Homeowners Association, which represents some 220 residents in the area. ”’I’ve lived here for 32 years and I can only imagine what the traffic is going to be like on Tramonto if the population is allowed to triple, which is what is being proposed,’ Martin said. ‘If this project does get the go-ahead, the one good thing it will do is repair the hillside, which the city has long refused to do. And Kahan did say he would widen Tramonto, which will help somewhat. Still, there will be a lot more traffic than there is now.’ ”Kevin Keller, chief planning deputy for Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who attended the hearing on her behalf, told the Palisadian-Post earlier this week that she ‘is generally in favor of the project but only if there is meticulous adherence to all the mitigation requirements as set out by the EIR.’ ”After the hearing, Kahan said that he is ‘hopeful of approval’ on the project, which has been five years in the planning. He confirmed that he plans to widen Tramonto from the entrance to his property to a subdivision up above, a length of some 400 feet. He has also agreed to repave Tramonto from his proposed complex down to Los Liones Drive. ”When and if the 82-unit development is approved by the city, it will next go to the Coastal Commission’if there are no appeals. ”Submissions should be sent to: Emily Gabel, 200 N. Spring St., Room 763, L.A., CA 90012.

4 Tramonto Trees Felled Ending Year-Long Debate

By
dev
-

Four large trees on Tramonto Drive were cut down two weeks ago, bringing to an abrupt end a debate which had persisted for almost a year between Castellammare residents and two of the homeowners over how to save the trees or widen the street, or both. The trees, an old pine and three eucalyptus, which lined a curvy section of the road just below Revello and flanked a four-house development site owned by Peter Engel and Michael Brunelle, were leveled immediately after a Board of Public Works hearing on March 1. After listening to testimony from both sides, the board ruled unanimously that the two men had the right to remove the trees rather than relinquish up to 14 feet on at least one of three properties they are currently constructing on Tramonto. ‘What it came down to,’ explained Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski’s senior deputy Debbie Dyner, ‘is that they were not willing to incur any further delays or costs on the project, which is their right.’ To save the trees, the two men would have needed to get a variance to expand the road onto their lots, which would have entailed a public hearing and perhaps a further review by the Coastal Commission. ‘I can understand that cutting down the trees is extremely frustrating for everyone involved,’ continued Dyner, ‘considering the amount of effort on both sides to work out a compromise.’ On March 2, the day after the hearing, Miscikowski, whose office was involved in the ongoing debate, sent a letter to local residents outlining the dilemma. ‘As you may know, when the subdivision [of the lots] was approved several years ago, the Planning Department applied a condition that required widening of Tramonto Drive to today’s safety and engineering standards. At the time, this seemed straightforward enough. However, once the developers’ engineer looked more closely at the requirement and the actual placement of the trees, he realized that either the trees would have to be removed or the road would have to be routed around the trees, possibly cutting into the front yard of one or two of the houses.’ The tree controversy began last May when Castellammare resident Bart Greenhut noticed signs posted by the city indicating the four trees were slated for removal so that the street could be widened from about 22 feet to 28 feet to meet city standards. In addition, street lamps, curbs, gutters and four-foot-wide sidewalks were to be added on both sides of the street for both better drainage and pedestrian safety, all at Engel’s and Brunelle’s expense. Greenhut immediately rallied about 150 supporters to save the trees. Neighborhood meetings were held. Miscikowski’s support was enlisted. And new design plans were drawn up ‘that would both save the trees and meet city requirements,’ Greenhut told the Palisadian-Post last July. Even though Engel and Brunelle had applied to the city for the permit to remove the trees, they appeared to agree to the compromise, which would require them to cede to the city a portion of their land so the road could be rerouted around the trees. ‘We want to keep these big, beautiful trees,’ Brunelle said in an interview with the Post at the time. Greenhut now feels deceived, especially after a meeting on February 4 in which he came away believing that the city, as well as Engel and Brunelle, agreed to a design that not only improved Tramonto, but ‘met city requirements and saved the trees,’ Greenhut wrote in a letter to the Post after the March 1 hearing. He wonders if the intention of both the city and the two men was to tear down the trees ‘all along.’ Dyner saw the February 4 meeting differently. ‘While everyone was in agreement with the concept, and it seemed that what was proposed could work, when the developers finally crunched the numbers they had problems with it,’ Dyner said, adding that she only found out that they wanted to remove the trees the morning of the March 1 hearing. The first tree came down shortly after the hearing, the other three the next day. Engel said that in the end it came down to the question of how to widen the street without violating property setback regulations, which proved to be a ‘physical impossibility.’ Part of Engel’s and Brunelle’s agreement with the city is that they must replant eight trees for the four they cut down. ‘When we finish the construction, we will fix and landscape the street,’ Engel told the Post yesterday. ‘It will be very attractive and woodsy and look a lot better than it has in a long time.’ Resident Norma Spak, who last December received a Community Council service award for her work at Los Liones Gateway Park (where she works as a landscape volunteer), is looking forward to that time. ‘They [Engel and Brunelle] told us when we met with them a couple of months ago that if the trees did have to come down that they would replace them with some oaks and sycamores, which are native to this region,’ Spak said. ‘Now that the trees are gone, Tramonto is finally going to get widened and improved, which I think everyone agrees is long overdue.’

T.V. Show Traces Evolution of Video Games

By
dev
-

Atari was at the top of the video game business in the 1970s with arcade games like ‘Pong,’ ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’ and their home console, Atari 2600. But after the company’s founder Nolan Bushnell sold the company, and was later replaced as CEO, the company went downhill. Several engineers left to start other companies, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who began Apple Computer. By the ’80s, the company had to bury truckloads of its failed ‘E.T.’ game in the New Mexico desert. ”’Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession,’ a two-hour documentary executive-produced by Palisadian David Carr and his business partner David Comtois, traces the industry’s bursting upon the scene in the ’70s, followed by its many ups and downs. At age 39, Carr has lived through the evolution of video games from their infancy to today’s $20 billion-a-year industry. ”The documentary premieres Sunday night on GSN (formerly the Game Show Network) at 6 and 9 p.m. GSN (Channel 108), which is expanding beyond just game shows to video games, dating games and reality games, came up with the idea. ”Carr and Comtois lined up 40 interviews with video game pioneers and experts. ‘All these folks were off-the-wall, wildly colorful pioneers in a business with no boundaries,’ Carr told the Palisadian-Post. ‘We couldn’t have asked for better subjects.’ ”He traveled around the country to conduct many of the interviews. ‘There’s no consolidated place for the video game industry. There are little shops all over the world.’ ”The documentary, named on TV Guide’s ’10 Reasons to Stay Home This Week’ list, is hosted by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, co-creator of ‘Tony Hawk’s Underground’ video game. ”Using archival photos, old-fashioned consoles and lots of video game footage, the documentary begins with the primitive video games which were created in the ’50s and ’60s. In 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey was introduced, a home TV console with a primitive ping-pong game. The kit came with plastic overlays to put over one’s TV screen and create different games. ”Around the same time, Nolan Bushnell founded Atari, and Al Alcorn developed ‘Pong.’ They built on the concept by adding sound and a score and the ability for the ball to speed up over time. ”’Pong’ was a hit in arcades and Atari’s ‘Space Invaders’ soon followed, which had the innovation of a high score display. Then came another Atari hit, ‘Asteroids.’ ”The Japanese game makers exploded onto the scene with ‘Pac-Man,’ which featured a memorable character that could be licensed. Nintendo came in with ‘Donkey Kong’ and ‘Mario Brothers,’ followed by ‘Super Mario Brothers.’ Meanwhile, several other companies joined the competition. ”The next important phase came in 1982, when the TV console was replaced by the personal computer as the most popular mode to play video games such as ‘Tetris.’ ”The documentary also covers the Senate hearings on violence in video games, which led to the rating system, and the next wave of TV consoles such as Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. ”New and ever-more-inventive games, such as ‘Sims,’ which allows the player to create his or her own characters and run their lives, followed. And now a new generation of games is available on cell phones and PDAs. ”’The pioneers of video games’Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, the biggest publisher of video games, and John Romero, who created ‘Doom’ and ‘Quake”are now involved in cell-phone gaming,’ said Carr. ‘It’s the new frontier of video games. ”’These pioneers are used to working with rudimentary computer processors. Cell phones right now have a similar lack of computer power. ‘Tetris’ is a great computer cell-phone game.’ In Japan, Carr said, interactive cell-phone games are especially popular. ”Carr has lived in the Palisades for 12 years with his wife Carol and children Stephen, 10, and Jacqueline, 7, who attend St. Matthew’s School. The family is very active at St. Matthew’s Church. In addition, Carr is a coach in the Palisades Pony Baseball Association and the Santa Monica Bobby Sox girls’ softball league. ”Carr believes that video games are popular because of their increasingly lifelike graphics and audio and the interactivity of video games, compared to more passive media. ”As a parent of young kids who play video games, Carr hopes the documentary helps demystify the new world of video games for parents. ‘In general, there is a lot of fear among parents. It takes education. I love the movie ‘Raging Bull,’ but I won’t take my 10-year-old son to see it. I love ‘Halo,’ but I won’t let my son play it. As more people understand ratings and the different video game genres, parents can catch up a little bit.’ ”He and Comtois, who met at Boston University, founded Beantown Productions 13 years ago. The company specializes in creating marketing for television, and makes promos for shows like ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Cops,’ ‘King of the Hill,’ ‘Pyramid’ and ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ The two are currently working on a TV show that will allow viewers to play a video game within the context of the 30-minute program. In the course of this, Carr has rediscovered video games for the first time since playing Pac-Man in high school and has been playing them as research for his show. ”The producers also hired a full-time researcher to find old footage and photos of early video games. During the eight months of working on the documentary, they found numerous old consoles and video games on eBay and played them in order to get footage of the different games. ‘We created our own museum of the history of video games in our office,’ Carr said.

1...2,5582,5592,560...2,577Page 2,559 of 2,577
© Pacific Palisades Post, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272