Brendan Steele put up a 2-under-par 73-69-69-71 — 282 to tie for 39th place at last week’s Quicken Loans National in Bethesda, Maryland. He missed a top-20 finish by three strokes.
Somewhat characteristically, the longer the club, the better he did with it. The Idyllwild native led all players in the tournament in strokes gained off the tee with 5.060, gaining 4.948 strokes against the field overall, tee to green. But he gave back 0.650 strokes in play around the green and another 3.217 with the putter.
Brendan held his position as 50th in FedExCup standings, but slipped two spots — from 75th to 77th — in the Official World Golf Ranking.
This week, Brendan plays in one of his favorite tournaments: the Barracuda Championship on the Montreux Golf and Country Club course in Reno. The Barracuda is unique on the PGA Tour in that since 2012 it has employed a Modified Stableford points system. It’s a bit of a cross between medal and match play in that it is played hole-by-hole, but with players accumulating points overall.
A player scores 8 points for a double eagle on any hole, 5 for an eagle, 2 for a birdie, none for a par, minus 1 for a bogey and minus 3 for any double bogey or worse. This top-heavy scoring encourages a “go for it” strategy, since going for a risky birdie or eagle can score a player plus 2 or plus 5 points if he succeeds, but will cost him only minus 1 or minus 3 if he blows it. If a player doesn’t make at least bogey on a given hole, he just picks up and writes a minus 3 for that hole score. So far at the Barracuda, the winner has always finished the four days with a score in the 40s.
Check with the Town Crier website for B’s Thursday and Friday tee times.
Associates of Idyllwild Arts Foundation past-president Anne Erikson (center) poses with Volunteers of the Year Terry and Diana Kurr after announcing their award. Photo by Mary Morse
At the Associates of Idyllwild Arts Foundation’s annual meeting Sunday, June 12, Diana and Terry Kurr were named volunteers of the year and were presented the annual Honor Award.
Diana has served as Membership Chair for many years; she serves as a member of the Board of Directors, and supports the Associates whenever there is a need. Until this year, Terry has served as Treasurer and has supported the Associates in many other ways.
Diana grew up in Riverside. Her parents met there in World War II and they never left. She and Terry lived in Riverside for years where Diana taught school for 20-plus years. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Diana and Terry have been volunteering for Jazz in the Pines for more than 10 years. Jazz in the Pines is what inspired them to buy a second home in Idyllwild. Today, Terry and Diana live in Idyllwild full-time with a getaway place in Moreno Valley.
Diana is member and past president of the Mountain Quilters and she is the corresponding secretary of Soroptimist International of Idyllwild where she was just given the Volunteer of the Year award.
Terry is a member and a new officer of the Rotary. Their grandchildren attend the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program.
Diana and Terry are selfless volunteers in the community and are constantly giving back.
Anne Erikson, past president of the Associates, presented the Kurrs a one-of-a-kind wind chime crafted by local artist Jan Jaspers-Fayer.
Fritz Coleman, popular weathercaster for NBC-4 in Los Angeles, comes to Idyllwild to do stand-up comedy. He will appear in two shows at Uncle B’s Smokin’ Barbeque on Saturday, July 9. Photo courtesy NBC-4
Ken Dahleen has inked Fritz Coleman to do stand-up on the deck of Uncle B’s Smokin’ Bar-b-que. Coleman’s Saturday, July 9, appearance kicks off a comedy series Dahleen plans to hold throughout the summer.
Coleman appears in two shows, one at 7 p.m. and one at 9 p.m. Coleman previously regaled Idyllwild audiences emceeing a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony several years ago. “I first brought him to Idyllwild, and he loves it here,” said Dahleen. “That’s why he wanted to come back.”
The NBC-4 Los Angeles weathercaster is an accomplished comedian, having done stand-up for decades at The Improv, the Ice House and other Southern California comedy clubs. Coleman has appeared for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” and on several Bob Hope specials.
Coleman has said that Carson and Hope were his comedy heroes. Coleman has appeared in series and specials NBC-4 has aired over the years, including “Fritz and Friends” and “The Perils of Parenting.” Coleman has won four Los Angeles-area Emmy Awards for his work.
Coleman has been the full-time “weathercaster” for NBC-4 since 1984, having been part of the longest-running evening news team in the Los Angeles area — with Chuck Henry, Coleen Williams and Fred Roggin.
Jimmy Burns (below, left), the “teacher/comedian,” opens for Fritz Coleman. He is seen here with Arsenio Hall. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Burns
Dahleen will sell tickets, presale only, at the restaurant beginning Friday, July 1. Tickets are $10. Jimmy Burns, the “Teacher Comedian,” opens for Coleman at both shows. Burns, an ex-teacher turned stand-up comedian, has guested with Brad Garret, George Lopez and Arsenio Hall, and has appeared at many of the same comedy venues in Los Angeles at which Coleman has appeared.
Seating is limited. Uncle B’s is located at 54241 Ridgeview Drive.
Rabbi Malka Drucker is the new rabbi of Idyllwild’s Har Shalom Jewish congregation.
Rabbi Malka Drucker has deep ties to Idyllwild. But she has only recently returned to Idyllwild to live, having spent the last several decades in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she founded the synagogue HaMakom, the Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism.
Drucker has had a cabin in Idyllwild for more than 40 years. A prolific writer, the author of more than 20 books, Drucker taught at the University of Southern California at a time when USC ran the Idyllwild Arts (then ISOMATA) Summer Program. Drucker served as workshop director at ISOMATA from 1982 through 1984. In that capacity she created curriculum, supervised instructors and taught adults how to write for children. As a fit and dedicated hiker, she knows Idyllwild’s trails very well.
But she had not thought of returning to live in Idyllwild because, until recently, there had been no Jewish congregation here. So it seemed propitious when Har Shalom’s first rabbi, Jules King, moved on, that Drucker would return to lead the growing congregation.
Drucker’s professional résumé reads like a journey: a Bachelor of Arts in English from UCLA and a teaching credential from USC; and rabbinical training at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and the Academy for Jewish Religion, also in New York City.
Her 20 books, published by major houses, have been honored with prestigious awards, including a Southwest Pen Award for Non-Fiction in 2003, a 1993 New York Public Library Top 100 list, a 1983 Southern California Literature for Young People Award, a 1991 Bantam Publications Pick of the Lists Hungry Mind Award, and a 1978 Holiday House Sports Book of the Month selection for “Tom Seaver: Portrait of a Pitcher.” Drucker is a major baseball fan.
She has lectured widely throughout the United States: at the Jewish Museum in New York City, the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., Occidental College in Los Angeles and Wittenburg University in Springfield, Ohio, and many other venues.
But it is in conversation with Rabbi Malka, as she is known, that one experiences her passion, her conviction and her power. She teaches by asking questions, something that has historically been part of the relationship of rabbi to congregation in Judaism. “Why are we doing this?” asks Malka about the practice of her faith. “The answer is always going to be to love people and trust God, while knowing our own fallibility.”
She mentioned two apparently contradictory concepts that, for her, best sum up our place, as humans, in a world of faith and of religious practice: “For me, the world was created,” and, “I am but dust and ashes.” The lesson is, explained Malka, that all we have been given is given only so that we can serve and give to others in humility.
In becoming a rabbi, Drucker said she wanted a deeper, creative understanding of spirit that was not academic. “I needed that creative piece,” she said. When asked to clarify what she meant, she asked,” What is God’s primary function? To create with the ongoing animating force. And, if I’m created in God’s image, then it’s in my creativity that I come closest to God. That’s the love piece.”
Quoting the Kol Nidre, a declaration recital on the Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Drucker said, “A rabbi has two tasks: to bring forth creativity in others and to reveal oneself [Kol Nidre 5771].”
Asked how she would approach her new congregation, Drucker said, “I need to sit and listen in this congregation. My first job is to create maximum connectivity with whatever one feels is God, and to explore the inchoate longing for that connection. This is what I hope to offer, this impeccability of practice, where we are all doing the very best that we can to show how much we love God. It’s not acceptable to just kind of do it.”
Drucker displays a formidable intellect and powerful spirit, while at the same time radiating graciousness and warmth. And always there is good-natured humor. She smiled when she explained how she would know when she was successful. “My job as your rabbi is to teach you everything I know so that I would be out of a job — to be of help in solidifying this community through love and kindness, and the practice of Judaism.”
At her ordination speech, in becoming a rabbi, Drucker said, “It may take a village to raise a child, but it took a city the size of Manhattan to make me a rabbi.”
Grupo Bohemio keeps the crowd on their feet during last year’s summer concert. File photo
Grupo Bohemio, popular Santana tribute band and percussive purveyor of hot Latin music, opens the 17th season of the Idyllwild Summer Concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 7.
Bohemio, a big hit with ISCS regulars, returns for its fifth trip to the series — a fact certain to delight Idyllwild’s dancers.
Based in the Coachella Valley, Grupo Bohemio returns with an expanded seven-man ensemble. New lead vocalist Jerel Garcia and drummer Emanuel Lizardo join long-time regulars Ruben Cancino, keyboard and vocals; Manny Torres, rhythm and lead guitar; Lupe Garza, bass guitar; Juan Hernandez, sax and vocals; and Victor Ibarra on percussion.
Cooking with salsa and jalapeños, GB serves up traditional Latin, rock en Espanola, Tex-Mex, R&B, classic rock, soft country and mainstream top 40 — something for every rhythmic enthusiast, seasoned by Bohemio’s Latin lineage. Torres said Bohemio also will be covering some Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes, answering special requests from last year’s audience.
For Latin purists, the band also will include Columbian cumbia, Cuban salsa and Puerto Rican raggaeton, Torres said.
The night will be balmy as Bohemio turns up the temperature with familiar hits “Oye Como Va,” “Black Magic Woman,” “La Bomba” and “Dance Sister Dance.”
As they do each year, Ken Dahleen and his ISCS board start the summer with insufficient money on hand to fund the concert series. Over the summer, attendees pony up by filling ubiquitous donation jars circulated before the concert starts, and sponsors sign up to have their names advertised on concert banners.
Craig and Janice Coopersmith donate water and ice cream sales from their concert concession each year to help fund the series. This year’s concert series budget will be more than $30,000.
So bring chairs and cash — chairs for comfort and cash for the donation jars — to help launch year 17 of this long-running event presented especially for Idyllwild residents. Contributions also may be sent to Idyllwild Summer Concert Series, P.O. Box 1542, Idyllwild, CA 92549.
Opening for Bohemio at 6:15 p.m. are Sandii Castleberry and Friends.
The series takes place once again on the Idyllwild Community Center site. Construction for the first phase of the center was delayed until fall 2016, in part to allow ISCS to hold this summer’s concerts.
Shawna Legarza speaking at the 2015 Cal Fire awareness event at Hemet Ryan Air base. File photo
Shawna Legarza, former fire chief for the San Bernardino National Forest, will be the next national director of Fire and Aviation Management for the U.S. Forest Service, Chief Tom Tidwell announced Friday, June 17.
During an interview with the Town Crier, Legarza said she will begin her new position on July 24. While she has had assignments for several months at the Forest Service Headquarters, residing in the Washington, D. C., area will be new adventure, too.
“I’ve had an amazing career and it’s an honor to serve now in the next position,” she said.
Legarza grew up on a cattle ranch near Elko, Nevada, which is where she developed her affinity for the outdoors, her acceptance of the unexpected and the importance of weather and hard work.
“My dad would be proud. I learned a lot from my parents and am very proud and appreciative of them and how I grew up,” she said with affection and emotion. Her father died last year.
She has been a firefighter since 1989, when she started with the Bureau of Land Management in Elko. But she quickly joined the Forest Service’s Hotshot crew in Carson City, Nevada.
In those early days, she was not aspiring to Washington leadership positions. She was finishing her education at the same time. This focus on the present and awareness of others has been a long-standing trait of Legarza’s. Then she earned her master’s degree while a GS-5 firefighter.
The Hotshot time offered her an opportunity to travel around the country fighting many fires.
Being a woman has never seemed to be an impediment doing her job or in her career, Legarza said. “I’ve had that question before, but it never mattered on the ranch and hasn’t in my career. I just did the job and was never aware of any differences.”
Becoming the Hotshot supervisor of the Durango, Colorado, crew is evidence that she fought fires and could lead in the field.
After getting comfortable at a Washington desk, Legarza said her goal would be to continue to reinforce the culture where people can speak out and embrace the agency.
“The Forest Service is the best firefighters in the world. I’m part of that culture and want to make it better,” which is why the work on the ground fighting fires to protect communities and landscape will be her focus.
She understands that life and career is not a steady upward line. It is the ability to accept those fluctuating patterns that helps. Some days it’s an amazing job and other days, it’s stress and fatigue.
“I think there’s always days when you’re the windshield and some days you’re the bug,” she emphasized. “You have to stay present in the job and learn for the ups and downs.
“I want people to take care of themselves so that they can care of others,” she stressed.
The current efforts to change the funding pattern for wildfire fighting will continue to rest with the departmental leaders and Chief Tidwell. “I’ll be in a supporting role,” she said.
Nana-Ama Danquah, author, editor and public speaker, opens Eduardo Santiago’s Idyllwild Author Series at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 10. Photo courtesy of Danquah
Author, editor, journalist and public speaker Nana-Ama Danquah opens Eduardo Santiago’s Idyllwild Author Series on Sunday, July 10. This is year six for Santiago’s popular series, held at 4 p.m. Sunday, for five weeks, on the deck of Café Aroma.
Danquah is a compelling choice to open the series. Born in Ghana, she immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 6. She arrived with an accent and a cultural heritage very different from those found in the Maryland area north of the District of Columbia where her family settled.
“On one side was America, on the other was Ghana,” she wrote in a 1998 article, “Life as an Alien.” “And I didn’t know how to bring them together, how to make one make sense to, let alone in, the other. Why do you talk like that? Where are you from? Is that string in your hair? Newness is easy to detect, especially with immigrants.”
It was that societal disconnect, the need to fit in by adopting multiple situational personas, that caused Danquah to fall into years of depression. Finding her way and finding herself was painful. She was black and yet not a black American. She was exotic and an African. Whether with her young black or Hispanic American friends, she was always adjusting, adopting the cadences and lilts of their speech, to modify and redefine her own.
Her memoir, “Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression” (One World/Galantine, 1999) is the story of her journey through depression and cultural disorientation to her emergence and embrace of the sum of all her parts. It is a story of healing that the Washington Post called “absorbing and inspirational” and former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher called “a tremendous gift to all of us and to our understanding of depression and its pervasiveness throughout our society.”
Asked in interview whether her depression was linked to her early cultural disorientation as an immigrant, Danquah answered, “They are absolutely linked. It is the isolation of not being understood. And yet the more I assimilated the less I was understood. I was both people [Ghanaian and American] with this weird cognitive dissonance that comes from leaving a part of yourself behind.” It was not just the accent, she explained. It was the very different cultural norms. “Back then in Ghanaian culture, there was no ‘me, me, me’ as there was in the U.S. And one was not allowed to speak to elders in certain ways. For most immigrants there is a dance, a negotiation always trying to fit in.”
Danquah is the editor of three anthologies, and her articles and commentaries have been published in media outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Africa Report, Allure to Essence.
In discussing how American language has devolved in abbreviations and twittered briefs, Danquah shared how she approaches her writing day. “I write personal letters every morning, writing with the personal knowledge that the recipient will not necessarily write you back.” She explained that writing in such a personal fashion to someone she knows helps free her to write her own books, not worrying if someone will buy the book and read it. “Writing the letters moves me further into language and wanting to tell a story. I think of my readers as listeners.”
Danquah said one Portuguese word, “saudade,” captures what it is to be an immigrant — a feeling of longing, melancholy and nostalgia which for her was a lifelong journey of trying to be whole when there was a part of her that was absent. “When I was young, there was a space for blonde Jennifer with the pom-poms but there was not a space for me.”
Santiago and Danquah will appear together at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 10, on the deck of Café Aroma. There is no charge for admission.
In a short meeting, on Sunday, June 26, five board members of the Art Alliance of Idyllwild and 12 members met to revise current bylaws.
The five attending board members included President Shanna Robb, Veda Roubideaux, Del Marcussen, Darcy Gerdes and Peter Szabadi.
Proposed by motion was a move to lower the minimum number of directors of the corporation from the current seven to four. Attending members voiced concern of having a minimum number of directors that was an even number. After discussion, a motion was made and approved to amend the bylaws to read “The authorized number of directors of the Corporation shall not be less than three (3) nor more than nine (9).”
The next step would be for Robb to update the bylaws, have them signed by the board secretary and then posted on the AAI website.
In a recent AAI newsletter, the reason for calling the special meeting was: “With the recent announcement of board members leaving due to personal reasons, to avoid being put in a position where we don’t have enough board members to proceed with business, the nominating committee has recommended that the minimum number of board members be amended.”
Hawaii’s Poet Laureate Kealoha performing “The Story of Everything.” Photo courtesy Kealoha
The Idyllwild Arts Native American Festival Week starts at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 3, in the IAF Theatre on the Idyllwild Arts campus and runs through Saturday, July 9. The featured program for Sunday evening is Hawaii’s first poet laureate and champion Slam Poet Kealoha performing “The Story of Everything.” This multimedia stage show opened to raves in Honolulu last September and is a six-part creation story in epic-poem format that traces our origins from the Big Bang, stars, evolution of life and migration to Africa. The final part looks scientifically into the future of global climate change. That’s right, 13.7 billion years told in 90 minutes using science, poetry, storytelling, visual art, music, chant and dancing.
Others in the cast are dancers Jamie Nakama and Jonathan Sypert, ukulele virtuoso Taimane Gardner and chants (Oli) by Kaui Kanaka’ole. When asked Kealoha’s goal for the audience he replied, “Not to be scared of science and go deeper into how we truly got here.”
According to Heather Companiott, director of the IA Adult Center and the Native American Arts Program, “Having Kealoha perform fits nicely with this year’s Native American Festival theme, ‘ART-ificial Borders.’ Artists, scholars and tribal community members will look at actual, perceived, metaphorical, geographical and intellectual borders, and share their perspectives through art or social activism, locally, regionally and globally.”
Kealoha, whose name means Love in Hawaiian, draws from his diverse background for all his work. “My performances incorporate all I have learned in life — hula, break dancing — everything all poured into a piece. Visual art is so important because everyone learns differently so I use many approaches.”
As a young boy of mixed ethnicity — Chinese, Hawaiian and Caucasian — he looks back on his childhood fondly. “My parents gave me a well-rounded approach to life.” He enjoyed sports and school, never letting on he was that smart (he called himself a closet nerd) until he achieved a perfect score of 800 on his SAT math test and was accepted to MIT, the top engineering school in the country.
His life changed radically in Massachusetts where he studied applied Nuclear Physics and graduated in 1999 in Nuclear Engineering. “Going to MIT was like drinking from a fire hose. There was so much academics and science, and late-night discussions with super-bright friends who were interested in investigating the same things I was.” While studying Fusion Energy he became aware of the political funding issues surrounding global climate change. “In 1998, scientists talked about global climate change. This was known for at least 10 years previously. Now, almost 20 years later it’s being addressed.”
After graduation, Kealoha worked as a consultant to many large companies in San Francisco. “My time was wasted on rich companies getting richer. I realized our time on Earth is limited and we spend many of our waking hours working. I wanted to help build a community or society which does not exploit people. I wanted to stand up for something so I derailed off the track.”
While still in the Bay Area, he read about and attended Slam Poetry sessions. “My life changed 180 degrees.” Slam Poetry’s mission is to promote performance and creation of poetry while cultivating literary activities and spoken-word events, including audience participation, stimulate creativity, awaken minds, inspire and engage. “We meet, discuss ideas, then build performances that are highly crafted.”
He went home to Oahu to reflect on his goal, making a difference in the lives of people and their connections to the universe. Along with surfing and eating mangoes, he began to write down his ideas and act them out. He started a Hawaiian Slam Poet movement that grew to 600 people. “It was natural for Hawaii to embrace Slam Poetry because its history is based on oral traditions and storytelling.” He entered National Poetry Slams in Chicago where he consistently ranks in the top 10 from around the country. Kealoha’s poetic, storytelling style combines analysis with creative writing to investigate social, personal and philosophical themes for the 21st century.
The governor of Hawaii asked Kealoha to be the first poet laureate of Hawaii in 2012 after he performed at the govenor’s inauguration. His duties are to write poems for governmental occasions and to visit other states. He has performed throughout the world, including the White House, and is part of the movement of indigenous people getting recognized or coming into their own.
Kealoha summed up the interview by saying, “The job of artists is to translate thoughts and put them in a way that expresses ideas in speech or artwork that allows individuals to perceive these ideas based on their own experiences.”
Each day during the festival week, free events are open to the public. At 7 p.m. Monday, July 4, Curator Heidi Mckinnon will give a gallery talk followed at 8 p.m. by an opening reception for the guest artists in the Parks Exhibition Center.
The Kabotie Lecture Series will be the next three days from noon to 1 p.m. in the Krone Library: Tuesday, July 5, Heidi McKinnon will speak about her photo project on “Migration of Guatemala;” Wednesday, July 6, Steven Yazzie, Navajo, will present “Talking to Walls and Talking to People: Evolution of an Art Practice;” and Thursday, July 7, Michael Angst and another Cook Inlet Tribal member will demonstrate “Never Alone: A Computer Gaming Partnership in Alaska.” At 8 a.m. Saturday, July 9, Mark Taboo will do a Hopi-Tewa Pottery Firing.
At 7 p.m. Friday, July 8, on the Cargill Commons on the IA campus, the Mt. Cahuilla Bird Singers and other indigenous dancers will perform and invite the audience to participate in the dancing. The Native American Arts Festival is an enjoyable, educational, cultural, free event dedicated to eliminating barriers amongst all people.
Jim Nutter goes for a “ringer” May 17, 2015, during the annual horseshoe tournament at the Idyllwild Community Center site. This photo won a first place in the National Newspaper Association’s Best Newspaper Contest recently. PHOTO BY JENNY KIRCHNER
Once again, the Idyllwild Town Crier has been recognized by its national brethren. In the 2016 National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Editorial Contest, the Town Crier received three awards for non-daily publications with circulations of less than 5,000.
Jenny Kirchner, freelance photographer, earned all of those. When told, Kirchner’s reaction was, “Wow! I’m shocked.”
She earned a first- and third-place award for her sports photos and an honorable mention for a breaking news photo.
As most photographers know, Kirchner attributes some of her success to being “… in the right place at the right time.”
More importantly than chance, Kirchner said one needs “… to have the patience to try to expect what will happen.”
“So many moments I’ve seen, then they’re gone. I’ve missed more of them than I wanted,” she added. “If you hesitate, you’re gone.”
The Better Newspaper Editorial Contest received 1,436 entries and 151 member newspapers in 39 states earned recognition for their work in 2015. California had the most combined editorial and advertising wins with 66.
