Ojai: Talk of the Town

Julie Gerard's interest in a healthy, plant-based lifestyle began with her surviving a cancer scare, which she attributed to her food choices. So along with a dedicated cohort of like-minded people including Heath Perry, Steve Sprinkel, Michelle Lopez-Dohrn and Grace Malloy, she's been trying for years to open Ojai's second farmers market. After a few abortive attempts she found success this past spring with Thursday's Certified Farmers Market in Chaparral High School's courtyard. The festive field of 60 vendors selling of farm-fresh produce, local products and hugely popular sandwiches and wood-fired pizza has quickly proven to be an established part of Ojai's cultural scene, despite the pandemic and other obstacles. More than just a place to buy healthy, fresh foods and products, it has become a community gathering place, where people come together to play, participate and learn about important issues. 

Gerard, a local attorney, credited the Ojai Unified School District's superintendent Dr. Tiffany Morse and her staff, along with Jim Bailey of Rock Tree Sky School with positive attitude and perseverance with their success of getting the effort off the ground and its momentum. A long-time visitor to Ojai, Gerard knew early that she was going to move to Ojai to raise her children. After making her own dream come true, she is now dedicated to creating a sustainable "foodshed" in Ojai and for our future generations. If you have visited the market, you know it's bursting with the sights of sounds of children laughing and playing and learning.

We did not talk about FDR's Supreme Court-packing scheme, Victorian amateur scientists or Roman siege weapons.

http://www.ojaicertifiedfarmersmarket.com/

Abigail Napp grew up in the food business as her mother was a leading caterer in the Pacific Northwest, and she never strayed too far from the culinary world. After college she began a career of traveling and writing about food, including at Condé Nast's La Cucina Italia. Her circuitous path led to Ojai, where she's been experimenting with various local products, including an Ojai adaption of a Northern Italian-French traditional liqueur made with walnuts and neutral grain spirits.

Abigail's varied interests in the culinary arts led to a wide discussion about eating and writing about eating, and how shortest path to understanding a culture is through its food. We talked about MFK Fisher and Julia Child, and wondered how they would have adapted to the quarantine.

Her pandemic-era journalism drew a focus on those various innovations and substitutions chefs and kitchen artists have been making during this strange time (including pizza pullers) and her interviews with leading figures such as Meryl Streep ("Julia & Julia,") Stanley Tucci ("Big Night") and Rhiannon Giddens and her Italian partner, Francesco Turrissi's grandmother's favorites. We also talked about Abigail's plans to write about the Biden family as the first red-sauce family to inhabit the White House.

We did not talk about ancient Roman recipes, Australian meat pies or New England clam bakes.

Check out Abigail's stories at https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/contributor/abigail-napp

Jack Dyer was present for the craft beer boom in the San Diego area in the 1990s and it left him with an unquenchable thirst to join the ranks of the top brewers. He now has five taprooms and hundreds of outlets and thousands of devoted customers of his distinct IPAs and lagers. He is also a big believer in building community and puts  skin in the game with the 1 Percent For the Planet, supporting the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy among other programs and projects.

Dyer, inspired by Yvon Chouinard's approach to business as chronicled in "Let My People Surf," ended up opening his first taproom next to Patagonia's headquarters in Ventura. He has since opened a bustling space in Santa Barbara's Funk Zone and the crown jewel of his empire, Topa Topa's Taproom in downtown Ojai at the intersection of South Montgomery and Ojai Avenue, which faces the eponymous Chief Peak as well as the Topa Topa bluff's Pink Moment. 

We structure the conversation as an orientation talk for a new staffer, and it works. Lots of great information and inspiration.

We talked about the history of beer, its centrality to civilization, role models, shared acquaintances and why the idea of Ojai is important to everyone who cares about their community and planet. We did not talk about the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt, Roman coins or orangutans.

https://topatopa.beer/

https://topatopa.beer/pages/ojai

Lauren Duke's just-published memoir, "Shithouse," is a rueful yet antic recounting of her traumatic childhood, with a junkie prisoner father and a volatile mother and an alcoholic stepfather. It ends with her building both successful businesses and a loving family, seeking and occasionally finding peace through yoga, writing and therapy.

Duke's distinctive voice shines through the messy dysfunction, as she learns that good people can do bad things, and vice versa. And how to take control of your narrative and rebuild your memories from a place of healing and understanding. The book, laced with humor and insight, includes episodes such as when Lauren played hookie to help her stepfather boost liquor bottles before crashing his car. Or her abortive attempts to live with Mormon youth until her drunk, rehab-escaping father shows up literally on her doorstep. 

We talked about this harrowing yet educational journey through trauma to resilience, and similar memoirs like Augusten Burroughs' "Running with Scissors," and Tara Westover's "Educated." We did not talk about Josh Allen's athleticism, Will Rogers and Wiley Post's plane crash or the Q-Anon conspiracy.

The book, published by The Unapologetic Voice House, (who also published Lila Francesce's book about her sister, "The Situation: A Radical Journey Thru Sisterhood," is available on Amazon or through the publisher at theunapologeticvoice.com. She will also be hosting events here in Ojai and in Encinitas, where she runs a community center dedicated to yoga. You can find Lauren on IG @dollieduke83

Scott Johnson, founding partner of Johnson-Fain in Los Angeles, has lived with feet in both the world of art and of architecture. During the pandemic, holed up in his Ojai home, he wrote "Uncommon Ground: Notes on the Visual Arts + Architecture." Johnson is both a builder and visual artist and seeks common understandings between the two disciplines.

He and wife Dr. Meg Bates, a prominent ob-gyn doctor, built their Ojai home as a retreat from the city's hurly-burly and found themselves spending a lot of time during the lockdown with friends and family. Scott took the opportunity to write the book, and build the Art Barn. His projecets will be featured in the Winter issue of Ojai Quarterly, coming out Thanksgiving. 

We talk about Fox Plaza, the towering structure in downtown LA that Johnson built in the 1980s, that was practically a character in itself for the blockbuster "Diehard" movie. We also talk about Le Corbusier, city planning, Ojai neighbors and the Ojai Music Festival.

We did not talk about scream therapy, Sandy Koufax or the voyages of Thor Heyerdahl.

It's been 22 years since the Ojai Film Festival's launch and since then they've screened more than 1,000 films and hosted hundreds of filmmakers, directors, writers, cinematographers and more. This year, the festival has added the competition category "Outstanding YouTube Filmmaker," and will also host a screening with Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao of her 2017 film, "The Rider."

Festival co-founder and artistic director Steve Grumette, OFF president Jon Lambert and board member and veteran film crewman Sven Shelgren joins Bret Bradigan for a spirited discussion of the festival, its past and future, the world of cinema and we share a few of our favorite films.

The Festival takes place Nov. 4-9 with live streaming of all films available Nov. 9 to Nov. 14.

We did not talk about Albert Spalding, Critical Race Theory or Alec Baldwin (at least not on the recording).

Check out the festival's lineup and more at ojaifilmfestival.org.

Karen Banfield started out making a calendar for Naked Gardening Day but the response among her prospective models was, well, discouraging. She was undaunted, and started right in with her 12 Good Men project, identifying a year's worth of local men who exhibit traits of compassion, selflessness and service. The calendar is meant to identity and honor these men who live up to the highest ideals of a respectable, responsive and healing masculinity, and will hopefully serve as role models for Ojai's young men.

Her journey to Ojai took many detours. About 12 years ago, she began a long road trip throughout California's small towns, looking for the perfect place to begin life anew. When she stumbled across Ojai, she knew this was the place. Banfield, an intuitive healer and performer, spent 32 years in the theater world, working with an alternative theater project in Portland, Oregon. She started out in the music world, though, as an opera-trained singer, who found the rigor and formality of her training too stultifying and restrictive. But she still possesses a pure, clear voice, which she graciously shares with listeners.

The calendars are available at the Ojai Valley Museum, Poppies Art & Gift and also via email at [email protected].

We did not talk about Build Back Better,  Korean naval battles agains Japan in the late 16th century, or trout fishing on Alberta's Bow River.

This episode we talk with the hosts of the popular Topa Talk podcast, which is in its third season and closing in on 100 episodes. Stephanie St. James and Cody Creighton have been delighting and informing their listeners with topics like Ojai's boutique wars, racial protests, coffee shops and hot takes on pop culture. Lots of hot takes. Plus they are Ojai's top Halloween enthusiasts.

Besides the engaging and often hilarious subject matter of this podcast, we also wade into the thicket of issues around what Ojai lacks, what makes it great, and dive deep into issues that divide us such as age, gender, politics and identity. We discover that we have a lot more in common than you might think.

Plus lots of hot takes on the crucial substantive matter of Erika Gerardi's aggressive bullying of fellow castmembers of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. What about the defrauded widows and orphans, Erika? Did you think that the money to pay the Glam Squad was earned honestly?

We did not talk about Lou "Iron Man" Gehrig, Sen. Mitch McConnell or Ice Road Truckers.

You can check out the Topa Talk podcast wherever you catch your pods or on Instagram at @topatalk. Also, Stephanie's company is called Hand Up Studios, they help edit, produce, and launch podcasts. They can be reached at [email protected]