Ojai: Talk of the Town

It's been a rough year for performing artists, for whom audiences are like oxygen, and vice versa. Few people are better positioned to explore the strange quandary in which we find ourselves than Justin Little, a founder of Bailey Blues, a boutique agency representing K. Flay, The Midnight and Jake Etheridge among others. It is a fascinating conversation with a key insider in the music industry that could have gone on for hours.

Now living in Ojai, Little has lived and breathed music since his teens living in West Texas and the Bay Area. When fresh out of college, he had to choose between a low-paying backstage job and a highly paid position producing this new-fangled media called podcasts, he chose music. Among the first shows he produced, and artists he represented, were Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, and The Postal Service, so he saw the indie music world explode in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He worked in a milieu surrounded by such superstars like Feith, Grizzly Bear, Glen Hansard and The Frames. 

Justin tells a few anecdotes, among his inexhaustible trove, about the burgeoning indie scene, escorting Paul Simon backstage to meet Grizzly Bear musicians just before a show, touring with Death Cab and the Postal Service. We talk about the disruption of the digital shift, bit-torrent, how the musical economy works and doesn't, of innovations going on behind the scenes, and the hunger and thirst audiences have for connection. And, of course, as listeners have come to expect, we talk about the Roarin' Twenties, and how much we look forward to the coming creative flourishing we are sure is right around the bend.

A partial list of references: Djesse (Jacob Collier), "Love & Mercy," Daniel Johnston, "Super Mensch," Kate Tempest, Dea Matrona & Band Maid.

We did not talk about Dinosaur Junior, Neil Diamond or the cast of "Lost."

Jim Bailey took a roundabout path to teaching, earning his bachelor's degree and teaching certificate when he was 31, after a peripatetic career as a cowboy and surfer. He feels these real-world experiences have given him a richer, deeper context for his teaching. He's now been teaching 20 years in Ojai, including both private and public schools, and is the founder and director of Rock Tree Sky, which provides enriching experiences for students age 5 to 18.

This Ojai Living Treasure and science educator has partnered with the Ojai Unified School District for an innovative program during the pandemic, which might become a model of expanding education and experiential learning. Though teaching during a pandemic has "made an awesome job more difficult" Bailey feels confident that this current cohort of students will make their adjustments and snap back to typical classroom collaborations and experiences. His self-directed, student-led approach has won many admirers and given his students the skills needed to lead a rich, fulfilled life.

We also talk about Bailey's circuitous journey to Rock Tree Sky, his inspirations and how he is still in contact with the young lady surfer who he saved from a sure drowning nearly 20 years ago. We did not get around to talking about Game of Thrones, the invention of algebra or Korean horror films. 

A few resources:

• Carol Black's "A Thousand Rivers" essay at http://carolblack.org/a-thousand-rivers

• One self-directed education ... https://www.self-directed.org/sde/

• On the perils of "helicopter parenting" ... https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

Despite his down-to-earth demeanor and genial wit, Tony Thacher, the farmer and erstwhile geologist, has a distinguished lineage. His grandfather helped start The Thacher School in the 1880s, and his wife, Anne Friend Thacher, is the daughter of legendary citrus rancher Elmer Friend and part of the historic family that were among the first to stake out claims in the Ojai Valley.

We talk about the current state of agriculture, Berkeley's Free Speech Movement, water issues, community service, the future of Ojai and steelhead trout. Tony also tells a few tall tales (some which might true-ish), 

We did not talk about the Buffalo Bills' heart-breaking loss to the Chiefs in the AFC title game, Israeli irrigation technology or UFOs.

Actor/writer Peter Fox has written a companion piece to Eve Ensler's much-loved "Vagina Monologues." His is called the "Testicle Monologues: If These Balls Could Talk" and has been recorded with professional actors and is being live-streamed at Santa Barbara's Center Stage Theater as a fund-raising event. Much like Ensler's feminine tour de force, Peter's play is a set of loosely woven, hilarious, touching and poignant reflections on man's distinctive pair of characteristics.

We talk about Fox's pandemic-induced creativity, the role of the arts in culture, the tremendous hardship, and also opportunity, faced by arts organizations - as imperiled as they are, the human hunger for the nourishment of the creative arts has reached a fever pitch. We talk about how this pent-up enthusiasm, following a fallow period for artists, could lead to a cultural flourishing not seen since the Roaring '20s.

Fox grew up in the Chicago area as second of eight children, and was introduced to show business at an early age, doing modeling for department stores as well as television commercials. He went to Harvard University on a scholarship, where he participating in the famous Hasty Pudding shows. Despite his fancy degree he did not have a post-college plan, drifting into acting through bartending, where he was discovered through a very Lana Turner-at-Schwab's Deli-esque moment.

He first came to acting fame through a lead role as Otter on the "Delta House" television show, then made the move into writing with a script for the show "Simon & Simon" and has written for stage and screen, including "Acts of God," which played for months in Los Angeles and was picked up by script publisher Samuel French, one of Peter's most glorious moments.

Peter grew up in a cultural milieu that included his high school "frenemy" Bill Murray, as well as John Hughes, Charlton Heston, Gilda Radner and Ann Margret. In fact, a couple years ago he attended a fundraiser at Fordham University with John Prine playing, then hopped in a limo to go to Bill Murray's Christmas party further up the Hudson River.

We had a surprise visitor show up during our call, who challenged the veracity of many of Peter's family stories. We did not talk about the Inuit diet, anarchist hero Nestor Mahkno or the Mississippi flyways.

Further links: www.centerstagetheater.org. The show will be up til January 31 and all proceeds go to the Center Stage Theater.

Candid Camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mGlQeSbou0

The first episode of Season Two of "Ojai: Talk of the Town" is our first on-location podcast. So how fitting that's it's at Thacher School's Observatory with Jon Swift, Ph.D., who has helped the school build its astrophysics study and rebuilt its historic 28-inch telescope.

In the five ensuing years, he's taught these fortunate students to shoot for the stars. Thacher School is now a respected partner with leading researchers around the globe, especially in the study of exoplanets, of which more are being discovered and studied all the time. His students have had their names published on many scientific studies.

Another fascinating area of study at the observatory  are Type 1a Supernovae, led by Dr. Ryan Foley at UC Santa Cruz. These explosive stars all blow up at the same luminosity, then collapse into this weird effect, "electron degeneracy pressure." This quantum effect of these white dwarves allows electrons to share the same space. It was a random meeting at UC Santa Cruz after a surfing trip that led to this innovative partnerships. It's another interesting intersection of Dr. Swift's pursuits, which besides surfing include music, camping and asking questions.  his lifelong love of the cosmos was fostered during camping trips with his parents to Anza Borrego desert where the absence of light pollution  brings the vastness of space into sharp relief. We talked about the ocean's rhythms, building boats and William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days."

We did not talk about the Maillard process, northern pike or the Southern Cross.

Check out Dr. Swift's original music on Spotify below ... along with links to research and articles about him and his program.

https://www.thacherobservatory.org/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3LxE8S2NahkijyF6mbronT

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan_Swift

http://blogs.thacher.org/deepdives/2015/11/12/music-of-the-spheres/

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/fq=%7B!type=aqp%20v=$fq_database%7D&fq_database=database:%20astronomy&q=pubdate:%5B1998-01%20TO%202020-12%5D%20author:(%22%5ESwift,%20J.%20J.%22)&sort=date%20desc,%20bibcode%20desc&p_=0

Betsy Stix decided to run for Mayor after reading Gay Hendrick's bestselling book, "The Big Leap." The book talks about the finding and living with your purpose. Imagine her surprise when she met Hendricks and his wife Katie while doing door-to-door campaigning. She won the election handily and was sworn into office Dec. 15th, ready to tackle Ojai's toughest issues - high risk of catastrophic wildlife, tricky water management issues, the lack of affordable housing and many others.

Stix attended Williams College, usually ranked the No. 1 school in the country, then to Stanford, from whence she entered teaching as a career. She's taught French, English and yoga in Japan, Santa Fe, Rancho Mirage and has lived in Ojai since 2001. Growing up in Cincinnati, where her parents were actively involved in the community, she is a lifelong fan of the Cincinnati Reds, having been around such greats as Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan. 

We talked about our favorite part of Ojai life - the creative and entrepreneurial energies, the astounding natural beauty - as well as the difficult challenges of managing a pandemic, the traffic and demographic changes, the threats to the ecology, and economy. Stix says "People really, really love our town. How do we preserve that? We also have an economy that needs to stay afloat and a world that's shifting. There's an opportunity, at this moment, to really move forward in a positive way." Betsy also said she expects a cultural flourishing in Ojai and the world coming out of the pandemic. "After the Black Plague came the Renaissance," she said.

We did not get around to talking about Samuel Johnson's encyclopedia project, the iron-forging innovations of the Hittites or the Mayan Calendar.

You can read more about her at — https://www.facebook.com/betsy.stix  

Permaculture expert and advocate Connor Jones has been immersed in the Ojai Valley land for decades, building a consulting and education business on permaculture as a way to preserve, protect and flourish in this often dry, harsh environment. A serendipitous encounter with a textbook while still in high school led him into his life's passion, where he is sought out by landowners, students, farmers and others to help them bring their land into a state of flourishing health and diversity.

He trained at the one of the world's leading permaculture centers in Australia before returning home to Ojai to implement those ideas as a farmer, researcher and entrepreneur at his East End Eden farm. Some of Connor's more intriguing ideas include "food forests," where the vertical nature of crop allows people to use much less land and water for the amount and quality of the harvest.

He believes that we have been for generations looking at humans as apart from their environment and not a part of it. This has led us away from natural solutions that tend to the whole system - sinking rainwater into the aquifer, using herbivores to help in that process and to fertilize the land naturally, building year-round crops into the rotation and having "an abundance mentality." We talked at length about "holistic range management," which was developed decades ago by Rhodesian gamekeeper Allan Savory, who noticed that predators - lions in his case - kept the herds of wildebeests and other herbivores tightly compacted and moving around in high-intensity, short duration grazing, which kept the land vibrant and fruitful. That process has been duplicated at East End Eden farm with goats and herding. 

The problem with people and sustainability often is,  "that we have this disassociation with the cycles of nature," Connor says. "We need mutually beneficial relationships with surrounding ecology so it doesn't destroy us and we don't destroy it." You can learn more about Connor and his work at ojaipermaculture.com or on Instagram @eastendeden. 

We did not talk about Vittoria Sica's film cycles, Blackbeard or favorite life hacks.

This episode Chelsea Sutula with Sespe Creek Collective brings us up-to-date on the recent developments with marijuana retailing in Ojai, the onerous new 3 percent tax,  pandemic adjustments, the existential dread and how cannabis might just be the medicine we need to get us through this dreadful year.

Chelsea grew up in Maryland and Athens, Georgia, daughter of researchers and academics, before going out on her own in Chicago and Pittsburgh, then finding her way to Ventura County, where she got involved in the medical marijuana side of things. It was a natural move to Ojai to open Sespe Creek, where she’s been for going on a decade, and three years with the legal shops.

We talk about the benefits of marijuana and the exciting new medical research into the canninaboid receptors, as well as overblown fears surrounding legalization. Chelsea also talks about the entrepreneurial flourishing unleashed by legalization, both in the retail and processing and growing side of things.

We also spend a good deal of time talking about what we’d like to see in Ojai’s future, a blank slate of possibilities and Ojai as a destination for wellness and local farmers as well as the kind of shops and light manufacturing, about which Chelsea is busy with her “unmet needs” survey. Chelsea's business savvy and compassion have combined to make her one of Ojai's leaders.

We did not talk about the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers game, tenkara fly rods, nor British motorcycles.