“The firebrand is the person who recognizes what is natural, what is organic, what is alive and vital in life, the person who dares to live, to be, and to create, often in the face of interference, rejection, deceit, and betrayal. The firebrand is a burning ember, life that is in each of us and that 
provides the spark and energy to speak against what distorts, hides, and denies our being and truth. It is that which awakens within us, when we must declare our independence or when we discover a new formula for living.”
–Clark Moustakas
Today is a *Lunar Eclipse* (more on the astronomy here) Full Moon in Libra (more on the astrology here).
Fittingly, it is the day tickets go on sale for Burning Man at noon. And that’s why I included two “up in the air” videos with this blog post.
Because like with the eclipse, you will probably miss out. Sorry!
Those who have submitted a Burner Profile before the Friday deadline will have the chance to get Read more…
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, LA Sports Arena, March 15, 17, 19, 2016 review by guest blogger Ron Wells: Requiem for an Arena
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
They say a building has no soul. It’s just a building. It’s a thing that houses people for short periods of time before releasing them back into the world.
Having said that, then why are we mourning a place that we lovingly call a dump? Therein, lies a story decades in the making.
This Women’s History Month, celebrate with three women poets of the central and southern coast!
On Thursday, March 17 at 730pm, Los Osos’s poet Dian Sousa features at the EP Foster Library’s Topping Room 651 E. Main Street, Ventura in a free reading hosted by Ventura County’s poet laureate Phil Taggart; an open mic follows.
A surfer, wine lover, and environmentalist, Dian is the author of Lullabies for the Spooked and Cool (Mille Grazie Press, 2004) and her work has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including: Solo Cafe (Soho Press, 2005), Asylum Arts Annual (Asylum’s Press, 1994), and Chiron Review.
This Saturday, March 19 at 7pm, Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate Sojourner Kincaid Rolle and Lois P. Jones feature at the Arcade Poetry Series at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard. Non-members pay $3 for admission. Read more…
Spring into Creativity at Art City Gardens
Art City Sculpture Garden photo by Lynne Okun
Tuesday March 15, join my students and I from 1230-6pm on a field trip to Art City Gardens and Art City Sculpture Studio 197 Dubbers where we will meet with local artists and activists about the creative process, research paper projects, explore, and get our hands dirty too!
Discussion topics include: Read more…
Cheers to women in wine for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day!
March is Women’s History Month in the United States, and yesterday, Tuesday March 8 was International Women’s Day,
…so we thought March would be an appropriate time to take notice of not only some of the women wine makers we admire but also a few wine bloggers as well.
Starting with Kimberly Smith, wine maker at La Montagne, who says,
“May each sip bring your joy!”
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On Celebrating Internat’l Women’s Day 3/8
“We can not all succeed when half of us are held back.” Malala Yousafzai
Today let’s celebrate the women who uplift and inspire us. Read more…
Can you do it all and remain calm?
Can you handle it all and stay calm? Be content?
Probably not. Unless, as Jack Kornfield says, you’re a dog.
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” advised George Bernard Shaw
But progress can be challenging when it’s hard to recognize what we’re normalized towards. Because we see discrimination all the time, or we see people using plastic bottles, or on cell phones all the time, we think it is normal. Read more…
Open That Bottle Night Sat. 2/27 + reviews of OLD Ojai Vineyard wines
Happy Open That Bottle Night! What will you be opening tonight? Cheers!
If you love wine, chances are you’ve bought a bottle for a special occasion, or bought a bottle to share with someone, or to mark an event, or maybe it’s just so beautiful that you save and save it and have a hard time opening it because it’s too “special”?
I know it’s true for me!
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Mountain Films Make Us Wild
Growing up in Ventura, I regularly saw colorful and faded posters on telephone poles on Telegraph Road advertising the latest showing of the latest surf films; we went to as many as we could get someone to drive us to. It was such a thrill to watch someone (usually guys) take off on these adventures and I am sure these films inspired me to head off into my own… although it has always been the mountains that called me and not so much the ocean even though the Pacific is in my backyard. Read more…
art predator 