April 19, 2006 - Top Stories
The Valley Center Art & Music Festival this week announced performers for its ninth year.
The spotlight will be on local jazz musicians from Del Mar and Valley Center.
Opening the event is Valley Center's own Beck & Hollyday Jazz Quintet, performing at the gazebo stage from 3-3:45 p.m.
After earning his master’s degree in jazz performance at San Diego State University, Jeff Beck formed this authentic jazz quintet. Beck is also the leader of the award-winning jazz band “Thunder Jazz” at VC Middle School. He plays the trumpet and flugelhorn in this group.
While studying music in college, Beck toured internationally as a professional trumpet player.
He is one of the top call professional trumpet players in San Diego County and is the lead trumpet player in the San Diego Chargers Band. He has played with celebrated musicians such as Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Valli, George Sheering, Harry Connick, Frankie Lane, The Temptations, and The Four Tops.
International recording artist and saxophonist, Christopher Hollyday began performing in 1983 in the Boston area at age 13 in his brother Richard’s quintet. In 1988 Hollyday headlined a week at the historic Village Vanguard in New York City.
Hollyday toured with Maynard Ferguson as a featured soloist in the trumpeter’s “60th Birthday Big Band,” and recording the “Big Bop Nouveau” album.
From 1989-93, Hollyday toured with a regular quartet. They visited every Western European country, Brazil, Canada, and most of the U.S. During this time Hollyday made four recordings for RCA records.
In 1993 Hollyday pursued his desire to study composition and larger ensemble arranging techniques at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass.
During this time he also became interested in music education. In 1996, Hollyday moved to San Diego, where he has taught at VC High School for six years. Hollyday recently began pursuing a master’s degree in jazz studies at San Diego State University.
Peter Sprague & Pass the Drum
The festival’s headliner is Peter Sprague & Pass the Drum. Over his 30-plus years in the profession, Sprague has evolved into a musical powerhouse, having produced or played on over 190 recordings.
He has published 11 songbooks of his own music, including The Peter Sprague Guitar Technique, which is required study at Grossmont College.
He also transcribed six songbooks for Chick Corea, holds the title as Corea's official transcriber, and was the only musician entrusted to arrange Corea’s legendary song Spain for the first GRP All Star Band recording.
Sprague does most of his work in Southern California, staying close to his family.
Awards include: Best Local Musician- San Diego Reader's Best of 1988; Musician's Choice - San Diego Entertainer Magazine's Best of 1988; Best Pop Jazz Group (Blurring the Edges) - San Diego Music Awards 1994; Best Jazz Artist - San Diego Reader’s Best of 2000 Poll; Best Mainstream Jazz Artist - San Diego Music Awards 2000; Best Jazz Artist - San Diego Reader’s Best of 2003 Poll. Most recently he won Best Jazz at the 2004 San Diego Music Awards.
He has played with such greats as Art Pepper, Hubert Laws, Chick Corea, Alfonse Mouzon, Al Jarreau, Joe Farrell, John Pattuttuci, Mitch Foreman, Ray Brown, John Klemmer, Eddie Harris, Stanley Clarke, Eric Mariental, Joe Pass, Sergio Mendez, Kevyn Lettau, David Beniot, Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, Alex Acuna, and Charlie Haden.
When Sprague first started Pass The Drum, they played primarily Brazilian music. Over time they added other stylistic elements. A prime goal is to bring fresh treatments to each song and to explore the world of opposites.
Pass the Drum band members performing at the VC Art & Music Festival are: Peter Sprague - guitar; Gunnar Biggs - bass; Dave Anderson - drums.
Other performers at the festival are:
Tripp Sprague - saxophone, flute, and percussion
Jazz saxophonist Tripp Sprague has performed and recorded music for over 20 years. He has been invited to perform with acts such as jazz singer Mose Allison, and Motown legends Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, and The Temptations.
He has recorded on many CDs with such artists as Kim Carnes and Todd Rundgren. He runs a recording studio from home where he has produced and recorded CDs for many local artists.
Tommy Aros
Latin percussion
Aros has toured with Latin singer Luis Miguel since 1995. He recorded on the last two CDs. They have toured Mexico, the U.S., South America and Europe.
Aros is a founding member of the band Fattburger, an international touring smooth jazz group based in San Diego. The group plays over 120 dates per year and has played in exotic locales such as Mexico City and Puerto Rico.
Coral MacFarland Thuet vocals
Jazz and Latin singer Coral MacFarland-Thuet was born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana. She is a citizen of both countries. She is equally comfortable singing in Spanish, English and Portuguese. She combines classical jazz and Latin American songs from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Peru and Brazil.
She has performed many live concerts on KSDS and PBS radio and has appeared on many television programs.
Leonard Patton - vocals
Some people are born to sing. Leonard Patton was just born singing. From his elementary school days when he requested hall passes to test the acoustics of the school's hallways, to his college days of choir and ensembles, Patton has yet to stop singing.
While attending Mesa Community College, he discovered his musical niche for jazz. His rich, smoky voice, unique style and sensational scattin’ soon gained him entrance into San Diego’s jazz scene.
Valley Center Art and Music Festival
May 7, 1-6 p.m.
Other happenings include the Fine Art Show, Youth Art Contest, Community Painting, Caricatures, kids Painting, drawings, guitar workshop and Rad Hatter hat making.
All are free to the public. You are invited to bring your beach chairs and picnic blankets.
For more information visit www.valleycenterparksrecreation.com or call 749-8852 .
Visit the Valley Center Parks & Recreation District (VC Community Hall) 28246 Lilac Road.
Valley Center planners face important decisions Monday night when they vote on which County road network recommendations to endorse.
How to address some roads that will fail as VC’s population grows? Where to put new roads to take pressure off Cole Grade Road and Valley Center Road? How to designate these roads so that they look and feel rural but still move cars? Those are among the questions the planning group will decide.
The VC Planning Group will hold a special meeting Monday, April 24, 7 p.m. at VC Middle School to take a final vote on the Circulation Element (that’s county bureaucratese for “roads”) of General Plan 2020.
The public is invited to give its input.
The planning group is only advisory to the County, but the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use’s senior planner Bob Citrano, said he would prefer to work with, rather than against the planners.
“We go to the Board [of supervisors] in July with a staff recommended network. Either it will have the support of the planning group or not. The more concurrence we have with the planning group the happier we will be,” he told the group.
Citrano and his staff have worked with the group’s circulation subcommittee for several months. Recently he introduced computer models for traffic based on population projections that take the densities proposed for Valley Center to their ultimate conclusion. In other words, if every lot in Valley Center that could be built on is built on, what will the traffic be?
According to planning group Chairman Keith Simpson “This meeting will bring to fruition community workshops and many months of public meetings and discussions.
“Our Circulation Subcommit-tee has done a wonderful job. Many thanks to members of the Circulation SC and to all the community members who have participated in this process! The talking is just about done and we are ready to vote on specific road planning recommendations for Valley Center.”
Some points that the planning group and the circulation subcommittee continue to disagree with Citrano on include:
• The westward extension of Fruitvale Road from Cole Grade Road.
• The designation of Lilac Road from Anthony Road to Valley Center Road. DPLU proposes this as a Major Road with Intermittent Turn Lanes ( 4+ lanes), while the subcommittee would like to reduce it to a Community Collector with Raised Median (2+ lanes).
• The circulation subcommittee also opposes DPLU on designating Cole Grade Road from Pauma Heights Road to Fruitvale Road as a Major Road with Intermittent Turn Lanes (four lanes plus) and wants to keep it as a two lane road turn lanes and a raised median.
• The circulation subcommittee also prefers to designate Mirar de Valle Road from Mountain Meadows Road to the entrance of the Orchard Run subdivision as a Community Collector with Raised Median (two lanes plus turning lanes and oppose making it a four lane road with turn lanes.
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Although the purpose of the special meeting is to address roads, land-use issues may be addressed as they may relate to circulation planning.
Hidden Meadows resident Laurel Nicholson is running again for the 66th Assembly District.
This is her second try at the seat, which stretches from Ontario south to Julian and Cuyamaca.
She has the Democratic nomination locked up (she’s the only candidate). Now she’s waiting to see who the Republicans will choose to run against her. Incumbent Ray Haynes has been term limited out and can’t run again.
The candidate visited The Roadrunner office last week and talked about her campaign and goals if elected.
“Things right now are going great,” she said. “Because I’m unopposed in the primary, my main goal is endorsements and fund-raising.”
Note: See the endorsements at the end of this article.
She encapsulated her campaign into the acronym BEST (Budget, Education, Security and Transportation). “I think those are the four big issues facing us.”
Budget
“I think that nobody is really excited about this huge bone that the governor wants to pass through. He wants to borrow so much and have our grandchildren pay for it,” said Nicholson.
“We need to get back to somebody who can make the hard choices. I’m tired of the Democrats hating the Republicans and the Republicans hating the Democrats. Voters need to look at individual people and positions and get someone who can work with everyone.”
She added, “We don’t have anyone who is, first, willing to listen to both sides of the argument, and second, willing to do what is best for the whole district.
“We need to focus our resources on education, on first responders (police and fire) and on fixing the traffic problems that are so bad in our district that have gone unchecked, on a downward spiral.”
Instead of a big bond, favored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, she favors small regional bonds. “If you pass a big bond you’ll end up with a road going nowhere in Alaska (a reference to the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska favored by U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R).)
Nicholson calls herself a fiscal conservative. “Because I am willing to work with both sides I think we can pass a budget that will work for everyone involved.”
Education
“We need to reaffirm our support for Prop. 98 and make sure that our schools are fully funded. We may have to strive for smaller class sizes. There are studies that show that the smaller the classroom and the more the individual attention, the higher the class scores.”
She believes that it’s a misconception that California already spends a lot on education.
“We really don’t spend really as much as you would think. If you look at per student spending we are not very high up. California public schools (k-12) rank 33rd in the nation for per student spending.
“We should spend more money in the classroom. But California also has a terrible problem with old buses that emit terrible fumes. The PTA has a program to replace these old buses. I support that.”
In addition to spending more in the classroom and smaller classes, she wants to bring back music to California schools.
She would also like to see the federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation revised.
“Under the program now we are teaching for testing, not for learning. The premise that every child will be above average is wrong. You have kids with special needs included in the testing and kids who don’t speak the language,” she said.
Security
“Gangs and hate crimes are a growing threat in our district,” she said. “It’s a problem that people don’t want to face because they keep thinking that it can’t happen here. But especially in Riverside county it has been a very strong problem.”
Illegal immigration is another concern to security.
“It’s a problem that we have to address. Although most of immigration is a federal issue and the state’s hands are tied,” she said.
She proposes hiring more U.S. Border Patrol officers. “We can go the way of New Mexico. The governor can declare a state of emergency to bring in more Border Patrol. I don’t believe, like some others are saying, that we should deputize regular police to go after illegals. Because the next time someone breaks into your house the police won’t be available.
“We need to hope that Congress will pass some kind of immigration reform to get a better handle on this problem.”
Transportation
“Transportation is a problem in every part of our district. Just widening roads, while we need to do that, isn’t the only solution. We need to start looking at alternative ways to move down I-15 corridor, whether on buses or high speed rail,” said Nicholson.
“We need to start looking at smart growth policies where our communities are built around transportation hubs. They are doing some more of that in Murrieta and Temecula.
“At the same time we need more entrances and exits off our freeways. If there was a need to evacuate due to fire parts of this district would not be able to do that because gridlock is so bad.”
Nicholson is acutely aware that her district is dominantly Republican. But she’s asking the district’s Republicans to give her a hard look.
“Republicans should vote for me. If they want something accomplished in our area the way to get it through is with a moderate Democrat. Right now if Republicans want a Republican bill passed they go to a moderate Democrat to sponsor it. It also makes sense to have someone in your community in the State Assembly. Then you have a direct voice to that person.
“When everyone gets elected from Riverside you get ignored. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have someone elected from nearby who is a member of the local chamber of commerce.”
She added, “I honestly think I am the best candidate because I listen to people. Personal ideology is somewhat important, but what people want is what’s best for the district. We don’t seem to get politicians who move above this, who want to make people’s lives better and safer. We’ve lost that somewhere along the line.”
She concluded: “I’d like to add (and I think it's important) that I am the only candidate who was a partner in a publicly-traded Fortune 500 company [Mercer Human Resource Consulting which is part of Marsh & McLennan Companies]. Of all the candidates, there's no comparison. I bring substantially more business experience to the table.”
Her endorsements (so far) include: California Teachers Association; United Nurses Association of California; Senator Don Perata, Senate, President pro Tempore; Fabian Nunez, Speaker of the Assembly; Bill Lockyer, Attorney General; John Garamendi, Insurance Commissioner; Senator Jackie Speier, Senate District 8; Senator Christine Kehoe, Senate District 39; Assemblymember Mark Leno, District 13; Assemblymember Jerome Horton, 51st Assembly District; Betty T. Yee, 1st District, State Board of Equalization; Assemblymember Gloria Negrete McLeod, 61st District; Former Senator Dede Alpert, Senate District 39; Sharri Sarro, Lieutenant, San Diego Sheriff’s Department; Ron Andrade, Native American Indian Commission; Eddie D. Smith, Founder of Eddie D. Smith Senior Center, Riverside; San Bernardino / Riverside Central Labor Council;AFL-CIO; San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, FATE (Foundation Aiding the Elderly); Garth Newberry, Director, Rubidoux Community Water Services District; Teamsters Joint Council 42; Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
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You can reach the Nicholson for Assembly campaign by visiting her Web site at www.nicholson4assembly.com or calling (951) 441-8754 or 760-505-1040.
For every young man or woman serving in the armed forces overseas there is a mother.
Some of those mothers belong to an organization known as Blue Star Mothers.
Recently Kathryn Hood, president and co-founder of the San Diego North County Blue Star Mothers, a Pauma resident, and Kathy Eckert, the smiling face who greets visitors at the high school, visited The Roadrunner office to talk about the program.
The North County chapter was founded in the fall of 2005.
It currently has ten mothers and four associate members. The associates are those who support the group but don’t have a child in the service.
“What prompted me was when my son commissioned into the marines,” Mrs. Hood told The Roadrunner. “He suggested that I get a service flag with a star.” Such a flag indicates that the owner of the flag has a loved one on active duty.
Her son, Justin, is a second lieutenant in the Marines, currently stationed in Pensacola, Florida.
Mrs. Eckert’s service connection is her daughter, Evangeleine Eckert, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, stationed in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The Blue Star Mothers support veterans and their families. They are advocates for veterans’ issues and promote patriotism.
According to Mrs. Hood, each chapter takes on its own characteristics. “Our chapter has been more troop supportive. We find a need in the military and try to fill that need, either with care packages. For instance they found a troop that doesn’t have a lot of family support and send packages to them. They also send packages to a hospital in Baghdad.
The North County Blue Star Mothers meet the second Saturday of every month at 9 a.m. at American Legion building at 230 E. Park Ave., near the Joslyn Senior Center.
Their current project is gathering brand new flip flops and T-shirts to send to a hospital in Baghdad.
According to Lori Smith, vice president of the group: “We send clothing items to hospitals in Iraq as a special touch from home to the wounded soldiers after they have had to ‘donate’ their uniforms. Until they can have a new uniform prepared for them, we want to provide them with running shorts, flip flops and T-shirts as a touch of love from home.”
The biggest need of the Blue Star Mothers is financial, since it costs over $8 per box to send the care packages to the troops.
Look for donation bins to be going up at a location near you. If you want to provide a place for a bin, be sure to contact the organization.
The Mothers would also like to hear from anyone whose son or daughter is in the military and is lonely and could use some contact from home.
“Our goal is community awareness, to have everyone know what this flag stands for,” says Mrs. Hood.
Mailing address for Blue Star Mothers of North County is POB 301456, Escondido, CA 92030-1456.
Email address and Web site for the group are www.bluestarmothers.org and sdncbluestars@yahoo.com.
They’re off and running!
But oops! The rules have been changed! Back to the starting gate.
Wednesday night the VC Optimists scrambled to induct their candidate, Left Eddie, into the ranks of the club to make him an eligible candidate for the VC Honorary Mayor’s race.
That’s because they found out that after the rules for the Honorary Mayor’s Race were handed over to The Roadrunner to be printed, that the Chamber of Commerce made a change. They voted Tuesday night to keep the rules as originally written.
In other words, the rules that were in force last year are still in force.
The rules are the same as the ones we printed last week, with one important change: Now candidates representing clubs are required to be members of the club sponsoring them.
Left Eddie wasn’t a member when the Optimists decided to run him. Now he’s a member.
The Chamber is hoping that other clubs will enter the contest and make it even more competitive.
If your club decides to compete, be sure and contact The Roadrunner so that we can make a big splash for you candidate.The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
Copyright © 2006, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.