The Next Generation of Jazz

Nancy Sanchez
Tues. August 30
Steamers Jazz Cafe
Fullerton

Every once in a great while, a fresh singer with a distinct voice emerges onto the scene. That voice is Nancy Sanchez. Sanchez played Steamers Cafe in Fullerton Tues. Aug. 30.

Sanchez has been busy crafting original compositions for her upcoming recording which will borrow influences from her debut self-titled EP and merge them with her unique and modern style.

Upon hearing Nancy, one is reminded of such classic voices like Billie Holliday, Carole King, Sarah Vaughn, Joni Mitchell and Astrud Gilberto, as well as contemporaries like Bjork, Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap and Lisa Ekdahl.

Ms. Sanchez, born Nancy Sanchez Estrada from the town of Toluca, Mexico, now resides in Orange County. She has been singing and writing music from a very young age, often as a Mariachi cantante in her teens, and was a member of "Mariachi Anacatlan" and "Mariachi Puno de Oro".

While attending college, Nancy was exposed to American Jazz and instantly developed a love for it, often listening and singing along to greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson. “Music is inside of me and has been my passion since as early as I can remember. I love the creative process. The ability to write my own music and share it with the world is a gift that I am grateful for. Real-life situations influence my writing styles as much as my dreams and fantasies do. In my songwriting I try to fuse the two.”

She created a “buzz” while performing at local Orange County restaurants and clubs, drawing the attention of Steamers Jazz Club’s owner Terence Love and veteran jazz drummer, Evan Stone.The two were immediately impressed by her talent and jumped on the idea of featuring her.

For the last two years, Nancy has been performing monthly at Steamers and recently has added Spaghettini’s Jazz Club to her schedule. , In May she took the big stage at the KSBR Birthday Bash Jazz Festival and also performs at the prestigious Laguna Beach Art Festival. In 2010, drummer Evan Stone, a frequent performer at Steamers, produced and helped launch her debut CD, “Nancy Sanchez” which continues to receive rave reviews and gets frequent airplay on So. Cal’s only two jazz radio stations, KKJZ and KSBR.

It's Football Season Again in Fullerton

It certainly didn't feel like fall Football weather in Fullerton this past Saturday with temps hovering around 100 and high humidity, but football season started in earnest in our town with several games involving our Fullerton Titans Pop Warner Teams.

Here's a recap of the week one action.

In games at Lion's Field in Fullerton:

In the Junior Mighty Mite Division the Titans shutout Cypress 27-0

In Junior Pee Wee, the Blue Titans prevailed over Palos Verdes 27-0 while the Gold Titans lost their first game to Los Alamitos 24-6.

In the Junior Mite Division the Titans fell to the Tustin Black Cobras 22-6

In the Mite Division it was Costa Mesa 13, Fullerton 0

In the Tiny Mite Division, Fullerton and Lakewood battled to a 21-21 tie

And in the Flag Division, the Fullerton Gold Titans played the South Coast Tritons

In Los Alamitos in the Mighty Mite Division the Los Alamitos Griffins edged the Fullerton Blue Titans 18-6.

In La Mirada in the Pee Wee Division the La Mirada Sun Devils shutout Fullerton 20-0 while in Tustin in the flag division the Tustin Black Cobras beate the Fullerton Blue Titans 33-21.

The Week two schedule with Games being played on Sat. Sept. 3 looks like this:

At Lions Field, Fullerton

Tiny Mite: Montebello Bulldogs vs. TITANS, 1:30 PM

Mighty Mite: Canyon Hills Black Lancers vs. BLUE TITANS, 3 PM

Junior Pee Wee: Santa Margarita Stallions vs. BLUE TITANS, 5 PM

Mite: Tri-City Ravens vs. TITANS, 7 PM

Flag: Costa Mesa Black Eagles vs. GOLD TITANS, 9 AM; Yorba Linda Rattlers vs. BLUE TITANS, 10:30 AM

The Road Games:

Junior Mighty Midget: TITANS at Garden Grove Blue Bulldogs, 11 AM

Junior Midget: TITANS at Redondo Beach Seahawks, Time TBD

Junior Pee Wee: GOLD TITANS at Garden Grove Blue Bulldogs, 5 PM

Pee Wee: TITANS at Huntington Beach Blue Vikings, 9 AM

Channeling Steve Martin and Britcoms

The Underpants
Written by Steve Martin
Adapted from a Carl Sternhiem Play
StagesTheatre Fullerton
400 E. Commonwealth Ave. Suite 4
Fullerton, CA 92832
Through September 10
Saturdays and Sundays 5 PM
Five Scoops of Bosco

Reviewed by Allen Bacon
The Daily Bosco

As I was watching Stages Theatre's performance of "The Underpants" I couldn't help but be reminded of those old British Sitcoms, or "Britcoms". You know the ones that they show on BBC America or Public Television here in Orange County Friday nights? Except, with this play (unlike the Britcoms) I could actually understand what was going on.

That's because comedian Steve Martin got a hold of this turn of the 20th century British Comedy written by Carl Sternhiem about what happens when a young married woman's panties accidentally fall off in public and has infused his own trademark frenetic comedy pacing and timing. And some great one-liners too.

The Stages Theater Troupe does a wonderful job of channeling the spirit of Steve Martin into this play. My favorites are the hilarious Sean Contu as the boarder Versati and Dan Barnard as the boarder Cohen who both fall deeply in love and lust with their landlady Louise (the lady that drops her panties) and form one of the funniest and strangest love triangles ever seen on stage.

When you see this play, pay keen attention to the way these actors deliver their lines. You will immediately see Steve Martin in each and every one of them.

Rounding out the cast with completely over the top humor complete with British accents (and as everybody knows everything just sounds funnier in English) are the equally delightful Ryan Young as Theo (Louise's befuddled and clueless husband), Natalie Beisner as Louise, Rose London as the nosy neighbor Gertrude and Brian Fichtner as the mysterious Klinlgehoff.

I often marvel at how the Directors at Stages utilize the intimate setting of the house to their full advantage and David Chorley does a great job of doing just that here as well as directing a very fast paced and fun group.

In short, "The Underpants" is naughty, over the top and just flat out funny. But what would you expect from Steve Martin, British humor and Stages Theater Fullerton?

This play runs through September 10 with performances on Saturday and Sundays at 5 PM.

They Made The Sounds of The 60's

The Wrecking Crew Movie
Special Showing at
Mo's Fullerton Music
Saturday Aug. 27
Five Scoops of Bosco

Denny Tedesco knew his father was dying. He had been diagnosed with cancer.

"I didn't know how much longer I'd have with my father," he says.

His father, Tommy Tedesco, spent his life playing guitar in Hollywood recording studios. He played on so many hit records, he lost count. That's him playing the obbligato that opens "California Dreamin' " by the Mamas and the Papas. He played on "Good Vibrations," "Strangers in the Night," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "MacArthur Park" and Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy."

His son runs his own San Fernando Valley production company, filming commercials and infomercials.

"When my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 1995 ... I knew that was the time I had to make the movie," he says.

He pulled together and filmed a round-table discussion among his father and three of his father's colleagues - drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye and saxophonist Plas Johnson - just the four of them talking, joking, reminiscing. It was a scene the director based on Woody Allen's "Broadway Danny Rose," in which comedians sit around the Carnegie Deli telling stories.

"It was a quartet without instruments," Tedesco says. "Their instruments were always their tongues. They were sharp, witty people. I didn't want to intrude. I wanted to catch that, just be a fly on the wall."

He edited the day's shoot into a 14-minute piece and went looking for investors. Finding few, he started shooting interviews on his own - first Nancy Sinatra and pianist Don Randi, then Cher (who started in the business singing background vocals on Phil Spector sessions) and Dick Clark. Most of the musicians involved were already collecting Social Security - "We'd already lost Steve Douglas and Ray Pohlman," Tedesco says - and a number of them have died since Tedesco filmed their interviews, including drummer Earl Palmer, who died last month at age 83.

Twelve years later, more than 10 years after the elder Tedesco died, "The Wrecking Crew" will have a premiere public screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival, followed by a performance featuring Blaine, bassist Chuck Berghofer (who did the walk-down upright-bass part on "These Boots Are Made for Walking") and Randi from the film, backing some guest singers.

The session musicians in "The Wrecking Crew" were a loose pool of young studio players in Los Angeles during the early '60s, the rock 'n' roll crowd that took over from older guys doing the Nat King Cole or Sinatra sessions for Nelson Riddle. These new-breed session musicians might not even read music, but they played the Elvis Presley sessions, formed the Wall of Sound for producer Spector, performed on all the Beach Boys records and became unsung architects in building the sound of West Coast pop.

Paul Justman's 2002 documentary based on Alan Slutsky's book "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" centered on tragic Motown bassist James Jamerson, but it was really the story of all the Motown sidemen who had been systematically denied credit and were paid in cash, without the union benefits that Hollywood musicians enjoyed.

"When they didn't put our names on the albums," says Randi, 71, "they put our names on the contract, and that's all that matters."

"To me, it was just a job I did, and that was it," says Blaine, 79, retired and living in Palm Springs. "And I got paid very well to do it."

Of course, Blaine is being characteristically disingenuous - the Hollywood session players were more than well-paid union musicians.

"I realize there's not a working drummer who doesn't know my name," Blaine says.

These musicians-for-hire rewrote the sound of pop music. They made vital, largely uncredited contributions to the musical vocabulary of the culture - from Blaine's kick drum intro for the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" to the harmony vocals on Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again" by Glen Campbell (who usually played guitar on these sessions, long before he was a recording artist himself).

Tedesco captures their tumultuous, raucous world in interviews (with participants such as Brian Wilson, Herb Alpert, Campbell and other surviving sidemen), a staggering soundtrack of 130 recordings featuring the musicians and Blaine's voluminous collection of session snapshots. Ever the practical joker, Blaine also supplied the only available motion-picture footage from the sessions, a gag reel in which he intercut 8mm home movies of the other musicians with scenes from a porn film. Tedesco was able to extract a few mysterious pieces of Blaine's film.

The most daunting aspect of producing the documentary was procuring clearance to use the recordings in the soundtrack; music publishers are not famous for sentiment. But Tedesco insisted on the potentially budget-crippling number of songs.

"We needed the diversity to show not so much the quality but the breadth of what they did," he says. "They were working musicians - this is what they did. We needed that many to make that impact."

In the end, the publishers and record labels came through.

"I know it sounds politically incorrect, but if you know someone in the record or music publishing business, give 'em a hug," he says. "There was not one song I wanted that I didn't get."

"The Wrecking Crew" often takes flight in solo interviews with musicians holding instruments in their hands. Bassist Kaye is a salty, feisty dame who marvels for the cameras over the invention of the bass lines Wilson composed for her to play on "Good Vibrations." Saxophonist Johnson tootles his trademark "Pink Panther Theme." Much of the movie's charm comes from the musicians' familiarity with famous pieces of music, like racecar mechanics looking under the hood.

"My father always told guitar students, 'You've got music, and you've got the music business. Sometimes it mixes,' " Tedesco says. "He always said he played for smiles: If the leader smiles, he did his job. He always had to do his best, no matter what he was given to play."

Blaine, who played on six consecutive Grammy-winning records of the year, used to keep two drum sets and hire an assistant to move them from studio to studio, setting up one kit while Blaine was still playing the other. Blaine scooted from session to session on a motorcycle, lest he get stuck in traffic. When he first retired at age 55, he had accumulated the largest pension fund in the history of his union.

"I always told people," Blaine says, "that it's no different - well, it is different, but it's a lot like working at General Electric putting doors on refrigerators."

Ba-da-boom.

Reviewed by Joel Selvin
Mr. Selvin is a Writer For the San Francisco Chronicle

Now For Something Completely Different

Blank Slate
Collaborative Theatre
Artist's Group (CTAG)
at Monkey Wrench Collective
Downtown Fullerton
Directed by RJ Romero
Through Sun. Aug. 28
Four Scoops of Bosco

A favored stunt of small theater groups in recent years involves the submission of story and thematic ideas by audience members, elements then transformed by a theater troupe into a full-fledged production – often in very short order, such as over the course of a weekend.

That's the guiding principle at work with the fledgling Collaborative Theatre Artists' Group (known as "CTAG") with "Blank Slate," the original new show now on stage at the Monkey Wrench Collective theater.

In CTAG's case, the ideas and themes originated with the core ensemble members – about a dozen actors, artists and musicians – who began to develop the show starting in mid- to late June, fashioning a completed script in less than two months.

CTAG founder R.J. Romero, the show's director, states that the purpose of constructing a play in this manner is to meet the challenges and push the boundaries of collaborative writing.

While the CTAG ensemble may have intended the show's title to reflect the nature by which the show came into being, the words "blank slate" actually are apt in a much different way: As a stage play, the show is surprisingly devoid of meaningful content – a loose collection of music, characters and storyline that's still very much a work in progress and has a long way to go before it can be lauded for its artistic merit.

The shame of it is that many of the individual ensemble members are clearly talented. What's not always clear is what each performer's individual strengths are. That leads to the sneaking suspicion that while compiling a play in assembly-line fashion may be an enjoyable process for those involved, for the rest of us poor schmoes in the audience, the finished product is very much a mixed bag.

Though director Romero appears as the vaguely omnipotent General Powers, "Blank Slate" is carried by ensemble members Lew Dentler, Kabir Kamboj, Isaac Kim, Cori Knight, Celeste Lyn, Benjamin Thomas Morrow, Jason Paley, Rae Panas and Robert Ayon Suarez.

This group's members, excepting Dentler, appear to be of college-age (or slightly older). All nine portray counterculture figures rebelling against society. The thin storyline follows this group, which calls itself "The Intrepid Troupe of Traveling Troubadours," as it moves from town to town in a post-apocalyptic world where even the most basic survival needs form often insurmountable obstacles.

After an opening half-hour of whimsical, off-the-cuff improvising, during which Lyn and Panas tap-dance and Kim plays the saw, the story opens with wandering cowboy guitarist Dentler befriending the lonely, frightened Lyn as she wistfully stargazes while singing "Over the Rainbow."

Soon, Dentler has attracted a small following of singers, dancers, actors and musicians about half his age who look to him for leadership and guidance. As Paley notes, "we were drawn to him as if by some unseen power."

The rest of "Blank Slate" follows the troupe as it seeks to subsist solely on its ability to entertain, grabbing up whatever food and drink it can scrounge. It's here that we see the potential of the show to explore intellectual and philosophical themes revolving around survival, religious faith and man's place in the world and the universe.

At this stage, though, "Blank Slate" is still too disjointed to be able to effectively put such points across. While Act Two shows how the small group has jelled into a makeshift family that's eventually worn down by the rigors of fending for themselves, it also points up the script's weaknesses.

"Blank Slate" also misses the opportunity to explore themes revolving around the conflict between military service and personal identity (Suarez's persona is an Iraq War vet who has lost his way in life since his return home) and those which concern political or social leadership (Dentler is murdered by a knife-wielding stranger, prompting the "scrawny misfit" Knight to try to fill his shoes).

The show's second half is also top-heavy with clichés such as "hope is all we got," "togetherness is all this family has," and "life is like a blank slate."

On the plus side, "Blank Slate" works as a showcase for the considerable musical talents of various ensemble members. As a singer, songwriter and guitarist, Dentler is a standout, performing his own original material, but Paley and Kim are also skilled musicians, and the many cast-wide songs are among the show's finest moments.

The print program acknowledges the collaborative contributions of Matt Dallal, Paul Floures, Zach Kanner, Faith Kearns, Hannah Knous, Nicole Sanders and Scott Williams, and it's doubtless that many others were also crucial to the process.

While the members of CTAG may see the show in its current form as good enough to merit 90 minutes of stage time, "Blank Slate" is less a culmination and more of a viable starting point for a hybrid of artistic talent in the service of, yet still in search of, a potent message or two.

Reviewed by Eric Marchese
Mr. Marchese writes for Orangecounty.com

Titan Volleyball Sweeps Bobcats

Westchester, Calif. - Fourteen kills and a .462 attack percentage from junior outside hitter Kayla Neto led Cal State Fullerton to a quick one hour 18 minute, 3-0 sweep of Quinnipiac in each teams' final match of the Four Points by Sheraton LA Westside Invitational on the campus of Loyola Marymount Saturday evening.

The Titans avoid going home winless in the tournament and finish the opening weekend with a 1-2 overall record. Fullerton finished in third place right in front of 0-3 Quinnipiac. No. 11 UCLA took home the tournament championship. Host LMU finishes 2-1.

With the exception of a point or two early on in each set, the Titans led handily winning the match 25-18, 25-11, 25-11. Neto had four first-set kills, six of them in the second set and finished with four more in the third to lead all players. Newcomer Leah Best and senior Leah Maurer also added seven kills apiece in the win. Fullerton as a team outhit Quinnipiac .474 to .000.

Senior setter Andrea Ragan (pictured) tallied 31 assists, besting her Bobcat counterpart, Kayla Lawler, who finished with just 13.

The Titans also played well in the back row, scooping up 41 Bobcat attack attempts as a team. Freshman Amanda Yamate led the floor with nine digs and was flanked by Bre Moreland (8), Gabrielle Dewberry (7) and Neto (7) in controlling the Titans' passing game.

The Titans also outblocked the Bobcats 4.0 to 1.0. No one on the floor had more than one block. Maurer, Yamate and Ayana Whitaker each had solo blocks for the Titans.

The Titans will return to action next weekend at the Wildcat Classic in Tucson, Ariz. Fullerton will face host Arizona, Eastern Washington and Presbyterian in the two-day tournament from Sept. 2 and 3.

Source: Titan Sports
Photo: Matt Brown

Royals Drop Five Set Thriller To Corban

Santa Clarita, CA- On Saturday afternoon, Hope International of Fullerton played a five set thriller with Corban to close out their participation in The Master's Melee. In a match where both teams at times looked dominant, the Royals ultimately fell 3-2 (20-25, 25-20, 25-23, 17-25, 15-11). The three headed Senior trio of Kassen Boesel, Naomi Iosia, and Sine Schirmer combined for 42 of the Royals' 53 kills.

In the opening set, Freshman Chelsea Ybanez banged out a kill to open the scoring. A point after the Warriors tied it, Iosia stepped back to serve and after hammering out eight straight serves, including three service aces in a row, the Royals had a 9-2 advantage and control of the set.

Iosia and Schirmer each had 3 kills in the set while Ybanez and Boesel put away two kills of their own.

The second set was a complete one eighty from the first set as Corban scored first and a kill from Iosia tying the set. But the Warriors regained the lead and never looked back. At one point, the Royals were down 20-9 before Iosia buried a kill and went back to serve eight straight more times (with two more service aces). When Iosia was done serving the Royals were within four at 21-17. They closed with one before Corban collected the final four points of the set.

Schirmer had 6 kills in the set.

Unlike the first two sets, the third set was anything but determined from the beginning. The set featured 9 ties and 4 lead changes. After Iosia put away a kill to give the Royals the lead at 9-8, HIU appeared to pull away as they built as large as a five point lead and eventually held a 21-17 lead. But a 4-0 Corban run tied the score at 21-21. HIU held a 23-22 lead but after a Corban timeout they closed out the set on a 3-0 run.

Six kills from Iosia was not enough.

The fourth set was all Royals as they lead wire-to-wire. At one point, they built an 11 point lead.

Boesel was 3-3 in the hitting department in the fourth set. Schirmer led with 4 kills.

In the fifth and final set, the Royals were their own worst enemy. The Warriors opened the set with a 6-2 lead but only scored two points thanks to their own hands as HIU had four errors (three hitting and one setting). Hope International would not see a lead or tie the remainder of the match.

When all was said and done, Iosia contributed 15 kills, 14 digs, 2 blocks, and 6 service aces. Schirmer produced 14 kills, 5 blocks, and 8 digs. Boesel hit .385 while putting down 13 kills. Ybanez was good for 8 kills and 3 blocks.

Junior Patricia Flanagan paced the offense with 48 assists.

Senior Casey Issenmann (pictured) ended with a match high 19 digs.

The Royals will finally play at home for the first time on Thursday when they host Kansas Wesleyan in the Darling Pavilion for a rare 2:00 pm matinee.

Source: Royals Sports
Photo: Royals Sports

Pepperdine Stuns Titans In Overtime

Pepperdine freshman Lynn Williams scored twice, including the "golden goal" game-winner with less than four minutes to play in the first overtime period, to lift her side to a 2-1 extra-time victory over host Cal State Fullerton on Friday night at Titan Stadium.

"Whereas we don't like to lose, losing a game like this is going to help us win this type of game later on in the season and definitely in Big West Conference play," Head Coach Demian Brown said. "The experience the team gained, as well as what our underclassmen learned tonight, is invaluable and this will make us a better program down the road this season."

Williams' game-winner in the 97th minute of the match came after a long run, outracing a pair of defenders and launching an untouchable ball from 35 yards out to the upper left corner of the net to end the match. The dramatic strike came just seven minutes after she had tied the match for Pepperdine (3-0 overall), knocking home the rebound off her own free kick from just outside the penalty area with 45 seconds to play in regulation.

Junior Stacey Fox had finally given Fullerton (1-1-1 overall) the lead as sophomore Summer Chavez streaked down the right side and sent a ball across the top of the penalty area that was flicked back to Fox by teammate Jennifer Smith. Fox then took a touch and fired across the box to the right post, past a diving Roxanne Barker in net for the 1-0 lead.

Fullerton had a chance right out of the gate in the second half as sophomore Erica Mazeau's cross into the 6-yard box was fumbled away by the keeper to the feet of sophomore Nikki McCants, but the Titans' goal scoring leader could never get a solid foot on the ball as two defenders pushed it away from harm.

Pepperdine then responded a few minutes later with a golden chance of its own as Amanda LeCave took a ball away from the Titans' defense in Fullerton's defensive third, drawing out goalkeeper Lindsey Maricic, but LeCave pushed it wide right from the top of the box.

The Waves outshot the Titans, 15-9, and had nine corners to just four for Fullerton, all nine coming before the Titans' first of the night in the 78th minute. Williams accounted for almost half of Pepperdine's shots, taking a match-high seven on the night, while Fox was the leader for Fullerton with three.

Maricic was credited with four saves on the night while Barker finished with a pair for the Waves.

Friday night's match was played in front of a season-high 845 fans -- the eighth-largest crowd in school history and the most for a women's soccer match since the Titans and Long Beach State drew 1,187 fans on Oct. 25, 2006, in a nationally televised Fox Soccer Channel match-up.

Cal State Fullerton returns to the pitch on Labor Day weekend as the Titans head to Utah for a pair of matches in the Beehive State. Fullerton opens the weekend on Friday night (Sept. 2) at BYU at 6 p.m. PT before taking on Utah State on Sunday (Sept. 4) at 12 p.m. PT.

Source: Titan Sports
Photo By Matt Browne

Ramos Strikes Late to Lift Titans Past HIU

Above: Hope International of Fullerton Goalie Tyler Golden takes a deserved break on a hot evening at Fullerton's Titan Stadium. Golden had five saves against Cross-Nutwood Ave. rivals Cal State Fullerton but the Titans scored late to win 1-0.

Freshman Ian Ramos scored his first career goal in the 78th minute off a short pass from teammate Jesse Escalante while senior Trevor Whiddon and the rest of the Fullerton defense held Hope International of Fullerton to just three total shots on the night as the Titans defeated the Royals, 1-0, on Friday at Titan Stadium.

Ramos' strike came midway through the second half as Escalante punched a short ball over the head of a Royals defender to Ramos on the right side, who settled the ball and drilled a strike to the left side past a diving Tyler Golden for the only goal of the match.

Fullerton (1-0) outshot its cross-Nutwood NAIA neighbor by a 22-3 count -- including a 16-2 advantage in the second half after both sides played one another tough through the first 45 minutes. Hope had the first real scoring chance with 20 minutes to play in the first as Matthew Howard played a short ball to teammate Edward Vera, but Whiddon made a diving stop from just inside the penalty area to keep the match scoreless.

Jonathan Birt had a header miss just wide off a corner in the first and Oscar Aguero had one go wide and another stopped by Golden late in the first period to preserve the tie. Golden finished with five saves on the night for Hope International.

The second half saw Fullerton take 12 of the first 13 shots in the half before Ramos' goal, four of those saved by Golden, and Kevin Venegas almost made it a two-goal match just 30 seconds after Ramos' goal as his shot from 30 yards out clanged off the crossbar.

Cal State Fullerton returns to the field on Labor Day weekend as one of four teams in a tournament at Cal State Northridge. The Titans open play against defending NCAA National Champion Akron on Thursday (Sept. 1) at 4:30 p.m. before taking on UNLV on Saturday (Sept. 3) at 4:30 p.m.

Celtic Thunder

Sligo Rags
Muckenthaler Cultural Center
Fullerton, California
Thurs. Aug. 25 7 PM

The Whiskey Never Lies
Sligo Rags
Independent
Five Scoops of Bosco

Starting off with a "barbershop quartet-like" intro to their title track, "The Whiskey Never Lies," Sligo Rags then launches in to an energetic (and fantastic) song; the perfect attention grabber for this CD. I wasn't sure what to expect next. And this album is like that...by track 3 I was intrigued and looking forward to each new sound/song to see what fresh offering was coming down the pipe...

There is an ease to the musicianship here that is refreshing. It takes expert players to make things sound so fluid. Blending Celtic, folk, bluegrass and a tiny bit of rock/funk stylings, this band has a unique sound to contribute to listeners.

The mixture of humor and traditional sounds with fresh arrangements and musical virtuosity means a feast for the ears. The folk/bluegrass influence assures that the tunes are never too jarring, but the Celtic pull means that they are also energetic or infused with feeling.

The dedication to their craft shines through, and you can tell that they put a lot of effort into this album. They have truly put their best out there for all to see; and it is pretty dang great.

Reviewed by Catherine L. Tully
Ms. Tully is a freelance writer and photographer who specializes in the arts. She has written for American Style and Classical Singer

Cultural Treasures of Mexico At CSF Exhibit

Cultural Treasures of Mexico:
The Phurépecha of Parangaricutiro
Anthropology Teaching Museum
McCarthy Hall Room 426
Cal State Fullerton
800 N. State College Blvd
Through Dec. 22
Open Mon-Fri. 9 AM -5 PM

Opening event: The opening event was attended by more than 200 people, featured the heritage of the Phurépecha, or Tarascan, people of Michoacán through dance, food and bilingual tours of the exhibit, as well as a performance by the award-winning Cúrpite Dancers of Nuevo Parangaricutiro, who hail from Paso Robles.

On display: The exhibit features artifacts on loan from the Bowers Museum and Phurépecha diasporan communities, including information about the explosion of the Paricutin Volcano, which was the first recorded birth of a volcano in the Americas. The volcano buried San Juan Parangaricutiro and the neighboring community of Paricutin/San Salvador Cumbutzio in 1943. Artifacts on display include: rings, likely worn by Phurépecha nobility from the Uacusecha (Eagle) lineage; bells associated with rainmaking rituals; and a troje, a replica of a Phurépecha house made of two types of pine and fir with a trapezoidal-shaped roof.

The Purpose: “The goals are to educate the public about the rich cultural history of the Phurépecha people and to provide the diasporan Phurépecha community in the United States with access to information about their history, culture and language through this exhibit,” said Tricia Gabany-Guerrero, assistant professor of anthropology, who is curating the exhibit with students in her “Museum Science” class. “The exhibit will highlight the ritual aspects of everyday life, both those that have remained and those that have transformed, over time. The topics of ritual include: ceramics, obsidian production, art, language, music, the influence of environment, ancient rock art and the dance of the Cúrpites, which is specific to Parangaricutiro.”

Additional: The exhibit highlights accomplishments and traditions of the Phurépecha people, specifically the heritage of San Juan Parangaricutiro, which was destroyed by the Paricutín volcano in 1943. The exhibit is the culmination of a semester-long project of Gabany-Guerrero’s class, which class consists of four graduate and 10 undergraduate students. In the course of their curation efforts, they learned how to build the exhibit, research the subject and request artifact loans from museums, among other skills. The university’s Anthropology Teaching Museum is working in conjunction with the Nuevo Parangaricutiro Community (Municipio) Museum in Mexico.

Sponsors: Bowers Museum, Mexican Environmental and Cultural Research Institute and the Mexican Consulate of Santa Ana, as well as CSUF’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Student Affairs and Associated Students Inc.

Website: http://www.purepecha.org/museum/

Parking: $2 per hour or $8 for a daily permit Monday through Friday. Details available online: http://parking.fullerton.edu/visitors

Source: Cal State Fullerton

CSF Basketball Alum Akognon Plays In China

Sometimes dreams cause blindness. Dreams, if they are full of fantasy, rarely cut through the clouds. The dreamer is locked into a trance in which he cannot see, does not want to see. Josh Akognon, a Cal State Fullerton alum, could be but is not one of those dreamers. And how tempting it would be for Akognon to ignore reality, for he is as close as he's ever been to his NBA dream.

Both the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets worked out Akognon in the past couple weeks, both telling him they really liked his game, both giving the former Casa Grande star the distinct impression they would invite him to their training camp. If they had one. The NBA lockout prevents that. So, Akognon could wait around for a season that may or may not come.

Or Akognon could continue being a rock star in China.

In April, Akognon finished a 39-game schedule with the DongGuan Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association. He averaged 29.2 points a game, made 55.6 percent of his field goals and had four games over 40 points, one of them 54 points. All those numbers created the following Mick Jagger experience.

“We were at the Chinese New Year parade,” said Akognon of himself, his wife Ariana, and his son, Josiah, now 10 months, “and someone recognized me and wanted to take my picture.”

Within 10 minutes, 50-100 people surrounded the Akognons, he estimated. Within 20-30 minutes, upwards of 400 people were using their camcorders. Very few Chinese, Akognon has found, ask for autographs. Eventually the Akognons were walking away, wanting to leave, but the crowd began following them. They wanted to see where Akognon was living. The Akognons needed a police escort to their apartment area.

The police restrained the fans from getting too close, so Akognon was able to enter the apartment complex without being tailed.

"The Chinese love basketball so much, earmuffs are sold at games to protect people's ears from the screaming,” Akognon said. “I had to buy one for Josiah.”

All that attention and all that scoring was topped off nicely and neatly by his salary.

For the five months in China, Akognon estimated he made around $250,000, including performance incentives. That money is tax-free. The cost of Akognon's rental car and leased apartment were paid by the team. In other words, there are worse jobs.

According to his Los Angeles-based agent Scott Nichols, the monthly salary range in the CBA is between $50,000-$100,000. So if Akognon were to return to the CBA after the season he had, quite likely his salary would nudge the high end. And if Akognon were to return to China, he would not return as another nameless, faceless American.

That changed forever the day Akognon faced ex-NBA star Stephon Marbury in a practice game. Marbury is the former two-time NBA All-Star guard who always has played with attitude, you might say.

“Before the game we were warming up,” Akognon said, “Marbury kept looking at me and mumbling. It was really weird. When the game started, he was pushing, shoving and throwing elbows. So I did the same thing. At one point we actually squared up to fight each other. At halftime we faced each other between the locker rooms and he shook my hand. He said I was nasty. It was his way of testing me. After that we became the best of friends.”

In the first regular-season match-up, Akognon scored 26 on Marbury. Marbury answered with nine points. The second time, Akognon had 17, Marbury 33. Akognon had established a toe-hold. Returning to the United States, he felt a measure of satisfaction.

Averaging 29.2 in the CBA is not a rec-league accomplishment. Akognon, at 5-foot-11, showed the league and NBA scouts he was a defender and a point guard, someone who could move an offense while shooting the eyes out of it. So when Minnesota and Oklahoma City offered Akognon workouts, he declined. Both teams were loaded with point guards.

“If there wasn't a lockout,” Akognon said, “I wouldn't think about going overseas. But Scott pointed out to me that if the lockout ended in December, for example, and I signed with an NBA team, I would be making $100,000 less than I would have made at China.”

Akognon may be a basketball player but he is even more of a family man. His parents, Emmanuel and Alfreda, have instilled strong family values in him. He will not place his family in jeopardy. Unless the lock-out is settled within a few weeks, and that's highly unlikely, Akognon is not going to put his family through a financial struggle.

“I know guys who wouldn't play overseas because it was the NBA or nothing,” said Akognon, 25. “Well, if I took that attitude, I probably would be living at home now, driving my mom's car and looking for a job.”

Instead, after he left Cal State Fullerton as the Big West Player of the Year in 2009, Akognon played in the Estonian and Baltic leagues and in China. He has earned enough that he has leased an apartment in Petaluma and bought a Range Rover. Yes, he admits, his game has improved. Yes, he is doing a lot to dispel the notion that he can't play in the NBA at 5-foot-11.

“J.J. Barea has helped, too,” said Akognon of the 5-foot-11 point guard who had a solid playoff run for the world-champion Dallas Mavericks.

So Josh Akognon will go to China, his NBA dream still intact, but his vision of it expanded. It occurred at the same time his role as a player changed. No longer a shooting guard, Akognon is a point guard who is supposed to see the court and everyone on it. You might say he has learned how to see the big picture. The same, he will agree, also holds true of his life.

By Bob Padecky
Mr. Padecky is a writer for the Petaluma Press Democrat

Op-Ed: Officers, Not Powers, Are The Problem

The beating of Kelly Thomas in Fullerton was disgusting, inexcusable and a betrayal of the public’s trust.

However, the actions of the six police officers are not indicative of the department as a whole and calls for a change in police procedures is unnecessary: instead, only the officers who behave this way should be removed.

The public, or at least those who demand an upheaval of a course of action whenever there is a tragedy, is irrational to make such requests.

Too often on cable news programs can a panel be seen arguing whether or not a tragedy should lead to procedural changes.

But their finger should be pointed at the perpetrators instead. Yet, it is these types of discussions that are mimicked by the public, in that any time an unfortunate event takes place there is call for reform.

What people need to realize, though, is that not all actions need changing when there is a mishap.

Everyone can agree that what happened to Thomas could have been avoided had the police acted as they should have, and that their abuse of power resulted in necessary public unrest.

But this animosity should not result in taking powers away from police and other public officials with similar responsibilities.

These individuals need certain tools to do their job effectively, and may very well rely on these tools when their own lives are in danger. They are a necessity and should not be revoked.

Of course, all sources of power need restraints, but police already have limits.
Beating a man to death is certainly beyond what is needed to subdue a man and most officers understand this as they do their job daily.

An exception to this rule should be seen for what it is: an exception and nothing else.

Imagine if new procedures were created every time a worst-case scenario occurred.
Procedures would be constantly changing and confusion could overwhelm officers as they try to keep up with ever-evolving rules for a course of action.

Even actions that are unanimously accepted would need tweaking after a tragedy.
All of this could be avoided, however, if those who are responsible for the misconduct were to be punished for their actions instead of creating new rules from scratch.

People should also realize that “bad” procedures happen sometimes, but dont survive long over time when tested.

It is asking a lot from an organization to choose what is best before a procedure has been tried.

Mistakes are made and then corrected accordingly.However, not all procedures that have consequences should be deemed “bad” because someone blows it out of proportion.
When it comes to stories of police brutality, it should be considered that what happened is a result of an officer going beyond what the necessary procedures called for.

The officer may be the problem, not the procedures he or she was supposed to abide by but chose to ignore while on the job.

These procedures that police and other public officials follow are tested daily and have proven to be a necessity, and it would be a mistake to have the actions of six officers change this.

There is no need to reform the system; we should simply expel those who abuse their power.

Op-Ed By Joseph Szilagyi
Mr. Szilagyi is the Opinion Editor for the Daily Titan

L'Homme Du Trains Is A Treasure

L'Homme du Trains (2003)
At Max Blooms Cafe Noir
Monday August 22
Downtown Fullerton
Part of the Max Blooms
French Film Festival
Directed by Patrice Leconte
Featuring Isabelle Petit-Jacques, Jean Rochefort,
Johnny Hallyday
Five Scoops of Bosco

How we laughed, how we jeered and catcalled when the news came through a couple of years ago that the British Film Council was helping to bankroll a French film - starring Johnny Hallyday. Couldn't it at least have been Cliff, we groaned? Surely this was going to be a new and humiliating low for the Lottery-funded movie industry.

We couldn't have been more wrong. The resulting film, directed by Patrice Leconte and written by the then 70-year-old veteran Claude Klotz, is a little gem: funny, literate, worldly and yet innocent all at the same time. In an indefinable way, it is very French in the sophistication that aerates its comic whimsy, like the bubbles in champagne.

Hallyday doesn't sing a note. The director has prevailed upon the frazzled old Gallic rocker to remain deadpan as Milan, a mysterious tough-guy riding a train out to the French provinces. He's a loner, an outsider, like the heroes of Leconte's films The Widow of Saint Pierre and The Girl on the Bridge. His coloured hair and careless stubble frame a leonine face, unreadable in its blankness, eyes narrowed into slits, like Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef. The first and last serious emotion that creases this weathered face is agony at a headache. When Milan arrives at his destination, it's not a prairie town with cactus and tumbleweeds but a dull suburban spot; he heads straight for a pharmacy, which by some miracle - in this one-horse town where early closing seems to be the permanent order of the day - is still open when he arrives.

Here Milan has a fateful encounter: the simple yet effective narrative device that drives the film. Having bought his aspirin, Milan realises he has got soluble tablets by mistake and it's too late to get another bottle. So he uneasily allows himself to become dependent on the kindness of a stranger. This is Manesquier, an elderly, genial retired schoolteacher, with whom he has already exchanged a curt nod in the shop; he offers to take him back to his place to get some water.

So an odd-couple comedy begins. Manesquier is played by Jean Rochefort, whose gentle, intelligent and sensitive face is so different from Hallyday's - which seems strip-mined of regular expression. The home to which Manesquier takes his new friend is clearly that of a wealthy man, careless of his surroundings. A handsome country house and grounds, with distinguished pictures and furniture, it has been allowed to go to rack and ruin, and Manesquier reveals with a shrug that this is how his late mother liked the house to be appointed, and he does not feel the desire to redecorate.

Elegant, even stylish in his eccentric and scatterbrained way, Manesquier has charm that disarms the weary Milan, who is persuaded to stay a few nights. When his host discovers handguns in his luggage, he becomes even more infatuated by Milan's real purpose in coming to this little town. And just as he is entranced by Milan's criminal glamour, Milan yearns for the comfortable retirement that Manesquier appears to be enjoying. Milan teaches him how to fire a gun; Manesquier teaches his new friend how to wear slippers.

Rochefort has a face that is exactly right for his childlike excitement at the arrival of a real-life desperado. The last time we saw him was his rather pathetic appearance in the documentary about Terry Gilliam's doomed Don Quixote adaptation. Rochefort was cast to play the lead, but his illness scuppered the picture. It was almost unbearable to watch him there, an old man in constant, physical agony. But this movie shows the real Jean Rochefort: sprightly, even puckish. A few weeks ago, I saw him take a bow at the opening gala in London of the Renault French film tour. For a joke, he approached the stage in a slow bent-backed shuffle, while the concerned audience stirred uneasily - and then jumped up with an impish grin.

He is on the same kind of boyish form here. Manesquier reveals to Milan that his first sexual experiences were masturbating in front of a (pretty decorous) 18th-century nude painting. Later, he confesses the fiasco of his sexual advances to girls in cinemas. Always with Rochefort, what you see under the old man's face is not the middle-aged man or the man in his prime, but the untried youth. But Milan is to be Manesquier's final student; he teaches him how to come to terms with disappointment in the evening of one's life.

As it happens, Manesquier has an intense relationship with women. His sister, played by Edith Scob, is married to a boor whom he has always loathed and suspects she has come to loathe also. And he has a mistress, Viviane (Isabelle Petit-Jacques) in whose teenage son he dutifully takes an interest - polite gestures that are brutally dismissed by the cynical Milan.

An emotional relationship between two heterosexual men is such a difficult and unusual thing to dramatise - but Leconte brings it off with delicacy and persuasive charm. It's a feather in the cap of the Film Council. Why can't British films look this classy? The nearest homegrown product I can compare it to is Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter's The Lawless Heart. Perhaps we could aspire to higher-IQ movies like this more often.

Reviewed by Peter Bradshaw
Mr Bradshaw reviews films for the Guardian

Unseen, Unforgotten

By Doug Vehle
The Daily Bosco

I didn't know Kelly Thomas by name, though I'd have to say I was an admirer of his refusal to take any lip from those whom life had been kinder to and so took it as their moral imperative to drive out the less fortunate. Regardless of his occasional outbursts, you can expect that he mostly went unnoticed, as the homeless so often do. I wonder how many people realize the number of homeless camps that set up shop at the schools of Fullerton every night, only to see the residents vanish from sight in time for the kids to arrive each morning. And that largely is how they want to keep it, some relative invisibility to keep from seeming a bother. When that invisibility is interrupted, the community has a way of taking sides against each other while the homeless silently slip out of sight again.

But it really isn't always that way. At one time, sleeping in a doorway on Wilshire near Malden, was Fullerton's most prominent homeless man about town. There was nothing unusual about someone walking up to him and handing him a muffin or some soup. A patron leaving a restaurant might bring him a cup of coffee. One Christmas time I would see a woman dressed as though she was on her way to one of the better restaurants suddenly call "Johnny" and run to him, pulling a Christmas card from her purse she had been carrying in case she saw him. As always, he would be unable to look right at the person giving him something, but his face would slowly come to a very bright smile. When I asked this woman about the phenomenon I was witnessing, she told me they had gone to high school together, that a number of old schoolmates had started doing small things to take care of him. But I don't think they were all old classmates, I never had the chance to find out about why most of them were looking out for him. It probably came easy in this case, because look at the appreciation he showed.

Johnny Morris, to my limited understanding, appeared to be a Catatonic Schizophrenic, which bears some resemblance to autism. The articulated hand movements he exhibited as he acted out using imaginary objects drew my envy, as I was involved live improv comedy and "Spacework" at the time. The first time I intervened in one of his episodes, he was using his hand as though holding a Colt 1911 automatic pistol or something with a similar thumb safety, judging from the use of his opposing digit. Literally, from watching his hand, I could name the gun. The other hand was held up as though he was showing his badge; he was yelling "FREEZE! FBI UNDERCOVER!"

I learned a few things as a volunteer working with the mentally ill. In this case, I ran up next to him and took up his same position, mimicking his actions. So these people in the parking lot he'd been threatening to gun down now had two of us. But I explained quickly that he was harmless and it helped to mirror his movements to bring him out of it. He stopped moving, but his hand remained up pointing his "Gun." Since my moving out of position might set him in motion again, I asked if one of them would please just run over to Back Alley Grill right close and get the owner, who was very good at dealing with Johnny. The "Victims" were already laughing nervously, one asked if he was going to frisk them. At the sound of the owners voice, Johnny broke that slow smile.

It wasn't always so amiable. At Fullerton Library he might start yelling as he acted out some drama; maybe imagined, maybe remembered. Often it would involve violence or threats of violence. But always it was Johnny himself on the receiving end of the violence. The librarians never seemed to question when I'd squat into an imaginary chair next to him and match his gestures, between his shouts saying "Johnny, you can't be doing this here." They're educated people, they know something is working when he quiets down. But Johnny wore out his welcome in a library that welcomes the homeless, he was finally told not to come back. And he didn't, he really didn't want to be a problem.

And mostly he wasn't. I don't know if the business owner was bothered that Johnny would keep himself out of the rain, mostly out of the wind by spending the night in the inset space of the doorway, or if the owner even knew. I do know how I'd feel if I owned a business, if customers were uncomfortable with the homeless, even with my understanding that these people are alive and have to fill a space somewhere, even as we build cities they can't adapt to and take away all the free space. These matters create a lot of tough questions without ready answers.

The end came for Johnny while he was having a rare moment indoors. He was given some coffee, he sat at a table, suddenly he went face down. Easy to think he'd fallen asleep, it wasn't quite sun up. The word traveled quickly, so many knew Johnny.

A plaque went up memorializing Johnny at Back Alley Grill. People left food, I'm not sure if it was simply a memorial or if it was meant for other homeless, but they don't seem to go to that neighborhood and it went to waste. Not the case at the memorial site for Kelly Thomas, the food, clothes, cigarettes are quickly put to use. I'm asked why I bring cigarettes and I point out that in my time working with the mentally ill I realized that smoking brought what little pleasure some of them had. I'm not a smoker myself and I had the opportunity to decide that on my own. I'll let them do the same.

The Kelly Thomas site is temporary, unless the OCTA should decide to allow something permanent. No reason that they should. Either way, the drop offs should subside after a month or so of relative prosperity for these people who survive on so little. They smile about that, saying they appreciate it for as long as it might last. They can't all be Johnny Morris.

Harrisburg Eliminates Blues From USL Playoffs

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Harrisburg City Islanders defeated the Los Angeles Blues (who play their home games in Fullerton) 3-2 in Friday night’s USL PRO National Division Semifinal at the Skyline Sports Complex. Andrew Welker scored twice for Harrisburg, Chase Harrison made five saves in goal, and the club, down a man, played superb defense for the final 24 minutes to close out the game.

In a game crackling with playoff intensity, both sides came flying out of the gates. Harrison and his Blues counterpart, Oscar Dautt, had plenty to do in the first 10 minutes. Harrison turned aside a Peter Byers effort in the third minute, and denied both Byers and Carlos Borja in quick succession in the 10th. Dautt stifled Harrisburg’s Sainey Touray two minutes in and Welker three minutes later.

The visitors got on the scoreboard first. In the 11th minute, Los Angeles midfielder Josh Tudela took a Jonathan DeLeon pass, cut inside from the right, and beat Harrison low with his left foot to make it 1-0.

City Islanders center back Andrew Marshall nearly equalized eight minutes, pounding a 25-yard free kick that Dautt did well to steer over the crossbar. Dautt then made the save of the night in the 31st minute, stretching to his right to turn away a Brian Ackley volley.

Three minutes later Harrisburg found the tying goal. Touray fought to keep the play alive on the right side of the penalty area and lofted a ball across the goal, where Welker rose above two Blues defenders to nod it past Dautt to even to score at 1-1.

The City Islanders took the lead in the 39th minute on Welker’s second. A Blues defender headed clear a Harrisburg corner, but the ball went straight to Welker. The product of local Cumberland Valley High School, who scored eight times in his rookie season, made no mistake, rifling it high past Dautt for a 2-1 lead.

Los Angeles wasn’t done yet, however. The scrappy visitors bagged their second goal in first-half stoppage time, when Erlys Garcia headed home a Cesar Rivera free kick, sending the teams to the intermission tied 2-2.

Harrisburg found the eventual winning goal early in the second half. In the 52nd minute, Ackley flicked a long ball into the path of midfielder Brian Ombiji, who took a couple of touches before deftly chipping a shot over Dautt for a 3-2 lead.

Tensions began to run high shortly thereafter, with five cautions coming over the ensuing 14 minutes. The last of those, in the 66th minute, resulted in the ejection of City Islanders midfielder Jason Pelletier, who had already been cautioned in the 62nd minute. Harrisburg would have to defend its lead with only 10 men.

Harrison preserved the lead in the 69th minute when he denied Rivera at the near post, and got some help from veteran midfielder David Schofield in the 74th minute. L.A. midfielder DeLeon, who had assisted on Tudela’s first-half goal, nearly found one of his own with a header off a corner kick, but Schofield was planted at the far post to clear it away.

Welker nearly sealed his hat trick in the 78th minute when he forced a turnover and rounded Dautt, but he couldn’t quite steer his shot into the empty net. It would only have been icing on the cake, though, as the City Islanders moved on with the 3-2 win.

Harrisburg will travel to Rochester next Friday night to face the Rhinos in the National Division Final at Sahlen’s Stadium at 7:30 p.m. The Rhinos defeated the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 4-0 on Friday night.

Soccer Notes: The win was Harrisburg’s first in the postseason since their 2007 title run…This was the first home playoff game for the City Islander since 2005

Extending The Olive Branch

Ron Thomas, The father of Kelly Thomas, who died after a violent encounter with six Fullerton police officers met privately with Mayor F. Richard Jones Wednesday as he continued to push for answers about his son's death.

Ron Thomas said he wants Jones to resign, and after their roughly two-hour meeting, he told reporters the mayor was close to doing just that.

"Yeah, I want him to resign, and I will tell you this -- he told me clearly that after last night's (Tuesday's City Council meeting, he was very, very, very close to resigning today," Thomas said.

Mayor Jones had the following statement sent out in response to claims that he is planning on retiring from Council:

“Reports that I am considering resigning my position as Mayor of the City of Fullerton are erroneous. I am not resigning. There is much work left to be done in our great city.”, Jones said.

The private meeting came the day after a raucous City Council meeting, during which the council agreed to hire the head of the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review to conduct an investigation into the death of Kelly Thomas.

Michael Gennaco said he will look not only at the beating death of Kelly Thomas in July, but he will conduct an in-depth review of the policies and practices of the Fullerton Police Department. He is expected to be paid between $50,000 and $70,000.

Thomas, 37, was arrested July 5 at the Fullerton Transportation Center, where officers had responded to reports of vehicles being broken into. Thomas was beaten and Tasered, and wound up hospitalized. He was taken off life support and died five days later.

Six police officers involved in the arrest have been placed on paid leave while investigations are conducted internally, by the FBI and by the District Attorney's Office.

Police Chief Michael Sellers, in the face of persistent calls for his resignation, went on medical leave earlier this month.

Public anger has now turned toward Jones. In a recent interview, the mayor -- a former surgeon -- said the question of what killed Thomas was still unanswered, noting that he had treated patients with worse injuries who survived.

"Mr. Mayor, I came here tonight to offer you an olive branch. But the first thing you did was open your mouth and I want to grab a baseball bat instead, I swear to God," Thomas told Jones during Tuesday night's meeting.

Also on Tuesday, Fullerton's acting police chief, Capt. Kevin Hamilton, ordered an internal affairs investigation into the Oct. 23 arrest of Veth Mam, who was later acquitted of attacking an officer and resisting arrest.

"Based upon the information that was brought to our attention over the last week, acting chief Hamilton has ordered an internal affairs investigation into the matter to determine what happened that evening in October 2010, and the court case this year," Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said.

Goodrich could not confirm whether any officers involved in the Oct. 23 arrest of Mam were also involved in the July 5 arrest of Thomas.

Mam was acquitted July 7 of misdemeanor charges of battery on an officer and resisting arrest. His attorney, David Borsari, said a cellphone video Mam started taking of the incident led to his acquittal because it contradicted an officer's testimony.

On the day of his arrest, Mam was walking to his car when he saw a friend being arrested by Fullerton police, Borsari said. Mam thought the police were using "excessive force," so he took out his cellphone camera to record the event, Borsari said.

One officer at the scene knocked the camera out of Mam's hand and another man picked it up and kept recording, Borsari said.

Source: Fox News Los Angeles

Twenty Years In One Day

One Day
Now Playing at AMC Fullerton
Focus Features
Directed by Lone Sherfig
With Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess
Written by David Nicholls
Five Scoops of Bosco

Lone Scherfig, the Danish director who is fast becoming one of the foremost interpreters of British culture, has performed a bit of magic in One Day, the film adaptation of David Nicholls’ best-selling novel. The literary conceit behind the novel was that a reader could track the lives and friendship of two characters — lower class, politically engaged Emma Morley and wealthy, handsome Dexter Mayhew — over two decades through a brief snapshot of their evolving relationship revealed on a single day, that being July 15 of each year.

In this film version, Scherfig (An Education) has orchestrated each short segment so the episodes flow smoothly together, making it feel of a whole rather than disjointed bits with costume changes. The classic three-act structure of most romantic dramas isn’t so much dismissed as subverted into tiny beats that chart the ups-and-downs of a relationship that threatens to turn romantic about as often as it threatens to crumble apart.

With two glamorous stars in Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess and an appealing mix of romantic locations, the Focus Features movie should attract a following from college age upwards, no doubt skewing toward female audiences.

Nicholls adapted his own novel to the screen but someone along the way — Scherfig? — gave him some killer notes for he has considerably improved the story from his novel. The novel represented one of the longest cases of coitus interruptus in literary history. It began with the couple, newly graduated from university in Edinburgh, in bed in 1988 but they don’t consummate their feelings for one another until 2001! Much worse, the novel’s Dex is a louse from Day One. Which makes Em a loser for mooning over him for so many years.

In the movie though, Nicholls has considerably freshened up his male protagonist by letting his charm and not his alcoholism shine through the early years. Drink only takes its toll as his career as a “TV presenter” collapses. Now you see what Em sees in Dex — and why she fights for him to reclaim his better side.

Other than reducing Dex’s globetrotting to occasional excursions to France, the movie stays true to the novel’s dramatic trajectory but makes each character more likeable and less bedraggled. You actually now root for them to hook up and wonder (as you do in the novel) what takes them so long.

They do begin in Emma’s bed on the dawn following graduation night. This is July 15, 1988, which is St. Swithin Day in Britain, the thematic purpose of which is never announced. Em’s glasses are supposed to make her an ugly duckling — with Hathaway in the role this hoary device fails miserably — but she does catch the young woman’s coltish behavior and sly wit very well. Meanwhile Sturgess is the epitome of an impetuous charmer that nevertheless has a talent for self-destruction, something a young woman might find dangerously attractive.

The movie rushes through their lighthearted early years as good friends, where Em finds the temerity to call Dex’s dad (Ken Stott) a “bourgeois fascist” — this remark occurs off-camera — and Dex finds himself enormously attracted to Em only to admit he feels that way about nearly every pretty woman he encounters.

His TV career skyrockets while Em struggles to find herself in low-wage jobs as a waitress at a horrible Mexican restaurant in London and later as a teacher. Eventually, Dex crashes to earth at more or less the same time Em becomes an accomplished writer of children’s books.

The point is made, and then made again, that Dex is at his best whenever Em is around. Otherwise, as his mother (Patricia Clarkson) sadly says, “I worry that you’re not very nice anymore.”

Em develops a relationship with a third-rate stand-up comic, Ian (Rafe Spall), which is clearly a mistake, while Dex runs through girlfriends such as over-caffeinated fellow presenter Suki (Georgia King) to wind up finally married to the lovely but high maintenance Sylvie (Romola Garai) with whom he has a daughter.

Supporting characters are even more peripheral in the movie — quick sketches of personalities to indicate the passage of interests by the protagonists. Those that are allowed to emerge more fully as time passes are Dex’s parents, his moral compass when Em is not around, and Ian, the comic who feels he must be perpetually “on” to keep people, even his girlfriend, entertained.

Getting somewhat lost in the transition to the screen is Em’s intellectual curiosity, her social conscience and ambitions. Dex calls her the “smartest person I know” but you don’t really know why. What is thankfullylost in transition though is Dex’s continual irresponsibility and thoughtlessness. This is considerably toned down here so he is able, as his mother predicts, to become a good man.

Scherfig makes the most of each segment, cleverly introduced by on-screen titles that blend into each new scene. She zeroes in on quick dialogue exchanges or transitional elements to establish new situations and priorities, then moves the relationship at the heart of her story along with considerable skill. Working with editor Barney Pilling, the director turns the evolution of Em and Dex into a contemplation on friendship and love that is in direct contrast to the wham-bam-thank-you-m’am of many screen romances. In a curious way, this movie is the direct inversion of another fine romantic film this summer, Friends With Benefits. That film drenched the couple in sex only for love to emerge. Here a friendship begun with a deep need for the other person’s companionship and approval only gradually gives way to romance and then love.

The filmmakers wisely chose not to place much emphasis on aging their fairly young actors but rather leave this up to these capable thespians. Hathaway, who has a convincing English accent, does shorten her hair for the later sequences but more importantly she shows you that Em has slowly come to learn and accept who she is and become much stronger for this evolution.

With this film, Sturgess stakes his claim as the new Hugh Grant only without the fussy mannerisms that has infected many of the latter’s performances. Sturgess can now play any number of charming Englishmen with any number of weaknesses and flaws that women easily forgive.

Cinematographer Benoît Delhomme and production designer Mark Tidesley give the drama the gloss of the film’s many splendid locations around Edinburgh, Paris, London and various country and sea sides without indulging in too much nostalgia for the changing periods. Rachel Portman’s lush and wistful score accentuates the film’s themes and the ultimate melancholy that comes in the final chapter of Em and Dex.

Reviewed by Tim Honeycutt
Honeycutt reviews film for the Hollywood Reporter

Titans Tie Cal 2-2 In Soccer Opener

Junior Jesse Escalante scored twice for the second exhibition in a row as Cal State Fullerton tied No. 7-ranked California, 2-2, in a men's soccer scrimmage Wednesday night in Titan Stadium.

There was no overtime period as the teams had predetermined to play 90 minutes of regulation and then a 30-minute exhibition to allow more players game action.

Escalante, who had four goals all of last season but got two goals in the Blue-Orange Scrimmage on Saturday, put the Titans ahead, 1-0, with a spectacular goal in the 10th minute. He volleyed a chip pass from Jameson Campbell to himself and then spun like a turnstile to drill a 20-yarder past Golden Bears' goalkeeper Kevin Peach.

Cal tied the score in the 29th minute when Kyle Lunt's shot off a cross by Ryan Neil bounced off Fullerton goalkeeper Trevor Whiddon and trickled across the goal line.

Cal went ahead in the 40th minute, taking advantage of a Fullerton turnover for an Alec Sundly blast from about 30 yards that beat Whiddon to the left post.

Escalante tied the match in the 53rd minute when he banged in a rebound off goalkeeper Alex Mangels. Ian Ramos had taken the shot after Oscar Aguero stole the ball near the goal line and crossed it.

Escalante suffered an apparent right leg injury and came out under his own power later in the second half.

In the 30-minute exhibition, the teams tied, 1-1. Dyllan Stevens scored for the Titans in the second minute when he was able to redirect a carom of a shot by Jonathan Birt just before it rolled by the left post. Michael Shaddock scored for Cal in the 20th minute on a blast from about 20 yards past goalkeeper Oliver Smith.

Fullerton opens its regular season on Friday, Aug. 26, with a 5 p.m. home match vs. cross town rival Hope International.

Source: Titan Sports

The Roots of Equality

New Birth of Freedom: Civil War to
Civil Rights in California
Fullerton Arboretum’s
Orange County Agricultural and
Nikkei Heritage Museum
Through October
Five Scoops of Bosco

America's Civil War began when Fort Sumter fell 150 years ago. A century later, the freedom rides for civil rights began.

“In putting these two eras in conversation with each other, we find common themes: the quests for freedom, equality and social justice,” said Benjamin Cawthra, assistant professor of history, associate director of the university’s Center for Oral and Public History, and project director of “New Birth of Freedom: Civil War to Civil Rights in California,” a free, public exhibit on display at the Fullerton Arboretum’s Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum. “We locate our stories in California not only because we live here but to underscore the national dimensions of the Civil War and civil rights eras.”

When President Abraham Lincoln called for a new birth of freedom at Gettysburg in 1863, “he was looking for some kind of meaning in the carnage of war,” Cawthra said. “He hoped that something noble could emerge from ruin. But the new birth of which Lincoln spoke is an ongoing process, incomplete in his own era. A century later, Americans worked to make good on the promise of freedom and equality in the Civil Rights Movement. And 50 more years down the road, we continue to face the challenges posed by America’s highest, yet not fully realized, ideals. We hope that our exhibition inspires visitors to consider how they can contribute to that ongoing new birth of freedom.”

Hundreds of visitors attended the exhibit’s opening night ceremony back in April, at which students recited excerpts from oral histories and 19th- and 20th-century documents. Curators Michelle Antenesse and Bethany Girod, who both completed their master's degrees in history this year, spoke about creating the exhibit, which is being sponsored by the university’s Center for Oral and Public History. And musician Stan L. Breckenridge, Afro-ethnic studies lecturer, and singer Ki Johnson sang “Go Down Moses” and a medley of freedom songs from the Civil War era.

“I basically grew up in Fullerton my whole life, and call me ignorant, but I had very little knowledge surrounding the segregation and discrimination issues that Orange County faced,” Girod said. “After doing some preliminary research, I chose to do this exhibition for my master’s project because I knew it would take me out of my comfort zone. It would be a great experience for me and a project geared most toward my career goals as a public historian.”

Girod said she included the oral history of Dorothy Mulkey because of her battle against housing discrimination in Santa Ana. Mulkey and her husband, denied housing because of their race, filed a lawsuit that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

“After finding out she and her husband, Lincoln, were being discriminated against while trying to rent an apartment,” Girod said, “she says in her oral history: ‘How did that make me feel? I felt very angry. How dare they do that? They were renting to people just like them, which I was not, except if you cut me my blood will run as red as theirs. So, they had no right to refuse rental to us based upon the fact that we were a different color.

“‘I had given the military three years of my life, and my husband had given them five. So, I guess I had a problem with a country that would allow you, a young girl, to go in at 18-and-a-half to serve in the military, and yet, when I come out, I can’t find a suitable place to live. I had a real problem with that.’”

To have oral histories like Mulkey’s in the exhibit, “adds a personal, meaningful and often powerful connection,” Girod said.

Added Antenesse: “I hope that our exhibit is thought-provoking and makes people consider concepts like freedom, equality and citizenship, and consider what those ideas have meant throughout our history. The exhibit pays tribute to those who were brought to a place where they should have been free, but instead were held in bondage. It honors those who fought for their own freedom, who fought for the freedom of others, who fought for equal education, for equal justice, for liberty, for a new birth of freedom.”

By Mimi Ko Cruz
Ms. Cruz is a writer for the Daily Titan

Blues & Kickers End Regular Season With Draw

The Los Angeles Blues (who play home games in Fullerton) and the Richmond Kickers concluded the 2011 USL PRO regular season with their second scoreless draw in as many games in a game played Sunday night at Norco College.

The Blues travel to Harrisburg to start the playoffs on Friday night.

The Kickers take a 12-7-5 record and 41 points into the USL PRO Quarterfinal match-up against the Wilmington Hammerheads at Legion Stadium this Friday, August 19.

Battling the Blues for the second time in three days, the Kickers looked for the first goal of the weekend in the 22nd minute when midfielder Evan Harding served a cross into the box from the right wing. His well-timed ball found Shaka Bangura within scoring position but the forward’s volley from point-blank range soared skyward.

Five minutes later, the Blues tested the Kickers defense when a long ball played Peter Byers in behind the defense, but Kickers midfielder Gerson dos Santos stripped him of the ball seconds before he could pull the trigger.

Both teams entered the second half with a fresh lineup, but it was the Blues who were first to knock on the door. Second half substitute Mike Randolph played Byers through to goal in the 64th minute. With only the ‘keeper to beat, Byers fired a determined strike from 12 yards but the Kickers 6’6” netminder was able to block the shot to preserve his first clean sheet of the season.

Richmond saw their best chance of the half fall by the wayside seven minutes later when a cross from the left flank found Bangura inside the box. He laid the ball off to an onrushing Nozomi Hiroyama eight yards from the target, but the Japanese international pulled his shot off-frame and goalkeeper Oscar Dautt was able to deny the opportunity, sending the Kickers back to the east coast with just one point on the night.

The Blues will travel to Harrisburg to play in the first round of the Playoffs on Friday night 4:30 PM PT

Striking Back Without Striking A Blow

By Doug Vehle
The Daily Bosco

Whether your reaction is "The chief is gone, long live the chief" or "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," it's time to admit that the departure of Chief Sellers doesn't change much just yet. At some point the rank and file will start to recognize their former Chief was throwing them collectively under the bus just to keep his own face from becoming associated with the crisis. That's just taking this code of silence thing way too seriously. Maybe they realize this already.

We may not be finished with the Kelly Thomas story, but Fullerton PD is in a great position to move on, independent reviewer or no. The public finger pointing should shift further in the direction of city hall, if it continues. Even with the various investigations continuing, the matter has advanced to a stage where it feels like the other shoe has dropped, it's time to look elsewhere for excitement.

Fullerton PD is also in the position of having to rebuild their reputation. No amount of spin doctoring or whining that noone recognizes all the things you do, etc., is going to turn this around. It's like the American Revolution and one of the early heroes writing about going unappreciated after the war. He had captured Fort Ticonderoga, several times halted British advances with smaller forces, all at his own cost without being reimbursed by the Continental Congress. He was such a hero at the Battle of Saratoga there is a monument to him in honor of the wound that left him crippled for life. The problem is a single event really can outweigh all the rest. That man, the greatest hero the American Revolution had by the time of the Battle of Saratoga, was in fact Benedict Arnold. One event really can outweigh all else.

So no idle rhetoric or PR campaign will mean anything. The entire city is waiting to see just how well Fullerton PD can strike back, without striking a blow.

* * *

For maybe a dozen Fullerton PD officers there would be no time for briefing before last Saturday evening began. A call to a nearby park would send them streaming to their cars and meeting up with the outgoing day shift. Reports went out of what could be two dozen Fullerton cop cars converging with shotguns and M16's for what might be a test, although it was no drill. In the shadow of the current controversy, all threats become darkened and harder to see. But as in the Pakistani proverb, 'Every man in this village is a liar,' you're going to have to enter that village anyway. A gun, however, should turn out to be telling the truth: If it's fired, the bullets will be real.

I was a short distance away as this was occurring. A man asked a cashier why as many as 20 cop cars were lined up at the park around the corner. Since I can't really write about it if I don't see it, I was immediately on my way to find out why. With the theory already forming in my head. While I have only spotty information of what specifically occurred, I feel certain I can piece together a recreation that Fullerton PD would agree was pretty spot on, unless they just didn't want to admit it publicly, there's some speculation about a touchy subject here. This not only from some knowledge of the procedure, but also from past experience.

#

It was a quiet Saturday on La Brea Blvd some years back. Billy forgot something in his car. The very image of Robert Blake playing the TV character 'Baretta,' he didn't bother going to the corner to cross at the light, but started his heavy footed run through the traffic in the middle of the block. Right in front of an LAPD patrol car. As in he could have been run down. The lights when on, Billy's hands went in the air and he laughed as he started shouting "Don't shoot." We were laughing, this was pure Billy running right into trouble again. As the police officer emerged from the car I shouted "Didn't they teach you about looking both ways before you cross the street?" More laughter from us, but not the cop; she looked askance at us as she walked toward him. I was getting the eyeball in particular.

As two more cars raced onto the scene, a helicopter appeared overhead. The jokes started about so many cops showing up, including my impression of Arlo Gutherie/'Alice's Restaurant' ". . . .Because it was the CRIME of the CENTURY and EVERYONE wanted to be in the newspaper STORY. . . ." But the new arrivals weren't just making a follow up, they came out of the car ready to go to work, taking up position between Billy and ourselves. And the helicopter was circling the neighborhood. Out of earshot for us, Billy would jokingly ask "All this for ME????" And she would tell him---YES!

A few nights earlier, perhaps on the very block were we stood, LAPD had another of their business as usual controversies. A homeless woman was suspected of stealing, they meant to search her shopping cart. It wasn't really her cart, it was stolen, after all. But if you've dealt with the homeless, you know how possessive they can be over the few things in their possession. The object she attacked with would prove to be a screwdriver, but not before the woman lay dead.

And if you know anything about those sudden outpourings against perceived injustice, you realize that a lot of preplanning goes into making them so spontaneous. It's not easy causing an accidental uprising, I pointed out to the others that the helicopter was looking for a staging area for the out of the blue riot. They laughed even harder at that than they had at Billy, but those two cops were giving me some real hard looks as I was talking. If the out of the blue riot did happen, they must have figured they knew who the leader was.

Well now, have you figured out there WAS no riot? These things are rare enough, but it doesn't hurt to be ready. If the matter had reached a boiling point, you could expect that the backup officers were to act as an extraction team to get the one writing the ticket out of there. They'd leave this to Metro, LAPD's good squad, who would arrive dragging their hairy knuckles into the crowd. . . .

#

But Fullerton PD has no Metro squad, they're not cut out for big city type insurrection. They're better suited to moments as happened in the early morning hours just before. A loud crash had woke my neighborhood in the middle of the night. The elderly in an assisted living home, a county social worker, various people peered out of their homes as shrill voices screamed back and forth from a house no different from the others on the outside. Fullerton PD officers arrived shortly, continually shining a flashlight in the direction of the social workers home. Probably he hovered outside, awaiting an opportunity to meddle in the proceedings, but the flashlight seemed a warning from a cop with no idea who he was, of "We know you're there, don't get any ideas."

A man was sent away, a woman who had been saying nothing was wrong then began to tell of the physical part of the latest fight. Easy to imagine what the loud crash might have been. But the biker gang boyfriend was now gone, the woman he was living off of alone with her children. The now forlorn looking house seemed to warn of the troubles within as it spent the rest of the evening with every light on. Hard to call this a happy ending, but peace had returned. How would this story have progressed without the police? Or if they hadn't been able to handle it without striking a blow?

In a predominately bedroom community, you can find a lot of success if you can handle the domestic squabbles. But they don't all happen in the home. And they don't all end so quickly.

#

The Saturday evening shift was preceded with a greeting by the ongoing demonstrations over the death of Kelly Thomas; in their minds messages like "Shame on FPD" and "You cannot hide behind a code of silence" roughly translating to 'Tie both hands behind your back when you work.'

Did they really miss their briefing? I believe they'll have a 6pm shift that should be meeting about that time. The norm in law enforcement in recent years is for 12 hour days, 6am to 6pm, 6pm to 6am, and 3pm to 3am. My source that witnessed the line of black and whites coming off the lot almost bumper to bumper paints a picture that convinces me that yes, they were all in one place at the station, of one mind, when the call came that there was a group in the park that was fighting, with gunplay appearing to be part of it. Apparently they all moved at once. I think it's a good guess that, even if the briefing began, they didn't have a chance to finish.

What they've undoubtedly been briefed on in recent weeks is the same possibility that LAPD had faced in their own case of the death of a homeless suspect: Someone might be planning a spontaneous riot. Assuming the park has a camera, they could be observing a small number of the gathering in an altercation, with others seeming to ignore it all. Are they used to such a scene between these combatants, or is there another reason this doesn't hold their interest?

Witnesses at the park didn't paint a picture of a major showdown once the police got there. By the time I arrived they'd taken up positions next to all the picnic benches which had people seated. While what appeared to be two groups of combatants that had been separated talked it out, (One seeming to want to continue fighting even with the police there) mostly people were laughing and shaking their heads as they ate. People were allowed to leave, one said that the mother of the child whose birthday it was became angry that the father had brought his new girlfriend. She said "Baby Mama Drama." As the matter seemed settled, the officers drifted away one or two at a time, eyes rolling, a little laughter. Quite the successful operation, noone got hurt.

And that's the way it's supposed to be. The Police aren't supposed to be bragging 'We're heart breakers and life takers.' As one family left, a woman was griping to noone in particular "This is my first time coming to Fullerton, look how the police act." I told her it was lucky that noone in there was homeless. I don't think she got it. But no matter how agitated those cops were before they arrived, nothing happened. Which is a good sign. Maybe there really were additional people in the cul-de-sac nearby, scared off by the sheer numbers. Best not to find out.

Right now would be a good time for Fullerton PD officers to remind themselves how good they have it. They tell themselves otherwise, but they're kept separate from so many of the problems of this world. I remember years ago when a psychotic California Highway Patrolman arrived at the side of the road and inexplicably started screaming "I deal with the scum of the earth, I. . . I . . . I . . . ." I asked him if he meant everyone in the State of California, or just his fellow Highway Patrolmen, which seemed to embarrass him into honoring the code of silence. Truth be told, law enforcement sees far less of the seamy side of life than most of us, because it flees them and inflicts itself on us. A neighbor remarked that the Mongol biker would smile and wave while he was high during his months on the block. The police were fortunate to only spend a few minutes with him. Do you know how many things disappeared from my garage, my truck in the driveway, etc., WHILE I WAS HOME in the time he's been here? If I'd bothered to report it, the officer would spend a few minutes here then go park under a tree to write a report. I'm the one going on dealing with the scum of the earth in the neighborhood, he'd get to go on calls where they're not bad people at all.

I saw a few weeks ago when the police took the marijuana from a pair of teenagers and ground it into the pavement without arresting them. I also saw the homeless man that had shouted "Murderers" over and over from across the street go and scrape it up after the police left. (I hope he decided they weren't so bad after all.) As the kids came out of the nearby store, the homeless man was smoking it with his buddies, calling out "That's gooooood )#W%*, you should have just picked it up yourself." The kids laughed and said they'd just get more. I waited and watched because, post modernist that I am, I knew something like this would happen as soon as the one was grinding it on the road. The movies aren't this good these days. It would be a good thing for them to admit they don't have it nearly so figured out as they like to pretend.

The police came around later looking for the biker, apparently there's a warrant for his arrest afterall. But he appears to be gone. The lights are still on all night in that house, no telling when that will end. But it doesn't really end. You just get used to it. Like the way the Saturday morning cops have started smiling at the protesters in front of the police department.

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