“Snake Charmer,” by Jean-Léon Gérôme (c.1870). ©Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. Photo by Michael Agee

by Bondo Wyszpolski

“By the time Gerôme died in 1904, he was recognized in America as a celebrated lion of the French art world, but also regularly criticized as a second-rate master.”

That’s co-curator Mary Morton on the once prolific and ubiquitous Jean-Leon Gérôme (b.1824), a descriptive realist and a painter of historical and fanciful panoramas who was also, in his handling and finish, an artistic heir (or second-generation follower) of Paul Delaroche and Jean-August Dominique Ingres.

Gérôme avoided the heroic depictions of Jacques-Louis David and his circle – all those fellows with last names that began with the letter “G,” like Gérard, Girodet, and Gros – and early on became the proclaimed leader of the Néo-Grec school, “with its lighthearted take on classical antiquity,” as the other co-curator, Scott C. Allan, neatly describes it.

However, beginning in 1857, Gérôme’s artistic production tilted heavily towards Orientalist and historical genre pictures, with the later focusing on antiquity, the 17th century, and the Age of Napoleon. One of these works, “The Death of Caesar” (1859-67) is pure visual theater, depicting the assassination in its immediate aftermath.

That was one of the cool things about Gérôme, his sense of drama (he frequented the theater and opera), which today might be pegged as an eye for the cinematic. His gladiator pictures best capture this, and they are bound to impress anyone who hightails it up to the Getty by September 12 and ponders “Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down)” (1872) or “The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer” (1863-1883).

Reshaping the Near East

“Thanks to Gérôme,” says Dominique de Font-Réaulx, “the Orient seemed to be an immutable scene that Western beholders could contemplate eternally.”

The painter, with seemingly indefatigable energy, made several trips to the Levant – Cairo, Istanbul, Jerusalem, and so forth, where he meticulously recorded his impressions – while also utilizing the new medium of photography (which later, via his father-in-law, Adolphe Goupil, he relied upon to help disseminate his work). As Sophie Makariou and Charlotte Maury point out, “Clothing, objects and backdrops, taken in isolation, may be authentic, but their orchestration is not; the result is often theatrical, surprising, intriguing, and inauthentic.”

“The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer,” by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1863-1883). Walters Arm Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

Even worse, for art critics as well as for sociologists and people on the lookout for ways to be offended, Gérôme has been accused of promulgating cultural stereotypes (as if the West doesn’t do it to this day!). This wasn’t so much the case at the time, because French citizens were eager for dazzling images of the world beyond France, let alone Europe, but has accumulated in the tumble of decades since. Well, it’s like this: Gérôme was a painter who took liberties, as if he were writing historical novels. The pictures most often frowned upon are those that seem to depict Western models in ornate, Middle Eastern bathhouses, but perhaps one should just take a breath and regard Gérôme as something of a Romantic in Realist clothing, with a bit of Delacroix and a lot of Böcklin thrown in, who thus produced exotic-erotic pictures that were ideal for slipping into and losing oneself.

For example, “The Grief of the Pasha (The Dead Tiger)” (1885) is clearly a product of the imagination: the seated pasha gazes mournfully at his large Nubian tiger, lifeless at his feet on an ornate carpet, roses strewn about and two massive candlesticks on either side of the immense animal. You see, Gérôme was good at this sort of thing, his mix of oriental horrors and sensualities, and presumably he knew exactly what sort of response – one of awe and astonishment – he was trying to elicit from his viewer.

All of which leads me to my first complaint about the show’s accompanying catalogue: It’s boring! Many of the scholars who contributed to it, not quite knowing how to approach their subject, opted for separating the fictional from the factual (probably the thing that matters least where art is concerned), like people dissecting a novel by Jules Verne instead of simply enjoying it.

The real casualty in this is Jean-Léon Gérôme himself, because we never get a sense of the man behind the painting. We miss out on the excitement of this artist as a passionate human being (a duel, apparently fought over a woman, is briefly alluded to in the chronology), and I have to stress that this is really too bad – because it’s such a lavish and well-illustrated book.

My second complaint about the catalogue is the quality of the translations, although the opening salvo, by Guy Cogeval, may simply be ludicrous under the best of conditions. Or is it possible that the French – who know a thing or two about lingerie, perfume, and the boudoir (more cultural stereotyping!) – are really this inept after the Sorbonne has granted them their Ph.D? You have to wonder.

I’ll make an exception for Jonathan Sly’s translation of Gautier’s incisive reviews in the “Anthology.”

Gérôme passed out of favor because the Impressionists came along and the artist – “deliberate, calculated, precise, and coolly linear,” as Mary Morton says – became yesterday’s news. Cézanne and Manet, Gauguin and Van Gogh… this was the new generation, and boy was it exciting! And so Gérôme, poor soul, sank like a stone to the bottom of the pond.

On the heels of recent scholarship, a critical and public reevaluation is taking place. Gérôme will never be seen as a groundbreaker, or as a seminal figure in the art world, but this exhibition keeps him in the running game. What has not suffered a loss of respect is his uncanny ability to frame a scene or subject so that it sits at its most powerful – as in “Golgotha (It is Finished)” (1867) or even “The Tulip Folly” (1882). Let me add to this Gérôme’s use of color, which can be looked at and looked at and looked at again – visual perfume! – in “The Carpet Merchant (The Rug Merchant in Cairo)” (1887) or “For Sale (The Slave Market)” (1871), and in so very many other works in this lavish and dazzling exhibition.

The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme is on view through Sept. 12 at the J. Paul Getty Museum in the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. Hours, Tuesday through Friday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Free; parking, $15. Call (310) 440-7300 or go to getty.edu. ER

Brian Wright and the things he lost, and gained, in the fire

Brian Wright, who plays Saint Rocke Thursday night.

According to a theorem laid down by the late great Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt, the world of song can be broken down most essentially into two broad categories: there’s the blues, and there’s zippety do da.

Brian Wright doesn’t do zippety do da.  His new album, House on Fire, is a strange and incredibly beautiful blues record. But not blues as a genre but as a well-worn philosophy – say Beatles “Yer Blues” territory mixed with some Merle Haggard, roughed up with a little Blind Willie and sweetened with just a hint of Andy Griffith, because after all Wright is southern gentleman, hailing from Lorena, Texas.

Like Van Zandt, Wright is wandering down that road between hope and heartbreak. Unlike Van Zandt, Wright comes down on the side of hope. Barely.

Take “Mesothelioma”, a song on the new record. It’s about cancer, first of all. “She got a settlement, got Mesothelioma,” Wright sings. “She gonna buy some land in eastern Oklahoma. She used to love a man, but he got carcinoma, and he’s dead and gone, rest his soul…”

It may be damning with faint hope, but the chorus says something oddly but truly hopeful:

“I hope that if you get a disease, you get the medicine that you need

Surrounded by your friends and your dreams, good lord,

‘til you’re gone, dead and gone,

Rest your soul.”

Beat-up and mostly unbowed real flesh and blood people emerge in Wright’s songs, taking punches, spitting blood and stumbling forward. He makes poetry from unlikely sources.

“That came from staying up too late watching TV, man,” Wright said of “Mesothelioma”. “They always run those ads, those cheesy lawyer ads, and that word always sounded musical to me. I’d run around the house singing mesothelioma, then all of a sudden it became a song that meant something. It’s funny, because when I play that song live the band sings four part harmony. And well…I don’t know for a fact, but I am fairly confident the word mesothelioma has never been sung before in four part harmony.”

After the song came out earlier this year, a fan told him the song had really meant something to her.

“She went through a bout with cancer, and I had written that song before I knew that, but when she got the song she thought it was funny,” Wright said. “She actually got through it but it was no easy feat and it appeared pretty bleak, apparently, but she came out on the other side and listened to that song and loved it.”

Wright, who plays Saint Rocke tonight, is not interested in being pretty. House on Fire is a record that shines a bright light from a dark place. Wright usually plays with his band, the Waco Tragedies. But on this one he was going where nobody else could go; several songs feature friends sitting in, but he played most the instruments on the record.  He’d been touring relentlessly, solo, and he came off the road without a proper home to speak of. Somebody, something, was missing.

“I didn’t really want to be around people,” Wright said. “I just wanted to go and make music. And a lot of those songs, you know, they are apologies or they are angry. There was definitely a lot of heartbreak in there, but hopefully some hope as well…The record is such a heartbreak record, but you know, I don’t want to be that weepy guy. Because it’s so easy, everybody is writing these love songs they don’t believe, man. And I’m hoping at least when I write one it’s believable. Part of me is kicking myself for having written another fucking love song, because there’s a million of them are better than anything I will ever write.”

This is not true, actually. Brian Wright is one of the finest songwriters we have now. When you wonder where the next generation is going to arise that replaces some of the titans that have passed – such as Van Zandt – Wright is real a candidate to become that kind of songwriter. He’s a poet who plays badass guitar and ranges from country to rock to blues and most definitely avoids zippity do da. As his fellow songwriter and sometime collaborator Joe Firstman has said, “Brian Wright is the truth.”

And so the story of House on Fire goes like this: Wright didn’t have a car, or a home, but songs, as they always do, were pouring out of him. They seemed to arrive mostly after midnight. He’d call up his friend Mike Vizcarra, a producer who has a studio in Laurel Canyon. “I’m working on a song,” Wright would say.  “I really want to come record.” Vizcarra would sigh. “Finish it in 15 minutes and I’ll come get you,” he’d reply.

Ten minutes later the song would be done and Vizcarra would be on his way to pick up Wright. Much of the record was recorded, in this manner, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.

There are songs on House on Fire that will be sung long from now. “Mean Old Wind” is one of those songs that is so perfect that it seems to have always been there. We just hadn’t heard it before: “The winds gonna blow/where the winds gonna blow/and the winds gonna blow all day/You can’t do much but try to find cover when the wind don’t blow your way/The wwind blow loud and the wind blow heavy and strange/Lost my friend to the mean old wind that carried her away.”

“Mean Old Wind it pretty much lost love is all it is. It’s a simple theme,” Wright said. “Think about what you lost and how you lost it and you start to think about where you fucked up this thing, because it’s easy to blame the other person. Mean Old Wind is basically me, me being an asshole. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s somebody that means a lot to you and you just lose them to this series of winds and swirls and just all this mess and you don’t see it happening but eventually it will just blow away.”

But there is a counterbalance. Two other songs — “Live Again” and “Friend” – also somehow seem to have been inevitable and are bruised but sweetly hopeful. When Van Zandt sang of wind – “Ride the blue wind, high and free/It’ll take you down, to misery” – it pretty much went one direction. Wright is hanging on for dear life, heading aloft again.

“It does, man, it does all balance out,” he said. “The wind will carry you wherever. It’s never going to be what you think it is going to be, ever, but it usually works out fine as long as you don’t stop. Just let it keep carrying you. You are going to fuck things up, and you are going to do beautiful things. And hopefully that part will even out, too.”

Brian Wright plays Saint Rocke tonight. For more information see www.brianwrightmusic.com. ER

The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn at the Heineken Inspire Festival Saturday night. Photo courtesy of Getty Images/Christopher Polk

by Mark McDermott

If this is the wave of the future for music festivals, then maybe an enlightened age is finally upon us.

The Heineken Inspire Festival, held at the Book Bindery Building in Culver City last weekend, included several unusual features. The building itself was swathed in cool muted light and featured a room with Wii games and another with a bunch of plugged in Fender guitars anyone could play. A beer sommelier was on hand to offer pouring advice, and the taps were plentiful.

Oh, and there was this: everything was free. Heineken beer in every form possible – specially chilled, or in hip new aluminum bottles, whatever your preference – as well as tacos, sliders, veggie ciabatta and hot dogs, all free. Optional donations went to the Life Rolls On foundation, which helps surfers with spinal cord injuries get back to the waves.

It was, in other words, a different and particularly cool event, in keeping with the ethos of the late Freddy Heineken, who grew the little Dutch brewery into a global brand and whose only complaint when he was kidnapped for three weeks in 1983 is that his captors tortured him by making him drink Carlsburg beer. “I really don’t care what people think of me,” read a quote by Freddy in a festival hallway. “Never did.”

Saturday night’s musical headliner, then, also made a certain amount of sense. The Hold Steady are a different kind of rock n’ roll band. The Rolling Stone calls them America’s greatest bar band. “At a time when all the hipster bands are highbrow conceptualists, the Hold Steady are keeping alive the tradition of the schlubby genius,” the magazine reported earlier this year. “The Brooklyn quartet make something mythic from a simple set of core values: sport drinking, mosh pits, power chords, sin, salvation, Springsteen.”

Lead singer Craig Finn is a 38-year-old Minnesota native who moved to Brooklyn a decade ago and thought he’d left his rock n’ roll days behind him. Then he went and saw a Drive By Truckers show in 2002 and changed his mind.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I want to be in a band again,” Finn recalled in a short interview Saturday night. “They look like they are having a lot of fun.”

The band has released five critically acclaimed albums in the last six years, including this year’s Heaven is Whenever. Finn, who has frequently been described as an IT guy accidentally fronting a rock n’ roll band, is short, bespectacled, kindly, and articulate – almost an anti-rock star. Finn is a practicing Catholic who gives up alcohol for Lent every spring. He told Vanity Fair earlier this year that he was talking to a fan about the mortgage crisis when the guy interrupted him and said, “Dude, you are the worst rock star ever.”

But to see Finn in person, on stage, is to understand what the buzz is all about. He’s been compared a lot to Bruce Springsteen, both for his voice and his subject matter. His holy romanticism and wildly exuberant wordplay is reminiscent of early, Greetings from Asbury Park era Springsteen, but the big commonality is this: Finn is a musical transcendentalist. He believes that rock n’ roll has the power to change lives.

“Absolutely,” Finn said Saturday night. “And also just sort of this communal aspect of playing a show is getting people together for a singular purpose, which kind of comes from a church kind of environment. There are associations, and that is certainly where some of the Catholicism that comes through in my music is – because of that, that connection to that kind of ritual. One of the things I love about when we play is not just the performance, but like you know watch all the set-up that goes into it, and the takedown, and doing things the same way, and just kind of this idea that you are setting up for a new group of people and sort of spreading the message.”

The message is big and warm-hearted and pounded through with a raft of heavy guitars. Finn took the stage looking every bit the IT guy – wearing a short-sleeved, collared, striped shirt appropriate for a round of golf – but the moment the music kicked in, an ecstatic smile wrapped his face, his eyes rolled slightly back in his head and he began dancing like a Sufi. When he approached the microphone, he raised his hands, palms up, like a preacher ready to deliver some truths.

“Back when we were living up on Hennepin, she kept threatening to turn us in,” he sang, launching into “The Sweet Part of the City”, the opener on the new record. “At night she mostly liked us. We used to pass around the thermos. Some nights she looked gorgeous.”

The song ends in a chorus that alternates, “We like to play for you/We like to pray for you.”

Indeed. Finn actually does seem to care about the spiritual health of his listeners. In fact, if Heaven is Whenever has a consistent theme, it’s about the place of suffering in life – that fact that there is, generally, little gain without some pain. In between the power chords and heavy thumps, he manages to deliver something close to wisdom. On “Soft in the Center” he sings, “You can’t tell people what they want to hear if you also want to tell the truth” and proceeds to offer big-brotherly advice: “You can’t get every girl/You’ll get the ones you love best/You won’t every girl/You’ll love the ones you get best.”

Finn is unabashed in his intentions.

“I think on this record I was very aware we were making our fifth record and I kind of wanted to have this tone of someone imparting wisdom, a cooler older brother, you know?” he said. “I want our music to combine these great guitars with intelligent lyrics. I think there is a lot of rock n’ roll fans that appreciate more than ‘Baby, baby, baby…,’ you know?  And so it gives you something to riff away with in the mirror, but also something to think about, I hope.” ER

How Do I Look? host Jeannie Mai and Casey Ehlers-Parker discuss tutu fashion, or lack thereof. Photo courtesy of The Style Network

Casey Ehlers-Parker wasn’t exactly sure how she got here.

She knew how she ended up in Redondo Beach after the long, strange, and surpassingly fun trip that she embarked on as a kid from Georgia who became a worldwide fashion model, traveling, partying, and posing everywhere from Singapore to South Africa and all glamorous points in between. When the world stopped spinning, she simply came to the beach.

But the pink tutus with the matching furry slippers? That part was less clear.

Or at least was until a few months ago, when the crew of the Style Network’s How Do I Look? show took apart Ehlers-Parker and her recent fashion choices – which included various tutus, lots of boas, a few tiaras and even a Big Bird dress – and put her back together again, somewhat more sleekly stylish and even elegant.

Ehlers-Parker had a moment of clarity when she was being fitted with new clothing. She kept apologizing when something didn’t fit. Finally, somebody asked her: why are you apologizing?

“I was really, oh my god, why do I apologize when something doesn’t fit?” Ehlers-Parker recalled. “It’s not my fault. But it’s like drilled into my brain, ‘I am not the model you are looking for…’ When they put a tape measure around me I wanted to die. You know, being an ex-model – you puke in your mouth and wish you were dead.”

“I totally feel like that puppy that peed on the floor just waiting, waiting, waiting, because you’re in trouble. Then they find you, and you are like, ‘Okay, what’s up?’”

They call it model damage, and after eight years as an Elite agency model – her images appeared in magazines such as Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar – Ehlers-Parker left the modeling world six years ago as she entered her 30s and her body began to change. She’d always loved to dress somewhat outlandishly, but now it became her go-to look. It got to the point that when friends found some particularly crazed article of clothing, they’d bring it to her.

“I’m like the ‘Mikey will eat it,’” she said, “I’m the ‘Casey will wear it.’”

And everybody enjoyed it. At her favorite haunts – Pat’s Cocktails, the bar near her home in Riviera Village, or at Starboard Attitude on the Redondo pier – everybody came to expect the unexpected when Casey walked through the door.

Her clothes, however, had become a defense mechanism.

“I’d rather have you laughing at me, and enjoying my clothes, then to tell me I’m not good enough,” she said. “If you can make people laugh, it’s at least less pressure. Because I was lying about my age from the start of my modeling career, and even though I was skinny, I was never skinny enough. I always tried to be entertaining; it takes the edge off things. But then it went over the edge because people encouraged me to be a complete freak.”

Her makeover began with a letter from her husband, Scott Parker, a hair stylist with an upscale and celebrity clientele in Beverly Hills. He nominated his wife for How Do I Look?, the Emmy-nominated “fashion intervention” show hosted by style guru Jeannie Mai. Parker wrote that he and his wife frequently found themselves at fancy events – movie premieres, dinners at mansions – at which Casey’s clothes stood out, and not in a good way.

“She was getting too old to be a cute little rave girl,” Parker said. “She is so pretty, so I thought she could put on something as pretty as she is naturally pretty. We’d be drinking champagne at Barron Hilton’s house and she’d be wearing a circus outfit instead of something nice.”

How Do I Look? contacted Casey and interviewed her and some of her close friends. She didn’t really expect to be chosen. “I thought I’d be too weird,” she said. When she got the call that she’d been selected, Ehlers-Parker was standing in line at the DMV. The “accomplices” chosen for her makeover were her boss, Steve Dixon, and her longtime friend Jason Godwin.

Dixon, the manager of Rumba Hair Studio in Redondo Beach, where Ehlers-Parker works as a receptionist, said that he sometimes worried that her wild outfits scared clients away.

“I thought it would be something fun to do for her and help turn some things around for her, put her in a more positive position in her life and reflect a better image, for herself and the general public – being in a salon, it might be nice for her to be a little bit more polished,” Dixon said. “Tutus sometimes don’t cut it.”

Godwin said he didn’t think Casey needed to change so much as just diversify her look.

“I saw it as Casey just being Casey, just being herself, but also not wanting to grow up and kind of hiding from herself a little bit,” he said. “I love it when she dresses crazy. I think it’s funny and hilarious and I think there is always a time for her to wear a tutu. I definitively don’t want her to give that up – that is totally her. But there are times she doesn’t have to wear that kind of thing – she can be the 37-year-old she is.…I don’t want to use the word professional, but just fit in a little more. She doesn’t always have to stand out. As you get older, some of those extremes can go away. You don’t have to go do that on a daily basis. Save it for that certain day or event.”

Over the course of a week, with the help of her accomplices, Jeannie Mai and the How Do I Look? crew undertook the transformation of Casey’s look. First, they came to Redondo, where Jason and Casey were filmed dancing at midday on a Tuesday at Pat’s Cocktail Lounge. Scott and Casey were filmed on one of their favorite jaunts, bicycling to the pier, and their dog, Poops, even got his 15 minutes of camera fame.

Casey Ehlers-Parker and Jason Godwin chat at Pat’s Coctails during the shooting of How Do I Look? Photo by Mark McDermott

Then came the serious part: throwing away Casey’s clothes. Jeannie Mai did the honors with the show’s infamous “Eww Tube”, a big suction tube that literally sucked away the grossest offenses from her wardrobe.

“That was kind of hard,” Ehlers-Parker said. “I am proud to say my tutus clogged their ‘Eww Tube.’”

Kate Richter-Green, the producer and director of the show, said both Casey and Redondo Beach made this episode special.

“Casey was really fun because she was quirky and silly and has so much personality and vivacity and such gusto for life,” Richter-Green said. “What she brought to the table was genuine fun. Her happiness is contagious. She is such a sweet and happy person, she made it easy and fun to do this show….and honestly, everyone down there is so nice, it was just a pleasure to see a day in her life.”

Ehlers-Parker said she was almost shocked at how kind everybody involved with the show was. Her only complaint was how large she felt – she is 5 ’11 — next to the petite Jeannie Mai on camera.

“Jeannie Mai is super nice and super cute, but she is like five feet tall, and I look like Sasquatch next to her,” she said. “One scene I actually carry her on set, because I already feel like a giant mammoth.”

The show, which airs this Saturday night at 8 p.m. on the Style Network, culminates with a “grand reveal” on a stage at the plaza at the Hollywood & Highland complex. Nobody involved wanted to say too much about “the reveal” because it is intended to be a surprise when it airs on television. Suffice it to say the transformation startled even her friends.

“They didn’t let any of us know what she was going to look like,” Dixon said. “I was kind of shocked, because I have never seen Casey made up that way before, to look so feminine – I didn’t know she had a figure like she has. She just looked beautiful. Like, ‘Wow, our little girl has grown up. She has come out of the cocoon.’ It tickled me to see her like that – I think she was trying to hide behind what she was wearing.”

Godwin said that his friend doesn’t need to use her clothing to make people laugh.

“She is witty and smart and she does that with the things she says,” he said. “She doesn’t have to do that with her looks. It doesn’t have to be some stupid boots she is wearing to make me laugh. She does it with the words she chooses and the topics she brings up.”

Ehlers-Parker was a little shocked herself. She obtained a whole new wardrobe and found herself surprisingly comfortable in her new clothes.

“It was cool to feel beautiful again,” she said. “I am not skinny anymore – I’m not fat, but I’m not a runway model anymore. I felt loved.”

“Now I have clothes that are good for me, but I still might wear a feather sometimes. They enhanced me. I can be awesome and eccentric at the same time. They taught me that no matter how eccentric I am, I own it. Everybody is unique and you should rock who you are. That is the big thing I did learn from this show.”

Richter-Green said that these kind of transformations are the reason she does the show – particularly with subjects like Ehlers-Parker, who are resistant to change.

“Clothes are the fabric you put on your body,” Richter-Green said. “They are not the most important thing in the world, but they can really pull people back. Some people have so much potential and can be held back by something so silly as clothes, and you just have to show them. It’s really not about the clothes. It’s about changing, inside and out.”

As for her “model damage,” Ehlers-Parker has absolutely no regrets. She applied to become a model at the age of 23 – she lied and said she was 18 – and over the next eight years had more adventure then she ever could have dreamed. She walked runways in Milan, modeled for the Sultan of Brunei, was a sensation in Asia (where she sold herself as part-Asian) as well as the Deep South and drank champagne in the wee hours in the swankiest parts of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

“You just show up at rich lady’s lunches and walk around in these dresses,” she recalled. “The hard part is being able to say how much the dress costs without spitting up, laughing…’Oh yes, this dress costs $35,000.’”

She wore $200,000 necklaces and woke many mornings to stumble bleary-eyed to the newsstand to see herself in print. “I got to travel a lot because I was more of an editorial model,” she said. “Commercial models made more money and got to stay in America, but I was never that blue-eyed, blonde girl running around the beach eating grapes. I was more the rock n’ roll drugged-out look that was in when ‘heroin chic’ was popular.”

She met her husband in Beverly Hills and together they escaped the madness and came to the beach.

“Scott is the one who kind of sorted me out,” she said. “For a hair dresser to be the most normal person you meet is kind of deep.”

As a parting gift, How Do I Look? gave the couple a vacation to Patagonia and a journal for her to write about her experiences – and to publish them on the Style Network’s websites. It’s a new look, and a new lease on life for Ehlers-Parker (who is also an occasional contributor to the Easy Reader). She’s ready to fly again.

“I’m stoked,” she said. “I just got my passport renewed ….It’s going to be awesome. I don’t want to sound like some beauty pageant girl, but I am truly honored anybody wants to hear what I have to say.”

How Do I Look? airs at 8 p.m. Sept. 4 on the Style Network. ER

Long-time friends Q Danylik and Ildiko Hanson have started their own ice cream shop together in Redondo Beach. Photo by Merete Horpestad

by Merete Horpestad

Q Danylik and Ildiko Hanson have known each other for nearly 30 years. Five years ago, they came up with the idea of starting their own ice cream shop.

But they wanted to wait until their boys got older. Hanson is the mother of three boys, Danylik has two. Now their sons are old enough to help themselves, and even old enough to help out in their moms` business.

They opened Handel`s Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt in the gloomy month of June.

“It has not been as bad as we thought. A sunny day is always better than a gloomy day, but we have done quite well,” says ice cream seller Paul Duffy, who works at the shop.

Danylik and Hanson actually don`t fear bad weather. They had an estimated 3,000 customers on opening day.

“In Ohio people line up to get Handel`s Ice Cream even if it is snowing,” says Hanson.

The first Handel`s Ice Cream opened in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1945. The brand has won numerous awards.  Danylik and Hanson note that is has been ranked in National Geographic`s 10 Best of Everything traveling guide.

They picked the brand after having it recommended by a mutual friend.

“She had us drive to Upland,” Hanson said. “We tried it, and it was great. Handel’s is a well known brand out there.”

The ice cream shop in Redondo Beach has 25 employees. Most are students. Out of 100 flavors, 47 are made fresh every day.

Hanson lives in Palos Verdes and Q Danylik lives in Manhattan Beach. They searched for a long time to find the right place to open their store.

“It took us one year to find this location,” says Danylik. “The people in Redondo Beach have been great to us.”

Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt is located at 1882 South Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach. (424) 247-8861. ER

by Mark McDermott

The Beach Cities Health District is considering committing as much as $1.8 million over three years towards implementing the Vitality Cities program, an amount that would potentially be matched with $3.5 million by Healthways Inc., the organization behind the cutting-edge public health campaign.

The BCHD board of directors held a special meeting last week to consider the financial component of becoming a Vitality City.

“Our board is looking at what this would mean for us – what our investment would be,” said Susan Burden, BCHD’s CEO. “Everyone knows there are several key wins in this. The big one is we are always hungry to be better at what we do, and have more measurable results.”

Vitality City is a nationally recognized program that grew from bestselling author Dan Buettner’s National Geographic-backed “Blue Zone” study of lifestyles regions throughout the world with the longest life expectancies. The program takes nine principles derived from the study – including dietary and physical activity habits – and applies them to public health.

A Vitality City pilot program was conducted last year in Albert Lea, Minnesota, a city of 18,000 residents. In just 10 months, the 2,300 residents who participated in the program lost an average of 2.6 pounds and increased their life expectancy by 3.1 years. Absenteeism among city and school employees dropped 20 percent. The program is currently seeking to expand and create a template that can be applied to cities throughout the country.

The health district began its Vitality City bid in May. The Healthways’ Blue Zone Vitality City program has since narrowed its nationwide search to three areas: the Beach Cities, Asheville, North Carolina, and a cluster of Central Florida cities that include Maitland, Winter Park and College Park.

Buettner, in a visit to Redondo Beach in May, said that Albert Lea’s success wasn’t brought about by citizens individually deciding to change their lifestyles. Vitality City worked with the city to build more bike and pedestrian paths, with schools to implement healthier eating choices for students, and with area restaurants to revamp menus.

“What works is permanent changes in the environment,” Buettner said. “That is the principal behind this project.”

As part of its application, BCHD obtained letters of support from Beach Cities’ municipalities, school districts, and businesses. But now the health district must determine its level of financial commitment.

BCHD board president Vanessa Poster said the board’s investment is contingent on obtaining clear results from the program.

“We are very specific as a board on this,” Poster said. “If this is something we are going to do, we want measurable results. We also want to be clear on what our goals are, our objectives, and whether or not we’ll know in three years if we accomplish them.”

The board initially committed $1 million over the course of the three year program. Healthways sought a $2.5 million commitment – which it would match with $3.5 million – and the board indicated at a board meeting on Aug. 24 that as much as $1.8 million could be allocated.

Poster stressed that the money would come from the health district’s reserves.

“We are not taking any money from any current projects,” she said. “We are taking money from our reserves. We don’t expect this to impact our annual budget.”

BCHD has an annual operating budget of $10 million and $39 million in reserves.

Burden characterized ongoing conversations as “fluid” but noted that whatever investment BCHD made would bring very tangible assets in return, specifically access to a public health polling instrument that Gallup Polls – a Vitality City partner – spent more than $25 million developing. She noted the successes BCHD has had with its own, much smaller scale programs that are similar to Vitality City, such as the LiveWell Kids program  – which has achieved a reduction in Redondo Beach students’ average Body Mass Index through nutrition education, group exercise, and shared public gardens.

“This is huge compared to that,” Burden said. “We know LiveWell Kids is worth its weight in gold because we have the numbers to prove it, and this would be on a much larger scale for us….The real win at the end of the day is that we can show our community’s health has shifted in a positive direction. That is why we exist. That is the big win.”

Burden also said that some of the details being discussed are not financial, but rather what other public agencies in the community could be expected to do – such as cities agreeing to more pedestrian and bike-friendly components in public works projects in which funds have already been allocated.

Poster said that no final decisions have been made and encouraged more public involvement at upcoming BCHD meetings. But she also said the possibility of the area becoming a Vitality City is tremendously exciting because the program has been able to achieve that most elusive thing in public health – achieving measurable progress in improving a community’s overall health and happiness.

“The other program has actually seen happiness ratings increase because of health status,” Poster said. “The applications for that kind of thing are infinite – for productivity, for tourism, for all sorts of other things. It’s huge and very exciting….It feels to me like one of the most important things I’ve done on the board, and I’ve been on the board 14 years.” ER

by Mark McDermott

The Great Recession has put a hurt on the Redondo Beach Unified School District. The school board has been forced to trim $9 million from the district’s annual budget over the last three years.

But last week, RBUSD was able to cash in on the upside of the down economy and save local taxpayers more than $4 million by taking advantage of low interest rates to refinance a 10-year old school bond and enrolling in a federal economic stimulus program to help offset interest costs associated with 2009’s Measure C.

The district was able to reduce the interest on 2000’s $52 million Measure E from 4.76 percent to 3.07, reducing the tax bill by $1.79 million over the next 20 years. The interest on the $145 million Measure C was likewise reduced by $2.3 million over the next 30 years as the school district chose to enter the Build America Bonds program, part of the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act that offers a special 35 percent bond interest subsidy.

“It’s great,” said RBUSD Chief Business Official Janet Redella. “We couldn’t have timed the sales of our bonds better. I mean, this economy is horrendous and it’s hurting us in every other way, but we are taking advantage of the decline in a big way.”

The savings will be more cumulatively than individually significant for taxpayers. The refinancing of the Measure C bond, for example, will save taxpayers 79 cents per $100,000 of assessed value of their homes; taxpayers last year paid $29.97 per $100,000 in paying off the bond. The federal subsidy will represent a slightly higher but similar savings, bringing the interest down from an actual rate of 5.43 percent to an effective rate of 3.53 percent, far below market rates.

“The reality is it won’t save any taxpayer hundreds of dollars, but we are saving money for the taxpayers in the community,” Keller said. “It is a large number, and it’s the right thing to do and the right timing. It’s unfortunate the financial climate, in a larger social context, is tough on most people. But here is a slice of good news and we are happy to share it.”

“To me, it’s good governance,” said Timothy Carty, the director of Piper Jaffray, the school district’s longtime bond underwriters. “The school district did not have to do it. The district doesn’t get anything out of it, but it’s the right thing to do for local taxpayers.”

The school board approved both actions last week. Board president Drew Gamet said that when the district first began investigating refinancing, the savings would have been a few hundred thousand dollars.

“Which is no small change,” Gamet said. “But when it came out and we were cracking $4 million, it was like, ‘Whoa! I’m glad we are doing this.’ It’s keeping your eye on the prize. And hopefully we are setting a precedent for future school boards.”

The district is also millions of dollars under budget and ahead of schedule on many of its Measure C bond construction projects, another result of the lagging economy – the soft construction market has allowed the district to obtain bids far below original estimates.

Gamet said by saving taxpayers $4 million the district is demonstrating fiscal responsibility.

“It does benefit the school district,” Gamet said. “You see people always tearing down public government, saying that government isn’t watching out for things. That may be true in some cases, but not in this one.” ER

J.R. Tavai, the CIF Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, returns to lead Mira Costa in its quest for back-to-back CIF titles. Photo by Ray Vidal

by Randy Angel

Mira Costa head football coach Don Morrow has his sights set on a third straight trip to a CIF title game, but he knows his squad won’t repeat as the Western Division champion. That’s because members of the Bay League, along with those in the Golden League, have switched divisions and will be competing in the CIF Southern Section Northern Division this season.

If the Mustangs, who are ranked No. 7 in the CIF Northern Division poll and 83rd in the state by maxpreps.com, hope to repeat they will have their work cut out for them from the start when the team faces its usual tough non-league schedule beginning tomorrow with a home game against Loyola (the 49th-ranked team in the state in the maxpreps.com poll), followed by second-ranked Serra (No. 1 in Western Division) in a game to be played at El Camino College, then Narbonne, Chaminade (No. 4 in Western Division) and Newport Harbor (No. 9 in PAC-5 Division and 50th in state).

The Bay League race is always a challenge (Palos Verdes is ranked No. 9 in the Northern Division) and the post season will now include teams from the formidable Marmonte League that includes six teams listed in the top 100 in the state including Westlake, which holds the top spot in the pre-season rankings. Perennial powers Moorpark (No. 14), St. Bonaventure (No. 26), Valencia (No. 32), Oaks Christian (No. 51), Thousand Oaks (No. 77) and Newbury Park (No. 86) are expected to make deep runs in the playoffs.

Although it lost most of its starters from its 2009 CIF championship squad, Mira Costa will be among the favorites to win the Bay League, highlighted by a quick, physical defense, a strong kicking game and two returning all-league linemen. Mira Costa’s JV team captured the Bay League title last season.

The Mustangs come off a 12-3 season and look to achieve the same balanced offensive that carried the team to league and CIF titles. Morrow begins his 18th season as head coach at Mira Costa with an impressive 184-73-3 record.

Quarterbacks Dalton Crawford (5-10, 185) and Dennis Falcone (5-11, 190) are battling for the starting job after leading Mira Costa to the quarterfinals in the Beverly Hills and Santa Fe Passing Tournament this summer.

“Coach Morrow might wait until two minutes before game time to tell us who the starting quarterback is going to be,” Falcone said. “But that helps keep both of us prepared.”

Falcone said he expects the Mustang offense to be well-balanced.

“We have great running backs in Dante Bavis (5-11, 170) and Deon Morris (5-10, 170),” Falcone added. “Sam Stekol (6-3, 195) is a bigger, stronger receiver this year who runs great patterns and Derek Largent (6-3, 210) is a big tight end who will contribute a lot.”

Troy Saeman (5-9, 165) appears to be the Mustang’s possession receiver and Stephen Giovati (5-8, 170) will add to a running game bolstered by returning All-Bay League linemen Bret Darragh (6-2, 270) and Jimmy Lee (6-5, 255) along with fullback J.R. Tavai (6-2, 260). Ryan Daly (5-11, 235) will anchor the line at center.

Tavai, the CIF Western Division Defensive Player of the Year, returns as a bigger, stronger nose guard and will form a tough tandem with sophomore R.J. Coleman (6-3, 260). Tavai led last year’s team with 92 tackles, seven sacks and three fumble recoveries.

Noah Rossi (6-1, 195) returns at linebacker where he will be joined by Geoff LaPonte (5-11, 180), Eli Rivas (6-0, 190), Trei Tamura (5-10, 165) and Alec Weaver (5-9, 180).

Safety J.R. Oshima (5-10, 170), who had key interceptions in Mira Costa’s postseason run last year, returns and will be joined by versatile Tajee Moble (5-9, 160) who can play safety or corner.

The Mustang’s kicking game features punter Brendan Sofen (5-10, 175) and kicker Grant Meersand (6-1, 215).

Mira Costa looks to avenge last year’s 28-18 season-opening road loss when the Mustangs host Loyola tomorrow at 7 p.m. Loyola is coming off a 4-6 season but has athleticism at the skill positions including its returning quarterback and top running back.

Jerry Neuheisel (6-2, 180), son of UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel, returns as the Cubs’ signal caller after averaging 162 yards per game in 2009 while passing for 1,621 yards, 13 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

Averaging 6.92 yards per carry and 145 yards per game last season, Jared Baker (5-9, 185) returns at running back after a 1,453-yard, 10-touchdown campaign in his junior year.

Senior wide receiver Darren Rosenberg (5-9, 170) returns after averaging 14.4 yards per catch last season. He also carried the ball nine times for 108 yards.

Defensively, the Cubs are led by linebacker Nicholas Nasse (6-1, 190) and defensive back Lee Hightower (6-1, 170). Both averaged four tackles per game in 2009.

Redondo running back Ryan Spiwak will play a vital role in the Sea Hawk's running game. Spiwak was selected to the All-Bay League team as a linebacker in 2009. Photo by Ray Vidal

Redondo reloads

Head coach Gene Simon’s team faces the same non-league opponents as last season as the Sea Hawks look to improve on their 6-6 record after tying for second place in the Bay League and reaching the second round of the CIF Western Division playoffs in 2009.

“I think we’ll be right in the thick of the race,” Simon said. “Mira Costa will be tough but I feel Palos Verdes has the edge on everyone right now.”

Simon is disappointed with the realignment of the divisions, feeling Mira Costa’s recent success moved the Bay League to a higher level of competition in which its members are not accustomed of playing.

“I hate the move. It think it’s terrible,” Simon said. “The Marmonte League is a 10-team league. The Bay League champion could face a third- or fourth-place team in the opening round and it would be the best opponent it has faced all year. On the other hand, it will be a challenge and a win would put us more on the map.”

Redondo begins its campaign with three straight road games beginning at North Torrance tomorrow at 7 p.m. The Saxons are ranked No. 5 in the CIF Northwest Division.

The Sea Hawks then travel to take on Serra, the state’s second-ranked team and Simon’s alma mater, before going to Long Beach to face Moore League adversary Millikan.

The Sea Hawks return home to battle Culver City (No. 7 in Western Division) before closing out their non-league schedule against Banning who is ranked 17th in the L.A. City Section.

Redondo returns two All-Bay League players in junior running back/linebacker Ryan Spiwak (6-2, 195) and lineman John Miller (6-1, 300) but, for the second consecutive year, the team will start its season without the talents of wide receiver/defensive back Brandon Boyd (6-2, 170) who suffered what is likely a season-ending knee injury during a summer passing tournament. Boyd’s injury is to the opposite knee he injured prior to the 2009 campaign.

Miller and Adam Ammentorp (6-2, 225) are the senior leaders for Redondo on a line Simon feels is the strength of his team. Sam Ben-amor (5-11, 220), Taylor Bongiovanni (6-1, 210), Gyo Shojima (6-2, 220) and Matt Ulizio (5-11, 200) will pave the way for the Sea Hawks.

“We should have a much better running game than last year.” said Simon, who enters his 15th season with an 87-53-3 record. “We have a lot of skill players who are mostly juniors.”

Junior quarterback Nick Pope (6-2, 185) will have a variety of receivers including Brandon Engel (6-0, 175) and Jon Catsavas (5-11, 170). Simon said he has been impressed with tight end/linebacker L.J. Ben-amor.

Catsavas and Engel will anchor the defensive backfield for Redondo who looks to make it two in a row against North.

“North has a talented team,” Simon said. “Their linebackers and running backs are good and they have a much better line. It’s going to be a tough first game.”

The Sea Hawks defeated the Saxons 27-14 in a hard-fought, opening-game battle last year. North finished with a 5-5 record last season and is coming off a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Pioneer League.

North has some beef on its line led by Joe Valdez (6-2, 280), Stephen Geluz (6-1, 210) and Joe Parks (6-1, 240) who will pave the way for running backs Ryan McDaniel (6-0, 210) and Tyree Marshall (6-2, 215). Daniel Ramos (5-6, 150) provides support at the wide receiver and defensive back positions.

Redondo is ranked No. 214 in the state while North holds the 361st spot. ER