Valley People

NEED FOR SPEED, the big budget car chase movie, has begun filming in The Valley. Tuesday, they were zooming around the Flynn Creek area, and this weekend they'll be up on the Ukiah Road all day Saturday and Sunday.

HAVE THE MOVIE PEOPLE dropped a lotta dough on local businesses? Not a whole lot, but the tech people have spent well in some of our restaurants, although they're apparently staying over in Ukiah, which seems like a terrible way to treat visitors to our fair county, exiling them to the big box vistas of Ukiah's Hampton Inn instead of putting them up in the Boonville Hotel and our many attractive inns. Locals hoping to sign on as temp workers have been told they'd make $150 a day, the hours not specified.

THE MOVIE PEOPLE have made a nice donation to the Anderson Valley Little League and, as we know, have rented the Boonville Fairgrounds for a month where they stash their trucks, fancy high speed cars and that array of vehicles done up as cop cars.

A FEW LOCALS enjoyed the exhibitions of speed Sunday at Boonville International as the movie's stunt drivers exercised their horsepower on the airstrip.

A LOCAL GUY said one of the cars hauled in here by trailer from LA “is worth a million dollars.” So's my '98 Honda Civic, the one with the cracked windshield, especially on a frigid morning when I really need it to start up and carry me off. The rest of the time I could probably cash it in for a grand or two.

STILL AND ALL, the claim by Need For Speed's public relations machinery that the film would drop $4-6 million on the County seems wildly inflated.

AND THERE'S still grumbling around Boonville that the Supervisors granted Need For Speed its permission to film the epic before the public was heard from. O well. In the cause of art is any sacrifice too great?

SPEAKING OF SHOW BIZ, JON WAX, the son of Jan Wax of Philo, and a graduate of AV Elementary, Mendocino High School and Haverford College, has been named Vice President of Scripted Programming at WGN America and Tribune Studios where he will “shepherd” scripted series development. Wax spent the previous decade at Fox Broadcasting where he helped develop several popular dramatic series, including “Anatomy of Violence,” “Gang Related,” “The List,” and “Terra Nova.” Wax started his film career by working on an independent documentary in Los Angeles after teaching English in Japan for several years after college graduation.

MENDOCINO COUNTY, 1968: “Lyn [Lynette Fromme] loved Mendocino, but Charlie decided she should stay at Spahn Ranch. He depended on her, and couldn't afford to let her get mixed up in business far away. Unfortunately, Sadie and the other girls were unable to keep it cool during their assignment. Staying in a remote cabin near Philo, a tiny settlement in the redwood forest, the girls had begun to spread drugs and sex among the local boys. Soon, they were being called 'the Witches of Mendocino.' According to Bob Glover, a Mendocino old timer, the Family girls were somewhat discriminatory and turned away a bunch of older fellows who wanted to share in the love. That, and a bad trip or two among the Mendocino boys, brought the local law down hard — three sheriffs' cars and two from the Highway Patrol — and the girls got busted. Even worse, after the girls were picked up, the guys they had rejected came by and tore up the house they were staying in, stomping on the stereo and smashing their bus. These men then took the girls' clothes and scattered them across the yard, splattering them with orange paint. On the west wall of the house, written in the same orange paint, they left an eerie message: GET OUT OF HERE OR ELSE. Sadie, Katie and the rest looked at the scrawl and understood.” [1968] — from Squeaky — The Life and Times of Lynette Alice Fromme

MORE PRECISELY, Miss Fromme and her charming companions lived on Gschwend Road, Navarro, in a home owned and steadily transformed to a deepend cynosure of good vibrations by the Hayes Brennan family.

JESSICA JOHNSON reminds us that Youth Football is going to have a second sign up day on April 14th from 1:00 - 3:00 at the Fairgrounds. It will be for Football Players and Cheerleaders Age 7 - 15 years old, no older than 8th grade. The new regime at Youth Football includes:

BOARD: President - Jessica Johnson, Vice President - John Toohey, Treasurer - Monica Peterson, Secretary - Heather Wallace, Adviser - Melanie Pardini

COACHES: Varsity Head Coach - Danny Kuny, Assistant Coach - Ben Anderson, Assistant Coach - Aaron Ornbaun

Junior Varsity hasn't all yet been confirmed but we have hope that Tino Martinez will stay on as head coach, Jamie Silva will be Assistant coach as well as Jose Delgado.

Varsity Head Cheer Coach - Alisha Ornbaun

Varsity Junior Assistant Cheer Coach - Danielle Andersen

Junior Varsity Head Cheer Coach - Kali Johnson

Junior Varsity Assistant Cheer Coach - Bonnie Harris

We are still looking for Banner sponsors for the season. If any one is interested in supporting our program in anyway, they can contact me directly at 272-7000. We always can use community volunteers as well.

THE STEELHEAD massed in the Navarro at Shenoa have moved on, but only as far as Wellspring. Ditto for the fish at the Greenwood Bridge. But can they get out to sea? The mouth of the Navarro is barely a trickle, and Sunday's rain wasn't enough to do more than sweeten the air.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY ART GUILD invites readers one and all to view works at Lauren's restaurant (during open hours) by exceptional local artists who'll be participating in the upcoming 11th annual Anderson Valley Open Studios Tour. Featured artists: Antoinette Von Grone, Xenia King, Alan Porter, Alexis Moyer, Jan Wax & Chris Bing, Nancy MacLeod, Marvin & Colleen Schenck, Doug Johnson, Kappy Reed, Rachel Lahn, and Colleen Bassett. The exhibit will be up until April 26th. An artists' reception with treats and refreshments will be held this Saturday, April 6th, from 4 - 5:30 pm. Concurrently, several Anderson Valley artists are exhibiting in a new show at the Odd Fellows Gallery (corner of Kasten & Ukiah Sts.) in Mendocino, titled: Anderson Valley Artists and Friends - an eclectic exhibition of fine arts. Valley artists include: Peggy Dart, Susan Spencer, Maire Palme, Rachel Lahn, Nancy MacLeod, and William Allen, along with artists from other parts of Mendocino County. Gallery hours are Thursday - Sunday, 10:30am - 5pm, through April 28th. Artists' reception & celebration: second Saturday, April 13th, 5 - 7:30 pm. Come by to both events to give a pat on the back or tip o'the hat to your local “cultural creatives.”

GET UP AND MOVE! Kerry Sanchez and John Toohey, assisted by Julia Berry, Lupita Guerrero and Bri Bobiak (and perhaps others), are preparing to start an “Open Gym” on Friday and Sunday nights, from 7:30 to 9pm, year-round. The idea is to make better use of the local gym for adults and students to enjoy various athletic activities from basketball to volleyball and other sports and games on a drop-in basis while not interfering with organized high school sports. For ages 6 to adult, there will be a small registration fee of $2.50 per drop-in. The small project with big potential awaits only a final routine insurance sign-off from the Community Services District Board and is expected to open up later this month – specific date(s) to be announced.

DOUBT THAT ANYBODY will drive from Boonville to Covelo to cut four cords of firewood, but just in case be it known that as of Monday, April 1, personal use firewood permits will be available for purchase from the Mendocino National Forest. Permits are $5 per cord of wood, with a minimum purchase of four cords for $20. The permits are good through December 31, 2013. Mail order forms are available online at www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino and from Mendocino National Forest in Covelo and Upper Lake.

THE NOW VACANT SPACE on the ground floor of the Farrer Building once occupied by All That Good Stuff saw shelving and display cases hauled off by a couple of Lake County rastafarians, their hair done up in those bundles of beehive scarves. What's going in to the space? Johnny Schmitt said Monday “It's a work in progress,” a work that he estimated would commence soon with a bread bakery and, over time, evolve into a shop called “butcher, baker & thief, a bakery, pizzeria and butcher shop.”

SPOTTED the other day in Philo, four carloads of Asians stopping near the gate at Scharffenberger Winery to gather the wild watercress that thrives in the rivulet feeding the iris bed.