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Posts published by “Dave Smith”

Mendocino Talking: Mark Scaramella

Putting together the AVA every week is comparable to painting bridges. As soon as you’re done with one week, you’re starting on the next one. Most of it is collecting electronic data — the main typing task nowadays is entering prisoner letters because they’re still using pen and paper to communicate. There is a lot to go through.

Mendocino Talking: Todd Walton

I started writing stories when I was six. My first stories were essentially transcriptions of stories I had invented and told to my friends and classmates. I knew from the get go I would have to practice writing, just as one practices a musical instrument, in order to get good at writing stories. By the time I was ten, writing had taken a backseat to sports. I was a total jock until I was fifteen and severely crippled by a disease called ankylosing spondylitis.

Mendocino Talking: Spencer Brewer

Spencer Brewer is a composer, pianist, performer, and impresario… founder of Ukiah’s Concerts In The Park. A few years after Spencer and his wife Esther got together in 1977, they both drew up a list of 20 things they each wanted to accomplish in their lives. Spencer has crossed off 19 of his. There is one more left to do…

Mendocino Talking: Pinky Kushner

Pinky was born and raised in St. Louis, spent time as a child living in Cuba, received her degree in comparative literature and her PhD in neuroscience. She is a leader in the San Francisco Sierra Club and has been involved in various environmental projects here in Ukiah.

Mendocino Talking: Doug Mosel

Since landing in Mendocino County, Doug Mosel has involved himself in several worthwhile community projects: running the successful Measure H campaign against GMOs; co-founding the Agriculture & Ecology Hour on KZYX; and most recently creating the Mendocino Grain Project where he farms, mills and distributes locally-grown grains and flour to CSA members of the project and local stores.

Mendocino Talking: Jan Hoyman

Jan Hoyman owns the Jan Hoyman Pottery Studio at 323 North Main Street in Ukiah. She was born in Oshkosh Wisconsin, then moved to Goshen Indiana, the heart of Mennonite Amish country. First daughter, second child of five. Attended Indiana University, took some art classes in college, became “enamored with clay” but decided she had to go to California in 1976 because “the Beach Boys were singing about it all the time.”

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