‘Perspectives’ for Art Museum Takes Humorous Look at Future

The slump season? Orange County has never heard of it.

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer only stimulate social activity in orange blossom land, where just last week, amid a frenzy of security measures, Vice President Dan Quayle partied for the Grand Old Party at the new Five Feet Too restaurant in Newport Beach.

Then there was the slew of soirees that surrounded the recent visit by the Kirov Ballet, and all the elite at-home splashes--such as the exotic Caribbean-style shindig held by the Angels of the Arts on Saturday at Deeann Baldwin’s ultramodern Emerald Bay digs.

As local socialites ready new ball gowns for the official opening of Orange County’s social season--South Coast Repertory’s annual ball on Sept. 16--others have been dressing down with flair for such avant-garde gatherings as the “Another Opening! Another Show!” benefit staged on Sunday at Five Feet Too.

This party for the Laguna Art Museum--not the gourmet feast prepared for the Quayle visit--was billed as the official opening of the bistro that has locals learning how to wield black lacquer chopsticks with panache.

“And tonight I get to be myself,” said Five Feet Too owner Michael Kang, his starched white chef’s jacket flopped open at the neck. “And that could be a security problem. Maybe I’ll take my clothes off!” (He didn’t. But he did hop up on the kitchen counter to strike a pose for the paparazzi. )

The party, the second in the museum’s Perspectives series, had a futuristic flair, with decor dreamed up to reflect Orange County in the year 2020. For example, the pitch-black tables were graced with bottles of “San Onofre water” (available, said event co-chairman Anton Segerstrom, “because in the year 2020, San Onofre will have been converted from a nuclear power plant to a water desalinization facility--the water shortage in Southern California, you know”).

And a weathered orange sat at each place setting. “The oranges are from Alaska,” explained a tongue-squarely-in-cheek Segerstrom. “The greenhouse effect melted the polar cap, so you can no longer grow oranges in Southern California, you know.” Another sad touch: a fragment of “the last orange tree in Southern California” sat in a display case in front of the restaurant.

You’d have thought the 100 or so guests would be a little down, with all the grim reminders of the way they were. But no. They giggled. They squealed. They gyrated to an otherworldly sounding band. They wolfed down pizza, soup, burritos and aged black angus New York steaks dressed with a secret sauce.

And they philosophized: “I won’t even be here in the year 2020!” said co-chairwoman Norma Glover. “But isn’t this a blast?”

Faces in the crowd: museum director Charles Desmarais, Don and Claudette Shaw, Barry Brief, Vesta Curry, Bob and Nadine Hall, Teri and John Kennady, Sandy and Harold Price, and Margie Shackelford.

Mark your calendar for these remaining Perspectives parties: On Sept. 15, Betty Edwards, author of “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” will speak at Mary Newman’s Corona del Mar home; Ed Chatlin will teach guests how to sculpt on Sept. 17 at Tricia and Al Nichols’ Laguna Beach manse; on Sept. 24, guests will have lunch at restaurateurs Bill Magnuson and Ulf Strandberg’s (they own Gustaf Anders in Santa Ana) Laguna Beach retreat; and on Sept. 28, guests will hear Charles Credard and Alan Fausel, noted authorities on California art, talk about the booming California art market at the home of Martha and Jim Newkirk.

On Oct. 8, Dolores Milhous of Linda Isle will take guests on a Newport Bay cocktail cruise and treat them to an Italian feast, and a murder mystery party and progressive dinner will be staged Oct. 21 at the homes of Gail and Ron Waters, Anne and Howard Cusic, and Jane and Joe Hanauer. Tickets are $150 each.

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and wow! It wasn’t easy. In fact, he almost threw in the towel. But after solving extensive problems with water seepage, Bob Elliott of Linda Isle got his below-sea-level wine cellar. It, and the rest of his breathtaking new manse, was on view Sunday when Chapman 100 staged a Summer Sizzler to make money for Chapman College scholarships.

Guests, dressed in California casual wear ( the dress code on invitations this summer), mingled among the 17 varieties of imported marble at Debbi and Bob Elliott’s, whose home is between billionaire Donald Bren’s and author Joseph Wambaugh’s. They sipped champagne, nibbled at cheese puffs and waxed ecstatic over the cellar’s wine collection, the prize of which is a $1,500 bottle of 1961 Chateau Lafite Rothschild.