Taking the tour and learning of the art

OUR LAGUNA

“I talked to anyone who would listen,” Linda Dietrich said.

Dietrich was one of the volunteers who helped make such a success

of the annual Sawdust Festival Studio Tour last weekend.

“It is a really fun thing to do,” said Julita Jones, another tour

ambassador.

All told, 20 volunteers served as roving ambassadors or guides,

which concluded on both days with a reception at the Festival

grounds.

“In this setting, among the sawdust and the eucalyptus, you get a

sense of what it was like for the artists who made Laguna Beach an

art colony,” Mayor Toni Iseman said Saturday.

“It is what we are about and we are so grateful to the people who

are so creative and energetic and share their homes and studios with

us.”

The hospitality included the reception that overflowed from Healy

House to the entertainment deck, where John Youngstead poured drinks.

Dennis Junka arranged the flowers for the reception. One of the

bouquets represented the rainbow in flowers, accented by paintbrushes

dipped in appropriate colors.

Karen Petty was among the hostesses. Sue Linder was a guide, and

Barbara Barnett an ambassador on the Yellow Team.

“I didn’t own anything yellow, so I went to the Assistance League

and bought this sweater for $1,” Barnett said.

She planned to leave the sweater for Pat Whiteside, who was to

serve as an ambassador on the Sunday tour.

Dandelion Dancetheater, sponsored by the California Choreographers

Festival, performed at the reception.

Former Arts Commissioner Suzi Chauvel introduced the performance

of “Stories Written Under Skin,” a piece commissioned by the

choreographers’ group.

“She was lassoed in by Sian Poeschl when she founded CCF,”

Kimberly Bixler Leeds said.

She said the commissioned piece was juried and specially selected

for the venue.

Dandelion is not your usual dance company. The dancers are not cut

from the same mold as you see in classical ballet.

“There were all body types,” Sawdust exhibitor Oliva Batchelder

said. “One woman limped and used a cane. They really brought

something new to the studio walk.”

Oh, and Dandelion normally performs in the nude.

“They were in costume for this performance because it made it more

theatrical,” Bixler said.

Singer and songwriter Lori B also performed.

“Her voice was haunting,” said Rebecca Meekma, Sawdust director of

communications. “And the combination of her voice and the dancing

really added a new dimension to the tour.”

Batchelder said all art has power.

“The dancers captured something about the beginnings of the

Sawdust Festival -- the spirit of independence and the willingness to

take risks,” Batchelder said.

WEDDING BELLS

The marriage of Chip and Eden Lydick was celebrated at Santa

Anita, hosted by the groom’s mother, Martha Lydick, Friends of the

Laguna Beach Library president and Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn.

incoming president.

“I am so glad all of you are here with us,” the groom said.

The party was invited to the Winners Circle to have pictures taken

before the race was run in honor of the newlyweds. They circled the

track in the horse-drawn carriage and were at the starting gate when

the race started.

A sumptuous luncheon was served in the Directors Room, with more

servers per guest than a dinner at Buckingham Palace. Top-hatted Jay

Cohen played a wedding riff on his horn. It is Cohen’s horn that

announces the calls to post -- which means the horses are coming onto

the track for the next race.

Guests at the reception included friends of the groom from the

hospitality industry, friends in the legal profession from the late

Larry Lydick’s days as a federal judge, and Laguna Beach residents:

Terry Smith and former Councilman Wayne Peterson, Councilwoman Cheryl

Kinsman, Bob Coons, Bob and Beverly Mosier, Kim Johnson, Howard and

Nancy Pink, Francis Cabang Jr., Jackie Nelson and Elia Bledsoe, the

groom’s grandmother.

BITS AND PIECES

Amelia Sholik performed her own composition at a student recital

sponsored by the Electronic and Digital Sound Studio of the

Connecticut College School of Music. Sholik, the daughter of Linda

and Stanley Sholik, is a junior at the college, which was founded in

1911. She graduated from Laguna Beach High School in 2000.

The Laguna Beach Woman’s Club is assembling 20 baskets a month for

new mothers with low incomes at the Community Clinic. Donations are

needed. The list includes small plastic baby baths, bottles, wash

rags, diapers, powder, shampoo, oils, bibs, Q-tips, nasal aspirators,

thermometers, petroleum jelly, medicine droppers, spoons, cups,

pacifiers, socks, hats, towel, shirts or “onesies,” and formula. It

you would like to help, but would prefer not to do the shopping, a

tax-deductible check with the memo “Baby Basket Donation” may be made

out to the Woman’s Club.

VESTED INTEREST

Herb Daugherty donated $600 to the Police Department for the

purchase of a protective vest. Daugherty is the owner of the Herb

Import Co., where police responded to an armed robbery in October. He

was impressed that Officer Larry Bammer survived a shot fired by the

robbery suspect -- saved by his body armor.

“If such a vest could stand between a police officer and a

criminal’s malicious action, then I want to make another vest

available to the Laguna Beach Police Department so that they could be

that much safer while protecting and serving the beautiful city we

call home,” Daughtery wrote in a letter accompanying his donation.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.