By Erin Tormey, organizer of the Coastside Farmer’s Market. In Half Moon Bay, the market is at Shoreline Station (at Kelly and Highway 1), Saturdays, 9am to 1pm

I don’t know about the rest of you Marketeers, but I am a little miffed at these changing weather patterns. It is wreaking havoc on my wardrobe and temperament.

Really, as a general rule I am all about the fall.  I love the colors, the crisp air, the parade of pumpkin pluckers and the excuses to make all kinds of soup, wrap up in beautiful blankets and wear excellent sweaters. I just like it better when it rolls around a little later in the year.

I know , I know, I should not gripe.  The beginning of the week was glorious, it’s true. Just the other night I was sitting on my front stoop until almost midnight talking on the phone with nothing but a kimono between me, the indigo skies and the bright full moon.

I admit I was not delighted to wake up to a dense chilly mist and a brisk wind from the north.  I was needing just a soupcon more sunshine before soup season.

So when I got home the following night to a dark cold house and wet cold critters I was just a little blue until I got an idea to perk myself up, and it worked really well. I made a soup of roasted pumpkin, carrots, red peppers and toasted paprika.  Oh my goodness, people.  You cannot believe the color. Seriously cheerful. Kinda like the sunsets we we enjoying earlier in the week, only warmer.  I scooped it up with one of Dieter’s pretzels while indulging in a revisit of "Chef’s House". No better way to truly get the most out of a cold night than a bowl of soup and a good short story. Oh, and a foot massage of you can arrange it, let’s not forget that part.

When: Fri Oct 26 at 8::00 pm
Where:Methodist Sanctuary
777 Miramontes (corner of Johnston) Half Moon Bay
Donation:  $6:00

Short: DEAD IN THE SIERRA / MUERTO EN LA SIERRA (30 mins)
The specter of Joaquín Murieta still rides in the California countryside. Whoever approaches the legend of this bandit will feel the charismatic force of his gaze." - Pablo Neruda

The California Gold Rush of 1849 occurred in the aftermath of the US-Mexican War, which annexed nearly half of Mexico to the United States.  Amid the greed, suspicion, and fear of that era, many who lost land, family, and their futures fought back.  Told from the Mexican point of view, this is a story of two very different men, both named Joaquín, whose resistance fed the legend of outlaw and rebel Joaquín Murieta.  Beautifully shot in 16mm black and white over three decades, the film sports a superb sound design by Academy Award-winner Richard Beggs (Apocalypse Now).

A film by Film Society Board Member Warren Haack. www.joaquinmurieta.com

Feature: EL MARIACHI (81 mins)
El Mariachi was writer/director Robert Rodriguez’ first commercial film. That is if you call a film made for $7,000, targeted at the direct-to-video Hispanic market, with money raised by volunteering for medical research a commercial release. In spite of its low budget, the movie became a huge commercial success, It won the coveted Audience Award at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, went on to make millions at the box office, and launched the career of one of our most prolific modern directors (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Sin City, Grindhouse, working on Barbarella).

El Mariachi is an action thriller and masterwork of low-cost film making improvisation.  The hero of the film is a mariachi-a singer of traditional Mexican songs.  As the movie opens the mariachi has just arrived in the small Mexican border town of Acua looking for work at local cantina. His misfortune is that a ruthless assassin has also arrived in town at the same moment. Both men wear black and carry guitar cases and of course the musician is mistaken for the assassin.  Life suddenly becomes much more interesting for the mariachi!

For more information see www.hmbfilm.org

More than 75 families are having a yard sale at Wilkinson School on Saturday, October 27 from 10am to 3pm.  Wilkinson School is at 750 Avenue Alhambra in El Granada.

Proclamations, Presentations, Announcements [5 min] | Quicktime | Flash |

Council and Staff reports [24 min]  | Quicktime | Flash |

Oral Communications [5 min]  | Quicktime | Flash |

Video recorded by MWSD. Processed and served by Montara Fog.

It’s a great start.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) is experimenting with videotaping their board meetings. In most districts in the country this wouldn’t be very exciting news, but on the coast here, as you might have noticed, these normally obscure governmental bodies are lightning rods for intense public debate.

Most of the government meetings on the coast aren’t filmed at all and are attended by at best a few members of the public. Not good. A few others are filmed by the local community access channel, MCTV, but they themselves are a bit obscure, broadcasting the meetings in their lengthy entirety, often during television’s "prime time." No web access, either. They might as well project them in my garage for all the public dissemination they seem to achieve.

On the coast we have one of the most politically polarized communities in the country. Governments that operate out of site of the public, even inadvertently, tend to become unresponsive to that public. This is unhealhy. Our community is ill.

One of the cures, or so I hope, is information. By making government meetings more accessible and more understandable to the average coastal resident we help our local democracy function a bit better.

It’s a great start and we’ll be polishing and adjusting things with the MWSD video in the weeks and months ahead.

I would like to encourage others to take up the challenge. There’s a lot of government meetings out there that we care about that are going on in near-invisibility. I can help you choose equipment and solve technical issues. I will publish the videos and make them available 24/7. Members of the public: With a cheap tripod and nearly any video camera you can perform an important public service Adopt a meeting, make it your cause. To government officials: It takes very little in the way of resources to reach a broader public. It’s not only a good idea, it’s a core obligation.

Thanks to Scott Boyd and the entire MWSD board for producing this video and making their meetings visible to a wider public. This video is not copyrighted and may be downloaded and used without restriction.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) will hold a Wildland Fire Management Policy study session on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 in Los Altos at 6:30pm on November 6, 2007. The meeting will be at the Los Altos Youth Center, 1 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos.

A panel comprising agency and consulting professionals experienced in wildland fire management will make presentations and discuss several issues that will help the District develop a fire policy.

County Supervisor Rich Gordon or his staff hold office hours in the Moss Beach Sheriff’s substation on the fourth Thursday of each month from 10am to noon.

Parks for the Future is a citizen effort to secure dedicated funding for our communities’ parks. Find out how you can help by joining coming to the organizing meeting.  The meeting will be a discussion on how Parks for the Future will assist in providing funds for possible projects on the Coast.  We will also be looking for financial support of Parks for the Future from individuals and vendors that "benefit from people, parks, and programs.

The Coastside meeting will be Thursday, October 25, 2007 7:30-9:00 PM at the  Harbor House Conference Center 346 Princeton Ave., Princeton.

Parks for the Future is a proposed increase in the sales tax by 1/8th of a cent for 25 years to secure dedicated tax-based revenues to support the parks and recreation related activities of San Mateo County, the cities located within the County, the Ladera and Highlands recreation districts and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.  The proposal will be on a future ballot.  It is projected to cost the average person $18 per year.

The revenue, approximately $16 million per year, would be allocated to jurisdictions per a formula.  The revenue must be used for park and recreation but each jurisdiction will have the authority to spend the funds according to their need.  Funds could be spent on maintenance, operations, activities and programs, capital improvements or acquisition, and jurisdictions could vary how the money is spent over the life of the tax. Under the measure, cities and the County will be required to maintain their general fund contributions to the parks and recreation budgets.  The City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG) will administer distribution of funds, auditing and reporting functions. 
For more information contact:  Julia Bott at [email protected] or 650.321.5812.