The California Report on KQED-FM today did a good story on the Beachwood tragedy in Half Moon Bay.  Most notable was a quote from the developer’s attorney that addresses the propaganda that the wetlands designation (and not Half Moon Bay’s bulldozers) was responsible for the judgement against the city:

"The government caused the damage to the private property as opposed to simply passing laws that would limit the ability to use the property."

The company that publishes every daily newspaper in the Bay Area, except for the Chronicle, is offering buyouts to its employees in advance of more job cuts, reports the Chron.  The company owns the County Times, which has one reporter dedicated to Coastside coverage.

In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Bay Area News Group-East Bay President and Publisher John Armstrong said the company must eliminate a "significant" number of jobs as it seeks to save a specific, but unstated amount of money. The group provided the offer to 1,100 or so people it employs across more than a dozen daily and weekly newspapers in the East Bay, including the West County Times and Tri-Valley Herald.

The San Jose Mercury News extended a similar buyout offer to the nonunion employees of its 900-person staff, Publisher Mac Tully said. Its union employees, who already have severance agreements in their contracts with similar terms, are also free to accept the invitation to leave, he said.

BANG cites its anticipation of continued weakness in the economy for the cuts.

A powerful Pacific storm system is expected to hit the Coastside Saturday afternoon, according to the national weather service. Strong, gusty winds will persist through Sunday morning. The service is forecasting sustained winds of at least 40 mph or gusts of at least 58 mph along the coast and valleys and 70 mph in the mountains.

This video was produced by Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who has changed the way a lot of people think about intellectual property.  Last year, Lessig announced he was changing his focus to political corruption.  This year, with the death of Tom Lantos, Lessig has announced he’s considering running for the seat.  In the video, he discusses what he’d like to do and the extraordinary difficulty involved in taking on Jackie Speier in this election.

He’s not running yet, and I’m not endorsing him yet. But now would be a good time to watch the video, consider his message, and think about whether it makes sense to you.

Returning to his jazz piano roots, Michael Wolff’s straight-ahead piano trio interprets choice standards with elegance, energy and nuance that establishes him in the first rank of urbane jazz pianists. 

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$30.  Tickets at the door. Reservations for members.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission.

NOTE: The Coastside Fire Protection District board is considering whether it should hire MCTV or Montara Fog to tape its meetings. This is my prepared statement to the board at its meeting Tuesday night.

In the four years that I have been publishing Coastsider, my priority has always been to cover all boards on the Coastside as honestly and fairly as possible. As part of that commitment, I have devoted a great deal of time and energy to taping public meetings which are also taped by MCTV.

I have had to do this because MCTV will not allow any Coastside news organization to reuse video of meetings they have taped.

Ultimately MCTV will have to acknowledge that tapes of elected boards that are paid for with public money are owned by the public and not by MCTV. But in the meantime, I recommend that regardless of which vendor the board chooses to tape its meetings, that the district insist that the vendor not interfere with public’s right to the contents of the tapes.

There is more than one way to do this, but MCTV’s current misguided policy is not in the public’s interest or that of the board, and is based strictly on the self-interest of the station itself.

The public is denied easy access to newsworthy events that happen in board meetings when they are buried in gavel-to-gavel coverage.

Boards are vulnerable to having their actions distorted by news reports and by political opponents when the actual proceedings are not freely available to the public.

And the community as a whole is impoverished when public property is treated as private property, even by a nonprofit organization.

Whichever vendor you choose to tape your meetings or to distribute them on the web, I urge the board to insist that the final product is the property of the public and available for reuse by anyone who wants it.

Director and cinematographer extraordinaire Bob Elfstrom will be traveling down from his San Francisco studio to introduce two of his films to an audience at this Friday’s Coastside Film Society’s Film Night in Half Moon Bay. We are lucky to get him - he just ended a shoot for Shawn Penn and had a few days free before his next project begins.

Bob is a director and cameraman who specializes in documentary filmmaking. He’s got an intuitive sense of story, a feature film feel for lighting, and an athletic agility with a handheld camera. Bob has produced, directed and photographed hundreds of documentary programs for serious media outlets such as PBS, National Geographic, NOVA, FRONTLINE, CBS, CBC, HBO, BBC and the Discovery Channel.
In between the screening of his films he has graciously offered to run a mini tutorial on how to properly light and record sound to squeeze the best possible results out of an amateur video project.  Bob is well known as a lighting and sound guru. The tutorial he is giving us is worth far more than our $6.00 admission price.

 
Feature 1 : Moses Pendleton presents Moses Pendleton   (58 mins) 

The story of one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century. Pendleton is a founder of both the hyper-athletic Pilobolus company and Momix, a company of dancer-illusionists.  The film blends interviews with Pendleton and others & superbly captured dance routines.  * Winner of the Cine Golden Eagle *

If you don’t know Pendleton’s work please spend a few minutes on YouTube looking at some of the wonderful stuff that has come out of his Pilobolus and Momix companies. Truly mind blowing stuff, even if you are not a dance fan.

Film School :Mini Tutorial on Lighting and Sound

Feature 2 : Finding Lucy   (86 mins) 

 
When "I Love Lucy" debuted on national TV on October 1951, the show became an instant sensation, turning its unlikely star, Lucille Ball, into a legend.  This film tells the story of how a B Grade movie actress from Jamestown, N.Y. used her penchant for comedy to transform herself into the very first female television superstar and first female head of a major studio. * Winner of Emmy for Best Documentary *

Fri. February 22nd 2008, 7:30 pm

Methodist Sanctuary,  777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay, Corner of Johnston & Miramontes
Donation:  $6.00
For more information, see www.hmbfilm.org

Students at HMB High School want to be MADE, and in Allan Bruce’s case, that means riding the waves at Mavericks.  These days, Bruce, a junior at HMBHS, is more teen idol than surfer dude.  Currently appearing in the spring musical "Grease" as Doody,  Allan’s more focused on acting, singing and studies than hanging ten. 

Why a surfer?  "I’ve lived in Half Moon Bay all my life, I always thought how cool it would be to surf. I mean Half Moon Bay is a surfing community, and I feel since I can’t surf, I don’t feel I’m a part of this community as I would like too. I love everything about surfing the rush and the adrenaline. I have been watching MADE ever since I was in the sixth grade, and I always thought of how cool it would be to be taught something by a professional! I am not just doing this for TV, I am doing this for the experience. I mean don’t get me wrong being on TV would be so much fun, but mainly the experience is what I am looking at." And the audition process?  Bruce called it "really easy and comfortable." 

Lissandro Garcia, another tenured actor (Kiss me Kate and Grease) at HMBHS agrees.  "I want to be a hip-hop dancer because it is something totally random from what I am,  which is outgoing and nerdy".  Garcia’s favorite part of the audition, "They told me to do my best interpretation of a hip hop dancer and I did.  I did the robot and shook my booty for him and he started laughing. I would say it was quite an experience. The MTV guy was really cool and nice."

Entering its eighth season, MTV’s "MADE" is one of the network’s most successful shows because of its ability to connect with ordinary teens who often find their lives mirrored by the contestants.

A many who happened to see a teenage girl nearly buried in a landslide at Esplanade beach in Pacifica dug her out with his bare hands, reports KTVU.

The landslide, reported just after 3 p.m. Saturday at Esplanade Beach, buried the girl up to her chest in dirt, according to North County Fire Authority spokeswoman Angelina Ciussi.

She was rescued by Keller, who saw it all happen from an RV park overlooking the beach. He dug the girl out from the dirt and brought her to safety before firefighters arrived.

"I ran down there and saw that she was buried from her chest down," Keller told KTVU. "I just kept digging and digging with my hands and my feet. She was breathing but she didn’t say anything…She was dazed and confused."

The beach has been closed, some RV’s have been located from the cliff, and the hillside is being monitored. Click here to see the cliffs in Pacifica at the California Coastal Records Project.

Two $2,000 scholarships will be awarded to either seniors or recent graduates of Half Moon Bay High School or Pescadero High School from the Frymoyer Education Assistance Fund.

The scholarships will go to students seeking a 2-year education at a junior college or vocational school in San Mateo County or the immediate vicinity. This scholarship is a two year scholarship offering $2,000 per year for each recipient.

Applicants must submit a letter to the Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce & Visitor’s Bureau Education Committee by February 29, 2008 that outlines:  high school graduation history, 2 year college of vocational enrollment,  financial need, future plans and goals, and why you think you deserve this scholarship.

Send applications to:

HMBCCCVB
235 Main Street
Half Moon Bay, CA