NOTE: Frank Long, owner of Oasis Natural Foods on Main Street, is closing his store to go back east to care for his parents. In a letter to friends, Frank made it clear that he’s selling the business for personal, and not economic, reasons.

As it looks now, I will be having to relocate within the next couple of months; more specifically, during July or August at the latest. While stores have been dropping like flies here in town due to the lack of tourism, hanging in there through the dip in the economy was certainly a doable option for me since the resident traffic has been reasonably steady of late, so my decision to relocate is not an economic one being forced upon me as with many other businesses in town. It’s been slow .... but not that slow.

Over the years, I have developed the friendship of many, many Coastside residents, many of whom have honored me by trusting me with their stories of ill health or personal tales of woe. I guess I now know what a hairdresser must feel like. I am also grateful to those physicians in town who felt comfortable enough to send their patients to me so that I could also help connect the dots for their patients.

Well, that said, if anyone is thinking they might know of someone possibly interested in carrying the next torch, I am perfectly willing to work with them to come up with a REALLY sweet deal. Since Marilyn Wattyne originally opened the store with Martine Sweeney back in 1987, there has been a presence there for nearly 23 years and I would hate for the chain to be broken now. I have to say, I have the best landlord on Main Street and he has been absolutely super to work with. When I first discussed the location with him, even though he himself lives over the hill, he commented that a health food store would better serve the community than another gift shop and I guess that is what it’s really all about.

Since I don’t have all that much time, maybe two months at best, before I really need to be back in Rhode Island to help out there, if I can’t find any interested parties, I’ll be having to progressively sell off the inventory, hardware and fixtures. Unless a rabbit pops out of someone’s hat, this looks like the plan.

While many of you have been like family to me these many years, it’s my OTHER family that I am now having to address. If it weren’t for that, I’d stick it out here with all of you. You will all be greatly missed.

Thanks,
Frank Long
Oasis Natural Foods

My name is Clayton Hagy. I’m 13 and will graduate 8th grade this year. I’m currently waiting for a bone marrow match because I have biphenotypic leukemia and that’s my best chance for a cure. I wantd to encourage people to become registered through the Be the Match Program (it used to be called the National Marrow Donor Program and if you joined it under that name you’re still in the database). All it takes is a cheek swab and a little bit of paper work to get registered. 

If you’re a match for someone the most common way to harvest stem cells is by running the donors blood through a machine and then back into their body.  It’s out patient and takes about three hours.  You can find out more at www.marrow.org.  **Be the Match will be at the Half Moon Bay Farmer’s Market at Shoreline Station on Saturday June 6th from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m**. adding people to the registry.

If you can stop by, that would be great. Also, please spread the word. There’s a very big need for donors from minorities and mixed races.  Please tell everyone you know. There’s a lot of kids out there who, like me, don’t have sibling donors and need a match from the general pool.  June 8-22 there will be a nation wide Marrowthon trying to add 46,000 new people to the registry.  There will be more drives in the Bay Area as well as other parts of the country.  Thanks for helping get the word out to as many people as possible!

Widely respected in the jazz world as drummer/composer/leader of The Fellowship Band, Brian Blade  and is also known as the drummer for many heroes of the music world, including Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Wayne Shorter, Seal, Bill Frisell, and Emmylou Harris. The latest release is called "Season of Changes" was released on Verve in May 2008.
 
Brian Blade, drums; Jon Cowherd, piano; Chris Thomas, bass; Melvin Butler,  sax; Myron Walden,  sax

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
Douglas Beach House on Miramar Beach
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay
650 726-4143, www.bachddsoc.org

On Saturday June 6, The Visionary Edge will screen the 180 minute film Dreamkeeper.  Local shop-owner, Peter Welch of Arrowhead Framing, is the sponsor for the coastal screening of  this Emmy award-winning film for the community. The event will be co-hosted by and presented at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay. 

Dreamkeeper is not a film about the Native American tradition of storytelling. It is storytelling at its best. Dreamkeeper not only entertains and teaches, it serves as an important archive of stories from some of the major tribes in North America in a time when the oral tradition is in danger of dying out.   

The main character, a 100 year old grandfather, Pete Chasing Horse, is a storyteller, a keeper of the Dreams of his people. His grandson, Sean Chasing Horse, is a young man who lives only in the now. The wheel of one story turns and begins the pattern for another story. Another turn, another story, and so the wheels keep turning, and the tales keep spinning throughout the film. Yet they are all the same, one long continuous tapestry of tales that build lives, lessons, wisdoms, hopes, fears and a rich proud history. 

Saturday, June 6th. Doors will open at 6:30pm, event begins at 7:00 at the Community United Methodist Church, 777 Miramontes Street (at Johnston), HMB. The event is free to the community, however, donations are needed to cover screening expenses.  Call 650-560-0200 for information and reservations.  

With over 100 people in attendance and four teen bands, the Coast Rock Benefit for Senior Coastsiders was a wonderful way to start something new in Princeton Harbor this weekend.

Members of Hometown which includes Gabe Carhart, Ben Barsocchini, Devin Menzies and Daniel Shafir Shore came up with the idea for this first ever intergenerational event and with the generosity of American Legion Post 474, they put together a late spring afternoon to remember.

Full of music, dancing, good food and laughter, people ages from 2-82 and beyond came out to enjoy the fun. The other bands on the bill were Vent and Parasitic Twin. Opening the concert was Rob Lawrence who teaches math at the high school and sings in a rhapsodic and rockin’ way.

Thanks to everyone who made the event possible and for all the community support last Saturday, May 30.

The San Mateo County Department of Parks will host a neighborhood informational meeting on the proposed Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Interpretive Plan from 10 am to 11:30 am on June 6, followed by a public meeting from noon to 1 pm.

The public meeting will receive final comment regarding a proposed Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Interpretive Exhibit.  The proposed actions, including the Interpretive Exhibit, are based on the Conceptual Plan for Interpretation at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve [link]. 

The informational meeting will involve a walking tour to visit a number of proposed project sites including the education center, parking lot , ramp to the reef, signage, interpretive exhibit, coastal trail, Seal Cove stairway and bridge over San Vicente Creek. 

The Interpretive Exhibit will represent the low, medium and high tide zones of the Moss Beach reef using models of the typical plants and animals that visitors to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve can often observe. The model (1/20 scale of the future exhibit) will be on display in its proposed location for public comment. 

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is located at 200 Nevada Avenue, Moss Beach, CA. 

For more information, contact David Holland, Director at (650) 599-1393 or [email protected].

Pescadero artist Logan Payne will share her creative journey through mindfulness meditation during a talk Friday, June 5 at 7 pm at the Half Moon Bay Public Library, 620 Correas Street, Half Moon Bay. The event is free and open to the public.

The talk celebrates the release of Calm Ease Smile Breathe, a unique fold-out altar and meditation set conceived by Payne to complement the teachings of renowned Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Released this month by Parallax Press, Calm Ease Smile Breathe uses Payne’s artistic vision and original illustrations in a portable format to encourage mindfulness practice anywhere, any time, by anyone.

Included is a CD a recording of Thich Nhat Hanh guiding the meditation and a companion booklet explaining mindfulness practice and containing information about Thich Nhat Hanh and Logan Payne. 

The concept for a fold-out, travel altar stemmed from Logan Payne’s own mindfulness meditation practice. The background art is from her "Patina Series" of oils on paper, overlaid with brush and ink illustrations connecting, the words of Thich Nhat Hanh’s guided meditation with elements of stone, water, plants, fire and space.

Logan Payne was born in California and grew up traveling overseas, coming into contact with the culture, art, and religion of the Near, Middle, and Far East. She studied painting in Greece, print-making in Italy, and lived in Manhattan, working at a gallery for emerging artists. Returning to California, she settled on a coastal farm to pursue painting, graphic design, and illustration.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, scholar, and human rights activist. He is the author of more than one hundred books, including Being Peace, The Energy of Prayer and Present Moment, Wonderful Moment. 

Books can be purchased at the event or can be ordered directly from www.parallax.org; discounts are available for orders placed this month, and for multiple book orders.

Bookstores can order Calm Ease Smile Breathe through Publishers Group West at 1 (800) 788-3123 or [email protected].

1969 was my birth year and the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement.  The Stonewall riots took place June 28, 1969 in Greenwich Village.  In April, 1993 I was 23 years old and a photography student at the Atlanta College of Art.  That year I made a road trip to Washington, DC to take part in the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights.  My friends and I drove all night through a heavy rainstorm to make it in time for the the lesbian march, affectionately referred to as the Dyke March.  It was scheduled for the night before the main march.  This tradition continues today, a Dyke March is almost always the night before a Gay Pride March.  Thousands of women turned out from all over the southeast and east coast and took over the streets around the Capitol.  I remember running though the crowd in a pair of old combat boots and carrying a camera while women around me chanted "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Jesse Helms has got to go."

The next day a mass wedding took place at noon on the mall. The Aids Quilt covered almost every inch of grass, from the Washington Monument to the Capitol.  Chants that day included: "Act Up! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!" and "We’re here. We’re queer. We’re not going away."  It was estimated that one million LGBT people were in DC for the March on Washington.  The mood was optimistic and I believed equality might be around the next corner. 

Later that day I took the train to visit my relatives in Bowie, Maryland.  My mother’s youngest brother and his two sons met me at the train station.  Uncle Coerte is an astrophysicist at NASA.  The first question he asked was; "Why are you in town?"  Coerte never waits for an answer, he went on to say; "This is a terrible time to visit, the gays have taken over and traffic is a mess.  The special interest groups are ruining things. Why are you here now?" 

I realized the side-trip to visit my relatives was a mistake.  I should have stayed with my friends and enjoyed the festivities.  I did not visit my uncle again until the summer of 2008 while on a business trip to Annapolis.  This time I met Coerte, aunt Wendy and cousin Eric at my hotel and we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.  It was awkward at first.  I think they felt uneasy about missing my wedding the summer before.  After a round of drinks we were in good spirits and discussing the upcoming presidential election.  I was relieved that they were supporting Obama and my cousin Eric asked; "At what age did you know you were gay?"

On Tuesday, May, 26th 2009 I took the day off work to photograph San Francisco’s reaction to the California Supreme Court decision on Prop 8.  I’m still hopeful that equality is around the corner.

Sabrina Brennan
Moss Beach

The governor is proposing to cut state funding to the state park system.  The California State Parks Foundation says that this could close more than 80% of the state’s 279 parks. There are 17 state parks in San Mateo County, including Half Moon Bay and Montara State Beaches, reports the Daily Journal. Furthermore, the closure of parks on the Southcoast could have a significant effect on the economy of Half Moon Bay.

But State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, cautions that no decisions have been made yet on park closures by the Legislature.

"Just because it’s tough times doesn’t mean you have to use bad judgment," said Yee, who indicated he would continue to fight for resources for San Mateo County. ...

The park system receives about $150 million from the state’s general fund and the public could be barred from 223 of the state’s 279 parks, according to park officials. ...

County Supervisor Rich Gordon represents coastal communities where many of the state parks are slated to be closed.

"It’s unclear whether the state will stop providing staff for the parks or just padlock them," he said.

The CSPF says "state parks receive less than 1/10 of one percent of the entire state budget". The Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee will consider this proposal on Tuesday, June 2. There’s a form for sending messages to your state representatives on the State Parks Foundation site.

State Parks in San Mateo County, from Daily Journal:

Año Nuevo, natural reserve
Bean Hollow, beach
Big Basin Redwoods
Burleigh H. Murray Ranch (park property)
Butano
Castle Rock
Gray Whale Cove, beach
Half Moon Bay, beach
Montara, beach
Pacifica, beach
Pescadero, beach
Pigeon Point Light Station, historic park
Point Montara Light Station (park property)
Pomponio, beach
Portola Redwoods
San Gregorio, beach
Thornton, beach

Join the League for Coastside Protection in cleaning up Surfer’s Beach tomorrow, Saturday, May 30 from noon to 2pm.

We will provide gloves and bags. Wearing closed-toed shoes and sun block is highly recommended. High school students who volunteer will receive Community Service Credit ­ get signed off at the LCP table.

There will be free CDs from Kings of Leon and Pearl Jam and tickets to see the All American Rejects at Konocti Harbor from LIVE 105 (while supplies last), for whoever finds the most interesting piece of garbage, or, whoever reads this email and asks for one of those prizes after picking up trash!
League for Coastside Protection hoodies will be available for purchase at the LCP tent, along with answers to your questions on Coastside issues.

Sign in at the LCP table in the parking lot just south of the RV lot by the jetty. Due to limited parking, you may have to park in the dirt lot across the highway.

Thanks for your help in cleaning up our beaches. For more information, please call Dana Kimsey at 726-1309 or go to our website at http://www.lcp.sanmateo.org.

Dana M. Kimsey
Co-chair
San Mateo County League for Coastside Protection