Surfrider San Mateo County Chapter and LIVE 105 Action Team jointly host our next beach cleanup, Saturday June 20 from noon to 2pm at Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica.  Surf with us for a beachin’ beach bash after the cleanup for International Surfing Day.

Prizes include International Surfing Day (ISD) t-shirts, posters and cleanup bags, plus t-shirts, flip flops, DVDs, CDs, water bottles, surfing gear, stickers and much more courtesy Billabong, Body Glove, DVS, DaKine, Ecousable, Globe, Matix, Monster, O’Neill, Patagonia, Quicksilver, Reef, Rip Curl, Sector 9, Vans and Volcom.  Plus, tickets to the Vans Warped Tour featuring Bad Religion, NOFX, Anti-Flag & more, Sat June 27 at Piers 30/32, from LIVE 105! 

Sign in at the Surfrider table (near the bathrooms) and feel free to bring your own gloves and bags (though we’ll have some on hand too).  If the main Linda Mar parking lot is full, you may have to park on the other side of Highway One in the Pacifica Community Center lot.  Oh, and don’t forget your board if you want to surf with us into the sunset!

Thanks for cleaning up our beaches and Happy International Surfing Day!

Anneliese Agren

On Saturday June 20th, The Visionary Edge will screen the 67 minute documentary Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, directed by Adriana Barbero and Jeremy Earp. The event will be co-hosted by and presented at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay. 

Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids. 

Dr. Susan Linn, prominently featured in the film,  is the author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, as well as Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood  upon which the documentary is based.  She states "Three decades ago corporations spent $100 million marketing to children. Now? We’re at $17 BILLION." Linn, is co-founder and director of The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and a psychologist at Judge Baker Children’s Center and Harvard Medical School. 

Percussionist Pete Escovedo broke down the barriers between smooth jazz, salsa, latin jazz and contemporary music. His name has been synonymous with the music industry for more than 50 years.  In the 60s he and his brothers, Coke and Phil performed around the Bay Area as the Escovedo Brothers Latin Jazz Band.  Pete toured and performed with Carlos Santana in 1972. He and his daughter Sheila E. have recorded two albums on Fantasy records. $30
Reservations:  [email protected]

The county Board of Supervisors will be holding a hearing on the county’s update of its Local Coastal Program at 5pm today at Half Moon Bay High School.

The Coastal Commission staff returned the update to the County with about 300 pages of recommendations and background. The county will respond to the staff report at the Coastal Commission, probably at the August meeting in San Francisco.

This is an opportunity to tell the county whether you support either the county’s version of the LCP, or the Coastal Commission staff’s recommendations.

The county is holding Green Building workshops on Wednesdays June 30 and July 28 from 6 to 9pm, in the multipurpose room at El Granada Elementary School. The purpose is to discuss possible revisions to current regulations, include additional types of building, and set new standards.

The county’s Green Building Task Force and the Planning and Building Department are the sponsors.

The Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel will host a special screening of the new independent feature film "Etienne!," at 8:00 p.m. on June 19. The hostel served as a shooting location for the film, which follows a young man who takes his terminally ill hamster on the bicycle road trip of a lifetime. Writer-director Jeff Mizushima, lead actor Richard Vallejos, and producer Giacun Caduff will be in attendance at the screenings.

Mizushima’s intention for the film was to tell this "tiny" story as if it were made in a different era. No sex, violence, or drugs—just a small and personable story about the relationship between humans and their animal companions. When Richard (played by Richard Vallejos) learns that his best friend, a dwarf hamster named Etienne, must be euthanized, he decides to take him out to see the world. The pair travel up the California coast, stopping along the way at picturesque spots including the Davenport cliffs, Henry Cowell State Park, and Mount Tamalpais.

"Etienne!" also stars Megan Harvey and Caveh Zahedi, and includes an appearance and performance by L.A. indie pop band Great Northern. The film makes its world premiere at the CineVegas Film Festival on June 12, and screens at the San Francisco United Film Festival on June 18. For more information about the film, visit www.hamstermovie.com.

The Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel is operated by the Golden Gate Council of Hostelling International USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting intercultural understanding, environmental stewardship, and world peace through travel.

Free screening of "Etienne!" (The Hamster Movie)
Friday, June 19, 2009, 8:00 p.m.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel, 210 Pigeon Point Road, Pescadero, CA 94060
MORE INFO: (650) 879-0633; [email protected]
www.pigeonpointhostel.org

Imagine transforming your water-guzzling, herbicide-dependent lawn into a beautiful flowering landscape of drought-tolerant native plants with seating areas, play areas for kids and animals, and your own organic fruits and vegetables.

Please join us for these four intensive sessions on converting your lawn into a landscape of water-conserving native and/or edible plants. Registration deadline is this coming Wednesday, June 17th. 

Four Saturdays: June 20, July 11, Aug 1 and Aug 29, 9 am to 4pm

Resident $70; Non-resident $75 per class. Resident $240; Non-resident $245 for all four classes (Class code 712254.14). Spouse/Domestic Partner: Half-price if space is available. Contact Shari Deghi: 650-208-9020. Train Depot, 110 Higgins Canyon Rd, Half Moon Bay.  The classes are offered exclusively through the Half Moon Bay Parks and Recreation Department. To register, go to http://www.hmbcity.com or call 650-726-8297.

• Saturday, June 20, 9 to 4. Overview of sustainable residential landscaping. Site analysis. Design. (Class code 712254.10)
• Saturday, July 11, 9 to 4. Foundations of permaculture. Soil preparation, grading, drainage, roof catchment and other irrigation systems. (Class code 712254.11)
• Saturday, August 1, 9 to 4. Selection of drought-tolerant, wildlife-attracting and edible plants. Best practices of composting. (Class code 712254.12)
• Saturday, August 23, 9 to 4. Creating year round interest in native gardens. Sustainable practices for edible gardens. (Class code 712254.13)

A couple of weeks ago, the Sequoia Healthcare District expressed an interest in annexing the Coastside to help alleviate the crisis created by the closing of our medical clinic.

The political motivations of the move were telegraphed the headline’s reference to district president Don Horsley. Horsley is running against Coastsider April Vargas for Supervisor Rich Gordon’s seat next year.

The County Times talked to one of Horsley’s board members about the politics of the move. Jack Hickey wants to shut down the district and sell its assets, and he called Horsley’s plan "crazy".

"As far as I’m concerned (it) was a political move, since he needs name recognition out on the coast," said Hickey, noting that April Vargas, a Coastside activist, is one of the early candidates for Gordon’s seat. ...

Horsley, who lived for a time in Moss Beach, said he would be studying annexation even if he weren’t planning to run for the Board of Supervisors. ...

Though he likes the idea of annexation, Horsley said the district will look at other options. He said one solution may be to establish an urgent-care facility, which would be particularly useful on weekends, when Highway 92 is clogged with traffic.

The board will begin studying the annexation as early as next month.

There have been reports of sea kayakers and surfers who are approaching and possibly harassing, a small number of gray whales that have been feeding in nearshore waters off Pacifica for several weeks. The group of whale includes at least one calf.

Gray whales and other marine mammals are federally protected against harassment or other disruption by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

The gray whale population has been declining. They are experiencing a depletion of their normal food in their Arctic feeding grounds due to the changing ocean conditions, and are being forced to find other feeding locations along their migration route. Approximately one third of the gray whale population died during 1999-2000, many of them emaciated. Any activity that might drive them away from a newfound foraging area, or cause them to dive more frequently or deeper, seeking safety from harassment, could constitute a violation of the MMPA.

NOAA’s guidelines to avoid harassing whales, is to remain at least one hundred yards away from whales.

Anyone seeing someone approach whales or other marine mammals within 100 yards is asked to notify the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Enforcement Hotline 1-800 853-1964 and provide details of the incident.

Mary Jane Schramm
Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary

Attention Coastside Youth! Learn to sail this summer at the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club.

Our youth sailing classes for 8-16 year olds run for one week each, Mon-Fri 9-4. Classes start the week of June 22 and sessions are available through Aug 21. Our popular sailing program is taught again this year by Level 1 Certified US Sailing instructors in the protected water of Pillar Point Harbor. Sailors are grouped by ability, and beginners are welcome. We emphasize safety and fun while offering instruction and sailing technique. Over 16 and want to join us? We’ll create a session for 17-18 year olds if there is interest.

Registration forms and more information are available online at http://hmbyc.org/sailing-with-hmbyc/youth-sailing Or contact [email protected] [email protected] or 728-2120.