The Coastside Film Society presents four fabulous flicks.

Friday, May 25, 7:30 p.m.
Community United Methodist Sanctuary
777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay (corner of Johnston Street)

—Two shorts shot on the San Mateo Coastside—

Hot Stuff (6 mins)
Pacifica’s own Kayla Sanchez and Kari Biel’s short about a boy and his red pepper. The film is hilarious and won the silver prize at last year’s Coastside Teen Film Fest.

Just Another Day in Half Moon Bay (3 mins)
A video slideshow from poet/photographer Lou Solitske. This one features a selection of Lou’s beautiful local nature photographs of our coastside carefully cut to traditional music.

—Two Features from Far Away Lands—

Mine Story of a Sacred Mountain (16 minutes)
Mine tells the story of the battle between an underdog, the Dongria Kondh tribe of India, and Vedanta Resources, a huge mining corporation. As the beautiful photography in the film attests, the home territory of the Dongria Kondh is both remote and extraordinarily beautiful. Contracts were written that would allow Vedanta to strip mine the “holy” mountain tops to get at all that bauxite. When the filmmakers arrived to document this David and Goliath story, the assumption was that this Goliath was going to win. As everyone knows, that is not how this story was destined to end.

China: The Panda Adventure (48 minutes)

In 1936, a widow named Ruth Harkness arrived in China to settle the affairs of her husband Bill who died while observing a mysterious animal known as the giant panda. No surprise—everyone knew pandas were ferocious and dangerous beasts not the gentle herbivores described in Bill’s notes.  Ruth decided to follow in the footsteps of her husband and prove to the world that her husband was right. The Panda Adventure is a retelling of Ruth’s story, shot in the remote Chinese mountain terrain that pandas call home. The footage is breathtaking and the close-ups of these gentle giants in their natural habitat is heartwarming.

More info at:  www.HMBFilm.org

Memorial Day Weekend Soul/Funk/Blues & Dancing with singer, songwriter, musician Fred Ross [Vimeo video].  Fred has recorded with Aretha Franklin, members of Tower of Power, Santana, Chaka Kahn, the Commodores, and more, Toured US & Europe with Everyday People, and Fred Wesley of the James Brown Band.

His band is notorious for their tributes to favorites like Sly Stone and James Brown. We discovered him at his regular gig at the Starlight Room in SF, and this is the third year he’s come with a fantastic group of Bay Area musicians and boogied down the house.

Sunday, May 27, 2012, 4:30, $35
Douglas Beach House
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
[email protected]

Azerbaijan-born Amina Figarova is a globe-trotting, Rotterdam-based composer/pianist/bandleader with more than a dozen recordings to her credit. With her husband, Bart Platteau, Figarova arranges and plays artful and heartfelt changes on the urbane, bluesy lyricism originally developed by the likes of Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, et al. Amina made her recording debut with Attraction in 1994, and was accepted into the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Colony in Aspen, Colorado in 1998. Her CD Sketches, was described as “a beautiful mingling of her talents, fleshed out through a blend of inviting grooving and ornate runs.”  She will be performing from her new CD, Twelve, to be released in May.
 
Sunday, May 13, 2012, 4:30, $35
Douglas Beach House
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
[email protected]

Directed by esteemed educator and performer Paul Contos, the ensemble comprises 24 of the finest young Bay Area jazz musicians, selected annually by competitive audition. They have appeared at the SF Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival and at concerts in top professional jazz clubs, festivals, museums, and community arts centers throughout California. Ensemble members enjoy regular workshops, master classes and mentoring sessions with leading artists, such as members of the SFJAZZ Collective, Terence Blanchard, Yusef Lateef, and Vijay Iyer.

Sunday, April 29, 4:30, $30

Featuring alumni from the 1952 - 1978 Stan Kenton Orchestra, the Stan Kenton Alumni Band performs some of Kenton’s well known orchestra music,  plus keeping with Stan’s insistence on not just performing nostalgia type music, it also performs fresh new material written in the Kenton style, as well as original material written by members of the Band. The Alumni Band is not trying to be the “Stan Kenton Orchestra,” but is carrying on his tradition of dedication to creative music, and to jazz education.  Band leader Mike Vax has been leading bands for more than 45 years and his credits include being first trumpet, soloist, and road manager of the Stan Kenton Orchestra

Sunday, April 22, 4:30, $35
Douglas Beach House
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

Thirteen funny Friday the 13th cartoon classics that deal with bad luck, murder, trips to Hell, ghosts and other unwanted experiences.
Once again the Film Society has asked Karl Cohen, the famous animator and film historian to assemble an array of captivating shorts to show at film night in Half Moon Bay.

Friday April 13, at 7:30 pm
Suggested donation  $8.00 adults, $3.00 kids  
Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary
777 Miramontes Half Moon Bay

More info at : www.HMBFilm.org

The night starts with a couple of early black and white cartoons from the 1920s. In “The Pet”, animation pioneer Windsor McCay envisions a nightmare featuring a mystery pet who keeps eating and growing until it threatens the whole city. Our three Fleisher Brothers shorts push against the boundary of reality as Betty Boop (depicted as a dog this early in her career), her partner Bimbo and her sidekick Koko the clown each star in ridiculous musical nightmares.   

Recognized as a master flute and vibraphone player, who also plays sax, clarinet, oboe, and many Latin hand percussion instruments. Roger Glenn was born into jazz royalty—son of the late Tyree Glenn, who was one of 57 notable jazz musicians photographed in the 1958 portrait A Great Day in Harlem by Art Kane and who played trombone and vibraphone with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Still playing on his father’s vibes which recorded What a Wonderful World with Louis Armstrong, Roger has performed and recorded all over the world with such icons as Mary Lou Williams, Mongo Santamaria, Donald Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader (Roger’s flute playing is featured on the Grammy Award-winning album La Onda Va Bien), Rosemary Clooney, Herbie Mann, Peaches and Herb, Bobby Hutcherson.

Today, he works with many different musicians, including Steve Miller, John Handy, Ray Obiedo, Jamie Davis, James Carter, Poncho Sanchez, Lavay Smith and Pete Escovedo. In addition, Roger is one-fourth of The San Francisco Jazz Quartet with a release of their first CD Ode to Swing.

Roger will be featuring all original compositions from his soon to be released Latin Jazz CD titled In The Moment. This multi-instrumentalist can enthusiastically entertain and inspire an audience with every note he plays.

To hear a sample of the music, visit http://www.myspace.com/rogerglenn.

Sunday, April 15, 4:30, $35
Douglas Beach House
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
[email protected]

The following is from the Harbor Commission web site.

Harbor Commissioner Sally Campbell, a fixture on the San Mateo County Board of Harbor Commissioners since her election in November 1992, passed away on Saturday afternoon, April 7, 2012 at Seton Coastside Medical Center.  Commissioner Campbell was undergoing physical therapy during recovery from knee surgery when she suffered cardiac arrest and could not be revived.

Commissioner Campbell, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, moved to Coastside in October 1973. She was first in marketing for book manufacturing for 25 years, and then had an active career in real estate. She became an active and outspoken citizen who served on the Midcoast Community Council for six years, followed by her nineteen year tenure as Harbor Commissioner.

While on the Harbor Commission, she served as president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary for several terms. Among her chief concerns were support for commercial fishermen, development and improvement of harbor facilities including a boat haul-out, finding ways to attract more people to the District’s two harbors, and fiscal economy.

“Commissioner Campbell loved the harbors, especially Pillar Point, and she will be missed by the Harbor District,” said Commission President James Tucker.

Commissioner Campbell was 68 years old. She is succeeded by her son, Greg, and two grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Peter Grenell
General Manager
San Mateo County Harbor District

San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services reports a water outage in northwest Montara.  Montara Water and Sanitary District crews are correcting the problem. The apparent cause was a water main breached accidentally by a local contractor.

The area affected is roughly north of Third Street and west of Farallone Avenue to Highway 1.  About 35 to 50 customers are affected.  MWSD estimates the restoration of water service in four to six hours.