Most kids dread the sight of a yellow bus. But for Akash Patel and Ian Torbett, high school juniors at Carlsbad’s Pacific Ridge School, one such transport stranded in a remote Mexican fishing village is a vehicle of promise.

Last April, in search of a education-related service project, Patel contacted family friend Richard Kiy, president of International Community Foundation (ICF), a National City-based organization that promotes philanthropy across the border.

Kiy pointed Patel toward a rusty, broken-down bus, abandoned near a schoolyard in Ejido Luis Echeverría Alvarez, a community on the shore of San Ignacio Lagoon, located about halfway between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The vehicle’s backstory fascinated and touched the Patel.

Until several years ago, the village’s youth—to continue their education beyond middle school—rode the bus two hours to a high school in the nearest main town. When the vehicle broke down, there were no funds to repair it.

Learning this, Patel and schoolmate Torbett hit on an idea that would both utilize the stuck bus and deliver needed education to the village’s heart: convert the old chassis into a gleaming new library and community center. Calling the endeavor “Project Bus,” they reached out to San Diego’s NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) for ideas.

NSAD adjunct faculty member Carlos Graizbord and a student architect group led by Leslie Ryan, chair of NSAD’s Landscape Architecture Program, responded enthusiastically—creating practical yet environmentally compatible concepts for the bus. With the village’s exposure to coastal winds and 100-plus-degree temperatures, designs included a sturdy shade structure to protect the vehicle and its library stock as well as their users.

Solar panels atop the sail-like A-frame roof would provide the center with sustainable electricity, while pathways paved with native shells and landscaping comprised of indigenous plants would integrate the facility into its natural setting.

Patel notes that the final design selection rests with the village. “We need the community’s input,” he says. “It’s their project, first and foremost.”

Patel and Torbett also need funding to realize their vision. So far, using ICF’s website, they’ve raised about a third of the roughly $30,000 it will take to convert the bus.

“It’s been rewarding,” says Patel. “Even if I have to sacrifice socializing with my friends, it’s worth it.”

German photographer Stefanie Schneider pursued the American Dream through 1970s road movies and Golden State roadmaps—finally gathering her camera, a bag of expired Polaroid film and some daring Los Angeles friends to seek splendid desolation in Southern California’s high desert. The resulting series of washed-out, offbeat images, 29 Palms, CA, forms the basis of her show “Stranger than Paradise,” opening January 14 at Scott White Contemporary Art in La Jolla. “I’ve always had an affinity for wide-open, slightly decaying spaces,” says Schneider, whose most striking frames set orange-wigged actress Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill, The Crazies) adrift in an arid blandscape. “There’s so much space in the desert for people to lose or possibly fulfill their dreams, and there’s nobody to watch or judge.”

scottwhiteart.com

The psychological and physiological influence of light energizes “Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface,” exhibiting at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego through January 22. Some pieces (such as Doug Wheeler’s 1965 Untitled, pictured here) use artificial illumination to play with perception, while others emphasize the illusive quality of natural light as they transform with the time of day. Several works invite close-up, even step-inside examination of the differences between transparency and translucence, as well as opaqueness and reflectivity—momentarily turning visitors into prism inmates. Says curator Robin Clark: “You have to put your body in the space to experience it.”

mcasd.org

Given the closeness surfers enjoy with the sea, it’s unfortunate their boards are made from water-poisoning petroleum-based materials. “Big surfboard companies are scared to deviate from what they’re doing because they’re focused on the bottom line,” says La Jolla native Pierce Michael Kavanagh, who explores the problem in his documentary Manufacturing Stoke. Rather than condemn the $7.2 billion industry, the film (which began touring last spring and is screening at festivals in Hawaii and Australia in January) follows several California board-shapers who’ve begun to work with sustainable materials. “We’re at the beginning of a renaissance,” Kavanagh says. “Changes are coming from the little guys—the ground floor up.”

thesurfnetwork.com

By Larry Jameson
Photos by Brevin Blach

Putting the motion in “promotion” is all in a day’s work for the staff of Femme Fatale—50 San Diego women who provide rent-ertainment: for-hire dancing (go-go, choreographed and otherwise), modeling and acting services.

Who would hire women to dance well in sexy outfits? Lotsa folks, it turns out.

“My brand ambassadors work at Hard Rock, Stingaree and Bar West, and I provide models and dancers for Dreamcatcher at Viejas Casino and a lot of conventions,” says Alexa Torres, the former (and still) go-go girl at the helm of Femme Fatale. “We also do photo shoots for liquor companies, anniversary parties for big law firms…we’ve even done weddings.”

Torres, a San Diego native, says her three-year-old business is thriving because her performers offer more than just a pretty face (and being able to pull off a naughty Santa getup).

“Professional representation of not just my company, but of my clients, is paramount,” she says. “I hire based on one’s ability to stay in healthy, athletic shape, maintain a friendly attitude and uphold high personal standards.”

How does Mom feel about it?

“She networks for me, gives out my card and promotes my site everywhere she goes,” Torres says. “She’s my best friend—and she is so proud.”

femmefatalesd.com

Explain why your business should be featured in an upcoming episode of Workin’ It by sending and e-mail to workinit@pacificsandiego.com

Photo Courtesy of Laura Rovick

Biking is great exercise, but the face-forward focus and (for most of us) huffing and puffing it requires puts the brakes on casual convo.

For a new spin on riding, check out Social Cycle (socialcyclesd.com), a touring party bicycle with bar-style seating for up to 16. The earth-friendly open vehicle is powered entirely by its riders and piloted by a pro “captain.”

For owner Laura Rovick, becoming a spokes-person was a no-brainer after she saw the bikes cruising around Minneapolis, her hometown.

“I knew I wanted to bring them to San Diego,” Rovick says.

Last summer, she did—ordering two of the vehicles, which are fashioned from car, motorcycle and bicycle parts, from the manufacturer in Amsterdam.

Social Cycle passengers must be 21 and can bring food and non-alcoholic beverages onboard, as well as choose where they’d like to go. (Flat or mildly inclined routes work best.).

Soon, Rovick hopes to secure permits for BYOB alcohol. If that happens, Social Cycle captains may double as designated drivers.

Love Conquers Awe

Thumbprint Gallery’s “Tangerines and Monster Dreams” showcases the solo and collaborative works of artists Michael “Monstrinho” (“Little Monster”) and Gloria Muriel—artists who share friendship and technique as well as a-peel. Vibrant colors, fantastical figures and enigmatic natural elements thoroughly populate their work.

Monstrinho, a San Diego resident, is a spray paint-and-acrylics man whose comic book-filled childhood gave way to a fascination with skateboarding, early-’90s hip-hop and graffiti art. He has further tamed his already benevolent, albeit wall-sized, exterior creature visions down to canvas and board for this show.

Reinforcing Monstrinho’s running theme of love, the Salvador Dali-influenced, primarily acrylic paintings of Mexico native Muriel combine pop surrealism and anthropomorphized nature while incorporating feminine characters with big eyes and soft settings.

Nov. 12 – Dec. 4
Thumbprint Gallery
290 Kline St. #104, La Jolla
thumbprintgallerysd.com

Saved by the Bell

Rekindle the pride you felt when Mom hung your art on the fridge by skipping off to “Homeroom” at Subtext gallery. Inspired by those artistic glory days of eating paste and sprinkling glitter on your drawings to make them “pretty,” more than 20 artists are displaying works in everything from crayon and chalk to finger paint—all springing from childhood freedom, innocence and blissful ignorance. Just be there in time for roll call.

Nov 11 – Dec. 11
Subtext
2479 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy
subtextgallery.com

Peculiar Charms

It’s almost as if the dainty, sometimes darkly twisted paintings of Marianela de la Hoz and the intricate metal craftsmanship of Tasha Rae made sweet love one day, giving birth to a delicate melding of jewelry. De la Hoz’s mysterious characters are framed in Rae’s angular shapes and miniscule swirls, forcing the artists’ respective aesthetics to interact in both intimate and inscrutable ways. On display at Noel-Baza Fine Art, the collection includes earrings, necklaces and lockets.

Nov. 11 – Dec. 10
Noel-Baza Fine Art
2156 India St., Little Italy
noel-bazafineart.com

Rock Around the Blok

The San Diego Museum of Art’s “Art in Context: Mexican Art Mural by Writerz Blok” shows the youth urban art group in dynamic action. Inspired by the museum’s special exhibition, “Mexican Modern Painting from the Andrés Blaisten Collection,” the program’s four mural and graffiti artists—all from East County—will spend two weeks brushing and spraying color onto a sprawling cement canvas in the Sculpture Court. Watch them work their magic each night.

Nov. 1 – 16
San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park
sdmart.org

Your worst nightmare is waiting for you at the Haunted Trial

By Amanda Daniels

Haunted Trail
Blood Money: $15-$32
Try to survive the bloodthirsty serial killers lurking behind the trees along this terrorizing, mile-long outdoor course, then fight for your life in “The eXperiment,” a maze where making a wrong turn can trap you for eternity among the terrifying freaks that come out at night.
6th Ave. and Juniper St., Balboa Park
hauntedtrail.net

Ghost hunting at the Whaley House
Blood money: $50
Maritza (who uses only her first name) is co-founder of the San Diego Ghost Hunters, “an intimate team of paranormal investigators that specializes in assisting historical landmarks’ owners discover or confirm occupants and events that have passed from our mortal plane but still exist in spirit form,” according to the firm’s website.

From 10:30 p.m. until midnight on October 21, 22 and 26, Maritza and her spirit-chasing team of volunteers invite fearless members of the public to join them for some good, old-fashioned ghost hunting at San Diego’s historic Whaley House, once the site of public hangings.

Bring cameras, smartphones and voice recorders—and maybe a change of shorts in case you find a real ghost.

“They stare straight back at you, if you catch them in the mirror,” Maritza says (perhaps wondering why the ghosts often look just like her).

2476 San Diego Ave., Old Town
619.297.7511, whaleyhouse.org, sandiegoghosthunters.com

The Headless Horsemen patrols the haunted hayride at Scream Zone Del Mar. (Photo by Fred Greaves)

Scream Zone Del Mar Blood money: $14.99 (single haunt); $18.99 (double haunt); $27.99 (three-way)
Haunted since 1998, Scream Zone offers a three-pronged axis of terror, curdling blood with a Haunted Hayride, the House of Horror and a spinning tunnel called The Chamber.
Del Mar Fairgrounds, thescreamzone.com

The Haunted Hotel
Blood money: $15-$27
What ghost up must come down the Haunted Hotel’s Hellevator to a basement of unspeakable horrors inspired by the movies Legion, Shutter Island and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Zombie attacks and deadly virus outbreaks included.
424 Market St., Gaslamp
hauntedhotel.com

Haunted San Diego Ghost Tours
Blood money: $35
Visit San Diego’s creepiest haunts on a two-hour storytelling tour through the Gaslamp, Sherman Heights and Old Town. The walking/bus misadventure forces ticket-buying victims to join the walking dead at a haunted graveyard and some of the city’s oldest, most ghost-infested buildings.
Departs from Best Western Plus Hacienda Hotel, 4041 Harney St., Old Town
hauntedsandiegotours.com

The darkly seductive art of John De Jesus

Sexy Dead Women
We’re not talking necrophilia, just some Day of the Dead awesomeness. New Mexican artist John De Jesus shows his appreciation for the holiday and its culture through his woodcarvings of curvaceous skeletal ladies. His vibrantly painted wooden vignettes will be on display October 15 through November 15 at Alexandar Salazar Fine Art.
640 Broadway, downtown
alexandarsalazarfineart.com

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Mariachi bands, ballet folklorico dancers and the Siempre Car Club—showcasing traditional altars in the trunks of their lowriders—transform O’side’s Mission San Luis Rey into a death zone, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 30.
4050 Mission Ave., Oceanside
mslrdiadelosmuertos.com

—Patricia B. Dwyer

The Haunted Hotel

91X DJ Robin Roth

You might not want to tell darkly dolled-up 91X DJ Robin Roth that “black” is not a color. If you do, “You might get smacked,” quoth the Robin.

In her 20-plus years as a San Diego radio and club DJ, modern rock’s raven-haired first lady has facilitated on-air marriage proposals, given away a bat-swarm of concert tickets and chatted up everyone from Goth icon and Bauhaus frontman, Peter Murphy, to the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corrigan and Robert Smith of The Cure.

In 1994, a former La Jolla security guard named Eddie Vedder (yep, that one) employed Roth in his battle against what he viewed as exorbitant service charges being tacked onto Pearl Jam’s concert tickets.

Vedder dialed up Roth on the request line to garner public support for his crusade against Ticketmaster.

“I was like, ‘Why are you calling on the request line?’” Roth says. “He said, ‘Because I remember the number. I listened to 91X for so long, it’s stuck in my brain.’”

Once, when preparing to interview a ravenous Kim Deal (Breeders, Pixies), Roth suggested that Deal make an on-air plea for food.

“Within 30 minutes we had, like, 300 bean burritos outside,” Roth says. “We started getting calls: ‘We brought you a bean burrito, check the door.’”

Roth began her career in 1982 at KSDT, UCSD’s campus station, eventually landing a job at what is Magic 92.5 FM today.

In 1986, she saw an ad in the paper that said 91X was hiring.

“I was like, ‘Are you freakin’ kidding me? Hell, yeah, I am going to apply,’” Roth says, sheepishly adding, “and here I am.”

Roth spent more than 18 years on-air at 91X before being let go in 2005, when she was told the station was moving in a “different direction.”

Five years and one job later, 91X, with new management at the helm, asked Roth to return. This month marks her first full year back behind the mic.

“I think they were looking for what I represented—familiarity, heritage, longevity,” Roth says.

Roth can be heard on 91X, weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For information about her club gigs—including the Club Pussy Galore at the Whistle Stop—visit djrobinroth.blogspot.com.

Robin Roth
AGE: “On my fourth life and going strong.”
’HOOD: Rancho Peñasquitos
EATS: Urban Solace, Café Chloe, Hash House a Go Go, West Coast Tavern
HAUNTS: Kava Lounge, The Flame (for Sabbat), Voyeur and U-31
FAVE HORROR FILMS: The Shining, Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, The Hunger and The Crow. “And yes, I have the Buffy and Angel box sets.”

Black List
Robin Roth’s favorite spooky spins
Ministry: Everyday is Halloween
Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Danny Elfman: This is Halloween
The Damned: Grimly Fiendish
The Cramps: I Was a Teenage Werewolf
Joy Division: Dead Souls
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Time Warp

By David Moye

While Halloween is this month’s big shindig for Earthlings, other extraterrestrial life forms will be celebrating the Interplanetary Conclave of Light, a two-day event held around the universe on as-yet undiscovered planets like Vixall, Deva and Myton.

Oh, and also here in El Cajon.

Earth’s version of the occurrence, observed by East County’s space alien-loving Unarians, supposedly denotes this planet’s induction into the Interplanetary Conclave, a sort of United Nations of the cosmos.

The event, to be held  October 15 and 16 at the Unarius Academy of Science (the Unarians’ cosmic compound) includes trumpeters (or “choraleers”) in Mad Men-era space uniforms, a dove release, a “parade of planets” and the kind of celestially-attuned peeps your grandma’s hairdresser would have on speed dial.

Depending on your beliefs, the Unarius Academy in El Cajon could be the epicenter of human-E.T. contact, or just a storefront filled with DayGlo spaceship paintings, plastic Venus de Milo’s and Astroturf carpet.
The group was most active in the 1970s and ’80s when one of its cofounders, Dr. Ruth Norman (think river boat queen loses fight with crate of magic markers) made a splash on national TV, spouting the benefits of past-life role-playing.

Norman died—oops—“transitioned” in 1994, yet the Unarians trudge along, still waiting for the arrival of 33 spaceships in Jamul, east of El Cajon.

Previous Conclaves have been held in Balboa Park.

“We won’t get as many tourists,” Unarius spokeswoman Tracey Kennedy laments.

The Unarius trumpeters appear at functions throughout the year to add fanfare and pizzazz to proceedings.

Interplanetary Conclave of Light
WHEN: Oct. 15-16 (Oct. 15 open house, 1 to 5 p.m. includes parade, dove release and performance by the Unarius Choraleers)
WHERE: 145 S. Magnolia, El Cajon
WHY: Hard to say for sure
INFO: unarius.org

Eve Featherstone (Courtesy Eve Featherstone)

Birds of a Feather
Other locals that enjoy being alienated

The Unarius are the region’s longest-surviving UFO-subscribing group—but they are not alone.

La Jolla resident Nadine Gary is a priestess in the Raelian Movement, an atheistic religion that believes life on Earth was created scientifically, thanks to DNA synthesis and genetic engineering by an advanced Extra Terrestrial human civilization called the “Elohim,” a Hebrew word used in the Bible that some believe means, “Those who came from the sky.”

“The Elohim would like us to understand that they are not gods, just human beings from space,” Gary says. “They would like us to comprehend that there is no god in the infinity of the universe.”

These days, much of Gary’s time is spent working on an offshoot group, gotopless.org, which is trying to overturn laws that prevent women from going topless on the beach (because, if women’s bodies were created by space geniuses, then covering them up would be an affront to their work).

La Jolla-based artist Eve Featherstone says she’s been channeling E.T.s for the past two years, including a reptilian alien who also communicates with Lady Gaga.

“I had to get rid of him,” she says. “Too intense.”

In the process of chanelling aliens’ messages into her art, Featherstone says she’s learned plenty.

“I learned that my breasts are a portal of universal unconditional love and should be available to whoever, whenever,” she says.
rael.org