The Seniors Craft Shoppe at 429 E. Main St. is seeking new members.
Do you have a craft or artistic flair?
Do you want a place to sell your arts and crafts?
Are you 50 years or older and live in Ventura County?
Stop by the shop to become a member or to buy some wonderful art and gifts.
Call (805) 643-3059 for more information.
The Channel Cities Jazz Club presents for your dancing and listening pleasure the Groovin Easy Swing Band at the Golden China Restaurant, 760 S. Seaward. The third Sunday of every month starting on July 21, from 1-4:30. All are welcome.
Members $10, Non-members $15. Great dance floor. No host bar.
Food and drinks available. Ample free parking. Qualified musicians welcome for open jam sessions before the featured band. www.channelcitiesjazzclub.com.
The Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura applied for and secured $8,370,651, the largest California award from the National Housing Trust Fund, for construction of the Willett Ranch senior affordable housing development.
The Willett Ranch community will make 50 new construction homes available to income-eligible senior households (ages 62+), including 15 homes for formerly homeless seniors. The development, located in the Solana Heights area of Ventura, is designed to GreenPoint-rated standards with regard to energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality and environmentally preferable materials. The community will consist of 46 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units, a community room, a reading or craft room, a common laundry room and office space and landscaped courtyards where seniors can enjoy the outdoors or visit with family.
At the newly constructed development, low-income seniors will pay no more than 30 percent of their income towards rent. Construction is expected to be completed by March 2021. Seniors at the new community will access a wide variety of services provided by the HACSB Community Services Department and by way of the HACSB partnership with the Area Agency on Aging.
The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) assists in the new construction of permanent housing for extremely low-income households. The Project was awarded under the first Notice of Funding Availability issued in 2018. All NHTF projects must maintain affordability for a period of 55 years.
“We are thrilled to receive this generous National Housing Trust Fund award that enables the Housing Authority to help address the growing need for safe, accessible and affordable housing for our low-income seniors,” said Denise Wise, HACSB Chief Executive Officer.
The Housing Authority of the City Of San Buenaventura (HACSB) is the largest residential landlord in the City of Ventura, currently managing 295 public housing units, 705 nonprofit affordable rental units, and more than 1,500 Section 8 vouchers. The agency is actively working to increase the supply of affordable housing and to improve the quality of life for hundreds more of the low-income residents of the City of Ventura.http://www.hacityventura.org/.
Photos by Bernie Goldstein
To help celebrate 20-years of business Danny’s Deli & Grill commissioned award-winning local artist, MB Hanrahan to paint a beautiful mural on the exterior wall of the restaurant. After 8 days, M.B. Hanrahan’s friend, Jerry, helped finish the mural which, at 85 feet long is the longest in the city of Ventura.
Danny’s Deli & Grill, 3263 Telegraph Road, (805) 289-9200.
CAPS Media’s is continuing to expand production services with the City of Ventura to share information about what’s happening in the community and at City Hall. Working in collaboration with Ashley Bautista, Interim Communications Manager for the City, CAPS crews recorded informative messages for the public with Ventura Police and California State Parks Lifeguards relaying 4th of July regulations and beach safety. At another location CAPS crews interviewed Meredith Hart, the City’s Safe and Clean program manager, who explained the city’s various outreach and clean up programs. The videos appear on the City website, various social media platforms and air and stream on CAPS Media Channel 15.
Echoing the expanding collaboration with the city, CAPS Media welcomes the newest members of the City management team: Akbar Alikhan, Assistant City Manager, Peter Gilli, Community Development Director, Barry Fisher, Deputy City Manager, Michael Coon, Finance & Technology Director, Phillip Nelson, Public Works Director, and Susan Rungren, Ventura Water General Manager.
Recently CAPS recorded Ventura Education Partnership’s Launch program recognizing outstanding and innovative educators in our community. CAPS Media crew members were also on hand to record the Ventura Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook Breakfast at the Ventura Beach Marriott. In addition, CAPS Media continues to record local community council meetings throughout the city. All air on CAPS Media Channel 6 and stream on capsmedia.org.
The CAPS Media board of directors has openings for a couple of new board members. In the next few weeks CAPS Media Member/Producers will elect members to fill positions for board members who have moved out of the community or whose terms of office have expired. This is a great opportunity to get involved in the continuing development and future of CAPS Media. All CAPS community members are eligible to join the board of directors. Any CAPS member interested in joining the board needs to complete and submit a statement of interest/nomination form which is available at the CAPS Media Center. Forms are due by August 1st with appointment of Board members at the Annual meeting in October.
Let us show you what’s inside the CAPS Media Center located at 65 Day Road on the Ventura College campus, directly across the street from Foothill high school. Everyone is welcome to drop by and tour the center. Tours can be arranged for any community group including nonprofit, faith based organizations, youth groups, service clubs and more. In addition, the CAPS Media Center conference room, which accommodates up to 30 people, is available to nonprofit and educational groups for community meetings. Schedule a tour or reserve the conference room for a meeting at the CAPS Media Center. Contact CAPS at [email protected] or call 805-658-0500.
The extensive resources and training classes at the CAPS Media Center are available to anyone who lives, works or attends school in Ventura. Membership and privileges are also available to members of nonprofit organizations within Ventura County. To find out more go to capsmedia.org/events, sign up for the next orientation class on the first Thursday of the month and discover that for a low annual membership fee members can receive hands-on instruction in videography, video editing, radio production (additional fee required) and more. Go to capsmedia.org, or you can call 805-658-0500 to get complete information.
Michael Diaz, Natalia Moreno, Everardo Moreno, Virginia Ruiz and JuanCarlos Gonzalez-Hernandez are now high school graduates. Photo by Bernie Goldstein
Family, friends, and the community attended as graduates from Ventura County Library’s Career Online High School received their diplomas. During the graduation ceremony, held on Wednesday, June 26, in the Topping Room of the E.P. Foster Library, graduates in cap and gown shared their stories and their plans for the future.
Career Online High School (COHS) is offered by the Ventura County Library’s READ Adult Literacy Program in partnership with Gale, a Cengage company. COHS provides adults the opportunity to earn an accredited high school diploma and career certificate by utilizing the flexibility of the Internet to accommodate busy adult schedules, at no cost to students.
Career Online High School is one of several programs offered through the Ventura County Library READ Adult Literacy Program, and is an ongoing program accepting signups throughout the year. To learn more about the READ Adult Literacy programs and ways you can help, call (805) 677-7160.
On June 26, “Salute Our Veterans” celebration was held at Cypress Place Senior Living. Cypress living held their 11th annual celebration of Veterans with a ceremony recognizing residents of Cypress Place, as well as members of the public, who served their country.
Leading the tribute was a bagpipe processional and a military Color Guard presentation followed by a special Veteran recognition, along with recognition of widows and widowers of Veterans.
by Richard Newsham
Ranky Tanky—which means “get funky” in Gullah—will bring their Jazzy pollination of Gospel, Folk, R&B and Afrobeat music from the Carolina Coast to the Ventura College Performing Arts Center on Saturday, July 20, at 8 pm for the final weekend of the 25th anniversary of the Ventura Music Festival.
Hailed for their authentic “take me to church” “mainline Soul,” the dynamic quintet from Charleston performs in Ventura one week after appearing in New York City’s Central Park SummerStage and releasing of their second album Good Time and streaming EP Stand By Me.
Led by powerhouse vocalist and American Idol alum Quiana Parler, Ranky Tanky’s self-titled debut album soared to the top of the Billboard, iTunes and Amazon Jazz Charts within a month of release after NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross profiled the band in 2017.
Last summer Ranky Tanky took the Skirball Center’s Sunset Concerts by storm and The Today Show recently featured the band with their high-spirited arrangements of music passed down by generations of West African slave descendants from the Georgia and South Carolina coast.
Nobody can “do Gullah”—raise up a song—like this band, with their faithful, buoyant, heartbreaking and healing songs by their “We want freedom” Gullah ancestors, says the glowing press that is following their current nonstop tour of the U.S. and Europe.
As “ambassadors for a whole resilient culture” of praise, rebellion, joy and tragedy, they are “spreading the gospel of Gullah”—a fresh Southern sound that “makes the past new all over again.”
Don’t miss the Ranky Tanky experience that is sweeping the nation!
Richard Newsham is a Ventura Music Festival consultant.
Movie Review by Cindy Summers
Phoenix, Oregon
1 palm trees out of 4
Phoenix, Oregon is the story of a middle aged man whose life is going nowhere when his longtime friend hatches a plan for them to relive some of their younger glory days by reopening the bowling alley they both grew up going to and reinventing it as the best pizza ever made with micro brews and fine wines. Directed and Written by Gary Lundgren and Starring James Le Gross as Bobby the bowling star, Jesse Borrego as Carlos, his best friend and pizza perfectionist and Lisa Edelstein as Tanya, Bobby’s unrequited love interest.
Phoenix, Oregon is set in the actual small town of Phoenix, Oregon, where Bobby works as a bar tender under an oppressive boss that steals his tips and belittles his endeavors. In his younger days he was a legend having bowled a perfect 300 game, but those days of glory were long in Bobby’s past and life offered little to him other than disappointment.
Bobby’s best friend Carlos is a chef, but also unhappy in his situation, so Carlos comes up with a plan for the two to buy the dilapidated bowling alley they basically lived in as kids and make is a prime bowling center with gourmet pizza and fine libations. Tanya enters the picture as a representative for one of the business investors and stirs up some emotional feelings from the past for Bobby.
Bobby and Carlos end up over their heads in a dirty business deal and though they end up losing what they were trying to build, some good things come from their efforts, especially between Bobby and Tanya. This story line is simple and there are really no high or lows, the audience just basically plods along through the simple lives of some simple people in a small town, though does manage to highlight the importance of friendship and to never give up on the things you love and do well.
In this case was cartooning for Bobby, which he did as a hobby to provide a different perspective on him humdrum world, and which in the end he actually decided to pursue as a new direction in his dreary life. Jesse Le Gross does well in portraying this aspect of his character, though the other dreary side drags viewers slowly though the story.
Jesse Borrego was cast well as the best friend Carlos and showed passion and enthusiasm both for premium pizza and his longtime friendship with Bobby. Carlos was really the only joyful character in the movie, though Bobby was able to find his happiness again at the grand opening bowling tournament.
This movie falls flat in providing any real substance, and tends to drag on with trivial issues, though does have a few moments of good feeling entertainment.
Rated R – 108m
Adoptable Francois has patiently awaited his forever home since arriving at Ventura County Animal Services last November. Francois is a handsome Angora rabbit who requires daily brushing and an extra serving of good quality pellets to maintain his lengthy locks. Like many shelter rabbits, sweet Francois is a white bunny with ruby eyes. To meet Francois and learn why summer is an especially challenging time for homeless rabbits, please visit VCAS at 600 Aviation Drive in Camarillo and ask for ID #A699804. For details about adoption hours, offsite events, rabbit supplies, bunny nail trims, and compatibility dates, visit facebook.com/VCASBunnyBrigade.
Hi: I’m Trevor quite the handsome 12-year-old Chow / German Shepherd X rescued from an LA Shelter. I’m an older dog who is a bit hard of hearing and I have arthritic back legs so I’d probably do best in a quiet adult only home or a home with respectful older children.
I’m currently in a foster home and my foster mom says I’ve been a seamless addition to their home. I co-exist with their dog Bandit. I am more interested in people than in dogs. I also like their children (9 and 12 years old) a lot. I mostly just hang out. I am very easy going and like to go on short, leisurely walks. I would make a great addition to a family looking for an easy-going dog. I have great foster home, but what I really want is a forever home. If I sound like the guy for you, stop by and meet me. Canine Adoption and Rescue League C.A.R.L. CARL Adoption Center-call 644-7387 for more information.
