Walter Viszolay’s Sawdust Festival mural evokes history

The fine mural which Walter Viszolay is completing on the fence at The Sawdust Festival facing the frontage road is straightforward narrative graphic in style that is surely not motivated by the wish to tell History, but it inadvertently does so anyway. At the far right end of the mural, Walter has included the iconic faux Medieval tower rising up the cliff from the rocks at Victoria Beach. Just to the left of the image of the tower, rendered as in the far distance, Walter has put in the two-story Mediterranean-style mansion which hangs from the cliff at #1 Rockledge. This building is a relic of the highest intellectual culture ever to grace Laguna Beach.

In 1937 an odd quartet of ex-patriot Brit pacifists trying to avoid the rise of Hitler arrived in America. They were the novelist Aldous Huxley, the poet Christopher Isherwood, the savant Gerald Heard, and Chris Wood, the rich Englishman who was footing the bills. They arrived in Hollywood to be lionized by swamis and moguls. Chris Wood decided that he liked Laguna Beach, and built the house at #1 Rockledge. His traveling companions, plus other literati and illuminati of the Southern California Scene, became his regular guests.

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Photo by Mary Hurlbut

New mural by Walter Viszolay provides historical backdrop

Aldous Huxley, being who he was, soon developed a friendship with Swami Prabhavananda, the guru of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Temple in Hollywood. Swami Prabhavananda wanted to build a monastic retreat in Southern California. It came to pass that Chris Wood bought a property in Trabuco* Canyon on the Pacific side of Saddleback Mountain, and then financed the buildings there of the Ramakrishna Monastery, the first abbot of which was Gerald Heard. Christopher Isherwood formally became a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda, while Aldous Huxley, as usual, retained his independence, and just tried to understand everything. Huxley’s closest intellectual friends at the time were Edwin Hubble and J. Krishnamurti.

In 1960 I had the opportunity to visit at #1 Rockledge, which I could see was a beautiful house, but the history of which was unknown to me. I was there to see my friend, David Renacker, who was just then painting a mural in Newport Beach on the wall of a coffee house, that last expression of so-called Beat culture. The coffee house was called “The Prison of Socrates”, and David Renacker’s mural featured Socrates about to drink the hemlock, surrounded by his distraught disciples. In my opinion, David Renacker’s mural was a bit less draftsmanly than the painting on the same theme by Jacques Louis David, but more dramatic. In Laguna Beach at that time there was a smaller coffee house called “The Cafe Frankenstein”, where Bette Davis and Gary Merrill failed to be impressed by the jazz comic, Lord Buckley.

(“Trabuco’ is the Spanish word for blunderbuss. A luckless Spanish soldier with the Ortega party lost his trabuco someplace in the canyon the now bears the name. We can only imagine what the consequences of losing his gun may have been for the wretched soldier. In the first half of the 20th Century the lost blunderbuss was found, and you can go see it in the Santa Ana Bowers Museum…after you have checked out the mural by Walter Viszolay at the Sawdust Festival.)

Dion Wright

Laguna Beach

Obituary

John Christian Watson

February 28, 1972 – July 29, 2018

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The world dimmed, and the stars became much brighter as John Christian Watson passed away in Laguna Beach, California, on July 29, 2018.

Born outside of Rochester, New York, John called many places home throughout his 46 years – raised in Southern California, he moved to Austin, Texas after graduating from Irvine High School, and then all the way to Costa Rica where he embraced the “pura vida,” a way of life that he naturally embodied. His next adventure was Vail, Colorado where he became a true mountain man and turned his love of surfing and the ocean into snowboarding and conquering the peaks. John eventually settled in Laguna Beach and quickly became everyone’s favorite bartender, capturing the hearts of all who met him with his infectious smile and ocean blue eyes.

His little beach cottage on Cress Street was a familiar place to all in Laguna Beach, locals and visitors alike. John’s home was a place of joy where strangers became friends, and gathered to laugh, dance, sing, and indulge in spontaneous drum circles where he proved that you do not need to be a professionally trained percussionist to shred on the bongos. A gathering at “Club Watson” wasn’t complete without having cocktails and a wonderful culinary creation he would whip up on the spur of the moment, while sharing legendary tales of his many adventures around the world.  His passions included surfing, swimming in the ocean, snowboarding, soccer, Angels baseball, exploring backroads in one of his many VW camper buses and following the Grateful Dead across the country.

Witty, spirited, kind, playful, unapologetically direct and devastatingly handsome (fact, not opinion), John was impossible not to love. Fiercely loyal, he relished every opportunity to help a friend, setting a new gold standard for “ride or die”. His soul radiated love and compassion, he was happiest when those he cared for were blissfully living in the moment – something we all learned from watching him. He lived like he surfed, riding every wave with abandoned passion. 

John is survived by his father, brothers, sister-in-law, nephew, niece and extended family, as well as countless loved ones whose lives are richer for having known him. As he often said, there was nothing a bad day of surfing wouldn’t cure. The ocean was his remedy for everything, in celebration of his life a paddle-out is scheduled for Saturday, September 29 at Brooks Street Beach in Laguna Beach (please see further information updated on his Facebook page).

Obituary

Martha Jean Clark

February 13, 1932 – July 20, 2018

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Martha Jean Clark, known to her friends as Jean or Jeannie, passed away at the age of 86 on July 20, 2018 in Torrance, California. Jean lived most of her adult life in Laguna Beach, California and vicinity, although her last few years were spent in Torrance.

Jean was born on February 13, 1932 in Antioch, California to Harry and Lucille Bender. She was graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1958 from UC Berkeley. After graduation, she married Dr. Elbert Warren Clark IV, DDS, MS in August of 1958. She worked as a nurse before her children were born, and again after they had left the home.

She is survived by her husband Elbert (aka Bert, or Doc), her daughter Heather (Clark) Baker, her son Elbert Warren Clark V (Cinco), two granddaughters, Jasmine and Ginger Baker, and her sister Harriet Mattheis. She will be remembered for her beauty, her kindness, and her perseverance in the face of adversity.

Her memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, September 8, at 11 a.m. at Little Church by the Sea. The church is located at 468 Legion Street.

The family may be reached at 1216 Date Avenue, Torrance, CA 90503-6104 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to: Christian Stewardship Ministry, P.O. Box 636, Laguna Beach, CA 92652.

Laguna Beach’s character has been preserved because of Village Laguna

It occurred to me that many of the recent arrivals in Laguna and many local millennials are unaware of the past citizen-led efforts to preserve Laguna for future generations. Let me share one example I received after my last letter appeared in your Stu News. From a millennial:

“My boyfriend works at a local business. He hears negative things about Village Laguna from one of the Managers, who falls into the “more development” camp when it comes to local politics. He asked my Dad (a long-term resident) why a few people complain so loudly about Village Laguna.”

My dad said: “Find someone who’s been around this area for 30 years and ask them if they remember what Corona del Mar used to look like back then. It had a really cool, old cottagey-small town village charm. That’s gone now. Every third house now is a soul-less rectangular box that is the maximum possible size that the lot will allow, going right up to the setbacks. Corona del Mar has lost its soul. The reason that Laguna doesn’t look like Corona del Mar is because of Village Laguna and residents that think the same way about preserving village character.”

And think about what Dana Point is doing to look just like Laguna: Planting lots of trees, offering free trolleys, developing quaint shops and pedestrian areas…yet some here want us to let uncontrolled growth proceed, cut more trees, bring in more hotels and restaurants, get rid of our charm houses by turning them into rectangular living spaces, etc. Think about this next time you drive outside our city limits.   

Residents First! A good way to describe and remember what the effort of the past 47 years by Village Laguna has meant to our town. 

Armando Baez

Laguna Beach

Locals’ needs aren’t being met

I keep hearing this same complaint over and over from neighbors and residents here – this City is catering to everyone but the locals who pay the taxes. There’s dozens of homeless people gathering and setting up camp on the grassy areas of Main Beach every single day, there’s trash and cigarette butts littering the gutters, sidewalks and landscaping along Coast Highway, there’s dog urine streaming down the walls, posts, sidewalks and streets everywhere you look, and there’s chronically the stench of sewage at Calliope at Bluebird, McAulay at PCH, Crescent Bay and The Montage. There’s not a single Porta Potty to be found at Sleepy Hollow, Thalia, Brook Street, Moss Point, Victoria Beach, etc. (OMH, where do all these beachgoers go to the bathroom?) 

The traffic has grown massively due to the relentless urban sprawl up the 133, and there’s rarely anywhere to park to do business in town. Since few can afford the rent to run a business here, our downtown looks blighted with so many empty buildings, and if a tree grows through your million dollar view you’re pretty much out of luck unless you’re willing to shell out a large sum of money to prove you lost your view to some obstinate, tree-hugging neighbor who probably has a beautiful, unobstructed view of their own. 

But…we are building a multimillion-dollar Village Entrance so all these issues can continue to be swept under the rug, while even more people flood into our town. We need a city council that actually works for the residents paying their salaries. I think we need to flood a City Council meeting some night and make them take notice instead of ignoring us.

Marsha Bianchi

Laguna Beach