Ventura County Fair August 5-August 16 2009
The usually quiet, wayback of the Agricultural Building is reserved for museums, and community organizations involved with "those interesting places in Ventura County." It's a jumbled crazy quilt of exhibits, solely dependent on "Who has time and is willing to put it together?" Some years, there's only a few REALLY BIG TRACTORS to fill that space.
This year was different... there's been a buzz in that wayback. A BV Buzz.
Drew Kennedy, one of BVs dedicated volunteers, created this spectacular display which offers fairgoers a "peek inside the gates." It's almost like being there... So many treasures to look at!
Oh my, there's a photo of Grandma near her "Spring Garden!" And the real thing too— a BLOOMING SPRING! (Grandma loved her "Spring Garden"— it never needed water and it "bloomed" all year!...)
Kathy LaForce and her photo wizardry skills, helped Drew by providing the scans and enlargements. On "take-down day" Kathy snapped this shot— WOW!
Thanks Drew!
October 2008-January 2009
For a little over three months there was a
Bottle Village Exhibit at Santa Susana Railroad Depot & Museum
This was the first community exhibit about Bottle Village since the Northridge Earthquake destroyed the Bottle Wall installation at the Simi Valley Library.(does anyone have photos of that? please let us know...)
Tom Bergh, director of the Depot Museum (and a friend of Kathy's) offered us the vintage display case pictured below. Kathy enlarged some of her great photos for the background— it almost "feels" like you're at Bottle Village! Drew gathered together a few artifacts and gently restored them to Grandma Prisbrey perfection and I added some info & history.
Simi Valley Acorn reporter, Angela Randazzo met us at the Train Depot for an interview and it just happened to be "the one special day" when Tom is all decked out as a Railroad Brakeman! Kathy snapped a few shots and they used her photo in the Acorn! You can read the whole article here.
The Train Depot is a fascinating place to visit— it's like stepping back in time, to the early 1900s. You can easily get lost in looking at all the historical railroad artifacts and then see how Simi used to look in Bill Appleton's vintage photos.The Railroad Depot & Museum is located at 6503 Katherine Rd, Simi Valley and is open Saturdays and Sundays 1-4 p.m. $1. donation 805 581-3462, http://santasusanadepot.org.
Delightful Dissent! As the old saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words"
Steve Greenberg, award winning Graphic Artist and Editorial Cartoonist for the Ventura County Star, created this gem as a visual barb aimed at the local politicos. Billions of words have been written about Bottle Village— extoling its virtues and celebrating its uniquness. Has any of the glorious rhetoric lifted the myopic mindets? Look at that head...Look at that body.. Are they vaguely familiar?
We asked Steve how long it took him to "draw all those little circles"?
In a one word reply, he said "Hours."
Then he added, "I originally thought to do it on computer somehow, but it would’ve taken as long to set up, and would’ve looked too mechanical compared to Grandma Prisbrey’s hand-done art."
Spoken by a true craftsman. Grandma is smiling.
You can buy a copy of Steve's Book "Fine-Tooning the Planet" here
