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Drop by North Park this evening and you’ll find more than the regular Ray at Night arts event. There will also be a hands-on traveling art-and-dance exhibit all about wheat.
In this week’s Q&A feature, we talk to artist David Krimmel about going with the grain as he seeks the intersection between art and agriculture, using wheat grown next to a local elementary school. Participants will get to turn wheat into organic flour. His goal is to help people understand the role of grain in our lives.
In Other Arts News:
• Drop by our new arts blog — don’t miss the snazzy logo — and check out a new feature in which we take a look at the walls of local people’s homes. First stop: a gallery owner’s Golden Hill home. My, what a big bronze sculpture he has.
In Other News:
• Normally, our Fact Check department ranks statements on a spectrum from “true” to “false.” But every now and again, a misstatement is so egregious that “false” doesn’t quite cover it. We refer to these whoppers as “huckster propaganda.”
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In our latest Fact Check, we reached that verdict in regard to a statement by a public figure who’s been in the news here for quite a while.
• We hit quite a hot button with our post earlier this week about the sorry state of the Highway 163 median through Balboa Park.
• The ACLU is suing the state for allegedly charging illegal fees to students. So why weren’t San Diego schools named in the suit?
• The San Diego schools superintendent says test results show that the district “now ranks first among large urban school districts in California in literacy, and is closing in on the top ranking in science and math.” Is that true? The Fact Check verdict is in.
• A new report examines why so many San Diego schoolkids don’t complete the classes necessary to get into the Cal State or UC systems. Check our follow-up post for more details.
• You may think gangs are behind most homicides in the county, but a new study says they’re involved in just 25 percent of those with identified motives. That’s down from a couple years ago.
Elsewhere:
• County Supervisor Bill Horn is not accepting no for an answer when it comes to that controversial taxpayer-funded grant to a religious-oriented group. CityBeat says he wants to revive the group’s $20,000 grant, which had been slated to “promote annual fundraisers for religious programs.”
The county put the brakes on the funding, and now Horn wants to redirect it to help support a book called “Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One’s Abortion Experience.” The book views abortion from a distinctly negative perspective, saying it’s a “tragic truth” that “abortion changes you.”
• Finally, the general manager at San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel complains to the LAT that revenue from in-room hotel entertainment — such as adult on-demand movies — has dried up. “It’s nonexistent,” he says.
How will hotels make up the income? I, for one, will not pay $25 for a Snickers bar in the mini bar. Unless I’m really hungry.
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What We Learned This Week:
Not Quite Fireproof: You might assume firefighters would get the big-ticket resources they wanted after the devastating and deadly 2007 fires. Nope. They say that hasn’t happened.
True and Misleading: Those are our Fact Check verdicts on the mayor’s budget numbers and claims by the county pension agency.
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The Coffee Collection (stories to savor over a performance art piece featuring a 35-foot-tall coffee cup, 18 sippers and a stirrer that’s taller than a telephone pole):
A Magnetic Mentor: Meet the famous octogenarian artist and his up-and-coming young assistant who hopes to make a mark himself.
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Quote of the Week: “I guess the bottom line is that had he not been a polygamist, you might be in Deseret today.” — Book author Michael J. Trinklein on how Mormon leader Brigham Young claimed San Diego as part of the would-be state of Deseret.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at rdotinga@aol.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.