Main Street
'My Kitchen Table' is Medley's style of comfort food
New 'zine fills need for new niche
By Mary Ann Cook
NEW 'ZINE: Lesa Medley wanted a magazine that had a "comfortable kitchen-table/over-the-back-fence feel to it." Since there wasn't one on the market that was quite to her taste, she started her own. The first issue of My Kitchen Table has debuted.
Medley selected poems, essays, short stories and articles that she liked and were examples of good solid writing. She also is interested in cartoons, drawings and photographs. Medley's publishing company is Sweet Pea Press at 408.978.4800.
Because she has contacts on the East Coast and she sent out a wide appeal, Medley received contributions from all over the country. The magazine will be bimonthly with a single-copy cost of $5.25. A year's subscription is $21. Her email address is SweetPLesa@aol.com.
Local writers who made the grade and whose work appears in the premiere issue are Marta Gomez, with haiku, and Sina Hoffmann, poetry. Both are Saratogans.
BEST OF SHOW: Audrey Christianson won Best of Show for China Painting at the recent Santa Clara County Fair. The painting was done on an eight-sided vase with Dresden flowers. It was a three-year undertaking. "You only do it when the spirit moves you," observes Christianson.
She trained in the craft and took lessons while living in Switzerland from a teacher who apprenticed at Meissen, the famous porcelain factory in Germany. Christianson is an active member of the Santa Clara Valley Porcelain Artists Association. (The title sounds heavy enough to break china.)
The association meets in the Inman House, which is part of the Triton Museum. She and husband Chris are now off to England and France to take advantage of the plane trip she won at the Valle Monte Christmas Tree show.
WILDFLOWER 2000: Paris DeSoto can now lay claim to the bizarre title of Half an Iron Man, after completing the triathlon called Wildflower 2000 held near Paso Robles this spring. The event was half an Iron Man Triathlon, which means participants swam 1.2 miles, biked 55 miles and ran 13.10 miles.
DeSoto completed the rigorous event in 7 hours and 32 minutes. Other Los Gatans who competed were her brother-in-law, Michael R. Moses, whose time was 5 hours and 50 minutes, and Brian Krug, who completed the course in 6 hours and 13 minutes.
One of the more impressive postings was that of DeSoto's uncle, Alan Carlisle, 70, whose time was 6 hours and 58 minutes. Carlisle not only won in his age group, but broke a record for that category by a full half-hour. He intends to sign up for the full Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii in October.
WEDNESDAY WORKSHOP: Playwrights and actors, take note. A workshop that teams emerging playwrights with aspiring thespians is under way at Coffee Cantina at the shopping center on Meridian at Hamilton in San Jose, next to Blockbuster Video.
The group gathers for readings and critiques from 7 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday. Excerpts from plays to be read should be no longer than 15 minutes. Leader Carol Wolf can be reached at 408.293.8751.
SILK ARTIST: Silk artist Nahda Balaa will be featured at the Los Gatos Art Association meeting on June 10. The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 19 High School Court.
Balaa depicts vibrant vistas of France, Italy and California in her colorful interpretations on silk. She was educated in Florence, Italy, and now lives in San Jose. LGAA has nearly 200 members. Kathy Keenan is the one to contact at 408.358.7358.
NEW OFFICERS: New officers for the board of Friends of Los Gatos Library were recently elected as follows: Mary Ann Cook, president; Virginia O'Reilly, vice president; Kathie Gaylord, recording secretary; and Dal Allen, corresponding secretary/hospitality.
Others are Margaret Hoekeness, treasurer; Joanne Crum, membership; Marge Rice, Lesley Dinette, book sales; Jean Nelson, historian/hospitality; Dale Hill, parliamentarian; and Rita Baum, programs. Members at large are Cynthia Bailey, Ginnie Bradt, Carol Martin, Carol Hamilton, Alice Hanson and Barbara Wyatt.
BEAUTIFICATION: Los Gatos Rotarians recently spent three Saturday mornings preparing the ground and planting new sod and several different kinds of trees--redwoods, cherry and birch--at Los Gatos High School.
All of which was part of the club's LGHS beautification project. Mike LaRocca is in charge of the project.
The high school arm of the Rotary is the Interact Club. Their spring auction raised more than $1,500. Beth Cilker Smith is advisor to the high school club and Zoe Segnitz is the president of Interact. President of the LGHS student body, Joel Key, served as auctioneer, along with Segnitz.
In other Rotary news, the criterion to qualify for the combined softball team (combined with Saratoga Rotary) was not hard to meet, unless you suffer from asthma or allergies. The criterion? Breathing.
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