Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Main Street

Mary Ann Cook

Models weathered goosebumps, but gala was success

WEATHER OR NOT: Everything cooperated but the weather at the recent Community Foundation gala held in the garden of Patti and Bill Hughes' Maison du Lac. The audience at the fashion show may have been chilly in the misty evening, but pity the poor model wearing the negligee. Goosebumps upon goosebumps her fate. The Youth Science Institute and the Friends of the Library both received checks that evening: the Friends of the Library for a centennial celebration coming up throughout October, and the YSI for a new program on cougars native to Santa Cruz Mountains.

UNUSUAL ATTENDANT: Weddings seem to be getting more and more elaborate these days, but some people eschew all that folderol and deliberately downplay the formalities. One such was Sept. 13 in the Foothill Club gardens. Bride and groom Lisa Hilbun Cone and Tim Andriese came down the aisle together.

The bride is a nurse at O'Conner Hospital, and her only attendant was Tim Hinton, a close friend. The bridegroom is a bio-medical research scientist at Livermore Labs. David Blacklock of San Jose and Eric Wenberg of Arlington, Va., were his attendants.

By night the groom is a bartender at the Black Watch, and so is the minister who performed the ceremony, Michael Thompson. The two have worked together for 10 years. Tim Andriese is a 1984 grad of Los Gatos High School, and his father is Paul Andriese, a professor emeritus of biology at SJSU who lives in Monte Sereno. The newlyweds met 15 years ago when both were in the Santa Clara Vanguard, a drum and bugle corps.

Tim was drum major, Lisa in the color guard. Both were drummed out at age 22, the max age for that competition. The Vanguard was world champion six times. And when it came to planning the wedding, "we wanted something not quite so formal, where people could dance, be an active participant in this most significant event," Tim said. They wrote their own vows, natch.

PIECE OF THE ROCK: Do you have a piece of Plymouth Rock and perhaps don't even know it? Wilma Thompson is doing research for a local doctor who's interested in finding the owner. In Irons in the Fire by John McPhee, it's noted that pieces of the rock broke off when the monument was moved.

Today pieces can be found at Conoco in Hull, Mass., in Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, in the Nevada State Museum, in the Smithsonian--and in Los Gatos. Any mystery-solvers out there? Thompson's number is 378-4813.

FOOL THE EYE: It's a thin line between reality and illusion at Cafe Trompe L'Oeil in San Jose. You can't tell where the real bricks leave off and the painted ones begin in John Pugh's mural. But that's as it should be with the art form.

The mural shows an alcove with a woman reading at a table, a pointillist painting, a Greek sculpture, a window box and an archway leading to an upstairs with a cat peeking out. The idea was to make the mural consistent with the real interior of the restaurant, right down to the plants used.

Looks like they've succeeded with "Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Imitating Life." Ed Weiser was the restaurant's interior designer. In other Pugh news, "The Joshua Tree Chronicles" was recently installed in the Victor Valley Community College Library; part of the panel appears to be peeling away to reveal Indian petroglyphs.

On the back of the presumably peeling panel, desert cacti are depicted. The main panel shows a panorama of ranchers and farm wives. So real is this deception that at the opening, one man insisted Pugh fix the painting because it was coming out of its frame.

That's probably the sweetest thing a trompe l'oeil practitioner can hear from a viewer. Pugh is also gaining international notice, thanks to the imagination of his Web site: www.illusion-art.com.

NEW PLAYWRIGHTS: If you like to be in on the ground floor for drama, the New American Playwright Festival is for you. It's at Villa Montalvo, and plays to be read by the pros include Krisit by Y York Oct. 17 at 3 p.m., about an aging actress lured out of retirement by her housekeeper. A reception follows and cost is $8.

On Oct. 18, the lineup is A Big Blue Nail by Carlyle Brown at 11 a.m. and Beatbox: A Raparetta by Dan Wolf and Tommy Shepherd at 3 p.m. "Nail" is about Commander Perry and the aide who went with Perry to the North Pole. Who really was the first to set foot on the pole?

"Beatbox" is an exploration of hip-hop music and movement.

TOWN MEETING: Congressman Tom Campbell will hold a town meeting at The Meadows Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. A shuttle up the hill to The Meadows will be provided from the Toll House Hotel. Park in the hotel garage. For more information, call 354-0211.

'50s REUNION: Grads from LGHS during the '50s will hold a reunion Oct. 16 and 17, featuring a tour of the high school at 6:30 p.m. and football game at 7 on Friday and a bring-your-own picnic at Vasona's Rain Tree and Circle at noon on Saturday. Cost is $3, and Dick Coffing is the one to call at 559-3984.

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