The Coast News (Page 1)

B
OCT. 19,
2012
JEAN
GILLETTE
Small Talk
An unending
curiosity
Jean offers a favorite
from the past this week.
I have the nagging
fear that someday I will
leave my children with a
sitter who is not really
paying close attention.
When I arrive home, my
entire house will be in
small pieces, tidily disassembled
by my 4-year-old
son.
This child cannot just
take something for granted.
He cannot just see a
vacuum cleaner do its job
and be glad. He can no
more leave the batteries
in a flashlight than he can
quit breathing.
If there is a box, he
must open it and if there
is a button, he must push
it and if there is a switch,
he must flip it. This
behavior applies to
device that has the misfortune
to come into his
range of vision. From the
moment he could make
thumb meet forefinger,
my son has set about taking
apart everything that
doesn’t move fast.
That which could not
be easily unscrewed,
unhinged or unbuckled
would be bent, banged or
squashed until he could
see its insides. His repertoire
grows with each
birthday and I am watching
closely to see whether
my admonitions of “Leave
that alone, please!” will
catch hold before he takes
the tires off the family
car.
I know, of course, that
this is a wonderful sign of
a curious, intelligent
mind. I say to myself that
he will no doubt be a surgeon
or a research scientist.
But in my heart I
yearn to be able to leave
things on the table,
secure that they will be
there and recognizable
when I next see them.
And I secretly believe he
will end up operating a
wrecking ball.
To avoid sounding too
sexist, I will admit that
my daughter has occasionally
joined him in this
exercise, but gender
aside, her personality just
doesn’t require full explanations
of everything
around her.
When I married
someone who is insatiably
curious, I never equated
it to having a child whose
favorite sport was rearranging
and disassembling
everything he could
reach.
When I search for
comfort amid the chaos, I
remind myself that in just
a few short years, my hus-
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SECTION
Teen’s volunteering efforts come ‘naturally’
By Patty McCormac
RANCHO SANTA FE
— Malia Rappaport has
been chosen as Outstanding
Youth Volunteer and will be
recognized during an
awards ceremony at the
Hilton Bayfront in honor of
the 40th annual
Philanthrophy Day on Oct.
25.
She was nominated by
three of the charities for
which she volunteers: Girl
Scouts of San Diego and
Imperial Counties, the
Miracle League of San
Diego and Kids Included
Together.
“I didn’t even know I
had been nominated,” said
the 17-year-old Rancho
Santa Fe resident. “Then I
started getting e-mails.”
She said volunteering
comes naturally to her.
“I think I was born with
it,” she said. “My parents
raised us to be open to new
experiences and to make a
difference in the community.”
She said her father is
an inventor of toys and he
has donated hundreds of
baseball bats every year to
the Miracle League of San
Diego. Her mother is a Girl
Scout troop leader.
“It was natural to follow
in their footsteps,” she
said.
The common thread in
Malia’s charitable activities
is “inclusion.”
“I guess I grew up with
my own disability, getting
bullied and excluded from
activities,” she said.
She suffered the physical
tics of Tourette’s
Syndrome.
“Kids were pretty
mean to me, but once I
explained to them, they
were kinder to me once
they understood what was
going on,” she said.
As a volunteer for
Miracle League, she is a
buddy for a player on the
team.
“I help them with whatever
they need,” she said. “I
Documentary on artist needs public’s help
By Jared Whitlock
Steve Barilotti describes
him as “the most influential
artist you’ve never heard of.”
And Barilotti is determined
to tell his tale.
Barilotti, a Cardiffbased
journalist and filmmaker,
is referring to Rick
Griffin, who died in 1991.
Many don’t recognize
Griffin’s name, but his
images are instantly familiar
— the Rolling Stone magazine
logo; the iconic posters
kicking off the Summer of
Love. Those were Griffin. He
also designed artwork for
Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful
Dead and was Surfer
Magazine’s first illustrator.
“His art radically
changed the face of growing
countercultures in the
1960s,” Barilotti said. “That’s
what I want to capture.”
Barilotti’s goal is to create
a feature-length documentary
about the life, art
and times of Griffin.To do so,
he launched a Kickstarter
campaign, a website that
allows anyone to contribute
money to creative projects.
Though Barilotti and
Griffin never spoke, their
lives are entwined in many
ways.
“He was the cool big
brother I never had,” said
Barilotti, who describes himself
as “the younger brother
of all the hippies.”
Barilotti grew up going
Steve Barilotti with his archive of Rick Griffin, an artist best known for
designing artwork for the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix. Barilotti
launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds in order to create a
documentary about Griffin’s life. Courtesy photo
to a Catholic school in the
Inland Empire. When he was
10 years old, he saw the classic
surfing movie “The
Endless Summer.” Barilotti
credits the spirit of the film
with stoking a passion for the
ocean and inspiring him to
rebel, or as he puts it, “Being
an altar boy wasn’t on the
menu anymore.”
Barilotti happened to
find solace in the three areas
where Griffin’s artistic shadow
looms large: surfing,
underground comics and
psychedelic rock. It was only
later that Barilotti put two
and two together and realized
that “Griffin was behind
much of the art that I loved.”
“I’m sure there are a lot
of people who were like me
before, who adored his work
and never made that connection,”
Barilotti said.
In 1991 Barilotti was a
junior editor at Surfer
Magazine, the same place
that featured Griffin’s illustrations
in the 1960s and
1970s, including the famous
“Murphy” cartoons. By
chance, one of Barilotti’s
early assignments was to
cover Griffin’s funeral, after
Griffin passed away from a
motorcycle accident. Among
the eclectic mix of people at
the funeral was Jerry Garcia,
who Barilotti gathered up
enough courage to approach
for an interview.
“He gave me this beautiful
five-minute interview,
going on about how impor-
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help them get around the
bases and bat. I love it, it is
a great feeling. It’s such a
family there.”
Miracle League is for
children with disabilities
who otherwise would be
unable to play baseball or
By Bianca Kaplanek
Anyone driving past
the Del Mar Fairgrounds
over the last few weeks may
have noticed a large structure
going up in the parking
lot.
The 45,000-square-foot
tent will soon be home to
the world premiere of
Valitar, a high-energy
equestrian show featuring
more than 25 entertainers
and 45 horses representing
12 breeds.
The title comes from
the Latin word validus,
which means strong, mighty
My parents raised
us to be open to new
experiences and to
make a difference in
the community.”
Malia Rappaport
Rancho Santa Fe resident Malia Rappaport is the Outstanding Youth Volunteer for her efforts with the Girl Scouts of San Diego, the Miracle League
of San Diego and Kids Included Together. She said volunteering comes naturally to her and credits her parents raising her to be open to new experiences.
Photo courtesy of Bob Ross
interact with other children,
she said.
She has been a Girl
Scout since she was a small
child and will soon earn her
Gold Award, which is the
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A 45,000-square-foot tent taking shape in the Del Mar Fairgrounds parking
lot will be home to Valitar, a high-energy equestrian show featuring
more than 25 entertainers and 45 horses. Valitar runs Nov. 16 to Dec.
31. Photo by Bianca Kaplanek
Tent structure rises
over fairgrounds
and powerful. The show,
according to its website,
will demonstrate grace and
power in a world where the
mythological universe
comes to earth to provide
inspiration.
“Valitar’s muses of
love, war, earth, fire, wind
and water will guide us
through a story that demonstrates
the mystical relationship
of horse and man,”
the website states.
It will also provide
some powerful unbudgeted
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