From the age of 3, Caitlyn Carradine already knew what she wanted to be–a ballerina.

While the dream of being a ballerina is not uncommon for little girls, Carradine took it seriously enough to make it a career choice.

“I pretty much knew I wanted to dance professionally in a ballet company, and for that you have to start pretty young,” said Carradine, as she dwelled on her professional aspirations while on summer break, at home in Malibu.

The 19-year-old daughter of Malibu residents Carolyn and Christopher Carradine just came back from Austria where she graduated from the Vienna State Opera Ballet School.

Carradine’s talent and perseverance had earned her a full scholarship to the reputable ballet school, and her love for ballet has blossomed even more. Though she talked about attending college in California upon her return, her plans have changed. Instead, she will return to Europe where she intends to audition wherever she can.

But this privilege to study in a top European ballet school came with a price, demanding endurance and persistence.

A difficulty she faced was that classes where all taught in German, and for three years Carradine studied under the patronage of a Russian teacher, Nadja Tikhonova, who demanded excellence and who, at first, did not want the American student in her class. However, Carradine’s willingness to learn and work hard converted the teacher to think otherwise.

And when she was not dancing, Carradine was working on her American high school credits via correspondence.

“School was in German and I realized after a while that I could not follow the academic curriculum, so I earned a high school diploma doing courses by mail,” she said.

Carradine, who is now fluent in German, achieved both of her goals; completing the academic track in English and earning a valuable dance credential from the ballet school as well.

“She was with a group of girls who were very experienced, but she ended up the only one out of 17 who got the certificate even though she started with a disadvantage,” said her mother, Carolyn Carradine.

With the sounds of a classical piano and a chatty parrot in the background, Carradine acknowledged the toughest part of being away was the separation from her family “because they are the most important to me,” she said.

“In the first years it was hard to connect even by phone,” she explained. “The first year I was there, I would send a fax to my mom every single day.” But during the last year communication was made easier when the Internet became available at a nearby cyber cafe.

Carradine’s time spent in Europe has also changed her perspective on the world. “I went there loving America and now I love Europe so much more,” she said.

The history, multiple opera houses and vivid cultural ties to this classic dance style that the old continent offers for ballet aficionados made it easy for Carradine to fall in love with Europe.

“One of my best experiences there was when I got to perform in an opera and get paid for it,” she said, speaking about her role in “Aida” as a featured dancer.

Now the ballet graduate is even more hooked, and when she goes back to Europe she hopes to join the professional circuit.

She will also make a stop in New York as she heads back, hoping to audition for the American Ballet Theater, Ballet Hispanico and the Metropolitan Ballet.

Aside from ballet, Carradine enjoys fashion design and plays classical guitar. When she is not dancing in her downstairs studio, filled with mirrors and worn and out-grown dance slippers, the slender, brown-eyed young woman also works out with her mother to stay in shape.

“My grandmother said that for grace I needed to take dance lessons,” said Carradine, who also took tap, jazz, modern and waltz dancing lessons. “But ballet is the foundation for pretty much everything, and it’s my favorite.”

Once upon a July Malibu Council meeting quite dreary,

An assembly that left many Malibuites weak and weary,

O’er way too many promises and curious guarantees of political lore.

While we Malibuites nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a yapping,

Resolutely driven by Harlow, Fakehany and O’Brien with jaws a flapping

representing the Lily’s core.

” ‘Tis a mess here,” they all muttered, as the reporters wrote and stuttered,

Stuttered over eminent domain and 15 million in taxes and maybe even more.

Could there be a general bond with such a case of misdirection,

One with such an all-purpose selection, and fraught with danger to the core?

Quoth the Lily’s Ravers, “Yes and more.”

Edgar Allen H. Stuppy

This letter responds to Judy Decker’s characterization in last week’s letters to the editor of the former LCP Committee deliberations. I am most disappointed that she would make such statements. I chaired the committee for the almost six years it existed and every effort was made, and most members cooperated, in coming to decisions by consensus. If consensus could not be achieved the issue was determined by majority vote. There was a high level of agreement on major issues and concerns.

Her memory does not serve her well. It was the Coastal staff–not the council–who told the committee to “use the 1986 County Plan wherever possible.” It was the paid consultant, Paul Crawford–not the council–who asked the committee to review the policies of the 1986 County LCP to determine which policies were still relevant and appropriate for inclusion in a Malibu LCP. The language that the LCP would supersede the General Plan if there were conflicts came from the 1986 County LCP, not the committee. The Land Use designations in the 2000 administrative draft LCP are exactly the same as the General Plan –not those used by the county. Other than hiring the consultant, the council had no input into our deliberations. I don’t know how two council members “dominate” a five member council or how four members of a committee could “dominate” a 10 person committee.

The Plan had not been submitted to the City Council because coastal regulations provide that during the preparation of an LCP the local government coordinates with coastal staff. The committee would have liked more meetings with coastal staff — but only the planning director could set them up. He told us we should have all parts of the plan together before meeting with them again. That’s why the planning director submitted the 2000 draft to coastal staff for their comments. The committee expected to receive those comments prior to finalizing the draft, but the new City Council disbanded the committee.

Mrs. Decker claims that the coastal staff “rejected” the 2000 Administrative draft LCP at a meeting on March 16, 2000, but that draft was not submitted by city staff for coastal staff review until March 23. Subsequently, when the new planning director was hired he made it clear he did not like the “size” of the draft LCP and preferred including it in the General Plan. He was told that the advice of the General Plan legal consultant was to prepare the LCP as a separate document. AB 988 giving the Coastal Commission authority to prepare Malibu’s Local Coastal Plan was approved, without the city opposing it, by a legislature that did not know a complete draft LCP had been submitted for coastal staff review several months prior to initiation of the bill.

Dr. Werner Koenig

Chairman, former Local Coastal Plan Committee

I want to thank you for informing us that there are three drug rehab houses just up the street from us. We had no clue until the recent newspaper articles. Nobody told us when we bought our house a year ago.

I’ll tell my children that the cars speeding up and down our street are probably just the people going to get treatment to recover from their addictions. Great!

Lorna White

Trancas Canyon Road

The Malibu Arts Festival had it all. Sure, there was the usual fare–glass unicorns, Laura Ashley pillows, mallard whirly gigs, bamboo fountains and pet rocks, but some eye-popping surprises appeared as well. Julie Lance, for example, fashions her creations from real insects. Her dramatic artwork features moths and monarchs captured in mid-flight and mounted on Plexiglas.

“We get these from butterfly farms all over the world. They come from Indonesia, Africa, South America,” she explains. “These farms actually help preserve the rain forests by providing a renewable, alternative source of revenue in developing countries. In using butterflies, I try to capture their beauty, color and harmony.”

There was art of every conceivable kind of material–old saws, dried gourds, water cans and car parts as well as canvas, glass and trees. Neil Sears gets his kicks from hickory sticks, which come from the backwoods of Tennessee. With a Paul Bunyon smile, he shows off his collection of rockers, porch swings, bar stools and birdhouses. He describes the style as California Rusticana, but admits it’s nothing new.

“This chair is just like the one in Andrew Jackson’s log cabin,” he notes. “It’s perfect if you’re going for a lodge, western or country look.”

The artists draw their inspiration from everywhere. For Matino Dorce, it comes from his native Haiti. Dorce has been selling his vibrant scenes of native dancers, village farmers and tropical landscapes for the past 10 years.

“People love it because it’s colorful and exciting,” he said. “It just makes you feel good.”

But the biggest draw was local artist and actress Jane Seymour, whose booth was bopping. “I’m really excited,” she told The Malibu Times. “This is my first local showing and the response has been great.” In addition to being a featured artist, Seymour served as the festival’s celebrity host and says she is happy to do her part. “I want to support this and I love being a part of the local community.”

Seymour is more than just a dabbler. She has had several major exhibitions and is represented by the country’s leading art dealers. Her works range in price from $690 for a simple self-portrait, to $39,000 for a full-scale floral oil.

“It’s amazing how versatile she is,” remarked Malibu Chamber of Commerce President Jeannette Scovill. “I love her impressionist paintings and her treatment of light. She also has wonderful watercolors and pastels, and I’d be glad to have any one of them in my house.”

The Malibu Arts Festival is also marking a milestone–its 30th year–and for many locals, it’s an annual tradition. “It’s great to see the same artists year after year,” says Malibu resident Lisa Shafer. “And there are some fantastic new artists as well.” Shafer, for one, is partial to one booth, which specializes in handcrafted paper and books. “Last year, I bought three photo albums from them as gifts,” but admits in a hushed tone, “I haven’t given away a single one.”

It seems the City of Light has developed a bit of a dark side not readily visible to the casual visitor. Lovers still stroll hand-in-hand along the banks of the Seine, ignoring the obvious signs of pollution. They share drinks at sidewalk cafes (the tap water is still fine) and embrace in doorways and on the grass in every park.

And the parks are still beautifully kept, lawns mowed, hedges clipped and flowers to die for. Any Brits who think their island has a lock on prize gardens should take a walk through the Luxembourg Gardens, the Tuilleries or Parc Jardin des Plantes (more of this later).

Paris in summer is notoriously steamy, but in this year of unprecedented rainfall (the worst in 128 years) heat is not the major source of irritation. Parisians are blaming the new municipal government for unbelievable traffic jams, but ‘tourists add few vehicles to the mix and most residents enjoy their famous long vacations in July and August, taking their cars with them. Well, the city fathers, or whoever, thought this would be a swell time to shut down about three miles of a main artery running through the heart of the city on the Right Bank of the Seine. The bright idea was to give skaters, joggers and dog walkers free rein on the expressway, which is kind of like turning the Sepulveda Pass portion of the 405 over to hikers. Popular with the Greens maybe, but hardly the way to win votes from thousands of motorists forced onto surface streets. They crossed the river en masse, ground to a halt on the Boulevard Saint-Germain and clogged the Champs-Elyses, and that’s before the Tour de France cycled into the Place de la Concorde Sunday (Vive Lance Armstrong).

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, instead of chucking a bad idea before it blooms, is digging his heels in, saying the plan just needs to be better explained. I think this is like launching a P.R. campaign to explain the benefits of genetically engineered food–it will work when pig genes fly. And now that the weather is heating up, it will be hard to explain to thousands of sweaty kids why 42 of the area’s public swimming pools are closed during July and August. Couldn’t they repair them after school starts in September?

But these inconveniences pale in comparison to pipe bomb attacks on police stations and blazing cars set alight the past two weekends in the Seine-St.-Denis district (just outside Paris proper). This is not the work of terrorists, authorities say, but mischief by gangs of poor youths. However, the area is the site of the Stade de France, which would have featured prominently in the 2008 Olympic Games had Paris not been passed over in favor of Beijing, which is, of course, the final ignominy for the mayor and his city.

Still, it’s a great place to visit, even in the rain, even when it sizzles. After you’ve done the Louvre, the Muse d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, watched the artists doing charcoal portraits by the bridge opposite the cathedral, checked out Shakespeare’s book store and the shops on rue St. Louis en l’Ile, work your way to the outskirts. There are huge, magnificent parks everywhere: Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Parc Zoologique de Paris, a clean, densely landscaped animal park on par with San Diego Zoo, and adjacent to miles of jogging and bicycling paths, boating, ponies at the Bois de Vincennes. The Jardin des Plantes is the place for die-hard garden lovers. An adjunct to the school of horticulture, plants are clearly marked as to species and variety, not that one could find many of those varieties here. But the techniques used to lay out the flowerbeds wouldn’t be too difficult to follow. We had taken the train to Giverny to see the famous garden created by Claude Monet, but it was such a riot of color and texture and so densely planted that it was impossible to figure out how it was done.

Our last evening before leaving for Clermont-Ferrand, our hosts drove us out to an amazing place called France Miniature. It didn’t sound too exciting in the Periscope, so we were surprised to find a finely detailed scale model of the whole country: the sea, rivers, mountains, chateaux, trains, dams, roads, cathedrals spread over about 10 acres. At dusk, the paths are lit, and the castles and churches, ports and boats are illuminated by candles. Lessons in architecture and history.

Magnifique!

I would like to thank and commend your publication, and reporter Suzanne Marcus Fletcher for the excellent article she wrote on our Vital Intervention and Directional Alternatives (VIDA) Program.

As the captain of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Bureau, I appreciate that Ms. Fletcher had her facts straight, did an exceptional job of including the program’s elements and she did it with style. Her article was informative, very interesting and quite easily read, and I’m sure it will be appreciated by the public we serve, as well as our excellent deputies and marines in the program.

This program is another excellent example of how the Sheriff’s Department is reaching out to all communities under the leadership of Sheriff Lee Baca.

When he saw this program working so well, after being started by two deputies on their own time at East Los Angeles sheriff’s station, he ordered it be expanded to all the sheriff’s stations. In addition, he directed that the program be made available to any youngster within Los Angeles County.

On January 15, 2000, this program was started at 11 additional sites (12 total with ELA) and since has expanded to 14. Over 500 youngsters have successfully graduated through the program and we are tracking their continuing progress after graduation. Parents, schools, courts and law enforcement officers have commended the program and the results, and we’re doing everything in our power to help it continue to grow.

Articles like yours are a great assist to our efforts and I thank you again for your excellent coverage.

Captain Ken Johnson

L.A. County Sheriff’s Department

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Bureau

The American Way in politics is to back your candidate or issue of choice wholeheartedly, but fairly, no lies, no slanders, and no false facts. Use facts not innuendo, not unfounded gossip, please, no character assassination! That not only unfairly and cruelly damages reputations, but also presents a rather clear picture of exactly who you are. It also reflects very badly on the causes you espouse.

Anyone who supports another candidate or is on the opposite side of an issue is not fair game. You have every right to be a partisan for your own cause, even biased, but take care you also have the responsibility to be fair, not petty, mean and slanderous. Disagreeing with someone does not make that person a bad person. If you think otherwise, then you should get a life, starting with a basic ethics course.

Some of the Letters to the Editor recently have become downright slanderous about prior city leadership.

Worse, they tend to perpetuate misconceptions and wild rumors and border on petty character assassination. Look at your own life experiences. Don’t you find that people tend to act like human beings, even those in public office or those who seek public office? While not perfect, the majority of brave citizens willing to serve in thankless leadership roles do not have a hidden agenda, they merely want to help lead the community in shaping the future of Malibu.

Go ahead, support candidates whose ideas you agree with, but do not fall into that trap of thinking the worst about “the other side” and calling them names in public. Sadly, that behavior is totally juvenile and not what we expect from adult citizens.

People of good will can still disagree, and those who hold views counter to your own are not monsters but merely other concerned citizens who support candidates and issues you do not happen to agree with. This is America. They are entitled. Lighten up!

Ray Singer