California moved its date for the primary election to March 7 so that we would play a greater role in selecting the candidates for the November election. Of course, the important thing is that we have a sizable election turnout so that we have a fair and representative election.

In addition to selecting the candidates for the party, we will be voting on 20 propositions that are of tremendous importance to everyone of us. For example, we will be voting on five bond issues, which if passed will provide state money for things that we need right here in Malibu. Our leaders are very aware of how important these bond measures are to us and certainly will urge us to vote yes.

As usual in these elections the efforts to convince us how to vote are already going full strength. Unfortunately, the propaganda often is full of half-truths and false innuendoes so that it behooves the voter to study the voter pamphlet carefully so as not to be confused by the blatant efforts to confuse rather than to inform us. We are a well-educated electorate so it is up to us to educate ourselves on the issues and to vote intelligently.

Of course, the first thing is to be sure you are registered to vote, and people who have moved need to reregister. The registration deadline is Feb. 8.

With the primary election coming so early it means we do have to move faster than usual. Please be sure to register, study the election material and vote — and vote wisely.

Dorothy Green,

member,

League of Women Voters

I wanted to thank Ms. Thorp for sharing her feelings regarding the issue of dogs in State Parks [Jan. 27 issue, “Doggedly enjoying the beach.”] The perspective I would like to share comes from 25 years of experience in State Parks and a lifelong association with various family pets including the two whippets that currently reside at our residence.

For the record I feel that we are very responsive to the needs of our park visitors. California State Parks provides the only public beaches in the area that are open to leashed dogs. Contrary to Ms. Thorp’s letter we are not increasing our restrictions on dogs. Currently dogs are allowed at Leo Carrillo State Beach (with the exception of the sandy beach and tide pool area between Tower 1 and Tower 3), Staircase Beach, County Line Beach, Sycamore Cove, Thornhill Broome Beach and Mugu Beach. Actually, Point Dume Preserve and the Pocket Beaches are the only local state holdings that prohibit dogs. The impression that State Parks is becoming more restrictive is not accurate. Since 1989 we have opened many beaches that had previously been closed to dogs. On a statewide basis we continue to provide more opportunities for leashed dogs. State Parks in Big Sur and Santa Cruz that were previously off limits to dogs are now open. Another positive response to dog owners was the director’s action to eliminate the dog day use fee at the beginning of this year.

The designation of public land as a State Park implies that all natural features are protected. Consequently, we have tried to establish reasonable regulations and policies to protect our natural resources while respecting the rights of our visitors to have a quality recreational experience. Our State Parks are special places. The limits we have established are prudent actions that insure the protection of park visitors, wildlife and other natural features.

Dogs have a significant impact on park resources and the experiences of other park visitors. There is no correlation between individual rights and conscious disregard for the law. I have witnessed the depredation of sea lions at Point Dume, listened to concerned mothers scream when their child was approached by an aggressive unleashed dog and watched as a child’s meticulous sandcastle construction was ruined by a wayward canine. I have had peaceful walks with my own dogs aborted by the threats of other unleashed dogs. Based on these and many other complaints, our staff has made a strong effort to seek compliance regarding our existing regulations. These regulations have been in effect for many years. In an effort to get the word out my staff circulated a press release to over 50 media contacts in December explaining our current regulations regarding dogs and announcing the abolition of day use fees associated with dogs.

I agree that dog owners need a special place where their dogs can run off leash. State Parks are not the appropriate alternative. Realizing this, many cities have taken the initiative and established dog parks (“bark parks”), perhaps the time is right for Malibu to follow suit.

Hayden W Sohm, Malibu sector superintendent

California State Parks

Apparently the issues of grandfathering and code enforcement have hit a nerve with the entire City Council at last week’s meeting. I believe the City Council responded to the crowd of citizens in the audience in a well-rehearsed impolite and negative manner.

They should be ashamed of their behavior.

Name withheld on request

Ain’t Misbehavin’, Ailey II, Faust

“Ain’t Misbehavin'”

By Dany Margolies/Associate Editor

It had five talented performers and a wailing band, but the performance of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” Friday at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theatre was less about them, more about the warmth and musicianship and genius of Fats Waller.

The show is merely an evening of songs, a small selection from Waller’s immense output, beginning with the eponymous “Ain’t Misbehavin'” and ending with the reprised “Honeysuckle Rose.” Between are “Handful of Keys,” “This Joint is Jumpin’,” “Black and Blue,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and nearly 25 others. With so much to sing, filler is nonexistent, and this production is staged as a cabaret show with only two cafe tables and a few chairs onstage.

The success of the evening starts with the subtlty and sophistication of the band, a rhythm section that provided just that — no distracting embellishments, no wanderings to leave the audience wondering where the rhythm went. On piano: Darius Frowner, the company’s music director, providing support, humor and an easygoing stride style to delight. On drums: a silvery-handed Leroy Ball. On bass: a gently swinging Fred Dinkins.

Waller was known not only as a composer and pianist but also as an entertainer, sometimes a buffoon, sometimes dignified and attractive. Likewise the performers, comprising M. Martine Allard, Derrick L. Baker, Vivian Jett, Ron Lucas and Connie Reid. Even though the style was jazz and the vocals ranged from comic to torchy, their lyrics were clear and the communication with the audience obvious. Each had a many-colored voice and a full palette of styles, and the men showed off a few dance moves, from buck-and-wing to lyric jazz.

Oh your feet’s too big

Don’t want you cause your feet’s too big

Mad at you cause your feet’s too big

I hate you cause your feet’s too big

Oh your pedal extremities are colossal

To me you look just like a fossil.

Fats Waller was literally and figuratively a big man. It makes one wonder if maybe lately it’s the music that’s gotten small.

“Ailey II”

By Dany Margolies/Associate Editor

Offering four works ranging from Alvin Ailey’s signature energized jazz to mysterious unseen-world abstractions, Ailey’s training company, now known as Ailey II, bombarded the stage at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theatre Saturday night.

The evening’s most thought-provoking work, “Quintet,” is an Ailey work, “restaged” with “recreated” costumes. Under effective lighting by Nicola Cernovitch and to selected songs of Laura Nyro, dancers Tina Williams, Lanette Costas, Rosalyn Sanders, Odara Jabali-Nash and Yuka Fukuda begin as a quintet of female singers, la Motown.

Striking sultry poses in blonde wigs and slinky red evening dresses, they lip sync “Stoned Cold Picnic.” For subsequent songs, however, they reveal the real women under the repulsive, externally imposed “femininity.”

Each breaks out into a solo, tearing off wigs, flinging off stiletto-heeled shoes, shedding the evening gowns and dancing barefoot in simpler clothing, indicating woman’s inner strength, independence and tolerance for pain.

“Nightscape,” choreographed by Carmen Le Lavallade to a Ginastera harp concerto, offered a solo turn to Angelica Salazar. It required a charismatic, dramatic presence above its demanding choreography of floorwork, and Salazar did not disappoint.

Costuming by Geoffrey Holder included a harness effect in grays, but a twitchy red-feathered headdress gave the dancer a birdlike demeanor, played up by her crisp head movements. Clifton Taylor’s lighting design created an authentic, dramatic moonlight.

“Sensory Feast,” choreographed by Francesca Harper to music by Rolf Ellmer, showed the company in a millennial, pre-apocalyptic-looking work in which what appeared to be young gladiators (costumes by Elena Comendador) seem to show their anger toward everyone and everything, under intense lighting by Jeremy Barr.

The evening’s opening work was its most banal. “Escapades,” a 1983 Ailey work, which program notes indicate was restaged, introduces the company as multistyled, multiracial but uniformly exuberant.

To music of Max Roach, a lonely guy and a lonely gal meet and dance happily ever after. But Jabali-Nash has a stage presence that means business, and her pas de deux with Nelson Cabassa seems to take much from “Swan Lake’s” White Swan pas de deux.

The work is costumed by Carol Vollet-Kingston, and sunny lighting by Tim Hunter includes a turquoise sky filled with magenta clouds projected on the backdrop.

Touches of African and modern are blended with a pastiche of jazz dance styles from jitterbug to Latin for Ailey’s athletic style of jazz, but the occasionally ragged corps, many hopped turns and noticeably distended ribcages of some of the dancers marred the look.

Corps standout was Sanders for her clean technique and facility in the variety of styles. The company men included Anthony Burell, Samuel Deshauteurs, Edmond Giles and Bradley Shelver.

“Faust”

By Juliet Schoen

You have to give the Devil his due. Gounod’s “Faust” takes on life when bass Samuel Ramey is stealing the scenes as Mephistopheles. The opera, now being performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, has been condensed from five acts to three but does bog down here and there. When Ramey is not in the action, you wish he would magically appear and jazz things up a little.

This is the celebrated bass’s debut appearance with the Los Angeles Opera and he promises to return very soon. This is very good news indeed. Although he has been performing for 30 years, he still has that beautifully resonant voice, with its remarkable range. And what a wonderful presence he has on stage! He has played the Devil in and with so many operas, he conveys a mischievous evil that is quite delightful.

While he is having fun, drinking and wenching, poor Faust is having a hard time finding an easy way to Marguerite’s heart, etc. Although Dr. Faust has exchanged his soul for youth, there is very little youthfulness in this Faust. Marcello Giordani has been touted as the Fourth Tenor, but based on this appearance, he doesn’t even make it to Fifth. He has a strong voice, with a warm quality, but the role eludes him. The romance simply isn’t there, especiallly, since he is doomed to wear a costume that would be more suitable for a bourgeois banker than a man bent on seduction.

The chaste Marguerite is played by a young Romanian soprano, Leontina Vaduva, who not only has a lovely voice but can also act. She manages to make Marguerite a most sympathetic figure and really wrings out the pathos in the final redemption scene.

Malcolm MacKenzie, who has come up through the ranks of the Los Angeles Opera, is excellent as Valentin, Marguerite’s brother, singing extremely well and dying most nobly.

The other singing members of the cast are Megan Dey-Toth in the trouser role of Siebel, Catherine Cook as Marthe and Cedric Berry as Wagner. They all do themselves proud.

The set, designed by Franco Colavecchia, was used in the opera company’s presentation of “Faust” in 1994. Although it is serviceable and allows for some dramatic effects, it exudes a Hellish sense of claustrophia. I felt that the backdrop could have been dropped for the opening scenes, to allow the villagers and soldiers to cavort in open spaces. I must also quibble about the unimaginative initial appearance of Marguerite who is supposed to be an ethereal vision but is all too human as she simply walks across the stage.

Christopher Harlan moves the action along as well as he can as director, and Philippe Auguin shows his feel for French music as he conducts the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and The Los Angeles Opera Chorale.

Gounod’s music is remarkable, with one golden aria followed by another. If you can’t remember the melodies of “The Jewel Song” or “The Flower Song,” you will recognize them when you hear them.

Of course, I will not reveal the plot, which is probably not a mystery to anybody. Poor Faust, relegated to Hell, can only apologize at the end by saying, “The Devil made me do it.”

Last performance Feb. 5.

This week the City Council will be putting the finishing touches on the permit streamlining program I first suggested in 1995 when I was on the Planning Commission. While I’ve been as frustrated as many of you at the slow pace of implementation, there has been one advantage: Improvements in technology now make on-line permitting a reality.

In December, on behalf of the city, I attended the National League of Cities 75th Annual Congress of Cities in Los Angeles. Over 4,000 mayors and councilmembers from across America attended and probably the hottest topic was the newest applications of technology to governing, called “comprehensive e-government.”

Advances in both hardware and software now allow for the use of computers and telecommunications technologies to make governing more efficient, effective and responsive. Online permitting is just one example and is already a reality in San Carlos, Calif. Other cities such as Kansas City, Mo., allow tax and fee payments (i.e. parking tickets) to be done online. Citizen input into the budgeting process and customer evaluation of city services is also underway in other cities. Webcasting of live city council meetings and special events (e.g. breaking disaster news) is yet another possibility now. And our Geographic Information System (GIS) has applications for almost every city program or service that involves geography, including land use planning, building roads, storm drains, economic development, and traffic management and safety.

Comprehensive e-government is a perfect fit for Malibu. The residents and businesspeople here are already extremely computer literate, well above the national average. Applications that can be done from your home or office computer will bring the city government directly to you, reducing car trips on PCH; creating a “e-paper” trail on city-citizen transactions (no more “he said/she said”); and bringing access to those citizens who don’t have the time or physical ability to visit City Hall in person.

The year 2000 will also mark the council’s adoption of a new cable television franchise in Malibu. In 1999, the city launched its own Government Access Channel 15, bringing you programming and information about your city government 24 hours a day. We also successfully challenged Falcon Cable’s Basic Rate increase before the FCC in Washington. This year our objectives in Telecommunications include premiering a new and expanded City Web Site; starting an upper tier (aka: channels 2-13) community/educational channel for Malibu to cablecast locally produced cable shows; and completing negotiations with the school district to jointly fund a fully equiped, shared-use cable TV studio at Malibu High School for use by the students during school hours and the community on evenings and weekends. Finally, the new franchise will have to incorporate the changes in technology that are merging phones, computers and cable television for the speedy transmission of voice, video and data.

It’s an exciting year ahead. By Jan. 1, 2001, if all goes as planned, the city of Malibu will be a leader in comprehensive e-government. The future is here and we’re ready.

Tom Hasse,

city councilmember