Art

Before a highly interested audience of community leaders and merchants at the Rec Center, Jan. 16, La Jolla Community Foundation chair Phyllis Pfeiffer and architect Mark Steele presented the first phase of a proposed project to create a new public plaza at “The Dip,” located at the north end of Girard Avenue at Prospect Street. The presentation, titled “La Jolla Village Streetscape Plan,” included a myriad of fresh ways these overdue changes could enhance the community.

In 1992, the mail received by La Jolla native Coleen Jan Paderewski drove her postal carrier insane with curiosity. He had never delivered an actual envelope from the White House to anyone before, much less two dozen in two weeks. Finally, the guy just blurted it out: “Who are you?!!” It can be safely assumed that the carrier was neither a big fan of classical music nor an American of Polish descent.

Only the Trying opens with the assassination of a man swimming from The Cove to The Shores.

Two new exhibitions have opened at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla — “Christine Oatman: Stories of Innocence and Experience: Altered Mid-20th Century Children’s Books in Pedagogic Tableaux” and “Artists’ Books from the Steven Leiber Catalogs.” The exhibits are on display Jan. 11-March 7, 2020.

Yearning for a mid-winter getaway to Italy? The La Jolla Community Center is offering the next best thing — an Italian Film Series, arriving Jan. 23, 2020 and departing Feb. 14 at 6811 La Jolla Blvd. “There will be a four films shown, all with English subtitles,” said Barbara Burton Graf, the center’s marketing director. “A social will precede the screenings at 6:30 p.m., and the films will begin at 7 p.m. on four consecutive Thursdays.” She added that film curator Giuseppe Annino selected the titles from the vast number of memorable Italian films, and “each captures the culture of Italy, the character of its people, and tells a story of people dealing with difficulty, but with the element of humor.”

Byron Dorgan (U.S. congressman and senator from North Dakota for 30 years before retiring in January 2011) will discuss his book “The Girl in the Photograph: The True Story of a Native American Child, Lost and Found in America,” 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020 at D.G. Wills Books, 7461 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Through the story of Tamara, an abused Native American child, Dorgan describes the plight of many children living on reservations and offers hope for the future.

“The Great Leap,” a basketball-centric play, is coming to Old Town San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre Jan. 22, 2020. Written by multi-award-winner Lauren Yee, it was one of the 10 most-produced plays in the United States in 2019, along with her “Cambodian Rock Band,” recently staged at La Jolla Playhouse. “The Great Leap,” which premiered in Denver in 2018, is about an American basketball team going to China for an exhibition game. There’s more than a game at stake; there are long-buried personal histories, a clash of dreams and ambitions, and the main setting is Beijing in 1989, when student protesters were about to be massacred in Tienanmen Square. With all this going on, there’s still plenty of humor — one of the playwright’s conspicuous gifts.

Love participating in your library’s summer reading program? The San Diego Public Library is offering a new winter version that is only available i January 2020. “Litera-SEA” is the theme for the inaugural Winter Reading Challenge, with prizes and reading suggestions for all ages having a maritime and ocean theme. Of course, participants are welcome to read anything to qualify for prizes.

We do have some powerful self-protective weapons at our disposal — food selection and handling being the most effective. Ancient cultures relied on that for their health; even before old Hippocrates advised using food as medicine. So, while you arm yourself with tools provided by personal trainers, meditation gurus and other healers, I’ll provide the edible components of your healthy lifestyle to keep you vibrant for years to come.

Put sushi on the menu and Nak Joon Kim behind the bar and you have Haru Sushi, La Jolla’s “neighborhood” sushi bar since fall 2018. “I don’t want a big restaurant,” he said. “I prefer a smaller, quiet one (it seats 60) where we’re part of the neighborhood and our customers are our friends.” Kim believes that good food makes you comfortable and 90 percent of Haru’s patrons are locals: “They come in and enjoy the environment, the experience and the food.” They must. Kim claims that 50 percent of first-time customers come back. One customer told Kim he enjoyed Haru because he “didn’t like to feel like a mackerel in a can.”