TNT designer Urs Baur celebrates Topanga’s own special brand of dad for our Father’s Day cover, but this holiday is an opportunity to express love and gratitude not only to fathers but to all of the figures in our lives. To the men who have loved us, helped us, guided us, cared for us, mentored us, and inspired us, whether they are still with us or live on in memory, happy Father’s Day! Cover design by Urs Baur.
This summer marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. Patriotic feelings for many are at an all time low, and many of the freedoms so many have fought to ensure are currently under attack, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to celebrate.
On June 14, the Committee for the First Amendment, together with NO Kings and Indivisible, will be hosting “Rise up, Sing Out: a Concert for the First Amendment.”
Instead of a march, this event is a concert and rally that is intended to provide an alternative to the ones planned by the Trump administration in Washington DC. It is being billed as “an evening to build community, and a celebration of the First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, protest, religion, press, and expression.
“Across the country, communities will gather for local watch parties to sing along, make art, share food, connect with neighbors, and take meaningful action together. Authoritarians want fear, silence, and isolation. We choose joy. We choose community. We choose people power. Rise Up, Sing Out is about reclaiming patriotism as something inclusive, participatory, and rooted in care for one another—not power, pageantry, or one person’s spotlight.”
Neighbors coming together to stand up for their rights and challenge a monarchy is how we got here 250 years ago. It is heartening that the true spirit of 76 still lives in the hearts of so many. Learn more at www.nokings.org/
Midsummer is almost here. The solstice falls on June 21 the longest day of the year, and the midpoint of the seasons. Whether it feels like it or not, we are almost halfway through this strange, unsettling year.
Summer is only just beginning but hurricane season in the eastern Pacific is already underway. The season officially began on May 15, and will end on November 30. In calm years, storm activity may not begin to peak until July or even August. This year, with unusually warm water temperatures and a potentially strong El Nino brewing it’s off to a powerful and early start.
Last week, we had the first named storm of the season, “Amanda.” Tropical storm Boris is battering the coast of Mexico this week. California surfers eagerly anticipate the southern swell generated by summer Pacific storms, and this year could be one for the surfing record books, but an El Niño-fueled monsoon season can also be a life threatening hazard for all who are affected by summer monsoons.
California rarely experiences hurricanes or even summer tropical storms, but the indicators continue to point to an unusually active storm season, one with the potential for monsoons to move up the coast.
“El Niño is arriving on our doorstep in the coming months with 90 percent certainty,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a World Meteorological Organization statement this week.
Predicting the weather is still an imprecise science. It doesn’t help that the current administration is greatly reducing our ability to track and monitor weather phenomena like El Niño by gutting NOAA, eliminating weather research funding, decommissioning key satellites and monitoring equipment like buoys, ending ongoing research, and firing scientists. Thanks to these policies we have less data than we could have on the unusual conditions forming in the Pacific. We don’t know what this El Niño will bring—rain and flooding? drought and fire? Or maybe it will just fizzle out?—but it can’t hurt to prepare for the worst.
Homeowners in Topanga have been busy all last month meeting fire clearance requirements—the recent wildfire in the Simi Valley lending urgency to the task— but now might also be a good time to check that drains and culverts are clear, sandbags are still in place, and gutters are clear of leaves and debris. Even small actions can help minimize the impact. Of something big.
It’s all too easy to have anxiety over the weather and the state of the world, so whether or not the brush is cleared or the leak in the roof fixed, now would be a perfect time to take a deep breath and a moment to enjoy the beauty of the season.
June is a rare month in the Santa Monica Mountains. Coastal fog brings cool and pleasant breezes and transforms Topanga into an island above the clouds. The hills are covered in flowering buckwheat and alive with bees. Even in the burn zone late spring flowers are blooming and life is returning
Happy solstice, Happy Father’s Day, Happy summer! Stay safe, be well.
