Best of Arts, Culture & Media

Art Gallery

1st place
Red Brick gallery
328 E. Main St., Ventura
643-6400

2nd place
Buenaventura gallery
700 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura
648-1235

3rd place
CSUCI Gallery
21 California St., Ventura

Cultural Festival

1st place
Casa Pacifica Angels Wine
and Food Festival

2nd place
Ventura Artwalk

3rd place
Oxnard Salsa Festival

Best public art piece to walk all over

“The Five Senses” by Mark Lere
California Street and Harbor Boulevard in Ventura

This wouldn’t be the first public art piece in Ventura County that people have trampled on, but it is, if not the only, one of very few that people have literally walked all over. Public art as a crucial component of a city’s cultural landscape and identity is something many people, especially in times of economic stress, don’t understand. Probably the most notable example of misunderstood art from the more than 70 permanent public art installations in Ventura is Dennis Oppenheim’s

“Bus to Home” bus transfer station at the Pacific View Mall. Public art advocates considered it a brilliant concept, beautifully executed, but naysayers dismissed it as a colossal waste of money by a city leadership infatuated with art.  

Seven years prior to the creation of “Bus to Home,” when the city was just beginning to explore its artistic possibility, Southern California artist Mark Lere gave us “The Five Senses,” a playful piece set flush with the pavement between the promenade at California Street and Harbor Boulevard. Meant to “provide a transition between the urban experience and the beach,” according to the city’s official description, “The Five Senses” consists of five stainless steel light boxes that appear different from day to night. The senses are explored with a mind toward the contrast between the sensual aspects of the urban and natural landscapes of Ventura: the smell of the ocean, the sound of the train passing, the color of the sea, the bustle of business. If “Bus to Home” is the city’s most detested piece of public art, “The Five Senses” is one of its most overlooked, mostly for its seamless integration with its surroundings. Its creator, Mark Lere, is a nationally recognized artist who has been commissioned to create contemporary, conceptual public art for cities throughout Southern California. He designed, fabricated and installed all the elements that the art piece comprises.

— Michel Cicero
 

Theater Company

1st place
Rubicon theatre company
1006 E. Main St., Ventura
667-2900

2nd place
Ventura Improv Co.
34 N. Palm St., Ventura
643-5701

3rd place
Theater 150
316 E. Matilija St., Ojai
646-4300

Place to see a Play

1st place
Rubicon theatre
1006 E. Main St., Ventura
667-2900

2nd place
Thousand Oaks Civic arts plaza
2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks
449-2787

3rd place
Santa Paula Theater center
125 S. Seventh St., Santa Paula
525-4645

Radio Dj

1st place
Bo Jackson (B95.1)

2nd place
Stickboy (KVTA)

3rd place
John & Charlie (KHAY)

Radio Station

1st place
Live 105.5

2nd place (TIE)
B95.1
Q104.7

Best Place to Discover the Lost Art of Reading

Thousand Oaks Library
1401 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, 449-2660

Let’s face it. Twitter, Facebook and others of their social networking kind are highly overrated. They’re also at least partially responsible for the downfall of the printed word. Books, once those beacons guiding the way of knowledge for all, get a pretty bad rap these days. Think 1965 B.I. (Before Internet): dusty, musty shelves, snooty librarians and archaic prose printed on yellowed pages.

All the fun has been sucked out of reading. And no, using Kindle doesn’t count.

But go to Thousand Oaks and you can visit a mighty spiffy megalibrary where the worlds of textbook and computer don’t just collide, they actually get along. Fish swim, people mingle, communities come together, and reading, as the anchor beneath it all, somehow becomes accessible, and fun, all over again.

The Janss Road center boasts an array of the newest editions of children’s books, contemporary fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, monthly journals and magazines, and on top of that, one heck of a DVD collection that would put Blockbuster to shame.

Internet connectivity isn’t ignored either, and the library welcomes Wi-Fi access, too. In addition, there are several meeting rooms where you can get involved with local clubs and groups in the community who gather to discuss everything from history to, more recently, the health care reform debate.

Don’t forget to visit the not-for-profit Library Foundation Store, offering trinkets appreciated only by the most studious bookworms. Have old books you’d like to donate? Drop them off at the library, where the other nonprofit, Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library, holds a daily book sale.

One favorite among library-goers young and old alike is the hallway-sized aquarium, home to more than a dozen varieties of tropical fish who can consume the attention for seemingly hours on end. We don’t know if these fish read, but it would sure be fishy if you didn’t try visiting the T.O. Library.

— Paul Sisolak

Bookstore

1st place
Bank of Books
748 E. Main St., Ventura
643-3154

2nd place
Bart’s Books
302 W. Matilija St., Ojai
646-3755

3rd place
Calico Cat
495 E. Main St., Ventura
643-7849

Children’s Bookstore

1st place
Bank of Books
748 E. Main St., Ventura
643-3154

2nd place
Calico Cat
495 E. Main St., Ventura
643-7849

3rd place
The Bookworm
1923 Daily Drive, Camarillo
482-1384

Comic Book Store

1st place
Ralph’s comic Corner
2379 E. Main St., Ventura
653-2732

2nd place
John’s Comics
1039 S. Ventura Road, Oxnard
985-2766

3rd place
Last Chapter bookshop
1673 Donlon St., # 208, Ventura
339-9492

Place to buy a musical instrument

1st place
Henson’s music
2640 E. Main St., Ventura
641-3788

2nd place
Instrumental Music
3171 E. Main St., Ventura
648-3284

3rd place
Almighty Guitar Planet
1822 E. Main St., Ventura
648-4633

Place to buy/sell used CDs

1st place
Salzer’s
5777 Valentine Road, Ventura
639-2160

2nd place
Buffalo Records
105 S. Oak St., Ventura
648-3345

3rd place
Grady’s record refuge
2546 E. Main St., Ventura
648-5565

Place to buy new CDs

1st place
Salzer’s
5777 Valentine Road, Ventura
639-2160

2nd place
Buffalo Records
105 S. Oak St., Ventura
648-3345

3rd place
Grady’s Record Refuge
2546 E. Main St., Ventura
648-5565

Place to buy/sell vinyl

1st place
Salzer’s
5777 Valentine Road, Ventura
639-2160

2nd place
Buffalo Records
105 S. Oak St., Ventura
648-3345

3rd place
Grady’s record refuge
 2546 E. Main St., Ventura
648-5565

Artist

1st place
Clyde Valentine

2nd place
Erik Myles

3rd place
Debra Scolari

Best Library

1st place
Camarillo library
4101 Las Posas Road, Camarillo
388-5222

2nd place
Helen P. Wright Library
57 Day Road, Ventura
642-0337

3rd place
E.P. Foster library  
651 E. Main St., Ventura
648-2715