What's Up, Up Here? News and gossip for Aug. 12-18

August 12, 2011

An estimated 520 cars entered the Crowley Lake Fish Camp to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks. The Town received $2,600 (20 percent of the $25 entrance fee), which ain’t bad. But that won’t erase The Judgment…

Heads up! On Sept. 10, the Whitmore Pool closes for the season and this has been a darned short summer season…

Mammoth Mountain recorded 1,293,341 skier visits for the 2010/11 season, just so’s you know. Darned long winter season…

Tweets Meb-the-K: 11 mi run @ Shady Rest w/ last 4mi of good effort. Finished with 6 X 200m. It feels good to be mixing some leisure speed into workouts…

Scalper ads to avoid on Craigslist “With the record snowfall this year, the waterfalls are still running! Camping reservations in Yosemite National Park and Half Dome hiking permits available this summer including Labor Day weekend on the valley floor. Reservations can be in your name for easy check in, to comply with new ID requirement. Updates are verifiable.” AVOID AVOID AVOID! …

About a year ago, Tourism Director John Urdi suggested that our music festivals all kinda sorta sound the same, Jazz Jubilee excepted. Rock, rock a bit of blues and more rock. Enough already! Maybe we oughta think about having country music festival here? …

MMSA’s irrepressible Dan Hansen, really enjoyed the wet weather a couple of weekends ago. “We don’t get a lot of rain or mud in the Eastern Sierra, so when we do, it’s time to hit the trails.”…

Our good pal Aleks says she can’t decide what is the better sport: planking, owling or leisure diving? Our Neighbor Walt says he’s for owling, all the way, but all three are cool for Mammoth…

Is the summer really over? Mammoth volleyball two-a-days begin Monday. Morning practice is from 8-10. Afternoon practice is from 3-5.  Tryouts will be conducted Monday and Tuesday August 22 and 23 during the afternoon practices.    Please contact Coach Megan Guffey with any questions at (760) 709-1186…

Oh, and did we mention football practice starts, too? …

Why people don’t go to town government meetings: The Recreation Commission had three agenda items this week. The time it took to plow through them: four hours. Commissioner Knud Svensen suggested time limits on each item. Thanks, Knud…

The ice rink slab will be going in on Monday, and the rink itself is on schedule for Dec. 2. …

Bluesapalooza was a dazzler, with 2,000 souls showing up for Friday, 4,500 on Saturday and another 2,000 on Sunday. Bluesmeister Sean Turner said the closing of Minaret Road during the festival caused no discernable problems, and earned plenty of thanks from grateful pedestrians. …

There sure were a lot of people in town last weekend. Laurie Medove of the Visitors Bureau had projected 80 percent occupancy, but it seemed like more than that. …

Also, last weekend, the Footloose/Charthouse 5K/10K run drew its biggest crowd ever, with 331 runners, joggers and walkers. What made this one special is that there were about 100 walkups. People are tight with their money these days. ...

Meanwhile, Down Under, Tahoe skier Julia Mancuso is reporting fabulous conditions this “winter”…

Yup, that was a 400-foot truck (Wow!) on the highway this past week, carrying nuclear waste from San Onofre through Bishop to Clive, Utah…

Thinclad Ryan Hall tweets: “I think by the time my running career is over I’ll have been to every Whole Foods in the country. Check Denver off the list.”…

More Meb: “Just finished giving a talk to Arcadia High School. Great group to talk to. Good luck this X-C season & future.”...

From USA Today’s feature on Mammoth this past week: “The Native Americans who lived in the Mono Basin, the Kutzadika’a (Mono Lake Paiute), collected the abundant fly pupae that thrive there as a food source. Other tribes, who traded acorns for the nutritious larvae, called the Kutzadika’a the Monache, meaning ‘fly-eaters.’ Yum! Monache was shortened to Mono and was applied to the region and the people living there by the early explorers in the 1850s.” Then it became a hotel with a snazzy menu. “Waiter, we’ll have the fly pupae special, please.”…

Big art show, “Body Parts,” this weekend at Bluebird Imaging, featuring nine of the region’s most innovative artists in a 10-week show through Nov. 1. An opening event tonight, and an Artists Event on Saturday, will each run from 5-7 p.m. and feature live music, wine and appetizers. Artists in the show include Dana Ellis, Elizabeth Kenneday, Kendra Knight, Taylor Kumlue, Lori Michelon, Margaret Palchak, Kristen Schipke, Carla Spencer and Laurel Stanford. (Bluebird is located in the Mammoth Industrial Park at 123 Commerce Drive, Studio C-6. Info: (760) 924-0316 or www.bluebirdimaging.com.)