ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Dennis,
Nicely expressed observations about the nature of the true beauty of Ojai. Sounds like your poem about the Shelf Road sunset was more of a "hike-ooh!" Ouch.

Dear Dennis, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your observations about the beauty of Ojai. Thank you!

On a related note, this is the sort of original writing that first drew me to the Ojai Post. So, while it's on my mind, I'm curious to know how other Post authors feel about how writings are presented here. Originally, when there were only a few authors, their names were listed in the margin. I noticed that some Post authors have not contributed in a long time. Does this have anything to do with how their writings are presented? Sometimes articles quickly disappear from the home page and there is nothing obvious in the margin to indicate it was ever there. Perhaps it doesn't matter-- just curious if others have thoughts on this.

I'd love to see more original "Ojai" articles on the Post and if how articles are presented is a factor in encouraging this, perhaps it's worth looking at for 2008...

PS "Ojaiku" and Lanny's "hike-ooh!" ...ha! ha! ha iku...

dear mr. Rice,

no doubt the farmer and the cook exemplifies many of the values you have enumerated.... the ethic of ojai.... spirit of ojai..... organic quality of ojai... camarderie of ojai.... local color of ojai....and more....

but the BEAUTY of ojai?? i don't think so... beauty is not a notable characteristic of that fine establishment... and to say so overlooks the true aesthetic qualities of the valley....

even so, you might have gotten away with it were it not for another reader who haiku'd that yours was the definitive haiku, and no one else even needed to bother!! .... that little bit of hyperbole could not stand unchallenged.....

finally, in fairness, shouldn't you have noted that the critique of your haiku was itself a haiku? (or did you in fact overlook that point?):

farmer and the cook?

this, the beauty of ojai?

gimme a br-reak!

kittykat:

There are a lot of places I love because of the way I feel when I'm there. I love the way I'm treated when I'm at one of these places, and I generally feel good about (and with) most of the people I meet at these places. It's not about the architecture or the decor, and in fact sometimes it is about about a certain level of funk and lack of broad appeal and/or gentrification.

Obviously, a lot of people thought that Ojai Frostie had this type of appeal, even though there was little, if anything, that was visually beautiful about the place. When you love a location or an establishment, it occupies a similar place in your heart as does an object of physical beauty. If you don't live in the town that's home to one of these places, then when you think about that town you certainly think about those businesses and haunts and they are certainly part of what makes the town attractive to you. Were you to visit that town and discover that, for instance, your favorite coffee shop or breakfast place or beachside cottage had disappeared, you would certainly feel that the town had lost some of its charm and beauty.

I have been to but do not frequent The Farmer and the Cook, yet I understand that, to some people, the place is a big part of what makes Ojai & environs feel like home, and that for as long as the rest of their home feels beautiful to them, The Farmer and the Cook will be part of that beauty.

wonderfully explained, phalarope!

i thought Dennis was particularly clear about the unseen type of beauty that he is talking about, but apparently the explanation was lost on one. i think that transcending the observable beauties and including experiential/intellectual/social/ethical beauty elevates the message!

thanks, Dennis!

phalarope,

i suppose you are right, up to a point.... but this reduces Beauty to something personal, quirky, idiosyncratic..... i should think in a poetry contest we would be held to a higher standard......

It has but one home;
the eye of the beholder.
It lives nowhere else.

I see a beautiful mountain, and someone else sees a hulking pile of dead rock that hides a fortune in minerals.
I see a beautiful sunset, and someone else sees smog and particulates turning the sky orange.
I see a beautiful child, and someone sees else yet one more mouth sucking at the teat of Earth's finite resources.
I see a beautiful woman, and someone else compares her unfavorably to Miss January and sneers at my unevolved sensibilities.
I see a broad tree-dotted plain leading up to the foothills, and someone else sees lots of firewood and icky bugs and nasty rodents and evil snakes and land that needs roads and houses and markets and gas stations and megachurches and the diligent efforts of many loggers, hunters and exterminators.
I hear beautiful music, and someone else hears simplistic rubbish or unbearable cacophony.
I see a beautiful cinematic effort, and someone else sees commercialized sentimental tripe.
I read a beautiful story, and someone else sees wrong-headed ideological propaganda.
I see a beautiful universe, and someone else sees a frightening place that must be subdued and conquered -- a square inch at a time -- lest it subdue and conquer us.

Beauty is indeed quirky and personal and idiosyncratic.

The fact that Kitkat’s feedback was written in haiku form did not escape me. In fact, I really appreciated it in the spirit of the exchange. Yet, beauty does actually seem to be rather personal, quirky and idiosyncratic, which would not only account for lots of marital choices, but also a good deal of music and art. There was awhile that the most beautiful thing in the world to my son was a chrome blower on an old Chevy.

That said, I do realize that I was pushing the bounds of the contest or at the very least, stretching the romantic concept of beauty that most frequently moves people to poetry. If beauty is wedded to visual aesthetics, then my F&C reference does not cut it (Sorry Steve), but if it may include the qualities of harmony, symmetry, and integrity of purpose, then F&C goes right back on the list.

I experience comfort being at the Farmer and the Cook. I also experience comfort when I think of it.

No escape through flight
Our fouled earthly nest needing
Organic farming

there is more beauty in the meanest flower or plainest sparrow than in any commercial establishment, no matter how harmonious, symmetrical, or well-intentioned it may be......

Beauty of Ojai:

Never was, never will be

Farmer and the Cook!

I agree, Suza, that this is the kind of homegrown intellectual exchange that draws me to the Post. So I'll throw in my two cents via Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (the "last word," as it were, in definitions).

beauty 1: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

By that definition, a commercial establishment such as F &C, for the reasons given by Dennis above, can be beautiful. By the same token, a person who is generally regarded as homely in appearance can be considered to be a beautiful person due to the pleasing effect of their inner nature on our minds and spirits. Thus, the common expression "beauty is only skin deep" is only true if we fail to recognize the inner beauty that Dennis describes.

That's my truth and I'm stickin' to it (well, at least until someone shows me a more beautiful truth).

kittykat is out-

numbered.... going to get some

soup at F & C.

I like Kittykat's ending to the Farmer and the Cook saga... sometimes it's better to... meow out!

"Chacun a son gout"
as the French are known to say.
Who can claim you're wrong?