California Strawberry Festival: A Berry Good Time

Okay, it's Spring and what to do...within a few miles radius of The Militant Compound is the Silver Lake Jubilee, but from his experience during last year's inaugural event, it was just a bunch of awful hipster bands, redeemed only by a large collection of food trucks. Besides, by the definition of the word "jubilee," isn't the next one supposed to be in 2060 instead of this weekend?

So f dat. The Militant decided to leave the bike at the compound and head on up the coast and to Oxnard (which you all should know by now is one of the great music capitals of America), where the annual California Strawberry Festival is also on this weekend.

Deciding to drive up the coast (No Metrolink Ventura County service on weekends, sorry to say) turned out to be a nice decision; The Militant opted to take PCH straight up from Santa Monica through Malibu and on to Ventura County, where the ocean view alone struck up a swelling of California pride in the Militant.

Arriving in Oxnard around an hour later, he decided to take advantage of the festival's free shuttle bus service, from five park-n-ride locations around Oxnard feeding into the festival grounds at that city's College Park. It was surprisingly convenient, coming from the Centerpoint Mall parking lot, where the Militant only had to wait but one minute before the shuttle bus (a re-commissioned school bus actually, but 'tis cool) arrived. Sweet!

For those who haven't been, this festival is about anything and everything fragaria ananassa. There's all sorts of strawberry-related food and drink, strawberry-themed rides and an arts and crafts bazaar which may or may not be strawberry-related. There's also a bunch of local cover bands that perform (guess that whole music city thing was no joke after all...) on a few stages.

The Militant had been to the Strawberry Festival before, back in 2004. While it was a great fete in honor of the area's top agricultural crop, he also not-so-fondly remembered dusty parking lots, muddy grassy fields and long-ass lines for food.

Severn years later, things were different -- in the good way. The park had been remodeled somewhat since last time and the configuration of the festival had changed and grown. Most of all, there were two food court areas instead of just one, and the lines were considerably shorter (although the Militant got there quite late in the day, with only but an hour and 20 minutes to enjoy the festival).

With but 80 minutes to enjoy this thing, there was no time to spare! Right upon entry, he tried the reasonably-priced $2.50 strawberry smoothie, which really hit the spot. After navigating the arts & crafts section, he tried a glass of strawberry beer ($10, reeeeeeal subtle, folks...but hey you get a nice souvenir glass). Then came the popular build-your-own strawberry shortcake pavilion ($5 for all the strawberries, strawberry jelly, pound cake and whipped cream you can cram in a bowl). By then The Militant was almost all berry'd out. The strawberry pizza and strawberry nachos would have to wait until next year (relax, they're both dessert-type foods with only a slight resemblance to their namesakes).

Though there were strawberry vendors onsite at the festival, the Militant went out into the nearby Oxnard farmlands to get the real deals. He was even recognized by the vendors of one of the certified farmer's markets he frequents regularly, who set up a stand at their farm. They even gave him a discount after he bought two flats of strawberries (he can be rather hardcore with these things...)

With the sun setting over the agricultural wonderland that is Oxnard, The Militant headed back to Los Angeles via the 101 and made it back to The Compound in around an hour. He had almost forgotten that the large metropolis of Los Angeles is only an hour away from farming areas; a slight reminder of Los Angeles' past and how fortunate we are to be relatively close to places that are decidedly non-urban, if we choose to get away from the concrete and asphalt of our environment, if only for a few hours.

The California Strawberry Festival continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission is $12. Parking is $10 so you should really take advantage of that shuttle. If you missed this one, fear not, for there is another strawberry festival next weekend (Friday-Monday), this time in Garden Grove.

Los Angeles -- Music City USA?

When you think of music, Los Angeles is perhaps the, or one of the capitals in the industry. As the birthplace of artists from The Beach Boys to The Black Eyed Peas, Los Angeles also gave the world Guitar Center, Leo Fender's and Les Paul's namesake guitars, and the drum machine (invented by Hollywood High alum Roger Linn), just to name a few. Heck, we even have an office building shaped like a stack of records. And surprise, there's a record company inside!

And in this era of record stores dying out, we have one store - yes, the Militant is aware it's a Frisco import - which dwarfs its older Bay Area sisters (and every other record store, period) in popularity and sales. Some of the most popular albums of all time were recorded here, most of which won several Grammy awards. In fact, the awards are given here every February. And we even have an entire museum dedicated to that. The Militant won't even dare to list all the music venues in town. Just open up your LA Weekly (and in the interest of fairness, Los Angeles is also home to this company, which gave the world this recent bit o' viral gold, lol). The Militant can just retire from blogging and write an entire book on this subject alone!

But according to this recent article in The Atlantic, Los Angeles ranks #2 behind Nashville, Tennessee in terms of music industry concentration in North America (or at least, The USA and Canada; none of Mexico's centers made the list - neither Mexico City nor the mariachi capital of Guadalajara).

Now, The Militant knows what you're gonna expect from him: a multi-paragraph tirade on why that list was fixed and how Los Angeles should be #1.

But actually, no, The Militant actually finds those results perfectly acceptable.

Despite the incorrect and totally unsupported transplant mantra, "L.A. is a one-industry town," it most definitely isn't, although Nashville most likely is, so we'll give it to them. Plus, being runner-up isn't all that bad, especially considering the possibility of a big earthquake hitting their city before one hits ours (which is entirely possible), then we can claim the prize.

Being a major center of international trade, tourism, film/tv production, technology, financial services and also the health care industry is impressive enough, and having our music industry rank so high despite those numerous other employment bases in our region is nothing to be ashamed of.

But what's totally shocking isn't what's #1 or #2, but what's #7:
Your eyes aren't deceiving you -- ranked just close behind New York City is...Oxnard.

Wait, whaaaaaaaat?

Yeah, even the Militant did a double take on that. Apparently the "Oxnard/Thousand Oaks/Ventura" area is the seventh largest music industry center in North America...#4 in The USA alone.

Now, Oxnard might be famous for strawberries and its breathtaking skyline, but...uhhh...music? The Militant doesn't even know of any music venues out there. Apparently it did have a healthy punk scene (a.k.a. Nardcore), but sheesh, so does Orange County, and they're not even on that list. More recently, there's a small but noticeable hip-hop scene, led by artists like Madlib. But sheesh...More of a music city than Atlanta, Austin or Frisco? Oh well.

Now anyone who calls themselves an Angeleno knows that Oxnard/Thousand Oaks/Ventura are mere suburbs to Los Angeles. When was the last time you saw "Oxnard" listed on a major rock band's world tour t-shirt? So it's safe to assume Oxnard's ranking was just put there to make Los Angeles look less important (The Atlantic is an east-coast based publication, after all...).

But our loss is Oxnard's gain. At least that city's tourist bureau can re-market their town: Get ready to ROXNARD!!!! OXNARD ROX!

Heh.

Cool Stuff For A Hot Weekend

Want to know what to do this weekend (or what's left of it, at least) besides melt? Let the Militant tell ya...

1. Cuban Music Festival, Echo Park - The 2008 Presencia Cubana en Los Angeles is a free fiesta of Cuban music, food and fun right by the lake in Echo Park Park, which is also home to Plaza de Jose Marti, dedicated in honor of the 19th century Cuban national hero. Echo Park, as well as today's nearby Historic Filipinotown, once comprised the heart of Los Angeles' Cuban community (before they all went suburban after the 1970s). The festival celebrates Cuba's independence from Spain on May 20, 1902. The festival happens Sunday, May 18 from 12 to 7 p.m.

2. California Strawberry Festival, Oxnard - Oxnaaaaaard?!?! Well, it's still SoCal. If you dig strawberries, this is the place, though from past experience going to the fest he had to contend with the dusty parking lot and kinda overpriced stuff. But there's strawberry-topped funnel cakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry beer, anything strawberry-related can be found there. One tip, though, don't bother buying the big boxes of berries on the festival grounds, which are by Oxnard College. You can find better deals on the roads leading to the festival. If filling your gas tank and parking in a dusty lot aren't your thing, you can always take Amtrak there (kids ride free), which runs a free shuttle to the festival grounds. That dusty parking lot is of rather limited capacity, so they also encourage off-site parking and provide shuttle bus access to the fest. The fest runs Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5-$12.

3. Staying put? Try a nice cool ethnic iced dessert. The Militant will continue this quest soon!