Ventura’s summertime doggie doings

Love your pet to distraction and consider him or her a member of the family? Ventura, Calif. just might be the destination of choice this summer. Not only is there the beach, but there’s a dog-friendly culture here that runs more than skin-deep. It’s part ‘n parcel of the whole SoCal lifestyle that so many crave.

Ventura may be the doggie hot spot of the whole West Coast. Dogs are accorded all sorts of slack here in layback land. A couple of examples include the Summerfest All-Breed Dog Show. Set for July 5 – 8, it’s a celebration of all things canine. Good news for lovers of just plain mutts: the show’s been expanded to encompass obedience and rally competitions for mixed-breed dogs.

The high point of Ventura’s doggie summertime doings follows a week later with the 15th Annual Pooch Parade. Set for Sunday, July 15, the Fundraising Dog Walk & Pet Expo provides animals a second chance at life. The parade itself is a three-mile roundtrip along the sublime Ventura Beach Promenade, a fundraiser to support dog rescue and rehabilitation. If you’re thinking of bringing your animal along for the walk know that you’ll have to register, that your pet’s got to be on a leash and that the leash can’t be of the retractable variety.

The sound of the Pacific surf is counterpoint to the pet parade and the dog show. That same powerful ambiance is also a soothing backdrop to Ventura’s Summer Sounds Concert Series. Jazz, soul, pop and reggae rock blend beautifully to render these SoCal summer afternoons even more seductive. The concerts are every Sunday afternoon from now through Sept. 2. Head to Ventura Harbor Village. You’ll find it at 1583 Spinnaker Drive.

As for food, there’s some great barbeque to be had. Pierpont Inn serves it up every Thursday through Aug. 30 – along with extra helpings of live music and entertainment.

Save the dates, art lovers: Expo Chicago

If design matters, if contemporary art is central to who you are, then what’s set to happen in Chicago this September is a must-see. EXPO CHICAGO has a Sept. 20 – 23 run down at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall – and the folks who cherish great style, different ways of looking at the world, will be there.

The International Exposition of Contemporary/Modern Art and Design will be showcasing 100 top galleries, as well as some 20 “younger,” adventurous galleries. The buzz seems brilliant so far, even though the first EXPO CHICAGO hasn’t happened yet.

The galleries signed up for the expo reads like a proverbial who’s who: David Zwirner from New York, Galerie Karsten Greve of Cologne, Paris and St. Moritz; Galerie Buchholz of Berlin, Cherry and Martin of Los Angeles and Cardi Black Box of Milan. You get the idea.

The aim of all this? “We set out to re-establish Chicago as a preeminent art fair destination,” says Art Expositions, LLC President and Director Tony Karman. He labels the roster of galleries that have signed on as “extraordinary,” and sees the Navy Pier experience as  “the opportunity to open the fall arts season with a great international fair in America.”

This is one of those events that exerts its own gravitational pull, attracting programming from more than 40 partner institutions. Look for material from – among others – Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Smart Museum of Art, the Chicago Children’s Museum, ArtTable and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

This is not a deal for dealers only. General admission is open Thursday Sept. 20 from noon till 7 p.m., Friday Sept. 21 from 11  in the morning until 7 in the evening, Saturday Sept. 22 during the same hours, and Sunday Sept. 23 from noon through 6 p.m.

All of this artistic ferment, this creative rubbing of shoulders, takes place at a time of year that’s picture perfect in the Windy City.

SF music highlights The Wizard of Oz and Pixar flicks

To survive and thrive, great orchestras perform programs people prefer. Sometimes that’s Beethoven, and sometimes that music from the movies. The latter takes center stage late this month as the San Francisco Symphony journeys Over the Rainbow. Thursday and Friday, July 26 and 27, the symphony will play the lush, magical score from The Wizard of Oz while the audience watches the film. The great thing is the orchestra actually gets to “accompany” Judy Garland, Ray Bolger and the other actors in songs most of us have grown with since childhood. Come to the concert, relax and kick back. Your costume will give you a chance to enter a prize raffle. Once your kids see this rendition of the classic film, your home entrainment center just won’t cut it. This performance is set for Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

Make it a weekend of movie music and come hear Pixar in Concert Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29. Again, Davies Symphony Hall is the venue.  If you and your kids love Toy Story, WALL-E and (this reporter’s favorite) Ratatouille, then you know it’s impossible to imagine those movies without their soundtracks. That’s where the San Francisco Symphony comes in. It will perform in a world premiere concert with clips from each of Pixar’s films. To lend some real street cred to the show, John Lasseter, Pixar’s chief creative officer will introduce the program from stage on the 28th. It’s director Peter Docter’s turn to do the same come July 29th.

Davies Symphony Hall itself is a bit of a modern classic, and one of the most audience-friendly concert halls to be had. It serves up in-house dining (intermission orders can be placed with any server before the concert to avoid lines) along with some terrific one-of-a-kind shopping and behind-the-scene tours. It’s one of America’s great symphony venues

Incredible Indy: a terrific place for kids

Think of Indy and you think cars and the Colts, probably in that order. What you probably don’t connect the city with is kids. You should. Because some of the attractions here are decidedly kid-friendly.

Start with Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. It’s the largest kid’s museum on the planet, and – in the estimation of many – the very best. The place is really a five-level playground, where a million kids, and their equally-awed parents, congregate each year to kick back, learn and open up avenues they never knew existed.

At ScienceWorks, kids can get a real insight into Mother Nature’s inner workings, the structure of human creations and the forces that knit all of this together.

As with any good children’s museum, interactivity is the watchword. Explore the hands-on National Geographic of the Earth area and “see” some of the earth’s most extraordinary archeological sites. Take a trip to the Dinosphere and get up close and personal with life-size dinosaur skeletons.

Looking for something more sedate?  Save this for last, as the experience just might be soporific for the ride back to the hotel. There’s a turn of the century carousel that once graced Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple Park.

It pays to make a day of it at the museum if you want to really take advantage of all it’s got to offer. Same holds true for the Indianapolis Zoo, site of the world’s largest shark touch tank and the planet’s first totally submerged dolphin viewing experience. Hint: register in advance and you can climb into the tank with the dolphins.

That’s the aquatic view of things. Terrestrially, the place more than measures up. In all, some 350 species are arrayed across 70 acres, some of them avian. Matter of fact, one of the Indy zoo’s most engaging exhibits is Flights of Fancy: A Brilliance of Birds. Enter one of the aviaries and you’re surrounded by hundreds of friendly, familiar budgies. Take along a seed stick, give it a shake and the birds just might land on your hand, arm or shoulder for a nibble. This exhibit is nothing like the Alfred Hitchcock movie folks. Nor is the Lorikeet area, where these Aussie avians will nuzzle up to you and drink nectar right out of your hand.

The museum and the zoo. Both are in Indianapolis, and both are interactive in a way video games never can be.