Pebble Beach event draws top chefs from around the nation By MARY BROWNFIELD wineries from all over the globe and attendees from far and backyard,” he said last week. What that is, exactly, is four wide — making it one of the premier culinary events in the days of receptions, lunches, dinners, wine seminars, cooking THE SECOND Pebble Beach Food & Wine, slated for United States. But cofounder Robert Weakley really wants demonstrations, lavish food-and-wine tastings, and even a April 16-19, is drawing top chefs from across the country, the people who live here to show up. “I don’t think the locals realize what they have in their See PBF&W page 8A BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 95 No. 15 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com April 10-16, 2009 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 And you thought Detroit had problems ... KRML clears out of downtown studio ■ Bank solicits buyers as owner files for bankruptcy By MARY BROWNFIELD KRML RADIO — which had been broadcasting jazz from downtown Carmel since 2004 — abruptly moved out of the Eastwood Building on San Carlos Street this week. The AM station is for sale for $1.5 million, and five separate groups, including one in town, are interested in buying it, according to Monterey County Bank President and CEO Charles Chrietzberg. The bank loaned money to station owner David Kimball and is assisting in the sale in order to be repaid. An adjacent retail store, the Jazz & Blues Co., was under the same ownership and also closed, with its mer- chandise and fixtures suddenly removed from the premis- It was a rough week for automobiles in the es at the beginning of the week. Monterey Peninsula. A mudslide in Big Sur “We were pursuing collection on our loan with Tuesday evening almost buried a vehicle Kimball, and he said he was going to file for bankruptcy,” as it pushed the car toward a creek (upper Chrietzberg said. “He didn’t want that to affect the station, left). A huge Monterey pine crashed to so he asked us to work with him.” earth in Carmel Friday morning, crushing a Subaru (above) moments after its owner left the vehicle. And a Lexus careened through See KRML page 16A a Carmel Valley shopping center April 2, coming to a halt between two concrete pil- lars (left) Burning massage table blamed for office fire PHOTOS/JODY ROYEE (LEFT), CALTRANS (UPPER LEFT) By MARY BROWNFIELD AN UPSTAIRS office in a downtown Carmel build- Heavens open up, mud ing erupted in fire Friday morning, but crews managed to Carmel man spared but keep the flames from spreading to the rest of the second- floor businesses and downstairs art galleries. Bedding car crushed by old pine closes Big Sur highway ignited by a heater appears to have been the cause, accord- ing to a fire investigator. By MARY BROWNFIELD By CHRIS COUNTS Someone at work in another office dialed 911 just after MOMENTS AFTER Lopez Avenue resident Peter A SPRING storm packing a mighty punch caused a See FIRE page 23A Murray stepped from his Subaru Friday morning, a gigan- mudslide at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park Tuesday that closed tic Monterey pine smashed it to smithereens. The towering Highway 1 for more than 17 hours. tree, which the Carmel forester said had rotten roots mak- “They’ve been predicting stuff like this all winter,” said See CRUSHED page 20A See BURIED page 20A NTSB: C.V. LAWYER AT FAULT FOR PLANE CRASH By KELLY NIX involving a Carmel Valley attorney and his passenger, who was seriously injured, according to a new report. PILOT ERROR, not mechanical problems, is being On Nov. 25, attorney Zan Henson was piloting a 1970 Piper blamed for a November 2008 plane crash in Monterey returning from Mexico when the plane stalled, clipped an oak tree and crashed in the parking lot of the Monterey Pines Golf Course. Henson’s passenger, Aptos attorney Jim Rummonds, Attorney in boar trial received three broken vertebrae, four cracked ribs, a collapsed lung and a concussion in the crash. Henson suffered two cracked warns of accruing interest vertebrae and a broken rib. While Henson told The Pine Cone days after the accident he By KELLY NIX believed a leak in one of the plane’s 25-gallon fuel tanks had caused the engine to stall, the National Transportation Safety AN ATTORNEY for Caltrans said this week the Board in a March 23 report concluded the crash was a result of agency will probably file an appeal of a jury’s $8.6 mil- pilot error. lion award to a motorcyclist who was seriously injured The probable cause of the accident was “the pilot’s inade- when he hit a wild boar on Highway 1. But an attorney quate fuel system management and inflight planning that led to for the other side says the appeal could cost state tax- a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion,” the NTSB said. PHOTO/COURTESY JESSE JUAREZ Flames erupted from the window of an upstairs office that See APPEAL page 23A See FAULT page 23A caught fire on Sixth Avenue Friday morning. Get your complete Carmel Pine Cone every Thursday evening in convenient pdf format via email. Free subscriptions available at www.carmelpinecone.com. 2A The Carmel Pine Cone April 10, 2009 Bach Fest: Shorter schedule, ‘more accessible’ programs By PAUL MILLER But it also includes some innovative new concerts and three times during this year’s festival, which has been short- groundbreaking ways of introducing visual elements to clas- ened from three weeks to two. Opening night, July 17, will SHE’S BEEN on the job less than a year, but the Carmel sical music. include a pre-concert reception in the Sunset Center court- Bach Festival’s executive director has already embarked on “On Thursday nights, we’ll be presenting ‘The Four yard. an ambitious plan to attract new audiences to the festival Seasons,’ by Vivaldi, and we’re going to turn it into a treat for ■ At a unique pair of concerts audience members will be while preserving its long-standing musical traditions. the eyes as well as the ears,” said David Gordon, whose title able to buy $20 tickets to sit on the Sunset Center stage. “Our loyal audiences will get the performances they love, is Festival Dramaturge. “We’re going to have lighting effects “Stringing Us Along,” presented July 28 at 10:30 a.m., will but we also want to create a welcoming environment for and illustrations to give people new ways to understand the feature orchestra members playing and demonstrating his- those who don’t know about us,” said Camille Kolles, who music.” toric and modern string instruments. And on July 30 at 10:30 replaced Jesse Read last summer. Also new this year is a film series highlighting the pow- a.m., “The Well Tempered Keyboardists,” will include per- erful ways music can change people’s lives, if not history. formances on organ, an 18th century harpischord, a fortepi- ‘Visual elements’ Presented at Sunset Center, the films include “Les ano and a modern concert grand. Seating for both concerts The program for this year’s Bach Festival, which will run Choristes,” one of the biggest hits in the history of French will be free in the Sunset Center auditorium. from July 17 to Aug. 1, has just been announced, and it cinema, and “The Singing Revolution,” which tells the story ■ Some rehearsals will be open to the public at no charge. includes traditional Sunset Center concerts such as an all- of how Estonians used traditional songs to rally the nation Open rehearsals of the festival’s principal programs will be Bach program Monday nights, presentation of Bach’s and gain their freedom from the Soviet empire. held July 9 at 10 a.m., July 11 at 3 p.m. and July 13 at 7 p.m. Christmas Oratorio Sunday afternoons and an all-Beethoven “The films will help showcase, especially for people ■ Concerts will be staged at innovative venues, including concert Saturday nights, plus a full program of Baroque uninitiated to classical music, that there are a relevance and a the Robert Stanton Theater in King City (July 12 at 3 p.m.) music Wednesday evenings at the Mission, and a host of power to music which go beyond the notes on the page,” said the Oldemeyer Center in Seaside (July 23 at 7 p.m.) and at recitals and master classes at various venues. Kolles. the newly renovated San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey (July Also highlighting the Bach Fest’s 2009 season: 30 at 5 p.m.). ■ The Friday-night concerts will be Haydn’s “The Creation,” which festival organizers say promises to be a spe- ‘Something for everyone’ Did you know... cial treat because of music director Bruno Weil’s internation- With activities ranging from lectures to films, and from ally recognized expertise with Haydn’s music. youth chorus to first-rate baroque and classical perfor- Historic ruts - The debates in “Bruno’s recording of ‘The Creation’is widely thought to mances, and with tickets as low as $10 and many free events, today’s Carmel may pale in compar- be the best available,” Gordon said. “The work tells the there is “something for everyone at The Bach Festival,” ison to one of the formative battles Biblical story of the creation, but the music is bright and Kolles said. on whether to smooth Ocean Avenue uplifting ..