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“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love ”
– Marcus Aurelius

Ventura County! Thank you for joining us. Can you believe it is August 1, 2024? It’s both horrifying and exciting. If you’ve spent your summer working indoors, there is still plenty of time to get outside and lots of things to do nearby. If you prefer to remain indoors, there are still 11 days’ worth of Olympic coverage to watch. A former American pastime that was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be reinvigorated with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine. Based on the box office reports, you and everyone you know have already watched it twice. Deadpool & Wolverine was the number one-grossing R-rated film release of all time, bringing in an astonishing 211 Million in its opening weekend. Back to my outdoor crew, we have a lot to cover: rides, rodeos, raging, & wrangling. There are two different sets of cowboys in town. Neighbors, let’s catch this week’s wave. 🌊

This first week of August, The Neighborly Wave will cover:

• Real estate news brought to you by The L Cee Group

• Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta

• Local Events

• Sports

• Local News

• AI

• Weather

Your local real estate report is brought to you by
The L Cee Group 

Fiesta Fiesta

Old Spanish Days Fiesta

Santa Barbara’s “Old Spanish Days Fiesta” celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Originally created as a way to attract visitors to Santa Barbara during the summer, (at the time, Santa Barbara was only a popular Winter destination, weird I know.) The multi-day fiesta has come to draw in tens of thousands of visitors to downtown Santa Barbara and beyond each year. The Fiesta runs for 5 days from Wednesday-Sunday with specific events scheduled daily. We’ll help you out by outlining our favorites below:

The Fiesta Stock Horse Show, aka “Competencia de los Vaqueros,” is more appropriately labeled a “Rodeo” for us city folk. The Rodeo takes place at The Earl Warren Showgrounds, and consists of bull riding, calf roping, bareback bronco riding, steer wrestling, and team roping events. There are 3 show dates available. Friday and Saturday tickets are currently sold out online; however, tickets can still be purchased at the Showgrounds box office. Sunday tickets are still available for purchase online.

Friday, August 2nd, 7-9 pm. Saturday, August 3rd 7-9 pm Sunday August 4th @ 1pm

El Mercado de la Guerra

Is a colorful Mexican market featuring foods, art, crafts, and live music. The market is set-up across from Santa Barbara City Hall in De La Guerra Plaza . The market is open Wednesday, July 31st - Saturday, August 3rd from 11 am - 10 pm

Las Noches de Ronda

Las Noches de Ronda, “The nights of gaiety,” is a free event held in the beautiful sunken gardens of the Santa Barbara Courthouse. Performances, featuring flamenco and folklorico dancers. Las Noches de Ronda take place nightly from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday August 1st - Saturday August 3rd

Local Events By City

Oxnard

America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, has its training camp at River Ridge. It is open to the public. Practices typically start at 11 a.m. The Cowboys have 11 a.m. practices on the following days: Friday, August 2nd, Saturday, August 3rd, Monday, August 5th, and Tuesday, August 6th.

The Cowboys will scrimmage against the LA Rams @ 2 pm on Thursday, August 8th

Thursday, August 1st, 2024 9 am -1:30 pm. Downtown Oxnard Certified Farmers Market (5th & B Streets Plaza Park)

Thursday, August 1st, 2024 5 pm- 9pm First Thursday Food Trucks @ Plaza Park in downtown Oxnard. 500 South C Street.

Saturday August 3rd, 2024 4-6 pm. Concerts by the Sea at Channel Islands Harbor featuring “Los Amigos Band”

Camarillo:

Pick your own raspberries & blackberries at Underwood Family Farms in Somis

Sunday, August 4th @ 7 am. The 14th Annual Camarillo Marathon, half-marathon, 10k, and 5k. There is still time to register! Click the link below

Thousand Oaks

Friday August 9th 7:30 pm. T-2 Presents December 63’ a Tribute to Frankie Vallie & The 4 Seasons. Located at BofA Performing Arts Center https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0B0060C584061370

Friday August 23rd Movies at the Park Presents “Jumanji” Movie starts at sundown, and activities begin 1 hour prior. This is a free event, please bring blankets, and chairs. Thousand Oaks Community Park 2525 N. Moorpark Rd

Ojai

Thursday August 8th, Doors at 5 pm Headliners at 7 pm “Los Lonely Boys” at The Libbey Bowl. These Grammy Award Winning Artists are back after a multi year hiatus. Tickets are still available and can be purchased here: https://wheremusicmeetsthesoul.com/events/los-loney-boys-ojai-aug-2024/

Simi Valley

Friday August 2nd, 5:30 - 10:30 pm Dinner and sunset music at the Reagan Presidential Library with The Eagles Tribute Band. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and include dinner. https://www.reaganfoundation.org/programs-events/events-calendar/eagles-tribute-band-the-long-run-entertains-at-our-sunset-dinner/

Friday, August 9th, 6:30 pm. Family Movie Night in the Park will be featuring “Trolls Band Together.” The Address is 556 Lake Park Drive. Simi Valley CA

Ventura

🎡 The Ventura County Fair is officially here! Check out the full list of promotional events, as well as the concert schedule below:

Friday, August 2nd is Youth Day 👶. Children 12 and under are free with 1 paid adult admission

Monday, August 5th is 805 Day. All Fair goers get in for $5 before 5pm

Tuesday, August 6th is Seniors & Person’s with Disabilities day. Gates open early at 11am. Admission includes 1 ticket plus a caretaker ticket

Thursday, August 8th.🎖 Military & First Responder Day 🇺🇸. Bring a valid Military ID, or First Responder ID for free admission

Friday, August 9th, is 🥫Food Share Day. Bring in 5 cans of food to receive a buy-one-get-one-free ticket. Tickets must be purchased on site.

Carnival Wristbands 🎢 are available for $45 and can be used on the following days; Thursday August 1st, Tuesday August 6th, Wednesday August 7th. Carnival wristbands are essentially “unlimited ride passes.” They are a great deal for ride enthusiasts. Wristbands can be used until 7pm

🎶 Fair Concert Schedule 🎶

Wednesday July 31- I love the 90’s Tour (Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc, Sugarhill Gang, C+C)

Thursday August 1st- Brantley Gilbert

Friday August 2nd - Sublime with Rome

Saturday August 3rd- Dustin Lynch

Sunday August 4th- Tapy Quintero y Los Tucanes de Tijuana

Monday August 5th- Comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias

Tuesday August 6th - Ludacris

Wednesday August 7th- Gary Allen

Non-fair related events in Ventura

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Saturday August 3rd. 8-11pm “ The Monsters of Pop” Rock the Garage @ The Garage Bar. 1091 Scandia Ave. Ventura CA 93004

Tuesday August 6th, 5:30 - 7:30 “Spaced out Bear Night” at Rincon Brewery. Enjoy pints, and bites, while you paint with an instructor. https://visitventuraca.com/event/spaced-out-bear-paint-nite/

Summer Sports

• The Ventura Girls Fast Pitch 8 & Under Gold Team won the California State Games in San Diego. Congratulations to those young ladies.

  

  Front row left to right; Aiyana Kohler, Ellie Vonburger, Alana Barlow, Brooklyn Sheff, Korie Mulhall and Madisyn Taminich. Second row left to right; Camilla Duran , Kylee Martinez, Mallory Van, Morgan Scarlett and Natalia Hernandez. Coaches standing back row left to right; Dustin Mulhall, Geno Taminich, Jeremy Scarlett and Robert Hernandez.

• Channel Islands High School has hired a new varsity football coach: former alum and UNLV defensive end Jeremiah Valoaga. Jeremiah led Channel Islands to its last winning season in 2011. He hopes to turn things around for the Raiders in this upcoming season.

• Agoura Hills High School graduate Tara David-Woodhall is a favorite to place in this year’s Olympics. She will be competing for Gold in the women’s long jump. The women’s long jump qualifications begin on August 6th, with the finals taking place on August 8th. Let’s go Tara!

• If you’ve been following the Dodgers since the All-Star Break, you are as frustrated as I am with our pitching. We’re giving games away in the late innings, and as fun as it is to dog-pile on Dave Roberts, I don’t know if he’s the problem. The Padres are now within striking distance of taking first place in the NL West after their recent three-game sweep of the Dodgers. The Dodgers will rest today before heading to Oakland tomorrow for a 3 game series against the struggling Athletics.

Local News

• Long-time residents have seen the county change from mostly agrarian to mostly suburban. Housing tracks have replaced strawberry fields. Despite these changes Ventura County still produces billions of dollars worth of crops. 2.1 billion, to be exact (total value in 2023).

• Strawberries 🍓 are the most valuable crop grown in Ventura County. Nursery stock is second, lemons third, celeries fourth, and raspberries fifth. Avocados, Blackberries, Peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce round out the top ten. Are you getting enough fruits 🍉 & veggies 🌶 in your diet? Support local farmers and local farmer’s markets. http://www.tamaifamilyfarms.com/

• Ventura County Residents have a life expectancy of 81.3 years. 1.4 years higher than the state average, ranking us 13th in the state.

• According to a report by CNBC, Oxnard is the fifth-most expensive city to purchase a home in the nation. (…I KNOW!) The report cites a study by SmartAsset that analyzed Zillow’s housing data for the 100 largest metropolitan areas in 2019, 2023, and 2024.
  
  The top five locations are all in California, with San Jose being the # 1 most expensive city to purchase a home in.
  Median home sale price in San Jose: $1,502,362
  Increase since 2023: 12.9%
  Increase since 2019: 41%

  To be able to afford a typical home in San Jose you would need to make $468,252.00 per year. Piece of 🍰
  
  Oxnard, by comparison, boasts statistics of:
  Median home sale price: $844,806
  Increase since 2023: 8.2%
  Increase since 2019: 43%
  San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego are #2, #3, & #4, respectively. Oxnard’s median home sale price is about $32k less than San Diego’s. The top 10 most expensive cities to purchase homes in are rounded out by some of the usual suspects. #6 Honolulu, #7 Seattle, #8 Boston, #9 New York, #10 Denver. For all the other cities out there, you’re either too small, or no one likes you. 🤷‍♂️

• Cheesesteak Republic recently opened at The VFW, located at 3801 Market St. in Ventura. Owner Adam Oliver served as a US Navy hospital corpsman in the emergency room at the now closed Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland CA. The simple menu consists of Philadelphia style sandwiches with west coast vibes. They are currently open 11 am-3 pm Monday-Friday and 11 am-7 pm on Saturday’s. They are closed on Sunday’s. Check the menu out here:

AI

When I was a child, “AI” stood for Allen Iverson, the 6 ft point guard from Georgetown University. AI was the Philadelphia 76er’s # 1 pick in the 1996 NBA draft. NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal, and Shawn Kemp tried their best to put Reebok on the map with their signature shoes, but neither were as successful as AI was with his first signature shoe, “The Reebok Question.” The Question is still in production and one of Reebok’s top-selling shoes, despite AI retiring from the league over a decade ago. I could go on and on about how much AI changed the game of basketball with his killer cross-over, iconic corn-rows, and all-around swag, but not before we discuss the new AI. Artificial Intelligence.

AI has become a colloquial term among all age groups. You may be using Artificial Intelligence without even realizing it. If you’re reading this article on a smartphone, congratulations; you’re part of the problem. I’m kidding; despite growing concerns about AI’s potential for harm, its current uses do what all technologies are intended to do: make our lives easier.

Chat GPT is one of the most popular forms of Artificial Intelligence. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, ask your children about it. Chat GPT is a chatbot virtual assistant designed to both understand and generate human language. It is trained to take a human-generated prompt, scour the internet for sources, and produce a well-articulated response. It’s essentially trying to take my job away. Chat GPT is currently being used to help draft emails, essays, and resumés. It can even help code. If you’re experiencing writer’s block, if you’re unsure how to respond to your boss’s latest email, or if you’re just tired of the Google search bar trying to guess your latest Google search (that’s also AI), give Chat GPT a try. The results will blow you away.

I mentioned AI’s potential harm, so I’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss “deep fakes.” A deep fake is a type of synthetic media where Artificial Intelligence is used to create realistic but fake videos. When done in parody, they can be quite funny and entertaining; however, the line between parody and real is becoming increasingly more difficult to decipher. If your friend sends you a video of Tom Cruise wishing you a happy birthday and saying, “You complete me,” You can be pretty sure it’s a deep fake and your friend didn’t just run into Tom at Whole Foods. If you’re on your third hour of doom scrolling, eyes glazed, yesterday’s take-out still on the coffee table, you may not be as perceptive. All of a sudden, the Kamala Harris video you just watched on X seems pretty damn real, especially considering it was posted by “X’s” CEO. I use a real example of an Elon Musk tweet not to bash, but rather to inform how difficult it can be to navigate fact from fiction. Parody, from verifiable news. Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, and the internet are all invaluable tools, but there’s a lot of false information being circulated (BY ALL SIDES, foreign & domestic!) Before you send that political meme to the group chat, consider giving it a quick fact check. Or you can really play it safe, and send this 20-minute compilation of AI destroying ankles with his signature cross-over. 🏀 ⛹🏽‍♂️

-MV

Weather

Oxnard

Ventura

Camarillo

Thousand Oaks

Santa Paula

Simi Valley

Thank you for reading The Neighborly Wave. If you own a home in Ventura County, you rich rich, please spread the wealth and share this article with your rich friends. If you rent a place in Ventura County, you will only be able to buy a place if you share this article with 5 friends. I apologize, I don’t make the rules.