Duo’s ‘Ghostbusters’ car has bumpy road

For the past five years, Bryan Fear and Eric Eseke have been building a
replica of an Ectomobile, the souped-up ambulance featured in the 1984
movie “Ghostbusters.”

Both of the men, who moved from Poway to Rancho Bernardo this week,
have been re-creating the equipment featured in the popular movies for
years and dressing up as characters for the San Diego Comic-Con.

They’ve built seven 35-pound proton packs, the ray-emitting
backpacks the characters used to lasso in the undead, complete with
sound systems to make the recognizable hum. They’ve also made ghost
traps, “Ecto Goggles” and PKE meters built to emulate the movie props.

“It’s almost like we had to build the car to use it as a box to keep
and carry all of that equipment,” said 41-year-old Fear, who started
the hobby in 2002.

Johnny Cash musical coming to Escondido

Fans of the late Johnny Cash might have gotten a glimpse of the man in
the Oscar-winning biography “I Walk the Line,” but the producer of a
stage show coming to Escondido said this show has a different take — it
lets the classic songs do the talking.

“Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Musical” will be staged four times
Aug. 6-8 at the California Center for the Performing Arts in Escondido.

It is presented by the Fullerton Civic Light Opera, which has staged
several shows at the venue, most recently a production of “Brigadoon.”

The show, which had a brief Broadway run in 2006, promises a revue
featuring many of the songs written for and made popular by Cash,
including “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “A Boy Named Sue,” and
“Folsom Prison Blues.”

Local artist’s comic flourishes online

In “Marsh Rocket,” a Web-based comic created by Carmel Mountain Ranch
resident Jules Rivera, corporations run amok, resorting to corporate
mercenaries to get market leads.

The story follows a group of these ruthless characters, including the
titular Rocket, whose youthful looks betray his resourcefulness as a
warrior. It’s an often violent depiction, a look a characters that have
many dark edges.

In its current incarnation, Rivera has fleshed out this universe —
based on an idea she first came up with in high school about 10 years
ago — since 2006.

Her work speaks to a dedicated pursuit of her craft. Rivera said she
draws during her free time and juggles a 40-hour work week in order to
meet her deadlines.

WEB UPDATE: Season ends for Poway American all-star team

WEB UPDATE: The season for
the Poway American 10- and 11-year-old all-stars came to an end on
Wednesday, after it fell 11-0 to Rancho San Diego in five innings.

Poway American ended as the runner-up of the Southern California
Division III South Subdivisional tournament. Rancho San Diego now moves
on to play the winner of the other Southern California subdivision for a
two-out-of-three showdown to determine the state champion.

Rancho San Diego was the defending state champion. According to Poway
American Manager Dean Weese, they returned all but one of their players
from last year’s team.

“They’re a good hitting team and came at us from the get-go,” Weese
said. “We battled the best we could, but came out on the short end.”

Poway grad Klahn, an NCAA tennis champ, has busy summer

As Bradley Klahn prepares for his junior year at Stanford University
this fall, he knows that he’ll have a really big target on his back.

After all, he’ll be the defending NCAA Division I singles champion,
after finishing a 39-8 season with the Cardinal. He became the first to
win an individual championship for the Palo Alto school since 2000.

According to the school, the 2008 Poway High grad is only one of 14
Stanford students to win the singles championship, and the ninth to do
so after the NCAA adopted its current program. (Tennis legend John
McEnroe accomplished the feat for the school in 1978).

Now on break, Klahn is playing in lots of professional tournaments
this summer. He said he plans on not taking any money to maintain his
amateur status so that he can continue playing collegiate tennis.

4S track club is sending athletes to nationals

Though it’s only been around for a few months, the High Five Track Club,
associated with Maranatha Christian Schools in 4S Ranch, is sending two
athletes to the National Junior Olympic Outdoor Track & Field
Championships.

The event is being held this week in Sacramento. Brietta Klein and
Adam Larson qualified for the nationals after their finishes in the
regionals, held late June in Las Vegas.

Brietta, 12, took third place in the 3,000 meter run with a 13:00 finish.

Adam, 12, finished in fourth place in the discus throw with 67-4, but
made it to the nationals after one of the top-three finishers was
disqualified, said Coach Peter Gregory, a resident of Rancho Bernardo.

“The Junior Nationals is the highest level they can go,” Gregory
said. “It’s an honor for them to be competing at this high level.”

WEB UPDATE: Poway American All-Stars win Section 6 crown

The Poway American Little League 10- and 11-year old All-Star team won the
Section 6 championship in University City on Thursday, defeating Scripps Ranch
12-10 in their second meeting in as many days.

The local squad, which lost to Scripps Ranch 5-1 on Wednesday, was able to
bounce back from the setback and win the tournament, which featured the winners
of four county Little League districts.

Poway American now advances to the Southern California Division III South
sub-divisional tournament, a tournament that features five section champions.

Poway American is scheduled to play its first
game at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday (July 25) at 6005 College Grove Drive.

Gregory Page launches library’s acoustic concert series

Some songs of “Love Make Me Drunk,” the album by San Diego’s Gregory Page, sounds like they were created somewhere in Paris.

With closed eyes, “La Valse De Virginie” and “Bon Voyage Mon Cheri”
transport you to a Parisian cafe — or to in a smokey club with sawdust
on the floor.

Others, like the melancholy “Broken Hearted Leg,” feel as if they
were the product of walks down city alleyways in rain-soaked streets.

The truth is something different.

Page, the talented singer songwriter who is well-known in the San
Diego music scene, recorded the album — as well as “Sleeping Dogs” — in
Poway in a nondescript office near the intersection of Poway and Garden
roads, across from the 7-Eleven, where he remembers eating many meals.

Air & Space Museum debuts 4-D movie theater

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is a little more kid-friendly these
days with the addition of a new high-tech movie theater and children’s
play area.

Earlier this month, the Balboa Park museum inaugurated a new “4-D”
theater, which combines 3-D movies with moving seats, lasers, wind and
splashes of water to give viewers an immersion experience.

“We’re trying to be more interactive, and we saw this as a way to engage kids,” said museum spokeswoman Jessica Packard.

It took about three months to convert a rear gallery into the 36-seat
Zable Theater. It is currently showing two movies in a continuous loop
throughout the day. Access to the theater is free with regular museum
admission.

REVIEW: ‘The Costume Ball’ is fun, but not up to PowPAC’s usual standards

PowPAC, Poway’s Community Theatre, has launched its 29th season with
“The Costume Ball,” a comedy about mistaken identity that runs through
Aug. 15.

It tells the story of a husband and wife, Gwen and Harry Harris, who are going through a rough financial period.

He’s a Madison Avenue advertiser on the verge of filing for
bankruptcy. She’s unemployed and looking for a job in the publishing
world. They’re (very) recent empty nesters, as their children are off on
vacation, their daughter to Paris and their son to Nairobi.

Their future depends on whether or not he’ll land a big contract from
a Midwest yeast company whose founder has a reputation as a man with a
“strict moral compass.”