Not Just Music to My Ears

I moved to California from Texas. The last city I lived in there was Austin, Texas. Austin is know as the “Live Music Capital of the World.” What I immediately loved about Lompoc was what I missed about Austin - the amount of live music and musicians living and playing here. I have watched so many amazing artists here that it feels like Austin used to - funky, creative, and burgeoning artists learning their craft in front of live audiences no matter the style or genre. I think we have a missed opportunity by not leaning in harder to the “Arts” of the city of Arts and Flowers. Declaring our selves as something should mean we support all flavors of it - murals, crosswalks, galleries, musicians, stages and venues but also writers and poets. I want Lompoc to be know as the best little art town in California where you can see, feel and hear art at any moment as well as where artists can afford to live and work. It’s time we modernized not only our tag line from City of Arts and Flowers to City of Art, Ag and Aerospace (yes we can workshop this!) but fund and support our artists so we don’t loose them to other states like Austin has lost its soul to corporate influence. Let’s keep Lompoc weird!