ARTIFACTS 06.13.13 – Communication is equal parts talking and listening – without one, it doesn’t work. Try it at home.

• Golden State Theater is up in the air and in the news. Here’s another bit: Jim Vossen is leading a campaign to form a nonprofit to raise money and buy the place outright. Call 236-5994 or email jim@montereyradio.com to get this movement moving.

• The Toastmasters want to “help make public UNSTOPPABLE – please.” That’s how they put it in their invite to their open house at Black Bear Diner (2450 N. Fremont St., Monterey) 6pm Wednesday, June 19. They promise life-improving changes. And free food and cake. RSVP to 521-2780, pspeers@sbcglobal.net.

• Old Capitol Books (559 Tyler St., Monterey, www.OldCapitolBooks.com) is putting on eye-opening literary events that remind one of the Thunderbird Bookstore days, though not as genteel. Their “Thinking Critically” summer series covers a talk on the African diaspora in white America 1-3pm Saturday, June 15. From 6:30-8pm, check out “What is Polyamory?” on June 26, “Prisons and Incarceration” on July 1, and “Alternative Sexualities” on July 8.

• The Monterey Jazz Festival has assembled a team lead by this year’s Grammy-winning festival Artist-in-Residence Joe Lovano to teach more than 135 county students this business of jazz at MPC June 10-21. What’s it to you? There will be performances. A student jam session 7-9pm Monday June 17 at Museum of Monterey. A vocal solo mic night 7-9pm Tuesday June 18, also at MoM. A combos concert 7-9:30pm Wednesday June 19 at MPC Auditorium. A big bands and vocal concert 7-10pm Thursday, June 20, at P.G. Middle School. All free. MontereyJazzFestival.org.

• The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Underwater Explorers program begins on Monday, June 17, and allows kids 8-13 to SCUBA daily in the enclosed Great Tide Pool out back. But first, this Saturday, the aquarium outfits 30 young people with disabilities in SCUBA gear to get a taste of the freedom it affords, as part of the annual Zach Bunnell Day of Discovery. See more of that touching story at www.oceanicworldwide.com/us/news/2011-08-day-of-discovery.

• On Friday, at 7pm, local historian and author Meg Clovis talks “Lost Towns of Monterey County,” about places that “once flourished but are largely lost to the sands of time,” at P.G. Performing Arts Center at P.G. Middle School (835 Forest Ave., 372-2898, $10-$15).

• I’ll admit, I’m not sure what it is. But it’s new and it seems pleasant enough. Friday Night Lily Pad Art Jam at the newly opened Open Ground Studios (7-9:30pm, 1230 Fremont Blvd., Seaside, 241-6919, $10) is billed as “A NIGHT OUT” (that’s how they put it) “that’s a cool blend of social and creative!” “Jam” with other art enthusiasts; they provide snacks, music, nice people and a nudge to make something with your hands. “A lily pad is a safe haven for frogs. It gives them a place to rest… become a social trendsetter!” Huh?