CARMINA WILL WATCH, BUT MAY LOOK AWAY

Carmina will watch, but may look away

Naturally, Carmina Salcido is eager to see how ABC will treat the story of

her life and near-death in its hourlong ''20/20'' report on Friday night. But

she's leery of parts that may be graphic or painful to watch.

''I'm not sure what I'm going to be seeing here,'' Carmina, 23, said

Wednesday in a radio conversation with me and KSRO's Steve Jaxon.

It will take courage for her to watch the show, just as it took courage for

her to research and co-author a book about the slaughter her father the Death

Row habitue committed 20 years ago.

Confronting the horror has contributed to the emotional healing of a young

woman who'll always wear a scar across her throat. She hopes in the future to

become a professional singer.

Won't that be something, to hear her sing?

MOVIE, MAYBE: UCSF medical intern Josh Bazell will be at Ukiah's Mendocino

College tonight to talk about his well-received first novel, ''Beat the

Reaper.''

The story, about an ex-Mafia hit man who slips into the witness protection

program as a hospital intern, has caught Hollywood's eye. There's an option

for a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Bazell and his book will be in Room 5310 of the Center for Visual &

Performing Arts at 7 p.m.

COCO CHANEL WILL VISIT SRJC this weekend. That's remarkable, given that the

renowned fashion designer and subject of an anticipated new film died in 1971.

The stand-in who'll appear at the JC (brownpapertickets.com) on Saturday

night is actress/historian Annette Baldwin. Her performance in Newman Hall,

''The Life and Times of Coco Chanel,'' will celebrate the 100th birthday of

the school's Consumer Family Studies department. In Chanel's time, it was

called Home Economics.

LOVE IN STUMPTOWN: We'll know on Friday what local moviegoers think about

''Redwoods,'' the film about two men who aren't looking for love when they

meet by chance in a tree-graced town.

For sure, viewers who see it tonight at the Rialto Cinemas Lakeside will

enjoy the setting. It was shot in and near Guerneville.

Director David Lewis and members of the cast will linger after the 7:15

p.m. screening for Q & A.

BEEN THERE: Ralph Savory was born Oct. 14, 1909, on a ranch that covered

much of the southern flank of Santa Rosa's Taylor Mountain. He might have

spent his entire life thereabouts but for the day he stood in awe, neck

craned, as an early airplane flew over.

He learned to fly after graduation from Santa Rosa High in 1928 and in 1935

became one of the first Alaskan bush pilots. He went on to Pan Am and from

1938 through the 1960s piloted early airliners, Flying Boats and then

jetliners.

''I flew the Atlantic, the Pacific, around the world and over Antarctica

and the North Pole. That pretty well covered it,'' said Ralph, who lived for

23 years in Seattle, where he was Pan Am's chief pilot.

Being 100 has something to do with why he's content to stay close to Santa

Rosa, but also he figures he's traveled eight million miles, give or take.

It's nice to be home.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.