Recently I had the pleasure of reading a lovely little book called The Joy of Cannabis.
I have to admit, although a lifelong adult cannabis user who has written tens of thousands of words on the subject, holding this clever volume in my hands made me nearly as giddy as my nine-year-old self holding the book’s spiritual predecessor, The Joy of Sex.
Like with that 1972 classic, co-authors Melanie Abrams and Larry Smith seek to demystify an activity that is commonplace in the human experience—getting high. Via email, I connected with the authors to learn what motivated the project.
Giotis: I appreciate the how-to nature of the book, and the loose modeling on books like the classic, TheJoy of Sex. Why a how-to?
Abrams, Smith: We wanted to write a book that would be a warm welcome for the canna-curious and still offer some new ideas and insight for canna-connoisseurs. So our book is a mix of “how-to,” sober science and playful activities that help readers unlock the mind and body and help increase productivity, connection, and, above all, joy.
We also address issues like equity and inclusion and the importance of supporting BIPOC-owned canna-businesses; these are issues that are top of mind for many and yet for others they may not have considered.
Giotis: The time seems right for this book. With the rise of CBD and other non-psychoactive cannabis derived molecules, many an auntie suddenly is in need of information on the plant. Who can benefit from this book?
Abrams, Smith: We felt this in a very personal way. As soon as we started working on the book, friends, friends of friends, and parents of friends began flooding us with questions: Can cannabis help with my anxiety? Pain? Sleep? Will it help reconnect me with my partner, my parent, my long lost friend? Do people really get more focused and productive with edibles? What’s the best way to use cannabis? How do I navigate a dispensary? Why do you call it “cannabis” and not “marijuana”? (Spoiler: “marijuana” was intentionally racist. ~G)
Giotis: What are some concerns with cannabis use?
Abrams, Smith: Studies reveal that the frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25. In a perfect world, no one would consume any type of drug or alcohol until 25. The reality is that many teens will consume one or both. It’s all of our responsibility to remind them to take it easy and use cannabis responsibly and in moderation. (Correct dosage is vital for any age…I have learned the hard way. ~G)
Giotis: How did you come to work together?
Abrams, Smith: We met three years ago at a party in the Bay Area and [over some weed] began a conversation that hasn’t stopped. Along the way, we realized we loved cannabis for the same reasons: This magical flower helps unlock creativity and connection, decreases inhibitions and helps you be gloriously in the moment.
Local ‘The Joy of Cannabis’ author appearances include 5:30 pm, Wednesday, Jan. 18 at Sausalito Books by the Bay, 100 Bay St., and 7pm, Friday, Jan. 20 at Copperfield’s Books, 138 N Main St., Sebastopol.
At first glance, Broker appears to be a sinister crime story with an especially disturbing angle. In contemporary Busan, South Korea, two men are in the business of “stealing” unwanted infants left in “safe baby drop-off” boxes, then selling the retrieved babies to interested customers, with the assumed (but not too carefully vetted) expectation that the purchasers are innocent, childless civilians yearning to become parents.
The two men’s little racket is upset when a young woman follows up on the whereabouts of the baby boy she recently left behind—her own newborn son—and confronts the baby brokers, demanding to know where her erstwhile offspring is going to wind up. At the same time, two undercover police officers are surveilling the brokers as well as the birth mother—the police officers are investigating a suspected illegal child trafficking operation. Simultaneously with all this, gangsters are on the trail of the same baby boy and the brokers, for murky reasons of their own (to be divulged as the film unwinds).
Sounds like a sordid, queasy-making situation all around, until one realizes that Broker is written and directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu, the Japanese filmmaker behind Shoplifters, After the Storm and Like Father, Like Son. In his career of 27 features, Kore-eda has specialized in seemingly messy, ultimately sincere and humanistic stories of individuals who have a common denominator: They all belong, or desperately want to belong, to a family of some sort. To be part of a cohesive group, to feel safe and wanted inside a family structure, even a family of petty thieves or child kidnappers.
That formula pretty neatly describes the baby brokers and their associates. Sang-hyeon (played by Song Kang-ho from Parasite and Snowpiercer) is the affable owner of a dry-cleaning business with unresolved issues in his past family life and a worrisome gambling debt. His accomplice, Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won), is a former orphan. So-young (Lee Ji-eun), the birth mother of the baby in question, is an assertive prostitute looking to go straight—with other, nastier issues to feel guilty about.
The baby at the center of things is Woo-sung (played by juvie non-actor Park Ji-yong). Add to them an unattached little boy named Hae-jin (Im Seung-soo), who strongly desires to be adopted, and there’s a vanload of lonely characters in search of, well… more or less a normal family sitcom style of life, sitting around in a motel room eating fast food and watching TV. What the hell; it’s home.
Life on the road is not entirely a jittery web of suspense. Shenanigans ensue, as when mischievous tyke Hae-jin accidentally leaves the van window open while the vehicle moves through a car wash and everybody gets soaked. The “family members” have trouble keeping their stories straight when dealing with a hospital—viewers can see the personalities growing on each other before their eyes. Viewers also learn the market rate for a Korean no-questions-asked adoption: Boys go for 10 million won (roughly U.S. $7,860); girls for 8 million. Customers seeking children have all sorts of reasons.
Song Kang-ho has developed international stature as a character actor because of his work for Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, and Kore-eda takes full advantage of Song’s happy-go-lucky screen presence. Broker’s baby merchants are decidedly not hard cases simply motivated by greed, and neither is actor Lee’s luckless anti-ingenue So-young. So-young is important to Broker because she demonstrates that even promiscuous people can have legitimate feelings, to paraphrase Warren Beatty’s comment about his character in Hal Ashby’s Shampoo.
It’s easy to feel sorry for castaway kids and regret-ridden adults who never quite grew up, but it’s much more difficult to reconcile the apparent sleaziness of this film’s outsiders with the look that Song’s Sang-hyeon gets on his face when he’s told that he doesn’t belong in his long-lost daughter’s life any more. That’s the Kore-eda touch, and that’s what makes it so beautifully sad.
Between health-related closures, dwindling audiences, casting challenges and at least one big change in company leadership, there was almost as much drama off-stage as on in the North Bay theater community in the past year.
There was an assumption by some that pandemic-weary audiences (and theater companies) would seek relief in comedies and small-scale musicals and, to a certain extent, they did, but dramatic plays continued to be a welcome option for local audiences.
Here are my “Top Torn Tickets” for the best and/or most interesting dramas produced in the North Bay in 2022:
Clybourne Park—Raven Players—Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning continuation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun got a solid mounting from this Healdsburg company.
A Doll’s House, Part 2—Novato Theater Company—This production of Lucas Hnath’s sequel to Ibsen’s 138-year-old drama packed a lot in its 85 intermission-less minutes.
The Glass Menagerie—Main Stage West—The now 75-year-old Tennessee Williams classic may be draped in the trappings of its time, but its look at the illusions people create to get through life, and the pain and regret that comes with the shattering of those illusions, still hit hard, courtesy of the work of four actors at the top of their game.
Master Class—Sonoma Arts Live—Libby Oberlin was first class as diva Maria Callas in this simply staged but very effective production.
Misery—Cinnabar Theater—One knew what one was getting when taking a seat at this stage adaptation based on the screenplay of the Stephen King novel. That it was still able to deliver a jolt or two, despite the familiarity of the material, is a credit to director Tim Kniffin and the cast.
One Flea Spare—Main Stage West—A show set during the Great Plague in a quarantined household might have been a little too on-the-nose for some, but its look at what sequestration can do to people (and what people can do to each other) was absolutely absorbing.
The River Bride—6th Street Playhouse—Despite the occasional train whistle and ambient sounds of local automobile traffic, this production of an Amazonian-set fable managed to—through set, sound and performance—transport audiences to a different world.
The Sound Inside—Marin Theatre Company—Theater didn’t get any more unsettling than this look at the relationship between a college professor and a student. Challenging in both presentation and subject matter, it’s a rare play in which everything isn’t tied neatly up at the end.
Humboldt County landmark inspires Netflix and winemaking
When most people think of Humboldt County, it’s not for vineyards. Adrian Manspeaker, founder and winemaker at Joseph Jewell Wines, is hoping to change that.
Having grown up in Benbow in southern Humboldt County, Manspeaker attended the College of the Redwoods in Eureka from 1996 to 1998 before moving back to spend a few more years in his hometown and moving to Sonoma County with his now-wife in 2003. He started Joseph Jewell out of his garage in Windsor in 2006, first sourcing fruit from Elk Prairie, a six-acre vineyard close to Humboldt’s Myers Flat and later from the area now known as “Murder Mountain,” which also happens to be the title of a Netflix true crime documentary series.
“Some people disappeared from this area back in the day, and inevitably this is how the name ‘Murder Mountain’ came to be. Fast forward to now—the Netflix series came out after there was another unfortunate situation in the area,” says Manspeaker.
The winemaker is hoping to help make the area known for another reason—pinot noir—and put Humboldt County on the map as the next frontier when it comes to California cool climate pinot noir growing regions.
In 2014, Manspeaker started sourcing grapes from a two-acre vineyard in Alderpoint, which is a few miles from the infamous mountain. Over the following five years, he complemented this fruit with pinot noir from additional sites in Humboldt County, including Ryan Vineyard (a 17-acre vineyard in his hometown of Benbow), Fruitland Ridge (near Elk Prairie, way up north to the furthest reaches of Humboldt County) and Phelps Vineyard in Briceland.
Manspeaker believes that Humboldt County is optimal for pinot noir because “there are a vast number of interesting and distinct microclimates in Humboldt County that are just now being discovered.”
Factors characteristic of wines grown in Humboldt County include its proximity to the Eel River and its persistent marine layer (this affects vineyards in Fruitland Ridge or Myers Flat particularly), and overall very cool temperatures, even in higher elevation vineyards (like the Phelps Vineyard Joseph Jewell sources fruit from).
Joseph Jewell usually picks their Humboldt County fruit in late October, which is more than a month later than warmer sites in the Russian River Valley and at least a month later than the coolest Sonoma Coast and Russian River sites.
“It took me over 10 years to form relationships with all these small farmers, and their unique sites are helping me understand and learn more about the climate up there and where exactly ideal vineyards could be planted in the future,” says Manspeaker. “I think we are making really nice wines from Humboldt County, and it would seem that the critics agree, as our 2018 Alderpoint Vineyard Pinot Noir was awarded 94 points recently by Wine Enthusiast.”
If one is a fan of fresh, elegant, cool climate pinot noirs, I’d recommend visiting Joseph Jewell’s local tasting room in Forestville, where one can taste both their Humboldt County and Sonoma County pinot noirs, as well as their pét-nat of vermentino.
Russia’s war upon Ukraine should be a reminder that violent international conflicts not only persist, but constitute a plague upon the world.
One popular response to war is isolationism, which is designed to keep one’s nation out of the conflict. But this policy (labeled “America First” in the U.S.) ignores the suffering of other people and, of course, does nothing to stop a war elsewhere.
Pacifism is on a higher ethical plane, for it deplores the horrors produced by militarism and war. Furthermore, if most people around the world accepted the absolute pacifist position (which rejects military force in all circumstances), pacifists might be able to prevent wars from occurring or continuing. But this is not the case and, given widespread public support for “just wars” (including defense against invasion), seems unlikely to become so.
Nonviolent resistance has greater potentiality as an alternative to war or surrender, although its full promise has yet to be realized in coping with international war.
Legislative bodies enact laws, while police and judicial institutions enforce these laws. Unfortunately, on the global level, these institutions are so rudimentary and limited in power that they fail to produce an effective check upon violence. Thus, on the national level, governments can restrain violence by individuals, mobs or insurrectionists. But, on the international level, things proceed much as they did in the American Wild West of yesteryear.
In short, while nations have established useful governance at the national level, the world lacks effective governance at the international level. As a result, when nations have an international conflict, they are tempted, in the absence of the force of law, to invoke the law of force.
After thousands of years of blood and plunder, topped off in recent decades by the looming danger of a nuclear holocaust, isn’t it time to give strengthened global governance a try?
Nations of the world unite! There is nothing to lose but wars.
The most underreported story list is a list of distractions, important stories to be sure, in what many would consider, pre-COVID normal times. However, folks, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has vanquished most world governments in an apparent bloodless coup.
Klaus Schwab, the nominal WEF leader, admires the Communist Chinese authoritarian model, and that’s the direction the wind blows. They shut off your power; they’re sabotaging the supply chain; they sabotage small farming and food processing.
They suspend the Constitution after they released a biological weapon. They’re taking away your children, your sovereignty and your money. With the reset and both digital ID and currency, you will own nothing and not be very happy eating mealworm. Why are we under the thrall of the WHO, UN and WEF? Was that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Donald Trump who disenfranchised us? With executive order 666, did they hand over decision making to Schwab?
Banks have always won in this paradigm, but our financial system is broken, and those 1 percenters are openly looting the empire. They’re so many news stories and distractions, one naturally loses track or is confused or easily led. That’s alright, because everyone will comply or die, and they will control you, completely and utterly command your life.
The United States and other western nations have long been compromised and therefore operate with organized crime, the security agencies and big business. It is not a coincidence that Americans are divided, not if you have been paying any attention to the elephant in the room.
Leland Dennick
Sebastopol
Four Horsemen
Daggers to the heart of democracy have not been delivered exclusively by Donald Trump and his minions, or Nancy Pelosi and hers, depending upon your orientation.
Here are my dark horse nominations for the four horsemen of the American political apocalypse.
Consider the newspaper killers in our society—cost-cutting, profit maximizing robber barons who deliberately destroy local news capacity in favor of nationalist reporting.
Consider Congress with its massive dereliction of constitutional duty to do things like make laws and impeach people who usurp or impede lawmaking.
Consider the Supreme Court of the United States, which has abandoned its mandate to find legislative intent and gone over to the dark side of partisan decision-making.
Consider our 1% class, with its puppet members of both parties in tow, asserting the inviolability of all its money, no matter how ill-gotten the gain.
Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised, Grammy Award-winning music legend Charlie Musselwhite celebrates the release of his new album, Mississippi Son, with a live performance at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts on Jan. 20. Renowned worldwide as a master harmonica player, Musselwhite is a seasoned, truth-telling vocalist and songwriter rooted deep within the blues tradition who was a fixture of the local music scene for years before a recent move back to Mississippi, where he recorded his new album in the heart of the Delta. Musselwhite will perform a solo opening set for The Blind Boys of Alabama, then join the group for a couple of tunes during their closing set. Charlie Musselwhite performs at 8pm, Friday, Jan. 20 at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Ruth Finley Person Theater, 50 Mark West Springs Rd., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $39-$59 and are available at lutherburbankcenter.org.
Healdsburg
Beo String Quartet
Beo String Quartet, noted for its sterling sound and experimental as well as classical performances, brings it virtuosity to The 222 in Healdsburg on Jan. 20 with an eclectic lineup of selections, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue,” Missy Mazzoli’s “Enthusiasm Strategies,” Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Quartet No. 8 in C Minor,” Marc Mellits’ “String Quartet No. 5: Waníyetu” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Quartet in F Major.” The quartet convenes at 7:30pm, Friday, Jan. 20 at The 222, located at 222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg. Tickets range from $35 to $75. For more information, visit the222.org.
San Anselmo
Photographer Ed Kashi Book Signing
Renowned American photojournalist Ed Kashi shares his visceral relationship with photography in a new, award-winning monograph, Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography, with a lecture and reception this Saturday at San Anselmo’s The Image Flow. In contrast to the orchestration of the “decisive moment” often associated with photography, Kashi’s latest volume honors the intuition he has gained over a 40-year career to yield his camera to the experiences of reality around him (as per the striking 2007 image of the Ganapati Festival in Vadhav, India above). Ed Kashi’s lecture and reception begins at 5pm, Saturday, Jan. 7 at The Image Flow Inc, 328 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo. theimageflow.com. The event is free and open to the public.
Pt. Reyes Station
Vickisa Unleashed
Gallery Route One presents “Vickisa Unleashed,” an exhibition of works inspired by music festivals, incorporating paintings, painted drawings, and limited-edition, accordion-style artist books by Marin mononymic artist Vickisa. The artist has chronicled countless music festivals, including the New Orleans French Quarter Festival and her favorite, San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, which are depicted in her selection of artist-crafted, fold-out accordion books. As she explains, “My passion is creating accordion books from these festivals. At the recent Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival, I found myself right in front of the stage quickly sketching the exciting activities swirling around me and taking some photographs too. The process of sketching, collaging and creating a handwritten story is something I never tire of.” A reception commences at 3pm, Sunday, Jan. 8 at Gallery Route One Exhibitions, 11101 Highway One, Point Reyes Station. For more information, visit galleryrouteone.org.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “My life was the best omelet you could make with a chainsaw,” observed flamboyant author Thomas McGuane. That’s a witty way to encapsulate his tumultuous destiny. There have been a few moments in 2022 when you might have been tempted to invoke a similar metaphor about your own evolving story. But the good news is that your most recent chainsaw-made omelet is finished and ready to eat. I think you’ll find its taste is savory. And I believe it will nourish you for a long time. (Soon it will be time to start your next omelet, maybe without using the chainsaw this time!)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): After meticulous research of 2023’s astrological omens, I have come to a radical conclusion: You should tell the people who care for you that you’d like to be called by new pet names. I think you need to intensify their ability and willingness to view you as a sublime creature worthy of adoration. I don’t necessarily recommend you use old standbys like “cutie,” “honey,” “darling” or “angel.” I’m more in favor of unique and charismatic versions, something like “Jubilee” or “Zestie” or “Fantasmo” or “Yowie-Wowie.” Have fun coming up with pet names that you are very fond of. The more, the better.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If I could choose some fun and useful projects for you to master in 2023, they would include the following: 1. Be in constant competition with yourself to outdo past accomplishments. But at the same time, be extra compassionate toward yourself. 2. Borrow and steal other people’s good ideas and use them with even better results than they would use them. 3. Acquire an emerald or two, or wear jewelry that features emeralds. 4. Increase your awareness of and appreciation for birds. 5. Don’t be attracted to folks who aren’t good for you just because they are unusual or interesting. 6. Upgrade your flirting so it’s even more nuanced and amusing, while at the same time you make sure it never violates anyone’s boundaries.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): When she was young, Carolyn Forché was a conventional poet focused on family and childhood. But she transformed. Relocating to El Salvador during its civil war, she began to write about political trauma. Next, she lived in Lebanon during its civil war. She witnessed firsthand the tribulations of military violence and the imprisonment of activists. Her creative work increasingly illuminated questions of social justice. At age 72, she is now a renowned human rights advocate. In bringing her to your attention, I don’t mean to suggest that you engage in an equally dramatic self-reinvention. But in 2023, I do recommend drawing on her as an inspirational role model. You will have great potential to discover deeper aspects of your life’s purpose—and enhance your understanding of how to offer your best gifts.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Are the characters in Carlos Castañeda’s books on shamanism fictional or real? It doesn’t matter to me. I love the wisdom of his alleged teacher, Don Juan Matus. He said, “Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.” Don Juan’s advice is perfect for you in the coming nine months, Leo. I hope you will tape a copy of his words on your bathroom mirror and read it at least once a week.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Teacher and author Byron Katie claims, “The voice within is what I’m married to. My lover is the place inside me where an honest yes and no come from.” I happen to know that she has also been married for many years to a writer named Stephen Mitchell. So she has no problem being wed to both Mitchell and her inner voice. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to propose marriage to your own inner voice. The coming year will be a fabulous time to deepen your relationship with this crucial source of useful and sacred revelation.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche offered advice that is perfect for you in 2023. It’s strenuous. It’s demanding and daunting. If you take it to heart, you will have to perform little miracles you may not yet have the confidence to try. But I have faith in you, Libra. That’s why I don’t hesitate to provide you with Nietzsche’s rant: “No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): How might you transform the effects of the limitations you’ve been dealing with? What could you do to make it work in your favor as 2023 unfolds? I encourage you to think about these questions with daring and audacity. The more moxie you summon, the greater your luck will be in making the magic happen. Here’s another riddle to wrestle with: What surrender or sacrifice could you initiate that might lead in unforeseen ways to a plucky breakthrough? I have a sense that’s what will transpire as you weave your way through the coming months in quest of surprising opportunities.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian singer Tina Turner confided, “My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself.” I hope you will experiment with that formula in 2023. I believe the coming months will potentially be a time when you will be happier with yourself than you have ever been before—more at peace with your unique destiny, more accepting of your unripe qualities, more in love with your depths, and more committed to treating yourself with utmost care and respect. Therefore, if Tina Turner is accurate, 2023 will also be a year when your beauty will be ascendant.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “I’m homesick all the time,” writes author Sarah Addison Allen. “I just don’t know where home is. There’s this promise of happiness out there. I know it. I even feel it sometimes. But it’s like chasing the moon. Just when I think I have it, it disappears into the horizon.” If you have ever felt pangs like hers, Capricorn, I predict they will fade in 2023. That’s because I expect you will clearly identify the feeling of home you want—and thereby make it possible to find and create the place, the land, and the community where you will experience a resounding peace and stability.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Storyteller Michael Meade tells us, “The ship is always off course. Anybody who sails knows that. Sailing is being off-course and correcting. That gives a sense of what life is about.” I interpret Meade’s words to mean that we are never in a perfect groove heading directly towards our goal. We are constantly deviating from the path we might wish we could follow with unfailing accuracy. That’s not a bug in the system; it’s a feature. And as long as we obsess on the idea that we’re not where we should be, we are distracted from doing our real work. And the real work? The ceaseless corrections. I hope you will regard what I’m saying here as one of your core meditations in 2023, Aquarius.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): A Chinese proverb tells us, “Great souls have wills. Feeble souls have wishes.” I guess that’s true in an abstract way. But in practical terms, most of us are a mix of both great and feeble. We have a modicum of willpower and a bundle of wishes. In 2023, though, you Pisceans could make dramatic moves to strengthen your willpower as you shed wimpy wishes. In my psychic vision of your destiny, I see you feeding metaphorical iron supplements to your resolve and determination.
Perhaps nothing connected people during the pandemic more than music. It seems as if every band in the world produced an album in recent years. And when live performances returned, for many it was as if collective spirits lifted and bodies again moved freely in dance.
In the North Bay, the vibrant and diverse music scene is something worth celebrating, as are all these bands, performers and music supporters.
And so, here are the winners of the 2022 North Bay Music Awards, as voted by the readers of the Pacific Sun and the North Bay Bohemian.
Americana: Dave Hamilton
Last year’s winner in the folk category, Dave Hamilton’s win in Americana, no small feat in the rich tradition the genre has in the region, shows the breadth of his appeal across categories. Hamilton plays throughout the North Bay this month. davehamiltonfolkamericana.com
Blues: Spike Sikes & His Awesome Hotcakes
Bluesmen aren’t born; they are formed through struggle and soul. Sultry North Bay fixture Spike Sikes bleeds out the blues at local venues week after week. His band of accomplices blends a slow burn of blues, jazz and soul on their 2022 LP, Magnolia Street. awesomehotcakes.com
Country: Bloomfield Bluegrass Band
Bloomfield Bluegrass Band plays that brand of music that was called “old-time” 100 years ago and that will still move the heart 100 years hence. Their experiments with the locally built redwood fiddle are especially worthy. bloomfieldbluegrassband.com
DJ (Live): Lady Char
707 native Lady Char spins upbeat sets that draw from an eclectic mix of influences, all connected by the love of a dancing crowd. Lauded for the positivity of her sets, Char started the Love Beat DJ after-school enrichment program to inspire love of music in youth. djladychar.com
DJ (Radio): New Release Hour with Brian and Doug on KRCB
Co-owner of Santa Rosa’s Next Record Store, Doug Jayne teams up with KRCB morning DJ Brian Griffith to give listeners a taste of new releases every Tuesday at 11am. Dudes know their stuff. norcalpublicmedia.org/radio-programs/new-release-hour-with-brian-doug
Electronica: Eki Shola
Winner of the electronica category for the last four years, Eki Shola defies comparison. Percussive piano, synth vocals, jazzy bass lines and whisper-soft breakbeats melt together under easy pop vocals and hip-hop delivered wisdom. ekishola.com
Folk: Dave Hamilton
Two time winner this year, Dave Hamilton channels the spirit of Pete Seeger to win the NorBay for folk for the third year running. davehamiltonfolkamericana.com
Hip-Hop: J.Lately
“Too much comfort can be a disservice,” raps J.Lately in his single, “Pictures.” The Sebastopol native spits cozy smooth flow, but drops albums like a madperson, with three long players in the last two years. When one wants to feel good to the core, these are the beats. justlatelymusic.com
Indie: Ellie James
Berklee College of Music grad Ellie James has a reputation as an indie standout, winning the award in 2020. Now she is back and in a big way…but small, as in indie. Her sound and approach capture that dichotomy perfectly: a honed talent, yet fun and free. thisiselliejames.com
INDIE Ellie James uplifts North Bay audiences.
Jazz: Stella Heath
Lauded in past Bohemian articles for her “magnetic vocals and tight rhythms,” Petaluma native Stella Heath draws from the origins of popular jazz to channel Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday in a fistful of can’t miss projects for jazzheads. stellaheathmusic.com
Metal: A Hero To Fall
For those who wish the Dillinger Escape Plan lived next door, they may look no further than North Bay metalcore mainstays A Hero To Fall. NorBay winners again in the metal category, this wholesome bunch has scream-growled their way into hearts. instagram.com/aherotofall
Punk: The Happys
With a sound evolving from tripped out Brit-punk like The Clash covering the Moving Sidewalks, to a more recent tapestry of West Coast sounds—think pre-grunge northwest punk plus surf rock—if one doesn’t love The Happys, they may stop reading this column. thehappysofficial.com
R&B: The Soul Section
One of the biggest sounds around, The Soul Section returns to claim the R&B category for yet another year. Those looking to cut the floor to the vibe of classic Motown can see the brass and bass heavy crew at the California in Santa Rosa on Jan. 20. thesoulsection.com
Reggae: Sol Horizon
Multi-NorBay winners Sol Horizon continue to garner votes for their true-to-the-roots reggae. Energetic live shows and upbeat, stoner-positive messages will never be out of vogue in the North Bay. instagram.com/sol.horizon
Rock: Kingsborough
Those who love Fleetwood Mac and Don Henley will gravitate to Santa Rosa rockers Kingsborogh. In true classic rocker style, the band takes its name from the family name of frontperson Billy Kingsborough. kingsboroughmusic.com
Singer-Songwriter: Ellie James
The happy-go-lucky tunes of Ellie James can sometimes belie the deeper craftsmanship of the winner of this year’s indie category. As a songwriter, James’ chops continue to develop, more than justifying her win in the highly competitive singer-songwriter category. thisiselliejames.com
Promoter: Jake Ward Presents
Jake Ward seems to own this category. Why? Because he and his cast of over-the-top performers hustle to bring a unique experience to the North Bay through blood, sweat and tears. Live piercing fans have a home here. northbaycabaret.com
Venue: HopMonk Sebastopol
The original location of the popular local chain of beer gardens, HopMonk Sebastopol sits in a 115-year-old stone and timber tavern. A dual music venue with stages outside and in the cozy inside Abbey, HopMonk is a spot for music not to be missed. hopmonk.com/sebastopol
Music Instructor: Spike Sikes
The local music scene contains a wealth of talented musicians who dedicate themselves to teaching the next generation of North Bay talent. No wonder the area is so rich in music. It is a credit to many-time NorBay winner Sikes to stand out among them. instagram.com/spike_sikes
Hardest Working Musician: Ellie James
Ok, girl, go. Just go. Winning her third NorBay in 2022 proves the point. Ellie James is working her butt off to bring the message of uplifting pop to ears desperate for positivity in this age of permacrisis. thisiselliejames.com
Fungus is all around, and it’s time to celebrate mushrooms and the men and women who know how to hunt, identify and gather them, at Marin’s third annual Fungus Festival.
This annual event is hosted by the Mycological Society of Marin (MycoMarin) and will take place on Jan. 21 from 10am to 5pm at the Mill Valley Community Center, located at 180 Camino Alto. The festival is open to the public with the hope of increasing local interest and awareness in mushrooms and fungi and to bolster membership in the organization. Designed to appeal to people of all ages, it combines entertainment and education.
The Fungus Festival will present a variety of booths, with 20-plus vendors showcasing their mushroom and fungi-related merchandise, such as mushroom kits, cookbooks, forage guides, textiles, apparel, mycocentric food and more. Attendees of the Fungus Festival can expect to learn all about Bay Area mushrooms, from what can be foraged to how to prepare, store and cook them.
Also featured will be a mushroom habitat exhibit and a cooking demonstration with a celebrity guest chef. The speaker lineup for the festival is stacked high with noted authors and experts in the field of mycology, and there will even be a guest appearance by truffle-hunting dogs, visiting (with their owner) all the way from Oregon. The mushroom display table will showcase hundreds of labeled mushroom species, and a mushroom identification table will be available for those who attend the festival to bring in their own mushrooms for identification assistance.
SPORE The MycoMarin membership.
“I copied the idea for the Fungus Festival from San Francisco, where they have a fungus fair every year that’s been going for 50-ish years,” explained founder and current president of MycoMarin, Kevin Sadlier. “I used to volunteer for the one in the city, and since Marin didn’t have a fungus fair and because it’s a really fun event, I thought Marin County deserved one.”
MycoMarin is a volunteer-run 5013C nonprofit organization, the mission of which is to promote the understanding, protection and enjoyment of mushrooms and fungi to the people of Marin County. The organization was established in 2015 and has since amassed a 200 to 300-person membership.
Sadlier, also the owner of Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley and chair of Marin County’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Commission, began his career not in plants and fungi, but as a chef who worked his way up from dishwashing to become an executive chef in just 12 years.
“A young man’s game is cooking—it’s very stressful, and I always gardened as a hobby my whole life, and I decided to just reverse roles and cook as a hobby and garden professionally,” said Sadlier. “So, I took a job at Sloat Garden Center, clawed my way to management and decided to open my own store. I opened Green Jeans 26 years ago in March with my wife, Xander Wessells. I hired Xander almost 30 years ago, and now it feels like I work for her.”
After taking a local mushroom identification class with Dr. Bob West 20 years ago, Sadlier set out to learn more about mushrooms. The more he learned, the more he realized how much he didn’t know, and it opened the door to a fascinating topic, as well as the pursuit of culinary mushrooms. As an ex-chef, Sadlier understood how to treat a wild mushroom, and he also knew just how expensive they were. He became determined to learn how to find good edible mushrooms.
“So I became really obsessed, and back then before we had children and the economy was good, I was able to basically hunt mushrooms almost all the time,” said Sadlier. “I had a routine where I would hunt mushrooms year-round. One year, Xander sat me down and told me I’d spent more time in a sleeping bag than in my own bed, and I realized she was right.
“My game is I like to trade with restaurants where I can’t afford to eat, so I do trade with a few different restaurants. I also dry and freeze a lot of mushrooms because we use them for the Fungus Festival,” he continued.
Sadlier volunteered for many years for the Mycological Society of San Francisco, where he attended events and meetings. But, as he grew busier with his business and personal pursuits, the commute to the city became a burden, and he quit working with the Mycological Society of San Francisco and almost immediately regretted the decision.
“At the same time, I realized there was a great Mycological Society in Sonoma and the East Bay, but Marin didn’t have one, and that’s why I started MycoMarin, because I still wanted to be involved in a mushroom society,” explained Sadlier. “Marin is fantastic for mushroom hunting and very rich in culinary mushrooms. Unfortunately, mushroom hunting is off limits in many of the public areas in Marin, though you can legally hunt in Point Reyes.”
Should one desire to delve into the complex hobby of mushroom hunting, they should most certainly begin under the tutelage of an expert forager. Not only is mushroom hunting and identification complex, but it also can be dangerous, as there are toxic, psychedelic and potentially deadly look-alike varieties of mushrooms that only those with the proper experience and training can identify. So, before waltzing into the woods and eating the first mushroom visible, one could bring it instead for identification to this year’s Fungus Festival. Better yet, one may join MycoMarin and learn from the masters how it’s done.
“We want to educate the public,” said Sadlier. “The main thing we encourage people to do is to get outside and get off your phone and off the computer to learn about mushrooms—it’ll take you outside. The magic is it brings out your hunter/gatherer instincts that are buried deep inside of all of us…it’s a complete process; you’re outside hunting for prey, and you find it and process it and eat it. It’s a complete process, and that is something that is, in and of itself, very satisfying.”
MycoMarin offers four levels of membership for those interested in a foray into local fungus foraging, and the board of directors boasts passionate experts in the foraging field.
The Fungus Festival is open to all ages, and tickets may be purchased online or at the door. Children aged 18 and under may buy tickets for $5, members (as always) will pay $10 and general adult admission tickets bought at the door are $20. For more information, one may visit the website at mycomarin.org or send an email to my**@*******in.org.
Recently I had the pleasure of reading a lovely little book called The Joy of Cannabis.
I have to admit, although a lifelong adult cannabis user who has written tens of thousands of words on the subject, holding this clever volume in my hands made me nearly as giddy as my nine-year-old self holding the book’s spiritual predecessor, The Joy...
At first glance, Broker appears to be a sinister crime story with an especially disturbing angle. In contemporary Busan, South Korea, two men are in the business of “stealing” unwanted infants left in “safe baby drop-off” boxes, then selling the retrieved babies to interested customers, with the assumed (but not too carefully vetted) expectation that the purchasers are innocent,...
Local dramas ranged from ‘solid’ to ‘unsettling’
Between health-related closures, dwindling audiences, casting challenges and at least one big change in company leadership, there was almost as much drama off-stage as on in the North Bay theater community in the past year.
There was an assumption by some that pandemic-weary audiences (and theater companies) would seek relief in comedies and small-scale...
Humboldt County landmark inspires Netflix and winemaking
When most people think of Humboldt County, it’s not for vineyards. Adrian Manspeaker, founder and winemaker at Joseph Jewell Wines, is hoping to change that.Having grown up in Benbow in southern Humboldt County, Manspeaker attended the College of the Redwoods in Eureka from 1996 to 1998 before moving back to spend a few...
By Lawrence S. Wittner
Russia’s war upon Ukraine should be a reminder that violent international conflicts not only persist, but constitute a plague upon the world.
One popular response to war is isolationism, which is designed to keep one’s nation out of the conflict. But this policy (labeled “America First” in the U.S.) ignores the suffering of other people and, of...
Elephant in the Room
The most underreported story list is a list of distractions, important stories to be sure, in what many would consider, pre-COVID normal times. However, folks, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has vanquished most world governments in an apparent bloodless coup.
Klaus Schwab, the nominal WEF leader, admires the Communist Chinese authoritarian model, and that’s the direction the...
Santa Rosa
Charlie Musselwhite at LBC
Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised, Grammy Award-winning music legend Charlie Musselwhite celebrates the release of his new album, Mississippi Son, with a live performance at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts on Jan. 20. Renowned worldwide as a master harmonica player, Musselwhite is a seasoned, truth-telling vocalist and songwriter rooted deep within the blues tradition who was...
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "My life was the best omelet you could make with a chainsaw," observed flamboyant author Thomas McGuane. That's a witty way to encapsulate his tumultuous destiny. There have been a few moments in 2022 when you might have been tempted to invoke a similar metaphor about your own evolving story. But the good news is...
Perhaps nothing connected people during the pandemic more than music. It seems as if every band in the world produced an album in recent years. And when live performances returned, for many it was as if collective spirits lifted and bodies again moved freely in dance.
In the North Bay, the vibrant and diverse music scene is something worth celebrating,...
Fungus is all around, and it’s time to celebrate mushrooms and the men and women who know how to hunt, identify and gather them, at Marin’s third annual Fungus Festival.
This annual event is hosted by the Mycological Society of Marin (MycoMarin) and will take place on Jan. 21 from 10am to 5pm at the Mill Valley Community Center, located...
