You have no doubt heard from many readers that the correct answer to question 1 (c) in the Nov. 18 edition of “Trivia Cafe” is FALSE because the premise is incorrect.
California’s highest mountain is Mt. Whitney, not Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley is in Alaska and is now officially called Denali.
Tom Conneely
Mill Valley
Good Reads
Great job, Eddie! (“Next Chapter,” Lit, Nov. 18) Awesome you’re writing and telling these stories—they need to be heard.
Ali2
Via bohemian.com
Robot Talk
RE: “Sorry Siri” by Rita S. Losch (Open Mic, Nov. 18) I can’t stop laughing. And you wonder why I don’t follow Siri driving directions? LOL!
Jane Sneed
San Francisco
Why Hawaii
State Sen. Bill Dodd on Thursday, Nov. 19, defended his participation in a policy conference at a Maui beachfront luxury hotel as the coronavirus surges in California, calling it “business as usual” in his job as a lawmaker.
Last I read Hawaii was careful with mainlanders, so quarantining was not in effect? Who paid for this trip as Sen. Dodd is from a purple county? Couldn’t use Zoom, Live Meeting or GoToMeeting?
First, there was “Black Friday,” the massive shopping event that annually kicks the holidays into high gear on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Then came “Small Business Saturday,” which highlights local mom-and-pop retailers on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Now comes “Artists Sunday,” the new, art-focused shopping holiday event taking place virtually on Sunday Nov. 29, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Artists Sunday is a nationwide alliance of professional artists, nonprofit community organizations and sponsors encouraging consumers to do their holiday shopping with artists, artisans and craftspeople.
In addition to a nationwide directory of artists, Artists Sunday features 20 hand-picked creative folks for its “Best Gifts Picks,” including San Rafael artist and ceramicist Kathy Pallie.
After enjoying a successful career in commercial art design, Pallie began working in clay and fiber. Her work ranges in scale from small, three-inch coil baskets to large architectural installations, and she combines clay with other media to create three-dimensional pieces that equally embrace the abstract and the realistic.
Pallie often finds inspiration from nature, and her works can resemble bark, leaves and other organic objects. For the “Best Gifts Picks” showcase, Pallie offers up “Facets of Light,” her series of intricately designed ceramic candleholders.
“Picking a top 20 that represented diverse mediums and locations was a difficult task,” says Artists Sunday–founder Christopher Sherman in a statement. “But the team weathered the storm to choose the best-of-the-best gift picks for this holiday season.”
Artists Sunday’s other “Best Gifts Picks” artists hail from all over the country, including Arizona, New York, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Virginia, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Alabama, Wisconsin, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Beyond the “Best Gifts Picks” spotlight and the artists directory, Artists Sunday is also helping artists and art organizations host events and promotions to engage with consumers nationwide and to encourage them to “shop art” for the holidays.
The Artists Sunday movement hopes to uplift artists who continue to reel from the cancellation of in-person exhibition and sales opportunities since last March. A survey from American for the Arts found the arts-and-culture sector has suffered a $13.1 billion economic hit due to the Covid-19 crisis.
“In a year of social distancing, consumers can maintain heartfelt connections with friends and loved ones this holiday season by shopping with local artists and craftspeople while supporting individual artists and boosting the local economy,” Sherman says. “From one-of-a-kind, handcrafted items to monumental performances that take our breath away, the arts are boundless in their ability to inspire and deliver unique experiences that bring people together.”
Participation in Artists Sunday is free for artists, economic development agencies and nonprofits, who can all sign up to join the movement now.
Those interested in viewing the items featured in Artists Sunday’s “Best Gifts Picks” and in learning more about Artists Sunday artists, partners and sponsors may visit ArtistsSunday.com.
Two years ago, my father and I visited my brother in South Lake Tahoe. At the time he was leading bird surveys for Point Blue, a nonprofit research and conservation organization. He started working at Point Blue in 2014, first as an intern at their world-renowned Palomarin research station in the Point Reyes National Seashore, eventually becoming a crew leader for Point Blue in the Sierra Nevada. We arrived at his house in South Lake just before sunset and walked out into the open shrubland beyond his house. It was made up mostly of manzanita and mountain whitethorn bushes, with tall Jeffery pines and red fir dotting the flat expanse. This shrubland, my brother told us, was created by the Angora fire of 2007 which burned most of the 3,000-acre area to ash, destroying 254 homes in the process. This kind of fire, one that kills almost all plant-life in its path, is called a high-severity fire.
However, my brother pointed out that for wildlife this wasn’t necessarily bad. Even beyond the shrublands, in places burned completely black, he told me, wildlife thrives.
After a fire, many plants and animals—including western wood pewees, western bluebirds, morel mushrooms, wood-boring beetles, and, most notably, black-backed woodpeckers—begin to live in the burned areas.
“This bird [the black-backed woodpecker] screams fire,” said Dick Hutto, an emeritus professor at the University of Montana.
HOME Controlled burns create resilience by creating a mosaic of habitats for birds within the forest. Photo by Jean Hall.
According to the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), a non-profit bird research organization that recently relocated from Point Reyes Station to Petaluma, black-backed woodpeckers are much more common in recently burned forests of the Sierra Nevada, and rarer in unburned forests.
With their distinctive black backs that blend perfectly into burnt bark, this bird’s livelihood directly depends on severely burned forests. Due to their unique dependence on forest fires, black-backed woodpeckers in recent years have become a symbol of the importance of wildfires in the Western United States.
Recent studies conducted by IBP only solidify this. According to an article written by IBP this year, scientists found that black-backed woodpeckers are more likely to nest and forage in areas of high-severity fires.
“It’s a reflection of a long, evolutionary history,” Hutto said.
According to the same study, black-backed woodpeckers prefer to nest near low and mixed-severity burned areas, or on the edges of large burns, where their young can find better cover from potential predators. Due to this, some scientists believe that the fires we are seeing might not mean a boon for the birds.
“Habitat is being created for them, I don’t have any questions about that,” said Rodney Siegel, the executive director of IBP. “The question is, if there are these incredibly large high-severity patches, like we saw for example in the King fire [of 2014], there may be areas that are just too far from low-severity or unburned forests, so they just can’t set up a home range there.”
However, Siegel was quick to point out that the size of the fire wasn’t the important factor.
“From the woodpecker’s perspective, the size of the fire isn’t the issue, it’s the characteristics of the fire,” he said, referring to the size of areas within a fire that burned at high, mixed or low severity.
Regardless of the kinds of fires, these birds depend on them for their survival.
As Ryan Burnett, the senior Sierra group leader for Point Blue, recently said, “If we lost fire in the Sierra, we probably would lose the species.”
However, as the threat of fire increases across the Western United States, these areas where the black-backed woodpeckers thrive are under threat.
Usually, after a fire, the Forest Service and other organizations go to these high-severity sites and cut down many of the trees in order to replant the forest. Foresters call this “salvage logging.” The idea is that, since all of the seeds in the soil burned up, no trees will grow back for a long time, so they might as well cut the burned trees down and replant the forest. And, in the process, black-backed woodpeckers lose critical habitat.
“The idea that we can replant these places is just a 20th century fire-suppression ideal,” Burnett said, mentioning that he was working on an article about salvage logging and how it affects black-backed woodpeckers. What he and a team of scientists working with Point Blue found in their yet-to-be-published study is that salvage logging hurts black-backed woodpecker habitat. “It’s pretty unequivocal that salvage logging, at least within a home range of a black-backed woodpecker, is going to have negative consequences [for the bird].”
However, as fire seasons worsen due to climate change, and the patches of high-severity burns increase, there is concern that the forest may not be able to grow back fast enough.
“If there’s no forests, there’s no forests to burn,” Siegel said.
This fear has mounted over the course of this year’s fire season, in which over four million acres have burned, to date. As I write this in Marin, it is the first week of clear skies in almost two months. After consecutive years of fires devastating the state, with 18 of the largest 20 fires ever recorded occurring since 2003, large fires have become a regular seasonal occurrence. Summer is no longer a time to relax and go to the beach, but instead a time to be on high alert, to prepare for a sudden run from the fires.
“It’s not a choice of whether we have fires or want fire,” Burnett said. This is why we have to “fight fire with fire.”
Controlled burns create resilience in the Sierra, and other wildlands across California, by creating a mosaic of habitats within the forest, helping wildfires burn more naturally and with less potential to decimate entire towns.
And, as climate change makes fires larger and more difficult to control, the use of prescribed burns is more important than ever, for people and for wildlife such as the black-backed woodpecker. Yet, even as the Forest Service and other organizations understand that the best way to fight fire is with fire, they suppress more burns than they permit.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “The Forest Service and its partners suppress more than 98 percent of wildfires on initial attack, keeping unwanted fires small and costs down.” This means that only 2 percent of all fires that are started are out of control, even in such an unprecedented year as 2020.
“Prescribed fire and managed wildfire is really the only way to go,” said Malcolm North, a fire ecologist and professor at UC Davis. “There really isn’t any other choice.”
So, if prescribed burning helps protect people and towns, and wildlife such as black-backed woodpeckers, why do we suppress fires in areas where there is little threat to towns? North points to an overly cautious system.
“I’ll be blunt with you because I’ve worked in the Forest Service,” he said. “People know what they need to do. And Forest Service managers know that they need to have more fires on the landscape, but everything is working against [them]. The public doesn’t like the smoke, and if [the fire] escapes, your ass is on the line for liability. Everything is kind of against doing the right thing. Where this whole thing is going to change is if the public gets out from under the myth of Smokey the Bear and realizes that fires are inevitable.”
Smokey the Bear—co-created by the Ad Council and the Forest Service—has been the enlightened spokesman of fire suppression since he appeared in 1944. His message: wildfires can only be bad. Due to his incredibly successful public campaign, the forest management has used fire suppression as its main tool for close to a century fire. But, for many ecologists, this thinking is damaging.
“[Smokey the Bear] was a terribly misguided campaign,” Siegel said.
Referencing the movie Bambi, Dick Hutto said, “[The movie is saying] ‘all my forest friends are hurt and dying and dead. Won’t you be good and prevent forest fires?’”
And it seems that legislators are beginning to understand that Smokey the Bear was wrong.
According to the Mercury News, a new agreement between the federal government and California mandates that by 2025 one million acres of prescribed burning must be implemented every year. In the United States Senate, there is a new Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act on the floor, a bipartisan bill supported by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), that aims to increase the ability for the Forest Service and other agencies to respond quicker to wildfires.
However, to Hutto, these bills neglect the bigger picture surrounding these landscapes.
“We’ve moved out of the cities and out into the wildlands, where 98 percent of the causes of fire are lightning and have been there forever,” Hutto said. “So you have this complicated message that needs to be more nuanced.”
Jack Cohen, a former researcher at the Forest Service, has fought since the 1990s to change the way the Forest Service thinks about fire. To Cohen, the best way to combat fires is to learn how to live with them. After seeing many photos of burned neighborhoods where the trees were unharmed by the fires, Cohen began studying the issue of burning homes and found that the Forest Service should be funding new ways of building houses that are fire resistant. Instead of fighting fires, Cohen thinks we should build better houses.
KNOCK KNOCK ‘From the woodpecker’s perspective, the size of the fire isn’t the issue, it’s the characteristics of the fire,’ says IBP’s Rodney Siegel. Photo by Jean Hall.
Ryan Burnett believes we need learn and be lead by the practices of Native American communities to live with fire, because, “there is no way our diesel-powered technology will get us there.”
If we learn to live with fire, many other animals, such as the black-backed woodpecker, will benefit.
As I sit here in Marin County, I can’t help but think about that open shrubland behind my brother’s house in South Lake, and how many years of mismanagement and natural processes allowed it to burn, to be “altered” into something new, as Burnett would say. Currently, there are 19 major wildfires burning in California. As the fire season nears its close, it is hard to say if these fires, such as the Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera Counties, will be good or bad for the black-backed woodpecker. We’ll only be able to know once the fires are over.
If there is anything to learn from the black-backed woodpecker, it is that fires are a natural part of the California landscape, and it might be time to bring fire back. It is, as Hutto said, about listening to the bird.
“If we’re willing to listen,” he said, “the insight we can get—of where it occurs and where it doesn’t occur—is profound. It tells us something about whether we’re behaving properly.”
Marin County teenager James Lee, also known as Jamesey, finds joy in making art. Diagnosed with autism at age two, Lee has been drawing and painting since he was a young child, finding comfort in the colors he works with and in the gestures of painting on large canvases, which often gets him dancing as he paints.
A longtime student at Oak Hill School in San Anselmo, which serves students with autism spectrum disorders and other health impairments, Lee was forced to stay home when the school shut down due to the pandemic in March. So, he turned to art and started painting every day.
Soon after that, in June, the de Young Museum in San Francisco announced an open call for submissions from local artists for “The de Young Open” exhibition. Over 6,000 artists from nine Bay Area counties submitted over 11,000 works, including Lee’s mother, who submitted two works on behalf of her son under the name Jamesey.
Of those works, jurors selectedJamesey’s “Pandemic Blue #1” to display as part of “The de Young Open,” giving Lee his official debut as an exhibiting artist.
For de Young’s open exhibition, the jurors accepted less than 8-percent of all the works submitted, and each piece of art was reviewed anonymously, meaning the jurors had no idea that “Pandemic Blue #1” was the work of a teen with autism when they selected it.
“Pandemic Blue #1” can be seen now at the de Young Museum or on the museum’s website, which shares Lee’s story in the artist statement, writing that though Lee cannot verbally identify colors, he has an instinctive grasp of color theory. Painting a layer at a time, Lee varies his hue and tone, and he is now learning to “self-edit” his art by covering parts of the canvas in plastic, applying layers of paint over them, and removing the plastic to create shapes or structures. This process is repeated over and over until Lee declares that the canvas is “so beautiful.” Finally, he draws over the layered colors in Sharpie, adding symbols of swimming pools and lifesavers that have become his own personal iconography.
In addition to “Pandemic Blue #1,” Lee has over a dozen paintings in his ongoing pandemic series, and his family is generously donating his paintings for a virtual auction to benefit Oak Hill School, which has had to cancel its annual fundraiser that provides scholarships to students in need. To own a Jamesey piece of art and support Oak Hill School, visit the auction site airauctioneer.com/jamesey.
North Bay service industry workers, farm workers and students are all on the receiving end of three generous outings and offerings from local volunteer groups who want to help those in need this season.
In Marin County, an all-volunteer parent group is stepping up to support Marin students by giving over $100,000 in pandemic relief grants. The group, Dedication to Special Education, typically focuses on those students with special needs; though the group is now opening its funds to all students in Marin who are navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Adults aren’t the only ones struggling with the changes in our lives; kids are really struggling as well,” says Jenny Novack, co-chair of the organization, in a statement. “It’s all about access to educational opportunities and, during the pandemic, it is about having a plan to support individual student’s needs whether they have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) or not.”
Dedication to Special Education’s pandemic relief grants will allow the Marin County Office of Education to contract with companies to provide literacy support for students struggling to work with new technology, and the group is also committed to supporting students with social-emotional learning challenges.
“It is clear the current need for our kids isn’t only academic. Addressing social-emotional learning goes hand in hand with academic learning,” says Novack.
Several Marin school districts are currently rolling out these programs within their individual schools and the county intends to have all tools in place by the end of the year.
“This is an extraordinary contribution for, not only the over 4,000 children in special education, but approximately 40,000 public school students and its impact throughout Marin is significant,” says Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools, in a statement. “The parent volunteers of Dedication to Special Education work hard throughout the year to raise money for the grants program. With the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to help with distance learning for all students. I don’t know of any other effort quite like it. We are truly blessed to have them as partners.”
In Napa County, nonprofit organization Celebration Nation is rolling out a major campaign to provide Thanksgiving dinner along with blankets, jackets and other winter essentials to over 3,000 farm workers and low-income families.
The newly unveiled #ThankYouFarmWorkers campaign will be in Calistoga today, Monday, Nov. 23 from 4pm to 7pm, to distribute free food and more at Calistoga Seventh Day Adventist Church located at 2102 Grant Street.
The drive-thru Thanksgiving distribution eventis being helmed by Flor Martinez, an-immigrant rights activists who herself worked as a farm worker before she qualified for DACA. Since Martinez has multiple contacts in the agricultural community, she is also able to directly contact farm supervisors and arrange transportation vehicles to the farm sites for additional distribution by volunteers.
For today’s distribution event, farmworkers and their families can receive a turkey, a box of food items and other winter items, and gift cards. Celebration Nation is dedicated to supporting the Latino community throughout California, and this distribution event is one of many taking place in underserved communities in the state.
In Sonoma County, a newly formed organization, the Service Industry Relief Fund of Sonoma County, is joining forces with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Sonoma County to launch a campaign to help service industry workers living in Sonoma County who have lost half or more of their income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Service Industry Relief Fund of Sonoma County (SIRFSC) is offering $500 stipends to those workers who qualify, and the funds are made possible by local donors; meaning that this is an opportunity to directly support someone in Sonoma County through a donation that goes entirely to those in need.
“Sonoma County is home to more than 70,000 service industry workers, many of whom have lost part or all of their income to Covid-19, including me,” says Krista Williams, lead coordinator for SIRFSC, in a statement. “Most of us were already making less than the County’s median income before the pandemic struck, so it’s wonderful that those who can are helping those who desperately need assistance.”
“Our agency has found ways to provide help to those who need it in Sonoma County for more than 60 years,” says Jack Tibbetts, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County, in a statement. “We are proud that Krista and her team have created a way to address a new source of great need in our county, and we are equally proud to support their work.”
The Service Industry Relief Fund of Sonoma County is online now and accepting applications for stipends as well as donations at sirfsc.org.
A “cottage witch,” according to Witchipedia, is “a witch whose magickal practice focuses mainly on the home.” Add to that 36 sustainable rituals to nourish your mind, body, and intuition and you have the ingredients for The Modern Witch’s Guide to Magickal Self-Care, the new book by local cottage witch Tenae Stewart. What follows is a recent email Q&A.
What is the most misunderstood aspect of your spiritual practice and what would you like others to know about it?
Tenae Stewart: Witchcraft is becoming more and more visible in mainstream culture but there are still deep misunderstandings about it. Christian belief about witchcraft is often that it’s “of the devil” or evil in some way but in reality, witchcraft is about being connected to nature, about understanding yourself, and about being aware of your own power. It’s a path to becoming more in tune with yourself. Most witches do not believe in the Christian devil, let alone work with him. The reason that witches have been feared for so long is because we represent the power of the divine feminine to both create and transform — a power that manifests in men, women, trans and non-binary individuals, and people of all genders — and that power has threatened the status quo for literally centuries.
Can you give a brief definition of magick vs magic?
TS: Many witches use the “magic with a k” to describe spiritual magic as opposed to tricks or illusion. Magic typically refers to stage performance, while magick refers to a spiritual experience, though those definitions are not necessarily universal and plenty of witches do use the term “magic” to describe their practice.
Self-care should be part of everyone’s vocabulary especially in this moment — What are some tips from the Modern Witch’s Guide you would recommend to those of us who are a little drift right now?
TS: One of my most important tips would be to keep it simple. The biggest thing that keeps us from committing to our own self-care is doubt and self-deprecation. When we doubt that we will have enough time to complete the task or ritual we’ve set for ourselves, we have a tendency to ditch our self-care practice as a luxury. When we can’t live up to our own impossibly high standards, we figure why bother doing anything at all? To alleviate these stories that we tell ourselves, keep your practice simple and focus on your most essential needs.
In the book, I share my method for creating a strong foundation of your most essential self-care practices, which I call the Five Pillars of Divinity. This system is designed to help you focus on what’s most important to you by creating practices that fit into five categories: mind, body, intuition, nature, and devotion.
What first attracted you to contemporary witchcraft and how has your practice evolved into your profession? I was first attracted to this path in my teens, intrigued by the idea of marking life by the moon phases and the seasons, which I already felt so connected to. I began practicing about a decade ago at the beginning of the 2010s. I practiced on and off throughout college and even had a blog about witchcraft back then, but always struggled to commit to my path. I actually took an extended break from my practice for about 2 years but after losing my home in a wildfire, (the Valley Fire of 2015), I realized that I really need some spiritual support to carry me through the grief and loss I was experiencing at that time. I recommitted to my path after the fire and started a blog as a hobby to keep myself accountable as I began to explore my spirituality again.
That blog, The Witch of Lupine Hollow, evolved over the years into my current work as a professional witch, astrologer, and spiritual coach. If you had told me ten years ago that I would be making my living helping people create daily rituals that support and fulfill them and embody their inner witch, I would never have believed it but I’m so happy to have stepped into this empowered, more in tune version of myself.
Any funny/interesting anecdotes?
Astrology is one of my favorite modalities and things to talk about so here’s a funny one: I work with goddess asteroids, as there really isn’t a lot of divine feminine energy in traditional astrology, especially in the planets. These are asteroids named for various goddesses and give us more nuance in the chart. Right around the time I was discussing this book deal with Skyhorse Publishing, I realized that Ceres, the asteroid of self-care, (named for the Roman mother goddess of agriculture), was transiting my north node, the point on the chart that indicates destiny and soul purpose. I knew then that this book had to happen and was meant to be! I even included a section in the book for finding Ceres in your own chart and what she means.
The Modern Witch’s Guide to Magickal Self-Care, the new book by local cottage witch Tenae Stewart.
How can others work with you?
I offer private written astrology readings and a monthly sacred circle online, as well as private mentoring options. My astrology readings focus on what I call “Essence Codes,” which are combinations of different parts of your chart and the archetypes connected to them, to understand the essence of who you are as a witch, a priestess, your self-care needs and more
The monthly sacred circle is called The Starlight Coven and is a wonderful community space for support and conversation and for learning about the moon phases, seasons, astrology, and different types of magick. The Coven includes a digital monthly magazine, a live virtual workshop each month, live virtual rituals for the seasons, daily text messages for inspiration, access to our private Facebook group and an entire library of past workbooks and recorded trainings. It’s such a fun, supportive space! I also offer private one-on-one mentoring to support my clients in building a complete magickal self-care practice from the ground up. www.witchoflupinehollow.com/starlight-coven
Any links, social media or websites you want to share?
For nearly 30 years, Marin Open Studios has connected artists to art lovers in Marin County. Normally, the nonprofit arts organization engages and supports local artists by bringing the audience to them each year during self-guided studio and gallery tours.
This year’s Covid-19 pandemic canceled the tours this past May, though Marin Open Studios remained connected to local artists with online gallery shows and a “Meet the Artist” series that highlights the varied talented folks who call Marin County home.
Marin Open Studios’ premiere exhibition in its new virtual gallery celebrated “The Human Spirit” this past September. That first show was curated on the theme of portraying different aspects of humanity, and featured several Marin Open Studios artists.
This weekend, Marin Open Studios offers its second virtual exhibition when “A Sense of Place” opens online Friday, Nov. 20. The new online show features more than a hundred images by local artists, with works curated around the general theme of landscapes.
Nationally-recognized local landscape and wildlife artist Paul Kratter juried the show and awarded special recognition to six works. San Rafael artist Teresa Dong received the show’s first place recognition for her oil painting “Sausalito.”
On the Marin Open Studios website, Dong writes, “I was at the Gate 5 dock painting with my friend Robert all afternoon. All of a sudden, I saw a carpet of grey clouds rolling towards us. While the sun was still shining from the west… Later the rain followed, and we all got very wet. This was a very short moment but dramatic.”
San Rafael artist Davis Perkins took second place in the show with his painting “Doc’s Pond.” Fairfax-based studio and plein air painter Timothy Horn took third place for his painting “Field of Dreams.” Sausalito artist Dan Cassidy and San Anselmo artist Steve Emery were both awarded Honorable Mentions. Cassidy’s photograph “Blue Chair Iceland” is from a series of landscape photographs taken during his Icelandic artist residency in 2019. Emery’s acrylic painting “Top of the Granite Slide” is inspired by a three-mile stretch of nature that Emery visited before the area burned in the Creek Fire this past August.
The final award of the virtual show is the first annual Connie Smith Siegel Painting Award, named for the late artist and teacher who lived and worked in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley for more than 40 years before her death on August 4 at age 83. The award went to San Anselmo artist Chrstin Coy for her painting “Mt.Tam Glow–Ring Mt.”
On the Marin Open Studios website, Coy writes, “Painting has always given me great joy and a sense of purpose. I enjoy sharing my vision of Nature and hope that the eyes of the viewer will be opened to the beauty that surrounds us here in Marin County. I feel very fortunate to be a visual artist in such inspirational surroundings.”
“A Sense of Place” is available to view in the virtual gallery from Friday, Nov. 20, through Wednesday, Dec. 30. This weekend, Marin Open Studios is hosting a live virtual event to mark the show’s opening, as curator Paul Kratter and the show’s six featured artists come together in an online discussion about their paintings and the stories behind them. The live event takes place on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 5pm.
In a year like no other, Marin Open Studios kept the local community of artists together through virtual offerings, and the organization is already looking ahead to 2021 with hopes of being able to offer both online and live exhibits. To continue its mission of supporting the arts, Marin Open Studios is also currently soliciting donations.
“We are excited about Marin Open Studios 2021 and we’re getting ready for whatever life throws our way,” writes longstanding “Angel” donor Peggy Haas. “We have several different scenarios in development, all of which are designed to keep everyone safe. Art has shown to be a great outlet during these past months for millions of people; it’s grounding, soothing, and inspiring. Now, we need your support more than ever to keep our community of artists thriving.”
Visit ‘A Sense of Place’ online now and tune in for the live Zoom event on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 5pm at marinopenstudios2020.org.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday a limited stay-at-home order for California that will go into effect Saturday night and last for a month to try to limit the spread of Covid-19.
The order is for counties in the “purple” or most-restrictive tier in the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy plan and will order all non-essential work and gatherings to stop from 10pm to 5am. Marin County, which is currently in the state’s second-most restrictive tier, will not be impacted by the order.
Newsom announced on Monday that 41 of the California’s 58 counties would go into the purple tier as Covid-19 cases have increased statewide recently.
Below is a copy of the curfew announcement from the California governor’s office.
State Issues Limited Stay at Home Order to Slow Spread of COVID-19
Non-essential businesses and personal gatherings are prohibited between 10 PM and 5 AM beginning Saturday, November 21 at 10 PM
SACRAMENTO – In light of an unprecedented, rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across California, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced a limited Stay at Home Order requiring generally that non-essential work, movement and gatherings stop between 10 PM and 5 AM in counties in the purple tier. The order will take effect at 10 PM Saturday, November 21 and remain in effect until 5 AM December 21. This is the same as the March Stay at Home Order, but applied only between 10 PM and 5 AM and only in purple tier counties that are seeing the highest rates of positive cases and hospitalizations.
“The virus is spreading at a pace we haven’t seen since the start of this pandemic and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge. We are sounding the alarm,” said Governor Newsom. “It is crucial that we act to decrease transmission and slow hospitalizations before the death count surges. We’ve done it before and we must do it again.”
This limited Stay at Home Order is designed to reduce opportunities for disease transmission. Activities conducted during 10 PM to 5 AM are often non-essential and more likely related to social activities and gatherings that have a higher likelihood of leading to reduced inhibition and reduced likelihood for adherence to safety measures like wearing a face covering and maintaining physical distance.
“We know from our stay at home order this spring, which flattened the curve in California, that reducing the movement and mixing of individuals dramatically decreases COVID-19 spread, hospitalizations, and deaths,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “We may need to take more stringent actions if we are unable to flatten the curve quickly. Taking these hard, temporary actions now could help prevent future shutdowns.”
“We are asking Californians to change their personal behaviors to stop the surge. We must be strong together and make tough decisions to stay socially connected but physically distanced during this critical time. Letting our guard down could put thousands of lives in danger and cripple our health care system,” said Dr. Erica Pan, the state’s acting Public Health Officer. “It is especially important that we band together to protect those most vulnerable around us as well as essential workers who are continuing their critical work amidst this next wave of widespread community transmission across the state. Together we prevented a public health crisis in the spring and together we can do it again.”
Covid-19 case rates increased by approximately 50 percent in California during the first week of November. As a result, Governor Newsom and California’s public health officials have announced a list of measures to protect Californians and the state’s health care system, which could experience an unprecedented surge if cases continue their steep climb.
On Monday, the state pulled an emergency brake in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy putting more than 94 percent of California’s population in the most restrictive tier. The state will reassess data continuously and move more counties back into a more restrictive tier, if necessary. California is also strengthening its face covering guidance to require individuals to wear a mask whenever outside their home, with limited exceptions.
Late last week, the state issued a travel advisory, along with Oregon and Washington, urging people entering the state or returning home from travel outside the state to self-quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. The travel advisory urges against non-essential out-of-state travel, asks people to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving from another state or country, and encourages residents to stay local.
The holidays in Marin County are often packed with festivals, fairs, concerts and other social gatherings meant to celebrate the season and the community.
This year’s ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed all of that, and many Marin County holiday events have been canceled or postponed due to Covid-19. Even outdoor events like the San Rafael Parade of Lights have been put on hold for the year, meaning that it’s harder than ever to revel in holiday cheer in Marin.
Yet, there are still happenings worth checking out, both in distanced events and online events. From holiday markets to scavenger hunts, there are several ways to find the seasonal spirit locally.
This weekend, the picturesque natural setting of the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross becomes the scene for a Holiday Pop-Up Marketplace for those looking to get a head start on their holiday gift shopping.
The free event pops up on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10am to 4pm and features special holiday items that wont’ be found anywhere else this season. Get cozy with cashmere and cotton, pick a book or some notecards, shop the variety of indoor houseplants and décor, hanging planters, or pre-order festive holiday greens. Social distancing measures will be observed, so please wear a mask. For more information visit maringarden.org.
Another Marin holiday staple that’s being reimagined for 2020 is the Mill Valley Winterfest. In lieu of the traditional Winterfest activities, the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce will present a Covid-safe and family-friendly event that will be both virtual and socially distanced.
The event kicks off Friday, Nov. 27, with the Winterfest Holiday Hunt, a scavenger hunt-style contest that will take participants to more than 40 businesses throughout Mill Valley. Owners of those businesses will place silver-star decorations in their retail stores or restaurants, and kids accompanied by a parent will be able to take photos of these silver stars through December 18.
Once the pictures are taken, holiday hunters will email at least eight of their photos as attachments to in**@mi********.org, with their name and age in the body of the email. Those emails will be entered into a raffle for gift cards to participating businesses–one gift card per raffle winner. Find the rules, clues and other details at enjoymillvalley.com.
The other half of the newly Covid-friendly Mill Valley Winterfest is a virtual screening of a film helmed by Marin filmmaker Norm Hunter, who has spearheaded the Chamber’s ongoing Enjoy Mill Valley Films series highlighting creative businesses, organizations and people in Mill Valley.
The film highlights the spirit of the landmark event, featuring local arts organizations, a pre-recorded tree lighting and, of course, appearances by Santa Claus at locations around town, including the Mill Valley Fire Department. The Mill Valley Chamber will be debuting the Winterfest film on Sunday, December 6, the usual arrival of Winterfest.
The holidays also get artsy on Sunday, Nov 29, when the West End Studio Theatre in San Rafael hosts the Marin Arts & Crafts Festival. The socially distanced event features Rebecca Niles, the Bubble Lady, bringing out smiles; the Cotton Candy Girl whipping up sweet confections; Benjamin Bossi, saxophonist for the famed ‘80s band Romeo Void, displaying his mixed-media self portraits; Beth Buckley’s CBD line, including canine products, for sale and festival host and founding director of West End Studio Theater, Margot Jones, autographing her musical, children’s book for sale. Visit the Marin Arts & Crafts Festival on Nov. 29 from noon to 5pm at 1554 Fourth St., San Rafael. Free. 415.235.8557.
During the 1930s, the FBI and the mob recruited boxers to fight Nazis on American soil. The scenario sounds like far-fetched fiction featuring a cast of strange bedfellows. Except, it really happened.
Tiburon author Leslie K. Barry based her new novel, Newark Minutemen, on the true story of her uncle, Harry Levine, one of a group of Jewish boxers enlisted by the FBI and the Jewish Mafia to brawl with American Nazis and interrupt their fascist pursuits in Newark, New Jersey.
Prior to World War II, the German American Bund, a Nazi organization, operated in America. The Nazi alliance held rallies, marches and children’s summer camps across the country to propagate its pro-Hitler position, often flying swastikas and American flags side by side.
The largest rally drew a crowd of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. Thousands of protestors gathered in the streets outside the arena to demonstrate against the fascists.
In Newark, New Jersey, a smaller group worked behind the scenes to fight the American Nazis: the Newark Minutemen.
Barry, 58, already knew many stories about her late uncle, the 1936 Golden Glove champ. However, at her mother’s 90th birthday party, she overheard a relative ask her mother an intriguing question: “Esther, do you remember when your brother would beat up the Nazis and come home bloody?”
For the next two years, Barry spoke with her mother, Esther Levine Kaplan, every day to learn more about her uncle and his involvement in battling the Nazis. At the same time, Barry and her cousin researched the history of the Newark Minutemen and the German American Bund.
Barry gathered anecdotes from her family and others, FBI reports and newspaper articles. Clearly, the FBI collaborated with the Jewish Mafia to disrupt the activities of the American Nazis. In Newark, mob boss Abner “Longie” Zwillman recruited the Jewish boxers, including Barry’s uncle, to do the work.
As Barry began weaving the true story together, she decided to write a novel, rather than a strict historical account, which allowed her to introduce a fictional love story. Her main character, Yael Newman, a Jewish boxer, falls in love with Krista Brecht, the daughter of the Nazi group’s leader. The situation grows more complicated when Newman infiltrates the German American Bund.
“I loved the idea of the Titanic,” Barry said. “I wanted to add drama over this with a love story. I wanted to appeal to a younger audience and I thought this was the way to do it.”
Before Barry wrote the novel, she penned and sold the screenplay of Newark Minutemen. Usually the novel comes first.
After talking to Steven Spielberg and Robert Redford’s production company, Barry chose to sign with Fulwell 73 Productions, where late-night TV host James Corden is a partner. The company has already attached screenwriters to the project and is in talks with a director to bring the drama to life on the big screen.
“The story is part of my legacy,” Barry said. “I’m so lucky that I have my mom at 95. We were always close, but I got to know her on such a different level when we were talking about the story. I understand now how they lived and why. It’s an incredible takeaway.”
Barry considers the story of the Newark Minutemen and the German American Bund applicable to what is happening in America today.
“I try to understand why it happened,” Barry said. “People lose faith in the government and look for other solutions. Half our country doesn’t trust the government right now and the other half won’t trust the new government. I saw the mini documentaryA Night at the Garden, which has the footage from the Madison Square Garden rally. It was chilling. What the German American Bund did was brilliant. ‘We need to get back to Americanism.’ It’s all about positioning and if you don’t think too much about it, people start nodding their heads.”
Wrong Mountain
You have no doubt heard from many readers that the correct answer to question 1 (c) in the Nov. 18 edition of “Trivia Cafe” is FALSE because the premise is incorrect.
California’s highest mountain is Mt. Whitney, not Mt. McKinley. Mt. McKinley is in Alaska and is now officially called Denali.
Tom Conneely
Mill Valley
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The holidays in Marin County are often packed with festivals, fairs, concerts and other social gatherings meant to celebrate the season and the community.
This year’s ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed all of that, and many Marin County holiday events have been canceled or postponed due to Covid-19. Even outdoor events like the San Rafael Parade of Lights have been...
During the 1930s, the FBI and the mob recruited boxers to fight Nazis on American soil. The scenario sounds like far-fetched fiction featuring a cast of strange bedfellows. Except, it really happened.
Tiburon author Leslie K. Barry based her new novel, Newark Minutemen, on the true story of her uncle, Harry Levine, one of a group of Jewish boxers enlisted...
