Allow us to be the first to say goodbye to 2018. With old acquaintances—both forgotten and remembered—we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, and we’ll start with these New Year’s Eve parties around the North Bay. From delectable dinners to cabaret shows and blowout concerts, here’s a selection of ways to ring in 2019.
Noon Year’s Eve
Ring in the New Year with your little ones at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Glitter crowns, photo booths, confetti cannons (no, this is not your 21st birthday redo). Kids will love the celebratory ball drop at noon, then dance to DJ Mancub and get busy at various art activities. In addition, the family can enjoy access to the museum’s indoor and outdoor exhibits. Fort Baker, 557 McReynolds Road, Sausalito. 9am to 2pm. $14–$15. 415.339.3900.
New Year’s Eve Standup Comedy Showcase
Osher Marin JCC’s ninth annual New Year’s Eve event will have you laughing harder than Emmanuel Macron hearing Trump try to pronounce the name of a French Champagne. This year, the showcase finds five smart and clean comedians on the bill, hosted by Maureen Langen, winner of the prestigious MAC award. The rest of the lineup includes standup stars like Karen Rontowski, who has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and Brian Kiley, head writer for Conan O’Brien’s show. A selection of cocktails, beer and wine start the party, and a midnight toast wraps it up. 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael. Pre-show party starts at 7:30pm. $29 and up. 415.444.8000.
Terrapin Crossroads
Terrapin will be offering two days of musical talent to provide the soundtrack to your farewell to 2018, featuring jazz and bluegrass bands Sunday and two nights of the established Americana band, Leftover Salmon. Leftover Salmon will be hitting the stage performing what they have dubbed jamgrass—a type of music using the fundamental elements of bluegrass to create a more wild and free sound, pushing the genre into a more psychedelic direction. The band has headlined festivals from coast to coast, incorporating influences across America into their music. 100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael. $50; two-day pass, $80. VIP packages starting at $105. 415.524.2773.
Sweetwater Music Hall
Eric Lindell will be performing this year at the Sweetwater Music Hall, revisiting his Northern California roots and playing music that transcends genre. Really, how do you categorize the unique blend of West Coast rock and roll, Gulf Coast R&B, and Memphis soul with a sprinkle of honky-tonk? Lindell’s style is both intriguing and fresh, so if you’re looking for some quality music, spend the last night of the year with one of the foremost songwriters in the music industry today. Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. 8pm; 21 and over. $60 and up. 415.388.3850.
Glow NYE Blacklight Party
The ever-enchanting Harmonia Wellness Center and social club says farewell to 2018 and welcomes 2019 with a loving and eclectic community celebration. Start the night in the with an “intent” ceremony, then enjoy a yoga class to really earn the Champagne cocktails and chocolate that follows. Also, did we mention this event is all underneath blacklights, so you can enter 2019 glowing? There will be tarot card readings, DJ dance party and a full bar. After midnight, let it all hang down by sipping on elixirs and Champagne, dancing and basking in the glow of the new year and possibilities to come. 2200 Marinship Way, Sausalito. 7:30pm. $40–$100. 415.332.1432.
New Year’s Eve Prix Fixe Dinner Show
San Rafael’s premier supper club Fenix knows how to cook up a good time. This year, Fenix mixes a delectable dinner with Danny Click & the Hell Yeahs! Click transformed from one of Austin’s best secret alternative country singers into a recognized phenomenon, topping Nashville’s Indie World Wide Country charts at No. 1. You’re going to want to grab tickets for this one! 919 Fourth St., San Rafael. 7pm. $50–$125. 415.813.5600.
Left Bank Brasserie
Who doesn’t love all food French? Celebrate this New Year’s Eve at Left Bank’s Bonne Année, open all day with an à la carte menu and a four-course prix fixe dinner. While it’s sure to be packed all day, the last seating may be the first to fill up, as those who book 11pm reservations can expect to enjoy a complimentary sparkling wine toast and party favors at the stroke of midnight. Au revoir, 2018! 507 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. Opens at 11am. $75 for prix fixe dinner. 415.927.3331.
Best of the San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy Competition
This gut-busting comedy show at the Marin Center’s Showcase Theatre rings in the new year with the funniest alumni of the internationally recognized stand up competition. Several comedians will be on hand for this show, which always sells out well in advance. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 9pm. $40. 415.473.6800.
Boogie Under the Golden Gate New Year’s Eve
With panoramic views of the Bay as a backdrop, the Travis Marina Bar & Grill, formerly the Presidio Yacht Club, welcomes Western swing veterans the Lonestar Retrobates back for its seventh annual New Year’s Eve party. Boasting a boogie-woogie attitude, the ensemble welcomes popular vocalist Sylvia Herold to join in the harmonies, and complimentary Champagne at midnight toasts to the new year, all in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. 1679 Sommerville Road, Sausalito. 9pm. $30–$40. 415.332.2319.
HopMonk Tavern New Year’s Eve Bash
Named for an Italian musical term meaning “with spirit,” Bay Area soul, psych-rock and R&B band Con Brio take over the Novato tavern’s Session Room with a dance party to ring in the new year. The band is recently back in the Bay Area after a long fall tour, and their annual New Year’s appearance in the North Bay also features San Francisco songwriter Roem Baur opening and a gratis Champagne or IPA toast at midnight. 224 Vintage Way, Novato. Doors, 8:30pm. $55–$65; limited number of VIP meet-and-greet tickets available, $80. 415.892.6200.
Tommy Odetto Rockin’ New Year Party
Fairfax guitarist extraordinaire Tommy Odetto pulls double duty for this rock-and-roll affair, celebrating the new year and releasing his new album, Curses and Revelations, in a massive blowout concert to count down to midnight in West Marin. Odetto’s sophomore release under his own name, the five-song EP touches on several eras of guitar-fronted rock, from ’60s pop to ’70s psychedelic to grunge, and the Marin native unveils all on New Year’s at the Papermill Creek Saloon, 1 Castro St., Forest Knolls. 9pm. $10. 415.488.9235.
Old Western Saloon
West Marin’s historic venue gets a New Year’s Eve takeover by West Marin favorite party band, El Radio Fantastique, for a special show to ring in 2019. The band, led by multi-faceted songwriter Giovanni Di Morente, is known for bombastic baroque rock and marching-band aesthetics. The band’s recent EP, Outside of Space and Time, is another satisfying collection of evolving pop gems, and the group promises this performance to be a mix of both new songs and old tunes that haven’t been heard live in years. 11201 Hwy. 1, Point Reyes Station. 9pm. $15. 415.663.1661.
ARIES (March 21–April 19) I suspect that in 2019 you’ll be able to blend a knack for creating more stability with an urge to explore and seek greater freedom. How might this unusual confluence be expressed in practical ways? Maybe you’ll travel to reconnect with your ancestral roots. Or perhaps a faraway ally or influence will help you feel more at home in the world. It’s possible you’ll establish a stronger foundation, which will in turn bolster your courage and inspire you to break free of a limitation. What do you think?
TAURUS (April 20–May 20) On the average, a total eclipse of the sun happens every 18 months. And how often is a total solar eclipse visible from a specific location on the planet? Typically, once every 375 years. In 2019, the magic moment will occur on July 2 for people living in Chile and Argentina. But I believe that throughout the coming year, Tauruses all over the world will experience other kinds of rare and wonderful events at a higher rate than usual. Not eclipses, but rather divine interventions, mysterious miracles, catalytic epiphanies, unexpected breakthroughs and amazing graces. Expect more of the marvelous than you’re accustomed to.
GEMINI (May 21–June 20) “The world’s full of people who have stopped listening to themselves,” wrote mythologist Joseph Campbell. It’s imperative that you not be one of those folks. Twenty nineteen should be the Year of Listening Deeply to Yourself. That means being on high alert for your inner inklings, your unconscious longings and the still, small voice at the heart of your destiny. If you do that, you’ll discover I’m right when I say that you’re smarter than you realize.
CANCER (June 21–July 22) Jackson Pollock is regarded as a pioneer in the technique of drip painting, which involves drizzling and splashing paint on canvases that lie on the floor. It made him famous. But the truth is, Pollock got inspired to pursue what became known as his signature style only after he saw an exhibit by the artist Janet Sobel, who was the real pioneer. I bring this to your attention, because I see 2019 as a year when the Janet Sobel–like aspects of your life will get their due. Overdue appreciation will arrive. Credit you have deserved but haven’t fully garnered will finally come your way. You’ll be acknowledged and recognized in surprising ways.
LEO (July 23–August 22) As the crow flies, Wyoming is almost a thousand miles from the Pacific Ocean and more than a thousand miles from the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. Now here’s a surprise: in the northwest corner of Wyoming, the North Two Ocean Creek divides into two tributaries, one of which ultimately flows to the Pacific and one that reaches the Gulf. So an enterprising fish could conceivably swim from one ocean to the other via this waterway. I propose that we make North Two Ocean Creek your official metaphor for 2019. It will symbolize the turning point you’ll be at in your life; it will remind you that you’ll have the power to launch an epic journey in one of two directions.
VIRGO (August 23–September 22) I have come to the conclusion that softening your relationship with perfectionism will be a key assignment in 2019. With this in mind, I offer you observations from wise people who have studied the subject. (1) “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”—Voltaire (2) “Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible.”—Rebecca Solnit (3) Perfectionism is “the high-end version of fear.”—Elizabeth Gilbert (4) “Nothing is less efficient than perfectionism.”—Elizabeth Gilbert (5) “It’s better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else’s perfectly.”—Elizabeth Gilbert
LIBRA (September 23–October 22) In 1682, Peter Alexeyevich became co-Tsar of Russia. He was 10 years old. His 24-year-old half-sister Sophia had a hole cut in the back of his side of the dual throne. That way she could sit behind him, out of sight and whisper guidance as he discussed political matters with allies. I’d love it if you could wangle a comparable arrangement for yourself in 2019. Are there wise confidants or mentors or helpers from whom you could draw continuous counsel? Seek them out.
SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) The body of the violin has two f-shaped holes on either side of the strings. They enable the sound that resonates inside the instrument to be projected outwardly. A thousand years ago, the earliest ancestor of the modern violin had round holes. Later they became half-moons, then c-shaped, and finally evolved into the f-shape. Why the change? Scientific analysis reveals that the modern form allows more air to be pushed out from inside the instrument, thereby producing a more powerful sound. My analysis of your life in 2019 suggests it will be a time to make an upgrade from your metaphorical equivalent of the c-shaped holes to the f-shaped holes. A small shift like that will enable you to generate more power and resonance.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21) Sagittarian singer-songwriter Sia has achieved great success, garnering nine Grammy nominations and amassing a $20 million fortune. Among the superstars for whom she has composed hit tunes are Beyoncé, Rihanna and Flo Rida. But she has also had failures. Top recording artists like Adele and Shakira have commissioned her to write songs for them only to subsequently turn down what she created. In 2016, Sia got sweet revenge. She released an album in which she herself sang many of those rejected songs. It has sold more than 2 million copies. Do you, too, know what it’s like to have your gifts and skills ignored or unused or rebuffed, Sagittarius? If so, the coming months will be an excellent time to express them for your own benefit, as Sia did.
CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) A typical fluffy white cumulus cloud weighs 216,000 pounds. A dark cumulonimbus storm cloud is 106 million pounds, almost 490 times heavier. Why? Because it’s filled with far more water than the white cloud. So which is better, the fluffy cumulus or the stormy cumulonimbus? Neither, of course. We might sometimes prefer the former over the latter because it doesn’t darken the sky as much or cause the inconvenience of rain. But the truth is, the cumulonimbus is a blessing, a substantial source of moisture, a gift to growing things. I mention this because I suspect that for you, 2019 will have more metaphorical resemblances to the cumulonimbus than the cumulus.
AQUARIUS (January 20–February 18) A hundred years ago, most astronomers thought there was just one galaxy in the universe: our Milky Way. Other models for the structure of the universe were virtually heretical. But in the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble produced research that proved the existence of many more galaxies. Today, the estimate is that there are at least 400 billion. I wonder what currently unimaginable possibilities will be obvious to our ancestors a hundred years from now. Likewise, I wonder what currently unforeseen truths will be fully available to you by the end of 2019. My guess: more than in any other previous year of your life.
PISCES (February 19–March 20) Author Elizabeth Gilbert offers advice for those who long for a closer relationship with the Supreme Being: “Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.” I’ll expand that approach so it applies to you when you’re in quest of any crucial life-enhancing experience. If you genuinely believe that a particular adventure or relationship or transformation is key to your central purpose, it’s not enough to be mildly enthusiastic about it. You really do need to seek your heart’s desire in the way people with their heads on fire look for water. Twenty nineteen will be prime time for you to embody this understanding.
Q: I’m a 32-year-old woman with a really intense job that I love. I work long hours every week, and I often work weekends, too—by choice. I don’t want kids, but I’d love to have a relationship. I just worry that guys will want more of me timewise and energywise than I can give—which is basically some nights (into mornings) during the week and on weekends—and will feel neglected and resentful.—Work First
A: Understandably, not everyone is into the sort of relationship where a sleepover entails setting up a yurt inside their partner’s office. Like you, I’m pretty fiercely “work first.” Because of that, I don’t cook; I heat. I’m annoyed by my body’s demands for sleep. Every night! And my home seems less like a home than . . . well, as my boyfriend said—stepping over the endocrinology research papers and corresponding Post-its laid out all over my bathroom floor—“It looks like an academic crime scene.”
You and I are actually somewhat unusual as women who see a “healthy career-life balance” as a threatening crimp in the work that means so much to us. In fact, it turns out that there are some pretty strong sex differences in ambition. (Ladies, please put down the pitchforks!) This isn’t to say women aren’t ambitious. Plenty of women are; it’s just that women, in general, more often want “normal” lives—with, say, a job they enjoy but go home from before the owls start pouring each other nightcaps.
Yet there’s an assumption that women should want to join the cutthroat race to the corner office. Psychologist Susan Pinker criticizes this as the “male standard” being forced on women. In her 2008 book, The Sexual Paradox, Pinker points to countless studies which find that women tend to be more motivated by “intrinsic rewards”—wanting to be happy more than they want to be on top. As an example, she profiles “Donna,” who quit her prestigious job as a tenured professor in a computer science department for a lower-status job (tutoring faculty at another university) that allowed her more one-on-one engagement with people. Pinker explains, “Donna decided to opt for what was meaningful for her over status and money.”
Like you, I don’t want kids. (I describe them as “loud, sticky and expensive.”) However, Pinker notes that there’s “plenty of evidence that many more women than men”—including women at the top of their game—put family before career advancement. She tracked down “Elaine,” the author of an op-ed titled “My glass ceiling is self-imposed,” about why she’d declined a promotion that would have put her third from the top in a company with 12,000-plus employees in more than 60 countries.
The president of the company was dumbfounded. But Elaine wrote that she was happily married, with children (and grandparents nearby). The promotion would have required relocating, and that would have destabilized her family. She concluded her piece with the observation that “many companies . . . would like nothing more than to have more senior female executives, but not all females are willing to give up what it might take to get there.”
These sex differences in ambition make evolutionary sense. Because women evolved to prioritize finding high-status “providers,” mate-seeking men evolved to duke it out to occupy the spot of Ye Olde Big Man on Campus. Sure, these days, mover-and-shaker men typically seek women on a par with them in intellect and education. However, men are still vastly more likely than women to date the hot barista—probably because, over evolutionary history, men evolved to prioritize signs of health and fertility in women (or, to put it another way: “Ye Olde Big Perky Breastesses”).
Getting back to you, though guys are likely to be surprised that a woman would be so job-obsessed, there are those who’ll be good with the limited amount of girlfriendhood you have to provide. Zeroing in on them just takes disclosure—on your online dating profile and when you go on dates. Giving clear forewarning is the right thing to do for anyone with any unusual or obsessive pursuit—whether it’s a sex fetish, spending all one’s time and disposable income tracking Sasquatch or building a nuclear reactor in the basement. As for you, sure, you do eventually see yourself leaving the office—but probably in a vintage Japanese cloisonné urn.
Greetings! The editorial brain trust has gone back through the Pacific Sun archives to help celebrate, commemorate and otherwise delineate 55 years of continuous publication of the paper. There are several Flashback sections peppered through the issue that offer reported highlights from ink-stained wretches of yore. Here’s some content from the rambunctious 1960s to kick off the Flashbacks, with many thanks to our hard-working colleagues Alex T. Randolph, Aiyana Moya, Candace Simmons and Geena Gauthier for diving through the dusty archives to unearth numerous giblets of journalistic joy.—Tom Gogola
June 27, 1963
Mailmen To Find Us In a Zip with ZIP
Zip Code, the Post Office Department’s new method for speeding mail delivery, goes into effect nationally on Monday.
The system is intended to reduce the number of times which postal employees must read addresses, and to mechanize some aspects of sorting and delivery. Postal authorities feel ZIP will provide the United States with the most modern mail service in existence.
January 23, 1964
Pending Legislation Can Aid Fight Against Bodega Reactor
Atomic Energy Commission hearings on PG&E’s Bodega Head reactor, originally scheduled for October 23–24, have been postponed to April and will be held in Santa Rosa.
Further aid to opponents of the establishment of a nuclear reactor at Bodega Head appears to be forthcoming if a recently introduced bill giving state and local governments the authority to forbid construction of nuclear devices within their jurisdiction should be passed in this session of Congress.
The bill would amend section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act which deals with cooperation with the States.
Pacific Sun readers interested in promoting passage of this bill would be wise to contact Rep. Don Clausen, House Office Bldg., House of Representatives, Washington.D.C.
Consolidated Edison recently abandoned plans for a 1000 megawatt reactor for Queens, Long Island. Installation of the reactor was fought because of the potential hazard to millions of people in the metropolitan New York area. Probably the strongest factor in changing Conedison’s mind was the public pronouncement from former AEC chairman David Lilianthal that under no circumstances would he continue to live in New York if this reactor were to be built.
March 12, 1964
Parents—A Hard Look at Values
Teenagers want and need more consistency, more honesty on values, and less protection by parents, Dr. Alvin Marks, Sonoma State College Dean of Students, told Lagunitas PTA Tuesday evening. When they don’t get this, the teenagers are going to shape up a lot of confusing values.
Inconsistency in setting limits, Dr. Marks maintained, wastes the child’s creative and productive energy. Like all human organisms, the teenager will push until he finds his limits, and until he does, he can’t create, he can’t work.
Other areas of contradictory values lie in discipline, permitting one standard, such as corporal punishment, at home, yet not allowing it at school, abdicating former “family rights and duties,” such as driver, citizenship, and sex education; and weakening the traditional role of man as head, and woman as loving balance in the family.
March 12, 1965
Beauty for Ashes
Four Marin carpenters have been building a bridge between two American cultures. The men, two from Fairfax, one from Lagunitas and one from San Rafael, have a sense of accomplishment—they helped rebuild some of the 51 churches burned in racial strife in Mississippi—but their words make clear the bridge to brotherhood is a long one, and far from smooth and safe.
Jim Holland of Fairfax observed, “While we were working in Mississippi the Governor went to a sheriff’s meeting and told them to see that there was no more violence. This is really a police state—the deputies and the police are the ones who have done the most violence.”
“The trouble stopped after this edict,” Frank Cerda of Lagunitas observed, “and this shows the average citizen of Mississippi is not as violent as we thought.”
Asked about the response of the Negroes to the church rebuilding, Phil Drath of San Rafael said, “When they heard about it they accepted the idea graciously and with hope, but they didn’t believe it until they saw us come.” Even then credulity came hard:
“Having you here is the most wonderful experience of our lives,” a woman who served lunch to the workers every day told them. “To think that people would come all the way from California to help us!” . . .
August 13, 1965
Impeach LBJ Meet Tonight
The Committee to Impeach LBJ plans a meeting tonight in Brown’s Hall in Mill Valley.
Leading the discussion on the impeachment proceedings will be Dale Pontius, Associate Professor of Political Science, now on research leave from Roosevelt College, and currently at the Stanford Hoover Library.
Carl Shapiro, attorney, will act as moderator.
The impeachment committee wishes to take action against the President “for failing to observe the Constitution of the United States by waging an undeclared war in Vietnam.”
Flashback 1973
October 25, 1973
Newsgrams
God forbid we should let the week go by without noting in passing that UFO sightings have abounded from Novato to Sausalito. Among reasonably reliable reporters of celestial phenomena are the Independent-Journal’s Theron Newell and the Sun’s Rick Beban. Neither was offered a ride.
December 13, 1973
The Twelve Weeks of Watergate
. . . By the twelfth week of Watergate
The Senate had for me
Kleindienst justifying,
Patrick Gray implying,
Helms falsifying,
Haldeman denying,
Erlichman defying,
Kalmbach almost crying,
Mitchell alibiing,
Gemstone classifying,
Dean identifying,
Ulasewicz wise-guying,
Jeb Magruder spying,
McCord testifying,
SOMEONE MUST BE LYING!
On the Sam Ervin Show on T.V.
—Joseph Heifetz
December 13, 1973
The ‘American Graffiti’ Man
The New Yorker refers to him as “the young George Lucas” and when I met him at the door of his Marin home, I had a strange impulse to yell, “Hey, Georgie, how you been?”
He’s got that kind of naturalness. That kind of youth. That kind of openness.
He’s somewhere around thirty, if not for the beard, he’d look younger, has two one-million-dollar features under his belt already. One a flop, THX 1138, and one, American Graffiti, that has made Variety’s list of 25 all-time box office smashes.
He’s a low-keyed, dreamy (not spaced) sort of person who almost walked into a speeding car when he took us all to lunch in Mill Valley. You get the feeling that he is an inventor, a creator, at heart. Making up stories for himself and for movies, and that he’ll put up with publicity to some extent, but not very much of it.
He spends his days, from eight in the morning to five-thirty in the afternoon, except for tennis lessons on Thursdays and assorted distractions, writing. He wrote the other two movies, and he’s working on another sci-fi movie now.
“This may be a dumb question,” I say, “but how hard is it to get a place like Mel’s or to get the streets where all the cars in Graffiti drive down?”
“Hard. It’s all hard. Originally, we were going to use the streets of San Rafael. And we started there. At $300 a night. But then San Rafael got upset about something and they just broke the contract in the middle of shooting. So we moved to Petaluma and they were really a big help. The supported us in every way.” . . .
—Ira Kamin
December 27, 1973
Dope: A Bay Area Roundup
In the 1972 elections, Californians voted on (and defeated) the first state proposition to decriminalize the simple possession of marijuana for personal use (Proposition 19). Although Proposition 19 lost statewide, it handily “passed” in liberal San Francisco. In light of the S.F. voting pattern, Mayor Joseph Alioto told the press that arrests for marijuana possession would be given a “low priority” in the police order of business. . . .
—Jess Ritter
Flashback 1980s
August 23, 1985
Newsgrams
Fortune tellers are again welcome in San Rafael, and the rest of California. The State Supreme Court struck down an ordinance banning fortune-telling, astrology, palmistry, magic and the like. The court said that such activities, “however dubious,” are protected by the Constitution. San Rafael had passed an ordinance like the one junked by the court.
June 21, 1985
Say Hello to a New Breed of Car Phone
On April 12 a new radio-powered “cellular” telephone system went on the air in the Bay Area. When early subscribers dialed in from mobile handsets, they were disappointed to find much less than the technical wizardry they had paid for. Troubleshooters have since chased away the electronic bugs, clearing the air so that your car’s front seat can now become a global communication center.
The new cellular phones are placed in three compact pieces in your car or carried in a self-contained, battery-powered handset or briefcase unit. They let you call Paris or Hong Kong (or home) without delays and provide crystal-clear voice quality. You can call from a gridlocked freeway or a sloop under sail. And at prices ranging from $1500 to $3000, the new cellular system is being snatched up by lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, contractors and occasional roadsters seeking a trendy new toy. . . .
—Ben Davidson
January 29, 1988
Fighting for Gay Couples’ Rights
Last October in the nation’s capital, several thousand same-sex couples and their supporters gathered in front of the Internal Revenue Services headquarters to demand an end to what they consider discrimination against their relationships. What gay couples want, says Rosemary Dempsey, a lawyer and head of the National Organization for Women’s lesbian rights program, are “our constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Gay activists are pressing for gay rights legislation and ways of making gay marriages legal. “We have to keep the pressure on, both legislatively and in the courts,” says Dempsey.
—Marnie Samuelson
April 15, 1988
The Fight for Affordable Homes
Marin County, famous for its BMWs and rock stars, may well be known in future years as the home of the middle-class poor, a new socio-economic classification that includes college-educated, professional, and career people (with or without families) who can barely afford to rent the most modest dwellings in the county much less save up for a down payment on a house. But local housing advocates are fighting the housing trend that is pushing Marinites out of the county. . . .
—Jeanne-Marie Alexander
June 30, 1989
Artful Animation Featured at Fair
Made by Pixar, a computer graphics firm located in San Rafael, Tin Toy walked away with this year’s Academy Award for best animated short—the first time the Oscar has gone to a computer-animated film.
Tin Toy represents an unusual mix of business and artistry at Pixar, which markets a three-dimensional computer graphics system to defense, medical and research companies. As one of the foremost companies producing such sophisticated programs, Pixar is thriving—last year’s revenues reportedly topped $10 million. Yet its seven-man animation department seldom shows a profit. . . .
—Greg Cahill
Flashback 1990s
December 23, 1993
Derailed plans: Squabbling counties on different tracks
With millions in state and federal transportation money hanging in the balance, political squabbling between Marin and Sonoma counties is threatening the future of a commuter rail system in the North Bay.
The dispute centers on who will own and run a system that has been in the planning stages for decades. “We need to try to get beyond the politics here,” said Marin Supervisor Bob Roumiguiere. “The only thing that can really keep this from happening is a lack of political will.”
Roumiguiere said the public supports his position. A poll taken in 1992 showed that 84 percent of county voters favored a commuter rail system. . . .
—Bill Meagher and Peter Seidman
February 21, 1996
God the Flasher
Ubiquitous Perpetuity God was sentenced to nine months in Marin County Jail for exposing his genitals to a woman in line at a drive-through espresso place. God, age 68, once was Enrique Silberg, a native of Cuba, until he had his name legally changed. God has 17 prior convictions, eight for exposing himself. A court-appointed psychiatrist said God was too sick to be out on the streets. The judge said he could be released to a mental health facility, if one could be found to take him.
—Steve McNamara
April 10, 1996
The Compassionate Use Initiative
This week there’s a final push to gather enough signatures to qualify the Compassionate Use Initiative of 1996 on the ballot for November’s election. Californians for Compassionate Use (CCU) must get 433,269 valid signatures by April 22. In order to meet that requirement, they have set as their goal 680,000 signatures. The tally, so far, is 434,000. . . .
—Nikki Meredith
May 1, 1996
Overheard
A hush fell over Corte Madera Saturday evening as an icon from the seventies disappeared into the night. The Peppermill Bar and Restaurant had finally closed its doors.
The Peppermill was most famous for its dark, mirrored fireside lounge. Sexy cocktail waitresses in long low-cut dresses would come by and take drink orders. Once I brought my youngest sister, Mary, in from West Marin for hot chocolate and appetizers, and she thought we had landed on some weird anti-feminist planet.
Noticeably absent from the Peppermill’s parking lot as I drove by Sunday was the fleet of Twin Cities police vehicles and Highway Patrol cruisers which could usually be found there having an extended Code Seven. Where would they now go for chow? . . .
—Alex Horvath
May 8, 1996
Wiring Up: Enter the Internet, Cruise the World
A year ago you may not even have heard of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now, unless you’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere, you hear, read and see stuff about the Internet everywhere. You can’t pick up a magazine or watch TV without seeing references to advertisers’ sites on the Web.
Estimates of the number of people using the Internet range from 20 million to 50 million. According to Business Week, at the beginning of this year there were about 300,000 sites on the WWW, with hundreds being added every day. By the year 2000, about 200 million are forecast. . . .
We’ve been going through old Pacific Sun issues for the past couple of months to plan this week’s 55th Sun anniversary issue. And nothing says “I’m having too much fun now” than turning editors loose on old bound volumes of newsprint in search of choice tidbits to serve to a loyal Pac Sun readership that’s stayed with the paper all these years.
One the thing that jumps right out is that when the Pacific Sun was founded in 1963, it was a community paper that pretty much served West Marin County.
With the demise of the Village Voice last year, the Pacific Sun is now the oldest continuously published alternative weekly in the country. As I went through the ’60s archives, the “alternative weekly” part of its history manifested almost in phases through the decade.
When it was founded, the Pac Sun had regular offerings of news from churches and business leaders that highlighted local births and deaths and news from local schools. It posted Little League scores, which may be the purest signal of a successful community paper’s local-only approach to journalism.
But as a reader follows the decade, the question raised is whether the countercultural politics of the day caught up with Marin County, or vice versa. To use the vernacular of the day, that’s a heavy thought, man.
There’s one photo caption from the very early days of the paper that cracks me up whenever I think about it—it’s so “environmentally incorrect” as to be worthy of a face-palm moment worthy of outgoing Trump chief of staff John Kelly.
In the very early days, the paper printed a photograph of a man clutching a brace of huge frogs, all dead. The photo came with the following caption: “‘There probably aren’t any more frogs at Nicasio Lake,’” Cecil Sanchez of Inverness said after coming home with this catch. Sanchez was on hand at the opening of the Farm House restaurant in Olema last weekend and told of his fine luck at frogging.”
The Farm House is still there, but who knows where the frogs have all gone off to. When you think of Marin County these days, and especially West Marin, it’s through a generally-agreed-upon demographic lens of environmental awareness met with action. You don’t necessarily think of celebrating the death of 10 frogs and bragging off the front page that you probably killed ’em all.
By 1965, the paper was running big ads in opposition to the Marincello development proposal which gave rise, it is said, to the modern Marin progressive-activist sensibility. Residents were headed to the Deep South to rebuild black churches burned by racists, and committees were meeting to discuss the impeachment of Lyndon Johnson for war crimes. The “alt” was on.
And, by 1968, there were ads calling for the removal of then-governor Ronald Reagan from office. Steve McNamara was the editor and publisher, and the counterculture had seeped strongly into the pages. There was poetry. There was a news brief about how the Marin County supervisors were meeting to discuss whether 18-year-olds should get the vote, and there were countercultural comic strips that were, by turns, bizarre, amateurish and goofy. Tiburon letter writer J. W. Cook wrote that “The Pacific Sun is a very fine newspaper, but why do you feel you have to be ‘far out’ by continuing to devote space to these completely poorly drawn ‘comic’ strips. Yuuuck.”
The year 1968 is generally agreed to be among the most divisive and soul-wrenching years in American history. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were murdered, the Vietnam war raged, and the Civil Rights push was met with intense push-back.
Given the bullet-strewn backdrop, one of the more interesting and telling debates that played out in the Pac Sun’s pages in the late 1960s was between rod-and-gun clubs in the rural county and the Marin supervisors of the time who tried to pass a gun-control ordinance.
Had it passed—and it almost did, wrote McNamara—Marin’s gun-control law would have been the very first gun-control ordinance in the country.
By 1968, the paper had a paid subscription of 8,519 and could boast the largest paid circulation between San Francisco and the Oregon border. Through the decade, it would cover the Synanon cult’s early days, just as it covered these events called “Renaissance Faires” that would pop up in the shadow of Mt. Tam or elsewhere in the ur-unicorn wilds of West Marin. And speaking of Mt. Tam, one of my favorite calendar items from the era was from July 1968 when the paper let the public know that Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas would be making a Mt. Tam hike, and the public was invited to romp up the mountain with the civil-libertarian court legend. “Restriction of free thought and free speech,” he once said, “is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”
Misgivings of some people in Novato about a Tiajuana Tacos place have prove well-founded . . . and not a taco has yet crossed the counter. When the building inspector checked the foundation, he found that it had been placed 16 feet closer to Novato Creek than had been approved. The chain was ordered to take out the foundation and plumbing and do it again the proper way. When the application first came up, there was a low moan in Novato. Various city groups are trying hard to upgrade the downtown area; while at the same time the city threatens to be inundated by take-out food spots and gas stations of dubious esthetic appeal. . . .
January 17, 1974
Public Notice: County of Marin Fictitious Name Statement No. 103595
The following person is doing business as MCDONALD’S HAMBURGERS OF NOVATO. This business is conducted by ARCHES OF GOLD INC. . . .
May 10, 1985
King of Cheese Is Cheese of Kings
Homo Liberalis, apparently a dying species if you believe the prognoses of political analysts, will go down in history as having been fond of brie cheese. What is the evidence? In the thick of the 1980 presidential campaign, our then-revered commentator, Walter Cronkite, characterized John Anderson’s liberal constituency as one made of people who who “drive Volvos and dine on brie.” In one fell swoop he successfully branded the political ethos of millions of voters by telling us something about what they like to put in their mouths. Perhaps unbeknownst to Cronkite, however, brie has been in the political limelight before. . . .
—Karen Brooks
Jan. 8, 1997
Out to Lunch
In an archetypal scene from countless American films, the weary protagonist, after a hard day battling crime or helping the downtrodden, steps into a local cafe for a good hot meal. The warm-hearted proprietor, who’s seen them come and go, understands the star’s mood without asking and swiftly brings a menu, offering a cup of coffee, a pat on the shoulder and a bit of homespun advice on the blue plate special or the vicissitudes of life. Duly refueled and rejuvenated, our hero or heroine squares his or her shoulders and saunters back out to fight the good fight with renewed vigor.
In a cafe at the north end of Sausalito, the customers are less likely to be gallant defenders of the faith than high-tech computer wiz kids, sailors or artists, and Kitti’s Cal-Asian menu is definitely not traditional American fare. Still, the aforementioned image best conveys my experience of Kitti’s Place. . . .
—Lois MacLean
March 16, 2005
Heart & Soul
How soulful can we get? Two appealing little restaurants have appeared recently with home-style nourishing as their philosophy, both featuring reasonably priced foods. December brought the debut of Sol Food in San Rafael, Marin’s first eatery serving Puerto Rican specialities. In Tam Junction, a spot known as Smoothie Love morphed into Cafe del Soul, serving organic salads, wraps, stir-fried dishes and—yes—smoothies. While it’s an organic restaurant, it is not vegan. This is definitely the place to seek out if you’re looking for a righteously healthful meal or snack. . . .
I’ve never been more proud to be an Enemy of the People than this week at the Pacific Sun and the Bohemian,our sister paper in Sonoma County. The Pacific Sun turned 55 this year and the Bohemian turned 40, which means we’re five years away from over 100 years of continuously published news and arts in the North Bay.
That’s something. Papers come and go, and go again.
On a personal note, it’s been an interesting ride. When I started in this business, in 1989, one of the most rewarding aspects of membership in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (now Newsmedia), was that the papers in the organization would send their issues out to all the other papers via snail-mail. So when you’d come to work, alt-weeklies from around the country—Creative Loafing, The Stranger, The Chicago Reader—would be available to get ideas from, send résumés to, and flat-out just enjoy reading.
We’re a quirky lot, those of us who’ve stayed in the alternative universe over the years—a place to indulge the obsessive whim, report the scam, riff on the accepted wisdom of the day. The shared-newspaper arrangement provided a sense of belonging to the imperfect muckrakers and misfits who populate this vital corner of the publishing world. It went out the window years ago as alt-weeklies looked for places to shave costs in an ever-shifting media landscape that, since the late ’80s, has been dancing with digital, and not always so successfully. And besides, nowadays you can just jump online and check out what the other papers are up to, if they’re still around.
We are. This paper has a storied history and a long-standing bias to afflict the comforted and comfort the afflicted. The team here is doing its level best to hold up the traditions, and will continue to do so until they take this stubby pencil out of my cold, dead hands. We’re part of a group of papers that has survived all the recent, crushing moments in media—recessions and buyouts and Craigslist, and the digital dilemma that requires a daily engagement with the online beast that must be fed.
These old archives we’ve been going through to produce this issue are a bracing reminder of the critical role and vitality of community-based news-gathering and cultural reporting—and the power of the press, of newsprint, to make a difference in our chosen communities—while also letting readers know where to get some choice dim sum on the cheap. And on that note, I believe that it’s lunchtime again in America. Long live the alt-weekly!
Sammy Hagar’s not your stereotypical Marin rock icon, neither brooding, dark metal type nor hybrid-driving flower of the psychedelic revolution. Nonetheless, he was the screamingly obvious choice to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Pacific Sun. Do we need to explain why?
Sitting at a wooden table in a studio tucked away in one of the county’s industrial zones, Hagar discussed the song from his pre-Van Halen solo days that became an anthem for personal frustration with government overreach into everyone’s daily lives back in the K-car era.
The universally violated National Maximum Speed Law, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1974, turned straight arrows into scofflaws and didn’t save much in the way of lives or imported Saudi oil.
“It’s ’83, so we go on vacation to Africa. You know, safari and all that stuff. I was gone for six weeks. Flew from Nairobi to London, changed planes, got on the Concorde, flew to New York City. Got on a plane, flew to Albany, N.Y. ,” Hagar says.
“Two o’clock in the morning, rented a car and was driving to my home in Lake Placid.I had a log cabin up there because my boy Aaron went to school at North Country School in Lake Placid.
“So we were taking him back to school after the summer vacation and a cop pulls me over. I was doing, like, 62 miles an hour.He says, ‘Yeah, we give tickets for 62 miles an hour.’
“I’m going, ‘Man, I can’t drive 55. What the hell are you talking about?’ It’s like two o’clock in the morning, there’s nobody on the highway but one cop hiding in the bushes. So, I started laughing about ‘I can’t drive 55,’ and I started writing the lyrics while he was writing the ticket.
“I got to my log cabin, I walked in the house, four in the morning. . . . I pull out a guitar and my little tape recorder, and I wrote that damn song. It’s a pure protest song. That’s what’s so funny about it. Everyone thinks it’s such a gimmick. This is a protest song. I was pissed.
“My insurance was $124,000 a year in 1983. I had 43 violations. My license was taken away three times. Never drunk driving, nothing like that—it’s always just speeding.
“I don’t do that anymore. Honestly, I don’t. But the kind of cars I had, at 100 miles an hour, could do more than a truck at 20. You know, so I kind of felt like I had the privilege, but I know that’s a bad thing to say.”
The Southern California–bred Hagar arrived in San Francisco in 1968 to play with a cover band and moved to Marin in 1972 when he joined the group Montrose.
“My bands were never part of the San Francisco scene,” he says. “People don’t realize Montrose was a San Francisco band in 1972 in the middle of all that hippie thing. We were not hippies. We bordered on glam rock, but we were metal punks. You know we really had attitude where I didn’t talk to the audience.”
Hagar broke with Ronnie Montrose’s “no smiling onstage” direction. “Ever since I left Montrose, my thing is no frowning onstage. Everybody, you smile up there! Make these people happy.
“I wanted to live in Mill Valley. It was my go-to place. Jerry Garcia lived there. Jefferson Airplane lived there. Carlos Santana lived there. Every rock star from the Bay Area lived in Mill Valley. ”
“You’d walk into that little coffee shop and Bill Graham would be telling stories to Carlos and Jerry would be smoking a joint out in the parking lot. Allen Ginsberg, all those San Francisco guys, they’d come over here. I honestly can’t tell you how many times I saw Grace Slick or Carlos or someone at the grocery store or anywhere you went.
“That’s not why I wanted to live in Mill Valley; I wanted to live in Mill Valley because it had Mount Tam. I was always a hiker, a runner, a biker. I mean, I’ve always been a physical nut. So that mountain appealed me. I used to come from the city and drive over there just to hike on that mountain and run all the way to Stinson Beach and back.
“It changed a lot. When I moved there, from my house to the freeway, there were no frigging stop signs. Now there’s signals and traffic jams. It’s more like Carmel, but it’s still a cool place to live.
“In the old days, Mill Valley was very unpretentious. No one dressed up. I used to go around looking like a rock star and get downtown and start feeling stupid. I’d say, well, shit, maybe I’m overdressed. I’ve got a shiny shirt on. Now it’s like very, very upscale.
“There’s that division. There’s the old time hikers with their little sticks and their Adirondack kind of clothes hiking up and down the mountain, and then the bikers come flying down and they want to take their cane and stick it in their spokes. There’s naturalists and then there’s some aggressive, go-getter dot-com people.”
Looking tanned and fit at 71, Hagar still performs festivals and makes music in his studio with Chickenfoot bandmates Joe Satriani and Michael Anthony, but has retired from touring.
Hagar and celebrity chef Tyler Florence opened the El Paseo steakhouse in 2011, but their visions didn’t align. Hagar split with Florence in 2016 and closed the restaurant in July. He’s in the process of selling to a local operator.
Hagar’s other business ventures these days include marketing a “mezquila” mix of two popular distilled agave spirits, mezcal and tequila, as well as Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, distilled in Puerto Rico. As he did with the Cabo Wabo artisanal tequila brand that he sold to Gruppo Campari for more than $90 million in 2008, Hagar involves himself in the product formulation and branding rather than just lending a celebrity endorsement.
George Clooney’s billion-dollar exit last year from his Casamigos tequila raised the stakes with an added zero, and as a celebrity spirit brand pioneer, the Red Rocker could be headed for another second win if macadamia-flavored sweet rum (sips well over ice) strikes a chord with the imbibing class.
Hagar also dabbles in music journalism, interviewing legends such as Roger Daltrey and longtime friend Bob Weir for AXS TV’s Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar.
These days Hagar says he gets the most satisfaction from his philanthropic activities. He supports food banks and local charities where his businesses are located, and has medical costs for procedures such as kidney transplants for people who need operations and cannot afford them.
“I like doing that. That makes me feel good. That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don’t want to be a rock star for the rest of my life; I’m not even a rock star now. I’ve been a rock star, but now I’m a musician and an artist and entrepreneur, you might say, and a philanthropist, and I like doing that part of it.
“That’s why I still do things. Otherwise, I’d probably just go away and hide out in some beautiful place.”
Luckily for Hagar, who grabs some unlabeled bottles left over from a mixology session as he heads home from his studio, he can have his margarita and drink it too.
On the occasion of the anniversaries of the Pacific Sun and its sister paper, the North Bay Bohemian, consider that both outlasted their model, New York’s Village Voice, which perished this August.
The New York paper, founded by Norman Mailer and others in 1955, made its fame dealing with the matters that the other Manhattan dailies wouldn’t touch, such as drugs, feminism and anti-war activism. The paper waxed and waned with various countercultures, surviving through decades of beatnik, hippie, freak and yuppie readers, finally expiring in the era of Yelp, Tinder, and the artisanal pickle. Imitating both the Voice’s example (bravery, frankness and prioritizing local issues) and its flaws (insularity, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction), dozens of smaller tabloids sprung to life in every funky town or college ghetto in the U.S.A.
As New York grew whiter and richer, the Voice suffered from years of mismanagement. It changed hands and in 2005 became part of the New Times chain out of Phoenix. While the Phoenix New Times deserves honor for its heroic reporting on the brutality of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the chain itself proposed an apolitical, one-size-fits-all model for the papers they engulfed and devoured. The Voice survives in name only as part of the Voice Media Group, the remains of a media group that once faced scrutiny by the Justice Department for the way it invaded markets.
As for the Voice itself, it dwindled, eventually being placed into a sort of online-only hospice before the plug was pulled this summer.
The VV was perhaps one more casualty of what critic A. S. Hamrah describes in his new book The Earth Dies Streaming as “Trumpancholia”—a global malady “afflicting most of the planet’s population, who have traded the things they used to enjoy for the constant monitoring of Trump’s reality-TV spectacle.”
Today, there isn’t a newspaper around that’s not trying to do more with less, and not a writer for them that isn’t coping with smaller spaces, shorter attention spans and less time to rearrange words. Still, the VV’s model created careers as something that sounds patronizing: an “alternative journalist.” It was—and for the ones left, still is—a gift to be able to write as you please, and to be able to use everyone’s favorite four-letter words in matters where nothing else works. In this line of journalism, you don’t have to button your collar, or worry about what the Baptists would think, or, when writing about the arts, pretending to be bulldog, gruffing about these pretentious academics or those long-haired hippies.
With the death of the Voice, the Pacific Sun is now the most long-lasting alternative weekly in the country, having persisted since 1963. Through Marin and Sonoma’s agricultural land trusts and the fight against the mega-suburb Marincello—a housing development proposed atop the Marin Headlands—locals have fought bravely against what Wendell Berry called “the unsettling of America,” the shutting out of small farms in favor of development and mass agriculture. Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto’s 2013 documentary Rebels with a Cause shows us how it could have gone, with the creation of the planned city of Marincello. This development was eventually fended off locally by activists, and prevented at the federal level by the work of Congressman Clem Miller. Imagine a parallel universe where the peerless seascapes of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes are one big sprawl of shopping centers and mansions for yachtsmen.
The Pacific Sun was concerned with matters of terroir from the beginning. The Stinson Beach–based founders Merril and Joann S. Grohman were dedicated small-scale dairy farmers and authors of books on bovine culture; Ms. Grohman wrote a still-in-print manual on keeping a cow at your homestead.
My business isn’t tending cattle; it’s watching turkeys. My back-of-the-book end of it, mostly, is trying to find what is good about popular films and popular about the good ones. Streaming is still something to cope with: most of the companies in charge are poor at differentiating what they have, cagey about what’s trending, indifferent about promoting it.
For the film critics today, a lot of the previewing is done online, which ain’t optimum. I’d prefer crowding into a Tuesday-morning bargain matinee with other pennysavers. Every now and then, it’s a plunge into the dim interior of the Variety Club screening room on Market Street, where I’ve been previewing movies for 35 years or so—in the back row on the cushy seats where the Pacific Sun’s Stephanie von Buchau used to sit, cane by her side, until her death in 2006. She was wise, imperious and an expert on opera, and I’m rather glad I don’t know what she would have thought of me following up for her.
I’ve had the pleasure of writing about irreplaceable local institutions such as the Smith Rafael Theater, and the Mill Valley Film Festival. For the Bohemian, where I’ve been writing somewhat longer, I enjoy finally having an excuse to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, and covering something irreplaceably local, the Cotati Accordion Festival, which brings virtuosos from all over the globe, as well as amateurs who squeeze out “Lady of Spain.” This is my favorite place in the world.
I’ve been lucky to work with talented editors, none of them J. Jonah Jameson–style barkers, whom I’ll list on this anniversary: Greg Cahill, Gretchen Giles, Tom Gogola, Stett Holbrook, Molly Oleson and Charlie Swanson. And all thanks to publisher Rosemary Olson, and CEO and executive editor Dan Pulcrano, who bought the Bohemian in 1995 and the Sun in 2015 and who keeps the roof on, as he likes to say. He has run newspapers for almost as long as I’ve been writing for them, and that’s one long time.
ARIES (March 21–April 19) Consumer Reports says that between 1975 and 2008, the average number of products for sale in a supermarket rose from about 9,000 to nearly 47,000. The glut is holding steady. Years ago, you selected from among three or four brands of soup and shampoo. Nowadays, you may be faced with 20 varieties of each. I suspect that 2019 will bring a comparable expansion in some of your life choices, Aries—especially when you’re deciding what to do with your future and who your allies should be. This could be both a problem and a blessing. For best results, opt for choices that have all three of these qualities: fun, usefulness and meaningfulness.
TAURUS (April 20–May 20) People have been trying to convert ordinary metals into gold since at least 300 A.D. At that time, an Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos of Panopolis unsuccessfully mixed sulfur and mercury in the hope of performing such magic. Fourteen centuries later, seminal scientist Isaac Newton also failed in his efforts to produce gold from cheap metal. But now let’s fast forward to 20th-century chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, a distinguished researcher who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951. He and his team did an experiment with bismuth, an element that’s immediately adjacent to lead on the periodical table. By using a particle accelerator, they literally transmuted a small quantity of bismuth into gold. I propose that we make this your teaching story for 2019. May it inspire you to seek transformations that have never before been possible.
GEMINI (May 21–June 20) United States President Donald Trump wants to build a concrete and fenced wall between Mexico and America, hoping to slow down the flow of immigrants across the border. Meanwhile, 12 Northern African countries are collaborating to build a 4,750-mile-long wall of drought-resistant trees at the border of the Sahara, hoping to stop the desert from swallowing up farmland. During the coming year, I’ll be rooting for you to draw inspiration from the latter, not the former. Erecting new boundaries will be healthy for you—if it’s done out of love and for the sake of your health, not out of fear and divisiveness.
CANCER (June 21–July 22) Cancerian poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau advised artists to notice the aspects of their work that critics didn’t like—and then cultivate those precise aspects. He regarded the disparaged or misconstrued elements as being key to an artist’s uniqueness and originality, even if they were as-yet immature. I’m expanding his suggestion and applying it to all of you Crabs during the next 10 months, even if you’re not strictly an artist. Watch carefully what your community seems to misunderstand about the new trends you’re pursuing, and work hard to ripen them.
LEO (July 23–August 22) In 1891, a 29-year-old British mother named Constance Garnett decided she would study the Russian language and become a translator. She learned fast. During the next 40 years, she produced English translations of 71 Russian literary books, including works by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev and Chekhov. Many had never before been rendered in English. I see 2019 as a Constance Garnett–type year for you, Leo. Any late-blooming potential you might possess could enter a period of rapid maturation. Awash in enthusiasm and ambition, you’ll have the power to launch a new phase of development that could animate and motivate you for a long time.
VIRGO (August 23–September 22) I’ll be bold and predict that 2019 will be a nurturing chapter in your story; a time when you will feel loved and supported to a greater degree than usual; a phase when you will be more at home in your body and more at peace with your fate than you have in a long time. I have chosen an appropriate blessing to bestow upon you, written by the poet Claire Wahmanholm. Speak her words as if they were your own. “On Earth I am held, honeysuckled not just by honeysuckle but by everything—marigolds, bog after bog of small sundews, the cold smell of spruce.”
LIBRA (September 23–October 22) “Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.” This advice is sometimes attributed to 16th-century politician and cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Now I’m offering it to you as one of your important themes in 2019. Here’s how you can best take it to heart. First, be extremely discerning about what ideas, theories and opinions you allow to flow into your imagination. Make sure they’re based on objective facts and make sure they’re good for you. Second, be aggressive about purging old ideas, theories and opinions from your head, especially if they’re outmoded, unfounded or toxic.
SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Memorize this quote by author Peter Newton and keep it close to your awareness during the coming months: “No remorse. No if-onlys. Just the alertness of being.” Here’s another useful maxim, this one from author Mignon McLaughlin: “Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.” Shall we make it a lucky three mottoes to live by in 2019? This one’s by author A. A. Milne: “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21) Until 1920, most American women didn’t have the right to vote. For that matter, few had ever been candidates for public office. There were exceptions. In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first to seek a seat in Congress. In 1875, Victoria Woodhull ran for president. Susanna Salter became the first woman mayor in 1887. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Sagittarius, 2019 will be a Stanton-Woodhull-Salter-type of year for you. You’re likely to be ahead of your time and primed to innovate. You’ll have the courage and resourcefulness necessary to try seemingly unlikely and unprecedented feats, and you’ll have a knack for ushering the future into the present.
CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) Studies show that the best possible solution to the problem of homelessness is to provide cheap or free living spaces for the homeless. Not only is it the most effective way of helping the people involved, in the long run, it’s also the least expensive. Is there a comparable problem in your personal life? A chronic difficulty that you keep putting band-aids on but that never gets much better? I’m happy to inform you that 2019 will be a favorable time to dig down to find deeper, more fundamental solutions; to finally fix a troublesome issue rather than just addressing its symptoms.
AQUARIUS (January 20–February 18) Many people in Iceland write poems, but only a few publish them. There’s even a term for those who put their creations away in a drawer rather than seeking an audience: skúffuskáld, literally translated as “drawer-poet.” Is there a comparable phenomenon in your life, Aquarius? Do you produce some good thing but never share it? Is there a part of you that you’re proud of but keep secret? Is there an aspect of your ongoing adventures that’s meaningful but mostly private? If so, 2019 will be the year you might want to change your mind about it.
PISCES (February 19–March 20) Scientists at Goldsmiths University in London did a study to determine the catchiest pop song ever recorded. After extensive research in which they evaluated an array of factors, they decided that Queen’s “We Are the Champions” is the song that more people love to sing than any other. This triumphant tune happens to be your theme song in 2019. I suggest you learn the lyrics and melody, and sing it once every day. It should help you build on the natural confidence-building influences that will be streaming into your life.
Allow us to be the first to say goodbye to 2018. With old acquaintances—both forgotten and remembered—we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, and we’ll start with these New Year’s Eve parties around the North Bay. From delectable dinners to cabaret shows and blowout concerts, here’s a selection of ways to ring in 2019.
Noon Year’s Eve
Ring in the New...
ARIES (March 21–April 19) I suspect that in 2019 you’ll be able to blend a knack for creating more stability with an urge to explore and seek greater freedom. How might this unusual confluence be expressed in practical ways? Maybe you’ll travel to reconnect with your ancestral roots. Or perhaps a faraway ally or influence will help you feel...
Q: I’m a 32-year-old woman with a really intense job that I love. I work long hours every week, and I often work weekends, too—by choice. I don’t want kids, but I’d love to have a relationship. I just worry that guys will want more of me timewise and energywise than I can give—which is basically some nights (into...
Flashback 1960s
Greetings! The editorial brain trust has gone back through the Pacific Sun archives to help celebrate, commemorate and otherwise delineate 55 years of continuous publication of the paper. There are several Flashback sections peppered through the issue that offer reported highlights from ink-stained wretches of yore. Here’s some content from the rambunctious 1960s to kick off the Flashbacks,...
We’ve been going through old Pacific Sun issues for the past couple of months to plan this week’s 55th Sun anniversary issue. And nothing says “I’m having too much fun now” than turning editors loose on old bound volumes of newsprint in search of choice tidbits to serve to a loyal Pac Sun readership that’s stayed with the paper...
March 20, 1969
Newsgrams
Misgivings of some people in Novato about a Tiajuana Tacos place have prove well-founded . . . and not a taco has yet crossed the counter. When the building inspector checked the foundation, he found that it had been placed 16 feet closer to Novato Creek than had been approved. The chain was ordered to take out...
I’ve never been more proud to be an Enemy of the People than this week at the Pacific Sun and the Bohemian, our sister paper in Sonoma County. The Pacific Sun turned 55 this year and the Bohemian turned 40, which means we’re five years away from over 100 years of continuously published news and arts in the North...
Sammy Hagar’s not your stereotypical Marin rock icon, neither brooding, dark metal type nor hybrid-driving flower of the psychedelic revolution. Nonetheless, he was the screamingly obvious choice to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Pacific Sun. Do we need to explain why?
Sitting at a wooden table in a studio tucked away in one of the county’s industrial zones, Hagar...
On the occasion of the anniversaries of the Pacific Sun and its sister paper, the North Bay Bohemian, consider that both outlasted their model, New York’s Village Voice, which perished this August.
The New York paper, founded by Norman Mailer and others in 1955, made its fame dealing with the matters that the other Manhattan dailies wouldn’t touch, such as...
ARIES (March 21–April 19) Consumer Reports says that between 1975 and 2008, the average number of products for sale in a supermarket rose from about 9,000 to nearly 47,000. The glut is holding steady. Years ago, you selected from among three or four brands of soup and shampoo. Nowadays, you may be faced with 20 varieties of each. I...
