The Sunday Marin Farmers’ Market in San Rafael scored a new and intriguing resident over Memorial Day weekend—The Surf ’n Turf Shack. Technically, it’s not really new, but a welcome unity of two neighboring stands that frequent market-goers know well: Same Day Seafood and Prather Ranch Meat Co.
“The idea came out of conversations with Doug from the meat stand,” says Gary Root, the man behind Same Day Seafood and the owner of the shack. “There [are] zero miles between the source and the customer.”
Root believes that the stand will highlight the seafood and meat by the two collaborators, and add to the fun, interactive approach he’s already taking. “We do a lot with kids, educating young people about fishing, local seafood, wild versus farmed, and we’ll expand that to explaining how meats arrive at a market,” he says.
The Surf ’n Turf Shack serves land and sea dishes like steak sandwiches, salmon cakes, ceviche and sashimi, and in the near future, will offer combo platters that include side dishes like mac & cheese.
“We both spend a lot of time explaining to customers how to turn our offerings into meals at home,” Root says. “The shack will give them a number of ideas.”
Root recruited Efren Sandoval, the executive chef of San Francisco’s Scoma’s, to manage Sunday’s cooking activities, and wanted to give him “flexibility in the cooking process, so he can accommodate people’s requests.”
Root’s belief in the Shack is so strong that he’s already looking into a permanent location in San Rafael or San Francisco, where Prather and Same Day Seafood would partner up. Stay tuned.
The Surf ’n Turf Shack;415/944-7871; facebook.com/surfnturfshack.
The big news of Memorial Day weekend in Marin was of course, the whale—the big, 79-foot endangered female blue whale that got hit by a ship out in the shipping channels and washed up on Agate Beach in Bolinas late last week—and died.
It was a truly sad and awesome scene on the beach through the weekend as visitors and scientists came to see the majestic animal, pray over it, take samples for scientific study or simply stand next to the animal and be dwarfed by its enormity of scale and decaying beauty.
On a gray Saturday morning at dawn the whale was still intact, sans its eyes, which had been removed by scientists the day before. Word on the whale-watch street is that it is very rare luck indeed to get the eyes of a dead whale before the birds and scavengers peck them out. The beach was empty save for a few other early-morning visitors. A couple of women from San Rafael had made the trek after reading that, owing to strong minus-tides through the weekend, the Duxbury Reef beach walk had been named the “Hike of the Week” in a local daily paper.
The women had no idea about the whale until they arrived; the greater Bay Area media was still just getting up to speed on the story.
“I thought it was a metal sculpture on the beach,” one woman said. The coloration of the whale changed through the weekend and for a while the blistering skin would give way and leave rust-brown circles on the mammoth body that did lend to an ancient, sculptural feeling.
The report that came from scientists at the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center, located in the Marin Headlands, was that the whale was around 20 years old, a little small for her age, had given birth to a couple of calves over her lifetime and had been known to regional scientists since around 1999.
There are around 2,800 blue whales off of San Francisco out of a world-wide population of around 10,000—one less after the collision with a vessel that did all sorts of internal damage to the whale and killed it.
Commercial vessels running through the federally-protected Gulf of the Farallones are asked to reduce speed to 10 knots to avoid such encounters or limit the damage when they do occur (to whales and ships alike, but the whales generally absorb the brunt of it).
By 9am on Saturday morning, the parking lot at Agate Beach was full, and the beach was filled with visitors and scientists, the latter of whom had come to perform a proper necropsy and take tissue samples back to the lab, and filled the back of a pickup truck with black plastic bags of whale. To describe the rank aroma coming off of the whale is somewhat difficult without stink-shaming the poor departed beast, but it was and is some kind of powerful and sour smell, and enduring in the nostrils for hours after an encounter with it. Fortunately, the spring has brought a stunning bounty of pink and white roses to offset the pungency of rotting whale blubber, and the whale was itself garlanded with a few flowers by mourners.
By the end of the weekend many visitors were viewing the whale from atop a cliff, and the whale was itself looking rather beat up. The de riguer jokes about whale-burgers popping up on the local Coast Cafe menu, very authentic local seafood chow, foraged with integrity, had run their course.
The blue whale is the largest animal in the world, and indeed if we are to believe Wikipedia, is the largest animal ever to have swam or roamed the earth—and that includes all of those big dinosaurs.
The relatively rare whale wash-up recalled an incident from 1970 that was contemplated at and around the various community events and good-time Memorial Day activities taking place through the weekend in Bolinas, with a certain flavor of head-shaking mirth at the retell. The story was recalled over the question of, What is to be done with the whale, whichbegan to manifest in the local chew-the-blubber circuits at Smiley’s Saloon and elsewhere.
Well, when a big sperm whale washed up in Oregon in the 1970s, in the coastal town of Florence, state officials consulted with the Navy and decided to blow it up, and left it to a local to do the deed. As recounted in Wikipedia and in Dave Barry’s hilarious retell of the event, a military veteran with explosives experience warned the local engineer that he’d packed way too much dynamite under the whale. Way too much.
Kaboom! The Oregonians set off the dynamite, a large explosion was caught on camera, and then large chunks of whale subsequently began to rain down on passersby and TV film crews, crushed a car or two, almost killed a couple of people, and didn’t even blow up the darn whale. It also scared away all of the scavenger birds that were supposed to help break down the remains. It’s a YouTube classic—just look up “exploding whale.”
Rest assured, the Bolinas whale is not going anywhere and nobody is going to blow it up. The whale is presently lodged in a curving corner of the beach, part of a county park that connects to the Point Reyes National Seashore, and it’s way too rocky for any craft to get in there and tow it out to sea. The beach is itself too rocky to bury the whale in the sand, the preferred course of action in these cases.
It’ll be a long and stinky summer on Agate Beach as locals now turn their attention, and their general disdain, at state and federal laws that forbid, in almost all cases, the harvesting of whale bones for personal or commercial ends.
“Art and poetry have long played a role in social and political discourse. Artists and poets help identify personal meanings and promote individual expression of diverse ideas. Moreover, art and poetry often tap into deeper and more symbolic aspects of our relationship to sociocultural and political events.
… Let the artists and poets speak their truth.”
—Patrick Gannon, Adrienne Amundsen, April 20, 2017
It’s just after noon on a warm Saturday at the end of May, and the first of dozens of art pieces has already been removed and carried away by its creator. Lone wall tags—bearing the titles and artists of the absent pieces—only make the few empty spaces more noticeable. These are the final hours of “Against TRUMPISM: The Art & Poetry of Resistance,” an engaging and (occasionally) quite polarizing art show tucked into a pair of rooms at San Rafael’s Museum of International Propaganda.
With hours to go until the exhibit must be down, there are still plenty of pieces on display, bearing an array of identifiable images combined in provocative and poetic ways: American flags, the Statue of Liberty, shooting range targets, pinky pussy hats, feminine hygiene products, monsters, post-apocalyptic rubble and of course, the face of sitting President Donald J. Trump.
Scattered throughout the images are an abundance of keynote words. Frequently appearing are “Democracy,” “Bully,” “Evil,” “Fascism,” “Horror,” “Sick,” “Angry,” “Fake,” “Female,” “Pussy,” “Fight,” “Freedom,” “Immigrant,” “American,” “Christ,” “Cash” and “Heartbreak.”
On one wall is a small, dark painting, with faint, barely visible words of hopelessness and despair, with one word standing out in bright glowing pink: “Hope.” The piece, titled “(Art is) the Last Hope of a Hopeless Nation,” is by teenager Jasper Sanchez, identified on the painting’s wall tag as “a queer Jewish transgender American.”
As a small but steady stream of weekend visitors step through the door, their eyes wide with surprise that such a thing as a Museum of Propaganda exists (and in Marin County), Patrick Gannon—an artist, therapist and curator of the “Against TRUMPISM” show—warmly greets the occasional contributing artist stopping in to pick up art.
“Did you see this one?” asks Gannon, pointing to Sanchez’s piece. “The title is so full of desperation and depression. But hope is not lost. It’s still emerging from this sea of darkness.”
The piece points to one of Gannon’s primary observations about political art: That it frequently springs from a deeply personal place, from feelings as much as from thoughts. To that end, Gannon says that he’s begun working with other mental health professionals seeking to better serve their clients, and to take some kind of positive action in the wake of November’s election.
“When Trump was elected, and then leading up to the inauguration, people were getting more and more upset,” Gannon points out. “A lot of it was sheer speculation based on how we viewed him during the campaign, and how we saw that as impacting him as president. And then, during the lead-up to the inauguration—and of course, the Muslim ban he imposed shortly afterwards, [he] rapidly became a galvanizing influence that sparked different kinds of mobilization across the country.
“And a whole lot of artists got really activated all over the nation,” he continues. “All at once, they started producing political art. In my opinion, personal expression about a political issue is ‘political art,’ while propaganda is art that is designed to mobilize, to influence, to persuade and to depict issues or people in a particularly specific way.”
Some art, of course, straddles both of those definitions.
“Of course it does,” Gannon acknowledges. “Art is messy. It doesn’t follow other people’s definitions. It ignites, and it burns. And it does burn through and across simple definitions.”
That said, those definitions can still be useful. There are plenty of artists who strenuously avoid any hint of having created propaganda, steering their artistic efforts more toward honest personal expression. And there are those who clearly hope that their art will mobilize others into political action by striking a chord with like-minded individuals. But whether it falls on one side or the other, there’s no denying that political expression in art is on the rise.
“In the wake of Trump taking office, you now see all these pop-up art shows happening all over the country,” Gannon says. “There are all these resistance groups forming, and often enough, in the weeds of one area’s resistance movement, there pop-up these kinds of art shows. This is one. The “Nasty Women” show in New York was one. There was a political art show in Santa Rosa last month, too. It’s a movement that’s happening within the artistic communities of the country. Amateurs, professionals, they’re all being activated to express themselves in really powerful ways.”
This, of course—with very few exceptions—is not the kind of art that will end up hanging in a gallery. It’s not generally intended to be eternal. Much of it is, in fact, expected to flare up, burn hot, spread its flame, and then fade, burning to ashes the rage, fear and despair that first sparked it into existence. Some resistance art is created more for the benefit of the artist than for any impact it might have on others.
“I’m not really a political artist, actually,” says Cat Kaufman, whose piece titled “Democracy Machine” represents her first foray into political art. “I made this because I felt I had to do something, just to feel better after the election.”
“Democracy Machine” is, in fact, a machine, somewhat resembling a hanging lamp, with gears and mechanisms conspicuously at work. It’s actually lit from within—with an LED bulb illuminating a lengthy quote from John Adams that begins, “A Free government is a complicated piece of machinery.” Beyond the outer skin of the piece, the faint shadow of a beating heart can be seen deep inside it.
“I liked the idea of making a machine that was sort of broken and falling apart, but whose heart was still beating, down deep inside,” Kaufman says. “It’s the first piece of art I really felt I just had to do. I’ve been trying—with a little help from my wife—to get past all of the emotions I’ve been feeling. I’ve had so much anger building up in me. I built this piece in January, when I felt like I needed to somehow calm down. Honestly, the idea of making more of this, of putting more anger into my art, I just don’t want to do that. So right now, I don’t plan on making any more political art. It’s just not good for me emotionally.”
That said, Kaufman says she recognizes that the art project sometimes chooses the artist.
“I think we’ve got the greatest smoke-and-mirror president we’ve ever had,” she says, carefully beginning to
“La Fuega,” by Jay Mercado, was accompanied by a wall tag in the “Against TRUMPISM” show that read, “Migrant fieldworkers are an essential part of the California workforce and yet have never been received with open arms in this country.” Photo courtesy of Jay Mercado.
dismantle “Democracy Machine” to take back to her studio. “And I am so alarmed by him, but I can only do what I can do. I march in the marches, and I write letters and sign petitions. But sometimes I still feel so helpless. And sometimes, creating a piece of art is the only thing that helps me feel better.”
Kaufman’s revelation brings up an important question about resistance art. Is political art just a form of self-medication? Or can artistic expression actually change the course of the future—even just a little?
“Art is how I digest what’s going on around me, but as an artist who does social justice-inspired art, I do want to change the world,” says Priscilla Otani, whose piece, “She Bleeds Garnets and Rubies (A Tribute to Megyn Kelly),” is one of the most notably provocative—and stunningly beautiful—pieces of art in the show. It’s a mixed-media triptych, described on a wall tag as, “The Holy Trinity of Megyn Kelly’s menstrual blood, transformed into sacred jewels by Trump’s petulant curse, ‘You could see there was blood coming out of her … wherever.’”
“The process of creating art out of politics is something I challenge myself to do, because I think it’s important,” Otani says. “Right now I’m creating a very large piece, a handmade book called ‘The First One-Hundred Days.’ I’m building it out of Braille texts, to emphasize how blind Trump is. I have to admit, some days I feel pretty icky, working on this so deeply. But it’s such fertile ground.”
Resistance art, Otani says, is about inspiring others to go deeper into their own feelings, by provoking those feelings through seeing and reacting to a particularly strong or powerful piece of artwork.
Otani’s point leads to another major element of most resistance art. When it’s functioning effectively, people do have strong reactions to it. But it shouldn’t end there.
“Good political art should make us want to talk to each other,” says New York artist Lily White, creator of the piece titled “Winning Personality,” a striking collage built upon a shooting range target. The assemblage is one of several such pieces she’s made in a series she calls “Targets.”
“I do believe the purpose of art is to allow the artist to work through and express their own emotions and confusions and questions and uncertainties, but there’s more to it after that. It’s all well and good to have our feelings, and to make art to express those feelings, but if that’s all that happens, is it really enough? The next step is to engage with other people who have different feelings.”
That isn’t always an easy process, though, White allows.
“We’ve lost the ability to talk to each other civilly,” she says. “We used to teach debating in school, but now, no one knows how to have a conversation about issues we disagree on. They’ve forgotten how to seek out common ground. It’s all about beating down the other person like an opponent, rather than approaching them as a fellow human being, and using words to find some kind of common ground.”
Can art do that? Can it pave the way to common ground?
“I think it can, especially when we do it side-by-side, like when we all used to do art projects in class, in school,” White goes on. “When everyone is expressing themselves through art, and everyone looks at what the others are doing, I think it makes an impact. We learn about each other, and we learn to accept differences.
“I do believe that art can change the world,” she adds. “I’m a romantic that way. But I do believe. But you have to be doing more than just expressing yourself. You have to be listening to others, too. If the world is going to progress, we all have to change, and I believe that art—political art, resistance art—can be part of how we can change together.”
White’s view, compared to many political artists, reflects a remarkable degree of hope. In a time of despair and fear, when liberties and freedom actually are being rolled back, an expression of hope can seem a bold and transgressive act, which is, perhaps, part of what young Sanchez is saying with his “Hope” piece.
After Otani has removed her pieces from the gallery, and several works have also been taken down or dismantled, Sanchez’s piece still remains. In a show where images have been proven to have enormous impact, perhaps one of the most moving pieces of resistance art is the statement Sanchez makes on his own small wall tag.
“In the aftermath of the election,” he writes, “when I felt dejected and despondent about my future as a queer Jewish transgender American, I found my lifeline in words. I wrote until I didn’t feel afraid anymore. I reminded myself that there’s always hope, so long as we bear our souls along with our teeth. So let this be your reminder: Go forth; create; send up a flare in a dark and swirling world.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Sin” is a puerile concept in my eyes, so I don’t normally use it to discuss grown-up concerns. But if you give me permission to invoke it in a jokey, ironic way, I’ll recommend that you cultivate more surprising, interesting and original sins. In other words, Aries, it’s high time to get bored with your predictable ways of stirring up a ruckus. Ask God or life to bring you some really evocative mischief that will show you what you’ve been missing and lead you to your next robust learning experience.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Attention, smart shoppers! Here’s a special spring fling offer! For a limited time only, you can get five cutesy oracles for the price of one! And you don’t have to pay a penny unless they all come true! Check ’em out! Oracle No. 1: Should you wait patiently until all of the conditions are absolutely perfect? No! Success comes from loving the mess. Oracle No. 2: Don’t try to stop a sideshow that you’re opposed to. Stage a bigger, better show that overwhelms it. Oracle No. 3: Please, master, don’t be a slave to the things you control. Oracle No. 4: Unto your own self be true? Yes! Unto your own hype be true? No! Oracle No. 5: The tortoise will beat the hare as long as the tortoise doesn’t envy or try to emulate the hare.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):Generation Kill is an HBO miniseries based on the experiences of a reporter embedded with American Marines fighting in Iraq. Early on, before the troops have been exposed to any serious combat, they’re overflowing with trash talk. A commanding officer scolds them: “Gentlemen, from now on we’re going to have to earn our stories.” Although you are in a much less volatile situation right now, Gemini, my advice to you is the same: In the coming weeks, you’ll have to earn your stories. You can’t afford to talk big unless you’re geared up to act big, too. You shouldn’t make promises, entertain dares and issue challenges unless you’re fully prepared to be a hero. Now here’s my prophecy: I think you will be a hero.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In your mind’s eye, drift back in time to a turning point in your past that didn’t go the way you’d hoped. But don’t dwell on the disappointment. Instead, change the memory. Visualize yourself then and there, but imagine that you’re in possession of all of the wisdom you have gathered since then. Next, picture an alternative ending to the old story—a finale in which you manage to pull off a much better result. Bask in this transformed state of mind for five minutes. Repeat the whole exercise at least once a day for the next two weeks. It will generate good medicine that will produce a creative breakthrough no later than mid-June.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You’re being invited to boost your commitment to life and become a more vivid version of yourself. If you refuse the invitation, it will later return as a challenge. If you avoid that challenge, it will eventually circle back around to you as a demand. So I encourage you to respond now, while it’s still an invitation. To gather the information you’ll need, ask yourself these questions: What types of self-development are you “saving for later?” Are you harboring any mediocre goals or desires that dampen your lust for life? Do you tone down or hold back your ambitions for fear they would hurt or offend people you care about?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Dear Dream Doctor: I dreamed that a crowd of people had decided to break through a locked door using a long, thick wooden plank as a battering ram. The only problem was, I was lying on top of the plank, half-asleep. By the time I realized what was up, the agitated crowd was already at work smashing at the door. Luckily for me, it went well. The door got bashed in and I wasn’t hurt. What does my dream mean?—Nervous Virgo.” Dear Virgo: Here’s my interpretation: It’s time to knock down a barrier, but you’re not convinced that you’re ready or can do it all by yourself. Luckily, there are forces in your life that are conspiring to help make sure you do it.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): As long as you keep Syria, South Sudan and North Korea off your itinerary, traveling would be food for your soul during the next 28 days. It would also be balm for your primal worries, medicine for your outworn dogmas and an antidote for your comfortable illusions. Do you have the time and money necessary to make a pilgrimage to a place you regard as holy? How about a jaunt to a rousing sanctuary? Or an excursion to an exotic refuge that will shock you in friendly, healing ways? I hope that you will at least read a book about the territory that you may one day call your home away from home.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): By now I’m sure that you have tuned in to the rumblings in your deep self. Should you be concerned? Maybe a little, but I think the more reasonable attitude is curiosity. Even though the shaking is getting stronger and louder, it’s also becoming more melodic. The power that’s being unleashed will almost certainly turn out to be far more curative than destructive. The light it emits may at first look murky but will eventually bloom like 1,000 moons. Maintain your sweet poise. Keep the graceful faith.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Life is inviting you to decode riddles about togetherness that could boost your emotional intelligence and earn you the right to enjoy lyrical new expressions of intimacy. Will you accept the invitation? Are you willing to transcend your habitual responses for the sake of your growth-inducing relationships? Are you interested in developing a greater capacity for collaboration and synergy? Would you be open to making a vulnerable fool of yourself if it helped your important alliances to fulfill their dormant potential? Be brave and empathetic, Sagittarius. Be creative and humble and affectionate.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “In youth we feel richer for every new illusion,” wrote author Anne Sophie Swetchine. “In maturer years, for every one we lose.” While that may be generally true, I think that even 20-something Capricorns are likely to fall into the latter category in the coming weeks. Whatever your age, I foresee you shouting something akin to, “Hallelujah!” or “Thank God!” or “Boomshakalaka flashbang!” as you purge disempowering fantasies that have kept you in bondage and naive beliefs that have led you astray.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “There are no green thumbs or black thumbs,” wrote horticulturalist Henry Mitchell in a message that you were destined to hear at this exact moment. “There are only gardeners and non-gardeners. Gardeners are the ones who get on with the high defiance of nature herself, creating, in the very face of her chaos and tornado, the bower of roses and the pride of irises. It sounds very well to garden a ‘natural way.’ You may see the natural way in any desert, any swamp or any leech-filled laurel hell. Defiance, on the other hand, is what makes gardeners.” Happy Defiance Time to you, Aquarius! In the coming weeks, I hope that you will express the most determined and disciplined fertility ever!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I believe that it may be the right time to tinker with or repair a foundation, to dig down to the bottom of an old resource and consider transforming it at its roots. Why? After all this time, that foundation or resource needs your fresh attention. It could be lacking a nutrient that has gradually disappeared. Maybe it would flourish better if it got the benefit of the wisdom you have gained since it first became useful for you. Only you have the power to discern the real reasons, Pisces—and they may not be immediately apparent. Be tender and patient and candid as you explore.
Homework: How could you change yourself to get more of the love you want? Testify by going to RealAstrology.com and clicking on “Email Rob.”
Q: I have this disturbing pattern. I’ve dated three different guys, each of whom said he didn’t want to get married, wasn’t ready, whatever. But then, the next girl they met … BAM! Walking down the aisle. Why am I marriage boot camp but never the one the guy marries?—Aisle Seat
A: It’s depressing when the only place you’re ever “registered” is at the DMV.
There’s a reason you suspect that your experience is a meaningful pattern, and it’s the same reason people think they see the Virgin Mary in their toast. Our minds are meaning-making machines. We evolved to be deeply uncomfortable with uncertainty—probably because an uncertain world is a more dangerous world. Say a man hands you some blue liquid in a glass. You’re all, “Hmmm … should I drink that or take it home in case I ever need to dissolve a dead body in the bathtub?”
We figure out what things are by looking for patterns—ways that the things match up to things we’ve encountered before. So, regarding that blue liquid, yes, Drano is blue, but it isn’t sold in a martini glass and garnished with a tiny paper umbrella. Also, bartenders keep their jobs by having you pay your tab, not having you carried out in convulsions by a couple of EMS dudes.
Although our mind’s tendency to recognize patterns helps us quickly identify threats and opportunities, it often does this too quickly and on too little evidence. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga and psychologist Daniel Kahneman each caution that our mind is so intent on having things be concrete that when we’re faced with ambiguous or incomplete information, it will invent a tidy explanation to fill in the blanks. Your mind may be doing that now in seeing a meaningful pattern in guys sweeping you off your feet and then, like that annoying shopper who’s just reached the register, they’re going: “Ooops … don’t want this one. Gonna run and grab the other one. Sorrreeeeee!”
However, epidemiologist and stats ninja Sander Greenland reminded me that just because we’re prone to see a pattern where there is none doesn’t mean a particular patternisn’t meaningful (as opposed to occurring randomly—by coincidence, like if you tossed a coin and got heads three times in a row).
One way you figure out whether something is due to coincidence or is a real effect is by having lots of examples of it. If you’d dated 10 men who’d left you to marry somebody else, it might say something. Might. But three? Greenland points out that in looking at what seems to be a pattern, “we tend to forget the times itdidn’thappen (like before we started noticing the claimed pattern).” Also, if you believe there’s a pattern—that you’re a sort of fruit bin where men go to ripen—maybe you start acting differently because of it, coloring your results. (Self-fulfilling prophecy kinda thing: “Why try? He’ll be outta here anyway.”)
In short, maybe this is a meaningful pattern or maybe it is not. What you can explore is whether there are patterns in your behavior that could be tripping you up. There are three biggies that research suggests can be relationship killers.
Blatant Boy-Chasing: Men often claim that they like it when women ask them out. However, research suggests that this may permanently lower a woman’s worth in a man’s eyes. Men value women who are hard to get, not those who eagerly pursue them—sometimes with all the subtlety of a golden retriever chasing a hot dog down a hill.
Being Hard To Be Around: A review of research on personality by psychologist John M. Malouff finds three characteristics that are likely to eat away at a relationship: Neuroticism (a psych term for being nervous, chronically distressed and volatile), a lack of conscientiousness (being disorganized, unreliable and lacking in self-control) and disagreeableness (being an unpleasant, egotistical, hostile and argumentative mofo).
The Undercooked Man: Behavioral science research supports the evolutionary theory that women, even today, prioritize male partners who can “invest” (a preference that men coevolved to expect). For example, marriage researchers Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe find that “men want to be financially ‘set’ before they marry.” Career attainment and stability are likely a major part of this. So, unfortunately, a relationship with a man in transition can end up being a sort of FEMA tent on the road to permanent housing.
Ultimately, instead of deeming yourself death row for “happily ever after,” try to choose wisely and be a valuable (rather than costly) partner. That’s really your best bet for eventually walking down the aisle—and not just to hear, “Do you take this woman … till the last of your nine little lives do you part?”
Hero: It’s scary to think that last month more than 500 motorists in San Rafael were caught using hand-held cell phones while driving. Thankfully, the fine officers at the San Rafael Police Department (SRPD) were out on the roads keeping us safe from these distracted drivers. During a month-long, high-visibility crackdown, the SRPD issued 502 citations to motorists who violated California’s distracted driving law, which states that it’s illegal to hold a cell phone to text, call or use an app while operating a motor vehicle. The offenders face fines starting at $162 and soaring higher for second violations. “Distracted driving kills too many people for us to ignore the facts and pretend it’s OK—it is never acceptable to text and drive,” says SRPD Lieutenant Roy Leon. Well done.
Zero: Hugo Mejia, of San Rafael, was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and now must brave deportation without a court hearing [see ‘Local Outrage,’ May 17, for more info]. An undocumented Mexican immigrant, Meija, 37, has lived in America for 17 years and is married with three children who were born here. He is gainfully employed and has no arrest record. Years ago, he was caught entering the U.S. and removed, but he later reentered. Under the draconian reinstatement of removal statute, Meija is on track to exile without due process. Too bad about his productive life in our country. Trump claims that his strengthened enforcement policy against illegal immigrants merely targets criminals. Try telling that to this law-abiding Marin county family that has been torn apart. Absolutely shameful, Trump.
Jerry Garcia is 22 years dead this summer—take that in. Long Strange Trip, Berkeley-raised documentarian Amir Bar-Lev’s monumental four-hour-long film about the Grateful Dead can neither be called indecently early nor rushed to completion. Bar-Lev (The Tillman Story) explains the Dead as an enduring conduit between the Beat Era and the various countercultures of our own time.
It’s a record of the joy the Dead brought to listeners for 30 years, and an account of Garcia’s excesses of work and substance abuse. It’s also the story of a juggernaut band with a monster 100-foot-tall sound system, which was set up and pulled down 80 times a year for almost a decade. Even their own label didn’t quite get them at first—former Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith recalls the problem of trying to sell a record called Aoxomoxoa when he couldn’t even pronounce its name. The label had more success after they moved to Marin and created their most enduring albums, the Bakersfield countrified Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.
This study of the band’s long voyage includes crisp montage, thoughtful interviews and informed commentary by Sam Cutler, a Brit who worked as the Dead’s road manager. A particularly well-chosen mix of some 60 songs by the band fits the history of this long-lived act, both in the the dawning and the ending of their time. The music is maybe sadder than you remember, but the Grateful Dead were the kind of fun that should have lasted a lifetime.
‘Long Strange Trip’ plays on Thursday, May 25 at 5:45pm and 6:30pm, Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael; 415/454-1222; rafaelfilm.cafilm.org.
Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist David Lindley was deeply immersed in the 1960s Los Angeles music scene, a hotbed of creativity full of aspiring musicians—many of whom would go on to become stars. A highly sought after session player, Lindley has performed with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Taj Mahal, Kenny Loggins, Emmylou Harris, James Taylor and more.
“It’s because I could fit in—and sit in—instantly,” Lindley says, crediting his success partially to his sincere and collaborative approach to playing music. “It isn’t just about playing at the same time on the stage with someone, but to be absorbed in the song and be part of the song and add to the meaning of it and augment it, and I consciously do that.”
Deeply inspired by a story—regarding the difference between communicating from the heart and from the brain—in a book by 20th century spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff, Lindley says, “You can tell when people are playing just from the brain, and you can also tell when people are playing just from the heart, and the best combination is when you put both of them together.”
Lindley is full of anecdotes from the early days—he met Jackson Browne, who was just 16, through a mutual friend who owned a club on Ventura Boulevard called the Magic Mushroom, where Browne would sometimes play. The house band at the time was named Hour Glass—better known today as the Allman Brothers Band. Lindley gave Browne a ride home and the friendship began.
“It was real easy to play with Jackson,” Lindley says, “because his harmonic sense was real logical and linear and you could kind of figure out where the chord changes were.”
Lindley first started playing bluegrass on a five-string banjo, and over the years, his keen interest in string instruments inspired him to become proficient in a long list of eclectic instruments, including fiddle, mandolin, guitar and many from the Middle East. Currently on a solo tour and making a stop at Sweetwater Music Hall on Sunday, May 28, Lindley says that the most important thing to him right now is to always be open to learning new things.
“The main thing is being in student mode,” he says. “I recognized that that’s the way to go—I think I am on the right path.”
David Lindley, Sunday, May 28, Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley; 8pm; 415/388-3850; sweetwatermusichall.com.
Right away the omens were encouraging. After a short walk through the forest, my little party of four that included a visitor from rural Pennsylvania emerged into the sunlit bowl of Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre on Mt. Tam. (Yes, it’s true—we press people, performers, staff and other VIP types associated with the show are allowed to park in a nearby unpaved, dusty, abandoned quarry, while others have to find spots along the road, use one of the nice, clean, free buses from Mill Valley or hike up a trail with a spectacular view that begins thousands of feet below. Lucky us.)
As I was saying … we emerged from the forest and there it was: The curving rows of stones painstakingly put in place in the ’30s during the Great Depression by workers whose object was to recreate the atmosphere of the famous amphitheatres of ancient Greece and Rome. Beyond the imposing set (scenic design by Andrea Bechert, construction by technical director Ken Rowland and his crew and painting by scenic artist Dhyanis Carniglia) was the vast Bay Area vista that has attracted people to this spot each spring for 114 years of community celebrations. The sound clarity of the pre-show singing group of young performers indicated that there would be no problems in that department. The weather was warm, but not too warm, and for those super-sensitive to heat, an overhead hose above much of the seating area sprayed a fine cloud of cooling mist.
A colorfully dressed crowd was assembling. Among them were many family groups whose members ranged from the most senior of seniors to the tiniest newcomers. Lunch baskets were everywhere. Finally, the preliminaries (which included a costume contest won by the only entrant, a vivacious little girl named Ruby, were over.) You could feel the anticipation building.
Frankly, I don’t see how anyone could have been disappointed by the main event. In my opinion, this year’s production, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, is one of the best Mountain Plays I have seen since I first started trekking up the mountain in the late ’70s. It excels in every area by which these annual productions are measured: A gripping story that will hold the attention of old and young, even if they have to sit on those very hard rocks for a couple of hours; a beautiful production that propels this classic French fairy tale into vivid life; and, finally, a heartwarming message that there is light as well as darkness in our conflict-ridden world.
To be honest, I hadn’t expected such copious rewards. My experience since former producer par excellence Marilyn Smith shifted the format from an amateur, locally generated, Mill Valley-centered community celebration to high quality, semi-professional presentations of Broadway’s most popular musicals that attracted viewers from all over the Bay Area and beyond, was that shows with expansive settings—Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Sound of Music and the like—were likely to be the most successful in a rustic, open-air stadium with a huge playing area. I didn’t think that Beauty’s intimate love story fit the bill.
As it turns out, I was wrong. The romantic core that traces how group prejudice and unjustified feelings of guilt can be overcome by requited love remains in place, but director Jay Manley and choreographer Nicole Helfer—ably assisted by costumer Michelle Navarre-Huff—and the sheer size of the cast, add an unexpected sense of spectacle. Of course, it helps enormously that the leading characters are so strong. Belle, the village beauty who is considered strange because she loves to read, is played with just the right combination of feistiness and compassion by Chelsea Holifield. Jeff Wiesen is Gaston, her bumbling, testosterone-driven suitor.
The Beast (a former prince who is less beastly than he appears) is given a sympathetic interpretation by Daniel Barrington Rubio. Surrounding him in his castle is a group of followers who are subject to the same spell that the prince fell under when, long ago, he refused to help an old woman who was in dire need of assistance. I don’t have the space to name them here, but their hilarious antics are among the show’s highlights. The corps de ballet is stunning, and a 22-piece orchestra, conducted by David Möschler, holds the whole enterprise together.
With its Disney ties, this is a sentimentalized version of the original fairy tale, but the musical’s message of the need for tolerance and good comes through loud and clear. Can’t argue with that!
NOW PLAYING: Beauty and the Beastruns at 2pm on Sundays through June 18, at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mt. Tamalpais State Park; 415/383-1100; mountainplay.org.
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Right away the omens were encouraging. After a short walk through the forest, my little party of four that included a visitor from rural Pennsylvania emerged into the sunlit bowl of Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre on Mt. Tam. (Yes, it's true—we press people, performers, staff and other VIP types associated with the show are allowed to park in...
