Musical Artist Rodney Crowell Brings Tour to Napa

-
0
Musical Artist Rodney Crowell Brings Tour to Napa

Musical artist Rodney Crowell realized long ago that rather than become a star, he wanted to become exactly what the first two words of the sentence denote: a musical artist. After his 1988 album “Diamonds and Dirt”garnered him 5 consecutive #1 hit songs on the country music charts, an inevitable crash was almost certain to happen. And it sort of did but for Crowell, it was really more of a pivot to becoming the artist he always wanted to be. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Crowell, his background and bonafide’s almost seemed charmed. The Houston, TX, native was discovered by the late, great Jerry Reed  after he moved to Nashville, TN, to try to become a songwriter. From there, the late and great Guy Clark took him under his wing as both a friend and a mentor. In James Szalapski’s fantastic 1976 documentary Heartworn Highways, one can spy a young Crowell at a table filled with empty booze bottles trading songs with Clark and a similarly young Steve Earle. 

From there, Crowell joined Emmylou Harris’s band and went on to marry Roseanne Cash, daughter of one Johnny Cash. Throughout all of this time, he was making his own music to some success but really making it as a songwriter’s songwriter selling songs which became hits to people like Bob Seger, The Oak Ridge Boys and Waylon Jennings. 

These mentions aren’t meant to be name-dropping from a fan but rather, they should serve as just a few of the ingredients that helped create the still flourishing career Crowell has today. He also wrote a memoir, “Chinaberry Sidewalks” about growing up poor in Houston and is currently in the midst of finishing a second memoir.

Crowell is back on the North Bay this Tuesday, March 3 at the Uptown Theater in Napa and it was an honor to speak with him by phone mere hours before heading to the West Coast from his Tennessee home. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Don R. Lewis: So is this tour a full band or a solo outing?

Rodney Crowell: It’s a full band, a 5-piece. Jerry Pentecost is the drummer, he spent time with Bob Dylan and all kind really good stuff. Viktor Kraus is premier bass player around Nashville for a good long while. Jen Gunderman [keyboard and accordian], she’d been out there with Sheryl Crow for I don’t know how long. And Mark Copley is out of New York City and he’s been a main stay up there and great singer and player. I’ve always really wanted to get a chance to work with him. Now he’s available. It just all worked out.

DRL: It all worked out. I feel like it all worked out as kind of a nice through line through your career

RC: So far (laughs)

DRL: I’ve always been such a fan, as a kid, my dad listened to country music. My mom listened to rock, and your music was always something they could kind of agree on in the car, and it’s just so great to see your career keep going. You had five number one hits and now you’re just making these great, poetic songs that you’ve really grown as an artist and you could have just sat back and done the nostalgia tour. What makes you, or what made you want to keep just improving and I guess for lack of a better term, grinding, just churning out really great songs?

RC: I’ll tell you what, honestly, there was a moment for me and it’s understanding my own sensibilities. You mentioned the five hits, so that was my 15 minutes of stardom. And what I realize about me, if I tried to continue trying to swing for that fence instead of just following my heart and getting up in the morning and working, basically my decision was to be more of a writer than a star. And who knows, I don’t even know if I really had the talent to be a star, but I had the work ethic to be a productive artist. So I think that, and I don’t mean that in that high mounted way, like, oh, I’m an artist. I mean, I’m grateful that I have sustained a pretty good lifestyle and raised a family. And my wife and I live comfortably because I’ve made a live in being honest. And what’s more important to me, what’s most important to me is getting up. 

If I’m at home, I’m up in the morning writing and that’s my job, and it’s a blessing that that’s my job. So, it became the focus. So maybe what I’m doing now is not that commercial thing that happens when you’re trying to make a name for yourself. But now here’s the way I equate it, and if this seems too high minded, forgive me but, I read somewhere that Renoir the painter, the day died, the morning of the day he died, he did a little still life of a flower. I think the poet and writer, Jim Harrison keeled over at his desk working on a poem. That’s what I want to do. I want to go out working.

DRL: Well, I think that’s an interesting dichotomy too, because when you’re first starting out, you’re hanging out with Guy Clark. Jerry Reed took you under his wing, and then you end up with Johnny Cash for a father-in-law. I mean, and Johnny Cash, I think kind of speaks to what you’re saying too. People don’t realize how big of a star he was in the seventies and eighties with TV and movies, so you could see that, but then he also was truly an artist and recording until he couldn’t anymore.

RC: Yeah, that’s true. And I also had the learning, I learned something from John. He was my father-in-law, I was married to his oldest daughter during a real low point and drought in his career before he got revitalized by Rick Rubin, but there was a period where we were in Jamaica in the wee hours, just he and I, he’s opening up to me. This is Johnny Cash opening up to me. This the struggle he was having that the record company had dropped him. Columbia Records dropped Johnny Cash.

DRL: Can you imagine? That’s sacrilege.

RC: (Laughs) I mean, he had the blues about it, but he continued to work and continued to believe that he was an artist and vital, and Rick Rubin reinvented it, and man, one of those things that he did was “ Hurt” (the Nine Inch Nails song). I mean, that’s right up there with “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (George Jones’ 1980 song that is widely considered the greatest country song ever written).

So luckily that I that and Emmy Lou Harris has been my lifelong friend since I was 24, and so we’ve always had a conversation about how to remain creative and vital, and so I feel good about what I’m doing. What I say is I have a high opinion of myself as a songwriter. I do. I try to keep it down a perspective, but I see myself as a middle of the pack performer out there, certainly in ticket sales and what have you. It works for me.

DRL: So far…(laughs)

RC: I don’t have a large audience, but the audience that does stick around with me, they don’t hold me to just play in the hits. They’ll go with me. So it can remain interesting to me because I can explore things on a stage that are not the, {hits] “Please Remember Me, or “I Couldn’t Leave You if I Tried” all the time.

DRL: So, how does it work when you get up in the morning? Are you like, today I’m going to work on the memoir, and then do you go music first or does just however, whatever the muse tells you to do? 

RC: On the memoir. I’ll go three or four weeks on, that’s what I’m working on, and then a piece of music starts to hold my attention and I switch over to that. And then, for instance, the song that I sort of gloating over after finishing it after three years, it’s like the last month of work on it was, I’m going to bring this baby home, and when I finally did, it was like, I don’t know if this song’s worth the three years I put into it, but I got finished it…

DRL; What’s the song?

RC: Oh, I just spent three years writing this one particular song, and I was kind of patting myself on the back and saying, good for you, man. You stuck with it and you found it. To me, that’s the satisfaction of the work man, and the fact that I’m enough of an extrovert and performer that I can go out and perform for people. I really enjoy it, and I figure I’m a pretty good performer, and there’s that part of it too. So I’m an introvert and an extrovert.

DRL: Well, I’m going to wrap it up here, but I follow you on social media. I wanted to ask you, do you have any gardening secrets? Your garden was popping off last year. That was crazy!

RC: (Laughs) Yeah. It was particularly well. I remodeled the raised beds. I had raised beds that were about a foot and a half, and I doubled the size of ’em so that the roots could, the roots had more. Right now they’re about two and a half to three feet high raised beds. Think that space underneath where the roots could go down and get their nutrients really made it come alive.

DRL: You’re like a green thumb over there! Did you time this tour so you could be home in time for garden season or just happened this way?

RC: I like to plant on the new moon and harvest on the full moon if I can.

More information about Rodney Crowell as well as tickets for his March 3 show at Napa’s Uptown Theater can be found at rodneycrowell.com

Difficult Story Telling: ‘We Are Proud to Present…’ Opens at Left Edge 

-
0
Difficult Story Telling: ‘We Are Proud to Present…’ Opens at Left Edge 

Leave it to Left Edge Theatre to tackle the massively complex, challenging social experiment that is the astounding Jackie Sibblies Drury play We Are Proud to Present… A sincere “Bravo” to this artistic effort, led by director Skylar Evans, and an ensemble cast of very familiar faces. The show runs at The California in Santa Rosa through March 8. One would be missing out if they pass over the opportunity to attend a performance of this production.

Drury, a Pulitzer Prize-winning African American playwright, has developed an intense, meta piece of art that will leave one shaken. This isn’t a typical theatrical experience. Its intended effect is to confront, expose and pummel the audience like a tidal wave. 

Left Edge has long set the standard for our community to showcase works that speak directly to the human condition and that ask us to confront ourselves. This story asks the same of its actors, themselves playing actors who are workshopping their “presentation,” about an obscure genocide of the Herero peoples of Namibia by the colonizing Germans in the years 1884-1915. 

The actors within Proud undergo a journey of self-discovery through the improvisation, frequent debates and confrontations they encounter in the artistic process of bringing their “presentation” to life. And the script is an extraordinary feat of deconstructing the actor’s process, while revealing the person beneath the artist. 

Using kitschy props, movement, dance, song, pantomiming, puppetry and drumming, each actor falls into scene immersion like they’re in a trance. This play makes strong demands of its performers, and Evans has a cast that seems eager to meet those expectations.

Each actor has specific moments of brilliance, with Isiah Carter and Thomas Peterson being the most consistent, grounded and truthful to the proceedings. Sam Minnifield sneaks up and turns in some of their best work to date. Nate Musser displays his continued skills as a character actor. Maddi Scarborough excels in a hilarious sequence while creating her character’s backstory, and Lexus Fletcher shines as the dynamic and often frustrated leader of the ensemble.

In the middle of a theater scene that tends to lean towards safe and classic in keeping its audiences comfortable, this company continues to lead the charge in producing relevant, meaningful works that ask more of its audience than just sitting back in their chairs. 

It encourages them to participate in the crucial dialogue about how to be better humans. Left Edge Theatre’s ‘We are Proud to Present…’ runs through March 8 at The California Theatre, 528 7th St., Santa Rosa. Wed–Sat, 7:30pm; Sat & Sun, 1pm. $22–$44. 707.664.7529. leftedgetheatre.com.

Back in Time: The Fight to Keep Trump off 2028 Ballots and Safeguard the Constitution

-
0
Back in Time: The Fight to Keep Trump off 2028 Ballots and Safeguard the Constitution

Could President Donald Trump be setting himself up to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1941, by serving a third term as president? While some folks pay little mind to Trump’s occasional hints of staying in office longer, California Sen. Tom Umberg isn’t leaving it to chance.

The 22nd Amendment, added to the United States Constitution in 1951, states that no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Until recently, it seemed that Americans were in unanimous agreement that this rule was in the best interest of themselves and democracy as a whole. However, in late 2025 Trump constituents began selling T-shirts bearing the words, “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules).” 

Since Trump took office for his second term a little more than a year ago, he’s hinted at and sometimes explicitly talked about an additional term in office. He told reporters in a press conference last fall that a third term would really be his fourth term because of what he called—without evidence—“the rigged election.” On Jan. 28, the FBI released a statement saying it executed a warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City while investigating Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. 

Just more than a year into Trump’s second term in office, Americans on both sides of the political aisle are dissatisfied with the slow-to-be-released, heavily redacted Epstein files. The National Rifle Association joined ICE protesters across the country in denouncing the killing of Alex Pretti. The United States is trending downwards in global popularity in response to tariffs, bombing campaigns, the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the seizing of oil, the proposed real estate project in Gaza and more recent actions. 

So why in the midst of this political moment is Trump still ruminating on the outcome of the 2020 election? Is it because he seeks what he perceives as retroactive justice for an election he believes he won? Or could he be searching for justification to stay in office longer by running for a third term? 

Just in case the latter is true, Umberg said in a phone interview that he put forth “no kings” legislation to safeguard the election process in California. Senate Bill 46 enables the California secretary of state to exclude presidential candidates from the ballot if they are ineligible to hold office, according to the Constitution. In other words, if Trump sought a third term as president, his name wouldn’t appear on California’s ballot. 

“Most of us think that the Constitution is quite clear on that point, but there’s at least one person who thinks they should be able to serve a third term,” Umberg said. “Thus we need this bill to make it absolutely crystal clear that in California, if you serve two terms as president, you cannot appear on the ballot to serve a third term.”

While SB 46 would apply only to California, Umberg suspects that colleagues in other states may follow suit with similar measures to safeguard the election. Some of Umberg’s GOP colleagues have suggested that measure is unnecessary or even redundant given the existence of the 22nd Amendment. 

“What they’re saying is that we shouldn’t take the president at his word,” Umberg said. “I do take the president seriously. When he says, for example, that people born in the United States aren’t necessarily citizens and he tries to have them removed from the country—it turns out he wasn’t kidding.” 

Terri Jett, a political scientist, scholar and activist from Richmond, prides herself on making politics accessible to people of all ages with her PBS Simple Civics three-minute video series. Jett says that in an ideal world, we wouldn’t need SB 46 because of how clear-cut and simple it is in the Constitution. However, she says that at this political moment a safeguard might be necessary.

“Our checks and balances system is not working properly,” Jett said. “The rule of law actually also is not working properly.” 

Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, Jett said little would surprise her. And if SB 46 safeguards the election, she’s all for it.

“Regardless of the person … we do not want a monarchy in place, and we want to be able to change our representatives, even though we don’t do it to the extent that I wish we would,” Jett said. “We need to take whatever measure we can to add some guardrails to ensure that our constitutional protections are still in place and still effective.”

Nick, an enlisted member of the United States military who is rooted in the Bay Area but is currently on assignment out of state, declined to share his last name. He said that just because there is one incident in American history when a Democrat served three terms, SB 46 shouldn’t go into effect just yet. 

“I think since FDR had the chance to serve more than two terms,” Nick said, “wouldn’t it be fair to let a Republican do it once to even the playing field? Then the parties can truly agree to eliminate any names from candidates seeking a third term.”

Roosevelt is in fact the only president in U.S. history to have served more than two terms. He began his third term in 1941 when he defeated Republican nominee Wendell Willkie, which coincided with the timing of World War II. Roosevelt served a short time into what would have been his fourth term when he died on April 12, 1945.

Ironically, many have noted similarities between Trump’s deportation policies and Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps.

Although Nick recognizes that federal law caps the presidency at two terms, he is tired of California’s “self-declared exceptions.”

“Califoria regularly flouts federal law,” Nick said. “Why wouldn’t it be fair for red states to similarly declare an exception, should their voters desire it?”  

Monica Uribe and her partner, Angel Sandoval, reside in Santa Clara and have been on Bay Area streets protesting nearly every weekend since Trump took office last January.

“I would definitely support any measure that stops Trump from being in office for a third term,” Uribe said. “Or anybody serving as president. We, as Americans, want to be able to choose and vote every time—because the people in this country get the last say.”

Uribe said it feels like the sitting government of the United States is being run as a dictatorship.

“Trump wants to get away with it, but we’re here to stop it,” she said. “Thankfully, a lot of the courts are siding with us, and we’re winning a lot of the battles.”

Solful Noise: Local Cannabis Company Collaborates with Music Fest

-
0
Solful Noise: Local Cannabis Company Collaborates with Music Fest

San Francisco’s hometown Noise Pop Festival kicked off last week and runs through this weekend. It is no surprise that the festival where more than half of the 150-plus bands playing are local chose Solful, committed buyers of local, sun-grown cannabis, to be its first cannabis sponsor. 

To celebrate local bands and farmers together, they released the “Snap, Crackle, Noise Pop” pre-rolls, a festival-optimized original that comes in a stylish collectible tin with five joints … and maybe a surprise inside.

The Sonoma-rooted, conscious capitalist company opened its first dispensary in Sebastopol with the mission of building out a retail support system for local growers as regs came online in 2016. It is an organic, place-rooted strategy that demonstrates the two organizations are perfect for each other, just like weed and live music.

“We really wanted to come out with something we thought would be the perfect thing to have while you were watching live music, you know?” said Solful founder and CEO Eli Melrod when we chatted about the collab. “We actually tried a lot [before finding] a blend of two different strains from us, well … basically rolling a bunch of jays.”

Solful is part of “the broader community of local businesses that are doing good work,” said Melrod. He mentioned that his first concert on weed was a The Living Legends set at the Fillmore for an independent hip-hop benefit. 

“The more we can lock arms with organizations [who share the same values], the more we can find that win-win,” he added. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of building community at every level, among the staff, in the stores with customers and with the farmers.

The Snap, Crackle, Noise Pop pre-rolls are available for $35 at all Solful locations. Tins include a code for a 10% discount off of general admission Noise Pop badges—and get this—for one blessed individual, one of the pre-roll packs, only one, is redeemable for two free general admission Noise Pop badges, unlocking every show at every venue at the festival.

I tasted this lovely joint with its ’90s aesthetic. It was well suited to the live jazz-thrash gig where I previewed it—the taste vintage, almost dry, with a hint of tobacco. The kind of joint one could tuck behind the ear for a show.

Snap, Crackle, Noise Pop pre-rolls are available in Sonoma County at Solful Sebastopol, 785 Gravenstein Hwy. S, and Solful Healdsburg, 465 Healdsburg Ave. $35 for a pack of five.

The 2026 Noise Pop Festival runs from now through March 1 at 15 different venues in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. For more information and tickets, go to noisepopfest.com.

Standing Up for What One Knows, Comedian Juan Carlos Arenas

-
0
Standing Up for What One Knows, Comedian Juan Carlos Arenas

Coming up, Juan Carlos Arenas’ neighborhood of Moreland was rough. His uncles were not in the gangs … but they were not out of them either. When they took him along on their long summer “camping” trips to Emerald Triangle grow sites, he says, they packed semi-automatic rifles, “you know, just in case they saw a bear.” 

When, at the impressionable age of 13, Arenas was beaten up by young wannabe gangsters, he begged his mother for a pair of boxing gloves. Instead, Salome Arenas armed him with a book of jokes, setting her son on a different path.

Arenas idolized Jerry Seinfeld—and still does, describing him as “the greatest comic in the world—polished, clean, articulate. His jokes don’t have a bit of fat on them.” He loved Seinfeld’s small, slice-of-life topicality—jokes about shoe laces and airplane peanuts.

But still he couldn’t see himself in those small, close, fully lit, intimate supper club gigs staged at the start of each episode of Seinfeld. He was just too different than the white and urban, middle class Jewish comic. It was not until he saw George Lopez stand up at The Punch Line that he realized that the dream might be his (let’s say it again: representation matters).

Juan Carlos Arenas has been a stand-up comedian for 14 years now, seven of them paid. Though he is quick to admit, remodeling old houses pays the bills. For two years, he has owned his own business, the California Construction Group.

Cincinnatus Hibbard: Tell me about being funny.

Juan Carlos Arenas: Comedy’s not about the jokes—not really. It’s about rhythm and timing. If you have those two things, you can say anything that’s on your mind, and people will find it funny. They’ll eat it up.

You also have a theater background?

Being in the theater is where I learned how to really talk to an audience. That’s what really made my comedy career explode.

You helped start the second wave of the North Bay comedy scene.

Jabari Davis [an established San Francisco comic] told us to go to local restaurants and ask to put on a comedy night—not successful restaurants—restaurants that are empty, dead. If you bring out 20 people on a Tuesday, they will be very happy. That’s how it started.

Shout out some of the stars of the North Bay scene.

Jon Lehre, Brian Thomas, Cassey Williams, Josh Argile, Steve Brunner, Chris Ferdinason and Engin Yeisylemis.

These are intense, political times. Tell me about the part the stand-up has to play.

… No matter how big the war is—no matter how big the guns are, the arts will save us. Look at the impact Pablo Picasso’s one painting [Guernica] had on the Spanish Civil War—it was so powerful. It changed lives. At the end of the day, no matter how loud the speakers are, from the politicians that are just spilling out garbage, if we can come together as a community and just listen to each other—which is what stand-up really is—we will get to know each other enough that we will become a family. And once we become a family, no one will be able to f*** with us. My job is to tell you how I am, and how we are not so very different.

Learn more: Juan Carlos Arenas plays out all over the Bay Area, but he most frequently ‘works out’ Fridays at the Barrel Proof Lounge in Santa Rosa and Tuesdays at the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley. He can be contacted through his instagram: @arenasjuancarlos.

From Yacht to Ranch, Edward Newell Roots Down

-
0
From Yacht to Ranch, Edward Newell Roots Down

Edward Newell’s path to founding NewTree Ranch in Healdsburg was ultimately sparked in childhood, watching his mother, Kathy, transform hospitality into an art form.

This eventually led him to the Culinary Institute of America, then building a thriving San Francisco catering company before founding E.G. Newell Interiors, designing luxury hotel and private yacht spaces across Europe and Asia. Living aboard The World residential ship deepened his love for global culture and intentional living. But after 15 years, Sonoma called him home. 

Today, NewTree Ranch is the embodiment of Newell’s path, with a dedication to sustainability, land stewardship and regenerative agriculture. The property’s biodynamic garden is where more than 200 varieties of organic fruits and vegetables are grown, used to create artisanal products for guests and for the local community. This garden also generates 90% of its energy needs from 300 solar panels, with more than 30 sustainability practices in place, including bee repopulation, soil enrichment, seed saving and redwood reforestation. 

Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?

Edward Newell: I came to this work through burnout and instinct.

I had been working across the globe in hospitality, moving constantly, building, opening, refining. One day, I was meant to board a flight, and I simply couldn’t do it. Instead, I got into my car and drove north.

That drive led me to Healdsburg, and eventually to the property that would become NewTree Ranch. The sequence of events that followed was not strategic or carefully plotted; it was intuitive. The land felt restorative in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

What began as a pause became a calling. Over time, 20 acres became 120, and a personal refuge became a regenerative ranch rooted in hospitality, agriculture and well-being.

Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.

One morning after practicing yoga, I sat with a cup of our lemon verbena tea, hand-harvested and prepared here on the ranch. There was and always is something profoundly grounding about drinking something grown a few steps from where you are sitting.

In those still hours, with the ranch just beginning to stir, I often find my most creative ideas come to me. It’s less about the beverage itself and more about the ritual, but that lemon verbena tea has become a kind of daily anchor.

What is your favorite thing to drink at home?

Fresh water from our spring, herbal infusions from our farm and seasonal mocktails crafted from fruits, herbs and edible flowers grown on property are my favorites.

Where do you like to go out for a drink?

If I’m going into town to meet friends, I deeply appreciate the craftsmanship at Cyrus here in Healdsburg. They express a reverence for ingredients and a thoughtful approach to hospitality that resonates with me.

NewTree Ranch, 3780 Wallace Creek Rd., Healdsburg, 707.433.9643, newtreeranch.com.

Your Letters, Feb. 25

-
0

Love for ‘Love’

Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, a local gem, told us in 1979 that “love is letting go of fear.” It changed my life. I thank Cincinnatus Hibbard for his contribution to this endeavor (‘Revealing the Nature of Love,’ Feb. 11-17) and Weeklys for featuring it. 

Love does indeed make the world go round rather than flat. Yet, it may take decades of dedicated practice to free ourselves to be lovingly kind, consistently.  

In my roles as counselor and local columnist, I explore “Love Arts” as the master key to well-being. Each of us is meant to bring love “to life” uniquely. This epiphany becomes initiation into elderhood, into offering a wisdom legacy to those who’ll follow. 

Welcome, Cincinnatus, to the fold.  

Marcia Singer, MSW, CHt. 
Santa Rosa

Seal Deal

Regarding ‘Beasts of the Pacific: Northern Elephant Seals at Home in Drakes Beach’ (Bohemian/Pacific Sun, Feb. 18–24): Thank you for this informative article. Why did the Smithsonian group feel the need to kill the elephant seals?

Susan K. Howard
Via Bohemian.com.

The elephant seal killings occurred in 1892, so, unfortunately, the answer to your question has been lost to time and presumably science. – Editor

Science Festival, Art Collab 2026 and Dream Hou$e on Stage

-
0
Science Festival, Art Collab 2026 and Dream Hou$e on Stage

Santa Rosa

Local Lab

Science takes over the Sonoma County Fairgrounds when North Bay Science Discovery Day returns with more than 100 exhibitors and an expected crowd of 10,000-plus curious minds. The one-day, free festival is a kinetic celebration of STEM, where kids can explore everything from rockets and robots to beehives, sharks and animation—rain or shine. Among the exhibitors this year is AspireED, whose mission centers on expanding access to STEM education. At their booth, children ages 4–12 can dive into hands-on investigations exploring invisible ink, ultraviolet-reactive beads and the microscopic world—complete with self-made slides and live brine shrimp under the lens. High school volunteers will also distribute 500 free STEM activity kits, with instructions in both English and Spanish. From big-name organizations like Tesla, Kaiser, Medtronic and Lucasfilm to local nonprofits equally devoted to sparking curiosity, the day is built around conversation, experimentation and discovery. Admission and parking are free; no tickets required. 10am–4pm, Saturday, March 7, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa. northbayscience.com.

Petaluma

Art Collab

Collaborative Works 2026 brings together paintings and textiles by Anna Rochester and Barbara Libby Steinmann, whose practice hinges on direct, simultaneous collaboration. Drawing inspiration from the natural landscapes of Marin and Sonoma counties, the pair apply their respective skills to each piece at the same time, creating layered works that are both organic and intentionally intertwined. The result ranges from large-scale statements to more intimate pieces, each reflecting a shared visual language shaped in real time. An opening reception at Usher Gallery offers a chance to meet the artists, hear live music by Rojo, and enjoy light refreshments and wine while exploring the exhibition. Rochester and Libby Steinmann also serve as co-directors of Connect the Dots Art Studio, a Marin-based nonprofit devoted to community-centered art experiences. Reception 5–8pm, Saturday, Feb. 28; exhibit runs now through March 22, Usher Gallery, 1 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.

San Rafael

Arts & Crafts

Spring gets a handmade welcome at the Marin Spring Arts & Crafts Show, where more than 200 artisans fill the Marin Center Exhibit Hall with woodwork, textiles, ceramics, jewelry, furniture, artisan foods and more. Inspired by the legacy of the Arts & Crafts movement, the weekend-long marketplace celebrates craft in its purest form—objects made by the hands of the people selling them. Beyond the booths, the show offers live music, hands-on workshops, wine tasting and door prizes, making it less a shopping trip than a full-day immersion in creativity. It’s an easy excuse to wander, discover something one-of-a-kind and support working makers across disciplines. 10am–5pm, Friday–Sunday, Feb. 27–March 1, Marin Center Exhibit Hall, 20 Ave. of the Flags, San Rafael. Free admission and free parking. marinartsandcraftsshow.com.

Kentfield

Dream Hou$e

Reality TV meets family reckoning in Dream Hou$e, a sharp, crowd-pleasing comedy staged at the College of Marin’s James Dunn Theatre. Two Latina sisters appear on an HGTV-style show to sell their childhood home, but as the renovation narrative unfolds, the edges blur and the surreal slips in. What begins as a familiar property makeover becomes a pointed exploration of cultural identity, memory and the true cost of “progress.” Blending humor with heart, the play asks whether cashing in is the same as selling out—and who gets to define value in the first place. 7:30pm, Friday–Saturday, Feb. 27–28; 2pm, Sunday, March 1; additional performances through March 6, James Dunn Theatre, College of Marin Performing Arts, 835 College Ave., Kentfield. Free. Go to bit.ly/com-dreamhouse.

Free Will Astrology, Feb. 25 – Mar. 3

-
0
Free Will Astrology, Feb. 25 – Mar. 3

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In woodworking, “spalting” occurs when fungi colonize wood, creating dark lines and patterns that make the wood more valuable, not less. The decay creates beauty as long as it isn’t allowed to progress too far. Here’s the metaphorical moral of the story for you, Aries: What feels like a deteriorating situation might actually be spalting. Are you experiencing the breakdown of a routine, a certainty or a plan? It could be creating a pattern that makes your story even more interesting and heroic. So keep in mind that an apparent decomposition may be transforming ordinary into extraordinary beauty. My advice is to play along with the spalting. 

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I suspect you will soon be invited to explore novel feelings and unfamiliar states of awareness. As you wander in the psychological frontiers, you might experience mysterious phenomena like the following. 1. An overflow of reverence and awe. 2. Blissful surprise in the face of the sublime. 3. Sudden glimmers of eternity in fleeting moments. 4. A soft, golden resonance that arises when you hear arousing truths. 5. Amazingly useful questions that could tantalize and feed your imagination for months and even years to come.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If I were your mentor, I’d lead you up an ascending trail to a high peak where your vision is clear and vast. If I were your leader, I’d give you a medal for all the ways you’ve been brave when no one was looking, then send you on an all-expenses-paid sabbatical to a beautiful sanctuary to rest and remember yourself. If I were your therapist, I’d guide you through a 90-minute meditation on your entire life story up until now. But since I’m just your companion for this brief oracle, I will instead advise you to slip out of any silken snares of comfort that dull your spirit, cast off perks and privileges that keep you small, and commune with influences that remind you of how deeply you treasure being alive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Biologist Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize by developing what she called “a feeling for the organism.” She cultivated an intimate, almost empathic relationship with the corn plants she studied. She didn’t impose theories on her subjects. She listened to them until she could sense their hidden patterns from the inside. When you’re not lost in self-protection, you Cancerians excel at this quality of attention. Here’s what I see as your task in the coming weeks: Transfer your empathic genius away from people who drain you and toward projects, places or problems that deserve your devotion and give you blessings in return.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Sufi writers describe heartbreak, grief and longing as portals through which divine love enters. They say that a highly defended ego and a hardened heart can’t engage with such profound and potent love. In this view, suffering that makes the heart ache strips away illusions and fixations, allowing greater receptivity, humility and tenderness toward all beings.​ I’m not expecting you to get blasted by an influx of poignancy in the near future, Leo, but I’m very sure you have experienced such blasts in the past. And now is an excellent time to process those old breakthroughs disguised as breakdowns. You are likely to finally be able to harvest the full power they offered you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In traditional Balinese culture, Tri Hita Karana is a concept that means there are three causes of well-being: harmony with God, harmony with people and harmony with nature. When one is out of balance, all suffer. I’m wondering if you would benefit from meditating on this theme now, Virgo. Have you been focused on one dimension at the expense of the others? Are you, perhaps, spiritually nourished but socially isolated? Or maybe you’re maintaining relationships but ignoring your body’s connection to the earth? Here’s your assignment: Do a Tri Hita Karana audit. Which harmony is most neglected? Add to your altar, call a friend or go walk in the great outdoors—whichever one you’ve been shortchanging.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You are a diplomat in the struggle between beauty and inelegance. Your aptitude for creating harmony is a great asset that others might underestimate or miss completely. I hope you will always trust your hunger for classiness, even if others dismiss it as superficial. One of your key reasons for being here on Earth is to keep insisting on loveliness in a world too quick to settle for ugliness. These qualities of yours are especially needed right now. Please be gracefully insistent on expressing them wherever you go.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The bad news: You underestimate how much joy and pleasure you deserve—and how much you’re capable of experiencing. This artificially low expectation has sometimes cheated you out of your rightful share of bliss and fulfillment. The good news: Life is now ready to conspire with you to raise your happiness levels. I hope you will cooperate eagerly. The more intensely you insist on feeling good, the more cosmic assistance you will garner. Here’s a smart way to launch this holy campaign: Renounce a certain lackluster thrill that diverts you from more lavish excitements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In classical music, a “rest” isn’t the absence of music. It’s a specific notation that creates space, tension and meaning. The silence is as much a part of the composition as the sound. I suggest you think of your current pause this way, Sagittarius. You’re not waiting for your real life to resume. You’re in a rest, and the rest is an essential part of the process you’re following. It’s creating the conditions for what comes next. So instead of anxiously filling every moment with productivity or distraction, try honoring the pause. Be deliberately quiet. Let the silence accumulate. When the next movement begins, you’ll understand exactly why the rest was necessary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Interesting temptations are wandering into your orbit. You may be surprised to find yourself drawn toward entertaining gambles and tricky adventures. How should you respond? Should you say, “Yes. Now. I’m ready.”? Or is open-minded caution a wiser approach? Conditions are too slippery for me to arrive at definitive conclusions. What I can tell you is this: Merely considering and ruminating on these invitations will awaken uplifting and inspiring lessons. P.S.: To get the fullness of the blessings you want from other people, you must first give them to yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The engineer Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) said he envisioned his inventions in intricate detail before building them. He didn’t need literal prototypes because his mental pictures were so vivid. I suspect you Aquarians now have extra access to this power. What scenarios are you dreaming of? What are you incubating in your imagination? I urge you to boldly trust your thought experiments. Your mental prototypes may be unusually accurate. The visions you’re testing internally are reconnaissance missions to futures that you have the power to build. Regard your imagination as a laboratory.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Sufi mystics tell us that the heart has “seven levels of depth,” each one bearing progressively more profound wisdom. You access these depths by feeling deeper, not thinking harder. Let’s apply this perspective to you, Pisces. Right now, you’re being called to descend past surface emotions (irritation, worry, mild contentment) into the layers beneath: primal wonder, the wild joy you’re sometimes too cautious to express and the sacred longing that can lead you to glory. This dive might feel risky. That’s good. It means you’re going deep enough. What you discover down there will reorganize everything above it for the better.

Homework: What’s the most taboo thing you want? Can you make it any less taboo? Newsletter. FreeWillAstrology.com.

Manifesto

-
0
Manifesto

I am an ant

insignificant in size

one of too many

working through life

in service to power

I am powerless

joining in the belief

that I matter

I am needed

I have something to offer

In wonder I crawl

infinitely simple

destroyed by the smash

of a large hand

Not the hand of God

which does not seem to exist

Only the steel of a sword

or the grimy smell of money

host our time of living

What is my purpose?

How can I rise?

Must I lie to you?

Must I lie to myself?

I strive to be Queen of the mount

the mistress of God

the Goddess

To shape lives into righteousness

to give birth to innocence

the innocence of trust

to be trusted in return

I want to hold power in my heart

like the solar energy of hope

a light to hold the expansion

of each and every heart

I wish to believe

in the circle of our animal existence

where we depend on one another

and lift each other up

For our brains to perceive

For our eyes to have sight

and cry together

I am an angel

with wings to envelop

all human experience

To care like a mother

for the smallest corporeal existence

for the weakest emotional expression

for the frightened

who strike out to survive

only to fall

forgotten

I will remember

our breath is the wind

Know we all can fly

Rebecca O. Jones lives in San Rafael and is a member of the O’Hanlan Art Center Poetry Collective in Mill Valley, The Redwoods Writers in Sonoma County and Marin Poetry Center.

Musical Artist Rodney Crowell Brings Tour to Napa

Musical artist Rodney Crowell realized long ago that rather than become a star, he wanted to become exactly what the first two words of the sentence denote: a musical artist. After his 1988 album “Diamonds and Dirt”garnered him 5 consecutive #1 hit songs on the country music charts, an inevitable crash was almost certain to happen. And it sort...
Read more

Difficult Story Telling: ‘We Are Proud to Present…’ Opens at Left Edge 

Leave it to Left Edge Theatre to tackle the massively complex, challenging social experiment that is the astounding Jackie Sibblies Drury play We Are Proud to Present…
Leave it to Left Edge Theatre to tackle the massively complex, challenging social experiment that is the astounding Jackie Sibblies Drury play We Are Proud to Present… A sincere “Bravo” to this artistic effort, led by director Skylar Evans, and an ensemble cast of very familiar faces. The show runs at The California in Santa Rosa through March 8....
Read more

Back in Time: The Fight to Keep Trump off 2028 Ballots and Safeguard the Constitution

Could President Donald Trump be setting himself up to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1941, by serving a third term as president?
Could President Donald Trump be setting himself up to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1941, by serving a third term as president? While some folks pay little mind to Trump’s occasional hints of staying in office longer, California Sen. Tom Umberg isn’t leaving it to chance. The 22nd Amendment, added to the United States Constitution in 1951, states...
Read more

Solful Noise: Local Cannabis Company Collaborates with Music Fest

San Francisco’s hometown Noise Pop Festival kicked off last week and runs through this weekend
San Francisco’s hometown Noise Pop Festival kicked off last week and runs through this weekend. It is no surprise that the festival where more than half of the 150-plus bands playing are local chose Solful, committed buyers of local, sun-grown cannabis, to be its first cannabis sponsor.  To celebrate local bands and farmers together, they released the “Snap, Crackle, Noise...
Read more

Standing Up for What One Knows, Comedian Juan Carlos Arenas

Juan Carlos Arenas has been a stand-up comedian for 14 years now, seven of them paid.
Coming up, Juan Carlos Arenas’ neighborhood of Moreland was rough. His uncles were not in the gangs … but they were not out of them either. When they took him along on their long summer “camping” trips to Emerald Triangle grow sites, he says, they packed semi-automatic rifles, “you know, just in case they saw a bear.”  When, at the...
Read more

From Yacht to Ranch, Edward Newell Roots Down

NewTree Ranch is the embodiment of Edward Newell’s path, with a dedication to sustainability, land stewardship and regenerative agriculture.
Edward Newell’s path to founding NewTree Ranch in Healdsburg was ultimately sparked in childhood, watching his mother, Kathy, transform hospitality into an art form. This eventually led him to the Culinary Institute of America, then building a thriving San Francisco catering company before founding E.G. Newell Interiors, designing luxury hotel and private yacht spaces across Europe and Asia. Living aboard...
Read more

Your Letters, Feb. 25

Love for ‘Love’ Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, a local gem, told us in 1979 that “love is letting go of fear.” It changed my life. I thank Cincinnatus Hibbard for his contribution to this endeavor (‘Revealing the Nature of Love,’ Feb. 11-17) and Weeklys for featuring it.  Love does indeed make the world go round rather than flat. Yet, it may take...
Read more

Science Festival, Art Collab 2026 and Dream Hou$e on Stage

Science takes over the Sonoma County Fairgrounds when North Bay Science Discovery Day returns with more than 100 exhibitors and an expected crowd of 10,000-plus curious minds.
Santa Rosa Local Lab Science takes over the Sonoma County Fairgrounds when North Bay Science Discovery Day returns with more than 100 exhibitors and an expected crowd of 10,000-plus curious minds. The one-day, free festival is a kinetic celebration of STEM, where kids can explore everything from rockets and robots to beehives, sharks and animation—rain or shine. Among the exhibitors this...
Read more

Free Will Astrology, Feb. 25 – Mar. 3

Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In woodworking, “spalting” occurs when fungi colonize wood, creating dark lines and patterns that make the wood more valuable, not less. The decay creates beauty as long as it isn’t allowed to progress too far. Here’s the metaphorical moral of the story for you, Aries: What feels like a deteriorating situation might actually be spalting....
Read more

Manifesto

Open Mic writers express their perspectives on a variety of topics.
I am an ant insignificant in size one of too many working through life in service to power I am powerless joining in the belief that I matter I am needed I have something to offer In wonder I crawl infinitely simple destroyed by the smash of a large hand Not the hand of God which does not seem to exist Only the steel of a sword or the grimy smell of money host our time of...
Read more
1...101112...1,000Page 11 of 1,000
11,084FansLike
4,606FollowersFollow
6,928FollowersFollow
north bay bohemian newspaper sonoma napa county logo
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
East Bay Express cover
East Bay Express cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise About Us Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Writing an Obituary Archives Find a Paper Distribute Bohemian Vote for Best Of Plaques & Banners
win free stuff
Features Local News News
Arts Books & Literature Crush Culture Movies Music Spotlight Theater
Astrology Look Media Opinion Letters To The Editor Open Mic Press Pass Rolling Papers
Dining Restaurants Small Bites
Readers' Picks 2025 Arts & Culture Beer, Wine & Spirits Beauty, Health & Wellness Cannabis Everyday Services Family & Pets Home Improvement Recreation Restaurants Romance Shopping
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event
weeklys california local media group logo

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

Our Publications

ADVERTISING Advertise Legal Submit an Obituary Legal NoticesFictitious Business Name (FBN) StatementsDoing Business As (DBA) NoticesTrustee Sale Notices

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support Local Journalism