Best Place to Enter One’s Own Heart of Darkness

Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Geyserville

Sure, you may love the smell of Napa in the morning, but I’ll do you one better: Sipping a glass of the Director’s Cut Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir at Francis Ford Coppola Winery while perusing props and ephemera from Apocalypse Now!—boom.

Filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola have blended Hollywood and vines since the mid-’70s. With high-end moves in Napa and populist pursuits in Sonoma, the Coppolas built a wine empire, part of which they sold in 2021 to Delicato Family Wines.

The fam said ciao to the brand name “Francis Ford Coppola Winery” but kept the classic Inglenook brand in Napa Valley, which they restored over decades, and another wine interest in Oregon. However, the movie memorabilia and award-winning wine portfolio remain intact and on display at the Geyserville location.

Among the cinematic relics are the prop cameras slung around Dennis Hopper’s neck as the “Photojournalist” (as seen above). Naturally, as a journo, wino and filmmaker, this gets me kinda heady. Or maybe it’s just the wine (jury’s out). If you know the film—now celebrating its 45th anniversary this year—you also know Eleanor’s 1991 documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the doc that captured the madness of its making. I recommend a double feature—two bottles of the Director’s Cut—and maybe watch the films too.

Francis Ford Coppola Winery is located at 300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville. francisfordcoppolawinery.com.

Best Place to Forest Bathe for the Ultimate Inner Glow

Riverfront Park, Windsor

Yo! We live in Northern California. Skip the fancy spa treatments and go chill in a redwood forest. Or as they call it in Japan, go do some shinrin-yoku, aka “forest bathing.”

Here in the wine country, we’ve got the Armstrong Redwoods in Guerneville—plus some lesser-known groves like the one at Riverfront Regional Park just west of Windsor, with easy access and plenty of room for all the forest bathers to find some personal space and beauty silence. There are some pretty massive and majestic old grandmother redwoods in there, plus a time-thickened carpet of red-brown tree needles that effortlessly mute and soften the world.

By stepping inside, one can have a brush with eternal peace and beauty. Riverfront is technically free, but a parking pass costs $7. And while there, FYI—though the river rats are gonna kill me for giving this up—if one walks 10 or 15 minutes past the redwood grove, there’s also this dope little Russian River access spot where one can sit on a bench overlooking the water or climb down onto a magical river island.

The island has soft grasses to lay in, rocks to bask and climb on, dipping spots for getting wet and butterflies who love to land on toes. How’s that for health and wellness? — Simone Wilson

Best Place for a (Literal) Vision Quest

 

Über Optics, Petaluma

The brainchild of fashionista-turned-optician Nancy Revis, Über Optics, isn’t just a store—it’s a vision (pun intended) brought to life, where retro-chic meets eye care in a kaleidoscope of frames that could make even a mole see the light of day.

Revis, a self-proclaimed maximalist with a penchant for the quirky, has turned her shop into a veritable wonderland of eyewear. From Ray-Ban to Vinylize, it’s like the Oscars red carpet for your face.

Celebrating a decade of defying the bland and the boring, Über Optics is where you go when you want your glasses to scream “I’m fabulous” without uttering a word. Revis’ secret sauce? A dollop of marketing savvy, a sprinkle of design genius, and a lot of love for making people look and see their best.

So, if you’re in the market for some eye candy (literally), strut down to Über Optics. Just be warned: You might walk out looking so hot that you’ll be turning heads faster than a spinning top. And Revis’ advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? Embrace your inner crazy. After all, it’s the craziest idea that we often see the clearest.

Best Place to Align One’s Chakras & Sell One’s Soul to Satan

Yoga Hell, Petaluma

Sonoma County’s own Yoga Hell offers a slice of paradise not lost on Petaluma’s most limber sinners, such as myself.

I always said that it would take a minor miracle to get me to stay consistent with an exercise routine. Alas, my prayers for divine fitness intervention fell on deaf ears and, after months and months of supplications to the gods of carbs and cardio, I still felt flabby sitting at home in my too-tight sweatpants.

“Why won’t these lazy deities get up and help me out?” I thought.

But then I realized that making a deal with the devil is just as valid a workout option as thoughts and prayers, even if running from my inner demons all these years and performing professionally diagnosed “Olympic-level mental gymnastics” never really yielded me anything except expensive therapy bills.

Long story short, I sold my soul to the demons occupying the gaping void beneath Yoga Hell, and don’t regret it. Nope. Not one bit.

It’s one of those damned if you do and damned if you don’t sort of deals.

As one can see, there’s a fine line between health, wellness and hell itself. We can’t all be perfect little angels when it comes to crushing those fitness goals…and Yoga Hell is a rare utopia that welcomes heathens like me who just want to strike that perfect balance between being healthy and abject debauchery.

Yoga Hell, well, it’s like a fitness fever dream—all heat and lights and sweat in a never ending celebration of exercise. Now I’m either enlightened or depraved, but either way my chakras are permanently stuck on “rave.”

Yoga Hell is located at 1484 Petaluma Blvd N. To learn more or book that first descent into the inferno’s cruel and sweaty embrace, call 707.775.2400. Or just drop on in—God knows that’s how Lucifer did it!

Best Place to Make an Art Investment of the ‘I Knew Them Before They Were Famous’ Variety

University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park

Let’s be frank: We’ve all wondered if that garage sale splatter fest we purchased for $5 is actually a Jackson Pollock or if the anti-consumerist slogan silkscreened in bold letters across that halftone photo on your wall isn’t perhaps Barbara Kruger. Pro tip: You can ditch all the guesswork about provenance and head straight to the source—a cultural jackpot sequestered on the Sonoma State University campus—The University Art Gallery.

Since its grand opening in 1978, this almost 2,500-square-foot creative wonderland has been more than just a feast for the eyes; it’s a veritable incubator for the next Basquiats and Warhols of the world.

With over 40 years under its belt, the gallery has seen everything from avant-garde installations that make you go, “What the…?” to more traditional pieces that whisper sweet nothings about the beauty of life. It’s not just a gallery—it’s a time machine showcasing the evolution of contemporary art, all while giving art students and faculty a platform to shine.

And let’s talk about the annual Art from the Heart auction. It’s not just an event; it’s a treasure hunt. With artworks donated by emerging talents and national darlings, it’s your chance to snag a masterpiece before the artist hits the big time. Imagine telling your friends, “I bought it back when they were still a student,” as you casually adjust your monocle.

Hats off to interim gallery director and exhibitions and collections manager Claudia Molloy and her team for providing an excellent experience for artists and art lovers alike. And, of course, it’s not all about potentially striking it rich as an early collector. The gallery serves as a hands-on classroom for students across majors, teaching them the ropes of museum and gallery management. It’s where theory meets practice, and dreams meet reality. And maybe, just maybe, you can say, you “knew them when.”

University Art Gallery, School of Arts & Humanities, Sonoma State University, 1801 E Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. artgallery.sonoma.edu.

Best Place to Become a ‘Movie Prepper’

The Goodwill DVD section, Sonoma and Napa counties

If I have my media history correct, video killed the radio star, then streaming killed the video store. ’Twas a cycle of violence and retribution cinematic in scope with which we’re still reckoning as a culture.

Sometime in the ’90s, Bill Gates observed that “content is king,” presaging the digital commodification of art and its consumption (tellingly, the photo for the WIRED.com article I used to fact-check that quote has disappeared, with only a broken image icon and an alt text tag to suggest it was once there). And thus began the gradual degradation of art and media as not only “content” (a loathsome term) but as infinitely replicable and—significantly—malleable.

The powers that be can’t mess with your CDs, but they can change a lyric on any tune on Spotify at will, and the cloned AI “performance” will be so damn good you’ll ask, “Is it real or is it Memorex Mandela effect?” Consider this: Only when our culture is experienced digitally (and thus controlled by billionaires and their corporations) could an online book retailer, for example, make textual changes to your ebook edition of Orwell’s 1984 at will (which it did), or could your favorite streamer vanish whole swaths of films and series because it no longer wants to pay residuals to the artists who made them.

The remedy? Become a Movie Prepper and own physical media before your favorite flick vaporizes in the digital cloud. Buy a hybrid Blu-ray and DVD player online for under $30 (they’re everywhere, even—gulp—Amazon). Then go to any one of the at least nine Goodwill stores between Sonoma and Napa counties (which is way more of a footprint than Blockbuster ever had!) and buy DVDs for only a few dollars each. Build your own cinematic library and lean in as the credits roll on the End Times.

Best Way to Get Fashionably Trashed

Sonoma Community Center’s Trashion Fashion Runway, Sonoma

A very special community effort is underway in the town of Sonoma to recycle and creatively reuse what it has always needed and lacked—namely glamor, charisma and oomph.

For this effort and more, I nominate Sonoma Community Center’s partnership with Recology, the trash fashion (“trashion”) runway, now in its 14th annual run.

In each and every year since its inception, tailored garbage gowns and suitings of verve and refinement have paraded an elevated runway at Sonoma, accompanied by trad house music, ear-scorching punnery by color commentators and rapturous applause. The program is divided into adults and juniors and requires two seatings to accommodate its popularity among the fancy-person patrons of Sonoma. Proceeds from this ticketed event go to support and discount the center’s hefty calendar of offerings. Volunteers are comped.

The runway that leads to that flash-bulb apotheosis begins the process as much as a year before as 30 to 50 single-entry designer models humbly reflect on their own wastefulness. It’s born of thoughtless habit. Do you toss a single-use Flamin’ Hot Doritos bag away each day? That’s a pile of 365 bags on a landfill field or it’s a sumptuous ’80s prom dress! Success!

Have a bag of expired coupons? Well, snip snip, it’s now a cocktail dress that gets free drinks. Have 40 neon nylon onion sacks? Well, that’s what you need for your coronation gown for your crowning as camp queen.

In the years succeeding its founding by artist Margaret Hatcher, Trashion has expanded, adding classes and labs to support its designers, a trash fashion Barbie moquette program and a free-to-all-closing-party, The Trash Bash. There you can see the gowns up close, live-modeled and on mannequins, meet the makers, bid on Barbies, tipple and enthuse about the future or how fashionable we will be on the post-apocalyptic wastes.

Held each April as Trashion Week, our own Sonoma Community Center hosts and nurtures one of our best efforts to turn April’s Earth Day into a global 365.

Learn more at sonomacommunitycenter.org/trashion-fashion. Or listen to my interview with Spencer De la Silva, the trashion icon. It is episode 19 on ‘Sonoma County: A Community Portrait’ on Apple, Google and Spotify podcasts.

Film Review: ‘Carol Doda Topless at the Condor’

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Just when it seems that San Francisco’s dope, sex and rock ’n’ roll scene in the 1960s has been covered from every conceivable angle, along comes Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker’s entertaining documentary, Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, to remind everyone how untamed it could be.

The world was truly a different place in 1964, and San Francisco’s North Beach was different-er than the rest. The nighttime hubbub at the neighborhood’s bars, clubs and strip joints was hipster/flipster central in those pre-Flower Power days. Lusty bohemians and cocktail-hour entertainers from Thelonious Monk and Lenny Bruce to Sly Stone, Mort Sahl, Richard Pryor and Barbra Streisand mingled with the squares in the night spots, and the action spilled into the street. Rules got broken.

The happiest breaker of rules was the Condor Club at Broadway and Columbus, where a 26-year-old former cocktail waitress named Carol Doda trotted onstage wearing nothing but a monokini swimsuit—a relatively restrained yet literally topless outfit by avant-garde designer Rudi Gernreich.

Presto. Lines formed on the sidewalk, and the other clubs quickly followed suit. Then Doda upped the ante by getting silicone injections in her breasts, and box-office pandemonium broke loose. Instead of being noted for the Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace, Ess Eff grabbed international headlines as the home of the topless.

McKenzie, Parker and story editor Karen Everett’s zesty doc captures the giddy spirit of the age with rapid-fire montage and nonstop, needle-drop rock. Doda herself comes across as an impish, glib-tongued hustler, undeterred by angry feminists denouncing her act as exploitation—she retorted that she was her own boss—and quite comfortable with the notorious Male Gaze.

At the height of the mania, newsman Walter Cronkite and pop artist Andy Warhol were regulars at the Condor, and Doda was profiled by journalist Tom Wolfe. Local swingeroos such as café owner Enrico Banducci and attorney Melvin Belli looked on admiringly, and Doda gained notoriety for her affair with Frank Sinatra. Doda Dome, a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, was named for her. Doda even made appearances in drive-in movies, including Machine Gun McCain and Bob Rafelson’s Head.

U.S. troops in Vietnam sent fan mail to Doda, and Chronicle columnist Herb Caen supplied endless plugs. In one column, Caen wrote about the French tourists who went into laugh orbit over the club’s signage, which proclaimed “CONDOR” in 40-foot-high neon letters—colloquially, con d’or is “golden idiot,” or “golden vagina” in archaic French slang.

The big-boob novelty eventually wore off. Not long after Doda performed completely nude, the clubs hired amateurish hippies who couldn’t dance, and long hair replaced the usual bouffant and beehive hairdos. An act called the Interracial Love Dance prompted an SFPD crackdown. Strippers worked with snakes and monkeys. And home video porn became a serious competitor.

Live bands gave way to canned music. Meanwhile hard drugs like meth and cocaine proliferated in the girlie joints. The clientele, previously a combination of tipsy businessmen and slumming suburbanites, took a heavy turn toward the wankers-in-raincoats crowd.

The climactic mood-killer for the topless craze came in 1983. Condor bouncer Jimmy “The Beard” Ferrozzo and dancer Theresa Hill, in their stoned haste to have sex on top of Doda’s celebrated descending white grand piano one night after closing, accidentally tripped the riser button. They were found the next morning with Hill, still breathing, trapped under Ferrozzo’s dead body, crushed between the piano and the ceiling.

What exactly was subversive in SF in those days? The spectacle of Black men cavorting with white strippers certainly got the cops hot under their collars. But topless ran out of gas naturally, like love-ins, Zippy the Pinhead and the Chocolate Watch Band. Long past her prime, Doda took an awful stab at live theater, fronted a rock band and opened a Cow Hollow shop, the Champagne & Lace Boutique. When she died in 2015, news reports couldn’t resist the “Twin Peaks” jokes. 

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In theaters

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 20

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): I suspect you will soon have far more beginners’ luck than you ever thought possible. For best results—to generate even more wildly abundant torrents of good luck—you could adopt what Zen Buddhists called “beginner’s mind.” That means gazing upon everyone and everything as if encountering it for the first time. Here are other qualities I expect to be flowing freely through you in the coming weeks: spontaneity, curiosity, innocence, candor and unpredictability. To the degree that you cultivate these states, you will invite even more beginner’s luck into your life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus artist Salvador Dali was prone to exaggerate for dramatic effect. We should remember that as we read his quote: “Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: Rationalize them; understand them thoroughly.” While that eccentric advice may not always be 100% accurate or useful, I think it will be true and helpful for you in the coming weeks. Have maximum fun making sacred mistakes, Taurus! Learn all you can from them. Use them to improve your life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The professional fun advisors here at Free Will Astrology International Headquarters have concluded that your Party Hardy Potential Rating for the coming weeks is 9.8 (out of 10). In fact, this may be the Party Hardy Phase of the Year for you. You could gather the benefits of maximum revelry and conviviality with minimal side effects. Here’s a meditation to get you in the right mood: Imagine mixing business and pleasure with such panache that they blend into a gleeful, fruitful synergy.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author and psychotherapist Virginia Satir (1916–1988) was renowned as the “Mother of Family Therapy.” Her research led her to conclude, “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.” That 12-hug recommendation seems daunting to achieve, but I hope you will strive for it in the coming weeks. You are in a phase when maximum growth is possible—and pushing to the frontiers of hugging will help you activate the full potential. (PS: Don’t force anyone to hug you. Make sure it’s consensual.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Have you been genuinely amazed anytime recently? Have you done something truly amazing? If not, it’s time to play catch-up. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you need and deserve exciting adventures that boggle your soul in all the best ways. You should be wandering out on the frontiers and tracking down provocative mysteries. You could grow even smarter than you already are if you expose yourself to challenges that will amaze you and inspire you to be amazing.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I invite you to perform a magic spell that will help prepare you for the rich, slippery soul work you have ahead of you. I’ll offer a suggestion, but feel free to compose your own ritual. First, go outside where it’s raining or misting, or find a waterfall. Stand with your legs apart and arms spread out as you turn your face up toward the falling moisture. As you drink it in, tell yourself you will be extra fluid and flowing in the coming weeks. Promise yourself you will stimulate and treasure succulent feelings. You will cultivate the sensation that everything you need is streaming in your direction.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You are gliding into the climax of your re-education about togetherness, intimacy and collaboration. The lessons you’ve been learning have deepened your reservoir of wisdom about the nature of love. And in the coming weeks, even further teachings will arrive; even more openings and invitations will be available. You will be offered the chance to earn what could in effect be a master’s degree in relationships. It’ll be challenging work, but rewarding and interesting. Do as best as you can. Don’t demand perfection from yourself or anyone else.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Now is not a favorable phase to gamble on unknown entities. Nor should you allow seemingly well-meaning people to transgress your boundaries. Another Big No: Don’t heed the advice of fear-mongers or nagging scolds, whether they’re inside or outside your head. On the other hand, dear Scorpio, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for the following actions. 1. Phase out attachments to alliances and love interests that have exhausted their possibilities. 2. Seek the necessary resources to transform or outgrow a frustrating fact about your life. 3. Name truths that other people seem intent on ignoring and avoiding. 4. Conjure simple, small, slow, practical magic to make simple, small, slow, practical progress.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Falling in love is fun! It’s also exciting, enriching, inspiring, transformative, world-shaking and educational. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could keep falling in love anew three or four times a year for as long as we live? We might always be our best selves, showing our most creative and generous sides, continually expanding our power to express our soulful intelligence. Alas, it’s not practical or realistic to always be falling in love with another new person. Here’s a possible alternative: What if we enlarged our understanding of what we could fall in love with? Maybe we would become perpetually infatuated with brilliant teachings, magical places, high adventures, and great art and music. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to cultivate this skill.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’m perplexed by spiritual teachers who fanatically preach the doctrine that we should BE HERE NOW as much as possible. Living with full enjoyment in the present moment is a valuable practice, but dismissing or demeaning the past is shortsighted. Our lives are forged from our histories. We should revere the stories we are made of, visit them regularly and keep learning from them. Keep this in mind, Capricorn. It’s an excellent time to heal your memories and to be healed by them. Cultivate deep gratitude for your past as you give the old days all your love. Enjoy this quote from novelist Gregory Maguire: “Memory is part of the present. It builds us up inside; it knits our bones to our muscles and keeps our heart pumping. It is memory that reminds our bodies to work, and memory that reminds our spirits to work, too: it keeps us who we are.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Controversial author William S. Burroughs was a rough, tough troublemaker. But he had some wisdom that will soon be extra useful for you. He said that love is the best natural painkiller available. I bring this to your attention not because I believe you will experience more pain than the rest of us in the coming months. Rather, I am predicting you will have extra power to alleviate your pain—especially when you raise your capacity to give and receive love.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The planet Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023 and won’t depart for good until February 2026. Is that a bad thing or good thing for you Pisceans? Some astrologers might say you are in a challenging time when you must make cutbacks and take on increased responsibility. I have a different perspective. I believe this is a phase when you can get closer than ever before to knowing exactly what you want and how to accomplish what you want. In my view, you are being called to shed secondary wishes that distract you from your life’s central goals. I see this period as a homecoming—your invitation to glide into robust alignment with your soul’s code.

Meditate on “creative destruction.” How could you generate benefits by getting rid of burdens? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

Sonoma County Gov, Graton Tribe Collab on Public Park

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There’s an interesting collaboration happening between Sonoma County’s parks department and a local tribe that runs a large casino in our area: The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Turns out they also run a public park. The Graton tribe is currently “co-managing” a giant, 3,400-acre hunk of nature called Tolay Lake Regional Park in the hills southeast of Petaluma, between the Petaluma River and Sonoma Valley — “a partnership thought to be the first of its kind in California between a local government and a federally recognized tribe,” according to county officials. And as the “the first major infrastructure project under this agreement,” they just started building a 1.5-acre gathering area near the park entrance on Cannon Lane — with “landscaping featuring plants of cultural significance to the Tribe” and “terraced seating and an open-air stage with views overlooking seasonal Tolay Lake and the park beyond.” The gathering area should open to the public by this fall. “This beautiful Coast Miwok landscape will provide a place for all people to celebrate events and learn about nature,” says a rep for Graton Rancheria. “We’re pleased to work with Sonoma County Parks to create an accessible gathering place that reflects our Native American traditions of sharing stories and meeting with our community.” And the head of county parks says: “Once the gathering area is complete, we encourage the community to join us for a guided program or a walk along the trails to deepen their connection with the land and its history. This area is designed as a place for everyone to gather, learn, celebrate and cultivate a collective responsibility for the park.” Here’s some more info from the Sonoma County government press release: “In keeping with the co-management agreement, the gathering area was co-designed with the Tribe, and pays homage to Tolay Lake as the Tribe’s sacred site. Once one of Sonoma County’s largest freshwater lakes and a destination for tribal ceremonies and healing, Tolay Lake and the surrounding land continue to be recognized for its cultural and ecological values. Construction of the gathering area kicks off the park’s multi-phase master plan implementation, aimed at developing interpretative facilities, restoring natural ecosystems and enhancing trails. Co-management embodies a collective commitment to honor the Tribe’s and Sonoma County’s heritage as well safeguarding its natural and cultural resources. During construction, the group picnic area, Cardoza Road Trail and a portion of West Ridge Trail will be closed, and equestrian parking is available in the main parking lot.” (Source: Sonoma County Regional Parks & Sonoma County Regional Parks & Sonoma County Government & Google Maps)

Best Place to Enter One’s Own Heart of Darkness

Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Geyserville Sure, you may love the smell of Napa in the morning, but I’ll do you one better: Sipping a glass of the Director’s Cut Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir at Francis Ford Coppola Winery while perusing props and ephemera from Apocalypse Now!—boom. Filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola have blended Hollywood and vines since the mid-’70s....

Best Place to Forest Bathe for the Ultimate Inner Glow

Riverfront Park, Windsor Yo! We live in Northern California. Skip the fancy spa treatments and go chill in a redwood forest. Or as they call it in Japan, go do some shinrin-yoku, aka “forest bathing.” Here in the wine country, we’ve got the Armstrong Redwoods in Guerneville—plus some lesser-known groves like the one at Riverfront Regional Park just west of Windsor,...

Best Place for a (Literal) Vision Quest

  Über Optics, Petaluma The brainchild of fashionista-turned-optician Nancy Revis, Über Optics, isn't just a store—it's a vision (pun intended) brought to life, where retro-chic meets eye care in a kaleidoscope of frames that could make even a mole see the light of day. Revis, a self-proclaimed maximalist with a penchant for the quirky, has turned her shop into a veritable wonderland...

Best Place to Align One’s Chakras & Sell One’s Soul to Satan

Yoga Hell, Petaluma Sonoma County’s own Yoga Hell offers a slice of paradise not lost on Petaluma’s most limber sinners, such as myself. I always said that it would take a minor miracle to get me to stay consistent with an exercise routine. Alas, my prayers for divine fitness intervention fell on deaf ears and, after months and months of supplications...

Best Place to Make an Art Investment of the ‘I Knew Them Before They Were Famous’ Variety

University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park Let’s be frank: We’ve all wondered if that garage sale splatter fest we purchased for $5 is actually a Jackson Pollock or if the anti-consumerist slogan silkscreened in bold letters across that halftone photo on your wall isn’t perhaps Barbara Kruger. Pro tip: You can ditch all the guesswork about provenance and...

Best Place to Become a ‘Movie Prepper’

The Goodwill DVD section, Sonoma and Napa counties If I have my media history correct, video killed the radio star, then streaming killed the video store. ’Twas a cycle of violence and retribution cinematic in scope with which we’re still reckoning as a culture. Sometime in the ’90s, Bill Gates observed that “content is king,” presaging the digital commodification of art...

Best Way to Get Fashionably Trashed

Sonoma Community Center’s Trashion Fashion Runway, Sonoma A very special community effort is underway in the town of Sonoma to recycle and creatively reuse what it has always needed and lacked—namely glamor, charisma and oomph. For this effort and more, I nominate Sonoma Community Center’s partnership with Recology, the trash fashion (“trashion”) runway, now in its 14th annual run. In each and...

Film Review: ‘Carol Doda Topless at the Condor’

Film Review: ‘Carol Doda Topless at the Condor’
Just when it seems that San Francisco’s dope, sex and rock ’n’ roll scene in the 1960s has been covered from every conceivable angle, along comes Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker’s entertaining documentary, Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, to remind everyone how untamed it could be. The world was truly a different place in 1964, and San Francisco’s North...

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 20

Free Will Astrology: Week of March 20
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I suspect you will soon have far more beginners’ luck than you ever thought possible. For best results—to generate even more wildly abundant torrents of good luck—you could adopt what Zen Buddhists called “beginner’s mind.” That means gazing upon everyone and everything as if encountering it for the first time. Here are other qualities I...

Sonoma County Gov, Graton Tribe Collab on Public Park

There's an interesting collaboration happening between Sonoma County's parks department and a local tribe that runs a large casino in our area: The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Turns out they also run a public park. The Graton tribe is currently "co-managing" a giant, 3,400-acre hunk of nature called Tolay Lake Regional Park in the hills southeast of Petaluma,...
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