Imagine 2008

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Imagine 2008

12.26.07

If you only had three or four words to encapsulate the moment when ’60s idealism gave way, the short phrases “No end in sight,” “Read my lips” or “Four more years!” would certainly spring to mind. Far more poignant, however, are “Hey, Mr. Lennon!”

I was only 11 months old the day Mark Chapman greeted John Lennon with those words and then shot him five times in the back with a .38 revolver. Because my parents shared Lennon’s music with me at an early age, his death has always hit me as something I had as much a right to cry over as any of the kids who gathered outside the Dakota on Dec. 7, 1980, to mourn the passing of their hero.

In the 1988 documentary Imagine: John Lennon, one fan describes the Beatles as something that “belongs to us.” With his quiet, revolutionary protests (you won’t see George and Laura Bush going to bed for peace any time soon) and determination to stand up to the forces of oppression, this is doubly so of John Lennon. Twenty-seven years after his death, his like has not been seen again, and the absence of a public figure both hip, edgy and intelligent remains one of the key reasons the youth movement has stagnated in the face of George W. Bush’s monstrous war-without-end.

John Lennon wasn’t a saint. Like most rock stars of the era, he drank, smoked pot, did heroin, was promiscuous and pissed off his former band mates when he went solo. His damaged psyche is on view for anyone who listens to his post-Beatles albums (“Mother” from Plastic Ono Band springs immediately to mind). It is exactly this kind of flawed humanity, however, that made him a legend. While admitting outright that he was “just a jealous guy,” Lennon captured the adoration of millions and did something no rock star or politician has been able to do before or since: he made peace cool.

“War Is Over! If You Want It” read the billboards he and Yoko Ono posted over New York in 1969. Such simple words, but they were heard. That same year, Lennon was included with JFK and Mao Zedong on ITV’s Man of the Decade special —and the American government began a campaign of harassment against him that would culminate in an attempt to have him deported and, eventually (believe it!), result in his tragic and untimely death.

Today, nothing like Lennon’s galvanizing presence exists for the generation coming of age in the shadow of Iraq. This is due in part to apathy. As Stephen Colbert recently quipped of my generation’s “efforts” to fight governmental tyranny, the best we can do is “make the Man sorry he ever visited your blog!” A revolution is dependent on many things, but one of the most essential ingredients is a charismatic figurehead, and despite some noble humanitarian efforts on our behalf, it’s hard to see someone like Sting or Bono telling Bush to fuck off.

Where he once penned “Pride (In the Name of Love),” Bono has begun cultivating a diplomatic relationship with the White House and, in his latest Rolling Stone interview, maintains his naïve optimism about our ability to overcome the chaos of the Bush years.

I doubt Lennon would have made nice with Bush. Then again, unlike Bono, Lennon wasn’t a rock star playing a diplomat. He was a revolutionary and a poet who could also play the guitar. Fame helped Lennon’s cause, but his true magic was in the way he made himself accessible as a person. When a troubled young man wandered onto his property looking for a god, Lennon not unkindly told him that “god” was just a man like anyone else. There was no artifice to Lennon. No leather-jacket gloss. And certainly no political correctness, a phenomenon that has now hampered the political dialogue to the point of impotence.

If John Lennon’s one contribution to the world had been his ethereal “Imagine,” with its haunting piano and simple, searing lyrics (“Imagine all the people / Living life in peace”), he would have done his job as an artist and a human being. But his ideas, especially the conviction that peace, not war, is the solution, remain a legacy to shame that of our plastic politicians.

Lacking a leader of his caliber, I suppose those of us still longing for peace have no choice but to become Lennon ourselves. John never waited for anyone to give him permission. Whether facing down skeptical reporters or posing naked on the cover of Two Virgins, he always did what was in his heart and did it with an honesty sadly unheard of in this day and age.

I hope some day we’ll join him. And I’m not the only one.


First Bite

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12.26.07

Editor’s note: First Bite is a new concept in restaurant writing. This is not a go-three-times, try-everything-on-the-menu report; rather, this is a quick snapshot of a single experience. We invite you to come along with our writers as they —informed, intelligent eaters like yourselves —have a simple meal at an area restaurant, just like you do.

On Peter Lowell’s website, there’s a chart that seems to represent some sort of great cosmic message. It’s a circle with “West County,” “Biodynamic Winery,” “Local Farm” and other feel-good terms hanging like bracelet charms around it. Click on the words and the secrets are revealed. With “Coffee Cooperative,” a link pops up, explaining that the restaurant uses Fazenda Santa Terezinha’s Brazilian beans and why. Same for “local farm” (the bistro supports sustainable-organic growers) and “winery” (green practices).

The cafe promises Italian-inspired healthy fare that changes constantly with the seasons and what’s fresh each day; there’s seafood and cheese but no meat, and everything is artisan or heirloom and homemade.

It’s all about community, the website reminds us, and why not? Most of this food is as enjoyable as it is earth-saving.

It can be confusing, though. One evening, I stood at the counter trying to order dinner. Nightly choices aren’t written on the very abbreviated printed menu or chalkboard over the deli case. A staffer tried to explain them in rapid fire: marinated roasted crab with winter greens; Matsutake-chanterelle risotto with goat cheese; pappardelle pasta with fried eggplant and ricotta salata in marinara. I think.

Except that the staffer kept forgetting ingredients and kept getting interrupted by guests lined up behind me, asking, “What was that?” “How is that prepared?” and “What is [insert obscure vegetable/grain/meat substitute here]?”

I defaulted to two menu-printed dishes I could simply point at: a pizza of rapini, tempeh, cannellini beans, rosemary and fontina ($13), plus a salad of punterella (a bitter Italian green like Belgian endive) braised with garlic, chile and capers finished with Pecorino Romano and organic EVOO ($5).

The kitchen can be uneven. The pizza was good, thin-crusted and crackly from an 800-degree oven with an intriguing blend of textures and a not unpleasant nutty-acrid tang. Unfortunately, the salad was so extraordinarily bitter and terribly oversalted that even the capers sent up a white flag.

At lunch a few days later, I found that a Reuben ($6) —wasn’t. Instead, it featured excellent toasted dark rye cradling mounds of house made crunchy sauerkraut laced with thin shards of marinated, peppered, grilled seitan under Gruyère and thin, zingy “Russian River” dressing. A tuna melt ($6) is more straightforward, piled with chunked dark albacore, ceci beans (chickpeas) and Gruyère on superb crisp-crusted sourdough.

Gemischte salat ($5) is beautiful, tumbling baby lettuces colored like fall leaves among radish moons and sunflower seeds in crystal-bright cilantro vinaigrette, while another salad of heirloom chicories ($5) is a portrait of winter with sliced local apples, sweet almonds and crumbles of Point Reyes blue cheese glistening in vinaigrette.

Ultimately, what’s a little chaos and imbalance in this crazy world? Peter Lowell’s is a very welcome addition to the West County cosmos.

Peter Lowell’s, 7385 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Monday-Friday; lunch and dinner, Saturday-Sunday. 707.829.1077.


Quick-and-dirty dashes through North Bay restaurants. These aren’t your standard “bring five friends and order everything on the menu” dining reviews.

Sing in the New

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Sing in the New

music & nightlife |

Still: The O’Jays knew it’s all nothing without love.

By Bruce Robinson

When it comes to musical seasonal celebrations, New Year’s gets short shrift. Christmas has round-the-clock radio formats dedicated to it for weeks at a time each year, but Father Time’s annual appearance rates, at best, a few hours of build-up to a countdown that’s over in mere seconds.

And then they play the Song.

Yeah, that one. Not only is “Auld Lang Syne” generally expected to do all the harmonic heavy lifting for New Year’s Eve, but even before the Champagne goes flat, we’ve pretty much exhausted the musical highlights for the entire month. Sure, Stevie Wonder’s got an upbeat birthday tune for Dr. King mid-month, and Merle Haggard anticipated “better times” in January in “If We Make It Through December,” but really, is that the best we can do for the only month in the entire year that actually begins with a holiday?

Well, no.

There are, in fact, a handful of songs that speak quite specifically to New Year’s and the traditions that attend the rollover of our 12-month cycle. An informal, and no doubt incomplete, survey of the available resources has identified the following:

U2, ‘New Year’s Day’ Devoid of holiday sentiment, this anthemic tune from the band’s early War album powerfully contrasts personal commitment (“I will be with you again”) with an external world in which “nothing changes on New Year’s Day.”

‘What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?’ The closest thing to a contemporary New Year’s song, this smooth Frank Loesser ballad was covered by Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and Nat “King” Cole waaay back in the day, then got a soulful instrumental by saxman King Curtis in 1968. It was also covered by more recent artists as diverse as Diana Krall, Holly Near, Lee Ann Womack (and rendered vapid by Barry Man-I-Loathe, but we’ll ignore that) and recently revived in these parts by the Christmas Jug Band.

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, ‘New Year’s Resolution’ Both singers were at the top of their game when they cut their only album together, which included this slow-burning ballad. A definitive performance that doubtless daunted others from attempting the tune.

The Zombies, ‘This Will Be Our Year’ This track from the Zombies’ overlooked 1967 psychedelic pop masterpiece Odessy and Oracle is a wistful plea for better times in the year ahead. Who can’t relate?

The Eagles, ‘Funky New Year’ The B-side to a quickie holiday single in 1978 (“Please Come Home for Christmas” was the flip), this Henley-Frey original ranks among the least interesting tunes they ever wrote. Sample lyric: “Woke up this morning, I don’t know how / Last night I was a happy man but the way I feel right now / It’s gonna be a . . .” Sure enough, they broke up in ’79.

Graham Parker, ‘New Year’s Revolution’ The feisty post-punk singer took his turn with a holiday EP in 1994, which featured this deservedly obscure call for “a New Year’s revolution . . . of love.” Hey, it fits the theme.

Spike Jones and His City Slickers, ‘Happy New Year’ Spike was a 1940s bandleader whose comedic ensemble favored break-neck tempos, whip-crack timing and a kaleidoscope of silly sound effects. In this holiday hoot, all of Jones’ featured vocalists take a turn spoofing seasonal sentiments. Cut in 1942, it holds up surprisingly well 65 years later.

Lee Perry, ‘Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’ Reggae treatments of snow-filled Christmas songs are approaching cliché, but this sunny slice of all-inclusive holiday cheer is anything but. The upbeats chuck merrily along as featured singer Sandra Robinson repeats the title over ace producer Lee “Scratch” Perry’s cheerfully bubbly backing track.

The O’Jays, ‘Christmas Ain’t Christmas, New Year’s Ain’t New Year’s Without the One You Love’ The title quotes the entire chorus, so there’s no surprise to the bittersweetness of this holiday lament. The Gamble-Huff tune gets their full Philly Soul production, and the O’Jays were at their silky best on this 1969 track.

And that’s pretty much it. Still, New Year’s Eve easily trumps the next traditional holiday on the calendar just 32 days later, one that has its own movie but not its own song —Groundhog Day.




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Out with the Old!

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Out with the Old!

music & nightlife |

Ivories: Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88’s add to the fun at the 142 Throckmorton.

By Gabe Meline

Congratulations. You made it through the crazed shopping and the tedious travel. You made it through the company party, the family gathering, the annual news reports about low fourth-quarter sales from the shrinking dollar and last night you finally cleaned up the stain from that sloppily-mixed eggnog you tipped over while drunk-dialing your ex-girlfriend’s parents on Christmas Eve to tell them you miss them and love them and to ask what channel Yule Log is on this year. Yes, my friend, you made it out unscathed.

Now it’s time to party.

Despite a few inspiring episodes —moments that we all hopefully witness, adore and cherish —Christmas is absolutely one of the most individually brutal holidays we could ever hope to survive, despite its ideals of loving one’s fellow man with equality for all. You want to see equality and love by the bucketful, man?

Go out on New Year’s Eve.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of people think New Years’ Eve is “amateur night,” whatever that means. When it comes to partying, do you really want to see a bunch of “professionals”? Hell, no, pardner —you wanna see office slaves and ranch hands and retail clerks and alimony lawyers and bloggers and unemployed dudes and waitresses all partying totally unprofessionally because, jeez, we’re all in this together and we made it through another year of the shitty president and my ex-girlfriend can stick it anyway and this band is rippin’ and d’you wanna maybe make out or sumthin’? Sweet, le’ssgo.

That is equality and love, amateur though it may be. In one moment, with one haphazardly recited midnight countdown, with total strangers kissing poorly, with lousy confetti and an even lousier song, the entire sweet and beautiful world is one. Here is our certain-not-to-be-complete list of places to go and be a part of it. Compiled by Cristina Wilson and Gretchen “7pm” Giles.

Sonoma

Ace-in-the-Hole Pub Ring in the New Year with Free Peoples and the Jug Dealers. Includes buffet dinner, Champagne toast and party favors. 3100 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. 8pm. $30 –$40. 707.829.1101.

Black Rose Irish Pub NYE party with the Spindles. 2074 Armory Drive, Santa Rosa. 8:30pm. $10. 707.546.7673.

Black Cat Bar & Cafe NYE party with the absolute funk of Sistas in the Pit. 10056 Main St., Penngrove. 9pm. $15. 707.793.9480.

Tommy Castro Annual rockin’ New Year’s bash with balloon drop and white-boy blues master. Mystic Theatre, 23 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 9pm. $50. 707.765.2121.

Club Yamagata New club wants you to wear boots to this fun party with DJ, food and more. 16225 Main St., Guerneville. 9pm. Free. 707.869.9875.

Johnny Downer Gotta be an upper, right? Guaranteed to be lousy with hipsters, which is always a positive. Sonoma County Golf Park, 1475 W. Sierra Ave., Cotati. 707.795.1760.

Flamingo Lounge Party with Crossfire. 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 9pm. $30. 707.545.8530.

Forestville Club Dance party with the Poyntlyss Sistars. 6250 Front St., Forestville. 9:30pm. Call for price. 707.887.2594.

Jake’s Rockabilly party with Buckaroo Bonet. 1030 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 9pm. $15. 707.778.8825.

John Allair Quartet Boogie keyboard master, Van Morrison’s two-hand man, takes over swank locale for night of fun. Hotel Healdsburg, 25 Matheson St., Healdsburg. 10pm. Free. 707.431.2800.

Latitude DJ dance party with balloon drop, party favors, appetizers, hip-hop and Top 40. 5000 Roberts Lake Road, Rohnert Park. 8:30pm. $10. 707.588.1800.

Main Street Station Cabaret-style party with Out of the Blue. 16280 Main St., Guerneville. 7pm. $15. 707.869.0501.

Midwinter’s Night Masked Ball Dress-up extravaganza features dinner, dancing, Champagne, caviar bar, desserts and more lusciousness. Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, 551 Broadway, Sonoma. 8pm. $250. 707.939.SVMA.

Mc T’s Bullpen NYE with folk Angelina from 6pm. Champagne at midnight. 16246 First St., Guerneville. 9:30pm. Free. 707.869.3377.

Mother to Mother New Year’s party benefit for Sonoma Valley nonprofit looks to be one of the most off-the-cuff and fun party of the night, naturally including burlesque and DJ dance party. Pre-party offers dinner and rock-and-roll bingo with prizes. Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center, 276 E Napa St., Sonoma. Pre-party at 7:30pm; dance at 9:30pm. Party, $25 –$30; pre-party, call for info and reservation. 415.250.6534.

Murphy’s Irish Pub New Year begins on Irish time at 3pm with Celtic strains of Greenhouse; at 9pm, it’s a NorCal New Year with Carrtunes. 464 First St., Sonoma. 707.935.0660.

New Year’s Eve Ball Ballroom, Latin and swing dancing plus treats, Champagne and favors. Reservation required. Monroe Dance Hall, 1400 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa. 8:30pm. $55; includes appetizers. 707.529.2824.

New Year’s Eve Dinner Dance Sons of Italy Petaluma hosts prime rib and ravioli dinner with dancing to Dry Creek Band, continental breakfast after midnight, hats and noisemakers. Reservation required by Dec 27. Petaluma Veterans Center, 1094 Petaluma Blvd. S., Petaluma. 6pm. $45. 707.763.4626.

New Year’s Eve with Schulz Museum Bring the little ones down to make root beer and party blowers to toast the New Year, plus candy collage and Snoopy crafts. Charles M. Schulz Museum, 2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa. 10am –3pm. $5 –$8. 707.579.4452.

NYE at Safari West Celebrate this New Year’s under the watchful gaze of four-footed animals with dinner and dancing. Advance purchase required. Safari West, 3115 Porter Creek Road, Santa Rosa. 7:30pm. $80. 707.579.2551.

Papa’s Taverna Go Greek for the New Year at riverside party with live music and dancing by Yanni and Yorg. 5688 Lakeville Hwy., Petaluma. Dinner, 7pm; music from 8pm. $75, includes meal, Champagne, party favors, music. 707.769.8545.

Pink Elephant Fun and fireworks with the always-rockin’ Thugz. 9895 Main St., Monte Rio. 9pm. Free. 707.865.0500.

Russian River Brewing Co. Free grown-up fun with HugeLarge and the Black Sheep Belly Dance troupe. 725 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 8pm. Free; 21 and over only. 707.545.BEER.

Sebastopol Peace Party Dancing, singing, celebrating with artists plus meditation room, intention altar, labyrinth walk and midnight “Imagine” sing-along. Sebastopol Community Center, 390 Morris St., Sebastopol. 7pm. $10 –$20. 707.823.1511.

Sky Lounge Live jazz with the cracklin’ sugar of Brulee. 2200 Airport Blvd., Ste. 143, Santa Rosa. 707.542.9400.

Sless, Vega, White, Molo & Thomas

New Year’s Eve show benefits Legal Aid of Sonoma County with jams from Barry Sless (David Nelson Band, Phil and friends), Bobby Vega (Tower of Power), Ray White (Frank Zappa), John Molo (Phil and friends, Bruce Hornsby) and JT Thomas (Bruce Hornsby). Ages 18 and over. Odd Fellows Hall, 195 N. Main St. (upstairs), Sebastopol. 9pm. $35; cash only. ax*@***ic.net.

Singles New Year’s Eve Bash Society of Single Professionals hosts dance party for single adults of all ages. Flamingo Resort Hotel, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 9pm. $20. 415.507.9962.

Spancky’s NYE bash with Vanilla Funk. 8201 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati.10pm. Free. 707.664.0169.

Sparkle! New Year’s Eve dance party for LGBTQ community and friends with hors d’oeuvres, bubbly and DJ Lori Z. Benefits Positive Images. Come early for three-course dinner. Alice’s Restaurant, 101 S. Main St., Sebastopol. Dinner, 8:30 –10pm; party, 9pm –2am. Party, $30 –$35; dinner, $25 –$30. 707.829.3212.

Susan Comstock Swingtet Jazz, Latin, swing, blues, fun. Eat there or just come for the party. French Garden Restaurant, 8050 Bodega Ave., Sebastopol. 9pm. $30 –$100. 707.824.2030.

Tradewinds Party with Bobby Young Project. 8210 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 9:30pm. $25. 707.795.7878.

Twin Oaks Tavern Outnumbered party with bubbly, food, favors and free car rides home for locals. 5745 Old Redwood Hwy., Penngrove. 707.795.5118.

Marin

Costume Arts Ball Family-friendly costume party themed for the Roaring Twenties includes jazz band, games, prizes, cabaret and more speakeasy fun. Call for details or to help. Fairfax Pavilion, Elsie Lane, Fairfax. 8pm –1am. $10; kids under six, free. 415.624.3637.

Eat New Orleans dance party with Snakebite and Ninth Ward Millionaires, straight outta the Big Easy. 218 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo. 9:30pm. $20. 415.453.8600.

Finnegan’s Marin NYE party at the pub. 877 Grant Ave., Novato. When you show. Free. 415.899.1516.

Fourth Street Tavern Funk it up with Surreal. 711 Fourth St., San Rafael. 9:30pm. $5. 415.456.4828.

New Year’s Eve for Kids Optional overnighter for party with face-painting, food, live music, movies and more. Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley. From 5pm. 415.830.3615.

Nick’s Cove Plan to stay over for this first annual NYE bash, this year featuring the Big Skin Band. 23240 Hwy. 1, Marshall. 8pm. $75, includes prix fixe meal. 415.663.1033.

19 Broadway Club Rockabilly and funk party with Chrome Johnson and Vinyl. 19 Broadway, Fairfax. 9pm. $45 –$50. 415.459.1091.

Old Western Saloon Make it a Pt. Reyes night with the Bluebellies. Main Street, Pt. Reyes Station. 9pm. $15 –$20. 415.663.1661.

142’s New Year’s Eve Bash Send it off right with political satirist Will Durst’s Big Fat Year End Kiss Off and dancing to Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88’s. 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. 8pm. $60. 415.383.9600.

Peri’s Silver Dollar Jeb’s Twangin’ New Year’s Party with party favors, Champagne and actual guaranteed “fun.” 29 Broadway, Fairfax. 9:30pm. $15. 415.459.9910.

Rafters Grille The night begins at 7pm with jazz by Robin DuBois; at 10pm, hop it up with the R&B and ’70s sound of the Beat Meters. 812 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.453.4200.

Sabor of Spain Party with About Face while feasting on Spanish treats. 1303 Fourth St., San Rafael. $30 –$45. 415.457.8466.

Spirit Rock Join hosts Wes Nisker and Nina Wise for a New Year’s Eve celebration at Spirit Rock, featuring drumming by master percussionist Barbara Borden and dance music by 5Rhythms DJ diva Davida Taurek. Spirit Rock, 5000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Woodacre. 8pm. $40 –$80, sliding scale; plus, donation for teachers. 415.488.0164.

Station House Cafe Teja Gerkin plays stunning finger-style guitar in the bar. 11180 State Route 1, Pt. Reyes Station. 6:30pm. Free. 415.663.1515.

Zydeco Flames Red-hot Cajun dance party at the Rancho Nicasio. Town Square, Nicasio. 9pm. $35 –$45. 415.662.2219.

Napa

Ana’s Cantina Dancing to DJ Miguel. 1205 Main St., St Helena. 707.963.4921.

Calistoga Inn R&B music with Lunatic Fringe. 1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 9pm. $4. 707.942.4101.

Dance in the New Year Ballroom Dancers Inc. present dance party and buffet with music by Tom Leops Band. Napa Senior Center, 1500 Jefferson St., Napa. 8pm. $37.50. 707.258.9928.

Downtown Joe’s DJ dancing to Top 40 and oldies, as well as balloon drop, dinner specials and more. 9pm. Free. 902 Main St., Napa. 707.258.2337.

Fire & Ice New Year’s Eve party starts with four-course dinner and heads to dessert buffet, dancing to Five Point O, midnight Champagne toast and bistro buffet. Culinary Institute of America, 2555 Main St., St. Helena. Two dinner seatings, 6:30pm and 9pm. $195. 707.967.2337.

Hydro Bar & Grill Plans not solidified at press time, but worth taking a peek in. 1403 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.9777.

Masquerade Ball Étoile Restaurant at Domaine Chandon hosts over-the-top New Year’s Eve celebration. Dress in masquerade attire and welcome the New Year in a charade. The horn-heavy Blue Moon Band plays Motown, rock and R&B. Domaine Chandon, 1 California Drive, Yountville. 9pm. $275. 800.736.2892.

Napa Valley Wine Train Appetizers, free-flowing wines and jazz music mark reception before boarding train for full dinner. 1275 McKinstry St., Napa. 4:30pm. $200 –$225. 800.427.4124.

Beyond

New Year’s Eve Spectacular Blast out the old year with music by Bell Brothers, SK2, Bill Noteman and Rockets and Bay Area Big Band plus buffet dinner, cocktails, bubbly and party favors. Konocti Harbor Resort, 8727 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. $250 –$550. 800.660.LAKE.




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Fly

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Fly

12.26.07

There’s a prevailing notion among artists, actors and musicians that creative control is always something to be strived for —that the men in suits will rape your art and force it into a commercialized bastard child of nothing you ever originally envisioned in the first place for the big corporate bucks that ride passenger seat with pandering to the dumbest common denominator.

And then there’re people like R. Kelly, who prove these whiny artists totally wrong.

R. Kelly has complete creative control over anything he does, and, man, is that a terrible, terrible thing. Not because he’s allowed to be crass about sex or make 83-minute-long narrative music videos —that’s all well and good. It’s that he has no idea how to present his talent to the general public, a fact that was painfully evident when his Double Up tour stopped at the Arco Arena in Sacramento on Dec. 16.

I saw over 150 shows in 2007, and R. Kelly’s was the most maddening. The concert could be called “poorly paced,” but that’d be missing the point. It was actually, and utterly, unpaced. Kelly performed only snippets of songs for two hours, ignored some of his key hits, paraded through delusional theatrical scenarios and showed prerecorded videos on the jumbotron. I repeat: He did not sing any of his songs all the way through.

The first 20 minutes of the show were spent starting and then almost immediately stopping at least 10 songs, after a flashy walking-though-the-crowd entrance that promised oh-so-much more. It would set the tone for the night: “Hey, man, I got so many songs, I just gotta stop ’em all after the first verse and make some dumb comments about how great I am and then start up another.”

Some songs were obviously lip-synched, and an unsettling percentage of the show was represented in video form only, like “Strip for You,” with a fake silhouette video of Kelly stripping while the CD track blared. At one point, prerecorded testimonials from Common, Snoop Dogg and T-Pain gave props while Kelly was off somewhere, not singing his songs. The jumbotron, in fact, was the only place we ever saw Kelly’s biggest hit, “I Believe I Can Fly,” and even then it played just four lines of the chorus —which, come to think of it, is probably more than we would have gotten had he butchered it onstage.

No, the glut of Kelly’s time was spent instead acting through an incomprehensible series of grandiose and expensive spectacles that fell far short of being spectacular: a long jungle-drum segment where Kelly was slowly and unrealistically captured by scantily clad women and transformed into the King of the Jungle; a strange call-and-response with the crowd about wanting their money back; and an absurd sketch of Kelly conducting, in a white suit and tails, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in front of an oversized music stand while laser beams and live white doves soared around the arena.

Surely, someone needs to rope the guy in. A manager, a concert producer, a man in a suit who wants to take away his creative control —I say bring it on. Someone who will sit him down and say, “All right Kells, look: You done got yourself drippin’ with talent and flush with cash. Don’t squander it parading around like a 12-year-old. I’m gonna map out a show for you, and it’s gonna involve singing your songs.”

But performing is the last arena of the music industry where talent is at least partially required. If people like R. Kelly show the world that you can put on a show without singing complete versions of any of your songs, then we might as well pay $81.50 plus a $7 convenience fee and a $3.50 handling fee and a $1.50 processing fee to see a light show and an electronic box and the “band” who makes an appearance onstage so we can all say we saw them.

Oh, right —that was Daft Punk’s tour.


Letters to the Editor

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12.19.07

Apropos of nothing

In speaking of American heroes, do you know which hero was born in my home country of New Zealand? If you guessed Russell Crowe, that would be right. He is a man of dashing looks, stylish smiles and untouched greatness. The man rose from being one of the most respected persons of the tiny island nation and made his way through to the top of the world. He was born with a passion for animals, mainly goats and horses. A man of principle and a sense of being. He is what we call in my native land “tu meke,” meaning great.

I love his presence. I once had the privilege of meeting him in person, and the only thing he told me after I said hello was, “Aoh, you will go to far places, I can see it.” If you didn’t know yet, some of those words are of Maori dialect, which are the native people of New Zealand, and Russell Crowe is directly related through his great-great-great grandmother. My father’s side has also lived there as far back as we can trace.

So in a way, I would like to say, thank you, Russell Crowe for being a part of me, New Zealand and the rest of the world. As we might say in New Zealand you are my “whanau,” or family. You have changed so many lives, so greatly.

May the light of your passage be my words,

Rex Harigon

Santa Rosa

Mr. Harigon, your sweet letter, arriving out of the blue for no good reason we can fathom other than an irrepressible love for Russell Crowe, tickles us immensely. Thanks for the smiles.

Gold Worthy

I just read the Redacted review and commentary (“See No Evil,” Peter Byrne, Dec. 12). Brilliant! Byrne’s courage shines bright, a lonely light in Sonoma County, for sure. This journalist is worth gold, as are the courageous Bohemian and the Rialto Cinemas Lakeside in Santa Rosa.

Byrne’s hard look at what is going on on the ground south of Baghdad regarding the rape and murder of a 14-year-old and the butchering of her family should disgust the pro-Bush ostriches. Byrne really makes the point that war atrocities go hand in hand with the misguided right-wing war package, whose rules includes undying loyalty to the leader, George W. Bush, and the notion that bombing, raping and butchering the enemy are all OK.

Hooray! Someone lives who has the guts to put into words the real costs of war: slaughtering the enemy while creating brutal, twisted soldiers who will return and apply the neatly packaged rules of war here at home.

Johanna Lynch

Cazadero

Ms. Lynch, your letter was forwarded to Peter Byrne, prompting him to underscore the ‘gold’ aspect of your praise in ongoing professional correspondence with his editor. (We forgive you for this.)

More by Peter can be found in the December issue of ‘Scientific American’ and his eight-page spread on the late physicist Hugh Everett. We hear tell that ‘Sci Am’ is more ready with the gold. Perhaps it’s alchemy . . .

Mail-Order Husband

Richard Coshnear is a traitor to the United States of America (“ICE Raids,” Aug. 29). With 15,000 illegal aliens in Sonoma County, he is doing all he can to confuse the issue for those too dense or too corrupt to see the truth: illegal aliens don’t belong here. The Constitution was written to protect Americans from the government, not illegal aliens from being sent home. With your lies and made-up stories about “bigotry,” you help make us become the victims of illegal alien criminals.

You will always have your commie friends to believe your lies about racism, but it’s so sad that you suck the American sheeple into believing your lies as well. I am the husband and sponsor of a legal immigrant, a real immigrant. You phonies run from the truth so quickly because you are commies and because you exploit the very people you claim to want to help. If there is a hell for liars and hypocrites, you will be there.

Jeff Wilson

Via e-mail

Mr. Wilson, you lowly cur, we do direct your attention to this week’s news story (p9) on the continuing ICE raids and their effect on small children. Those little ones really ought to toughen up!

We also condemn you for stealing our photo of Richard Coshnear and for posting our personal correspondence with you on the Internet. Have a lousy holiday.


Miracle of Milk

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Miracle of Milk

12.26.07

Splitting his time between Guerneville and Manhattan, acclaimed consultant Clark Wolf graces these pages with the occasional diatribe from the periodic local.

The late, great international journalist-turned-benchmark-food-writer R. W. “Johnny” Apple once referred to our lovely region as “a new Normandy north of the Golden Gate.” Well, we have the oysters and meadows, the dramatic coast and sparkly wines, but what he really meant was that we are major when it comes to cheese. And what better time than in the chilly grip of North Bay winter to get a little well-aged sunshine from sometime last spring —or even clovers and flowers transformed into milk and aged for a year or two, or three?

We have some seriously good cheese-making going on around here.

But unlike Vermont, where their Yankee self-reliance makes it seem like new indie cheeses are rolling to market daily, or Wisconsin, where organic, farmstead specialties fight to bring the state back to creative and qualitative relevance long after we’ve been Cheez-Whizzed into near oblivion, California cheese-making can seem uncharacteristically conservative.

We’re not. It’s just that we’re lucky to have a long tradition of unique and wonderful cheeses to which we’re fairly committed. Some of our favorites are national benchmarks, with their young cousins leading the way in some emerging categories and garnering major prizes from esteemed bodies all over the world.

I’ve blathered on about Laura Chenel’s goat cheese for years, but what’s not commonly known is that the very same tract house in Santa Rosa where she started was also where one of our country’s other highly gifted cheese-makers, Soyoung Scanlan, made her own artisanal leap. Laura moved out to the old Stornetta’s Dairy on Highway 29 (where she still tends goats), and Soyoung has now taken her talents all the way to a hillside outside of Petaluma, overlooking Nan McEvoy’s languorous olive ranch that produces tony oil for better kitchens everywhere.

Soyoung’s heartbreakingly delicious cheeses, from what she calls Andante Dairy, are not readily available even at restaurants (unless you hang out at the French Laundry), but are usually to be found on the menu at the very sweet, quietly accomplished and deeply unique Seaweed Cafe in Bodega Bay, ZaZu in Santa Rosa and at Cyrus in Healdsburg. She names each of them after something musical: Piccolo, Acappella, Impromptu, Metronome and Minuet, to hum a few.

Not far away, the Marin French Cheese Company has been cranking out its own versions of happily stinky, creamy and bloomy-rind cheeses since 1865. It is the oldest, continuously running operation of its kind in the country, and has lately been winning awards left, right and center. I particularly like the hair-tingling (read: slightly smelly) schloss, the triple crème blue and the soft ripened goat. All are consistently good and sometimes transporting.

And then there’s Ignazio (Ig) Vella, who simply seems incapable of making anything less than world-class wonderful cheese. I have personally seen his Dry Jack for sale at London’s fancy Harvey Nichols Food Halls, and I tell you, those Brits were duly, if discreetly, impressed. The last time he made a new cheese it was mezzo secco, a cheese he’d actually made 40 years before. It’s nice to have an archive of excellence.

There are plenty of other good folks making nice cheese down around the ‘hood: Redwood Hill in Sebastopol (love their Camellia); the Matos family in Santa Rosa (delicious St. George); those Cow Girls in West Marin (award-winning Red Hawk, Mt. Tam and some lovely fresh cheeses); and Bellwether in Petaluma. All of which goes to further prove that sometimes celebrating the known and loved is in fact the smartest way a blessed-with-goodness spot like ours can go.

The second annual California Artisanal Cheese Festival, to be held at Petaluma’s Sheraton Sonoma March 7-10 gives folks a chance to broaden, deepen and swallow that celebration as hand-made cheeses for California and throughout the Pacific Northwest are tasted, sampled, talked about and turned into meals with the help of “celebrity” (and also talented, able and pleasant) chefs and a host of experts and cognoscenti. For more information, check out www.artisancheesefestival.com.

For some fireside reading, or to bone up before racing off to ingest dairy protein, here are a few recently published books that are worth a look:

I love the tone of everything Paula Lambert writes. She has that lovely but serious Texas lilt and an infectious enthusiasm for her main passion, cheese-making and making foods with cheese. The latest addition to her collection is ‘Cheese, Glorious Cheese: More than 75 Tempting Recipes for Cheese Lovers Everywhere’ (Simon & Schuster; $26.95).

Our own local pro is the very smart San Francisco Chronicle food contributor Janet Fletcher. While I am not a big fan of the whole wine-and-food-pairing thing (especially with cheese, where it’s usually a case of what’s left in which bottle or glass), her work is solid and her advice is easy to digest. ‘Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing and Enjoying’ (Chronicle Books; $24.95).

Finally, Jeffrey Roberts does us all a favor by providing a sort of casin yellow pages in his appealing ‘Atlas of American Artisan Cheese’ (Chelsea Green; $35). It may need regular updating, but at least we know we can keep our local best on speed-dial for years to come.

Clark Wolf is the president of the Clark Wolf Company, specializing in food, restaurant and hospitality consulting.

Hole Thing

(No way does) The cheese stand alone

Andante Dairy Cheeses are available at the Cheese Shop in Healdsburg (423 Center St.; 707.433.4998), Oliver’s Market (now three locations, the newest at Stony Point Road and Highway 12, Santa Rosa), sometimes at the Petaluma Whole Foods (621 E. Washington St.; 707.762.9352) and always at the Mill Valley Whole Foods (414 Miller Ave.; 415.381.1200), as well as at St. Helena’s Dean & Deluca (607 St. Helena Hwy. S.; 707.967.9980).

Bellwether Farms Clark writes, “Their Carmody is really a fairly perfect town cheese like the ones made all over Italy. I particularly favor the raw milk, aged Carmody Reserve, and I love their fresh and creamy Crescenza, the sheep milk Pepato and San Andreas. OK, I like everything they do.” www.bellwethercheese.com.

Cowgirl Creamery This innovative cheesemonger in Pt. Reyes Station helped set the bar for the area, and it’s fun to visit Cowgirl’s outpost in the Tomales Bay Foods center, 80 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes Station. 415.663.9335.

Joe Matos Cheese Factory Located with a small sign on Llano Road just past Todd Road in rural Southwest Santa Rosa, Matos is so unassuming that one naturally assumes it’s a hidden jewel —until the Porsches and BMWs and other city drivers come rumbling down the rutted road, eager for Matos’ inimitable St. George cheese. Cash or check only; not for those who don’t like to know where their cheese comes from. 707.584.5283.

The Marin French Cheese Co. The best way to taste their cheeses is to visit the factory on the Pt. Reyes/Petaluma road. Tours are currently closed to the public but will reopen in good weather; the store and picnic grounds remain open. 7500 Red Hill Road, Petaluma; 800.292.6001, ext. 12. Otherwise, they are widely available at fine markets.

Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery This sustainable goat farm is certified kosher and wins awards for the humane treatment of its animals. Farm tours are available by appointment only (707.823.8250); the cheese is widely distributed or available online at www.redwoodhill.com.

Vella Cheese This standby specializes in Jack cheeses, and Vella’s “historic” store is open six days a week in downtown Sonoma, 315 Second St. E. 707.938.3232. Vella cheeses are otherwise widely available.

Quick dining snapshots by Bohemian staffers.

Winery news and reviews.

Food-related comings and goings, openings and closings, and other essays for those who love the kitchen and what it produces.

Recipes for food that you can actually make.

News Briefs

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12.26.07

Drunk Driving Alert

Heads up: it’s DUI season. Don’t drive while under the influence, and keep a vigilant watch for the folks who do. The statistics aren’t good. There were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities nationwide in 2005. That’s an average of one every 31 minutes.

And as many a grieving family member can attest, it’s not just the drunken driver who gets injured or killed in a crash. While it’s important to be judicious about your own actions —it’s simple, never imbibe and drive —you also need to be on special alert for other folks who have taken in just a little too much holiday cheer and have no business being behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

More than 30,810 people were injured in DUI crashes throughout California in 2005, with 1,574 fatalities —up about 8 percent from the 1,462 DUI deaths the previous year. Marin County saw six alcohol-related deaths in 2005, with 184 injuries and 1,557 DUI arrests. For Napa County, the count was seven fatalities, 173 people injured and 1,002 drivers nabbed on DUI charges. Sonoma County recorded 28 DUI-crash fatalities, 482 related injuries and 2,990 arrests.

In what’s become a modern-day holiday tradition, 14 law agencies in the nine-county Bay Area are coordinating a massive year-end crackdown on drunken drivers, with sobriety checkpoints and intensive patrols until Jan. 1. “We’re going to be enforcing, enforcing, enforcing —doing everything we can to keep the public safe,” says Mike Davis, public information officer for the CHP’s Golden Gate Division.

There are good reasons to want to avoid DUI charges —between 5,200 to 10,000 good reasons. That’s what the CHP estimates the average California DUI costs, $5,200 to $10,000, once you add up fines, court assessments, vehicle towing and storage, auto insurance premium increases, DUI classes, attorney fees and more.

It’s also a good idea to call 911 to report a potential drunken driver when you spot someone driving erratically. And it’s a good idea to stay off the roads, if possible, when other drivers may be impaired.

Between 11pm and midnight in 2005, CHP records show that there were 164 DUI injuries and 13 related deaths on Monday nights; for the same period on Wednesdays, it jumped to 253 injured and 14 dead; and it jumped on the weekends, with 520 injuries and 24 deaths between 11pm and midnight on Fridays, and 595 injuries and 32 deaths on Saturdays.

The numbers jump even higher for the 2am to 3am slot, with 212 injuries and seven deaths on Mondays, compared to 826 hurt and 49 dead at the same time on Saturdays.

Be careful out there


Buy Nothing Month

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12.22.07

O ne story leads to another in the green world. So it comes as no surprise that my investigations into the darker side of holiday shopping led me from the nationally known Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping (now the documentary subject of What Would Jesus Buy? ) to a North Bay anti-shopper named Terra Freedman, who tells me about a revolutionary named Lew Brown. From Brown, I learn there is more to the stop shopping movement than I could possibly have visualized even under the most paranoid of conditions.

Some may recall a national shopping boycott in April of 2006, and most have heard of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, known across the country for being the heaviest shopping day of the year. But how many know that from Black Friday until the New Year, conscious consumers are partaking in the Great Shopping Boycott of 2007? This does not mean buy nothing; it means buy local, buy mom ‘n’ pop, buy fair trade and, most importantly, buy less .

Terra Freedman, whom I interview over the phone, is an active citizen, who, after becoming concerned with corporate takeovers, began to curb her own shopping habits. Freedman stresses that the stop shopping movement is about starting your own scene. This is a DIY revolution based on the belief that we are drowning ourselves with our insatiable desire for things . There is no one to follow but oneself, and Freedman’s self led her to the downtown Santa Rosa mall on Black Friday, where, with about a dozen friends and some home-made signs, Freedman handed out flyers printed from the BuyNothingChristmas.org website, which declared, “Have Less, Live More,” “Santa Came, Jesus Wept” and “Define Necessity” with photos of a new SUV on one side and starving children on the other.

After talking with Freedman, I contact Lew Brown, designer of the WeAreNotBuyingIt.org website, and an innovator behind the stop shopping movement. Brown tells me that activity for “undermining the economy” can be considered a terrorist act; he talks about martial law, global domination and an undermining vampiric corporate atmosphere indicative of the corporate global control currently in effect. There was a time when violent force was the way the oppressed conquered their oppressors. Brown and other shopping-boycott activists across the world believe that time has passed, and that we now have a much more powerful and effective weapon: our money.

This is not just about overcoming consumerist tendencies, nor is it just about human rights or environmental atrocities; this is about oppression on a global scale. When I was in high school, “Buy American” was a slogan of right-wing conservatives. Now, liberals and conservatives are beginning to unite in reaction to the dire consequences of out-sourcing and globalization. We all want to buy American because, at this point, it’s not a matter of patriotism, it’s a matter of survival.

Brown says that the corporation’s job is to make money for its shareholders, and that these shareholders represent that mythical 1 percent of the population who own most of the world’s wealth. Brown points out that we are often quick to refuse homeless people a dollar, assuming they will do something to hurt themselves with it (like buy booze), and yet we will just as quickly turn around and purchase something with that same dollar that has a long and bloody trail of harm attached to it.

Like Terra Freedman, Brown stresses the fact that we need to engage this movement on a personal level. Too many progressive movements are destroyed by a “white knight,” the savior who will pull the organization forward, and good ideas can become too easily co-opted and destroyed. Rather than follow, Brown believes, we need to take responsibility on an individual level, discovering ways to participate in the movement and to spread the word.

My final question to Brown is simple and perhaps a little bit desperate: Why would anyone do this? Why don’t the 1 percent care? Brown says that very wealthy people can live very insulated lives, that they operate on global abstractions and that they have no real contact with the rest of us and therefore no basis for understanding.

Later, when I find myself at the mall, I remember Brown’s words of wisdom and am struck by the sinking realization that on an ethical level, I am hardly any different than a wealthy corporate shareholder. I buy things that I know hurt others, and yet continue to do so because I live a very insulated life. The pain of my fellow humans, the death of the planet? To me, it’s clearly just an abstraction.

For more information on the shopping boycott go to www.wearenotbuyingit.org. For more information on the Christmas boycott and alternative gift giving go to www.buynothingchristmas.org.


News Briefs

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12.19.07

Let There be Lights

A Dillon Beach family is quietly resisting a homeowner association’s order to remove the single strand of Christmas lights outlining their Marin County coastal home. Chris and Larry Grace and their six-year-old daughter, Alegra, say they’ll take down the lights the day after Christmas and not before. But association officials say that rules have been in place for two decades: outdoor lights for safety or security but not for holiday decoration. A neighbor’s complaint triggered the request that the Graces remove their holiday lights. The issue will be discussed at the association’s January meeting.

Back to School for Tigger

A lawsuit sparked in part by socks bearing the cartoon image of Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger character has been settled by mutual consent, with the Napa Valley Unified School District agreeing to create an “opt out” provision for any future school dress code. The district will also pay the $95,000 attorneys’ fees incurred by the five families (representing six students) who brought the suit, as well as the district’s own costs (not yet tallied) for outside legal services. The six students’ records will be expunged of any dress-code violations. The lawsuit challenged Redwood Middle School’s longtime “appropriate attire policy” limiting students to eight specific solid colors in cotton twill, chino or corduroy. The plaintiffs argued that this was in fact a public school uniform, which under state law must have an “opt out” clause. “We didn’t have any objection to a dress code that complied with the statutory criteria, but they went beyond that,” explains plaintiffs’ attorney Sharon O’Grady.

Monte Rio Sewer Stopped

The Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management District (PRMD) is recommending against a controversial plan to build a sewer system in Monte Rio, because the estimated price tag jumped from $11.2 million in 2003 to more than $20 million today. “Construction costs have increased dramatically to the point where we no longer have adequate funding to move the project forward,” explains PRMD director Pete Parkinson. The proposed sewer plant would have served 586 residential and commercial properties, at an annual cost of $1,200 each. Opponents argued that the system was too costly, would encourage development and wasn’t needed. Monte Rio resident Bruce Maher wants the county to conduct studies to see if failing Monte Rio septic systems really are causing poor water quality in the lower Russian River, as the county claims. “Without knowing where the problems are, we’re chasing our tails,” Maher asserts.


Imagine 2008

12.26.07If you only had three or four words to encapsulate the moment when '60s idealism gave way, the short phrases "No end in sight," "Read my lips" or "Four more years!" would certainly spring to mind. Far more poignant, however, are "Hey, Mr. Lennon!"I was only 11 months old the day Mark Chapman greeted John Lennon with those words...
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First Bite

12.26.07Editor's note: First Bite is a new concept in restaurant writing. This is not a go-three-times, try-everything-on-the-menu report; rather, this is a quick snapshot of a single experience. We invite you to come along with our writers as they —informed, intelligent eaters like yourselves —have a simple meal at an area restaurant, just like you do.On Peter Lowell's website,...
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Sing in the New

music & nightlife | Still: The O'Jays knew it's...
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Out with the Old!

music & nightlife | Ivories: Mitch Woods and His...
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Fly

12.26.07There's a prevailing notion among artists, actors and musicians that creative control is always something to be strived for —that the men in suits will rape your art and force it into a commercialized bastard child of nothing you ever originally envisioned in the first place for the big corporate bucks that ride passenger seat with pandering to the...
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Letters to the Editor

12.19.07Apropos of nothingIn speaking of American heroes, do you know which hero was born in my home country of New Zealand? If you guessed Russell Crowe, that would be right. He is a man of dashing looks, stylish smiles and untouched greatness. The man rose from being one of the most respected persons of the tiny island nation and...
Read more

Miracle of Milk

12.26.07 Splitting his time between Guerneville and Manhattan, acclaimed consultant Clark Wolf graces these pages with the occasional diatribe from the periodic local. The late, great international journalist-turned-benchmark-food-writer R. W. "Johnny" Apple once referred to our lovely region as "a new Normandy north of the Golden Gate." Well, we have the oysters and meadows, the dramatic coast and...
Read more

News Briefs

12.26.07 Drunk Driving Alert Heads up: it's DUI season. Don't drive while under the influence, and keep a vigilant watch for the folks who do. The statistics aren't good. There were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities nationwide in 2005. That's an average of one every 31 minutes. And as many a grieving family member can attest, it's not just the drunken driver...
Read more

Buy Nothing Month

12.22.07 O ne story leads to another in the green world. So it comes as no surprise that my investigations into the darker side of holiday shopping led me from the nationally known Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping (now the documentary subject of What Would Jesus Buy? ) to a North Bay anti-shopper named Terra Freedman, who...
Read more

News Briefs

12.19.07 Let There be Lights A Dillon Beach family is quietly resisting a homeowner association's order to remove the single strand of Christmas lights outlining their Marin County coastal home. Chris and Larry Grace and their six-year-old daughter, Alegra, say they'll take down the lights the day after Christmas and not before. But association officials say that rules have been...
Read more
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