In the Bag: Detail from the ‘Joy Luck Club’ purse made by JiJi Lu.

Shopping Centered

Our highly selective guide to buying the good stuff at home

By Gretchen Giles

Rain sheets down darkly, slivering with uncanny accuracy into even the snuggest of turtlenecks. The burgeoning calla lilies are broken and folded from freeze. Ordinary conifers bear three-digit price tags and those who made the fiscally disastrous decision to bear children suddenly sport calculators and tight-lipped grimaces. Indeed, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa or Solstice, or however the coming of the light is celebrated at your house.

While we are the first to suggest that lovely photo frames fashioned from garden twigs and twine or sheets of overbaked cookies make thoughtful holiday gifts, there is that soul or two on everyone’s list who has somehow come to expect a real gift this time of year. Furthermore, such slavishly spoiled someones prefer a unique present not readily found in mass distribution. To aid in your Grail-like quest, we herewith offer this strange assortment of goodness made right here in the North Bay.

Everyone loves a nudist, particularly when said stripee does so for charity and offers a full 365 days of exposure. This season brings two groups of naked folks from Marin available for purchase, all doffing their duds 12 different ways for a good reason. The 2005 Pink Ribbon Men of Marin, including beloved KFOG 104.5-FM morning DJ Dave Morey, strike strategically considered poses to honor the women in their lives who have been affected by breast cancer. Photographer Acey Harper donates a professional eye, and the resulting calendar is handsome, informative and poignant. Some of the Pink Ribbon men appear at a calendar signing on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at Book Passage in Corte Madera (51 Tamal Vista Blvd. 7pm. Free). Calendars are $19.99 and are also available online at www.pinkribbonmen.com.

Meanwhile, the 12 women over 40 who bravely grace the Cowgirls of Novato calendar also do so for breast-cancer awareness, as well as the Novato Unified School District and the Marin Abused Women’s Services program. Horsewomen all, this dozen are anything but dirty. The calendar, rather, features a collection of attractive, intelligent women interacting with their horses or performing chores in their stables–merely somewhat less dressed than they might usually be. Photographed by Kim Vogee (the current Mrs. December), the Cowgirls of Napa calendar is $20, comes with an art nouveau gold hoof pick (while supplies last!) and is available throughout downtown Novato as well as at Marin General Hospital and the California Grill Restaurant.

Not nude but still pretty is the Sausalito-based Antenna Theater’s ECOlogical Calendar. Wondering why the heck we continue to use a calendar that has absolutely everything to do with ancient Roman hierarchies and absolutely nothing to do with our daily revolution around the sun, the ECOlogical Calendar’s makers divided theirs into quarters, much like life itself.

This cal notes astronomical seasons, solstices, meteorological aspects and the slippery relationship between day and night. It’s a gorgeously illustrated attitude toward the world that comes in quarterly 12-by-36-inch panels, and is highly recommended for prompting daydreams and curiosity in children. Beginning for 2005 with the solstice happening on Tuesday, Dec. 21 (2004), the time is now to get into the real rhythm of the year. The ECOlogical Calendar is $14.99 and available at www.ecocalendar.info. . . .

Founded by former Section M publishers and editors Michael Houghton and Kevin Jamieson, Designed by Monkeys purveys T-shirts with decided attitude. Originally conceived as a fundraising project for MoveOn.org in advance of the recent Nov. 2 disaster, Designed by Monkeys continues to donate a portion of each sale to MoveOn as that organization decides which good fight to tackle next.

But the right livelihood part is only some of the fun: the real benefit to the ordinary consumer is getting to wear a Che Moore T-shirt, which reenvisions filmmaker Michael Moore as Che Guevara, albeit slightly tubbier; donning an image of Dubya depicted as a puppet with the elegant word “Lies” protruding from his mouth; or simply flipping the design birdie to war–all of which are featured on Designed by Monkey’s website, www.designedbymonkeys.com. T-shirts and belly tanks are $14.99 and each purchase makes an automatic donation to move us on. . . .

Cigar boxes are among the most mutable of hard-to-find everyday objects. Painter Richard Diebenkorn, for example, did some of his most beautiful small works on the wooden panels that compose ordinary cigar boxes. And now the Santa Rosa family of Catherine Alexander, sister Terry Ulitalo and daughter Evin Alexander have formed themselves into the team of JiJi Lou to design a delicious line of purses from the things.

Using drawer handles as purse handles, these one-of-a-kind sacs are decidedly more art than the typical rough-and-tumble wasteland that usually comprises the interiors of shoulder bags. Typically thematic, from Betty Boop to The Joy Luck Club to pin-up girls to the rich enjoyment of different fabrics, each purse is covered in cloth, is hand-beaded and features a small mirror fixed into the inside cover, as well as surprises like miniature Hawaiian shirts or small wrapped gift boxes adhered to the interior.

According to Catherine Alexander, JiJi Lou has so far made some 500 purses, each taking up to three days to complete, and the three women are earning a full living from their one-of-a-kind line. The purses sell for between $36 and $80 depending on the complexity of the design, and JiJi Lou happily takes customized orders. Purses can be ordered by calling 707.544.3110 or through JiJi Lou’s website at www.jijilou.com, and are featured each week once Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market resumes in 2005.

Also anticipated with the resumption of the market are Susan Levinson‘s beautiful beaded necklaces, combining semiprecious stones and crystals with more ordinary beads, thus keeping the cost reasonable while the look remains high (www.slevinsondesign.com); and Karen Smith‘s very clever fiber jewelry, in which she achieves a sort of fairy tale aerie as her threads are literally woven like gold (707.579.3002). . . .

And finally, shopping for items made specifically in the North Bay is a self-confined task at the Sonoma County Museum’s newly revamped Museum Shop because every item for sale is made only by area artists. The compulsively collectible ceramics thrown by nationally acclaimed potter Aletha Soule are given large notice here and are very reasonably priced considering what one would pay at Gumps for the same thing.

But the same thing isn’t possible, as Soule has conceived a line of “black tea” glazes for the work she contributes to the Museum Shop, unavailable elsewhere. The soft, organic forms of Soule’s vases and pitchers are nearly archetypal in their draw; one feels that the form is known in a deep way. But then again, it’s just a pot. Soule’s pieces retail from $56 for a deeply desired green pitcher to $108 for a set of three ardently wanted vases.

Stefan Jonson contributes the world’s smallest pair of hand-painted shoes, replete with copper doodads ($156), and local designers Shih & Co. hang an elegant swathe of scarves, most notably a silk one poetically colored in “lichen” and adorned with semiprecious garnets (on sale for just $95). Contributing artists also include iron sculptor John Hains, wood worker Alex Wright, Zen painter Mario Uribe and others. Sonoma County Museum, 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11am to 4pm. 707.579.1500. . . .

Send a letter to the editor about this story to le*****@*******ws.com.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of Metro, Silicon Valley’s Weekly Newspaper.

© Metro Publishing Inc. Metroactive is affiliated with the Boulevards Network.

For more information about the San Jose/Silicon Valley area, visit sanjose.com.

It’s the Ride!: Kathy Storin and Richard Battles of RKA.

Ride On

Healdsburg’s RKA gives motorcyclists the tools to go the distance

By R. V. Scheide

North Bay motorcyclists frequently have to undergo a self-administered reality check. Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties are blessed with some of the best motorcycling roads on the planet–Highway 128, Stewart’s Point Road and Highway 1, to name just three–and many have fallen under the spell of these marvelous twisting ribbons of fairly well-groomed asphalt. Serious aficionados have been known to stay in the saddle for days, just to prolong the buzz.

Staying in the saddle for days is what the folks at RKA are all about. The Healdsburg-based company, which takes its first two initials from founders, owners and avid motorcyclists Richard Battles and Kathy Storin (the A stands for “accessories”), manufactures soft luggage that transforms virtually any mount–even a scooter!–into a serious long-distance touring machine.

For those of you who ride around in cars, or “cages” as they are known by motorcyclists, an explanation is in order. Most motorcycles don’t have trunks or even glove boxes. This presents somewhat of a problem for the long-distance motorcycle traveler. Where, for instance, are you supposed to stash your camera, your lunch, your spare change of underwear?

RKA’s soft luggage is the answer. Manufactured onsite in Healdsburg from tough, water-resistant Cordura or heavy-duty polyester, the luggage comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Enormous saddlebags that drape over the seat easily hold enough clothes for a week’s worth of camping. Still have more things to pack? Stuff them in a handy tail bag that attaches to the rear of the bike. If you still need more room, there are eight flavors of tank bags to choose from.

Prices range from $49.50 for the smallest tank bag to $211.20 for the largest set of saddlebags. There’s a rainbow of color options, and bags can be designed to match any particular bike’s paint scheme. Richard and Kathy have come along way since 1985, when in a short four-month span, they met, got married, moved from Southern California to Northern California and started RKA in the garage of Richard’s mom’s house in Rincon Valley. Richard supplemented their income by working at Radio Shack, but after five years, sales were strong enough to allow him to quit and focus on the company full-time. The pair, who will celebrate both their own and RKA’s 20th anniversary next year, have developed a close working relationship.

“I’m not a real creative person, I’m a craftsperson,” explains Kathy, who formerly made silks and accessories for the horse-racing industry. (She met Richard, a former thoroughbred trainer, when he came in for a set of blinders.) “Richard is the creative mind. I’m just the technician.”

In the beginning, Richard and Kathy loaded up the RKA trailer and traveled coast to coast, hitting all the motorcycle shows and races they could find, including many visits to America’s premier motorcycling race, the Daytona 200, and its accompanying madness known as Bike Week. With Internet sales from their website burgeoning, the pair decided to cut down on their traveling. But they still occasionally pine for the road.

“We miss the traveling,” Kathy says. “We met so many people. We can go to almost any state and there’s always somebody we can go riding with.” Not that going to Daytona every year didn’t have its drawbacks. “You can only see so many fat people in thongs–men or women!” she laughs.

For the past several years, the couple toyed with the idea of expanding RKA into a first-class motorcycle boutique, with a full line of accessories and even a big-screen TV to host motorcycle-related events at the shop. Unfortunately, Healdsburg turned out to be slightly too far to travel for the hordes of finicky motorcyclists in San Francisco they expected to draw, and Richard tired of trying to keep merchandise they didn’t make themselves in stock.

“Basically, we’re back to doing what we do best,” he says. Because the company is small–in addition to the two of them, they employ an industrial seamstress–it’s able to respond to custom orders more quickly. Winter is the slow period, and Richard uses the spare time to conduct research and development on new luggage items.

He’s currently designing luggage for bicycles after getting bit by the cycling bug last year. But don’t think Richard and Kathy are giving up motorcycles. On any Sunday, you’re likely to find them at the head of a pack of snarling sport bikes winding their way out to Stewart’s Point. As the RKA motto states, “It’s the ride!”

RKA is located at 1423 A Grove St., Healdsburg. Winter hours: Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm. 707.433.3727. www.rka-luggage.com.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Natural Nostrum: Carrie Moore, right, at a recent Healdsburg Farmers Market.

Magic in a Bottle

The numinous mists of the Elixir Cafe

By David Templeton

On the colorfully trippy, steadily evolving website for the Elixir Cafe, a quote by Dr. Richard Gerber is prominently displayed: “The Einsteinian paradigm as applied to vibrational medicine sees human beings as networks of complex energy fields that interface with physical/cellular systems.” Gerber goes on to describe vibrational medicine as a way to encourage “specialized forms of energy” to positively affect “energetic systems” that may be out of whack due to various “disease states.”

Frankly, I have no idea what any of that means. But Carrie Moore does.

A self-described modern-day shaman and energy worker, Moore had already conjured a unique, and uniquely satisfying, career as a leader of spiritual and personal-empowerment workshops all across the globe.

It was during one such workshop in England that Moore, a Sebastopol resident, had the seed of an idea, a notion that would eventually become the Elixir Cafe.

“I started getting this grocery list in my head,” she laughs. “And it wouldn’t go away. This list of ingredients kept repeating in my head for all three days of the workshop. Once that was done, I finally said ‘OK! OK!’ and I wrote it all down.” Not being one to indiscriminately ignore the inspirations of her inner wisdom, Moore took this mystical cook-book experience seriously and began to research the various healing properties of the materials she’d envisioned.

Her first attempt at whipping up a batch of something resulted in something she now affectionately calls “metaphysical jam,” a concoction of beets, pineapples, ginger, rosemary, sweet violet, juniper berry and a number of other herbs and essences. It began as a gift she’d give to friends and family. But as more folks began asking for her metaphysical jam–claiming it activated energy centers that helped them aspire to higher levels of knowledge–the alchemical chef developed the idea of distilling the same ingredients into an elixir that could be consumed a drop at a time, instilling the same health properties, only more directly and instantly.

Moore’s magic jam eventually came to be called Star Fire, a sublingual (you put it under your tongue) elixir designed to heighten energy, stamina and awareness. She quickly developed other elixirs, with similarly evocative names: Miriam’s Heart Elixir, Ancient Amazon and Lavender Fields Forever, which contains lavender grown in Petaluma and was created to restore the imbiber’s sense of inner peace and relaxation. Moore now sells six elixirs ($18 per one-ounce bottle), with Wisdom of Venus and the Bridge–a “transformational support” for men–rounding out the line.

Every batch takes Moore 45 days to make, a specific, ritualized processes that includes the saying of prayers and blessings over the concoction as it percolates, or whatever it is that elixirs do.

Along the way, she’s added a second line of products called Mantra Mists. Described by Moore as body and space elixirs that are designed for external use (unlike the oral elixirs, you don’t eat these), the Mantra Mists ($24 dollars per four-ounce bottle) are spray-on mists with names like Buddha Blast, Mystic Beet, LavendEssence, Speak Easy and Sanctuary.

“You can use them on your body or on your face to revitalize or calm you, and to protect against negative energies,” Moore says.

Once again, I’m not sure what that means.

“Some people sage their spaces,” Moore patiently explains, “burning sage to cleanse an environment and make it holy. This is something like that. While the Mantra Mists can certainly be used ceremonially, there have been a lot of massage therapists, psychologists, doctors and school teachers who use the mists in their work spaces. Sanctuary is an especially popular mist among schoolteachers. One teacher told me that when the kids are bouncing off the walls, she mists the classroom with Sanctuary, and within a few minutes, the whole classroom is calm and peaceful again.”

For the holidays, Moore has created a number of gift packages and sets and has taken special care to consider the psychic and spiritual needs of both the recipients and the givers of all Elixir-oriented gifts.

“When selecting a gift for a loved one,” Moore suggests, “let yourself be guided by your feelings rather than what you think. Hold that person in your mind, and let your intuition guide you.”

Even I know what that means.

The Elixir Cafe is at www.theinnershaman.com. Carrie Moore can be found every Thursday and Sunday morning at the Marin Farmers Market at the Civic Center, Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael.

From the December 8-14, 2004 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.