Culture Crush, Week of Dec. 28

Forestville

Wine & Food Pairing

Russian River Vineyards’ chef Gustavo Lopez and winemaker Giovanni Balistreri have put together a special culinary experience to kick off the New Year, featuring small dishes thoughtfully created to complement the wine and a fine vegetarian menu. The meal will premier the winery’s just ready Bacigalupi Chardonnay paired with a Maine lobster tail poached in butter, served on a toasted brioche roll and drizzled with a fresh herb aioli. The rich vanilla notes from the chardonnay are said to complement the succulent texture and buttery flavor of the lobster perfectly. Seatings are at noon, 2pm and 4pm, Saturday, Dec. 31, Russian River Vineyards, 5700 Hwy 116 N, Forestville. Reservations required. $95 per person. Bookings can be made online at bit.ly/rrv-nye.

Mill Valley

Pre-NYE Party

Revelers may dance the night away in Mill Valley at a Pre-New Year’s Eve Party, featuring fan-favorite hits and music videos with DJ Darryl K. All party guests will receive complimentary New Year’s hats and favors, and tickets are $20 if bought in advance (by Dec. 29) or $25 at the door. Adults of all ages are welcome, and dressy attire is requested. This event is co-sponsored by The Society of Single Professionals, the world’s largest non-profit singles organization; Professionals Guild; and Peacock Gap Golf Club Dance Group, among others. The party takes place from 8 to 11:30pm, Dec. 30 at The Club at Harbor Point, Lighthouse Grill, 475 E Strawberry Dr., Mill Valley.

Santa Rosa

MLK Birthday Celebration

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Birthday Celebration Sunday commences at 6:30pm, Sunday, Jan. 15, online via Zoom and live-streamed on Facebook. The event is free. This year’s program includes a bevy of poetry, dance and speakers, as well as music by the MLK Celebration Mass Choir, with Benjamin Mertz and Louis Jenkins, and featuring Dela the Fella and Tina Rogers. Presenters and performers also include Ancestral Libations by ReEllis Dotson-Newman & Sabryyah, Alicia Sanchez, Enid Pickett, Rose Hammond, Joe Salinas, MaDonna Feather, Rev. Lee Turner and Kirstyne Lange, president of the Santa Rosa/Sonoma County Chapter of NAACP. A program featuring dozens of performers and presenters is rounded out by oratories presented by middle and high school students. The celebration can be viewed online at Zoom ID: 882 4845 5259 (passcode: 172836) and live-streamed at Facebook.com/MLKcommittee.

Sonoma County

Treasure Artist

The City of Sonoma’s Cultural and Fine Arts Commission is seeking nominations for the 2023 Sonoma Treasure Artist of the Year Award. First awarded in 1983, the Sonoma Treasure Artist is selected and recognized for outstanding achievement in a chosen artistic medium, including the performing, visual, theatrical, literary and craft arts, and for their service and involvement within the community. The public is invited to nominate, in writing, individuals they feel would be worthy of the Sonoma Treasure Artist honor. Letters of nomination must include a description of the artist’s work and contributions to the community, and a rationale for why that person should be named Treasure Artist of the Year. Nominations will be accepted in the office of the City Clerk, No. 1 The Plaza, Sonoma, CA 95476 (City Hall), or by email at rb***@********ty.org, until 5pm Jan. 20.

Us and Them: Division never wins

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By Dan Shiner

Some years ago, Paul Tibbets invited Mitsuo Fuchida for a visit.

They had met briefly many years earlier. It took some time to arrange—after all, Tibbets lived in Ohio, and Fuchida in Japan, and both men were well into middle age.

Eventually, Fuchida traveled to Columbus, where he spent two weeks at Tibbets’ house. By all accounts, the men very much enjoyed their time together.

Though neither man was given to emotion, both spoke warmly about the other during and after their visit.

We live in a time where it is almost a badge of honor not to get along with people. We divide ourselves along political lines, racial lines, economic lines, religious lines. We have become increasingly tribal. We see anyone who is not like us as “the other.” “They” are no longer different. “They” are wrong.

We no longer talk to each other. Instead, we disparage each other, in public forums—in letters to the editor, at meetings, among our friends and those who agree with us. We dehumanize those with whom we disagree, and I am just as guilty as anyone.

We wonder if our country will withstand the stress. We all know exactly who to blame. Each other. And when I am in despair that we will ever be able to heal our wounds, I think about Tibbets and Fuchida, spending two weeks enjoying each other’s company: Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor and Tibbets, who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

If they can get along, certainly we can.

Dan Shiner lives in Mill Valley.

We welcome your Open Mic submissions. Please send your 350-word pieces to openmic@pacificsun or op*****@******an.com.

Your Letters, Dec. 28

Dog Delivered

It was a Christmas miracle. I was walking my 18-pound poodle rescue dog, Gus, who is old and can’t hear or see very well. He lost his balance on the sidewalk, and his back leg fell off the walk and into the side of the drainage grate. I pulled up on his harness to lift him up, and he slid right out of the harness and down the grate. I was afraid he was going to walk into the drain.

I called 911, but the connection was breaking up. Suddenly, a man in a UPS uniform asked, “Do you need help?”

I yelled, “My poor dog fell in the drainage hole!” He just lifted up the grate. I was stunned.

He said, “You better hurry up,” so I jumped in, grabbed Gus and climbed back out with him. This was amazing, since I am not young and definitely not spry.

When it was all over, the man just walked away to his car. I yelled, “Wait, what is your name? You saved my dog!”

He said, “Drow.” I kept trying to thank him. Drow was my HERO!

Barbara Wachtler

San Anselmo

Hash Tag

One of the most tragic consequences of the post-pandemic period is the staggering shortage of hash brown potatoes, in shredded form, in our grocery stores today.

How are Americans going to contend with inflation, environmental degradation, an economy in slow recovery, and fascist tendencies from inside our country and across the globe without crisp, delicious hash browns with our eggs, bacon, toast and coffee in the morning?

What other malady could be this debilitating? Have we not suffered enough?

Craig J. Corsini

San Rafael

Left Behind: Lionizing lameness

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By Tom H. Hastings

What could President Joe Biden be thinking, trading a mere basketball player for the “Merchant of Death,” while leaving a Marine behind?

The Trumpy right is ramping up and up, getting all sanctimonious, about trading the freedom of (as the far right puts it) “a Black leftist lesbian celebrity who hated this country” for that of an “ex-Marine.”

So, election denier Daniel Greenfield of the most rightwing fake intelligentsia, what is the worst one of those invective modifiers you attach with such venom to Brittney Griner, a woman who helped win an Olympic Gold Medal for her country, the United States?

Black? Leftist? Lesbian?

The far right is lionizing Paul Whelan, the “ex-Marine.” Um…he’s an ex-Marine because he well and truly earned a bad conduct discharge for being a scammer, a thief and a lousy desk jockey supply clerk “Marine.” The military found him thusly, a military appellate court found the same, yet the ultra-right is selling him as some sort of patriotic freedom fighter held behind enemy lines and deserted by his traitorous government. Look it up. Stop dishing out hooey. We are tired of your gaslighting.

Sorry, it is Whelan who has been the proven traitor.

Brittney Griner had a legally prescribed pain med—some hash oil—in her luggage. For that, she gets a nine-year sentence in a Putin kangaroo court and a one-way shackled ride to a gulag. She is an athlete, not an arms merchant, not a spy, not anyone who is engaged in political connivance at any level. Bring her home from Putin’s thuggish Russia, even if you have to trade her for some dated arms merchant.

Dated? Yes, many logical and realistic analysts are saying that Viktor Bout will have no chance of reassembling his godawful arms dealership after 14 years of imprisonment, a loss of all his assets, and a notorious and known identity.

Brittney, sorry for the way you were treated by the unfair payouts from your pro ball league, from Russian fake “justice,” and now from the MAGAts defaming you with their barking calumny. Welcome home. Really. Welcome. Please focus on the love for you from so many.

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is an expert witness for the defense of civil resisters in court.

Culture Crush, Week of Dec. 21

Napa

‘True North’

The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art presents its inaugural juried exhibition of North Bay art, “True North,” featuring over 40 artists from California’s North Bay counties. Family friendly, this show is on exhibit now through Jan. 15. As di Rosa’s executive director and lead curator Kate Eilertsen explains, “Our aim at di Rosa is to serve as a platform and incubator for art and artists in our region. ‘True North’ is key to this vision. A biennial exhibition of art from the North Bay, it will connect and empower artists across Napa, Sonoma, Marin and Solano counties for years to come.” In keeping with the inclusive incubator spirit of “True North,” the closing reception will be an Art Slide Slam, for artists in the North Bay to share their work in a poetry slam format, from 2:30-4pm, Saturday, Jan. 14. Submission details can be found on di Rosa’s “True North” exhibition page, dirosaart.org/true-north.

Novato

Laugh Trek

Standup comedy is back, as Novato’s Trek Wine pairs wine and wisecracks for an evening of comedy featuring Comedy Central veteran Dan St. Paul. A national headliner, St. Paul has opened for such entertainers as Ringo Starr, Natalie Cole and Vince Gill, and even the San Francisco Symphony (“I knew them when they were just a garage band,” he quips). Upon hitting 50, St. Paul pivoted his act to reflect the changes he was experiencing—“I’m a cylinder now. I can wear a belt anywhere on my body.” Special guest Ian Williams will also provide laughs. The show commences at 7:30pm, Saturday, Jan. 7 at Trek Wine, 1026 Machin Ave., Novato. Tickets start at $20 and are available via marincomedyshow.com.

Petaluma

‘The House on Liberty Street’

Petaluma’s heritage home district is the setting for Sonoma County author Frances Rivetti’s second novel, The House on Liberty Street: Home of Second Chances, now available from Fog Valley Press at local bookstores and online. Rivetti uncovers the dark side of Christmas in a taut, 24-hour-compressed timeline, a compact, deep tale of a resilient, all-female household on the brink of irreversible change. “Local readers will recognize the street that this fictional house is located on by St. Vincent’s Church,” says Rivetti. “While most of the action in the story takes place within the house, there are other familiar downtown and crosstown scenes in several chapters. The house itself, characters, names, incidents, businesses and places are the products of my imagination, or used in a fictional manner, however, and should not be interpreted as real. Certain long-standing institutions and businesses are mentioned, but the characters and action involved are entirely imaginary.” For more information, including upcoming readings, visit Francesrivetti.com.

Santa Rosa

Ice Skating

Downtown Santa Rosa is presently a winter wonderland, and not just because climate change has plunged the mercury well below freezing. “Sonoma County’s Destination for Season Long Holiday Fun” has its own spin on a favorite winter pastime—ice skating—which children of all ages are invited to do at the city of Santa Rosa’s annual Winter Lights Synthetic Ice Rink in Old Courthouse Square. Ice skates and helmet rentals are available through Dec. 31 (though wrist braces and air casts for ankles are available at the discretion of one’s healthcare provider…Just kidding, I’m having a Scrooge moment). For specific times, dates and tickets, visit downtownsantarosa.org/winterlights for links.

Free Will Astrology, Week of Dec. 21

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Eric G. Wilson has written a book that I might typically recommend to 40% of the Aries tribe. But in 2023, I will raise that to 80%. The title is How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-of-a-Kind Life. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it will make sense for you to stop making sense on a semi-regular basis. Cheerfully rebelling against the status quo should be one of your most rewarding hobbies. The best way to educate and entertain yourself will be to ask yourself, “What is the most original and imaginative thing I can do right now?”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): One of your potential superpowers is cultivating links between the spiritual and physical worlds. If you develop this talent, you illuminate the ways that eternity permeates the everyday routine. You weave together the sacred and the mundane so they synergize each other. You understand how practical matters may be infused with archetypal energies and epic themes. I hope you will be doing a lot of this playful work in 2023, Taurus. Many of us non-Bulls would love you to teach us more about these mysteries.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here are fun and useful projects for you to cultivate in 2023: 1. Initiate interesting trends. Don’t follow mediocre trends. 2. Exert buoyant leadership in the groups you are part of. 3. Practice the art of enhancing your concentration by relaxing. 4. Every Sunday at noon, renew your vow to not deceive or lie to yourself during the coming week. 5. Make it your goal to be a fabulous communicator, not just an average one. 6. Cultivate your ability to discern what people are hiding or pretending about.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In 2023, I hope you will refine and deepen your relationship with your gut instinct. I will be ecstatic if you learn more about the differences between your lucid intuition and the worry mongering that your pesky demons rustle up. If you attend to these matters—and life will conspire to help you if you do—your rhythm will become dramatically more secure and stable. Your guidance system will serve you better than it ever has. A caveat: Seeking perfection in honing these skills is not necessary. Just do the best you can.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Psychiatrist and author Irvin Yalom wrote, “The question of meaning in life is, as the Buddha thought, not edifying. One must immerse oneself into the river of life and let the question drift away.” But Holocaust survivor and philosopher Viktor Frankl had a radically different view. He said that a sense of meaning is the single most important thing. That’s what sustains and nourishes us through the years: the feeling that our life has a meaning and that any particular experience has a meaning. I share Frankl’s perspective, and I advise you to adopt his approach throughout 2023. You will have unprecedented opportunities to see and know the overarching plan of your destiny, which has been only partially visible to you in the past. You will be regularly blessed with insights about your purpose here on Earth.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): As a young woman, Virgo-born Ingeborg Rapoport (1912–2017) studied medicine at the University of Hamburg in Germany. But in 1938, the Nazis refused to let her defend her PhD thesis and get her medical degree because of her Jewish ancestry. Seventy-seven years later, she was finally given a chance to finish what she had started. Success! The dean of the school said, “She was absolutely brilliant. Her specific knowledge about the latest developments in medicine was unbelievable.” I expect comparable developments for you in 2023, Virgo. You will receive defining opportunities or invitations that have not been possible before. Postponed breakthroughs and resolutions will become achievable.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Of the 2,200+ humans quoted in a 21st-century edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 164 are women—a mere 7%! At least that’s more than the four females represented in 1855’s first edition. Let’s take this atrocious injustice as our provocation for your horoscope. In accordance with astrological omens, one of your assignments in 2023 will be to make personal efforts to equalize power among the genders. Your well-being will thrive as you work to create a misogyny-free future. Here are possible actions: If you’re a woman or nonbinary person, be extra bold and brave as you say what you genuinely think and feel and mean. If you’re a man, foster your skills at listening to women and nonbinary people. Give them abundant space and welcome to speak their truths. It will be in your ultimate interest to do so!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): To prepare you for 2023, I’m offering you wisdom from mythologist Michael Meade. Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Scorpios will be most likely to extract riches from it. Meade writes: “Becoming a genuine individual requires learning the oppositions within oneself. Those who fail or refuse to face the oppositions within have no choice but to find enemies to project upon. ‘Enemy’ simply means ‘not-friend’; unless a person deals with the not-friend within, they require enemies around them.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best,” declared Sagittarian opera singer Maria Callas (1923–1977). Many critics say she was indeed one of the 20th century’s best. The consensus is that she was also a temperamental prima donna. Impresario Rudolf Bing said she was a trial to work with “because she was so much more intelligent. Other artists, you could get around. But Callas you could not get around. She knew exactly what she wanted and why she wanted it.” In accordance with astrological omens, Sagittarius, I authorize you, in your quest for success in 2023, to be as “difficult” as Callas was, in the sense of knowing exactly what you want. But please—so as to not undermine your success—don’t lapse into diva-like behavior.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): To inspire your self-inquiry in 2023, I have chosen a passage from Herman Hesse’s fairytale, A Dream Sequence. It will provide guidance as you dive further than ever before into the precious mysteries in your inner depths. Hesse addressed his “good ardent darkness, the warm cradle of the soul, and lost homeland.” He asked them to open up for him. He wanted them to be fully available to his conscious mind. Hesse said this to his soul: “Just feel your way, soul, just wander about, burrow into the full bath of innocent twilight drives!”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey lived till age 99. He almost died at 97, but was able to capitalize on an invention that he himself had created years before: a polymer resin that could repair or replace aging blood vessels. Surgeons used his technology to return him to health. I am predicting that in 2023, you, too, will derive a number of benefits from your actions in the past. Things you made, projects you nurtured and ideas you initiated will prove valuable to you as you encounter the challenges and opportunities of the future.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I decided to divine the state of your financial karma. To begin, I swirled a $10 bill through the flame rising from a green candle. Then I sought cosmic auguries in the burn patterns on the bill. The oracle provided bad news and good news. The bad news is that you live on a planet where one-fifth of the population owns much more than four-fifths of the wealth. The good news is that in 2023, you will be in decent shape to move closer to the elite one-fifth. Amazingly, the oracle also suggests that your ability to get richer quicker will increase in direct proportion to your integrity and generosity.

Wry ‘Ham’ on stage in Sebastopol

North Bay audiences seeking a little lightweight, somewhat-holiday-themed entertainment would do well to head out to Sebastopol and check out Ham for the Holidays. Written by Santa Rosa High School dropout-turned-game-show-contestant-turned-college-professor Shad Willingham, it runs at Main Stage West through Dec. 30.

It’s Christmas Eve, 1939, and the tiny hamlet of Hamlin, GA is buried in snow from an unexpected southern blizzard. Local ham magnate and radio station WHAM owner Cab Hoxton (Dodds Delzell) is in a tizzy preparing for the arrival of the great Orson Welles, who for some unfathomable reason has agreed to do a live broadcast from the station.

Postman Sam Wainwright (Keene Hudson) delivers Welles’ script, but station flunky Timmy Wilkins (Zane Walters) manages to lose it. To add insult to injury, Welles is stuck in a snowbound train, so how in the world will the show go on?

Well, blustery radio actor and playwright Dexter Armstrong (Garet Waterhouse) has an “original” play (Attack of the Space Robots from Outer Space) that with just a little tweaking can be turned into a Christmas show. As far as an actor with the stature of Welles, local Shakespearean-trained ham Dick McCann (John Craven) would be a suitable replacement, as long as he doesn’t have a narcoleptic episode in the middle of the broadcast.

Add an actress who insists on costume changes for radio (Maureen O’Neill), the station owner’s bungling daughter (Dale Leonheart) and a malfunctioning studio heater, and it’s no surprise when everything, of course, goes wrong.

Yes, it’s The (Radio) Play That Goes Wrong, which means lots of slapstick silliness. There’s no great message to be found here; in fact, no message at all. The only things being delivered are good-natured laughs via director Emily Cornelius’ hard-working cast.

They deliver those laughs on a well-detailed but somewhat anachronistically-appointed set by David Lear and in nice period costuming by Tracy Hinman. Keith Baker’s sound design also gives a big assist.

Ham for the Holidays is the type of show one doesn’t want to overthink. It’s very reminiscent of an extended sketch from one of television’s great comedy/variety shows of the ’60s and ’70s. It exists solely to elicit laughs and perhaps fond memories for some days of yore. It’s theater for the MeTV crowd.

‘Ham for the Holidays’ runs through Dec. 30 at Main Stage West, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. Thu-Sat at 8pm; Sun, 5pm. $20-$32. Masking required. 707.823.0177. mainstagewest.com.

Letters, Week of Dec. 21

Lesson Unlearned

This week, we mark the 10 year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. This was done by a 19-year-old white male with an AR-15. He killed 20 first grade children and six teachers.

The question is, what have we learned from this tragic incident? The answer is absolutely nothing.

When will we learn?

Brian Donohue

Mill Valley

Friends in Wry Places

I have a friend back East whose son was elected to Congress last month. The younger man told his Republican opponent during the last debate of the campaign, “If you will stop making shit up about me, I will stop telling voters the truth about you.”

Craig J. Corsini

San Rafael

Arbitrary

Twitter banned or suspended several high-profile journalists Thursday evening, a move that further reveals the seemingly arbitrary decision-making of Elon Musk, a self-avowed “free speech absolutist.”

I will bet that Joseph Goebbels called himself and other high ranking party members “free speech absolutists” or something similar.

Gary Sciford

Santa Rosa

DeLoach Vineyards is more than just a ‘big winery’

After 20-plus years in the wine industry, I can admit how little I really knew about DeLoach Vineyards, in particular about what has been happening there over the past 10 to 15 years.

DeLoach Vineyards is a part of the Boisset winery family and has been since 2003. While I knew the winery was a part of Boisset’s portfolio of brands, I wasn’t really aware of what that meant for the brand, the quality of the wines, etc., as I hadn’t taken the time to sit down and taste the breadth of DeLoach’s menu of wines since the early 2000s.

Winemaking at DeLoach has been under the guiding hand of winemaker Brian Maloney, an avid believer in site expressive wines, the differences between Russian River Valley’s six “neighborhoods” and highlighting single vineyards, since 2007.

The wines being made are interesting, expressive and multi-dimensional. Also, most of the wines are made in small quantities from as few as 50 cases to a few hundred, in the case of their vineyard designate wines.

Here are a few more reasons to get excited about DeLoach Vineyards and DeLoach’s wines:

Certified

The winery is not just a certified sustainable and certified organic winery but is also one of just a handful of local wineries that are Demeter certified as a biodynamic vineyard and winery.

Iconic Vineyards

DeLoach makes over 20 vineyard designate wines from unique sites that include iconic vineyards such as Heintz, Stubbs, Van der Kamp and Saitone, with a large percentage of these wines coming from cool weather sites in the Green Valley, Petaluma Gap and Sonoma Coast AVAs. A couple of my personal favorites are the Hawk Hill Vineyard Chardonnay and Maboroshi Vineyard Pinot Noir.

Skin Contact

Among their offerings are a skin contact ribolla gialla and carignane that are aged in terracotta amphorae and that are phenomenal (these wines are made in very limited quantities, so they are generally sold out for part of each year).

Varietals Galore

They’ve got a diverse list of wines that includes not just pinot noir and chardonnay but pinot blanc, ribolla gialla, riesling, carignane and zinfandel.

Tasting Experience

The winery offers an appellation-focused tasting experience that draws from different Sonoma County AVAs. They also offer a self-guided tour that allows guests to explore the estate’s 20 acre organic and biodynamic farm, which includes a half-acre culinary garden, and grazing chickens, sheep and goats.

Earth-Friendly

They are actively pursuing more ways to reduce the winery’s environmental footprint, increase their biodynamic and regenerative agriculture practices, and to support their local community. One example is the winery’s “Vinthropic” line of wines that was created to help fight against hunger. One hundred percent of Vinthropic’s proceeds go to benefit Sonoma County’s Redwood Empire Food Bank.

Culture Crush, Week of Dec. 28

Forestville Wine & Food Pairing Russian River Vineyards’ chef Gustavo Lopez and winemaker Giovanni Balistreri have put together a special culinary experience to kick off the New Year, featuring small dishes thoughtfully created to complement the wine and a fine vegetarian menu. The meal will premier the winery’s just ready Bacigalupi Chardonnay paired with a Maine lobster tail poached in butter,...

Us and Them: Division never wins

Click to read
By Dan Shiner Some years ago, Paul Tibbets invited Mitsuo Fuchida for a visit. They had met briefly many years earlier. It took some time to arrange—after all, Tibbets lived in Ohio, and Fuchida in Japan, and both men were well into middle age. Eventually, Fuchida traveled to Columbus, where he spent two weeks at Tibbets’ house. By all accounts, the men...

Your Letters, Dec. 28

Click to read
Dog Delivered It was a Christmas miracle. I was walking my 18-pound poodle rescue dog, Gus, who is old and can’t hear or see very well. He lost his balance on the sidewalk, and his back leg fell off the walk and into the side of the drainage grate. I pulled up on his harness to lift him up, and...

Left Behind: Lionizing lameness

By Tom H. Hastings What could President Joe Biden be thinking, trading a mere basketball player for the "Merchant of Death," while leaving a Marine behind? The Trumpy right is ramping up and up, getting all sanctimonious, about trading the freedom of (as the far right puts it) "a Black leftist lesbian celebrity who hated this country" for that of an...

Culture Crush, Week of Dec. 21

Napa ‘True North’ The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art presents its inaugural juried exhibition of North Bay art, “True North,” featuring over 40 artists from California’s North Bay counties. Family friendly, this show is on exhibit now through Jan. 15. As di Rosa’s executive director and lead curator Kate Eilertsen explains, “Our aim at di Rosa is to serve as...

Free Will Astrology, Week of Dec. 21

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Eric G. Wilson has written a book that I might typically recommend to 40% of the Aries tribe. But in 2023, I will raise that to 80%. The title is How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-of-a-Kind Life. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it will make...

Wry ‘Ham’ on stage in Sebastopol

North Bay audiences seeking a little lightweight, somewhat-holiday-themed entertainment would do well to head out to Sebastopol and check out Ham for the Holidays. Written by Santa Rosa High School dropout-turned-game-show-contestant-turned-college-professor Shad Willingham, it runs at Main Stage West through Dec. 30. It’s Christmas Eve, 1939, and the tiny hamlet of Hamlin, GA is buried in snow from an unexpected...

Letters, Week of Dec. 21

Click to read
Lesson Unlearned This week, we mark the 10 year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. This was done by a 19-year-old white male with an AR-15. He killed 20 first grade children and six teachers. The question is, what have we learned from this tragic incident? The answer is absolutely nothing. When will we learn? Brian Donohue Mill Valley Friends in Wry Places I...

DeLoach Vineyards is more than just a ‘big winery’

After 20-plus years in the wine industry, I can admit how little I really knew about DeLoach Vineyards, in particular about what has been happening there over the past 10 to 15 years. DeLoach Vineyards is a part of the Boisset winery family and has been since 2003. While I knew the winery was a part of Boisset’s portfolio of...
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