‘Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones’

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“Boondocks” cartoonist Aaron McGruder strikes back at Star Wars and George Lucas

Writer David Templeton takes interesting people to interesting movies in his ongoing quest for the ultimate post-film conversation. This is not a review; rather, it’s a freewheeling, tangential discussion of art, alternative ideas, and popular culture.

What was that? What did the voice on the phone just say about Annakin Skywalker?

“Annakin Skywalker,” repeats Aaron McGruder, laughing, “is a whiny little bitch.”

McGruder, the controversial cartoonist and social critic behind the popular hip-hop comic strip The Boondocks, has a wicked, rocky rumble of a laugh, a deep, sharp-edged baritone–that is also quite melodious and disarming. Which is kind of nice, considering he just called Annakin Skywalker–the future Darth Vader, the saber-slashing Lord of all Evil, the ultra-potent progenitor of both Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia–a whiny little bitch.

Shortly after catching George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode 2–Attack of the Clones, McGruder’s on the line. working his way down a lengthy list of critical observations. According to the self-described “near-fanatical Star Wars enthusiast,” the film is too long by at least 30 minutes; It labors under a surplus of forced comic-relief; Much of the plot is repetitious and boring. The list goes on. But in regards to poor Annakin (played moodily by Hayden Christensen), McGruder admits that the guy’s thin-skinned whininess is not really inconsistent with the whole Star Wars story.

“Luke Skywalker,” he says, “was also a whiny little bitch.”

If you’re among the millions of readers who routinely follow The Boondocks–arguably the best, most politically-tenacious comic strip since Doonesbury went all soft and floppy on us–you probably already know what McGruder thinks of George Lucas. Through the character of Huey Freeman–the adolescent, African American intellectual at the heart of his strip–McGruder’s been lobbing comic hardballs at Lucas for weeks, taking him to task for the Jar Jarring-racism of The Phantom Menace. “George Lucas has offended me as a black man and ruined his franchise,” Huey recently said, proclaiming, “I am no longer a “Star Wars” fan! Period!” That said, Huey’s moral resolve rapidly waned as the movie opened–and all of his friends rushed out to see it. Yet, by the middle of the next week, Huey was still holding his ground.

McGruder, on the other hand, has now seen the movie twice.

“I haven’t decided yet how Huey is going to respond to the movie,” he admits, “but I know I liked it. It didn’t make me mad like the last one did.” While agreeing that Episode 2 is much better than Episode 1, McGruder adds that that isn’t really saying much. “Episode 1,” he reminds me, “was one of the worst movies ever made.”

This one, insists McGruder, was basically a good movie.

Unlike a lot of other critics, he didn’t even mind Hayden Christensen.

“The guy really felt half-crazy,” he says. “Early on you’re thinking, ‘Wow! This guy’s really not all there.’ And I liked that.” He also gives thumbs up to Sam Jackson, as Jedi leader Mace Windu. “Yeah, he was great. You only wish you got to see him whup more ass.”

Nobody, though, gives a better performance in that movie than Yoda, he says.

“Yoda stands head and shoulders above everyone else,” laughs McGruder, “no pun intended. I was just mad that he had a green light-saber, because, you know, if Mace Windu gets a purple light-saber, Yoda should have gotten his own color, too. It should have been yellow or orange. Other than that, Yoda was fantastic!”

The film’s major failures, he says, are mainly in the storytelling and the editing.

“If Lucas was a better storyteller in terms of all this political stuff he really wants to do, maybe it would be different,” McGruder says, “but as it stands now, he’s telling a very simple story in the clumsiest way possible.” In less than 15 seconds, McGruder succinctly sums up the political story of Episode 2. “There’s an external threat to the Republic. The President, Palpatine, is using this as an excuse to expand his powers, and ultimately we find out that they’re all in the same league with each other. This is an incredibly simple thing. It’s not unlike many of the conspiracy theories surrounding 9-11.”

As an illustration of that (literally), he mentions the June issue of The Nation, for which he drew the cover. It’s an Episode 2 parody portraying President Bush as the Emperor and Bin Laden as his clandestine accomplice, Count Dukoo–with Huey as a Jedi. “And the Clone Troopers all have FBI written across their chests,” he says, “because it’s easy to make the connection to what’s happening today. But that said, Lucas uses the clumsiest ways of putting that across. It’s a big, big mess. It’s bad storytelling.”

McGruder is most annoyed at Lucas’ habit of cramming those sight gags–and giant crabs and long “Mission Statement” speeches–into the middle of things right when the action is getting good.

“These conversations about fucking Democracy–nobody wants to hear that shit,” he says. “Not in a Star Wars movie! Here’s the thing. It’s so simple. We want to see Jedi with light sabers cutting shit apart. It’s literally that simple. You give me two hours of that, I’m happy. I’m real happy. But Lucas keeps giving me ‘humorous sight gags'”

He mentions a major fight scene in a giant stadium.

“There are 40 Jedi with light sabers in that scene,” he says, “and for some reason I’m looking at C3PO acting silly. Get the robot off the screen and show me a Jedi knight killing something. Or like, Mace Windu is about to go head to head with the bad guy–and here comes this alien bull creature. I don’t want to see a bull right now. There are important things happening. Why am I looking at a bull? Yes, it’s a very big bull, but it’s a bull. It’s not interesting.

“So, here’s the formula, George,” McGruder concludes. “Mace Windu with Light Saber–interesting. Bull–not interesting. Learn that, George Lucas, and I guarantee you, Episode 3 will be even better!

“But, I’m not counting on it.”

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

‘The Sum of All Fears’

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‘The Sum of All Fears’


Photograph by Ron Diamond

Win Sum, Lose Sum: Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan, facing bombs over Baltimore

Ryan’s Hope

‘The Sum of All Fears’ goes boom, but it’s OK

By

It’s not easy to retrofit an expensive Tom Clancy property, especially when the great man himself is looking over your shoulder as executive producer. So one makes allowances for the scattered quality of Phil Alden Robinson’s thriller The Sum of All Fears. In this heavily rewritten version of the bestseller, a conspiracy to hatch World War III is halted by Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck), who, despite his days played by Harrison Ford in earlier Clancy vehicles (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger), is now just a minor clerk without wife or children–but with a seemingly casual girlfriend (Bridget Moynahan). The film has chunks of the novel’s slightly addled mix of East German scientists, weakling American politicians, and Saudi extremists, and it tries to scare us with the notion of an atom bomb in the hands of a Commu-Nazi conspiracy.

The trouble begins when a couple of Arab peasants stub their toes on a derelict nuke misplaced by the Israeli army. These simple, backward folk, thinking it’s a jardinière or something, peddle the weapon to real villains. The America-hating mastermind is a Vienna millionaire (Alan Bates, no relief) with a swastika engraved on the inside of his watch. (Sample rant: “They called Hitler crazy. He wasn’t crazy.”)

I can’t give the film the dignity it seeks (or, rather, that it borrows) from Morgan Freeman, who plays President James Cromwell’s main advisor. Freeman can perform this kind of thing in his sleep, as he may have here. As in Spy Game, Fears is loaded with hushed staff meetings in bunkers and plate-glass chambers, clerks peering at screens, urgent e-mails and teleconferences. To make matters worse, we’re tantalized with a few scenes of a field agent played by Liev Schreiber (Kate & Leopold, Pay It Forward), whose career is far more exciting than anything Ryan gets up to. You don’t get to follow Schreiber’s character, though–that would be too escapist, God forbid.

If the film displays any particular timeliness, it’s that it compliments the Bush consensus that such a bombing is inevitable and we might as well get used to it. The Sum of All Fears does go a step further than the average spy effort. The audience has been teased endlessly by the warhead that almost goes off in the Bond films. Here, the bluff is called, as you can see from the previews. The fireball puts a pall over the adventure, even though the film, using a holocaust for entertainment, makes the claim that an atomic bombing of Baltimore really wouldn’t be that big a deal. We see some burnt cars and an overburdened emergency room as Ryan tries to get to a telephone to forestall world war.

It’s not giving away the ending to say there’s no permanent damage; we overhear a conversation to the effect that the fallout blows out to sea (that’s a relief!), and we end on a solemn but upbeat note. This film, which begins dull, ends lunatic. The Sum of All Fears, which flaunts its realism, is crazier than the craziest James Bond movie.

‘The Sum of All Fears’ opens Friday, May 31, in the North Bay.

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Howard Lyman

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Howard Lyman

Bovine Compassion: Howard Lyman’s 1998 book continues to make waves.

Meat and Greet

The ‘Mad Cowboy’ rides again

By Kimberly Arnold

It has been six years since Howard Lyman and Oprah Winfrey won the Texas lawsuit against them for slandering the meat industry. Appearing on Oprah’s talk show, Lyman claimed that the industry’s practice of grounding up the remains of dead cows and feeding them to live cows could cause the spread of mad cow disease across the United States. This method of forced cannibalism prompted Oprah to exclaim, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger.” While this gruesome practice ended several years ago, Lyman’s message has stood the test of time with an increasing number of converts and, like any true activist worth his salt, an increasing number of challengers.

His controversial statements, such as “meat kills. It kills us just as dead as tobacco kills us, but far more frequently,” have brought out more than just the Texas cattlemen millionaires. At one time, there were five lawsuits pending against Lyman. But he continues to pound the pavement in defense of vegetarianism. As recently as March, Lyman was put to task on Bill Maher’s talk show, Politically Incorrect, for his 1998 book Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat (cowritten with playwright Glen Merzer).

On the show, outdoor enthusiast, hunter, author, and freelance journalist Humberto Fontova asserted that “we are omnivores. . . . Our stomachs secrete hydrochloric acid. No herbivore does this. The only reason it does that is to digest meat because our ancestors did it for three million years.” Nonplussed, the cowboy from Montana shot back, “If you believe that, you’re smoking the number one crop out of California.”

Such dry wit belies the strong scientific basis for Lyman’s argument against the consumption of meat. Mad Cowboy documents numerous studies that read like science fiction. For instance, his description of John Kurtz’s FDA-monitored experiment of the recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) used to increase milk production seems too bizarre to be real. In an act of willful ignorance, the chemical company that hired Kurtz refused to accept the boxes of data he shipped to them, the very conclusions they had gone to such expense to investigate. Infertility, a symptom called “downed cows” (cows who couldn’t stand up due to drained calcium from their bones), and increased and accelerated death rates plagued rGBH-fed cows.

Lyman’s compelling book cites other studies investigating the effects of meat consumption. The Council on Environmental Quality in 1975 revealed that 95 percent of the human intake of DDT came from meat and dairy products. His claims are further supported by a study done by The Journal of the American Medical Association from as early as 1961, which concluded that “a vegetarian diet can prevent 97 percent of our coronary occlusions.”

Most vegetarians are familiar with standard arguments that people like Fontova pose: “The longest-lived people on Earth are carnivores. The shortest-lived people are the Hindu vegetarians. The Northern Indians eat nothing but meat. Not just meat, but blubber and organs. And they have a lower cancer rate.” Lyman is quick to counter: “Totally wrong. You should learn to read before you start spreading all this stuff out. And they live to be 50 years old.”

While longevity may not be a compelling enough reason for most people to give up their beloved beef, the gross-out element might be the deciding factor. Consider the effects of mad cow disease on the animals stricken by this merciless killer. Brain tissue develops holes, looking much like a sponge, which causes dementia in the cow and eventually kills it. In sheep, the disease is called “scrapie” due to the tendency of infected sheep to stagger around and scrape against things. In humans, this spongy-brain condition is referred to as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. People can contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob through the consumption of infected meat. As a fatal disease that is transmittable from species to species, this has truly frightening implications.

Lyman wasn’t raised by left-wing liberals or idealistic vegetarians. He was a hard-working, fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. It took a medical crisis–a spinal tumor almost paralyzed him–before he took pause and looked at what the chemicals he was using and the meat he was ingesting were doing to his body. His conversion to vegetarianism isn’t just the story of one man’s transformation; it is the story of a movement in the making. But don’t be fooled. For all its innocence, Mad Cowboy could cause radical changes in your life that may revolutionize the culinary habits of not only your own world, but of the whole world.

Howard Lyman appears at the Health Extravaganza on June 2, 3-6pm, at the Napa County Fairgrounds, Tubbs Bldg., 1435 N. Oak St., Calistoga. $10 donation. 707.978.3995.

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Music To Listen To While Reading Ralph Ellison

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Music To Listen To While Reading Ralph Ellison

Lady Day: Billie Holiday was one of Ralph Ellison’s essay subjects.

Collection/Archive Photo by Frank Driggs

Back Tracks

Music to read Ralph Ellison by

By Greg Cahill

Live with music, or die with noise,” author Ralph Ellison once wrote. His own choice was clear. Music–and especially jazz music–provided a wellspring of inspiration for a writer whose influential 1953 novel Invisible Man marked a turning point in American literature and exposed a side of the black experience that few whites understood at the time. Jazz not only informed his writings (providing titles for his works, motivation for characters, and even the beat of the dialogue), it also served as a topic for some of his best-known nonfiction writing compiled in a recent book and set to music on a newly released CD.

Case in point: Ellison’s story “Cadillac Flambe.” It tells the tale of Southern jazzman LeeWillie Minifees, who embarks on a road trip to Harlem, listening to jazz on the radio and hoping to study the phrasing of regional players while enjoying the drive. Instead, he hears a senator call the Caddy he cherishes a “coon cage.” Angered, Minifees careens onto the senator’s lawn and ceremoniously sets the car ablaze. “You can have it, Mister Senator,” says Minifees, “I don’t want it.” Then, quoting from the Billie Holiday song “All of Me,” he booms, “You have taken the best . . . so, dammit, take all the rest! Take all the rest!”

Eight years after his death, after being snubbed in the ’60s and ’70s for failing to meet the expectations of black radicals, Ellison is now comfortably ensconced–along with Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin–in the pantheon of great black writers.

These days, Ellison is enjoying renewed popularity. Last month, PBS aired an hour-long documentary by filmmaker Avon Kirkland on Ellison’s life, coupled with a dramatized production of his classic essay “King of the Bingo Game.” Those nonfiction jazz writings–which include essays on Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Charlie Christian, Louie Armstrong, Jimmy Rushing, Duke Ellington, and Mahalia Jackson, among others–can be found in the book Living with Music: Ralph Ellison’s Jazz Writings (Random House; $19.95), and a newly released companion CD, Ralph Ellison: Living with Music (Columbia/Legacy), features 13 tracks that provide a backdrop for those essays, as well as a rare five-minute excerpt from a 1964 Ellison lecture titled “A Writer’s Experience in the U.S.”

In the CD liner notes, Robert G. O’Meally (who also edited the compilation of jazz essays), writes: “This collection echoes the work of Ellison the trumpet player and composer-in-training who became a writer and offers Ellisonian equipment for those deciding not only to shun the noise but to live with the momentum implied in jazz music: To live a life that swings.”

In his writings, Ellison–who spent the last 40 years of his life writing a second novel, published posthumously–returned over and again to the swing life. His 1986 collection, Going to the Territory, draws its title from a Bessie Smith song and refers to the early jazz and swing bands that plied their trade on the Plains. And, O’Meally points out, Ellison’s 1944 story “Flying Home” (included on the CD) took its title from the popular wartime theme song recorded by Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and Charlie Christian–one of the first multiracial jazz bands–in which the players trade solos and background riffs.

“Try hearing the notes as statements by characters in a story,” O’Meally writes. “‘Each melodic line,’ Ellison wrote in Invisible Man, ‘stood out clearly from the rest, said its piece, and waited patiently for the other voices to speak.'”

Taken together, Living with Music, the book and CD, provide a glimpse into one man’s lifelong pursuit of the muse, his determined quest, as Ellison said, “to capture the textures and colors of experience.”

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Amy Smith

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Amy Smith


Photograph by Bob Stender

Crowning Glory: Amy Smith, shown here dying her hats, throws open her studio doors to the public for Sebastopol’s Art at the Source.

Head Shop

The source of Amy Smith’s art is a topper

By Gretchen Giles

Amy Smith is glad to have a visitor, even if it means cleaning up. She proudly points out that the brightly colored threads in her West County studio are spooled by hue, that her scraps of silk and velvet are tidied away in plastic boxes, her feathers are categorized, and that her large collection of blind, bulbous heads is arranged on new shelving.

The heads, rest assured, are wooden. Some are carved to cunning brims, others bear deep creases in the crown, a few could put the stove in Lincoln’s pipe, and one flirts up at the side, presumably to better allow a flapper’s neat bob to peek out beneath.

Smith practices the old-fashioned art of millinery, or hat making, creating artistic headwear in the airy brightness of her newly neat studio while classical music quietly plays, her ancient dog pants in a stream of sun, and the iron steams its clean, familiar scent.

Exhibiting her work as part of the Sebastopol Center for the Art’s eighth annual Art at the Source open studio tour, running June 1-2 and 8-9, Smith has good reason to straighten up.

According to Sebastopol Center for the Arts executive director Linda Galletta, an estimated 3,000 people took this self-styled tour of artist’s studios last year, resulting in more than $177,000 in total sales over one weekend for the 66 participating artists. This year, the event stretches to two weekends with some 91 souls willing to throw open their doors, pour some cheap wine into plastic cups, and invite hordes of complete strangers into their most private spaceÑwhere they create art. What’s more, once the strangers have arrived, sipped, and looked, they’re going to want to talk about it.

All of which is cheery fun for Smith, who, like most visual artists, works in complete isolation.

“I like having feedback and having visitors in my space,” she insists. “I’ve been trying to find a way not to work so alone.”

But working in a crowd, albeit an underage one, is what led Smith to millinery in the first place. As a young textile artist with two babies underfoot, she quickly realized that printing 100 yards of cloth at a time, hand-painting lingerie, or working with the wet mess of tie-dye was hard to do with curious toddlers threatening to upend the works. “I needed something I could do up here,” she says, patting the large padded worktable where she sits to block her hats. “It’s what wacky female artists did during the turn of the [19th] century. And,” she smiles, “you can finish a hat during naptime.”

A petite, smiling-eyed woman in her 40s, Smith grew up in a family of crafty women. Her mother had her own small hat-making business, and an entrepreneurial aunt had two retail stores devoted to handicrafts. “While my aunt would show my sisters or cousins how to make something, she’d just give me a pattern and hand me the wool,” Smith remembers. “I don’t even remember learning how to knit; it was just something I could always do. If I needed money in college, I’d crochet someone a bikini.”

Pulling a favorite mold down from her line of heads, Smith chats while she casually fashions a hat. Taking an undyed Panama from a bag, she pushes it firmly down upon the faceless mannequin. “I make vintage-style hats, so I use vintage molds,” she says as she squirts the brim quickly with water. “But I also make my hats larger. People seem to have bigger heads these days.”

The water settled into the leaf-frond weave of the Panama, Smith sprays the brim with such ordinary starch as would stiffen a shirtfront. Working quickly as she talks, she rolls the brim over in a small curl all the way around, pinning the roll deftly in place before it rebounds. “I don’t so much block a hat as sculpt it,” she explains, scrunching the crown with both hands so that three finger-made ridges appear. “I love the process of sculpting; it’s working with materials and moving them into shape. You have to get into a different mindset for finishing. Hand-sewing the edges, adding the ribbon . . . ,” she drifts off. Those are clearly chores. Making the entity that will grace a face is her pleasure.

And Smith is all for pleasure. Having previously created 700 to 800 hats a year, sitting, spritzing, starching, and sculpting as a one-woman sweat shop all alone in the studio, she’s now content to produce only 200 annually. “It’s been nice to introduce myself to my kids again,” she says. Retailing for between $75 and $250, Smith’s hats are favored by gosh-dang unnamed celebrities as well as local clients and are generally sold in art galleries, rather than clothing stores, across the country. Her own husband, however, has to wait. “Every time I finish his hat,” she smiles, “someone buys it.”

More seriously, Smith explains that her work is important to her because “those of us who baked ourselves in the sun are now being told that we need to cover up. I think we should do it in style.” She’s also developing a line of hats specifically for those who have lost their hair to the ravages of chemotherapy. “People want to stay looking beautiful.” She explains that she watches old movies for inspiration, considering indeed such soft, close-fitting beauty as the word “cloche” conveys.

Almost as many men as women purchase Smith’s work, so she has developed two steady lines, “Joe” and “Maria”Ñmore like old friends than headwear. “People come to me for that chic-but-casual look,” she says, modeling Joe, a handsome, straw, gardening-to-jazz-festival model. “Mine aren’t as crisp as store-bought hats, because I don’t lacquer them. They feel better that way and you’re not afraid to put them on.”

Taking Joe off, she turns again to the Panama. Gripping the brim edge tightly, she grimaces with effort and begins to crank the straw into a rosette. The rest of the hat pulls into shape, attaining a high haughty back and a dipped front, the finger-ridges of the crown deepening dramatically. Working swiftly, Smith pins the rosette into place and spritzes it with starch. “Everyone looks good in a hat,” she assures.

“This,” Smith chuckles as she cocks her head to admire her fast-drying work, “is the first time I’ve ever stuck with anything long enough for it to come back in style.”

Art at the Source runs Saturday-Sunday, June 1-2 and 8-9, 10am-5pm. Various locations. Free.
Amy Smith’s studio is at 5300 Denver Lane, Sebastopol. For map and complete details, contact the Sebastopol Center for the Arts at 707.829.4797.

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Waterkeeper Alliance And Organic Valley Partnership

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Waterkeeper Alliance And Organic Valley Partnership

Flush With Success: Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with conviction.

Pure Earth, Pure Water

Robert Kennedy Jr. announces a step toward healthier waterways

By M. V. Wood

Healthy food promotes clean water; clean water promotes healthy food. This reciprocal relationship is about to get codified, as a leading environmental group and a leading organic farm cooperative join hands. On June 8, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance, will announce the organization’s new partnership with Organic Valley, North America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, during his talk at the Health and Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa.

“The Waterkeeper Alliance and Organic Valley partnership is designed to highlight the crucial link between pure farms and pure waters,” Kennedy said, commenting on the first formal partnership the organization has entered into since its creation in 1966. Details of the partnership will be released at a press conference prior to the speech. “All organic farmers should be recognized for the contribution they make to protecting our environment,” Kennedy added during a recent phone interview from his New York office. “Our partnership with Organic Valley will help to expand the market for all sustainable farmers.”

Waterkeeper Alliance is best described as an environmental “neighborhood watch” program. Its philosophy holds that the protection and enjoyment of a community’s natural resources require the daily vigilance of its citizens. Community members keep an eye out for polluters in their local waterways with one person designated as the riverkeeper for that area. Equipped with some type of boat, hip boots, vials for water tests, and a working knowledge of environmental law, the riverkeeper patrols neighborhood waterways. The local groups can turn to the umbrella organization for legal help in suing violators.

There are currently 87 international organizations in Waterkeeper Alliance, mostly in North America and several in Central America. Local groups include the Petaluma Riverkeeper, the Russian Riverkeeper, and the Tomales Baykeeper.

The alliance’s main concern is to protect waterways, and in order to do that, the organization has turned to promoting organic farming as well, said Jeffrey Odefey, staff attorney for Waterkeeper Alliance. “Many of our riverkeepers, especially those in South Carolina, kept finding large amounts of pollutants in the water due to nearby agricultural industries, mostly hog farms,” Odefey explained. These industrial hog factories have become one of the country’s biggest environmental hazards, he added.

Thousands of hogs are squeezed into tiny pens in giant warehouses. In order to prevent epidemic levels of disease amid such overcrowding, the hogs are fed antibiotics in addition to growth hormones. According to statistics disseminated by the alliance, up to 80 percent of antibiotics administered to hogs pass unchanged through the animal.

The waste from these hogs is then flushed into open-air pits. Animal waste is rich in phosphorus and nitrogen and can be used as fertilizer when applied in appropriate amounts. But the thick brew of feces and urine in the pits is too concentrated to be effectively used as fertilizer by most crops, so the untreated waste simply runs directly into public waterways, carrying with it the antibiotics and the high levels of nitrates.

Once antibiotics enter waterways, they spread through the environment in low concentrations, killing susceptible bacteria and leaving resistant survivors to multiply. Those bacteria can then infect people who swim in lakes and rivers or drink well water. Diseases that were once easy to treat with routine antibiotics are becoming difficult to cure.

What caught the attention of the riverkeepers in the Carolinas were the millions of fish in North Carolina that were dying because their skin was dissolving. It turns out that nutrient-rich waters spawn outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida, a microscopic predator that secretes toxins fatal to fish. Waterkeeper Alliance representatives believe that these same toxins cause fishermen, swimmers, and others to suffer respiratory distress, mental impairment, and body sores.

In hopes of cleaning up their waters, the riverkeepers turned to organic farmers to form symbiotic relationships. For example, Waterkeeper Alliance has trumpeted the work of farms–such as Marin County-based Niman Ranch–that do not use antibiotics or growth hormones. Additionally, in these small farms, the animals are able to engage in natural behaviors such as roaming the land, building nests, and socializing.

And now the alliance is forming a partnership with Organic Valley, the only national organic brand owned and operated by farmers. It was organized 15 years ago by a half-dozen family farmers who believed in sustainable agricultural. Now it’s made up of 450 farmers throughout the United States.

George Siemon, founder and CEO of Organic Valley, will speak at the upcoming festival along with Kennedy.

“We are pleased and honored to have been invited to participate in this year’s Health and Harmony Festival,” Kennedy said. “The success of the festival over the years makes it an ideal place to launch our partnership with Organic Valley. Knowing that many of the people who attend the festival are committed to protecting the environment makes it even more special for us.”

The event, consistently voted the best area festival by Bohemian readers, is now in its 24th year. Celebrating all that is good, healthy, and harmonious in life, the festival has a long-standing relationship with Organic Valley. “Bobby Kennedy doesn’t usually speak at venues such as festivals, but Organic Valley really went to bat for us to bring him here,” said Jeanne Friedland, one of the festival organizers.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce the organization’s new partnership with Organic Valley at 2pm, June 8, at the Health and Harmony Festival’s Eco-Village stage, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa. Kennedy will also present the keynote address at the festival’s main stage at 2:45pm. 707.547.9355. For more information, visit www.harmonyfestival.com.

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Healthcare For Farm Workers

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Healthcare For Farm Workers


Photograph by Rory McNamara

To Your Health: They tend to the vines, but do they tend to their health?

Silent Suffering

North Bay farm workers face a healthcare crisis

By Joy Lanzendorfer

Efran Castillo was in pain. For some days, the vineyard worker had been hobbling around. He had stepped in a hole, fallen, and hurt his ankle. Since he spoke no English, had no healthcare insurance, and didn’t know how to get help, he simply tried to live with the pain.

His supervisor, noticing his problem, told Castillo that his injury was covered by workers’ compensation and took him to the nearest emergency room. There, no one spoke Spanish, and even with the supervisor translating for him, Castillo found the hospital intimidating and confusing. Nearly illiterate, he had trouble filling out the required forms. After waiting hours and being shuffled from room to room, his ankle, which was broken, was put in a cast.

Castillo was assigned no doctor, and follow-up care was not clearly explained to him; when it came time for the cast to be removed, he naturally went back to the emergency room. Since federal law dictates that hospitals cannot turn away people seeking care at an emergency room, the hospital had no choice but to devote emergency resources to a nonemergency situation.

Farm workers tend to have more health problems than most other groups of workers in Sonoma and Napa counties but less access to care. As a result, they often misuse the already overtaxed emergency departments or let problems get to the breaking point before finally seeking help. And because the issue has not been tracked, no one really knows how big the problem is. One thing is clear, though: as the number of migrant and farm workers increases and the cost of health insurance continues to go up, this issue will weigh more and more heavily on the North Bay’s sagging healthcare system.

Uninsured, Uniformed

The exact number of both regular and migrant farm workers in Sonoma and Napa counties is unknown. The 2000 census showed that Latinos made up 23.7 percent and 17.3 percent of Napa and Sonoma counties’ population, respectively. And few of the farm workers have health insurance, though again the numbers are sketchy. In Sonoma County, 60,000 people are estimated to be uninsured, but experts have called that number low, and no one knows how many are farm workers. Napa’s Queen of the Valley Hospital estimated that 64 percent of Latinos in Napa County are uninsured.

“No one has hard numbers on how many uninsured farm workers are in our area,” says Jeff Meckler, M.D., medical director of Alliance Medical Center in Healdsburg, which primarily serves the Hispanic population. “It depends on what type of worker you’re talking about. The undocumented workers rarely have insurance. With the documented workers, it depends on whether or not their employers offer insurance.”

But whether insured or not, Hispanic workers often have health problems related to their lifestyles. Farm workers tend to eat a lot of fast food, loaded with fat and sugar, which puts them at a greater risk of obesity and high cholesterol and in turn ups their chances of getting chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Though immediate injuries such as Efran Castillo’s broken ankle are covered by workers’ comp, other kinds of work problems can be ignored, such as ongoing back pain or foot injuries.

“We primarily see a lot of untreated chronic conditions, especially diabetes, high blood pressure, and hypertension,” says Beatrice Bostick, head of Community Health Clinic Ole, the main source of healthcare for Hispanic workers in Napa County. “Chronic illnesses are troubling to treat, because even when we diagnose a problem, it is difficult to get the workers to come back for follow-up care.”

The effect of pesticides on farm workers is also becoming a concern. A study published last year in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine showed that Hispanic farm workers in California have much higher incidents of leukemia, as well as brain, stomach, and skin cancers. The study did not, however, establish a clear link between the cancer rates and pesticide exposure.

Local doctors haven’t seen as many cases of cancer as the study suggests they would. Some speculate that this may be because pesticides used in vineyards are somewhat gentler than those used on other kinds of crops; others believe it may be because very ill workers tend to return to Mexico for treatment.

But some doctors are seeing other disturbing trends that may be linked to pesticides. Meckler, for example, has seen several cases of birth defects in the last five years. One baby was born without eyes and several others with abdominal wall closures.

“I have no idea if the birth defects we’ve seen have anything to do with pesticides or not,” he says. “It just seems like we’ve seen more than you would expect. It would be good if there was some reporting system to collect hard evidence on whether this is at all linked to pesticide exposure.”

Because migrant workers often leave family behind in Mexico when they come to the United States for economic reasons, they are often socially and emotionally isolated, which leads to high incidents of depression and other mental illnesses, some experts believe. And though there are a considerable number of programs directed at children of farm workers, a lot more could be done to ensure the children’s care.

Doctor, Doctor

With a lack of numbers on how few North Bay farm workers are getting the care they need, the problem may be worse than many realize. A study of 971 California farm workers (including those in the North Bay) by the California Institute of Rural Studies revealed that more than a third of the men had never been to a doctor in their lives. Even fewer people had dental and eye care. More than half the men and two-fifths of the women had never been to a dentist, and two-thirds of both sexes had never been to an eye doctor. Not surprisingly, nearly 70 percent of those surveyed lacked any form of health insurance, and only 7 percent were covered by a government-funded program.

But poor healthcare access for farm workers is more complicated than the fact that many employers don’t offer insurance, though that is part of the problem. In fact, some vineyards and farms do offer health insurance. Alliance Medical, for example, estimates that roughly one-quarter of its Hispanic patients are insured through their employers. Queen of the Valley Hospital estimated that nearly one-third of Napa County Latino residents have insurance.

“Some vineyard owners do provide insurance for their workers,” says Andy Demsky, spokesperson for the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association. “There is even seasonal coverage for temporary workers. It just depends on the vineyard.”

But even when employers do offer insurance, many workers can’t afford the co-payments. Because migrant workers can earn less than $10,000 a year, co-payments must compete with other more immediate needs such as food and housing. Though nearly 17 percent of those surveyed in the CIRS study said their employers offered health insurance, one-third of that amount didn’t participate in the plan because they couldn’t afford the payments.

When employees don’t have healthcare insurance, their options are greatly reduced. Legal aliens can apply for government programs such as Medi-Cal, which will cover some of their needs. Clinics like Community Health Clinic Ole and Alliance Medical will work with patients to develop a sliding-scale fee based on their income and whatever insurance they have.

As in Castillo’s case, the misuse of emergency rooms is also a common path for the poor. Since hospitals must offer care regardless of the patient’s ability to pay, many uninsured people use ERs as their primary care providers. Because of this and other factors, the majority of emergency rooms in the nation are losing money and have no way to recoup costs. And misuse adds to overcrowding in the emergency room, so that severely ill or dying patients are often turned away because the beds and resources are already in use.

Greek to Me

When it comes to dealing with being uninsured, farm workers are no worse off than other low-income workers who can’t afford healthcare. However, Mexican workers have extra obstacles that other working poor don’t have, according to Rick Mines, Ph.D., one of the researchers who worked on the CIRS study.

“The farm workers are similar to other working poor in terms of healthcare access, except they have additional cultural barriers,” he says. “These barriers are a huge problem. We found that because they don’t have these barriers, the working poor can utilize the healthcare system much better than the farm workers can.”

All such barriers are secondary to illegal aliens, who often fear that seeking healthcare will put them at risk for deportation. As a result, many will not get help unless they are very sick. But beyond this, the most obvious cultural barrier is language.

In Sonoma and Napa counties, many healthcare providers have bilingual people on staff, but they are usually in the minority. And even if there is a large bilingual staff, few specialists and doctors are bilingual. Without someone there to translate, farm workers have trouble explaining symptoms, may not understand prevention and care instructions, and can’t ask for clarification if they are confused. Put all this on top of feeling sick–sick enough to seek care when you typically avoid doing so–and it’s easy to see why language would be a huge issue for the worker to contend with. And language barriers are one of the reasons workers don’t understand what healthcare resources are available to them in the first place.

Transportation is also an issue, especially when cash-strapped workers can’t afford to take much time off work, according to Kathy Ficco, executive director of the Medical Access Program at St. Joseph Health System, Greater Sonoma County.

“We have one woman who needed to go from Roseland to Southwest Community Health Center on Lombardi Court in Santa Rosa, a 10-minute drive for you and me,” she says. “On the bus, it was an hour and a half to get to the clinic. In her case, she usually has three sick children with her. It’s very difficult for them to travel without a car.”

But perhaps more than anything else, it is the cultural strangeness of our healthcare system that keeps many workers from seeking care. To be unable to get to a healthcare provider and then explain yourself once there are both definite obstacles, but that’s nothing compared to not knowing where to go and how the system works to begin with.

In Efran Castillo’s case, uncertainty of how the local healthcare system works kept him from getting help for his ankle and made the experience confusing and intimidating when he finally did. The California Institute of Rural Studies found that most farm workers prefer Mexican healthcare, which is quite different from U.S. healthcare. Though not as accurate and careful, Mexican healthcare means less bureaucracy and waiting, fewer laboratory tests, quicker diagnosis, and immediate issuance of medicine, all by someone who, of course, speaks Spanish and shares the same cultural background as the patient.

Maria Matsen, who worked with migrant and farm workers in Napa County for 12 years and is a member of the Latina Advisory Board, feels that cultural sensitivity is the first step to reaching the throngs of unknown health problems among the farm workers.

“Yes, we have Health Clinic Ole and some other healthcare resources in Napa County, but we could do a lot better,” she says. “Cultural sensitivity is the key to understanding how this group of people works. We can’t expect them to change to our way of doing things. We would be better off teaching them how to incorporate healthier thinking into their habits. I think a lot of people in charge of some of these programs don’t understand that.”

Some providers are beginning to reach out to the silent population. Alliance Medical Center received a grant to go into the farm worker community where they plan to do health screening and educate the population on the existence of the clinic. St. Joseph’s Medical Access Program received a $500,000 grant from the California Endowment to fund a dental clinic van, which will go out into the community to offer dental care and education. The program also runs a medical unit that supplies the community with some medical care and education on issues such as cooking and prevention of diseases.

According to Ficco, St. Joseph’s Medical Access Program supplies the only vans in the North Bay that directly reach the farm worker community.

“I think that Queen of the Valley would like to have a van, and the community has told them that a van would help,” she says. “But many feel that the needs of the Hispanic population have been met. What they don’t seem to understand is that the van reaches the population the clinics aren’t reaching. We can provide newcomers with links to the clinics.”

Sick Days

Healthcare rates are still rising. Insurance rates are expected to increase for the fourth year in a row to the highest amount yet–early numbers are indicating a 25 percent increase for HMOs in 2003. As rates continue to rise, fewer employers will be able to afford healthcare insurance, and those who continue to maintain insurance are likely to pass more of the burden on to the employees. Southwest Community Health Center is already seeing 200 to 300 more patients a month as more people without insurance seek care. Next year, the clinic expects to see more patients, including middle-class patients who can no longer afford premiums.

While rates are increasing, evidence suggests that the number of migrant workers coming into the two counties is increasing as well. The Press Democrat recently reported that the number of day laborers has increased to 120 in Graton and 200 in Fulton.

What does all this mean for the farm worker? As more Mexicans come in to the area and jobs remain tighter compared to earlier years, there will be more competition for jobs, lower wages, and less health insurance.

“The problem is likely to get worse for the migrant workers before it gets better,” says Meckler.

From the May 30-June 5, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

2002 Summer Events Guide

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2002 Summer Events Guide


Bad Ass Blues: Etta James and the Roots Band rolls into the Robert Mondavi Summer Festival.

Popping the Summer Cherry

The long-awaited summer event season bursts with juice

By Davina Baum and Sara Bir

Summer in the North Bay is a panoply of pleasures, a litany of larks. For those who don’t have the luxury of three-month summer vacations, the long, sunny days go the distance in convincing us that lunch breaks in the park and early-evening bike rides down shady winding roads (swerving around the touristic masses) confer summer’s bounty well enough. But the weekend, the weekend! That’s when summer really kicks in, that’s when the choices become wrenching–when a weekend could involve rocking with Cinderella, talking water conservation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dipping fingers in some Italian street painting, and sitting back for some jazz at Rodney Strong (all June 7-9), if you plan it right.

Although there’s certainly a large something to be said for sitting in the hammock with a book all day, drinking lemonade and sucking on cherries, summer invites a certain amount of activity. Herewith, activities galore. The next few months are a wine-swilling, booty-shaking, fine-food-scarfing extravaganza, so plot it out carefully and save the relaxing for October.

May | June | July | August | September

Busy Beyond His Years: Julian Lage has a hectic summer ahead: He performs at the Jenner Concert Series, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and Jazz on the River.

May

Jenner Concert Series
The Jenner Theater has been upgraded and is ready to rock with local and international music, all for a great cause: Portions of proceeds benefit the Jenner Watershed Legal Fund. Heat up the dance floor with Julian Lage, the Dave Mac Nab Trio, and others. May 25-June 29. Jenner Theater, behind gas station, downtown Jenner. $15. 707.865.2771 or 707.865.1938. (SB)


Luce warms up the summer days.

Daze on the Green
A little alternative rock is just what the soul needs to get summer kick-started, and Mill Valley is happy to comply–with a little help from Sweetwater and KFOG. Benefiting the Southern County Youth Athletic and Music programs, this May 27 event rocks out with Stroke 9, Box Set, Vinyl, and Luce. Mill Valley Community Center Field, Mill Valley. Admission is $8. 415.388.2820. (DB)

Bluegrass in the Valley
If bluegrass gets you going, skip the Daze on the Green (see previous) and head straight for Sunday’s Bluegrass in the Valley. After all, proceeds benefit the same organization, and for $5 you can see Peter Rowan, the David Thom Band, the Modern Hicks, and the Alhambra Valley Band. May 26 at the Mill Valley Community Center Field, Mill Valley. 415.388.2820. (DB)


Babatunde Lea closes the Healdsburg Jazz Fest.

Healdsburg Jazz Festival
There will be a vast array of talent spreading itself around Healdsburg for the fourth annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival this year. Early birds can get warmed up on May 27 at 8pm with a prefestival benefit at the Healdsburg Hotel when film archivist Mark Cantor screens a few gems of jazz cinema. The festival officially kicks off on May 31 at the Raven Film Center (7pm and 9pm; $30) with African rhythms maestro Randy Weston in a solo piano recital. On June 1, the festivities move outdoors to the Rodney Strong Vineyard with a triple bill (noon; $35): the Cedar Walton Trio (featuring Jackie McLean), Curtis Fuller Super Band (James Williams, Javon Jackson, Michael Bowie, and Louis Hayes), and the Julian Lage Group (Art Hirahara, Todd Sickafoose, and Alan U’Ren). Before you know it, it’s over, with the festival finale on June 2 on the Healdsburg Plaza (2pm; free) with the powerfully talented Babatunde Lea Quintet. In addition to these main events, the festival offers a number of free concerts–see if you can keep up. On May 31 the Jeff Pittson Trio performs at the Healdsburg Hotel (8pm-midnight); the Eddie Marshall Quartet shakes up Felix and Louie’s on June 1 (9pm); and the Mark Levine Trio delivers a delightful jazz brunch on June 2, also at Felix and Louie’s (11am-3pm). Healdsburg Town Square. Tickets are available online at www.healdsburgjazzfestival.com or by calling 707.433.4633. (DB)

Wine Country Classic
Watch 30 of the world’s premier racing cars roar out of retirement at the Sears Point Raceway’s Wine Country Classic. From a 1915 Ford Model T to the 1985 Tyrell F1, all of the cars once competed for motor racing’s Holy Grail: the FIA Formula One World Championship. There will be hot-rod drag racing and a classic car rally through the lovely streets of Sonoma to the Plaza downtown with the Sonoma Valley Vintage Racecar Festival. May 29-June 2, Sears Point Raceway, Highways 37 and 121, Sonoma. Prices vary. 1.800.870.RACE. (SB)

Friday at Falkirk Cultural Series
No more fretting over how to kick off the weekend: San Rafael’s Falkirk Cultural Center has three Friday events all planned out for you. May 31’s “Totally Tango!” explores the dance, music, and food of Argentina. Slide into swanky old standards with June’s “Jazz Impressions of Cole Porter.” Falkirk transforms into a tiki paradise with the “Exotica Tribute to Martin Denny,” an evening of swizzle-stick contests, exotic drinks, and onstage totem carving. May 31-July 26, times vary. Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission Ave., San Rafael. $15 general; $13 Falkirk members. 415.485.3327. (SB)


Photograph by Joy Phoenix

Artist Genna Panzarella makes street magic.

June

Heritage Festival
If the varieties of food don’t get you (catfish, pad thai, ableskiver, kringle, borscht, baklava, cabbage rolls) then perhaps the dancing will (Greek line dancing, Thai dance and boxing, African American stomp). Or maybe it’s the world-wise handicrafts that will have you running for the Petaluma Community Center on June 1 to attend this first annual Multicultural Heritage Day. Petaluma Community Center, 320 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma. $8 adults. 707.763.9556. (DB)

Art at the Source
Open studios are an amazing thing, a rare chance to see artists in their native habitat. This year’s Art at the Source is especially celebratory as Sebastopol Center for the Arts recently inaugurated their new, expanded headquarters. Over two weekends (June 1-2, June 8-9), 92 artists and craftspeople will swing open their barn doors, chicken coops, lofts, or studios, and allow curious visitors to observe how they live and work. It’s entirely individualized: You can see one studio, or you can see them all (good luck!). Develop your own self-guided tour by visiting the Center’s preview exhibit or by looking at the catalog online at www.artatthesource.org. Sebastopol Center for the Arts is at 6780 Depot St., Sebastopol. 707.829.4797. (DB)

Marin Home Show
While you’re shopping for corian, shiny faucets, and the latest in recycled building material at the Marin Home Show on June 1-2, you might feel a little bump in your step, a little wiggle in your rear. It’s not the bulldozer demonstration shaking things up–it’s the jazz bands, of course. With acts like the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra and Rex Allen’s Swing Express playing, home and garden improvement has never seemed so satisfying. Marin Center Civic Center, San Rafael. $6. Check www.marinhomeshow.com for more information. 415.472.3500. (DB)

Valley of the Moon Art Association Art Show
On the super-quaint Sonoma Plaza, artists will offer their wares. This is an all-weekend event, but if you go on Sunday you can partake in the Ox Roast (see below). June 1-2, Sonoma Plaza, Sonoma. 707.996.1090. (SB)

37th Annual Ox Roast
The roasting in question is just not any ox–it’s a massive barbecue of Harris Ranch beef in Sonoma’s Plaza. Add corn on the cob, Sonoma Valley wines, and the Valley of the Moon Art Association’s art show to the equation, and you have yourself a damn fine afternoon. Stroll the plaza, roasted ox and wine in hand, and browse through local artists’ booths. The handpainted Sonoma Valley cows you may have spotted hanging around the Valley (don’t worry, they’re fiberglass, not living) will be lined up in front of city hall, mooing along with the jazz and rock bands playing. Sunday, June 2, 11am-5pm, Sonoma Plaza, Sonoma. 707.996.1090. (SB)

Healthful Living Extravaganza
If the doleful winter months have seen you planted firmly on the couch with a TV dinner on one side and a beer on the other, it’s time to learn a little bit about the benefits of healthful living. At this Healthful Living Extravaganza at the Napa County Fairgrounds on June 2, speakers such as Howard Lyman (“the Mad Cowboy”), the Benton Sisters, and Hans Diehl will put their best feet forward, sharing the knowledge of healthful living to all and sundry. Napa County Fairgrounds, Tubbs Building, 1435 N. Oak St., Calistoga. $10 donation. Preregistration is advised. Call 707.987.3995. (DB)

Hit the Road Jack Run
This 10K run, a certified ASATF course, is about as lovely as you can get, scenerywise. For you walkers and runners who just don’t feel like running a whole 10K, there’s a 2.2-mile course for y’all. Sunday, June 2, 8am. Sonoma Plaza, Sonoma. $17 adults; $13 ages 16 and under, if registration is postmarked by May 23. $20/$15, on day of the race. For more information, call 707.938.8544. (SB)

Virginia Woolf Conference
This isn’t your typical summer festival: no cotton candy or roller coasters, no smooth jazz in the sun, just hundreds of like-minded literary folk celebrating the talent of Virginia Woolf. A variety of multimedia presentations, including a musical essay, a dance performance, panels, films, and of course readings aplenty. June 6-9, Sonoma State University, 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. 707.664.2882. (DB)


Photograph by Marina Chavez

Don’t stop believin’ in Journey.

Konocti Field
Konocti is going all out this year, serving as the one-stop concert venue for all the aging rockers out there. The lineup is jaw-dropping in all its hair band glory: Meat Loaf (July 6), Scorpions and Deep Purple (July 31), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Aug. 2), Heart (Aug. 3), Journey (Aug. 23), Sammy Hagar (Sept. 1). Did I forget to mention a triple bill of Poison, Cinderella, and Winger (June 7)? Make sure your lighters work, tease your hair out to there, and dig out the daisy dukes. 8727 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. 800.660.LAKE. (DB)

Sonoma Odyssey Bayou Boogie
Thirty Russian River wineries uncork their best at the Sonoma Odyssey, a gala replete with a Sonoma-style barbecue, a silent and live wine auction, and boogie tunes from Gator Beat (I don’t think they will be serving any gator, sadly). Proceeds go to the Sonoma County Wine Library. Psst! You gotta make reservations. Saturday, June 8, 3pm. Richard’s Grove and Saralee’s Vineyard, 3575 Slusser Road, Windsor. $30 WLASC members; $40 nonmembers. 707.837.2816. (SB)


Voices In Harmony: Copper Wimmin’s a cappella stylings will ring through the Health and Harmony Festival.

Health and Harmony Festival
From the Goddess Temple to the psychic readers to the Inner Peace Meditation Garden, there’s no lack of healing energy at this year’s Health and Harmony Festival (June 8-9 at Sonoma County Fairgrounds). Harness that energy and direct it toward the five stages, where ongoing entertainment encourages lots of wriggle dancing and harmonious swaying. Let the music move you, man. Daytime entertainment on Saturday includes the Robben Ford Band, Copper Wimmin, and Lost at Last, among others. On Sunday, groove to Taj Mahal, Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, and more. Saturday night kicks in with the Techno Tribal Community Dance. The festival’s theme, “One Planet, One People, One Peace at a Time,” will be expanded upon by speakers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Casey. Admission is $17-$20; $20-$25 for Saturday evening’s dance. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa. 707.547.9355. (DB)

Italian Street Painting Festival
The streets of San Rafael burst into color during the Youth in Arts Italian Street Painting Festival. The event brings together 400 professional and student madonnari (street painters) and is modeled after a festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy. Besides live music and tasty treats, there’s a “Festival Mercato” (that’s “market” to you) and a “Children’s Avenue,” where junior can become a madonnari, too. Saturday and Sunday, June 8-9, 9am-6pm. Fifth and A streets, San Rafael. 415.457.4878. (SB)

Petaluma Art and Garden Festival
This is a brand-new festival that aims to provide a stylish and fun atmosphere for shoppers to get acquainted with downtown Petaluma. Food and winetastings, children’s art activities, an art display and sale, and a garden sale will compose the merriment–and there’s live entertainment, too. Sunday, June 9, 9am-6pm, A Street parking lot and Kentucky Avenue, Petaluma. 707.762.9348. (SB)


Hiroshima’s smooth jazz accompanies smooth wine.

Rodney Strong Vineyards Summer Concert Series
Smooth jazz pairs perfectly with big, fruity Chardonnay. How convenient that Rodney Strong would offer the two in the same place. The 2002 Concert Series starts on June 9 at 3pm with Richard Elliot, Warren Hill, Marc Antoine, and Jeff Golub. The summer event moves slowly toward harvest season with Bobby Caldwell and Joyce Cooling (June 29, 3pm), Hiroshima and Strunz & Farrah (July 20, 4pm), and Dave Koz and Friends (Aug. 18, 3pm). 11455 Old Redwood Hwy., Healdsburg. 707.431.0919. (DB)

Napa Valley Opera House
On Friday, June 14, at 8pm, the halls of the Napa Valley Opera House will ring out with song for the first time in 88 years. And what a song it will be. Grammy Award-winner Dianne Reeves will reinaugurate the site in fine fashion. Other events planned for the newly renovated opera house include a community showcase of local talent on June 15 and a celebration of Cole Porter songs on June 16. Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge perform on June 18, and Dix Bruce and Jim Nunally take the stage on June 21. 1030 Main St., Napa. 707.22.OPERA. (DB)

Marin Art Festival
Between the Marin Lagoon and the Marin Civic Center in the heart of San Rafael, the Marin Arts Festival promises a relaxed atmosphere and elegant ambiance. Over 200 local artists’ work–paintings, jewelry, glassware, and more–reflect the character of Marin. There’ll be jazz quartets, hands-on art projects for children, and international cuisine in the dining pavilion. If you can’t get Dad to come out, you can at least do some Father’s Day shopping there. June 15-16, Marin Center, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. $8. 415.472.3500. (SB)

Napa County Landmarks Walking Tours
This tour was made for walking! Learn about Napa County’s rich history, and stretch your legs a little in the process. Historians guide you through the architectural styles and forgotten stories buried under the familiar facades of Calistoga Avenue, Napa’s Mansion District, downtown Yountville, and St. Helena. There’s even a tour of Tulocay Cemetery for those of you who are more into human mortality then Gothic Revival and Queen Anne. The Saturday tours (you missed the first one, ha ha!) stretch into the early fall, so there’s plenty of opportunity to get in on the walking. June 15-October 22, 9:45am. Starting locations vary. $7 general; $2 children 3-12. 707.255.1836. (SB)

Sonoma-Marin Fair
The Petaluma Fairgrounds gets a shot of retro rock at the Sonoma-Marin Fair (June 19-23) with the dulcet tones of the Beach Boys, the reigning king of ’80s rock Eddie Money, and smooth-sailing Christopher Cross. Music’s not all there is on offer. The wine competition allows local wineries to go head to head with their neighbors, while the technology pavilion promotes 21st-century knowledge. Of course, the traditional fair accoutrements–hot dogs, cotton candy, and roller coasters–will not be in short supply. Petaluma Fairgrounds, Petaluma. $12. 707.283.FAIR. (DB)


Harvey Cohen’s seed packet art springs up at the San Anselmo Art Fest.

San Anselmo Art Festival
Stroll lovely San Anselmo, sampling fine food, taking in local craftspeople’s bounty of loot, and soaking in the warm, summer sun. For a reprieve from the heat, jump into one of San Anselmo’s 130 antique dealers. Perhaps you’ll find a bargain on an antique hand fan. June 22-23, 10am-6pm. San Anselmo Ave., between Bolinas and Tamalpais streets. 510.970.3217. (DB)


The Preservation Hall Jazz Band swings at Mondavi.

Robert Mondavi Winery Summer Festival
This year’s lineup is killer, bringing in a such a string of legendary talent that it’s mind-boggling. The festival kicks off with Omara Portuondo accompanied by the 13 Buena Vista Social Club band members, then marches into Independence Day (OK, not really–it’s July 6) with New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Boz Scaggs, jazzman Dave Brubeck, and Etta James and the Roots Band round out the season’s events. All proceeds from the concerts are donated to the Napa Valley Symphony, and you, my friend, get to spend intermission dabbling in Mondavi wines and Sonoma Jack cheeses. June 22-Aug. 10, Robert Mondavi Winery, Highway 29, Oakville. $42-$95. For tickets, call 888.769.5299; for concert information, call 888.RMONDAVI. (SB)

Mill Valley Wine and Gourmet Food Tasting
What better pairing is there than food and wine? Food alone is fine, maybe a little bland, and wine alone is OK–but together they work magic. On June 23 (1-4pm), Mill Valley’s Lytton Square becomes a gourmet paradise, with over 70 local wines and 35 food producers and restaurants. It’s a gourmand’s dream. $25 advance; $28 day of event. 415.388.8466. (DB)

Concerts in the Park
Bring out the blanket and relax on yo’ can or shake your booty to the groove (it depends on whose playing, I suppose). Novato’s free Concerts in the Park (Pioneer Park, that is) span from Japanese drumming to rock and roll oldies to Dixieland jazz. June 23-Sept. 29. 415.897.4323. (SB)

Windsor Summer Nights on the Green
Make tracks to the Windsor Town Green for summer markets featuring about 38 vendors including Windsor Farmers Market, Willie Bird turkey barbecue, Pasta King pasta, Bear Republic root beer and root beer floats, live music on the bandstand, and Jubilee Jumps for the kids. Buy your vegetables and flowers for the weekend, and have dinner for around $5, all to the sounds of live music. June 27-Aug. 22, 5-8pm. Windsor Town Green, Windsor. 707.838.5382. (SB)

Jarvis Conservatory Zarzuela
The 2002 season of Jarvis Conservatory’s Zarzuela Festival (a zarzuela being an operatic Spanish performance with musicians, singers, and dancers) brings this lost art to life with two productions packed into one evening: Gigantes y Cabezudos and La Alegria de la Huerta. June 28-30. Times vary. Jarvis Conservatory, 1711 Main St., Napa. $45-$30. 707.255.5445. (SB)

Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival
Once again, people gather to commemorate and celebrate the legacy of singer-songwriter Kate Wolf. Three days on a beautiful ranch with an array of talent: Greg Brown, Utah Phillips, Bruce Cockburn, Nanci Griffith, and Kathy Mattea, among others. It’s a worthy celebration. Ticket prices range. Call 707.829.7067 for the full story, or go online at www.monitor.net/kate. Black Oak Ranch, Laytonville. (DB)


Photograph by John Livzey

Booker T. Jones sings the blues on the river.

Russian River Blues Festival
Guerneville hosts the Russian River Blues Festival (June 29-30) again this year, and again it’s not to be missed. The big-name event includes contemporary blues vocalist Robert Cray, San Francisco favorite Tommy Castro, Coco Montoya, Deborah Coleman, Kenny Neal–and that’s only Saturday. On Sunday, the Bobby Blue Band, the W. C. Handy Award All-Stars (featuring Joe Louis Walker, Billy Bob Arnold, Maria Muldaur, Duke Robillard, and the inimitable Ruth Brown), Booker T. Jones, the Elvin Bishop Band, and Mighty Sam McClain take the stage. Johnson’s Beach, Guerneville. $35-$170. 510.655.9471. (DB)


Boys Of Summer: The Beach Boys perform at the Sonoma County Fair.

July

Marin County Fair
Hot July days cool off pretty quickly when the water gets splashing, and the Marin County Fair aims its nozzle directly at you on July 4 weekend (July 3-7, to be exact). This year’s theme, “Wa-ter Way to Go!”, might be a linguistic stretch, but it hits the right spot. In addition to all the water-related activities (like water-tasting contests, watershed exhibits, and the Great American Duck Water Race) and the rollicking carnival rides, the musical entertainment makes a big splash, with stars like Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and Natalie MacMaster (July 3); Preservation Hall Jazz Band (July 4); John Kay and Steppenwolf (July 5); and Mickey Hart and Bembe Orisha (July 6). 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. $9-$11. 415.499.6400.

Green Music Festival
Sonoma State University’s Green Music Festival begins with a red, white, and blue bang on July 4. “Independence Day on the Green” promises the best fireworks in Sonoma County set to patriotic standards and Wild West film favorites. “A Midsummer Night on the Green” on Aug. 3 presents the Santa Rosa Symphony with pianist Jeffrey Kahane touring Europe through classical music. Aug. 4, get hot and spicy with “Cuban Jazz and Salsa on the Green.” There’s also a new Chamber Music Series and a special visual arts event, the largest exhibition of Ansel Adams’ photographs ever presented north of the Golden Gate Bridge, with an emphasis on Northern California and Sonoma County. Sonoma State University, 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. 707.546.8742. (SB)

Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival
With a brand new venue at Riverbend Plaza in downtown Napa, the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival presents the comedy As You Like It and the tragedy Othello for their 2002 season, showing both the broody and the bawdy sides of the Bard. Bring a picnic, quaff some wine, and see the works of Will in a casual comfort the stinky peasants of the Globe Theatre could not have even dreamed of. July 5-Aug. 11, Riverbend Plaza, Napa Mill, 500 Main St., Napa. $24-$18 general. 707.251.WILL. (SB)

Art in the Park
Free music outdoors–it’s what summer’s all about (well, that’s what these listings would lead you to believe). Grab that blanket and make tracks to Juilliard Park in Santa Rosa for the Art in the Park Sunday performance series, featuring local musicians–jazz from the Heavies, the Spanish guitar of David Correa and Cascada, and Caribbean steel drums with Shabang–paired with culinary samples from fine area restaurants. A silent auction of original artwork tops off the series, and don’t forget your second annual series T-shirt, available for sale (after all, what is an arts event without a T-shirt to go with it?). July 7-Aug. 25, 5-7pm. Juilliard Park, 227 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. Free. 707.543.3737. (SB)

Sonoma County Showcase of Wine and Food
Living to excess is what this lavish weekend (July 11-13) is all about, allowing you to indulge your every wine and food whim. This year’s theme embraces the cultures and flavors of Asia and the Pacific Rim, so delectable items will be tantalizingly plated and wine glasses will spilleth over with the bounty of the vine. The experience, while not cheap (individual events run $50-$225), encompasses a wide range of events, including “appellation experience,” winery dinners, a live auction, and a gala performance on Saturday night by the San Francisco Symphony. Call for reservations, locations, and ticket prices. 800.939.7666. (DB)

Wine Country Film Festival
Offering “films alfresco,” the Wine Country Film Festival is kind of like a drive-in movie without the car and with Sauvignon Blanc and canapès instead of soda and popcorn. Under the stars and in the vineyard with a great screen towering over them, festivalgoers last year were treated to films from the world over. This year the Wine Country Film Festival moves to a new venue at Domaine Chandon in Yountville, with both outdoor and indoor theaters. Domaine Chandon will become a Film Festival Village for two weekends, complete with a Cine Cafe. The festival’s final run moves back to its old digs in Glen Ellen’s idyllic Jack London State Historic Park and Sonoma’s Sebastiani Theatre. July 18-Aug. 11. 707.935.3456. (SB)

Marin Shakespeare Company
The Marin Shakespeare Company veers slightly off the Shakespeare path this year to present A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, directed by author-director Douglas Rushkoff. The mystical, whimsical play–featuring Arabic music, dancing, and a flourish of magic–will be shown in repertory with a piece more in line with the company’s Shakespearean past, Much Ado about Nothing (July 19-Aug. 25). The season ends with a bang with the classic Macbeth (Sept. 6-28). Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, Dominican University, San Rafael. 415.499.4488. (DB)

Sonoma County Fair
Ride the Zipper! Eat funnel cakes with strawberries and whipped cream! See the goats and the flowers! Participate in the Beach Boys lip-sync contest! Witness Charo and Tower of Power perform live and in person! Throw Ping-Pong balls at 100 goldfish bowls and miss every time! Win a 3-foot-tall fluorescent green stuffed alien! And “Ride the Wave to the Sonoma County Fair” (this year’s theme, by the way). July 23-Aug. 5, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa. $5 general; $2 kids 12-7; free 6 and under. 707.545.4200. (SB)


Keb Mo sings out for solar living.

August

Music in the Vineyards
The eighth annual Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival’s name is a bit misleading: the concerts are not literally out among the vines, but in the stately ambiance of winery settings where audiences can experience chamber music in the intimate surroundings it was originally composed for. A roster of nationally known artists in residence (e.g., the Kronos Quartet) cozy up in host wineries including RMS Brandy Distillery, Clos Pegase, and the Hess Collection. Performances take place each weekend on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning late in the afternoon or early evening, and include a winetasting at intermission. Midweek events feature new chamber music concerts, recitals, lecture demonstrations. The two open rehearsals are free and available to the public. Aug. 7-25. $25 per concert. Call 707.578.5656 for information, 800.965.4827 for tickets. (SB)

Russian River RoadRunner Road Trip
This road trip involves neither cars nor running–but this celebration of the Russian River Wine Road does involve plenty of wine. Over 40 Russian River wineries will gather at the Road Trip to pour tastings for guests, who will also be able to munch their way through gourmet Sonoma County foods and a barbecue courtesy of the Western Boot Steakhouse. Wine seminars, a scavenger hunt, and silent and live auctions mark the day’s events, all topped off with live Western swing music, making this the summer’s most effortless road trip. Saturday, Aug. 10, 12-4pm. Kendall-Jackson Wine Center, 5007 Fulton Road, Fulton. $50 general; $35 RoadRunner members. 800.723.6336. (SB)

Sonoma County Dixie Jazz Festival
Traditional Dixie jazz explodes at the Rohnert Park Doubletree Hotel on Aug. 16-18. From ragtime to hot dance to Dixieland, the foot stomping will rattle the floors and shake the skirts. Three days, four stages, 13 bands will leave the traditional jazz fan sated–at least until the next year’s festival. Bands include Steve Waddell’s Creole Bells, the Jazz Salvation Company, Clint Baker’s New Orleans Jazz Band, Cell Block Seven, and the New Orleans Wanderers. Tickets are $20-$80. Doubletree Hotel, 101 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park. 707.539.3494. (DB)

Cotati Accordion Festival
In what is perhaps the best summer music event in all of Northern California, the Cotati Accordion Festival allows lucky festivalgoers to experience the beauty that is the accordion. From its intricate mother-of-pearl inlays to its sonorous exhalations, the humble squeezebox deserves all the lovin’ it can get. And it gets a lot this weekend (Aug. 24-25) at Cotati’s central square, with every possible style of accordion playing imaginable. Polkacide, Dick Contino, and the lovely Lady of Spain are not-to-be-missed highlights. Cotati Town Square, Cotati. $10. 707.664.0444. (DB)

Pacific Coast Air Museum Air Show
The PCAM honors Americans who fought and sacrificed to protect our country with “The Sound of Freedom”, the theme for 2002’s air show on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 24-25. The emphasis on vintage warbirds will include formation flybys and aerobatics throughout the show. Skydive Santa Rosa’s parachute jump follows preshow demonstrations of model airplane aerobatics. Along with memorabilia, vendors, and a pancake breakfast, SmokeN Thunder Jet Car and Dennis Sander’s Sea Fury will also be there–and while I have no idea what those are, they sound interesting. Aug. 24-25, Charles M. Schultz Sonoma County Airport, 2330 Airport Blvd., Santa Rosa. 707.575.7900. (SB)

Solar and Good Living Festival
Organic food, workshops, exhibits, music, and fun for the kids–all this to celebrate and educate about one of the most important needs this world has: renewable energy. Speakers include Amy Goodman, host of radio’s Democracy Now; Paul Hawken, founder of Smith and Hawken; David Freeman, advisor to Governor Davis on energy issues; and, for the star power, actress Shelley Duvall. Entertainment includes Keb Mo and Todd Snider. Check out the bicycle-powered stage, and get inspired to make some changes yourself. Aug. 24-25, Real Goods Solar Living Center, Hopland. (DB)


Photograph by Bruce Burr

Poncho Sanchez joins Arturo Sandoval at Kendall-Jackson.

Kendall-Jackson Outdoor Concerts
It’s said that music soothes the soul and the savage beast. Highly undocumented (and largely fabricated) is the rumor of music soothing the much-lauded grapevine. But if true, the fruit at Kendall-Jackson will swell and plump with the rollicking southern blues of the Neville Brothers and the Blind Boys of Alabama (Aug. 31, 3pm), and the searing Latin jazz of Arturo Sandoval and Poncho Sanchez (Sept. 28, 3pm). High rollers can opt for the reserved seating, which includes a split of wine and lunch ($88); lawn seating is $42. 5007 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa. 707.546.3600. (DB)

Sausalito Arts Festival
It’s the 50th year for the Sausalito Fine Arts Festival, rated America’s No. 1 outdoor fine art festival. The festival draws 60,000 attendees, who gather on the waterfront to experience world-class art and the big-draw music acts gracing the entertainment stage. This being an arts festival, there’s 20,000 original works of art by over 270 artists, plus gourmet tasty things and fine wines. Aug. 31-Sept. 2, Bay Model Visitor Center and Marinship Park, Sausalito. $15 general; $7 seniors; $5 kids. 415.331.3757. (SB)


Sex You Up: Al Jarreau kicks back at Jazz on the River.

September

Tomato Festival
Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, pear tomatoes, tomato tomatoes. . . . Savor over 150 varieties of homegrown tomatoes in the prime of ripeness. The sixth annual Tomato Festival, a benefit for North Bay school gardens, also offers swing dancing, garden tours, an art show, winetasting, and gourmet foods. Tickets include food sampling, four winetasting tickets, logo wine glass, and a tasting tray. Sept. 7, 11am-4pm. Kendall-Jackson Wine Center, 5007 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa. $40 advance purchase only. 707.525.6217. (SB)

Jazz on the River
Soak in the warm weather, the warm water, and the warm sounds of cool jazz Sept. 7-8 at Jazz on the River in Guerneville. Saturday’s entertainment includes sexy soul crooner Al Jarreau, smoky-voiced Julia Fordham, as well as Peter White, Joey DeFrancesco, and the Benny Barth Trio. On Sunday, get the lawn chairs out for Rodney James, Rick Braun (with an all-star band including Steve Turre, Javon Jackson, and Cedar Walton), David Sanchez, and 14-year-old Julian Lage. Tickets can be bought per day at $37.50-$90, or a two-day package for $70-$180. 510.655.9471. Johnson’s Beach, Guerneville. 510.655.9471. (DB)

From the May 23-29, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

‘Spider-Man’

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‘Spider-Man’


Arachnid Love: He’s more sexy than the Fly, more svelte than the Hulk.

Web Master

The ‘real’ Spider-Man has his say

Writer David Templeton takes interesting people to interesting movies in his ongoing quest for the ultimate postfilm conversation. This is not a review; rather, it’s a freewheeling, tangential discussion of life, alternative ideas, and popular culture.

It’s late afternoon in Baltimore on the opening day of Spider-Man, and Dan Poole’s cell phone won’t stop ringing. Across the country, armies of thrill-seeking matinee-goers have already spent millions to catch the long-anticipated movie version of the classic Marvel comic book. Right now, thousands of internet junkies are hotly debating the movie’s controversial organic web shooters (in the original comic book, Spider-Man shoots webs from mechanical gizmos he invents himself). Poole himself caught the first Baltimore screening of the day, and now, not long after, his friends and fans are calling up to get his reaction to the movie.

But they’ll have to wait, because Dan Poole–the guerrilla filmmaker and comic-book fan commonly known as the “real Spider-Man”–is tied up, energetically describing that response to me.

And here it is: Spider-Man, the movie–directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, and Kirsten Dunst–very nearly drove Poole up a wall.

Literally. Of course, Poole is a guy who has actually climbed walls.

“It was very hard to sit still through,” he admits with a laugh. “It did make me want to climb something or swing from something. But I just sat there, wanting so badly to have been in it!”

That desire–to be in a Spider-Man movie–is what inspired Poole 10 years ago to shoot his own stunt-filled, crudely shot Spidey adventure, The Green Goblin’s Last Stand. Poole’s movie–in which he dons a Spider-Man suit to scale real buildings and dangle from incredibly high bridges–has made him a legend among independent filmmakers. Now, a self-made documentary about Poole’s exploits, titled The Real Spider-Man: The Making of ‘The Green Goblin’s Last Stand,’ has become a certified film-festival phenomenon, snagging two awards during January’s edgy No-Dance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

“So,” I ask, “what’s it like to be Spider-Man?”

“Well, climbing walls is a lot of fun,” he says. “I gotta tell you, though, that climbing in that costume is not easy. The mask is a bit suffocating and your eyes tend to get fogged up. But swinging–swinging from bridges, swinging from building to building–that’s when I really feel like Spider-Man. In this new movie, whenever Tobey Maguire is swinging, climbing, or jumping, it just made me feel so . . . envious. I could identify with those moments.”

“OK, let me ask you straight,” I say. “Did you like Spider-Man?”

“Damn! I loved it!” he confesses at considerable volume. “Ain’t nobody going to be saying too much bad shit about this one. It’s good. I give it an A minus.

“I have some reservations,” Poole continues. “I hated the Green Goblin’s mask. Willem Dafoe’s face is scary enough without a mask. And of course there’s never going to be any excuse for the organic web shooters. No excuse.”

“Hey, if I were bitten by a genetically engineered spider and mutated into a half-spider, half-man, I’d want organic web shooters,” I reply.

“OK. Look,” Poole replies, “when you read a couple titles a month of a particular character like I have, you absorb the parameters of the character and you expect others to be faithful to those parameters. His name is Peter Parker. His superhero name is Spider-Man. He builds his own mechanical web shooters. He never shoots web fluid out of his wrists or his ass or his nose or anything. You gotta do it the way it’s written. It’s history. Sure, it’s pop-culture history, but it has touched millions of people and you simply don’t mess with it. Otherwise, why not call him Bruce Parker? Why not call him Spider-Guy?

“Anyway,” he goes on, “other than those quibbles with the movie, you can’t deny how well Sam Raimi treated the material. You can’t deny that Raimi is a fan.”

I ask Poole to explain what it is about Spider-Man that makes people so passionate.

“Other superheroes–Batman, Superman, guys like that–are always sexy and alluring,” Poole explains. “They can almost do no wrong–the Hulk being one exception, I should add. But Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, is a character that people identify with because he is so real. He’s got problems. Peter Parker is not somebody people feel like they want to be. Peter Parker is somebody we feel like we are.

“Anyway,” adds the real Spider-Man, “That’s how I feel.”

From the May 23-29, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Gender And Art

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Gender And Art

For The Birds: An example of Amy Wilson’s earlier work, ‘Quiver’ flourishes and flirts with bold, macho strokes.

Why Chromosome

Should we talk about gender when we look at art?

By Gretchen Giles

The once bustling Rohnert Park campus of the Next Level Communications offices is now like a ghost village–it’s really too big to just be a town. One building is completely closed, and the other has a few anxious executives and many empty cubicles tuned to the unearthly hum of computer servers stacked in dust-free rooms. The lights are dimmed to save energy, and in this shadowy enclave of sapped enigma quietly glow the energetic, vital forms of an elderly man whose obsession with the line, the triangle, and the circle will evidently never be sapped.

Healdsburg painter Horst Trave, now 83 and one of the founding members of the San Francisco school of Abstract Expressionism, exhibits a full-length retrospective of his career, titled “The Objective Eye,” here through November. Walking the halls, listening to my own heels ring out in the humming silence, I too am gratefully immersed in the line, the triangle, and the circle. Though Trave’s canvases are titled by the date that he completes each one, there is a timelessness to the work that seems to refute one painting being 30 years old and another more recent. Reds put to canvas in 1976 echo the reds he marked in 1958, which harken his crimsons for the new millennium.

The deep rejection Trave has to subjectivity, to representation, to any aesthetic concern that can’t be completely answered and examined within the confines of each individual canvas is relentless and stunning. While entropy reigns in the halls of a devolving tele-economy, a fresh demanding spirit–some of it 60 years old–frankly breathes from the walls.

I turn a corner. The Trave paintings end, and the curatorial team is hanging another’s work. Brightly colored with recognizable forms and an almost giddy air, these paintings contrast sharply with Trave’s luminous world. I give a quick glance and literally sniff to myself in irritation. “Women’s work,” I think with fast disdain and physically turn away.

Stupendously, enormously, shamefully wrong. The work that I so ridiculously dismissed as being a woman’s–and therefore an irritant–is by the late William Morehouse, one of the “Sonoma Four” group that included William Wheeler, Jack Stuppin, and Tony King. These four artists turned the somewhat fey pleasures of plein air painting–a genre itself criticized as being indulged in by Sunday dabblers–into a ripe masculine opportunity for drink, travel, and riotous argument.

My snap error was an instantaneous private thought. But why should the erroneous perception that a painting was created by a woman make me enjoy it any less, particularly since I’ve never been aware of considering an artist’s gender otherwise?

San Francisco artist Amy Wilson is all over this. Exhibiting seven paintings under the title “Curve and Flourish” at the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art through June 30, Wilson sets out to exactly produce “woman’s” work and thereby aims to uproot any such lingering thoughts by simply blasting them out–in the prettiest way possible.

Working on massive canvases, roughly as big as she is at 5’8″, Wilson has carefully chosen a “feminine” color palette of delicate greens, pinks, and purples. And her womanly themes–food, food, sex, food, decoration, food, sex–are in direct opposition to what she feels to be a macho element in painting, best exemplified by the explosive works of such postwar artists practicing Abstract Expressionism as Jackson Pollock.

“I call it Power Puff art,” Wilson says cheerily of her oeuvre by phone from her San Francisco studio. “My premise is that we do interpret form in terms of gender, totally apart from subject matter itself. My idea was to identify colors, shapes, and lines that are perceived as being feminine and then make a painting that could also be identified that way. They’re almost Abstract Expressionist parody paintings,” she says.

Gay Dawson, director of SMOVA, suggests that Abstract Expressionism is known for “an uncontrolled, raw, spontaneous, almost childlike aesthetic” that Wilson upends. According to Dawson, Wilson seems to ask, “How can I make a painting with the opposite values and still have a presence in the room?”

Dr. Susan Landauer, chief curator of the San Jose Museum of Art and author of The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, cites Franz Kline as an example of a gender-based artist of the past. “[He] was known for his big brush and very masculine work,” Landauer says. “His paintings encapsulated the power that was seen to be expressing America’s brawn to the rest of the world after WWII. That kind of muscular heroics was common in the work of the New York school [of Abstract Expressionism]. A lot of it came from a sense of machismo.”

Citing just four women who were involved in the movement centered around the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), Landauer agrees, “there was a definite bias against women.”

But surely that’s changed? Wilson, who received her MFA in 1999, says, “When I was in graduate school, I had done these very decorative works. I showed them in a seminar and the teacher said, ‘These are likeable but not respectable.’ I felt like he was speaking to the prettiness of the work and that, frankly, he wouldn’t have said this to a male student.”

Well, pretty is as pretty does, and such paintings of Wilson’s as Fancy, Sweet Thing, and Bustle do first and foremost please the eye. Mannered, exact, in some cases verging on the obsessive (as with her older decorative abstracts such as Quiver and Creeper), they seem to be about voluptuousness, comfort, and, perhaps, the well-appointed pleasures of a ’50s-era dinner party, the hostess a vision in sheer apron and heels serving one of those froufrou desserts found on old recipe cards.

But my goodness, isn’t that a baby-bottle nipple pierced with lacy fillip in Bustle? Doesn’t Sweet Thing offer two white thighs scooped hugely onto an ice cream dish with a large pink pudendum rising horribly up between them, a pubic frizz scorched atop? Is that bacon snaking nastily up the walls in Quiver? And doesn’t Fancy appear to have a yellowed bone upended in the confectionery fun, a line of merry peppermints cascading innocently right through the marrow?

“They’re subversive,” Wilson agrees with a chuckle. “I want them to be seductive in a way, something that’s offering itself up to be consumed.”

And then perhaps spat out again, when a tasty nugget of poison is gingerly tongued.

But wait, now that I’m having subconscious thoughts bubble to the surface, I wonder why Trave continues to follow a path of objective examination he started some 60 years ago, and why Wilson uses painting to express her modern feminism. Shouldn’t he have done it all by now? Shouldn’t she be making videos or hanging artfully from the rafters in a warehouse somewhere?

Why, in short, paint at all–male or female?

Trave has said that he does it for no better reason than it makes him “feel human,” which is certainly reason enough.

Wilson responds, “I ask myself that question all the time. If you really have some kind of message, traditional art galleries aren’t really the place to get it out. And painting occupies the same place in the art world that women do in the real world, at least in some other countries. But paint,” she pauses, considering the sensual reward of actually using the stuff, “is generous.”

If only we could all be as wide-spirited as a tube of acrylics.

‘Horst Trave: The Objective Eye’ runs through November at Next Level Communications, 6085 State Farm Drive, Rohnert Park. By appointment only. 707.874.1919. ‘Curve and Flourish: The Biomorphism of Amy Wilson’ exhibits through June 30 at the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, 50 Mark West Springs Road. Hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm; Sundays, 1-4pm. Special Thursday evening hours, 5-8pm, are free. Admission is $2 for nonmembers. 707.527.0297.

From the May 23-29, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

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‘The Sum of All Fears’

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Music To Listen To While Reading Ralph Ellison

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Gender And Art

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