Best Everyday Stuff

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Best Everyday Stuff

[ ‘Best of’ Index ]

Readers Poll: Everyday Stuff

Best Antique Shop

Sonoma County

Whistle Stop Antiques
130 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.542.9474

Honorable Mention:

Sebastopol Antique Mall
755 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. 707.823.1936

Napa County

Red Hen Antiques
5091 St. Helena Hwy., Napa. 707.257.0822

Marin County

Tie:

San Anselmo Country Store
312 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo. 415.258.0922

Sentimental Journey Antiques
902 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.892.0640

Best Art Supply Store

Sonoma County

Riley St.
103 Maxwell Court, Santa Rosa. 707.526.2446
500 W. Napa St., Sonoma

Honorable Mention:

Montmartre Artist’s Supplies
156 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.824.4837

Napa County

Redwood Art Supply
3383 Solano Ave., Napa. 707.226.2466

Marin County

The Artist’s Palette

01557 S. Novato Blvd., Novato. 415.892.7757

Best Auto Dealer-New

Sonoma County

Freeman Toyota
2875 Corby Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.542.1791

Honorable Mention:

Hansel Auto Dealer
1310 Auto Center Drive, Petaluma. 707.769.4000

Napa County

Kastner
282 Soscol Ave., Napa. 707.252.4011

Marin County

Tie:

Novato Nissan
7401 Redwood Blvd., Novato. 415.892.0772

Redwood Auto Mall
1559 Novato Blvd., Novato. 415.897.9007

Best Auto Dealer-Used

Sonoma County

Tie:

Freeman Toyota
2875 Corby Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.542.1791

Hansel Auto Dealers
1310 Auto Center Drive, Petaluma

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Manly
2750 Corby Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.542.5377

Prestige Imports
2800 Corby Ave.,Santa Rosa. 707.545.6602

Napa County

Kastner
282 Soscol Ave., Napa. 707.252.4011

Marin County

Marin Mazda
595 Francisco Blvd., San Rafael. 415.454.9240

Best Auto Detailing

Sonoma County

Mission Car Wash
257 College Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.579.9274

Honorable Mention:

Detail City
2692 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.575.3113

Napa County

Joseph Newman Company
1538 Third St., Napa. 707.252.8366

Marin County

Tie:

Blake’s
861 Vallejo Road, Novato. 415.897.8824

Nave Motors Inc.
1029 First St., Novato. 415.897.4137

Best Auto Repair

Sonoma County

Earth In Upheaval
198 High St., Sebastopol. 707.823.3777

Honorable Mention:

Benedetti’s
6809 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.3884

Napa County

Joseph Newman Company
1538 Third St., Napa. 707.252.8366

Marin County

Redwood Chevy
1559 Novato Blvd., Novato. 415.987.9007

Best Bank

Sonoma County

Exchange Bank
545 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.524.3106

Honorable Mention:

Redwood Credit Union
370 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.545.4000
250 Rohnert Park Expressway, Rohnert Park. 707.545.4000
301 N. Mcdowell Ave. B, Petaluma. 707.545.4000
1701 Fourth St., Santa Rosa

Napa County

Tie:

Bank Of The West
1317 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.6291
1451 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.7185
3300 Jefferson Ave., Napa. 707.255.3310

Vintage Bank
3271 Browns Valley Road, Napa. 707.224.5417
3626 Bel Air Plaza, Napa. 707.256.1966
6498 Washington St., Yountville. 707.258.3999

Marin County

West America In Novato
402 Ignacio Blvd., Novato. 415.883.0180
7333 Redwood Hwy., Novato. 415.898.2003

Best Bike Shop

Sonoma County

Dave’s Bike Sport
353 College Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.528.3283

Honorable Mention:

Bike Peddler
605 College Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.571.2428

Napa County

Palisades Mountain Sport
1330 Gerard St., Calistoga. 707.942.9687

Marin County

Mike’s Bikes Of San Rafael
1601 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.454.3747

Best Body Art Place

Sonoma County

Monkey Wrench
1700 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.575.0610

Honorable Mention:

Eye Spy Tattoos And Piercing
122 American Alley, Petaluma. 707.776.4779

Marin County

Queen Bee
936 B St. S., San Rafael. 415.721.7700

Best Bookstore – New

Sonoma County

Copperfield’s Books
138 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.8991
2316 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.578.8938
140 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 707.762.0563
1330 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.1616

Honorable Mention:

North Light Books & Cafe
550 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati. 707.792.4300

Napa County

Calistoga Bookstore
1343 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.4123

Marin County

The Book Depot
87 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. 415.838.2665

Best Bookstore – Used

Sonoma County

Copperfield’s Books
176 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.0429
650 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.545.5326
140 Kentucky St., Santa Rosa. 707.782.0228

Honorable Mention:

Treehorn Books
625 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.525.1782

Napa County

Copperfield’s Books
1303 First St., Napa. 707.252.8002

Marin County

Manfred’s
60 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes. 415.663.9646

Best CD Store – New

Sonoma County

Last Record Store
739 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.525.1963

Honorable Mention:

Backdoor Disc & Tape
7665 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707.795.9597

Napa County

Free Time
1348 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0210

Marin County

Bedrock Records
2226 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.258.9745

Best CD Store – Used

Sonoma County

Last Record Store
739 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.252.1963

Honorable Mention:

Backdoor Disc & Tape
7665 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707.795.9597

Marin County

Bedrock Records
2226 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.258.9745

Best Cigar/ Pipe Shop

Sonoma County

Peacepipe
622 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.541.7016

Honorable Mention:

Mighty Quinn
3372 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.545.5081
1099 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.457.2420

Napa County

Calistoga Smoke Shop
1430 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.3937

Marin County

Mighty Quinn
1099 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.457.2420

Best Clothing Store – Men’s

Sonoma County

Patrick James
2340 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.523.2346

Honorable Mention:

Outlander
101 Plaza St., Healdsburg. 707.433.7800

Napa County

Tie:

La Funke And Son’s
1417 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.6246

Mario’s
1228 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.1782

Best Clothing Store – Women’s

Sonoma County

Punch
711 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.526.4766
245 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.2282

Honorable Mention:

Las Manos
250 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa. 707.541.0740
711 Village Court In Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa. 707.528.3028

Napa County

Tie:

On The Vine
1234 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.2209

Zenobia
1410 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.1050

Marin County

Tie:

Mirror Mirror
53 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. 415.388.1143

Sandbox
190 Bon Air Shopping Center, Greenbrae. 415.461.2133

Best Computer Store

Sonoma County

Executron Computers
1831 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. 707.525.3715

Honorable Mention:

Out Of Business
3201 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.571.0386

Best Copy/Business Services

Sonoma County

Sprint Copy Center
175 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.3900

Honorable Mention:

Clone Digital Print And Copy
1 Padre Parkway Suite G, Rohnert Park. 707.585.2336
618 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.527.6565

Napa County

Tie:

Papermill
1424 C Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.6181

Kinko’s Copies
702 Lincoln Ave., Napa. 707.226.7722

Marin County

All American Printing
881 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.899.1000

Best Costume Shop

Sonoma County

Disguise The Limit / Funny Business
100 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.575.1477

Honorable Mention:

House Of Humor
318 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.544.7600

Best Culinary Store

Sonoma County

Whole Foods Housewares
6910 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.829.9801

Honorable Mention:

Hardisty’s Homewares
1565 Farmer’s Lane, Santa Rosa. 707.545.0534

Napa County

Tie:

Dean And Deluca
607 South St. Helena Hwy., St. Helena. 707.967.9980

The Culinary Institute At Greystone
2555 Main St., St. Helena. 707.967.1010

Shackford’s
1350 Main St., Napa. 707.226.2132

Best Day Spa

Sonoma County

Osmosis Enzyme Bath And Massage
209 Bohemian Hwy., Freestone. 707.823.8231

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Alles European Day Spa
432 Orchard St., Santa Rosa. 707.573.3068

Mermaids Spa And Seaweed Bath Shop
115 S. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.3535

Napa County

Lavender Hill Spa
1015 Foothill Blvd., Calistoga. 707.942.4495

Marin County

Spa De Novato
1305 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.897.4511

Best Electronics Store

Sonoma County

Hsc Electronic Supply Of Santa Rosa
5681 Redwood Drive, Rohnert Park. 707.585.7344 Honorable Mention:

Soundscape
1044 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.578.4434

Napa County

Radio Shack A Division Of Tandy Corp.
3016 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.255.5000

Best Gift Shop

Sonoma County

Milk & Honey
137 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.824.1155

Honorable Mention:

Corrick’s
637 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.546.2423

Napa County

Tie:

Mr Moon’s
1365 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0932

Free Time
1348 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0210

Marin County

Tie:

The Great Acorn Co.
800 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo. 415.454.2990

Solarium
815 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.897.7556

Best Grocery Store

Sonoma County

Oliver’s Market
546 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati. 707.795.9501
560 Montecito Court, Santa Rosa. 707.537.7123

Honorable Mention:

Fiesta
550 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. 707.823.9735

Pacific Market,
1465 Town & Country Dr., Santa Rosa. 707.546.3663

Napa County

Tie:

Palisades Market
1330 General St., Calistoga. 707.942.9549

Sunshine Foods
1117 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.7070

Marin County

Wild Oats Community Market
222 Greenfield Ave., San Anselmo. 415.258.0660

Best Hair Salon

Sonoma County

Elle Lui
205 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.575.1474

Honorable Mention: Tie:

R.E.L Salon
1040 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.569.8840

Mane Event
6741 Sebastopol Ave. Suite 120, Sebastopol. 707.823.5153

Napa County

The Hair Spa
1420 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5341

Marin County

Shy Locks Of Fifth Ave.
834 Fifth Ave., San Rafael. 415.456.611

Best Hardware Store

Sonoma County

Sebastopol Hardware Center
660 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. 707.823.7688

Honorable Mention:

Friedman Bros. Home Improvement Center
4055 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.584.7811
1360 Broadway, Sonoma. 707.939.8811

Napa County

Steve’s Ace In St. Helena
1370 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.3423

Marin County

Pini Hardware
1107 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.892.1577

Best Herbal Apothecary

Sonoma County

Rosemary’s Garden
132 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.2539

Honorable Mention:

Farmacopia
95 Montgomery Drive #90, Santa Rosa. 707.528.4372

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Garden Of Eden
65 Third St., Pt. Reyes. 415.459.6095

Best Internet Provider

Sonoma County

Sonic Net
300 B St., Santa Rosa. 707.522.1000

Honorable Mention:

Monitor Publishing
P.O. Box 1733, Sebastopol. 707.823.0100

Napa County

Napa Net
1142 First St., Napa. 707.257.2826

Marin County

Web Perception
1701 Novato Blvd. Suite 103, Novato. 415.892.7711

Best Framing Shop

Sonoma County

My Daughter The Framer
1617 Terrace Way, Santa Rosa. 707.542.3599

Honorable Mention:

Mesh Gallery
6984 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.823.1971

Napa County

Ben Franklin’s Crafts
1630 Clay St., Napa. 707.224.4458

Marin County

Ringseis Designs
1824 Sir Frances Drake Blvd., Fairfax. 415.456.8121

Best Furniture Store

Sonoma County

R.S. Basso Home Furnishings & Accessories
186 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.1426
115 Plaza St., Healdsburg. 707.431.1925

Honorable Mention:

Pederson Furniture Company

Fifth & D Streets, Santa Rosa. 707.542.1855

Napa County

Tie:

R.S. Basso Home Furnishings & Accessories
1219 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.0391

Silverado Furniture Co.
835 Lincoln Ave., Napa. 707.255.5377

Best Futon Shop

Sonoma County

The Futon Shop
3499 Industrial Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.578.4242

Honorable Mention:

Creator’s Foam
3510 Industrial Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.526.9774
821 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma. 707.763.6349

Napa County

Futons & Furniture
1138 Main St., Napa. 707.252.3626

Marin County

Mary’s Futons
4100 Redwood Parkway, San Rafael, (415.472.2919

Best Outdoor Gear Shop

Sonoma County

Marin Outdoors
2770 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.544.4400
935 Andersen Drive, San Rafael. 415.453.3400
3900-A Bel Air Plaza, Napa. 707.256.1680

Honorable Mention:

Sonoma Outfitters
145 Third St., Santa Rosa. 707.528.1920

Napa County

Tie:

Sportago
1224 Adams St., St. Helena. 707.963.9042

Mountain Where
1333 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0263

Marin County

Marin Outdoors
935 Anderson Drive, San Rafael. 415.453.3400

Best Home Furnshings

Sonoma County

R.S. Basso Home Furnishings & Accessories
186 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.1426
115 Plaza, Healdsburg. 707.431.1925

Honorable Mention:

Pederson Furniture Company
Fifth & D Streets, Santa Rosa. 707.542.1855

Napa County

Tie:

Casa Designs
1419 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.2228

Showplace North
1350 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.5556

Best Jewelry Store

Sonoma County

Earthworks
350 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa. 707.528.7181
403 First St., Sonoma. 707.935.0290

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Milk & Honey
137 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.824.1155

E.R. Sawyer
638 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.546.0372
424 Center St., Healdsburg. 707.433.5597

Napa County

Tie:

Zenobia
1410 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.1050

Napa Valley Jewelers
1317 Napa Town Center, Napa. 707.224.0997

Marin County

Goldpost
814 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.989.1915

Best Musical Instruments Store

Sonoma County

People’s Music
122 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.7664

Honorable Mention:

Zone Music
7884 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707.664.1213

Napa County

First Place:

All Star Guitars
2522 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.224.6577

Marin County

Tie:

Bananas At Large
1504 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.457.7600

The Magic Flute
206 Northgate One, San Rafael. 415.479.3112

Best Motorcycle Shop

Sonoma County

Michael’s Harley Davidson
7601 Redwood Drive, Cotati. 707.793.9180

Honorable Mention:

Jim & Jim’s Yamaha
910 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.545.1672

Napa County

Napa Valley Classics
820 Third St.,Napa. 707.253.8185

Best Natural Foods Store

Sonoma County

Whole Foods
6910 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.829.9801

Honorable Mention:

Community Market
1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.1806

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Tie:

Good Earth Natural Foods
123 Bolinas Road, Fairfax. 415.454.0123

Whole Foods
414 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. 415.381.1200
340 Third St., San Rafael. 415.451.6333

Best Nursery

Sonoma County

Harmony Farm Supply & Nursery
3244 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. 707.823.9125

Honorable Mention:

Empire Nursery
3747 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. 707.546.1113

Napa County

Whiting Nursery
900 N. Crane Ave., St. Helena. 707.963.5358

Marin County

Sloat Garden Center

Multiple Locations In Marin And San Francisco. 415.332.0657

Best Optical Store

Sonoma County

Sonoma Eyeworks
534 Larkfield Shopping Center, Santa Rosa,(707.578.2020

Honorable Mention:

Optical World
1054 Santa Rosa Plaza, Santa Rosa. 707.544.3000

Napa County

Site For Sore Eyes
1237 Napa Town Center, Napa. 707.224.7483

Marin County

For Eyes Optical Co.
311 Corte Madera Town Center, Corte Madera. 415.924.1515

Best Snow/Skate/ Board Shop

Sonoma County

Brotherhood
1215 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.0660

Honorable Mention:

Santa Rosa Ski & Sport
1125 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa. 707.578.4754

Napa County

Board Garden
2740 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.253.7949

Marin County

Fat Kat Surf Shop
1906 Sir Frances Drake Blvd., Fairfax. 415.453.9167

Best Shoe Store

Sonoma County

Sole Desire
441 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa. 707.571.8643
2411 Magowan Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.542.1690
500 W. Napa St. Suite 540, Sonoma. 707.933.1702

Honorable Mention:

Santa Rosa Shoes Inc.
2555 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.1083

Napa County

Bella Tootsie
1373 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.8821

Best Ski Shop

Sonoma County

Santa Rosa Ski & Sport
1125 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa. 707.578.4754

Honorable Mention:

North Coast Boardshop
429 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. 707.473.9800

Napa County

Tie:

Board Garden
2740 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.253.7949

Snowdrift Ski-Tennis Shop
3090 Jefferson, Napa. 707.255.3509

Marin County

Demo Sport
1101 Francisco Blvd., San Rafael. 415.454.3500

Best Surf Shop

Sonoma County

Northern Lights
17190 Bodega Hwy., Bodega. 707.876.3032

Honorable Mention:

Brotherhood
1215 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.0660

Marin County

Live Water Surf Shop
3450 Shoreline Hwy., Stinson Beach. 415.868.0333

Best Tanning Salon

Sonoma County

Hot Bodies Ii
6910 Weeks Way, Sebastopol. 707.824.8267

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Ciao Bella Spa And Tanning
428 Larkfield Center, Santa Rosa. 707.546.1818

Great Sunsations
508 Seventh St., Brickyard Center, Santa Rosa. 707.546.6786

Napa County

Calistoga Spa Hot Springs
1006 Washington St., Calistoga. 707.942.6269

Marin County

Sun Co. Tanning
1930 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.458.2826

Best Local Secondhand Store

Sonoma County

Sack’s On The Square
116 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.541.7227

Honorable Mention:

Bella Due Volte
1050 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.569.1439

Napa County

Lolo’s
1120 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.7972

Marin County

Avant Garde
1328 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.485.4497

Best Video Rental

Sonoma County

Tie:

Box Office Video Store
6960 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.823.9798

Bradley Video
3080 Marlow Road, Santa Rosa. 707.579.4473
56 Mission Circle, Santa Rosa. 707.538.7752
7271 Snyder Lane, Novato. 415.897.4908
6731 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.5253

Honorable Mention:

Video Droid
1240 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.526.3313
590 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati. 707.794.9797
957 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park. 707.585.3151

Napa County

Peter’s Video
1509 W. Imola Ave., Napa. 707.224.7842

Marin County

Bradford’s

Inverness

Best Clothing Store – Vintage

Sonoma County

Hot Couture Vintage Fashion
101 Third St., Santa Rosa. 707.528.7247

Honorable Mention:

Shards & Remnants
130 S. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.1366

Napa County

Tie:

Lolo’s
1120 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.7972

Wildcat
1210 First St., Napa. 707.257.8702

Best Vinyl Record Store

Sonoma County

Last Record Store
739 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.525.1963

Honorable Mention:

Incredible Records & Cds
112 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.824.8099

Napa County

Last Record Store

(Santa Rosa)

Marin County

Village Music
9 E. Blithedale Ave., Mill Valley. 415.388.7900

Best Juicy Excuse Being Late To Work

Sonoma County

Car Trouble

Honorable Mention:

Sex

Napa County

Tie:

I Ran Over A Drunk Tourist

A Female Escort Took My Car

Marin County

Border Traffic

Best Way To Beat The High Cost Of Living

Sonoma County

Move

Honorable Mention:

Don’t Eat Out So Much

Napa County

Build A Spa In Your Home

Marin County

Garage Sales

Staff Picks:
Culture
Recreation
Food & Drink
Kid’s Stuff
Romance
Everyday Stuff

Readers Poll:
Culture
Recreation
Food & Drink
Kid’s Stuff
Romance

From the March 21-27, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Best Food & Drink

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0
Best Food & Drink

[ ‘Best of’ Index ]

Reader’s Poll: Food & Drink

Best Bakery

Sonoma County

Village Bakery
7225 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.8101
1445 Town & Country Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.527.7654

Honorable Mention:

Wildflour Bread
140 Bohemian Hwy., Freestone. 707.874.2438

Napa County

Schatz’s Bakery
1353 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0777

Marin County

Bovine Bakery
11315 State Route One, Pt. Reyes. 415.663.9420

Best BBQ

Sonoma County

Pack Jack BBQ
3963 Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol. 707.823.9929

Honorable Mention:

Rasta Dwight’s BBQ
7981 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707.794.1268

Napa County

Buster’s Southern BBQ
1207 Foothill Drive, Calistoga. 707.942.5605

Marin County

California Grill And Rotisserie
1531 S. Novato Blvd., Novato. 415.893.1540

Best Bagel

Sonoma County

Sonoma Valley Bagel Co.
350 Rohnert Park Expressway W., Rohnert Park. 707.585.8045
2194 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.579.5484
515 Hahman Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.526.1631

Honorable Mention:

Grateful Bagel
300 South Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.5220

Napa County

Golden Bagel Cafe
3240 Jefferson St., Napa. 707.258.1413

Marin County

Noah’s Bagel
1701 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.3981
170 Bon Air Center, Greenbrae

Best Burger

Sonoma County

Mike’s Mean Burger
7665 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. 707.665.9999

At The Yard 84 Corona Road, Petaluma. 707.769.1082

Honorable Mention:

Sequoia Drive-In
1382 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. 707.829.7543

Napa County

Taylor’s Refresher
933 Main, St. Helena. 707.963.3486

Marin County

In-N-Out Burger
798 Redwood Hwy., Mill Valley. 800.786.1000

Best Breakfast

Sonoma County

Omelette Express
112 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.525.1690

Honorable Mention:

Hank’s Creekside Cafe
2800 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.575.8839

Napa County

Gillwood’s
1313 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.1788
1320 Napa Town Center, Napa. 707.253.0409

Marin County

Momma’s Royal Cafe
393 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. 415.388.3261

Best Brew Pub

Sonoma County

Third St. Aleworks
610 Third St., Santa Rosa. 707.523.3060

Honorable Mention:

Powerhouse Brewing Company
268 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.9171

Napa County

Tie:

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery
1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.4101

Silverado Brewing Co.
3020 N. Saint Helena Hwy., St. Helena. 707.967.9876

Marin County

Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant
15 Rowland Way, Novato. 415.898.4677

Best Brunch

Sonoma County

Lucy’s Cafe
6948 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.824.9713

Honorable Mention:

Willow Wood Market Cafe
9020 Graton Road, Graton. 707.823.0233

Napa County

Silverado Brewing Co.
3020 N. Saint Helena Hwy., St. Helena. 707.967.9876

Marin County

The Station House Cafe
1180 State Route 101, Pt. Reyes. 415.663.1536

Best Caterer

Sonoma County

À La Heart Catering
600 Wilson St., Santa Rosa. 707.527.7555

Honorable Mention:

Cafe Lolo
620 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.576.7822

Napa County

Piper Johnson
2450 Foothills Blvd. Suite G, Calistoga. 707.942.5432

Marin County

Tie:

Indian Peach Food Co. @ Tomales Bay Foods
80 Fourth St., Pt. Reyes Station #194, Tomales Bay. 415.663.8478

Just In Tyme
35 Sunnyhill Drive #7, San Anselmo

Best Chef

Sonoma County

Lisa Hemenway’s Bistro
1612 Terrace Way, Santa Rosa. 707.526.5111

Honorable Mention:

John Ash & Co.
4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa. 707.527.7687

Napa County

Bistro Jeanty
6510 Washington St., Yountville. 707.944.0103

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Cider House

Sonoma County

Ace In The Hole Cider Company
3100 Gravenstein Hwy. N., Sebastopol. 707.829.1223

Honorable Mention:

Powerhouse Brewing Company
268 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.9171

Napa County

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery
1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.4101

Best Cafe/ Coffeehouse

Sonoma County

A’Roma Roasters
95 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.576.7765

Honorable Mention:

Coffee Catz
6761 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.6600

Napa County

Calistoga Roastery
1631 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5757

Marin County

Tully’s Coffee
823 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.987.9972
207 Corte Madera Town Center, Corte Madera. 415.927.0471

Best Cocktails

Sonoma County

The Cantina
500 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.523.3663

Honorable Mention:

Belvedere
727 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.542.1890

Napa County

Tie:

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery
1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.4101
1351 Lounge
1351 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.1969

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Bartender & Bar

Sonoma County

Powerhouse Brewing Company
268 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.9171

Honorable Mention:

Last Day Saloon
120 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.545.5876

Napa County

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery
1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.4101

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Deli

Sonoma County

Traverso’s Gourmet Food & Wine

Third & B Streets, Santa Rosa. 707.542.2530

Honorable Mention:

Perry’s Deli
1220 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.528.2704

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Tie:

Kroger’s
207 Flamingo Way, Mill Valley. 415.383.6242
2040 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Fairfax. 415.456.7142

Perry’s Deli
7380 Redwood Blvd., Novato. 415.892.3240
909 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael. 415.456.4886

Best Diner

Sonoma County

Tie:

Stony Point Grill
130 Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa. 707.578.1953

Sam’s For Play Cafe And Catering
1024 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa. 707.528.0506
2630 Clevand Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.528.2929

Honorable Mention:

Pine Cone Restaurant
162 North Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.1375

Napa County

Cafe Sarafornia
1413 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0555

Marin County

Bubba’s Diner
566 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo. 415.459.6862

Best Juice Bar

Sonoma County

Juice Shack
2154 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.522.6269
1810 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.528.6131
901 Village Court, Santa Rosa. 707.522.6822

Honorable Mention:

Whole Foods
6910 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.829.9801

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Jamba Juice
266 Northgate One, San Rafael. 415.491.7700

Best Ice Cream

Sonoma County

Screamin’ Mimi’s
6902 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.823.5902

Honorable Mention:

Cold Stone Creamery
2324 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.578.1811
301 S. Mcdowell, Petaluma. 707.762.1824

Napa County

Schatz’s Bakery
1353 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.0777

Marin County

Double Rainbow
860 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.898.8500

Best Local Food Producer

Sonoma County

Laguna Farms
1764 Cooper Road, Sebastopol. 707.823.0823

Honorable Mention:

Amy’s Kitchen
227 Capricorn Way Suite 201, Santa Rosa. 707.578.7188

Napa County

Forni-Brown Vegetables
900 Foothill Blvd., Calistoga. 707.942.6123

Marin County

Tie:

Marin French Cheese Co.
7500 Red Hill Road, Petaluma. 707.762.6001

Cowgirl Creamery

P.O. Box 594, Pt. Reyes. 415.663.8153

Best Organic Farm

Sonoma County

Laguna Farms
1764 Cooper Rd., Sebastopol. 707.823.0823

Honorable Mention:

Taylor Maid Farms
6793 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.824.9110

Napa County

Forni-Brown Vegetables
900 Foothill Blvd., Calistoga. 707.942.6123

Marin County

Bolinas

Best Spot For Dining Alone

Sonoma County

Willow Wood Market Cafe
9020 Graton Road., Graton. 707.823.0233

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Powerhouse Brewing Company
268 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.9171

Syrah
205 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.568.4002

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Roast Haus Hof Brau
1545 S. Novato Blvd., Novato. 415.209.6668

Best Inexpensive Dinner

Sonoma County

Sonoma Taco Shop
947 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park. 707.525.9902
18340 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma
57 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa

Napa County

Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant
1473 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.6563

Marin County

Tie:

La Hacienda
1401 Grant Ave. 415.897.5514

Roast Haus Hof Brau
276 Northgate One, San Rafael. 415.472.2233

Best Restaurant To Spend The Rent

Sonoma County

John Ash & Co.
4330 Barnes Rd., Santa Rosa. 707.527.7687

Honorable Mention:

La Gare
208 Wilson St., Santa Rosa. 707.528.4355

Napa County

Wapoo
1226 Washington St., Calistoga. 707.942.4712

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Outdoor Dining

Sonoma County

Martha’s Old Mexico
305 North Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.4458

Honorable Mention:

Topolos At Russian River Vineyards
5700 Gravenstein Highway North, Forestville. 707.887.1562

Napa County

Wapoo
1226 Washington St., Calistoga. 707.942.4712

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Dining After 10pm

Sonoma County

Lyon’s Restaurant
2131 County Center Drive, Santa Rosa. 707.546.7600
722 East Washington, Petaluma. 707.762.4095
6255 Commerce Boulevard, Rohnert Park. 707.585.7707
190 Framers Lane, Santa Rosa. 707.528.9311

Honorable Mention:

Adel’s
456 College Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.578.1003

Napa County

Hydro Bar & Grill
1403 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.9777

Marin County

Sonoma Joe’s
5151 Monetro Way, Petaluma. 707.795.6121

Best Restaurant

Sonoma County

Syrah
250 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.568.4002

Stella’s Cafe
4550 Gravenstein Highway, Sebastopol. 707.823.6637

Napa County

Wapoo
1226 Washington St., Calistoga. 707.942.4712

Marin County

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Waitperson & Restaurant

Sonoma County

Lucy’s
6948 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.9713

Honorable Mention:

Pasta Bella (Shana Barrett)
796 Gravenstein Highway South, Sebastopol. 707.824.8191

Napa County

All Seasons
1400 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.9111

Marin County

Tie:

Shoreline Coffee Shop
221-A Shoreline Hwy., Mill Valley. 415.388.9085

Cacti Restaurant
1200 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.898.2234

Best Chinese

Sonoma County

Gary Chu’s Restaurant
611 5th St., Santa Rosa. 707.526.5840

Honorable Mention:

Kirin Restaurant
2700 Yulupa Ave. Suite 3, Santa Rosa. 707.525.1957

Napa County

Soo Yuan
1354 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.9404

Marin County

Jennie Low’s Chinese Cuisine
120 Vintage Way, Novato. 415.892.8838

Best Japanese/Sushi

Sonoma County

Hana Japanese Restaurant
101 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert Park. 707.586.0270

Honorable Mention:

Sakura Japanese Restaurant And Sushi Bar
300 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa. 707.523.1916

Napa County

Sushi Mamba
1202 First St., Napa. 707.257.6604

Marin County

Masa Sushi
813 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.892.0081

Best French

Sonoma County

La Gare
208 Wilson St., Santa Rosa. 707.528.4355

Honorable Mention:

Chez Peyo
2295 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. 707.823.1262

Napa County

Bistro Jeanty
6510 Washington St., Yountville. 707.944.0103

Marin County

Left Bank
507 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. 415.927.3331

Best Indian

Sonoma County

Sizzling Tandoor
409 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.579.5999
9960 Hwy 1, Jenner. 707.865.0625

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Annapurna
535 Ross St., Santa Rosa. 707.579.8471

Karma Indian Bistro
7530 Commerce Blvd. Suite C And D, Cotati. 707.795.1729

Napa County

Wapoo
1226 Washington St., Calistoga. 707.942.4712

Marin County

Lotus Cuisine Of India
704 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.456.5808

Best Mediterranean

Sonoma County

East West Cafe
128 North Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.2822

Honorable Mention:

Aram’s Cafe
131 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 707.765.9775

Napa County

Tie:

Brannan’s Grill
1374 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.2233

Miramonte
1327 Railroad Ave., St. Helena. 707.963.3970

Marin County

Insalata’s Restaurant
120 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo. 415.457.7700

Best Mexican

Sonoma County

Martha’s Old Mexico
305 N. Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.4458

Honorable Mention:

Papa’s & Pollo Southwest Mesquite Grill
915 Gravenstein Hwy. S., Sebastopol. 707.829.9037

Honorable Mention: Corporate

Chevy’s Fresh Mex Restaurant
24 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.571.1082

Napa County

Red Hen
5091 St. Helena Hwy., Napa. 707.255.8125

Marin County

Las Guitarras
1017 Reichert Ave., Novato. 415.892.3171

Best Thai

Sonoma County

Thai House
525 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.526.3939

Honorable Mention:

Thai Pot
6961 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol. 707.829.8889

Napa County

California Thai
522 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. 707.573.1441

Marin County

Tie:

Orchid Thai Restaurant
726 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo. 415.457.9470

Royal Thai Restaurant
610 Third St., San Rafael. 415.485.1074

Best Italian

Sonoma County

Tie:

Pasta Bella
796 Gravenstein Hwy., Sebastopol. 707.824.8191

Ristorante Capri
115 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.525.0815

Honorable Mention:

Buona Sera Cucina Italiana
148 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 707.763.3333

Napa County

Villa Romano
1011 Soscol Ferry Road, Napa. 415.252.4533

Marin County

Cafe Arrivederci
11 G St., San Rafael. 415.453.6427

Best Pizza

Sonoma County

La Vera
629 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.575.1113

Honorable Mention: Tie:

Borolo’s Original Pizza
500 Mission Blvd., Santa Rosa. 707)539.3937

Union Hotel Pizzeria
3703 Main St., Occidental. 707.874.3444
1007 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.544.3444

Napa County

Tie:

Checker’s Restaurant
1414 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.9300

Tomatina Pizzeria
1020 Main St., St. Helena. 707.967.9999

Marin County

Tie:

Mulberry St. Pizzeria
101 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael. 415.472.7272

Red Boy Pizza
940 Diablo Ave., Novato. 415.897.1180

Best Seafood

Sonoma County

Lucas Wharf
595 Highway One, Bodega Bay. 707.875.3571

Honorable Mention:

Tides Wharf Restaurant
835 Highway One, Bodega Bay. 707.876.3554

Napa County

Tie:

Piatti Ristorante
6480 Washington St., Yountville. 707.944.2070

Downtown Joe’s
902 Main St., Napa. 707.258.2337

Marin County

Seafood Peddler And Oyster Bar
507 E. Francisco Blvd., San Rafael. 415.460.6669

Best Vegetarian

Sonoma County

East West Cafe
128 North Main St., Sebastopol. 707.829.2822

Honorable Mention:

Sparks Restaurant
16248 Main St., Guerneville. 707.869.8206

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

Good Earth Natural Foods
123 Bolinas Road, Fairfax. 415.454.0123

Best Cabernet

Sonoma County

Fetzer Vineyards
13601 E. Side Road, Hopland. 800.846.8637

Honorable Mention:

Ravenswood Winery
18701 Gehricke Road, Sonoma. 707.938.1960

Napa County

Zd Winery
8383 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.963.5188

Marin County

Pt. Reyes Vineyard Inn
12700 State Route One, Pt. Reyes. 415.663.1011

Best Chardonnay

Sonoma County

Kendall Jackson Wine Center
5007 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa. 707.571.7500

Honorable Mention:

Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards And Winery
10300 Chalk Hill Road, Healdsburg. 707.838.4306

Napa County

Tie:

Stonegate Winery
1183 Dunaweal Lane, Calistoga. 707.542.6500

Rutherford Hill Winery
200 Rutherford Hill Road, Rutherford. 707.963.1871

Marin County

Starry Night
67 Galli Drive, Novato. 415.884.9866

Best Pinot Noir

Sonoma County

Marimar Torres Estate
1140 Graton Road, Graton. 707.823.4365

Honorable Mention:

Dehlinger Winery
6300 Guerneville Road, Sebastopol. 707.823.2378

Napa County

Clos Pegase Winery
1060 Dunaweal Lane, Calistoga. 707.942.4981

Best Sauvignon Blanc

Sonoma County

Tie:

Hanna’s
9280 Highway 128, Healdsburg. 707.431.4310

Kendall Jackson Wine Center
5007 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa. 707.571.7500

Honorable Mention:

Dry Creek
3770 Lambert Bridge Road, Healdsburg. 707.433.1000

Best Syrah

Sonoma County

Cline Cellars
24737 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. 707.935.4310

Honorable Mention:

Dehlinger Winery
6300 Guerneville Road, Sebastopol. 707.823.2378

Napa County

Robert Mondavi Winery
841 Latour Court, Napa. 707.251.4333

Marin County

Starry Night
67 Galli Drive, Novato. 415.884.9866

Best Zinfandel

Sonoma County

Ravenswood Winery
18701 Gehricke Road, Sonoma. 707.938.1960

Honorable Mention:

Limerick Lane
1023 Limerick Lane, Healdsburg. 707.433.9211

Napa County

Charles Krug
2800 Main St., St. Helena. 707.967.2297

Marin County

Starry Night
67 Galli Drive, Novato. 415.884.9866

Best Wine List

Sonoma County

Syrah
205 Fifth St., Santa Rosa. 707.568.4002

Honorable Mention:

John Ash & Co.
4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa. 707.527.7687

Napa County

Martini House
1245 Spring St., St. Helena. 707.963.2233

Marin County

Left Bank
507 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. 415.927.3331

Best New Restaurant

Sonoma County

K And L Bistro
119 South Main St., Sebastopol. 707.823.6614

Honorable Mention:

Zazu
3535 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. 707.523.4814

Napa County

Martini House
1245 Spring St., St. Helena. 707.963.2233

Marin County

Tie:

Pietro’s Italian Restaurant
868 Grant Ave., Novato. 415.892.6100

Wildfox
225 Alameda Del Prado, Novato. 415.883.9125

Best Winetasting Room

Sonoma County

Korbel
13250 River Road, Guerneville. 707.824.7000

Honorable Mention:

Kendall Jackson Wine Center
5007 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa. 707.571.7500

Napa County

Franciscan Oakville Estate
1178 Galleron Road, St. Helena. 707.967.2159

Marin County

Pt. Reyes Vineyard Inn
12700 State Route One, Pt. Reyes. 415.663.1011

Best Vegan

Sonoma County

Sparks Restaurant
16248 Main St., Guerneville. 707.869.8206

Honorable Mention:

Slice Of Life
6970 Mckinley St., Sebastopol. 707.829.6627

Napa County

Calistoga Natural
1426 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. 707.942.5822

Marin County

West End Cafe
1131 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.454.1424

Staff Picks:
Culture
Recreation
Food & Drink
Kid’s Stuff
Romance
Everyday Stuff

Readers Poll:
Culture
Recreation
Kid’s Stuff
Romance
Everyday Stuff

From the March 21-27, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Best of the North Bay

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[ ‘Best of’ Index ]

All The Best

The modern picture of The Artist began to form: The poor, but free spirit,
plebeian but aspiring only to be classless,
to cut himself forever free from the bonds of the greedy bourgeoisie,
to be whatever the fat burghers feared most, to cross the line wherever they drew it,
to look at the world in a way they couldn’t see,
to be high, live low, stay young forever–in short, to be the bohemian.

–Tom Wolfe

Staff picks were contributed by Kimberly Arnold, Gary Brandt, Greg Cahill, Gretchen Giles, Paula Harris, James Knight, Patrick Sullivan, David Templeton, M.V. Wood, and Jaime Wright.

Design by Adrienne Citron, Magali Pirard, and Kara Brown.

Staff Picks:
Culture
Recreation
Food & Drink
Kid’s Stuff
Romance
Everyday Stuff

Readers Poll:
Culture
Recreation
Food & Drink
Kid’s Stuff
Romance
Everyday Stuff

From the March 21-27, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Monty Monty

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Monty Monty

Lease On Life: Monty Monty poses with a new work called ‘Blowing Dixie.’

And Carry a Big Fork

Monty Monty uses the family jewels for his art

By M. V. Wood

The typical male antidote for the sorrows of aging is to buy a little red sports car. But when artist Monty Monty reached his 40s and noticed the dreams of his youth slipping away, he opted for more radical therapy.

Monty quit the 9-to-5 graphic arts job he held for 15 years and sold his home. He rented a small house in Santa Rosa, which he shares with his landlady, and turned the garage into a studio. Then, with his newly acquired time and funds, he set out to become the artist he always wanted to be.

“My mother died at my age [of cancer], and that tends to play with your head,” says Monty, whose work will be on display at the “Moonlight Son-Art-A” show, March 16-18.

“I looked at my life and thought, ‘What am I waiting for?’ Art had always been my passion. I’d been creating it forever and showing it for about 10 years. And it was time to plunge in. I didn’t have a family to support. There was nothing to stop me but fear.

“So I took a leap of faith, let go of all the security blankets, and followed my passion. But it’s scary as hell. You know, there’s a fine line between taking a leap of faith and jumping off a bridge.”

And now, it seems, Monty has found himself on the verge of soaring–if he can just hold steady for the time being.

It’s been about 18 months since he started creating art full-time, and his reputation is growing faster than his income. Art has never been a secure field–as any starving artist will tell you–and getting a financial foothold is no easy task.

“My tax man tells me that if I keep going at this rate, I’ll be broke in a year and a half,” he chuckles. Luckily, there are people whispering in his other ear, encouraging him, telling him that soon enough the tide will turn. For example, there’s Khysie Horn, owner of the Quicksilver Mine Co. gallery in Sebastopol. “Things are going to happen for Monty,” she says. “He’s going to go places, if he can just survive through this stage.”

His bedroom is tiny and cramped with art. The garage/studio looks like it’s in desperate need of a good cleaning, overflowing with old rods and poles, keys and clocks, spoons, forks, bowls. But this is the stuff of Monty’s art. He assembles all these pieces of “vintage collectibles,” as he calls them, to create his works. And once he brings these disparate parts together, the pieces take form and look like–well, at first glance, they usually look like a bunch of junk stuck together.

But given a minute or two, these pieces of a puzzle start playing in your mind, coming together, making sense.

For example, take his work Hanging by a Fork (a wordplay on “hanging by a thread”), where the pieces are fit to resemble a nude figure. The head is made of an oyster shucker (perhaps used to access a pearl?), the legs are carpenter rules (maybe to measure the distance from here to there?), and the body is fashioned out of an oblong jeweler’s tool once used as a type of tweezers to hold jewels.

Right in that groin area, where tool and rulers meet, Monty has strung up a found iron wire that happened to be bent in a shape resembling some “family jewels.” Also attached to the string is a fork.

The fork in the piece stands for more than just the need for sustenance. Monty came across this particular eating instrument over 20 years ago on a campground in Washington state. That was back when “Monty” was still just his first name and he had a regular ol’ last name. He says he’s not sure how he morphed into Monty Monty. “I’d create art, and when something was finished and felt right I’d say, ‘That’s a Monty!’ And then I started calling the pieces ‘Monty Monty,’ and I started calling myself that as well. I don’t know, it just kind of happened,” he says, adding that when he was little, he honestly thought his name was “Monty! No, no!” “I told my first teacher that was my name because that’s what my parents were always saying.”

Little Monty may have been a terror, but instead of giving him Ritalin, Monty’s parents gave him butcher paper–rolls and rolls of the stuff that he could draw on and cut and decorate.

Eventually, as a young man, he set out to make his way in the world as a graphic artist. And he found himself living on a campground near Spokane, Wash., while hunting for work. One night, as he was preparing for a big interview the following day, his black lab, Reno, got skunked. So Monty spent the little money he had left–except for his very last dollar bill–on tomato juice to bathe Reno in hopes of getting rid of the stench. Broke, stripped down to his shorts, washing his stinking dog with tomato juice, Monty stood there in the middle of that long night wondering what life would bring.

The next day, he showed up for the interview and started it off saying, “I know I smell like a skunk. . . .” He got the job. But he remained on the campground until his first paycheck came. “For the next week, all I ate was hot water mixed with the remaining tomato juice and those little free packets of ketchup you can get,” he recalls.

But he never did give up that fork–and he never did spend that last dollar bill. In fact, that very same bill is being held aloft in the hand of the Hanging by a Fork figure.

“Most people save the very first dollar they earn,” Monty says. “I saved the very last one I had. Maybe it’s good luck.”

The musically themed ‘Moonlight Son-Art-A’ show is a benefit for the Santa Rosa Symphony. It runs March 16-18 in the LBC lobby, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. Free. 707.546.3600.

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Children’s Literature

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Children’s Literature

Dark Days

Ghouls and goblins, mayhem and murder–it’s just kids’ stuff

Harry would have screamed, but he couldn’t make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Professor Quirrell’s head, there was a face, the most terrible face that Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

“Harry Potter. . . .” it whispered.

–From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

When J. K. Rowling first released Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone–the enchantingly scary first volume of the now mythic Harry Potter series–no one suspected that the book would spark an unprecedented level of scrutiny into the world of children’s literature.

But it has.

Had the Potter books remained known only to their intended audience of children, the whole contentious issue of darkness and juvenile fiction might never have emerged on so large a scale; popular juvenile literature would have stayed behind dark closet doors, locked in with its mythical monsters. But adults did discover Harry Potter, in a big way, making the books the first megalevel juvenile-to-adult crossover hit. And for many, this heady Harry Potter experience was a bit like biting the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The kiddie-lit tourists who moved from the Harry Potter books to other popular young-adult titles–Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat books–quickly discovered that children’s literature is no longer the exclusive domain of amiable bears and purple crayons, if ever it was. On the contrary, kid lit has finally been exposed as the dark, unsettling, unsavory, undeniably captivating world that it is and has been for some time.

“This kind of literature has always been there for children,” says Sebastopol author Megan McDonald (Judy Moody, The Bone Keeper), a popular children’s writer and public speaker. “But Harry Potter definitely brought it into the forefront.”

A Legacy of Terror

Obviously, J. K. Rowling–with her emotion-packed tales of Dementors and Death Eaters, werewolves and nearly headless ghosts, three-headed dogs and clandestine drinkers of unicorn blood–cannot be said to have invented the dark children’s book: Lewis Carroll, J. M. Barrie, and the Brothers Grimm are contenders for that particular honor. Philip Pullman’s masterful young-adult novel The Golden Compass, a nightmarish depiction of kidnapped children, marauding bears, and surgical experiments, actually predated Harry Potter by two years. And Judy Blume, the reigning queen of nonfantasy young-adult fiction, has watched for years as her award-winning books–honest depictions of teenagers wrestling with their adolescence–have been banned by school districts for their challenging content.

But while critical attacks on children’s books are nothing new, one can argue that until the Harry Potter books materialized in 1997 (was it only five years ago?), it was far less commonplace for writers and critics to remark on the supposed rise in literary darkness. Clearly, it is time to ask the question once again: Are kids’ books becoming too dark for kids?

“It’s an age-old question,” says McDonald. “Honestly, I think adults are more scared of the dark parts in children’s books than the children are. Think about Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Kids love that book, and parents are always wondering if it’s too scary.” She lists other examples, ranging from the darkness-lite domestic problems of the Beverly Cleary books to the controversial pessimism of The Chocolate War, the much beloved young-adult classic by the late Robert Cormier.

Perhaps adults have forgotten that it’s this very same brand of literature–the dark stuff–that often tends to stick with us all the way through to adulthood. These edgy, honest novels help young people make sense of their lives by corroborating their sense that the world is often harsh and unfair. It only follows that these same books will be the ones we end up introducing to our own children once they begin asking the hard questions about the randomness of the world.

As Megan McDonald says, “It’s important to give kids the truth–and sometimes the truth is dark.”

Dark World, Dark Comfort

The lives of Violet and Klaus Baudelaire are very different from most people’s lives, with the main difference being the amount of unhappiness, horror, and despair. The three children have no time to get into all sorts of mischief, because misery follows them wherever they go. They have not had a grand old time since their parents died in a terrible fire. And the only trophy they would win would be some sort of First Prize for Wretchedness. It is atrociously unfair that the Baudelaires have so many troubles, but that is how the story goes.

–From The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

Darkness is a vague term. When used to describe recent children’s literature, it can mean anything from scary to bloody to sexual to overly realistic. In his program Focus on the Family, conservative Christian commentator Dr. James Dobson has used the word “darkness” repeatedly, aiming it at some surprising targets, including books that show, as he described it in a recent column, “teenagers at odds with their parents.” That’s dark?

Daniel Handler, author of the pseudonymous Lemony Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, defines dark literature as books containing “a heightened level of chaos.” Though some critics have objected to the fact that, in the Snicket series, his unlucky heroes’ parents are burned to death on the opening page, Handler (www.lemonysnicket.com) feels that’s not what most people find objectionable.

“I think what most critics have trouble with is that the world I’ve created is really chaotic,” he says. “It’s the fact that, though the children have integrity and truth and loyalty and love, those characteristics aren’t rewarded. The Baudelaires get out of predicaments pretty much by the skin of their teeth, not because they’re good people, which they are. To me, this is something that everyone recognizes about the real world, but it is somehow very dangerous to say aloud.”

Handler, for the record, believes that most children’s books aren’t nearly dark enough, given the randomness and chaos of the real world. He points to the war in Afghanistan as an example of what he calls a “delusional national mythology,” in which kids are more or less told that the bombs are landing on bad people and the food is landing on good people. “But kids know in their hearts that the world is not that neat and tidy,” he says. “I find stories interesting that acknowledge the sense of disorder that I think adults and children see in the world around them. It doesn’t mean children’s books have to be pessimistic. But I think kids should be told to be good because goodness is its own reward, that kids should be nice to their friends because that’s a good thing, not because it will protect you from evil.”

Some might go so far as to say that in a world where a good man like Daniel Pearl, the recently murdered Wall Street Journal reporter, is forced to face so evil an end, it actually does a disservice to children to promise them that things will turn out all right if only they are good.

“Frankly, I think that’s a specious argument. It’s ridiculous,” suggests Daniel Hoeye, Oregon-based author of the popular Time Stops for No Mouse. “When you are 7 years old, you should feel safe. When you’re 9 years old, you should feel safe, and 10 and 11 and 12. Maybe by the time you’re 16, it’s time to start facing the realities of the world, but I don’t think there’s any point in teaching a 7-year-old that life sucks and then you die. How are they supposed to muster the skills to cope with that?”

To be fair, Hoeye’s own books are not devoid of a certain degree of threat and danger. Time Stops for No Mouse, the first in a planned series, is, after all, a murder mystery, albeit one taking place in a world of talking rodents. His mouse hero, a fussy watchmaker named Hermux Tantamoq, uncovers his share of corpses and conspiracies–and let’s face it, these elements are a big part of the book’s appeal to children. But Hoeye (www.hermux.com), recently quoted in USA Today decrying the availability of “ultradark” entertainment for kids, doubts that the term “darkness” accurately describes Hermux’s page-turning adventures.

“When I say darkness, I tend to mean nihilism,” Hoeye explains. “I mean situations where there is little or no hope of escape. When I say darkness, I mean that you are in a dystopian world, that there is no harmony, there is no potential for goodness or self-sacrifice or consideration of other people. A dog-eat-dog world.

“Though in my books,” he adds with a laugh, “I suppose it would be called a rat-eat-rat world.”

While Hoeye suggests that starkly rat-eat-rat depictions of life are best left for older readers, Francesca Lia Block, whose semimagical, drug-and-sex-tinged books have been embraced by both adults and young people, sees it differently. “I believe in the importance of expressing and acknowledging the darkness inside us,” says Block, “and that includes the darkness in young people. I don’t believe people–or books–should be so easily divided into categories.”

Having been discovered and championed by an army of hip, young twentysomethings, Block’s books, in fact, are a prime example of another little piece of this puzzle. It seems that the remarkable rise in kid-to-adult literary crossovers has been significantly fueled by the unbridled enthusiasm–and credit cards–of pop-culture-happy hepcats in their twenties and early thirties.

Few nine-year-olds could tell you that Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) is a sometimes accordion player with the quirky and hot New York band Magnetic Fields. But plenty of older Lemony Snicket fans could, and they could also expound on the “Edward Gorey effect,” explaining that while fantasy and whimsy are the catnip that draws the kids, it is the added spice of irony that attracts the cool, young trendsetters of a slightly older age. Besides, such folks don’t require the sedate, “adulterized” alternative book covers that many older Harry Potter fans demand in England; unlike others, these readers don’t apologize for their tastes.

Jean Bolduc is a North Carolina newspaper columnist and author (Zero to Zen in 60 Seconds), and the mother of two voraciously book-hungry boys. For years she’s been waging a not so gentle war of words in her weekly column, speaking out against the critics and self-appointed culture police who have proposed banning such books as Harry Potter.

“These people,” she has succinctly suggested, “are idiots.” Taking a subtler tone, Bolduc further suggests that adult critics of modern children’s lit are, at the very least, missing the point.

“I think we’re all middle-aged and have bad memories of childhood,” laughs Bolduc (www.zerotozen.com). “We forget that we were scared to death by the Wicked Witch of the West–and that we loved it. But kids are a lot smarter, a lot more savvy than we were. My kids think the Wicked Witch is pretty lame. So do we not give them something they can be scared by?”

Adds Megan McDonald, whose lighthearted books are something of an antidote, “In some ways, kids’ books should be darker than they used to be, because we’re asking kids to deal with so much more, because, like it or not, we’re living in a darker world.”

Straight on Til Morning

IT was a brain. A disembodied brain. An oversized brain, just enough larger than normal to be completely revolting and terrifying. A living brain. A brain that pulsed and quivered, that seized and commanded. No wonder the brain was called IT. IT was the most horrible, the most repellent thing that Meg had ever seen, far more nauseating than anything she had ever imagined with her conscious mind, or that had ever tormented her in her most terrible nightmares.

–From A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

But is children’s literature truly darker than it used to be? At what time were children’s books significantly less dark?

A quick glance at the best-selling children’s books of the past shows a paperback parade of death, struggle, pain, and abuse. Look at Charlotte’s Web, the best-selling children’s paperback of all time, in which a resourceful spider attempts to save a goodhearted pig from the slaughterhouse, and then dies alone on the rafter of a state fair pigpen. Death is hanging all over that book. In Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (set to appear this May as a two-part miniseries on ABC), three kids endure intense physical pain, even torture, on the planet Camazotz when they travel through space to rescue their scientist father from the grip of IT. Then there are the devilishly dark works of Roald Dahl, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to The Twits.

Who’s going to stand up and say those books aren’t every bit as dark as Harry Potter?

Looking further back, Peter Pan, published in 1904, struck Potter-like chords among adults and children. This is a book with a not so subtle subtext regarding the “cruel and heartless” nature of children. In Peter Pan, youthful readers are exposed to dismemberment, scalpings, poisonings, attempted suicides, and at least one piratical throat slitting, not to mention the references to fairies stumbling drunkenly through the forest “on their way home from an orgy.” The underlying darkness of the book is exemplified, not in the vengeful Captain Hook–whom you almost feel sorry for in the book–but in Peter Pan himself. Hardly the boyish fun-lover made famous by Mary Martin on Broadway, this Peter is a borderline psychopath, prone to creepy, if occasionally thrilling, pronouncements. “I forget them after I kill them,” says Peter of Captain Hook, when, at the end of the book, Wendy attempts to reminisce about the good old pirate-killing days in Never-Never Land. Faced with imminent drowning, he remarks, “Death will be an awfully big adventure.” I have no wish to diminish the Zen-like bravura of facing death with a sense of wonder, but if you don’t think this is an unsettling remark, just try imagining your own dying 10-year-old saying it.

And don’t forget Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In their earliest, non-Disneyfied forms, these tales described an endless pageant of blood and abandonment–yet they were created as stories for children. This supports the long-held but recently forgotten theory that in dark times children do seek the comfort of dark tales, that children do crave a bit of gloom in their lives–thus their love-hate relationship with the monsters in the closet.

“The broader issue here,” says Beverly Horowitz, vice president and publisher of Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group (a division of Random House Children’s Books), “is how we are defining the readership of these books and stories. Perhaps the truth is not that children’s books are darker than they used to be, but that younger kids are now reading dark books.” Horowitz, who’s worked with Robert Cormier and Philip Pullman, has noticed a trend of younger readers tackling books that were not intended for their age group. “I think some eight-year-olds are simply not ready for the books they are reading,” she says. “Which is not to say that other eight-year-olds wouldn’t do just fine with the same book. Different children are ready for different material at different ages.”

This explains why some books originally meant for adult readers–The Lord of the Rings, for example–end up in the hands of certain children, and why some book publishers, eager to take advantage of the current juvenile book renaissance, are pushing the limits, releasing juvenile titles written with older audiences in mind. Michael Hoeye, after all, wrote Time Stops for No Mouse for his wife. And Philip Pullman has often groused that his series His Dark Materials was conceived as a fantasy epic in the vein of Tolkien and not as a children’s story, regardless of how it’s being marketed.

Clearly, many of the young readers who’ve discovered these books are more than ready for them. But what about those children who are not? Horowitz doesn’t suggest that parents and teachers snatch advanced books from their children’s hands. She doesn’t recommend any harsh measures. Her remedy for this problem is much gentler, if hardly revolutionary.

“If your kids are reading one of the darker books, encourage them to talk with you about it,” she says. “They might not even know it’s dark. A book you think is full of dark, psychological subtext–a Golden Compass or a Chocolate War–might be a book that your child is experiencing simply as a joyous adventure with a few thrills and chills thrown in.”

And if it turns out that a book is too gloomy for your child, if he or she reveals discomfort with the content on the page, Horowitz’s suggestion is even simpler. “If a child of any age is uncomfortable with any book,” she says, “encourage them to close the book, to put it down, and to go find something else.”

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Tom Waits

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Tom Waits

The Tom Tom Club

Tom Waits kicks out two new CDs

By Greg Cahill

It’s a double whammy. Almost four years after the release of his Grammy-winning Mule Variations CD–arguably his most accessible material–singer-songwriter Tom Waits is following in the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen and Guns N’ Roses, who both famously released two albums on the same day.

Waits–an Occidental resident whose boozy beat poetry and eccentric song forms have made him the quintessential Bohemian–is set to release two new CDs on May 7. Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan reportedly have wrapped up production on a pair of theatrical concept albums, Alice and Blood Money. The British rock magazine Uncut calls the two albums “startlingly different in landscape, sound, emotion, and composition.”

Of the two, the most is known about Alice, which Uncut goes on to accurately describe as “filled with unforgettable, haunting, opiate-dark tunes from an adult fairy tale.” Indeed, a bootleg of demos from Alice, recorded in 1992, has been making the rounds for years. And it’s fantastic. The songs comprise the score to Robert Schmidt’s stage production of the same name, a dark retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, for the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany. It wasn’t the first time that Waits worked with the experimental theater company: Two years earlier, he collaborated with playwright Robert Wilson and author William S. Burroughs on The Black Rider, which spawned the album of the same name.

But while that score is marked by edgy dissonance, the stripped-down, acoustic-based songs on Alice include some of Waits’ most beautiful melodies (or beautiful maladies, as Waits might say). Among the instruments used on the recording are bowed double bass, theremin (the proto-electronic device popularized by the Beach Boys on “Good Vibrations”), stroh violin, waterphones, and an odd string instrument called the bug. “Table Top Joe,” kind of a metallic, gamelan-influenced number about lost dreams (and sung to Alice by the Caterpillar in the play) is one of Waits’ catchiest tunes.

Ultimately, Alice is a mini passion play about love, lust, betrayal, and murder–a sort of Cabaret-on-laudanum that ranks with Waits’ best work.

Less is known about Blood Money (originally titled Red Drum), except that the album’s songs were inspired by the plight of the fictional Woyzeck, a poor soldier driven mad by medical experiments and an unfaithful wife. The album has been described as Tin Pan Alley meets the Weimar Republic, a dense, textured, rhythmic work replete with tarantellas, lullabies, and waltzes. Who could ask for more?

Spin du jour

Life stinks–E (aka Mark Oliver Everett) wants you to know that. The main man behind the ironic rock-meets-trip-hop band the Eels, he and his bandmates rock hard on their newly released two-CD Souljacker (Dreamworks), the follow-up to 2000’s wry, witty Daisies of the Galaxy (and a pair of contributions to the Shrek and How the Grinch Stole Christmas soundtracks). On Souljacker, the Eels team up with British rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist John Parish (Sparklehorse, Giant Sand) for a conceptual look at moral bankruptcy. Of course, the Eels are no strangers to songs that tackle life’s heavier themes–their 1996 college-radio breakthrough hit “Susan’s House” alone focused on homelessness, mental illness, and drive-by shootings. And just in case you miss the subtle messages, E has included the Rotten World Blues EP for good measure. Life should stink so good.

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

No Spray Action Network

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No Spray Action Network

Spray Watch

Sticky questions bug environmentalists

By Tara Treasurefield

Wine country is on the edge of its collective seat: It’s glassy-winged sharpshooter season. The sharpshooter is known to carry Pierce’s disease, which is deadly to grape vines. Through stringent inspections, the Napa and Sonoma County agricultural commissioners have stopped the pervasive insect at nurseries, where it arrives on plants and trees shipped from infested counties.

To keep the insect out of vineyards, agricultural commissioners and the California Department of Food and Agriculture have the authority to spray synthetic pesticides in residential areas and public places, even over the objections of property owners and residents. To date, 15 counties have been sprayed.

Because forced pesticide spraying would polarize the North Bay community, last year agricultural interests and environmentalists in Sonoma and Napa counties negotiated agreements designed to protect vineyards, the environment, and the public health. The universal wish, though, is that the agreements will never be tested, as there are some sticky questions.

For example, Lowell Downey, who serves on the Alternative Control Committee of the Glassy-Winged Action Task Force in Napa, says that few people may know that they can refuse synthetic pesticides. In the event of an infestation, agricultural commissioners will go door-to-door in affected areas. As they make their rounds, Downey wants commissioners to ask residents if they prefer organic alternatives.

But Greg Clark, assistant agricultural commissioner in Napa County, says they’ll only mention alternatives to people who object to synthetic pesticides. Downey notes that this amounts to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. “If they don’t let people know what their options are,” he says, “people won’t be in a position to choose alternatives.”

Clark hesitates to advertise alternatives because no one knows if they’ll work; results of testing alternatives won’t be available until April at the earliest. The effectiveness of synthetic pesticides is also unclear, however. The sharpshooter persists in areas of Tulare, Fresno, and Butte counties that have been sprayed several times over with synthetic pesticides.

Mike Smith, assistant agricultural commissioner in Sonoma County, says, “We won’t exclude anybody from presenting alternatives.” But that doesn’t satisfy environmentalists.

“We want our agricultural commissioner to be the voice that says that pesticides are a legitimate concern to anybody, both for environmental and health reasons,” says Dave Henson of No Spray Action Network in Sonoma County.

Residents should also be aware of another sticky question, whether synthetic pesticides can be forced on them. According to the Sonoma County agreement, says Shepherd Bliss of No Spray, “Before [agricultural commissioners] can spray, they have to get the No Spray people to agree that the situation warrants it.” John Dyer, attorney with CDFA, says, “The state agreement to which the county agreement is attached contains contingency provisions that, in certain theoretical circumstances, could override the county agreement.”

Cost is another crucial question. The state pays for CDFA-recommended treatments in residential areas but not for alternatives, such as picking off or vacuuming insects and eggs, using organic pesticides, and removing infested plants. The time, energy, and money required to apply alternatives may prevent residents from choosing them.

But Nick Frey, executive director of Sonoma County Grape Growers Association, says, “If the cost of [alternative] treatments was a major stumbling block, we’d want to know, and we’d want to try to address it.”

In spite of these issues, there’s reason for optimism. Bliss says, “We have negotiated in good will, and I think they have also.”

To prevent interference from CDFA–the wild card–Bliss says, “We are asking citizens at this point to cooperate, to find alternative methods.”

Summing up, Mari Russell of No Spray says, “We’re ready to go into gear for a community working together to eradicate the sharpshooter, or to do civil disobedience if the state comes in and overrides the community agreement we made.”

To date, No Spray Action Network has trained 150 residents in civil disobedience.

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

‘We Were Soldiers’

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‘We Were Soldiers’

We Were Wives

A feminist historian looks at Vietnam, the ’60s, and ‘We Were Soldiers’

Writer David Templeton takes interesting people to interesting movies in his ongoing quest for the ultimate postfilm conversation.

In We Were Soldiers, Mel Gibson’s blood-soaked Vietnam epic, nearly 20 minutes of valuable screen time are devoted to the home-front activities of the soldiers’ wives waiting fearfully at home in Fort Benning, Ga., while their men engage in battle thousands of miles away. Given that the movie is 140 minutes long, this still leaves a full two hours for the traditional bomb bursting, napalm dropping, death dealing, and martyrdom that are war movies’ bread and butter. But according to feminist historian Estelle Freedman, what’s truly earthshaking about the film is the very existence of scenes focusing on the stories of women.

“What it says is that, in Hollywood films, even war movies have come to recognize that there is a women’s audience,” says Freedman, cofounder of Stanford University’s feminist studies program and author of the illuminating new book No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (Ballantine; $26). Women, as major consumers of culture, are now insisting that their stories be told, Freedman says.

And Hollywood, it seems, is listening.

We Were Soldiers takes place in 1964 and 1965 and follows the first battlefield engagements of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. Historically, it is a time when, as Freedman puts it, “The belief in the heroism of war is still strong. War and sacrifice have not been tainted yet with the discontent that’s going to come in the late ’60s and early ’70s.”

So the film’s depiction of Tupperware wives waiting at home for telegrams from the War Department is accurate?

“The changes,” says Freedman, “would come along a little bit later than that.”

In addition to the home-front ladies, the film hints at the stories of women on the war front, with fleeting glimpses of army nurses tending the wounded, of female war correspondents arriving postbattle to snap pictures of the carnage. Not mentioned in the film are the women in the antiwar movement at home–women who presumably would have had a lot to say to the faithful wives of We Were Soldiers.

In many ways, says Freedman, these women were not all that different.

“Early on, women were mainly providing support services in the antiwar movement, as they were in the civil rights movement,” Freedman suggests. “Which meant making the coffee, running the mimeograph machine, providing all those creature comforts, then stepping back as the men played the leadership roles.”

Freedman recalls one seldom mentioned antidraft effort, in which young women were recruited to go out and offer draftable men a good, antiestablishment roll in the hay, more or less in exchange for the men’s resistance to the draft.

“It’s true. There were buttons that said, ‘Girls say Yes to boys who say No,'” Freedman reports. “Joan Baez was once featured on a poster with that slogan. The idea being that–in the counterculture, not the mainstream culture–women couldn’t burn their draft cards, but they could say, ‘We’ll go to bed with those brave boys who resist the draft.'” Talk about bar girls.

“I actually have one of those buttons,” she laughs. “I told this story in one of my classes, and somebody brought me the button a few days later. This is exactly the kind of thing that gave birth to modern feminism. When women started moving out of those movements, it was partly in reaction to being stuck in that sexually objectified, exclusively supportive role.”

That We Were Soldiers shows women who never question their role as the supporter of their husbands makes it no less important a film, suggests Freedman. “It’s 1965,” she says. “It’s still a little early for the wives of soldiers to be doing that kind of questioning.

“But in a few years, these women will be asking a lot of questions.”

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Russian Food

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Edible Nostalgia

Sometimes there’s no substitute for cured pork fat and ketchup gravy

By Marina Wolf

The nights are cold, my job sucks, and cabbage is the freshest thing in the produce aisle. Don’t bother me. I’m having a Russia moment. They come along every winter, when I look up and remember that good tomatoes are still at least five or six months away. It might be just another case of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, except I have a place and time to attach to the feeling: St. Petersburg, 1992-’93. I’m simply homesick.

Why I should have warm feelings for this winter wonderland of food shortages is not immediately clear, even to myself. This was a place in which sugar disappeared from stores for weeks at a time, and the best price for fish was found in the back of a dirty truck. Aren’t I just romanticizing a state of anarchic malnutrition?

Yes and no. Yes, my experience was rosier than the reality for most Russians. My companion and I were earning dollars, which meant that the farmers’ markets, with decent produce at exorbitant prices, were a viable option. And there were two of us to stand in lines, plus a Russian roommate who was happy to schlep shopping bags and make Turkish coffee in exchange for his share of the rent.

In spite of such luxuries, however, the pursuit of food demanded a significant expenditure of time, money, and energy, so we learned to appreciate the thrill of the hunt. There was always something on the street, melons from Moldova or soy sauce or British crackers. One December we feasted for three weeks on mandarins and blood oranges, which had entered the country as aid from Italy and “fell off the back of a truck” at prices well below market value. If that’s not a humanitarian act, I don’t know what is.

The deli shops had their moments of excitement, too. If you could see past the smudged showcases and cats dozing on the scales (hey, at least there weren’t any mice!), there were some real finds, like imported Dutch cheese instead of the chalky domestic stuff. As for the kolbasa counters, well, charcuterie would be too posh a term for the coarse-grained, thick-skinned bologna, but when meat prices soared, we looked forward to our dinner of fried eggs and bologna like anybody else.

Of course, we also looked forward to getting back to a normal system of food distribution. Our first return visit to an American grocery store was as exciting as we had imagined. And even now, years later, I still know we’ve got it good here. That cabbage is really fresh, and there is even some kale and good firm carrots lying about. The fish is laid out in clean ice, and there is always sugar on the shelf.

And yet . . . and yet, in the sameness of winter one longs for something else, a change of terrain or taste. So maybe it’s time for a field trip, 60 miles to the nearest Russian deli, where I can summon up my deteriorating language skills to pick up some pel’meni. These are like ravioli, only more packed, or maybe like wontons, only more securely sealed. In Russia, pel’meni were as widespread as TV dinners are here. We liked to throw them into a sputtering pan of oil and fry them on three sides until the pasta turned golden and crisp. Then we dipped them in what passed for ketchup and ate them with our fingers in front of the confusing evening news.

Here in the States, pel’meni are a more handcrafted item, selling for considerable sums at Orthodox church events. So when I visited the nearest Russian deli recently and found a 100-count bag for $10, I snagged it, feeling that familiar shiver of excitement at a miraculous food find. The respectful treatment for pel’meni is a careful simmering in beef broth, topped with a dollop of sour cream and a splash of soy sauce.

As long as I’m there at the deli, I always get a handful of candies, stale usually, with strange names like Red Riding Hood or Mishka. And of course I get a pound of salo, which has no equivalent in any other cuisine that I’m aware of. It is essentially dry-cured pork fat, very mundane if not crude, but the smell of it, salty and rich, takes me back to a little shop near the Mayakovskaya metro station.

I’m sure other stores in the city sold it, but our roommate insisted that it was the most reputable source. The hurried shopkeeper would pull a huge piece of salo out of a barrel of salt, brush it off, and hack off a small chunk with a knife that was as sharp as it was dirty, that is to say, very. He would wrap it in plain waxed paper, as expertly as an origami artist. Our Russian roommate showed us how to cut it into bits, fry it crisp, and crack eggs over the whole greasy mess. Traditionally, though, salo was eaten raw on bread spread with fiery mustard.

I have the mustard at the back of my cupboard. All that’s missing is the salo. And yes, I know about cholesterol and trichinosis, but I don’t care. I just need a break from here and now, and a taste from then and there might help.

From the March 14-20, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Election Results

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Election Results

Election Selection

Mullins out, school spending in

By Patrick Sullivan

Sonoma County voters braved the rain on Tuesday to deliver an entertaining end to a lackluster primary election. Turnout was low, but the drama was high.

Easily the biggest story of the night: Incumbent district attorney Mike Mullins went down in flames, losing in a landslide to challenger Stephan Passalacqua, a deputy district attorney.

The contentious campaign, which set a new spending record for a district attorney’s race in Sonoma County, saw the candidates trading accusations of incompetence. Mullins called Passalacqua too inexperienced and uncommitted to his work. But voters seemed far more interested in the incumbent’s own recent missteps, including the two-term district attorney’s botched handling of the Louis Pelfini murder case. Final vote tallies: 57.1 percent to Passalacqua and 42.7 to Mullins.

In another high-profile but much more predictable race, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey blew her Democratic challenger out of the water. The incumbent congresswoman scored more than 77 percent of the vote against Santa Rosa mayor Mike Martini, who had criticized Woolsey for not bringing enough federal money back to the district and for voting against the USA Patriot Act.

No new faces will appear on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Both incumbents pulled off big victories against their challengers. In the second district, Mike Kerns scored 61 percent of the vote against progressive Ray Peterson, who had criticized the board’s decision to allow gravel mining in the Russian River. In the fourth district, Paul Kelley scored 58.4 percent of the vote, easily beating back what had initially seemed to be a strong challenge from Fred Euphrat, who supports urban growth boundaries and more concentrated use of open-space money.

Eureka social worker Patty Berg seems likely to go to the state house. Berg took an early lead in a crowded field of candidates to win the Democratic nomination for first assembly district. Lake County supervisor Rob Brown took the GOP nomination, but a Republican hasn’t held this seat since 1972. If Berg beats Brown in November, she’ll replace the outgoing Virginia Strom-Martin, D-Duncans Mills. The popular incumbent was prevented by term limits from running again.

Election night also found Sonoma County voters generously opening their wallets.

In Sonoma County, three school bond measures coasted to victory. Santa Rosa Junior College’s $252 million Measure A, approved by 67.2 percent of voters, will help build a new library and more parking on the campus. Also victorious: Measure B, the Santa Rosa High School District’s $77 million bond measure, and Measure C, the Santa Rosa elementary schools’ $19 million measure.

The financially troubled Sonoma Valley Hospital will stay open–at least for the time being. Voters gave resounding approval to Measure D, the Sonoma Valley Health Care District Tax, which will raise $2 million in parcel taxes a year to keep the only hospital in Sonoma afloat.

The Man Show

In a town with more than its share of cranks, longtime Petaluma men’s rights activist Joe Manthey has once again pulled ahead of the pack. After years of hounding the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for the county’s support of “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” Manthey has now resorted to legal action. Contending that the event unlawfully discriminates against boys, Manthey and his attorney, Chris Ferry of Pleasant Hill, have filed suit in the San Francisco U.S. District Court. Bemused county officials note that they also hold a similar day that invites boys into the workplace, as well as a third event called “Take Your Children to Work Day.”

From the March 7-13, 2002 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

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