Ginger Dunphy

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Ginger Dunphy

Photograph by Rory McNamara

Model Citizen

New exhibit highlights Ginger Dunphy’s naked talent for inspiring artists

By David Templeton

GINGER DUNPHY is trying not to smile. Semi-reclining on a bench under a low-hanging, moss-encrusted tree, Dunphy is leaning back on one arm as she holds the other tight against her side.

As she gazes serenely into space, her lined face is a study in serenity. Her 52-year-old body, short in stature and bountiful in size, might be in a state of profound meditation. For what seems like ages–but is only a few minutes–Dunphy doesn’t move a muscle.

Suddenly, a pencil-wielding artist–and she’s literally surrounded by them at the moment–cracks a joke: “All that grass sticking up around you doesn’t look quite right,” he says. “So I’m turning the grass into flames.”

In response, Dunphy’s face breaks out of its trancelike state as she erupts in a musical burst of laughter.

“As in the flames of hell? Oh, thanks!” Dunphy affectionately snaps back at the playful offender. “Well, why not? My mother figures that’s where I’m going anyway.”

Then Dunphy–who was once a Catholic nun–swiftly returns to her former pose and holds it for another 22 minutes. As she works, a grand total of eight artists skillfully turn Dunphy’s form and face into eight different works of art.

Eventually, Dunphy will move back inside the warm barnyard studio where Santa Rosa artist Donna DeLaBriandais has for 10 years hosted a weekly get-together of local artists interested in drawing and painting the human figure. It’s a three-hour session, during which various models, one each week, pose several times, indoors and out, clothed and otherwise.

Dunphy’s easy rapport, quick-witted sense of humor, and nonexistent modesty in regard to her body have made her a favorite at DeLaBriandais drawing group, where she poses about once a month.

Black Hat.

KNOWN SIMPLY as Ginger to scores of artists from New York to Oregon, Dunphy was let loose from a semi-cloistered convent in Southern California in the mid-1960s.

She has been an artist’s model for over 25 years, ever since the day local artist Drew Upton asked her to model nude for a life drawing class at Sonoma State University.

“I took to it instantly,” Dunphy says. “I’m very at ease with nakedness. Being nude in front of people feels no different to me than wearing clothes in front of people. And it turned out that I was good at being a model.”

Before long, Dunphy was working up and down the state, modeling for student artists and established professionals alike.

“At first I thought I’d been asked to model because I was fat,” Dunphy admits. “Because there are very few fat models around, people willing to take off their clothes in front of a roomful of artists, and from an artist’s point of view, fat is interesting.

“But let’s face it,” she continues. “It’s hard enough to be fat in this world with your clothes on.”

In other words, Dunphy filled a niche. But that’s not all.

“I realized that my popularity with artists wasn’t all about my size,” she says. “I think I understand what artists need, and I’m very willing to give that.'”

In short, Dunphy’s talent lies in her knowledge of how to be interesting.

“Ginger is amazing,” praises DeLaBriandais. “She’s very generous, very intelligent. And she’s lots of fun to be around, naked or not. This is not easy work for any model, but Ginger makes it look easy.”

As a celebration of the vital role such models play in the lives of artists, DeLaBriandais, in association with the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County, has coordinated a new show: “The Spirit of Ginger–Artists and the Model.”

Opening March 17 at the SoFo2 Gallery in Santa Rosa, the show will feature the works of 14 artists from around the Bay Area. The subject of each work: Ginger.

“We’re letting Ginger stand in as the icon of all models,” says DeLaBriandais, “And we’re using the show to honor every model’s unsung contribution to the art world.”

ON THE WALL INSIDE the barn hangs a small poster with the words “When you surround yourself with loving and supportive people, your creative energy will flourish.”

At the moment, there is creative energy to spare, as the amazingly spry Dunphy–who stays in shape by swimming, stretching, and dancing–now poses afresh on the studio’s tiny stage, illuminated by a row of overhead track lights.

At the foot of the stage are bags full of Dunphy’s many props: hats, feather boas, and costumes, including a nun’s habit and a red riding hood. Earlier in the session, she performed the famous fairy tale, wearing the hood and cape and nothing else.

The space is cozy but comfortable. The day’s assembly of artists–all of whom will have works on display in the “Spirit of Ginger” show–are crouched or standing in every corner of the room. Meanwhile, Dunphy sits half-straddling a chair, wearing a tight-fitting red and white striped dress, her legs apart, one arm coyly draped over the chair’s back.

When an onlooker compares Dunphy’s pose to Sharon Stone’s famous interrogation scene in Basic Instinct, the model laughs gleefully.

“No, no, no,” Dunphy responds, without moving. “Sharon Stone did that for a roomful of policemen. That’s not my crowd. I much prefer artists.”

After the session, Dunphy makes a quick trip through the studio to see what her clients have come up with. Oohing and ahhing, she beams and guffaws at a series of sketches drawn from her “Red Riding Hood” bit.

“This is one of the things I love about this job,” she says. “There’s immediate gratification. Like an opera singer who finishes an aria and is rewarded with applause, I do my work and then, voila! There’s a piece of art. And it’s all me! I love that.”

“The Spirit of Ginger” opens Friday, March 17, and continues through May 5 at the SoFo2 Gallery. Viewing hours are Mondays through Saturdays, 12 to 5 p.m. A reception takes place Friday, March 24, from 5 to 8 p.m. 602 Wilson, Santa Rosa. 579-2787.

From the March 9-15, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

The Foo Fighters

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The Foo Fighters

Foo-ey!

Foo Fighters push controversial notion that there is no HIV/AIDS link

By Silja J. A. Talvi

SOME ROCK STARS want to free Tibet. Others want to save Mumia. The Foo Fighters, on the other hand, want their fans to ignore accepted medical wisdom about AIDS. The multimillion-album-selling alternative rock outfit has thrown its weight behind Alive and Well, an “alternative AIDS information group” that denies any link between HIV and AIDS.

In January, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel helped organize a sold-out concert in Hollywood to benefit the group. Foo fans were treated to a speech by Alive and Well founder Christine Maggiore, who believes AIDS may be caused by HIV-related medications, anal sex, stress, and drug use, and implies that people should not get tested for HIV nor take medications to counter the virus. Free copies of Maggiore’s self-published book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?, in which she declares “there is no proof that HIV causes AIDS,” were also passed out to the concertgoers.

HIV experts are alarmed by the possible impact of the Foo Fighters’ embrace of Maggiore’s theories on their potentially gullible young fans.

“Clearly, more research is needed on the factors that contribute to HIV infection and the development of AIDS,” says Dorcus Crumbley of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. “However, the conclusions of more than two decades of epidemiologic, virologic, and medical research are that HIV infection is transmissible through sexual contact, intravenous drug use, perinatally, and from receiving blood or blood products . . .[and] the scientific evidence is overwhelming that HIV is the cause of AIDS.”

Adds Crumbley: “The myth that HIV is not the primary cause of AIDS . . . could cause [HIV-positive people] to reject treatment critical for their own health and for preventing transmission to others.”

“When it comes to such a complex health topic, it behooves the band to have really researched what they are endorsing,” says Diane Tanaka, an attending physician at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, where she works with a large population of high-risk and HIV-infected low-income youth. “[The Foo Fighters] have a big responsibility in terms of [their] public role and the impact that they can have on young people. Is this band willing to take responsibility for a young person engaging in risky, unprotected sex because of information they’ve gotten from the [Foo Fighters] or from Alive and Well?”

ALIVE AND WELL is one of several fringe groups that deny a link between HIV and AIDS. Similar theories have been put forth over the years by various far-right groups, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, and other so-called HIV-refuseniks.

“Your risk of being hit by lightning is greater than that of contracting HIV through a one-time random sexual contact with someone you don’t know here in America,” says Maggiore, an HIV-positive Southern California resident with no formal training in medicine or the sciences. “And if [a young person] were to get a positive diagnosis, that does not mean they’ve been infected with HIV.” The HIV-AIDS connection, maintains Maggiore, has been promoted by greedy drug companies.

Mendel says he was won over by Maggiore’s book, and passed it around to the rest of the band, which includes former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Mendel says that he would steer anyone considering an HIV-antibody test toward Maggiore’s group. “If you test positive, you are pretty much given a bleak outlook and told to take toxic drugs to possibly ward off new infections,” says Mendel.

Mendel aims to use the Foo Fighters’ celebrity to get the message out to a broad audience. The Foo Fighters plan additional benefit shows, and have placed a banner ad on their website linking to Alive and Well. Mendel says that he does not have HIV, nor does he have any friends with HIV besides Maggiore, who has remained asymptomatic.

The most recent numbers from the Joint United Nations’ HIV/AIDS Program estimate that 16.3 million people worldwide have died of AIDS-related causes since 1981. Medical research in the United States indicates that as many as 25 percent of the nation’s estimated 40,000 annual HIV infections occur among 13- to 21-year-olds. Maggiore, however, maintains that worldwide HIV infections and AIDS deaths are exaggerated by the CDC and the World Health Organization, even in regions like sub-Saharan Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s HIV-infected people live.

Maggiore’s message has apparently penetrated the minds of at least some Foo aficionados. She says she has heard from many Foo fans since the show–one of whom, she says, now works at the Alive and Well office. Other fans are less impressed. Damian Purdy, a 21-year-old Winnipeg, Canada, resident and devoted Foo Fighters fan, is outraged by the band’s position. “By supporting this, the Foo Fighters have entered an arena that they have no business being in.

“The truth is that a rock concert is not the appropriate platform for these views to be expressed. I think the Foo Fighters have more influence than they realize,” he says.

For his part, Mendel remains convinced that the media and the medical establishment are keeping the truth about HIV and AIDS from the public. The Foo Fighters, he insists, will continue to use their celebrity to bring “light to the issue.”

Is he worried that the group might be endangering the lives of some of its listeners? “I’m absolutely confident that I’m doing the right thing,” Mendel answers. “No, I wouldn’t feel responsible for possibly harming somebody. I [feel] I’m doing the opposite.”

From the March 9-15, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Loung Ung

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Loung Ung

Red Death

Loung Ung’s memoir provides a searing account of childhood under the Khmer Rouge

By Patrick Sullivan

“IT’S ALWAYS BEEN with me, sometimes as a dream, sometimes a nightmare, sometimes a legend, sometimes as a myth,” says Loung Ung in her pleasant, lightly accented voice. “It’s always been there, hovering over me like some kind of thunderous cloud.”

The ghosts of childhood still haunt the 29-year-old author and human rights activist. And why wouldn’t they? It’s hard to imagine any exorcism potent enough to dispel the horrors that Ung experienced growing up in Cambodia under the murderous Khmer Rouge, one of the deadliest governments in the history of our blood-stained planet.

The horror began in 1975, when Ung was just 5 years old, the second-youngest daughter in a middle-class Cambodian family. Almost overnight, the comfortable, loving environment of her family home in Phnom Penh was shattered by the arrival of the Khmer Rouge, a fanatical guerrilla army that seized power in a country blasted and demoralized by the fateful decision of the United States to bomb Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.

To survive under the new government, Ung’s well-off family was forced to flee to the countryside and pretend to be poor peasants. It didn’t work. Over the next few years, Ung would lose her father, her mother, siblings, and friends to execution and hunger.

It’s a grim enough story summed up in a few simple sentences. But it’s the details that burn like a brand, as Ung–who speaks on March 14 at Sonoma State University–demonstrates in her new memoir, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (HarperCollins; $23).

Ung’s writing may be unpolished at times, but her powerful story quickly sears away preoccupations with style. For instance, the author’s account of helplessly watching Khmer Rouge soldiers lead her proud father away to his execution is like a stab in the heart.

Still, despite the book’s power, Ung figured few people would ever read it.

“I thought it was going to come out and disappear into a literary black hole,” she says, speaking by phone from her office at the Vietnam Veterans of America in Washington, D.C., where she works as an anti-landmine activist. “I would be able to say I’d done it and that’s about all. My goal was to sell 10 copies and have my friends read it.”

Instead, the book took off like a rocket, attracting praise from critics and landing Ung on TV talk shows and the front page of USA Today.

In part, Ung says, the popularity of First They Killed My Father can be chalked up to our concerns about contemporary war crimes in places like Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

“People are recognizing that this is not a unique story,” Ung says. “When the Holocaust happened, people said it would never happen again. Then came Cambodia, and Bosnia, and East Timor, and on and on. . . . Never again is turning out to be many, many times over.”

But the author says there’s another important reason her book has caught on. “I’m a fairly average person,” Ung says. “But I think that the fact that I came from adversity and survived to do the work I’m doing gets people’s interest.

“Underneath it all, it’s a story about life and family and love and loss,” she continues. “What kept me alive was my family. People understand that, no matter where they live. Everybody wants to feel their father’s arms around them.”

FROM 1975 TO 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians. With numbers like that, it’s easy to lose sight of individual victims. But Ung’s memoir gives faces to the dead.

Her family’s struggle for survival was unimaginably grim. In their bizarre quest to return Cambodia to an agrarian country free of foreign contamination, the Khmer Rouge targeted a wide range of internal enemies.

If you were an urban dweller, a foreigner, or a servant of the previous government, you were often marked for death. In some measure, Ung’s family suffered from all of those taints–her mother was part Chinese, and her father had been a police officer. Concealment was their only hope.

Always on the verge of starvation, Ung’s family moved from village to village, only a step ahead of discovery and death. At last, the Khmer Rouge caught up with her father, though Ung doesn’t know exactly how he died. She only hopes it was merciful.

“What you don’t see, your mind makes up,” she says. “I just pray that he died the way I imagine he died. But the fact is that most Cambodians were not shot. Ammunition was too expensive and they couldn’t waste it.”

Soon after her father was killed, Ung’s mother decided that the family would survive only if she sent her young children off on their own. She turned out to be right: soon after, she too was executed. Ung ended up in a camp for orphaned kids, where she was trained as a soldier.

Against long odds, Ung was finally reunited with some of her siblings and fled the country, eventually finding a new home in Vermont. She went on to college, where she obtained a degree in political science. But the ghosts were always there, periodically surfacing to inflict crippling bouts of depression.

“When I was young, I used to play soccer and get hit on the head a lot because I wanted the images gone,” Ung says. “Amnesia is really hard to get. But I wanted them gone gone gone.”

It was partly to dispel those demons that Ung decided to write First They Killed My Father.

“I just got tired of giving the Khmer Rouge that much power over me,” she says. “They didn’t take my body, and I didn’t want them to take my mind.”

Still, writing the book proved harder than she had imagined.

“I’d written and talked about it before, so I thought I’d gone over it a little bit,” she says. “But it was very difficult.

“And yet also, it was very healing, very therapeutic,” she recalls. “For so long, I didn’t allow myself to remember my family and the good times, going to the movies with my father or shopping in the market with my mother. . . . Writing the book helped me reclaim some of those good memories.”

These days, Ung works as a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World, a Nobel Prize-winning program of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Her obvious passion for the cause springs from the havoc caused by the millions of landmines that litter her homeland, something she witnessed when she went back home to visit her family in 1996.

“I’d read about [the landmine problem], but until I got there, I didn’t realize that there isn’t a place where you can go to escape it,” she says. “You run into landmine amputees all the time.”

As for her literary career, Ung isn’t sure when she’ll write another book.

“This was emotionally and physically draining,” she says. “I need to take a sabbatical. I’m going to go see movies and have coffee in cafes and write letters to friends. Now that’s something I haven’t done in a while.”

Loung Ung speaks on Tuesday, March 14, at 7 p.m. at Sonoma State University’s Warren Auditorium, 1801 E. Cotati Blvd., Rohnert Park. Admission is free. For details, call 664-2382.

From the March 9-15, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria

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Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria

A rich heritage: Tribal leader Gene Buvelot displays an oversized flint spear point–a symbol of wealth. As vice chairman of the newly recognized Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Buvelot will introduce the tribe at an upcoming forum.

Tribal Spirit

Upsurge in local Native American political and cultural activity

By Paula Harris

CHANCES ARE you haven’t yet heard of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria–southern Sonoma County and northern Marin County’s only local Native American tribe. But you’re about to. “We are still here!” is the message from the tribe, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwoks, which is on the verge of gaining federal recognition under its new moniker: the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Tribal officials claim their people and their rich cultural heritage have been passed over for too long.

Gene Buvelot, a tribal elder and vice chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, recalls an incident several years ago at the Point Reyes National Seashore (which features a reconstructed Coast Miwok village) that he says demonstrates the problem. “I was standing behind a group, and a ranger was telling them there’s no longer any Coast Miwok around. They were saying I was extinct,” he exclaims incredulously. “I had to step forward and say, ‘Excuse me!’

“A lot of people still don’t know we exist; they keep thinking of us in the past. It’s like we’re in the shadows,” he adds. “But we’re here, and we’re a vibrant community.”

The earliest historical account of the Coast Miwok people–whose traditional homeland stretched as far north as Bodega Bay and as far east as the town of Sonoma and included all of present-day Marin County–dates back to 1579. The group’s federal status as a recognized tribe was terminated in 1966 under the California Rancheria Act of 1958.

The upsurge began more than five years ago, when the Coast Miwoks filed a petition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to begin the lengthy federal acknowledgment process and thus gain certain benefits. The group was spurred into action when Cloverdale Pomo leader Jeff Wilson unsuccessfully attempted several times to establish gaming facilities, including a multimillion destination resort and casino just south of Petaluma on what the Coast Miwoks claimed was their territory.

In the interim, the Miwok tribe discovered a small parcel of land in Graton that had been set aside as a reservation area for the local Miwoks in the 1920s. This discovery of their own land, albeit now only about an acre, allowed the group to switch from a federal recognition process to a restoration process, which requires an act of Congress.

THE TRIBE, which rents an office in Petaluma, changed its name to the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, so that it could include various families from different locales. It has about 370 members.

Last March, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, introduced legislation to restore federal recognition for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which is now composed primarily of the Coast Miwok and southern Sonoma County Pomo groups. The bill, the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act, restores all federal rights and privileges to the tribe and its members, reinstates their political status, and makes them eligible for benefits available to other federally recognized tribes, including health care, educational scholarships, and housing services.

A special clause in the bill states that politically explosive gambling will not be allowed on tribal lands affected by this particular bill. But, according to tribal officials, that’s all in flux because a second bill is on the horizon that, if passed, would give the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria gaming rights.

On March 16, the group plans to officially introduce itself to the community and unveil its future plans.

Touted as a historical event, the Novato meeting, sponsored by the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin, will allow the public and government officials from Marin and southern Sonoma counties to address tribal issues.

Tribal officials, including the group’s chairman, noted author and educator Greg Sarris, of Miwok descent, will be present to provide information about the tribe and answer any questions concerning its past, present, and future plans in the region.

“This [tribe] will be a political unit to disseminate cultural and historical information in a much louder, more vocal, and effective way,” explains Sarris, an English professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “We want to send someone from the tribe into schools and have someone who can sit on the [state and county] park boards.”

Buvelot says once the tribe is restored, the next step is to find land (the parcel in Graton is apparently too small to be used) to become a functional rancheria, which could be anywhere in the tribe’s extensive historical territory. The goal is then to create some sort of economic development.

And, yes, gambling could still be in the cards.

“I don’t want to start rumors–one of the fears of a lot of people is probably casinos,” Buvelot says. “If we’re a sovereign tribe, we have all the rights of any other tribe. And if it’s the wishes of the tribe to go that way, then they can. But that will be brought up at the meeting.

“[Gaming] is not ruled out.”

He refuses to say more about the subject, adding that tribal officials will elaborate during the meeting. “We’ll be prepared with answers,” he promises.

Although the group has been approached by “countless” gaming and nongaming business ventures, because the tribe is better located for a business interest than any other in the Bay Area, Sarris thought Woolsey would have pushed the bill through quickly because of its anti-gaming clause. She hasn’t. Now, Sarris says, another bill being drafted by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and involving seven tribes, including the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, would allow local gaming.

“This won’t please Woolsey’s constituents, because they don’t want a gambling casino in Petaluma or San Rafael,” he says.

Sarris–who penned the critically acclaimed books Grand Avenue and Watermelon Nights and is something of a celebrity himself after his remembrance of growing up on Santa Rosa’s Grand Avenue became an HBO mini-series–is “more than a little frustrated” by what he calls the slowness of Woolsey’s office.

“Robert Redford returns my calls, and Woolsey’s office doesn’t,” he gripes.

Calling the Sonoma County Independent from Woolsey’s Washington, D.C., office, Woolsey’s press secretary, Heather Brewer, says that the bill “was introduced on March 2, 1999. It was referred to the House Committee on Resources, and that’s where it still is. It’s been a big issue for [Woolsey}, but with the Democrats in the minority, it’s hard to gets something like this through, because we’re at the mercy of the Republican leadership.” In the meantime, the tribe is intent on preserving cultural traditions through the creation of a living-history museum at Olompali State Historic Park in Novato.

For the past five years, Coast Miwok descendants and volunteers have gathered regularly at the wooded site six miles south of Petaluma to reconstruct a small replica of what was once a thriving Native American trading village.

It includes dwellings called kotchas, which have willow or wooden frames and are lashed with tule reeds, a flexible, bamboolike covering. Additional construction includes cross-pole and brush sunshades, an acorn granary, a tule drying rack, and a dance circle. Unlike Kule Loklo, a similar Miwok village at Point Reyes National Seashore, the Olompali site is being built by the Miwoks themselves.

Buvelot says the project is in response to the fact that more baby boomer-aged Native Americans are searching for a sense of cultural identity. “During the teenage years there’s a loss of interest, and [when they’re] in their 20s and 30s you start seeing them appearing at the meetings,” says Buvelot, who practices traditional flint work.

“I could kick myself because when I was a teenager I didn’t pay that much attention to my grandmother and her sisters, who were some of the last fluent speakers of the language. If I had, I’d probably be speaking it fluently right now.”

In addition to setting up an economic base, the tribe, once recognized, plans to establish a permanent cultural center. “We have a lot of things passed down from our families but no safe place to keep them,” says Buvelot. “If we had a place we could call our own on our own land, it would be great.”

TRIBAL OFFICIALS are optimistic that a Native American revival in the North Bay will occur once the tribe is restored and as the possibility of establishing its own sovereign government comes closer.

Sarris believes that learning about Native American culture is important for the entire local community. “Even though we don’t ride appaloosa horses and wear braids today, we’re still Indians. We know the stories. I see landmarks like a tree, a rock, a site, or even where a parking lot stands today, and I know where somebody was murdered, I know where a fight took place, where a baby was born, I know where coyote tricked porcupine,” he says. “The landscape is alive and the environment was our bible, and the way in which we read and remembered our history.

“We still know that, and it’s one of the unique things we still have to offer.”

Buvelot adds that the objectives of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria are simple: “Our goals are to be self-sufficient with some sort of economic development and to achieve the benefits available to all other tribes,” he says.

“And to finally come out of the shadows.”

The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria will hold a discussion on tribal issues and talk about its future plans on Thursday, March 16, at 7:15 p.m., at the Hamilton Community Center (formerly the Officer’s Club at the Hamilton Army Base), 203 El Bonito Ave., Novato. 763-6143.

From the March 9-15, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

‘Man of the Century’

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‘Man of the Century’ offers tedious exercise in one-joke cleverness

By Nicole McEwan

WHEN SHAKESPEARE wrote “Brevity is the soul of wit,” he could scarcely have imagined Adam Abraham’s mercifully short (80-minute) Man of the Century. Neither witty nor soulful, this tedious exercise in cleverness stars newcomer Gibson Frazier as “Johnny Twennies,” a man who just wasn’t made for these times.

Like a refugee from the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s, Johnny parades around in a battered fedora and a rumpled double-breasted suit, calls women “doll” and gangsters “bub,” and is prone to use tragically unhip phrases like “in a pickle” and “you’re the limit.”

A “newspaper man,” he smokes like a pre-tobacco-scandal chimney, hammers away on a beat-up Smith Corona, and wears his hair slicked back Clark Kent style. He’s a chivalrous boyfriend, a conscientious employee, and a good citizen–the kind who sees someone being mugged and actually intervenes. Problem is, he lives in 1990s Manhattan, where these qualities render him a freak.

The film, written by Abraham and Frazier, attempts to put a new spin on the old “fish out of water” scenario–one of narrative filmmaking’s most dependable workhorses. Unfortunately, Century’s high-style ambitions aren’t supported by a fully developed plot. The result is a one-trick-pony sort of film–the mediocre kind that Saturday Night Live turns out with amazing frequency.

The rest of the poorly thought-out film unspools like a series of loosely connected sketches in which other “normal” characters react to the oddball among them. Much of the alleged comedy is centered around Johnny’s romantic foibles.

“I went into this thing with my eyes wide open, and now I’m seeing nothing but stars,” says the irrepressible romantic to his “best girl,” Samantha (played by Susan Egan).

He’s pitching woo the only way he knows how, but the object of his affection, a jaded Soho gallery manager, is hardly impressed. Nor is she a fan of his chaste attitude toward sex. In fact, she’s been trying to give the preachy stiff a romantic pink slip for days–but he’s too damn chipper (and patently oblivious) to notice. Being a 1920s kinda guy living in a postmodern world apparently drains one’s insight: he simply can’t conceive of being dumped.

The thin plot involves Johnny trying to save his job (at the New York Sun-Telegram) by exposing the secret identity of an infamous gangster. Along the way he gets into some supposedly racy shenanigans with a couple of bumbling thugs. (A note to screenwriters: S&M has worn out its welcome in cinema. It is no longer shocking, daring, titillating, or even sexy–it’s cliché.)

Occasionally everyone breaks into song, and one such instance, featuring Bobby Short, is the highlight of the picture–possibly because the legendary cabaret singer is old enough to know the era firsthand.

The lean and lanky Frazier is at least well cast. Interestingly, he plays the role straight, minus the ironic wink that such characters typically inspire. Unfortunately, his amplified moral earnestness makes Jimmy Stewart seem downright debauched–and it doesn’t take long for Johnny to change from amusing to annoying.

The rule is simple: if you loved Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo and Stanley Tucci’s The Imposters, Century is for you. If not, viewing it may have you swearing off AMC and TCM for a year.

Ultimately, the biggest laugh for me came well after the credits rolled, when I imagined young filmmakers in the year 2050 trying to spoof the early 1990s, another hyperstylized period in American cinema. I just can’t wait to see how they interpret Tarantino.

Man of the Century opens Friday, March 3, at the Rialto Cinemas Lakeside, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. For more information, see Movie Times, page 48, or call 539-9770.

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Christo Collection

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Christo Collection

Golden opportunity: A Santa Rosa exhibit offers the public a chance to see Forestville art collector Tom Golden’s large collection of work by installation artist Christo and his partner, Jeanne-Claude, the creators of Running Fence.

Solid Gold

Art aficionado Tom Golden brings his Christo collection to Santa Rosa

By Patrick Sullivan

IT’S A RAINY Saturday morning in downtown Santa Rosa, and foot traffic on Fourth Street is even lighter than usual. But a few curious pedestrians brave the foul weather and wander through the front door of the Kress Building, full of questions.

They’re drawn by the painted oil drum, by the wrapped stapler, by the walls full of sketches, photos, and collages showing some of the world’s most famous bridges and buildings trussed up like packages under the tree on Christmas morning.

Inside, these intrepid art seekers come face to face with one of the quirkier manifestations of contemporary art. As they wander through the exhibit–titled “26 Golden Years with Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection”–they have a few thoughts. And they’re not shy about expressing them.

“Christo thought up something that was kind of cute, and he just never stopped doing it,” explains one 20-something man to his female companion.

But even the most critical observers carefully walk the full circuit of the room, slowly taking in the sights. Here’s the German Reichstag, buried in silver fabric. There’s a group of islands in Biscayne Bay in Florida surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of pink fabric.

All the projects depicted are the work of Bulgarian-born installation artist Christo and his partner and spouse, Jeanne-Claude, best known in Sonoma County for their Running Fence, a 1974 project that involved installing a 24.5-mile-long nylon fence that ran from Cotati to the Marin coast.

Whether you’re a skeptic or an enthusiast, it’s hard to imagine a better introduction to the artists’ work than this exhibit, which is sponsored by City Vision and the Sonoma County Museum and continues through March 26. The sketches and photographs give a real feeling for both the intense effort involved in these large-scale installations and their final visual impact.

‘Running Fence’: Installation artist Christo once dressed the North Bay in miles of sail-like sheeting.

THAT EXPANSIVE overview is no accident. Few people have maintained a more intimate connection with Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their work than Tom Golden, the 79-year-old Forestville art collector and retired real estate agent who owns the collection.

When Christo and Jeanne-Claude came to Sonoma County to create Running Fence, they touched the lives of many local residents. But perhaps their greatest impact was on Tom Golden.

“Meeting Christo and Jeanne-Claude changed the course of my life,” he explains. “I’m sure I’d be doing something if I hadn’t met them, but I’m not sure what, and it’s very rewarding to think that I can and do work with them.”

The three met by accident. Golden happened to be in the county administration building when the first public hearing began on the Running Fence project. Intrigued by what he heard, Golden stayed for the meeting and even rose to speak on Christo’s behalf.

“I got up and I said, ‘I don’t know why we’re wasting the taxpayers’ money on this hearing today,'” he recalls. “‘Here’s a man who wants to come in and put up a fence on private agricultural property. And I would just like to remind the commission that there is no permit required for cross-fencing on agricultural land.'”

“Then I sat down,” he says. “And Christo and Jeanne-Claude came over, we went out to dinner that night, and that was the beginning of everything.”

Eventually, after spending $500,000 on legal fees, Christo prevailed, and Golden plunged into the Running Fence project. The art collector’s house in Forestville became the project’s social headquarters, and Golden even applied for a job on the labor team installing the fence.

“They thought I was too old to work on the fence,” says Golden, who was 54 at the time. “Christo screamed. ‘Oh, you can’t do that. It’s much too hard work.’ And Jeanne-Claude said, ‘We’ll tell them not to hire you because you’re too old.'”

But Golden applied anyway, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude relented, so he was soon working hard hooking nylon fabric to the poles. He went on to win an award for being the fastest hooker.

“The first night of my Running Fence experience, I went to bed and I could hardly get up the next day,” he says with a laugh. “But I did.”

During Running Fence, Golden also began to collect Christo’s work. He refused to accept his paychecks for working on the project, instead asking that he be given credit in Christo’s studio. He quickly built up an impressive array of sketches, photos, and small wrapped objects. Today, he possesses over 200 pieces, which makes his the largest private Christo collection in the United States.

At the conclusion of Running Fence, Golden’s involvement in the couple’s work only increased. He helped the two artists with several other projects, and is now the project manager on their work-in-progress, Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado.

But the art collector also became close friends with Christo and Jeanne-Claude: “I became like family,” he says, and he speaks with amused affection about the couple’s flamboyant personalities and dedication to their art.

His adventures with Christo and Jeanne-Claude are many. His greatest triumph, he says, was personally securing permits for The Umbrellas project–which involved planting hundreds of giant umbrellas in a California valley–without spending a dime on legal fees.

Then there was the Pont Neuf project, which saw Christo wrapping the most famous bridge in Paris. When one of the bridge’s lamps burned out, the workers who changed the bulb had to unwrap the lamp, and the busy Christo asked Golden to rewrap the suddenly naked post.

There was some problem with the work permit, so the rewrapping had to be done at night. Christo began giving his friend a complicated and unnecessary set of instructions about the process of wrapping–a process Golden had observed many times before.

“We went through this three or four times, and finally I said, ‘For God’s sake, Christo, if you’ll just let me go, I’ll get it done,'” Golden says with a hearty laugh. “So he says, ‘Well, I’m very sorry.’ And that was that.”

But the hazards of working with quirky artists aside, Golden is effusive about his relationship with Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

“I’m very fortunate to know them,” he says. “They are probably the most honest people I know, not only on the personal level, but also their art, which is very honest and straightforward, no gimmicks. Also, I admire their dedication. Each project they do, they put everything they have into it.”

That integrity and dedication will keep him involved with the two artists for the foreseeable future, Golden says. And he’s not shy about responding to those skeptics who don’t quite see the point of the whole thing.

“They do the projects for themselves and their collaborators and for no other reason,” Golden explains. “Christo’s projects have absolutely no purpose whatsoever. In many cases, there’s a possibility that they border on the irresponsible. Nobody needs a Surrounded Islands, no one needs a Running Fence. They have absolutely no purpose other than being works of art of joy and beauty.”

“26 Golden Years with Christo and Jeanne-Claude” is open to the public Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12 to 4 p.m. Golden offers a slide presentation and lecture on Saturday, March 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. The exhibit continues through March 26 at the Kress Building, 613 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. Admission is free. For details, call 579-1500.

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Primary 2000

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Primary 2000

Primary Instincts

A select guide to local and state races

Primary 2000 Endorsements: A quick-reference guide.

Supervisorial Races

A RECENT public opinion poll showed that huge blocks of respondents in two of the three supervisorial districts are undecided about whom they will be voting for on March 7. That says less about the issues in the election than it does about the inability of contenders or incumbents to make a strong impression in these races.

Three supes–Tim Smith, Mike Cale, and Mike Reilly (who is running unopposed)–are up for re-election.

Of course, the most hotly contested–and we use that term loosely–race is pitting three-term incumbent Tim Smith against challenger Noreen Evans, a Santa Rosa city councilwoman. It’s a classic battle: Smith is a super-slick, consummate politician supported by blue-collar conservatives and backed by big business and the county establishment; Evans is a liberal attorney with strong support from the local environmental community.

Smith is the driving force behind Measure C, the local ballot initiative that would levy a 1/4-cent sales-tax increase for 16 years to help fund limited mass-transit improvements. The measure is seen as so much political grandstanding, a cheap ploy to steal fire from the Evans campaign (the tactic has worked brilliantly) and a half-hearted attempt to offer an alternative to Measure B, the big-money initiative that would levy a separate 1/2-cent sales-tax increase to raise funds for extra freeway lanes.

Smith has barely campaigned for his own measure and hasn’t done a whole lot of campaigning overall, though he’s raised a ton of money. He is the perfect Stepford candidate. Evans, on the other hand, has run an overly cautious campaign, treading the middle ground and failing to establish a political identity that would differentiate her from Smith, other than her vehement opposition to Measure C.

Overall, it’s been a boring race.

And that’s too bad, because there’s a lot wrong with the county Board of Supervisors. Long dominated by five affluent white men, the board is the quintessential good-old-boys network. You’d be hard-pressed to find a less inspiring–or inspired–bunch. Each feverishly protects his own district, as well he should. But that means there is virtually no sense of a greater good for all, no one willing to take the initiative on issues that rest outside the purview of the districts. When Reilly tried to build consensus early in his first term, he was seen as an interference and summarily alienated.

Over the years, the supes have sat in stony silence while the District Attorney’s Office failed to aggressively prosecute cases of domestic violence and sexual assault. And they again sat on their hands when the Sheriff’s Department chalked up a litany of mess-ups that included an Internet porn scandal, a botched hostage-training exercise at the county jail that put inmates and visitors at risk, and questionable medical services that critics contend contributed to the deaths of several inmates.

One of their biggest failures resulted when the supes reneged on their pledge to back a countywide homeless services center–backed by everyone from the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce to most of the city and town councils–setting back by two years the drive to find a solution to this serious problem. More recently, Smith and Cale caved in to grape-growers (some of their biggest campaign contributors) and timidly watered down a much-needed hillside planting ordinance that should have helped save beleaguered waterways and threatened fish habitats.

We need leaders with vision.

The old Sonoma County was a playground for country club conservatives, and the old parochial mentality of the board served them well.

The new Sonoma County is a dynamic community intrinsically linked to the region, and beset by problems that follow in the wake of rapid growth.

We need consensus builders who listen to all sides and act for the greater good.

Smith and Cale have had their chance and failed to serve anyone other than their political contributors–they’ve even failed the local business community by not working in good faith to find a comprehensive solution to the county’s transportation crisis.

We need fresh ideas, new perspectives.

Vote for Noreen Evans, Dawn Mittleman, and Mike Reilly

Transit Measures

HERE WE GO AGAIN. With Highway 101 a textbook example of traffic engineering gone awry, it’s easy to understand why Sonoma County residents are ready to do something, anything, to relieve the region’s daily dose of gridlock. Measure B instigator and ex- Sebastopol Mayor Sam Crump is playing on that frustration, tweaking it like a tightly strung guitar and betting that voters will levy a half-cent sales tax increase for the next eight years.

Imagine a 101 commute where cars actually go more than 10 miles an hour through Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, and Petaluma, he says.

It’s a nice fantasy, but don’t bet that Measure B’s proposal to pay for widening the freeway with a sales-tax increase is going to bring it to fruition.

First, there already is money–$72 million of it–for Caltrans to widen the freeway from Wilford Avenue in Rohnert Park to Steele Lane in Santa Rosa. And according to Sonoma County Conservation Action board member Bill Kortum, there will be millions more in gas-tax revenues available over the next 20 years to widen more of 101 in Sonoma County. So why double-tax ourselves for the freeway?

Answer: See the instruction to “follow the money” below.

Second, by the time the third lane in each direction is complete (try not to think about the havoc that years of construction will wreak on the current snail pace), the projected population growth will add thousands more cars on the freeway to clog the new lane.

Third, during commute hours, that extra lane will be for so-called high-occupancy vehicles only–as will all future widening–so don’t assume that your solo morning jaunt to Petaluma or Marin County (that’s another story) will be any faster.

Fourth, follow the money. The Yes on B folks have amassed more than $600,000, and the biggest contributor is the Santa Rosa-based Ghilotti construction firm, which tossed in $60,000 in loans and cash. It’s no surprise that another $70,000 came from California Alliance for Jobs, the North Coast Builders Exchange, the Peterson Tractor Co., and the Operating Engineers’ local union in Alameda. The construction industry stands to gain a sizable amount of work from the massive undertaking of 36 miles of freeway widening.

Think: pork barrel.

Sonoma County’s burgeoning high-tech industry is another Measure B booster, with $90,000 coming from Agilent Technologies, Advanced Fibre Communications, and Sola Optical USA. It’s easy to understand why they want easier commutes for workers, but less easy to see why they don’t understand that Measure B is a bust.

In contrast, Citizens Against Wasting Millions has raised a grand total of $17,000 to fight Measure B, with staunch support from the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, Sonoma County Conservation Action, and Greenbelt Alliance.

Sonoma County greens don’t like the measure, period.

Fifth, raising sales taxes across the board to pay for widening the freeway subsidizes drivers while punishing those who don’t rely on the freeway. With a half-cent increase, Sonoma County’s sales tax will be the highest in Northern California, matched only by San Francisco’s. Even people who never drive will have to pay more for diapers, clothing, a new lawn mower. Those in the market for a boat, a refrigerator, a pricey new bike are apt to head for Marin County, where they could save hundreds of dollars in sales taxes (Marin County auto dealers already are advertising on local billboards that customers should head south to buy vehicles).

Last, but not least, Measure B does nothing for public transit, which should be the focus of any sustainable transit plan.

Of course, there is Measure C, the transit measure’s neglected stepsister that proposes a 1/4-cent sales-tax increase to pay for road improvements and rail, bus, and bike transit. Sounds good, except that it’s a hastily crafted, thinly veiled campaign ploy by Sonoma County Supervisor Tim Smith that has no backing and doesn’t have a prayer of garnering two-thirds of the vote. Even Smith has neglected to campaign for it.

Public transit in Sonoma County deserves a serious planning effort, not a doomed feel-good initiative that made it onto the ballot with a mere five votes from the supes–all of whom have failed to come up with a comprehensive transit plan and three of whom are up for re-election.

No on Measures B and C

Assembly Race

WITH 10 CANDIDATES running for Kerry Mazzoni’s seat in the 6th Assembly District, the field sprawls almost as much as Sonoma County’s urban boundaries.

After six years in office, the popular Mazzoni–currently chair of the powerful Education Committee–undoubtedly would have been welcomed back by voters. Term limits, however, have her heading for political retirement. The sole Republican, Ed Sullivan, and the one Libertarian, Richard Olmstead (the only Sonoma County resident in the race), are assured of nomination in their respective parties, but with the advent of open primaries, many voters are likely to cross over to participate in the Assembly district’s real catfight: the eight-way contest for the Democratic Party nomination. While the topsy-turvy district–which spans parts of Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties–once swung back and forth between the two major parties, Mazzoni’s consensus-building style and impressive accomplishments have turned the 6th District into a Democratic stronghold.

The Democratic primary candidates share a glaring lack of name recognition, especially in Sonoma County, which is largely ignored by most of the candidates, since about two-thirds of the district is in Marin County. The brief media splash on candidate Paul Nave, a San Rafael native whose professional wrestling career brought the inevitable comparison to renegade Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, did nothing to elucidate the many issues important to Sonoma County.

Another San Rafael resident, Joe Nation, is a strong candidate, who briefly had the endorsement of Sonoma County’s largest environmental organization, Sonoma County Conservation Action. But he was dropped like a political hot potato when he came out in favor of Measure B (the controversial sales-tax increase) and of throwing transit dollars at widening Highway 101.

Fairfax Mayor Frank Egger, the longest-seated city council member in California, has the environmental and labor pedigree important to many Sonoma County voters. The Sierra Club, the Green Party, and environmental heavyweight David Brower, as well as many labor organizations, have endorsed him.

The biggest challenge facing Sonoma County, says Egger, is finding a balance between sprawl and sustainability: “Agriculture is Sonoma’s heritage and needs to be protected and maintained as the alternative to sprawl.”

He opposes Measure B as well as Measure C, the companion sales-tax increase initiative for rail and bus transit, which he accurately terms “hastily drawn.” State and federal monies are responsible for maintaining the freeway, says Egger, who would support changing the voting laws so that a simple majority–rather than the current two-thirds required–would be able to raise taxes for a well-crafted program of public transit and car-pool lanes.

Egger is a die-hard environmentalist and, in a bent that may strike fear into Sonoma County’s industrial-sized wineries, would like to see state laws to eliminate pesticide use. Egger has long opposed Eel River diversions into the Russian River and is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the Friends of the Eel River against the Sonoma County Water Agency’s plans to expand its water delivery system, which would feed the enormous projected population growth in the county.

Egger is impassioned–a characteristic that both helps and hurts his candidacy. His manner has been called disruptive. But his pushiness can also be viewed as commitment, and if he makes an unpopular decision, he sticks with it–a rare and commendable commodity.

Recommendation: Frank Egger

Judicial Race

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS usually proffer up campaigns as staid and scholarly as the pleated robe worn on the bench.

But Sonoma County’s race for Superior Court Office No. 2 has provided a political bodice-ripper of a race, with charges of unethical conduct, an attempt to suppress a critical survey, and endorsers publicly jumping ship.

Judge Patricia Gray, vying for her second elected term, has gone from comfortable incumbent to defensive mode against challenger Elliot Daum, a trial lawyer with 26 years’ experience.

Gray was elected Municipal Court judge in 1994 and was bumped up to Superior Court in 1998 with the consolidation of the California courts. Daum finds fault with the way Gray received her promotion, but it does not diminish her experience on the bench. Gray has been a respected advocate for victims of sexual and domestic abuse, and helped generate a $3.7 million grant for Sonoma County to address the rehabilitation of mentally ill criminal offenders.

What does diminish Gray’s candidacy is her lack of support from colleagues. Normally endorsements can be taken with a grain of salt. And Daum’s assertions that Gray was disqualified from cases at a rate 30 times higher than other judges because of her discourteous demeanor seemed, at first, to be simply campaign trash talk.

But when half of her colleagues–including all of the bench’s women–threw their support to Daum, it merited notice, since judges have notoriously tight judicial ranks. “Judge Gray is disqualified so often because the people who appear before her have no confidence that she will decide their cases fairly and impartially,” writes Judge Elaine Watters in a letter to the editor. At least one judge, Raima Ballinger, had to balk to get her name removed from Gray’s endorsement list so she could support Daum instead.

While much of the campaign has been bash-your-opponent banter, Daum comes out above the fray more often than Gray. Her attempt to block release of a Sonoma County Bar Association survey that was highly favorable to Daum was based, she said, on a potential conflict-of-interest from the bar association director’s connection with Daum’s campaign. But Gray’s actions seemed heavy-handed and petty, especially since the survey tallied the opinions of only 166 attorneys.

Daum has a calm, down-to-earth presence and a reputation for having legal smarts and a strong work ethic. His 24 years as an advocate in Sonoma County courts–18 of those years as a public defender handling felony and capital cases–qualify him for a shot at the bench.

Recommendation: Elliot Daum

2000 State Prop Rites

Pay attention to those tricky propositions. Thanks to millions of dollars in misinformation campaigns, things are not always as they appear.

WE WISH WE COULD SAY “Vote no on all the props.” We think the initiative process, while a well-intended avenue for dealing with unresponsive elected officials, is now at the stage where it is overused, abused, and otherwise bastardized by special interests. We think the initiative process is no more an avenue for democracy than Dr. Kevorkian’s work is a path to “healing.”

There, now–we’ve said it.

But as fate would have it, we found that there are a few propositions in this year’s lineup that we actually like. (And there are some we don’t like, but think should be supported anyway.)

And despite our frustrations with the system, we empathize with readers who will try to arrive at sensible decisions with their voter pamphlets spread out on the table before them.

How does a person figure out who’s behind what, what the language really means, who benefits and who loses, when special interests have paid millions to create confusion?

You may not agree with our final recommendations, but at least you’ll know why.

Here’s our shot at making the props easy.

Propositions 1A & 29 Indian Gaming

THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN tribes backing Prop. 1A say it’s merely an amendment to the California Constitution that caused last year’s gaming proposition to be overturned. But it hardly stops there. Prop. 1A allows house-banked card games like blackjack. It would also allow tribes to operate up to two casinos on tribal property, opening the door for some tribes to open casinos on newly purchased property in urban areas. If 1A passes, the state could end up with 113,000 slot machines in as many as 200 casinos.

And the kicker: It would also allow 18-year-olds to gamble. Rather than fighting to preserve their Nevada monopoly this time around, casino operators have actually invested–in California’s tribal casinos. This can’t be good. The scant opposition to 1A is an underfunded coalition of religious groups and community activists.

Prop. 29, the other gaming initiative on the ballot, is the compact that 11 tribes signed with former Gov. Pete Wilson. It limits the number of tribes involved in gaming, curtails the number of slot machines, and prohibits the kind of card games that opponents fear could turn the Golden State into the gaming state. If 1A passes, Prop. 29 becomes irrelevant. Neither side has spent much money on 29, and the tribes are quietly hoping it loses.

What a stinkpot. While gambling is hardly foreign to California (with a state-sponsored lottery, card rooms, horse racing, and day trading), the tribes want to push it further than it has been taken in the past. The language in Prop. 1A was approved by both Gov. Davis and the Legislature (tribes have donated campaign money generously to Davis and many lawmakers). While we think they have the right to ask for special treatment–tribes are nations, and it is only because of a 1988 federal law that they must negotiate with states over gambling at all–Prop. 1A goes too far.

Recommendations: No on 1A; Yes on 29

Proposition 12 Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Act

THE LIBERTARIAN-backed opposition to this measure calls the $2.1 billion bond a wasteful expenditure on “more dirt for insects, rats and weeds.” If prime agricultural land is “dirt,” endangered species are “insects and rats,” and redwood trees are “weeds”–and if preserving them is a waste–then they’re right. This is a far-reaching bond with broad implications for the quality of life and the state’s economy, and it’s overdue; the last parks bond passed in 1988. If Prop. 12 passes, it will allocate $500-$700 million to fund urban recreation facilities like parks, playgrounds, zoos, sports fields and urban open space. Another $25 million will go to farmland protection.

The rest–some $1.5 billion–will pay for improvements to county and state parks, acquisition of more parklands and natural areas across the state, preservation of wildlife habitat and watershed protection. As the mosaic of supporting groups suggests (cheerleaders include the Sierra Club, California chambers of commerce, and the California Taxpayers Association), preserving California’s beautiful environment isn’t just for treehuggers anymore.

Recommendation: Yes on 12

Proposition 13 Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Bond Act

PROPONENTS of this $1.9 billion bond act couldn’t have asked for a better ad campaign than the recent drenching of central California. If the flooded streets in Pescadero and the mudslides in the Oakland Hills didn’t convince people that $292 million spent on flood control is a good idea, then maybe the angry brown of a Pacific Ocean sullied by river erosion in the days after the storm makes the point. Worse yet, the California Department of Water Resources predicts that in five years water shortages are going to be a serious problem unless the state changes its water management strategy. Here comes the new Prop. 13 to the rescue. The measure covers a range of services. If it passes, $70 million will go to improve public water systems, $292 will fund flood protection (including special attention to Santa Cruz), $468 million will flow to watershed protection, including acquisition of coastal salmon habitat, and $1.2 billion will fund water recycling, seawater intrusion control, water conservation, and groundwater storage. This one we really can’t live without.

Recommendation: Yes on 13

Proposition 14 Library Bonds

IT’S FAR TOO EASY to overlook libraries. Quiet, unassuming, and not exactly known for attracting employees who are rabid politicos, local literary havens have gotten the shaft for far too long. California’s libraries did receive $90 million from state and federal governments over the last decade, but that amount only covered about 10 percent of their operating costs. Prop. 14 would allow the state to help out by selling $350 million in general obligation bonds, which could then be used to fund grants for new facilities, renovation of existing branch locations, and better equipment. Like a similar proposition that passed in 1988, Prop. 14 requires that local agencies in areas benefiting from bigger and better facilities help foot the bill. It may have an ugly name–the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000–but its heart is in the right place.

Recommendation: Yes on 14

Proposition 15 Crime Lab Bonds

PROP. 15 ISN’T getting much press–bond measures, even for worthy causes, are not politically sexy–but it is worth a few minutes of your time to consider.

Prop. 15 would authorize the sale of $220 million in state general obligation bonds for new local forensic laboratories and the remodeling of existing labs. The money could be used only for construction and equipment, not for administrative salaries.

The two houses of the Legislature voted a combined 100 to 15 to put Prop. 15 on the ballot, and we side with the majority. Modern crime fighting requires modern tools, but the best reason, in our view, is to make it tougher for rogue cops like the cowboys in the LAPD’s Ramparts Division to frame and convict innocent citizens. Prop. 15 would upgrade the ability of local law enforcement to analyze DNA evidence–a scary prospect for the guilty, but a godsend to the falsely accused.

Recommendation: Yes on 15

Proposition 16 Veterans’ Homes

HERE’S A GOOD example of a problem that needs fixing, but with the wrong proposal to fix it.

Prop. 16 would authorize $50 million in general obligation bonds for veterans-home facilities for U.S. military vets who are California residents. Such homes generally receive 65 percent of their funding from the federal government, as will be the case here. But only $26 million of Prop. 16 will actually go to building new homes. The rest will go to replacing more costly bonds on previous homes with cheaper bonds. With a $4 billion surplus going into the last budget negotiations, why couldn’t the Legislature have found a paltry $26 million to build these facilities? Bonds are not cheap, and paying them off generally doubles their cost in taxes. Big-ticket items like parks and schools sometimes need alternative funding sources, and bonds can be used as a funding source of last resort. But this is not a good candidate.

Recommendation: No on 16

Proposition 17 Charity Raffles

ALL RAFFLES in California are illegal except the state lottery. If passed, this proposition would lift the ban on charitable raffles–not commercial raffles–allowing private nonprofits to raise money. As anyone who’s ever paid a buck to win a trip to Bermuda and raise money to fight pancreas disease knows, legitimate charities have used raffles for decades. These worthy albeit illegal raffles, however, are misdemeanor crimes and are punishable by up to six months in jail. Prop. 17 supporters, including the California Association of Nonprofits and the California District Attorney’s Association, say the current law forces local law enforcement to shut down legitimate fundraisers or to “look the other way” and ignore the law. Opponents argue that the initiative invites crime and opens the proverbial doors of opportunity to phony charities waiting to prey on honest people. As if scam artists don’t have enough chances to do that already. However, nonprofits themselves aren’t buying into the anti-Prop. 17 argument, which should count for something.

Recommendation: Yes on 17

Proposition 18 Crime and Punishment

READY TO SERVE up a little law and order? Prop. 18 would set new guidelines for so-called special circumstances calling for either the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole in first-degree murder cases instead of the current sentence of 25 years to life. It’s a probable shoo-in, since voters already have shown their support for this kind of issue. It’s also a bit esoteric. As described in the summary prepared by the attorney general, Prop. 18 would provide that a special circumstance exists for killings committed “by means of lying in wait” rather than “while lying in wait.”

Proponents of Prop. 18 argue that the change is needed to eradicate the last vestige of the liberal state Supreme Court once headed by the late Justice Rose Bird, who opposed the death penalty and, they say, who scrupulously interpreted the law to favor the defendant. Whatever.

When DNA testing is revealing that a fair number of men and women on death row are innocent and the state of Illinois has declared a moratorium on executions because of concern that the innocent are suffering with the guilty, Prop. 18 only further entrenches the death penalty.

Recommendation: No on 18

Proposition 19 More Crime and Punishment

PROP. 19 WOULD increase the penalty for killing a BART or state university patrol officer in second-degree murder cases in which the killing is deemed unintentional and even if the officer is off duty. Such convictions currently carry a sentence of 15 years to life. This initiative calls for a prison term of life without the possibility of parole.

Translation: This is yet another opportunistic measure by politicians–both this and Prop. 18 passed overwhelmingly in the Legislature and were signed by the governor– who want to look tough on crime.

Recommendation: No on 19

Proposition 20 Lottery Money for Textbooks

ANY CAMPAIGN that calls itself “School books for the children”–why not “Mom and apple pie”?–should set off voters’ BS detectors. “School books for the children” was authored by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Van Nuys, an emerging power broker in the powerful Latino Legislative Caucus. Prop. 20 is a classic example of legislatiing by initiative. Here’s the skinny: Under existing law, at least 34 percent of lottery monies are funneled to local school districts for “instructional purposes.” Prop. 20 would require that half of any increase in education revenue be reserved for textbooks and instructional materials. Let local school district officials–who are already accountable to local voters and parents–decide what is best for their schools.

Recommendation: No on 20

Proposition 21 Juvenile Justice

TO HEAR the backers of Prop. 21 talk, California is drowning in a tidal wave of juvenile crime. Citing Bad Seed-style horror stories, the conservatives behind the Pete Wilson-drafted initiative want to dramatically revamp the juvenile-justice system and create stiff new penalties for kids caught on the wrong side of the law.

If the initiative passes, teen criminals will face punishments that make even many anti-crime activists uneasy. Kids as young as 14 charged with certain violent crimes would be tried as adults automatically. Kids as young as 16 would go to state prison. And even some minor crimes would be severely punished: petty vandalism would become a felony.

The truth is simple. Juvenile crime is declining, and the state already puts truly dangerous young criminals away for life. We don’t need to spend millions of dollars to impose harsh prison sentences on kids who could be rehabilitated.

Recommendation: No on 21

Proposition 22 Same-Sex Marriage

REGARDLESS of one’s feelings on same-sex marriage, it doesn’t make any sense to vote yes on Prop. 22. It’s an unnecessary law. The “Knight Initiative” reads, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” However, California law already says only a man and woman can marry. Leave it to the far right–radicals like the Christian Coalition and Sen. Pete Knight–to back a needless law that allows government interference into personal lives.

Proponents say that if passed, Prop. 22 won’t take away anyone’s rights, but recent history says otherwise. In other states, similar initiatives have been used to deny basic civil rights to lesbians and gays. After passing Limit on Marriage initiatives, courts in Idaho and Pennsylvania ruled against gay and lesbian parents, barring them from adopting their partner’s children and denying visitation rights. In Florida, legislators argued that same-sex couples should not receive domestic violence protection because their relationships did not fall under the state’s definition of marriage. A no vote does not legalize marriage between same-sex couples.

It does, however, block an attempt to single out a group of people for attack and discrimination.

Recommendation: No on 22

Proposition 23 None of the Above

JOURNALISTS are as cynical as they come, and typically applaud any forum for the public to voice its discontent. But Prop. 23, which would provide voters with a “none of the above” ballot option for federal, state, or local candidates’ races, seems more like a waste of space than a medium for political protest. Al Shugart, self-described computer industry icon, says his proposition will get people disillusioned with politics all fired up and scurrying to the polls to voice their frustration. But Shugart, who tried to run his dog Ernest for Congress four years ago, assumes people are passionate about their apathy.

The greens’ vocal opposition is probably overstated–they insist that a none-of-the-above ballot option will kill the chances of third-party candidates and democracy as we know it. Still, voters can already cast a write-in vote, and Prop. 23 wouldn’t change the outcome of elections. Prop. 23 gets a big check in the none-of-the-above box.

Recommendation: No on 23

Proposition 25 Campaign Donation Limits

HERE WE GO again. California voters have passed campaign-finance reform propositions three times since 1988. Three times the courts have tossed out those laws as unconstitutional. This year Palo Alto millionaire Ron Unz and former Secretary of State Tony Miller are pushing the latest campaign-finance reform measure, Prop. 25. Under Prop. 25, campaign donors can give no more than $3,000 to legislative candidates and $5,000 to candidates for statewide office. Candidates who accept voluntary contribution limits will be eligible for publicly subsidized broadcast advertising. The legislative analyst estimates this element of the measure will cost state taxpayers $55 million annually. Finally, candidates would have to list their top contributors on ballot pamphlets and disclose all donations over $1,000 on the Internet.

Too bad the authors didn’t separate the disclosure requirements–which would show voters who is trying to buy influence–from donation limits. Disclosure requirements might actually hold up in court. Prop. 25 instead offers a legally dubious combo-package.

Still, we think the need for some kind of reform is obvious.

By now, voters know the drill: Vote yes on campaign-finance reform and see you in court.

Recommendation: Yes on 25

Proposition 26 School Bonds

SINCE THE PASSAGE of Prop. 13 in 1978, California’s schools have been in steady decline. Today our classrooms are among the most crowded in the nation, but Prop. 13 prohibits property tax increases to pay for them. In addition, the law requires a two-thirds majority to pass bond measures that would improve facilities.

Prop. 26 would change the two-thirds rule to a simple majority, allowing local districts to more easily sell bonds to upgrade classrooms.

Prop. 26 is the brainchild of Santa Cruz entrepreneur and charter schools advocate Reed Hastings, who worked with public school unions and others to put the initiative on the ballot. But there’s more than bond money on the campaign agenda. Prop. 26 would also require public schools to make their facilities available, at a price, to charter schools. If public schools are so overcrowded, where is this extra space coming from? The hidden agenda here is that some portion of the easier-to-approve bond money could end up building facilities that will be used by charter schools–which gives us pause.

Still, Prop. 26 is needed.

Recommendation: Yes on 26

Proposition 27 Term Limit Declarations

HERE’S A POINTLESS exercise in futility: Force candidates for Congress–who would not be subject to term limits–to declare on their ballot statements if they support term limits. Poll-savvy politicians could simply check yes and then serve out the rest of their careers in Washington. Save the ink.

Recommendation: No on 27

Proposition 28 Tobacco Tax Repeal

THE PROPONENTS of Prop. 28 say that the fight over the initiative is really a choice between them–a megabuck cigarette-selling store–and activist/actor/director Rob Reiner. Fine, we’ll go with Meathead.

A year and a half ago, California voters passed Prop. 10, which imposed a new 50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes and earmarked the money for early childhood development and smoking prevention programs. Reiner was a major supporter of Prop. 10. Prop. 28 is a straight and simple attempt to repeal Prop. 10.

Cigarettes Cheaper!–the cigarette superstore that is sponsoring Prop. 28–uses the same arguments that California voters rejected in 1998: that Prop. 10 discriminates against cigarette smokers and that the tax money will go for another state bureaucracy and not to help children. Does anyone still believe the propaganda of the companies that sell cigarettes?

This one is easy. Children, yes; tobacco, no.

Recommendation: No on 28

Propositions 30 & 31 Suing Insurance Companies

THESE ARE A LITTLE complicated, so pay attention. Auto insurance companies are famous for delaying payment on claims, even if the claims are legitimate. California law currently allows drivers to sue their own insurance companies for unfair claims practices. But up until last year, if a driver was involved in a wreck in which another driver was at fault, the first driver could not sue the other driver’s insurance company for failing to pay the claim.

Last year, the California Legislature passed a law allowing a driver to sue the other driver’s insurance company, but the law was put on hold because Props. 30 and 31 were put on the ballot. Prop. 30 would affirm that law, meaning the other driver’s insurance company could be sued. We recommend a yes vote on Prop. 30. Auto insurance companies should pay legitimate claims, and a defeat of Prop. 30 would take away a weapon to make insurance companies do so.

Here’s where it gets a little complicated.

If Prop. 30 does not pass, it doesn’t matter what happens to Prop. 31, because Prop. 31 won’t go into effect.

But if Prop. 30 passes, allowing a driver to sue the other driver’s insurance company, then Prop. 31 would limit some of the ways that the auto insurance company could be sued. For example, it would eliminate the right to sue even if the insurance company suggested binding arbitration.

We recommend a no vote on Prop. 31. Again, we think that auto insurance companies should pay legitimate claims. If they don’t, the courts are a good way to force them to do so.

Insurance companies say that if they can be sued, they will have to raise their rates. But if they pay legitimate claims on time, then they don’t have to worry about being sued, and the rates can stay the same.

Recommendation: Split the difference. Yes on 30; No on 31

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Grappa

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Grappa

Getta grappa: Vittorio Belmonte of Portofino’s offers 11 kinds of grappa.

The Great Grappa Hunt

Long regarded as the bastard child of the wine industry, grappa gains respect

By Bob Johnson

AS A CUB REPORTER, more years ago than I’d care to admit or remember, I was assigned to interview arguably the greatest baseball play-by-play announcer ever (although Giants fans may disagree), Vin Scully.

In ensuing years I’ve honed my interviewing technique, but on that bright summer afternoon just outside the Dodger Stadium press box, I actually posed the lamest of all questions to this broadcasting icon. Off my lips rolled this investigative query: “What is the secret of your success?”

I cringe just thinking about it now, but Scully, after a brief glance that indicated he had answered the question hundreds of times before (usually when posed by third-graders), gave me a simple answer.

“Research,” he said. “If Willie Mays were to hit a home run tonight, I’d want to have some little anecdote at my disposal that I could mix in with the call. You know, like whether one of the greatest home-run hitters of all time has more homers off [Don] Drysdale or [Sandy] Koufax. I think that’s something a baseball fan would be interested in, but it’s not something I have committed to memory. I’d need to look it up.”

Scully paused, then repeated his initial single-word reply: “Research.”

My mind harkened back to that interview when I was asked to write a story on grappa. Yes, I had heard of grappa. Yes, I knew what it was. Yes, I had tasted it before (once . . . that was enough). And that just about summed up my knowledge of the subject.

“Research.” I could hear Vin Scully’s voice echoing in my head.

Photograph by Michael Amsler

Although published for the first time back in 1967, Alexis Lichine’s Encyclopedia of Wines & Spirits remains a valuable tome for information-seeking vino lovers and journalists. Let’s see . . . grappa . . . page 279.

“Grappa,” Lichine writes, “is the Italian word for marc, or spirit distilled from grape husks. The term is also used in California and in Spanish-speaking countries. Most grappa is harsh, coarse, young and fairly mediocre.”

Yummers.

FIRST STOP: Wine, the UC Davis reference written in 1965 by Maynard A. Amerine and Vernon L. Singleton. “Some pomace brandy, produced by distilling fermented pomace [the pulpy substance left over after the grapes are squeezed] in a pot still, has been produced in [California],” they wrote. “It has been called grappa and is sold as a colorless beverage. It is often used in coffee, which seems as good a use as any.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

I decided the only thing left to do was travel the highways and byways of Sonoma County and see what I could dig up on my own. I also figured it would only be fair for me to sample a few grappa bottlings so as not to let my only previous impression of the beverage–that of something better suited to a car’s gas tank than one’s stomach–color my reporting.

Next stop: Viansa Winery in Sonoma, the winery run by Sam and Vicki Sebastiani. Like most wineries in the area, Viansa offers selected bottlings for sampling by visitors. Unlike most wineries, it also offers virtually everything it makes by the glass.

“I’d like a glass of grappa, please,” I said to one of the tasting-room personnel.

“Sorry, we’re not pouring that today” was the reply. “It is available by the bottle, though.”

I looked at the price: $45. I began to walk out. Then I heard that damn voice again: “Research.”

So I bit the bullet and shot the hell out of a $50 bill. I would take the Regalo Di Certosa home and sample it alongside other grappa bottlings.

Next stop: Sebastiani Winery, also in Sonoma. “We’ve made grappa in the past,” I was told, “but I’m not sure if we still do.”

It was a pleasant day, so I walked a few blocks to the Sebastiani tasting room on Sonoma Square and inquired there.

“Yes, we make grappa,” the attendant said. “Would you like to try some?”

“Absolutely,” I replied.

While sipping on the pungent elixir, I learned that in 1993 Sebastiani had made grappa by fermenting and distilling the pomace of two grape varietals–zinfandel and barbera–grown in the Sonoma Valley. Distillation took place at Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz, using an Arnold Holstein pot still, the model favored in Alsace-Lorraine and Germany, where small producers craft artisan brandies.

Word is another series of distilled beverages may be in Sebastiani’s future, this time made in Sonoma.

In Healdsburg, Dry Creek Vineyard produced 260 cases of grappa made from 1997 vintage “old vines” zinfandel grapes. While traditional grappas can be quite bitter and harsh, Dry Creek tamed the excessive coarseness by destemming the moist pomace after light pressing and prior to the distillation process.

The result was a grappa with a creamy raspberry aroma and a delicate mouth-feel. The price: $45 per 375-ml. bottle.

If that’s a hefty fare to fork over for a beverage with which one may have little, if any, experience, a good place to test the grappa waters is Caffe Portofino in downtown Santa Rosa. The restaurant’s after-dinner drink menu has more than seven dozen choices, including 11 grappas, priced from $6 to $18 per serving. Most were aromatic, flavorful, and much smoother going down than I ever would have thought.

If your impression of grappa is based on an experience that took place years ago, as mine had been, you owe it to yourself to try a more recent rendition. In other words, do a little research.

Vin Scully would be proud.

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

National Women’s History Project

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National Women’s History Project

Putting life in perspective: National Women’s History Project cofounders Molly Murphy MacGregor, left, Paula Hammet, Mary Ruthsdotter, and Maria Cuevas.

Her Story

National Women’s History Project marks 20 years rooted in Sonoma County

By Paula Harris

WHEN MOST PEOPLE around the United States first try to reach the National Women’s History Project, they have trouble finding it. First they’ll call New York. Nope. Then they’ll try Washington, D.C. No luck there either. They’ll keep calling big cities around the country until eventually they’ll encounter some switchboard operator in some office who finally sets them straight.

“Oh no,” they’ll hear, “the NWHP is located in Windsor.”

“And even then, when read, ‘Windsor, Ca.’ is frequently misinterpreted as ‘Windsor, Canada,'” says NWHP cofounder Mary Ruthsdotter with a laugh. “I guess we’ve kind of put Windsor, Sonoma County, on the map.”

Ruthsdotter, 55, is recalling her 20 years with the organization. She recently stepped down from her office position as projects director, saying she wants to pursue new ventures.

“It’s been a wonderful good thing, but the same wonderful good thing for 20 years,” she says of the organization. “I’m looking to do the same good thing, just in another setting.

“The Internet calls to me. Some of these women’s sites are just doing finance and beauty, and I think they should get some women’s history content in there.”

Ruthsdotter says she stayed involved with the project for two decades because she knew that telling the true stories of women’s lives and accomplishments could change the cultural climate.

As recently as the 1970s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum, and was far from the public consciousness. Ruthsdotter says the lack of women’s history taught in schools has had far-reaching negative consequences.

“As long as there’s this misconception that women haven’t done anything of importance or interest, there will be the parallel assumption that women aren’t important and aren’t interesting. It’s impossible not to draw that conclusion when you’re a kid. It erodes girls’ self-worth and self-esteem as well as worth attributed by boys and men toward girls and women,” explains Ruthsdotter.

“Girls learn gradually that they are ‘less than’ and boys start learning that they’re ‘more than,’ because all the focus is on what boys and men have done. Well, that doesn’t set any of us up for good relationships with each other or for figuring how the world got to be the way it is and deciding what we can do about it to make it more agreeable to everybody,” she adds.

“I think we’ve done well at showing people how to incorporate women’s history in everything as a simple matter of obvious fact.”

Honoring Women’s History: The Sonoma County Museum features a National Women’s History Project exhibit.

IT’S BEEN QUITE a success story. What began as a grassroots effort from the back bedroom of a Santa Rosa home in 1978 mushroomed into hometown parades and speeches in Courthouse Square and eventually expanded into a national institution, capturing attention around the country and around the world.

The organization, which began as the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women, and became a separate nonprofit organization 20 years ago, has made impressive strides in raising public awareness of women’s forgotten heritage.

The thriving award-winning educational organization is perhaps best known for spearheading National Women’s History Month, a massive focal celebration each March, proclaimed since 1987 through a Joint Congressional Resolution. During this time, informative programs focusing on women’s contributions and experiences are held at work sites, schools, colleges, public libraries, and various other locations throughout the country.

These days the NWHP serves as a women’s history information clearinghouse, providing factual information, referrals, and program-planning assistance for the entire country. It has developed and produced curriculum units and a teacher-training module.

The NWHP staff of about 12 in the Windsor office act as consultants to county and state offices of education and are often invited to speak around the world. Two websites for the organization each boast about 10,000 hits per week.

The icing on the cake will come next month when the five founders will be honored by the President’s Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History and the Congressional Women’s Caucus in Washington, D.C.

OF COURSE, it wasn’t always this way. Back in 1978, when several Sonoma County women began the fledgling organization, it was all very quaint. Very homegrown. “We started out in Molly MacGregor’s [the NWHP’s executive director and cofounder’s] guest room,” recalls Ruthsdotter. “And our entire inventory fit under the guest bed. We had to move the cat box out of the way when we were filling orders, and we used to move the salt-and-pepper shakers out of the way and draw up plans for the organization on the kitchen table. It was just as homey as you could hope for.”

Then mail began to trickle in. Ruthsdotter remembers jotting down names and addresses on 3-by-5 cards, which she kept in a little green metal recipe box. “It was a real woman’s approach,” she recalls.

In 1980, five local women joined forces: Maria Cuervas, a county employment program worker; Paula Hammett, a tribal sovereignty program worker; Molly MacGregor, who worked with the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women; Bette Morgan, who worked on historic preservation; and Ruthsdotter, eager for a new adventure after working at the University of California in Los Angeles.

They formed the NWHP as a nonprofit organization, hoping to increase public awareness of women’s multicultural history. The group won a mention in Ms. magazine.

In 1981, Nell Codding, the late wife of local real estate developer Hugh Codding, donated office space upstairs in Coddingtown to the NWHP, enabling the founders to move the operation out of MacGregor’s guest room. But it was still tough going. One summer when the air conditioning died and the organization had no money to fix it, Nell Codding stepped in and wrote a personal check to repair it and thus save the office computer.

IN THE YEARS that followed, the NWHP began making inroads. In 1981, it initiated the Women’s History Resource Service, in which project staff review all newly published books and educational materials concerning U.S. women’s history and select items to be included in a widely distributed quarterly mail-order catalog.

And in 1984, the NWHP established a member organization, the Women’s History Network, which links interested individuals such as educators, librarians, and community organizers.

By 1989, the organization had grown so much that it moved to its current offices in the Windsor Business Park.

“I think we’ve accomplished helping to break through the invisibility of women’s accomplishments and helped the country take pause to realize women really were written out of history,” says MacGregor, 54.

“One of the reasons for our success is we’ve always talked about the positive parts of women’s history. Of course, there’s been extraordinary discrimination, racism, homophobia, and class issues–that’s just a given in terms of American society–but the real point is, What have women done about it?” says MacGregor.

She adds that when the organization talks about women’s history and accomplishments, it’s casting a very wide net.

“It’s not about something that happened in 1776, although good old Abigail Adams certainly deserves credit for speaking out when she did–but we’re talking about how that energy flows through us today and how we’re able to do the things we’re doing today because those women did it yesterday. And we think about what we’ll be doing tomorrow.”

The website www.NWHP.org provides ideas for celebrating women’s history and information about National Women’s History Month, and www.Legacy98.org features the Women’s Rights Movement in the United States.

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Big Bill Broonzy

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Big Bill Broonzy

American heritage: Big Bill Broonzy.

Big ‘Trouble’

New CD showcases brilliance of bluesman Big Bill Broonzy

By Greg Cahill

AUTHOR and journalist Studs Terkel once called Big Bill Broonzy “our land’s most distinguished singer of undressed blues. . . . He sings what he knows, rather than what he thinks he should know.”

The brilliance of this often overlooked bluesman radiates throughout the 21 tracks on Trouble in Mind (Smithsonian/Folkways), a newly released and spectacularly remastered collection that shows why the Mississippi-born Broonzy–one of the first to blend rough rural blues with the urban experience–deserves to stand beside Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and B. B. King in the pantheon of American blues. Recorded in 1956-57, shortly before Broonzy’s death in 1958, the songs on the new release were culled from studio recordings from Folkways Records, live radio broadcasts originating from Chicago’s WFMT-FM, and a Northwestern University concert.

The social messages that often marked Broonzy’s songs can be heard throughout, a fact that made him particularly popular with the then-emerging folk revivalists. Pete Seeger–who once described Broonzy as “a great picker, a great singer, a composer of over 300 blues, and, above all, a great person”–accompanies Broonzy on “This Train.”

But for the most part, this is unadulterated Broonzy. Folkways founder Moses Asch chose to record him solo and acoustic–a format that spotlighted Broonzy’s intensely personal, emotive style. It’s a setting that musicologist Bill Randle would utilize in 1957 to capture Broonzy in music and dialogue on the classic five-LP set The Bill Broonzy Story, reissued last year as a three-CD box on Verve Records.

Broonzy as a concert performer was a highlight of last year’s three-CD box set From Spirituals to Swing (Vanguard), which featured the historical 1938 and 1939 John Hammond-produced Carnegie Hall concerts that first introduced African-American blues and jazz performers to mainstream American audiences. Broonzy had been brought on board at the last minute to fill in for Robert Johnson.

The repertoire on Trouble in Mind runs the gamut from traditional folk and spirituals to country and talking blues. There is a powerful solo rendering of “Key to the Highway,” a hit for Eric Clapton during his Derek and the Dominoes phase.

A serious performer who once considered becoming a minister and shunned the notion that blues and spirituals should be mixed, Broonzy possessed a joy of life and the ability to make you believe that you can be redeemed through song.

And that’s a rare talent.

From the March 2-8, 2000 issue of the Sonoma County Independent.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Ginger Dunphy

Photograph by Rory McNamara Model Citizen New exhibit highlights Ginger Dunphy's naked talent for inspiring artists By David Templeton GINGER DUNPHY is trying not to smile. Semi-reclining on a bench under a low-hanging, moss-encrusted tree, Dunphy is leaning back on one arm as she holds the other tight against...
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The Foo Fighters

Foo-ey! Foo Fighters push controversial notion that there is no HIV/AIDS link By Silja J. A. Talvi SOME ROCK STARS want to free Tibet. Others want to save Mumia. The Foo Fighters, on the other hand, want their fans to ignore accepted medical wisdom about AIDS. The multimillion-album-selling alternative rock...
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Loung Ung

Red Death Loung Ung's memoir provides a searing account of childhood under the Khmer Rouge By Patrick Sullivan "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN with me, sometimes as a dream, sometimes a nightmare, sometimes a legend, sometimes as a myth," says Loung Ung in her pleasant, lightly accented voice. "It's always been there, hovering...
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Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria

A rich heritage: Tribal leader Gene Buvelot displays an oversized flint spear point--a symbol of wealth. As vice chairman of the newly recognized Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Buvelot will introduce the tribe at an upcoming forum. Tribal Spirit Upsurge in local Native American political and cultural activity By...
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‘Man of the Century’

'Man of the Century' offers tedious exercise in one-joke cleverness By Nicole McEwan WHEN SHAKESPEARE wrote "Brevity is the soul of wit," he could scarcely have imagined Adam Abraham's mercifully short (80-minute) Man of the Century. Neither witty nor soulful, this tedious exercise in cleverness stars newcomer Gibson Frazier as "Johnny Twennies," a man...
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Christo Collection

Golden opportunity: A Santa Rosa exhibit offers the public a chance to see Forestville art collector Tom Golden's large collection of work by installation artist Christo and his partner, Jeanne-Claude, the creators of Running Fence. Solid Gold Art aficionado Tom Golden brings his Christo collection to Santa Rosa ...
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Primary 2000

Primary Instincts A select guide to local and state races Primary 2000 Endorsements: A quick-reference guide. Supervisorial Races A RECENT public opinion poll showed that huge blocks of respondents in two of the three supervisorial districts are undecided about whom they will be voting for on March 7....
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Grappa

Getta grappa: Vittorio Belmonte of Portofino's offers 11 kinds of grappa. The Great Grappa Hunt Long regarded as the bastard child of the wine industry, grappa gains respect By Bob Johnson AS A CUB REPORTER, more years ago than I'd care to admit or remember, I was...
Read more

National Women’s History Project

Putting life in perspective: National Women's History Project cofounders Molly Murphy MacGregor, left, Paula Hammet, Mary Ruthsdotter, and Maria Cuevas. Her Story National Women's History Project marks 20 years rooted in Sonoma County By Paula Harris WHEN MOST PEOPLE around the United States first try to reach...
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Big Bill Broonzy

American heritage: Big Bill Broonzy. Big 'Trouble' New CD showcases brilliance of bluesman Big Bill Broonzy By Greg Cahill AUTHOR and journalist Studs Terkel once called Big Bill Broonzy "our land's most distinguished singer of undressed blues. . . . He sings what he knows, rather than...
Read more
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