Astrology – Week of 06/15/22

ARIES (March 21-April 19): โ€œThe whole point for me is to change as much as possible,โ€ says Aries actor Keira Knightley. What?! Is she serious? Her number one aspiration is to keep transforming and transforming and transforming? I guess I believe her. It’s not an entirely unexpected manifesto, coming from an Aries person. But I must say: Her extra bold approach to life requires maximum resilience and resourcefulness. If you think that such an attitude might be fun to try, the coming weeks will be one of the best times ever to experiment.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus poet May Sarton relished โ€œthe sacramentalization of the ordinary.โ€ What a wonderfully Taurean attitude! There is no sign of the zodiac better able than you Bulls to find holiness in mundane events and to evoke divine joy from simple pleasures. I predict this specialty of yours will bloom in its full magnificence during the coming weeks. You will be even more skillful than usual in expressing it, and the people you encounter will derive exceptional benefits from your superpower.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here’s a message I hope you will deliver to the universe sometime soon: โ€œDear Life: I declare myself open and ready to receive miracles, uplifting news, fun breakthroughs, smart love and unexpected blessings. I hope to be able to give my special gifts in new and imaginative ways. I am also eager for useful tips on how to express my dark side with beauty and grace. One more perk I hope you will provide, dear Life: Teach me how to be buoyantly creative and sensitively aggressive in asking for exactly what I need.โ€

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In August 2021, a Canadian man named Jerry Knott bought a ticket for a lottery. He stuffed it in his wallet and lost track of it. Two months later, he found it again and checked to see its status. Surprise! It was a winner. His prize was $20 million. I propose we make him your role model for now, my fellow Crabs. Let’s all be alert for assets we may have forgotten and neglected. Let’s be on the lookout for potentially valuable resources that are ripe for our attention. More info on Knott: tinyurl.com/RememberToCheck.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Hundreds of years ago, people in parts of Old Europe felt anxiety about the Summer Solstice. The sun reached its highest point in the sky at that time, and from then on would descend, bringing shorter and shorter days with less and less light. Apprehensive souls staged an antidote: the festival of Midsummer. They burned great bonfires all through the night. They stayed awake till morning, partying and dancing and having sex. Author Jeanette Winterson expresses appreciation for this holiday. โ€œCall it a wild perversity or a wild optimism,โ€ she writes, โ€œbut our ancestors were right to celebrate what they feared.โ€ Winterson fantasizes about creating a comparable ceremony for her fears: โ€œa ritual burning of what is coward in me, what is lost in me. Let the light in before it is too late.โ€ I invite you to do something like this yourself, Leo.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Elizabeth McCracken says, โ€œI don’t dream of someone who understands me immediately, who seems to have known me my entire life.โ€ What’s more meaningful to her is an ally who is curious, who has โ€œa willingness for research.โ€ She continues, โ€œI want someone keen to learn my own strange organization, amazed at what’s revealed; someone who asks, โ€˜and then what, and then what?โ€™โ€ I hope you will enjoy at least one connection like that in the coming months, Virgo. I expect and predict it. Make it your specialty!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Stig Dagerman said that when he was sad as a child, his mother kissed him until his mood lightened. When he was older and sad, his mama said, โ€œSit down at your desk and write a letter to yourself. A long and beautiful letter.โ€ This would be a good task for you right now, Libra. Whatever mood you are in, I invite you to write a long and beautiful letter to yourself. I further recommend that you carry out the same ritual once every six weeks for the next nine months. This will be a phase of your life when it’s extra crucial that you express soulful tenderness toward your deep self on a regular basis. You may be amazed at how inspirational and transformative these communications will be.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Sometimes, the arrival of a peculiar event in your life is a good sign. It may mean that fate has sent an intervention to disrupt a boring phase of inertia or a habit-bound grind. An unexpected twist in the plot may signal a divine refreshment. It could be a favorable omen announcing a helpful prod that’s different from what you imagined you needed. I suspect that an experience or two fitting this description will soon materialize in your life story. Be alert for them. Promise yourself you’ll be receptive to their unexpected directives.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarius author Edna O’Brien long ago shed the strict Catholic faith in which she was raised. But she still harbors spiritual feelings colored by her tradition. She says, โ€œIdeally, I’d like to spend two evenings a week talking to [novelist] Marcel Proust and another conversing with the Holy Ghost.โ€ I suspect a similar balance of influences will be healthy for you in the days ahead, Sagittarius. My advice is to connect with an inspiration you drew sustenance from while growing up. Spend time consorting with deep-feeling smart people who will stimulate you to rearrange the contents of your rational mind.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’ve composed a message for you to deliver to your best allies. It will help you be clear about the nature of your energy exchanges. Say something like this: โ€œI promise to act primarily out of love in my dealings with you, and I ask you to do the same with me. Please don’t help me or give me things unless they are offered with deep affection. Let’s phase out favors that are bestowed out of obligation or with the expectation of a favor in return. Let’s purge manipulativeness from our dynamic. Let’s agree to provide each other with unconditional support.โ€

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author Lauren Collins tells us, โ€œBilinguals overwhelmingly report that they feel like different people in different languages. It is often assumed that the mother tongue is the language of the true self. But if first languages are reservoirs of emotion, second languages can be rivers undammed, freeing their speakers to ride different currents.โ€ I bring these thoughts to your attention, Aquarius, because the next 12 months will be an excellent time for you to begin becoming bilingual or else to deepen your fluency in a second language. And if you’re not ready to do that, I encourage you to enhance your language skills in other ways. Build your vocabulary, for instance. Practice speaking more precisely. Say what you mean and mean what you say 95% of the time. Life will bring you good fortune if you boost your respect for the way you use language.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean-born Robert Evans has been an amateur astronomer since he was 18. Though he has never been paid for his work and has mostly used modest telescopes, he holds the world record for discovering supernovasโ€”42. These days, at age 85, he’s still scanning the skies with a 12-inch telescope on his back porch. Let’s make him your role model for the coming months. I have faith you can achieve meaningful success, even if you are a layperson without massive funding. PS: Keep in mind that โ€œamateurโ€ comes from the Latin word for โ€œlover.โ€ Here’s the dictionary’s main definition: โ€œa person who engages in a study, sport or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.โ€

B’way Standards, Latin Flair – Director taps Puerto Rican roots

By Chris Rooney

When Luis Salgado says, โ€œCalifornia is wonderful,โ€ it’s not a controversial opinion.

Salgado has performed, directed and choreographed around the worldโ€”so it means something.

And it must be sincere, because Salgado is back for a second turn at the helm of Transcendence Theatre Company, this time pumping Latin blood into many Broadway classics in Letโ€™s Dance.

โ€œWe share a lot of similarities,โ€ Salgado said of himself and Transcendence. โ€œOur mission and values are parallel. When they asked me, I was in.โ€

Transcendence is a Sonoma County staple, having brought the best of Broadway to local audiences for more than a decade. Not only are familiar songs imported, but talent right off Broadway stages are flown in to perform them.

With Letโ€™s Dance, however, the familiar classics will get Salgadoโ€™s Puerto Rican influence.

โ€œWeโ€™ll have big, classic numbers,โ€ Salgado said. โ€œBut instead of traditional tap, it will have Peruvian tap.โ€

He went on to describe his version of Phantom of the Opera as โ€œfunkyโ€ and said that his take on other standardsโ€”from Damn Yankees and Guys and Dolls and othersโ€”was akin to melding Bob Fosse with mambo.

Salgado will work with a roster of performers who have appeared in a whoโ€™s who of Tony-winning shows, from Les Misรฉrables to 42nd Street and A Bronx Tale to Wicked.

Of the two dozen or so performers, 10 will be working with Transcendence for the first time. All of them, however, are in for a learning curve.

Salgado said he had some explaining to do to get the dancing up to speed. โ€œItโ€™s like learning a new vocabulary,โ€ he said of mixing up classics with a Latin accent.

Theyโ€™re in capable hands, as Salgado opened his own studio in Puerto Rico 13 years ago.

Beginning with just seven students, his school quickly expanded. In just five short years, he produced six shows and those seven students grew to 250.

He is a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway and has taught internationally.

Salgado assembled a cast of Broadway’s best from around the country with a highly regarded roster of international performers that he has personally worked with for more than a decade.

“We are so thrilled to work with Luis again and have his vision, passion and energy infused into the opening show of our 11th season,” said Transcendence artistic director Amy Miller. โ€œThis season is going to be an eclectic mix of every type of entertainment, and we cannot wait to share a summer of excitement and dynamic talent with our community.โ€

As a performer, Salgado is one of those overachieving multi-hyphenatesโ€”dancer-singer-actor. His Broadway credits include On Your Feet, The Story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, In The Heights, The Mambo Kings and A Chorus Line.

Performing led to choreographing and directingโ€”and ever greater success. He directed and choreographed the U.S premiere of the Spanish version of In The Heights at GALA Theatre in Washington DC, which received nine 2018 Helen Hayes Awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction and Best Choreography.

Minutes after taking time for this interview, Salgado was jetting back to Washington, DC for a special presentation of On Your Feet, which helped resurrect the career of Gloria Estefan, best known for churning out pop hits with the Miami Sound Machine in the 1980s.

Giving back to hisโ€”or anyโ€”community is important for Salgado. His devotion to social work inspired him to create his nonprofit agency, R.Evoluciรณn Latina, which aims to expose kids to the arts at a young age. As founder and director of R.Evoluciรณn Latina, he has helped empower more than 800 artists and 3,000 children through art programming.

As for Letโ€™s Dance, Salgado is employing Sonoma Countyโ€™s natural gifts. He said he is using the skylineโ€”and the sunlight in particularโ€”to help build drama.

โ€œThereโ€™s sunlight for Act One,โ€ he explained. โ€œFor Act Two, the sun has gone out. For the audience, it will be like two different shows.โ€

Salgado hasnโ€™t had much opportunity to enjoy the environs heโ€™s employing for the show; heโ€™s been too busy to be a sightseer. But he still likes the place.

โ€œSonoma is one of the most magical places,โ€ he said. Salgado has been impressed by the thoughtfulness of local drivers, who tend to share the road a bit more readily than the New Yorkers he experiences. โ€œWhen youโ€™re crossing 42nd Street,โ€ he said. โ€œYou donโ€™t get that.โ€

Like most of Transcendenceโ€™s visiting artists, Salgado was put up in a local familyโ€™s home, which he enjoys.

โ€œWe do have supporters who house the talent so the companyโ€”a nonprofitโ€”isn’t spending a bunch of money on housing,โ€ explained Miller. โ€œIt’s really cool, actually, to have the community step in like this.โ€

Added Salgado, โ€œWe have performers and creative staff from Puerto Rico, Colombia and Spain, all who are bringing their talent and life experiences to Jack London State Historic Park, and we are mixing that with the talents of the incredible performers and creative staff that have produced 10 unforgettable years of Transcendence shows. I invite everyone to dance, enjoy and embrace the experience.โ€

Letโ€™s Dance opens Transcendence Theatreโ€™s season and runs from June 17 to July at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Transcendence produces three original outdoor musical revues every summer, an indoor holiday show and occasional special performances.

Transcendence summer shows begin with a pre-show picnic featuring gourmet food trucks, vendors, pre-show entertainment and wine from local wineries. Performances take place in the open-air ruins of a historic winery.

Ticket prices range from $25 to $165 for individual shows, with savings of 15% with a season subscription. For tickets and more information, visit bestnightever.org or call the box office at 877-424-1414.

Fiber Optics – Focus on fiber arts in Petaluma

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By Michael Giotis

With “Common Threads: Art and Fiber,” the Petaluma Art Center continues championing the dialogue between craft and art and where the two, well, interweave.

The exhibition features 12 fiber artists working within 10 miles of the Petaluma Arts Centerโ€”  including Patricia Briceรฑo, Marlie de Swart, Karla Jacobs, Alissa Kaplan, Carol Larson, Travis Meinolf, Joan Pont, Carol Lee Shanks, Marta Shannon, Kate Tatum, Jessica Teem and Susan Vorbeck.

The curators of the exhibition are Carole Barlas, Irma Vega Bijou and Llisa Demetrios, who keenly observed the shared qualities of this particular group of artists and their work. Uniting the dozen artists is their shared “passion, joy and enthusiasm” for what each could make with materials, locally-sourced or otherwise. The possibilities proved endless, from functional to decorative, from practical to artistic, and from utilitarian to playful.

Photos courtesy of Petaluma Arts Center
VASE CASE Felt vases by Karla Jacobs.

Many worked by hand, invested in every step of the process of taking the fleece or fiber and creating a finished piece.

“Over the past few years, I have been working with a fleece garment process to create my work. I begin with wool that has been shorn off a sheep,โ€ said Alissa Kaplan, one of the artists showcased in the exhibition. โ€œFrom beginning to finished garment, the process takes approximately 46 hours.”

The artists would often iterate on an idea, resulting in lush scarves and whimsical felt vases, vast quilts and structural impressive sweaters, objet dโ€™art grown here on our lands, tended to, shaped by local hands.

“I fall in love with each fleece and then try to preserve the essence of the wool and the color of the fleece in processing it. In many pieces, I incorporate the various preparatory stages of the fleece, from washed but untreated curls, to roving to rough or finely spun yarn,” said Marlie de Swart. “Usually the fiber dictates what the final garment looks like.”

Likewise, Carol Lee Shanks enjoys the premise of using “…fibers that have been carefully raised and processed by people who are closely connected to their natural environments. I find beauty in the unique characteristics these textiles possess.”

According to the center’s website, โ€œThere was a boundless, endless curiosity of each artist about what fibers could do.โ€

Sometimes, the artists pushed the possibilities of the material into new and exciting expressions.

“I am a storyteller. With cloth as my medium, I layer text onto fabric and embellish with images, clothing, ephemera and stitch relevant to the story. Through the examination of social-cultural valuesโ€ฆ” said Carol Larson. “I create a narrative which encourages the viewer to contemplate their point of view and potentially spark conversation.”

Conversely, Marta Shannon’s process brings the artist peacefully inward.

“There is a meditative, rhythmic quality to weaving,โ€ said Shannon. โ€œThat is grounding and calming, particularly in our fast-paced lives today.โ€

โ€˜Common Threads: Art and Fiberโ€™ is on exhibit through July 23. For more information, visit https://petalumaartscenter.org/.

Sonoma County Library and activists launch two new local LGBTQ+ archives

This month, Sonoma County Library launched โ€œHere + Queer Sonoma County,โ€ a project to build a digital community-sourced archive of local LGBTQ+ history. Anyone is invited to submit documents preserving memories of queer life and culture in the county. 

โ€œA photograph at Pride, a wedding announcement, a video at a protest, a love letter to a first crush; these are all evidence of resistance and persistence,โ€ said Zayda Delgado, supervising librarian at the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library

Led by Delgado, the project is designed by librarians Terra Emerson, Stuart Wilkinson and Javier Morales, who wanted to fill a gap in Sonoma County Libraryโ€™s collection.

โ€œWe have such a rich LGBTQ history here in Sonoma County. But when we look in the library’s digital collection, if you search terms like queer, LGBTQ, gay, lesbian, you find very little. Part of what inspired the idea of the project was realizing that while there is this very rich in history here, it’s not really well documented, at least not in the library’s collection,โ€ says Emerson, a teen services librarian.

While โ€œHere + Queerโ€ is the libraryโ€™s first dedicated initiative to archive local queer and trans history, it is not the only archival work being done in the region. In 2007, a group of locals launched the โ€œLesbian Archives of Sonoma Countyโ€ with a mission to document the involvement of lesbians in creating community for women in the county between 1965 and 1995. Another archive project, โ€œLGBTQI+ LEGACY Sonoma County,โ€ is just now launching, though it is the product of years of information- and ephemera-gathering by community activists who also curate the โ€œSonoma County LGBTQI History Timeline.โ€ These projects focus on history up until the year 2000, whereas โ€œHere + Queerโ€ invites people to submit documents from any time, up to the present moment.ย 

Delgado says, โ€œEspecially for communities that are marginalizedโ€”our BIPOC communities, our LGBTQ+ communitiesโ€”our stories are more at risk of being silenced, erased. And so working with an organization like a public library to protect your story can give you a voice for the future.โ€ย 

Stuart Wilkinson - Sonoma County Library
Librarian Stuart Wilkinson poses with the Here + Queer logo in front of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters at Sonoma County Pride 2022. Photo by Terra Emerson.

Archiving, Delgado says, creates an intergenerational relationship of empowerment in which people can deepen their understanding of themselves by learning about the advocacy, struggles and celebrations of the past. 

โ€œAs weโ€™re seeing pushback against LGBTQ+ rights, womenโ€™s rights, itโ€™s important to see progression over time and the ebbs and flows of history. Thereโ€™s an impact in seeing documents and learning, like, this person was fighting for this or seeing pictures of love that show you that people were trying to celebrate their lives [despite the oppression they faced],โ€ she says.

Tina Dungan, a local LGBTQ+ archivist who grew up in Sonoma County, shares Delgadoโ€™s sense that preserving oneโ€™s history is particularly important in the face of oppression. Dungan and Shad Reinstein started the โ€œLGBTQI History Timeline of Sonoma Countyโ€ in 2018, during Donald Trumpโ€™s presidency, which she describes as the beginning of a pretty scary time for gay, lesbian and transgender people.ย 

In the first year of his presidency, the Trump administration removed all mentions of LGBTQ+ people from White House web pages, removed questions about sexual orientation from the U.S. Census and other national surveys, reinstated a ban that would prohibit transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, and signed an executive order that allowed for employers and federal agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and to have discretion to deny them services. 

โ€œThings were looking really grim, and we felt like it was really, really important to get that history safely housed to be accessible. A lot of us are getting old and not remembering things anymore, so it was a perfect chance to start working on [archiving],โ€ Dungan says. 

Since 2018, Dungan has taught a free course on the timeline through SRJCโ€™s Older Adults Program. Through this work, she connected with other community historians, to teach on facets of local history she wasnโ€™t as knowledgeable about, particularly around pushing LGBTQ+ advocacy into the mainstream. Dungan brought in Magi Fedorka and Adam Richmond to educate about their work in the activist group Forward Together and the Sonoma County Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club. In 1987, Forward Together began five years of advocacy, pressing for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to adopt a resolution observing Pride Week, which finally passed in 1992.ย 

LGBTQ Sonoma County 1989
In 1989, lesbian and gay residents of Sonoma County posed together for an ad that ran in local papers proclaiming “We Are PROUD To Be Your Neighbors!” It encouraged people to urge the Board of Supervisors to formally recognize Pride Week. Photo by Cher Traendly.

Through teaching the timeline course, Dungan and her collaborators have gathered a trove of ephemera for which they would like to find a permanent home. Although the search is ongoing, the group is already accepting submissions to grow their collection, calling the archival project โ€œLGBTQI+ LEGACY Sonoma County.โ€ โ€œThe Lesbian Archives,โ€ which is primarily a video oral history project, ultimately housed their collection at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco. For โ€œLGBTQI+ LEGACY,โ€ Dungan is hopeful about the possibility of finding a home within Sonoma County.ย 

โ€œThe fact that the Sonoma County Library has so many queer people working in it now is really exciting,โ€ she says. 

Delgado and Dungan feel shared enthusiasm about one another’s projects and agree that theyโ€™re complementary. โ€œHere + Queerโ€ will be the countyโ€™s first digital archive of LGBTQ+ history and is the only archive collecting work that extends to the present. Community members can submit documents to the libraryโ€™s database online and, eventually, will be able to access the digital collections online, too. For well over a decade, many documents have been created and housed digitallyโ€”on cameras, smartphones and computers. This makes submitting to a digital archive particularly easy. To support the digital archiving of physical objects, the library is planning on hosting special events with scanning days.

Emerson says, โ€œOne of the goals of the project is to bridge the gap between the older generations and the younger generations of queer community members. We hope the archive will show the through line of how our older community members have shaped the lived reality of our teens, and for teens today to understand that their activism will continue to shape the lived reality of future generations.โ€

Dungan believes โ€œHere + Queerโ€ will introduce many younger people to the importance of history. She says that when youโ€™re young and in the moment, you arenโ€™t necessarily thinking about how people willโ€”or wonโ€™tโ€”be able to find your work later. 

โ€œWe didnโ€™t put dates on the flyers we made. When youโ€™re young, you donโ€™t worry about stuff like that. The fact that Zayda and the library are getting it together now is really great because theyโ€™ll be able to remember more and theyโ€™ll be able to save things that might not otherwise get saved,โ€ Dungan says. 


โ€˜Here + Queer Sonoma Countyโ€™ is accepting submissions at sonomalibrary.org/queersonoma-en

To inquire about submitting to the โ€˜LGBTQI+ LEGACY Sonoma Countyโ€™ archive, contact le********@***il.com.

Tina Dungan teaches โ€˜LGBTQI History: A Sonoma County Timeline,โ€™ a free course on Zoom through SRJCโ€™s Older Adults Program, on Wednesdays from 1:30-3pm.ย For more information, contact cd*****@*******sa.edu.

โ€˜The Lesbian Archives of Sonoma Countyโ€™ collection can be accessed at the GLBT Historical Society archives. To learn more, visit www.glbthistory.org/archives-about-visitor-info.

Trivia

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1  Ten years ago, in 2012, what two members of the original Grateful Dead helped establish two popular restaurant-bar-music venues in Marin County?

2 What are the two shortest words in the English language?

3 The love child of a male donkey and a female horse is what animal with a four-letter name?

4 Eighteenth century British cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale constructed most of his finest pieces of furniture from the wood of what kind of tree?

5 In the list of biggest money-making films of all time, name the top three that have animal names in the titlesโ€”all have grossed over $1 billion worldwide since their releases in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

6 When the wandering Roman legions reached this isolated European island, they avoided it, and named it Hibernia, meaning wintery, because of its cold, unwelcome climate.  What European country is this today?

7 Although his first name sounds like something small, this giant athlete is the tallest ever to play with the Golden State Warriors. Give his name, his African homeland and his very unusual height.

8 In 2013, a hardcover coffee-table book, entitled Inside the Red Border, was released that featured historical photos from 90 years of pages from what popular magazine?

9a. Due to an ill-advised amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and its subsequent repeal based on public demand, for how many years was it illegal to manufacture, sell and transport alcoholic beverages?

9b. To get around this prohibition, many nightclubs, bars and restaurants opened secret dens of wildlife, known by what โ€œsimpleโ€ name?

10 The name for what nautical measurement about six feet in length is also a verb that means to comprehend a challenging problem?

BONUS QUESTION: For the past 30 years, this landlocked European nation with about 10 million inhabitants has been the world’s top per-capita beer-consuming nation. What country is this?

Want more trivia for your next party, fundraiser or special event? Contact ho*****@********fe.com

ANSWERS:

1 Bob Weirโ€”(the reopened) Sweetwater Cafe in Mill Valley/ Phil Leshโ€”Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael. Thanks for the question to Ethan Hay from Marin County.

2 A and I (… and O?)

3 Mule, characterized by long ears and a short mane

4 Mahogany

5 Spider-Man: No Way Home, 2021; Lion King, 2019; Black Panther, 2018 (shown in photo)

6 Ireland

7 Manute Bol, 7 feet 7 inches, from Sudan. Heโ€™s tied with Gheorge Muresan from Romania as NBAโ€™s tallest ever.

8 Time magazine

9a.14 years (from 1919-1933)

9b. Speakeasies

10 Fathomโ€”thanks for the question to Marty Albion from Lagunitas.

BONUS ANSWER: The Czech Republicโ€”it’s the home of Budweiser, don’t forgetโ€ฆ

Letโ€™s Dance! – โ€˜Dance Nationโ€™ invades Left Edge

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By Beulah F. Vega

Santa Rosaโ€™s Left Edge Theatre closes out their 2021/2022 season with Clare Barronโ€™s Dance Nation. Barronโ€™s darkly comedic look at the trials and tribulations of a preteen competitive dance troupe trying to get to the nationals while navigating puberty, an overbearing coach and changing friendships runs through June 19.

First-time director Paige Picard does a great job of casting this unique show that calls for adults to play adolescents. Her multi-generational and multicultural performers are an indication of keen casting skills and promise as a director, but Dance Nation is a difficult type of script to do well, even for an experienced director. It can be a challenge to maintain pacing and momentum when time is not in a linear structure, and poor pacing here makes for an uneven show that sometimes drags and sometimes soars.

The soaring is mostly attributable to Serena Elize-Flores (Ashley) and Rosie Frater (Sofia). Both actorsโ€™ charisma and professionalism are on full display. Not only do they execute their scenes with depth and enthusiasm, but they also elevate the other actors.

Elize-Flores commands the stage with a monologue that manages to find the impossible balance between the youth of her character and the deep conflicting emotions of a girl transitioning into womanhood. Her timing is pitch-perfect, and the use of every vulgar word in the English language stuffed into one sentence manages to endear instead of offend. Frater boldly tackles a scene that deals with the often uncomfortable but real emotions prevalent when being the first of her friends to get her period.

Regielyn Padua gives an earnest (if sometimes shouty) performance as Zuzu, the chief dance rival to Abbey Leeโ€™s company star, Amina. Caitlin Strom-Martin is wasted in the roles of various moms, but her Vanessa is hilarious. Sam Minnifield (Luke) is fearless as the only male dancer in the troupe. Eshani More (Connie) is hard to hear, but her earnestness comes through. The play also features Mike Pavone as dance teacher Pat and Kimberly Kalember as Maeve.

Both a nostalgic call back to millennial girlhood and a commentary on the price of a womanโ€™s power, this play, though uneven, is still worth oneโ€™s time. See this show for some amazing performances and fierce choreography.

โ€˜Dance Nationโ€™ runs through June 19 at Left Edge Theatre. 50 Mark West Springs Rd, Santa Rosa. Thu-Sat, 7pm; Sun, 2pm. $15โ€“$44. Show recommended for ages 15 + due to strong language, adult situations and nudity. Proof of vaccination required to attend. Masking is requested. 707.546.3600. leftedgetheatre.com

Simply Irresistible – Cosmic dance

By Christian Chensvold

If you were lucky enough to have lived through the last great decade to be a teenagerโ€”the โ€™80s, of courseโ€”then you invariably parked your hormone-fueled self on the couch one day, turned on MTV and watched a Robert Palmer video.

The singerโ€™s hit tunesโ€”โ€œSimply Irresistible,โ€ โ€œAddicted To Loveโ€ and โ€œI Didnโ€™t Mean To Turn You Onโ€โ€”came to epitomize the eraโ€™s sense of glamor, and not because of Palmer, whoโ€™s dressed in a nondescript black suit and white shirt. No, male or female, you were likely entranced by the mute backup dancers who surround the singer with a powerful and mysterious aura.

These are not Earth Mother archetypes with mountainous curves and flowing hair, risen from the Earth like flower-maidens in a painting by Alphonse Mucha. No, these are feminine beings descended from above, from some eternal realm of primordial cosmic energies. At once static and aloof and then suddenly dynamic in dance, the women are coldly elegant and highly intimidating, seeming both inaccessible and yet charged with magnetic energy seeking union with its opposite, represented by the suave singer.

This dynamic dyad, this eternal chase and cosmic dance, plays out in the soul of each of us. Ancient spiritual traditions show how masculine and feminine forces work in the human being, who receives these animating energies from the higher realm of first principles. In Hinduism, Shiva sits impassively as Shakti tries to rouse him with her dynamism, while in astrology, the mutable lunar energy that governs our emotions orbits our solar regal core. The primordial act of creation, symbolized by the staff of Hermes, is entwined by two serpents who appear to be simultaneously fighting and fusing, polarities bound forever in the womb of creation that find their opposite magnetic charge simply irresistible.

Opposites attract, in the outer world as well as inside of us, and moments of action and volition find their equilibrium in moments of contemplation and reflection. If we seek to continue growing and integrate all of our stars and their energy potentials, we can recalibrate our inner dynamic by identifying our receptive side (in astrology, the Moon and Venus) and making it more actively passive, and likewise letting our driving force (Sun, Mars) become passively active, resting in the immutable being, holding the center or lording on the throne.

Robert Palmerโ€™s music videos are mini microcosms of cosmic forces. If the masculine solar principle were alone on the stage with nothing in its orbit, or if the mutable lunar dancers had no  singer-sunwriter to shine light on them, there would be no music of the spheres.

Rolling Papers – Opportunities for change in policy

By Michael Giotis

In some ways, the promise of the cannabis industry hasn’t panned out in California. The right to access for medical use and the opportunity to bring money into beleaguered communities through adult-use have each been less than ideal.

With Prop 215 1996, Californians made providing affordable access to medical cannabis into law. Yet, as point of sale costs rise, reasonable access has come to jeopardy.

The social equity programs created through post-legalization cannabis policy attempt to repair some of the harm caused by enforcement of the โ€œDrug War,โ€ which has from the start fallen unevenly on people of color.

These local and state programs provide ways to offer benefits like grants and fast track licenses to those most directly affected by the legacy of policing cannabis use in black and brown neighborhoods. But under the weight of up to 67% taxation and fees, local BIPOC cannabis businesses are crumbling.

There are allies in government who understand the vital importance of these needed changes, including state Sen. Steve Bradford, who introduced SB 1281 and SB 1293, bills which call for, in part, three solutions that can be put into place immediately.

1) Suspend the excise tax for Social Equity Retailers. Let people open viable retail businesses in their own neighborhoods. This would be a 15% reduction in cost right off the top, allowing for some wealth creation, the kind that BIPOC folks can pass on to the next generation. Justice in dollars, man.

2) Reduce all excise tax to 5%. The state of California has a massive cash surplus right now. Cut the state-wide excise tax for all recreational cannabis. We donโ€™t need the extra money sitting in a vault; we need the access that the people of California have twice voted to increase.

3) A statewide definition for Social Equity. The legal cannabis market is the opportunity of a generation to redefine the economic opportunities for communities that have long been deprived of a fair shake. For too long, the primary funding sent into these communities has gone to expanded policing. A statewide definition of Social Equity will serve to guide not just policy but attitudes toward black- and brown-owned businesses.

You may have just voted. Be real though, democracy canโ€™t stop there. To get the cannabis industry that benefits California the way Californians intended in past elections will require more than just voting. Advocates and conscious consumers will have to push officials and influence public opinion. For a start, concerned readers can call on their own state representatives and members of the Budget and Finance Committee to support SB 1281 and SB 1293.


For a toolkit to support cannabis tax reform, click the Take Action button at supernovawomen.com.

Poor Police Work Lets Rapists Go Free

By Christine McDonald

There is a sexual assault taking place right now. Every 68 seconds, someone in America is sexually assaulted. More than 97% of perpetrators get off scot-free.

A major reason is mismanagement of physical evidence. The evidence in a sexual-assault investigation is typically the product of a six-hour physical exam conducted by a medical professional, who searches the victim’s body for any materialโ€”like DNAโ€”that could help identify the perpetrator. The information and material gathered is known as a “sexual assault kit.”

As a survivor of sex trafficking and current advocate for victims, I know firsthand how invasive and retraumatizing these exams can be. But we believe that the information collected will help deliver justice.

That faith is often misplaced. In far too many cases, the evidence in sexual assault kits is never used.

The state of California, for instance, reported a backlog of more than 13,000 untested kits in 2020. Every unprocessed kit represents a crime left unsolvedโ€”and a perpetrator likely to attack again.

Court cases often require proof of the “chain of custody” for a piece of evidence. Prosecutors need to be able to prove the whereabouts of a rape kit. That evidence may be on the move for years. And if a defendant challenges the chain of custody, even a minor mistake can lead to an acquittal.

Today, any given sexual assault has just a 31% chance of ever being reported to the police. Why go through an invasive, demeaning physical exam if the evidence is going to end up in a storage closetโ€”or if mismanagement by police is going to let the rapist off on a technicality?

There’s no excuse for losing track of evidence in 2022. We have the technology to get more perpetrators of sexual assault off the street. We need California law enforcement agencies to deploy those tools so victims aren’t telling their stories in vain.

Christine McDonald is an author, speaker and advocate for victims of human trafficking and sexual assault. www.christinespeaksministry.com

Intriguing Look – The inimitable Cincinnatus Hibbard

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By Jane Vick

Good morning all! Happy Wednesday! How has everyone been? Iโ€™ve just come back from a weekend in Los Angeles, where I attended a three-day wedding featuring a photobooth and a ferris wheel that I can say has made me more grateful than ever for Pedialyte. Pro tip: if ever at an event and plied with copious libations, drink an entire bottle of Pedialyte before falling asleep and prepare to awaken with a song in the heart and a spring in the step, as P.G. Wodehouse would say.

On to this weekโ€™s Look! Iโ€™m not being hyperbolic when I say that Cincinnatus Hibbard is one of the more intriguing human beings in Sonoma County, and certainly one of the most fascinating Iโ€™ve ever met. Though I am beginning to understand that I didnโ€™t appreciate how much intrigue and mystery these Northern California hills hold.

The name Cincinnatus Hibbard may sound familiar; this is because they organized the recent North Bay Fashion Ballโ€”see imageโ€”which was a roaring success. Hibbard is a walking art project, and I asked them about how they achieve it. Their answer:

โ€œLife is composed of continuous art media. So everyone is implicated in this art thing. The invitation to continuous art practice is not continuous beauty, but truth. Continuous truth. That beauty is truth is more than an old saw; the principles of aesthetics are the principles of truth. A beautiful canvas is a category, and a data set is a beautiful canvas. Efficient use of ecological resources is aesthetic minimalism. A beautiful relationship is a well balanced symmetry, and a true democratic community is the most beautiful spiritual community.โ€

Hibbard sees their role of tending to the garden that is the Sonoma County creative community clearly, and gracefully participates. Upcoming, expect a podcast called Sonoma County, a Community Portrait, creating individual audio-portraits of community members. Expect also two short films, one titled We Are in Heaven, and the other promoting Gene Sharpโ€™s Methods of Nonviolent Action. Along with the North Bay Fashion Ball, which is now an annual event, Hibbard is launching another annual event, called โ€œThe Avant Garde of Everything.โ€ All this, says Hibbard, โ€œamounts to tending our garden. It is the small part I have to play in culturing our Eden.โ€

Did I not say, utterly intriguing? Lucky us, Sonoma County!

Looking phenomenal, everyone.

See you next week!

Love,

Jane

For more images from the inaugural North Bay Fashion Ball, visit  https://www.flickr.com/gp/195772638@N03/53V572.

Jane Vick is an artist and writer based in Oakland. She splits her time between Europe, New York and New Mexico. View her work and contact her at janevick.com.

Astrology – Week of 06/15/22

ARIES (March 21-April 19): โ€œThe whole point for me is to change as much as possible,โ€ says Aries actor Keira Knightley. What?! Is she serious? Her number one aspiration is to keep transforming and transforming and transforming? I guess I believe her. It's not an entirely unexpected manifesto, coming from an Aries person. But I must say: Her extra...

B’way Standards, Latin Flair – Director taps Puerto Rican roots

Transcendence is a Sonoma County staple, having brought the best of Broadway to local audiences for more than a decade. Photo courtesy of Transcendence Theatre Company ACTION Guest director Luis Salgado.
By Chris Rooney When Luis Salgado says, โ€œCalifornia is wonderful,โ€ it's not a controversial opinion. Salgado has performed, directed and choreographed around the worldโ€”so it means something. And it must be sincere, because Salgado is back for a second turn at the helm of Transcendence Theatre Company, this time pumping Latin blood into many Broadway classics in Letโ€™s Dance. โ€œWe share a lot...

Fiber Optics – Focus on fiber arts in Petaluma

PQ There was a boundless, endless curiosity of each artist about what fibers could do. Photos courtesy of Petaluma Arts Center VASE CASE Felt vases by Karla Jacobs.
By Michael Giotis With "Common Threads: Art and Fiber," the Petaluma Art Center continues championing the dialogue between craft and art and where the two, well, interweave. The exhibition features 12 fiber artists working within 10 miles of the Petaluma Arts Centerโ€”  including Patricia Briceรฑo, Marlie de Swart, Karla Jacobs, Alissa Kaplan, Carol Larson, Travis Meinolf, Joan Pont, Carol Lee Shanks,...

Sonoma County Library and activists launch two new local LGBTQ+ archives

Zayda Delgado - Sonoma County Library
This month, Sonoma County Library launched โ€œHere + Queer Sonoma County,โ€ a project to build a digital community-sourced archive of local LGBTQ+ history. Anyone is invited to submit documents preserving memories of queer life and culture in the county.  โ€œA photograph at Pride, a wedding announcement, a video at a protest, a love letter to a first crush; these are...

Trivia

1  Ten years ago, in 2012, what two members of the original Grateful Dead helped establish two popular restaurant-bar-music venues in Marin County? 2 What are the two shortest words in the English language? 3 The love child of a male donkey and a female horse is what animal with a four-letter name? 4 Eighteenth century British cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale constructed...

Letโ€™s Dance! – โ€˜Dance Nationโ€™ invades Left Edge

Photo by Eric Chazankin CHOREOGRAPHED Actors Mike Pavone, Serena Elize Flores and Abbey Lee (left to right) appear in a local production of Clare Barronโ€™s play about a preteen competitive dance troupe.
By Beulah F. Vega Santa Rosaโ€™s Left Edge Theatre closes out their 2021/2022 season with Clare Barronโ€™s Dance Nation. Barronโ€™s darkly comedic look at the trials and tribulations of a preteen competitive dance troupe trying to get to the nationals while navigating puberty, an overbearing coach and changing friendships runs through June 19. First-time director Paige Picard does a great job...

Simply Irresistible – Cosmic dance

Photo courtesy of EMI ADDICTED Robert Palmerโ€™s music videos are mini microcosms of cosmic force.
By Christian Chensvold If you were lucky enough to have lived through the last great decade to be a teenagerโ€”the โ€™80s, of courseโ€”then you invariably parked your hormone-fueled self on the couch one day, turned on MTV and watched a Robert Palmer video. The singerโ€™s hit tunesโ€”โ€œSimply Irresistible,โ€ โ€œAddicted To Loveโ€ and โ€œI Didnโ€™t Mean To Turn You Onโ€โ€”came to epitomize...

Rolling Papers – Opportunities for change in policy

By Michael Giotis In some ways, the promise of the cannabis industry hasn't panned out in California. The right to access for medical use and the opportunity to bring money into beleaguered communities through adult-use have each been less than ideal. With Prop 215 1996, Californians made providing affordable access to medical cannabis into law. Yet, as point of sale costs...

Poor Police Work Lets Rapists Go Free

By Christine McDonald There is a sexual assault taking place right now. Every 68 seconds, someone in America is sexually assaulted. More than 97% of perpetrators get off scot-free. A major reason is mismanagement of physical evidence. The evidence in a sexual-assault investigation is typically the product of a six-hour physical exam conducted by a medical professional, who searches the victim's...

Intriguing Look – The inimitable Cincinnatus Hibbard

Image provided by Cincinnatus Hibbard ART & FASHION Cincinnatus Hibbard (center) and company at the North Bay Fashion Ball.
By Jane Vick Good morning all! Happy Wednesday! How has everyone been? Iโ€™ve just come back from a weekend in Los Angeles, where I attended a three-day wedding featuring a photobooth and a ferris wheel that I can say has made me more grateful than ever for Pedialyte. Pro tip: if ever at an event and plied with copious libations,...
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