North Bay Theaters Adapt to Covid-19

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North Bay Theaters Adapt to Covid-19

“Creative people are like the shark that has to keep moving forward to live,” says Barry Martin, managing director of Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions. “If we don’t tell stories, who are we?”

That “show must go on attitude” continues as local theater companies adjust to the pandemic-necessitated limitations on live performances. Some have canceled or significantly postponed their 2020–21 seasons, while others have made substantial investments in streaming technology.

“Our whole world has been turned upside down,” said Left Edge Theatre’s Argo Thompson. “Each of us is attempting to adapt. Left Edge is very fortunate for the support we have received during this time, including a few months of rent forgiveness from the Luther Burbank Center, donations from subscribers and patrons, PPP loans and grants from the Sonoma County Community Foundation and Creative Sonoma. These funding streams provided us the time and resources to create a new business model and invest in remote equipment and infrastructure.”

They plan to move forward with a complete season of streaming plays starting Sept. 4 with Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Sweat.

“We believe our work and connection with our audience is more important than ever,” Thompson said. “The plays in our 2020–21 season have some amazing things in common. First, they are all written by female playwrights. Secondly, they all have themes that are relevant to this moment. Each play helps to identify broken systems and imagines new ways of being together. Our season is all about elevating the silenced.”

One component of their season will be a “New Works” Festival, something that several other companies plan to mount. Lucky Penny has solicited submissions from Bay Area writers for their October Short “Play-demic” Festival, a collection of stories for the stage about how life has been affected since the pandemic began, how life proceeds in the midst of it and what happens next. 

Cloverdale’s Performing Arts Center plans a streaming Festival in September featuring works by North Bay artists on the theme of injustice.

“We hope that by creating theater that promotes discussion and reflection, we can continue to move forward while also giving back,” said CPAC Artistic Director Yavé Guzman. “20 percent of any donations received through the end of September will be given to the ACLU of Northern California, who work continuously for social justice.”

For audiences looking for more traditional theater, the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Department is currently holding video auditions for an October streaming production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

The heart of theater continues to beat in the North Bay.

Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot

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Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot

The “No Pot on Purvine” signs are gone and so are some of the anti-pot citizens who lived on Purvine Road and sold their property to Sonoma Hills Farm, where Aaron Keefer grows organic cannabis and organic vegetables. During the pandemic, he’s been giving away beets and beans to Brewsters in Petaluma, SingleThread in Healdsburg and Press, the Napa steakhouse. In a previous lifetime, Keefer cultivated the vegetable garden for Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, the extravagant Yountville restaurant. Keefer was also a chef at Tra Vigne where he prepared great food alongside Michael Chiarello, the celebrity chef.

The owners of Sonoma Hills Farm had the savvy to bring Keefer on board to help run their operation, which one day will be a tourist destination. This year’s cash crop at Sonoma Hills didn’t go into the ground until mid-May. When I visited in late July the plants, which were on drip irrigation and in rich, dark soil, were a long way from harvest, but they looked robust.

“I don’t regret making the change from growing veggies for the French Laundry to cultivating cannabis,” Keefer tells me. “Cannabis is one of the most exciting parts of agriculture today. Cooking at restaurants is a young man’s game. You have to be obsessed to do it right.”

Keefer grew up in a farming community in Upstate New York and attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park. He has cooked with cannabis and smoked it, too.

“Cooks smoke weed,” he tells me. “It’s a big part of any professional kitchen. At 2am, a joint helps you come down from the adrenalin high.” Keefer suggests that cannabis and food are “a natural pairing,” though he says that he’s “leery” about adding pot to his favorite recipes because “edibles can spell trouble.” He adds, “Still, there could be consumption before a meal and there could also be cannabis between courses.”

Keefer doesn’t smoke on his commute from Napa to Purvine. He rides his BMW motorcycle over hills and across valleys and at the end of the day rides back to Napa.

Keefer says he sometimes feels “isolated” at Sonoma Hills, but for company he can count on Jake Daigle, who works in the fields, and Suzi Kissinger, the Director of Wellness.

“We’re thinking 10 to 20 years ahead,” Keefer says. “We’ll be on Purvine for a long time.”

Right now he’s adhering to the rules laid down by the county, bringing overgrazed land back to life, creating biodiversity and attracting beneficial insects. Hey, don’t leave out the good bugs.

Jonah Raskin is the author of  “Dark Past, Dark Future,” a noir novel for our dark times.

Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot

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Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot
[image-1]

The “No Pot on Purvine” signs are gone and so are some of the anti-pot citizens who lived on Purvine Road and sold their property to Sonoma Hills Farm, where Aaron Keefer grows organic cannabis and organic vegetables. During the pandemic, he’s been giving away beets and beans to Brewsters in Petaluma, SingleThread in Healdsburg and Press, the Napa steakhouse. In a previous lifetime, Keefer cultivated the vegetable garden for Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, the extravagant Yountville restaurant. Keefer was also a chef at Tra Vigne where he prepared great food alongside Michael Chiarello, the celebrity chef.

The owners of Sonoma Hills Farm had the savvy to bring Keefer on board to help run their operation, which one day will be a tourist destination. This year’s cash crop at Sonoma Hills didn’t go into the ground until mid-May. When I visited in late July the plants, which were on drip irrigation and in rich, dark soil, were a long way from harvest, but they looked robust.

“I don’t regret making the change from growing veggies for the French Laundry to cultivating cannabis,” Keefer tells me. “Cannabis is one of the most exciting parts of agriculture today. Cooking at restaurants is a young man’s game. You have to be obsessed to do it right.”

Keefer grew up in a farming community in Upstate New York and attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park. He has cooked with cannabis and smoked it, too.

“Cooks smoke weed,” he tells me. “It’s a big part of any professional kitchen. At 2am, a joint helps you come down from the adrenalin high.” Keefer suggests that cannabis and food are “a natural pairing,” though he says that he’s “leery” about adding pot to his favorite recipes because “edibles can spell trouble.” He adds, “Still, there could be consumption before a meal and there could also be cannabis between courses.”

Keefer doesn’t smoke on his commute from Napa to Purvine. He rides his BMW motorcycle over hills and across valleys and at the end of the day rides back to Napa.

Keefer says he sometimes feels “isolated” at Sonoma Hills, but for company he can count on Jake Daigle, who works in the fields, and Suzi Kissinger, the Director of Wellness.

“We’re thinking 10 to 20 years ahead,” Keefer says. “We’ll be on Purvine for a long time.”

Right now he’s adhering to the rules laid down by the county, bringing overgrazed land back to life, creating biodiversity and attracting beneficial insects. Hey, don’t leave out the good bugs.

Jonah Raskin is the author of  “Dark Past, Dark Future,” a noir novel for our dark times.

Eki Shola Finds Power in Her Voice

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Eki Shola Finds Power in Her Voice

Born in London to Jamaican parents, raised in New York City and now living in the North Bay, pianist and songwriter Eki Shola brings a multicultural wealth to her original compositions.

Working primarily on her keyboard, and backed by digital effects, the multiple Norbay Award–winner for electronica is adept at crafting jazzy, ambient tones with ethereal melodies that often carry dreamlike messages of hope and a sense of gratitude for life.

In 2016, Shola first displayed that relaxing blend of jazz and ambient piano on her debut album, Final Beginning. A year later, the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa destroyed her home. Shola turned to music after that tragedy, opening the floodgates of her creativity with a torrent of songwriting that led to a trilogy of albums.

That trilogy debuted in the spring of 2019 with the album Possible, followed by the release of Drift in late 2019. Now, Shola concludes the musical journey with the release of Essential.

“I didn’t intentionally set out to create a trilogy, but I was just writing and writing for expression and healing,” Shola says.

Looking back through the compositions that she wrote in the immediate aftermath of the Tubbs Fire, Shola dedicates each album to a particular aspect of her healing process.

Possible represents Shola’s raw, in-the-moment emotions in the months after the fires.

“In the beginning, you’re in survival mode,” Shola says. “You just have to get things done.”

After months of survival, Shola says the fatigue set in. The trilogy’s second album, Drift, is a meditative and musical search for comfort.

“I was craving what I had known, I remember missing home, and I mean home from when I was a child in London,” Shola says. “This intense nostalgia felt safe and warm and soothing. When I look at the songs I wrote in that time period, they’re more like a cocoon.”

Once Shola was done cocooning, a new restlessness emerged, and Essential is an album packed with songs about searching for meaning, taking risks, embracing newness and finding power in her voice.

“Most of my songs have been instrumental,” she says. “But I’ve been encouraged to use my voice more.”

Shola was in the process of mixing and mastering Essential at the beginning of this year when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the economy.

“The extra time afforded me the time to reflect on our current events, the coronavirus, health care advocacy and Black Lives Matter,” she says. “The album was extended to incorporate some of those events. The message was broadened.”

Shola is donating a portion of proceeds from sales of the album to the Freedom Community Clinic, which offers holistic healing practices for underserved Bay Area people of color.

Shola is also embracing the online platforms many musicians and artists are flocking to until social gatherings can begin again.

“I know live performances are on hold for a bit, but that pushes you to think a little more out of the box,” Shola says. “I’m excited to be doing different things; I’m looking at doing animation with my music and some online shows. I would have never thought I’d be doing that, but this has opened my eyes to other options.”

Ekishola.com

Popular Box Show Is Back

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Popular Box Show Is Back

Any culturenaut worth their liberal arts degree knows that the premiere gallery experience to be had in the wilds of West Marin is at Gallery Route One (GRO) in Point Reyes Station. As with any arts organization, GRO has weathered its share of trials since its inception in the early ’80s, so even a curveball like the Covid-19 pandemic will still result in a hit for the organization. How? GRO learned long ago to think outside, inside and generally within and without the proverbial box. 

Don’t let all those prepositions fool you—this ain’t no Dr. Seuss book. It’s The Box Show, the Marin gallery’s popular annual exhibit, auction and fundraiser.

Since 1991, GRO has annually distributed 150 identically-sized wooden boxes to 150 artists with the proviso that they create something awesome within two months. The breadth of creativity that comes back is staggering. Nearly every form of artistic expression is represented—from painting and sculpture to multimedia works that defy easy categorization.

The wooden boxes themselves are about the size of a small valise, a typewriter case or a portable record player. Size doesn’t matter, however, as artists augment and play with the three-dimensional canvas as they see fit.

This year promises the same wow-factor despite—and perhaps even partly because of—the pandemic. Four hundred artists each vied for one of the 150 boxes, according to the gallery’s resident doyenne of the arts, the single-monikered artist and impresario Vickisa. 

“Four hundred folks sign up for the lottery every year to take a spot,” she says. “They just put their name in, in the hopes that somebody will drop out and they’ll get a slot.”

As in years past, the boxes will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the gallery’s outreach programs, including the Latino Photography Project, the Artists in the Schools Program, as well as exhibitions in the Project Space addressing environmental, immigration and myriad other social justice issues. 

Box art fans are encouraged to participate in a silent auction via the Givi app (downloadable for Apple and Android devices, link at the gallery’s website) during the show’s six-week run. In-person bidder viewings can also be scheduled online or the public can attend a live auction at 2pm, Sept. 12 at the parking area adjacent to the gallery. The bidding is being processed digitally so bidders who can’t be personally present can still participate.

“Each week the gallery will also provide videos of different thematic sections of the exhibit, with additional artist-provided information, ideas and details about the intention behind the creation of specific works,” explains Vickisa. These weekly “docent tours” are available online, as is a complete exhibit tour via video (see website info below). “People are just passionate about it,” she adds.

The Box Show runs through Sept. 12. To book a viewing appointment on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, register to bid or donate, visit www.galleryrouteone.org. Additional information at facebook.com/galleryrouteone and @galleryrouteone.

Under Attack

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I am an ordinary citizen. I don’t have a high security clearance and get classified information from a large array of expensive government agencies. 

Regardless, it is easy for me to see that my way of life is under attack. By that I mean, the government of The United States of America is under attack. No, not an armed military attack. A concerted effort from not only within the government, but from foreign individuals. 

The man who calls himself President has controllers like the Koch and Mercer families, (and many more); the rich, government people in countries all over the Earth (like Russia and China) and elected officials in our government (like Moscow Mitch, Ted Cruz, and many more) destroying the fabric that holds our country together. Voter suppression, attacks on the Social Security system, destruction of the oldest, most highly supported government agency, The Postal Service, isolating the USA from the rest of the world, leaving WHO (World Health Organization), going against the foundation of the creation of the USA, immigration, promoting White Nationalism, denying health care … it goes on and on. 

I feel like I am being attacked! Leaves a huge hole in my heart as I think of what the future holds for us, the ordinary citizen.

Don Landis

Sebastopol

Harmful

In addition to harming humans, glyphosate is extremely harmful to many pollinators (“Roundup Row,” News, Aug. 5), most notably the honeybee. And we all know what happens when they are gone.

Stevie Jean Lazo

Healdsburg

Chefs Compete to Benefit Napa Food Programs

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Chefs Compete to Benefit Napa Food Programs

Each year Oxbow Public Market’s “Fork It Over” benefit and St. Helena’s “Hands Across The Valley” fundraiser raise money for the Napa Valley Food Bank and other local safety-net food programs such as Meals on Wheels.

This summer these two events canceled due to Covid-19, and the Napa Valley Food Bank and Meals on Wheels stand to lose approximately $250,000 in funding at a time when the number of families using these programs has nearly tripled due to the pandemic.

In place of these canceled live events, the organizers behind both Fork It Over and Hands Across the Valley are working together to create a new virtual event to help close the funding gap.

On Sunday, Aug. 23, Fork It Over and Hands Across the Valley co-host the first-ever virtual Napa Valley Champions Cook-Off, pitting two acclaimed Napa Valley chefs against each other in a friendly challenge. Both of the participating chefs have won national televised cooking contests, and now North Bay viewers are invited to watch the live-streaming event, which will determine the ultimate champion.

Chef Elizabeth Binder and Chef Chris Kollar—both slated to appear in the showdown—each have experience cooking in front of crowds.

Chef Binder, owner of Hand-Crafted Catering in Napa, helped her team “Beat Bobby Flay” on the popular cooking competition show’s seventh episode of Season 23, which aired on Jan. 26, 2020.

Chef Kollar, recently named Yountville’s 2020 Business Leader of the Year, is best known as the owner of Kollar Chocolates. Chef Kollar was named a “Chopped Champion,” winning a sweet and salty challenge on an episode of Food Network’s “Chopped” that also aired in January of this year.

The upcoming Napa Valley Champions Cook-Off will be held at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia.

Radio personality Liam Mayclem, known as the Foodie Chap on KCBS Radio, will host the streaming competition. Chef Ken Frank (La Toque in Napa), Chef Anita Cartagena (Protéa in Yountville) and Chef Tanya Holland (Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland) will be on hand to judge the event.

The free Napa Valley Champions Cook-Off fundraiser will stream via Facebook Live, and viewers can donate money throughout the approximately hour-long program to support The Napa Valley Food Bank and Meals on Wheels. Donations received during the event will be eligible to win $500 in OxBucks, redeemable at any Oxbow Public Market merchant.

The Napa Valley Champions Cook-Off streams online Sunday, Aug. 23, at 2pm. Free. Facebook.com/OxbowPublicMarket.

Open Mic: Working Hands

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Open Mic: Working Hands

A la supervisora Shirlee, es clave decir lo que uno siente y ser leal con la palabra.

Against the backdrop of rolling hills, pristine rivers and photoshopped wine glasses glistening in the sun, our county continues to peddle tourism ads, inviting strangers to our county while we adapt to our second lockdown. You would not even know the county is breaking down unless you peeled back these layers. What is carefully cropped out are the businesses closing for good, the families set for eviction and the Latinx peoples still recovering from the fires and devastated by Covid-19, terrorized by ICE and still ignored.

¿Al supervisor James, voy a perder mi casa?


¿A la supervisora Lynda, me puede ayudar a solicitar el desempleo?

If you want to continue to offer refreshments to our wealthy guests, honor the laborers. Keep them housed, keep them fed, keep them here. It’s necessary if you want to keep your cups filled with expensive wine, to swish it around your mouths, to taste the ash and exploitation, only to spit it into a bucket. This is your pleasure, and their work.

Al supervisor David, yo cosecho las uvas pero no puedo pagar el vino.

As I write this, the county has just introduced more restrictions on public participation at their weekly meetings. All of this, and still they are only conducted in English. No translator. Essentially, gatekeeping over 1/5 of the people they serve. Mostly poor, mostly working class.

¿A la supervisora Susan, por qué no me dejan sentarme en la mesa?

There is perhaps no better metaphor for the way our county has softened its exploitative history than the “white hand” art piece in Santa Rosa. The white hand, owned by a multimillion-dollar development firm, designed by a white man living a thousand miles away, was built to honor our BIPOC labor class. Recently painted black, it was soon restored to its original color and as the black paint was stripped away the other day, it is another painful reminder of what we find underneath every facet of our socioeconomic experience here in Sonoma County—something old, rich and white.

“Sin embargo, frente a la opresión, el saqueo y el abandono, nuestra respuesta es la vida.”

—Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Roman Campos lives in Santa Rosa. We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com

The Dream of the ’90s Comes Alive at Bear Republic Lakeside Brewpub

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The Dream of the ’90s Comes Alive at Bear Republic Lakeside Brewpub

The year is 1995. Space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station; Steve Fossett becomes the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean solo in a hot air balloon; millions watch the O.J. Simpson trial; the San Francisco 49ers win their fifth Super Bowl; and third and fourth generation Sonoma County locals, the Norgrove family, establish the Bear Republic Brewing Company.

Twenty-five years later, Bear Republic Brewing Company has become one of the most awarded and beloved independent brewers in the North Bay and across the U.S., best known for their hand-crafted, time-tested beers like the Racer 5 IPA.

In addition to their main brewing facility in Cloverdale, Bear Republic showcases their brews at their Lakeside Brewpub, located at Roberts Lake in Rohnert Park. Visitors to the brewpub enjoy the company’s wide selection of beers, specialty cocktails, pizza, burgers and more.

This summer, in the wake of Covid-19, the Bear Republic Lakeside Brewpub reopened its massive outdoor seating area on the lake for safe and socially-distant dining, and the brewpub now also offers curbside pickup and beer to-go, as well as a home-delivery option.

Now, in commemoration of Bear Republic’s 25-year anniversary, the company is turning the clock back for an anniversary event featuring a ’90s throwback menu on Friday, Aug. 21.

Old-school fans of the brewery will happily welcome back menu items from yesteryear including the Rocket Burger, featuring fire-roasted mild green chili and cilantro aioli, and The Press grilled chicken sandwich with brie, bacon and caramelized onions.

The special menu also features throwback prices on menu items such as the BRBC Wings and garlic fries, as well as Racer 5 IPAs. The ’90s menu is available on Aug. 21 until supplies last. The Lakeside Brewpub is open for outdoor dining, socially-distant indoor dining and to-go service daily from 11:30am to 9pm. Visitors are asked to wear a mask or facial covering and respect social distancing recommendations to help curb the spread of Covid-19.

For those who can’t make it to the 25th anniversary throwback event on Aug. 21, Bear Republic Brewing Company offers an easy way to find BRBC beers closer to home with its online “Bear Tracker,” which lets users search by Zip Code to find bottles and cans at a store near them.

In addition to classic beers like the Racer 5 and the Hop Shovel IPAs, Bear Republic is still creating new, tasty brews, such as the “Hoppy Pilsner” and “Bear Necessities.”

The latest addition to the company’s Brewmaster Series, the “Hoppy Pilsner,” blends clean malt flavor, classic Pilsner bitterness and hoppy aromas, and is described as a “decidedly West Coast take on the classic lager beer.”

The simple and straightforward “Bear Necessities” is an American-style ale brewed with cascade hops and pale barley. Bear Republic says the release “pays homage to the people who show up daily to keep us going.”

Bear Republic Brewing Company’s Lakeside Brewpub is located at 5000 Roberts Lake Rd., Rohnert Park. Open daily, 11:30am to 9pm. 707.585.2722. BearRepublic.com.

Deputy Sheriffs’ Association Files Legal Challenge with State Board

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Deputy Sheriffs’ Association Files Legal Challenge with State Board

A labor group representing Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies has filed a legal action with a state board in charge of regulating disagreements between public agencies and their employees over the County’s decision to add a measure to the November ballot intended to increase oversight of the Sheriff’s Office.

A law firm representing the Sonoma County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association (SCDSA) filed the initial document, known as an Unfair Practice Charge, with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) on Monday afternoon. An attorney with the state’s Office of General Council will review the SCDSA’s charge and, if it is found to have legal merit, the County and SCDSA will enter into further legal proceedings, potentially concluding with a final decision by PERB.

The SCDSA threatened to file the complaint last week after the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Aug. 6 to add the Evelyn Cheatham Effective IOLERO Ordinance to the Nov. 3 ballot. The ordinance, identified on the ballot as Measure P, would increase the funding and oversight powers of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Outreach and Review (IOLERO), a County office tasked with reviewing the Sheriff’s internal investigations and interacting with community members.

The SCDSA is requesting that PERB require the County to rescind the Ordinance on the grounds that the County failed to meet with the law enforcement union in accordance with a state labor law.

In the document filed Monday, the SCDSA, represented by Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, PC, asks PERB to order the County to make the situation right by “rescinding the Ordinance, and refrain from enacting any similar future ordinance unless and until it [the County] complies with its obligations under the MMBA [Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, a state labor law].”

“[If] the County had complied with labor laws, the issues could have been addressed and allowed the ordinance to lawfully proceed for the voters’ consideration,” SCDSA president Mike Vail said in a press release distributed Monday. “Unfortunately, the County’s disregard of basic legal requirements have left the DSA no choice but to pursue formal legal action to enforce its collective bargaining rights with the Public Employment Relations Board.”

Representatives of the County and the Measure P campaign both reject the SCDSA’s legal argument.

“In passing the Ordinance, the Board of Supervisors acted well within its policy making authority and the County is very confident the Board’s action will withstand legal review,” Bruce Goldstein, Sonoma County Counsel, told the Bohemian in an email.

Jerry Threet, a Measure P campaign advisor and former director of IOLERO, called the SCDSA’s charge “a classic political feint, dressed up as a legal challenge.”

“It is designed to bully the County into backing down from putting stronger civilian oversight of the Sheriff on the ballot, despite its broad public support. In reality, the complaint has little to no legal merit,” Threet stated.

A letter attached to the SCDSA’s charge shows that the County offered to meet with representatives of the SCDSA on Aug. 13 or 14. So far, the two parties have not met.

Goldstein said the County is “confident that [the DSA’s] concerns can be addressed in a mutually satisfactory manner once we have a chance to discuss the issues.”

In an interview, Timothy Talbot, an attorney representing the SCDSA, said that the SCDSA declined to meet with the County after the Board added Measure P to the ballot because the “law says it is essentially futile to talk about something that’s already done.”

Instead, the SCDSA is asking PERB to take action to right the County’s alleged wrong.

Ultimately, the decision of a fitting solution is up to PERB, if the SCDSA’s charge makes it that far.

“California law gives the Board wide latitude to fashion a remedy that is appropriate and cures the violation,” Felix De La Torre, PERB’s general counsel, told the Bohemian in an email. “Of course, the Board considers the remedies requested by the charging party, but ultimately orders a remedy that best effectuates the purpose of the law.”

The SCDSA’s full charge is available here.

North Bay Theaters Adapt to Covid-19

“Creative people are like the shark that has to keep moving forward to live,” says Barry Martin, managing director of Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions. “If we don’t tell stories, who are we?” That “show must go on attitude” continues as local theater companies adjust to the pandemic-necessitated limitations on live performances. Some have canceled or significantly postponed their 2020–21 seasons,...
Read more

Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot

The “No Pot on Purvine” signs are gone and so are some of the anti-pot citizens who lived on Purvine Road and sold their property to Sonoma Hills Farm, where Aaron Keefer grows organic cannabis and organic vegetables. During the pandemic, he’s been giving away beets and beans to Brewsters in Petaluma, SingleThread in Healdsburg and Press, the Napa...
Read more

Aaron Keefer Grows Veggies & Pot

The “No Pot on Purvine” signs are gone and so are some of the anti-pot citizens who lived on Purvine Road and sold their property to Sonoma Hills Farm, where Aaron Keefer grows organic cannabis and organic vegetables. During the pandemic, he’s been giving away beets and beans to Brewsters in Petaluma, SingleThread in Healdsburg and Press, the Napa...
Read more

Eki Shola Finds Power in Her Voice

Born in London to Jamaican parents, raised in New York City and now living in the North Bay, pianist and songwriter Eki Shola brings a multicultural wealth to her original compositions. Working primarily on her keyboard, and backed by digital effects, the multiple Norbay Award–winner for electronica is adept at crafting jazzy, ambient tones with ethereal melodies that often carry...
Read more

Popular Box Show Is Back

Any culturenaut worth their liberal arts degree knows that the premiere gallery experience to be had in the wilds of West Marin is at Gallery Route One (GRO) in Point Reyes Station. As with any arts organization, GRO has weathered its share of trials since its inception in the early ’80s, so even a curveball like the Covid-19 pandemic...
Read more

Under Attack

I am an ordinary citizen. I don’t have a high security clearance and get classified information from a large array of expensive government agencies.  Regardless, it is easy for me to see that my way of life is under attack. By that I mean, the government of The United States of America is under attack. No, not an armed military...
Read more

Chefs Compete to Benefit Napa Food Programs

Each year Oxbow Public Market’s “Fork It Over” benefit and St. Helena’s “Hands Across The Valley” fundraiser raise money for the Napa Valley Food Bank and other local safety-net food programs such as Meals on Wheels. This summer these two events canceled due to Covid-19, and the Napa Valley Food Bank and Meals on Wheels stand to lose approximately $250,000...
Read more

Open Mic: Working Hands

A la supervisora Shirlee, es clave decir lo que uno siente y ser leal con la palabra. Against the backdrop of rolling hills, pristine rivers and photoshopped wine glasses glistening in the...
Read more

The Dream of the ’90s Comes Alive at Bear Republic Lakeside Brewpub

North Bay brewing company celebrates silver anniversary with throwback menu on Friday, Aug. 21
Read more

Deputy Sheriffs’ Association Files Legal Challenge with State Board

A labor group representing Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputies has filed a legal action with a state board in charge of regulating disagreements between public agencies and their employees over the County’s decision to add a measure to the November ballot intended to increase oversight of the Sheriff’s Office. ...
Read more
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