Letters to the Editor: October 31, 2018

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Letters to the Editor: October 31, 2018

Setting a
Standard

Those animal-rights protesters exposed some horrific animal abuse at our local farms, as evidenced by the video they released (“Cage Match,” Oct. 24). I wish the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and the sheriff’s department were more interested in stopping this illegal animal cruelty than covering up for them. The video clearly exposes the claims of Whole Foods as buying only from “humane” farms and wanting transparency as a shameless marketing ploy. Sonoma County could be setting the standard for animal welfare! Thank you to the protesters for making us aware.

—Doug Moeller

Santa Rosa

Unrest in
the Forest

Besides destroying thousands of homes, many thousands of trees were lost in last year’s fires. Sadly, when burned lands were cleared, there were live trees cut down needlessly due to a combination of expediency, greed and carelessness.

Now that PG&E is facing scrutiny for responsibility for the fires, many remaining trees are again under threat. PG&E and its contractors are engaged in a program of extreme vegetation removal. They claim that they must cut 12 feet or more away from power lines and poles for the sake of public safety. This is excessive; their regulations call for a four-foot safety area, not 12 feet. By cutting a huge swath of trees and vegetation, they claim they will not need to cut again for 10 years. They end up cutting trees that are very old and healthy, and which are not adding to the danger of forest fires.

Near my home, I see many large oak trees that have been marked with “to-be-cut” ribbons on them. Those trees are located on sparsely wooded land and pose no fire risk. Also, I have been told that numerous large trees, some that were over a hundred years old, have been cut down by PG&E or its agents in error.

The tree companies are being paid in a manner that encourages overcutting—the more they cut, the more money they make. Those evaluating what to cut are not arborists, and the tree-cutting companies are from all over the country, which means that those doing this work lack an ecological, professional or local connection to what is being done.

Trees are the lungs of the earth, and their presence contributes to human emotional health. Trees are already under assault by drought, insects, fires, climate change, disease, vineyard conversion and development. Must PG&E also destroy trees needlessly to add to this carnage?

“They’ll grow back” is the retort to questioning the cutting. But the trees may not grow back, and if they do, it may happen when many of us are
long gone.

Of course tree and vegetation management is needed for fire protection, but it needs to be done conscientiously. Please contact PG&E and your local government representatives and ask that vegetation removal be done with care and discretion. It is not necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.

—Don Scott

Calistoga

Game of Chicken

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Game of Chicken

Animal rights activists are protesting on Northern California ranches. Sometimes they go beyond their First Amendment rights and break the law.”

That message was delivered loudly and clearly to nearly 100 people who attended a workshop at Shone Farm in Santa Rosa last week. Called “Beyond the Fence Line” (see “Cage Match,” Oct. 24), the event on Oct. 29 was sponsored by the powerful Sonoma County Farm Bureau. By the end of the afternoon, it was pretty obvious—to some attendees, anyway—that there is anti-activist collusion underway between the Farm Bureau, its friends and allies in the county, and local law enforcement.

Many regional ranchers clearly think that animal-rights activists are a menace to them and to society. The Farm Bureau agrees. The ranchers and the bureau may be well-meaning, but the fiery language used to describe animal-rights activists is likely to widen the divide rather than help residents interested in this issue to come to a common understanding.

For her part, Tawny Tesconi, executive director at the Farm Bureau of Sonoma County, condemned recent protests at local chicken farms as “domestic terrorism.” Brian Sobel, from Sobel Communications, echoed her cry as he too lambasted “domestic terrorists.” Sobel didn’t mean pipe-bomber Cesar Sayoc. And he didn’t mean Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue over the weekend.

Understandably, farmers don’t want protesters to disrupt their livelihood. But it doesn’t help to demonize animal-rights activists as “terrorists.” Nor did it help matters when Troye Shaffer, from the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office, stood at the podium and called the demonstrators “ne’er-do-wells,” a prejudicial statement if ever there was one—especially given the mass arrest of 68 protesters and the fact that, as of last week, the district attorney was still sorting out the charges.

The animal-rights activist group called DxE has made shoppers and eaters aware of factory farming and the inhumane conditions in which animals are raised and slaughtered. One rancher at Shone Farm encouraged everyone “to run clean operations.”

Indeed, more time and money should be spent on running clean operations than on fences, gates, surveillance, arrests and prosecutions, which will only exacerbate an Us vs. Them mentality that already exists—and that shouldn’t. The Farm Bureau and law enforcement officials ought to be accountable to all of us, not to special interests with deep pockets and the ear of local law enforcement. And please, no more inflammatory language.

Jonah Raskin is a frequent contributor to the ‘Bohemian.’

Open Mic is a weekly feature in the ‘Bohemian.’ We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication,
write op*****@******an.com.

Cry Folk

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Cry Folk

Radoslav Lorkovic

It’s been a busy past couple of years for Richard Shindell. In 2017, he released his 10th full-length solo album, Careless. Then he reunited with former bandmates Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky to tour this year as Cry Cry Cry, the much loved folk supergroup who released a single folk-rock covers album in 1998.

Having wrapped up the reunion, Shindell is back touring solo. He performs in the North Bay with a show at HopMonk Tavern in Novato on Nov. 2.

“I’m really happy about both things. I like the record—it was a long time in the making. And then to immediately follow it up with this amazing opportunity to put Cry Cry Cry together, which I thought would never happen, it’s just a blessing.” says Shindell.

Given that Cry Cry Cry was originally a single album project, the reunion surprised Shindell as much as it did the fans.

“I think there are a lot of different reasons [we reunited]. I can’t point to any one causal thing,” says Shindell. “Lucy [Kaplansky] and I made a record together back in 2015—the Pine Hill Project. It was a Cry Cry Cry sort of project. There were other people’s songs, and the idea was to sing a lot of harmonies. It’s a record that Lucy and I had wanted to make for a long time. In fact, prior to the original Cry Cry Cry, Lucy and I had talked about making such a record and we never did. And partially that’s because Cry Cry Cry happened.”

Shindell notes that the purpose of the 1998 self-titled album was to hold a mirror to the folk community at that juncture.

“There was a deliberate effort made to record songs that we love by people that we knew in our community,” Shindell says. “Cliff Eberhardt for example. His ‘Memphis’ might be my favorite song on the record.”

The band also recorded songs by performers they weren’t as familiar with. “There’s a Robert Earl Keen song,” Shindell says. “I don’t know Robert Earl Keen, but he’s a heck of a songwriter. Dar wanted to sing this R.E.M. song, ‘Fall on Me,’ so it wasn’t like we only wanted to do that one thing. There were songs that came from other areas.

“Ultimately what you want to do when you make a record is just find out what sounds good.”

Lake’s Latest

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Lake’s Latest

Weed the People is director Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake’s timely and compelling documentary about using cannabis oil as an alternative medicine for children with cancer. The film features half a dozen case studies of babies and teens who take this form of medical marijuana to reduce tumors. It is, as one believer states in the film, “not a cure, but an extension of life.”

“It wasn’t my medicine or my cause,” Lake says, “but my husband passed away, and [cannabis] was his passion.”

Marijuana is still classified by the DEA as a Schedule 1 drug, though, as the film notes, the government has a medical patent on marijuana. In America, there has been minimal research on the effects of treating cancer with cannabis—most studies show the negative, not positive effects—but in countries like Israel and Spain, there are encouraging findings about the drug’s healing properties.

Weed the People firmly establishes the drug-policy issue as a human-rights issue and follows several families benefiting from cannabis treatment to track their progress. “We met a little girl who was 30 pounds and six years old,” Lake says, “and this is crazy, but we moved her and her family into our house, and took her to osteopaths and a cannabis doc. Weed the People comes from our personal experience and natural curiosity.”

The film features several women on the front lines, including Mara Gordon, co-founder of Aunt Zelda’s, which creates and sells cannabis oils to patients, and Bonni Goldstein, a medical director at Canna Centers, who lectures on the efficacy of cannabinoid therapy.

It is one of four documentaries Lake has produced on social issues, after The Business of Being Born, Breastmilk and the forthcoming Sweetening the Pill. The film, Lake says, was made “specifically to take the stigma away. It’s not about legalization, regulation or getting high; it’s about children dying of cancer and the heroic docs and scientists putting their time into this.

“There are enough films about drug reform and legalization,” Lake adds. Weed the People “was about the kids and following the stories, and hopefully to get change to happen.”

‘Weed the People’ screens at UA Berkeley 7 on Nov. 3 at 7pm, and again at Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol on Nov. 4 at 2pm. Source: Alternet.

Spook Show

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Spook Show

If you’re wary of attending the latest splatter fest at your local multiplex and seek kinder, gentler Halloween season entertainment, Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions brings you Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, directed by Barry Martin and running through Nov. 4. It’s an old-fashioned ghost story laden with Coward’s acerbic wit and charm.

Author Charles Condomine (Tim Kniffin) is researching the occult world for his next novel. He’s invited a local medium, Madame Arcati (Karen Pinomaki), to conduct a séance in his home. Charles is convinced she’s a charlatan, but Arcati manages to call forth the spectral presence of his late first wife, Elvira (Sydney Schwindt). As Charles is the only one who can see or hear Elvira, his current wife, Ruth (Kirstin Pieschke), thinks he’s going quite mad. Soon convinced of Elvira’s presence, Ruth finds herself in a battle with Elvira over their husband.

At first terrified with the situation, Charles actually begins to take some delight in the circumstances and starts to adapt to living with two wives—even if one is dead. Elvira goes about scheming to get Charles to join her on the “other side,” while Ruth seeks out Madame Arcati to help rid her of the troublesome spirit. That’s easier said than done.

Kniffin is solid as the initially flustered but soon rolling-with-the-punches Charles who, after closer examination, is really quite a cad. He’s the perfect vehicle to deliver some classic Coward lines in a classic Coward manner. Schwindt is a lot of fun as the devilish Elvira and gets a major assist from makeup designer Brette Bartolucci.

Pinomaki has the showiest role (it won Angela Lansbury her fourth Tony for the 2009 revival) and garners big laughs with her physicality. Festooned in costume designer Barbara McFadden’s colorful accoutrements, Pinomaki earns those laughs by playing the character straight. Her visual outlandishness and other spectral bits are nice counterparts to the dry verbal humor for which Coward is best known and that this cast delivers well. The play creaks a bit, but in a day when stage pyrotechnics can overwhelm a show, it’s nice to be reminded that the words are what really matter.

Rating (out of 5): ★★★½

Kitchen Kinks

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Kitchen Kinks

Holy crap, this place is huge!

This was my first thought as I got out of my car at a recent visit to Russian River Brewing Company’s new, second location in Windsor. I arrived at 1:30pm, just in time for a late lunch at the brewpub. Only five days after the grand opening on Oct. 11, I knew that a few amenities—especially the planned guided tours of the brewery and the tasting room—were still a few weeks off.

I did a double-take upon entering the brewpub. The décor took me back to my years living in Tennessee—a rustic-farmhouse aesthetic that reminded me of so many similar upscale Nashville restaurants. It was surprising to discover it in the middle of Sonoma County.

Nearly 150 people had already made the discovery and were dining in the indoor restaurant, the outdoor bar and in the comfortable leather chairs that surround the indoor fire pit. I order a Supplication and took a seat at the crowded indoor bar
so I could better overhear what others thought of the long-anticipated arrival of the RRBC’s Windsor outpost.

I am a total Fourth Street Santa Rosa RRBC brewpub loyalist—and as such, the Windsor menu made me feel like a stranger in a strange land: squash soup, steak and, alas, avocado toast. The pork schnitzel sandwich and the fries looked good. I put in an order and finished off the beer. A few minutes later, the food arrived, alongside a fresh Pliny.

The meal left something to be desired, and here’s hoping RRBC Windsor works out the opening-week kinks. The fries were hot, but also soggy. The schnitzel was cooked to perfection, but came on a sesame seed bun (pretzel is traditional). To my right, a patron who just paid $22 for a steak lamented to the bartender that he’d erred in ordering it. “Too dry.”

I also witnessed a poor avocado toast buried under a mountain of mixed greens.

When I visited, the brewery was still waiting on Comcast to install the cable for the TVs flanking the bar areas (it has since been installed), and the mini-brewery had yet to arrive. Now set to open next spring, the mini-brewery is a glass viewing area that will eventually allow visitors to watch brewers experiment with flavors that may or may not become permanent fixtures on the Windsor menu.

Minor gripes aside, the Windsor location allowed me to do something I’ve never done before: open a cooler and grab a six-pack of Pliny to go. There appear to be thousands of ice-cold beers for sale in the gift shop. The days of Pliny scarcity are over—at least for those of us living in the North Bay. Hallelujah!

Give owners Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo space and time to work out the bugs, and RRBC Windsor should become a mainstay of the tourist circuit and a nice hangout spot for locals—especially during the rainy season, when the weather will compel people to curl up by the indoor fire with their favorite brew.

I’m looking forward to my second visit, on a day like that.

Russian River Brewing Company,
700 Mitchell Lane, Windsor. 707.545.2337. Facility tours are
scheduled to start Nov. 15.

Wine Dark Brew

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Wine Dark Brew

These are sour times. Dark times. Good times for dark and sour beer.

The hazy days of summer IPA are long gone, and the good dead grape is settled down for its long sleep in casks of oak. In the quiet after the commotion of harvest, a feral black cat stalks the vineyard, forever interrupting the frantic errand of some small creature scuttling under fallen leaves, stocking up on seeds as night draws nearer each day.

Though the grapes had saved their sweetest for last, there’s a sourness in the air now, as left-behind and fallen grapes and apples play host to much smaller creatures’ feast: Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces and other unruly guests make a cruel mockery of the good work of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the sacred yeast of the winemaking and brewing world.

But in beer, what’s gone all wrong can be made right, explains Lagunitas Brewing Company’s “head brew-monster” Jeremy Marshall about its limited release, Sonoma Farmhouse Brett stout. “This beer started almost as a mistake,” Marshall says in brewery notes. “Back in 2010, a batch of imperial stout didn’t go exactly as planned, so we put it into some red wine barrels, with a little brett. A couple years later, we took that beer out of barrels and found it had changed into something different and wonderful.”

Lagunitas-strong, at an imperial 11.3 percent alcohol by volume (abv), this monster brew is deep and engaging, not hot—a dark harmony of vinous heritage and all those bugs that are bad for wine. But this October limited release is hard to find; get bottles while you can at the brewery’s swag shop for $10.

For that wine-dark taste without the sour, try Plow Brewing’s Irons in the Fire porter aged in Pinot Noir barrels, on tap or in a crowler (a growler in a can) to go for $15.

The hue of leaves turning red, Fogbelt Brewing’s Methuselah ($18) is brewed with light pilsner malt, but aged with Zinfandel grapes for two years in wine barrels. The tart taste is deepened by a fruity, raisiny undertone, with something of that sour funk of old books nuancing its slightly beery bouquet. Which brings us to Barrel Brothers’ Leather-Bound Books ($18), a dusky brown sour ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels with unspecified dark fruits. Like damp straw and healthy compost, there’s something farm-yardy but fresh and sweet about the Leather-Bound, and it’s tarter, with more of a fig than raisin character of the darker Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Belgian sour that it resembles. My spirits are lifted already.

Sonoma County Theater Honored at Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards

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Sonoma County Theater Honored at Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards

Sonoma County theater artists gathered Monday night at the Juncture Taproom and Lounge in Santa Rosa for the Third Annual Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards. Seventeen awards were given to local theatre artists and productions whose nominations were culled from the sixty-six Sonoma County productions attended by members from September 1, 2017 through August 31, 2018.
The MTJA was founded in 2015 by Sonoma County-based theater journalists with the intent of developing a critically-based awards program to acknowledge outstanding work done by the local theater community. Current members include the North Bay Bohemian’s Harry Duke, Sonoma County Gazette’s Alexa Chipman, Talkin’ Broadway’s Jeanie K. Smith, and Aisle Seat Review’s Barry Willis and Nicole Singley. All are members of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) and/or the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA).
The MTJA Awards have the distinction of being the first theatre awards program to eliminate gender distinction in the performance categories, simply recognizing outstanding lead and supporting performances by genre.
The Sonoma Arts Live production of Always… Patsy Cline was the single most awarded production of the evening, taking home awards for Lead and Supporting Performances in a Musical as well as Costume Design, Musical Direction and Outstanding Musical Production. Rohnert Park’s Spreckels Theatre Company production of By the Water was recognized with three awards; Outstanding Lighting Design, Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Drama, and Outstanding Drama Production. The choreography in their production of Peter Pan was also recognized. Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre took home awards for three different shows including Lead Performance in a Comedy, Supporting Performance in a Comedy, and Outstanding Comedy Production. Sebastopol’s Main Stage West had two shows recognized with three awards including Outstanding Sound Design, Outstanding Set Design, and Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama. Healdsburg’s Raven Players and Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse each took home one award.

Here is the complete list of nominees with winners designated by a (W):

Outstanding Poster/Program Design
Elizabeth Craven – Blackbird – Main Stage West
Marla Goodman – Constellations – 6th Street Playhouse
Elizabeth Craven – Eurydice – Main Stage West
Richard Sheppard – I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – Raven Players
Richard Sheppard – Water by the Spoonful – Raven Players (W)

Outstanding Costume Design
Michael Ross – Always… Patsy Cline – Sonoma Arts Live (W)
Tracy Hinman – Death of a Salesman – 6th Street Playhouse
Maryanne Scozzari – Into the Woods – Santa Rosa Junior College
Pamela Johnson – Peter Pan – Spreckels Theatre Company
Jeanine Gray, Michael Mingoia – Shrek, the Musical – Raven Players

Outstanding Lighting Design
Missy Weaver – Blackbird – Main Stage West
Missy Weaver – Buried Child – Main Stage West
Eddy Hansen – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company (W)
April George – Disgraced – Left Edge Theatre
April George – The Realistic Joneses – Left Edge Theatre

Outstanding Sound Design
Jessica Johnson – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company
Doug Faxon – Eurydice – Main Stage West
Doug Faxon – Grace – Main Stage West (W)
Argo Thompson – Honky – Left Edge Theatre
Carla Spindt, Argo Thompson – Women in Jeopardy! – Left Edge Theatre

Outstanding Set Design
David Lear – Blackbird – Main Stage West (W)
Eddy Hansen, Elizabeth Bazzano – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company
Peter Crompton – Into the Woods – Santa Rosa Junior College
Michael Ross, Theo Bridant – Always… Patsy Cline – Sonoma Arts Live
Elizabeth Bazzano, Eddy Hansen – Peter Pan – Spreckels Theatre Company

Outstanding Choreography
Katie Watts-Whitaker – I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – Raven Players
Craig Miller and Amanda Morando – Illyria – 6th Street Playhouse
Joseph Favalora – La Cage aux Folles – 6th Street Playhouse
Michella Snider – Peter Pan – Spreckels Theatre Company (W)
Katie Watts-Whitaker – Shrek, the Musical – Raven Players

Outstanding Musical Direction
Ellen Patterson – Always… Patsy Cline – Sonoma Arts Live (W)
Dave MacNab – Daddy Long Legs – Main Stage West
Lucas Sherman – Illyria – 6th Street Playhouse
Ginger Beavers – La Cage aux Folles – 6th Street Playhouse
Timothy Eisman – Peter Pan – Spreckels Theatre Company

Outstanding Ensemble
By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company
Equus – 6th Street Playhouse (W)
Good People – Cinnabar Arts
Grace – Main Stage West
The Realistic Joneses – Left Edge Theatre

Outstanding Musical Production
Always… Patsy Cline – Directed by Michael Ross – Sonoma Arts Live (W)
Daddy Long Legs – Directed by Elly Lichenstein – Main Stage West
Illyria – Directed by Craig Miller – 6th Street Playhouse
Peter Pan – Directed by Sheri Lee Miller – Spreckels Theatre Company
Shrek, the Musical – Directed by Kerry Duvall – Raven Players

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical
Danielle DeBow – Always… Patsy Cline – Sonoma Arts Live (W)
Madison Genovese – Daddy Long Legs – Main Stage West
Carmen Mitchell – Illyria – 6th Street Playhouse
Michael Conte – La Cage aux Folles – 6th Street Playhouse
Sarah Wintermeyer – Peter Pan – Spreckels Theatre Company

Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Musical
Karen Pinomaki – Always… Patsy Cline – Sonoma Arts Live (W)
Gillian Eichenberger – Illyria – 6th Street Playhouse
Bill Garcia – Shrek, the Musical – Raven Players
Tim Setzer – Illyria – 6th Street Playhouse
Joseph Favalora – La Cage aux Folles – 6th Street Playhouse

Outstanding Comedy Production
Good People – Directed by Michael Fontaine – Cinnabar Arts
Quartet – Directed by Jereme Anglin – Cinnabar Arts
The Realistic Joneses – Directed by Argo Thompson – Left Edge Theatre (W)
Sideways – Directed by Argo Thompson – Left Edge Theatre
Women in Jeopardy! – Directed by Carla Spindt – Left Edge Theatre

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Comedy
Trey G. Riley – Honky – Left Edge Theatre (W)
Chris Ginesi – The Realistic Joneses – Left Edge Theatre
Chris Schloemp – The Realistic Joneses – Left Edge Theatre
Shannon Rider – Women in Jeopardy! – Left Edge Theatre
Laura Jorgensen – Quartet – Cinnabar Arts

Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Comedy
Liz Rogers Beckley – Honky – Left Edge Theatre
Dorian Lockett – Inspecting Carol – Sonoma Arts Live
Richard Pallaziol – Women in Jeopardy! – Left Edge Theatre
Jazmine Pierce – Sideways – Left Edge Theatre
Zane Walters – Women in Jeopardy! – Left Edge Theatre (W)

Outstanding Drama Production
Blackbird – Directed by David Lear – Main Stage West
By the Water – Directed by Carl Jordan – Spreckels Theatre Company (W)
Death of a Salesman – Directed by Craig Miller – 6th Street Playhouse
Disgraced – Directed by Phoebe Moyer – Left Edge Theatre
Grace – Directed by John Craven – Main Stage West

Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Drama
Mark Bradbury – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company
Mary Gannon Graham – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company (W)
Mike Schaeffer – Disgraced – Left Edge Theatre
Jill K. Wagoner – Steel Magnolias – 6th Street Playhouse
Ariel Zuckerman – Death of a Salesman – 6th Street Playhouse

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama
Illana Niernberger – Grace – Main Stage West
Mike Pavone – By the Water – Spreckels Theatre Company
Sharia Pierce – Blackbird – Main Stage West (W)
James Rowan – The Elephant Man – Curtain Call Theatre
Jared Wright – Disgraced – Left Edge Theatre

Word Crimes

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Word Crimes

God bless all the actors who aren’t there because of their looks.

The literally catty tragicomedy Can You Ever Forgive Me? commences nicely with Melissa McCarthy playing Lee Israel, surly, shabby and frumpy at a publisher’s office—meeting a deadline at 3am with the help of a big glass of something on the rocks. She’s fired for drinking on the job, even at that hour. As she leaves, a younger employee mutters, “If I ever get like that, kill me.” Israel snaps back: “If you ask me nicely, I’ll kill you now.”

This true-life tale of a drinker with a writing problem is set in 1991. Print hasn’t keeled over quite yet, but Israel, who’d previously published a number of celebrity bios, is having trouble landing an advance.

When vet bills for her ancient cat press her, Israel goes to sell a prized possession: a personal note from Katherine Hepburn from the days when the two had collaborated on an autobiography.

The money is good enough that Israel falls into a unique field of crime: forging celebrity letters to sell to the local bookstores. She recruits her seedy drinking buddy, Jack, played by Richard E. Grant in a performance that’s been generating Oscar buzz. His untrustworthy barfly is the kind of man who introduces himself as “Jack Hock: big cock”—dodgy and gay and British and drunk, a mountebank with fingerless Fagin gloves. Jack and Israel’s scam turns out to have consequences, however, and also blights the author’s potential friendship (friendship, or more) with pretty bookstore owner Anna (Dolly Wells), who has writing ambitions of her own.

The elegant soundtrack sports jazz crooner Blossom Dearie, the ill-fated country rocker Spade Cooley and a bit of Justin Bond covering Lou Reed’s “Goodnight Ladies” in a deserted cabaret. Ornery and salty as the film is, it has a cool counterpoint of loneliness to it. And it shows how lost even the recent past is—it has the sense of New York when it was New York, when it was gritty and bad, and seemingly every business sign was missing a letter or a light.

‘Can You Ever Forgive Me? opens Friday, Nov. 2, at Summerfield Cinemas, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. 707.525.8909.

Tom Steyer and Kamala Harris reportedly latest pipe-bomb targets as U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman tees off on Trump’s complicity

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Tom Steyer and Kamala Harris reportedly latest pipe-bomb targets as U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman tees off on Trump’s complicity

As Sen. Kamala Harris and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer have emerged today as two of the latest targets in a string of bombs sent to prominent Democrats and Trump critics, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman called in from the road to express his outrage and disgust at the disturbing week of domestic terrorism. “Several people I know and consider friends” have been targeted, says Huffman, citing Harris and Steyer as he called upon  Donald Trump to “basically shut up. He is not a credible messenger when it come to de-escalating this political wildfire. He needs to just tone everything down while others try to set another tone.”

Huffman’s not convinced that others in the GOP will stand up and denounce the attacks as he accused members of the Republican Party of playing Trump’s game and deflecting blame to the media. “I wish I was hearing from a whole bunch of Republicans in a candid and fulsome way.” he says, “but unfortunately, too many of them are following Trump’s lead on this and suggesting that the media had a role.” 

Yesterday the reality-show president tweeted that if it weren’t for the media—the enemy of the people, as he’s said before—maybe his supporters wouldn’t be so angry that they’d be driven to try and murder public officials that Trump himself has vilified using extremist rhetoric.  “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”

Or else?

Steyer, the San Francisco hedge-fund billionaire, has been an out-front proponent of impeaching President Donald Trump. He was identified this afternoon, Huffman says, as another target of the Florida individual, Cesar Stoyoc, who was arrested earlier today in connection with the string of pipe bombs, whose other targets included Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, James Clapper, Barack Obama, John Brennan, Maxine Waters, Eric Holder and others. Huffman says he that he was “sort of waiting” for Steyer to be targeted and wasn’t surprised to hear on the radio today that he’s another apparent target of the pro-Trump bomber.

“There is a straight line from this deranged bomber to President Donald Trump,” says Huffman—who has supported articles of impeachment against the reality-show president, “and there is no way you can separate the bombs from the bombast.”

Huffman also pushed back against any argument equating the series of bombings with the shooting last year of Louisiana Republican Congressman Steve Scalise.

“It’s preposterous to attempt at any moral equivalency,” he says, noting that no-one—not Bernie Sanders, not Maxine Waters, not Eric Holder, has called for violence against their political opponents. Holder recently quipped at an event, “When they go low, we kick them,” and immediately noted that he was joking and that his comment was intended as metaphor. Waters has called for verbal confrontations of Republican enablers of Trump, and while Huffman says he “disagrees with some of the tactics—there is a massive quantum difference and to try and conflate these things is dishonest and dangerous.” 

Letters to the Editor: October 31, 2018

Setting a Standard Those animal-rights protesters exposed some horrific animal abuse at our local farms, as evidenced by the video they released ("Cage Match," Oct. 24). I wish the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and the sheriff's department were more interested in stopping this illegal animal cruelty than covering up for them. The video clearly exposes the claims of Whole Foods...
Read more

Game of Chicken

Animal rights activists are protesting on Northern California ranches. Sometimes they go beyond their First Amendment rights and break the law." That message was delivered loudly and clearly to nearly 100 people who attended a workshop at Shone Farm in Santa Rosa last week. Called "Beyond the Fence Line" (see "Cage Match," Oct. 24), the event on Oct. 29 was...
Read more

Cry Folk

Radoslav Lorkovic It's been a busy past couple of years for Richard Shindell. In 2017, he released his 10th full-length solo album, Careless. Then he reunited with former bandmates Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky to tour this year as Cry Cry Cry, the much loved folk supergroup who released a single folk-rock covers album in 1998. Having wrapped up the reunion,...
Read more

Lake’s Latest

Weed the People is director Abby Epstein and executive producer Ricki Lake's timely and compelling documentary about using cannabis oil as an alternative medicine for children with cancer. The film features half a dozen case studies of babies and teens who take this form of medical marijuana to reduce tumors. It is, as one believer states in the film,...
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Spook Show

If you're wary of attending the latest splatter fest at your local multiplex and seek kinder, gentler Halloween season entertainment, Napa's Lucky Penny Productions brings you Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, directed by Barry Martin and running through Nov. 4. It's an old-fashioned ghost story laden with Coward's acerbic wit and charm. Author Charles Condomine (Tim Kniffin) is researching the occult...
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Kitchen Kinks

Holy crap, this place is huge! This was my first thought as I got out of my car at a recent visit to Russian River Brewing Company's new, second location in Windsor. I arrived at 1:30pm, just in time for a late lunch at the brewpub. Only five days after the grand opening on Oct. 11, I knew that a...
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Wine Dark Brew

These are sour times. Dark times. Good times for dark and sour beer. The hazy days of summer IPA are long gone, and the good dead grape is settled down for its long sleep in casks of oak. In the quiet after the commotion of harvest, a feral black cat stalks the vineyard, forever interrupting the frantic errand of some...
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Sonoma County Theater Honored at Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards

Sonoma County theater artists gathered Monday night at the Juncture Taproom and Lounge in Santa Rosa for the Third Annual Marquee Theater Journalists Association Awards. Seventeen awards were given to local theatre artists and productions whose nominations were culled from the sixty-six Sonoma County productions attended by members from September 1, 2017 through August 31, 2018. ...
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Word Crimes

God bless all the actors who aren't there because of their looks. The literally catty tragicomedy Can You Ever Forgive Me? commences nicely with Melissa McCarthy playing Lee Israel, surly, shabby and frumpy at a publisher's office—meeting a deadline at 3am with the help of a big glass of something on the rocks. She's fired for drinking on the job,...
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Tom Steyer and Kamala Harris reportedly latest pipe-bomb targets as U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman tees off on Trump’s complicity

As Sen. Kamala Harris and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer have emerged today as two of the latest targets in a string of bombs sent to prominent Democrats and Trump critics, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman called in from the road to express his outrage and disgust at the disturbing week of domestic terrorism. "Several people I know and consider friends"...
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