North Bay Cabaret’s Anniversary Show to Benefit Pulse Victims Fund

-
0

cabaret.pulse.poster
Still reeling from the news of this weekend’s mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, many across the country are mourning the lives lost and asking how they can help the families and survivors, from donating blood to supplies to money.
With a massive two-year anniversary show already in the works for this Friday, June 17, the variety performance series North Bay Cabaret has joined the massive movement to help those in need and announced that the show will now act as a fundraiser for the Pulse Victims Fund, a crowdfunding campaign that will distribute funds among the victims and  families. In addition to the event’s eclectic lineup of dancing, live music and spoken word performances, the Cabaret will hold a raffle to raise proceeds for the fund.
This two-year anniversary show will feature Santa Rosa’s alternative folk ensemble the Crux, slam poet and spoken word artist Jamie DeWolf, nationally touring poet Joy Young, belly dancing, burlesque, standup comedy, interactive games and more. North Bay Cabaret hosts their bold and exciting night of antics on Friday, June 17, at Whiskey Tip, 1910 Sebastopol Ave, Santa Rosa. 7pm. $10-$15. Get pre-sale tickets here.
Anyone who wants to contribute items to the raffle can send a message to No*************@***il.com.

June 17: Summer Reading in Santa Rosa

-
0
June 17: Summer Reading in Santa Rosa

Sonoma County’s LandPaths has long fostered a love for the land with inventive outings, stewardship and events geared toward introducing the great outdoors to kids. This summer, LandPaths’ newest venture, iREAD Outside, combines outdoor fun and engaging literacy events. This week, iREAD kicks off with a bilingual event at Bayer Farm featuring beloved children’s author and poet Jorge Argueta. The award-winning writer will read from his celebrated books in conjunction with farm fun. Bring a nature-themed children’s book to donate to the program and you’ll be entered to win several prizes. iREAD promotes reading outdoors on Friday, June 17, at Bayer Farm, 1550 West Ave., Santa Rosa. 1pm. Free. landpaths.org.

June 17-19: Mix It Up in Healdsburg

-
0
June 17-19: Mix It Up in Healdsburg

In an era of mindless blockbusters and endless sequels, cinephiles are increasingly looking to independent films to bring art to the screen. To that end, Healdsburg Flix Mix is dedicated to spreading innovation and excellence in indie films, and this week they present their inaugural Flix Mix Short Film Festival to highlight some of the most inspiring works in film. Over three days, 27 shorts will screen in a program that gathers international entries, documentaries, music videos and other engaging experimental films. The juried fest also lets attendees select their favorites each night. It all happens Friday to Sunday, June 17–19, at the Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. 8pm. $10–$25. healdsburgflixmix.com.

June 19: License to Drive in Yountville

-
0
June 19: License to Drive in Yountville

Look, it’s a scientific fact that dads love cars. Even if they’re not gearheads, every guy’s head turns at the sight of a classic roadster or sleek racer. This weekend, give dad what he really wants, a look at over a hundred beautiful driving machines during Napa Valley’s 26th annual Father’s Day Invitational Auto Show. One-of-a-kind collector’s cars, championship-winning autos, classic models, European masterpieces and more will be on display in a gorgeous setting, and plenty of wine and other indulgences will be on hand as well on Sunday, June 19, at V Marketplace, 6525 Washington St., Yountville. 10am. Free admission. 707.944.2451.

June 19: Open Canvas in Sebastopol

-
0
June 19: Open Canvas in Sebastopol

First conceived by New Orleans artist Candy Chang in 2011, ‘Before I Die’ is now a worldwide phenomenon. Simply put, it’s an interactive art project wherein a blank chalkboard wall is set up with the words “Before I Die . . .” written out as a prompt. From there, the public is invited to complete the sentiment with their own words. The effect of this project often triggers greater awareness and appreciation of life. Now the wall is coming to Sebastopol, spearheaded by a local group of volunteers as an outlet for expression and public inspiration. The North Bay’s Before I Die Community Project is unveiled in a ceremony on Sunday, June 19, in downtown square at Main Street and Bodega Highway, Sebastopol. 10am. Free. beforeidie.cc.

Ransom

-
0
Ransom

In playwright Ayad Akhtar’s gripping but uneven drama The Invisible Hand—running through July 3 at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley—the corruptive power of money is examined through a clever and original lens: that of Muslim kidnappers negotiating a ransom for a captured American banker. The ultimate point of the play, however—that money is addictive and destructive—is as old as the art of theater itself.

It’s not Akhtar’s message, or his exposition-heavy explorations of international banking, that makes The Invisible Hand a theater experience worth having. It’s the magnificent stagecraft conjured by director Jasson Minadakis, who invests in sounds, lights and silence to accumulate a rich and mostly rewarding dramatic bankroll.

Inside a grimy brick prison cell in Pakistan, banker Nick Bright (Craig Marker) is being held by the followers of a radical, West-hating Imam (Barzin Akhavan). The real target of the kidnapping was his much more important boss, and the frightened Nick soon learns he is not important enough to leverage the required $10 million.

Taunted and tested by the English-born captor Bashir (Pomme Koch), Nick soon comes to understand that he will be executed if the ransom is not paid. Encouraged by the kindness of a sympathetic jailer named Dar (Jason Kapoor), he makes a desperate offer. If allowed access to information and a computer, Nick will raise the ransom himself, using the stock market and a series of tricky insider trading moves. It’s a great idea for a play.

For the first act, orchestrated with near cinematic attention to detail, the tension rapidly builds. But in the second act, the action shifts to a different kind of dramatic strain, that of time stretching out, as a series of setbacks leads Nick—and all of us watching in the audience—to begin to doubt he’ll ever reach his goal and earn his freedom.

Director Minadakis and his expert team of designers work hard to keep things moving. But it doesn’t all add up. Much of the onstage violence is unconvincing, and the performances, though solid, rarely soar to the degree we’ve come to expect from an MTC production.

Still, there is so much to appreciate here, one should not dismiss or avoid the production for its occasional failures. Because, like Nick working the markets while chained to the wall, The Invisible Hand may not always deliver on its promises, but when it does, it’s a real rush.

Rating (out of 5): ★★★½

Forget Me Not

-
0
Forget Me Not

Finding Dory is a better film than its predecessor, Finding Nemo. It’s an aquatic Memento. The memory-challenged blue tang Dory (Ellen DeGeneres does the addled fish’s voice) retrieves forgotten images of her childhood. She seeks her long-lost parents off the coast of Morro Bay with an ever-worried Nemo and Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) in pursuit. Brooks’ job is to give the movie some salt, and maybe his best line comes with his frustration at the dithering Dory in a tank full of identical fish, seeking her mom and dad: “She should just pick two!”

What makes Pixar great is the way it casts shadows behind its polychrome colors, contrasting a child’s conflicted urges for safety and adventure. The reefs are a riot of tropically colored corals and anemones, but the ocean now is dirtier, lined with more scrap and wreckage, and Dory gets netted in the plastic rings of a six-pack holder.

Along with Dory’s deficient memory and her difficulties as a young fish, one sees the plight of a generation, bracketed between children with learning disorders and their elders whose memory is slipping away. The poignancy should be even greater, but appealing as she is, DeGeneres is more like a trusted brand than an actress.

New characters speed the tale up to a terrific action-movie climax on Highway 1, with the aid of too-cute otters and a deranged coot who carries the cast in a lofty bucket of water. Studies of the intelligence and ingenuity of octopi are borne out in Finding Dory‘s most dynamic character, an octopus named Hank (Ed O’Neill) who just wants to retreat from the ocean—”I have bad memories of that place”—to a nice safe aquarium in Cleveland. A master of disguise and escape, Hank may make octopus sushi too sad to eat, in the same way that Bambi made venison tragic.

‘Finding Dory’ opens Friday in wide release in the North Bay.

Beyond the Berry

-
0
Beyond the Berry

Lao’s farm stand off Highway 12 near Sebastopol is known all over Sonoma County for its beautifully red and juicy strawberries, but the locally grown berries aren’t all that farmer Lao Saetern and family have to offer.

Lao grew up in a family of farmers in Thailand. His family grew crops without any pesticides or chemicals, using traditional farming methods and water buffalo to plow the fields and tend to the crops. Lao’s strawberries have graced the side of Highway 12 for about nine years, but it wasn’t until five or six years ago that Lao started selling other kinds of produce. He grew vegetables for family and friends, but didn’t think about selling the produce until his customers started asking.

Though strawberries are the main produce, you can now also buy green beans, apricots, squash, zucchini, onions and much more. There’s currently an abundance of cherry tomatoes, onions, green beans and apricots, and within the next two weeks there will be more vegetables as they come into season.

The farm stand is run by all members of the family, including Ryan Saetern, who comes back for the summers when he is not in school, to help his father run the stand. Lao’s strawberry stand is located on
Highway 12, right after Duer Road, and is open most weekdays, but get there early because the hours are dependent on how long the strawberries last!

Sticky Wicket

-
0
Sticky Wicket

Plunk! The sound of mallet connecting with ball punctuates the quiet on the green at Sonoma-Cutrer. Plunk, crack! One hard plastic ball knocks against another. The wind whispers in distant trees. And then: “Hey, where’s my wine glass?”

The best summertime sports combine drinking with participation instead of spectating, don’t they? If we add the caveat, “in a safe and sane manner,” we’re pretty much left with golf and croquet. Drilling down further with the provisos that it be fun, not boring; fun for mixed groups of people of any skill level; and not wasteful of prime Russian River Valley turf that could be growing great grapes for the thirst-slaking wines we could be drinking while engaging in sport—remember the drinking part?—we’re glad that Sonoma-Cutrer went with croquet.

Sonoma-Cutrer built the courts back in 1985. Inset below stone terraces, it’s much more than just a very flat lawn. From 1986 to 2002, the winery hosted the World Croquet Federation championship here, and still puts on a charity tournament each spring. A recent event left spotty scuffing in the middle of the court—evidence that the spongy mat of impossibly short grass is the real deal, anyway. And it’s the ideal surface on which to leave your wine glass while you make a play. A nonshattering Govino plastic glass is included with each croquet winetasting for the democratic price of $15.

As Sonoma-Cutrer’s hospitality manager, Mark Elcombe takes the game seriously. Breaking up a large group into two-person teams, he plans for us a long afternoon of matches and playoffs, followed by a grand championship. If he hadn’t reminded us of the rules of this simplified six-wicket game, we’d have been there till nightfall. That’s just the idea in September, when “full moon croquet” features little lights on each wicket. Elcombe says he floats a giant moon globe above the course in the event of fog.

It’s that famous fog that’s helped make Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay a top choice among restaurant-goers, year after year. The founders fooled around with Cabernet before settling on Chardonnay in 1981, just in time for America to discover its love for buttered apple pie in a bottle. Hitting the sweet spot, the 2014 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ($23) is a quality rendition of exactly that. Later in the game came Pinot, with the 2002 vintage. I wanted to savor the firm, cranberry and cherry flavors of the woodsy-scented 2014 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir ($34) a little longer—but where’d I leave that wine glass?

Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, 4401 Slusser Road, Windsor. Open daily, 10am–4pm. Tasting fees, $15–$25. Tour, $50. 707.528.1181.

Welcome to Benedettiville

-
0
Welcome to Benedettiville

Husband-and-wife team Gio and Jen Benedetti are masters of blending music, stories and puppet shows while captivating the attention and energy of their young listeners.

Gio and Jen are both educators and veteran performers. Gio has a second life as the bassist for the Brothers Comatose and Toast Machine, and Jen has spent much of her life performing in musical theater and rock bands. “Going to see Benedettiville is like taking imagination vitamins,” says Jen.

After a touring stint in California, Benedettiville will be headed up to Canada in July to share their music and fun on an international level. In addition to their live performances, Benedettiville releases a bimonthly storytelling podcast, and is scheduled to release an album this fall. A storybook inspired by the shows may also be in the near future.

Benedettiville perform Thursday, June 16, at Copperfield’s in Santa Rosa; Tuesday,
June 21, at Copperfield’s in Petaluma; and Wednesday, June 29, at Copperfield’s in Sebastopol. 10:30am. Free, recommended for ages three to seven. They also perform
June 23–26 at the Kate Wolf Music Festival in Laytonville. benedettiville.com.

North Bay Cabaret’s Anniversary Show to Benefit Pulse Victims Fund

Still reeling from the news of this weekend's mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, many across the country are mourning the lives lost and asking how they can help the families and survivors, from donating blood to supplies to money. With a massive two-year anniversary show already in the works for this Friday, June 17, the variety performance series...
Read more

June 17: Summer Reading in Santa Rosa

Sonoma County’s LandPaths has long fostered a love for the land with inventive outings, stewardship and events geared toward introducing the great outdoors to kids. This summer, LandPaths’ newest venture, iREAD Outside, combines outdoor fun and engaging literacy events. This week, iREAD kicks off with a bilingual event at Bayer Farm featuring beloved children’s author and poet Jorge Argueta....
Read more

June 17-19: Mix It Up in Healdsburg

In an era of mindless blockbusters and endless sequels, cinephiles are increasingly looking to independent films to bring art to the screen. To that end, Healdsburg Flix Mix is dedicated to spreading innovation and excellence in indie films, and this week they present their inaugural Flix Mix Short Film Festival to highlight some of the most inspiring works in...
Read more

June 19: License to Drive in Yountville

Look, it’s a scientific fact that dads love cars. Even if they’re not gearheads, every guy’s head turns at the sight of a classic roadster or sleek racer. This weekend, give dad what he really wants, a look at over a hundred beautiful driving machines during Napa Valley’s 26th annual Father’s Day Invitational Auto Show. One-of-a-kind collector’s cars, championship-winning...
Read more

June 19: Open Canvas in Sebastopol

First conceived by New Orleans artist Candy Chang in 2011, ‘Before I Die’ is now a worldwide phenomenon. Simply put, it’s an interactive art project wherein a blank chalkboard wall is set up with the words “Before I Die . . .” written out as a prompt. From there, the public is invited to complete the sentiment with their...
Read more

Ransom

In playwright Ayad Akhtar's gripping but uneven drama The Invisible Hand—running through July 3 at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley—the corruptive power of money is examined through a clever and original lens: that of Muslim kidnappers negotiating a ransom for a captured American banker. The ultimate point of the play, however—that money is addictive and destructive—is as...
Read more

Forget Me Not

Finding Dory is a better film than its predecessor, Finding Nemo. It's an aquatic Memento. The memory-challenged blue tang Dory (Ellen DeGeneres does the addled fish's voice) retrieves forgotten images of her childhood. She seeks her long-lost parents off the coast of Morro Bay with an ever-worried Nemo and Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) in pursuit. Brooks' job is...
Read more

Beyond the Berry

Lao's farm stand off Highway 12 near Sebastopol is known all over Sonoma County for its beautifully red and juicy strawberries, but the locally grown berries aren't all that farmer Lao Saetern and family have to offer. Lao grew up in a family of farmers in Thailand. His family grew crops without any pesticides or chemicals, using traditional farming methods...
Read more

Sticky Wicket

Plunk! The sound of mallet connecting with ball punctuates the quiet on the green at Sonoma-Cutrer. Plunk, crack! One hard plastic ball knocks against another. The wind whispers in distant trees. And then: "Hey, where's my wine glass?" The best summertime sports combine drinking with participation instead of spectating, don't they? If we add the caveat, "in a safe and...
Read more

Welcome to Benedettiville

Husband-and-wife team Gio and Jen Benedetti are masters of blending music, stories and puppet shows while captivating the attention and energy of their young listeners. Gio and Jen are both educators and veteran performers. Gio has a second life as the bassist for the Brothers Comatose and Toast Machine, and Jen has spent much of her life performing in musical...
Read more
1...653654655...1,000Page 654 of 1,000
11,084FansLike
4,606FollowersFollow
6,928FollowersFollow
north bay bohemian newspaper sonoma napa county logo
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
East Bay Express cover
East Bay Express cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise About Us Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Writing an Obituary Archives Find a Paper Distribute Bohemian Vote for Best Of Plaques & Banners
win free stuff
Features Local News News
Arts Books & Literature Crush Culture Movies Music Spotlight Theater
Astrology Look Media Opinion Letters To The Editor Open Mic Press Pass Rolling Papers
Dining Restaurants Small Bites
Readers' Picks 2025 Arts & Culture Beer, Wine & Spirits Beauty, Health & Wellness Cannabis Everyday Services Family & Pets Home Improvement Recreation Restaurants Romance Shopping
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event
weeklys california local media group logo

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

Our Publications

ADVERTISING Advertise Legal Submit an Obituary Legal NoticesFictitious Business Name (FBN) StatementsDoing Business As (DBA) NoticesTrustee Sale Notices

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support Local Journalism