Debriefer: January 20, 2016

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Debriefer: January 20, 2016

QUIZZICAL COYOTES

A mystery of sorts has been solved that involved a coyote, a car and a problem. It seems one or two coyotes have been hanging by the side of Highway 1 down in West Marin, near the Slide Ranch. The coyotes have been staring down drivers and then attacking the cars. Nobody’s been hurt, but someone is going to get hurt if they don’t stop feeding the coyotes, which Lisa Bloch at the Marin Humane Society says is the likeliest culprit for the ongoing attacks on vehicles.

There’s a slogan, she says, that people in Sonoma and Marin counties need to abide: “A fed coyote is a dead coyote.” The idea is that the coyotes get comfortably aggressive around humans once they’ve been fed by the hand of one. “We want them to be afraid of us naturally,” Bloch says. “If they are not afraid of us, they come close to our cars, get hit, fight with domestic dogs and can possibly become aggressive.”

WROTH SETTLEMENT

Last week, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a settlement reached late last year in the U.S. District Court that will find the county paying $1.25 million to Esa Wroth, who sued the county
after he said he was Tasered
more than 20 times at the Main Adult Detention Center. In the settlement, the county agreed to pay $1.25 million while Wroth agreed to drop his lawsuit against individual sheriff’s department officials named in the suit. The county also admitted no liability in the agreement, says Deputy Sonoma County Counsel
Josh Myers.

STATE OF THE HYSTERICS

A funny thing happened during last week’s presidential State of the Union address, Barack Obama’s final send-off to congress—unless Glenn Beck is right and Obama’s going to seize power for all eternity. You never know. Failing that, the SOTU speech was delivered while 10 American Navy sailors were being held by Iran after their boats had inadvertently entered Iranian waters the day before. Republican hysteric-candidates to a man, and woman, condemned the weak Obama for not immediately bombing Iran for taking “hostages” and making them sit there in
their socks, on Persian rugs no less—yet they made no similar demand about other imprisoned Americans in Iran, even as the brother of Jason Rezaian was
Rep. Jared Huffman’s guest at the SOTU. No calls for the bombing of Iran over an American journalist held in captivity for many months on bogus charges, but lots of calls for bombing the country even as Secretary of State John Kerry secured the release of the sailors within 24 hours?

That seemed a little weird, and showed the candidates for what they are: a bunch of opportunistic hotheads. Rezaian is (or was) the Washington Post reporter held on espionage charges in Tehran, and after Obama refused to bomb Iran and instead resorted to that pesky and un-American concept of diplomacy to free the 10 soldiers—there he was again a couple of days later, another moment of goddamned American weakness as he freed even more Americans from Iran, as the GOP sputter-monkeys kept up the call for bombs, bombs and more bombs. Welcome home, Jason Rezaian.

Learn and Lose the Fear

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Learn and Lose the Fear

Islamophobia has many shades, from a little voice in our head to the full-fledged hate speech that we’re seeing so much of today. I get it, because I used to have it—not the hate-speech stuff, but the general fear of Islam.

After college, I went to work on an economic report on Palestine to be distributed in the Washington Post. I was scared of being around “terrorists,” because that was really all I had heard about Muslim countries. But I went there, and I met kind, gentle and tolerant people.

In 2001, I developed a serious, undiagnosable illness. I was referred to a group that was helping chronic and terminally ill people through spiritual practices in Islam. My immediate response was, I am not a Muslim! But out of sheer desperation, I tried it, and it helped me.

It also led me to a shaykh of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. He was teaching things that I already felt inside, such as the notion that if we all knew our religion, we would know they are the same: the religion of love, peace and mercy. He taught that it’s in God’s wisdom that He created different people and different faiths. He taught that God doesn’t love most those who say they are this religion or that religion, but those who help mankind the most.

I already felt these things inside, because they are universal truths. But I was scared of Islam because it was not what I had been told. For this young Texan, a former cheerleader and sorority a girl, raised in a Catholic family with a grandfather who was friends with George Bush Sr. and helped convince him to run for his first public office, I was the poster child of someone who did not know about Islam. I was afraid of it.

But I learned. Those who are afraid of Islam should learn about it too. Check out Hamza Yusuf, Safi Kaskas and Reza Aslan, American Muslims and scholars who beautifully articulate the real Islam. I hope to share through my memoir what I have learned: that Islam is a faith of peacefulness, tolerance, compassion and love.

Author Denise DuBois lives in Mountain View. Listen to a reading from her memoir, ‘Mercy Me,’ at Copperfield’s Books in Napa on Jan. 20. inkshares.com/projects/mercy-me.

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 [email protected].

Benghazi Blitz

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Benghazi Blitz

In 2012, four American personnel were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi, the first two at a gated compound where the U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens (Matt Letscher) was temporarily staying. Two others died later that night in defense of a secret CIA base nearby.

The firefight has been interpreted by conservatives as evidence of a massive policy failure by the Obama administration. It’s also been seen as an opportunity for issues-bereft Republicans seeking to make some hay out of a disaster that you are guaranteed to know less about after seeing Thirteen Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Director Michael Bay, it seems, aims to drive the thought out of your head though massive firepower and chest-bumping.

The group of soldiers, Navy SEALs and contractual hires by the CIA are masked with beards and mirrored sunglasses; the one gentle face we can read belongs to a buffed-up John Krasinski (The Office) as Jack Da Silva, a SEAL whose thoughts are of home.

Bay is the opposite of someone like director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), who can see through the chaos and give you an idea of targets and trajectories. Bay likes stuff up front, and the visuals are, thus, shallow—we only get an idea of the lay of the land when we see it through drone shots and sniper scopes, and then only as backdrop to the greasing of several hundred opponents.

The love of impact is so strong in Bay’s films that it is demonstrated in the smallest moments: a boot thumping into the asphalt, a metal lighter tossed slo-mo into a pool of gasoline. Studly dialogue includes lines like “I hate to piss on your party, ladies” and “They’re all bad guys until they’re not.” This is the kind of film in which a solemn memorial service in Langley shares space with video footage of a dog eating Doritos.

‘Thirteen Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ is playing in wide release in the North Bay.

Vintage Images

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Vintage Images

It’s hard to believe, in the era of Instagram and iPhones, but photographs actually used to be made of film.

Even crazier, way back in the early days of photography, in the 1850s, the images were made on metal, created through a technique known as “collodion wet-plate process” or, more simply, tintype.

One hundred and fifty years later, not many people have ever heard of tintype, yet in Santa Rosa, the process lives on in a modern way. And this year, it’s gone mobile.

Sonoma County photographer Jeremiah Flynn has owned and operated Jeremiah’s Photo Corner in Santa Rosa’s South A Street Arts District for six years, offering services and products to professionals and aspiring shooters alike. He’s also dedicated to mentoring photography students.

“I’ve realized that you get the fundamentals from school, but you also learn a lot going into a shop,” says Flynn.

Flynn has long had a particular fascination with the old tintype photos, allured by the complicated chemical process and striking image. “I always like the look of the final product. Tintypes record UV light, so there’s something slightly surreal, slightly radiant to them. They have a kind of luminescence.”

Tintype, in fact, never utilized tin. Back in the 1800s, when the process was used to capture images of Civil War soldiers and portraits of Abraham Lincoln, it was done on iron. Nowadays, it’s aluminum, backed with black velvet. Emulsifying chemicals are applied wet on a rigid metal plate that’s then loaded into a large-format camera and exposed. The positive image appears directly on the aluminum.

About two years ago, Flynn perfected the process and started taking tintypes at events around the North Bay. “It’s definitely reignited my interest and passion in photography across the board,” he says.

Last year, Flynn was at the former Maker Media location in Sebastopol when he saw the company’s old-school fire truck.

“It was obvious that it was something weird,” says Flynn. The vehicle, really more of a van, was a mobile workshop for Maker Media. The boxy, red, German fire truck, made by Mercedes-Benz in the 1970s, had seating for nine and a large cab in the back, where Flynn envisioned a mobile tintype studio.

Flynn talked with Maker Media, and procured the vehicle. After six weeks of late-night modifications, he had created a photography studio where he can shoot and process his tintypes.

Since going mobile, Flynn has been a crowd-pleasing figure at South A Street arts events and elsewhere.

“We have our pictures taken so much, but how many of us get formal portraits unless it’s our wedding day or something like that?” asks Flynn. “Nobody ever sits down deliberately to take our picture, or I should say we don’t seek out somebody to take our picture.”

Jeremiah’s Photo Corner is located at 441 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.544.4800. See more of Jeremiah Flynn’s tintypes at jeremiahflynn.com.

Shaken

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Shaken

The martini is no disguise for liquor. It only wears vermouth like one wears cologne, and there’s no hiding under the fat olive foundered at the bottom of the glass and leaking just enough oil to produce a shimmer on the ice-cold, crystal-clear surface. So it’s the perfect frame for showing off the kind of sweet-smelling quality gin and vodka that local craft distillers are making from organic winter wheat and grapes.

That was the lure of Martini Madness, the 15th annual cocktail competition held as part of Sonoma Valley Olive Season, a month-long series of olive-centric events. On Jan. 8, a dozen bartenders from area restaurants and bars set up in Saddles Restaurant at MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa, and started shaking. The event was sponsored by local distillers Prohibition Spirits, Hanson Vodka and Spirit Works.

But the bartenders of Sonoma love their disguises—or costumes, anyway. With typical enthusiasm, HopMonk Tavern went with a Wizard of Oz theme—their “Flying Monkey,” a crazed concoction of Uncle Val’s Gin and FigCello with lemon juice, orange flavor, water and black pepper simple syrup, winning the hearts of attendees for the popular vote, and the palates of the judges, as well. The brewpub crew served their olive—beer-battered—on the side of the tiny martini cocktail cup.

Over at the Saddles Steakhouse booth, a Star Wars theme played in bright blue Curaçao, Hanson ginger vodka and multicolored Pop Rocks (pictured). Fun, but is it a martini? More gourmet but stranger still, 38° North Lounge (the bar at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn) interpreted the martini via the French baked dish Coquille St. Jacques with gruyere-infused gin and a smoked scallop-stuffed olive. Easier to try at home, the Girl & the Fig’s effort was infused with sake and kimchi, and spiced with a sesame-and-chile-flake rim.

The folks from Carneros Bistro just skipped the clear stuff altogether and offered a Manhattan with Hooker House bourbon and a compressed olive. What’s a compressed olive? I wanted to know too. “You know what,” the bartender said, throwing up her hands, “you just compress it, and you enjoy it!” Extra points to B&V Whiskey Bar & Grille for floating Haraszthy Zinfandel on their Manhattan-style Zinful Cowboy.

Finally, I ran into someone who had a big, traditional martini in her hand. She got it at the hotel bar.

Tickets may still be available for the main event, the Feast of the Olive Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 30, 6–10pm, at Ramekins, 450 W. Spain St., Sonoma. Dinner features wine pairings, three menus and five courses made by 19 chefs. 707.996.1090. www.olivefestival.com.

‘One Man,’ Too Funny

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‘One Man,’ Too Funny

It’s been just over four years since Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors made its mad, merry pratfall onto the stage of public awareness—first in London, then New York. In that short length of time, Bean’s preposterous 1960s-set update of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century farce A Servant of Two Masters has already become a modern comedy classic, scooping up awards on both sides of the Atlantic, landing on the performance-rights Wish Lists of college and community theaters across the Western world.

Now, under the playful direction of Carl Jordan, this aggressively silly show gets its North Bay premiere at 6th Street Playhouse. The result is arguably the funniest play the company has presented since its black box staging of the similarly over-the-top The 39 Steps. Featuring a truly masterful performance by 6th Street’s Artistic Director Craig Miller, the production—though still a bit wobbly and uneven at opening—deserves to be seen by anyone who relishes the savory tang of laughter, lewdness and blatant, unashamed spectacle.

The story, alternating with pleasantly scruffy songs delivered by a combo of laid-back musicians, follows a day in the life of professional “minder” Francis Henshaw (Miller). He’s just arrived in the seaside town of Brighton to deliver a message from his boss, the petty criminal Roscoe Crabbe, who was recently killed (“accidentally” and repeatedly stabbed) by wealthy gangster Stanley Stubbers (Ben Stowe, magnificent)—but is now being impersonated, barely, by his own sister Rachel (Rose Roberts), who’s come to town with Francis in search of a big score.

Easily confused—and ravenously hungry—Francis ultimately accepts a second job working for Stubbers, who’s also arrived in town, looking for his missing fiancé, who happens to be Rachel.
A large cast of characters constantly swirls about, as Francis gamely attempts to solve all of the problems he accidentally causes, carried on a wave of physical comedy and outrageously over-the-top dialogue (“I smell like a doctor’s finger!” “Love passes through marriage like shit through a small dog!”).

The production isn’t perfect. Certain actors’ accents border on the indecipherable, a closing song by the cast is woefully tone-challenged, and some of the gags—and a great deal of the second act—lag a tad in energy and invention. Still, furiously driven as it is by the joyous mayhem of Miller’s comic presence, this ridiculous exercise in comedic fervor is as satisfying as a good sandwich at the end of a long day.

★★★★

Listen to John Trubee Live on Stanford Radio This Week

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1546.teaser
Last November, we went deep into the mind of alternative songwriter and longtime Sonoma County local John Trubee who’s spent a lifetime making music on the fringes of popular culture. Since the early 1980s, Trubee and his band the Ugly Janitors of America has challenged the masses and expressed an outsider view of a sick sad world with hilariously avant garde lyrics and sophisticated rock and roll melodies.
Living a self-prescribed heretic lifestyle in Santa Rosa, Trubee regularly records albums of material, yet he rarely performs live. So, it’s exciting to hear that Trubee will be emerging from his hideout and playing with the Ugly Janitors of America live, on the radio.
Stanford University radio station KZSU hosts the Ugly Janitors of America tomorrow night, Wednesday, Jan 20, for an in-studio performance that’s being billed as “Nifty Space Music & Outasight Surprises for the NOW GENERATION!”
Tune into the station via the world wide web at 9pm PST to hear Trubee and his cohorts get weird and wild. Unfamiliar with Trubee’s irreverent rock and roll? Get a taste by clicking on the box below.

Trubee Records can be found at johntrubee.com. To contact John Trubee about anything, email [email protected] or send snail mail to PO Box 4921, Santa Rosa, CA 95402. Trubee reliably answers all inquiries.
 

Stream Ty Segall’s “Emotional Mugger”

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ac472923Prolific rock and roller Ty Segall just can’t stop. In addition to playing in excellent garage rock outfits like FUZZ and Sic Alps, Segall’s massive solo output has been a wide array of experimental hard rock.
This month, Segall releases his tenth solo record, Emotional Mugger, on Drag City. It’s a super fuzzed out and darkly glammed collection of awesome weirdness. And you can hear it now, before it’s Jan 22 release date, by clicking on the link below, via NPR.
Ty Segall will be in the North Bay next week as well, blowing the roof off the Arlene Francis Center on Sunday, Jan 24, with his new full band the Muggers. Details on that show, which marks the final concert hosted by Sonoma County’s Pizza Punx,  are here.

Career Suicide Hits Up Santa Rosa This Weekend

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CareerSuicideShowPoster
Formed in 2001, Toronto hardcore punk rockers Career Suicide have carried a heavy brand of old school ’80s punk ethos to underground acclaim. Yet, the band has been rarely seen in the last five years and guitarist Jonah Falco has gone on to great heights as a member of the experimental punk band F*cked Up.
Last year, F*cked Up went on their own hiatus, and Falco has come back to his rough and rowdy origins with a revamped Career Suicide, including a new album in the works, their first since 2006. Last November, the band released “Cut and Run,” the first single off the so-far-untitled upcoming album. It’s an intense two minutes of razor-sharp riffs and pounding drums that prove the band still has a Hell of an edge.
Career Suicide are also embarking on a world tour that takes them from Bakersfield to Tokyo. And right in the middle of this tour, the band is bringing the amps and axes to Santa Rosa for a concert this Saturday, Jan 16, at the Arlene Francis Center.
Hosted by the saucy kids at the Pizza Punx, this eardrum-buster of a show also features Bay Area punks Culture Abuse, Ruleta Rusa, Ex-Youth and Abusivo. Tickets are ten bucks at the door and is open to all ages.
This is actually one of the last two shows the Pizza Punx are hosting under that name, as the moniker is being laid to rest in the new year. Some of the punx will still be booking shows as Shock City, and some will be taking on a new venue project simply known as Funhouse. Stay tuned for more details on those developments. In the meantime, listen to Career Suicide’s “Cut and Run” below and turn it UP.

Jan. 14: Southern Revival Reading in Napa

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Jan. 14: Southern Revival Reading in Napa

Author and pastor Audrey Wald grew up in the Deep South. When she wasn’t attending church services led by her evangelical preacher father, she was reveling in the classic Southern blues and rock of the 1940s and ’50s. Now living in the North Bay and leading the flock at St. Helena’s United Methodist Church, Wald is also the author of a recent memoir about her youth and its lasting impact, Hidden Biscuits: Tales of Deep South Revivals Told by Heart. This week, Wald speaks from the heart when she reads on Thursday, Jan. 14, at Napa’s Main Library, 580 Coombs St., Napa. 7pm. Free. 707.253.4235.

Debriefer: January 20, 2016

QUIZZICAL COYOTES A mystery of sorts has been solved that involved a coyote, a car and a problem. It seems one or two coyotes have been hanging by the side of Highway 1 down in West Marin, near the Slide Ranch. The coyotes have been staring down drivers and then attacking the cars. Nobody's been hurt, but someone is going...
Read more

Learn and Lose the Fear

Islamophobia has many shades, from a little voice in our head to the full-fledged hate speech that we're seeing so much of today. I get it, because I used to have it—not the hate-speech stuff, but the general fear of Islam. After college, I went to work on an economic report on Palestine to be distributed in the Washington Post....
Read more

Benghazi Blitz

In 2012, four American personnel were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi, the first two at a gated compound where the U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens (Matt Letscher) was temporarily staying. Two others died later that night in defense of a secret CIA base nearby. The firefight has been interpreted by conservatives as evidence of a massive policy failure by...
Read more

Vintage Images

It's hard to believe, in the era of Instagram and iPhones, but photographs actually used to be made of film. Even crazier, way back in the early days of photography, in the 1850s, the images were made on metal, created through a technique known as "collodion wet-plate process" or, more simply, tintype. One hundred and fifty years later, not many people...
Read more

Shaken

The martini is no disguise for liquor. It only wears vermouth like one wears cologne, and there's no hiding under the fat olive foundered at the bottom of the glass and leaking just enough oil to produce a shimmer on the ice-cold, crystal-clear surface. So it's the perfect frame for showing off the kind of sweet-smelling quality gin and...
Read more

‘One Man,’ Too Funny

It’s been just over four years since Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors made its mad, merry pratfall onto the stage of public awareness—first in London, then New York. In that short length of time, Bean’s preposterous 1960s-set update of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century farce A Servant of Two Masters has already become a modern comedy classic, scooping up awards...
Read more

Listen to John Trubee Live on Stanford Radio This Week

  Last November, we went deep into the mind of alternative songwriter and longtime Sonoma County local John Trubee who's spent a lifetime making music on the fringes of popular culture. Since the early 1980s, Trubee and his band the Ugly Janitors of America has challenged the masses and expressed an outsider view of a sick sad world with hilariously...
Read more

Stream Ty Segall’s “Emotional Mugger”

Prolific rock and roller Ty Segall just can't stop. In addition to playing in excellent garage rock outfits like FUZZ and Sic Alps, Segall's massive solo output has been a wide array of experimental hard rock. This month, Segall releases his tenth solo record, Emotional Mugger, on Drag City. It's a super fuzzed out and darkly glammed collection of awesome...
Read more

Career Suicide Hits Up Santa Rosa This Weekend

  Formed in 2001, Toronto hardcore punk rockers Career Suicide have carried a heavy brand of old school '80s punk ethos to underground acclaim. Yet, the band has been rarely seen in the last five years and guitarist Jonah Falco has gone on to great heights as a member of the experimental punk band F*cked Up. Last year, F*cked Up went on their own hiatus,...
Read more

Jan. 14: Southern Revival Reading in Napa

Author and pastor Audrey Wald grew up in the Deep South. When she wasn’t attending church services led by her evangelical preacher father, she was reveling in the classic Southern blues and rock of the 1940s and ’50s. Now living in the North Bay and leading the flock at St. Helena’s United Methodist Church, Wald is also the author...
Read more
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