Classical Pairing

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Wine aficionados relate flavor in terms of “notes.” This week, wine will be described purely in musical notes when pianists Jason Serfling and Van-Anh Nguyen combine their talents with flights of local wine for the “Perfect Pairing” workshop, tasting and recital.

Raised in the Sacramento Valley, by the time he was 10 years old Serfling was performing Mozart on the piano by ear and composing his own pieces. His style is described as neo-classical and his habit of fusing disparate eras of music culminates in a forthcoming piano rock album, due later this year.

International star Van-Anh Nguyen is also a prodigy acclaimed for her intensely intricate technique and crossover compositions. Born in Australia to Vietnamese parents, Nguyen has played across the globe and recently hosted Discovery Channel’s Philippines In-Sync television series, combing her love of music, travel and people.

The tasting and recital benefit the Amala Foundation and Interfaith Shelter Network, a homeless service provider. The foundation offers free music lessons and aims to promote “personal growth, clear communication, compassion and an ethos of service for children in need.”

“Perfect Pairing” takes place Saturday, June 27, at the Live Musicians Co-Op, 925 Piner Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $15–$35. 707.527.8845.—Charlie Swanson

Constant Gardener

Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos puts us at the creation of Versailles in 1682 for a very flared-nostril romance between King Louis XIV’s landscape architect Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) and the unorthodox gardener he hires, Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet). Impeding their courtship is Sabine’s long-standing trauma over the way she was widowed. More trouble comes from the objections of the witchily unfaithful Mme. Le Notre (frequent villainess Helen McCrory).

Rickman directs in such a way that the king (who Rickman also plays) is the center of the film. Indeed, the film’s best scenes are the one Rickman reserves for himself and Winslet, whose curves and untidy golden hair are flattered by the outfits. She looks businesslike and weary, with heavy eyelids and parted lips. Or maybe she’s just short-winded from the tight corsets.

If there’s chaos here, it’s a chaos of accents, most of them British. The romantic dialogue, in particular, is badly stilted. And doesn’t Schoenaerts’ Le Notre come across as a little too grim for anyone to fantasize about?

Still, the supporting work is adept. Jennifer Ehle as the discarded royal favorite Mme. de Montespan is beguiling. Stanely Tucci plays the king’s well-liked homosexual brother “Monsieur,” who frets about life in the country (“Muck, or beasts making muck . . .”). Rupert Penry-Jones stands out as an ironical chevalier, taking Sabine on her first tour of court. He’s so suave one wonders why Sabine doesn’t run off with him instead of with her lovesick Le Notre.

‘A Little Chaos’ opens Friday at Summerfield Cinemas, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa. 707.525.8909.

Howdy, Neighbor

In an effort to unite our community through a simple gesture, I introduced an idea through the Sebastopol Downtown Association that was approved unanimously. We call it “Hi-Noon.” Every Friday at noon, the Main Street Sebastopol and downtown core business owners, employees and any others who want to participate, step outside and wave to one another, and to people passing by or stopped in traffic.

The idea is that we are all having a “me” experience, each one of us under different situations and different circumstances, but on Friday at noon, we recognize that we are all having our experiences in the same geographical location at the same time. So we take that moment to set aside the “me” experience to recognize the greater “we.”

To date, we have shared three “Hi-Noon” Fridays, and the number of participants and excitement about the event continues to increase. The feeling we all experience is one of genuine community, similar to what we experience when there is tragedy, except this time, we’re not coming out of our businesses to see what the emergency or police activities are about.

It’s really cool, and everyone has reported feeling great afterward, even though our shared moment literally lasts only a minute or two.

“Hi-Noon” will be on the agenda at the next Sebastopol Downtown Association meeting, and there will be city council members and business owners in attendance to discuss how to better disseminate our message to make the “Hi-Noon” event more inclusive. The meeting is at Sebastopol City Hall on Tuesday, July 7, from 1pm to 3pm. Everyone is invited to attend, because ultimately, we all must participate to make this a success.

If “Hi-Noon” continues to grow, we hope to incorporate the entire citizenry of Sebastopol, expanding outward to the whole of Sonoma County and, who knows, then to all of California and beyond.

Michael Carnacchi, who has fought an eight-year battle against U.S. Bank, owns Apple Cobbler in Sebastopol.

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.

Death Rockers

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‘There’s going to be a lot of weird people wandering around Guerneville this weekend,” says Brian Wakefield.

He’s kidding. Mostly. As the co-founder of San Francisco cassette-tape label Death Records, Wakefield and partner Colin Arlen are celebrating their first year in business by throwing a huge shindig featuring 25 bands and plenty of good vibes within the grounds of Camp Outback, set in the ruins of the old J’s Amusement Park. Naturally, they’re calling it Deathstock.

Death Records has taken on the full-time, pro bono work of releasing music that would otherwise hardly see the light of day. “There was all this music happening, and it made sense to try to put it all in one place,” says Wakefield. “There’s been a loss of solidarity in San Francisco recently, but I feel it coming back.”

With sold-out runs of cassette releases by San Francisco bands like the shoegazing project Smiles and post-pop outfit Fleece, Death Records has not-so-quietly made its name in the city, and now Wakefield has his sights set on getting the whole crew together for a massive camp-out.

Deathstock starts Friday, June 26, with a free, 21-and-over show at McT’s Bullpen in Guerneville. Campers can stake their claim at Camp OutBack Friday night as well. Tickets for camp spots are limited; if you’re going that route, reserve a spot now. Day passes will also be available.

Headlining on Saturday, June 27, is legendary proto-punk figure Gary Wilson. “I thought if I could have one person play this show, who would it be? I went for him, and it worked out,” says Wakefield.

Wilson is famous for his 1977 new wave album You Think You Know Me, and even more famous for his subsequent 25-year disappearance from the public eye. He re-emerged in the last decade, and has been dealing out avant-garde rock and roll to continued acclaim.

Other weekend highlights include power trio Terry Malts, freak-pop producer Cole Lodge, and a Sunday headlining set by sunny garage rockers Tiaras, whose self-titled LP, released this year, has already been praised for its warm, laidback grooves. Echoing the mantra “If you book them, they will come” from Wayne’s World 2, Wakefield says the roster filled up in about a day and a half.

Deathstock will also have plenty of grilling going on, though it’s strictly BYOB, as well as an art fair curated by San Francisco collective Strange Cessation, clothing and rugs by vintage San Francisco vendor Vacation and plenty of freak-flag-waving in the natural setting of west Sonoma County.

Deathstock gets freaky from Friday, June 26, to Sunday, June 28, at Camp Outback, 16101 Neeley Road, Guerneville. $25 single-day pass; $70, weekend camp passes. Tickets available at www.longlivedeathrecords.com.

Debriefer: June 24, 2015

ALL WET

Last week we got yet another press release from U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, the very busy first-term Congressman from hereabouts who now says he has a Very Big Plan to deal with the drought. Huffman’s not playing—he just sounds PO’d over drought politics: “After years of partisan theater and overreaching that pits some water interests against others in a zero-sum game,” Huffman writes, “it’s time for Congress to get serious and stop treating California’s worst-ever drought as a political football.”

Huffman’s proposal arrived less than a week after Gov. Jerry Brown implemented strict drought regulations on Big Ag, a first-ever move by the state as Brown faces a rolling backlash from residents sick of being told to take two-minute showers—and sick of Big Ag as it sucks the state dry so Ohioans can eat cheap almonds.

Huffman says to drop the hostility. He’s going to help “every drought-impacted state and region without picking winners and losers, without undermining environmental laws, and without preempting state water rights.”

The bill Huffman sent is far-reaching, and he wants input from the people. So Debriefer told Huffman the facts as we see them: Enough already with the drought. We’re looking forward to El Niño.

GONE COASTAL

Speaking of recently elected and ambitious North Bay white men who like to write a lot of laws, State Sen. Mike McGuire recently helped to score a couple of state Coastal Commission grants.

Coastwalk California got a just-shy-of-$25,000 grant to support its Sonoma County Adopt-a-Beach program, and the Fort Ross Conservancy won a $9,700 grant for its kiddie ecology programs.

Coastwalk California emerged as one of the lead and very vocal opponents of proposed Sonoma County–wide beach-access fees, an idea that deadlocked that same Coastal Commission when it first grappled with it in April. A beach-fee vote split the commission 6–6. The debate started as a fight between State Parks and Sonoma County, and the tie pushed decisions about beach fees to the commission. They next meet July 8.

SPRINKLE SYSTEM

It’s so hard to keep up these days with a relentless media obsession over bisexual and transracial NAACP officials and transgendered former Olympians on the cover of Vanity Fair, not to mention 11-year-olds getting reassignment surgery. It goes on and on, and the obsession extends to the accepted nomenclature of identity and who else is in your orientation clique. Call us Caitlyn, or call us crazy, but GLBTQI is already too long. Now we’re adding an E? Really?

Apparently so.

Legendary sex-lady Annie Sprinkle participated in a panel discussion last weekend at the annual Women’s Visionary Conference in Petaluma to talk about the emergence of the “ecosexual.” As far as Debriefer can tell, this is one part plushy-gone-wild, one part tantric field-shag, and some other dirty stuff on a mountain. Sprinkle says “ecosex switches the metaphor from ‘Earth as mother’ to ‘Earth as lover,'” and she’s debuting an ecosex parade in San Francisco during Pride, on June 28. OK, fine: GLBTQIE. But that’s it!

Jun. 19: Demanding Art in Yountville

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Great art doesn’t have to be seen behind a velvet rope. Case in point: the long-running traveling exhibit “do it,” which encourages viewers to get up close and personal, coming to the Napa Valley this week. Presenting artwork, ongoing performances, take-home instructions and other commanding creations, the exhibit appeals to the young and old with special kids’ sessions and happy hour events happening over the next few months. “do it” opens with a reception on Friday, June 19, at Napa Valley Museum, 55 Presidents Circle, Yountville. 6pm. $5. 707.944.0500. 

Jun. 20: Golden State of Beer in Novato

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Now in its fourth year, the California Beer Festival returns to Marin County’s picturesque Stafford Lake for another round of the best local breweries serving up prized ales, lagers, ciders and more. As the craft-beer movement has expanded, so has the fest. North Bay favorites like Lagunitas and Bear Republic join other established brewing companies for an afternoon boasting 80 beers on tap, along with live music from Wonderbread 5, IrieFuse and the Grain, and a tasty selection of food. All proceeds go to support student athletes in Marin. The California Beer Festival goes down on Saturday, June 20, at Stafford Lake Park, 3549 Novato Blvd., Novato. 12:30pm. $50Ð$70. Californiabeerfestival.com. 

Jun. 20: In Motion in Santa Rosa

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Polyrhythm, a combination of beats offset from each other, is used in music around the globe. The mesmerizing technique is on display during the Poetry in Soundspace Motion event happening this week. Performances include First Nation music from Phillip Meshekey, Jewish ska from mu_Zak and Aboriginal didgeridoo from Rachel Dolma Balunsat. There will also be poetry from Sal Martinez, Gretchen Butler and others, read over the beats to complete the trance-inducing evening, which takes place Saturday, June 20, at the Arlene Francis Center, 99 Sixth St., Santa Rosa. 7pm. $10. 707.528.3009. 

Jun. 21: Street Smart Art in Sebastopol

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Remember how back in the day, when you wanted to print something with a press, you had to cut out little blocks of letters, ink them up and roll them over paper? No? Well, artists in Sonoma County are taking that old style and turning it up a notch this weekend during the Street Printing Festival. A three-ton road roller in a parking lot will create large-scale prints with hand-cut linoleum blocks. All art will be available to buy, plus there will be a massive collaborative piece for everyone to try his or her skills out on. The Street Printing Festival rolls into town on Sunday, June 21, at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol. 11am. Free. 707.829.4797.

From the Heart

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There is little in common between Verdi’s sublime 1893 comic opera Falstaff and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s 2013 drama Choir Boy beyond an understanding that music is a powerful force that expresses the deepest emotions.

One could argue that no two forms of musical expression better convey the depth of human feeling than opera and the spirituals that grew out of slavery and the African-American experience. In Falstaff, the stakes are high but the comedy is as broad as the girth of its title character. Now running in an intimate English-language adaptation at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, the opera is directed by Elly Lichenstein, who brings plenty of wicked silliness to the production, with strong musical direction from Mary Chun.

Verdi’s final opera is based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, in which the debt-ridden, inebriate Sir John Falstaff (a delightfully expressive Jo Vincent Parks) attempts to solve his money problems by seducing a pair of rich, married women, Mrs. Ford (Eileen Morris, practically glowing with charm and mischief) and Mrs. Page (Kim Anderman, quite good as the less flashy of the two wives).

His plan is complicated by the wives’ own scheme to expose and embarrass him and subplots involving Mrs. Ford’s jealous husband (William Neely, hilarious) and the secret love between the Fords’ daughter Nannetta and poor local boy Fenton, played with joyful earnestness by Aurelie Veruni and Scott Joiner.

Falstaff may be fluff, but it’s fluff with tremendous heart. And it has spectacular melodies, the trait it shares with the beautifully written and flawlessly acted Choir Boy, directed with stunning intensity by Kent Gash at Marin Theatre Company. At the fictional Charles Drew Prep School for Boys, a prestigious all-black boarding school, tensions boil when the all but openly gay senior Pharus Jonathan Young (a stunningly good Jelani Alladin) is made the leader of the school’s a cappella choir, which presents classic spirituals in contemporary arrangements.

A coming-of-age story with tremendous insight and lovingly observed characters, this lyrical thought-poem of a play is not just about bullying and prejudice. Primarily, it’s about the transcendent power of being accepted for who you are, and the power of your voice when you sing from the heart.

Ratings (out of 5): Falstaff ( ); Choir Boy ( )

Classical Pairing

Wine aficionados relate flavor in terms of "notes." This week, wine will be described purely in musical notes when pianists Jason Serfling and Van-Anh Nguyen combine their talents with flights of local wine for the "Perfect Pairing" workshop, tasting and recital. Raised in the Sacramento Valley, by the time he was 10 years old Serfling was performing Mozart on the...

Constant Gardener

Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos puts us at the creation of Versailles in 1682 for a very flared-nostril romance between King Louis XIV's landscape architect Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) and the unorthodox gardener he hires, Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet). Impeding their courtship is Sabine's long-standing trauma over the way she was widowed. More trouble comes from the objections...

Howdy, Neighbor

In an effort to unite our community through a simple gesture, I introduced an idea through the Sebastopol Downtown Association that was approved unanimously. We call it "Hi-Noon." Every Friday at noon, the Main Street Sebastopol and downtown core business owners, employees and any others who want to participate, step outside and wave to one another, and to people...

Death Rockers

'There's going to be a lot of weird people wandering around Guerneville this weekend," says Brian Wakefield. He's kidding. Mostly. As the co-founder of San Francisco cassette-tape label Death Records, Wakefield and partner Colin Arlen are celebrating their first year in business by throwing a huge shindig featuring 25 bands and plenty of good vibes within the grounds of...

Debriefer: June 24, 2015

ALL WET Last week we got yet another press release from U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, the very busy first-term Congressman from hereabouts who now says he has a Very Big Plan to deal with the drought. Huffman's not playing—he just sounds PO'd over drought politics: "After years of partisan theater and overreaching that pits some water interests against others in...

Jun. 19: Demanding Art in Yountville

Great art doesn't have to be seen behind a velvet rope. Case in point: the long-running traveling exhibit "do it," which encourages viewers to get up close and personal, coming to the Napa Valley this week. Presenting artwork, ongoing performances, take-home instructions and other commanding creations, the exhibit appeals to the young and old with special kids' sessions and...

Jun. 20: Golden State of Beer in Novato

Now in its fourth year, the California Beer Festival returns to Marin County's picturesque Stafford Lake for another round of the best local breweries serving up prized ales, lagers, ciders and more. As the craft-beer movement has expanded, so has the fest. North Bay favorites like Lagunitas and Bear Republic join other established brewing companies for an afternoon boasting...

Jun. 20: In Motion in Santa Rosa

Polyrhythm, a combination of beats offset from each other, is used in music around the globe. The mesmerizing technique is on display during the Poetry in Soundspace Motion event happening this week. Performances include First Nation music from Phillip Meshekey, Jewish ska from mu_Zak and Aboriginal didgeridoo from Rachel Dolma Balunsat. There will also be poetry from Sal Martinez,...

Jun. 21: Street Smart Art in Sebastopol

Remember how back in the day, when you wanted to print something with a press, you had to cut out little blocks of letters, ink them up and roll them over paper? No? Well, artists in Sonoma County are taking that old style and turning it up a notch this weekend during the Street Printing Festival. A three-ton road...

From the Heart

There is little in common between Verdi's sublime 1893 comic opera Falstaff and Tarell Alvin McCraney's 2013 drama Choir Boy beyond an understanding that music is a powerful force that expresses the deepest emotions. One could argue that no two forms of musical expression better convey the depth of human feeling than opera and the spirituals that grew out of...
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