Cheese Please Me

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Cheese Please Me

As the story goes, some years ago guerrilla artist Banksy was visiting Sonoma with some artist friends who took him to the Epicurean Connection in Sonoma. Sheana Davis, who knew Banksy’s friends, didn’t think much of the hooded young man spray-painting a stencil on the wall in her back room—after all, there are crows and other images painted by local artist Jonny Hirschmugl in the front of the store, so why not give the back a little love? Only later did she find out who Banksy was, but instead of fawning over his celebrity she was just excited that an artist had been inspired enough to leave a mark in her shop.

“I didn’t know who he was at the time,” says Davis, taking a moment from finalizing plans for her 11th annual Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference taking place next week in Sonoma. “He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and didn’t say much.”

Davis’ connection to the famous British street artist is not as unlikely as it may seem to those who know her. She’s a champion of local artists, and each month shows a different artist’s work in her shop. She buys one new piece a month, but mostly reserves space on the Epicurean Connection’s walls for the rotating gallery. Davis runs a cheese shop, makes 500 gallons of the stuff each week and founded a conference dedicated to the craft of making the curdled-dairy delight—what the hell does her art collection have to do with cheese?

It’s about celebrating a craft and appreciating art. Davis, a chef who trained in New Orleans before moving back to Sonoma, fell in love with cheese and made her own in 2009. Delice de la Vallee was awarded first place honors by the American Cheese Society the next year. Davis now spends time nurturing new cheese makers, awarding two scholarships to the conference to a new producer each year. Sometimes the eye-opening experience helps influence a decision not to move forward. “Last year, both ended up deciding against starting a cheese company,” she says.

Davis’ straightforward, realistic approach makes the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference a trendsetter in the industry. Bringing together producers, retailers, inspectors and the cheese-loving public helps create new partnerships and find out what works at each phase of the business. (One year after a session on licensing, many producers filed for trademarks.) And it brings many producers from out of state, too. “We bring a lot of Wisconsin cheeses in, because they’re ahead of us and we can only learn from them,” says Davis.

There have been many memorable moments in the 11 years of the conference. The first year started with a bang—and a pow and a wham and other comic-book adjectives—when fisticuffs broke out between a professor and a raw-milk producer. “We had a brawl,” says Davis. “It was like a punk-rock show.”

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The professor, who was adamantly opposed to raw milk, unknowingly consumed some butter made from it. Upon being informed of this, tempers flared and punches were thrown. Since then, however, there has not been as much violence, but there has been love. “We’ve definitely seen friendships form, relationships form,” says Davis. “We’ve seen people who’ve met [at the conference] and now are married.”

The conference can have immediate impacts for local producers. When the Leveroni family’s farm was threatened by eminent domain for a hospital in 2006, “the entire conference went to speak on their behalf at the city council meeting,” says Davis. “It was pretty fun,” she says, adding that Joe Leveroni came back in subsequent years due to popular demand to update his saga.

This year, the conference heads back to its roots at the Sonoma Valley Inn. About 125 invitations were sent out for the intimate event, though the public is welcome to an opening reception and cheese tasting (with mac ‘n’ cheese, sake and beer available, too) on Sunday, Feb. 23, at Ramekins Culinary Center. Keynote speakers this year include Judy and Charlie Creighton, owners of a landmark cheese shop in San Francisco, discussing the evolution of the artisan cheese movement with an official from the USDA and two cheese producers from California and Vermont. The conference also features tours, marketing consultations and presentations on leadership skills.

Davis not only runs the Epicurean Connection, mentors new businesses and makes sure the cheese conference goes smoothly, but she’s also an active participant in the conference. Last year, she was so busy planning the event that her own entry in the mac ‘n’ cheese competition got misplaced. “How do you lose two hotel pans of mac ‘n’ cheese?” she asks.

Hopefully, this year’s event will include her own entry, as well as a few fun shenanigans. “There’s the cheese rolling,” she says, “with a ramp and everything. That’s the punk-rock skateboarder in me.”

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Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery

Second-generation farmer Jennifer Bice of Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery is a gifted cheesemaker who helped start the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference with Ig Vella and Sheana Davis. “At that time, artisan cheesemaking was small, and we wanted a way to network with colleagues and provide education,” says Bice. In just 11 years, the industry has blossomed trememdously.

“[The artisan cheese movement] really started in the ’80s with goat-cheese makers,” says Bice. “California cuisine was up-and-coming, and chefs put it on their menus, giving it exposure and creating a market.” Now there are cheeses made locally from the milk of sheep, cow and even water buffalo, as well as entire magazines about cheese.

Bice has been a contributor to this growth with her popular and award-winning goat’s milk cheeses. From the tart, fluffy chèvre to the raw-milk feta, Redwood Hill’s products consistently win medals at the major competitions. In 2013, five different varieties won gold at both the Sonoma County Harvest Festival and the California State Fair. Not one to rest on her laurels, Bice hinted that some new products are in the pipeline. “We are working on a couple new cheeses, but it’s too early to say.”

This year at the conference, she will be on a panel discussing the emergence of the natural food market, and is looking forward to the camaraderie of the gathering.—Brooke Jackson

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Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.

The Giacomini Dairy, in the hills above Tomales Bay, has been in operation since 1959. Robert Giacomini is a dairyman with a herd of Holsteins, but it was getting harder to support the business by just producing milk. He had a dream of making cheese, and eventually convinced his four daughters to return to the fold to help get the operation off the ground. In 2000, they launched the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company and released the first blue cheese made in California, Point Reyes Original Blue.

The Giacominis will be at the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference with their award-winning cheese. “We’re as excited as ever and we can’t wait,” says company spokesperson Jill Giacomini Basch. In 2013, their newest addition, Bay Blue, won a gold SOFI (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation) award—considered the Oscar of the food industry—as well as a Good Food Award and a third-place ribbon at the American Cheese Society Competition. Their toma, a semi-hard table cheese, won second place there in 2012. Point Reyes Farmstead will be participating on a panel called “Publicity Boot Camp.”—Brooke Jackson

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Valley Ford Cheese Co.

The Bianchi family has operated Mountain View Jersey Dairy in Valley Ford since the early 1900s. Now, about a hundred years later, with the price of milk plummeting, many dairy operations are going out of business. Fourth-generation rancher Karen Bianchi-Moreda decided to try her hand at cheesemaking with Valley Ford Cheese Company, and finds the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference a helpful networking event.

“It’s fantastic,” she says. “I attended my first year and sat in the audience. The next year I was on the panel as a new cheesemaker, and have attended since then, meeting all kinds of great people.” Her first cheese, Estero Gold, was inspired by an alpine-style version her grandparents used to make; it won a gold medal at the California State Fair in 2012. Next came Estero Gold Reserve, which is aged for 16 months; it won Best of Show in 2012 at the State Fair.

Karen’s son, Joe, joined as cheesemaker in 2010 with a freshly minted degree in dairy science from Cal Poly. Together they created a fontina-style cheese called Highway One, which won awards at the State Fair, the Sonoma Harvest Fair and the Cal State Cheese Competition. Karen Bianchi-Moreda is proud that the next generation is getting involved in the family business. “We were able to add a value added product with milk we are already producing and allow a full time position to the fifth generation,” she says. “Doesn’t get any better than that.”
—Brooke Jackson

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Bleating Heart Cheese

With a flagship cheese named Fat Bottom Girl and a company slogan that reads, “Making seriously good cheeses without taking ourselves too seriously,” Bleating Heart Cheese has arrived on the scene with a playful attitude. Owners Seana Doughty and David Dalton came to cheesemaking as non-farming amateurs, using sheep milk from Barinaga Ranch to make the first wheels of Fat Bottom Girl in 2009, which were released to critical acclaim.

In the following years, Doughty went on a quest to secure enough sheep milk for her cheesemaking and along the way created Shepherdista (a raw-milk cheese aged two to three months), Shepherdista Crush (the original version soaked in grape pumice) and Ewelicious Blue (a mild and creamy blue cheese). Eventually, she and Dalton purchased a small herd of dairy ewes and partnered with an existing sheep farm to maintain their milk supply, creating Black Oak Dairy.

Ewes only produce milk six months of the year, so Bleating Heart cheeses are available on a very limited basis. Doughty speaks at the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference on the growing pains of a small cheese maker—her talk is called, “No money? No farm? No problem! An Update From a Small but Growing Cheesemaker.”—Brooke Jackson

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Courting the Latino Vote

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Courting the Latino Vote

To hear political scientist David Selby put it, the Republican Party is blowing it big-time when it comes to corralling the Latino vote—at both the state and national levels.

Selby, a visiting instructor at UC Berkeley, has just authored a study that takes a deeply researched dive into Latino voting patterns in Santa Rosa. The study arrives as a national debate over immigration “reform” is yet again unfolding in Congress—and in the larger context of a shifting American demographic toward greater Latino participation in electoral politics, a trend most political observers have assumed will be of benefit to Democratic candidates for generations to come.

Not so fast, says Selby, who argues that Latino cultural conservatives are eager to come home to candidates more in line with their values, but that the anti-immigration GOP policies keeps them in the Democratic camp and will continue to do so until the Republican Party “stops race-baiting on immigration,” Selby tells the Bohemian.

“Latinos,” he says, “are not anti-Republican.”

The study revealed an interesting but unsurprising divide in Latino voting patterns: Hispanics overwhelmingly vote for Democratic candidates in local and national elections, but often express viewpoints on “values” issues that are starkly at odds with positions held by the candidates they support.

Selby and co-author Kelly Wurtz studied elections and various California propositions going back to 1990. It was no surprise to them that they were able to identify many Latinos who express a combination of “economic progressivism with cultural conservatism.”

Selby found significant support among Latinos for capital punishment, opposition to abortion rights and a bias toward “traditional” marriages. And yet he found that Latinos largely support progressive taxation policies that benefit the needy.

Selby notes that the largely Catholic Latino voting bloc trends both pro-life and anti-poverty (just like the new Pope Francis, who is from Argentina). “They care about community,” he says, “in that they care about those who are less well-off, and they care about the unborn.”

Selby identifies the “Proposition 187 effect” as the main reason for the apparent split in Latino loyalties. Proposition 187 was a harshly anti-immigrant state initiative from 1994 notable for its elevation of the uncompromising “politics of mean” into the national debate over Hispanic (especially Mexican) immigration to the United States. Its opening salvo of victimized indignation remains a stunning example of how those politics of mean can get elevated into a legitimate purpose, in this case, the denying of social services to undocumented aliens:

The people of California find and declare as follows:

That they have suffered and are suffering economic hardship caused by the presence of illegal aliens in this state.

That they have suffered and are suffering personal injury and damage caused by the criminal conduct of illegal aliens in this state.

That they have a right to the protection of their government from any person or persons entering this country unlawfully.

Therefore, the People of California declare their intention to provide for cooperation between their agencies of state and local government with the federal government, and to establish a system of required notification by and between such agencies to prevent illegal aliens in the United States from receiving benefits or public services in the State of California.

A flurry of lawsuits and community outrage about its utter heartlessness helped kill Proposition 187, but not before it provided the groundwork that gave rise to anti-immigration legislative initiatives now being undertaken around the country. “Race-baiting by Republicans is turning off Latinos,” says Selby. “California set that tone 20 years ago,” he says, “and now it can set the tone for finding an appeal for Latinos in the Republican Party.”

Selby also highlights California’s uniquely Latino heritage when he says that “Latino culture is California culture,” and argues that the state is, demographically speaking, 20 years ahead of the rest of the country.

But we reap what we sow. The split over issues and candidates is in full effect in Santa Rosa, where Latino voters tend to be slightly more Democratic-leaning than elsewhere in the country. But even so, the same group supports a range of issues on the right side of the ideological dial, Selby says.

Part of the dynamic teased out in this study may be a function of what Selby calls the “shared agricultural heritage” of many Latinos who emigrate to the United States—rural residents tend to be cut from a more conservative cloth than their urban counterparts. Now the rest of the country, most notably Arizona along with about 10 other states, has embarked on the same kind of immigrant-bashing frenzy that led to Proposition 187, which started as a “Save Our State” initiative in Sacramento and ended with a thud of embarrassment for California.

In the intervening years since the 1994 proposition flopped, the Republican Party has demonstrated a pigheaded indifference to the anti-immigration politics of mean, even as it awkwardly foists wunderkind Latino up-and-comers like Sen. Marco Rubio on to the national stage. Or, for that matter, when it lets freshman blowhard Ted Cruz run roughshod over the U.S. Senate in his zeal to kill Obamacare. Gov. Mitt Romney, in his failed bid for the presidency in 2012, fell victim to a harsh and demonstrably satirical call for “self-deportation” as his contribution to the immigration reform dialogue. Romney embraced a faux platform that would make life so difficult for undocumented aliens that they would “self-deport” right back to Mexico.

Selby’s advice for Republicans, not that they are asking him for it, is to “stop annoying Latinos. Stop doing things that are actively alienating them from the party.”

It may be generations before Latinos come home to their seemingly more natural place in the Republican Party, though Selby says it’s the young people just entering the political arena who drive the voting bloc leftward in elections. And those same Latino voters have not given President Obama a pass on his immigration policies, which have seen record numbers of deportations during his presidency. Still, Selby notes, Obama and the Democratic establishment know they still can count on the reliable Latino vote come election day—at least for now.

Voter suppression efforts undertaken by the GOP are also a factor driving Latinos away from the Republican Party, says Selby. “Everyone knows those efforts are targeting minority voters because they tend to vote Democratic,”
he says.

The political science professor argues that any GOP candidate for higher office who does a “180- degree turn on immigration” will likely win that election by drawing enough Latino support to turn the tide in his favor. That includes the big man from New Jersey himself, Gov. Chris Christie.

Selby identifies forty-something Latino politicians like Abel Maldonado as a “good example of the type of candidate that Republicans should be promoting.” Maldonado, a lieutenant governor in the Schwarzenegger administration, said he would challenge Gov. Jerry Brown in this year’s gubernatorial race. He did an about-face on his previous opposition to marriage equality before abruptly leaving the race in January. “It would be good to have a GOP that’s a little bit more reasonable,” Selby says.

Editor’s note: Selby’s study was sponsored and funded by the Santa Rosa-based Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy; www.ecoleader.org

A Bus Too Far

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A Bus Too Far

I have relied on your buses ever since they began operation. I have much to say about how they are scheduled, which, without question, does not seem to serve the majority of your riders.

In all the years I have been a passenger on your system, I have heard nothing but complaints from my fellow passengers, and they are increasing every year. Most of these complaints are leveled at the total lack of any seeming intelligence behind how the buses are scheduled. It makes everyone wonder how and why the bus company administrators and transportation agencies have created such a futile mess out of what, with a little thought and a modicum of cooperation, should be an easy fix.

Many of your riders theorize that these various agencies are paid by the oil companies to purposely sabotage public transit systems in order to discourage ridership. Don’t laugh. It’s a well-known fact that in the 1940s the oil companies bought out and completely dismantled Los Angeles’ public transit system, which at the time was considered the best in the world.

It takes upwards of four-plus hours to get from Sebastopol to west Marin. If I want to catch a bus from west Sonoma County to the SRJC in time for a class that begins at noon, the closest stop to that time is 10:49am. These schedules should be designed with students’ schedules in mind, as there are many who have no choice but to take the bus to school. This lack of connectivity is true even in the case of routes serviced by the same bus company.

I doubt that any bus administrators rely on their own service to commute, but if they did, I’m certain the bus lines they use would operate in a timely and functional manner. And don’t even ask me about the “Stupid Train.” What a huge boondoggle that is now and will be when it begins to operate.

Jay Cimo is a Sonoma County resident.

We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.

Arrowood’s Way

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Arrowood’s Way

In a standard cartoon gag, a mountain-climbing truth seeker strains to pull himself, at last, onto a ledge where sits a wise old guru, and asks a burning question. For instance, “What is the secret . . . to wine?”

“There are no secrets in this industry,” Richard Arrowood says. Looking forward to his 49th harvest in 2014, the life-long Sonoma County winemaker says that he’s pleased to work in a field where peers cooperate more than they compete. Not that he doesn’t have a few stories to tell.

Arrowood (pictured with daughter Kerry Arrowood-Cummings) took a summer job during college at Korbel Champagne Cellars in 1965 and was the first winemaker at Chateau St. Jean in 1974, holding that job until 1990. With his wife, Alis, he founded an eponymous winery in 1985, attracting the attention of the then-expanding Robert Mondavi Corporation in 2000. “Leave him alone,” Arrowood recounts Robert Mondavi telling his business partners while tasting his wines. “Give him everything he needs.”

But the corporate owners that subsumed Mondavi peddled Arrowood Winery off to a bankruptcy-bound investment group. When they declined to pay him for his estate grapes, says Arrowood, he took a hike up to his mountain redoubt in the chaparral—taking the wines that he’d made with him. Thus began Amapola Creek, perched on a ledge in the hills above Sonoma.

Amapola Creek is a certified organic grower and handler, and says so on the label—unlike many other organic producers (shy much, folks?). The 2012 Belli Vineyards Chardonnay ($45) has aromas of candied nuts, peach and pear, with a Meyer lemon meringue-pie flavor and a finish of flat (in a very good way) Champagne.

“Port-like Zin is not my idea of a good time,” Arrowood says, and indeed, his 2010 Monte Rosso Sonoma Valley Zinfandel ($42) finishes with lingering, chewy dryness after sweet notes of jammy, raspberry fruit. Plush yet dry, this Zin is an enigma until I read the technical information and respectfully ask, something to the effect of, “Are you kidding, Mr. Arrowood?” This wine has a pH of 3.12 while boasting 15.5 percent alcohol. That’s correct, he says with a smile. Technical story short, this wine suggests that simplistic slogans about low alcohol being the only path to “balanced” wines may beg reconsideration.

The 2010 Cuvée Alis ($48), an estate-grown Syrah and Grenache blend, evokes the perfume of dried red roses and smacks of savory-tinged strawberry and licorice. When past masters of Cabernet get serious about blends like this, it’s a good sign for the category. As for Arrowood, he’s happy to be able to focus on what matters to him the most. During harvest, he says, he does more winemaking than paperwork.

Fee Fury at Sonoma State

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Fee Fury at Sonoma State

The California State University system has seen tuition costs increase dramatically over the past 10 years, and Sonoma State University is no exception, with the annual price of education nearly tripling, from about $3,010 in 2003 to $8,996 last year. Now the university is contemplating adding another $500 “success fee” to the annual tuition.

University officials say the fee is necessary to ensure that students can get the classes they need to graduate in four years and to eliminate a structural deficit of $1 million. Their argument is that $500 per year is much less than paying for another year of education. But a poll of 300 students in November showed that 41 percent would either not be able to continue or were unsure if they could continue to attend the university if the $500 fee went through.

“Students are talking like it’s already happened,” says university spokesperson Susan Kashack. “I think they might have bypassed the fact that this is something that’s been proposed.” Provost Andrew Rogerson is gathering information at open forums on campus, and will report back to university president Ruben Armiñana with his findings. From there, the president will make a decision based on that information, says Kashack.

Nine other CSUs collect success fees, including San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles. But SSU already charges students $902 in fees on top of tuition, the third-highest total of all CSUs. An additional $500 per year would make it the most expensive liberal arts campus in the system. As for the public’s opinion, a petition on Change.org Tuesday showed almost 1,100 signatures asking the university not to impose the fee—an increase of more than a hundred signatures from the previous day.

UPDATE:
Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana sent a letter to students Wednesday saying the university has decided not to go ahead with the proposed $500 per year academic success fee. His words: “The goal was to help students graduate in a timely manner by providing improved advising and additional classes. However, by offering more classes we would raise the average unit load for our students. This would impact the enrollment target set by the CSU system. We do not have a way to raise our target at this time. For now, we prefer to wait and see how our targets may be modified in the future before any further consideration of a fee.”—Nicolas Grizzle

Letters to the Editor: Feb. 19, 2014

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Letters to the Editor: Feb. 19, 2014

No Water for Johnny Pinot

Good to see you promoting water conservation—but not for the farmers’ sake! I won’t take a one-minute shower so Johnny Pinot can make more $100 bottles of wine, but I will to save the fish and other critters in the ecosystem!

—Daisy Hooley

Santa Rosa

Balance It Out

I liked the article about sex and education (“Sex Is Fun,” Feb. 5), but I’m not happy with the cover. I just wanted to point out that if you look at this cover, you have a girl reading a book that says, “Sex tips for girls,” and the other side says, “I wish she’d do this.” It’s not very equal—it’s really just saying, “Women, you’re still the ones that have to perform correctly in order to have a sexually exciting situation.” Instead, it should have read, “I wish she’d do this, I wish he’d do this” and “Sex tips for boys and girls,” so it could balance out correctly.

This is such a hot topic—when you think about the fact that we just had V-Day and the One Billion Rising event, which talks about women and violence, this says that women are still the ones who have to please the men. I’m really hoping you’ll take a serious look at that and think about what’s going to be the catchy phrase and balance it out between men and women.

—Cheryl Negrin

Petaluma

Support Children’s Village

When I was orphaned at 14, the prospect of foster care and inevitable separation from my siblings was beyond frightening. Thankfully, a local family came forward and took all three of us under their care via legal guardianship. I was given the gift of consistency and raised in a loving home with my little brother and sister. The importance of maintaining sibling bonds is paramount, especially after a traumatic experience like so many displaced children have experienced.

For this reason, I admire, support and volunteer for the Children’s Village of Sonoma County. This family-home environment is an alternative to foster care, which often separates siblings and shuffles children from home to home. Since opening in 2006, the Children’s Village has housed up to 24 children at a time, most of them siblings. Their primary concern is maintaining stability so children have a smooth transition into adulthood. In fact, with the addition of the Dickinson Center nearby, children who have graduated out of the program will be able to maintain housing and communication with the Children’s Village so long as they maintain employment or pursue education.

Recent California legislation has put this wonderful organization on the path to closure this summer. Budget cuts have led to a shortage of children being placed in group homes like ours, and focus has shifted to foster care as the primary model for displaced children. Currently, 16 children are housed and cared for at the Children’s Village. A sudden change in their lives would be devastating.

—Andrea Austin

Santa Rosa

Wishful

I wish I could tell you that Horatio
Alger was alive and well in America, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that there is equality for all, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that our present über-capitalism is not eroding democratic principles, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that our political parties put county first, party second, but that’s not the case, and, again, I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that we do not have a pro-corporate Supreme Court, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that corporate power in collusion with Congress, not big government, is the real problem, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you that America is a leader in universal healthcare, but that’s not the case, and I only have 200 words.

I wish I could tell you.

—Gene Columbini

Santa Rosa

Write to us at le*****@******an.com.

Sylvia Tyson: On Our Mind

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Sylvia Tyson: On Our Mind

The first song that Sylvia Tyson wrote became a huge hit, though not for her. “You Were on My Mind” was a Top 40 fixture for the California group We Five in the fall of 1965, a year after it was first recorded by the author and her musical partner and soon-to-be husband, Ian Tyson.

But other songs by the Canadian duo, billed as Ian & Sylvia, fared better for them. “Someday Soon” and “Four Strong Winds” were sizable hits and became widely performed folk standards. The couple went on to enjoy a decade-long career, during which they released a dozen albums, including one as the early country-rock group Great Speckled Bird.

Today, long separated from Ian and living in Toronto, Sylvia continues to perform and write, lately in a whole new direction. Her first novel, Joyner’s Dream, was published in 2011, and she is now “about halfway through the second one,” she tells the Bohemian.

Still, the new medium required some adjustments. “The essence of songwriting is to put some complicated ideas into very simple language in the space of three to four minutes,” she says. “And the opportunity to expand that was kind of daunting for me. In fact, I kind of overdid it. My first draft was about 400 pages!” It was trimmed by a quarter before publication.

Her novel, a multigenerational family history spanning more than two centuries, then presented Tyson with another challenge. “When I was writing the book, I blithely put in original titles everywhere music appeared, and at the end, I realized I had all these titles and no music.” So she set about creating some, ultimately recording and releasing a companion CD to go with the book.

But distracting her from the sequel, at least temporarily, is a short concert tour that will see her doing a handful of dates in California. In her first visit to the Golden State in some 30 years, Tyson will share the stage with violinist Scarlet Rivera, best known for her work with Bob Dylan, and steel guitar–dobro ace Cindy Cashdollar.

The match was suggested by the agent Rivera and Cashdollar share; the three have never played together before. “This is kind of a trial run,” Tyson admits.

Their shows will rely on Tyson’s songs, both old and new, in arrangements she, Rivera and Cashdollar began working out a few days before rehearsals.

They’ve only booked five shows, but Tyson says more are a possibility, adding, “I think I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.”

Koreeda’s Way

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Koreeda’s Way

The switched-baby format has been dormant in film for some time now. One of cinema’s great living kid-wranglers, director Hirokazu Koreeda, brings the once popular genre to life in the overlong, occasionally poignant Like Father, Like Son.

As always, Koreeda is capable of subtle, tender moments, but the too-stark contrast between the victimized families oversimplifies the story. Masaharu Fukuyama plays an essentially stereotypical character: a cold, swaggering, success-chasing Tokyo architect. He’s pushing the boy he believes is his son hard, right at the beginning of the child’s scholastic care (age six). Meanwhile, down in southern Japan, the architect’s actual son is being raised by a much more easygoing dad, Yudai (Riri Furanki), the tattooed, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing proprietor of a funky hardware store.

Furanki’s presence proves the Howard Hawks principle that you ought to try to make a comedy out of your story. When you see the sympathy Koreeda has for this happy-go-lucky slob, you wonder why the director bothered opening the film with the workaholic in his blood-freezing modern apartment. Yudai has so much grit that he’s even openly looking forward to the settlement the hospital is going to lay on him for their mistake. Homer Simpson could not be earthier. But, naturally, Yudai is too perfect a character, with no arc to follow, and it’s the architect who needs to rescue his inner child.

There’s never been a switched-baby melodrama without third-act problems, and this lauded drama is no exception. There are times in the film when you’re certain that Koreeda is as good as Mike Leigh or the Dardenne brothers in dramatizing the banal thought that the human race’s refusal to acknowledge the familial ties among us worsens the world. This switched-at-birth situation takes on a sad plausibility in those instances, and you wonder what you’d do if it happened to you.

Meatbodies Manifested

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Meatbodies Manifested

We thought garage rock faded in the ’90s along with televised music videos and flannel shirts.

But as it turns out, our noisy neighbors never went anywhere—except maybe their own suburban garages or, more likely, the dark basements of run-down Victorians in Oakland. We are in the midst of a garage-rock revival, flannel is abundant and the music sounds like sweet cocktails and psychedelia.

Meatbodies are a shining example of this aesthetic. The group is coming up from Los Angeles this week to play at the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa before going on tour with garage fuzz rocker Ty Segall. More fast than loud, their reverb-y surf guitar is the kind of music that makes one feel like letting the mind slowly melt into a honey oil haze.

Opening is CCR Headcleaner, whose psychedelic guitar solos have been known to guide audiences into a trance before blasting them awake with raw, blistering rock and roll. They’re joined by Santa Rosa’s Basement Stares, which features former members of Semi-Evolved Simians and Violation.

Meatbodies play with CCR Headcleaner on Monday, Feb. 24, at the Arlene Francis Center. 99 Sixth St., Santa Rosa. 8pm. $6–$12 sliding scale. 707.528.3009.—Jacquelynne Ocaña

Annie’s Got a Gun

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Annie’s Got a Gun

‘A hit! A hit!”

That’s what Buffalo Bill shouts (numerous times) during the epic target-shooting match between champion sharpshooter Frank Butler and upstart country girl Annie Oakley. In the excellent revival of Irving Berlin‘s Annie Get Your Gun at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Buffalo Bill could be describing the production itself.

The 1946 Wild West romance may not be the best known of Berlin’s work (Holiday Inn, White Christmas), but as directed by Sheri Lee Miller, Annie is easily one of the best musicals to be staged in Rohnert Park since the center came close to being shut down by the city three years ago for budgetary reasons.

Spreckels has been on the rebound of late, with a string of old and new musicals presented by the New Spreckels Theater Company, and Annie Get Your Gun, with sharp musical direction by Janis Wilson, hits an artistic high mark to which future productions will
be compared. Blending artistic director Gene Abravaya’s taste for flashy stage spectacle with Miller’s knack for achieving strong, emotionally resonant performances from her actors, Annie is as eye-popping and ear-pleasing as it is exciting, satisfying and fun.

Denise Elia gives one of her best-ever performances as Annie Oakley, a plucky newcomer to Buffalo Bill’s traveling Wild West Show. Enamored of the show’s headliner, Frank Butler (a rich Zachary Hasbany), though annoyed by his easily wounded pride, Annie struggles with her desire to show how good she is with a rifle in front of this man who can’t wrap his head around being second best to a woman.

As Buffalo Bill, Dwayne Stincelli is a hoot, and Tim Setzer is marvelous as Charlie, Bill’s wisecracking manager. Liz Jahren plays Dolly Tate, Frank Butler’s flirtatious, jealous assistant—and Annie’s chief antagonist—and is a hilarious force of nature in the role. Dan Monez brings a mountain of heart to the show as Sitting Bull, Annie’s wise and grounded adopted father, and as the story’s other set of would-be lovers, Winnie Tate (Dolly’s sister) and Tommy Keeler (the show’s half-Indian knife thrower), Brittany Law and Anthony Guzman are charming and sweetly affecting.

The set, by Eddy Hansen and Elizabeth Bazzano, features clever break-apart buildings and uses Spreckels’ (often overused) projection system sparingly but quite effectively. A few errant notes didn’t spoil the music, which was consistently marvelous.

Rating (out of 5): &#9733 &#9733 &#9733 &#9733

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