Everyone knows that Napa’s wine economy is powered largely by immigrant labor. In an article we published last November, we cited a Napa Community Foundation study examining this immigrant-fueled GDP:
“The study found that immigrants comprise 73 percent of all agricultural workers and contribute between $317 million and $1.07 billion to the county’s overall gross domestic product.”
Napa Valley Welcome Sign
That’s out of an estimated $7.18 billion for the year 2009.
This weekend, a Napa Valley Register article localized immigration reform issues by examining policy proposed by a group of senators in late January. The article states that the wine county had an immigrant population of 32,000 in 2010, almost a quarter of its entire population. Estimates of those who are undocumented range from 10,000-16,000, or almost half the immigrant population. And, as our article back in November pointed out, much of Napa’s ag workforce—those contributing to that nice $1.07 billion GDP—live in surrounding counties.
It’s 4:30am outside the Russian River Brewing Co., dark and early, and I have to wonder: who the hell would be up this early if they didn’t have to be?
I often work early at my coffee shop job, and usually don’t run into anyone on my way to work. But as I ride my bike down Fourth Street this morning, three people sit in fold-out chairs wrapped in sleeping bags. Twenty-two year-old Kristen Halsing, 23-year-old Matt Regan and Will La Branche are here—sleepy, cold, and eagerly awaiting this year’s release of Pliny the Younger.
The three, from San Rafael, are the first in line for today’s big event. Halsing and Regan were both up at 1:30am to wait in line by 3am. La Branche was so eager, he woke up at 11:30pm. Hey, it happens—when the oft-ratedNo. 1 beer in the world is on tap.
Hundreds of hopster enthusiasts will soon file behind them, anxiously waiting along Fourth Street, and by 9am, the line manages to wrap down the street and around the corner. Yet most don’t mind the line, remarking that it’s always a guaranteed good time. Fifth-year Younger attendee Mike Von Miedema—who likes to go by “the Drinking Dutchman”—says, “The line’s a piece of cake. I’ve had some of the best times of my life. Met some really cool people, got a blind date once, played some Frisbee and snuggled a 200-pound man in line when I was cold.”
After the doors open, I’ve never seen the brewery so packed with customers and staff. Angie, a server, wasn’t even on the schedule to work today, “but I threw on a shirt and said, ‘I want to work.’”
I catch up with Halsing, Regan and LaBranche at the brewery in the light of day, seven and a half hours after meeting them at 4:30am. Halsing says they spent the time playing poker, eating Wheat Thins and chatting. “It’s hard to believe I spent seven hours in line,” he says. “I have no concept of time. All I know is this beer tastes amazing right now.”
The triple-IPA, 10.5% Pliny the Younger is available seasonally at the Russian River Brewing Co. for the first two weeks of February in half-pint glasses for $4.50—plus a long wait in line.
Russian River Brewing Co., 725 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. 707.545.BEER.
The full lineup for Bottle Rock Napa Valley has been announced. It includes The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Zac Brown Band, Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, Kings of Leon, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Primus, The Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite, The Shins, Bad Religion, Iron and Wine, Dirty Projectors, Dwight Yoakam, Edward Sharpe, Mavis Staples, Best Coast, Sharon Van Etten, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cake, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Wallflowers, Blues Traveler, Brandi Carlile, Donovan Frankenreiter, Grouplove and many, many more.
The festival runs May 9-12 at the Napa Expo, with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis kicking off the festivities on Wednesday, May 8. The Macklemore show is free to 3- and 4-day pass holders, and individual tickets for the show, at $29, will go on sale “at a later date.”
Confirmed acts for Thursday, May 9 include Furthur, the Black Crowes, Primus, ALO, Violent Femmes and Cafe Tacuba.
Confirmed acts for Friday, May 10 include the Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Flaming Lips, Dirty Projectors, Andrew Bird, the Shins, Blues Traveler, Tristan Prettyman, Vintage Trouble, Flagship, Justin Townes Earle. and Allah-Las.
Confirmed acts for Saturday, May 11 include Kings of Leon, Jane’s Addiction, Bad Religion, Ben Harper, Edward Sharpe, Dwight Yoakam, Iron & Wine, Best Coast, Sharon Van Etten, Tift Merritt, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Allen Stone, Donovan Frankenreiter, and RNDM.
Confirmed acts for Sunday, May 12 include the Zac Brown Band, Train, Michael Franti, the Wallflowers, Rodrigo y Gabriela,Cake, Grouplove, Brandi Carlile, Rogue Wave, Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, and Erin O’Hara. Ticket pre-sales start Sunday, Feb. 3, at 10am, on the festival’s own site. Prices are as follows:
Three-Day Pass (Fri.-Sun.): $299.
Four-Day Pass (Thurs.–Sun.): $399.
VIP Reserve Passes (includes VIP parking, viewing area, VIP afterparties): $599.
The first 700 Napa County locals to join the “Highway 29” club will get $70 off, with details to be announced Feb. 2full details just announced: if you are a Napa County resident and pledge to walk, bike, skateboard, carpool or take public transportation to the festival, you will get a presale code for the $70 discount. The pledge also involves letting people from out of town crash at your house, and to “display kindness in the face of frustration and patience in dealing with the inevitable hiccups of a first-year festival.” (UPDATE: After just an hour of signups, all of those 700 locals-only presale codes are completely spoken for.)
In honor of the Superbowl, 49er fans can use the code “GOLDRUSH” to get $49 off.
As of yet, no individual day tickets are announced, but based on what I know about festival ticket sales in general, I can predict that there will likely come a time when individual day tickets become available. UPDATE: Single-day tickets go on sale on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Individual day tickets are $129.
A full comedy lineup is expected to be announced in mid-February, and food, beer and wine will naturally be part of the festival as well.
The excellent lineup is a massive coup: Bottle Rock is being put on not by Live Nation, Another Planet or Goldenvoice but by two Napa locals, Gabe Meyers and Bob Vogt, who had a hand in the resurrection and reopening of the Uptown Theatre. Needless to say, it’s a huge deal for Napa.
More details here as they come in.
A new milestone in local community journalism has been achieved over at Healdsburg Patch with the incredible blog post “I’m Stoned When I Can’t Connect My Bluetooth Keyboard,” written by one Cathy Gumina Odom.
Odom is using medical marijuana for pain of various sources, and
The lineup for the totally crazy Bottle Rock Napa Valley music festival running May 8-12 has been announced, and boy, is it nuts. Can we just say it right now: Best North Bay Festival Lineup Ever?
Acts include: The Black Keys Alabama Shakes The Flaming Lips Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite The Shins Bad Religion Iron and Wine Edward Sharpe Mavis Staples Rodrigo y Gabriela Cake Michael Franti & Spearhead The Wallflowers Blues Traveler Brandi Carlile Donovan Frankenreiter Group Love
By my count, that’s about seven bands that are huge headliners in their own right, plus a lot of festival heavy-hitters. Not to mention: there are over 40 bands scheduled to descend on the Napa Valley for the festival, with a complete lineup and full info promised for this Friday.
The festival runs May 8-12 primarily at the Napa Valley Expo, which will have four stages. Other shows are at various venues around town, including the Uptown Theatre. Food, wine, craft beer, comedy, and afterparties throughout downtown are all part of the deal.
I’ll say it again: This is nuts.
VIP and group tickets go on sale here on Feb. 3; public tickets go on sale on Feb. 10. We’ll update here as more info. comes in. UPDATE, Jan. 30: According to the festival’s Facebook page, three-day passes are $299, four-day passes are $399 and VIP Reserve passes for $599. Locals get a discounted rate with three-day passes at $229, four-day passes at $329, and VIP for $529.) UPDATE II, Jan. 31: The Black Crowes have this festival listed on their official website tour dates. Also, little birdies are chirping that Macklemore is playing a kickoff show for the festival, and judging by the festival’s first-ever tweet, that’s probably very likely. There’s also a “leaked” lineup going around that is almost certifiably fake. UPDATE III, Feb. 1: Lots of news this morning.
Added to the festival: Jane’s Addiction, Kings of Leon, Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, Primus, Zac Brown Band, Dwight Yoakam, and Cafe Tacuba.
Ticket prices are as listed above. As of yet, there are no single-day tickets announced. Napa Valley locals, artist fan club members, community partners and “Friends of the 49ers” will be able to buy 3- and 4-day passes starting Feb. 3. Passes go on sale to the general public on Feb. 10.
The Macklemore show is Wednesday, May 8, and is free for all three- and four-day passholders. Individual tickets will be sold to this show as well at $29, available Feb. 10. Headliners by Day: Wednesday, May 8: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Thursday, May 9: Furthur, the Black Crowes, Primus Friday, May 10: Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, the Shins Saturday, May 11: Jane’s Addiction, Bad Religion, Ben Harper, Edward Sharpe Sunday, May 12: Zac Brown Band, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cake
The incredible thing is that this festival is not being put on by Live Nation, Goldenvoice, or even Another Planet. It’s being put on by two Napa locals, Gabe Meyers and Bob Vogt, who had a hand in the resurrection and reopening of the Uptown Theatre.
I’ll say it yet again: This is nuts.
Cloverdale? Isn’t that the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town on the way to River Rock Casino? Maybe, but it’s also home to a fine performing arts center hosting the Brothers Comatose. This folk string quintet has no ego when it comes to where it plays. Whether it’s festivals like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry, High Sierra, Outside Lands, Kate Wolf, SXSW or hometown hootenannies at tiny clubs for dedicated fans, it’s refreshing for a group’s personality to match its sound so well. They wrote a song called “Pie for Breakfast,” and that says a lot, right there. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a pie… The Brothers Comatose play Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center. 209 N. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale. 7pm. $20-$25. 707.894.2214.
When one is a practicing sex educator and clinical sexologist with several degrees to her credit, it’s only a matter of time before a book deal or movie option comes around. Now a major motion picture nominated for an Oscar, The Sessions is a story of one of Cheryl Greene’s patients who was confined to an iron lung after contracting polio at age six. The devoutly religious man wanted to know what it’s like to “be” with a woman, in the Biblical sense; Greene served as his sex surrogate and, lo and behold, it changed his life and inspired a Hollywood script. Greene speaks about her new book, An Intimate Life: Sex, Love and My Journey as a Sex Surrogate Partner, on Friday, Feb. 1, at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 7pm. Free. 415.927.0960.
If you can’t get up to Tahoe, you can always live vicariously through the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival. Now with POV footage from GoPro-style cameras, skiing and snowboarding videos are more amazing to watch than ever. But it’s not just winter sports highlighted here. Kayaking, rock climbing, surfing, skating and mountain biking films are included, as well as BASE jumping—you know, when people put on a wingsuit and fly at high speeds like a squirrel through the air. Or, if you don’t know, be sure to see the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival on Friday, Feb. 1, at the Mystic Theatre. 23 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 7:30pm. $15. 707.765.2121.
Mix some Bob Dylan, a little Marvin Gaye and a touch of Paul Simon, ship it to South Africa and back, and you’ll have a sense of Vusi Mahlasela’s music. The title track from his debut album When You Come Back became an anthem 20 years ago in the fight to end apartheid. “Sing loud sing to the people,” he sings. “Let them give something to the world and not just take from it.” He’s huge in his home country, and is such a tremendous guitarist and songwriter that it’s baffling why he isn’t more popular in the United States. Vusi Mahlasela plays Thursday, Jan. 31 at Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $15-$20. 707.226.7372.
Move over, Rome. For beer aficionados from across the globe, all roads lead to Santa Rosa, where the Russian River Brewing Company unveils its limited edition Pliny the Younger every February. “It’s Pliny the Elder on steroids,” co-owner Natalie Cilurzo says of the famous brew, which contains three times the hops of their regular IPA. Beginning at 11am on Friday, Feb. 1, the brewery will dole out the rationed beer one 10-ounce glass at a time every day until Valentine’s Day.
Repeatedly voted the No. 1 beer in the world, it’s no wonder Pliny the Younger draws people from as far away as Japan and Europe waiting up to five hours for their turn. Because the line sometimes snakes all the way down to D Street, “I’ve been offered $100 to sneak people in the back door before,” says longtime RRBC employee Gabe Rivera. (Schucksters, take note: he refuses all bribes.)
Despite its cult-like following, Pliny the Younger is not the cash cow one might assume. In fact, the beer is available only once a year precisely because it takes so much time, effort, space and money to brew. For the region at large, however, the economic benefits are substantial, which is why Pliny the Younger figures prominently in a current study by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board regarding the impact of local craft breweries. This year, the Flamingo Hotel is even offering a special “Pliny the Younger” rate for out-of-towners. How’d’ya like those suds?
Everyone knows that Napa's wine economy is powered largely by immigrant labor. In an article we published last November, we cited a Napa Community Foundation study examining this immigrant-fueled GDP: "The study found that immigrants comprise 73 percent of all agricultural workers and contribute between $317 million and $1.07 billion to the county's overall gross domestic product."
Napa Valley Welcome...
The full lineup for Bottle Rock Napa Valley has been announced. It includes The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Zac Brown Band, Furthur featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, Kings of Leon, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Primus, The Flaming Lips, Jane's Addiction, Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite, The Shins, Bad Religion, Iron and Wine, Dirty Projectors, Dwight Yoakam, Edward Sharpe,...
A new milestone in local community journalism has been achieved over at Healdsburg Patch with the incredible blog post "I'm Stoned When I Can't Connect My Bluetooth Keyboard," written by one Cathy Gumina Odom.
Odom is using medical marijuana for pain of various sources, and
The lineup for the totally crazy Bottle Rock Napa Valley music festival running May 8-12 has been announced, and boy, is it nuts. Can we just say it right now: Best North Bay Festival Lineup Ever?
Acts include:
The Black Keys
Alabama Shakes
The Flaming Lips
Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite
The Shins
Bad Religion
Iron and Wine
Edward Sharpe
Mavis Staples
...
Cloverdale? Isn’t that the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town on the way to River Rock Casino? Maybe, but it’s also home to a fine performing arts center hosting the Brothers Comatose. This folk string quintet has no ego when it comes to where it plays. Whether it’s festivals like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry, High Sierra, Outside Lands, Kate Wolf, SXSW or hometown...
When one is a practicing sex educator and clinical sexologist with several degrees to her credit, it’s only a matter of time before a book deal or movie option comes around. Now a major motion picture nominated for an Oscar, The Sessions is a story of one of Cheryl Greene’s patients who was confined to an iron lung after...
If you can't get up to Tahoe, you can always live vicariously through the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival. Now with POV footage from GoPro-style cameras, skiing and snowboarding videos are more amazing to watch than ever. But it’s not just winter sports highlighted here. Kayaking, rock climbing, surfing, skating and mountain biking films are included, as well as BASE...
Mix some Bob Dylan, a little Marvin Gaye and a touch of Paul Simon, ship it to South Africa and back, and you’ll have a sense of Vusi Mahlasela’s music. The title track from his debut album When You Come Back became an anthem 20 years ago in the fight to end apartheid. “Sing loud sing to the people,”...
