The Right Thing

-
0
The Right Thing

Sonoma State University’s new Ethics Center has caused quite a stir among my colleagues and students during the first week of classes.

The notorious American International Group gave two-thirds of the new center’s $16,000 first-year budget. One might wonder what AIG’s intentions were for funding the center; AIG is not known for its ethics. In fact, the insurer’s risky bets on derivatives were central to the 2008 economic crash.

Of course, they were rewarded with a $182 million bailout. Retired SSU professor Robert Plantz reminded the university community on the faculty email list that AIG is “talking about suing our government for what they think is a lousy deal in the bailout.” So much for gratitude and ethics. They appear to be one more mega-corporation jumping on the bandwagon to further privatize SSU and direct its studies.

“Any entity designated as an ‘Ethics Center’ has a special responsibility to scrutinize the moral and ethical correlates of its own supporting foundation, structure and functioning, especially its filtering of acceptable and unacceptable issues,” noted sociology professor Noel Byrne.

The public first heard about the Ethics Center in an article headlined “Some Topics Too Close to Home for SSU Ethics Center,” in the Jan. 16 Press Democrat. Its subhead? “Director of new venture opts not to weigh in on donor AIG’s role in economic crisis.”

“The Ethics Center has a basic challenge to speak to the ethics of taking money from AIG,” notes retired political science professor John Kramer.

I welcome the Ethics Center, whose first event will be a Feb. 6 lecture by Judge Brad Seligman on “Big Law, Small Law: Old and New Civil Rights in the 21st Century,” in the Warren Auditorium at 4pm. I hope that such presentations will become forums to discuss controversial issues.

The new center plans to deal with issues such as immigration, water use, food ethics, clean technology and income inequality, according to its director, philosophy lecturer Joshua Glasgow. But if it’s not willing to discuss AIG, what other mega-corporations or millionaires might already be knocking on SSU’s door? Walmart? Chase? Monsanto, which funds UC Irvine’s agriculture department?

Shepherd Bliss (3s*@*****st.net) teaches college and farms.

Open Mic is a weekly op/ed feature in the Bohemian. To have your essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.

Punk’s Not Dead (Yet)

-
0
Punk’s Not Dead (Yet)

Punk’s not dead; it’s just looking for a way to smoke cigarettes in an iron lung. Legendary Canadian hardcore punk group D.O.A. are on a farewell tour. After 32 years, the group is calling it quits. As the old punk adage goes, when you’ve made more albums in a career than the number of beers you can drink in a night, it’s time to hang up the hair gel.

With 18 full-length records, a live album, 21 seven-inches, countless compilations and even a book, Joey “Shithead” Keithley and friends are done with a career that helped birth a genre and pave the way for punk to get harder, faster and finally not care about fashion. Listening to D.O.A. never gets old, because the music pretty much stayed the same from day one: power chords and simple rhymes, a circle pit in 4/4 time.

Today’s punk, if you can find it, compares to D.O.A. like a Shih Tzu to a Doberman. If you think you’re into punk and your favorite band is New Found Glory or Blink 182, go see D.O.A. at the Phoenix. Don’t wear Converse. Wear boots. And for fuck’s sake, turn your cell phone off.

Wooden Wonders

-
0
Wooden Wonders

“Music saved my life,” says Kevin Russell. “When I was a kid, we moved a lot. One of the constants in my life turned out to be music.”

This appreciation led Russell to organize the Sebastopol Guitar Festival, showcasing the art of making and playing the six-string sword on Feb. 2. “I’m just in love with guitars,” says Russell. “Guitar is probably the most popular instrument in the world, and I wanted to do something that celebrated that.”

Not just another guitar concert, the event highlights luthiery, the craft of building guitars by hand. “We have some of the best guitar builders in the world right here,” says Russell—and those luthiers are building the best guitars ever made, he says. “Some people say we’re in the golden age of luthiery right now.”

The eight luthiers scheduled to give workshops at the event are all local, differing from the much larger Healdsburg Guitar Festival, a bi-annual event attracting talented craftsmen from around the globe. Luthiers scheduled to speak at the Sebastopol Guitar Festival include acoustic guitar builder Bruce Sexauer, arched-top guitar specialist Tom Ribbecke, and Harry Fleishman, who runs a luthiery school.

Films about legendary guitarists screen throughout the day in a separate room before the main event at 8pm, when Stevie Coyle and Mike Dowling take the stage. “They’re not the kind of guys that would get attention from the mass media,” says Russell. “But they’re stunning, stunning musicians.” Dowling is a former session guitarist who spent his time in some of the biggest studios in Nashville. “I think the guy is one of the best guitar players on the planet,” Russell gushes.

Russell’s enthusiasm for music stems from a young age. “I fell in love when I was five years old looking at my uncle’s guitar. I know it sounds weird, but I actually had a viceral experience in my body,” he says. “I didnt feel that feeling again until I fell in love with the first girl I fell in love with.” He now plays both electric and acoustic guitar in several bands, including the Rhythm Rangers and the Country Trainwrecks.

Even guitars made in the same factory by the same company in the same year can have different qualities. Some call it “tone”; others have more mysterious names for it. Whatever that special quality is, it’s irreplaceable. Russell sums it up understatedly: “Every guitar sounds different.”

Vermeil Wines

-
0
Vermeil Wines

The main problem in pairing Super Bowl party food with suitable wine is the objections that will have already arisen before I get to the end of this sentence. Is it not an insult to the spirit of a quasi-national holiday dedicated to consuming buckets of corporate beer and bags of high-saturated fat snacks, all while celebrating an athletic contest—in between multimillion dollar advertisement from those selfsame corporate beer giants?

Not if Dick Vermeil has something to say about it. Just ask him, he’s right here. The legendary coach who led the St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV is here in cardboard likeness, anyway, beside an enormous bottle of wine (a Superthuselah?). A Calistoga native, Vermeil is entrenched in Philadelphia, but he comes out during harvest to tool around on a tractor and catch the Calistoga Speedway’s sprint car races, which his father founded 75 years ago.

Remodeled since our last visit, the space hosts a museum of Vermeil’s long career. You can enter a drawing to win an autographed football, or pose for a picture with Vermeil’s stand-in. Mary Sue Frediani, whose parents met while hanging out at Louis Vermeil’s auto-body shop, runs the tasting room; husband Paul Smith is the winemaker. All the grapes are sourced from the Frediani and Luvisi vineyards.

If the football on the label isn’t permission enough to enjoy the light, fresh and pink 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé ($20), try the barrel fermented 2011 Sauvignon Blanc ($24), with a baked-pear richness you’d expect from Chardonnay. Pair with baked brie en croute, if you’re having that kind of party.

Smith’s OnThEdge 2009 Charbono ($40) has a spicy, blueberry aroma and a fine, dry finish; buffalo wings might overpower it, but if there’s any pan-seared duck breast with tamarind sauce on hand, that’s the ticket. Fans save the 2009 “XXXIV” Proprietary Red ($42) for special game days; turn to the 2008 Luvisi “1908” Vineyard Zinfandel ($38) for the brightest cherry fruit of this lineup. Nonna Frediani’s Rosedale Red ($19.57) is rustic and ready for a big slab of lasagna.

What about potato chips? The 2009 Late Harvest Sémillon ($18) has just the right amount of sweet peach nectar flavor for a winning sweet-and-salty pairing. And what a great picnic wine—for those nonconforming sorts who can not buck up and take an interest in either commercials or sports franchises, even for one day. Poor folks have got the beaches all to themselves.

Vermeil Wines and OnThEdge Winery, 1255 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. Sunday–Thursday, 10am–5:30pm; Friday–Saturday, 10am–8pm. Tasting fee, $12. 707.341.3054.

Letters to the Editor: January 30, 2013

-
0
Letters to the Editor: January 30, 2013

School Segregation

It was horrifying to read this article (“A School Divided,” Jan. 23) and realize that nothing has changed since 1960 when the school committee in Sausalito launched the first integration attempt of the schools by removing me and five boys from Bayside school and bussing us into the MLK (Richarson Bay School) in 1960. It is an abomination to hear that nothing has changed in the self-proclaimed “most progressive state in the nation.” What century are we in?

The segregation of students in Sausalito and Marin City led to race riots when all students joined together at Tamalpais High School in 1960, as students tried to accommodate to new cultures totally foreign to them. This segregation was and continues to be a travesty.

I ask that you all consider carefully the fact that there should be no Marin City. Sausalito should catch up with the rest of the nation and integrate the two areas, with low-income housing available throughout the two areas and thus stopping the cruelty of segregation for all of its citizens, the most valuable being children.

—Colleen Ryder

Via Online

More Important Than Yoga

Re: “Road to Wellville,” (News, Jan. 16), the Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s 2012 report, Sonoma County Indicators Abridged Edition, states that 14.4 percent of our residents had no healthcare coverage in 2011. Per U.S. census estimated county population, that means 70,289 people with no insurance, no Medi-Cal, and no MediCare.

These people not only need access to urgent care for issues such as high fevers, dehydration, flu complications, severe pain and minor injuries, but they also need access to care and prescription refills for chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma.

While uninsured mothers continue to have nowhere but the emergency room to take their sick kids, and while uninsured people are going without their necessary prescription medications, it seems ludicrous to celebrate primary prevention measures like exercise, smoking cessation and yoga becoming readily available to the insured. We must find a way to provide primary care to our population of over 70,000 uninsured Sonoma County residents. Obamacare may bring about meaningful improvements in a year or two, but meanwhile, we have expensive suffering that needs to be addressed now.

—Kathy Kladar, RN

Santa Rosa

$25 Weddings Are Awesome

Oh, Bohemian! Have you lost your way? How bohemian is it to include a guide to the wedding industry (Jan. 9) without some counter-article on alternative weddings? Forty-one years ago last June, we married in our backyard, held a potluck reception on the lawn and had a wedding we’ll remember until our memories fail (four cakes, one of which was declared the wedding cake until the children ate it, so another took its place). Total cost: $25, including my sweetie’s wedding dress and the invitations (mimeographed—nowadays they’d be photocopied or sent out on the internet). It’s not necessary to enslave yourself to the wedding industry to have a great, memorable event. The love between the couple and among family and friends makes for a great and memorable wedding; the rest is just decoration.

I know that you probably got some needed revenue from this advertising insert, and I don’t begrudge you the revenue. But still . . .

—Bill Houghton

Sebastopol

Whistleblowers

John Kiriakou, former CIA officer and whistleblower, has been sentenced to 30 months in jail. In 2007, he confirmed the use of waterboarding and described it as torture. He joins Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning and many others pursued by the government in an effort to intimidate those with access to “secrets” from releasing them. When President Obama was campaigning, he indicated he would support whistleblowers. Now in power, he doesn’t. And no one involved with torturing detainees has been sent to prison. What a surprise!

For a democracy to function, citizens need to know what’s really happening. And we don’t.

—Moss Henry

Santa Rosa

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

It’s Swinth

-
0
It’s Swinth

I guarantee you this: the name Robin Swinth was on the lips of Santa Rosa City Council members well before the interview process to replace Susan Gorin’s council seat unfolded this past Monday. Swinth was being mentioned by council members as a high-probable pick well before the 16 other applicants turned in their papers to city hall—and, yes, even before the open applications themselves were available for pickup to the general public.

Was Swinth a foregone conclusion, and Monday’s interview process a sham? Not exactly; other candidates, Hans Dippel primarily, were also spoken of as contenders. But in hearing what I heard firsthand (when you’re an editor of a paper, your ears become well-tuned to loose lips), I can’t help but agree with the common feeling that Monday’s production was at least in part a requisite bit of political theater.

That said, Swinth is, to be clear, an excellent choice. She has the experience for the job, with past responsibilities on the Planning Commission and the Board of Public Utilities. She aced her interview. As of this writing, she appears to claim no allegiance to the so-called pro-business or progressive sides of the council, and that’s another mark in her favor as the council begins to play nice. Even Scott Bartley and Gary Wysocky, who’ve routinely leveled passive-aggressive insults at each other behind the dais, have of late been claiming the council is no longer divided and saying complimentary things about each other in public. Was there some sort of Winter-break “beer summit” we missed? If so, that’s the sort of backroom deal we would have liked to see.

QuenchThis

-
0
QuenchThis

In response to customer complaints, PepsiCo Inc. will remove a controversial chemical added to orange Gatorade. Outcry over the chemical, known as brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, had been building over the past year. Patented as a flame retardant, BVO is used as an emulsifier in fruit-flavored drinks and has been linked to a number of health hazards.

Environmental Health News reported on BVO last year, and the story inspired a Hattiesburg, Miss., teenager, Sarah Kavanagh, to petition PepsiCo to remove the chemical. Kavanagh found the story after searching for information on an ingredient she saw on a Gatorade label. What she read inspired her to start a petition on Change.org calling for the removal of BVO from PepsiCo’s products. The petition gathered nearly 200,000 signatures from around the world.

The news that PepsiCo was removing the chemical from Gatorade was reported last Friday in Beverage Digest, though a spokesperson for PepsiCo told the Associated Press that its decision had been in the works for the past year and was not in response to the recent petition. And as the FDA allows low doses of the chemical—15 parts per million—in fruit-flavored beverages, its decision was also not based on any health concerns, according to PepsiCo’s spokesperson. The chemical won’t be removed from other citrus-flavored sodas made by PepsiCo, such as Mountain Dew.

BVO was patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant, and has been banned in food and beverages in Europe and Japan. In 1970, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the interim use of BVO in soft drinks. More than 30 years later, BVO’s status is still listed as interim, despite concerns from scientists that the research is outdated and insufficient.

Meanwhile, BVO could be building up in human tissue. In studies with rats, large doses caused reproductive and behavioral problems. And after extreme binges of sodas that contain BVO, a few patients have needed medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders, all symptoms of overexposure to bromine.

Kavanagh said she got the news about PepsiCo’s decision from a voicemail during her algebra class. She asked her teacher to be excused to go the restroom. “I was very, very excited,” Kavanagh said. “I called my mom and I was, like, ‘Mom, we won!'”

Kavanagh said she’s unsure about the next move in her fight against BVO, but she said “there will definitely be something coming up in the future.”

Buddy System

-
0
Buddy System

Oscar and Felix.

Even people who’ve never seen the 1965 Neil Simon play The Odd Couple will recognize those iconic names—the slob and the neat freak, forced to become roommates, constantly on each other’s nerves. Adapted to the screen in 1968, The Odd Couple, originally performed on Broadway by Walter Matthau and Art Carney, became a national phenomenon in the ’70s, with the long-running television series starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

In 1985, Simon rewrote the play as a vehicle for two female actresses, and there are those who find The Female Odd Couple, as it was titled, to be even funnier than the original. And there are those among us, myself included, who still prefer the strange 1975 animated TV show The Oddball Couple, in which Oscar and Felix were transformed into a dog and cat—named Fleabag and Spiffy.

Still, it is good, now and then, to return to the source material, and under the direction of John Green, Healdsburg’s Raven Players are giving the original play a jaunty, pleasurable revival at the Raven Performing Arts Theater. Though conspicuously dated, with pop-cultural references that lack the sizzle they once carried, there is much that is genuinely funny about these characters. Oscar (played with a gruff and natural charm by Tim Shippey) is a slovenly, long-divorced sportswriter, who offers his New York apartment to his best friend, the uptight, recently separated Felix.

Felix is played by Stephen Cannon, who curiously adopts a dreamy, distanced, passive-aggressiveness instead of the expected high-strung single-mindedness that defines Felix in most versions, including the one where he’s a cat. Still, Cannon nails much of the physical comedy, including the classic scene where Felix attempts to clear his sinuses with a series of weird nasal noises, a wonderful little gem of a comic moment.

The supporting cast is strong, with Jeremy Boucher leading a pack of local character actors as Oscar’s weekly poker buddies, and Karen Wallace and Tory Rotlisberger delivering delightfully flirty performances as Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon, two buxom British sisters whose hilarious double-date with Oscar and Felix leads to irreparable complications.

Director Green keeps the story clipping along steadily, though he misses a few big opportunities to deliver the kind of madcap sitcom energy that playwright Simon built into the script. On the whole, though, this Odd Couple delivers the goods. It’s a gently funny jab at people who carry their mistakes from relationship to relationship, and the ups, downs and ultimate limits of real friendship.

How To Destroy Angels and Scare Yourself Shitless

-
0
How To Destroy Angels and Scare Yourself Shitless

Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails and many, many other musical projects is in yet another group. This one’s called How To Destroy Angels, and it includes Reznor’s wife Mariqueen Maandig, art director Rob Sheridan and the composer Atticus Ross. The video for their first single, “How Long,” is, to say the least, really scary. Not scary in a The Hills Have Eyes way, more like a that-could-be-the-future-in-my-lifetime way.

Welcome Oblivion, the band’s full-length debut, is due out March 5. They’re also playing Coachella in April.

Slightly Stoopid + Marlon “Ganja Farmer” Asher Sell Out The Mystic Theater

-
1
Photo by David Korman

Before Slightly Stoopid took the stage Sunday night at the Mystic Theater, vocalists Kyle McDonald and Miles Doughty were killing time back stage talking about living in Ocean Beach. OB, as locals call it, is still connected to San Diego but far enough away that kids can still skate around town and all your neighbors are at the punk rock shows. It is the last night of the band’s three week tour and the vibe is laid back. People are filtering in and out of back stage, the Jäger is flowing and sax scales are filling up the background.
Trinidad reggae star Marlon Asher is on stage and inside the green room there are stacks of Lagunitas “Hop Stoopid” beer cases. Slightly Stoopid is sponsored by the Petaluma brewery and they are sent truck loads of it for the band’s tours. I hear one or two people say it’s pretty strong for before the show. But as the night wears down and everyone’s sitting around the bong, a nice Double IPA aids the come-down.
Slightly Stoopid was formed almost twenty years ago by McDonald and Doughty. They were two high school kids when Brad Nowell signed them to Skunk Records after opening for a Sublime show in Long Beach. Most of the current members have been with the band half that time and in the last decade they’ve toured the whole world. Now with Karl Denson of the Grey Boy All-Stars, the band is sky-rocketing to new heights, playing venues and festivals that make the Mystic Theater seem like a secret show.

Continue

The Right Thing

SSU's new Ethics Center compromised Shepherd Bliss
Read more

Punk’s Not Dead (Yet)

Hardcore forefathers D.O.A. embark on 'farewell tour'
Read more

Wooden Wonders

Day-long guitar fest hits Sebastopol
Read more

Vermeil Wines

It's Late Harvest Sémillon time
Read more

Letters to the Editor: January 30, 2013

Letters to the Editor: January 30, 2013
Read more

It’s Swinth

I guarantee you this: the name Robin Swinth was on the lips of Santa Rosa City Council members well before the interview process to replace Susan Gorin's council seat unfolded this past Monday. Swinth was being mentioned by council members as a high-probable pick well before the 16 other applicants turned in their papers to city hall—and, yes, even...
Read more

QuenchThis

Teen gets flame retardant pulled from Gatorade
Read more

Buddy System

Raven Players serve up Neil Simon's 'Odd Couple'
Read more

How To Destroy Angels and Scare Yourself Shitless

Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails and many, many other musical projects is in yet another group. This one's called How To Destroy Angels, and it includes Reznor's wife Mariqueen Maandig, art director Rob Sheridan and the composer Atticus Ross. The video for their first single, "How Long," is, to say the least, really scary. Not scary...
Read more

Slightly Stoopid + Marlon “Ganja Farmer” Asher Sell Out The Mystic Theater

Photo by David Korman Before Slightly Stoopid took the stage Sunday night at the Mystic Theater, vocalists Kyle McDonald and Miles Doughty were killing time back stage talking about living in Ocean Beach. OB, as locals call it, is still connected to San Diego but far enough away that kids can still skate around town and all...
Read more
1...977978979...1,000Page 978 of 1,000
11,084FansLike
4,606FollowersFollow
6,928FollowersFollow
north bay bohemian newspaper sonoma napa county logo
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
East Bay Express cover
East Bay Express cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise About Us Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Writing an Obituary Archives Find a Paper Distribute Bohemian Vote for Best Of Plaques & Banners
win free stuff
Features Local News News
Arts Books & Literature Crush Culture Movies Music Spotlight Theater
Astrology Look Media Opinion Letters To The Editor Open Mic Press Pass Rolling Papers
Dining Restaurants Small Bites
Readers' Picks 2025 Arts & Culture Beer, Wine & Spirits Beauty, Health & Wellness Cannabis Everyday Services Family & Pets Home Improvement Recreation Restaurants Romance Shopping
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event
weeklys california local media group logo

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

Our Publications

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

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support Local Journalism