East Bay Magazine March - April 2024

Spring Revival

Renewing our spirit with arts

Perhaps more than our homes need a refresh

SpringRebirth

Whether or not Punxsutawney Phil ends up being right about the early timing of its arrival, spring is on the way. And with it come the ever-hopeful expectations of brighter days, warmer temps and a chance to air out the musty caverns of our homes (hearts and minds, too—or is that just me?).

This issue features a couple of articles to assist in our domestic revivals. Chloe Redmond Warner from Redmond Aldrich Design offers her expert eye on elevating spaces. And we round up a practical shortlist of local vendors to aid in the springtime rejuvenation of our living areas.

Although we’re lucky to live amidst so much natural beauty, the preserves of East Bay Regional Parks are also in need of regeneration. Over 1,500 acres of dead and dying trees present a wildfire danger that may best be rectified by “The Carbonator,” an enticingly named machine that can sequester carbon and enhance soils. Read about the parks’ fuels reduction project in this issue.

Nothing can quite revive the spirit and elicit the realm of possibilities conjured by spring like live theater and music. In our preview article, we present a diverse array of staged productions in the upcoming season of Oakland Theater Project. We also explore the diaspora of “Latin music”—a term as sweeping and

unspecific as “jazz”—with famed local percussionist John Santos, whose AfroCaribbean music is greatly inspired by Oakand’s revolutionary legacy.

Another concept needing redefining: aging, especially as it relates to women. While we all do our best to determine how we, er, mature (or don’t; as a Gen X friend likes to say, “Immaturity keeps me young!”), former firefighter and author Caroline Paul advises us to get outside. Whether we go whitewater rafting or watch birds in our backyard, having outdoor adventures is key to longevity and combatting society’s ageist messaging.

Because, as it turns out, society could use a light dusting here and there, too.

— Samantha Campos, Editor

JANE VICK is a journalist, artist and writer who has spent time in Europe, New York and New Mexico.

LOU FANCHER has been published in the Diablo

JANIS HASHE regularly contributes to the East Bay Express and other Bay Area publications.

J. POET has been writing about music for most of his adult life and has interviewed a wide spectrum of artists, including Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard and Godzilla.

PHOTO BY SAMANTHA CAMPOS

ELEVENTH SEASON

Lisa Ramirez as Martha in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ (2023).

Ghosts

Oakland Theater Project ’s spirited 12th season

and Ghosts Angels

BY Janis Hashe

The pandemic was hard on live theaters. Many small companies did not survive it. But innovative and scrappy Oakland Theater Project was able to draw inspiration from its home, scrappy and innovative The Town, and will now present its second full post-pandemic line-up starting in March.

In its 12th season, OTP will stage seven plays, ones that “echo from the past into the present in hopes of illuminating

the future,” according to the company. The season’s theme, “Ghosts of Past, Present and Future,” references not only characters in A Christmas Carol, but quantum physicist Ebenezer Scrooge’ s promise at the end of the story, “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!”

“

There were a number of plays that excited us,” said OTP managing director Colin Mandlin. “Important themes emerged, given the specter of Donald Trump and the war in Gaza. These plays

speak to the cyclical cycle in which we are haunted by our past.”

The season kicks off March 1-24 with the Bay Area premiere of Martyna Majok’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winner Cost of Living, about two disabled people and their caretakers, all of whom are struggling to make their lives meaningful.

Cost of Living is directed by Emilie Whelan, who directed OTP’s critically acclaimed production of Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus last year. Though she

« was not familiar with Majok’s writing initially, “I wept when I read it,” she said. “It’s a gentle play about intimacy among people who cross paths.”

As with the Broadway production, actors with disabilities will play those two characters. “Martyna is very specific about this,” said Whelan, “and the Bay Area is a perfect fit [for this casting].”

This includes Christine Bruno, who plays Ani, “and was part of the development of the play in 2017,” said Whelan, as well as Matthew Placencia, playing John, whose character has cerebral palsy.

“Ani is 41 [when the accident that disables her happens], while John was born with his condition,” Whelan said. “Ani begins the play hating her body, while John is used to moving through the world with exceptionalism.” The two caretakers, Eddie and Jess, have their own struggles. Eddie is an unemployed truck driver, and Jess, a first-generation American, is almost homeless, and trying to earn enough money to send back to her mother.

Cost of Living is written in nine scenes, and “the art is in the transitions,” said Whelan, “so that the audience is feeling one long brushstroke.

“Everyone is kind of spiky, coming from their loneliness,” she said. The play’s title reflects “how expensive everything is, and also how hard it is to figure out how to open up your heart.”

Next up, April 26-May 19, is the world premiere of Red Red Red by Amelio Garcia. This “genre-bending queer love story” takes the Greek myth of Geryon, a triple-bodied, red-winged monster who is slain by Herakles (Hercules) and instead uses inspiration from Anne Carson’s novel, Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse, in which Geryon is a boy who is also a winged red monster. Later in life, he falls in love with Herakles.

Asked about the challenges of staging this piece, Mandlin noted, “There will be magic realism, video projections all leading to a sense of awe.”

Another world premiere follows,

June 6-23, Michael Wayne Turner III’ s one-person show, The Ghost of King “How do we reckon with the whitewashing of MLK?” asked Mandlin. This piece uses as its starting point Dr. Martin Luther King’s statement, “Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house.”

OTP produced Turner’ s Hat Matter: Thoughts of a Black Mad Hatter in 2022, and that play is now being produced both off-Broadway and in London. “You don’t want to miss this performer,” said Mandlin.

In a first-ever co-production with Marin Shakespeare Company, OTP will present both parts of Tony Kushner’ s multi-award-winning Angels in America. When the now-classic premiered in 1991, its groundbreaking themes about the AIDS crisis, gay partnerships and the

LAST YEAR Janelle Cross as Racine in ‘Is God Is’ (2023)

“ghosts” that hover over American life made headlines. Now, said Mandlin, its other questions continue to resonate.

OTP materials ask: “Can the American democratic system and rule of law deliver justice? Is the system capable of facing difficult truths and transforming, or is America bound to struggle under a political system intent on exclusion and scapegoating?”

Angels’ major character Roy Cohn, political fixer, McCarthy-era lawyer and closeted homosexual who died of AIDS in 1986, was an important, early Donald Trump mentor. With Trump’ s continued presence on the political stage, Cohn’s malignant lessons are again “frighteningly literal,” said Mandlin.

Part I of Angels in America will play Sept. 27-Oct. 26; Part II from Oct. 11-27, both in Marin Shakespeare’s new 165seat indoor theater.

Another partnership, this one with New Performance Traditions, will present Dave Malloy’ s “ghost story-

musical,” Ghost Quartet, Nov. 1-24. Malloy has been much in East Bay theater news in the past couple of years, with hit stagings of his Octet at Berkeley Rep and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Shotgun Players. The piece, described as “a song cycle about love, death, and whiskey spanning seven centuries,” was supposed to be staged by OTP in 2021, noted Mandlin, but the pandemic interfered. The company is looking forward to presenting the “lyrical, theatrical” musical, he said.

The 2024 season’s final presentation, another world premiere, by Oakland native Marcus Gardley, is still TBA. Gardley, whose Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Gospel of Lovingkindness and LEAR all played at OTP, has been a bit busy, explained Mandlin, writing the screenplay for the current film version of The Color Purple, and serving as co-chair of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. OTP materials promise the premiere “will feature Gardley’ s

signature lyrical language, humor, profundity and epic narrative sweep.”

“

It will speak to the Oakland experience,” said Mandlin. Performance dates are Dec. 6-22, with the venue also TBA.

Mandlin described his own journey with OTP. A company co-founder, he left in 2017, but returned in 2020 just as OTP began facing the challenge of weathering the pandemic. “The past couple of years have been surviving, adapting and facing rising costs,” he said.

But “the artistic team is doing a stellar job. Our growth is now strong, and we want to fulfill the potential that exists for us,” he added. “We’ re developing our arts education program. And the City of Oakland deserves a marquee theater company.”

Oakland Theater Project at FLAX art & design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. oaklandtheaterproject.org, 510.646.1126.

PAST PRODUCTION Jomar Tagatac as Gary in ‘Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus’ (2023).

Back It’ll Be

The East Bay Regional Park District may have found the wildfirefighter equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The Terminator.”

The most recent California drought is over. But it, and the bigger issue of ongoing climate change, left behind over 1,500 acres of dead and dying trees within the East Bay Regional Park District’s 73 parks, over 1,330 miles of trails and 125,000 acres. Potential danger from wildfires is high, especially with many of the parks and trails being close to urban centers. The damage was initially assessed in the fall of 2020.

Trees most affected included nonnative eucalyptus, and to some degree, bay and pine. “We were facing a crisis,” said EBRPD general manager Sabrina Landreth in a Park District release. “I directed staff to assess the situation quickly and come together with a plan of action, including obtaining the necessary funding to begin addressing the die-off.”

The solution was to thin the trees, taking out those dead and dying, while preserving healthy native trees such as oaks, bays and madrone. But the first hurdle was funding.

In 2021, the District approached state officials for help, and the state responded

with a $10 million direct appropriation from the Legislature through Sen. Nancy Skinner, representing Berkeley, and then-Sen. Bob Wieckowski, representing Fremont. The total cost estimate to address the tree die-off issue is over $30 million.

This enabled EBRPD to make a significant start—but Fire Chief Aileen Theile was determined to find ways to reduce the damaged biomass without creating additional problems. Her background in environmental science and biology led her to explore new options. That included a pilot project in an 80-acre section of forest that was predominantly eucalyptus, near a former

shooting range in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, using a machine produced by Tigercat called “The Carbonator.”

The Carbonator, EBRPD materials explain, burns organic matter at extremely high temperatures—about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit—using very little oxygen to dispose of vegetation. The process is called “pyrolysis.” Emitting almost no smoke, its use results in very low greenhouse gas emissions. “The Carbonator aligned with our objectives,” said Theile in a phone interview. “It would sequester carbon, with no semis on the road carrying timber.”

Germany, Canada and the Nordic

countries have been using pyrolysis for years, and The Carbonator was already being used successfully by “Big Timber in the Sierra Nevadas,” she said. But the technology had never been used in a metropolitan area for biomass disposal on this scale.

“The GM had enough faith in me to OK [the pilot project],” said Theile. So, in 2023, The Carbonator was put to work in the chosen area in Anthony Chabot. Along with removing the selected trees, it also began burning “ladder fuels,” which are “vegetation and plant debris that can provide a route for flames on the ground to ignite progressively higher levels of

vegetation and reach the tree canopy,” EBRPD materials explain.

Theile, quoted in an article from the Park District’s website, said, “If the fire goes in the treetops, embers will be thrown aloft and cast into the wind, which means we end up chasing the fire. That’s how conflagrations like the Camp Fire, which in 2018 killed 85 people and destroyed two towns in Butte County, became so dangerous and so difficult to fight.”

The pilot program, completed in March 2023, was deemed a resounding success. Data and results were shared with the state and “other agencies

PHOTOS

TIGERCAT 6050

A machine called ‘The Carbonator’ was used in a pilot project in Anthony Chabot Regional Park.

facing similar challenges,” materials state. Yet another advantage of The Carbonator is that the material produced in its process, called biochar, has multiple uses. Essentially a very porous charcoal, it can be used as a soil enhancer, for example.

The Carbonator is now at work on a major fuels reduction project in a total of 365 acres in the same park. This project is using $7.5 million of the $10 million direct appropriation from the state Legislature, plus federal funds of $1.5 million secured by U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (CA).

At the time of the interview, 4,918 tons of dead and drought-damaged trees had been removed, creating 491 tons of biochar, according to Theile.

The website climatehubs.usda.gov describes the research now underway by the USDA Forest Service, USDA Agricultural Research Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, to “provide insight into how effective biochar”—a known binding agent, said Theile—“is at binding with heavy metals and chemicals from agricultural and road runoff for the purpose of environmental remediation.”

The same site noted that proven biochar applications include improving soil health, raising soil pH, remediating polluted soils, sequestering carbon, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving soil moisture.

The Park District is already using biochar in several of these ways, Theile said, including soil enhancement at Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont. Located on the former estate of George and Clara Patterson, whose family farmed there for more than 100 years, the site has been operated as a functioning turn-of-the-last-century farm by EBRPD since 1985.

Biochar is also being used to stabilize hillsides, in parks such El Sobrante’s Wildcat Canyon, and potentially in developing “biosoils” that can be used to clean runoff during rains such as the East Bay has experienced in 2024.

The Park District’s success with using The Carbonator has not gone unnoticed by other agencies. At the pilot project’s start, “BAAQMD (Bay Area Air Quality Management District) gave permission for a 24-hour burn,” said Theile, testing the level of emissions produced. BAAQMD has continued to inspect during the project and has been impressed by the results, she said. PG&E has also sent representatives to view the process and results.

This all ties into EBRPD’s stated goal of being an innovative leader in land management, including wildfire prevention. “As the largest regional park district of its kind in the nation and a local wildfire prevention leader, we knew we needed to lead the way in finding solutions,” said Landreth in a Park District article.

Theile noted that EBRPD has the

opportunity to “open the door” to new and effective ways to keep wildfire danger at bay. The Carbonator, she said, will definitely “be back” as the Park District explores expanding its use to other sites.

“We anticipate employing it on other projects,” Theile said. At the same time, she pointed out, “We are sharing information, and figuring out all the tools we can use in the tool box.”

Meanwhile, for obvious safety reasons, park visitors will not be allowed to see The Carbonator at work. The site is definitely a hard-hat-only zone, Theile said. But a visit to Ardenwood Historic Farm could begin to demonstrate how the biochar can contribute to a flourishing crop cycle. For information about Ardenwood activities, visit ebparks.org/ parks/ardenwood

Even The Terminator himself would be impressed.

The East Bay Regional Park District spans Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The District has its own fire department and fuels management crew. For more information, visit www.ebparks.org

POROUS CHARCOAL

Produced by The Carbonator in its process, biochar can be used as a soil enhancer.

Spaces Elevated

Chloe Redmond Warner of Redmond Aldrich Design knows how to raise the atmosphere

BY Lou Fancher

Every space designed by Redmond Aldrich Design is a multitasker.

“Even a corner can be given jobs,” says founder and creative director Chloe Redmond Warner. “The first step is making a space useful, and it will become alive. Then, there’s making it as beautiful and pleasant as possible. Finally, there’s the atmosphere: light, air, the sounds of nature, tactile features. If a space does even one of those things, it will feel great.”

PHOTO BY LAURE JOLIET

PORTFOLIO PICK The home of NBA star Andre Iguodala follows a more subdued, elegant stone-and-wood palette of white, gray, brown and tan.

PHOTO BY TORY PUTNAM

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Chloe Redmond Warner plans her aesthetic ‘fun’ in the Redmond Aldrich Design offices in Oakland.

Warner says all noteworthy spaces offer one or more of three elements: great architecture, art or interior design. In the best-case scenarios that describe the approach the firm considers foundational, a project possesses all three. Even so, if a space like a warehouse gallery lacks the first element but carries exceptional artwork, it’s successful on one level. Residential or commercial spaces that are architecturally stunning and have exquisite, appropriate interior design, she says are “powerful atmosphere squared,” and “if you have all three—architecture, art and design—the atmosphere’s raised to the third power.”

Elevated atmosphere is recognizable in the firm’s portfolio. A 1908 craftsman home of a young family in Piedmont is made vivid and boisterous with green, blue, rust, red, peach and other tones found in nature. Lively, geometric patterns animate the flooring, walls, furniture and textiles.

NBA star Andre Iguodala’s fivebedroom 7,000-square-foot house follows a more subdued, elegant stoneand-wood palette of white, gray, brown and tan. The over-sized spaces are made personal, warm and compelling with subtle lighting and by vibrant artwork such as an abstract painting by Nigerian American artist Odili Donald Odita in the spacious living room, a bathroom’s frolicking butterflies on deep green wallpaper by Peg Norriss, a slice of brilliant orange and eye-catching diagonal black-and-white stripes painted on the

walls of a teenager’s bedroom alcove and more.

Warner grew up in Montana. Her mother is a painter, ceramicist and yoga teacher and knew instinctively how to create a beautiful home. “My mom comes from a family where everybody has aesthetic intelligence,” she says. “They know how to make a room comfortable, appropriate, lovely. What goes into making interesting atmosphere? Some people are born knowing that: My mom was born with it.”

Her father is a wildlife zoologist and a collector skilled in the art of display. “He went through an Audubon print phase, a Japanese glass fishing float phase, antique guns for a while, then things he inherited—he was early on eBay and a big fan of offsite storage,” she says, laughing at the memories, but not the importance of placement, balance, variety, familiarity and visual novelty.

After attending the architecture program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and graduating in 2005, Warner moved to the Bay Area and established her studio. Striking out on her own instead of working in a studio owned by someone else was something she never questioned.

“I was young and had an architecture degree that gave me a false sense of confidence,” Warner says. “I thought, I’ll just hang out my shingle. Even my internships, there was an independent streak.”

An example provides convincing evidence. While interning in an office she admired and respected, Warner was tasked with organizing the art and supply closet. She recalls “taking the job seriously” and purging the office of everyone’s favorite pens and notebooks to replace them with materials she believed were superior.

“Looking back at that now, I would’ve died if an intern did that to me!” says Warner. “I recognize it was the spirit of someone at age 25 who was ready to make her own world.”

In Warner’s world, not only corners, vestibules, alcoves and small rooms in homes, but large spaces such as grand living rooms must support a gamut of services: socializing with guests, reading alone, doing a puzzle or playing floor games with the family, and ultimately, creating memorable moments. Sensory elements play a major role.

“That kind of awareness is everything,” she says. “It’s the primary foundation we build upon, and it’s unfortunate that interior design is communicated in flat pictures when so much of it is lived in the senses, how things sound and feel. Yes, it has to look good, but really, my truest tenet is that it’s all atmosphere.”

It’s fair and accurate to say the studio’s high-profile residential clients and toptier commercial projects have caught the attention of the industry. Magazine features and profile articles have appeared in The New York Times T Magazine, Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, House Beautiful, Vogue Living, Luxe Magazine, California Home + Design and more.

Awards received include the Luxe Red Award (2019), San Francisco Showcase House (2017) and California Home + Design (2011), among others. This year, Warner was selected to participate in the prestigious internationally recognized Kips Bay Decorator Show House in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The spacious 8,589 square feet of living space on the property offers »

TONAL POPS A 1908 craftsman home of a young family in Piedmont is made vivid and boisterous.

PHOTO BY LAURE JOLIET

the highly curated list of 23 winning interior designers ample opportunity to demonstrate their unique styles and share signature philosophies and approaches to the craft.

Speaking as a woman entrepreneur, Warner suggests the field of interior design is rare. “It’s one of the few industries where the people at the top are at least half, if not mostly, women. It has always felt friendly, and there are a lot of role models to look up to,” she says. “Women interior designers are professional, punctual, honest, very funny, wonderful listeners, and care about the comfort of people they’re with. It’s not lonely, and you can see yourself as a woman in this business. For that reason, I haven’t felt friction.”

If gender-related tension does exist, it’s in the synapses between architecture and interior design. According to Warner, architecture is considered more masculine and prestigious. “It doesn’t have to be that way. After being an artist who got into architecture school based on her painting

portfolio, getting a degree and working successfully in design, they’re all about contributing and creating things that are beautiful and aesthetic. I’m advocating for all of them to be on equal footing,” Warner notes.

She names British designer Ilse Crawford as someone she admires and would like to work with and recalls receiving valuable advice early in her career from “the iconic” San Francisco designer Martha Angus. Respect for designers such as Americans Albert Hadley and Sister Parish, the UK’s Rose Uniacke and others, and a fondness for designs found in classic properties such as the Villa Kerylos in France, combined with a practical, California contemporary mindset, have most recently catapulted Warner back into painting. The restorative art-making practice has generated energy to launch new fabric, wallpaper and furniture lines.

“I was too busy leading the firm for many years and had stopped painting,”

she says. “Making things from scratch again was the impetus. I started painting flora and fauna while in Maine. I use gouache because it has the immediacy of acrylic or watercolor and the pigment and layering of oil paints. With the furniture, nothing makes me more sad than a sofa that doesn’t last. There’s no reason to make fast furniture, which still has environmental cost. The new furniture will be built one at a time by living artists and craftspersons making beautiful things and will definitely not be fast furniture.”

Asked about what she hopes is true one year from now, Warner says, “I’m satisfied and just want things to continue, to be honest. I’m excited to develop the furniture, fabric and wallpaper and see them come alive and who uses them. It will be fun.”

And soon, with magical, atmospheric interior design and the new lines, every space touched by Redmond Aldrich Design will perform and “do its job.” ❤

ANDRE’S ALAMO The oversized spaces of Iguodala’s home are made personal, warm and compelling with subtle lighting and vibrant artwork.

PHOTO BY LAURE JOLIET

Refresh

East Bay vendors offer seasonal ways to enhance and elevate the home

Spring

Spring

SBY Jane Vick

pring is in the air—between droplets of much-needed rain. The freshness and smell of petrichor have many opening their windows and thinking spring cleaning, perhaps even spring redecorating. Why not? The East Bay is rife with options for home enhancement. In honor of fresh air and new flowers, one can make the most of spring with the following home and garden enhancement options. »

Paraíso Plant Studio

1780 Fourth St., Berkeley paraisoplant.studio.com

Supporting Paraiso, a local, Latina-owned small business in Berkeley, is a no-brainer. Specializing in plants that thrive indoors, Paraíso has an incredible collection of houseplants. Among them are the monstera deliciosa, also known as the split-leaf philodendron, with heart-shaped leaves and streaks of white through green, thought to bring good energy to the home, and the climbing pothos plant, which purifies air and spruces up the corner of any dull room. Paraíso also has expert advice on pests, light, watering and more, so even the plant novice leaves feeling a budding green thumb.

a Latina-owned the budding green thumb.

KCC Modern Living

805 University Ave., Berkeley kccmodernliving.com

KCC provides an opportunity for everything from a single-piece refresh to an entire house overhaul, with a reasonable price tag. Carrying over 60 high-end furniture lines, the store has

elegant options for everyone’s taste. The 9,000-square-foot Berkeley showroom gives interested buyers plenty to peruse and experience before making any major adjustments to their home. From sofas and sectionals to lighting and outdoor furniture, KCC has all options necessary to create a spring-fresh living space.

Terra Outdoor Living

1823 Eastshore Highway, Berkeley terraoutdoor.com

Terra Outdoor Living is outdoor living at its best—the elegantly designed outdoor sets and individual pieces elevate a backyard from quaint or cute to picturesque, warm and inviting. For those looking to make 2024 the year of outdoor dinner parties, garden fêtes and early morning coffee and reading sessions, Terra Outdoor Living can be the facilitator. Their website may be explored by material, product or collection to find the exact right color, durability and style. All Terra products are exclusive to their brand, Bentana, and feature premium quality European designs. Plus they only use responsibly sourced Indonesian legal

co ee sessions, Terra Outdoor Living can be the

wood for their teak furnishing, making for eco-consciousness and subtle glamor all in one.

Sue Oda Landscape Architect

617 Evelyn Ave., Albany sueoda.com

wood for their teak furnishing, making for her extensive portfolio includes patios, of

Sue Oda began creating landscapes at eight years of age and has never looked back. She has produced stunning landscapes from commercial to residential, working with the city of Oakland, designing parks, community gardens and playgrounds. Now exclusively in residential landscape architecture, her extensive portfolio includes patios, outdoor entertainment and dining, entry gardens, decks, trellises and more. The firm has won Best of the East Bay from East Bay Express two years in a row, and is a phenomenal option for those looking to enhance, embellish or altogether redo their garden space for spring. From drought-resistant to Asian-style gardens, Oda’s skill and vision allow for every garden dream to become a reality.

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Transitional sunrooms allow for the ‘best of both worlds’ scenario: natural light and shelter from the elements.

«

LMB Interiors

339 15th St., Suite 301, Oakland lmbinteriors.com

Laura Martin Bovard Interiors offers a stunning opportunity for the design expert and novice alike to curate exquisite, fresh, welcoming spaces. Inspired by her time in France and Italy and her early

work managing restaurants, Laura Martin Bovard believes in the balance and harmony between our spaces and everything else. The goal of LMB as a design firm is to create an interior that truly emulates and amplifies the best qualities of its inhabitants. For those looking to go all the way with a spring refresh, LMB is a wealth of creative design knowledge and resources.

Blue Dog Construction and Renovation

3158 Gloria Terr., Lafayette bluedogrenovation.com

Gut Ding will Weile haben means, loosely, good things take time. This is Blue Dog Construction and Renovation’s motto, and ensures that they always produce the best in remodels and renovations. Dedicated to high-quality construction, materials and green building practices, Blue Dog ensures their final result is not only to the client’s liking but also stands the test of time. As interior renovations, deck work, add-ons and more are all in their toolkit, this spring one may make full use of their expertise. Perhaps a new deck is just the thing for spring...

use of their expertise. Perhaps a new deck is just the thing for spring...

Masaya Homes

1911 Fourth St., Unit 104, Berkeley masayahomes.com

An exceptional company, Masaya Homes provides seven different styles of ADUs, each built from teak they grow in their own forests. These ADUs are turnkey— Masaya takes care of everything from permitting to delivery to set up, and hands over the keys once everything is finished. This could be the year for a yoga shed, artist’s studio, meditation room, music studio or whatever the springtime heart desires. Masaya has everything necessary to make additional space dreams come true, in an elegant, easy and eco-conscious way. ❤

Homes provides seven different styles of ADUs, each built from teak they grow in their own forests. These ADUs are turnkey—Masaya takes care of everything from permitting to delivery to set up, and hands over the keys once everything is finished. This could be the year for a yoga shed, artist’s studio, meditation room, music studio or whatever the springtime heart desires. Masaya has everything necessary to make additional space dreams come true, in an elegant, easy and eco-conscious way. ❤

PHOTO BY ANITA AUSTVIKA, COURTESY OF UNSPLASH

Rhythms Resistance

of

The wide range and revolutionary influences of percussionist John Santos’ Afro-Caribbean music

JBY j. poet

ohn Santos has been playing congas, cajón, timbales and dozens of other percussion instruments for most of his life.

The Bay Area’s music scene would not be as rich and varied as it is without his input. He calls his style AfroCaribbean, rather than the more familiar terms, Afro-Cuban or Latin music.

OLD SCHOOL ‘Vieja Escuela’ is the new album by the John Santos Sextet, featuring (from left) Santos, Dr. John Calloway, Saul Sierra, Marco Díaz, David Flores and Charlie Gurke

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PHOTO BY TOM EHRLICH

“Saying ‘Latin music’ is akin to saying ‘jazz,’” Santos said, from the Oakland home he shares with his wife, the writer Aida Salazar, and their two children. “When we try to categorize the music by one term, it limits it. My music has a wide range. We have the folkloric element of different AfroCuban and Afro-Puerto Rican styles, the dance music element, which also has many varieties: danzón, mambo, rumba. Then you have more experimental and contemporary expressions, from funk to hip-hop, as well as different styles of jazz and the whole romantic element of poetry in ballads and boleros.

“The term Afro-Cuban was used in the ’40s and ’50s to describe the music, mainly coming from New York City, but other places as well. Over the years, with

the influence of every country in Latin America and the Caribbean coming into the mix, the term is not accurate to express the kind of music we make,” he continued.

Santos’ eclectic approach is evident on Vieja Escuela, his new album with the John Santos Sextet. The title translates as “Old School” and pays homage to the older generation of players, using traditional rhythms as a foundation. It includes four legendary players—singer Ernesto Oviedo, composer and tumbadoras player Raul de la Caridad Gonzalez Brito, trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez and bongo master Orestes Vilató. Since the recordings were made, everyone but Vilató has passed on.

The album is out on Machete Records, the indie label Santos started in 1984.

“I’ve never had outside funding, and I’m constantly writing, as are the other members of the band,” Santos noted. “When I get some extra money, I go into a studio and record. When elders or mentors come to town, I’ll bring them into the studio and record with them, or have them add to something we’ve already recorded. We record at a higher rate than what I can put out, so I end up stockpiling tracks. Much of this music was done well over a decade ago.”

Vieja Escuela lives up to its title, with seven tunes that cover the band’s wide range. “Esta Rumba Si,” written by Raul Gonzalez Brito, features the piano of Marco Díaz, supporting the multilayered percussion tracks laid down by Santos, Gonzalez Brito and the Sextet’s Dave Flores. The lyric nods to

PHOTO BY COLE THOMPSON

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BLACK & BROWN Santos said Oakland’s musical and political history often influences his music.

The idea of resistance and revolution is a major part of my music ... The most important part of our art is documenting that voice of resistance.

the rumba’s African and Cuban roots.

Nuyorican icon Jerry Gonzalez adds his trumpet fills to “That Walk,” a Santos composition. It combines jazz, poetry spoken by Rico Pabon and a subtle bata rhythm. “Lago Xochimilco” is a mellow danzón/mambo, by bass player Saul Sierra, that shifts between 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4 time, allowing the band to show off its instrumental chops.

Santos contributed informative liner notes that delve into the musical, political and historical nuances of the music. Those insights make the music come alive in a stimulating way. “People have been asking me to write a book about the connections between Africa, Cuba, the Caribbean and the Bay Area for 30 years,” he said. “I don’t know how to type, and between gigs, composing, practicing, raising two teenagers and teaching, it would be hard to find the time to write.”

Since he grew up surrounded by music, it seemed inevitable that Santos would become a musician. “I was banging on pots and pans at home, inspired by the music my relatives played at family gatherings,” he recalled. “I started playing congas, emulating the guys in my granddad’s band. Then, a Cuban family moved in across the street, and the dad gave me a copy of Mongo Santamaria’s Yambu.”

Listening to the album was a lifechanging experience. Santos began experimenting with timbales, bongos

and other percussion instruments. He was sitting in with his grandfather’s band when he was 12. After that, he joined La Orquesta Tipica Cienfuegos and got them to rehearse until they were smoking.

They morphed into Orquesta Batachanga, mixing Afro-Cuban folkloric and dance music, with flavors from Puerto Rico and Brazil. They made two albums, La Nueva Tradición (1981) and Mañana Para Los Niños (1984), which was the first release for the Machete Records label Santos had started, then played a couple of concerts and broke up.

Next up was the Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble, a band that wrote, composed and arranged original music and played Afro-Cuban classics. After changing the name to the Machete Ensemble, they became one of the premiere AfroCaribbean bands on the West Coast. Their album, SF Bay, was nominated for a Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy in 2003.

“I disbanded the group in 2006,” Santos said. “I started the John Santos Quartet in 2003, which morphed into a quintet and now a sextet. Last year, we released Filosofía Caribeña Vol. 3: A Puerto Rico Del Alma. We wanted to introduce people to a Caribbean philosophy, as an antidote to the systematic failure of a government driven by money and greed.”

Santos said Oakland’s musical and political history often influences his music. “Things are always in flux in this gentrified society we live in. Oakland has

a diverse working-class community, but in the last 30 years, it’s been slowly getting more expensive to live here. That said, Oakland’s blues and funk, with bands like Tower of Power, have stood the test of time.

“We use elements of funk in our music, as is evident on the new record,” Santos noted. “The idea of resistance and revolution is a major part of my music. Oakland is a Black and Brown town, at least traditionally, with the Black Panthers and Angela Davis. She’s an icon and an amazing inspiration to us. So are the Panthers and what they stood for in defending the community, speaking up about injustice, the People’s Free Food programs and all the things they did. That’s the kind of political awareness we try to keep present in our music. The most important part of our art is documenting that voice of resistance.“

Santos can be heard locally on the following dates:

Santos, Cuban percussionist Einar Leliebre and guitarist Kai Lyons will be supporting Arturo O'Farrill and an orchestra April 4-14 at the SF Ballet, sfballet.org.

The John Santos Sextet with special guests, May 3 at Yoshi’s, yoshis.com.

The John Santos Sextet with special guests, a Tribute to Jerry and Andy Gonzalez, June 6 at SF Jazz, sfjazz.org.

Adventurous Aging

Setting out to resolve a puzzling question about why women over the age of 50 choose or are forced into lives of fear over flat-out fun and fulfillment, New York Times bestselling writer Caroline Paul uncovered the answer of her dreams: They don’t have to.

In her new book, Tough Broad, the Bay Area-based former firefighter and lifelong outdoor adventurist tells stories of explorations she took in nature with women during the pandemic. The book is published by Bloomsbury and will be released March 5.

Paul’s investigation of BASE jumping, boogie boarding, airplane wing walking, orienteering, BMX bike racing, swimming, birdwatching and other activities carries all the life-affirming signatures of her previous books.

Those titles are: Fighting Fire, about her 14-year career as one of San Francisco’s

BY Lou Fancher

Author Caroline Paul encourages women of a certain age to explore the outdoors in ‘Tough Broad’

first female firefighters; East Wind, Rain, a mystery novel set in Hawaii and loosely based on a true and tragic story; Lost Cat, which told of searching for a wayward feline using GPS technology; and two books aimed at middle-age women and empowerment: The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure and You Are Mighty: A Guide to Changing the World

Tough Broad’s 15 chapters are divided into four sections: spirit, body, brain and heart. In a call-to-arms that seems inevitable given Paul’s history that includes flying experimental planes, commuting on a Onewheel, mountain biking during a blizzard in the Bolivian Andes, open-sea kayaking and more, her message to women is backed by hefty scientific and cultural research.

Numerous studies and facts shared by experts in medicine, psychology and gerontology find their place without disturbing the narrative voice of the true experts: women in their older years.

WOMEN’S WORK Paul’s new book, ‘Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing WalkingHow Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age,’ is available March 5.

Many of them, like BASE jumper Shawn Brokemond and orienteer Penny DeMoss, are from the Bay Area.

These lives stand in clear counterpoint to broader society’s storytelling. Aging is not, as even Paul once believed, “the downhill slide to imminent death.” Instead, while admitting her joints creak more than in the past, and injuries sometimes cannot be dismissed quickly, accompanying each woman in her chosen endeavor reveals—for Paul and readers—the curative aspects of outdoor experiences allowing women well into their 70s, 80s and 90s to thrive.

In an interview, Paul says the takeaway after writing the book was that her definition of outdoor adventure was irreversibly altered.

“In my heart, there were things when I started the book I didn’t think were adventurous or would satisfy me, although they would certainly add to quality aging,” says Paul. “Birdwatching or boogie boarding, two activities I didn’t think would fill me up, I found really could. In that way, I was changed. When I was younger, the adrenalin and being first in things were a lot of what I found in adventurous realms. I never appreciated the (physical and mental health) aspects of awe in nature. Now I do, and there’s lots of science to support that.”

Arguably, Paul took nature for granted because she grew up immersed in it. Her parents practiced “free-range, 1980-style parenting.” By allowing Paul and her identical twin sister, actress/ activist Alexandra Paul, and their younger brother, animal rights leader Jonathan Paul, to roam the Connecticut outdoors at will and without dinner table interrogations, they learned selfdependency and confidence early on.

“I was loved and cared for, make no mistake,” says Paul. “My parents were clear they wanted me to be well-rounded. I also played flute. We went to church to have the option of spirituality. They put us on skates and cross-country skis, even though we hated it. They wanted to expose us to everything. My mother had grown up with a mother who was especially fearful,

so she exposed us to things because she thought it would give us a social life she didn’t have. I have stitches in my head and remember I was just taken to the doctor, stitched up and never told not to do what I’d been doing again.”

The hands-off parenting extended to her identity as an identical twin. Her parents never had DNA tests done and addressed them as fraternal. Their primary concern was that no one call them “the girls.” Dressed differently and expressing themselves in different ways, Paul says they could be competitive, but not in a win-lose way.

“We switched that into a positive thing: swimmers who never swam the same stroke but had fights in the middle of the lake about swimming an extra mile to be better,” Paul says. “I learned doggedness and was inspired by her, but we’re different. She became an actress who played a rescuer (on Baywatch); I became

a real-life rescuer and firefighter. She’s straight; I’m queer. We didn’t even know we were identical until we were in our 30s.”

Turning her attention to the book, Paul says wondering about her future as she neared 60 caused her to examine the messaging directed at women as they age. She wanted to continue leading a vibrant life, and in part was inspired by seeing her mother flourish and redefine herself multiple times after age 40. (Chapter 14 tells her mother’s moving story as a skydiving and cycling enthusiast who turned to gardening only when balance issues prevailed.)

Convinced the outdoors is key to combating society’s ageist messaging and slowing the realistic but undeniable effect of time on human biology, Paul was surprised that “badass adventures” included not only running into a burning building but simply going outdoors.

OUTDOOR EXPLORER Caroline Paul is a ‘New York Times’ bestselling author, former firefighter and identical twin.

PHOTO BY LAUREN TABAK

Upend yourself, get outside, adapt physically, look at your fear instead of metrics, then walk to see birds, boogie board in cold water, find outdoor adventure that works for you.

“Novelty is super important, physically and neurally,” Paul says. “The outdoors is inherently an adventure. It will always throw you a curveball. It constantly changes, and that creates opportunity for invigorating novelty, physical health training and wellbeing in terms of access to trees, bird songs, wind and something super important: community.”

Miss Kittie (Westpn-Knauer), a BMX biker featured in the book, is involved in an individual sport, but practices in community with other bikers, Paul emphasizes. “Penny DeMoss, the orienteer, her experience confirms research that movement and brain activity improve creativity. She was running at speed while navigating through thistles that triggered her brain. A lot of things I do, like surfing and Onewheeling, I do on my own. But even with those, I come into community with others. There’s a sense of belonging.

Things happen physically, emotionally and mentally when you share the same wave boogie boarding.”

Paul says the biggest problem with ageism, like other isms, is subtlety. “Remember, we didn’t march through the streets protesting racism until it was way too late. We marched in the ’60s and then not until 2020, and racism had been going on the whole time. Isms are deeply woven into our institutions. Ageism’s a glance or word that out of context doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it’s pervasive.

“All I have to say is ‘women at a certain age feel invisible,’ and women that age and older start nodding,” says Paul. “Not everyone’s a bad person, but we’re all doing it. We’re ageist about our own aging by trying to be younger. You’re wasting your time, and now that we’re older and in an exciting place to be, we should embrace it with curiosity and enthusiasm. Upend yourself, get

outside, adapt physically, look at your fear instead of metrics, then walk to see birds, boogie board in cold water, find outdoor adventure that works for you.”

Paul says examining the women’s desire and determination for adventure altered her perspectives in crucial ways. Birdwatching changed her view of the outdoor world. Similarly, observing adaptations made by women like her mother, or the creativity and power of women with physical disabilities as they adapted to changing circumstances, supplanted any ideas she held that balance issues, loss of brute strength, wheelchairs, limited financial resources, or naturally aging bodies and minds placed outdoor adventure off-limits.

Ultimately, Tough Broad shows everyone that a straitjacketed mindset is the primary obstacle preventing women as they age from overcoming fear and finding fun and fulfillment. ❤

DANGER!

CLIMATE CHANGER

Garbage is a manufactured product, created when otherwise recoverable resources are mixed and mashed together. Most rooms in every building in the whole country have a basket where this manufacturing begins. Discarded resources are put in one by one, then dumped into a larger bin, and then into a truck with a more modern body based on this one. A hydraulic piston smashes everything together. The objective is to pack in more cargo before the truck has to be driven to where it can dump onto the land, to be covered in a “sanitary“ way. Liquids leach out and make their way into the planet's

water eventually. These “sanitary” methods of filling the land (hence “sanitary landfills”) also provide for anaerobic decomposition of organic materials – which makes methane.

Landfills are the largest human-created source of methane. In the short term methane is 80-100 times more powerful than carbon dioxide to warm the planet.

Making garbage changes the climate!

If you're not for Zero Waste, how much waste are you for?

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day from February 12, 2002, colored the methane in the Earth's atmosphere green, and an animation showed how it spins to the poles NASA said, “Methane (CH4) is second only to carbon dioxide (CO2) in creating a warming greenhouse effect The largest abundance released by the US … is created when anaerobic bacteria break down carbon-based garbage in landfills.” [Emphasis added ]

Urban Ore has been salvaging for reuse in Berkeley since 1981. We have 3 acres of secondhand goods, open 360 days a year until 5:00PM, 900 Murray St. near 7th x Ashby Come shop