Nbb1649

VOTE FOR 2017 BEST OF AT BOHEMIAN.COM

SERVING SONOMA & NAPA COUNTIES | DECEMBER 7-13, 2016 | BOHEMIAN.COM • VOL. 38.31

Shop Local Gift Ideas

Don't Add Water In an era of drought, Paul Bernier has perfected dry-farmed grapes p18 WATER POLITICS P8

SONOMA GUIDEBOOK P12

SURF TECH P24

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

2

3

Bohemian

Editor

Stett Holbrook, ext. 202

News Editor

Tom Gogola, ext. 106

Arts Editor

Charlie Swanson, ext. 203

Copy Editor

Gary Brandt, ext. 150

It’s a Win-Win Situation.

Great Pay. Great Benefits.

Contributors

Rob Brezsny, Richard von Busack, James Knight, Ari LeVaux, David Templeton, Tom Tomorrow, Brad Torchia, Flora Tsapovsky

Intern

Amelia Malpas

Design Director

no payroll deductions for employee health insurance 401k retirement savings with employer match generous paid time off

Kara Brown

free daily meals during paid breaks

Art Director

tuition reimbursement

Tabi Zarrinnaal

Production Operations Manager Sean George

Senior Designer Jackie Mujica, ext. 213

Layout Artist Gary Brandt

now hiring full-time positions • Janitorial

• VIP Bartender

• Counter Attendant

Lisa Marie Santos, ext. 205

• Security Officer

• Beverage Server

Advertising Account Managers

• Dishwasher

• Hotel Front Desk Ambassador

• Rewards Center Representative

Advertising Director

Augusto León, ext. 212 Mercedes Murolo, ext. 207 Lynda Rael, ext. 204

• Kitchen Worker

Sales Operations Manager

other positions also available

Deborah Bonar, ext. 215

• Housekeeping Attendant

• Cook

• Valet Attendant

Publisher

Rosemary Olson, ext. 201

CEO/Executive Editor Dan Pulcrano NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN [ISSN 1532-0154] (incorporating the Sonoma County Independent) is published weekly, on Wednesdays, by Metrosa Inc., located at: 847 Fifth St., Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Phone: 707.527.1200; fax: 707.527.1288; e-mail: editor@bohemian.com. It is a legally adjudicated publication of the county of Sonoma by Superior Court of California decree No. 119483. Member: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, National Newspaper Association, California Newspaper Publishers Association, Verified Audit Circulation. Subscriptions (per year): Sonoma County $75; out-of-county $90. Thirdclass postage paid at Santa Rosa, CA. FREE DISTRIBUTION: The BOHEMIAN is available free of charge at numerous locations, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for one dollar, payable in advance at The BOHEMIAN’s office. The BOHEMIAN may be distributed only by its authorized distributors. No person may, without permission of the publisher, take more than one copy of each issue.The BOHEMIAN is printed on 40 % recycled paper.

COMPLETE YOUR ONLINE APPLICATION TODAY AT GratonResortCasino.com/careers

288 Golf Course Drive West | Rohnert Park, CA P 707.588.7100

Published by Metrosa, Inc., an affiliate of Metro Newspapers ©2016 Metrosa Inc.

Cover photo by Brad Torchia.

Cover design by Tabi Zarrinnaal.

Rohnert Park, CA. © 2016 Graton Resort & Casino

JOB #: GRT-132708

JOB TITLE: DEC EMPLOY 1

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

847 Fifth St., Santa Rosa, CA 95404 Phone: 707.527.1200 Fax: 707.527.1288

Ari LeVaux

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

4

HOW DRY HE IS Paul Bernier’s secret to great grapes?

Don’t water them, p18.

Voted Best Plastic Surgeon 2009–2016

New faster teatments without surgery or downtime.

B OA R D C E R T I F I E D PL A S T I C S U R G EO N | L A S E R C E N T E R 1128 Sonoma Ave, Santa Rosa | 707.575.1626 | www.drdavidmarcus.com

nb

‘It was the quintessential light-bulb moment.’ A RTS & I D EAS P 24 Kicking the Irrigation Habit COVE R STO RY P1 8

New Monsoon Reigns MUSIC P28

Farm-to-Bong Is Here Ethnic Arts Jewelry Clothes Beads 1149 First St., Napa 707.252.3060

TH E NUG G ET P38 Rhapsodies & Rants p6 The Paper p8 Dining p12 Swirl p16 Cover Feature p18

Culture Crush p23 Arts & Ideas p24 Stage p26 Film p27 Music p28

Clubs & Concerts p29 Arts & Events p32 Wineries p14 The Nugget p38 Astrology p39

5

STOREWIDE SALE NOW THROUGH DECEMBER 9TH

10 - 60% OFF DEMOS & MORE

STEREO SYSTEMS, TURNTABLES, WIRELESS STREAMERS, ULTRA HI-DEF TVS, HEADPHONES, PORTABLE SPEAKERS & MORE DECK YOUR HALLS WITH BEAUTIFUL MUSIC THIS HOLIDAY SEASON AND BEYOND!

CUSTOM ELECTRONIC DESIGN & INSTALATION ASSOCIATION

MEMBER

1044 4th Street, Santa Rosa l 707.595.2020 | www.LavishHiFi.com l Tues–Fri: 1–6:30pm | Sat: 10–6pm

Dr. Mara Vejby SRJC Graduate SRJC Anthropology Instructory Read my story: stories.santarosa.edu

START HERE We'll Get You There Register Now for Spring 2017 – Classes Start January 17 Explore & Apply Online Anytime www.santarosa.edu/now GET STARTED - Assessment, Counseling, Financial Aid & Scholarships - SAT. JAN 14, Santa Rosa, Petaluma - Free Parking

2

SRJC C17S BOHEMIAN Rejuvenate Your Body • Relax Your Mind 9" w x 3.125" h Soothe Your Soul Mara Vejby: pub dates 12/7, 12/14, 12/21

Happy Holidays Jaiyen Gift Cards

Make the Perfect Gift!

Available In-Store and Online

www.JaiyenSpa.com Downtown Sebastopol: 7106 Bodega Ave 707.861.3562

THAI MASSAGE • FACIALS • DEEP TISSUE • HOT STONE • SPA PACKAGES

9070 Windsor Road Windsor

707 836 1840 MarkShimizuDesign.com

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Annual Holiday Sale

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

6

Rhapsodies BOHEMIAN

Left Coast Writhing In reading the article by Robert Reich (“Left Coast Rising,” Nov. 30), I was surprised by his argument, extolling California’s virtues, that the state’s high tax rate gives it the ability to insure more than 12 million poor Californians. He concludes that California’s progressive policies are far better for the citizenry than those of conservative states like Texas and Kansas. Mr. Reich misses the

most obvious and glaring fallacy of his argument: that he classifies nearly onethird of California’s population as poor.

The policies he lauds are indeed at the heart of the wealth and income disparity in California. The reality of Mr. Reich’s California is that the wealthy are doing quite well; the poor, not so much. There are many great things about California, but those argued by Mr. Reich condemn a third of Californians to a certain and lasting life of poverty.

THIS MODERN WORLD

BILL OAKES

Sebastopol

Fracking Funders Thank you for shining a bright and badly needed light on the practices of some Marin-based investment firms that make huge investments in oil pipelines, oil wells and the fracking industry (“The Spigot,” Oct. 26). It is very disappointing and a shame that, at the same time that thousands of people are at Standing Rock, N.D., to bravely demand protection of our water and environment, the named Marin financial firms are “fracking funders.”

By Tom Tomorrow

I applaud [your] investigative journalism and also naming some of the national firms that continue to invest in industries that pollute our planet and our lungs. The investing public should know that many of the very largest mutual fund companies, such as Vanguard, continue to heavily invest in oil and tobacco industry holdings such as ExxonMobil, Dominion Resources, Chevron Corporation, Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Suncor Energy and Occidental Petroleum.

The investing public should also know that there are other local investment and financial planning firms that work hard to limit or completely avoid investing in these and other dirty industries. There are many other ways to responsibly and prudently invest capital.

Thank you again for calling attention to this important issue.

PAUL BONAPART Via Pacificsun.com

Tread Here Please find attached my much-improved version of the Gadsden flag. The sooner we put this particular snake underfoot, the better.

BILL GEAGAN Healdsburg

Write to us at letters@bohemian.com.

Dear Fellow Christians Let us lead the way away from Trump

BY TREVOR HOFFMANN

A

small and violent minority of Americans is pushing hard for things like mandatory registration of Muslims, mass deportation of illegal immigrants and an openly, violently, unapologetically white-supremacist America.

Those who voted for Donald Trump—and an agenda that included hatred of women, incitement to racial violence and total disregard for facts, among other inhuman and un-Christian plans of action— may not all be actively violent racists, but they have agreed to be on the same team as those violent racists.

And though I cannot understand how, many of these people are Christians.

Somehow, many Trump supporters think that they have done the world, and even God, a holy service by renewing violence, oppression—or tacit acceptance of the same—toward people who have never been given the rights and freedoms afforded to white Christians.

My fellow Christians, I am begging you: Do not remain silent, even to keep peace with one another. To prevent violence, we must face the violent. We white male Christians, especially, must put an end to our complacency and speak truth to power—and to our neighbors and families—before more lives are lost.

It should be us: we can do so with the least risk of being shot.

Our fellow Christians have hardened their hearts to the needy and hungry, often cherry-picking from the pre-Jesus parts of the Bible to justify their judgment. But we believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in a gentle, tolerant, self-sacrificing savior who is the way, the truth and the life. His example is what we are called to follow. Though it drive us into poverty ourselves; though it be very painful, we have an opportunity, and a mission, to be like Christ.

Let’s not wait until violence is breaking out against black, LGBTQ, native and female Americans. Let’s put ourselves at the front. Let’s show Jesus to Christians. Gently, kindly, in a way that diffuses violence, let’s do our best to be Jesus to those who may have lost him most. Let’s stand up now, before we are the only ones who can.

Trevor Hoffmann is a Petaluma-raised actor and director. Open Mic is a weekly feature in the ‘Bohemian.’ We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write openmic@bohemian.com.

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Rants

7

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

8

Paper THE

DEBR IEFER Lord of the Wingnuts Last week we learned one Lord Christopher Monckton would be hosted at the Lomitas Schoolhouse in Santa Rosa in a talk titled “Using ‘Climate Change’ to Attack Rural America.”

But by popular, if not populist, demand, the event was moved late last week to the city-owned Finley Community Center, which will host Monckton Dec. 7 in its senior wing.

The Monckton talk in Santa Rosa is one of four taking place in California this week sponsored by the Eagle Forum (and co-sponsored locally by North Bay Patriots). The Eagle Forum is the hard-right organization founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, known for its stridently anti-immigration, anti-feminist, “pro-family,” antiglobalist agenda.

SEA CHANGE In the wake of California’s historic drought, the free-for-all use of groundwater is coming to an end as Napa and Sonoma counties work to implement a new state law that requires they monitor and regulate their water use.

New Era on Tap Sonoma and Napa counties respond differently to new groundwater law BY STETT HOLBROOK

C

all it a tale of two counties.

A new state law requires that local governments regulate groundwater for the first time.

Sonoma County has begun a lengthy process to create long-

term sustainable groundwater management plans for its at-risk water basins. Napa County, by contrast, is taking an alternate route, as it argues its groundwater use is already sustainably managed.

While Sonoma County has been praised for its go-slow process,

critics say Napa County is fasttracking its plan in an effort to avoid substantive changes to water use dominated by the wine industry. But Napa County officials counter that a recently written groundwater analysis says that, in effect, while there are challenges, the county’s ) 10

The president of the California Eagle Forum is a woman named Orlean Koehle, who founded the Sonoma County Land Rights Coalition back in 2006.

The county resident recently published a book that warned of an upcoming one-world religion.

Her website warns that “many believe [it] will be an Islam/New Age/pagan religion.”

Monckton is a British climatechange denier and Brexit proponent, and a press release announcing his appearance says the issues are indeed related.

“The control that the European Union was exercising over the British people and their property and water rights is similar to the controls we are experiencing in rural America today—using the excuse of climate change.”

A review of online resources and reports that have popped up over the years highlights that Monckton, besides the climate-change denial, has been a proponent of the birther lie about President ) 11 The Bohemian started as The Paper in 1978.

9 ge

$6

nera

SONOMA COUNTY PARKS

l $49

senior

DRIVE CLEAN & SAVE!

Annual Park Membership includes:

Receive an

$8,500

Free parking at 50+ regional parks Free night of camping Festival Admission

EV Purchase Credit 2017 BMW i3

Gift Memberships available at Regional Parks’ Office, REI, Oliver’s Markets, Whole Foods Markets and other retail partners

sonomacountyparks.org

ANIMAL HEALING ARTS Holistic Veterinary Medicine

More than 5 available at this offer

Receive a

$10,000 EV Purchase Credit 2016 Nissan LEAF® More than 5 available at this offer

Integrative Wellness Care Over 18 years experience

Dr. Lisa Pesch • Dr. Ilsi Medearis 5430 Commerce Blvd., Suite 1K, Rohnert Park AnimalHealingArts.net • 707.584.PETS (7387)

Drive Clean Drive EverGreen

Purchase credits available 10/27/16 to 1/5/17 while vehicle inventories last; limit two vehicles per electric account. Other provisions are available for leases. *$2,500 incentive available to all SCP customers and additional $2,500 incentive available to SCP customers on "CARE" or "FERA" programs, while incentive funds last. **SCP pays for charging equipment; customer pays for shipping/handling and installation; limit two per electric account. ***Visit cleanvehiclerebates.org for income limits. Must obtain a Verified SCP Customer Certificate to be eligible for maximum savings for this first-come, first-served offer. Certificates, program conditions and limitations available at driveEV.org. Customers are solely responsible for the negotiation of final purchase or lease terms. This program is part of SCP’s commitment to reducing emissions from gas-powered vehicles.

9 NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Give a Parks Membership

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

10

Fine Dining For Wild Birds

71 Brookwood Ave., Santa Rosa 707.576.0861 Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 11am–4pm • www.wbu.com/santarosa

Birdseed • Feeders • Birdbaths • Optics • Nature Gifts • Books

The people on your list have enough

STuff!

So this year, stuff their stockings with a

Vertex Gift Card

and you’ll be giving the gift of adventure, fitness, and community through climbing May be applied toward day passes, gear rentals, rock climbing instruction, yoga and group training classes, pro shop gear and more!

707.573.1608 | climbvertex.com 3358A Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa

Water ( 8 groundwater is sustainable and it has a plan to keep it that way.

Approval of the plan comes before the Napa County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 13.

Up until last year, when the law went into effect, groundwater could generally be pumped with impunity. “It was in essence a race to the bottom,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of UC Berkeley School of Law’s Wheeler Water Institute.

But in the wake of the state’s unprecedented drought and widespread well failure in the Central Valley, Gov. Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014. The legislation requires groundwater management plans that avoid half a dozen “undesirable results,” such as lowering groundwater levels, degraded water quality, land subsidence and saltwater intrusion into groundwater.

The SGMA will usher in a new era for agricultural areas like Napa and Sonoma counties.

Since agriculture consumes the greatest amount of groundwater in the state, the law represents a sea change for farmers who used to be able to pump water without concern for impacts on water supply.

In water basins designated medium- and high-priority by California’s Department of Water Resources, the state requires the creation of a groundwater management plan, a blueprint for managing groundwater over the long-term.

But rather than dictate how local governments manage their groundwater, the SGMA directs local agencies to create their own sustainability plans, lest the state impose one on them. To do this, local jurisdictions must form a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). It’s these agencies’ responsibility to create and implement a plan.

Sonoma County has three medium-priority basins and is in the process of creating GSAs for each of them. The Sonoma

County Water Agency, which is spearheading the county’s groundwater management plans, has reached out to about 30 organizations in response to the SGMA and has conducted some 20 public briefings on the process at various boards of supervisors and city council meetings around the county. The county has until 2017 to create its GSAs and until 2022 to submit groundwater sustainability plans (GSP).

Napa County has one mediumpriority basin, the Napa Valley Sub-Basin, which runs along the valley floor from Calistoga to Napa. Because it believes its groundwater has been sustainably managed for the past 10 years, the Napa County Board of Supervisors is taking advantage of a loophole that allows it to avoid the lengthy public process required to create a GSA and GSP. The SGMA allows local jurisdictions to submit an alternative plan if they can prove their groundwater is being sustainably managed. Alternative plans must be submitted by Jan. 1, 2017.

Part of the rationale for Napa’s alternative plan is that the county has already conducted extensive work on groundwater sustainability before the SMGA came along, said Patrick Lowe, natural resources program manager with Napa County’s Department of Public Works. He pointed to the 16 meetings held by the county’s groundwater resources advisory committee between 2011 and 2014.

“We were already in a pretty good position,” Lowe says.

Napa County presents a test for the SGMA and state regulator’s ability to enforce it. “SGMA is monumental, path-breaking and game-changing,” says Kiparsky. “But it’s only as good as the backstop.”

The backstop is the state Water Resources Control Board. Part of a political tradeoff for the new regulatory regime is allowing local authorities to come up with their own plan, he says. It will be up to the state water board to vet Napa County’s plan. If the plan doesn’t meet sustainability standards, the state board could

(8

Barack Obama and has also, in the past, called for the quarantine of HIV-AIDS patients in internment camps. That’s a pretty grim tidbit to read during a week of moving World AIDS Day remembrances—and during a month when hard-right fearmongers have raised the specter of similar camps for American Muslims.

The press release for the event says to contact Sebastopol Eagle Forum member Carol Pascoe to reserve a space for the event. I did so while it was still booked at the schoolhouse and asked Pascoe, while I had her on the phone, about Monckton’s embrace of birtherism. She says she “wasn’t sure about that one” but has seen “a lot of evidence,” including the movie on the subject by Dinesh D’Souza, who is both a conservative and a convicted felon. “It does bring up a lot of questions.”

The city official who oversees the rentals says there is one standard for potential renters of city-owned space: “I rent to any group that pays,” says Loretta Van Peborgh, an administrative secretary with the city. That would include David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan, if someone wanted to host them in Santa Rosa, she says. “We would have to rent to them” under First Amendment free-speech protections.

Long live the First Amendment, which also protects the free speech and free assembly rights of citizens who might take issue with the assertion that Lord Monckton is, as the press release announcing his imminent arrival says, “a very well informed authority on the fraud of climate change.”

The Monckton talk takes place Dec. 7 at the Finley Community Center, Person Senior Wing Auditorium, 2060 West College Ave., Santa Rosa. There’s a potluck dinner at 6pm and the program runs from 7pm to 9pm.

—Tom Gogola

AN

11

UBER ST RY

www.uberoptics.com

DEBRIEFER

Unique Frames Digital Rx Lenses Sunglasses Adjustments Repairs

19 Kentucky St.

PETALUMA

707-763-3163

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

reject it and require the county to form a GSA and GSP. That’s what Chris Malan would like to see. Malan, executive director of the Institute for Conservation Advocacy, Research and Education in Napa County, an environmental nonprofit group that focuses on water issues, calls the county’s pursuit of an alternative plan an “end run” around the SGMA. In particular, she says the Napa Valley Sub-Basin shows signs of undesirable results, like subsidence and poor water quality, and says plans for monitoring are inadequate and based on poor well sampling. She says the alternative plan sidesteps the conversion of Napa Valley hillside woodlands into vineyards, a practice she says reduces critical groundwater recharge.

“This is the hallmark water issue of our time,” says Malan.

Geologist Jane Nielsen doesn’t think Napa’s plan will pass muster with the state. Nielson is a California-licensed geologist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. She co-founded the Sebastopol Water Information Group and the Sonoma County Water Coalition. She represents the water coalition on the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Management Panel.

After reading Napa County’s sub-basin analysis, she said the groundwater monitoring program is “aspirational” and lacks sufficient enforcement to bring its goals and into reality.

She addes that the report provides a “very barebones” sketch of the kind of data that SGMA requires and there is no integration of the data sources.

“I would not be too optimistic that this program will be accepted as equivalent to a GSP,” she says Nell Green Nylen, a senior research fellow at Berkeley’s Wheeler Water Institute, says it’s important to note that the SGMA is still a work in progress.

“I would think the state will take a hard look at [Napa County], but I don’t know how it will play out,” she says. “The devil is in the details.”

Dining Nicholas Haig-Arack

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

12

FOLLOW YOUR STOMACH The Spinster Sisters’ new guidebook is a treasure map to some of Sonoma County’s best food and drink.

Cooks’ Book

Spinster Sisters adds ‘publisher’ to list of accomplishments BY FLORA TSAPOVSKY

C

ookbooks published by restaurants give a glimpse into the tastes, techniques and worldviews of their chefs and owners.

Such books generally come out once a restaurant becomes

an institution, famous enough to attract readers. Santa Rosa’s four-year-old Spinster Sisters is a lively, culinary oasis in the city’s South of A arts district that now has a book out, too—but it’s not what you might expect.

Instead of offering a collection of recipes, author Lizzie Simon created The Spinster

Sisters’ Guide to Sonoma County as a book full of tips, recommendations and insights, out of conversations with the restaurant’s staff and customers, and its neighbors and suppliers.

“Oftentimes, travel coverage focuses on the luxury market, which is frankly way beyond the realm of most people, including

99 percent of the people in our book,” says Simon.

Simon and her husband, Eric Anderson, a Santa Rosa native and one of the restaurant’s founders, live in New York City but visit Santa Rosa often. A writer for the Wall Street Journal and American Theatre, Simon fell in love with the area and the restaurant over time, and interviewed all parties involved over a month-long stay that was fueled by dinners and lunches at Spinster Sisters. “I wrote the book in exchange for free food,” she jokes.

The main motivation for the guide is an upcoming Spinster Sisters inn, currently in development above the restaurant. “I wanted to figure out a way for future guests to connect both with locals and with exceptional experiences in Sonoma County,” says Simon.

The result is an insider’s guide from the perspective of Sonoma County’s leading tastemakers and foodies. Among them: Spinster Sisters head chef Liza Hinman; winemakers like Duncan Arnot Myers from ArnotRoberts winery, Eric Sussman from Radio-Coteau, and Kelly and Noah Dorrance from Reeve Wines; Sonoma County Meat Company’s Jenine Alexander and Rian Rinn; Weirauch Creamery cheesemakers Joel and Carleen Weirauch; Moonlight Brewing Company’s Brian Hunt; and Flying Goat Coffee’s Phil Anacker.

Each specialist recommended local favorites in their category, from small-batch wines to secret creameries and biking trails.

“It was important to try and represent the diversity and multitude of people who come together to make the restaurant what it is,” says Simon. “You’re getting recommendations from people who are experts, and it puts a human face, many faces, really, to the county.”

‘The Spinster Sisters’ Guide to Sonoma County’ is available at the restaurant, 401 South A St., Santa Rosa or at thespinstersisters.com ($15).

13

Perfect Stocking Stuffers GIVE OUR GIFT CARDS! Vote Yeti Indian Restaurant Best Sonoma County Indian Restaurant

For Sonoma & Napa’s Best!

190 Farmers Lane, Santa Rosa 707.521.9608 14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen 707.996.9930

www.yeticuisine.com

NOW through

DEC 31 The Bohemian’s ‘Best Of’ publishes in March 2017!

THANK YOU NORTH BAY FOR VOTING

THE

BUSTERS

BEST BBQ TIME AFTER TIME

BARBECUE | CATERING OUTDOOR PATIO 1207 FOOTHILL blvd, CALISTOGA, CA 707.942.5605 WWW.BUSTERSSOUTHERNBBQ.COM /busterssouthernbbq

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

See you soon for holiday cheer!

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

14

The Tides Wharf & Restaurant

Crab Feeds 2016–2017

Wineries

Most reviews by James Knight. Note: Those listings marked ‘WC’ denote wineries with caves. These wineries are usually only open to the public by appointment.

Wineries in these listings appear on a rotating basis.

SONOMA COUNTY FRIDAYS • Dec 2, Dec 16, Jan 13, Jan 27 • Additional Dates TBD

5–9pm ~ 59 per person + tax & gratuity INCLUDES: Chilled Dungeness Crab ~ Cocktail Sauce Drawn Butter ~ Tides’ Mustard Sauce ~ Clam Chowder Pasta ~ Green Salad ~ French Bread $

95

Crab Feed Reservations: 707.875.3652 835 Hwy 1, Bodega Bay • InnattheTides.com • 707.875.3652

The Tides Wharf

Bella Vineyards (WC) Specializing in Zinfandel, Bella Vineyards farms three vineyards in Sonoma County: Big River Ranch in Alexander Valley, and the Lily Hill Estate and Belle Canyon in Dry Creek Valley. 9711 W. Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 11am– 4:30pm. 866.572.3552.

D’Argenzio Winery

Craft Beer!

• Full Bar

• Happy Hour Twice Daily

K&L

BISTRO

3pm–6pm & 9:30pm–11pm

• laTe nigHT Bar menu • oysTer Bar • ouTDoor seaTing • Dog FrienDly • BruncH 11am–4pm, sat & sun • open Daily 11am–11pm

119 South Ma in Street | SebaStopol, Ca 707.823.6614 | klbiStro.CoM

Featuring a Unique Selection of Holiday Desserts & Fine Pastry Our Signature Gift-Wrapped Princess Cake & Bûche de Noël Christmas Bread Wreaths & Swedish Limpa Bread Christmas Kringle & Stöllen Festive Holiday Cookies Rustic Fruit Tarts 6760 McKinley Street, Suite 150, Sebastopol • 707.829.8101 1445 Town & Country Dr, Santa Rosa • 707.527.7654 villagebakerywinecountry.com

Much like the family-run, backstreet bodegas of the old country that the decor invokes.

Sangiovese, Moscato di Fresco, and Randy Rhoads Cab. 1301 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa. Daily 11am–5pm. $10 tasting fee. 707.280.4658.

Eric Kent Wine Cellars Nevermind the art of wine, there’s art on the wine.

Limited release Chard, Pinot, Syrah from ad man turned cellar geek. 1014 Hopper Ave., Santa Rosa. Barrel tasting, by appointment only.

707.527.9700.

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards So Californian?

So Italian. Replica Italian villa with tour-bus parking offers rare Italian-varietal wines in well-staffed tasting room, all thanks to a therapeutic water pump that became a household name. Oily goods on offer in the adjacent Olive Press. 24724 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. Open daily 10am to 5:30pm. No fee for most tastings; $1 reserves.

707.931.7575.

Jordan Vineyard & Winery Fronted by poplars, wreathed in ivy, robed in privets—à la chateau. Favored by restaurants nationwide, Cab and Chardonnay are served in a sumptuous sitdown tasting with cheese and hors d’oeuvres. How do they peel those little eggs?

1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg. Tour and tasting, Monday–Saturday, Sundays through October. $20–$30.

800.654.1213.

Joseph Phelps Freestone Vineyards

Casual, airy space furnished in whitewashed country French theme, on the road to the coast. Sit down at long tables for tasting or have a picnic.

Fogdog Pinot and Ovation Chardonnay will have you applauding. 12747 El Camino Bodega, Freestone. Daily, 11am–5pm. Tasting fee, $15.

707.874.1010.

Quivira Winery Certified

biodynamic producer that promotes creek stewardship and steelhead-salmon-habitat restoration. Dry Creek Zinfandel is a regular favorite; Mourvèdre and other Rhône varietals are outstanding. As the steelhead have lately rediscovered, Quivira is worth returning to year after year. 4900 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 11am–5pm. 800.292.8339.

Ram’s Gate Winery

Fireplaces blaze away, ceilings soar—if the vibe is more executive retreat than tasting room, consider that a positive.

Great wines, great views, and guided gourmet bite pairings.

28700 Arnold Drive, Sonoma.

By appointment, Thurs–Mon, 10am–6pm. 707.721.8700.

Ravenswood Winery

The winery motto is “No wimpy wines,” and they make strong, much-praised Zinfandels. A great place to learn that wine is supposed to be fun.

18701 Gehricke Road, Sonoma.

Open daily, 10am–5pm.

707.933.2332.

Robert Stemmler Winery Serious Pinot Noir

buffs may want to inquire about little-hyped Stemmler wines and their highly allocated sister brand, Donum Estate. 24520 Ramal Road, Sonoma. Limited availability by appointment only.

707.939.2293.

Sonoma Valley Portworks Although it’s

a small-time crime to call a wine “port” what wasn’t made in Portugal, it’s all on the level here at the home of DECO California Port. Everybody gets a button: “Lick my glass!”

613 Second St., Petaluma.

Thursday–Monday, noon to 5pm. No fee. 707.769.5203.

Spann Vineyards Ninety

percent of Spann wines are distributed out of state, leaving a little aside for this off-thePlaza tasting room. Malbec, Mourvedre and Mayacamas Cab; the take-home bargain is a $20 blend. Photography gallery adds visual interest.

111 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Open daily, noon–6pm. Tasting fee.

707.933.8343.

NAPA COUNTY Chimney Rock Winery International beverage man Sheldon S. “Hack” Wilson built this winery in a Cape Dutch style. Now owned by the Terlato Group, produces distinctive Bordeaux-style wines. 5350 Silverado Trail, Napa. Daily 10am to 5pm. $20–$30. 707.257.2641.

Grgich Hills Mike Grgich’s Chardonnays famously beat the competition at the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” and the allestate winery is solar-powered and practices organic and biodynamic. 1829 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford. Open daily, 9:30am–4:30pm.

707.963.2784.

Raymond Vineyards

Burgundy scion Jean-Charles Boisset has put his stamp on staid Napa producer. See the Theater of Nature, depicting biodynamics; feel the Corridor of the Senses; or just taste good Cab in the club-like Crystal Cellar. 849 Zinfandel Lane, St. Helena. Daily, 10am– 4pm. Fees vary. 707.963.3141.

Swanson Vineyards

Not lotus-eating, per se, but caviar, Grana Padano, artisan chocolate bonbons–same idea. Whimsically elegant Salon or informal, candy-striped Sip Shoppe. . 1271 Manley Lane, Rutherford. Sip Shoppe Thursday–Sunday 11am–5pm; call or ring gate. Fee $15–$20.

Salon by appointment, $60.

707.754.4018.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

eat

We lo ve t

e to lov

the food y ou row og

Saturdays & Wednesdays 8:30–1pm at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts Fresh Produce, Local Meats, Dairy & Baked Goods Artisan Hand Crafted Gifts & Jewelry

thesantarosafarmersmarket.com

Best BBQ in Sonoma County!

Southern Hospitality, Southern BBQ and Sweet Tea Come visit us soon!

2097 Stagecoach Road Suite 100, Santa Rosa • www.sweettssr.com

707.595.3935

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market Where It’s Always Fresh, Local and Fun.

15

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

16

<

Bottle Shop

<

Top wineries to shop to the last drop

SATURDAYS 6:30-9:30 pm HOTEL HEALDSBURG LOBBY

BY JAMES KNIGHT

DECEMB E R 3 , 1 0 , 1 7 , 2 4

T

DEC 3 An Evening of Brazilian Jazz with the Berkeley Choro Ensemble. Flute, clarinet, acoustic guitar & percussion DEC 10 A Night of the Songwriter from the 20’s to Now with the Shea Breaux Wells Quartet. Piano, vocals, bass & drums DEC 17 Be-bop to Post Bop with a splash of Latin Jazz with the Bennett Friedman Quartet. Saxophone, flute, guitar, bass & drums DEC 24 Chris Amberger and Kai DevittLee Duo. Guitar & acoustic bass www.hotelhealdsburg.com/dining/spirit-bar/

EAR’S EVE NEWAT YNORTHWOOD LIVE MUSIC! • Dinners starting at $ 35 • Dessert & Champagne included • 2 seatings, 5pm & 8pm (prompt) PRIME RIB • CHATEAUBRIAND • LAMB SHANKS PECAN-CRUSTED SALMON • VEGGIE LASAGNA

Call now for reservations: 707.865.2454

Northwood Restaurant T 707.431.7188 2 5 M ATH E S ON S T HEALDS B URG C A 9 5 4 4 8

19400 Highway 116 Monte Rio NorthwoodBistro.com

HAPPY HOUR EVERY DAY

DRAFT BEERS 4–6PM

707.52NYPIE 707 70 7.52NYPIE 52NYPIE

7 0 7. 5 2 6 . 9 7 4 3

www.NEW-YORK-PIE.com 65 Brookwood Ave, Santa Rosa

The Sonoma-County Style ramen is as delicious as ever.

—Stett Holbrook, Bohemian Editor

Happy Hour

Simply Vietnam

3:30-5:30 $ 3 yakitori & Izakaya Newly expanded patio and bar

Traditional Vietnamese Restaurant

Mon–Sat 10–9pm ~ Sun 11–8 966 North Dutton Ave. Santa Rosa 707.566.8910 w w w.s imply-vietnam.com lisa simply vietnam 1116 boho jam/ms

6948 Sebastopol Ave, Sebastopol 707.827.3609 | www.ramengaijin.com

ired of the hustle and bustle of conventional holiday shopping, or the clicketyclack of online shopping, fingers worn out from pawing at endless product screens? What if there was a place out in the fresh air where you could stretch your legs and sip fine wines, all while you’re still shopping? I’m telling you there is such a place.

Gifting while shopping locally is easily accomplished with wine—it’s no small slice of the local economy, and the product may be as painstakingly crafted as any handmade holiday tchotchke. Seek out small, family wineries for maximum value in those respects, and ask about their best single-vineyard efforts. Some of your wine-loving friends and relatives may have seen a Dutton Ranch Chardonnay or two before, for instance, but Dutton Estate’s My Father’s Vineyard Russian River Valley Syrah ($42), procured from the tasting room, is a much rarer treat with a nice story.

If it’s tchotchkes you’re really after, here’s a list of top destinations for a winning blend of entertainment value, one-of-akind tchotchke shopping and a broad slate of wines.

Francis Ford Coppola Winery We’re told that the legendary auteur personally selects, approves and sometimes even designs the gift stock here, which is interspersed with film-buff memorabilia such as the original desk from The Godfather.

Pick up a four-pack of Sofia sparkling wine or a “vinoflage” wine country camo shirt you’ll find nowhere else. 300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville. 707.857.1400.

Virginia Dare Another Francis Coppola presentation, this American winery revival sports an FFC-approved selection of Native American–themed gifts and items inspired by the Virginia Dare story, like stag’s head bottle spouts. 22281 Chianti Road, Geyserville. 707.735.3500.

JCB Tasting Salon & Atelier “We wanted to bring top brands together, to dream,” says wine impresario Jean-Charles Boisset of his luxury gift shop within a winetasting room attached to a gourmet deli. Pointing out one item, a holder of some kind, from over 250 producers and artisans, he says, “And it’s not crazy expensive, you know—it’s $400.” Here you’ll find chocolate and cheese and caviar, jewelry of swans and skulls, and, of course, lots of fine crystal. 6505 Washington St., Yountville. 707.934.8237.

Gundlach Bundschu Winery While getting the scoop on the new regime at Gun Bun, wherein visitors are scheduled on the spot during busy weekends so as to improve the experience inside the old stone cellar, I’m told they proudly stock some of the most “innovative merch” in wine country. Check it out in between historic photographs and memorabilia. 2000 Denmark St., Sonoma.

707.938.5277.

Chocolate

FUEL MIND BODY SOUL

We brew our fresh goji berries as a tea to reduce total sugars while allowing the maximum nutrition to be delivered.

OR A C

Sonoma County’s Best Chocolatier since 2009

N O S U P P L E M E N TS !

O N LY 4 0 C A L O R I E S 5 G TOTA L S U G A RS

6988 McKinley Street Sebastopol (next to Whole Foods)

@ G OJ I F A R M U S A

/ G OJ I F A R M U S A

sonomachocolatiers.com

Holiday Buffet

SALADS Pomegranate Endive Salad, Wedge Salad, Candied Walnut Spinach Salad, Shrimp Louie Salad, Flamingo Caesar Salad

SEAFOOD DISPLAY Chilled Prawns, Little Neck Clams Green Lip Mussels

ENTRÉES

CARVERY Herb Crusted Angus Prime Rib Honey Mustard Glazed Ham

SIDES

SWEETS Black Forest Cake, Cranberry Bread Pudding, Chocolate Yule Log, Egg Nog Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Seasonal Pies, Christmas Cookies & Pastries

Spinach & Ricotta Raviolis Roasted King Salmon Free Range Organic Rocky Farm Chicken Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes Cornbread Pudding, Roasted Winter Vegetables

8th Annual

SO

TY

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED 707.545.8530 Ext. 608 www.flamingoresort.com | 2777 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa

N

A COU

N

Sunday, December 25 | 12 noon–4pm | Seatings every 30 minutes $ 42 Adult | $18 Kids 5–11 years old | Kids 4 and under are FREE

OM

R E S TAU R A N T W E E K March 6-12, 2017

Heart-pounding, breathtaking thrills!

LUNCH $10 / $15 — or —

DINNER $19 / $29 / $39 www.sonomacounty.com/restaurant-week Presented by:

1667 W Steele Lane, Santa Rosa 707.546.7147 • snoopyshomeice.com

©Peanuts

Our sponsors:

17 NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Handmade Dark Chocolate TASTE THE DARK SIDE

GOJI FARM USA SONOMA COUNTY SUPER-FOOD FARMER.

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

18

Dirt Farmer Paul Bernier’s vines are celebrated for what they lack: water

E

arly one morning in September, Paul Bernier prepares for a day of work in Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Valley. He grabs a mortar and pestle, a sugar meter, a sack of home-dried pears and a three-footlong temperature probe. We pile into the cab of his scruffy pickup, dogs in back, and bounce down the road. We’re going to spend the day working the dry-farmed Zinfandel vineyards he manages. But this time of year he doesn’t call it work; he calls it “goofing off.”

Bernier, 65, is lanky, with a head of darkish, curly steel wool and an impish grin. A farmer at heart, he settled on grapes by way of attrition. Grapes were the one crop he didn’t kill.

“I’m not too sensitive around plants,” he says. “But grapes can stand me.”

Bernier’s methods do at times appear to push the boundaries of tough love and benign neglect. But for all of his professed horticultural limitations, his services are in high demand. And he only takes on the hardest cases.

“Most of my grapes are on marginal land,” Bernier says.

Which is to say, old vines, usually hearty Zinfandel grapes, clinging to thin-soiled hillsides, planted by stubborn Italian immigrants.

These “old Italian guys,” as he calls them, began hiring Bernier to implement their methods when they became too old to do it themselves. By way of micromanaging him, these growers initiated Bernier into an agriculture practice that is still very much alive in the Mediterranean basin (which includes parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa) and is catching on

in California. That an insensitive plant person like Bernier, who grows grapes on the steepest, boniest hillsides he can find, can produce such impressive yields is a testament to the power of these methods. They boil down to one simple, if counterintuitive, practice: don’t water the grapes.

Dry farming came over from the Mediterranean with Bernier’s mentors. It depends on wet winters and dry summers, also known as the Mediterranean climate, which California famously has. There are dryfarming methods used in the East Coast and Midwest that depend on summer rains, but the aim of Mediterranean-style dry farming is to store as much of the winter rains in the earth as possible. The following summer, when it hasn’t rained for months, dry farmers like Bernier won’t give their crops a drop, because they don’t need it.

In fact, surface irrigation would only water the weeds. Vines that have been weaned from irrigation, on the other hand, grow deep roots with which to tap those stored winter rains.

As Bernier learned and refined the techniques passed on to

him by the old Italian guys, he built a reputation as a rescuer of vineyards on the edge of failing, regularly coaxing three to four tons’ worth of grapes from an acre of dry hillside. If he were growing on prime, valley bottomland, and irrigating his grapes, he says he’d get closer to six. But then his grapes wouldn’t be in such high demand.

Bernier calls himself a sharecropper. It’s a humble word in California’s high-brow wine community, but entirely accurate.

He cultivates vineyards on other peoples’ land, in exchange for 65–85 percent of the harvest.

Many of his clients come to him because they’ve heard he can rescue the dying vineyards that experts have told them should be torn up. And winemakers seek out his harvests, because it turns out that grapes grown on marginal land, without irrigation, produce some great wine. ur day includes a stop at Dry Creek’s Nalle Winery, for a quick tour and a sip of wine. Andrew Nalle, the manager and owner, uses Bernier’s grapes in his BernierSibary Zinfandel, Nalle’s topselling label, and his Dry Creek Zin blend. All three of Nalle’s top-selling wines are from dryfarmed grapes. The wines are remarkably dry and smooth for Zinfandels, with all of the dark complex mystery that Zins often miss because of the higher alcohol, fruit laden–style

O

BY ARI LEVAUX

produced by irrigated vines.

The flavors imparted by dryfarmed grapes “are more vibrant, and linger longer,” Nalle says.

“The sugars are more in line with the ripeness of the fruit. The sweetness matches the flavor.”

Later in the day we do a similar drill at Peterson Winery, also in Dry Creek, where Tom Peterson explains how it is that dry-farmed vines produce superior grapes.

“The plants aren’t there to make you wine,” Peterson says. “The fruit exists to disperse the seeds.

So the seeds need to ripen at the same time that the fruit ripens.

In the vinifera [grape] family, the vine wants to grow like hell, above the other plants. When you irrigate the vines, it tricks them into thinking they should keep growing.”

When the sugars are where you want them for winemaking, the fruit doesn’t have any flavor and the seeds aren’t ripe, he says. The fruit isn’t physiologically mature.

“The nuances that make great wine happen in the last few weeks of the grape’s maturation. If they ripen too quickly, they don’t develop the esters and aromatics that attract creatures.”

Also, Peterson notes, the deeper roots tap into mineral flavors from down below, adding to coveted claims of terroir.

When one considers the water savings associated with dry farming, plus the higher quality of produce and higher price it fetches, it should all amount to more than enough incentive for a farmer to give it a shot. But the

19

Photos by Brad Torchia

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

advantages don’t end there.

“I dry-farm because I’m lazy,” Bernier says, with a coyote’s glint in his eye.

He’s kidding, of course. Sort of.

Bernier keeps a ferocious pace through the day. But there is an undeniable time-savings enjoyed by dry farmers that can’t be ignored. They don’t need to bother setting up, operating and repairing irrigation equipment, much less paying the associated costs. Bernier says he can manage an acre of wine grapes for only about $1,800 a season, compared to the $5,000 per acre charged by the average irrigated vineyard manager.

That cost savings, combined with the premium Bernier can charge for his grapes, more than makes up for the slightly reduced yield a dry farmer can expect. In late summer, when I visited, there isn’t much for Bernier to do but monitor the sugar content of his grapes and taking his compost pile’s temperature.

The old timers, Bernier explains, have so little to do this time of year, they would “hit them with sulphur, pack up their wagons and go fishing for rock fish and abalone at the coast.”

They wouldn’t come home until it was almost time to harvest the grapes. Bernier keeps this tradition alive in his own way.

Walking through downtown Healdsburg one day, he pulls out his camera and shows me a selfie he took 300 feet up a redwood tree, a half-day climb. He also does a lot of sailing ) 20 with his grandkids on

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

20

Cannabis conviction holding you back?

Get it gone.

Restore your rights!

A felony conviction can impact almost every area of your life, including: • Gun Rights • Voting rights • Housing applications • Job applications • Government benefits • Foreign Travel • Professional licenses

(

Lake Sonoma above Dry Creek Valley—a reservoir that, ironically, was created in part to capture water with which to irrigate grapes. rapes aren’t the only crop that can be dry-farmed in California. Early Girl tomatoes from Monterey Bay are legendary for their rich flavor and surprising juiciness. There are dry-farmed potatoes, squash, quinoa, apples and nuts, as well as the juiciest melon you will ever try—the Crane melon from New Family Farm in Sebastopol.

Even almonds, perhaps the most notorious of California’s water-wasting crops, can be dryfarmed. Indeed, almonds once thrived, water-free, in San Obispo, southern Monterey County and in the Sierra Foothills.

While there is a lot of preharvest goofing off to do later in the year, a dry farmer has to pay his dues in spring. When the rain stops and the soil dries, a dry farmer gets cultivating. This means working to break up the soil, uprooting the weeds and generally disrupting the ground’s structure, especially the soil capillaries formed by escaping water that become conduits for more water to follow.

Bernier only works with “head-trained” vines, which are free-standing little trees, rather than viney plants that hang on trellises. He uses a small, crawling tractor to cross-cultivate his grapes on two axes, something you can’t do with trellised vines.

The work, he admits, “can be a bit diesel-intensive.”

After cultivating, the broken earth is left to dry into dust as the summer wears on. With no irrigation happening, weeds don’t have a chance to get started. And without any capillary structure to the soil, the dry earth acts like a seal, keeping the moisture in.

In the heat of summer, the water “wants” to get out of the ground and into the dry air. The dry farmer gives the water no avenue of escape but through the plant.

In between visits to local

G Want your life back?

Call today: 707.999.9999 ext 1

1510 Fourth Street Santa Rosa californiapotlawyer.com

Shop Our 22 Northern CA Locations Montgomery Village Locations -710 Farmers Lane & 2411 Magowan DR, Santa Rosa Petaluma - Sebastopol - Sonoma - Napa - San Rafael - Greenbrae

Visit us @SoleDesire.com

Dry Farming 19

Family Owned & Operated Since 1990

wineries, we make the rounds of the “ranches,” as he calls them, that Bernier manages. (He also has a few acres planted at home, which he calls Paul Bernier Zinyards.) At each stop, his dogs, Finn and Wasabi, scamper about, sniffing at the bases of the vines, chasing mice and nibbling the occasional fruit, as does Bernier.

As he cruises his ranches, Bernier effuses old-Italian-guy wisdom.

He points out the various grape varieties, which he can distinguish according to the differing hues of green in their leaves. While all of his ranches grow primarily Zinfandel, they contain other varieties, such as Carignane, a classic blending grape.

“Back in the day,” says Bernier, “they would hide Carignane underneath the Zinfandel vines, because they bear more and are worth less.”

The ranches also grow the occasional Petit Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and other varieties.

Those are fine, Bernier says, but he avoids white wine grapes.

“They’re too fussy.”

Sensitive, that is.

At each stop, Bernier grabs grapes from a scattering of vines.

Back at the truck, he mashes them together with a mortar and pestle, and pours the pulp into the brix meter. After registering the sugar content of the vines at each ranch, Bernier tips back the leftover grape juice. he first grapes in California were dryfarmed. The practice was still commonplace, but on the decline, in 1976. That year, dry-farmed Napa Valley wines swept the prestigious Paris Tasting Competition, which was expected to be won by French wines. It was a watershed moment for California wine, and put the Napa region on the map as a wine heavyweight.

Irrigation was first brought to California’s wine country in the form of overhead sprinklers that were initially used to thwart frost in spring. In freezing temperatures, a coating of water will shield the emergent buds, buying a few precious degrees of wiggle room.

T

21

Paul Bernier’s farming technique.

Growers quickly realized that irrigating throughout the growing season would produce larger yields, and the practice became widespread. In 1971, drip irrigation arrived in Napa, and was hailed as water-saving technology at the time.

Thus, as dry-farmed California wines stole the 1976 show in Paris, drip irrigation was steadily advancing into wine country. As it did, yields and acreage began to grow, many say wine quality began to suffer and the water table began to drop in some areas.

Though California’s surface water has been carefully regulated for more than a century, its subsurface water has not. “Whoever has the deepest straw gets the water,” Bernier laments. (But that’s about to change. See News, p8.)

Those deep straws have replaced the deep roots that grape vines would normally grow.

Instead, thanks to drip irrigation, grape roots congregate near the drip nozzles at the surface, rather than going to the trouble of plunging deep into the terroir-

rich earth in search of moisture.

The shallow roots, as well as other softening effects of too much water—mold, for example—are a big reason why it’s common for vineyards to be torn up and replaced every 20 years.

Dry-farmed vineyards, by contrast, can produce for centuries. There are still a handful of vineyards in Sonoma, Napa and San Joaquin counties that haven’t been watered since the 1800s, if ever. Today, wine grapes are dryfarmed as far south as Paso Robles.

Dry Creek, and the Russian River it feeds, are salmon and steelhead streams. But in 2001, only 10 coho salmon returned to the river. Since then, over $10 million has poured into restoring salmonid habitat, resulting in only marginal improvements that have been severely hampered during the drought. The National Marine Fisheries Service lists agriculture as the number one threat to the Russian River coho. And by “agriculture” they mean vineyards.

Between 1997 and 2013, ) 22

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

BLACK GOLD Use of compost, particularly grape pumice, is a key part of

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

22

Dry Farming 21

Larger Relocated Sebastopol Branch

(

We only open accounts you ask for!

Smart, super-friendly staff.

Walk-up & drive-in ATMs. $1 billion loaned since 1961.

328 North Main Street SEBASTOPOL

Locally earned money stays LOCAL! Guerneville Healdsburg Napa Santa Rosa Sebastopol

NOT-FORPROFIT COOP 707/546-6000

comfirstcu.org

Green-light Luminaries

Unique Gifts and Unexpected Discoveries

2405 Magowan Drive, Santa Rosa Montgomery Village 707.528.7888

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL FROM GALLERY ROUTE ONE! The GALLERY STORE has perfect gifts: arty, amusing, affordable; for kids, too!

Shop the Small Works Gallery: art makes a wonderful gift.

From decorative pottery to creative jewelry and everything else in-between!

We select items that are created by American Artists & Craftspeople.

11101 Hwy One, Point Reyes Station, CA 11 – 5, Closed Tues

Gift Certificates Available

Voted Best Yoga Studio 10 Years in a row!

NEW!Try our 1hr

Express Hot Yoga or Hot Pilates classes

Affordable Vaccination Clinics

every Sunday 9:30–11:30am

522 Wilson St, Santa Rosa 707.545.9542

bikramyogaofsantarosa.com

Western Farm Center

21 West 7th Street Santa Rosa • 707.545.0721 www.westernfarmcenter.com

Sonoma County vineyard acreage grew from 40,001 to 64,073 acres, according to the Sonoma County Agriculture Department, with most of that expansion occurring in the Russian River watershed.

Sonoma County, like many parts of California, is currently home to a heated battle over water. Residential landowners are being told they can’t sprinkle their lawns, while grape growers are left to self-police their own water use, unmetered. Vineyard wells put tremendous pressure on the aquifers, while many pump water directly from creeks and the river, with intake pipes as wide as 24-inches across. The vineyards pump not only for irrigation, but for frost protection as well—the timing of which puts immense pressure on the waterways, and the fish that live there. hile dry farming has become a buzzword of late, it’s what Bernier does with his compost that has allowed him to excel. The old Italian guys taught him to pile pumice—the remains after pressing—around the base of the vines. Eventually, Bernier began composting his pumice, and bringing it to his vines by the wheelbarrow load. One fall, he ended up making a bigger pile of compost at the base of a particular vine, such that it piled around the vine’s trunk. The following spring, he noticed the excess compost, and pulled it off the vine.

There were grape roots crisscrossing the compost. The plant had sent roots through its own bark, straight out of the trunk and into the compost.

“The plant sensed the nutrients and wanted it,” Bernier says. He’s been laying it on thick ever since.

Today, he puts 30 tons of pumice compost on each acre of grapes.

Compost is the only thing Bernier irrigates.

The piles live on rented land, and Bernier pays rent by assessing a fee to wineries in exchange for permission to dump their waste from pressing. They

W

pay him, in other words, to deliver the raw materials for the compost in which his success is rooted.

When we arrive, the 100-yard piles are steaming. As his dogs frolic about and munch the gorgeous, multicolored pumice, Bernier sticks his thermometer into the center of the pile and takes its temperature. Then he shows me the compost turner that he designed and built, fashioned from old truck parts.

Bernier is, at heart, an engineer and tinkerer. The design of his compost turner has been widely copied by farmers from as far away as India.

‘I dry-farm because I’m lazy,’ Bernier says with a coyote’s glint in his eyes.

As we stand among his piles, Bernier points to some grapes on a neighboring property. Irrigation pipe weaves through the trellised plants. The same nozzles used to deliver water, he says, often pump fertilizer to the plants as well, in a process dubbed “fertigation.”

Vines become addicted to fertigation, Bernier says, “like the alcoholic who shows up at the bar at 6am waiting for it to open.”

Bernier compares these vines—addicted, helpless and disoriented—to dry-farmed vines. “When you add water in summer, it sends the plant mixed messages. They don’t know if it’s May or July or whatever.”

With a mix of pity and bemusement, he waves at the fertigated grapes next door, in front of a large house with a manicured green lawn.

“They don’t know if they’re coming or going,” he says.

And then we go back to goofing off.

SA N R A FA E L

He’s Spartacus

On Dec. 9, Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas turns 100 years old. That’s something to celebrate, and the Smith Rafael Film Center is doing just that with a Happy Hundred week of Douglas’ most iconic films. The party kicks off on Friday with Douglas as Vincent van Gogh in Lust for Life and a WWI officer in Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. Other films on the schedule include Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which features a behind-the-scenes presentation from Oscar winners Ben Burtt and Craig Barron as part of their “Cinema Archeologists” series, and a newly restored print of Spartacus. The films screen Friday through Thursday, Dec. 9–15, at the Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. Times and prices vary. 415.454.1222.

S A N TA R O S A

Rock History

Thoughts of 1960s hippie counterculture and psychedelic rock and roll immediately bring to mind San Francisco’s famous Haight Ashbury district. Yet the entire Bay Area, and especially the North Bay, was a hotbed of free love and loud music back then. This week, a new exhibit retraces the steps of the North Bay’s 1960s experience through artifacts, photographs and artwork from the era. ‘The Beat Goes On’ opens with a reception featuring live music by Sonoma County guitarist Matthew Mendosa on Saturday, Dec. 10, at the History Museum of Sonoma County, 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. 5pm. $15; free for museum members. 707.579.1500.

R O H N E R T PA R K

Global Diva

Born in the small West African country of Benin, singer and songwriter Angélique Kidjo was already a star throughout Africa before she studied in Paris and signed a major label deal in New York City. Her acclaimed world-music repertoire includes Afrobeat, reggae, gospel and jazz styles, and she’s a three-time Grammy Award winner who was also on the cover of Forbes’ “Most Influential Women in the World” issue last year. Angélique Kidjo arrives in the North Bay to perform her world of sound on Saturday, Dec. 10, at the Green Music Center, 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. 7:30pm. $25 and up. 866.955.6040.

S A N TA R O S A

Christmas Pops

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without the classic animated “Peanuts” special A Charlie Brown Christmas. This weekend, the Santa Rosa Symphony once again presents songs from the classic with the Symphony Pops: A Charlie Brown Christmas Concert.

Conductor Michael Berkowitz returns to lead this treasured tradition, featuring pianist Jim Martinez and his quartet filling in for Schroeder alongside the symphony. Get to the show early to hear Berkowitz talk about the concert and swap stories from his illustrious career. The show pops off on Sunday, Dec. 11, at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 3pm; talk at 2pm. $37 and up. 707.546.3600.

—Charlie Swanson

RANT & RAGE Famously angry standup star Lewis Black skewers today’s headlines with acidic wit at the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Thursday, Dec. 8. See Comedy, p33.

23 NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Crush CULTURE

The week’s events: a selective guide

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

24

Arts Ideas A BETTER MOUSETRAP? Klaus Dilling’s TunaFin pivots the center fin via a foot-driven tiller to align it with the side fin

making a turn, a design he says boosts a surfer’s performance.

Best Fin Forward Santa Rosa inventor patents innovative surfboard fin design BY STETT HOLBROOK

A

fter an evening surf session at Dillon Beach, Klaus Dilling sat in his hot tub for a relaxing soak. As a woodworker and avid tinkerer, he’d been pondering surfboard fin design. Sitting in his tub, an idea popped into his head.

“It was that quintessential light-bulb moment,” says Dilling.

“I realized in an instant that the center fin could become steerable.

The design came to me in that moment.”

The next morning he headed into his workshop and set to work.

Dilling lives in Santa Rosa and teaches woodworking at Sebastopol Charter school and coaches soccer at Credo High School (disclosure: I serve on the board of directors at Sebastopol Charter). He built a prototype out of wood and was eager to see how his invention worked.

“Right off the bat, I felt it,” Dilling says. “Instantly, I knew it was something worth pursuing.”

For the past six years, Dilling has been developing his design, a device he says improves a flaw in modern surfboards and boosts

performance. His patent for the fin was approved in September.

Most modern surfboards use a three-fin system: one center fin and two smaller side fins. The side fins are toed in slightly relative to the center fin. That helps hold a board on a wave, but creates drag and a slight snowplow effect as a surfer glides over the water.

Dilling says he’s solved the problem with a foot-activated tiller that pivots the center fin a few degrees during a turn to align with the side fin that’s making the turn, to create what he says are turns with more speed and flow.

When the turn is complete, the

center fin snaps back into place.

He calls the design the TunaFin, and says it “just cuts through the wave cleaner and faster. It’s not really open to debate. It is a fundamental truth that less drag equals more speed.”

Brad Sykes, a surfer and product developer from Marin County, hasn’t seen or tested the latest model of the fin, but he’s excited about Dilling’s invention.

“The fin is an area that needs a lot for evolution and his fin is really radical,” he says. “I really think it’s going to go somewhere.”

The design is admittedly nichey stuff that only surfers could love, but since the patent for a key fin design recently expired, Dilling hopes his innovation will be the next big thing in the $7 billion U.S. surfing industry.

After countless iterations and design changes (it’s made with fiberglass and PVC fittings now), Dilling has retrofitted many of his old boards with the fin system, as well as having his brother, who shapes surfboards, make him new boards using the TunaFin. “It has helped keep me going all these years,” he says, “because every time I ride one it’s like, ‘Wow.’” The Southern California–based surfing industry can be hard for newcomers to break into with new concepts and products. So what chance does Dilling have way up here in Santa Rosa? He’ll soon find out. He’s launching a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign later this month to raise money for a fleet of demo boards that he wants to take on a tour of West and East Coast beaches next summer to give surfers a chance to try them.

“It could well be the next big thing in surfboard design,” he says, “but I don’t know where this whole thing is going to lead.”

For more info, visit thetunafin.weebly.com.

25 NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Ø Ø

@ B OCØ @B

Celebrate the Holidays with Us! 9,5*,1,$ 67 +,6725,& 9$//(-2 (035(667+($75( 25*

©2014 PNTS

SAUVIGNON ROCK FOR THE NAPA VALLEY

Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on the Big Screen WINTER CLASSES FOR KIDS

Gingerbread Doghouse Workshops iPad Video Workshop ■ Holiday Gift Making Sign up online, click on “Learn,” choose “Classes & Camps”

Bob St. Laurent “Good Morning Bob” Weekdays 6am – 10am

Rick Stuart “Middays with Big Rick Stuart” Weekdays 10am – 3pm

Mindi Levine “Drive Time Mindi”Weekdays 3pm – 7pm

HAPPY NEW YEAR, CHARLIE BROWN! Saturday, December 31

Up/Down and Toddler Balloon Drops & Root Beer Toast at noon and Balloon Drop & Root Beer Toast at 3:00 pm

2301 Hardies Lane ■ Santa Rosa, CA 95403 www.schulzmuseum.org

■

(707) 579-4452 Keep up with “What’s Happening” in the Napa Valley with reports every hour

NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

Stage Eric Chazankin

ANNUAL FOOD & FUNDS DRIVE

Together we can end

hunger.

DONATE FOOD DONATE FUNDS HOST A DRIVE Donate, sign-up to host, and learn more online at refb.org or call 707.523.7900 x114 for more information.

707.523.7900 | refb.org 3990 Brickway Blvd.

Santa Rosa | CA | 95403

Windham Hill

WINTER SOLSTICE 30th Anniversary Concert ONE NIGHT ONLY! December 21, 7:30 pm $65, $45, $25 Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium

WILL ACKERMAN

Celebrate the winter solstice and its warm traditions with a concert of original and traditional acoustic music drawn from the multiplatinum selling Winter Solstice series as well as their many solo releases. Windham Hill founder and Grammy-winning guitarist, Will Ackerman, and Grammy Award-nominated singer, fiddler, pianist, and songwriter Barbara Higbie, Grammynominated guitarist, composer Alex de Grassi and supporting musician, guitarist Todd Boston come together to lead joyous holiday concerts.

BARBARA HIGBIE

ALEX DE GRASSI

TODD BOSTON

MARIN CENTER • SAN RAFAEL • MARINCENTER.ORG

Together we can make sure that every family has food on the table this holiday season!

FAMILY JEWELS Each of the actors

in ‘Hope’ tells part of Si Kahn’s family history in words and song.

Life Story Si Kahn’s ‘Hope’ mines family’s past

BY DAVID TEMPLETON

‘H

ope. Do we ever give up on hope?

Even in the face of hard evidence?”

That’s the question at the heart of Si Kahn’s succinctly titled musical memory play Hope, a surprisingly innovative, if not always smooth, world premiere at Main Stage West.

Kahn (Mother Jones in Heaven) is nationally renowned for his politically fueled folk songs and progressive activism. In his fourth Main Stage West collaboration with director Elizabeth Craven, Kahn mines his own family’s past, using songs from his celebrated discography to augment tales he learned as a boy about his aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents.

Theirs are stories of hope in the midst of unspeakable loss and sacrifice, one piece of the massive story of European immigration to America in the 1900s.

In presenting Kahn’s loosely

connected stories, Craven and her troupe of four actor-singers and three versatile musicians have created something altogether unexpected. Kahn’s first-person narrative has been spread out among cast members, each of whom tells bits of the author’s family history.

While ultimately effective, this approach takes a while to figure out, and leads to some initial befuddlement. In future productions, the script should probably allow all of the narrators to identify themselves early on as Si Kahn, so the audience doesn’t have to spend the show’s first 15 minutes wondering who all of those people are. That said, the stylized storytelling does yield some supremely satisfying fruit.

The expert cast (Mary Gannon Graham, Sharia Pierce, John Craven, Alia Beeton) dig remarkably deep, working their way through tales of determination, love, resilience and grief, playing an array of characters: members of Kahn’s family, Cossacks engaged in pogroms and even a hilarious Angel of Death (“Oy, what a day I’ve had!”).

At such times, Hope resembles nothing so much as a Jewishimmigrant Hee Haw, the popular TV show that combined country music with sketch comedy. The main difference, of course, is that Hee Haw went solely for belly laughs, while Kahn’s deeply personal assemblage of memories aims straight at the heart.

The ensemble is first-rate, and under the musical direction of Jim Peterson, the songs are simply and precisely orchestrated for maximum emotional impact.

Craven’s gracefully energetic staging, though a bit uneven at times, is always strikingly novel and inventive. Despite its wobbly moments, much like a good folk song, Hope serves up its scraps of dreams and slivers of joy with quiet power and deep, wholehearted emotion.

Rating (out of 5): ‘Hope’ runs Thursday–Sunday through Dec. 18 at Main Stage West. 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. Thursday– Saturday, 8pm; 5pm matinee, Sunday. $15–$25. 707.823.0177.

AN.COM

26

PEE-YEW Lots of makeup and pretty clothes can’t save this stinker.

Death Wish

‘Nocturnal Animals’ is standard raperevenge fare

BY RICHARD VON BUSACK

W

atching Nocturnal Animals is like watching a Charles Bronson retrospective inside a plush, red-velvetwrapped salon in some minor European city’s film festival. The trappings give aesthetic importance to what’s going on up front, which isn’t really that different from a GolanGlobus rape-revenge shocker.

Celebrities turn up (including Michael Sheen and Laura Linney) to validate the significance of what we’re watching. We’re presumed to find the framing by photographerturned-director-turned-back-tophotographer Tom Ford positively

‘Nocturnal Animals’ is playing at Summerfield Cinemas, 551 Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa; 707.522.0719.

27

WRITTEN BY DAVID SEDARIS ADAPTED BY JOE MANTELLO DIRECTED BY ARGO THOMPSON

STARRING DAVID YEN

s age 13+ 52 W. 6th Street Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Honorable 12/9–12/15 Manchester by the Sea R 11:00-2:00-5:00-8:00 Seasons PG 10:15-3:30-6:15 Nocturnal Animals R 10:30-1:15-4:00-6:45-9:25, Wed 12/14 only: 10:30-1:15-4:00 The Eagle Huntress G 10:45-1:30-4:15-7:00-9:10, Sun 12/11 only: 10:45-4:15-7:00-9:10, Wed 12/14 only: 10:45-4:15-9:10 Loving PG13 10:15-1:00-3:45-6:30-9:15 Wed 12/14 only: 1:00-6:30, Thur 12/15 only: 10:15-1:00-3:45 Moonlight R 12:45-8:45

Royal Ballet: Anastasia

Sunday 12/11 @1pm, Wed 12/14 @6:30pm A DAY OF HOLIDAY CHEER & GIVING! Admission free with a donation of a new toy or a non-perishable food item (per person)!

The Preacher's Wife R Wed 12/14 only!, 11:00-1:45-4:30-7:15 Jackie R Thur 12/15 @7pm! Opens Fri 12/16!

551 SUMMERFIELD ROAD • SANTA ROSA 707.522.0719 • SUMMERFIELDCINEMAS.COM

® BRINGING THE BEST FILMS IN THE WORLD TO SONOMA COUNTY

Schedule for Fri, Dec 9 – Thu, Dec 15

DINE-IN CINEMA

Bargain Tuesday - $7.50 All Shows Bargain Tuesday $7.00 All Shows Schedule forFri, Fri,April Feb -16th 20th Thu, Feb 26th Schedule for –– Thu, April 22nd Schedule for Fri, June 22nd - Thu, June 28th

Award Bruschetta •Academy Paninis Soups Salads • Appetizers “Moore Gives •Her Best•Nominee Performance 8 Great“Raw Beers onYears!”

Tap + Wine by the Glass and Bottle Best Foreign Language Film!

In – Box Office and Riveting!”

– Rolling Stone Moore DavidBASHIR Duchovny WALTZ PLEASE Demi NOTE: No WITH Shows After 8pm Mon! A MIGHTY HEART

(1:00) 3:00 5:00 7:00 9:15 R

(12:30)THE 2:45 JONESES 5:00 7:20 9:45 R MANCHESTER

BY THE SEA

(12:30) 2:40Noms 4:50 Including 7:10 9:20 R 2 Academy Award (1:30 4:20) 7:10 9:45Best R Actor!

“A Triumph!”

– New “A Glorious Throwback ToYork The Observer More Stylized, THE WRESTLER Fri:Work 1:30 show plays at 9:45 12:00 Painterly Of Decades Past!”

– LA (12:20) 5:10 7:30 R Times LA2:45 VIE EN ROSE (12:45) 3:45 6:45OF 9:45 PG-13 THEAward SECRET KELLS 10 Academy Noms Including Best Picture!

(1:00) 3:00 5:00 7:00 9:00 NR (11:45 2:15 4:50) 7:30Deeply 9:55 – R SLuMDOG MILLIONAIRE “★★★★ – Really, Truly, “Superb! No One4:00 Could Make This Believable 7:10 R PG-13 One of (1:15) This Year’s Best!”9:40 – Newsday (11:45) show Sat/Sun only If It Were Fiction!” – San Francisco Chronicle

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS ONCE Including 8 Academy Award PRODIGALNoms SONS

MISS SLOANE

(1:00) 3:10 R Best Picture, Best5:20 Actor7:30 & Best9:40 Director!

(2:20) 9:10 4:00) NR No 9:10 Show (1:10 6:40 9:20TueRor Thu MILK – Rolling Stone “Haunting and Hypnotic!”

Thu: No 6:40, 9:20 at 9:50 “Wise, Humble and Effortlessly (1:30) 4:10 6:45 Funny!”

9:30 R – Newsweek

THE GIRL THE TATTOO Please Note: 1:30 Show Sat, 6:45 Thu PleaseWITH Note: No No 1:30 ShowDRAGON Sat, No No(4:40) 6:45 Show Show9:40 Thu NR WAITRESS

BURN COUNTRY

WAITRESS (1:10) 4:30 7:30 NR (1:30) 4:00 7:10 R Picture!

5 Academy Award Noms Including Wed: No shows Thu:9:30 NoBest 9:40 “★★★1/2! AnFROST/NIXON unexpected Gem!” – USA Today FROST/NIXON

MOONLIGHT

(2:15)Mysterious, 7:20 R GREENBERG “Swoonly Romatic, Hilarious!”

Bruschetta • Paninis • Soups • Salads • Appetizers (12:00) 5:00 9:50 RSat/Sun (12:00 2:20) 7:15 RMagazine (12:00) only – Slant REVOLuTIONARY ROAD 8 Great Beers on Tap + Wine by the Glass and Bottle Mon:“Deliciously 2:20 at 2:30, No Wed: 4:20 only unsettling!”

– RLA Times PARIS, JE7:15 T’AIME (11:45) 4:45 9:50 (11:45) 4:45 9:50 R

4:15 7:00 9:30 R THE(1:15) EAGLE HUNTRESS (2:15) 7:15 PG-13

THE presents GHOST Kevin Jorgenson the WRITER California Premiere of (1:00 5:00) 7:00 9:00 PuRE:3:00 A BOuLDERING FLICKG Michael Moore’s Thu, Feb 26th at 7:15

RAVENFILMCENTER.COM HEALDSBURG Bistro Menu Items Beer & Wine available in all 4 Auditoriums

FOR SHOWTIMES: 707.525.8909

THE MOST DANGEROuS Thu, Feb 26th at 7:15 (1:20 4:10) 6:45 9:25 R ALLIED SICKO MOVIES IN THE MORNING MAN IN AMERICA Starts Fri, June 29th!

(11:40 2:10 4:45) 7:20 9:50 Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon ARRIVAL DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THENow PENTAGON PAPERS Advance Tickets On Sale at Box Office!

(11:40) only PG-13 9:50 AM (12:10) 4:30show 6:50 NR 6:50 Show Tue or Thu FROZEN RIVER (12:00) 2:30Sat/Sun 5:00No7:30 10:00 10:15 AM

VICKY Their CRISTINA BARCELONA 10:15 AM First Joint Venture 25 Years!

(11:30 2:00 In 4:30) 7:05 9:35 MOANA 10:20 AM CHANGELING Venessa Redgrave Meryl Streeponly Glenn CloseAM CHEECH AND CHONG’S show Sat/Sun PG 10:40 RACHEL (11:30) GETTING MARRIED HEYSHORTS WATCH THIS 2009 LIVE ACTION (Fri/Mon Only)) 10:45 AM EVENING 10:45 Sat, Apr17th at 11pm & Tue, Apr 20th 8pmAM 2009 ANIMATED SHORTS Starts Fri,(Sun JuneOnly) 29th!

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM PG-13 (12:45 3:30) 6:30 9:10

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Film

Lynchian, as though we’re meant to be captives on rides on lost highways. But there’s only one David Lynch, and imitating him is a sucker’s game.

Amy Adams is Susan, a woman between two marriages, as it were: one to a blue chip art dealer (Armie Hammer), who has had enough of her, the other to failed novelist Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), whom she sloughed off for his lack of ambition.

This bird in a gilded cage—or, rather, this bird in a $5 million concrete modernist bunker with an apparently motor-oil-filled swimming pool out back—receives Sheffield’s new novel in galley form. It’s a potboiler’s potboiler about a remote Texas road trip, a trio of rapacious hillbillies and an indomitable lawman (Michael Shannon) named Andes, just like the mountains, who goes beyond the law to track down the criminals.

Is Susan’s obsession with the book, and her numbness to everything else, due to the fact that she was a victim in the real version of the fictionalized story Sheffield unfolds? Answer is, who cares?

Under layers of makeup that a Japanese geisha might protest against as too much, Adams and her cohorts live a life of bloodfreezing affluence. Their clothes are more alive than they are. Ford’s cloudscapes, perhaps surpassing the fraught cumulus clouds in a Michael Mann film, hover ominously.

A shot of Los Angeles palm trees in a dirty mist makes them look like they’re smoldering. The most interesting scenes in this movie, in fact, have no people in them.

No matter how insufferably gussied, Nocturnal Animals is standard rape-revenge. Ford doesn’t miss a trick, from long cat-and-mousing by hillbillies to a cornered rapist telling the avenger that he doesn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.

A touch of abortion-remorse is the cherry on this cupcake. Still, Shannon is so damned good and dirty that he keeps the film from dying of its own fanciness.

Music

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

28

SATURDAY

POOR MAN'S WHISKEY

CREEK DEC 10 CORAL BLUEGRASS• DOORS 7:30PM • 21+

SUNDAY

DEC 11

THE OFFICIAL EMERALD CUP AFTER PARTY W COLLIE BUDDZ ROCK• DOORS 8PM • 21+

THE DANDY WARHOLS: TOUR DEC 13 DISTORTLAND TELEGRAM ALT• DOORS 7:30PM • 21+ TUESDAY FRIDAY

DEC 16 SATURDAY

FAITH AKO

HAWAIIAN CHRISTMAS • DOORS 6PM • ALL AGES

DEC 29

14 PIECE TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON

Din ner & A Show

Peterson Band Dec 9 Kelly A Great Singer! 8:00 / No Cover Annual Xmas Pajama Party!

Lee Presson & The Nails 8:30

Coverlettes Dec 11 The Christmas Show

60’s Girl Group Singing Sensations 7:00

Unauthorized Rolling Stones Sat Dec 17 Lavay Smith’s Dec 16

8:00

“1940’s Supper Club” Featuring the Music of Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie 8:30 Sun Santa & Mrs Claus 2:00–4:00 18 Dec Tim Cain’s Family

Christmas Sing Along

UnCle wiggly

8:30pm/Dancing/$10 8:30pm/Dancing/$5

BUzzy MarTin thu dec 22 hOliday COnCerT 8pm/No Cover

fri dec 31

The pUlsaTOrs 8:30pm/$25 ADV

Price Subject to Change

resTaUranT & MUsiC VenUe CheCk OUT The arT exhiBiT VisiT OUr weBsiTe, redwOOdCaFe.COM 8240 Old redwOOd hwy, COTaTi 707.795.7868

Wed 12/07 • Doors 9:30pm • $18 ADV / $20 DOS

An Evening with The Steel Wheels Fri 12/09 & Sat 12/10 • Doors 8pm • $22 ADV / $25 DOS

Zepparella the All-Female Zeppelin Powerhouse with ANGELEX Sun 12/11 • Doors 7pm • $25 ADV / $30 DOS Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) with David Luning Fri 12/16 • Doors 8pm • $20 ADV / $25 DOS Fishbone with Crooked Sat 12/17 • Doors 11am • Free Brunch Show

Acoustically Speaking

Featuring Kat Walkerson and Mik Bondy from The Garcia Project Sat 12/17 • Doors 7pm • $17 ADV / $19 DOS Steelin' Dan - The Music of Steely Dan Sun 12/18 • Doors 6pm • under 12/over 65 $17 / GA $24 ADV & $27 DOS

The Christmas Jug Band Family Night

The Priesthood 7:00

The Christmas Jug Band Closing Night Party

It’s a Faux New Year’s Eve!

The Sun Kings

Party Favors, Champagne Toast 8:00 Sat 13th Annual New Year’s Eve Party!!

31 Dec The Zydeco Flames 9:00 Reservations Advised

415.662.2219

On the Town Square, Nicasio www.ranchonicasio.com

DEEP TRACKS The North Bay’s New Monsoon will dig into its roots for upcoming Terrapin Crossroads show.

Raining Music

New Monsoon reunite old rhythms onstage

BY CHARLIE SWANSON

4:00–5:00 10th Annual Christmas Eve

Dec 24 Gospel Dinner Show Dec 30

8pm/Dancing/No Cover

Fireside Dining 7 Days a Week

Fri

Fri

arT reCepTiOn wiTh FrenCh Oak gypsy Band 6pm

Cheap daTe 13

ROCK • DOORS 7:30PM • 21+

Lunch & Dinner Sat & Sun Brunch

Sat

8:30pm/$10

sat dec 17

JACKIE GREENE BAND

23 PETALUMA BLVD N. PETALUMA, CA 94952

Fri

rhyThM rangers

harT n sOUl Band

WWW.MYSTICTHEATRE.COM

Sun

8:30pm/$10/18+

thu dec 15 fri dec 16

12 ⁄ 30 Jackie Greene, 1 ⁄ 7 TOMMY CASTRO, Shana Morrison, 1 ⁄ 10 Midge Ure Band, 1 ⁄ 13 Led Zepagain, 1 ⁄ 14 Saved By The 90s - A Totally 90s Party,1 ⁄ 16 PROTOJE, 1 ⁄ 20 The Expendables, HIRIE, Tribal Theory

Dec 10

sTand Up COMedy!

DAVID GANS

SATURDAY NEW YEARS EVE DEC 31 FOREVERLAND ROCK • DOORS 8:30PM • 21+

Sat

8pm/$10

tue dec 13

AGAIN DEC 18 DEAD ROCK• DOORS 7:30PM • 21+

THURSDAY

fri dec 9 sat dec 10

Onye & The Messengers

THE AGGROLITES

TAHOES DEC 17 THE ROCK• DOORS 7:30PM • 21+

SUNDAY

thu dec 8

Mon 12/19 • Doors 7pm • $24 ADV / $27 DOS

Thu 12/22 • Doors 7pm • $28 ADV / $32 DOS

Soul 4 The Season

feat Fred Ross of Tower of Power, Lydia Pense of Cold Blood, Paula Harris & Dana Moret www.sweetwatermusichall.com 19 Corte Madera Ave, Mill Valley Café 388-1700 | Box Office 388-3850

A

t the heart of longtime North Bay jam band New Monsoon is the instrumental and songwriting collaboration among founding members Bo Carper (acoustic guitar and banjo), Jeff Miller (electric guitar) and Phil Ferlino (keyboards).

Yet the sound that set New Monsoon apart when they debuted nearly 20 years ago was their robust and worldly four-man rhythm section. This week, New Monsoon— a quintet since 2008—welcomes original percussionists Brian Carey and Rajiv Parikh for a special Rhythm Reunion show on Dec. 10 at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael.

New Monsoon’s origins date back to 1997, when Jeff Miller moved from Boston to Marin County,

where Bo Carper, an old college buddy from Penn State, was living in Bolinas. “I just fell in love with the whole thing,” Miller says.

The first incarnation of New Monsoon had Miller and Carper playing Fairfax cafes as a duo, with their mutual friend Parikh on the tabla, an Indian percussion instrument.

“It was really unique. Not too many electric rock and roll projects have a tabla,” Miller says. “That was inspiring. And it was the impetus of a lot of the music we wrote in that world-influenced style.”

Also largely influenced by Bay Area legend Santana, New Monsoon’s up-tempo jams and global rhythms were further bolstered when Brian Carey, who plays congas and timbales, joined the group soon after, offering his own Afro-Cuban influence and style. “That was the engine as we call it. The percussion set the table for our sound,” Miller says.

By 2003, New Monsoon was a full seven-piece touring band that regularly traveled the country with jam bands like the String Cheese Incident and Umphrey’s McGee, and played festivals like Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits.

Yet the waning viability of supporting seven members through touring forced the band to scale back. Carey moved to the East Coast to teach music and Parikh moved to the South Bay, while New Monsoon retooled into a tighter, more vocally fronted five-piece in 2008. Today the band features Miller, Carper and Ferlino with bassist Marshall Harrell and drummer Michael Pinkham.

“The sound of the band changed pretty drastically then,” Miller says. “So we’ve got a lot of different musical facets of the group we can tap into now.”

Which is precisely what Miller plans to do for the upcoming reunion show, featuring Carey and Parikh for a night of old jams and deep tracks. “For fans that know our music, they’ll hear some surprises on our set list for sure,” Miller says.

New Monsoon’s rhythm reunion happens Saturday, Dec. 10, at Terrapin Crossroads, 100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael. 8pm. $20. 415.524.2773.

Concerts SONOMA COUNTY The Dandy Warhols

The veteran Portland alternative rock band tours in support of their new album, “Distortland.” Dec 13, 8:30pm. $25. Mystic Theatre, 23 Petaluma Blvd N, Petaluma.

707.765.2121.

Phoenix Theater’s 112th Birthday Party

Many North Bay favorites take the stage, including bass and drum duo Toast Machine, melodic punk rockers One Armed Joey, surf rock outfit Illumignarly and jazz jam band Oddjob Ensemble. Dec 10, 8pm. $10. Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington St, Petaluma.

707.762.3565.

Urioste & Golka

Redwood Arts Council hosts the renowned soloists, violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Adam Golka, who collaborate for the first time ever and present a program of Mozart, Brahms and others. Dec 10, 7:30pm. $30. St Stephen’s Church, 500 Robinson Rd, Sebastopol.

707.874.1124.

MARIN COUNTY Elijah Ray & the Band of Light

The vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist is known for his transformational music that crosses a wide variety of genres.

Dec 10, 8pm. $25.TMS Performing Arts Center, 150 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael. 415.924.4848.

Musae

Women’s vocal ensemble perform a holiday themed show titled “The Morning Star,” with uplifting melody and spirited hymn. Dec 11, 4pm. $15-$20. Old St Hilary’s Landmark, 201 Esperanza, Tiburon. 415.435.1853.

Michelle Schmitt

Schmitt’s annual holiday benefit concert features Ricky Fataar, George Marinelli and Marc Levine among others, and supports extrafood. org. Dec 8, 8pm. $25 and up.

Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley.

415.383.9600.

NAPA COUNTY Soul 4 the Season

Massive holiday party gets down with Rick Stevens of Tower of Power, Lydia Pense of Cold Blood, Paula Harris and Dana Moret. Dec 10, 7 and 9:30pm. $20-$27. Silo’s, 530 Main St, Napa. 707.251.5833.

Symphony Napa Valley Special program, “Holidays in Vienna,” travels musically to old Europe, with seasonal works by Tchaikovsky, Handel and others. Dec 11, 3pm. $30$55. Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater, 100 California Dr, Yountville.

707.944.9900.

Clubs & Venues SONOMA COUNTY Aqus Cafe

Dec 9, 8pm, “A Musical Sleigh Ride” with the North Bay Sinfonietta. 550 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. 707.579.2604.

Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Hall

Dec 9, 7pm, Healdsburg Community Band’s annual holiday show. 205 W First St, Cloverdale. 707.938.4105.

Dry Creek Kitchen

Dec 12, 6pm, Dick Conte and Steve Webber Duo. Dec 13, 6pm, Jim Adams and John Potter Duo. 317 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg. 707.431.0330.

Faith Lutheran Church Dec 10, 7pm and , Dec 11, 2pm, MusicWorks!Sonoma presents Christmas Splendor.

19355 Arnold Dr, Santa Rosa.

707.290.9175.

Flamingo Lounge

Dec 9, Stereo Bounce. Dec 10, Oquesta La Original.

2777 Fourth St, Santa Rosa.

707.545.8530.

Glaser Center

Dec 9, Dictator Tots. Dec 10, Mary & Michael. Dec 11, 2pm, Allen Early. 189 H St, Petaluma.

707.778.6060.

Dec 11, 3pm, Occidental Community Choir presents “Sing the Long Nights” winter concert. 547 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. 707.568.5381.

Arlene Francis Center

Green Music Center

Dec 10, Old Soul Collective.

99 Sixth St, Santa Rosa.

707.528.3009.

Barley & Hops Tavern

Dec 9, Jen Tucker. Dec 10, Gypsy Cafe. Dec 11, Christopher Bowers. 3688 Bohemian Hwy, Occidental. 707.874.9037.

The Big Easy

Dec 7, Ted Bagget & the Hessel Road Project. Dec 8, Howard Wales with Terry Haggerty and Kevin Hayes. Dec 9, the Jack of Hearts Band. Dec 11, Jaydub & Dino. Dec 13, Dgiin. Dec 14, Wednesday Night Big Band.

128 American Alley, Petaluma.

707.776.4631.

Blue Heron Restaurant & Tavern

Dec 13, 6pm, Michael Hantman.

25300 Steelhead Blvd, Duncans Mills. 707.865.2261.

Burbank Auditorium Dec 14, SRJC Orchestra and Choir with pianist Dr Rudolf Budginas. SRJC, 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa.

707.527.4307.

Chroma Gallery

Dec 10, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” concertos with the

29

Church of the Incarnation

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Music

Gaia Quartet. 312 South A St, Santa Rosa. 707.293.6051.

Dec 7, Sonoma State University Jazz Orchestra. Dec 8, Sonoma State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Dec 9, Tommy Emmanuel’s “Classics & Christmas” Tour. Dec 10, Angélique Kidjo. 1801 East Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, 866.955.6040.

Green Music Center Schroeder Hall

Dec 9, Sonoma State University Jazz Combos. Dec 11, 3pm, Zoë Keating. Sold-out. 1801 E Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, 866.955.6040.

HOR_Boh14_3rdpg.indd 1

11/28/16 10:58 AM

Healdsburg Community Church

Dec 8-9, 7pm and , Dec 10, 2pm, “Carols, Canticles and Christmas Classics” with Healdsburg Chorus. $15. Dec 11, 3pm, Healdsburg Community Band’s annual holiday show. 1100 University Ave, Healdsburg.

Fashion, shoes and gifts from the lines you love.

Voted Best in our class, 3 years in a row.

HopMonk Sebastopol

Dec 8, Doyle Bramhall II with Future Stuff. Dec 10, the Blasters with Derek Irving & His Combo. Dec 12, DJ Konnex.

230 Petaluma Ave, Sebastopol.

707.829.7300. )

30

707.824.4300 195 N Main Street, Sebastopol Open Monday–Sunday, 10am to 6pm C LOT H I NG | SHOES | SC A RV ES | J E W E LRY

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

30

Sebastiani Theatre

DOYLE BRAMHALL II

Jamison’s Roaring Donkey

+ FUTURE STUFF $20–$23/DOORS 7/SHOW 8/21+

Dec 10, the Nugget King with L-MO 415 and Kid Klout.

146 Kentucky St, Petaluma.

707.772.5478.

FRI DEC 9

CLOSED FOR PRIVATE EVENT

SAT DEC 10

THE BLASTERS

+ DEREK IRVING AND HIS COMBO $25/DOORS 7:30/SHOW 8/21+

Lagunitas Tap Room

MON DEC 12

THE WBLK DANCEHALL MASSIVE

SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND SERIES (EVERY 3RD THURSDAY)

$8/DOORS 7:30/SHOW 8/ALL AGES

FRI DEC 16

IRIEFUSE

+ YESHUA AND THE HIGHTONES $10/DOORS 8/SHOW 9/21+

SAT DEC 17

JOHN McCUTCHEON IN CONCERT Mon, Jan 9, 2017 reserved seating tickets $25

Great Holiday Gift Idea!

DAVID STARFIRE / WU WEI + DJ DRAGONFLY $15–$20/DOORS-SHOW 9/21+

WWW.HOPMONK.COM Book your

next event with us, up to 250, kim@hopmonk.com

Redwood Cafe

Dec 10, 6:30pm, Shea Breaux Wells Quartet. 25 Matheson St, Healdsburg. 707.431.2800.

EVERY TUES AT 7PM WITH CENI THU DEC 8

THU DEC 15

HopMonk Sonoma

Hotel Healdsburg

OPEN MIC NIGHT

$8/ALL SAGITTARIUS FREE B4 11 DOORS-SHOW 10/21+

Sharp Tongue. 201 Washington St, Petaluma. 707.762.3565.

Dec 9, David Thom & Vintage Grass. 691 Broadway, Sonoma.

707.935.9100.

707.829.7300 230 PETALUMA AVE | SEBASTOPOL

THE DJ KONNEX ALL SAGITTARIUS BERFDAY BASH

Music ( 29

Movies call 707.996.2020 Tickets call 707.996.9756 SONOMA sebastianitheatre.com

Dec 7, Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s. Dec 8, Ted Bagget & the Hessel Road Project. Dec 9, JimBo Trout. Dec 11, Trevor McSpadden. Dec 14, French Oak Gypsy Band. 1280 N McDowell Blvd, Petaluma. 707.778.8776.

Luther Burbank Center for the Arts Dec 8, Gary Allan. Dec 9, Posada Navideña. Dec 11, 3pm, Symphony Pops: A Charlie Brown Christmas Concert. 50 Mark West Springs Rd, Santa Rosa. 707.546.3600.

Main Street Bistro

Dec 8, Sam Peoples and Lynne Billig. Dec 9, Haute Flash Quartet. Dec 10, Rhonda Benin.

Dec 11, Willie Perez. Dec 13, Mac & Potter. 16280 Main St, Guerneville. 707.869.0501.

Mc T’s Bullpen

Dec 9, DJ MGB. Dec 10, Wiley’s Coyotes. Dec 11, George Heagerty. Dec 12, DJ MGB. 16246 First St, Guerneville.

707.869.3377.

FRI, DECEMBER 16

Donny & Marie

SAT, DECEMBER 17

Christmas with Aaron Neville THU, DECEMBER 29 SIRIUSXM PRESENTS

The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s

13th Annual Christmas Rocks! Tour

Murphy’s Irish Pub

Dec 9, Deluxe. Dec 10, Mostly Simply Bluegrass with Blue & Lonesome. 464 First St E, Sonoma. 707.935.0660.

Mystic Theatre

Dec 9, California Honeydrops and Steep Ravine. Dec 10, Poor Man’s Whiskey and Coral Creek.

23 Petaluma Blvd N, Petaluma.

707.765.2121.

New Vintage Church

Dec 10, 2 and 7pm, Barbershop Christmas show with Redwood Chordsmen. 3300 Sonoma Ave, Santa Rosa. 707.545.73444.

Occidental Center for the Arts

707.546.3600 lutherburbankcenter.org

Dec 9-10, Occidental Community Choir presents “Sing the Long Nights” winter concert. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct, Occidental. 707.874.9392.

Phoenix Theater

Dec 9, name with WRVTH and

Dec 8, Onye & the Messengers.

Dec 10, the Rhythm Rangers.

Dec 11, 3pm, Celtic Fiddle Music. Dec 11, 6pm, Irish jam session. Dec 12, Open Mic with DJ Loisaida. 8240 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati. 707.795.7868.

Rincon Valley Library

Dec 10, 1 and 2:30pm, Folk Roots of Classical Music with SR Symphony. 6959 Montecito Blvd, Santa Rosa. 707.537.0162.

Rio Nido Roadhouse

Dec 10, Weekend at Bernie’s.

14540 Canyon 2 Rd, Rio Nido.

707.869.0821.

St John’s Episcopal Church

Dec 10, 7pm, the North Bay Singers’ Winter Concert. 40 Fifth St, Petaluma.

The Tradewinds Bar Dec 10, Richie Blue. 8210 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati.

707.795.7878.

Twin Oaks Roadhouse Dec 8, Puree college night.

Dec 9, Dirty Red Barn. Dec 10, Train Wreck Junction. Dec 12, the Blues Defenders pro jam.

Dec 13, open mic night with RoJo. 5745 Old Redwood Hwy, Penngrove. 707.795.5118.

United Methodist Church

Dec 10, 2pm, Sebastopol Center for the Arts presents SingAlong Messiah. Dec 11, 3pm, “For the Trees” with the Old World Carolers. 500 N Main St, Sebastopol, traditionalfun.org.

Whiskey Tip

Dec 9, Dylan Black Project.

Dec 10, Official Emerald Cup AfterParty. 1910 Sebastopol Rd, Santa Rosa. 707.843.5535.

MARIN COUNTY Fenix

Dec 9, Papa’s Bag: James Brown Experience. Dec 10, Nzuri Soul Band Holiday Show.

Dec 11, 6:30pm, Gypsy Soul. Dec 14, the Fenix Band. 919 Fourth St, San Rafael. 415.813.5600.

Marin Center Showcase Theatre

Dec 9, 8pm and , Dec 10, 3 and 8pm, “Follow That Star: A Galaxy of Song” with Mayflower Chorus. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael.

415.499.6800.

Marin Center’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium

Dec 13, 7pm, Marin Symphony Holiday Pops. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael.

415.473.6800.

19 Broadway Club

Dec 7, the Damon LeGall Band.

Dec 8, Dance/House at Club 19. Dec 9, Broun Fellinis with the Sucker MCs. Dec 10, Lucky Drive with Koolwhip. Dec 11, 5pm, the Little Bit Show with Gail Muldrow. Dec 13, 6pm, Jeb Brady Band. Dec 14, Blonde Sided. 17 Broadway Blvd, Fairfax. 415.459.1091.

No Name Bar

Dec 8, Jesse Lee Kincaid Band.

Dec 9, Michael Aragon Quartet.

Dec 10, Four and More. Dec 11, Doug Nichols and friends. Dec 12, Kimrea & the Dreamdogs.

Dec 13, open mic. Dec 14, Slim Jim. 757 Bridgeway, Sausalito.

415.332.1392.

Osher Marin JCC

Dec 10, KITKA: Wintersongs.

200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael. 415.444.8000.

Panama Hotel Restaurant

Dec 7, DownLow Duo. Dec 8, Wanda Stafford. Dec 13, Panama Jazz Trio. Dec 14, Kurt Huget and friends.

4 Bayview St, San Rafael.

415.457.3993.

Peri’s Silver Dollar

Dec 7, the Weissmen. Dec 8, Mark’s Jam Sammich.

Dec 9, Stymie & the Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra. Dec 10, Tommy Odetto Group. Dec 11, West Armoury. Dec 13, Fresh Baked Blues. Dec 14, the New Sneakers. 29 Broadway, Fairfax.

415.459.9910.

Rancho Nicasio

George’s Nightclub

Dec 9, Sonora Santanera de Carlos Colorade. 842 Fourth St, San Rafael. 415.226.0262.

Dec 9, Kelly Peterson Band.

Dec 10, Lee Presson & the Nails’ annual Xmas pajama show. Dec 11, 7pm, the Coverlettes Chirstmas show.

1 Old Rancheria Rd, Nicasio.

415.662.2219.

Grazie Restaurant

San Anselmo Library

Dec 10, Tito. 823 Grant Ave, Novato. 415.897.5181.

Harmonia

Dec 10, Rhythm Addicts with DJ Katiana. 2200 Marinship Way, Sausalito. 415.332.1432.

Dec 10, 11am, Golden Gate Flute Choir Concert. 110 Tunstead Ave, San Anselmo.

415.258.4656.

Sausalito Seahorse

Dec 8, Toque Tercero flamenco

31

CRITIC’S CHOICE FREE LOCAL LIVE MUSIC GIGS LIVE MUSIC. NEW STAGE AND SOUND. NEW DANCE FLOOR. NEW AIR CONDITIONING. SUDS TAPS - 18 LOCAL & REGIONAL SELECT CRAFT BEERS & CIDERS. EATS NEW MENU, KITCHEN OPEN ALL DAY FROM 11AM ON. CHECK OUT OUR FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH W/CORN ON THE COB. DIGS DINING OUT-DOORS. KIDS ALWAYS WELCOME - NEW KID’S MENU. RESERVATIONS FOR 8 OR MORE. HAPPY HOUR M-F 3-6PM. $2 CHICKEN TACOS. $3 HOUSE CRAFT BEERS.

Sweetwater Music Hall Dec 7, the Steel Wheels.

Dec 9-10, Zepparella with Powerhouse and Angelex.

Dec 11, Patterson Hood with David Luning. 19 Corte Madera Ave, Mill Valley.

415.388.3850.

NAPA COUNTY

WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAYS • BLUES DEFENDERS PRO JAM TUESDAYS • OPEN MIC W/ROJO WEDNESDAYS • KARAOKE

Blue Note Napa

Downtown Joe’s Brewery & Restaurant Dec 8, Jimmy James. Dec 9, Levi Lloyd & the 501 Blues Band. Dec 10, Jinx Jones. Dec 11, DJ Aurelio. Dec 13, Bay Area Blues Society Caravan of Allstars. 902 Main St, Napa.

707.258.2337.

First United Methodist Church Dec 9, 7:30pm, Bel Canto Chamber Choir Holiday Concert. 625 Randolph St, Napa. 707.224.1820.

Napa Valley Performing Arts Center Dec 10, VOENA: Voices of the Season…on Broadway.

100 California Dr, Yountville.

707.944.9900.

RaeSet Dec 8, jazz lab with Jeff Johnson. Dec 9, Friday Night Blues with Gretschkat plus toy drive. Dec 10, Brian Coutch plus toy drive. Dec 12, Jeff Johnson.

3150 B Jefferson St, Napa.

707.666.9028.

St Helena Catholic Church Dec 11, 4pm, Bel Canto Chamber Choir Holiday Concert. 1340 Tainter St, St Helena. 707.224.1820.

Uva Trattoria Dec 7, Tom Duarte. Dec 8, Le Jazz Hot. Dec 9, Gentlemen of Jazz. Dec 10, FM-80. Dec 11, 6pm, Trio Solea. Dec 14, Justin Diaz. 1040 Clinton St, Napa.

707.255.6646.

Musical Growth

CALENDAR THU DEC 8 • PUREE’ (EVERY 2ND & 4TH THURSDAY) 9:00PM / 21+ FREE

Emerald Cup expands its groove department Sonoma County’s annual Emerald Cup cannabis convention is expecting record crowds this year, thanks to the passing of Proposition 64. To accommodate the masses, the Cup announced its first official pre-party concert for Friday, Dec. 9, to go along with the already packed lineup of music happening during the event on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 10–11.

Hosted by Emerald Cup headliner Damian Marley (pictured), the Fridaynight concert will feature a performance by popular Bermuda reggae artist Collie Buddz, a DJ set by Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and producer Kabaka Pyramid, and more.

The show is sure to set a positive vibe for the weekend-long convention, which boasts a strong musical element complementing the weekend’s informational panels, keynote talks, live art and cannabis competition.

Saturday’s lineup includes California acts Thrive and Arden Park Roots, as well as up-and-coming Jamaican band Raging Fyah performing in the afternoon, before the California Honeydrops, Stick Figure and Damian Marley headline in the pavilion.

Sunday’s lineup is no slouch either, with electro-funk duo Vokab Kompany, world-beat vocalist Nattali Rize, San Diego group Tribal Seeds and veteran multi-genre rockers Dirty Heads rounding out the weekend.

The Emerald Cup happens Dec. 9–11 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa.

Friday’s events start at 5pm ($35); Saturday and Sunday, at 11am ($70 and up). theemeraldcup.com.—Charlie Swanson

FRI DEC 9 • DIRTY RED BARN AN EVENING WITH 2 SETS! 7:30PM / 21+ FREE

Loose Diamonds Custom Work Jewelry Watch Repair MontoyaJewelryDesigns.com 940 McClelland Drive, Windsor 707.837.9755

SAT DEC 10 • TRAIN WRECK JUNCTION AN EVENING WITH 2 SETS! 7:30PM / 21+ FREE CHECK OUT OUR FULL MUSIC CALENDAR www.TwinOaksRoadhouse.com Phone 707.795.5118 5745 Old Redwood Hwy Penngrove, CA 94951

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

affordable clothing boutique

STARTS NOW!

Milk & Honey

OPEN 11–6 Mon–Sun 707.242.3027 8200 Old Redwood Hwy Cotati

Treasures & Pleasures of the Goddess

Best Erotica Store

123 North Main St. Sebastopol, CA 95472 www.milk-and-honey.com

Your vision… my resources, dedication and integrity…

Together, we can catch your dream.

Realtor Coldwell Banker

Suzanne Wandrei

cell: 707.292.9414 www.suzannewandrei.com

Eco Green Certified

NOW OPEN!

Dec 7, 6:30 and 9pm, Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. Dec 8, 6:30 and 9pm, Erik Jekabson Quintet. Dec 9, 6:30 and 9pm, Denise Perrier.

Dec 10-11, 6:30 and 9pm, Mike Stern. Dec 13, 6:30 and 9pm, Shelby Lanterman. Dec 14-15, 6:30 and 9pm, ArtistWorks Jazz All-Stars. 1030 Main St, Napa. 707.603.1258.

bownarrowclothing.com

OMG! I wish he

would wear that!

The latest designer fashions Cool weather essentials to complete the look

150 Kentucky St, Petaluma 707.765.1715 212 Corte Madera Town Center, Corte Madera 415.924.1715

louisthomas.com

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

night. Dec 9, DJ Jose Ruiz.

Dec 10, the 7th Sons. Dec 11, 5pm, Somos el Son. Dec 13, Noel Jewkes and friends. 305 Harbor View Dr, Sausalito.

415.331.2899.

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

32

YAS

YOUNG A C T O R S STUDIO Based on the belovedmovie hit, This modern-day holiday classic is sure to make you embrace your "inner elf".

Arts Events RECEPTIONS Dec 8

Amorim Cork America, “Scott Gundersen Art Show,” the artist’s wine cork portraits are themed around recycling, his love for mosaics and his penchant for drinking red wine.

4:30pm. 360 Devlin Rd, Napa. 707.224.6000.

DECEMBER 9 -18, 2016

Friday Dec 9 and Dec 16 at 7pm, Sat Dec 10 and 17 at 4pm and 7pm,Sun Dec 11 and 18 at 2pm

THE STUDIO THEATRE at the LBC | TIX: $15 at door. $10 online | www.YoungActors.Studio

MARKETPLACE ON FOURTH Where Shopping is Fabulous!

Festive Holiday Party Accessories and Decor!

Unique selection of Imported & Local Specialty Foods

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, “A Portrait of Sonoma,” photographers Erik Castro, Jamie Thrower and students at Sonoma Valley High School display portraits from their recent pop-up shoots. 5:30pm. 551 Broadway, Sonoma. 707.939.

SVMA.

Dec 9

Art Works Downtown “AWD Members Exhibition,” showcasing the many talented artists who are members of the Art Works Downtown community.

Reception, Dec 9 at 5pm.

1337 Fourth St, San Rafael.

415.451.8119.

Marin Society of Artists, “Small Works Bazaar,” 45

artists exhibit a unique and beautiful selection of paintings, ceramics, jewelry and more. 5pm. 1515 Third St, San Rafael. 415.464.9561.

Dec 10

History Museum of Sonoma County, “The Beat Goes On,” exhibit looks back on peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll in the North Bay. 5pm.

425 Seventh St, Santa Rosa.

707.579.1500.

MarinMOCA, “Sandi Miot: The Medium Is the Muse,” retrospective exhibit of the Marin-based artist is a visual look at her journey through wax and encaustic works. 2pm. 500 Palm Dr, Novato. Wed-Fri, 11 to 4; SatSun, 11 to 5. 415.506.0137.

Dec 13

Redwood Cafe, “The Odd Spirits Group Show,” a selection of mixed-media paintings and prints from artists Dan Howard, Rich Ressler, Michael Coy and others. 6pm. 8240 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati.

707.795.7868.

CANDLES ~ JEWELRY ~ HOME DECOR ~ GIFTS FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES

845 FOURTH ST, SANTA ROSA, Across from Stanroy Music & Verizon 707.303.7530 ~ Like us on Facebook

Galleries SONOMA COUNTY Agrella Art Gallery

The Pulsators New Year’s Eve

Redwood Cafe, Cotati Saturday December 31 Complimentary Champagne toast at Midnight

Doors 8:30PM / Show 9:15PM / 21+ Tickets: start at $25 / Prices will go up BrownPaperTickets.com

Through Dec 15, “From the Forest Floor,” watercolors from a recent sabbatical project of SRJC instructor Deborah Kirklin shows alongside still-life show, “Zeuxis: Flowers as Metaphor.”

SRJC, Doyle Library, 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa.

Mon-Thurs, 10 to 4; Sat, 1 to 4.

707.527.4298.

The Art Wall at Shige Sushi Through Dec 31, “Colin Talcroft Solo Show,” the artist displays his abstract monoprint collage works. 8235 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati. Hours vary.

707.795.9753.

ArtFlare Gallery Dec 10-11, “Altar Art,” inspirational art represents

spiritual practices in goddess, Native American, Hispanic and African American cultures, among others. 3840 Finley Ave, Bldg 33, Santa Rosa. Sat-Sun, noon to 5pm.

Cornerstone Sonoma

Through Dec 25, “Celebration of Color & Light,” the Garden Barn hosts painter Nancy Granger, photographer Don Kellogg and textile artist Susan Stark. 23570 Arnold Dr, Sonoma. Daily, 10 to 4.

707.933.3010.

Finley Community Center

Through Dec 8, “Three Artists/ Three Styles,” collage artist Thea Evensen, landscape painter Lynnie Rabinowitsh and abstract mosaic artist Kathy Farrell display. 2060 W College Ave, Santa Rosa.

Mon-Fri, 8 to 6; Sat, 9 to 11am.

707.543.3737.

Fulton Crossing

Through Dec 31, “December Art

Show,” featuring several artists opening their working studios to the public. Reception, Dec 16 at 5pm. 1200 River Rd, Fulton. Sat-Sun, noon to 5pm 707.536.3305.

Gallery 8

Through Dec 17, “Seeing the Unseen,” artists Helena Leifer and Max DuBois show artwork created in collaboration to produce a rich, diverse convergence of their once solitary efforts. 312 South A St, Santa Rosa. Wed-Sat, noon to 5pm; or by appointment.

707.573.9511.

Glaser Center

Through Dec 20, “Batra Njana’s Cabo Verde,” photo exhibit by photographer Bertha Jean. 547 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa.

707.568.5381.

Graton Gallery

Through Dec 18, “Mere Color,” new abstracts by Susan Proehl with guest artists Rebeca Trevino, Paula Strother, Rosemary Ward and Betty Ann Sutton. 9048 Graton Rd, Graton. Tues-Sat, 10:30 to 6; Sun, 10:30 to 4. 707.829.8912.

Healdsburg Center for the Arts Through Dec 31, “Gift Gallery,” an opportunity for creators of high-quality, functional, wearable, decorative and gift-appropriate crafts to offer their works for the gift-giving season. 130 Plaza St, Healdsburg. Daily, 11 to 6.

707.431.1970.

Petaluma Arts Center

Through Dec 11, “Floribunda,” Hunt Institute’s international exhibition of botanical art and illustration includes local and regional botanical artists.

230 Lakeville St, Petaluma.

Thurs-Mon, 11 to 5.

707.762.5600.

SoCo Coffee

Through Dec 31, “Paintings by Kenneth Pelletier,” featuring still lifes from the local artist.

1015 Fourth St, Santa Rosa.

707.433.1660.

Sonoma State University Library Art Gallery

Through Dec 23, “Creativity Unconfined,” life in a World War II Japanese-American internment camp is explored in silk-screen posters, woodcuts,

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

Marin Society of Artists

Through Dec 31, “XXc Icons of Photography,” exhibit showcases the best of world photography and shows in conjunction with “Pairings: 16 Artists Creatively Combined,” which focuses on harmonious combinations of artworks. 551 Broadway, Sonoma. Wed-Sun, 11 to 5. 707.939.SVMA.

Steele Lane Community Center

Through Dec 15, “Outer Glow,” Northern California artist Jenny Harp utilizes a variety of media in her work including printmaking, digital media, sculpture and installation.

415 Steele Ln, Santa Rosa.

Mon-Thurs, 8 to 7; Fri, 8 to 5.

707.543.3282.

University Art Gallery

Through Dec 11, “Cries & Whispers,” Northern California artists John Yoyogi Fortes and Cate White create distinctly complex, colorful and personal paintings. Sonoma State University, 1801 E Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park. Tues-Fri, 11 to 4; Sat-Sun, noon to 4.

707.664.2295.

MARIN COUNTY Alemany Library Gallery

Through Dec 16, “A Purposeful Life,” San Rafael artist Davis Perkins’ paintings depict the grandeur of the American landscape. Dominican University, 50 Acacia Ave, San Rafael. 415.485.3251.

Through Dec 23, “Small Works Bazaar,” 45 artists exhibit a unique and beautiful selection of paintings, ceramics, jewelry and more. Reception, Dec 9 at 5pm. 1515 Third St, San Rafael. Wed-Sun, noon to 4pm.

415.464.9561.

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts

Through Dec 29, “Art of the Spirit,” 616 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley. Tues-Sat, 10 to 2; also by appointment.

415.388.4331.

Throckmorton Theatre

Through Dec 31, “Throckmorton’s December Art Show,” featuring works by Stanley Goldstein and Liana Steinmetz. 142 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley. 415.383.9600.

Comedy Lewis Black

The headlining hothead standup star appears as part of his “Naked Truth” tour. Dec 8, 8pm. $55-$75. Uptown Theatre, 1350 Third St, Napa.

707.259.0123.

Chicks with Shticks

America’s favorite “dragapella beautyshop quartet” the Kinsey Sicks present their latest dragtastic musical as a benefit for Congregation Ner Shalom. Dec 11, 7:30pm. $30$45. Congregation Ner Shalom, 85 La Plaza, Cotati.

Art Works Downtown

Through Dec 31, “Small Works Exhibition,” a wonderful opportunity to find affordable, quality artwork for the holiday gift-giving season. Reception, Dec 9 at 5pm. 1337 Fourth St, San Rafael. Tues-Sat, 10 to 5.

415.451.8119.

Bolinas Museum

Through Dec 31, “Bounty,” exhibit looks at fine food production in coastal Marin, from 1834 to today. 48 Wharf Rd, Bolinas. Fri, 1 to 5; Sat-Sun, noon to 5; and by appointment.

415.868.0330.

Gallery Route One

Through Dec 11, “An Inner Cosmos,” artist Johanna Baruch paints works inspired

by Hubble telescope photos, showing alongside works by Will Thoms, Joanne Easton and Lorna Stevens. 11101 Hwy 1, Pt

Dance The Nutcracker

Marin Ballet performs the full-length classic to ring in the season. Candy Cane parties follow each matinee show.

Dec 10-11, 1pm and 5pm. $27$43. Marin Center’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael 415.473.6800.

The Snow Maiden

The fairy tale from Russia comes to life with Sonoma Conservatory of Dance. Dec 10-11, 1pm. $17-$22. Sebastiani Theatre, 476 First St E, Sonoma.

707.938.1424.

The Story of the Nutcracker

Performed by Miss Sara’s

Ballet School. Dec 11, 11am and 2pm. Marin Center Showcase Theatre, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael 415.499.6800.

33

Winter Performance

ArtQuest Dance Company presents its seasonal show. Dec 9-10, 7pm. $5-$15. Santa Rosa High School Performing Arts Auditorium, 1235 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa.

Events ARTifact Grand Opening & Holiday Gift Making

Children’s art enrichment center opens in Marin with a day of family fun that includes make-and-take art activities, gift-making and more. Dec 10, 9am. Free. ARTifact, 121 Corte Madera Ave, Corte Madera.

415.335.9338.

Artisan Craft Faire & Holiday Festival

Live music and entertainment, food booths and over 60 local vendors. Fun for the whole family includes kids activities and photos with Santa. Dec 10, 10am. Free. Center for Spiritual Living, 2075 Occidental Rd, Santa Rosa. 707.546.4543.

The Emerald Cup

Preeminent outdoor medicinal cannabis competition features over 200 vendors, workshops, guest speakers and live music from Damian Marley, Dirty Heads, Vokab Kompany, California Honey Drops and others. Pre-party concert expands this year’s offerings.

Dec 9-11. $70 and up. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Rd, Santa Rosa, theemeraldcup.com.

Festival of Lights

The North Bay’s biggest Hanukkah celebration features games, crafts, entertainment and more coming together for a globally-minded exploration of Hanukkah traditions from around the world. Dec 11.

Free. Osher Marin JCC, 200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael.

415.444.8000.

Freya Lodge Holiday Arts & Craft Fair

Shop for high quality items made by Sonoma County artists, with Scandinavian baked goods, Norwegian waffles, coffee and a light lunch available for purchase.

Dec 10, 9am. Sons of Norway Hall, 617 W Ninth St, ) Santa Rosa.

34

Calistoga

VOTED # 1 SPA

wIldcat

VIntage clothIng

Get Fresh Enjoy Spa Day Packages, Massages, Facials, Hydrotherapy Mud Baths and More!

1.855.281.6668 • mountviewhotel.com

Ayurvedic Indian Head Massage • relief from tension headaches, & sinusitis • improves mobility in neck & shoulders

Margery Smith

CMT# 62066

707.536.1797 margerysmith.massagetherapy.com

g u y s • g als • VIn tag e • RetRo 81 0 Ra n d o lph st, d o w n to w n n apa 707.2 2 4.3 1 62

Cacti #2 by Pamela Glasscock, 2013

Reyes Station. Wed-Mon, 11 to 5. 415.663.1347.

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

paper flowers and more. 1801 E Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park.

456 Tenth St, Santa Rosa • Tue–Sat 11–5 707.781.7070 • calabigallery.com

34

A E

( 33

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

Global Marketplace Holiday Sale

Find unique and meaningful gifts handcrafted by women survivors of war, extreme poverty, gender-based violence and human trafficking.

Fairly traded jewelry, fashion accessories and home décor from over 20 impoverished countries will be featured. Dec 10, 10am. Sausalito Woman’s Club, 120 Central Ave, Sausalito.

Goddess Crafts Faire

A community celebration of the coming of winter includes art, music, dance and a collection of handmade gifts by local and regional women Dec 10-11, 11am. Sebastopol Community Center, 390 Morris St, Sebastopol. 707.823.1511.

The GrandSlam

Storytelling championship features 13 people sharing real life tales, hosted by Petaluma’s West Side Stories group. Dec 7, 7:30pm. $18. Mystic Theatre, 23 Petaluma Blvd N, Petaluma.

707.765.2121.

Hanukkah Hootenanny Latkes and libations rule the day in this 10th annual benefit for the Community Health Initiative of Napa County.

Dec 11, 12pm. $55. Judd’s Hill Winery, 2332 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.255.2332.

Holi-Demo-Day!

New makerspace hosts demonstrations, tours and hands-on maker projects for people of all ages. Dec 11, 11am.

180 Studios, 150 Todd Rd, Santa Rosa. 707.843.4363.

Holiday Maker Craft Faire & Festivities

Dog Training the Natural Way Offering: • group classes • private sessions • boot camp

an intensive 3 week in board program with unlimited owner follow-up

Training Evaluations always FREE by appointment 707.322.3272 We have over 40 years of experience training dogs and their people. From helping you raise a well adjusted puppy to resolving serious behavioral issues—our expertise gets RESULTS! incrediblecanine.com

Shop for unique handmade holiday gifts and meet the makers. Dec 9, 6pm. Chimera Arts & Maker Space, 6791 Sebastopol Ave, Sebastopol. chimeraarts.org.

Marin Art & Garden Holiday Fair

Celebrate the season with music, refreshments, crafts, kids’ activities and shopping bargains galore. Dec 10, 10am.

Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Ross.

415.455.5260.

Marin Country Mart Holiday Bazaar

Features antiques pop-up shop, wreath making demonstration, holiday tips and tricks seminar, cocktails, food and Gypsy Jazz by Rue

Manouche. Dec 11, 10am-7pm.

Marin Country Mart, 2257 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur.

Occidental Holiday Crafts Faire

Over 35 local and regional artists, raffle, fabulous food and baked goods. Dec 1011, 10am. Free. Occidental Community Center, 3920 Bohemian Hwy, Occidental.

Petaluma Arts Association Holiday Arts & Craft Sale

Unique crafts for sale, with entertainment, food, prizes and holiday photos with Santa.

Dec 10-11, 11am. Petaluma Community Center, 320 N McDowell Blvd, Petaluma, petalumaarts.org.

Retro Game Night

The museum busts out the Ataris and gets down to old-school gaming in this marathon of vintage fun. Dec 9, 7pm. $10. Napa Valley Museum, 55 Presidents Circle, Yountville.

707.944.0500.

Santa’s Helpers Holiday Gift Faire

Over 90 local artisan gather for a weekend of holiday cheer that makes gift-giving a breeze. Music and carolers, baked goods and more are also on hand. Dec 10-11. Free admission. Napa Valley Expo, 575 Third St, Napa. www. santashelpersnapa.com.

Sausalito Gingerbread House Tour & Competition Stroll the shops around Sausalito and view elaborate, festively decorated gingerbread houses galore.

Through Dec 30. Downtown Sausalito, Caledonia Street, Sausalito.

Sebastopol Holiday Home Tour

Tour several historic Sebastopol homes all decked out for the season. Dec 9-10. $10-$45. Pleasant Hill Christian School, 1782 Pleasant Hill Rd, Sebastopol. 707.829.1729.

Sonoma Ceramics Holiday Sale

Browse beautiful gifts handmade in Sonoma.

Everything from ornaments and jewelry to tableware, mugs, garden items and sculpture.

Dec 10-11, 10am. Free. Sonoma Community Center, 276 E Napa St, Sonoma. 707.938.4626.

White Barn Wassail

Get in the holiday spirit with seasonal revelry in the form of mulled drinks and sweet treats,

vintage Christmas film clips, holiday readings and caroling.

Dec 10, 4pm. $30. The White Barn, 2727 Sulphur Springs Ave, St Helena. 707.987.8225.

Winter & Wildcats Open House

The Wildcat Conservation & Education Fund hosts two shows with their resident wildcats. Dec 10, 12pm. $15.

Peterson Winery, 4791 Dry Creek Rd, Bldg 7, Healdsburg.

707.431.7568.

Film Before the Flood

Community screening of the National Geographic documentary by Leonardo DiCaprio and Fisher Stevens is followed by a short discussion and Q&A. Dec 8, 6:30pm.

Free. TrimTab Workspace, 245 N Main St, Sebastopol, trimtabfilmseries.eventbrite.com.

Cinema Archeologists

Oscar-winning filmmakers and historians Ben Burtt and Craig Barron unearth tales of technical achievement behind “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” on Saturday and “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Sunday. Dec 10, 7pm and Dec 11, 2pm. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. 415.454.1222.

Elf

Screening of the recent holiday favorite and reception benefits the Pacific Pediatric NeuroOncology Consortium, who advance research towards finding a cure to childhood cancers. Dec 11, 1pm. $50 and up. Lark Theater, 549 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur. 415.924.5111.

Five Christmas Films

Enjoy holiday cheer and giving at five different movie houses playing a Christmas movie throughout the day.

Free with donation of a toy or nonperishable food item.

See sregmovies.com for films and times. Dec 14. Santa Rosa Entertainment Group, various theaters, Sonoma County.

Global Tango

Tiburon Film Society presents the film about displacement of Argentineans caused by the latest economic crisis, told through tango. Dec 8, 6:30pm.

Free. Belvedere-Tiburon Library, 1501 Tiburon Blvd, Tiburon. 415.789.2665.

Holly Jolly Holiday Movies

Family-friendly day of films presents “White Christmas”

35

1940 holiday romcom ‘The Shop Around the Corner,’ screening as part of Sebastiani Theatre’s Vintage Film Series on Monday, Dec. 12, in Sonoma. See Film, below.

and “Polar Express” screening back to back. Dec 10, 1pm. $6-$8. Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. 707.588.3400.

Kirk Douglas Happy Hundred

In celebration of the actor’s 100th birthday, eight of his most iconic films screen throughout the week. Visit rafaelfilm.cafilm.org for showtimes. Dec 9-15. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. 415.454.1222.

Meet the Patels

Independent romantic comedy by Ravi Patel follows an unmarried actor whose traditional Hindu parents decide to play matchmaker.

Dec 12, 1 and 7pm. Free. Rialto Cinemas, 6868 McKinley St, Sebastopol. 707.525.4840.

The Shop Around the Corner

Classic romantic comedy starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan screens as part of the Vintage Film Series.

Dec 12, 7pm. $9. Sebastiani Theatre, 476 First St E, Sonoma.

707.996.9756.

Food & Drink Belrose Holiday Tea

Annual tradition includes a pot of fine tea, petit fours, tea sandwiches, cookies and scones. Reservations are required. Dec 7-24. $25. The Belrose, 1415 Fifth Ave, San Rafael. 415.902.5188.

Calistoga’s Winter in the Wineries Purchase a passport to

tour, taste wine and meet winemakers at several heralded wineries, both large and small, in and around the town at the top of Napa Valley. Through Feb 5, 2017. $50. Calistoga wineries, various locations, Calistoga, visitcalistoga.com.

Chai & Chocolate

Enjoy the robust flavors of India and Japan paired with classical Indian music from John Wubbenhorst on bansuri flute and Jesse Stern on tabla.

Dec 11, 3pm. Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley. 415.383.9600.

Holiday Tea Service

A relaxing atmosphere for friends and family to enjoy festive bites and beverages.

Sat-Sun, 2pm. through Dec 18.

Hotel Healdsburg, 25 Matheson St, Healdsburg. 707.431.2800.

Lectures Citizenship Class

Class provides English language skills and history, politics and civics knowledge needed to pass the US Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization interview. Wed, 3:30pm. through Dec 7. $35.

Whistlestop, 930 Tamalpais Ave, San Rafael. 415.454.0998.

Elder Scams Revealed Roberta Robinson and Vick Loel from the Marin County Financial Abuse Specialist team explain how to avoid scams, frauds and identity thefts. Dec 12, 11am. Free.

Family Service Agency, 555 Northgate Dr, San Rafael.

415.492.9444.

Marin’s Salmon; Past, Present & Future Talk focuses on the ecology of salmon and how habitat preservation and restoration efforts help maintain coho, chinook, and steelhead throughout the county. Dec 7, 7pm. Marin Humane Society, 171 Bel Marin Keys Blvd, Novato. 415.883.4621.

Th a n k

You For Shopping Local !

ltiva cu te

Read My Pins

Clara Morrissey discusses the pins from “The Madeleine Albright Collection,” currently exhibiting at Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and tells the stories behind them. Dec 7, 1pm. San Rafael Library, 1100 E St, San Rafael. 415.485.3323.

ho me Coupon Good For

30% OFF

ALL CHRISTMAS EXPIRES DEC 17

Wild Napa

Dr Stewart Reid explores the biology, diversity and conservation of lampreys, North America’s fascinating ancient fishes. Dec 14, 7pm.

Free. Napa Main Library, 580 Coombs St, Napa.

707.253.4070.

Readings Book Passage

Dec 7, 7pm, “Boy” with Hathaway Barry. Dec 8, 7pm, “The Reporter Who Knew Too Much “ with Mark Shaw. Dec 9, 7pm, “Girls Gone Astray” with Susan Isa Efros. Dec 10, 1pm, “Butter” with Elaine Khosrova.

Dec 10, 7pm, “Wandering in Andalusia” with editors Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar. Dec 12, 7pm, “Pacific Homicide” with Patricia Smiley, in conversation with author Matt Coyle. Dec 13, 7pm, “The Angel ) of History” with

36

186 N. Main St #120 • Sebastopol • Open Daily 10–6 www.cultivatehome.com • 707.824.1400

SEE US AT THE

EMERALD CUP

• GLASS ART • VAPOR/SMOKE • FLOWTOYS • GIFTS

WEST COUNTY HEAD SHOP 20301 HWY 116 Monte Rio 707.865.5077 Wed–Sun 10–6

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH E MI A N.COM

IT’S A WONDERFUL SHOP Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star in the

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

36

A E

( 35

Rabih Alameddine. Dec 14, 7pm, “Television” with David Thomson. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera 415.927.0960.

LAW OFFICES

Diesel Bookstore

Dec 10, 3pm, “Dooby Lane” with Gary Snyder and Peter Goin.

2419 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur 415.785.8177.

Dominican University

Over a Decade of Experience in Cannabis Defense Cannabis counsel focusing on freedom defense, legal compliance, and medical cannabis licenses & permits.

707.829.0215 / 415.489.0420

omar@alumni.stanford.edu • omar@aya.yale.edu

7770 Healdsburg Ave., Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472

www.omarfigueroa.com

LIFETIME MEMBER, NORML LEGAL COMMITTEE Omar habla español

3205 Dutton Ave Santa Rosa

707.546.0000

Move-in Specials

10x15 for $155 per month Starting Rates—Call for Details

www.StorageMasterSR.com

HANDY JIM • carpentry/painting • seismic retrofit • structural work • stucco/concrete • gutter cleaning • roofing

FAR WEST RESTORATION & CONSTRUCTION 707.280.4891 • FarWestConstr.com Jim Kennedy CA License #751689

LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE VOTE: BOHEMIAN.COM BEST HYDRO STORE SONOMA COUNTY

thrivehydro.com

707.433.4068

30 A MILL STREET, HEALDSBURG

Dec 9, 7:30pm, the Famous Forgotten Women, Iris Jamahl Dunkle reads from her forthcoming biography of Charmian Kittredge London, wife of Jack London, and Tamam Kahn launches her poetry/history book, “Fatima’s Touch: Poems and Stories of the Prophet’s Daughter.” 50 Acacia Ave, San Rafael 415.457.4440.

Napa Bookmine at Oxbow

Dec 10, 12pm, “Alternative Baker” with Alanna TaylorTobin. Dec 11, 12pm, “Israel Eats” with Steven Rothfield. 610 First St, Shop 4, Napa 707.726.6575.

Peace & Justice Center

Dec 9, 7pm, “You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution” with Ahmed Salah. by donation. 467 Sebastopol Ave, Santa Rosa 707.575.8902.

Petaluma Arts Center

Dec 9-10, 6:30pm, “A Christmas Memory” Petaluma Readers Theatre, a staged reading of Truman Capote’s holiday classic, as well as Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” $10-$12. 230 Lakeville St, Petaluma 707.762.5600.

Santa Rosa Copperfield’s Books

Dec 10, 4pm, Christmas Storytime. Dec 11, 4pm, Winter Storytime. Dec 12, 4pm, Hanukkah Storytime.

775 Village Court, Santa Rosa 707.578.8938.

Theater The Adventures of Mr. Toad

Musical for the whole family is based on the beloved book “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Graham. Through Dec 18. $12-$22. Cloverdale Performing Arts Center, 209 N Cloverdale Blvd, Cloverdale.

707.829.2214.

Christmas Carol

Veteran actor Charlie Siebert

once again bring the famous tale of Ebenezer Scrooge to life on the stage for the whole family. Through Dec 23. 6th Street Playhouse, 52 West Sixth St, Santa Rosa. 707.523.4185.

The Great American Trailer Park Xmas Musical

The funny Xmas sendup returns to Lucky Penny for another run packed with trailer park tinsel.

Through Dec 17. $27-$38. Lucky Penny Community Arts Center, 1758 Industrial Way, Napa. 707266-6305.

H.M.S. Pinafore

The Ross Valley Players delight with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s romantic romp set aboard a British Navy ship.

Through Dec 18. $15-$27. Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Ross. rossvalleyplayers.com.

Hope

World premiere of a new musical by Si Kahn tells the story of a Jewish immigrant family’s passage from Europe to America. Through Dec 18.

Main Stage West, 104 N Main St, Sebastopol. 707.823.0177.

It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play This beloved American classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. Dec 8-18. $10-$25. Raven Theater, 115 North St, Healdsburg.

707.433.3145.

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

College of Marin drama department presents a stage version of CS Lewis’ classic story. Through Dec 11. Studio Theatre, College of Marin, 835 College Ave, Kentfield.

A Midwinter Night’s Dream

Petaluma Shakespeare Company presents a familyfriendly abridged adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with all the fun at the forefront.

RSVP requested. Dec 11, 3pm. by donation. Hotel Petaluma, 205 Kentucky St, Petaluma, petalumashakespeare.org.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley This light-hearted continuance of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” focuses this time on middle sister Mary Bennet visiting the Darcy household at Pemberley for the winter holiday. Through Dec 18. $22$60. Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley.

415.388.5208.

The Music Man The award-winning musical for all ages is presented through a special arrangement with Music Theatre International. Through Dec 11. Burbank Auditorium, SRJC, 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. 707.527.4307.

Peter & the Starcatcher Spreckels Theater Company presents the story how Peter Pan becomes the magical, eternal boy of legend. Through Dec 18. Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. 707.588.3400.

Polar Bears Sonoma Arts Live hosts playwright, actor and Bohemian contributor David Templeton’s holiday-themed one-manshow about fatherhood and Santa Claus that’s not recommended for young audiences. Dec 8-17. Sonoma Community Center, 276 E Napa St, Sonoma, sonomaartslive.org.

Santaland Diaries David Yen delights audiences with David Sedaris’ one-man tale of an out-of-work, antihero who decides to become a Macy’s elf during the holidays.

Through Dec 18. Studio Theatre, 6th Street Playhouse, 52 W Sixth St, Santa Rosa.

707.523.4185.

Slay Bells Ring (Are You Listening) The Petaluma Radio Players present four holiday-themed radio shows over two nights, full of quirky mystery and Christmas time noir. Dec 8-9, 8pm. $25. Hotel Petaluma, 205 Kentucky St, Petaluma. www. petalumaradioplayers.com.

Somewhere An old-style circus based on the French tradition of the 1920’s, Le Cirque de Bohème presents a magical world filled with enchantment, adventure and wonder. Through Dec 18. $22-$30. Cornerstone Sonoma, 23570 Arnold Dr, Sonoma.

707.933.3010.

The BOHEMIAN’s calendar is produced as a service to the community. If you have an item for the calendar, send it to calendar@bohemian. com, or mail it to: NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN, 847 Fifth St, Santa Rosa CA 95404. Events costing more than $65 may be withheld.

Deadline is two weeks prior to desired publication date.

37

SALE!

240V PHANTOM DE KIT

INCLUDES BALLAST, REFLECTOR, AND BULB $ $

375

99

399 99 each!

each if you buy 10+!

353 COLLEGE AVE, SANTA ROSA, CA 95401 707.568.6299 | GROWGENERATION.COM

Concentrate Headquarters

• Vendor Demonstrations, Samples & Specials • Largest Edible Selection in the North Bay • Wide Topical Selection

FREE STUFF @ 4:20

at EMERALD CUP & Get Your 25% off Coupon

• Organic & Lab Tested Medicine

• Student Discounts Friday • Bulk Discounts • Senior & Veteran Discounts 7 Days A Week 10am–7pm Mon–Fri • 10am–5pm Sat–Sun 2425 Cleveland Ave, Ste 175 Santa Rosa (Next to Big 5) 707.526.2800

FRIENDLY AND KNOWLEDGEABLE TRAINED STAFF

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

HYDROPONICS, ORGANICS AND MORE

THE

NORTH BAY BOH E MI A N | DEC E M BE R 7-1 3, 20 1 6 | BO H E M I AN.COM

38

Nugget

Farm to Bong

Natural Cannabis Co. debuts gift box full of weed

BY STETT HOLBROOK

I

’m probably dating myself, but as a kid I remember going to the mall at Christmastime and seeing those festive Hickory Farms gift packages, the ones with beef sticks, salami, smoked cheeses and little strawberry candies all tucked into a bed of fake grass. Remember those?

That’s what I thought of when I saw the Natural Cannabis Company’s California Farmer’s Showcase Best of Harvest Box. Only, as you might guess, the grass in the package is anything but artificial.

The gift box features 28 strains of cannabis in little one-gram canisters—one ounce. For the weed connoisseur, it’s a treasure chest. The grid of jars in the box corresponds to little blurbs about the properties of the herbs and the mom-and-pop farms that grew each strain.

“The Farmer’s Showcase collection was created to give more exposure to some of the small, local farmers that Natural Cannabis Company partners with,” writes Kerry Quintiliani, company spokesperson, in an email. “With cannabis legalization a reality, many people fear that small farms will be destroyed, along with people’s livelihoods. Dona Frank, founder and owner of Natural Cannabis Company, intends to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The company works with more than 200 small farms and artisan cultivators annually.”

Quintiliani says the target customers are people who “truly appreciate high-quality products, akin to wine or cigar enthusiasts.”

But leaving aside the quality of any of the cannabis, what strikes me most about the product is that it offers a glimpse into the growth of the recreational cannabis industry.

The farm-to-bong era is here.

The description of farms in the box pulls back the veil on the hitherto hidden world of growers.

There’s Zsa Zsa Gardens in Sonoma Valley, organic producers of the “amethyst rose” indica/ sativa hybrid. Ever heard of Glen Tucky Family Farm on Sonoma Mountain? Me neither. They are biodynamic growers who produce “limited production, high-quality, mountain grown cannabis” like “pre-98,” an indica strain. That sounds like a description of any number of mountain winegrowers.

Mendocino County’s McNabb Cannabis grows the “memberberry diesel” indica/sativa hybrid “above the biodynamic vineyards of Bonterra wine.” I wonder when vineyards will start adding in a few rows of cannabis, if some aren’t doing that already.

The box sells for $190, but you can’t get it at the mall—at least not yet. It’s available at Natural Cannabis Company’s locations in Santa Rosa, Hopland and Oakland.

Go to naturalcannabis.com for more info.

BOHEMIAN

Bookstore). Walk-ins PLACE AN AD: Phone: 707.527.1200, Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:30pm 1/2 OFF HAIRCUT Adam’s PC Repairs welcome 11- 5 pm every WITH COLOR & Fax:For707.527.1288 Windows Based | Email: sales@bohemian.com 25 yrs day except Mon, Thurs PC’s & Laptops HIGHLIGHTS experience

Adam Alboher

• Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromcast, Roku, & Apple TV Setup • PC Component Replacement, Virus/Malware Removal • Custom Built Computers (including OS Installation) • Network Installation/Management • Playstation & Xbox Console Setup

Alterations Bridal and Everyday

Jean Elliot 707.829.1704

707.695.8690

$

Alboher@yahoo.com 20 per hour • adamspcrepairs.com

Perms and $25 Shampoo sets for SENIORS. Barber cuts for men $25. Women $40.

Take 10% off first time customers.

Cheryl’s Hair Salon 700 4th St. Ste. B (in the back parking lot of Barnes & Noble

&

& Sundays (sometimes Saturday off) 707.596.2769 Station for Rent, honest person apply.

STACS

B12HappyHour.com Dr. Moses Goldberg, ND Dr. Dana Michaels, ND 707.284.9200

Confidential Program. 707.576.1919

Spiritual

Connections Finding inspiration & connecting with your community

Unity of Santa Rosa An inclusive, spiritually-minded community. All are welcome.

Workshops and events.

Sunday School & Service 10:30am 4857 Old Redwood Hwy tel: 707.542.7729 UnityofSantaRosa.org

Understanding Vital, Peculiar and Solid Character Strategies “The three human types are a strategic play on life, or the Life Principal, Conceived as dilemma or conflict” Discover what your character strategy might be and how that strategy dictates your expression of life energy. Based on the Life and Teaching of Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Friday, Dec 9 7:00pm Donation Requested

“Adi Da’s Teachings have tremendous significance for humanity” —Robert K Hall, MD, Psychiatrist, Co Founder, The Lomi School

FINLEY COMMUNITY CENTER

Maple Room, 2060 West College Ave at Marlow Road, Santa Rosa www.adidam.org/santa-rosa/events

B12 SHOT HAPPY HOUR

175 Concourse off Airport Blvd.

SUBOXONE Treatment and counseling services

Thai Massage & Body Work Professional Thai massage therapy by Natalie 707.308.4169 2635 Cleveland Ave # 7 Santa Rosa $

5 OFF

with this ad

Full Body Sensual Massage

With a mature, playful CMT. Comfortable incall location near the J.C. in Santa Rosa. Soothing, relaxing, and fun.

Gretchen 707.478.3952.

Veterans Discount. ....................................

Provider of Pleasure

Classic massage by a mature gentleman.

Women, men,couples.

Since 1991. Aft/eve appts. Santa Rosa 707.799.4467(C) or 707.535.0511 (L) Jimmy

ARIES (March 21–April 19) Normally I cheer you on when you devote single-minded attention to pressing concerns, even if you become a bit obsessive.

But right now, in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to run wild and free as you sample lavish variety. It’s prime time to survey a spectrum of spicy, shiny and feisty possibilities . . . to entertain a host of ticklish riddles rather than to insist on prosaic answers.

You have been authorized by the cosmos to fabricate your own temporary religion of playing around and messing around and fooling around.

Adrienne Rich described “an honorable human relationship” as “one in which two people have the right to use the word ‘love.’” How is that right earned?

How is such a bond nurtured? Rich said it was “often terrifying to both persons involved,” because it’s “a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.”

I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because you’re in a favorable phase to become an even more honorable lover, friend and ally than you already are. To take advantage of the opportunity, explore this question: How can you supercharge and purify your ability to speak and hear the truth?

GEMINI (May 21–June 20)

Thursday 4–6pm

available for Safe Oxy, Roxy, Norco, Vicodin, and Other Opiate Withdrawal!

For the week of December 7

TAURUS (April 20–May 20) Taurus poet

Alternative Health Well-Being SUBOXONE

Astrology

A Safe Place For Healing

Holistic, tantric masseuse. Relaxing, private, unhurried, heart centered. Free consultation with Session. Please call in advance for appt.

707.793.2188 ....................................

Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough

$1.00 min. for strong, thorough, relaxing therapeutic Massage.

Parts or full body.

Over twenty years experience. Colin Godwin, State Cert.

707.823.2990 Mon-Sat; 10 to 10. ....................................

Great Massage

By Joe, CMT. Swedish massage, 18 years experience. Will do outcalls. 707.228.6883

In Goethe’s play Faust, the hero bemoans his lack of inner unity. Two different souls live within him, he says, and they don’t cooperate. Even worse, they each try to rule him without consulting the other. I’m guessing you’ve experienced a more manageable version of that split during the course of your life. Lately, though, it may have grown more intense and divisive. If that’s true, I think it’s a good sign. It portends the possibility that healing is in the works, that energy is building for a novel synthesis. To help make it happen, identify and celebrate what your two sides have in common.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) The poet Dick Allen described Zen Buddhism as being “so filled with paradoxes that it jumps through hoops that aren’t even there.” I’m tempted to apply this description to the way you’ve been living your life recently. While I can see how it may have entertained you to engage in such glamorous intrigue, I’m hoping you will stop. There is no longer anything to be gained by the complicated hocus-pocus. But it’s fine for you to jump through actual hoops if doing so yields concrete benefits.

LEO (July 23–August 22) For decades, numerous self-help authors have claimed that humans use 10 percent or less of their brain’s potential. But the truth is that our gray matter is far more active than that. The scientific evidence is now abundant. (See a summary here: tinyurl.com/mindmyths.) I hope this helps spur you to destroy any limited assumptions you might have about your own brainpower, Leo. According to my astrological analysis, you could and should become significantly smarter in the next nine months—and wiser, too!

VIRGO (August 23–September 22) Born under the sign of Virgo, Mary Oliver is America’s bestselling poet. She wasn’t an overnight sensation, but she did win a Pulitzer Prize when she was 49. “What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself,” she confesses in one poem. “Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to. That was many years ago.” I bet that even at her current age of 81, Oliver is still refining and deepening her self-love. Neither she nor you will ever be finished with this grand and grueling project. Luckily for you both, now is a time when Virgos can and should make plucky progress in the ongoing work. (P.S.: And this is an essential practice if you want to keep refining and deepening your love for others.)

LIBRA (September 23–October 22) Most highquality suits worn by men are made from the wool of merino sheep raised in Australia. So says Nicholas Antongiavanni in his book The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style. There are now more than 100 million members of this breed, but they are all descendants of just two rams and four ewes from 18thcentury Spain. How did that happen? It’s a long story.

(Read about it here: tinyurl.com/merinosheep.) For the oracular purposes of this horoscope, I’ll simply say that

BY ROB BREZSNY

in the next nine months you’ll also have the potential to germinate a few choice seeds that could ultimately yield enormous, enduring results. Choose well!

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21)

Five of my Scorpio acquaintances and 17 of my Scorpio readers have let me know that they’re actively seeking to make new alliances and strengthen their existing alliances.

Does this mean that Scorpios everywhere are engaged in similar quests? I hope so. I would love to see you expand your network of like-minded souls. I would love for you to be ardent about recruiting more help and support. Happily, the current astrological omens favor such efforts. Hot tip: For best results, be receptive, inviting and forthright.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21)

“The awesome splendor of the universe is much easier to deal with if you think of it as a series of small chunks,” wrote novelist Terry Pratchett. That’s true enough, but I’ll add a caveat: Now and then the trickle of small chunks of awesome splendor gives way to a surge of really big chunks. According to my astrological analysis, that’s either already happening for you, or else is about to happen. Can you handle it? I’m sure you’ve noticed that some people are unskilled at welcoming such glory; they prefer to keep their lives tidy and tiny. They may even get stressed out by their good fortune. I trust you’re not one of these fainthearted souls. I hope you will summon the grace you’ll need to make spirited use of the onslaught of magnificence.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) In his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig coins words to describe previously unnamed feelings. I suspect you may have experienced a few of them recently. One is “monachopsis,” defined as “the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.”

Then there’s “altschmerz,” meaning “weariness with the same old issues you’ve always had.” Another obscure sorrow you might recognize is “nodus tollens,” or “the realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense anymore.” Now I’ll tell you two of Koenig’s more uplifting terms, which I bet you’ll feel as you claw your way free of the morass. First, there’s “liberosis”: caring less about unimportant things; relaxing your grip so you can hold your life loosely and playfully.

Second, there’s “flashover,” that moment when conversations become “real and alive, which occurs when a spark of trust shorts out the delicate circuits you keep insulated under layers of irony.”

AQUARIUS (January 20–February 18) In 1983, two Australian blokes launched a quest to tip a drink at every pub in Melbourne. Thirty-two years later, Mick Stevens and Stuart MacArthur finally accomplished their goal when they sipped beers at the Clyde. It was the 476th establishment on their list.

The coming weeks will be a highly favorable time to plan an epic adventure of your own, Aquarius. I hope and pray, though, that you will make it more sacred and meaningful than Stevens’ and MacArthur’s trivial mission.

PISCES (February 19–March 20)

For three seasons of the year—spring, summer and fall—a certain weasel species has brown fur. During that time, it’s known as a stoat. When winter arrives, the creature’s coat turns to white. Its name changes, too.

We call it an ermine. The next spring, it once again becomes a stoat. Given the nature of the astrological omens, Pisces, I think it would make poetic sense for you to borrow this strategy. What would you like your nickname to be during the next three months?

Here are a few suggestions: Sweet Sorcerer, Secret Freedom-Seeker, Lost-and-Found Specialist, Mystery Maker, Resurrector.

Go to REALASTROLOGY.COM to check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes. Audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1.877.873.4888 or 1.900.950.7700.

39 NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | D EC E M BE R 7-1 3, 201 6 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Classifieds

FREE WILL

Their mission at Warm for the holidays is to provide homeless people with basic resources to help them endure the region’s deceptively cold winters. Each year, dozens of homeless people die of exposure, and preexisting health conditions that are made worse by continual exposure to the elements.

We and they believe that by providing items as basic as a sleeping bag or jacket will help save lives and alleviate the struggles homeless people face day and night.

This Holiday season, bring an extra sleeping bag, coat or sweater to any of our four Oliver's locations and donate to someone in need.

BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH OVER

400 LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS When you support us, we support them.

9230 Old Redwood Highway • Windsor • 687-2050 | 546 E. Cotati Avenue • Cotati • 795-9501 | 560 Montecito Center • Santa Rosa • 537-7123 | 461 Stony Point Road • Santa Rosa • 284-3530