Sonoma Country Life

Noelle's Big Night - Petaluma Businesswoman and Women's Initiative Grad Award Winner

Three huge cheers for Petaluma's own Noelle Marshall of One Planet Global Handcrafted Fair Trade Store who scooped a major award for women in business from the Bay Area Women's Initiative - Marin County.

Noelle, a graduate of the ultra-educational, motivational and ultimately empowering Women's Initiative Program was recognized at a special red-carpet ceremony at Marin's R.A.B Motors, along with eight other outstanding North Bay Women in Business, including the Book Passage's Elaine Petrocelli, Bernice Baeza of Larkspur's Lark Theater, Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell of Equator Coffees, Kim Juarez of LOLA, Lydia Kindheart of Lydia's Organics and Lydia's Lovin Foods, Mary Loveland of Indigo Healing Arts, Molly Robbins of LicenZing and Serena Dugan and Lily Kanter of Serena and Lily.

The evening's presentation highlighted North Bay women in business at the plethora of successful entrepreneurship within the community alongside fledgling entrepreneurs such as Noelle, who share a common ground of embracing business models that give back through job creation, mentoring, innovation and visionary community outreach.

To shop for the holiday season from Bar Area Womens Initative member businesses, check out the wi orange pages  and help create quality jobs for future Women's Initiative Graduates by boosting the ability for current business owners to continue to inspire and mentor thousands of new members looking to establish new businesses each year. 

Noelle is readying for a busy holiday shopping season, as more and more of the community look to Fair Trade goods as a more meaningful way to gift and to recieve. Stop by to congratulate Noelle and have a browse goods from more than 20 developing countries at 4 Fourth Street in historic downtown Petaluma.

Dickens Dominates Upcoming Holiday Festivities

Consumed today's first reviews of Disney's A Christmas Carol with baited breath in case Dickens' most beloved, Victorian holiday story had been mishandled in any small way. With modern animation magician Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express) at the helm and the one and only Jim Carrey infiltrating the very soul of Scrooge, the critics have been frolicking around like Fezziwig at the warehouse, leaping to new heights to applause the season's most anticipated cinematic offering.

Told the boys we'd wait until the holidays were actually here to head downtown to the Boulevard Theater and claim our seats for the festive ride of the year, though after absorbing the reviews I seriously doubt my own self-will to wait that long.

My soft spot for Dickens and his A Christmas Carol is revealed via my own particularly English brand of 'dulcet tones' , recorded at the 800 line for the upcoming San Francisco Great Dickens Christmas Fair! Call toll free on (800) 510-1558 for info and directions and details on how to pre-purchase tickets for the most fantastic Victorian Christmas card come to life:

FOUR WEEKENDS
including the FRIDAY
after Thanksgiving!
Fri. Nov. 27 thru
Sun. Dec. 20, 2009
11am-7pm
In the Cow Palace
Exhibition Halls

 It's one thing to immerse ourselves in the deep, dark depths of candlelit London in the comfort of a cinema auditorium and quite another thing altogether to wander the lamplit streets of the fantastic Dickens Fair, brushing shoulders with the literary likes of Nancy and Oliver, Mr Fezziwig and his family, even the maestro himself is approachable to the time-traveling visitor willing to participate in real life, festive living history of the unbeatable Victorian variety.

And while I'm on the subject, I'm just wrapping up a read of author Mathew Pearl's "The Last Dickens" which I picked up on a mad dash through Heathrow Aiport en-route back to California from England romps this summer. It sat on my bedside table for quite some time as I ploughed through a pile of great books that took me on a literary tour of various regions of the world. Waiting for the air to chill, Dickens would have his way before the winter and Pearl's novel, fictional approach to uncovering the mysteries of Dickens' unfinished, final "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" has forged an exceptionally fascinating link between the epic writer's extraordinary successes in the USA and the inspiration behind his enduring characters.  

Yard Dogs Roadshow - Bringing Vaudeville Back Where it Belongs

Scooped up a couple of the last handful of hot tickets for the sensational Yard Dogs Road Show which rip-roar-romanced the vintage boards of  Petaluma's historic downtown Mystic Theater appropriately the night before Halloween.

Yard Dogs Road Show  :"Born from the saloon vaudeville that toured the Wild West in the late 1800's and slammed into the underworld of modern American road culture" was as close a revival of the original theater's era imaginable to modern day show goers such as myself. A wild ride back through time to the unbeatable music-hall culture of Victorian underworld.

Creating: "a timeless space for the union of ancient theatrical alchemy and modern pop culture," the troupe of ultra-talented originals might best be described as a rare breed of intimate Rocky Horror Picture Show come Dickens Fair/Cirque du Soleil salon.

Self described as a 'hobo cabaret - a living patchwork of vaudeville and rock and roll', the yard Dogs Road Show was outrageously entertaining, quite simply the best thing to come to the Mystic in my book in years.

Vaudeville theater originated in London as Music Hall in the mid 1800s -  concert of songs, ribald, sentimental and patriotic with comedians, dancers, acrobats and conjurors being added to the mix as more and more members of the public partook in exhuberant audience participation of now legendary whooping and hollaring - plenty of which was heard in the halls of the Mystic on Friday night, as the troupe's illustrious individuals shocked and astonished a lively crowd. 

To Be or Not to Be

Come clean, are you a Halloween enthusiast or not? Have you been planning your look for the past six weeks or will you be one of the many friends and neighbors showing up at my door tomorrow begging for a forage in the costume box?

It's slim pickings at this stage, as the boys have had at it, draping sofas, chairs and any clear surface inside of the house with scrunched up wigs and gold, lame bomber jackets, tatty old fake fur coats, an Elvis suit, pirate attire of various shapes and sizes, face paint, fake blood (all over the bathroom counter, thanks for that), Renaissance shirts and rapper glasses. It's all coming together, in a haphazard, somewhat eccentric sort of way. At least that's what I'm told. And the fantastic thing about the offspring all being of double digits in age at this stage, is that I haven't had to go traipsing around town and county in search of some random essential costuming element.

We all here in the house remember the oldest's rather unfortunate eighth grade Edward Scissorhands episode. Then there was a series of masks, Austin Powers, that sort of thing. Way too sweaty, ultimately distressing and almost totally vision impairing to parade safely up and down D Street.

Whatever mish-mash of a creative outfit comes out of the door for last ever elementary school parade is A OK with moi. It's only been about 14 million years since the oldest was at kindergarten, maybe I should be sporting a cave woman outfit in recognition of my tenure in line to view the annual grade-school parade?

As for me, I'm still thinking along the lines of historical Petaluma chicken ranch proprietress, but haven't decided if I need to hard boil the eggs first? Italian husband tends to look at me cross eyed whenever I bring up the concept. Think he'd prefer the French Maid approach, but why be boring with such rich, cultural heritage to call on? I know, how about exhausted English/American mother, sporadic writer and wife with faint image of ghostly, golf-club toting Italian Husband somewhere in the far outreaches of background? That might be a good one.

The Aztec's Are Coming - Special Guest Performers at Valley Vista's Harvest Fair

Wow, wouldn't want to stand too close to these headpieces, but watching the San Vicente Aztec Dance Troupe bring history to full life at the Valley Vista Harvest Fair next Saturday (Halloween morning 9-12) would be a fantastic way to start the holiday!

Baile del Venado (Dance of the Deer) and Baile de la Lluvia (Dance of the Rain) are just two of the traditional harvest-time dances the fab San Vicente troupe will be performing. This special event is open to the community at large, so don't be shy! Fun and games galore after a healthy pancake breakfast with homemade applesauce and an emphasis on sustainable gardening centers around the school's showplace teaching garden.

Into the Wilds of Suffolk for an Autumn Wedding (Part 2)

Let's just say that my cousin Lucy, the beautiful bride, is a little younger than I. After all, her Dad, and my favorite (well, actually, my only) uncle, Colin came into the world some 13 years after my Dad, and his (only) brother, John. Lucy was herself, my adorable little bridesmaid over two decades ago.

One of the sweetest details (and there were too many to mention) of her magical, medieval barn wedding to Sam was the naming of each table for eight after a respective, late, but much-loved grandparent. Lucy's and my shared grandparents on the paternal side were Clarice and Frank. Black and white framed, family photos of our long-lost elders were discreetly positioned amongst harvest-hued roses and fine, French wines as we tucked into a traditional Eastern English dinner of lovely, plump Lincolnshire sausages (celebrating our hearty Fenland roots), with fluffy mashed potatoes, steamed veg and a sticky toffee pudding with custard for dessert. Heady stuff to entice the spirit of my old Grandad, Frank, who loved little more than a proper good nosh and a toast to raise.

Applauded the fact that the happy couple had opted for a spectacular, tiered cheese 'cake' of Cheddar and Stilton instead of a typical wedding cake. Served up with fruits and crackers during evening dancing, this clever, delicious alternative to an additional sugary treat stayed true to the family's legacy penchant as long-time (formerly) village storekeepers and official connoisseurs of the great English cheese! 

Sparing Lucy and Sam from having their fantastic day dissected in any more detail online, I must end the post with a nod to the groom's outstanding talents in the poetry department. Reciting his personal wedding day prose during his touching speech, Sam had the wide-eyed approval of every woman in the room. As for the chaps, well, what can I say? Poems can be worth their weight in gold. As for Lucy, well, the accomplished artist and art teacher-in-training did confide that she gifts him with as many drawings as she receives in his near-daily prose. 

Long may you live and love, Lucy and Sam (and little Harry too). Congratulations to Colin and Carole, deservedly proud parents (and grandparents, uncle, aunt) and happy hosts of a superb day in Suffolk.  

Into the Wilds of Suffolk for an Autumn Wedding (Part 1)

 
 

Trains from London's Liverpool Street Station take rail travelers to some of the farthest outposts of modern day Britain. Places that the tourist, business exec and native alike are least likely to have on their top ten list of hot destination locales. In part because of the sheer geography of the untamed counties that sit quite contentedly far-off the traditional beaten track.

In England, the ancient, windswept, brooding East Anglian Norfolk/Suffolk border remains one of the few largely undiscovered destinations at the end of a rambling train ride along a haunting, murky, magical coastal track, true to its long-held regional reputation for a bleak, stark, striking beauty not beholden to the hoards of seasonal tourist traffic that floods more commonly considered idyllic spots of the Queen's green isle.  

If Cambridge and Ipswich frame a gateway to the East, Norwich is surely on the far side of the secret garden gate, enticing a more robust type of traveler to discover its far-flung charms of true and authentic identity. Explore even farther into the depths of coastal Norfolk and Suffolk and a time warp of inexplicable charm opens to the true wanderer. 

It was into these wilds of a brisk and sunny October weekend that I rather intrepidly rambled along with my sister, Lindsey and a couple of overnight bags for our cousin Lucy's Autumn wedding to her Sam. 

Fields of wheat and golden hay bales stretched for miles as our three-carriage train trundled from one tiny station to the next. Shared a copy of the Times and its superb Saturday magazines, spoke at length to absent sister, Kerry in Sydney and promised this post with pics! Alighting at the riverside, boat-studded quay market town of Beccles, Suffolk, wandered the quarter mile into town, turned left and arrived at our first destination of the day at the sturdy, central King's Head Pub and Hotel without so much as a nod to the safety measures of an i-phone google map. 

With time moving on at a rapid clip, the change into suitably glamorous wedding garb from morning's rail travel attire was accomplished at record speed in order for a brief and jolly transatlantic reunion (taking care not to smudge the lipstick) over light pub lunch with Mum and Dad.

A taxi cab ride from Beccles' best took us along the border of Norfolk and all the way down a delightfully British one-track, hedge-lined road to what is surely one of the finest examples of 16th Century rural architecture, romantic Elms Barn, nestled in little-known Waveney Valley. 

Lucy's dream wedding in a medieval barn had led she and Sam and some eighty friends and family to this surprising spot, hidden in the deep folds of Suffolk. With not another soul except for the wedding party in sight, the world and its worries were far from mind for an enchanted afternoon and evening of timeless elegance and simplicity. And love had undoubtedly brought us all there. Some of us from quite a distance. One of three nights in England for Scribbles Daily, here. Priceless.

Berlin Film Festival Winner's North Bay Premier

Winner of Best Picture in the Berlin Film Festival as well as a plethora of additional global film festival awards, the core crew of super-talented Petalumans  who created the dark teenage, self-inflicted comedic movie My Suicide will make its first North Bay screening at the Mystic Theater this Friday night (September 25th).

Ran into Copperfield's Bookstores to pick up a few of these tix which are selling like hot-cakes,by the way,  such is the buzz around town about this quirky, original flick starring Gabe Sunday as Archie Williams, a 17-year old media geek who has suddenly finds himself the most talked-about kid in school.

To quote the movie's website: "Archie has announced that he's going to kill himself - on camera - for a class project. His classmates, parents, Sierra - the most beautiful girl in school (Brooke Nevin), and a "Shady Bunch" of shrinks, doctors, pill-pushers, and counselors descend on Archie. Some are hoping to save him, some want to imitate him, others try to push him over the brink. Archie films every moment of his high school experience, hiding nothing from his audience: realities of life, death, violence, sex, drugs, and the intense media overload and hypocrisy that bombard all teenagers."

Discribed by Vanity Fair Magazine as "'maddening and disarming with a flawless cast." Movie starts at 7.30pm. Meet the movie makers and their Moms (Dads, neighbors, old school friends!) from 6.30pm. Tickets are $15 general, $12 student available in person at Copperfields Book Store and at the Mystic Theater.

"Way too heavy in parts" for his younger brothers to comfortably process, I've taken it on good advice from my oldest film buff son, who saw the flick at its San Fran premier, that it's best not to bring young teens along for the visual stream of consciousness crashing into the Mystic later this week.

Cross County Foray to the Castle of Love

 

 

 

 

 

Though supremely loyal to Sonoma Country living and subsequent quaffing of vino strictly deriving from this particular valley of the lauded Northern California wine country, there are occasions in life when a girl's gotta do what a girls gotta do to sneak over the border and sample the living conditions of our landed gentry neighbors in Napa County.

And what better reason for treachery toward one's home terroir than an invitation from royalty to feast at the castle? I mean, come on, wouldn't you? Drop everything to undertake an arduous journey via twisty, deer-dotted mountain trails across the great divide of Sonoma Mountain and into the lush expanses of vine-studded Anderson Valley for an evening of merriment within the castle walls. 

I'd heard of the infamous Castello Di Amorosa of course, though never dreamed I'd be dining in a private feast in the great hall by the light of a late summer's moon.

Walking across the draw-bridge, I did wonder if I'd unwittingly, somehow, in my haste to accept a mid-week romp of such extraordinary flamboyancy, signed myself up for a prototype of a new tv reality show, you know, one of those where we'd all get to decide who in the party of 18 gets to spend the night in the dungeon, which of us would be subjected to the torture chamber (yes, there really is a torture chamber, though it thankfully looked like it hadn't seen a lot of action of late) and who would wind up wearing the crown and get to be in charge of ALL of the many hundreds of barrels that would need to be rolled out of the labyrinth of underground tunnels at some stage of an imminent wine country harvest.

Not sure I would have gone for gold, being quite content to wander the castle tour in a somewhat gob-smacked state, in part due to the encyclopedic, fountain of wine-world knowledge of our larger-than-life tour guide, Joshua.

Having taken 13 years to complete, the Castle of Love is a trip and a half, painstakingly constructed with millions of authentic, old Umbrian stone, shipped from Italy over the near decade and a half. An early evening arrival was optimally timed for catching the sweet, peach-colored Alexander Valley slowly setting sun soak itself into the exterior stone work as we wondered how on earth the one man behind this phenomenal show of 'building your dream' could possibly have pulled it off so incredibly well?

Reason for the foray and feast was the double big digit birthday celebrations of both Michael and Teela Ridgeway (Amazing Grace did not dare to make an appearance for once, due to the presence of bubbling couldrons and large, sharp objects in abundance in the castle-kitchen). Our friends and neighbors and fellow Petaluma Gap grape growers, the Ridgeways are a romantic pair to say the very least. Michael had bid on the private tour and feast at a Sonoma County Farm Bureau (crab feed and auction was held in February) raising money for agricultural education in the county. Somehow the idea of toasting he and his lovely wife's half centuries within the castle walls was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not to be missed.

No one was tossed over the ramparts, we were a reasonably well-behaved bunch of courtiers, though the temptation to race around the underground tunnels sampling open-stacks of dusty vintages might have been all the more harder to resist had it been a weekend night!

Teela's tiarra made it around the table as we dined on roasted legs of lamb, apple hens stuffed with apples, rosemary red potatoes and baby veg, with cherry peach cobbler served in tea cups on saucers on the terrace. Sampled the winery's splendid Italian style Rosato di Sangiovese, a brilliant, straw colored Chardonnay as well as the Castle's intense Cabernet Sauvignon with its rich aromas of black plum, cassis and green olive with a spicey bouquet of cigar box, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Made it back across the grade before the car turned into a pumpkin, dreaming of dashing knights, roaring fires, great feasts and an entire underground world of endless wine!

Collectors Item Gammalyte Art Posters - PEF Bash '09 Exclusive

This is the moment I've been waiting for during the run up to this year's PEF BASH fundraising gala eventthe official unveiling of super-cool, Marin County-based gammalyte artist, Dave Hunter's custom creation of a Moonalice 2009 BASH rock-and-roll art poster, with another, even-more-exclusive version expected off the press for PEF's fortunate, fundraising party-goers.

"Rock and Roll art first caught my eye in the record store when I was about 8 years old," writes Dave on his gammalyte.com website . After moving to San Francisco and getting introduced to the big 5 poster artists, he started creating his own.

Several interesting detours later, Dave dallied with the digital arts before being sucked into the vortex of the dot com phenom.

Nowadays he's back on focus with silk screen and poster art and experimenting with the fascinating combination of digital technology and old school design and printing techniques.

Whenever they gather for a show, Moonalice band members make a point of adding to their burgeoning poster collection with Dave's one-of-a-kind print runs.

Posters will appear around town over the next couple of weeks, but the limited edition true collectors items will be up for grabs for BASH patrons after Moonalice plays live on the big night at South McDowell Landing, on September 12.