Southern Sonoma Country Life

Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II. Lest We Forget.

This first week of September, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Take a pause from the never ending, mind-numbing news of pandemic, wildfire and politics to remember and honor the myriad service members and Home Front workers who helped preserve freedom and democracy here in the States, in the UK and in allied and commonwealth countries three quarters of a century ago. 

To quote The National WWII Museum’s website:

"On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe came to an end. As the news of Germany’s surrender reached the rest of the world, joyous crowds gathered to celebrate in the streets, clutching newspapers that declared Victory in Europe (V-E Day). Later that year, US President Harry S. Truman announced Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II. The news spread quickly and celebrations erupted across the United States. On September 2, 1945, formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri, designating the day as the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day)."

V-J Day was especially momentous: "The gruesome and exhausting war was officially over—but the day was also bittersweet for the many Americans whose loved ones would not be returning home. “More than 400,000 Americans gave their lives to secure our nation’s freedom, and in the midst of exultation, there was recognition that the true meaning of the day was best represented by those who were not present to celebrate,” said Robert Citino, PhD, Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum.

Especially front of mind this week are the millions of amputees amongst service men and women past and present in combat around the world. We won't brush aside history as if it never happened. 

Disabled veterans we hear you and see you and we're humbled by your service. 

photos via Pinterest

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any treat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”

- Douglas MacArthur

 

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

 

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Healdsburg Jazz Announces Acclaimed Composer & Bandleader Marcus Shelby As New Artistic Director

Renowned Northern California jazz institution Healdsburg Jazz announces today the appointment of acclaimed composer and bandleader Marcus Shelby as their new Artistic Director. Shelby will lead the organization and its flagship Healdsburg Jazz Festival into its next generation of dynamic and innovative programming. Shelby takes over the new role Oct. 1, 2020 from the festival's founder, artistic director and guiding spirit, Jessica Felix, who launched the festival in 1999. Shelby has worked closely with Felix over the past decade and looks towards the future to maintain and elevate the spirit of the festival.

 

"Jessica did an incredible job building the Healdsburg Jazz Festival with first-class talent, including national and local artists," said Shelby. "She never dumbed down the programming to get more people to come. I'm looking forward to expanding her extraordinary legacy and also develop a fresh vision that reflects my interests and strengths."

 

"We are so fortunate to have Marcus Shelby on board as artistic director to help guide Healdsburg Jazz as it enters a new chapter in its history," said Jack Raineault, Board Chair of Healdsburg Jazz. "He has contributed so much to the educational component of the organization and is passionate about our mission. He knows the music scene both locally and nationally and brings the perspective of a musician to the artistic director role. Marcus has also focused on social justice issues and building community in his music and in the organizations he has been a part of. We are excited at the prospect of what new directions Healdsburg Jazz will take both artistically and in its commitment to promoting social and cultural connections under Marcus's leadership."

 

Shelby is taking the helm at a moment of unprecedented challenges for the performing arts due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and he's already working with the festival's Board of Directors on strategizing for the 2021 festival. Beyond the lauded spring jazz festival, he's ideally suited for running the nonprofit organization's year-round concert series and education programs. Shelby has a strong track record in the picturesque Sonoma County town near the Russian River, which is one reason why Felix is so confident that Shelby is the right person for the job. "He's done a lot up here already and everybody loves him," Felix said. "He's really endeared himself to this area. He believes in the festival and believes in me."

 

Felix first met Shelby about 30 years ago, when Los Angeles drum legend Billy Higgins, a close friend of hers, recommended that she book Shelby's band Black/Note at the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. Higgins had mentored the young group at the World Stage, the performance space he co-founded in LA's Leimert Park neighborhood, and on his advice Felix hired the quintet sight unseen. Though Shelby relocated to San Francisco a few years later it wasn't until a decade ago that he started playing an important role at Healdsburg, when Felix hired him to bring his Black History Month programming to local schools. A prestigious grant the festival received from the James Irvine Foundation enabled Shelby to create and direct the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir, a 100-piece community choir that has continued over the years, perform in various settings with his big band and small group.

 

"Jessica and I have become good friends and we've worked very closely together on these projects, like working out ideas for the choir," he said. "She built the festival from scratch and she's leaving her life's work in my hands. We've spent countless hours talking about these things."

 

Shelby has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene. He's a composer in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and has taken on a variety of roles at SFJAZZ, including a stint as a Resident Artistic Director. He's a teacher at the San Francisco Community Music Center and has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since his appointment by the late Mayor Ed Lee in 2014. That's all on top of his regular gigging as a leader and a sideman.

 

On his decision to become the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Shelby comments, "Leading a major jazz festival supports and enriches my professional practice in many ways. Some colleagues who are much better known are part of organizations they lead, Wynton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jason Moran at the Kennedy Center, and Christian McBride in several organizations. That inspired me to think bigger and really embrace the possibility of working with a large community of artists, and influence how this music is curated. I need to keep evolving and growing."

 

Creative growth has been the hallmark of Shelby's career. Born February 2, 1966 in Anchorage, Alaska, he grew up in Sacramento and first gained attention on the burgeoning LA scene in the early 1990s as a co-founder of the hard-bop band Black/Note (which also launched top-shelf New York drummer Willie Jones III). He earned the Charles Mingus Scholarship to study at Cal Arts in Valencia, where he also worked closely with flutist/composer James Newton and bassist Charlie Haden (both artists closely linked to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival). Black/Note recorded four albums, including 1994's Jungle Music (Columbia) and 1996's Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse!/GRP).

 

Relocating to San Francisco in 1996, Shelby quickly established himself as an essential creative force on the Bay Area arts scene. Leading both the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, he earned increasingly prestigious commissions from dance companies, theatrical productions, and presenters such as Intersection for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. No one has a closer view of his determined growth than Kate Dumbleton, his manager and co-founder of his label Noir Records.

 

"In all the years I've known Marcus he's always been poised to take the work that he does in multiple directions at any given moment," says Dumbleton, Executive and Artistic Director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Associate Professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. "He's a conceptualizer. He knows how to connect history to musical ideas and storytelling. He thinks in really interesting ways about narrative. When I first met him he was really interested in working with dancers, choreographers, theater artists, and filmmakers."

 

Shelby started exploring history and narrative in his own work with the release of 2006's Port Chicago (Noir Records), a suite for his jazz orchestra inspired by the World War II miscarriage of justice that saw 50 young black seamen convicted in the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history (a story that unfolded in the Bay Area). Since then he's focused his creative energy on a series of hard-swinging works exploring key historical events and personalities, like 2008's two-disc Harriet Tubman (Noir Records), 2011's Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Porto Franco), and 2018's Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, a suite commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

 

In recent years, he's also served as a musical foil for playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith throughout the interview-driven creation of her one-woman show about the school-to-prison pipeline, Notes From the Field. "Her process is genius," he said. "As much as I can absorb from her, I'm just trying to find ways that I can use blues and swing to tell these different stories."

 

In many ways, Shelby has turned his orchestra into an exemplar of the kind of equitable society he advocates for off the bandstand. It's an ensemble that embodies the diversity that makes the Bay Area such a creative hothouse, where the horn section features veteran masters sitting next to rising teenagers. Over the years, he's become increasingly proactive in making sure that women are well represented in the band.

 

"I've thought a lot about how an ensemble can create an overall expression and the diversity of the band can really enhance that," he said. "A big band looks like a village, with good young players, older players who can serve as mentors, and everything in between."

 

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival offers a larger forum for his ideas and Shelby is committed to continuing the festival's track record as a binding force in the town. With the support of Emeritus Artistic Director Felix, who will be on call for advice, he sees a bright, innovative future for an event that has earned universal respect for uncompromising standards.

 

"One of my goals is to maintain a strong local and Bay Area presence," Shelby said. "I realize you can't book everybody. I'm really committed to making the most diverse festival possible, with the highest degree of talent. That's always going to be my goal."

 

About Healdsburg Jazz

Healdsburg Jazz celebrates the indigenous American art form known as Jazz. Over the past two decades, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. The 10-day festival of public performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse settings, including the historic Raven Theater, the glamorous Hotel Healdsburg, and several boutique restaurants and wineries, has grown into one of the North Bay's most celebrated annual musical events.

 

In addition to the annual festival, held the first week of June each year, the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization sponsors numerous

music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, and presents a series of Jazz Masters concerts throughout the year.

For more information, please visit: https://www.healdsburgjazz.org

Discover More Award-Winning Wineries, Craft Breweries, Cideries and Micro Distilleries with the New Sonoma County Tasting Pass

Good news for staycationers and wine country visitors alike. In an effort to showcase the vast diversity of the local craft beverage community, Sonoma County Tourism (SCT) has rolled out the “Sonoma County Tasting Pass,” featuring award-winning wineries, renowned craft breweries and cideries, and unique micro distilleries.

The Sonoma County Tasting Pass is a collection of tasting flights and discounts, presented by over 20 craft beverage producers throughout the County. Offered for purchase on SCT’s website, consumers have three pass options, at different price points: 1-day for $44.99; 3-day for $79.99; or 90-days for $149.99. After purchasing the pass, it is instantly delivered to the purchaser’s phone via text and email and is ready to use immediately. When visiting a participating business, consumers simply present their phone to the staff member to redeem the special offer.

Each participating business is offering enticing deals, including discounts on purchases. For example, boutique winery Armida is offering a tasting flight plus 20% off six bottles and more, while Ace Cider is offering a tasting flight and 25% off the total bill.

“As a distillery deeply committed to quality and innovation in making and serving the best grain-to-glass spirits in the world, Spirit Works is proud to be highlighted among such an amazing group of creative, artisan producers,” says Ashby Marshall, owner and spirit maker at Spirit Works Distillery, which was named ‘Distillery of the Year’ by American Distillery Institute in July 2020. 

The pass is the result of a partnership with Bandwango, a travel technology platform, that creates access to places and experiences for both visitors and locals to enjoy. Bandwango works with over 85 destinations throughout the U.S. and Canada, creating passes of all kinds, with great success.   

“We are excited to launch the Sonoma County Tasting Pass,” said Todd O’Leary, vice president of marketing and communications at Sonoma County Tourism. Our partnership with Bandwango is creating new opportunities to package and promote Sonoma County to visitors and residents alike.”  

For more information about the Sonoma County Tasting Pass, visit: https://explore.sonomacounty.com

Funding The Future for 28 Schools in The Petaluma Area as The Free to Attend For the First Time, 2020 Petaluma Educational Foundation Annual Fundraising BASH Goes Virtual

Petaluma Educational Foundation invites us to have a little well-earned fun for an evening as we experience our shared community spirit at the 2020 PEF BASH. 

This longtime and much-loved signature event supporting the mission of the Petaluma Educational Foundation (PEF) is going ahead with the annual party on September 12th this year, but the format of the event is changing given the current health crisis.

A new, free to attend online live-stream broadcast (virtual) gala is set to keep the spirit of the BASH alive in a year that local students and schools need the community's support more than ever.

The BASH: Bringing All Students Hope invites the public to tune-in, watch, bid, pledge and celebrate from the comfort of their own homes. 

On Saturday, September 12th, PEF will host another legendary night benefiting the mission of PEF supporting all 12,000+ students attending the 38 TK-12 public, not-for-profit, and charter schools in the Petaluma area.

Enjoy a free, interactive one-hour presentation filled with music, special messages, Taste of the Town Restaurant Raffle drawings and live auction lots. All this excitement leads to the gala’s traditional highlight of the night, where the essence of the program's message about financially supporting every student truly takes center stage.

Funding the Future of education is vital. PEF, which does not receive any government funding, is committed to ensuring that critical resources are available to all our schools. The annual PEF BASH provides the public an opportunity to hear first-hand how they can partner with others to continue to the mission of the foundation. This year that message is no different. Now more than ever, our students need us.  

Special 2020 PEF Grant Fund 

PEF has convened its superintendents and principals to clearly understand the individual school priorities during this unprecedented year. At the BASH, a challenge will be issued to our community to help address the shared immediate needs identified to keep our students on solid footing.

The two initiatives for 2020-2021 PEF Grant funding will focus on Social-Emotional Learning Support (SEL) and Technology (tools and access). Both can be successfully implemented regardless of on-campus instruction, distance learning, or a hybrid of the two modalities. 

This year PEF has established a fund dedicated to supporting these two specific program areas. Its fund goal is $200,000. This type of effort requires partners. PEF is asking the community to collectively raise its virtual paddles enabling EVERY one of the 38 schools in the Petaluma area the opportunity to apply and receive partner funding. 

By doing this, our community will be helping students confidently move forward knowing we all believe in them, we're ready to empower them and together, we are investing in their future. All those pledging support will be publicly celebrated during the live-stream broadcast. PEF recognizes this is a challenging year for many. Your commitment to PEF will carry an impact on generations to come. Our students NEED us more than ever. We need to do this now so they can succeed today, tomorrow, and in the future.

Register FREE online (pefbash2020.afrogs.org) and view the menu of special BASH event add-on items: Pre-Order Dinner (3 entrees to choose from) by Ray's Catering Petaluma Pop Up Kitchen, Access to the Virtual VIP Happy Hour with local mixologist Phaedra Achor of FloraLuna Apothecary & Trading Co., Order one of the BASH Custom Cocktail Kits to make at home, Pre-Pledge $25 and receive a bottle of wine to enjoy during the BASH event.  

PEF Partners for Education – Clover Sonoma, Petaluma Health Care District, and Petaluma Market along with Valedictorian partner Exchange Bank are this year's top-tier sponsors. This year PEF welcomes Edward Jones Petaluma and Friend of PEF as Salutatorian Partners. Honor Roll Partners include Argus-Courier, Baldwin, McGaughey & Co LLP CPAs, Fishman Supply Co, Golden State Lumber, Hennessy Cornerstone Value Fund, Law Offices of Bridget Mackay, Pisenti & Brinker, LLP, Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, River City Bank, Ross Recreation Equipment, Team Ghilotti, Inc, The Regan Home Loan Group, along with Teacher’s Pet Partners: Cal-West Rents/Encore Events Rentals, Comcast, Dow Development Laboratories, Kaiser Permanente, Raymond A. Ramos, DDS & Associates Pediatric Dentistry, Roman's Plumbing, Sonoma County Office of Education, Studio PR, Top Speed Data Communications, and Study Sync.

Without the financial pledge of these local and regional businesses, the event would not be possible.  We are grateful for their dedication to making sure supporting local education is a priority in our community.

#  #  #

 

The Petaluma Educational Foundation (PEF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1982. PEF has been supporting generations of Petaluma’s Transitional Kindergarten (TK) – 12^th grade students. The mission of PEF since its inception is: Every child has a dream. The Petaluma Educational Foundation creates community partnerships to fulfill these dreams. 

 

PEF Grant and Scholarship programs have awarded a cumulative $7,580,695 to enhance and enrich the academic experience of more than 12,000 students in Petaluma’s 38 public, charter, and not-for-profit private schools.  PEF believes in them. PEF empowers them. PEF  invests in their future.

Your Vote Matters — Art as Action — Join Petaluma Arts Center Outdoors in Mobilizing The Vote

 

Petaluma Arts Center is energizing artists and community to ramp up the Voting spirit this August as we count down the weeks until the most important VOTING DAY of most of our lives. 

To see all of the Arts Center Art as Action pieces online click here:  and/or, to buy some pretty awesome products with local artist images on them, including t-shirts, posters, cards and masks click here: deedsgetoutandvote.art/store.

Spotlight on Sonoma County Wines — Kutch of Sonoma, Small, Bespoke and Extraordinary

Sonoma County winery spotlight to kick off the 2020 harvest season and fall releases puts a well-deserved focus on Kutch, of Sonoma, as the small, bespoke winery newly releases an offering of its only single vineyard Chardonnay-Trout Gulch, its acclaimed McDougall Ranch Pinot Noir, a Bohan Graveyard Pinot and Signal Ridge Pinot. 

"We are thrilled with the outcome of our 2018s as they continue to evolve says winemaker/owner Jamie Kutch. "It started in the vineyards as all the elements really came together and yielded fruit of great quality. . . they really are gorgeous."

Described as being vivid wines that very much capture the personality of the year in their translucent expression of place, Jamie's almost Old World style of Pinot and Chardonnay are true boutique wines for the Sonoma County wine lover. 

As the old saying goes: “wine is made in the vineyard.” Following this philosophy, Jamie and his team strives for well positioned, cold climate vineyard sites, with appropriate soils.

"It has been a challenge to locate and secure such sites, causing our production to grow at a slow but steady pace," says Jamie. "Once the fruit is harvested, it is handled with the utmost care, sorted meticulously and moved only by gravity. We attempt to pursue a minimalist philosophy, trying to provide the purest expression of Pinot Noir from a particular place and time, taking great care not to over-manipulate our wines in the cellar. This minimal interventionalist style of wine-making is reflected in our use of indigenous yeast, native malolactic bacteria and élevage in 100% neutral oak barrels (no new)." 

All punch-downs are done by foot. Upon completion of fermentation, these wines are gravity flowed into French oak barrels, where they remain unmoved while aging sur lie (on the fine lees). The wines are not racked until ready to bottle, between 11 and 16 months after harvest. AKutch wines are encouraged to express all of the natural greatness of their vineyard origins.

"This is our 15 vintage release! The wines really taste like Sonoma," says Jamie, whose wines have been touted by critics as ridiculously good. "They teleport you to the vineyards each with their own distinct smell and taste. Weather grown in sand or rock, high above the fog at 1,400 feet elevation or 300 feet and below.  We let mother nature dictate the wines and she helped shape and grow some fantastic grapes in 2018. We are really proud."

*Link to place an order for Kutch wines  ORDER LINK

Link to  FALL NEWSLETTER

Link to Zoom tasting of these wines
 

 

Virtual Art in the Park — Petaluma Art Association Steps Up Its Annual Showcase Event with a Widely Expanded Range of Regional Artists

​Petaluma Arts Association's (not to be confused with the Arts Center) annual Art in the Park has brought regional artists and our local community together in historic Walnut Park since 1957.

 

As with all of our favorite annual outdoor festivals and shows, the coronavirus pandemic has lead the association to cancel its physical event this year. However, the good news is that it gave the group the opportunity to transform the event into an online showcase of the work of a wider range of talented creators across Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties. 

Art lovers are invited to explore a new Virtual Art in the Park website to discover art, fine crafts, music, poetry and performances and learn about the people who create them. Much of the work you'll find is available for purchase.

 

Enjoy the creativity of the North Bay! It's a super impressive line-up this year. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the website. There are dozens of artists to peruse. Here are just a few:

 

 

​-

"Our common world is elevated by seeing people succeed and our choice to make this event free of fees and commissions was primarily in response to a pandemic that's greatly limited the opportunities available to creators," Petaluma Arts Association reports. "We hope this exhibition will help support creators and our local art scenes by providing a place to show and sell work."

Petaluma Arts Association shares: "We'd like to acknowledge another dimension of shared interest and join the chorus of voices affirming that BLACK LIVES MATTER. We believe the opportunity to not be at a much higher risk of being killed by police should be extended to everyone. We urge you to lend your voice and explore what change might be possible in service of a better world." 

https://www.virtualartinthepark.org/

Celebrate National Pinot Day, August 18th with Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance on Facebook Live

Pinot lovers, mark your calendars for August 18, 5 PM. Raise a Glass with Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance President Erica Stancliff & VP Tom Gendall on National PinotNoirDay for a Facebook Live Celebration of PetalumaGap Wines.

 

The Petaluma Gap Pinots are garnering all sorts of big accolades in all the major wine competitions these days. I'm a big Pinot Noir fan myself and I make it a priority to source my wines as local as possible when I'm out shopping the wine aisle of Petaluma stores. We've enjoyed a case of the former Kastania Vineyards delicious Pinot this summer, after the winery changed hands with early Petaluma Gap members Hoot and Linda Smith retiring from winemaking. I'm looking forward to tasting the wines made by new owner Laurence Donald under the label Parum Leo in years to come. 

 

Adobe Road Winery has recently moved its temporary riverfront outdoor tasting tents to the trestle, in partnership with the Riverfront Cafe. Adobe's Pinots are great, as are Keller Estate Winery's, Azari, McEvoy amongst many more.

 

Here's an extensive list of Petaluma Gap wineries. Please do support our local wineries and the families who work the land and cellars and tasting rooms when you're out buying your wine. 

 

The Petaluma Gap also produces wines for many of the wider region’s finest wineries including: Keller Estate Winery, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Guarachi Family Wines, deLoach Vineyards, Flowers Vineyard and Winery, Hart’s Desire Wines, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, Kosta-Browne Winery, Landmark Vineyards, Loxton Cellars, Sojourn Cellars, Schramsberg Vineyards, and Zepaltas Wines. 

 

And hey, since we've a little more time on our hands for celebrating all the wine holidays, click here for a list of all the other wonderful varietals waiting for their big day! 

 

Petaluma Herzog Hall Community Kitchen Fire Relief Campaign

"Every fire season I show up to put in my work," says community hero Miriam Donaldson, founding chef of Sonoma Family Meal. "Please help me build a long term relief structure for Herzog Hall Kitchen at the Petaluma Fair Grounds for disaster evacuees."  

The seasonal fires in Sonoma County affect everyone in our community, but the acute impact to evacuees can be an extremely traumatic and hungry experience as I saw for myself volunteering with Petaluma People Services at the fairgrounds last year. 

"While there are non-profit groups that help manage the workload of cooking and comforting those who need it most, the actual physical work often falls on the backs of volunteer chefs and community members," says Miriam, whose farm-to-table restaurant Wishbone is beloved by foodies around the Bay Area.

Last year during fire season Mariam headed the kitchens at the Petaluma Fair Grounds, which housed up to 700 evacuees. "Now thats a  LOT of hungry folks who need and deserve care," she says.

"Our little group managed to do it and do it well!  We installed new kitchen equipment on the fly, pulled together healthy meals for hundreds and worked closely with the other evacuation sites in petaluma to share resources. This year we will be stretched thinner than ever and safe care for our community will be even more important." 

Miriam aims to bring this vital community kitchen fully up to safety code, equip chefs and kitchen volunteers with the proper equipment (ever try making rice for 700 in a regular kitchen pot!?) and establish a  mobile community accessible kitchen kit that may be dispatched to various relief kitchens as needed.

"Basically, I need lots of big pots and pans, a small trailer to move things around, PPE for volunteers, and a huge list of small wares.," says Miriam. 

Monies contributed to this fund will directly impact those in crisis and will help lower the environmental impact of cooking for so many people. Good planning reduces single use plastic, water and food waste. Funds will also aid long term support solutions for our community. A kitchen that is built to perform relief is cheaper and safer to run than one cobbled together in a panic.

So let's do what we can to help Miriam plan ahead!  She'll do the work, but she needs our help. In an ideal scenario, the city and/or Fairgrounds committee would be outfitting this kitchen prior to fire season, given the past two years of experiences, but that's not happening. People caring for people and coming together in large numbers is what will make this happen in a timely fashion.

And don't think that this kitchen ramp-up is solely for outsiders seeking refuge in our town. There are many reasons why a community kitchen provides a lifeline to locals in times of emergency. 

Here's Chef Miriam's GoFundMe page. Click here and let's get this done!