Bird’s Eye View

Greetings! If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. Welcome to 2011 and may it be happy and healthy for one and all. Any New Year’s Resolutions? These are difficult to maintain of course and perhaps we should not put too much pressure on ourselves. As Ben­jamin Franklin so wisely once advised, “Resolve to per­form what you ought to do; then perform without fail what you have resolved.” Easy right? Anyway, that’s your Quote of the Week.

Public Service Announcements. #326: Those two Val­ley Crab Feeds are approaching — got your tickets yet? Both are at The Apple Hall in Boonville and first up it’s the Senior Center Benefit that takes place on Satur­day, Jan 15th. Tickets are available from Gina Pardini at 895-3609 or you can pick them up at any one of these Valley outlets — Lemons’ Market in Philo, Laughing Dog Books, All that Good Stuff, or The Fairground Office in Boonville, or at the Yorkville Market. Then it is the ‘Original’ Crab Feed on Saturday, February 5th for which, at this point, you can get tickets by calling Gloria Ross at 895-3071 or Eva Holcomb at 895-3307. #327. The AV Film Festival returns to The Grange from Fri­day, Jan 28th through Sunday, Jan 30th, and all the details you care to know can be found at www.andersonvalleyfilmfestival.org. #328. An early heads-up for the chance to see local resident and very accomplished actor of stage, screen and television, Rene Auberjonois appear in a play along with co-star Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever, hip d.j. on television’s ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’). It’s at The Grange on Saturday, Feb 12th for one night only.

How was your New Year’s Eve? After a late after­noon/early evening tipple or four at the AV Brewery Visitors Center, I proceeded to enjoy a relatively alco­hol-free evening up here at The Nest with a sickly Hummingbird. Long-time regular readers will be aware that I try to avoid those two nights of the year, New Year’s and St. Patrick’s, when the amateurs come out to “play,” so not for the first time my top investigative reporter, Bald Eagle took on the assignment. He was on the periphery of the scenes at both The Boonville Saloon and Lauren’s Restaurant, although he left the serious drinking and creative reporting to my AVA colleague, Bruce McEwen.

Bald Eagle reports, “At Lauren’s, the ‘usual sus­pects’ were gathered in good numbers to enjoy and dance to the sounds of Dean Titus and the Coyote Cow­boys. Generally these were people in our community who have moved to the Valley at various times over the past thirty-plus years or so from the cities, many of whom could be called back-to-the-land’ers, some just Brightlighters who’d had enough of the ‘craziness’ of City life. Those of a similar ilk but from the ‘younger generation’ joined the ‘old guard’ at Lauren’s later, after attending, in many cases, the annual sushi party thrown by ‘Boontberry Bert’ on Lambert Lane earlier in the evening. A different Valley group were having a fun-filled evening of merry-making at The Boonville Saloon. This was a gathering of folks whose families typically have been in the Valley since the Okie/Arkie migration days of the late 40s and early 50s, whose descendants (those at the Saloon) attended the local High School, graduating from there some time between 1970 and 2005. To top off the evening, this crowd was treated to as fine a firework display as has been seen around here for some years; as one spectator exclaimed, ‘These are the best fireworks ever in the Valley’ And the person(s) responsible for such a wonderful, yet illegal, show? I couldn’t possibly comment, but I did thank them for their efforts. Finally, those from a third section of the Valley, our Mexican community, who had not gone ‘home’ for the holidays and who remained here in the Valley, were generally at their homes or those of friends and family, enjoying their own scenes, some involving small fire­work displays plus plenty of home cooking, perhaps saving their big festivities for their main day of celebra­tion January 6th, Día de los Santos Reyes, when gifts are exchanged.”

According to Bald Eagle, each group seemed to have had a marvelous evening without any unseemly incidents to report. There is obviously nothing wrong with any of this of course. It’s a great thing in fact. It indicates that the polarizing of communities still exists in these parts at times and surely there is nothing wrong with that. To me it shows that the wonderful “melting pot” of cultures, belief systems, and backgrounds that makes up Anderson Valley, and which exists as a strength of the Valley’s well-being each and every day both at work, school, and often in many social and leisure-time situations, can at times be poured off into its various components and still be equally as strong and beneficial. In my humble opin­ion, this form of polarization continues to be real and present and is not a bad thing at all.

I’m outtahere. Be careful out there; stay out of the ditches; think good thoughts; and may your god go with you. Oh, and of course, one final request, “Let us prey.” Poking and stroking egos wherever necessary and, as always, humbly yours, Turkey Vulture. PS. Keep the Faith. PPS. Contact me with words of support/abuse through the Letters Page or at turkeyvulture1@earthlink.net. PPPS. Hi, Silver Swan. Behaving yourself? Hopefully not!