CELTICA ROCKS! Upper Peachland's own Wendy Rowe and her band Celtica rocked Lauren's restaurant last Friday night, playing to a packed house. Two of her band mates were held up in customs, apparently having to do with letting it slip that they had come to the land of capitalism to make money. Celtica was engaged to play a private event in Napa on Saturday and Wendy could not resist the opportunity to set up a gig in her home town. The absence of the bass player and the vocalist/percussionist/fire dancer were scarely noticed as the drummer and the guitar player/percussionist (both from Austria) were joined by bagpiper Wendy and another bagpiper from Edinburgh Scotland in rocking Lauren's with an intense, Celtic flavored, hard rocking rendition of original tunes mixed in with traditional Celtic and rock standards. Lauren's also did a brisk dinner trade prior to the show, and if you haven't checked out the menu at Lauren's lately, you probably should.
LAST MINUTE WRANGLING on the matter of The People vs. Bronwyn Hanes. It's clear that Mrs. Hanes will plead guilty to felony embezzlement for some $27,000 Mrs. Hanes lifted from the Anderson Valley PTA. She will have to pay that money back. As for jail time and conditions of probation, those issues will probably be resolved just before court time today (Wednesday) in Courtroom A, Superior Court, Ukiah.
WENDY ROWE'S packed performance with Celtica at Lauren's last Saturday night has been much discussed, especially by us older folks who've known Wendy all the way back to her shy-child beginnings on Peachland Road. Wendy's transformation into a rollicking medieval bagpiping warrior babe is wonderfully astounding. A friend encountered at Boont Berry Monday said she was also surprised “at how many local men turned out in their kilts.
WHILE WE'RE LINGERING at Lauren's, I, for one among many, look forward to Patty Shanahan's landscapes which will grace Lauren's walls all of November and December. This kid can paint! Her show is called 30 Years of Mendocino County Landscapes, with twenty-five percent of sales going to the Grace Hudson Museum.
DEPUTY SQUIRES remains off duty from shoulder probs incurred from years of rasslin' with bad guys and drunks. “You know how they always talk about how much fun your golden years are, well, for me I'm still waiting for the fun.” Just as his shoulder was feeling like a fully functioning body part again, the deputy broke a finger getting up off the floor from his exercises!
LOTTSA HALLOWEEN entertainment is on for Boonville Wednesday night, with a Harvest Party at the Fairgrounds and an affair called “Dark Carnival” behind (east of) the Farrer Building downtown.
BARBARA GOODELL WRITES: “Oh, Have We Eaten! The ’12 C’mon Home to Eat in October calendar is winding up tonight (10/31) at the Dark Carnival, a benefit for the Health Center @ The Shed. However, you can still ingest a full array of local food at the 31st annual Chestnut Gathering and local food potluck at the Zeni Ranch on Saturday, November 3rd (see www.mendocinolocalfood.org for more details), the Holiday Potluck at the Grange on December 9th, and throughout the coming year at home or out and about. Every week in October ‘12 was highlighted by the presence of local folks eating local food with gusto. From the AVUSD school snacks and lunches, to the restaurant/café specials, senior center meals, fundraisers, festivals, and local market offerings there was a consistent theme: community. Planned or not planned, friends and neighbors got together to share a meal or a popsicle and chatted at the markets. Whether folks were eating locally produced food because it tastes great, makes you healthier, reduces fossil fuel use, supports the local economy, all of the above, or for no particular reason at all, each event had a sense of celebration. The AV Foodshed hopes you will continue the challenge of eating local food by planting a winter garden; continuing to buy produce at the Boonville Winter Farmers’ Market (outside of the Boonville General Store starting Saturday, November 10th from 10-12:30), visiting the farm stands, AV Market, and Lemons; enjoying the local entrees at our local restaurants; and conversing with your children about which local foods they are tasting at school. Ask for what is local wherever you go!"
THINGS I LIKE, among much to like in Mendocino County's most happening community of the Greater Anderson Valley, that bamboo fence on Lambert Lane and the flowers at the Boonville Apartments, the latter faithfully attended to by green-thumbed abuelas. I also like the reminder from the Charles family's Foursight tasting room at Boonville's southern rampart, “Wine is bottled poetry.” It certainly can be, but take it from me don't try writing it or anything else after more than one glass.
COULD IT BE? It was. Robert Mailer Anderson, that is, neatly snagging a foul ball barehanded off Brandon Belt's bat in the second game of the World Series and presenting it to his daughter, Frances, as cousin Ben Anderson looked on. All the Andersons live much of the time in the Anderson Valley.
CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey Harnist. Kelsey, son of Heather Harnist of Upper Nash Mill, once interned at the mighty AVA, and was just about the smartest kid we ever had come through here, a mere teenager absorbing with good natured chuckles the estranged chatter all around him.
WE'RE DEEPLY GRATEFUL for the help we've received in finally amassing a complete collection of AVAs from the past 28 years (1984-2011). However, the University of Michigan still needs help completing their archive. If anyone has any of the following issues from 2007, please send them in so we can pass them along: Jan 31; Feb 4, 14, 21; and Mar 28 (all 2007)
CHATTED TOO BRIEFLY with my old friend Peter Lit of Greenwood Road who told me he and Darcy Mahoney, Pete's sig-other, are freshly returned from Turkey, although from the descriptions of the trip the traveler laid on me he sounded like he might be considering dual citizenship. Hearing from Peter reminded me of the happy hours my late comrade Alexander Cockburn and I spent at Pete's Caspar Inn, and also reminded me that he was probably the last guy on the Northcoast and maybe the country who would sponsor an evening with the two of us talking. Packed 'em, too, and it was always fun.
MY FRIEND KARYN FIEDEN writes Tuesday from Manhattan: “Just walked the streets a bit, in true Manhattan style, the crowd is back to shopping at Whole Foods and jogging in the park. But the water line is visible everywhere, and was remarkably high. Downtown remains without power, the subway out until further notice and a crane still dangles 80 stories up (in the 57th St. building that is to be the highest residential tower in Manhattan, and has been dubbed the billionaire's building for the prices it commands)".
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