CORRECTION: Last week we reported that “a large crowd celebrated Bastille Day at the French-owned Roederer Winery on Sunday, enjoying music by the Boonville Big Band and a locally-catered lunch.” Most of that was correct, but the music was not provided by the Boonville Big Band, but a portion of it, an impromptu five-piece jazz band assembled by Philo drummer Kevin Burke consisting of piano, bass, drums, saxophone and trumpet fronted by the vividly talented singer, Dorothea May. Their four hours of jazz standards were indeed enjoyed by the celebratory crowd.
THE BOONVILLE-UKIAH ROAD PAVING PROJECT, as assessed by Paul McCarthy of MendocinoSportsPlus: “They grind down four inches, then oil the voided area and then the asphalt machine adds 5 inches of pavement and the rollers compact it to 4 inches — or so we were told. Granite Construction is the company doing the paving. They also did the absolute worst (squiggly) centerline striping in the history of road paving - did they do it with a bicycle towing a guy lying down on a cart with a paintbrush?”
THE STRIPING is certainly odd, but kinda fun, too, as only disorder can be fun in the hyper-orderly context of CalTrans.
AT THE BUCKHORN. Brunch on Sunday July 29th will be extra special due to new, live music in the garden. The San Francisco-based, six-piece funk rock/jazz band, Night Animals, will be playing starting around 11 or 12. "Live performance is the pinnacle of Night Animal's music, combined with a love of improvisation. Seductive vocals, serpentine horn lines, hypnotic rhythms, and hook-laden guitar licks all conspire to put you under their spell." So, hear some new music and kick back with one of our famous Bloody Marys or our Summer Key Lime cocktail, over brunch.
OUR FAMILY MOB of an even dozen enjoyed the Buckhorn’s brunch this past Sunday in the restaurant’s comfortably pleasant outdoor patio, marveling all the while at the purely hard work of our waitress, Sarah, as she bustled up and down the stairs with heavy trays of comida deliciosa.
KINDA SHOCKED the other day when my wife mentioned that one of her mahjong club friends had dropped out because the group "was too liberal." The club is nonplussed because they're all mahjong all the time. Politics never even comes up. If the political polarization has reached the mahjong level, well…
A LARGE CROWD assembled at Aquarelle in the center of booming Friday night Boonville, Mendocino County's most happening community, to make merry to the lively tunes of our local band, BoonFire. Nice sound, from what I could hear down the street at the ava bunker. Call me old school, but it was also nice to see the young 'uns making an effort to look good, with young women in summer frocks, young men eluding the usual slacker-slob costume that seems so prevalent. And all of it outdoors, enlivening all Boonville.
ALL THE RESTAURANTS were packed Friday night and we gotta bunch, all of them good. The next night, busy again, with the largest crowd at the Apple Hall for a baptism, and Sunday a large Mexican rodeo at the Boonville Fairgrounds.
JENNIFER AZZI has wrapped up her now annual summer basketball camp at the Anderson Valley High School gym, which this summer included boys. Color the young hoopsters of Anderson Valley lucky to have the former All-American and Olympic Gold Medal winner as summer coach, and double thanks to Robert Mailer Anderson, an AVHS grad, for bringing Ms. Azzi to town.
DANDY ALLEGRA, a Fresno paramedic and daughter of Philo resident David Severn, passes along this item about a stolen cellphone: “Fun little, kinda long story — my cell phone was stolen off my patio table last Monday night. I ran in to help Dahl with something, was gone just a moment. Super sucky. But I went to AT&T and my insurance covered a replacement. It was shipped and delivered (with a signature!) to my apartment when I was not home. Stolen, again. So I recontacted AT&T who approved a second replacement, and had it shipped to work. Finally got the phone! But.... couldn’t activate it because my iTunes was locked for security reasons and can only be unlocked by entering a code sent to— my inactivated new phone!! Went to the AT&T store, they said sorry that’s an Apple problem. Called Apple who said, Oh sure, we can help, our next available appointment is August 3rd. Great. Go to a different AT&T store to just buy some little flip phone to at least have something to make phone calls on. While there, the woman helping me said, Um, no, let me try something else. Made a call, activated my phone without iTunes! Got the security access, bam, fully functioning phone with all my contacts, apps and photos! Phew. THEN! I got home from work and ran into a neighbor a few doors down. She had the original replacement! Said she saw the delivery guy trying to leave it but didn’t want it stolen so she signed for it. She hadn’t seen me yet since my work schedule is kinda funky. What?!? Awesome! Oh, but I’m not done! I go to bed feeling like at least somebody has my back. And around midnight, hear someone knocking at my door. It’s midnight. I ignore it, no good can come of whatever THAT is. But they persist. Even knock on my bedroom window! So I arm myself with a broom, 911 ready to dial. With my fiercest attitude I crack the door to see what the eff? A young man holds out a phone. My original phone! The one that was stolen almost a week ago! He said a neighbor told a neighbor that my phone was stolen; he heard some kid bragging about swiping a phone, confronted the kid — who handed it over! And that he had been trying to return it all week but (my funky work schedule) hadn’t been able to. No damage, no jailbreak, no reset. Just dead battery. WHAAAAAT?!? All week long I was frustrated beyond belief at my awful luck, questioning my life and feeling like I was being beaten around every corner, just to find out only one little kid with a smug, loose lipped attitude was at fault. Now I have three phones! Lol. I will of course return what I can on Monday. Faith restored. I’m grateful.”
HUTCHINS’ PHILO FOES. Marshall Newman writes: I was looking at the local results regarding Michelle Hutchins’ election as County Superintendent of Schools and was startled by the total votes cast in Boonville and Philo. Boonville cast a total of 95 votes in this race, while Philo cast a total 125 votes. So Philo cast 30 more votes than Boonville, even though Boonville has a population almost triple Philo (the 2010 numbers are and 1035 and 349, respectively). I’m puzzled as to how this happened. To quote The Lion King, “What’s going on here?”
WE ALSO WONDERED about that apparent discrepancy. Can it be that behind Philo's welcoming face lurk that many more secret assassins than Boonville?
CAR FIRE Sunday night (22 July) on 253. Fully involved Volvo on Boonville-Ukiah Road 9:50 PM
One lane to be temporarily closed to fight fire.
The scanner & the CHP Traffic incident page reported (9:50 pm) a "fully involved Volvo, fire extended into vegetation" near mile marker 3.0 on SR-253 (the CHP page said it was mile marker 1.8).
The Anderson Valley Fire Department and CalFire ground (and inmate) units have been dispatched.
It is being called the "Soda Incident."
A first responder said @ 10:09 pm, "There's about five acres with a slow rate of spread..."
A first responder said @ 10:12 pm they'd like CalTrans to respond "because it looks like we'll have to close one lane of the roadway for a while..."
At 10:52 pm, they were asking for “more Type 3 engines.”
Of course, air support is out of the question - they don’t fly at night.
At 11:37 pm, MSP heard dispatch informed from a first responder, “The fire is contained. Approximately 15 acres.” It sounded like they had hose lines around the fire.
At 12:15 am, Starr Automotive out of Philo got the call for the towing of the vehicle - it had no tires. (MSP)
A EUROPEAN COMPANY called FlixBus will get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles for only $9.99. That's what their ads say. The 'Hound gets you from Frisco to LA for about twenty bucks.
YOU’RE BEGINNING to be an old timer if you remember going from Boonville to the City by a daily Greyhound running between Fort Bragg and San Francisco, an important service that ended around '75 as I recall. The 'Hound was replaced for a while by two brothers from Lebanon, the country, who ran a daily 12 passenger van between Fort Bragg and the City. Their van service lasted about a year before folding under pressure from the heavily subsidized MTA out of Ukiah. You can get to SF and back by MTA but it will take you a while, a long while, a very long while.
AV PANTHERS Football Coach John Toohey writes:
The Anderson valley football teams, youth and high school levels, have come together under one umbrella to support each other’s programs. They are concluding their first annual joint "smart skills" football camp where they have been studying hand strike, head free blocking and shoulder style, head free tackling in their continuing efforts to create the safest environment possible in which to play America's game.
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