The inimitable Dipsea Race – America’s oldest cross-country foot race – is embracing the Internet in a big way in 2915, as the 105th edition on June 14 will be streamed live at UltraSportsLive.tv this year.

The deal between the Dipsea Race committee and UltraSportsLive injects the landmark event, which begins in downtown Mill Valley, runs through Mount Tam State Park and ends in Stinson Beach, with a level of transparency that organizers hope will attract longtime fans and newcomers to watch the event live even if they can’t attend in person.

“For many years people have only been able to imagine what it is like to compete in the Dipsea and now, with Ultrasportslive.tv, we will be able to show people—runners, volunteers, spectators, media worldwide—what the Dipsea is really like as it happens in real time,” Committee President Merv Regan says. “The goal of this partnership is to provide a new and unique view of this beloved and scenic trail race to a wider audience to follow step by step on race day.”

Ultrasportslive.tv will have camera crews stations at the starting line downtown, the aid station on Cardiac Hill and at the finish line in Stinson Beach, where the crowd will be able to watch the live stream on a large flat screen TV. Company CEO Mike Cloward says he’s pleased to be part of the Dipsea Race, particularly since “it’s right in our backyard,” as UltraSportsLive.tv is based in the Bay Area.

“We look forward to bringing live coverage of this event to our viewing audience—it will truly be a special experience watching runners from all walks of life traverse this legendary course,” he adds.

The inaugural live stream of the race could bring another dose of Dipsea history, as Diana Fitzpatrick is vying to become the first runner to three-peat since seven-time Dipsea champion Sal Vasquez did so in 1984.

To achieve that mark, Fitzpatrick will have to conquer a course that sends runners from downtown Mill Valley, through Old Mill Park, up 688 Dipsea steps and the eventual peak at the summit of Cardiac Hill – 1,360 feet above sea level – and then down the down the narrow Dipsea trail through Steep Ravine, across the panoramic Moors toward the finish line at Stinson Beach. 
While the Dipsea Race is widely known for the difficult terrain it traverses, it’s perhaps best known for assigning head starts based on age and gender, a time-handicapped event that yields surprising winners such as then-nine-year-old Reilly Johnson in 2010 and Hans Schmid, a 72-year-old retired natural foods importer and distributer, in 2012.

With a 16-minute head start in 2014, Fitzpatrick edged out 42-year-old runner-up Chris Lundy of Sausalito by four seconds and beat 56-year-old third-place finisher Brian Pilcher of Ross by nine seconds – the closest Dipsea finish in 25 years. Alex Varner of San Rafael, a scratch runner with no head start in the Invitational field, passed more than 400 runners and finished fifth last year with an actual time of 47 minutes and 59 seconds. Varner finished with the best time for the fifth consecutive year. 

The following comes to us from Ronnie's Awesome List, an unbelievably comprehensive roundup of family-friendly events throughout the Bay Area compiled by Mill Valley mom and blogger Ronnie Sharpe, who recently migrated the list over to a beautiful new website. Click here for the full list!

Monday, February 2, Groundhog Day

Exploratorium, Free Day

Hand Crank Toy, 4pm, ages 6-10 years, San Francisco.

Meet the Author, Aliona Gibson, 11am, ages 3-5 years, reading "Justice upon di Road" about her travels to Jamaica with her toddler son, Ocean View Library, San Francisco.

Father-Daughter Relationship Workshop, 7pm, Tutu School, Walnut Creek.

Museum Monday for Little Ones, 10am-Noon, Charles Schultz Museum.

Tuesday, February 3, Full Moon

Hands-on Storytime for School-aged Children, 3:30pm, ages 5-8, themed storytime, followed by a related activity or craft, Corte Madera Library.

Muir Woods After Hours, 4-6pm, ages 8+, easy 2 mile walk, Muir Woods.

Marin Community, School and Home Seminar with Liz McCarthy, 6:45-9:15pm, free, considering a move to Marin, then this seminar is for you! McGuire Realty, Mill Valley.

Hand Crank Toy, 5:30pm, ages 11-16 years, San Francisco.

Wednesday, February 4

Make Your Mark: Bookmark Craft Program, 3-4:30pm, Use collage, feathers, beads, and ribbon to make a one-of-a-kind bookmark. We’ll bring the supplies, you bring the imagination, Sausalito Library.

Rube Goldberg, 5:30pm, ages 6-10 years, San Francisco.

Click here for the full list.

As Cully Fredricksen busily worked in early 2014 to launch Office Evolution Mill Valley, his 4,800-square-foot shared workspace in the waterfront Shoreline Office Center near the southern edge of Mill Valley, he faced a distinct hurdle. Brand new to the office space world, Fredricksen’s career to that point had been as an actor in films like Milk, TV shows like ER and Star Trek: Voyager and video games like Stars Wars: The Force Unleashed – and his second act was as a massage therapist.

“Carpets, office furniture, what height to place the frost on the windows – it all couldn’t have been more new to me,” Fredricksen says with a smile. “But I have to say – I think I nailed it. I’m very happy with how this space has turned out.”

It seems his tenants agree, as more than two-thirds of his 17 office spaces at 100 Shoreline Hwy. are full, with dozens using Office Evolution’s virtual services, which include “drop-in” workstations, a postal mailbox, a phone service managed by a call center and a kitchen, range from $99 to $299 per month, while its 100-square-foot offices go for approximately $1,000 per month, depending on the exact size and whether you get a view of the headlands or Richardson Bay.

The mix of tenants to date has been all across the board, from groups of attorneys and hedge fund managers to a financial services company focused on women going through major family transitions. Fredricksen’s first two tenants were a Presbyterian minister writing a book about the history of Christianity and the family of Vivienne Harr, the Fairfax girl who turned her lemonade stand into Make a Stand, a benefit corporation that supports her vision of "a world where all 18 million enslaved children are free and safe."

“It doesn’t get more diverse than that,” Fredricksen says.

But one pattern has emerged from the group, he says: individuals, businesses and organizations in transition who don’t want to do all of their business our of their homes or at the local Starbucks. Those clients value Office Evolution’s simple fee model, with minimal costs beyond the flat fees, Fredricksen says.

“Whether it’s downsizing, upsizing or somewhere in between, these are people who need to know what their costs are going to be at the end of the month,” he says.

Laurie Fried, whose New Leaf Financial Advisory firm does financial forensics for people going through a major financial transition such as divorce, was Office Evolution’s first “virtual” client, renting conference room space and a mailbox in an attempt to “professionalize” her growing business.

“I had gotten tired of having client meetings in my house,” she says. “But I also didn’t love some of the other more corporate options out there for shared offices. Cully and his team bring a casual, communal spirit to Office Evolution that is extremely rare to find in that environment.”

In the year leading up to his launch of Office Evolution in July 2014, Fredricksen himself was in the midst of his own transition. The Redwood High grad had enjoyed a great run with LucasArts as an actor and in dramatic productions like Marin Theatre Company’s Killer Joe in 2006. But he’d grown a bit tired of acting and shifted to being a massage therapist in recent years, and then an injury forced him to give that up as well, and he was hunting for the next thing.

While hiking in the Austrian Alps in September 2013 with his brother-in-law Mark Hemmeter and their respective wives, he quizzed Hemmeter about the Office Evolution brand he’d launched in the Denver area in 2003. In early 2013, the company began offering the Office Evolution model as a franchise, and Fredricksen was intrigued. He opened the first franchise outside of Colorado, and the company now also includes locations in Salt Lake City, New Jersey, Ohio and Atlanta, with another 30 in the works.

Fredricksen himself is looking to expand in the North Bay, hoping to open an Office Evolution in San Rafael later this year and eventually have five of them along the Hwy. 101 corridor between Mill Valley and Sonoma.

Office Evolution’s clients aren’t the only ones high on the concept. Sandra Sims, who recently became Office Evolution Mill Valley’s business center manager – essentially the support staff for myriad young companies in all sorts of industries – left her job as a support specialist on the incubation team at Google to join Fredricksen.

“There’s an energy about people who are starting new companies that greatly appeals to me, and I love being able to empower and support them,” says Sims, adding that no commuting from Marin to Mountain View everyday is a bonus. “This is just a great environment.”

The 411: Office Evolution is at 100B Shoreline Hwy. in Mill Valley. Click here for more info on availability and rates.

The surge of momentum seized by the Mill Valley Valley Public Library for its Centennial Celebration in 2011 continues to reap huge dividends four years later.

Library Journal, a trade magazine focused on the library community, named the Mill Valley Library a finalist for the Best Small Library in America 2015. The 10-year-old program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to showcase the exemplary work of public libraries serving populations under 25,000, with the Belgrade Community Library in Montana taking top honors and the Red Hook Public Library in upstate New York joining Mill Valley as finalists.

“Our innovations have brought us closer to the public we serve,” City Librarian Anji Brenner says. “We are incredibly thankful to that community – our patrons, volunteers, support groups, donors, and City Council– for the award reflects their enthusiasm, generosity, and engagement with their local Library.”

Those innovations kicked into high gear in 2011 when Daniel Ellsberg, who made the Pentagon Papers public in 1971, was the subject of the inaugural First Fridays event, a free series of lectures and performances that continues to this day.

Immersive dance performances, poetry slams and live radio shows and myriad other programming followed, including the groundbreaking and incredibly popular Naked Truth live storytelling events, which put library patrons and featured guests at center stage to tell true, unscripted stories. Mill Valley Library officials say that in 2014, the Library offered 1,000 programs attended by 33,000 participants.  

Members of Library Journal’s editorial board, librarians from around the country, and a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation judged nominees. In explaining the Mill Valley Library’s honor from Library Journal, Frances Gordon, director of the Larkspur Public Library, compares the events’ vibe to a TED talk, saying the “staff bustle, they rock, they engage the community.”

Best Small Library in America 2015 Judge Carolyn Anthony says the library’s efforts “suggest that the library is ‘constantly evolving,’ a real plus in these changing times.”

And while its event programming has continued to expand on the definition of what a library looks like in the 21st Century, the Mill Valley Library has continued to push the envelope with projects like the seed-sharing program SeedSmart and the SmartGarden, a demonstration garden, debuting later this year, to promote the need for water conservation and management and educate the community about how to do so, in an outdoor space adjacent to the library.

“All libraries are working hard to redefine their relevance,” Brenner says. “We are excited to stand out amongst this impressive landscape. We have redefined our relevance while staying true to our original purpose, an organization rooted in literary connections, cultural enrichment, and intellectual pursuits.”

The Mill Valley Library will receive a $10,000 cash award as well as conference costs for two library staff to attend the 2016 Public Library Association conference for an award celebration.

Throckmorton Theatre's 3rd annual adventure and environmental documentary festival! runs February 6–8, 2015 and features more than 55 films plus guest speakers and discussion panels.

Adrenaline junkies, outdoor lovers and documentary film buffs have one heck of an event coming their way February 6–8 in the form of the Throckmorton Theatre's 3rd Annual MountainFilm adventure and environmental documentary festival.

The event features more than 55 films plus guest speakers and discussion panels. The event kicks off with a Tibetan Bells & Horns performance from musician and artist Karma Moffett and a screening of Valley Uprising, a 98-minute documentary “about the rich history of climbing in Yosemite National Park and the rebellious roots that came along with it. National Geographic Adventure magazine called the film "a palpable journey that jumps off the screen.”

Click here for the full festival schedule and to buy tickets.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Mill Valley residents who turned out in droves to the Sweetwater Music Hall & Cafe for the trio of San Francisco Giants' World Series runs or the bombastic series of World Cup soccer games in 2014 know that few venues in the Bay Area can rival its atmosphere for live sports.
Sweetwater General Manager Aaron Kayce says the joint will be jumping for Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks Sunday (Feb. 1) at 3:30pm. The Sweetwater event is free and open to all ages. So whether Deflategate/Ballghazi has captured your attention or if you're just ready for the 49ers' biggest rival to get what's coming to them, take your tailgate party to downtown Mill Valley Sunday for the biggest sporting event of the year.

While Milll Valley residents have long been accustomed to not dialing an area code when calling anywhere in Marin or San Francisco counties, that will change beginning February 21. In order to incorporate the new 628 area code, which is being added to the area to account for increasing consumer demand and a dearth of available 415 phone numbers, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is set to require that all residents and businesses with 415 area code telephone numbers must dial 1+ the area code + phone number when making all direct dial calls. The Commission approved the new area code in December 2013.

According to the CPUC, the 415 area code generally covers the County of San Francisco, most of Marin and a small portion of San Mateo County; serving the communities of Belvedere, Brisbane, Corte Madera, Daly City, Fairfax, Ignacio, Inverness, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Nicasio, Novato, Point Reyes, Ross, San Anselmo, San Francisco, San Rafael, Sausalito, Stinson Beach and Tiburon.

Here are a few tips about the transition:

• Deadline. Beginning February 21, direct dialed calls from 415 phone numbers will not go through unless dialed as 1 + the area code + phone number.
  
• Phone numbers and pricing unchanged. The new dialing procedure will not change existing 415 phone numbers or the cost of the call. Calls that are in a consumer's local calling area remain local calls.
  
• Dialing 9-1-1 unaffected. Consumers can still dial three digits to reach 911, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711 and 811 where they are available.
  
• Reprogram automatic dialers. Automatic dialing equipment must be reprogrammed to use the new dialing procedure, including: life safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, alarm and security systems, gates, speed dialers, call forwarding settings, voicemail services, and similar functions.
  

Phone numbers with the new 628 area code will be issued beginning March 21. These numbers will share the same local calling area as 415 numbers have today.

Click here for more information or visit your service provider's website.

Few humans have a better view of the world on a day-to-day basis than Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who posted a view of the Bay Area – including Mill Valley, Mount Tam, POint Ryes and most of Marin – from the International Space Station on Tuesday morning.

In the midst of a study of ways to improve access for bicyclist and pedestrians to the Hwy. 101 interchange with East Blithedale Avenue and Tiburon Boulevard, the Transportation Authority of Marin and the City of Mill Valley are hosting a Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Workshop on the issue on January 29 at the Mill Valley Community Center.

The interchange features 10 bus stops and a number of walking paths and bicycle routes. "Everyday, hundreds of pedestrians walk to or from one of the interchange’s bus stops or between Mill Valley and Strawberry, TAM officials said. "Recreational, commuter and tourist bicyclists travel along the overpass in large volumes, sharing the outside travel lanes with motorists accessing the on-ramps. At the same time, over 70,000 vehicles use the interchange daily."

A second community workshop will be held in Spring 2015 to present potential short-term, medium-term, and longer-range options for the Hwy. 101 interchange.

The 411: The Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Workshop is set for Thursday, January 29, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Send comments or questions or ask to receive email updates about the study and upcoming meetings to Nick Nguyen, Project Manager, Transportation Authority of Marin, (415) 226-0831, NNguyen@tam.ca.gov, or Senior Engineer Scott Schneider, City of Mill Valley at (415) 384-4818 or by email at sschneider@cityofmillvalley.org.

EO Products, the San Rafael-based natural and organic personal care products company co-founded by longtime Mill Valley resident Susan Griffin-Black, has opened a second retail location in the Bay Area at The Market, a  new 22,000-square-foot "food emporium hybrid" in San Francisco's mid-Market neighborhood.

The EO Exchange store, the company's second, opened Wednesday at 1355 Market Street. The retail shop is the company's second location. Its first opened in November 2012 at 84 Throckmorton Avenue in downtown Mill Valley. 

The Market has six spots to eat, a grocery store, produce, butchery and fish markets, to-go food, and a wine shop. There are five sub tenants within The Market; EO Exchange is the exclusive health and beauty store in the space.

Much like its flagship store in Mill Valley, EO Exchange sells its organic and natural products made with pure essential oils and plant extracts from both brands –- EO and Everyone. In addition, the store has a refill station where customers can bring in their empty EO bottles to refill them.

"We are very excited to be a part of The Market," said Griffin-Black. "We started EO 20 years ago in our garage in Potrero Hill -- this is a wonderful opportunity for us to engage and share our products with even more health-conscious people in the heart of San Francisco."

The Mill Valley Arts Commission is hosting four outdoor concerts on the Downtown Plaza in August, and is currently seeking musicians to perform at those concerts. Deadline for entries is February 17. Performance dates are Sundays 8/2, 8/9, 8/16 & 8/23 2pm-4pm.

Concerts will be held on the Mill Valley Downtown Plaza, which is a public open air Plaza in the City center surrounded by local retail shops and restaurants. Sound system, audio technician and event publicity will be provided by the Arts Commission. Each selected artist/group will receive $500 payment on the day of the concert. 

All interested musical artists are encouraged to apply. Performers need to be able to play a 45-60 minute set. (Please note that in order to provide the widest opportunity for local musicians, those performers who participated in the 2014 Concerts on the Plaza will not be eligible for the 2015 series.) 

APPLY VIA MAIL OR DROP OFF: Musicians can click here to download Musican Submission Form to mail or drop off this form and a CD with 3 complete musical selections to Mill Valley Arts Commission c/o Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, MV. Attn: Call for Musicians. Also include a check for $20 submission fee, payable to City of Mill Valley or Am Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa information. A receipt will be emailed to you for proof of payment once CD and payment is received.

APPLY VIA ONLINE FORM: Musicians can click here to complete an online Musical Artist Submission Form and then mail  or drop off a CD with 3 complete musical selections clearly labeled with Artist or Group name and contact information to Mill Valley Arts Commission, c/o Mill Valley Community Center 180 Camino Alto, MV. Attn: Call for Musicians. Also include a check for $20 submission fee, payable to City of Mill Valley or Am Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa information. A receipt will be emailed to you for proof of payment once CD and payment is received.

Deadline: Entries must be received by 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 17, 2015. 

On the heels of a rebound year with high hopes for a robust year ahead, the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce its 2015 slate of Board of Directors, as well as a new co-director.

Paula Reynolds, a longtime advocate for the business community throughout the greater Mill Valley area and the Chair of the Chamber’s Board of Directors for the previous three years, has taken a part-time position as Director of Operations, Programs and Advocacy.

Reynolds joins a Chamber staff that includes Jim Welte, longtime Bay Area journalist and the former editor of Mill Valley Patch, who became the Chamber’s part-time Director of Membership and Community Engagement in 2014, including oversight of the Chamber’s fast-growing Enjoy Mill Valley website. Reynolds and Welte serve as Co-Directors of the Chamber, leading a small group of part-time staff and volunteers that is dedicated to support the organization’s membership base in vigorous, creative ways.

“I’m thrilled to make this shift from my role on the Board to ‘getting my hands dirty’ as a member of our staff,” Reynolds said. “Jim and I developed a fantastic working relationship in our respective roles in 2014, both complementing and challenging one another to innovate and grow the organization. This is going to be a great year for the Chamber.”

With Reynolds’ move to Co-Director, Elizabeth Suzuki, Principal at Sutton Suzuki Architects, takes over the role of Board Chair, with Ann Aversa as Vice Chair, Ron Vidal as Treasurer and Clifford Waldeck as Secretary.

“This is an extremely high-powered board from a diverse range of local businesses,” Reynolds said. “We look forward to working with this great group to continue to make the Mill Valley Chamber a vital part of the 94941 community.”

Here’s a look at the 2015 Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors:

Second edition of coffee-table book that profiles more than 130 vinyl record collectors and their collections visits McGowan's "record room" in San Rafael and dives into his vast collection of eclectic records featuring "bird songs, space travel, music with a beat and music that's more cerebral."

Artfully laden with metal sculptures, outdoor furniture and myriad art and lights, Illumigarden has long been one of Mill Valley's most uniquely creative, must-visit businesses. Michael Pringle's gorgeous space builds on the eclectic history that preceded it.

The Unknown Museum, which lived at the same space at 35 Corte Madera Ave. across from City Hall from 1974 to the mid-1980s (as did upscale gardening shop Smith & Hawken after it), was Mickey McGowan's packed-to-the-hilt homage to pop culture in all its forms, from toys and knick knacks to art and thousands of items that you haven't thought of in decades – surely one of the world's largest private collections of vintage pop cultural artifacts.

While McGowan briefly relocated the Unknown Museum "to a private home he rented at 243 E. Blithedale Ave., lining the roof with old TV sets and decorating the rooms with his amazing amalgam of Americana, what he calls his assemblage of American life,'" according to the Marin Independent Journal, much of it now lives in a 4,000-square-foot, nearly century-old house he bought beside a freeway on-ramp in San Rafael.

But while the Marin IJ last checked in with McGowan's collection in 2006, few have seen his massive vinyl record collection.

Until now.

Eilon Paz, the Brooklyn photographer whose Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting is a "photo and interview project documenting vinyl collectors in their most intimate environment: their record room," tracked down McGowan in August 2014. He visited him in his San Rafael "record room," taking some fantastic photos of McGowan and his collection, and interviewing him in the process. 

If you're interested in learning more about one of the quintessential characters from Mill Valley's more colorful and eclectic days of yore, check it out by going here.

Paz used a successful Kickstarter campaign to turn his project into a 436-page coffee-table book, and its just-published second edition features McGowan. The book is divided into two main parts: the first features 250 full-page photos framed by captions and select quotes, while the second consists of 12 full-length interviews that delve deeper into collectors’ personal histories and vinyl troves.

Check out Dust & Grooves here and its feature on Mickey McGowan here. Buy the book here.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Looking to test out his new Atomos Shogun 4K and Panasonic GH4 cameras, Mill Valley filmmaker Gary Yost turned those lenses on what he knows better than most: the spectacular beauty of Cascade Canyon and Cascade Falls. 
In the first video, Yost captured some amazing footage of convergent ladybugs, which huddle up together in huge numbers for warmth in the winter before beginning their half-year aphid feast in the spring.

In the second video, one of Yost's regular hikes to Cascade Falls was seemingly preceded by a ceremony of sorts, one that definitely included rose petals. He filmed the gorgeous interplay between the petals and the cascading water. 

Enjoy!

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Just 18 months after it opened in the Alto Center in the space between Pet Food Express and the U.S. Post Office formerly occupied by Caffe Oggi, SmashBurger has closed. The move comes just one month after Weezy’s Grass Fed Shed, the burger joint that opened around the same time as SmashBurger in 2013, closed its restaurant at 507 Miller Ave., a location that has seen a trio of much-ballyhooed restaurants come and go in the past four years. Weezy's has also closed its once-popular location in Terra Linda.

SmashBurger's arrival in Mill Valley sparked a lively discussion about the number of burger joints Mill Valley could support. With SmashBurger and Weezy's adding to Pearl’s Phat Burgers, Super Duper Burger, In-N-Out Burger and McDonalds – not to mention the great burgers at places like Bungalow 44 and Buckeye Roadhouse – many wondered if it was excessive.