Let's connect!
Enjoy Mill Valley
  • HOME
  • EVENTS & GUIDES
    • 2020-21 EMV Guide
    • 2021 Mill Valley Wine, Beer & Gourmet Food Tasting
    • Winterfest >
      • About Winterfest
    • Calendar
    • Special Events
  • EAT
  • Stay
  • VISIT
    • Muir Woods
    • PLAY
    • Tour
    • Map
    • PRESS
  • SHOP
    • Enjoy Mill Valley Store
    • Shopping Areas
    • Apparel and Jewelry
    • Automotive
    • Banking & Financial Services
    • Biz, Consumer & Professional Services
    • Beauty & Grooming
    • Fitness & Sports
    • Food & Wine
    • Home & Garden
    • Kids & Pets
    • Health & Wellness
    • Nonprofit Organizations
    • Real Estate
    • Specialty Shops
  • A&E
  • EMV Films
  • BLOG
  • Mill Valley Chamber
  • City of Mill Valley
  • CONTACT US
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise on Enjoy Mill Valley
  • ShopMV

Local Artist Wesley Cabral Posts Inspiring 'Heroines' Mural Next to 'Heroes' Piece on Wall at 34 Miller Avenue

1/29/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Wesley Cabral's "Heroines" mural, featuring Fannie Lou Hamer and Marsha P. Johnson, and the words of Audrey Lorde, has been installed on the wall at 34 Miller Avenue, home to Urban Remedy and the commercial kitchen of Equator Coffee. Courtesy image.
Mill Valley continues to be infused with art that both educates our community about the history of racial injustice and sustains the long-overdue, much-needed conversations about racial inequity, in the 94941 and beyond.

In October 2020, dozens of locals gathered in the rain to see local artist Wesley Cabral hang his mural "Heroes," celebrating the late Rep. John Lewis and actor Chadwick Boseman, on the wall on the wall of 34 Miller Avenue, across from Gravity Tavern and home to  Urban Remedy and the commercial kitchen of Equator Coffee. He did so with an outpouring of support of the owners of each of the aforementioned businesses.

Now Cabral has returned to that wall, which also includes the historic, billboard-size Mt. Tamalpais Hikers Trail map, with a perfect bookend piece. His "Heroines" mural, featuring voting and women's rights activist and civil rights movement leader Fannie Lou Hamer and Marsha P. Johnson, born and also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen who was an outspoken advocate for gay rights and one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. The mural also features the words of writer and civil rights activist Audrey Lorde.

"I created this work to honor the legacy of Black artists and freedom fighters," Cabral says. "The conversation around diversity and specifically racial inequity has taken center stage over the past year in towns across America. This is a very good thing. For me inclusion begins by having a space and community that feels welcoming to those who are underrepresented. Art can play a critical role. When you witness art that represents people you identify with, there’s a stronger sense of belonging."

"My hope is that other artists will step forward to create art in public spaces around Mill Valley, particularly artists of color," he adds. "There is still a lot of room on the wall where these murals hang and plenty of places in Mill Valley alone. Other local businesses and building owners have offered additional spaces too. Mill Valley and Marin has a rich history of art. It’s time to rekindle that flame."

The "Heroes" mural celebration came amidst an absolute surge of conscious activism and artistic energy in Mill Valley that has galvanized the community, from youth-fueled long overdue conversations on racial equity and policing in Mill Valley to a blossoming of inspired art. Zoe Fry was on hand for that event to expand on the group art project she led featuring a trio of free-standing doors in the Depot Plaza as a way to promote racial justice, with each door built around a timeline of racial inequity and systemic racism.
​
HERE'S A LOOK AT BOTH MURALS AND THE TRAIL MAP:
Picture
Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!
0 Comments

Eleven Months On, Let's Take Stock of the Businesses We've Lost Due to the Pandemic, and Honor Them

1/28/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
Despite the most horrific year for Mill Valley businesses in recent memory, local businesses have been incredibly resilient through the COVID-19 crisis. They've also innovated constantly, built out their ecommerce infrastructure and food takeout/delivery systems and worked with the Chamber and the City to repurpose private and public spaces to make it safer for customers to engage with businesses safely.

Frankly, it's a massive success story simply to have so many businesses survive the wreckage 11 months on.

But that doesn't mean we haven't lost beloved businesses along the way.

George Lawson Gallery, one of a pair of acclaimed galleries that moved from San Francisco to Mill Valley in 2019, chose not to reopen in April 2020. "I was a painter before starting the gallery and that’s what I’ll go back to," he told us. Not long after, the Rug Establishment closed its space in the small shopping center that contains Boo Koo.

In the fall of 2020, Chelsea Hutchison closed BŌL, which served up made-to-order “artfully balanced superfood bowls, nibbles and bevvys … to feed your belly and your soul,” and moved back to the east Coast in late 2020.

In August, Mill Valley resident Paula Purcell closed her two-year-old Paula James clothing, art and accessories retail shop at 365 Miller Avenue.

In October 2020, Elana Turchon closed her SweetE Organic candy shop in the Strawberry Village Shopping Center, calling the difficult decision to do so "devastating." 

In 2019, Kelly Scott opened Sundry, her second retail shop in downtown Mill Valley, a kitchen- and garden-focused complement to The Goods, her shop around the corner laden with "unique gifts, vintage finds, locally sourced treasures and lots of cashmere" at 6 Miller. Scott, the former owner of the Alpha Dog shop, close Sundry in mid-November. Karen Loftus opened Fez in that space that same month.

In January 2021, EO Products, the San Rafael-based natural and organic personal care products company co-founded by longtime Mill Valley resident Susan Griffin-Black, closed its EO Exchange retail shop in downtown Mill Valley, calling it a "very difficult decision" and noting that "it's just time to service our customers and and community in the different way."
 
We've also had a number of businesses stalled temporarily or permanently, either directly due to the effects of the pandemic or because it exacerbated other complications related to opening a new business. That includes Paseo: A California Bistro, the restaurant in the historic at 17 Throckmorton Avenue that sought to replace legendary Mill Valley musician Sammy "the Red Rocker" Hagar's El Paseo restaurant 20 months after he closed it, citing his need to tend to his myriad business, media and musical interests. Paseo was spearheaded by general manager Kevin Pacotti, a longtime Bay Area marketing consultant and restaurateur on behalf of Cathedral Hill Associates, a hospitality firm owned by longtime Mill Valley resident Ki Yong Choi. They shut down their project in 2020.

And then there is the former Gira Polli space at 590 East Blithedale and Camino Alto, the long-vacant commercial property that, save for the blank canvas that is the mother of all retaining walls at 500 Miller Ave., is likely the visibly vacant commercial space in Mill Valley over the past several years. Bay Area food industry vets Pascal Rigo and Nicolas Bernadi hoped to make it one of the locations for La Boulangerie, the post-Starbucks, slightly renamed rebirth of their popular La Boulange cafes and eateries. That project stalled because of site difficulties, and they shifted gears in early 2020 and decided to make the space home to Apizza, their simple, affordable pizza shop that already has a successful location on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. That application got mired in an appeal over the status after the Mill Valley Planning Commission approved  Apizza's request to remove a few trees in front of the building. The appeal was eventually denied, but Rigo and Bernadi decided to move on, citing the delays and the overall difficulties presented by the COVID-19 crisis.

There's also Le Marais Bakery, which was approved in 2017 to open in the 250 East Blithedale Ave. center that used to contain Mill Valley Services, Tony Tutto Pizza and SummerHouse. French native Patrick Ascaso’s renowned bakery and bistro eyed an opening in January 2020 within the revamped 29,565-square-foot space that already includes Compass, AP Luxe Salon and Belle Marin Aesthetic Medicine, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to help furnish a community patio in front of the space. That's the last we've heard.

We'd be remiss to not mention the legions of local arts organizations that have had to halt most, if not all, activities due to the inability to gather people into a room to celebrate art, particularly live music, theater and entertainment venues like the Sweetwater Music Hall, Throckmorton Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. 

There are undoubtedly many more Mill Valley businesses that have closed over the past 11 months. This partial list is a mere reflection of who've we've heard from directly.

LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW AND WE WILL FOLLOW UP.

THIS IS PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES ON THE HORRIFIC IMPACT WROUGHT BY THE PANDEMIC ON MILL VALLEY BUSINESSES. PART TWO WILL FOCUS ON WHAT NEW BUSINESSES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE COME TO MILL VALLEY AS WE REBUILD IN THE YEARS TO COME.
 
Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

1 Comment

With Its Popular Monthly Book Sales on Pause, Friends of the MV Library's Online Bookstore Is a Treasure Trove

1/27/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Is it possible for a local institution to be both a widely acclaimed treasure and an criminally underrated resource?

The Mill Valley Public Library might qualify if so, churning out award-winning programming before the pandemic and continuing to innovate throughout the crisis, hosting myriad virtual workshops and book clubs, engaging deeply on racial equity issues, and even launching "Wi-Fi in the Garden," an invaluable resource allowing people to get online even if they aren't able to be inside the library due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The foundation of all of that creativity is City Librarian Anji Brenner and her team, which used the Library's 100-year anniversary in 2011 as a springboard to even greater heights. But it's also built on the fundraising power of having two dedication organizations propelling its success. As we've reported widely in recent years, the Mill Valley Library Foundation is a powerhouse, announcing in 2019 a unique public-private partnership between the foundation and City of Mill Valley allowing the foundation's board to reach a capital base sufficient to initiate an endowment starting at $2.3 million. 

While the foundation has historically coalesced around larger projects like the centennial campaign, the 1996 library renovation and the endowment, the Friends of the Mill Valley Library, has a similar but not duplicate mission and with a different strategy to attain it. The Friends is a membership organization that focuses more on the day-to-day role of the library. Membership dues raise thousands of dollars to that end, and the Friends generates much of its revenue from its monthly book sale on the third Saturday of each month.

The organization has been unable to host those events through much of the pandemic, so, like the library team they support, they've innovated, launching the Mill Valley Online Bookstore, a shop that rivals any of its commercial counterparts and allowing customers to order and pay online in a safe and efficient way and be notified that their order is waiting to be picked up at the Library.

The bookstore also welcomes book, CD and DVD donations, which can be dropped off at the donation tables outside the Library during open hours, generally from 12-5pm.

MORE INFO.

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

0 Comments

City of Mill Valley Hires Marin Sheriff’s Office Veteran Ignacio Richard 'Rick' Navarro as New Police Chief

1/27/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
City Manager Alan Piombo named Ignacio Richard “Rick” Navarro Chief of Police, effective February 1, to fill the top leadership role at the Mill Valley Police Department.

Navarro was selected after a comprehensive search and competitive process, with input from two panel interviews with community leaders, law enforcement, and city management professionals, as well as an internal staff panel, and one-on-one interviews with Piombo, who said that Navarro stood out as a dedicated and enthusiastic law enforcement leader with 30 years of progressively responsible public safety experience, including 26 years of supervisory, management, and leadership responsibilities. 

Chief Navarro most recently served as the Sheriff's Captain with the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, where he commanded patrol, investigations, special operations units, and managed the fiscal division, dispatch center, records division, coroner’s unit and emergency response.

Announcing the appointment, City Manager Piombo commended Navarro for his qualifications and many years of leadership.

“Chief Navarro brings exceptional expertise to Mill Valley,” City Manager Piombo said. “In addition to strong experience in strategic planning, budgeting, labor relations, employee development, and emergency services, he has developed positive relationships in Southern Marin and brings a deep background in 21st Century Policing and community engagement.”

Navarro's hiring comes at a critical time for the City of Mill Valley, which is in the midst of its ongoing work with its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force, which unveiled its full report and recommendations in early December in the form of a 93-page, 28-recommendation, multiple ”wow”-inducing document that spanned affordable housing, cultural and recreational engagement, economic opportunity and education. Policing in Mill Valley was the focus of 13 of the 28 recommendations.
 
Prior to his appointment in Mill Valley, Chief Navarro has had a long record of public service. After serving in the United States Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Reserves, Navarro joined the Marin County Sheriff’s Office in 1990 as a Deputy Sheriff, where he steadily rose through the ranks, serving as Sheriff’s Captain for the past 12 years.

“I thank the selection committees and City Manager Piombo for this opportunity to serve in Mill Valley,” Chief Navarro said. “I look forward to developing partnerships with residents, business organizations, and civic groups, to learn more about the needs and concerns of community members. I am also interested in furthering the conversation about how local government can address racial inequities and create more opportunities for positive connections between law enforcement and community members.”

Navarro holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia Southern University, with Criminal Justice Administration Honors, summa cum laude. He is a graduate from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the California Command College, and West Point Leadership Academy. He holds a Management Certificate from the California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training (POST).

Chief Navarro will direct divisions within the Police Department which include patrol, traffic, and crime prevention. He will oversee the operations of 22 sworn positions, including two lieutenants, four patrol sergeants, a detective sergeant, four corporals, eight patrol officers, a school resource officer, and a motorcycle officer. Professional staff include two parking enforcement officers, one community service officer, one administrative assistant, and two records specialists.

Chief Navarro has been married to his wife Jennifer for the past 29 years.  They have two grown children and reside in Sonoma County.  ​

0 Comments

We Kept the Torch Lit for Outdoor Dining, and Now It Can Return (When This Atmospheric River Subsides)

1/26/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureOutdoor dining at Vasco.
For restaurant owners, their employees and patrons, the past two months was a rollercoaster ride you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. 
​
Outdoor dining was banned as part of the state's stay at home order (indoor dining shut down in November), they were forced to rely entirely on takeout and delivery throughout the holiday season and to operate at a tiny fraction of their usual operations. The nearly bare cupboard forced restaurant owners to vastly cut back on staff, again, and many employees had to turn to unemployment insurance – if they qualified.

Amidst it all, Marin restaurateurs created a petition, calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Public Health Director Mark Ghaly to reconsider the ban on outdoor dining during the stay at home order, and asking Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis to allow outdoor dining once able to do so under state's order. That petition garnered more than 6,300 signatures. 

In lobbying on behalf of restaurants, the Mill Valley Chamber sought to achieve two primary goals: to keep the conversation alive about the lack of scientific data supporting an outdoor dining ban, and so that when Newsom ended the stay-at-home order – which he did out of the blue on Monday – restaurants could staff up and organize quickly with a bit of notice.

During the indoor dining shutdown, many Mill Valley restaurants had repurposed the space left unused space for indoor dining to spread out kitchen and prep staff and create more social distance between workers. "Our local restaurants are deeply committed to the health and safety of our customers, our employees and the entire Mill Valley community," Piazza D'Angelo co-owner Felicia Ferguson says. 

The Mill Valley City officials agreed, sending letters to Newsom and Ghaly, as well as Willis, asking for an exemption from the outdoor dining ban in lieu of data that says otherwise. The hunt for hard data on outdoor dining has been largely unsuccessful. Los Angeles County officials suffered a legal setback in November when a Superior Court judge found that county officials “acted arbitrarily” when deciding to close outdoor dining back in late November and that officials have a specific duty to “perform the required risk-benefit analysis” when making decisions about restaurant closures. The judge noted that County officials “could be expected to consider the economic cost of closing 30,000 restaurants, the impact to restaurant owners and their employees, and the psychological and emotional cost to a public tired of the pandemic.”

Separately, more than 50 restaurants, wineries and related businesses in Napa and Sonoma counties filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom in January, arguing the state’s restrictions on outdoor dining — while allowing other businesses like indoor retail and outdoor gyms to continue operating — violate the California Constitution’s equal protection clause and due process.

Marin Independent Journal columnist Dick Spotswood called on government agencies to rely more on science to justify shutdowns and bans on specific sectors, as did the Marin IJ editorial board. Eight professors at the University of California, San Francisco Division of Prevention Science chimed in that "some of the current restrictions are not evidence-based and little effort seems to have been made to justify them. This erodes trust."

The City's letters sparked a flurry of media coverage throughout the Bay Area, including the Marin IJ, KRON4, KTVU, SFGate, NBC Bay Area and Eater. 

Marin could also see some additional good news in the coming weeks. All counties’ COVID-19 case counts and positive testing numbers are evaluated every week, and while Marin must remain in its current purple tier for a minimum of 3 weeks before being able to advance to the less restrictive red tier, it can move to a less restrictive tier if it attains a percent positivity rate between 5-8% for three weeks. Marin's percent positivity rate on Jan. 22, the most recent day for which data is available, is 3.3%. MORE INFO ON THE TIER FRAMEWORK.

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

0 Comments

Gov. Newsom Lifts Stay-at-Home Order Statewide, Marin Moves Into State's Purple Tier – Indoor Barbershops & Salons, Personal Services, Outdoor Dining & Fitness

1/25/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureOutdoor dining at Bungalow 44.
For the first time in seven weeks, the vast majority of Mill Valley's consumer-facing businesses are on the receiving end of a dose of good news.

Citing new projections for the Bay Area’s ICU capacity above the state's minimum of 15 percent four weeks from now, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) lifted the stay-at-home order statewide Monday morning, effective immediately. State officials subsequently revealed the math behind the state’s calculation in response to criticism that they were hiding key data affecting people’s lives and livelihoods.

The decision moves Marin, along with the 0ther 11 counties in the Bay Area region, back into the most restrictive purple Tier 1 within the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and lifts and loosens restrictions on businesses all over the 94941, reopening outdoor dining, indoor hair salons, barbershops and other personal services categories like skin care and massage studios, hotels.
​
On December 3, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced tighter restrictions for regions where less than 15% of ICU beds were available. Although the Bay Area region’s public health officers had preemptively adopted on Dec. 8, available ICU capacity in the Bay Area region slipped below the 15% threshold on December 16, officially triggering the state-mandated order for 11 Bay Area counties. 

Marin could also see some additional good news in the coming weeks. All counties’ COVID-19 case counts and positive testing numbers are evaluated every week, and while Marin must remain in its current purple tier for a minimum of 3 weeks before being able to advance to the less restrictive red tier, it can move to a less restrictive tier if it attains a percent positivity rate between 5-8% for three weeks. Marin's percent positivity rate on Jan. 22, the most recent day for which data is available, is 3.3%. MORE INFO ON THE TIER FRAMEWORK. 

“Everyone has been making sacrifices to bring this surge under control, and it’s paying off,” said Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis in a statement. “As we move back into the purple tier, it’s critical to remember the virus is still very active in our community. We could easily backslide if we let our guard down.” 

Willis said face covering, physical distancing, frequent testing, and avoiding indoor gatherings are the best ways to prevent another surge. 

By switching to the purple tier, the following businesses and activities can proceed in Marin: 
Allowed to operate indoors: 
  • Hair salons and barbershops
  • Personal services (nail salons, estheticians, massage studios, tattoo parlors, piercing shops) 
  • Limited services (carwashes, dry cleaners, electricians, handypersons/general contractors, heating and air conditioning services, landscapers, laundromats, pet groomers, plumbing services, janitorial/cleaning services) 
  • Hotels, motels and short-term lodging 
  • Retail stores and malls, at 25% capacity 
  • Libraries, at 25% capacity 

Allowed to operate outdoors:
  • Restaurants (outdoor dining) 
  • Places of worship 
  • Cultural ceremonies 
  • Gyms and fitness/dance/yoga studios 
  • Drive-in movie theaters 
  • Farmers markets
  • Family entertainment centers 
  • Day camps 
  • Wineries
  • Campgrounds and playgrounds 
  • Youth and adult recreational athletics (outdoor physical conditioning and practice permitted with six feet of physical distancing from others. No scrimmages, games or tournaments) 
  • Small private gatherings
  • Masks and physical distancing required 
  • No more than three separate households attend (including the host’s)
  • Gatherings should be two hours or less 
  • Those with symptoms must not attend 
  • Those at high risk of severe illness strongly encouraged not to attend 
  • Singing, shouting, chanting, cheering, or exercising strongly discouraged
Though the overwhelmingly good news was a balm for business owners at wit's end after such a lengthy shutdown, many say they would've appreciated a bit more of a heads up so they couldn't plan for the week ahead with staffing. Restaurants, among other businesses, would benefit by being able to watch trends toward reopening so they could start ordering supplies and rehiring workers, California Restaurant Association president and CEO Jot Condie told the Associated Press. 

In the day's prior to Newsom's announcement, state health officials told the AP that they rely on a very complex set of measurements that would confuse and potentially mislead the public if they were made public. But Dr. Lee Riley, chairman of the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health infectious disease division, disagreed. “There is more uncertainty created by NOT releasing the data that only the state has access to,” he said in an email. Its release would allow outside experts to assess its value for projecting trends and the resulting decisions on lifting restrictions, he wrote.

With 7% of Marin residents vaccinated and very limited weekly supplies, health officials note that the vaccine will play a limited role in preventing any surges soon. 

​“For the next two months, our everyday behaviors, more than the vaccine, will help flatten the curve,” said Benita McLarin, Director of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “It’s exciting to know we’ll all be protected eventually, through vaccination, but we’re not there yet.”

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

Milley Awards Organizers Vow 2021 Return, Eye Adding Racial and Social Justice Arts, Young Artist Categories

1/24/2021

1 Comment

 
PictureScenes from the 2019 Milley Awards. Photos by Jim Block.
Like just about all of Mill Valley's landmark events, the Milley Awards took a pause in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis. 

In a letter to Milley Award supporters and friends, Amy Torrano, the chair of the program's executive committee, said that organizers "held tight and continued the theme of perseverance and togetherness in isolation. We’re proud of the Mill Valley arts community for showing resilience and for coming together (while still being distant) to create and embrace art!"

"Throughout history, art has always been a powerful tool that drives cultural change, stirs emotions, and gives a voice to the underserved and underrepresented," she continued. "This past year, you continued that tradition in many creative ways. We have heard such incredible stories ranging from artists embracing social and racial justice to entering the Mill Valley Arts Commission Click Off contest."

Torrano said organizers are "hopeful to get started rolling out plans for 2021 to celebrate our diverse community of artists. In 2021, the Milley Awards Committee will discuss additional categories that includes fostering racial and social justice in the arts. We would also like to learn more about young artists in Mill Valley who are making and creating art – songwriters, poets, dancers, art visionaries who are making a difference in our community.  2021 can be a year of hope and optimism. The Milley Awards would not be able to continue without your support and involvement." 

"We hope to see you all October 24, 2021," she added. "Our event this year may be a streamed celebration or it may be a live event at the Mill Valley Community Center – or a hybrid of both. Save the date. Please know we are thinking of you and we miss you. How grateful we are for the arts in Mill Valley!"

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

1 Comment

Dave Fromer Soccer Debuts After School Classes – Feb. 1

1/23/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Among the many sectors that got a key dose of good news this week with the end of the stay-at-home order was youth sports. Among those youth sports organizations was Dave Fromer Soccer, which is ready to launch After School Soccer Classes on Feb. 1.

Fromer's outdoor soccer classes provide kids with physical exercise and team-building through engaging drills and games in a safe and supportive environment, helping players develop their soccer skills while having fun after school.

Here are the details: 
Six weeks, all at Strawberry Point School Field
Mondays & Wednesdays: Feb. 1-March 17 (except Feb. 15 & 17)
3:15 – 4:35 pm Grades K & 1st/2nd
4:45 – 6:05 pm Grades 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th & 5th/6th

MORE INFO & REGISTER.

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

0 Comments

With Limited Vaccine Supply & Limited Visibility on Future, Marin Prioritizes Its 25,000 Residents Over 75

1/23/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureRamon "CZ" Colon-Lopez receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 21, 2020. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II).
Despite a federal goal of 20 million Americans receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine by the end of 2020, the government fell well short of that mark, with only a bit more 2.1 million people vaccinated by the end of the year. 

​Here in Marin, home to approximately 260,000 residents, 
approximately 24,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine, and approximately 3,700 have received the second dose, according to the latest data from the County of Marin. Those numbers mostly include healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities will continue.

As health officials take a coordinated step forward in how best to allocate a still-limited supply of the shots to those most vulnerable to hospitalization or death from COVID-19, they are prioritizing Marin’s approximately 25,000 residents who are age 75 or above.

This prioritization is a reflection of the limited vaccine supply available to Marin to date. Marin’s healthcare network receives just a few thousand doses each week, Dr. Matt Willis, Marin’s Public Health Officer said recently. Local health leaders continue to advocate for increased doses and aim to vaccinate most of Marin’s vulnerable elders by the end of February.  

“With limited supply and no sign of any significant increase in the near future, this prioritization is the right move for Marin,”
Willis said. “Three out of four COVID-19 deaths in Marin are among our residents 75 years or older. A vaccine offered a resident above age 75 is more than 300 times more likely to save a life than a vaccine offered to someone under age 50.” 

Marin County Public Health is working closely with MarinHealth, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter, Marin County fire agencies, Marin Medical Reserve Corps, and other community partners to provide coordinated vaccine distribution across Marin. This includes hosting mass vaccination Points of Dispensing (POD), where hundreds of people can be vaccinated in a short amount of time. An overview of current operations for all healthcare vaccination dispensing sites can be found online and more vaccine providers are expected to come online in the weeks ahead.

While the California Department of Public Health’s Phase 1B prescribes vaccines for a larger group based on age or occupation, the State allows local jurisdictions to prioritize within tiers based on available supply. At the top of the State’s list of recommended sub-prioritizations is the 75 and older age group because of the increased risk of mortality or other severe outcomes.

Any existing vaccination clinics targeting other groups within Phase 1B of the state’s framework are permitted to continue through the end of the week. For Marin County Public Health, that includes vaccine opportunities for childcare workers, which are scheduled daily this week through Saturday.

To help Marin residents track when they may be eligible to receive a vaccine, the County launched a new online interest form.  Residents can answer a few questions to be subscribed to receive email or text message notifications when their turn has arrived and how to pursue a vaccine appointment. The form is available in English and Spanish on Marin County Public Health’s vaccine webpage. 
 
Everything a resident needs to know about the vaccination process can be read on coronavirus.marinhhs.org/vaccine, including frequently asked questions, myths versus facts, etc. Stay informed of progress by subscribing to Public Health’s daily status updates. The emails contain information on vaccine progress, announcements of when new vaccination phases open, and other relevant COVID-19 information.

On Thursday, January 28 (11:30-12:30pm), the County of Marin is also hosting an open townhall to discuss COVID-19 vaccines, with a focus on the types of vaccines, vaccine effectiveness and a Q&A session.

GO HERE TO VIEW AND PARTICIPATE.

GO HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE 'RIDICULOUSLY ENCOURAGING VACCINE – AND IT'S BUMPS IN THE ROAD TO DATE.

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


0 Comments

Marriage & Family Therapist Gail Weiner Speaks to Outdoor Art Club Via Zoom – Open to the Public, Feb. 18

1/23/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Outdoor Art Club continues its series of engaging virtual speaker events with ​licensed marriage and family therapist Gail Weiner, who has helped individuals, couples, and families improve their relationship skills for over three decades, with particular expertise in guiding mid-life women to successful dating and helping couples connect more deeply.

Weiner will share clinical research, inspirational stories, and practical steps for living your most authentic, connected life with the people you care about most. The event, set for Thursday, February 18 at 1pm via the Outdoor Art Club's Zoom, One West Blithedale Avenue. It's free and open to the public. 

REGISTER & MORE INFO.

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

0 Comments

The Depot Cafe & Bookstore to Reopen January 25

1/21/2021

2 Comments

 
UPDATE 1.25.21: With the end of the state's stay-at-home order, downtown Mill Valley eatery is serving to-go food with outdoor seating.
Picture
Depot Cafe & Bookstore's Mark Martini, Mary Pult and Paul Lazzareschi. Photo by Gary Ferber.
Picture
In the words of the late rock legend Tom Petty, "You take it on faith, you take it to the heart / The waiting is the hardest part."

From the moment in 2016 when he bought the bookstore and cafe business that occupies most of the landmark City-owned Depot building from the family of the late Mary Turnbull, who died in September 2015, Vasco owner Paul Lazzareschi longed to modernize the space, respecting its historic, small-town character as a former train and bus depot in the heart of downtown Mill Valley.

In the intervening years, there have been myriad hurdles along the way. There were negotiations with City officials about how best to proceed, how to include the construction of public bathrooms into the project and who was going to pay for it. In April 2018, the City Council unanimously rejected an effort to stop plans to renovate the space and allow construction of the bathrooms, the plans for which were regularly discussed in 2014, were budgeted in 2015 and conceptually date back to 1984.

The Depot first closed for the renovation in March 2019, and the fencing that heralded the beginning of construction went up in late December. Lazzareschi brought in investors to move the project forward, focusing on a project with two major components: an overhaul of the Depot space, bringing the historic building, particularly its bathroom and kitchen, up to code, as well as the construction of the much-needed public restroom adjacent to the Depot.

Then came the pandemic, halting construction in its tracks.

In May 2020, when the Depot project was deemed essential construction amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the construction of the bathrooms and building renovation resumed. The public bathrooms opened this week.

If Lazzareschi and his team are not quite yet ready to celebrate – there is the current state of COVID-19 metrics and the current stay-at-home order for Marin that has effectively halted nearly every business sector in town, including both indoor and outdoor dining – they are ready for a soft opening. That's is set for Monday, January 25, with takeout food and drinks available 7am-2pm. 

“It’s been an incredibly long journey, and we are so grateful to the community for hanging in there with us as we’ve updated and beautified this Mill Valley institution," say Lazzareschi and Depot Cafe & Bookstore managing partners Mark Martini and Katy Leese, the latter of whom is running the bookstore. "We can’t wait to open next week for takeout, and we’re thrilled to be able to welcome everyone inside when it’s safe to do so.”

Lazzareschi and Martini emphasized that the project was as much of an all-hands-on-deck venture as they could have ever hoped for, with investors coming on board to propel it to the finish line, and a number of local businesses chipping in, including Green Jeans Garden Supply co-owner Xander Wessells donating all of the new greenery around the space and Dvorson’s Restaurant Supply owner Josh Dvorson helping to design the kitchen and providing custom dish ware. 

A Chef With a Rep

PictureDepot Cafe & Bookstore's Mark Martini, Mary Pult and Paul Lazzareschi. Photo by Gary Ferber.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Daly City, Pult graduated from California Culinary Academy and worked at the acclaimed Campton Place before stints at a number of renowned Bay Area spots before landing at Zuni Cafe. Pult, who also had a stint at Liberty Cafe in Bernal Heights, moved to New Orleans for a year to work with James Beard Award-winning chef Susan Spicer.

Upon her return to the Bay Area, she met Mitch Rosenthal, who took Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Postrio to new heights in the 1990s, has run myriad acclaimed restaurants and is now the co-owner of Town Hall and Jersey Pizza in San Francisco. They got married, and what ended up being Pult’s last restaurant gig for a while was at Caffe Museo, the SFMOMA cafe spot that was owned by Bill Higgins, Bill Upson and Gordon Drysdale of Real Restaurants. 

Pult and Rosenthal had children soon thereafter, and Pult retired from the restaurant business, raising her kids and writing “Cooking My Way Back Home,” a cookbook with Roswenthal and her brother Jon Pult. “I always kind of missed cooking,” Pult says. “I couldn’t be too creative with our young kids.”

In the past year or so, with one son off to college and a daughter graduating high school, Pult pondered crafting another cookbook. But then a friend introduced her to Lazzareschi, and their conversations led to an agreement that Pult would un-retire and helm the kitchen at the Depot Cafe, which is focusing on food that is healthy, organic, good quality, locally grown and sustainable.

“It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time,” Pult says. “Mostly because I’ve never walked into a place and set the whole thing up from the beginning. The kitchen is fairly small, which allows us to focus the menu but also be creative."

“I’ve lived here for 21 years, so I kind of feel like I have an idea what is missing in town,” she adds, hinting that there will be some Greek elements, including mezze plates and a cheese board on the menu. “In the past five years, Mill Valley has become a lot more vibrant, with more food choices and much better cooking.”

Pult eyes a farmers market driven and very seasonal menu, with soups, salads and sandwiches, pastries and bakes good, yogurt and granola and a few small egg dishes. All of that will have to wait, however, until indoor and/or outdoor dining reopens. Until then, it’s to-go everything, with plenty of food and drink options, but no hot food.

“I’m truly excited – I’ve always loved restaurant work and it’s a thrill to be creative again,” she says. “A cafe is a place that people go to every day – it can become their place.”

The Man With a Plan

PictureThe Depot Cafe & Bookstore General Manager Matt Borello.
Coffee lovers will see a longtime familiar face at the barista bar. 

Marin native Matt Borello, who left Peet’s Coffee in 2020 after 10 years as the manager at the downtown Mill Valley cafe and 13 years total at the Bay Area coffee retailer, is the Depot Cafe's general manager.

Borello’s single-digit move from Peet’s at 88 Throckmorton Ave. to the Depot Cafe at 87 Throckmorton spanned about 40 yard, but “it’s been the leap of a lifetime,” he says. “The amount of responsibility is high, but the amount of love and respect that comes with it is something that I’ve always wanted to do.”

Borello says the catalyst for his transition was clear as day.

“I‘ve known Paul (Lazzareschi) and this community for a long time and I really wanted to get more community based,” says Borello, who made Peet’s an active participant of such vital local organizations as Clean Mill Valley and the Mill Valley Artwalk. “Working for a corporation provided a lot of restrictions, and now I’ll have more freedom to do all of those things.”

The Depot Cafe has chosen Linea Coffee (pron. Lin-ee-ah or Luh-NAY-uh – both work), which Borello calls “an amazing company with an amazing product that allows us to showcase a high quality product that is different. Equator is a little bit lighter and Peet’s is a little bit darker, so it kind of puts us right in the middle of what those two are doing here in town.”

Borello says he’s excited to get “back to basics” with “a menu that meets all of the needs of a coffee menu but simplifies it – we’re not doing all of the 55 drinks that are out there.”

Borello says his barista team has gone through extensive training to understand that, much like a baker, “it’s not just understanding a recipe, it’s also understanding time frames and cleaning processes. It’s really back to basics.”

In addition to Linea, Depot Cafe will also feature Clover Sonoma milk from Petaluma, beer from Fort Point and Russian River Brewing Company (Pliny the Elder on tap), tea from Tea Fountain on Miller Ave. and sustainably made and compostable to-go packaging. 

The 411: The Depot Cafe & Bookstore opens Monday, Jan. 25. To-go only until outdoor and/or indoor dining is permitted. 87 Throckmorton Avenue. Cafe hours: 7am-2pm. Bookstore hours: 9am-5pm. 

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

2 Comments

At Long Last, Mill Valley Gets a Public Loo at the Depot

1/20/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
The new public bathrooms within the Depot building at 87 Throckmorton Avenue.
PictureThe location of the public bathrooms within the Depot building.
In 1984, then-Mill Valley Mayor Richard “Dick” Jessup, who designed the Depot Plaza, first sketched out a downtown public bathroom location on the plaza. Over the following 37 years, loo seekers had options in downtown Mill Valley, from the bathroom within City Hall and at Mill Valley Market to those at various restaurants and cafes, including an oft-awkward lineup that snaked through the Depot's dining area. and restaurants downtown. 

But as of this week, there are officially a pair of public, ADA-accessible bathrooms located on the north-eastern side of the Depot building. They will be open in the daytime, 7 days a week, city officials say.

Momentum picked up in 2014, when it was regularly discussed and city officials reviewed a range of location options before fully budgeting the project in 2015. In 2018, the City Council approved Depot Bookstore & Cafe owner Paul Lazzareschi's planned renovation of the city-owned building and included the bathroom project within it. 
​
The Depot first closed for the renovation in March 2019, and the fencing that heralded the beginning of construction went up in late December. The delay was largely triggered by expansive negotiations between the City and Lazzareschi over the financial details of the project, i.e., who was going to pay for each of its specific components, as well as turnover among investors. Lazzareschi, who also owns Vasco restaurant across the street from the Depot, first put forward plans soon after he and then-partner Gary Rulli bought the business in 2016 from the family of the late Mary Turnbull, who founded the famed bookstore and cafe with her husband William Turnbull in 1987 and died in September 2015.

In May 2020, when the Depot project was deemed essential construction amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the construction of the bathrooms and overall building renovation resumed.

And now, to the intestinal delight of legions of downtown Mill Valley shoppers, strollers and post-COVID gatherers and lingerers, we have a pair of public bathrooms.

What a relief!

Questions? Email the City's Department of Public Works here or call 415.384.4800

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

0 Comments

Larry 'the Hat' Lautzker to Close Famous4, Hosts Going Out of Biz Sale & a Virtual, Star-Studded Concert – Jan. 22

1/19/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Since his arrival in Mill Valley in 1974, Larry "the Hat" Lautzker, purveyor of hip apparel, producer of an array of live concerts (remember those?) as well as some of the 94941's most cherished events, including the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade and the Community Block Party for more than 15 years, has been a force of nature unto himself.

That's not going to change anytime soon, says the longtime Mill Valley resident. But he is closing his Famous 4 shop at 96 Throckmorton Ave. on Feb. 25. As anyone who knows Lautzker would expect, he's going out with a bang. 

For starters, he's hosting a going out of business sale through his last day. "I have a crazy dream," Lautzker says. "In it, all my friends and clients come shopping at Famous4, you all buy one item and there’s nothing left. Wild, right or crazy, maybe not. You can make it happen, keep my dream alive, you can support me finding a new location in my cherished community." 

Not surprisingly, the longtime live music producer is curating a virtual, free, live "One for the Road Concert," featuring some of the famous Bay Area artists he's worked closely with over they years. Set for Friday, Jan. 22 from 7-9pm on Zoom and Facebook Live, the show features the likes of Tommy Castro,  Bonnie Hayes, Tim Hockenberry and Dan ‘Lebo’ Lebowitz, as well as a few surprises​. Register for the free concert here or RSVP to famous4@Comcast.net to join Larry for the Zoom party.

Lautzker urged the community to continue supporting many of the downtown shops that "have sponsored all events I’ve produced in Mill Valley," including The Store, The Goods, Wink Optics, Seager Gray Gallery, Sofia Jewelry, Margaret O’Leary and Carolina.

As for the going out of business sale, Lautzker says that "all reasonable offers will be accepted. Please support my transition down the road, come (if all my friends bought one item) get something for yourself or loved one, you will really be helping me. Or… you can go to my GoFundMe here to help keep my dream alive and support my business staying in Mill Valley at a hopefully new location (any ideas please let me know). I will survive!"
 
Lautzker adds, "I think it’s important to let y’all who have said, 'What will Mill Valley be without you?' and 'You are the heart and soul of our town,' 'Mill Valley needs you' etc. – what is going on? My heart is full and my head is held high. You have allowed me to be of service in a place that will forever be a part of me and given me so much."

Lautzker says he remains committed to producing the Memorial Day Parade, which he's helped since 1992, as well as the Memorial Day Veterans Ceremony “Honoring all who gave their lives for our freedom,” the KIDDO! “Day on the Green” concert at the MV Community Center after the parade and the Annual (22 years) Mill Valley Community Block Party, Fashion Show and Fashion Police. "Together, our community has raised awareness and over $1 million to support KIDDO! Arts education programs in our schools, as well as NorCal fire victims, breast and prostate cancer research, hurricane relief and much more."

Other events Lautzker has produced over the years include Mill Valley Film Festival events, Tuesday Night Comedy at the Throckmorton Theatre, Milley Awards, Winterfest, the Shop Locally, Think Globally promotion for downtown businesses 

REGISTER FOR THE FREE LIVE, VIRTUAL CONCERT HERE.

FAMOUS4 IS AT 96 THROCKMORTON AVENUE.

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

0 Comments

In MV & Beyond, the Arts Are in Crisis. A NY Times' Arts Critic Charts a Bold, New Deal-Inspired Path Forward

1/18/2021

0 Comments

 
PictureThe Sweetwater Music Hall crew.
For the first time since, well, March, the Mill Valley arts community – largely unable to function because of their inability to gather people in a room to celebrate art in all its splendor – has gotten a few doses of good news on the relief front.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $4.5 billion spending plan for 2021, including $25 million dedicated for small cultural institutions, such as art galleries, that have been unable to operate or are otherwise financially challenged by the pandemic. Coupled with the federal Save Our Stages Act, which was approved as part of the $900 billion federal stimulus package in December, provides $15 billion "in dedicated funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions. That could bolster the 94941 sector most ravaged by the COVID-19 crisis: live music, theater and entertainment venues like the Sweetwater Music Hall, Throckmorton Theatre and Marin Theatre Company, which have been hit the hardest in the 94941 arts community.

That funding bolsters the state's $500 million California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, as does the second round of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which set aside $284 billion in new funding for small businesses forgivable loans to help them retain and pay their workers if they meet certain conditions.

BUT IS IT ENOUGH?

Jason Farago, a critical at large for the New York Times, wrote a fascinating, lengthy piece this weekend that hung on two key points: that we desperately depend on the arts as human beings, never moreso than amidst an horrific pandemic, and that there are road maps available to make sure that the arts not only survive, but that we can make 

You should read the entire piece, but here are some excerpts:

We need the catharsis of the arts
The function of art, Aristotle told us, is catharsis. You go to the theater, you listen to a symphony, you look at a painting, you watch a ballet. You laugh, you cry. You feel pity, fear. You see in others’ lives a reflection of your own. And the catharsis comes: a cleansing, a clarity, a feeling of relief and understanding that you carry with you out of the theater or the concert hall. Art, music, drama — here is a point worth recalling in a pandemic — are instruments of psychic and social health.
Not since 1945 has the United States required catharsis like it does in 2021. The coronavirus pandemic is the most universal trauma to befall the nation since World War II, its ravages compounded by a political nightmare that culminated, last week, in an actual assault on democratic rule. The last year’s mortal toll, its social isolation and its civic disintegration have brought this country to the brink. Yet just when Americans need them most, our artists and arts institutions are confronting a crisis that may endure long after infections abate.
Artists need relief
Professional creative artists are facing unemployment at rates well above the national average — more than 52 percent of actors and 55 percent of dancers were out of work in the third quarter of the year, at a time when the national unemployment rate was 8.5 percent. In California, the arts and entertainment fields generated a greater percentage of unemployment claims than even the hospitality sector. Several hundred independent music venues have closed; art galleries and dance companies have shuttered. And in my own life, I’ve listened to painters and performers weep over canceled shows and tours, salivate over more generous government support in Europe or Asia, and ask themselves whether 2021 is the year to abandon their careers.
Until last month, when the outgoing U.S. president belatedly signed a stimulus package with targeted arts relief bundled within, this government had barely acknowledged the crisis that Covid-19 has posed to culture. Nor have private philanthropists filled the gap; while some large foundations have stepped up their disbursements, total giving to North American arts organizations has slackened by 14 percent on average.
W.P.A. for a New Day
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. promised that America could “build back better,” and throughout 2020 the president-elect extolled F.D.R.’s New Deal as a blueprint for American renewal. For the administration to show that sort of Rooseveltian resolve — and, with control of the Senate, it just about can — it’s going to have to put millions of Americans on the federal payroll: among them artists, musicians and actors, tasked to restore a battered nation.
The Works Progress Administration was a latecomer to Roosevelt’s economic recovery plans, begun in 1935 as part of the so-called second New Deal. (It) it endures as its most visible legacy, especially in the murals that adorn the country’s post offices, courthouses, school buildings and even prisons. And it should offer the Biden administration a blueprint for a new, federal cultural works project, which treats artists, musicians and writers as essential workers, and sees culture as a linchpin of economic recovery.
Today cultural advocates like to offer a roll call of American artists employed by the W.P.A. as proof of its necessity: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Louise Nevelson, Norman Lewis, Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, Philip Guston. The programs, notably, offered Black artists more public support than at any time in the 20th century. Charles White’s mural “Five Great American Negroes,” now in the collection of Howard University, was a W.P.A. commission. But the bulk of the 2,500-odd murals the program underwrote, plus piles of sculpture, painting, posters and advertisements, came from artists who never achieved fame.

Such a program might be especially valuable in America’s rural areas and in economically imperiled regions: the parts of the country where Mr. Biden did worst electorally, and whose support for President Trump came in part from a legitimate grievance that cultural elites looked down on them.
Get money into artists' pockets
In the past, unemployment insurance was available only to those “employed” in the first place — and artists rarely were. A violinist furloughed from a full-time orchestra job could get unemployment, but not a gigging saxophonist whose nightclubs were shuttered. A receptionist laid off from a talent agency qualified, but not the actors the agency represents.
That changed in March, when the previous Congress passed the first coronavirus stimulus package. It included a program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which, for the first time expanded unemployment eligibility to independent contractors and freelance workers. In their ranks are millions of actors, writers, artists, musicians and dancers, who are three and a half times more likely than the average American to be self-employed, according to a 2019 report from the National Endowment for the Arts.
A singer who qualified for pandemic assistance didn’t just get unemployment from her home state. She was also eligible for the same $600-a-week federal supplement as others receiving unemployment: a critical lifeline, though one that expired in July. (There have been two smaller supplements since then. The current $300-a-week boost, bundled into the December stimulus package, expires in mid-March, long before stages are expected to reopen.) For all its shortcomings, the program has established a precedent that the Biden administration must build upon: that artists, like other gig workers, are full participants in the national economy — and need to be taken care of as such.
So the most immediate measure the new administration can take to stanch the arts crisis is simply to get money into artists’ pockets — by pushing Congress to expand and improve unemployment benefits for them and other independent contractors and gig workers.
An arts center inside the executive office of the president — led, why not, by a “Dr. Fauci of culture” — could be sharper and swifter than a full department. During last year’s campaign, Mr. Biden had a phrase he invoked with almost musical regularity: the election, he always said, was a “battle for the soul of America.” 
Save Our Stages is a Band-Aid when we need a full-scale tourniquet
Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary nominee and the new Congress also need to disburse additional funds to keep other arts professionals on the payroll. Bundled into the December stimulus package was the Save Our Stages Act, which earmarked $15 billion for small-business grants to music venues, movie theaters and the like. The grants (initially, 45 percent of a theater or club’s 2019 income) are a fantastic start — but it’s a Band-Aid when we need a full-scale tourniquet. Berlin’s nightclubs and other for-profit cultural venues were eligible for 80 percent grants.
And given both the slow rollout of the vaccine and the continued need for social distancing, venues for the performing arts will be among the last public places to reopen. Congress ought therefore to bundle a second round of Save Our Stages emergency funding with a measure also drawn from the German bailout: cash for pandemic-appropriate infrastructural improvements, from new ventilation systems to digital distribution tools. I used to like a dirty disco; now I want gleaming HVAC.
We need this
I’ve always been wary of arguments about art’s “necessity.” But a soul-sick nation is not likely to recover if it loses fundamental parts of its humanity. Without actors and dancers and musicians and artists, a society will indeed have lost something necessary — for these citizens, these workers, are the technicians of a social catharsis that cannot come soon enough. A respiratory virus and an insurrection have, in their own ways, taken the country’s breath away. Artists, if they are still with us in the years ahead, can teach us to exhale.
READ THE FULL PIECE HERE.
Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!
0 Comments

Marin Theatre Company Playwright Gunderson Garners Spotlight for New Play About Her Virologist Husband

1/18/2021

0 Comments

 
The play, which gets a digital world premiere from Jan. 26 through Feb. 28, originated from playwright Lauren Gunderson's realization that she was "waking up every day next to someone who specializes in pandemics when we’re in the middle of a pandemic."
PictureNathan Wolfe on the cover of the July 2020 issue of Wired magazine. Photo by Christie Hmmm Klok.
In mid-2020, as Mill Valley and, well, everywhere was experiencing a summer surge in COVID-19 cases, Wired magazine told the fascinating tale of Nathan Wolfe, a virologist who'd established a "research center to identify and study viruses as they crossed over from wild animals into humans," allowing the scientific community to understand what he called the “viral chatter” that would make it possible to not only "react more quickly to outbreaks but to forecast their arrival and stop them before they spread.

"It's really a 100-year thing," he told the magazine's Evan Ratliff about a global pandemic, and how history would judge humanity's efforts to prepare for it. His biggest fear, he said, was a virus unknown to human immune defenses starting a human-to-human transmission chain that would encircle the globe."

In case you haven't been keeping up on current events, that's coronavirus.

Marin Theatre Company Playwright in Residence Lauren Gunderson "did not have to go far to find inspiration for her latest play," reports the New York Times, as she has been married to Wolfe for nearly a decade. Amidst the pandemic, Gunderson recorded their conversations about Wolfe's work. The transcripts of those conversations are the basis of The Catastrophist, her new solo play, directed by MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis, that was filmed on the MTC stage and gets its digital world premiere from Jan. 26 through Feb. 28,co-produced by MTC and Round House Theatre in Maryland.

When Minadakis first asked Gunderson "if she was interested in writing a play about (Wolfe), she was adamant — no," reports the Marin Independent Journal's Vicki Larson. But amidst the pandemic, "what kind of changed my mind was really seeing him in this context, waking up every day next to someone who specializes in pandemics when we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Gunderson told the IJ. “Every play is about people, and this is a person I know very, very well and love very much, so I can translate that kind of intimate knowledge into a play.”

Picture
"I can only imagine how frustrating it is to be the person saying, ‘watch out for the tidal wave, watch out for the tidal wave’ and then the tidal wave comes and then everyone says, ‘how were we not prepared?'" Gunderson told the IJ. “One of the decisions that led me to say, OK, I can actually write this is deciding that it is not set now, it’s set in 2016 so it’s not about COVID. I think it makes Nathan’s passion more powerful when it’s not saying, ‘As you can see today I was very right.’ The character does not know what’s coming. And yet, he does know.”
​
The team filmed the play on the MTC stage in December. William DeMeritt, a Shakespeare specialist whom Gunderson recruited to play Wolfe, flew in from New York and stayed in a mother-in-law unit owned by one of MTC's patrons. The crew, according to the Times, included "a woman whose job was to make sure the director stayed socially distanced from the camera operators; to provide hand sanitizer, gloves and other protective equipment; and to administer coronavirus tests. The tests were so expensive that the crew was forced to cut the filming from two weeks to one."

“We were all building the boat as we were sailing it,” Gunderson said.

DeMeritt, who in pre-pandemic days had roles in Shakespeare in Love, The Merry Wives of Windsor and a handful of television shows, told the Times he hopes the production inspires an industry that has been walloped by the virus. Anything, he said, to help theater survive the pandemic.

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

0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Subscribe to the free Enjoy Mill Valley Blog

    * required
    Click here to subscribe to the free Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

    RSS Feed

    Blog Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    142 Throckmorton
    Art
    Arts & Entertainment
    City Council
    City Of Mill Valley
    County Of Marin
    Depot Plaza
    Downtown Mill Valley
    Emergency Preparedness
    First Tuesday Artwalk
    Food & Drink
    Holidays
    Kiddo!
    Live Music
    Local Laws
    Marin Mommies
    Marin Theatre Company
    Miller Avenue
    Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival
    Mill Valley Film Festival
    Mill Valley History
    Mill-valley-in-the-news
    Mill Valley Library
    Mill Valley Market
    Mill Valley School District
    Mount Tamalpais
    MV Chamber Biz Buzz
    Parks & Recreation
    Philanthropy
    Public Restrooms
    Restaurants
    Shopping
    Strawberry Village
    Sweetwater Music Hall
    Tam High
    Tam Junction
    Tam Valley
    The Redwoods
    Volunteerism

Picture
   
85 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, Callifornia 94941
415.388.9700
info@millvalley.org



Copyright 2018 Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center
All images used with permission and/or source attribution.
Site Design by Linda Rosso Marketing and Communications