​One year ago, she launched Sound-Medicine, a sound healing studio for which she draws on her three loves – music, healing and psychology – to help people heal from stress, trauma, exhaustion and even well-known plights like Alzheimer’s Disease and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Sound healing itself is not new. In fact, the use of sound, music and chants to heal dates back to ancient Egyptians and even Australian Aborigines. But its use dates back centuries, it’s also “having a moment,” according to a recent story from Quartz, Atlantic Media’s digital longread journalism website. “There are sound healing Meetups in LA, London, and Chicago … more than 5,000 people are listed in the member directory of the Boulder, Colorado-based Sound Healers Association.”

And sound healing has no shortage of high-profile evangelists. The late, renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks used sound, in his words, "to arouse movement in paralyzed Parkinson’s patients, to calm the tics of Tourette syndrome, and to vault the neural breaches of autism.” And sound was used to help restore the left brain function of of ex-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) and restore her speech.  

According to Quartz, scientists from the National Institutes of Health found that subjects who listened to classical music before a stressful event recovered from the stress faster than those who simply relaxed in quiet. UCLA psychiatry professor Helen Lavretsky, a “fan of sound healing,” told Quartz that sound “has interesting implications for treating chronic stress and memory problems.”

But while there are plenty of compelling anecdotes and no shortage of debates online about the merits and mysteries of sound healing – Krasnoff is not a physician or psychologist but got her MA in Depth Psychology and Mythology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and is a certified energy healer through the Academy of Intuition Medicine in Sausalito – she’s able to break it down quite simply.

“Here’s the bottom line: sound is excellent for a delicate nervous system,” she says. “It really helps us move from fight or flight mode into a calmer state. And if you can get yourself calm, you can address many, many things.” 

Sound has been central to Krasnoff’s life long before she launched Sound-Medicine.

Born in Manhattan and raised in Dobbs Ferry, NY, Krasnoff was half deaf at birth and has re-learned how to hear eight different times as she changed hearing aid models. She’s also been a singer-songwriter for 15 years, releasing five studio albums in the electronic, pop, jazz and adult contemporary genres.

“The power of sound is everything to me,” she says. “Even though I use an extremely gentle treatment approach, which is why it’s good for trauma, it has so much potential and so much power.”
​
The 411: More info on Sound-Medicine.

Painter Georgia Gibbs knows plenty about transitions.

From birth in Utah and childhood in Southern California to college in San Francisco and motherhood in Marin – all the while with a personal and professional focus on the creative arts and technology – she's taken a circuitous journey to her latest work. In a series aptly dubbed "Transitions," Gibbs is exhibiting her artwork at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton) throughout May with a wine reception on May 3 (6–8pm) as part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's First Tuesday Artwalk.

"Living at the edge of a continent, the ground continually in a state of flux, is a running thread in my work," Gibbs says. "The stories in my painting hint at shifting boundaries, their collision and the resulting interplay; a story told in nature and mirrored by the human experience."

Gibbs uses oil and cold wax on cradled panels as her medium of choice. With resin and solvents in its makeup, cold wax is thick and, when combined with paint, "takes on a very buttery quality." As a result, Gibbs has started to add other mediums and treat it like a stain or glaze.

"I am very physical when working and like all of the texture and depth this medium allows, even though the piece is quite flat physically," she says. "Oil and cold wax is a very versatile medium. As I continue to explore, it keeps presenting new possibilities and I keep finding more ways to play."

With an early career as a photo stylist in commercial photography, Gibbs has spent the bulk of her professional career in digital and web design, mostly recently running her own boutique web design firm.

"When you look at a photo of a product or a graphic on the screen, what you are noticing is the space around it," Gibbs says. "The empty space is the magic that reveals all else. This carries over and onto my canvas."

The 411: Georgia Gibbs exhibits her "Transitions" paintings at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center, 85 Throckmorton Avenue, throughout May. The First Tuesday Artwalk receptions are Tuesday, May 3, 6–8pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

The Mill Valley Library Foundation is planning its annual Storybook Ball to raise money for the Library’s free children and teen programming, and this year it’s dubbed "Charlotte's County Fair."

Set for May 22 (3pm-6pm) at the Mill Valley Community Center, the 'Charlotte's Web'-themed event is inspired by the classic E.B. White story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte, who creates messages in her web to help Wilbur avoid being slaughtered by the farmer.

Storybook Ball organizers promise a fun-filled afternoon of old-fashioned county fair games, music, dance and craft activities while adults will be treated to delicious local food with beer and wine (and a silent auction). The family-friendly Storybook Ball sells out every year and, in its six years, has raised more than $200,000 to support Mill Valley Library's free public programs for children and teens. 

To align with the Charlotte's Web theme, organizers have turned to local vegan food company O Baby Bar, which will be serving up all sorts of healthy, County Fair-themed foods, including squash sliders rather than pork ones to "do its part to save Wilbur the pig."

Nutritionist and local mom Ilyse W. Petter launched O Baby Bar two years ago "as a way to increase awareness of the benefits of a plant-based diet both for individuals and families with children." Working with her brother, Executive Chef Miles Wassermann, Petter has created a menu of organic, vegan and nutritionally dense items that "appeal to vegans and carnivores alike," Petter says. O Baby Bar, which plans to open in Mil Valley "when we find out perfect home," currently caters local community events, private events and parties and hosts chef centered meals with demonstrations and nutritional lectures.

Storybook Ball tickets are now on sale. Tickets are $50 per person, children ages 3 and under are free. Sponsorships are available.

Click here for more information.

Patricia Rudd and Heidi Blair have become accustomed to hearing a one-word refrain as people step into their downtown Mill Valley store called Office Hours: “Whoa.”

The utterance comes upon seeing the store’s gorgeous, eye-popping inventory, which takes a few minutes to grasp. Rudd puts it into context: “Office Hours specializes in vintage, antique mid-century modern and industrial office and home furnishings, including desks, chairs, office accessories and accoutrements, leather goods – everything you might need for your office or home office, she says.

That tells you the what, but not exactly the why for the “whoa.”

What makes Office Hours unique, and a welcome addition to the downtown Mill Valley landscape for many residents and visitors, is how different the office furniture and accessories are from the staid, homogenous home and professional office spaces everywhere we look.

That’s the whole point, Rudd says.

“I’ve seen a lot of different things come and go over the years,” she says. “I wanted to create something a little bit different, and something that is a great fit for Mill Valley, and I think we’ve done that.”

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Rudd moved to Mill Valley in 1993 with her then-fiancee. He had a conference in San Francisco, and Rudd, a theater major in college, hopped on a bus north, checked out the Marin Theatre Company and fell in love with the 94941. They moved here shortly thereafter.

Save a few detours here and there, Rudd has lived in town ever since, putting her kids through the Greenwood School and in recent years building a new home on Lovell Avenue.

Along the way, Rudd regularly hosted frequent get-togethers in her living room for fellow stay-at-home moms and women entrepreneurs – sort of a “BYO to-do list” to get stuff done in a social, fun environment.

“We actually got to do the things we needed to do rather than get pulled towards everything around the house,” Rudd says.
The popularity of those events got Rudd thinking about workspaces, and how to bring a design flair to them in a retail environment. Blair, her longtime assistant who she first connected with years ago via Craigslist and who’s been her right hand ever since, helped Rudd conceptualize Office Hours and run the shop. Office Hours opened at 18 East Blithedale Ave., Suite 12 – the space formerly occupied by BJ Moore Gallery and Wee Threads before that – in late October 2015.

“Heidi dropped completely into my life and has been such a vital partner in making this happen,” Rudd says. “And once we started down the path of building a retail concept, it was all about, ‘let’s buy some great things that people might want to have to work on.' And we continued on that road of finding things that we wanted to have – just vintage and antique so we’re not adding to the landfills.”

In addition to furniture, there’s plenty to complement it, from wooden keyboards that connect to laptops to desk lamps and clocks you won’t find anywhere else. There’s even the basics: reams of recycled paper, eyeglasses, calendars and pens.
“Everything needs to look good, feel good and do it’s job,” Rudd says.

Over time, Rudd and Blair have connected with Bay Area collectors and craftspeople and learned a ton about the community dedicated to "taking apart these beautiful pieces of furniture to restore them lovingly and bring them to the public.”

Overall, Rudd says she's been thrilled at the community's response to Office Hours and the community that's evolved from it, particularly their informal after-hours wine-and-cheese events.

"It's been incredibly heartwarming to me," she says. "I've lived here a longtime, and to be able to have this community gathering space has been amazing."

The 411: Office Hours is at 18 East Blithedale Ave., Suite 12. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and Sunday, 

The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center partnered with Clean Mill Valley this week for a Downtown Cleanup, and the results can be summed up succinctly: Coffee & Cigarettes (not the Jim Jarmusch film).  

Smokers and coffee drinkers might need a helping hand to find a trash receptacle for their leftovers, but overall, largely because of the dedicated efforts of Clean Mill Valley's volunteers as well as those of local business owners and employees, downtown Mill Valley was pretty darn clean.

Thanks to Joan Murray, Jim Stephenson, Jeff Conley, Melinda Miller, Lynda Chittenden and Rachel Jeter for showing up to keep downtown Mill Valley clean!

That said, we have a question for smokers and coffee drinkers: what can residents, business owners and our local officials do to make sure those butts and cups go in the trash? Let us know in the comments!

For fans of baseball history, Mill Valley Little League is hosting a can't miss event this Sunday April 24.

Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, is speaking in the Old Mill School gym at 5pm on the subject of 'How the Negro Leagues Changed Baseball and America, Too.' The event's origins date back to last month's MVLL Opening Day Parade, when MVLL minor league team the Kansas City Monarchs held a banner that paid tribute to the legendary Jackie Robinson.

Kendrick will tell the stories of the players who were banned from the white major leagues in the decades prior to Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947. On Saturday, Kendrick will watch the Monarchs and the Homestead Grays – both teams are named in honor of the Negro Leagues – play at Boyle Park.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a "one of Kendrick’s favorite topics is the epic 1942 Negro League World Series, a Monarchs sweep over the favored Grays that featured seven Hall of Famers: Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith and Willard Brown of the Monarchs and Josh Gibson, Jud Wilson, Ray Brown and Buck Leonard of the Grays."

Sunday's event is free and open to the public. Old Mill is at 352 Throckmorton Ave.

Compelled by the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin a petition created by his parents in its aftermath, Silicon Valley veteran Jennifer Dulski became the president and chief operating officer of Change.org in 2013.

In doing so, Dulski left the lauded confines of Google, which had acquired her startup, The Dealmap, a moved that made her the first female entrepreneur to ever have her company bought by the the tech behemoth.

Dulski will talk about that leap at "Empowering Change: Using Your Talents for Good," a Speak to Me event on May 3 at the Mill Valley Community Center, where she'll "discuss the importance of pursuing work aligned with your natural talents, and why doing so will give everyone, everywhere the power and opportunity to change the world around them."

The 411: Change.org COO Jennifer Dulski speaks at a Speak to Me event on May 3 at the Mill Valley Community Church. More info and tickets.

Mill Valley residents Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell, the co-founders of Equator Coffees & Teas, are heading to Washington, D.C. in early May to be honored as the 2016 Small Business Persons of the Year for California, the first time in the U.S. Small Business Administration's 63-year history that it has selected lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) business owners. In addition to that, Equator was also named SBA San Francisco District Office’s Small Business of the Year for 2016.

When they return, Russell and McDonnell are hosting a celebration with officials from the SBA, the Golden Gate Business Association and Capital Access Group, which nominated the duo for the award. The event, set for May 20 from 5:30-8pm at Equator's Tam Junction shop at 244 Shoreline Hwy., is open to Equator customers.

“It is such an incredible honor to be recognized by the SBA as Small Business of the Year for the state of California, and we are grateful to Capital Access Group for nominating us for this prestigious award,” Russell told the North Bay Business Journal. “As an entrepreneur, a women-owned business and a LGBT-certified business, I am proud to say that the SBA has been there for Equator at all stages of our growth over the last 21 years. The SBA knows that small businesses like Equator are creating quality jobs and driving our economy. The SBA has had our back at important milestones in our evolution. We celebrate this achievement with our employees, our partners and our collective communities.”

Go here for the full story.

If you're looking for a reason to smile on May 15, Boyle Park is the place to be.

That's where Project Awareness and Special Sports (PAASS), which pairs local young athletes and kids with special needs for organized baseball and basketball games, is hosting its 2nd Annual Challenger Day.

PAASS, originally known as Challenger Baseball and Basketball, is "hoping to take this day as an opportunity to raise awareness and support among the Mill Valley community for our program and players," according to Tyler Barbee, a Tam High grad and the organization's founder. The main event is a pair of games played by the Mill Valley Challenger Red Sox, one of the program's baseball teams. 

Barbee founded PAASS in 2014 as an outgrowth of the Challenger League, an organized program started in 2009 by longtime local resident Janet Miller, Barbee's mom, through Mill Valley Little League. The program pairs kids with special needs and a desire to play organized sports with “buddies” – primarily high school and middle school athletes – to assist them. The idea, Miller said, was quite simple: give kids with special needs the same chance to participate in organized sports. Miller and Barbee have also worked with San Rafael-based Autistry Studios, a pre-vocational program, to spread the word about the potential benefits of hiring someone with special needs.

The games themselves put smiles on the faces of all involved, from the children with special needs getting a chance to play sports and the volunteer athletes giving back to their community to attendees who get to revel in the heartwarming interactions.

"There is nothing sweeter and richer than to experience the joy of the players hitting the ball and running the bases or the interaction between the "buddies" and players as they both work to learn from each other and create a community," Miller says.

One of the many gems of Mill Valley turns 25 years old this year, and Edna Maguire Elementary School families and volunteers are throwing one heck of a party to celebrate.

The Mill Valley Children's Garden, which officially opened in 1991 after teachers, spearheaded by Susan Reynolds, staved off a proposal to pave over open space on the school's campus, is a nearly half-acre "outdoor classroom laboratory" for Edna Maguire's more than 600 students. Garden supporters are hosting the annual Garden Faire on May 1, 12-4pm, to allow the garden to continue to be an essential part of Edna Maguire's curriculum.

"It's like having a living textbook," says Lee Budish, a former active Edna Maguire parent who is widely credited as one of the people who helped transform the Mill Valley Children's Garden into what it is today. "Since 1990, kids at Edna Maguire haven't just had to read about plants, fruits, vegetables and nature in a textbook. You cannot connect with a book the way you do with the land, and the Children's Garden is so vitally important."

Budish worked closely in the mid-2000s with then-Principal Lisa Zimmer to reinvigorate the Children's Garden, raising money for garden beds, equipment and, eventually, the funding for a garden teacher. Outdoor Educator Kristy Studnicki, teaches children botany, ecology, math, language arts, nutrition and cooking, stewardship of the land, community service, and much more. 

The Garden Faire is a multi-faceted event, featuring the Edna Maguire Bake-Off, with a panel of celebrity judges choosing the winners, who will score prizes, such as a gift certificate from Vasco Restaurant. It also includes the ever-popular pie-eating contest, with an adult competition and a kids competition (13 and under). 

In addition, since the faire takes place on May Day, it will feature a Maypole dance. "Garden fairies" will be on hand to help guests enjoy favorite crafts and games, such as fairy house building, creating potions, wreath making, hunting for golden eggs, nibbling on donut trees and bobbing for apples. Other activities will include face painting, hair extensions, and henna tattoos. DJ Jason will fill the garden with toe-tapping music while an array of eateries will serve up fresh, delicious local food. 

The 411: The Garden Faire at Edna Maguire Elementary School is Sunday, May 1, from 12 to 4 p.m. Parking and admission for the annual fundraiser for the Mill Valley Children’s Garden are free. Tickets for activities and food can be purchased at the event, credit cards accepted – 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Mill Valley Children’s Garden. For festival information, visit ednamaguire.org. Volunteers needed!