Pollen + Wool, the eclectic retail shop at 21 Throckmorton Ave. with a tagline of “Gather. Made. Splendid. Live the Life You’ve Imagined,” celebrates its first anniversary this month.

In doing so, the shop is unveiling a pair of DIY Summer Workshops on candle making and fabric arts, a move that's in line with owner Kristina de Pizzol's vision of the "space as a creative gathering place where people can come, enjoy their time and hopefully learn something."

The first workshop, set for Thursday, Aug, 10 (7-9pm), focuses on Soy Candle Making, with Erica Skone-Rees, owner of Rare Bird Makers' Studio, guiding attendees to create their own clean burning scented soy candles. Blend your own scents using fragrance and essential oils, with Skone-Rees providing a wide variety of fragrances including florals, herbs, musks, smoky leather scents, and more. Attendees will leave with three 4-ounce soy candles. $70. SIGN UP HERE.

The second workshop, set for Thursday, Sept. 14 (6:30-9pm), focuses on creating Fiber Art Wall Hangings using gorgeous fibers of wool, acrylic, alpaca, and cotton. Get inspired by driftwood, crystals, and feathers, as the class will have yards of yarn in many colors, found branches and lots of beads and stones for you to chose from. Bring your imagination and leave with a piece of art that adds whimsical magic to any room. $75. SIGN UP HERE.

MORE INFO ON POLLEN + WOOL.

When Ronny Miles first caught the photography bug in the Philadelphia area in the 2000s, he did so in typical fashion: traveling around Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York with friends and shooting the gorgeous landscapes those areas have to offer. He then gravitated to portraits.

“I really thought it would be people,” he says with a chuckle. “It turned out to be pets.”

As Miles, who’s owned dogs most of his adult life, started to get serious about photography, he realized that taking photos of his dogs, and then those of others, gave him great joy – and that he was quite good at it.

Miles, a native of Memphis, Tenn., who spent 25 years on the corporate side of the retail industry for the likes of Walmart, Macy’s and Universal Studios, moved to Marin in 2014 when his husband, Jamie Bruning-Miles, took a job as chief operating officer for YMCA of San Francisco.

When he arrived, he found a pet-centric culture that blew him away – “we’ve never lived anywhere where there are just so many dogs,” he says. That convinced him to make the leap of turning his personal passion for photographing pets into a business: Modern Pet Photography.

“First of all, it’s just so much fun,” he says. “Each shoot is different, especially since cats and dogs have vastly different personalities.”

Any photographer knows that patience and a flexible personality are key assets at any shoot. But with pets, those attributes are essential.

“You have to be comfortable with the unexpected,” Miles says. “You can go into a shoot with some ideas and you'll sometimes get to do none of that. It’s often more like action photography than a portrait – you really have to be ready. And some of the best moments are when pets are just being themselves.”

To get to that point, Miles finds himself being part dog trainer, and part dog owner trainer. “People can get frustrated with their pet because they want the perfect moment,” says Miles. “But I get a sense of the pet and try to lead in a comfortable, relaxed way.”

Miles uses a handful of tricks – but only treats as a last resort – to maintain a pet’s attention. That includes vocal noises like duck calls and rabbit calls. “I’ll cycle through as many of those as I need to,” he says. “And with cats, it’s more visual cues than sounds.”

When it all comes down to it, Miles reminds himself that it’s all about the owner’s experience.

“It’s all for the owner,” he says. “The pet is their child in some cases. And what’s memorable for me is when I do a reveal after the shoot and present them with their photos, it can be really emotional for them. You want to capture that emotional bond that they have their pets.”

“That’s why I do this,” he adds. “When the client says, ‘you’ve captured the essence of my pet,' that’s the best compliment I could ever get.” Miles says.

The 411: GO HERE for more info on Ronny Miles and Modern Pet Photography. Miles is showcasing his pet photography during the Sausalito Art Walk at New Leaf Financial Advisory at 1505 Bridgeway, suite 114, on Wednesday, August 9. MORE INFO.

Todd Morgan & the Emblems, Reed & Dave Fromer, The Vivants, Jamie Clark Band, Howell Devine and Frobeck are set to rock the plaza in August. 

For more than three decades, a diverse array of bands have made the Depot Plaza one of the best concert venues in the Bay Area – and certainly one of the most beautiful places to enjoy live music – for free. The 2017 edition of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's Concerts on the Plaza kicks off Wednesday, August 9, and this year's lineup spans from Mississippi Hill Country blues and Americana-influenced pop to high-octane funk rock awesomeness and the delightful music of Mill Valley legend Dave & Reed Fromer. Here's the 411:

Jamie Clark Band performs pop-Americana influenced by Bruce Springsteen and Roy Orbison. The Marin IJ called Clark "one of the finest singers on the Marin County, California music scene," with a powerful tenor "reminiscent of Journey's Steve Perry in his prime" and a "top end that would challenge the Italian opera-crooner Andrea Bocelli."

Dave and Reed Fromer have been delighting audiences young and old in Mill Valley and beyond for decades. Any one of the thousands of kids in town who learned to play soccer with Dave's help recall fond memories of his music interludes at camps and practices, and they regularly perform in the Children's Grove at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival.

Todd Morgan & the Emblems, a Sacramento-based band, melds every faction and era of American music, from early jazz and blues to present day pop and rock, along with healthy splashes of soul and R&B, complete with exhilarating piano, vocal work and stage performance. Their latest album showcases their 50s rock-centric originals.

HowellDevine, the Bay Area trio of guitarist/singer Joshua Howell, percussionist Pete Devine and bassist Joe Kyle Jr., deftly mix sinuous Delta/country blues with wildly syncopated rhythms to create a rollicking present day sound from the past. The result is a sound which stands in stark contrast to the typical blues heard in bars these days and would more likely be shaking the floors of a Southern juke joint some 70 years ago. 

The Vivants hail from San Francisco and draw on Southern music traditions and country harmonies, finding their musical faith in the inspiring traditions of Southern music and showmanship. The quartet's latest album shimmers with western swing and rockabilly originals, early jazz instrumentals, tap dancing solos, and old-time country harmonies throughout.

The eight-piece North Bay band Frobeck delivers high-octane “funk rock awesomeness,” and the Marin IJ says the bands founders Spencer Burrows and Kris Dilbeck would have fit into the "music scene of the late '60s and '70s, the era that produced Tower of Power, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Chicago." Featuring punchy horns, sophisticated funk-rock arrangements and Burrows' soulful lead vocals, the band has earned a glowing reputation for rocking venues all over the Bay Area, including a scorching performance at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley last year:

MORE INFO.

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It goes without saying that Hamilton: An American Musical has become a cultural phenomenon since debuting Off-Broadway in 2015. In addition to through-the-roof ticket sales and an avalanche of awards, Lin Manuel Miranda's creation has also inspired artists across the globe to strive to similarly reimagine and reclaim history.

That inspiration arrives at the Throckmorton Theatre this Thursday with an eight-show, Hamilton-inspired production of The Music Man, Meredith Willson’s Tony Award-winning musical. Throckmorton Executive and Artistic Director Lucy Mercer brought on Bay Area theater Amy Marie Haven, co-founder of Tomorrow Youth Repertory in Alameda and a teacher Oakland School for the Arts' School of Theatre, to direct the re-interpretation of The Music Man. Like Hamilton, the production features actors of color playing characters that they could not have played in the true setting of the piece.

“For me, Hamilton opened the door to an American past that I previously felt no claim or connection to,” Haven says. “Seeing the story of our nation’s beginning told by a cast that looks like me and in a language that felt alive to me – I wanted to bring that quality to The Music Man.”

Through a collaborative partnership with the Throckmorton, La Familia and Oakland School for the Arts, Mercer says the production seeks to unite communities, build bridges and create innovative art.

The Music Man tells the story of fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill, whose plans to skip town River City, Iowa with ill-gained cash are thwarted when he falls for Marian, the town librarian. By curtain’s fall, he turns into a respectable citizen in this funny, family-friendly story. Haven took steps to achieve a Hamilton-esque production by first cutting or artfully reimagining racist or outdated moments from the original script. She then cast a diverse group of actors and portrayed mixed race couples onstage – an image that would be considered unthinkable or even illegal in 1912 Iowa.
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The production began rehearsals on Juneteeth, a monumentous day in the black community when in 1865 word finally reached Texas that slavery had been abolished. “It struck me that we were beginning to dive into this story on a day that represents African Americans’ first step toward equality and equity over 150 years ago,” says Haven. “In 1912, when the musical takes place, slavery would have been considered ‘over’ just 50 short years earlier. At the time, nowhere in the US would there have been integration as we see it in this production.”

Leon Jones, Jr., a sophomore at the Oakland School for the Arts, plays male supporting lead Marcellus, protege to the infamous con man Harold Hill. “We see this young man bring new life and different facets to a role traditionally and historically played by an older white male,” says Haven. “Leon’s performance is a highlight of the show.”

The 411: The Throckmorton Theatre, in collaboration with the , presents eight shows of The Music Man – on July 27-28 & August 3-4 @ 7pm and July 29-30 & August 5-6 @ 1pm. MORE INFO & TIX.

Longtime Marin artist Sue Weil’s choice of medium isn’t one you’ll see dominating the walls of galleries all over the Bay Area. But that fact doesn’t inhibit her ability to convey an array of messages or engage her audience. In fact, she says it enhances her ability to do both.

“I’ve enjoyed working in all sorts of visual media over the years, but I’ve always returned to the medium of weaving yarn because I just love the warmth,” she says. “It could be done with paint or something else but there is something about fiber that is very inviting and draws the viewer in more than other mediums.”
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Weil, whose work has appeared at Mill Valley City Hall, Multipearl in San Francisco, Art Works Downtown in San Rafael and Thompson Dorfman Partners, where she worked for many years, is showcasing her “Small Works” tapestries handwoven of cotton, wool & tencel at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout August, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on August 1, 5:30-7:30pm.

Born and raised just outside Chicago, Weil connected with art at the age of three, and never strayed from it. She learned to knit and crochet as a young child, and after graduating Harvard University, she turned her talents into an eponymous clothing line – coats, jackets, pants and outerwear – that she sold out of her showroom at the Apparel Center in Chicago and at trade shows all over the U.S.

She ran the line for six years before getting to the point where she either needed to significantly expand the business or close it. She chose the latter.  “I didn’t have it in me to hire a staff and all that,” she says. “It just sort of ran its course.”

Weil moved to the Bay Area in 1992 and has lived in San Rafael since 2001. She maintains close Mill Valley ties, having raised her daughters in Marin and served as a board member of Ring Mountain Day School. Before joining Thompson Dorfman in downtown Mill Valley in 2008, she served as the Northern California Account Manager for GreenPoint Mortgage.

In 2011, Weil got deeply into creating tapestries and has been exploring the medium ever since. The ranges from abstract designs where she explores concepts like geometry and assymetry or more of-the-moment themes like “Building Walls” with the swirling immigration debate or “I’m Right Here With You,” the phrase uttered by the daughter of the woman who filmed the fatal shooting of her boyfriend Philando Castile by police in MInneapolis in 2016.

“Weaving attracts me for its simplicity: two opposing sets of threads twining together to create a whole,” Weil says. “Working at the loom provides me the opportunity to sit in the stillness of my thoughts, allowing my hands to think.”
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The 411: Sue Weil showcases her “Small Works” handwoven tapestries ​at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.)  throughout August, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on August 1, 5:30-7:30pm.

Mill Valley resident, GM and co-founder of SF Running Co. in Tam Junction and Equator Coffees ambassador Jorge Maravilla won the 40th San Francisco Marathon on Sunday, July 23, crossing the finish line with a time of 2:28:26, besting runner-up Semereab Gebrekidan by nearly three minutes.

Maravilla, a 39-year-old native of El Salvador who has dual U.S. citizenship, navigated the 26.2-mile loop course that spanned from near the Ferry Building Marketplace, across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. The race was Maravilla's latest in his quest to crack the 2-hour, 19-minute threshold in the marathon to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

“I’m very grateful to have the incredible support and love of our Marin community,” Maravilla told the IJ. “I couldn’t do it without the support and love I’m surrounded by.”

Fresh off the free Movies in the Park 30th anniversary screening of “The Princess Bride,” the series returns August 4 with a free screening of Pixar's Academy Award-winning Inside Out, which was just named one of the 25 best films of the 21st century by the New York Times.

The free outdoor film series, a collaboration between the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, Mill Valley Recreation and the California Film Institute, kicked off in 2014 as an opportunity to celebrate film in one of the most gorgeous settings in the Bay Area: the redwood grove of Old Mill Park.

The Peter Doctor-directed Inside Out is set in the mind of a young girl named Riley Andersen, where five personified emotions—Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling)—try to lead her through life as her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) move from Minnesota to San Francisco and she has to adjust to her new surroundings.

The free film screenings are set in the redwood grove adjacent to the playground in Old Mill Park. Seating is general admission, and attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket and/or low beach chair. The film begins at around 15 minutes after sunset, approximately 8:15pm on August 4.

Don't miss this chance to see amazing films in the beautiful Old Mill Park – FOR FREE! Old Mill Park is at the corner of Throckmorton Avenue and Cascade Drive. 

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Mike Axelrod lives just up the hill from Endurance Performance Training Center, and he walks his dogs by the 13-year-old cycling training hub on Madrona Street every day. He knew Endurance’s reputation as home to spandex warriors of many stripes, with a lauded eCycling program, professional bike fits and great coaches that help cyclists take their ability to the next level.

“To me, it seemed like most of the people inside were cyclists and marathoners, six-feet tall with 145 pounds of all muscle, where if any of them gains one-tenth of a percent of body fat they go to confession,” Axelrod says. “That’s not me – I’m an old fart.”

Despite that cursory observation, the 78-year-old Axelrod was on a bit of a mission. He’d been battling osteoarthritis in recent years, and while his doctor had encouraged him to see a physical therapist and get into an exercise program, doing so without a specific regimen – and while managing the near-constant pain in his knees, shoulders and wrists – seemed daunting. Axelrod needed a plan.

So he popped into Endurance one day and asked managing partner and physiologist Tim Fleming, “Do you handle any old, flabby, ancient, over-the-hill grandparents?”

They did indeed. Despite its well-earned reputation as a hub for serious cyclists, Endurance has long been home to a wide range of people in terms of demographics and fitness levels. Several years ago, Marin resident, philanthropist and Blue Planet founder Jin Zidell asked Fleming to help him shape up to participate in a relay in the Race Across America, an ultramarathon bike race across 3,000 miles, 12 states and over 170,000 vertical feet. With Endurance’s help, he did just that in 2012 – at the age of 74.

Fleming walked Axelrod through Endurance’s exercise testing and nutrition program for general wellness. The program is a notch below Endurance’s Metabolic Efficiency Training Program, geared to athletes who are hooked up to equipment that generates data like maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 Max), which is used to determine a client’s “maximal fat burning zone.”

The general wellness program is a nine-week program that starts with a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), a machine that estimates a person’s body composition, and body fat in particular. Using those body fat and total total body water estimates, Fleming sets a baseline to track adaptations to a client’s exercise regimen.

“I’ve done testing on everyone from Tour de France caliber cyclists down to older folks who just want to get moving again – it’s a science-driven process,” Fleming says, noting that the process follows the “measure-apply-measure” approach that allows clients to see the progress.

All that data – Fleming emphasizes the program is “an evidence-based prescription” – is the foundation for a right-sized exercise and nutrition program that helps the body increase metabolism and thus “decreased body fat mass and long-term sustainable and exercise habits.”

“It gets away from that stereotypical American response of, ‘I have to exercise, so let me suffer through this,’” Fleming says. “Mike (Axelrod) hadn’t exercised in years, so he wasn’t ready to dive into interval training.”

The program had Axelrod do exercises to rebuild his strength – grow muscle and lean fat. With the help of an exercise physiologist, Axelrod put in the time over the course of nine weeks. He also consulted with Connor Spencer, Endurance’s in-house nutrition consultant, who helped Axelrod develop a weekly meal plan that reduced his pasta consumption and had him eating breakfasts like greek yogurt with honey, blueberries and pistachios.

“It enormously changed my whole body structure,” says Axelrod. “I have been able to do things I was never able to do before because of this program. My upper and lower body strength has changed tremendously – I was having a hard time lifting a cup of coffee a few months ago – and now I’m playing golf again.”

Fleming lauds Axelrod’s efforts over the past two months, saying it’s evidence “that if we can keep moving, we don’t have to accept decrepitude as we age.”

“I feel like a different person,” Axelrod adds. “With my wife of 55 years and my kids and grandkids, I have every incentive to stay in good shape. As Carl Reiner once said, if you get up in the morning and you’re not in the obituaries, go eat breakfast.”

The 411: Endurance Performance Training Center’s exercise and nutrition program for general wellness starts at $299. MORE INFO.

In reviewing Ann Randolph's award-winning show "Loveland" in 2010, San Francisco Chronicle Theater Critic Sam Hurwitt noted that the playwright and performer's "surprisingly moving" take on on the death of a parent, sex and a lot of inappropriate behavior generated "waves of hilarity" and plenty of laughter and tears.

"Sometimes it's hard to tell if the tears come from comedy, compassion or both," he wrote.

Randolph is back with a new show, "Inappropriate In All The Right Ways," and she's performing it as a fundraiser for the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts on Saturday, August 12. Tickets are $35 and the show is limited to only 60 attendees.

For the new show, Randolph "fuses her trademark irreverent observations with TED-style self-help messaging to create an opportunity for the audience to take the stage and tell their own stories in a has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed transformational theatrical experience."

The show starts with Randolph sharing her own wild ride: from living as a volunteer in a mental institution in Appalachia; to living on a boat off the coast of Alaska pretending to clean the Exxon Oil spill with some good ol’ boys from Louisiana; to a homeless shelter in Santa Monica; to hooking up with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft for an Off Broadway run on 42nd St; to teaching thousands to take the stage and speak their truth. Each step of the way, we watch Randolph face tremendous obstacles and defeats and are witness to how each of these challenges led to the unfolding of this always unique and always surprising artist.
 
The 411: Ann Randolph performs "Inappropriate In All The Right Ways" at the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Avenue, on Saturday, August 12. Tickets are $35 and the show is limited to only 60 attendees. MORE INFO & TIX.

Equator Coffees & Teas, which chose Mill Valley as the place to launch its first two retail cafes (244 Shoreline Hwy. @ Proof Lab and 2 Miller Ave. in 2013 and 2014, respectively) since the early 1990s, continues its growth next week with the July 20th opening of its cafe at San Francisco's Fort Mason.

Located at Fort Mason's Gatehouse, the entry to the repurposed former military facility, it is Equator's third cafe in San Francisco and sixth overall. Equator will be serving free beverages all day (6am-6pm) on July 20, with a champagne toast at 4pm.

"We can’t wait to share a cup of coffee with the community around us," says Equator co-founder Helen Russell, noting the newest's cafe's proximity to the Bay Trail and thus its likely role as a hub for cyclists, runners and pedestrians enjoying the city’s waterfront. "On behalf of (Equator co-founder) Brooke McDonnell and I, we invite our wonderful Mill Valley customers to join us for the Champagne Toast and celebration from 4-7 pm."

2017 has already been another banner year for Equator, with its Finca Sophia coffee farm in Panama producing coffee that won first place in the “washed Gesha” category at the Best of Panama competition, and with longtime Equator barista Talya Strader placing in the top three at the United States Barista Competition.

As a part of the redesigned Fort Mason entry, Equator and FMCAC will partner in creating a more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly gateway to its campus, Russell says.

The 411: Equator newest cafe is at 2 Marina Blvd. Gatehouse, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco. Hours: Mon.-Thu., 6am-6pm, Fri., 6am-8pm, Sat., 7am-7pm, Sun., 7am-6pm. MORE INFO.