Legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell’s formative years intersected with one of the United States’ greatest periods of exploration, culminating in the moon landing in July 1969. In 2014, for his 34th album – Guitar in the Space Age! – Frisell dove back into the music of those decisive years, putting his inimitable fingerprint on the postwar country, blues and rock ’n’ roll songs of legends like the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Byrds, Pete Seeger, Junior Wells, Dick Dale and Duane Eddy. He did so with longtime regular counterparts, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, and lap and pedal steel guitar maestro Greg Leisz.
​
Though he’s since released his 35th album, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” a collection of classic film and television music like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Moon River” and the title track, Frisell is set to take the stage at the 3,750-seat Mountain Theatre in Mount Tam State Park on Sept. 17 as part of the Sound Summit, an annual fundraiser for the park. The event is headlined by Wilco, the veteran indie rock band that NPR has called the “best rock band in America” and Rolling Stone dubbed "America's foremost rock impressionists,” with Tex-Mex rock mainstays Los Lobos and San Francisco rockers the Stone Foxes rounding out the bill. KNBR morning show hosts Murph & Mac (aka Mill Valley resident Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey) serve as the day’s masters of ceremonies.

Enjoy Mill Valley spoke with Frisell about the music of his youth, Guitar in the Space Age!, making music with his friends and the comparisons between the volatility of the 1960s versus the 2010s.

​Enjoy Mill Valley: Where am I catching you?
Bill Frisell: I’m at home in Seattle. I’ve taken some time over the past six months to be at home. Two years ago, I was at a point where the travelling was getting to me. So other than a road trip of the western U.S. this summer, I’ve been at home. It wasn’t so much time off as it was time not in an airplane. I’ve been very lucky to be able to do that for. The Sound Summit gig on Mount Tam will be the end of my time at home.

EMV: Guitar in the Space Age! came out in 2014, and you’ve since released When You Wish Upon a Star. Are you excited to dive back in that material with the boys?
BF: We’ll play a lot of that music, but since we did the record, we’ve played all over the place together, and there are other songs that aren’t on the record that keep creeping into what we play. It’s this guitar music that we all grew up with. It’s almost autobiographical in a way – stuff that got me playing in the first place. Songs I’d heard on radio and either never played until now or some I’ve been playing my whole adult life. But it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve played them – it’s kind of a revelation when you sit down and try to play some of this stuff. Even if it’s songs that I did play you’re looking at it through the lens of your whole life and seeing things that you didn’t realize were even in there. The songs are different every time we play them.

EMV: When the record came out, you were quoted as saying that it was less of an exercise in nostalgia than a recommitment to keep learning. How have you maintained that commitment through five decades of playing guitar?
BF: That’s music for me. There no escape. You can never figure it out. You learn a song or a chord – whatever it is – and as soon as you think you’ve got something, it’s going to show you something else and lead you to something else. The song will tell you that you need to play this other song or some other idea or harmony. It’s a snowball effect. You have to get comfortable with the idea that in one lifetime, you’re never going to get it all. You have to get comfortable just being in the process. It’s an amazing thing just to be in. It’s also great to imagine what it was like the very first time that song was played. What did this particular song sound like the first time that anyone heard it. The first time the Beach Boys do “Surfer Girl” and thinking, ‘Wow, what that sound?”

​EMV: This record sounds like one that you and Greg, Tony and Kenny had a heck of a fun time making. What is it about this particular band that you love so much?
BF: Our history together is pretty deep at this point. We’ve been playing together a long time, in a lot of different contexts. It’s just got all that stuff that you can’t explain. It’s way more than just the songs and the notes. All the time we’ve spent together. As people, they’re really like brothers to me. And that affects the music. It is in the music, in a way.

EMV: The two years since you put out Guitar in the Space Age! have been particularly fraught. Since that record draws from the era that included both the optimism-fueled space age but also the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War, how does it compare to polarization of 2016 landscape?
BF: It is extremely complicated. I don’t even know how to break it down. Back then, there was this optimism but there was also this horrible darkness and fear, just as there is now. The thing I try to hold onto came from people like Pete Seeger and Sonny Rollins, and its focuses on the idea of that we’re going to get through it, and we’ll do it as individuals by just doing something good right now.There’s so much information out there now.If you go on the Internet and look at all the horrible stuff happening, it can be paralyzing. But if you can do something small to improve your part of the world. Smile at somebody. Learn to play guitar. Pete saw these good things as being contagious. We just have to be more focused on doing the best you can in the moment.

EMV: You and (Wilco guitar wizard) Nels Cline are widely regarded as two of the most innovative guitarists of your era. Are you looking forward to catching up with him?
BF: Nels is a super old friend. They’re going to be here in Seattle before I head down to the Bay Area. I’ll probably see him here. They often ask me to sit in with them, so we’ll see. The guys in that band are just some of the nicest guys on the planet. I’m really looking forward to it.

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

Born in New York and raised in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Wendy Goldberg's road to the Bay Area parallels that of many of her Marin neighbors: she followed a "sense of adventure" in her youth and traveled here ... and then a few weeks turned into 30-plus years.

For most of those years, art has been a constant in Goldberg's life. She's a prolific pastel painter who has exhibited throughout the Bay Area and beyond, including showcases in Big Sky, Montana and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Goldberg is set to show her "Land, Sea and Sky" work at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton) throughout September, with a wine reception on September 6 (6–8pm) as part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's First Tuesday Artwalk. The monthly celebration of local art includes a host of venues, including the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Seager Gray Gallery, the Mill Valley Public Library, Dolls and Dandy Salon, Throckmorton Theatre, the Depot Bookstore & Café and City Hall. The Mill Valley Design District, with shops and galleries primarily centered around Miller and Locust avenues, including Poet and/the Bench, Kress Jack at Home and 7 on Locust, have also joined the Artwalk in September. Receptions at each venue are Tuesday from 6–8pm. Here’s the First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

"I use the landscape as a point of departure," says Goldberg, who received her BFA from Cornell University was awarded a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. "From it, I attempt to distill what is mysterious, ephemeral and often dreamlike–nuances of fog, rain and quickly changing weather, or the play of dark form/mass against brilliant light. The experience of initially working on-site in these constantly changing conditions becomes an integral part of the piece."

Most recently, Goldberg has worked on both urban and rural night scenes. "Objects and images which by daylight seem incidental and commonplace become simplified and extraordinary at night under limited or artificial light," she says. "These result in compositions that speak as much about form and abstract shape as they do about atmosphere and essence.

Goldberg is steeped in the Marin art community, not only as a painter but, along with her friend Ellen Campbell, as co-owner of W.E. Install, an art installation business that hangs many of the exhibits at places like the Marin Center and the Marin Veteran's Memorial Auditorium.

Goldberg, who lives in Fairfax and has a studio in San Anselmo, says the work she's exhibiting in September will reveal her continued love for both the coast where she was born and raised the one she's called home for more than three decades, including landscapes from Northern California and New England. 

"I continue to be inspired by the beauty of both coasts," she says.

The 411: Wendy Goldberg exhibits her "Land, Sea and Sky" work at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton) throughout September, with a wine reception on September 6 (6–8pm) as part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's First Tuesday Artwalk. Here’s the First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

The acclaimed Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival turns 60 this year, and as we get closer to its opening at Old Mill Park on Sept. 17-18, one of the artists most synonymous with the festival and its community is set to discuss its history.

At a Mill Valley Library First Wednesday event on Sept. 7 at the Mill Valley Library, Tom Killion, the Tam High grad who first exhibited his wood cut prints at MVFAF at the age of 16 in the late 1960s – and has exhibited and served on the festival's board and committee on and off ever since – will discuss the festival's vast history.

Killion, who created MVFAF's 60th Anniversary poster, “Mill Valley Lumber," (above, center) a view from Miller Avenue in Mill Valley on a wet November evening as the last light hits Tamalpais’ East Peak, will explore "the lively artistic culture in Mill Valley during the 1950s and 60s that gave birth to the arts festival and nurtured his own artistic development, especially his early forays into landscape printmaking."

“I have been doing the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival since the late 1960s, and have always loved its wonderful redwood setting, its community feeling, and the opportunity to catch-up with so many old friends and neighbors from years past and present. It is a truly magical event, far more interesting than the usual outdoor show, as one might expect from Mill Valley," Killion says.

Working from his studio on Inverness Ridge in West Marin, Killion now produces Japanese-style woodcut prints of California’s diverse landscapes and books that integrate visual art with poetry and history, including most recently "California's Wild Edge" (2015), co-authored with poet Gary Snyder. The book received a Gold Medal from the prestigious California Book Awards.

The 411: Tom Killion discuss the history of the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival at the Mill Valley Library on Wednesday, September 7, 7pm. Registration highly recommended. Click here to register. MORE INFO.

The 39th Mill Valley Film Festival is set to kick off on October 6, and as we get closer to its arrival, festival organizers have steadily trickled out another lineup of films we'll likely be rooting for when the 89th Academy Awards are handed out at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on February 26, 2017.

​In addition to Jeff Nichols' "Loving," the tale of an interracial couple that fought for the right to marry, a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1967, MVFF39 will feature a number of movies that are already generating Oscar buzz, long before they hit the big screen. They include:

​Acclaimed British filmmaker Ken Loach's latest film tells the story of a man who needs help from the government for the first time after working most of his life as a joiner in Newcastle and find himself caught in a barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy, joined by a single mother he meets along the way. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Jim Jarmusch has two films at MVFF39. The first, "Paterson," stars Adam Driver as a guy named Paterson who lives with his wife Laura and drives a bus in his native Paterson, New Jersey. The Telegraph said Paterson's "aloneness – even within this happy relationship – is his choice. And what’s consoling for us, and will honestly make this a film a treasure for years to come, is getting to partake in it. In a culture of manic oversharing, Paterson undershares – he doesn’t even have a mobile phone, let alone social media."

Jarmusch's other film at MVFF39 is a documentary about iconic punk pioneer Iggy Pop, who starting in the late 1960s, "was the rock & roll id fully exposed for the first time — not just wild but naked, an imp of fury, truly and defiantly out of control, leaping and stage-diving and crawling and prostrating himself, a rock god who looked like he’d slithered out of the gutter and was now going to sacrifice himself on the altar of anarchy," according to Variety.

​Pablo Larrain’s feature film about the famed poet Pablo Neruda is "part fact, part glorious fantasy," opening in 1948 just before Neruda, played by "a magnificent Luis Gnecco," is forced to go into hiding. "A Communist and senator, Neruda has become an enemy of the state, having violently and very publicly condemned the Chilean President Gabriel González Videla. Chased from the Senate and his home, Neruda flees with his artist-wife, Delia (Mercedes Moran), the two slipping underground while chased by a vainglorious cop (played by Gael García Bernal, the star of “No”)," according to the New York Times.

South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook’s Korean interpretation of Sarah Waters' "Fingersmith" about a pickpocket who poses as a maid to swindle a sequestered heiress got rave reviews coming out of the Canned Film Festival with Variety calling it "clever, heady and sensually lavish to a fault" and saying it boasts "more tangled plots and bodies than an octopus has tentacles.

Starring Casey Affleck, director Kenneth Lonergan's film tells the story of Lee Chandler, who is shocked to learn after the death of his brother Joe that he has made him the sole guardian of his nephew Patrick. Taking leave of his job, Lee reluctantly returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea to care for Patrick, a spirited 15-year- old. Bonded by the man who held their family together, Lee and Patrick struggle to adjust to a world without him.

Filmmakers Bob Hercules and Rita Coburns dive into the iconic career of Dr. Maya Angelou, celebrating her multiple talents including her brilliant writing and poetry but also lesser known singing, dancing, filmmaking, academia and civil rights activism. The film seamlessly weaves the key messages of her poetry into the narrative of her life with rare archival footage, interviews and of course, recitals of her original works. The Guardian wrote that "what Coburn Whack and Hercules do so well is capture Angelou’s power and elegance…it paints a portrait of a life lived to the full and dedicated to being true to oneself.”

The 411: The 39th Mill Valley Film Festival is set for October 6–16 in downtown Mill Valley and venues around Marin. MORE INFO.

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

Over the past several months, as the multi-agency effort to create a two-year pilot Yellow Bus Pass program took shape – and as the Mill Valley Community Center was pegged as one of the primary bus stops – Mill Valley Recreation Director Jenny Rogers and her team decided to seize a unique opportunity: satisfy the longstanding demand from parents to expand the Center's before- and after-school care programs.

They've done just that, creating the Center of Play program, which directly links with the new Yellow School Bus program and provides before and after-school care for students at Mill Valley schools. The program replaces and significantly expands upon the Mill Valley Recreation's Supervised Play program at various local public schools.

"The bus program definitely provided the initial impetus to create this new venture," Mill Valley Recreation Director Jenny Rogers says. "It provides us a great opportunity to have children to take advantage of all that we have here at the Center, including things like our pool and our big commercial kitchen, all while allowing parents to pick up their kids later in the day than they could with Supervised Play."

Rogers has hired Stanford grad Kelsey Bechelli to oversee the program. She'll be working with high school students and users of the Center's Teen Zone to oversee the program's activities, which include recreational games, arts & crafts, outdoor play and homework time (not tutoring), as well as the opportunity to participate in any Mill Valley Recreation program onsite at the Center, including swim lessons and enrichment classes. Mill Valley Recreation will continue to offer their widely renowned Enrichment Programs – after-school classes on everything from including art and pottery to tae kwon do and hip-hop dance – on local school campuses.

Rogers says she's already seen the program's impact just a few days after registration opened. "We've already reached our minimum enrollment number, so we're very excited," she says. 

The 411: The Center of Play launches Monday,. August 29. MORE INFO on pricing, the bus program etc. can be found here. Questions? Please contact the Recreation Department at 415.383.1370

For nearly three weeks, AT&T Wireless and mobile phone users in downtown Mill Valley have had no mobile phone signal, impacting hundreds of business owners, employees, residents and visitors. After repeated requests for additional information, AT&T Customer Care officials said today that the outage as a result of a "degraded tower" in the Buena Vista Avenue area is expected to be resolved on September 3. 
​
AT&T officials said that customers will receive a credit for the outage on their bill, and that the credit would be "issued automatically." Upon further query, officials said customers could call 611 and specifically request to be included in the outage to ensure they receive the credit on their bill.

Three weeks into his tenure as executive director of Marin Symphony, Petaluma resident Tod Brody says he's excited to take the helm of the organization.

"I'm thrilled to have joined an organization with such powerful assets, at a time in its history where the trajectory is distinctly upward! Brody wrote in a note to the organization's supporters last week. "Those assets include the exceptional Music Director Alasdair Neale, whom I've known for many years, and with whom I'm very much looking forward to partnering; a knowledgeable, dedicated, and talented staff; a devoted Board; and allies and good friends throughout Marin County. With a splashy 2016-17 season just around the corner, and exciting future plans percolating, the opportunity to lead the Marin Symphony into a period of growth and new accomplishment is both an honor and a joy."

Brody, who joined Marin Symphony with 15 years of executive experience in the performing arts – most recently as executive director of San Francisco-based Opera Parallel – is also a professional flutist and a lecturer in Music at UC Davis.

Established in 1952, the Marin Symphony Association is one of the oldest and largest cultural organizations in Marin. It includes approximately 85 musicians and calls the historic Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium its home. Since 1954, the organization has supported a variety of youth programs, which today include the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Crescendo and Overture Ensembles and a growing musical outreach program at local schools.

​Each year, the Marin Symphony presents up to five pairs of classical concerts from October through May. Additional specialty concerts include events such as the Holiday Concerts by Candlelight, the Holiday Pops Concert and Prelude Recitals and, since 2013, the popular Waterfront Pops at the Marin Center Lagoon. This year the January Masterworks will feature world-renowned violinist Midori.

You may have noticed an unbelievable amount of infrastructure-related construction happening in Mill Valley this summer. As you can imagine, that's on purpose, as the City of Mill Valley and seemingly every utility with pipes in town sought to get their work done while school was out and the impact would be reduced.

But with the Mill Valley School District's six schools kicking off the 2016-17 school year on Wednesday, August 24 – Tam High students went back to school last week – City officials are urging parents and students to plan ahead for what will likely be a more complicated school commute. Here's a note from the City:

"The Mill Valley City Council has identified reducing traffic congestion as a priority and has taken measures to improve circulation in the community. These include supporting the Yellow School Bus Pilot Project, the work of the Traffic and Congestion Reduction Advisory Task Force, working with the Mill Valley School District to adjust bell times, and several other changes to reduce traffic congestion. 

With the start of school ... and a number of ongoing road and utility infrastructure improvement projects in town, we would like to encourage community members to anticipate and plan ahead for the increase in traffic starting mid-to-late August. We also would like to remind commuters of important safety tips, as well as to inform you of the ongoing work by the City to reduce congestion. What you can do: 

Plan ahead to help lessen congestion:

• Take the bus or ferry:
  • Parents of the following schools – Edna Maguire, Mill Valley Middle School, Strawberry Point – Click here to Sign up for the Yellow School Bus Program.
  • Adult commuters – Click here for Marin Transit Schedules 
• Bike or walk:
  • Parents - Contact the Safe Route to School Champion at your school to learn about specific bike and walking programs. Click here to learn more.
  • For everyone - Click here for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition map of bike routes. 
• Carpool or rideshare:
  • Adult commuters – Click here for carpooling or ridesharing.
  • Parents – Click here for SchoolPool

If you must drive:

• Avoid peak times:
  • 8:00-8:30 am weekdays - directly correlated with school start times.
  • 3:30-4:00 pm weekdays - correlated with after-school pick up and travel to after-school activities.
• Lessen trips by linking several errands into one outing to reduce the number of times you need to leave home.
• Request that any service providers who come to your residence (contractors, housekeepers, gardeners, nannies, etc) also carpool and avoid traveling at peak times.

The City provided a slew of additional info and links. MORE INFO HERE.

When the free Movies in the Park series returns this Friday, August 26, it will do so with a bang. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the massive return of one of the most popular stories in Hollywood history, headlines the firsts of screenings in the 2016 edition of the free screenings.

The event, 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 series will continue September 23 with “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” Mel Stuart’s adaptation of the classic 1964 Roald Dahl novel, and conclude October 14 – as part of the 39th Mill Valley Film Festival – with Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Inside Out,” which takes place inside the mind of a young girl whose five personified emotions lead her through life.

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 main feature begins at sunset, approximately 8pm on August 26.

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

The Mill Valley Library Foundation's Beyond the Book Bash has long established itself as a potent way to raise money for one of our great local institutions – and to do so in a way that's powered by standouts in literary arts, film and music, with fantastic food and drinks thrown in for good measure.

The event regularly draws upwards of 200 supporters of the Mill Valley Public Library and raises approximately $100,000 to support library programs, services and an endowment that will fund them in perpetuity.  

The 2016 edition of the Beyond the Book Bash – set for Friday, September 30 at 8pm at the Throckmorton Theatre – looks to continues the tradition of readings and performances woven together by way of a literary theme, from nationally acclaimed authors, poets and musicians, all from the Bay Area. This year's edition also serves up some rock 'n roll as well, and local prodigy Matt Jaffe will perform.

The Bash will be preceded by a VIP Sponsor Party at the Seager Gray Gallery at 6pm featuring specialty cocktails and wine plus food from Equator Coffee & Teas’ newly launched and much applauded catering business.

The Mill Valley Library Foundation has raised more than $1.5M for an endowment and financial support of programs such as First Fridays and After Hours events, children and teen programming, and digital entertainment, all free to the public. Event proceeds help fund the library's literary, cultural, and educational programming for children, teens and adults. In 2015, the library offered more than 1,000 programs, all of which were free and open to everyone. 

"Programs like these make the library more relevant than ever," said Anji Brenner, city librarian. Mill Valley Library ranks near the top in program attendance amongst libraries serving similar-sized populations.

The 411: The Mill Valley Library Foundation's Beyond the Book Bash is Friday, September 30 at 8pm at the Throckmorton Theatre. Tickets go on sale September 6. MORE INFO.

​As we all know, Mill Valley can get pretty quiet in the summertime. But the summer of 2016 has been anything but, with the Miller Avenue Streetscape Project kicking off in June and infrastructure improvements underway in seemingly every corner of town.

Looking to get an update on where things stand? The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center is hosting a State of the City on Wednesday, September 7 from 8:30-10am at La Ginestra restaurant. City of Mill Valley Mayor John McCauley, City Manager Jim McCann and City officials will provide will provide an update on the array of issues they're working on this year, including the Miller Avenue Streetscape Project, traffic, parking, affordable housing, street and sewer repair and anything else Mill Valley Chamber Members and friends want to hear about.

The 411: The State of the City event is on Wednesday, September 7, 8:30–10am, at La Ginestra, 127 Throckmorton Ave. Coffee and pastries will be provided. Submit questions here.

For nearly two weeks, AT&T Wireless and mobile phone users in downtown Mill Valley have been greeted by an unexpected "No Service" signal, impacting hundreds of business owners, employees, residents and visitors. AT&T Customer Care officials said today that there are aware of the issue, citing a "degraded tower" in the Buena Vista Avenue area. 
​
AT&T officials encouraged customers to use its Mark the Spot app to indicate service outages and register complaint. Many customers have already done just that, officials said, but there is no scheduled resolution date at this time.

​In an effort to help victims of the devastating Clayton Fire, Safeway is partnering with the Lake Area Rotary Club Association (LARCA) to raise funds for the LARCA Fire Relief Fund. Donations can be made at checks stands at both of Safeway stores in Mill Valley – in the Strawberry Village shopping center and at 1 Camino Alto – now through August 31 to help local fire relief efforts.

Since it began on Saturday, the Clayton Fire "has destroyed 175 homes and 268 structures in total," but the damages are “in excess of $7 million,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
 
The fire was allegedly started by Damin Pashilk of Clearlake, who was arraigned at the Lake County courthouse "Wednesday afternoon on felony arson charges accusing him of lighting 12 fires and trying to set a 13th, plus four more counts related to methamphetamine violations and driving on a suspended license. The fires all occurred between July 2, 2015, and Saturday, when he allegedly sparked the devastating Clayton Fire," according to the Chronicle. Authorities have dubbed Pashilk "a serial arsonist."

Safeway's stores in American Canyon, Arcata, Benicia, Clearlake, Corte Madera, Crescent City, Eureka, Fort Bragg, Fortuna, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Lakeport, McKinleyville, Napa, Novato, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, St. Helena, Ukiah, Vallejo, Willits and Windsor are also participating in the fundraising drive, according store officials.

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

Mill Valley is home to four Starbucks, two Equators, a Peet’s, the Depot, Cable Car Coffee, Coyote Coffee and an array of coffee-serving breakfast joints – not to mention the plethora of top-notch barista setups at restaurants all over town.

While there’s no doubt that the 94941 hearts coffee, Rover Benecke knows there’s plenty of love for tea here too. Benecke, the owner of the Tea Fountain retail shop and wholesale business at 363 Miller Avenue, says the shifting demographics of tea drinkers over the years and better education about the benefits of tea have put him in a unique position.

“Better education and distribution of green teas has caused a significant shift over the years,” he says. “More and more people are going for the health benefits and a lighter flavor, and as a result, the average age of the tea drinker is getting younger, and with more men drinking tea. A lot of people continue to switch from coffee to tea.”

But in addition to demographic shifts, Benecke has also built a business that isn’t entirely constrained by the whims of the local tea-drinking crowd. While his retail shop brings in approximately one-third of his annual revenue, a robust focus on being a supplier to local restaurants, hotels and salons brings in another third, as do phone and Internet orders.

“Restaurants, hotels and salons all over the place are serving our teas,” Benecke says, as he pauses to take a phone order from the Pelican Inn.

Benecke was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, home to the country’s largest tea and coffee port. His interest in a macrobiotic diet first drew Benecke to tea in his early 20s, and in 1975, just prior to his 25th birthday, he met the man who would provide him an entree into the international tea business.

“I had been asking wholesalers if I could buy 10 to 20 pounds at a time,” Benecke says. “One of them told me, ‘OK, young man, now that you know good teas, if I give you 100 good teas of your choice, would you open a tea business?’ I picked 100 teas in April and started paying him back in the fall – and by then I had my own tea business. He stayed my mentor for many years, took me to China and I dove in.”

Benecke’s travels to China gave him a window into potential changes in the European tea landscape, which had been dominated forever by traditional black teas. “It was not yet popular to know and be attracted to green teas, and I helped changed that perspective,” he says. “First harvest Darjeeling green teas used to be fermented the same as black teas, but now many are semi-fermented and are now greener than they used to be. That helped expand the market for green teas.”
 
Benecke’s China visits also opened him up to Zen Buddhism, a spiritual journey that eventually led him to the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center here in Mill Valley in March 1982.

“At that point, I was not only fascinated by zen, but drawn to California and the Bay Area,” Benecke says, noting that he lived in San Francisco for a year before moving to Marin. He’s been here ever since, living many years in Mill Valley and currently on a floating home in Sausalito.

Benecke continued running his international tea brokerage business but didn’t open his own brick-and-mortar retail shop until 2000, when he took a space in the Northgate Mall in Terra Linda. He stayed there for eight years before he made the move closer to home, taking over 363 Miller Ave.

Tea Fountain is home to more than 350 varieties of loose gourmet and artisan teas from around the world, as well as dozens of tea accessories. One step inside the front door reveals a tea paradise, one that Benecke backs up with a mountain of knowledge and expertise.

He says that the arrival of the Internet over the past two decades has created a more educated tea drinker, but that he still revels in his ability to inform his customers of the intricacies of the tea plant.  “Just like wine, it changes based on the season, the climate, the elevation, the location – all sorts of variables,” he says. “It’s always fascinating – never boring.”

Benecke says he’s constantly asked by folks at the College of Marin and local arts and civic organizations to teach classes and workshops on tea. He’s up for it – under one condition: it needs to be held in Tea Fountain, so that people can be surrounded by hundreds of varieties of the subject he’s teaching.

“This place – this is the College of Tea,” he says.
​
The 411: Tea Fountain is at 363 Miller Avenue. 415.381.7100. MORE INFO.

​Strawberry Village officials say the forecast is calling for two feet of fresh snow in Mill Valley on Saturday, August 27 when the shopping center hosts one last summer hurrah for kids as they start the new school year. The event take place from 10am-12pm in the Piazza at Strawberry Village and include a 20 x 60 Snow Zone, a photo booth, caricature artist, airbrush tattoo artist, balloon twisting, arts and crafts and more. Live music will feature Parents’ Choice award winning children's band, The Hipwaders.   
 
The event is open to the public. Admission is $10 per person, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Kiddo! You can buy tickets online here until Friday, August 26. Kiddo! will accept cash and checks on the day of the event. Participating Strawberry Village merchants will also be donating a percentage of the day’s sales to Kiddo! and special offers will be available when guests show their admission wrist band.