The O’Hanlon Center for the Arts is kicking off its 2017 Art Film Fridays series on Jan. 13 with the colorful documentary film Painting Bolinas about the late eccentric Bolinas artist Peter Lee Brownlee. Mill Valley resident Wendy Elkin, who created, produced and directed the 2010 film, will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.

Painting Bolinas focuses on the then 90-year-old Brownlee, whose lifestyle mirrored a king in a court of chaos and imagination. Known as the “cake decorator” because of his massive layering technique, creating rich textures, Brownlee's paintings are of urban and rural downtowns and famous landmarks all across America.
​
Painting Bolinas was a 2010 Documentary Silver Award Winner from the California Film Awards, and became an official selection at the 12th Sacramento Film & Music Festival a year later. In 2013, Painting Bolinas was invited to premier in the Sausalito International Film Festival and was accepted into the California History collection of the San Francisco Main Library featuring their November Film Series.

Elkin, a former special Education teacher and photographer in Santa Barbara and San Franciscoe has permanent exhibitions in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, the Rosa Parks History Museum in Montgomery, Alabama and the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, D.C. A social justice advocate, producing and directing a film about marginalized populations has been influential in understanding how Elkin's experiences highlighting unsung heroes and photographing various political and social events has given her a unique perspective into the world of documentary film.
​
The 411: Painting Bolinas screens on Jan. 13 at 7pm at the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Avenue. Director Wendy Elkin will be available for a Q & A after the screening. ​A $5 donation is requested.

The Outdoor Art Club's Outreach Committee issued an array of grants to organizations throughout the community this month, including an $11,000 grant to the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center's Enjoy Mill Valley Fund to renovate the downtown clock tower at the northwest corner of Throckmorton and Miller avenues. The clock tower was donated to the community in 1929 by the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association, and was later repaired in 1956.

In addition, the committee issued a $2,000 grant to the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund to restart the spring and fall plantings downtown that were previously funded by Bloomathon.

Both of the committee's grants to the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund are in line with the OAC's organizational purpose of preserving the natural environment; beautifying the grounds around public buildings; encouraging Outdoor Art; and other literary, civic and charitable works.

"This is such a nice example of the partnership between the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund, the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Mill Valley and the Outdoor Art Club," says Chamber Co-Director Paula Reynolds, an OAC member who submitted the grant application along with Chamber Board member Kathryn Olson. "We're thrilled to be able to bring momentum to the efforts to restore the downtown clock, one of Mill Valley's landmarks."

In an effort to foster a vibrant and small town community that benefits everyone in town, the Chamber established the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund in July with the cooperation of the Marin Community Foundation. Working with the City of Mill Valley, County of Marin and local nonprofits, the Chamber seeks to identify deserving, "shovel ready" local beautification and infrastructure projects that just need a little funding boost to get to the finish line. All donations to the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.

The EMV Fund's first contribution was $3,500 to the City of Mill Valley to help pay for the restoration of the replica Gravity Car on the Depot Plaza. The car is expected to return to the Plaza in the coming months. The Chamber has committed to support local civic projects on an ongoing basis, and a committee of the Chamber will recommend initiatives that allow residents, businesses and visitors alike to "Enjoy Mill Valley."

GO HERE if you're interested in making a tax deductible donation to the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund. Please support this new venture to maintain and enhance the vitality of our community!

Fresh off a 39th Mill Valley Film Festival that drew more than 74,000 movie lovers to the CineArtts Sequoia and theaters all over Marin, California Film Institute Executive Director and MVFF founder Mark Fishkin said this week that the organization is launching a documentary film festival in May 201 in an effort "to build an active, involved, fully supportive community around documentary film."

The festival, dubbed DocLands, is set for May 10-14 at the CinéArts Sequoia in Mill Valley and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Organizers put out a call for entries for traditional and innovative feature length (40 + minutes) and short documentary films. The new festival's programming team includes Fishkin, director of programming Joni Cooper, senior film programmer Janis Plotkin and MVFF documentary film programmer Kelly Clement. The submission period is from January 6 to March 17 through the Film Freeway submission platform.
 
“Despite the current challenges to independent filmmaking, it is an exciting time for documentaries — and without question, documentaries are more important now than ever,” Fishkin says. “From capturing the beauty of our fragile planet and its undeniable connection to mankind’s quality of life, to subject matter that has direct impact on the most pressing issues of our time, whether widely known or acknowledged, documentary filmmakers are searching for truth through storytelling. It is an innate need of humans to share stories and filmmakers are expanding the definition of documentary form in ways that are both creative and entertaining.”

Anyone who's bought something on Amazon is familiar with the "Customers Who Bought This Also Bought..." recommendations.

That might work for commodities, but any music lover will tell you that sonic fingerprints can't be tracked with an algorithm. Lucky for Mill Valley residents, we have a music store among us with a massive inventory and an owner with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. Mill Valley Music, which Gary Scheuenstuhl opened after his former boss John Goddard closed his downtown Village Music shop in 2007. 

With those attributes and the robust revival of vinyl records in recent years, Scheuenstuhl has built one of the best record stores in the Bay Area, making Mill Valley Music a treasure trove for both music lovers and those shopping for them. And during the holidays, the shop is laden with albums from Record Store Day, the twice-annual celebration of independent music stores that has grown into the biggest sales day of the year for record shops aorund the country.

Scheuenstuhl is holding an end-of-year sale on December 29-31 with 20 percent off all new music and 30 percent off all used music. He also just received a new shipment of Mill Valley Music t-shirts and hoodies, including many on San Francisco Giants orange and black and Golden State Warriors blue and gold.

The 411: Mill Valley Music is located at 320 Miller Ave., (415) 389-9090. NOTE: Parking is limited due to the Miller Avenue Streetscape Project but is available along outbound Miller Ave. between Mill Valley Lumber Yard and MV Music. MORE INFO.

Longtime Mill Valley artist Shane Kennedy calls his latest series of mixed media work "Assemblages & Constructions," artistic terms that refer to works of art made by grouping found or unrelated objects.

While those terms are understood by even the least artistically inclined among us, exactly how Kennedy creates those pieces is another story. “Working quickly and without a plan,” Kennedy says with a laugh in explaining his process. "I look for moments to start and stop and capture the unexpected.”

Kennedy, one of the most well regarded soccer coaches in Marin and an artist whose career has spanned decades and myriad mediums, including exhibits in New York, Los Angeles, Memphis and San Francisco, showcases his latest work, including new paintings and mixed media pieces, throughout January at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton, with a wine reception on January 10 (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, Terrestra, Dolls & Dandy, the Depot Bookstore & Café, City Hall, Famous4, the Mill Valley Community Center and the Throckmorton Theatre. Receptions at each venue are Tuesday from 6–8pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

Kennedy has lived in Mill Valley for nearly three decades, having moved here from New York in 1988. The decade-plus prior to that cross-country relocation found Kennedy immersed in the “art furniture” movement in 1980s New York City, where his work under the name Furniture Club blended simple shapes with dyed concrete and steel and was the subject of a New York Times’ feature story in 1984.

But it was the decade prior that saw Kennedy perfecting a different art: preventing some of the world’s best soccer players from scoring goals on him. A state champion goalkeeper at Staples High School in Westport, Ct. in 1972, Kennedy went on to win a national championship as a team captain at NCAA Div. III Babson College in 1975. He set an NCAA career record for shutouts at Babson and was named Soccer America’s All-Collegiate Most Valuable Player.

In 1976, Kennedy was drafted by the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League whose roster then included Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, and legendary American goalie Shep Messing. Despite his success as an artist, Kennedy is perhaps best known in the Bay Area as a go-to coach for aspiring goalkeepers. 

Whether it’s his own Dominate the Box teaching school, as head girls soccer coach at Tam High or as assistant men’s coach at Dominican University, Kennedy has had a hand in shaping some of the best young goalkeepers to come out of Marin for years.

When he relocated to the Bay Area, Kennedy scratched his artistic itch by turning to junkyards, dumpsters and flea markets, giving an array of found objects a second life through his creations, from welded masks and totems to constructions and collages. 

The 411: Shane Kennedy exhibits his artwork at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center, 85 Throckmorton Avenue, throughout January. The First Tuesday Artwalk receptions are Tuesday, January 10, 6–8pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues and a map.

While the winter weather has us glancing at our temperature gauges more often these days, a quartet of thermometers around town are answering a different question: How close is Kiddo!, the Mill Valley Schools Community Foundation, to reaching its ever-climbing obligtion to fund art, music, dance, drama and poetry programs at Mill Valley’s public elementary and middle schools for the 2016-2017 school year? 

Kiddo!'s 2016-17 goal for the approximately 3,150 students across the Mill Valley School District's five elementary schools and Mill Valley Middle School is $3.1 million, and the organization has received $2.5 million to date from parents and local businesses. In addition to the aforementioned programs, Kiddo! also funds classroom and library aides, elementary physical education programs, technology needs, teacher grant funding and more. Funds are raised through Kiddo!’s Annual Campaign, Business Partnerships, Endowment, and special events, and Kiddo! officials hope to receive more tax-deductble donations before December 31.

“Mill Valley schools are among the best anywhere... Our excellence is the fruit of purposeful and organized support from our community, including financial donations,” says Edna Maguire School Principal Leo Kostelnik. “Parcel taxes and donations to our PTAs and Kiddo! combine to bring our per-pupil funding up to the national average for public schools; this local funding pays for the people and programs that put us over the top in quality.” 

“Mill Valley is a special place to live, and we need to nurture the talent, intelligence, and potential in all our young students,” says Kiddo! Executive Director Bill Lampl. “Keeping the arts as part of the core curriculum in Mill Valley is only possible thanks to private contributions from parents, businesses, and the community.” 

The 411: Tax-deductible donations can be made online or mailed to 409 Sycamore Ave, Mill Valley, 94941. Kiddo! also accepts donations of appreciated stock, real estate, cars, and life insurance premiums, all of which have the potential to provide significant tax deductions for the donor. MORE INFO.

There are few issues of greater importance facing Mill Valley and Marin County than sea level rise, as last week's storms reminded us. And while municipal agencies at every level are working to address the issue in a comprehensive way, education and communication remans a critical component to the issue.

The Outdoor Art Club, one of Mill Valley’s oldest and historically important organizations, is looking to propel that conversation with "Sea Level Rise: Consequences & Challenges," a free event at 1pm on January 5 that features two of the Bay Area's most informed experts on the subject of sea level rise.

San Francisco Chronicle Urban Design Critic John King, whose "Rising Reality" series this year explored "the challenges posed by sea level rise in the Bay Area, from the perils facing San Francisco's crumbling Embarcadero to the struggles to revive marshes and the creation of a small city on Treasure Island." King will have a conversation with former Bay Conservation & Development Commission Executive Director Will Travis, who retired in 2012 after plunging "into the complex issue of sea-level rise – pushing the agency to make detailed scientific studies of what land is vulnerable if the bay's sea level rises, as projected, 10 to 17 inches in the next four decades," King wrote in the Chronicle.

OAC officials says King and Travis will discuss the question, “Can we protect ourselves and adapt in ways that are enticing and scientifically sound to save our low-lying neighborhoods, birds, fish and wildlife?” 

The 411: "Sea Level Rise: Consequences & Challenges" is at 1pm on Thursday, January 5 at the Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithedale. Light refreshments will be provided. Free.

On the heels of his creation of the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival's 60th Anniversary poster, ​internationally celebrated woodcut artist and Mill Valley native Tom Killion is set to receive the Marin County Cultural Commission’s 2017 Marin Cultural Treasure Award, and a special exhibit of his works is scheduled for this spring at Marin Center.

The annual award recognizes an individual or individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to cultural life in Marin County through outstanding service and support of Marin Center cultural programs and services. The honoree is selected by the Cultural Commission and is recognized by the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The recipients receive a Resolution of Appreciation from the Supervisors and are recognized on a plaque in the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium Green Room.

Killion was born and raised in Mill Valley, on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, where the rugged scenery inspired him from an early age to create landscape prints strongly influenced by traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Along with publishing fine art letterpress books, Killion holds a Ph.D. in African history from Stanford University and has taught history at several Bay Area universities. He is the founder of The Quail Press and his extensively illustrated books include 28 Views of Mount Tamalpais, The Coast of California, and Walls: A Journey Across Three Continents. Killion collaborated on The High Sierra of California, which was published in 2002 and Tamalpais Walking, published in 2009.

“Not only is he a superb artist whose work is all about the unique beauty of Marin, but his contributions to community life in Marin are much appreciated,” said Suzie Pollack, vice chair of the Cultural Services Commission.

Killion has been a longtime supporter of the Marin County Fair as an art judge and award-winning exhibitor.

“I am so honored to receive this recognition from the Marin County Cultural Commission,” Killion said. “As a Marin County native, I cherish this place and people more than anywhere else in the world, and to feel the support of my community here constantly inspires me to keep exploring the limitless possibilities of artistic creation. Thank you!”

Killion is working on landscape prints including treescapes, coastal and mountain views at his studio on Inverness Ridge near Point Reyes. A special exhibit of Killion’s work will be on view in Marin Center’s Bartolini Gallery from March 16 to April 28, 2017.
​
Past winners of the Marin Cultural Treasure Award have included arts and culture reporter Paul Liberatore; cartoonist Phil Frank; philanthropist Henry Moody; Jeanne Bogardus, Marin Arts Council leader; Phyllis Thelen, artist and long-time cultural leader; West Marin photographer Art Rogers; cultural leader Joann Dunn; community leader Felecia Gaston of Performing Stars of Marin, fine art painters Kathleen Lipinski and Steve Emery and most recently Director of the Italian Film Festival Lido Cantarutti.

Mill Valley last week got a stark reminder of the watershed that surrounds us – and the flooding that comes when heavy rains mix with king high tides.

The County of Marin and the City of Mill Valley are well aware of the consequences of our proximity to Richardson Bay and the creeks that lead into it, and the agencies helped create the Southern Marin Flood Protection and Watershed Program in the aftermath of massive flooding caused nearly $100 million in damage throughout Marin in 2005.

The program is focused on planning for watershed management and flooding protection, particularly given the hastening pace of sea level rise being caused by climate change. The program's latest piece of educational outreach is "Mill Valley Watershed," a gorgeous aerial video of the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio Watershed and all of the creeks and tributaries that link Mount Tamalpais with Richardson Bay.

The video was made by video production firm Sound Visions Media, founded by Jeff Foster and Ellen Johnson, in partnership with Sam Goldberger. Johnson narrates the six-minute video, "shot mostly from drones that allow the viewer to see what the watershed looks like from above and how water moves through the community," says Foster.

Here it is:

The video serves as a companion piece of sorts to the "Southern Marin Watershed Guide: Planning for Floods," a 63-page document released in July to tell "the story of our watershed and the flood risks we face together," according to Mill Valley City Councilwoman Stephanie Moulton-Peters and District 3 Supervisor Kate Sears. "Flooding affects our quality of life and livelihood: it threatens our homes and our businesses, and can impact everything we do in our normal day-to-day life, from getting our children to school to our access to emergency services."

"There are no easy solutions, but this guide will help us start from a common point of understanding as we work together to define solutions for the short-term as well as long-range planning. Learning to live with water will be a part of our future together," Moulton-Peters and Sears add.

As narrator Johnson says: "A watershed is a living, breathing ecosystem, No matter where we live we are all part of the watershed."

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

The City of Mill Valley is set to unveil a brand new website in the coming weeks, capping an extensive overhaul of the digital foundation for the City's communications efforts.

The City will unveil the new website at http://www.cityofmillvalley.org in the coming weeks, marking a major step forward for its larger communication strategy initiated in 2014. The site is designed to effectively share information, encourage two-way communication, provide searchable content, promote community events, improve transparency, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the City in meeting the needs of the community. 

"Communicating with the community is crucial for local government. The new website not only imparts information but it engages community members through interactive features," Mayor Jessica Sloan said. "Additionally, it's user friendly format makes it much easier to find the information you want to know." 

The new website is mobile-device friendly, and will adapt to your phone, tablet, laptop and desktop, and features a robust search engine, easy access to frequently asked questions, meeting agendas, City-wide events calendar, latest trending news stories, issue reports, and contact information.

The holidays are almost upon us, and for many us, that means we’re in a full-on sprint to get enough work done that we can take a short holiday break at the end of the year – all while getting all of our pre-holiday shopping and preparation done as well.

Christina Lisac says there’s a widely known but oft-ignored antidote to all that holiday-induced stress and anxiety: plenty of sleep.

“The only time the body and mind heal is when you are sleeping,” says Lisac, a licensed practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the owner of Apricot Forest, a new Mill Valley-based acupuncture practice. “So if you’re not sleeping, you’re not healing. Sleep is essential to living a productive, creative, happy life.”

Lisac treats a wide range of conditions, including depression, weight issues, back pain and intestinal issues, but she has no doubt her primary focus: “I’m a sleep specialist,” she says.

Located at 131 Camino Alto, Apricot Forest is Lisac’s latest step toward making her mark in the world of medicine.

After growing up on the Peninsula, Lisac earned a Bachelor of Science at UC Davis. She then went on to attend the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine in Yreka, Calif., and then Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley. Those years of dedicated study were preceded by an unexpected reading from a Chinese astrologist that indicated that Lisac “would find happiness working in medicine and become an acupuncturist.”

“At the time, I said, ‘Me, poking people with needles?’” and didn’t give it another thought,” she says. “But I continued to be drawn to it. I have a real passion for the field: when I’m not working, I enjoy reading case studies and searching out articles on advances in Oriental Medicine.”

“I absolutely love the science and power of Oriental Medicine, and I’m dedicated to helping people through acupuncture,” she adds.

The 411: Apricot Forest is located at 131 Camino Alto, Suite G. Call 510.927.8480 for an appointment.

Mural on the wall of the CineArts at Sequoia Theatre above the outdoor dining deck of Playa restaurant on Throckmorton Avenue was inspired by the words of Sitting Bull.

In the weeks leading up Mill Valley artist Zio Ziegler's creation of a huge mural on the wall of the CineArts at Sequoia Theatre above Playa's outdoor dining deck in downtown Mill Valley in August, Ziegler spoke about his inspiration for his latest public art piece.

In doing so, Ziegler pointed to the words on the plaque at the Sitting Bull monument along Temelpa Trail on Mt. Tam, saying that those "words need a physical embodiment – possibly the idea of the mountain holding you and serving as a nurturing force." The result was the mural he dubbed "The Mysterious Thing."

The link between the latest creation of one of Mill Valley's hometown heroes and the mountain he grew up exploring caught the attention of local filmmaker Gary Yost, one of Mt. Tam's most creative and prolific supporters. So Yost did what he does best: he captured that nexus in "The Trace They Leave Behind," a short film about the mural, by filming Ziegler at the monument and letting him explain the inspiration in his own deeply profound words.

Here are those words from Sitting Bull:

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

Between the Mill Valley Historical Society and the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room at the Mill Valley Library, the official history of the 94941 is well documented.

But what about our town’s more, well, colorful history? From Charlie Deal’s toilet seat guitars and the mysterious Zeppelin Society’s wooden emblem to an incredibly array of art, the walls of Mama’s Royal Cafe on Miller Avenue are covered in the eclectic side of Mill Valley history.

And while Mama’s continues to serve up some of the best breakfast and lunch fare in Marin, its longtime owner, Candace Paine, can serve up a knee-slapping story for nearly every one of the dozens and dozens of paintings, statues, photos, signs, instruments and mementos in the room.

Here are just a few:

Payne says the economic downturn of 2008 and the demographic shift in Mill Valley in recent years has set her back a bit from the booming 1980s and 1990s, when she had a line out the door every weekend. But she says she knows that people are drawn to authenticity – and Mama's has that in spades.

"There was a boy in here a few years ago that said to his dad, "What kind of place is this?'" Payne says. "The dad said, 'it's eclectic,' and the boy replied, "I don’t know what that means – all I know is this is my kind of place." 

And while there's no shortage of breakfast spots in Mill Valley, few can promise the long-running live music residency of Fred Nighthawk and Carolyn Dahl, who have been performing their self-professed "cathouse boogie" mix of blues and boogie-woogie every Saturday and Sunday (11am-1:30pm) at Mama's for more than 25 years.

"They get this place rocking," Payne says.

The 411: Mama's Royal Cafe is at 387 Miller Avenue in Mill Valley. 

Redwood Credit Union has opened a new full-service branch in Mill Valley at 695 E. Blithedale Avenue in the Alto Plaza Shopping Center containing Whole Foods Market and Rite Aid, the nonprofit financial cooperative's first branch in southern Marin and third in Marin County. 
 
Designed to accommodate what the credit union says is it's growing membership in Marin, the new branch includes features three 24-hour ATMs; a technology bar for members to access online banking and information; branch staff to assist with accounts, loans, and financial wellness; and a children’s activity area. The branch is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 
“Our new Mill Valley branch is designed to provide an experience that goes beyond everyday banking: it’s a comfortable environment where people can get individualized help with their overall financial wellness—from money management, to home and auto loans, to long-term financial planning – as well as explore our extensive online and mobile services, which add convenience and save time,” Redwood Credit Union CEO Brett Martinez said. “We’re excited to offer this beautiful new location to serve the financial needs of our members and the Mill Valley community.”
 
Redwood Credit Union, which was founded in 1950 and now boasts more than 273,000 members, was named the best of the nation’s approximately 6,100 credit unions in 2015 in an analysis by North Carolina-based Glatt Consulting, according to the Press Democrat. The firm, which does not have Redwood as a client, ranked credit unions in 11 categories, including net worth, return on assets, loan charge-offs, deposit growth and ratio of loans to deposits.

Here's a shot of the interior of the new Redwood Credit Union branch:

Four months after it opened to rave reviews and a packed house, Playa Mill Valley continues to draw the attention of the Bay Area foodie scene. This time its KCBS San Francisco Bay Area's Foodie Chap Liam Mayclem, who sat down with Playa chef Omar Huerta. Click the image below to listen: