As the Throckmorton Theatre continues to mark its 10th anniversary this year, it’s also celebrating some of the landmark events it spawned in its inaugural year.

Among them is DjangoFest, the celebration of Django Reinhardt and the “hot” jazz sound he pioneered.

Born in Belgium in 1910, Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Basque Gypsy encampments close to Paris and began performing guitar, violin and banjo professionally at an early age. When he was 18, Reinhardt was dreadfully injured in a fire, leaving the third and fourth digits on his left hand severely damaged. To adapt to that predicament, Reinhardt developed a style of playing that emphasized his undamaged fingers and would later give birth to his signature “gypsy jazz” sound.

Rising to fame with his “Quintette du Hot Club de France” in 1934, Reinhardt played with all the American Jazz legends of the era such as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Rex Stewart and Louis Armstrong. Even though he died at the tragically young age of 43 in 1953, Reinhardt’s influence has reverberated over the decades. The past few decades have seen a worldwide spike in interest in both his music and his place in jazz history.

Nick Lehr, the co-founder of DjangoFest Mill Valley who produced his first such festival in Whidbey Island, Washington back in 2001, said Reinhardt is “not only the most famous European jazz musician, but he’s also probably the only European that really contributed to the development of the art form.”

The idea for DjangoFest first struck Lehr at a similar event outside Paris, in the small town where Reinhardt lived as an adult and eventually died. Seeing the crowd’s enthusiasm for the music, Lehr thought it would be great to mount some kind of Django tribute event back home in the U.S.

Lehr now produces three major Djangofest events a year, including Mill Valley, his inaugural event on Whidbey Island in the Northwest and an annual event in Denver, Colorado.

Reinhardt’s music and likeness have also begun to turn up more often in popular culture, including the film Sweet and Lowdown, in which Sean Penn’s mute jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django. That film’s director, Woody Allen, is a notable jazz enthusiast and musician himself and performed with his New Orleans Jazz Band last December.

For the 2014 edition of DjangoFest Mill Valley, an opening night reception kicks off the weekend with a French wine reception plus live music and opportunities to meet and greet the musicians. The reception will be followed by a double headliner show featuring the Pearl Django Quintet and the Robin Nolan Trio.

On Saturday, June 7, guitarist brothers Kevin and Robin Nolan teach workshops at 10am and 12pm, respectively, with a concert  to follow by Hot Club d’Europe featuring the Gypsy Jazz All-Stars with Paulus Schafer, Tim, Kliphuis, Olli Soikkeli and Simon Planting.

Four workshops covering a range of gypsy jazz and swing style kick off the final day of the festival on Sunday, June 8, with a grand finale concert featuring the Rhythm Future Quartet and an epic DC jam featuring all 18 of the festival’s performers. A closing night cocktail reception will be thrown at Vasco Restaurant with additional live music to finish off the weekend.

The 411: The 10th Annual DjangoFest runs June 6–8 at the Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Avenue. Tickets are $35 to $45 general admission, $50 to $60 reserved seating for the shows $45 for workshops and $150 full festival pass. Click here for and to buy tickets. 

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The following is part of Ronnie's Awesome List, an unbelievably comprehensive roundup of family-friendly events throughout the Bay Area. Click here for the full list!

Monday, June 2
Clever Jackie Takes the Cake, 11am-12pm, first graders of Stinson School invite you to come enjoy their performance of Clever Jackie Takes The Cake, to help us kick off summer reading, Stinson Beach Library.

Summer Salistace, Treasure Island.

Tuesday, June 3
Henna Art Workshop, 7-8pm, Henna artist Rachel-Anne Palacios will explain the traditions of henna art and demonstrate techniques, Point Reyes Station Library Meeting Room.

Wednesday, June 4
Family Astronomy Night, 7:30pm, Join local astronomer Ken Frank who will talk about astronomy and the day and night sky. In conjunction with our Summer Reading Program, Fizz Boom Read! Belvedere-Tiburon Library.

4 Year Anniversary Party, 5-7pm, tapas, sangria and more, Whole Foods, Blithedale, Mill Valley.

Noon Concert Series, 12pm, free, Anne Rainwater, piano solo: Works include Haydn Sonata in E-Flat Major and Bach’s First, Keyboard Partita, Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley.

Grove on the Road, 5-7pm, Instrument petting zoo with Magik*Magik Orchestra, art workshop, and more! Joe DiMaggio Playground, Powell and Lombard, San Francisco.

Click here for the full list of events through June!

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The 94941's day-long event of the year kicked off with the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association's annual Pancake Breakfast and a remembrance service at Lytton Square and ended with the Kiddo! Carnival, Concert on the Green and Community Celebration – with a massive Memorial Day Parade thrown in for good measure. Check out photos from throughout the day below.

In addition to the photos above, here's a fantastic video from Mill Valley filmmaker Gary Yost about the Greenwood School's entry in the 2014 Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade:

The biggest day-long party of the year in the 94941, the Memorial Day Parade, along with the pre-parade Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters’ Association’s Pancake Breakfast and the post-parade Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration and Concert on the Green, is upon us. 

Carnival
The four-day Carnival, which begins Friday at noon and wraps up at 5 p.m. Monday. More than 15 rides, from the Berry-Go-Round and Tune Train for little ones to the Sizzler, Zipper, Tilt-A-Whirl and Texas Tornado, are being provided by Sacramento-based California Carnival Company. After an eight-year hiatus, the Carnival was revived in 2012 as part of the 30th anniversary party for Kiddo. The event has become the centerpiece of Memorial Day weekend on the property around the Community Center and Mill Valley Middle School.

After an eight-year hiatus, the Carnival was revived in 2012 as part of the 30th anniversary party for Kiddo. The event has become the centerpiece of Memorial Day weekend on the property around the Community Center and Mill Valley Middle School.

Advance $20 ticket books are available in the Kiddo! office at the Mill Valley School District from May 19 May 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on May 23 from 9 a.m. to noon. Ticket books are $30 once the carnival begins. Books may be turned in for a one-day wrist band for unlimited rides. Food and games are extra.

Pancake Breakfast
Memorial Day events kicks off with the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association's annual Pancake Breakfast, with volunteers serving up some 1,500 to 2,000 plates of pancakes, eggs and sausage, and lines forming around the block outside the Mill Valley Fire Department’s downtown station. The massive event is set for 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on traffic-free Corte Madera Ave. in front of City Hall and outside the fire station.

Memorial Day Parade

The Memorial Day Parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m., with the Mill Valley Community Church selling fresh coffee and donuts, bottled water and chocolate milk at the corner of Throckmorton & Olive from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. In response to calls from veterans to make the event more traditional, the I Love a Parade Committee is building this year's parade around the theme of “Honoring Those Who Gave Their Lives for Freedom.” 

Organizers have scheduled a ceremony prior to the parade to honor soldiers from Mill Valley who died during war. The ceremony will be held at Lytton Square, the tree-laden island that splits Throckmorton Ave. between Miller and Corte Madera avenues into two. The island is named for Lytton Barber, Mill Valley’s first WWI casualty.

I Love a Parade Committee Chair Larry "the Hat" Lautzker said that while the parade will be much more inclusive of Mill Valley’s original Memorial Day Parade, it won’t lose the community party spirit that has been so evident over the past decade. The parade, which runs down Miller Avenue to Tam High, regularly draws more than 6,000 spectators each year, and includes more than 60 participants. 

Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration
When the float riders, school bands, dignitaries and a bevy of youth groups head to the Mill Valley Community Center after the parade, they’ll have a plenty of fun in front of them.

In addition to the Carnival, tasty treats will be served up by the likes of:

• Zen Grill
• Piazza D’Angelo
• Beth’s Community Kitchen
• Good Foods Catering
• Tru Gourmet
• Noci
• Kernel Steve’s Kettle Corn
• Nothing Bundt Cakes
• Laughing Glass Cocktails
• Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Whole Foods Market, East Blithedale Store

Concert on the Green
If food, floats and furious Carnival rides don't quite satiate you, the annual post-parade musical celebration produced by the Sweetwater Music Hall should do the trick. 

Local prodigies Matt Jaffe & the Distractions get things started at noon. The band – Mill Valley singer-songwriter Matt Jaffe is a local prodigy and a music industry veteran at just 19 years old, with Terra Linda resident Alex Coltharp on drums and Novato musician Sammie Fischer on bass – plays a sharp brand of smart indie rock, drawing on a range of influences from the Talking Heads and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists to the Decemberists and Django Reinhardt.

Dan Lebowitz, a founding member of jam band ALO, makes frequent appearances at the Sweetwater Music Hall, including a pair of upcoming performances with the likes of Jason Crosby, Stu Allen, Reed Mathis of Tea Leaf Green and Lukas Nelson, many of whom will be joining Lebo for a set that promises to be a foot-stomper.

Nearly 20 years after his death, the legend of Jerry Garcia continues to reverberates around the world, perhaps nowhere more than in Marin and Mill Valley, where the Grateful Dead god lived for years and where he regularly held court at the old Sweetwater.

Garcia's musical interests were famously varied, and he had a slew of side projects, including his eponymous band, which played rock music that was influenced by blues, folks, country and jazz and also performed rock versions of R&B, roots and reggae songs. Other than bassist John Kahn, Melvin Seals had the longest-serving tenure in the band before Garcia's death, and he has carried the torch almost ever since.

The 411: Click here for more info on the Memorial Day parade and festivities, and here for more info on the Carnival.

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The two-year-old Sweetwater Music Hall has long since matured into a venue capable of booking a diverse array of top-notch performers, including an incredible run of late that has featured the likes of Patterson Hood, Michael Franti, The Headhunters, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bombino and Taj Mahal.

But in case you needed another reminder, Bay Area jazz greats Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola led a packed house on a scintillating journey Wednesday night. Hunter can play basslines, rhythm guitar and solos on a custom-made, seven-string guitar, while Amendola is the seemingly perfect complement on drums, adapting to each of Hunter’s improvisational jaunts and inciting his own.

The pair has released four 5-track EPs, one each focusing on the music of Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, the Cars and Hank Williams, respectively. They dove into the catalogs of each of those artists Wednesday night, including a raucous version of the Cars’ “Let the Good Times Roll” that had the crowd eagerly flexing their vocal chops.

Hunter, as entertaining with his guitar faces as he is with his brilliant playing, also led the duo into covers of such divergent hits as Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By” and Tupac’s “California Love.” They also delighted the crowd with a rendition of Lorde’s “Royals,” arguably the most popular song in the world over the past eight months. Check out the snippet above.

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On the heels of 2013’s “Let the Good Times Roll” theme, parade moves toward a more traditional focus, “Honoring Those Who Gave Their Lives for Freedom.” Pre-parade Pancake Breakfast and post-parade Kiddo! Carnival, Concert and Community Celebration bookend the day-long party of the year in Mill Valley.

The daunting “fashion police” will be out in full force as usual at the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade on May 26, and this year they won’t just be looking to issue citations for "don'ts" like jean shorts, leather fanny packs and sockles.

Be warned: the 2014 edition of the parade is all about breaking out your red, white and blue duds.

The biggest day-long party of the year in the 94941, the Memorial Day Parade, along with the pre-parade Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters’ Association’s Pancake Breakfast and the post-parade Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration (see below), are taking a traditional turn this year. In response to calls from veterans to make the event more traditional, the I Love a Parade Committee is building the parade around the theme of “Honoring Those Who Gave Their Lives for Freedom.”

“It makes sense, especially to remind the children of Mill Valley what this holiday is all about,” said Larry “the Hat” Lautzker, head of the I Love a Parade Committee that runs the event. “We had gotten a bit too far left of what the event is all about. This year, we’re going to be more inclusive of that. It’s a somber day and we’ve kind of disregarded that element of it for a while.”

In addition to fellow committee members Clifford Waldeck and Paul Moe, a subcommittee consisting of longtime prominent local residents Jim Wickham, Stephanie Wickham-Witt, Larry Moss, Chris Raker and Susan Cluff has focused on incorporating a more traditional theme into this year’s parade.

“Break out the Red White and Blue, build wondrous floats, great window displays and show our kids and country how creativity and working together help to create amazing results,” Lautzker said.

Organizers have scheduled a ceremony prior to the parade to honor soldiers from Mill Valley who died during war. The ceremony will be held at Lytton Square, the tree-laden island that splits Throckmorton Ave. between Miller and Corte Madera avenues into two. The island is named for Lytton Barber, Mill Valley’s first WWI casualty.

Lautzker said that while the parade will be much more inclusive of Mill Valley’s original Memorial Day Parade, it won’t lose the community party spirit that has been so evident over the past decade. The parade, which begins at 10:30 at Old Mill School and runs down Miller Avenue to Tam High, regularly draws more than 6,000 spectators each year, and includes more than 60 participants. 

Applications to enter are now available online, and must be received by May 23. Entry fees are $75 for commercial entities and $35 for nonprofits.

Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters' Association Pancake Breakfast

When the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association launched its annual Pancake Breakfast nearly 20 years ago, John Thompson, Fred Martin, John McClure and Bob Hughes, among others, cobbled together a bunch of portable grills, coolers and propane tanks and prepared to serve up a Memorial Day breakfast for a few hundred people.

And then 800 showed up. And hundreds more showed every year after that, with volunteers serving up some 1,500 to 2,000 plates each and lines forming around the block outside the Mill Valley Fire Department’s downtown station on Corte Madera Avenue.

The massive event is set for 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on traffic-free Corte Madera Ave. in front of City Hall and outside the fire station with pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice and coffee.

As the Pancake Breakfast has continued to grow over the years, one aspect of it has gone largely unnoticed: the event’s organizers have created quite a mobile kitchen setup that would come in handy in the event of a catastrophic event like a massive wildfire or earthquake, says Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighter Ron Vidal.

“We feed nearly 15 percent of Mill Valley’s population in four hours on that day,” Vidal says of the Pancake Breakfast. “We’re building resiliency and the ability to do a mass feeding if we’re ever in that situation.”

In addition to showcasing an impressive mobile kitchen, the Pancake Breakfast is also the biggest fundraiser of the year for Mill Valley’s volunteer firefighter program. The Mill Valley Fire Department took shape more than 120 years ago as an all-volunteer organization, beating out some fires with wet potato sacks and renting space to store its gear.

“You keep the department strong by continuing to develop that volunteer pool,” Vidal says. “The program creates a candidate pool for the hiring needs for Mill Valley and departments all over Marin and the Bay Area.”

Volunteer program officials estimate that it costs about $4,000 to properly train and equip an active duty firefighter and the group hopes to raise between $10,000 and $15,000 at this year’s event.

Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration

When the float riders, school bands, dignitaries and a bevy of youth groups head to the Mill Valley Community Center after the parade, they’ll have a plenty of fun in front of them.

That includes the final day of the four-day Carnival, which begins Friday at noon and wraps up at 5 p.m. Monday. With more than 15 rides, from the Berry-Go-Round and Tune Train for little ones to the Sizzler, Zipper, Tilt-A-Whirl and Texas Tornado, are being provided by Sacramento-based California Carnival Company. 

After an eight-year hiatus, the Carnival was revived in 2012 as part of the 30th anniversary party for Kiddo. The event has become the centerpiece of Memorial Day weekend on the property around the Community Center and Mill Valley Middle School.

Advance $20 ticket books are available in the Kiddo! office at the Mill Valley School District from May 19 May 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on May 23 from 9 a.m. to noon. Advance tickets will also be sold outside the Mill Valley Community Center during the week leading up to the Carnival – times TBD. Ticket books are $30 once the carnival begins. Books may be turned in for a one-day wrist band for unlimited rides. Food and games are extra.

Aside from rides, the Community Celebration features food from the likes of Piazza D'Angelo, Beth's Community Kitchen, Nothing Bundt Cake, among others. And as in year's past, a Concert on the Green, sponsored by the Sweetwater Music Hall & Cafe, will keep attendees dancing throughout the afternoon.Local prodigies Matt Jaffe & the Distractions get things started at noon, followed by Lebo & Friends, fronted by Lebo (Dan Lebowitz), a founding member of ALO. Melvin Seals & the JGB headline, playing the music of the late and legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

The 411: The annual Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Pancake Breakfast takes place from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on traffic-free Corte Madera Ave. in front of City Hall and outside the fire station with pancakes, eggs, juice and coffee. Fees are $7 for adults and $5 for kids with all proceeds to benefit the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association to equip a new batch of volunteer recruits.

The Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade begins at 10:30 at Old Mill School and runs down Miller Avenue to Tam High, regularly draws more than 6,000 spectators each year, and includes more than 60 participants. Applications to enter are now available online, and must be received by May 23. Entry fees are $75 for commercial entities and $35 for nonprofits.

The Kiddo! Memorial Day Community Celebration runs from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. The four-day Carnival is Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Monday 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Here's a video about from the 2014 Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade website about this year's theme:

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Mill Valley resident, former Grateful Dead singer/guitarist and digital music innovator links with four-year-old competitor to the likes of Pandora and Spotify on an initiative called "Artists for Quality," hoping to improve the sound quality of streaming audio.

On the heels of fellow rock icon Neil Young's hugely successful Kickstarter campaign to launch Pono, a music download-service and dedicated music player focusing on "high-quality" recorded audio, Mill Valley resident Bob Weir is looking to improve the audio quality of the other major piece of the digital music pie: streaming audio.
Weir, a co-owner of the Sweetwater Music Hall and well known as a digital music innovator with ventures like TRI Studios in San Rafael, appeared on CNBC recently to discuss with his friend and CNBC Squawk Box anchor Steve Liesman his latest campaign, "Artists for Quality." 
The initiative teams Weir with Rdio, a popular online streaming music service, to raise the audio quality of streaming music, starting with Rdio itself. The company is improving the "bit-rate" of the music it streams to 320 kbps, a move that Rdio says will improve the music-listening experience for its customers without raising the price.
"Our joint mission is to ignite and lead discussions on inequity in streaming audio quality, and to commit to both artists and music fans to establish the highest standard of streaming quality in the digital music space," Weir and Rdio said in a statement on Rdio's website."Through Bob Weir and his network of friends, from music legends to top emerging artists, we are looking forward to working together to ensure that Rdio delivers the best possible audio quality option to both artists and music fans," Rdio added.

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Throckmorton Theatre founder Lucy Mercer knew that her decision to create a free weekly concert series as part of her venue's anniversary celebration was a good idea when she saw a busload of residents from the Redwoods arriving one Wednesday afternoon.
Having Redwoods' residents show up in droves for an event isn't a complete anomaly, however, as the senior community's transportation service allows residents to shop, dine, volunteer, keep appointments, and enjoy cultural events seven days a week. 
The Redwoods’ 10th Annual CrabFest Fundraiser – the major fundraiser for that transportation service – is set for Saturday, March 29 at the Mill Valley Community Center. A reception and no-host bar starts at 5 p.m. followed by one dinner seating at 6 p.m. that includes all-you-can-eat fresh Dungeness crab, green salad, pasta, bread and dessert. Dinner tickets for residents are $50 and non-resident tickets are $75.
In addition to the tasty dinner, CrabFest features live bluegrass music from Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys and a performance by Rock the Ages, the popular contemporary rock chorus composed of 25 Redwoods residents.
The Rockin' Raffle Grand Prize is a Holland America Line cruise for two to the Caribbean or Mexico. Silent auction and raffle items include a weekend in Tahoe, theater and symphony tickets, gift certificates, wine, gift baskets, and unique fashion accessories. Raffle tickets are $5 each, five for $20, and can be purchased in advance and up until the drawing at CrabFest. You do not need to be present to win the raffle prizes.
The 411: Click here for more info or to buy tickets, or call Patti Flynn-Boston at 415-383-2741 ext. 295 or email crabfest@theredwoods.org to buy tickets.

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When a vital local arts organization turns 10 and the building in which it resides hits 100, there’s no shortage of reasons to celebrate. At the Throckmorton Theatre, the party’s already begun – and it’s just getting started.

“It’s really a great time to reflect on all of the uses of this building that the community has been able to participate in,” says Lucy Mercer, the founder and executive director of the Throckmorton Theatre. “This was the original vaudeville theater for town.”

With a free weekly concert series already drawing busloads of residents from the Redwoods – and a free new "Fun with Dick and Bob" talk show series hosted by Dick Bright and Bob Sarlatte garnering loads of laughs on Saturday mornings – the Throckmorton Theatre has already begun celebrating its pair of anniversaries with events designed to show off the eclectic variety of programmed that has occurred there since Mercer officially opened in 2004.

Now the organization is prepping a birthday bash, celebrating its 10-year anniversary as well as the centennial of the building at 142 Throckmorton Ave. in which it lives, all to benefit the theater’s ongoing programs. Co-hosted by Marin music legend Narada Michael Walden and local comedy king Mark Pitta, the March 29 event will feature “unforgettable entertainment, a chance to bid on some unique auction items, cocktails, wine and dessert,” with revelers invited start the night with a $60 dinner at “anniversary partner restaurants” (and Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce members) Beerworks, Bungalow 44, La Ginestra, Piazza D’Angelo or Vasco or go straight to the $150 show at 7:30 p.m.

When Mercer bought the building at 142 Throckmorton Ave. in the early 2000s, she knew she was purchasing a space with a colorful history that was deeply rooted in the history of the cultural arts in Mill Valley.

Under the moniker the Hub, the venue featured Charlie Chaplin movies and live vaudeville acts. Mercer says she dug through old microfiche to determine the opening timeline, with vaudeville programming beginning in 1914 and expanded programming in 1915. In the 1920s, the buzz around the opening of the Sequoia Theatre downtown shifted attention over there, forcing the Hub to shut down.

Over the years that followed, the space had a number of uses, including as a bowling alley and a rollerskating rink, until the Oddfellows bought it in the 1970s, turning into a private venue for a variety of meetings and events. Those events included the “Saturday Nite Movies,” the precursor to the Mill Valley Film Festival. The building was little used and had fallen into disrepair when Mercer bought it and eventually launched a nonprofit organization to help sustain it as one of Mill Valley’s inimitable arts organizations.

In 2009 when Mercer, seeing her own personal savings dwindle as she invested everything in the theater, had to reach out to donors to keep it alive. With fundraising events like the Anniversary Bash, she seeks to raise around $500,000 a year in donations, which accounts for about one-third of the venue’s annual budget (the other two-thirds come from ticket sales).

“The community’s response was, ‘Yes those programs are valuable and yes we want to help support them and they rallied around us,” Mercer says. “Once the community was better informed, we have been successfully building strength and planning a broad future.

Mercer promises all sorts of anniversary celebrations and events this year, including something to mark the 10-year anniversary of another local institution, Mark Pitta & Friends Tuesday Night Comedy.

“It’s going to be a great year,” she says.

The 411: The Throckmorton Theatre Anniversary Bash is March 29 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for more info or to buy tickets.

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As he eyes his next move, former Beerworks chef says attendees of March 13 event can expect an interactive, supperclub-style atmosphere, food-centric stories and great music, all to benefit the Conscious Kitchen in Marin City.

When he arrived in Mill Valley to help Justin and Tyler Catalana launch the new kitchen at Mill Valley Beerworks, launching a vegetable-driven cuisine that garnered a glowing three stars from San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, chef David Wilcox says Mill Valley residents greeted him with open arms. 

Wilcox has left Beerworks and is transitioning to a new venture – a pop-up oriented project to benefit food-focused nonprofit organizations that he’s mostly keeping quiet about for now. Before he makes that leap, Wilcox says he wants to express his gratitude for the local support the best way he knows how: by hosting a big, supperclub-style culinary bonanza.

The MVDW Pop-Up Dinner is a March 13 event at the Sweetwater Music Hall, “an evening of gratitude and gustatory celebrations to be shared with any and all who have supported David Wilcox in his culinary endeavors thus far – a moment to share stories and what the future holds.”

“This is basically a big thank you note for Mill Valley,” Wilcox says.

The multi-course, family-style menu will be comprised of an abundance of spring vegetables, seafood and local meat, all prepared thoughtfully paying homage to old favorites and new inspirations, Wilcox says.

“I love having big supper club events, and I’ve done some of those before in places like Los Angeles, Hawaii, Michigan. It gives me a chance to get out and interact with people more directly, tell stories about the food and not be chained to a stove. I’m really excited about it.”

The dinner will be followed by music from gypsy jazz sextet Gaucho and the Quiet Men, and Wilcox says some people who do swing dancing to Gaucho’s music will be on hand to take the event “over the top.”

The proceeds of the event will go to the Conscious Kitchen in Marin City, a program launched by Teens Turning Green that is “dedicated to a systemic transformation of school food programs, to the health and well being of our children, and to a thriving future for our planet.”

Wilcox says associating himself with organizations like Conscious Kitchen is “mandatory” for his next project.

“They are working with kids who don’t have the privilege or access to learn about these things,” he says. “A big part of what I want to do is to inspire people to get more involved in these types of programs – go out have a good time, eat great food and become more aware of projects like this.”

Though details will be unveiled in the coming weeks, Wilcox’s upcoming pop-up events will be in San Francisco, elsewhere in the Bay Area and down in LA.

“There’s a lot of potential to rethink the way we approach the food business and our interaction with people in the community,” Wilcox says. “It’s about really putting your money where your mouth is and take steps to change the system.”

Wilcox, who calls his departure from Beerworks “amicable, with no hard feelings or anything,” will continue to live in his cabin in Mill Valley for now. “Mill Valley’s been really good to me,” he says.

The 411: The MVDW Pop-Up Dinner is at 6 p.m. on March 13 at the Sweetwater Music Hall. Click here for more info and to buy tickets for either the entire event ($87) or just the concert ($10).

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One of the greatest and most prolific filmmakers of our lifetime – one who's left his own indelible imprint on each of the 44 films he's directed to date – was just one nonchalant, self-effacing cog in a delightful ensemble performance of Dixieland jazz music at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre Saturday night.

Drawing from a repertoire that includes more than 1,200 traditional songs, Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band, which has existed in one form or another for more than 35 years, played a set of horn-soaked tunes that would incite a smile and a foot tap from even the most fun-resistant curmudgeons.

That's largely due to the fact that Allen, a self-described terrible clarinet player, surrounds himself with a phenomenal cast of musicians, particularly band leader and banjo player Eddy Davis, trombonist Jerry Zigmont and trumpeter Simon Wettenhall.

In typical Woody Allen fashion, one his few utterances at the mic featured a ribald joke to describe his frequent surprise that audiences are willing to turn out to hear the band perform live. The joke centered on a man who comes home to find his wife in bed with his best friend, at whom he says, "Really, Sam, you? I mean, I have to, but you?"

The line drew a burst of laughter from the sold-out house full, and it was followed by a night of fantastic Dixieland jazz.

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Local music fans and patrons of the old Sweetwater have a pair of chances to take a holiday-oriented trip in the wayback machine this weekend.

The Christmas Jug Band, the "irreverent crew of stalwart purveyors of the jugabilly mystique" that started as the Monday Night Wild Turkey Jug Band in Mill Valley in the mid-1970s at venues like the Old Mill Tavern and the old Sweetwater, is playing shows at the Sweetwater Music Hall on Friday and Saturday.

The band, whose ever-evolving lineup over the years has included local legends like Dan Hicks and Austin DeLone, is a "seasonal assemblage of misfits of Commander Cody alumni and others from notable Bay Area musical aggregations such as Those Darn Accordions, The Moonlighters, Jesse Colin Young, and Elvis Costello."

"What started as Wild Turkey-inspired momentary lapse of sanity is now five albums (over 25,000 sold) and 35 years of fruitcakes later, an unconventional tradition of highly skewed merriment," according to the group's website.

The 411: The Christmas Jug Band performs Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 21  at 8 p.m. Friday tix are $24 and $15 for anyone under 12 or over 65. Saturday tix are $24. Click here for more info or to buy tickets.

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