RoundUp: Well, that was exciting
Festival-hopping, plus local filmmakers, a fire near Starbucks, the Press Democrat debacle and more
At the Full Moons Festival
The inaugural Full Moons Festival, a celebration of pan-Asian culture, happened yesterday. It was mobbed, but not unpleasantly so. (See our preview article on the event here.) Here are few pics from the event:
SoCo PaganFest: A witchy start to October
Another new festival, the first annual SoCo PaganFest, happened at Miss Daisy’s Magical Wonderland yesterday. More about this event and the folks who hosted it in an upcoming article this week.
Reconnecting with the wild source of life
Is modern life and western civilization out of touch with the natural world? Three local filmmakers think so.
Northern California filmmaker Alexandra Lexton is having a single-day screening of her documentary feature Fools’ Paradise (lost?) at Rialto Cinemas on Oct. 8 at 1 pm and 7 pm. Arguing that there is a symbiotic necessity to heal ourselves through reconnection to the natural world and to heal what is left of our planet, Lexton’s film, Fools’ Paradise (lost?), features interviews with a nature photographer (Jody MacDonald), a science writer (Florence Williams), an indigenous scholar (Lyla June), an ecotherapist, and Marin “Planetwalker” Dr. John Francis. According to a press release for the film, “Fools’ Paradise (lost?) is a love letter to our wild: our own inner wild and the outer wild.” A filmmaker Q&A with director Alexandra Lexton will follow both screenings, and the Q&A at the 7 pm screening will be moderated by mindfulness teacher & author Mark Coleman.
“Mauri: The Vital Essence in All Beings” is a new film by Sebastopol filmmakers Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo, makers of “Where Olive Trees Weep” and “The Eternal Song.” According to the website, “Mauri is a cinematic invitation into the healing traditions of Aotearoa, a journey carried by Māori healers, elders, and knowledge keepers who tend to intergenerational wounds through land, language, and ceremony.” Sadly, we missed its world premiere at Sebastopol Center for the Arts last week, but it will be released internationally on Oct. 14. You can also catch it at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland on Oct. 7.
Car fire at Starbucks on Saturday
And once again, Michael Wilson saves the day!
There was a car fire in the Starbucks Shopping Center on Saturday around noon. And once again, Sebastopol resident Michael Wilson was on hand to save the day. Gianna, a Starbucks employee we spoke with this morning, said she brought a fire extinguisher out to the parking lot but was afraid to get close enough to the burning car to use it. The car was billowing black smoke across Gravenstein Highway, and the flames were dancing so high she was afraid the redwood trees above it would catch fire. “I thought the car going to explode,” she said. Enter Michael Wilson, who asked for the fire extinguisher and, at great risk to himself, put the fire out before the fire engines even got there.
The car, which was inked with religious and political musings, had been parked in various locations in the Lucky’s parking lot all week. The owner, a woman, was not in the vehicle at the time of the fire and no one was hurt.
Wilson, if you recall, is also the guy who caught the runaway piglet (see “Pickles’ Big Adventure” from 2024). He was also on hand to snap that pic of an unlucky wrong turn onto a one-way street we published in RoundUp in April. And he reported the fire that two kids set in the Barlow overflow parking lot, which we covered in July.
At the time of the Barlow event, we wrote: “Can’t wait to see what news he captures next. Being in the right place at the right time—a rare form of luck—is an important skill for a reporter. We may have to hire him.”
Now, we think maybe he needs an award of some type.
Maker Faire Recap
The 17th edition of Maker Faire Bay Area took place last weekend at the Mare Island Historic Naval Shipyard in Vallejo. We had these 19th century schooners on site, courtesy of the National Parks, along with cute electric muffin cars, robots and other mobile makers.
You could feel the joy, creative energy and kindness that were generated by this community coming together. Loren Crotty of Sebastopol brought “Flash the Tortoise” (seen in the video below). His neighbor in downtown Sebastopol is Thomas James, who brought his Alchemy of Craft exhibit to promote his YouTube channel. Also from the Sebastopol area were Kayte Sabicer, a maker of props for movies, who gave a talk on “Making with(out) Intention,” as well as Michael Dickinson of Dickinson Glass Studio, who demonstrated glassblowing, sometimes under windy conditions.
Here’s a video that captures some of the spirit of Maker Faire.
I had the privilege of interviewing Steve Wozniak (“Woz”) on stage. He talked about designing the Apple I computer in 1975. He and Steve Jobs had no money to manufacture the PC boards and so they each had to sell a prized possession: for Jobs, it was his van; for Woz, it was his HP scientific calculator. Before going on stage, Woz said that he was so shy as a young person that he never talked to people about what he was doing. Then, once on stage, he talked non-stop for 30 minutes to a rapt audience, sharing how he designed one of the first personal computers.
What just happened at the Press Democrat?
If you read the Santa Rosa Press Democrat regularly, you might have noticed the changes since May 1 when Sonoma Media Investments sold it to hedge fund Alden Global Capital, the second largest owner of newspapers in the United States. Cuts in staff, a change in format, and other cost-cutting decisions have made the PD a more generic paper. While there are still some locally reported stories, there’s an increase in news sourced from other newspapers and the Associated Press. There doesn’t appear to be an editorial board that writes opinions for its own editorial page.
Bill Meagher gives us the story behind the sale of the Press Democrat in NorthBay biz. There were two entities looking at buying the Press Democrat — you might call them suitors. One was the Hearst Corporation, the New York-based owners of the San Francisco Chronicle. They looked at the PD in 2024 for a long while but backed out. Then they came back with renewed interest earlier this year. The other suitor was a local group led by Bill Gallaher, a local developer and founder of Poppy Bank who sued the Press Democrat for libel in 2016. According to Meagher, while the staff had no say in the choice of suitors, they preferred Hearst because of its experience running newspapers and disliked Gallaher, who they saw as a conservative businessman, a la Donald Trump.
Like in any good romance novel, a new suitor arrived out of the blue and swept the Press Democrat off its feet. That suitor was Alden Global Capital, a name which might suggest anything but a love of local news. Its subsidiary, MediaNews Groups, owns more than 150 daily and weekly publications. In California, MediaNews Group owns the Marin Independent-Journal, the Orange County Register and the San Jose Mercury-News.
If you want to learn more about companies like Alden Global Capital, check out Megan Greenwell’s book: Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. She writes about private equity taking over newspapers, hospitals, and housing. “Alden Capital was destroying newspapers because it didn’t care about newspapers and because it could make money from their ashes,” writes Greenwell.
She adds that “private equity’s workings remain opaque to most people.” Greenwell says “it can be almost impossible to tell what a private equity-owned company is up to…It also means that the community — or communities — in which the company is based may no longer know whom they’re dealing with, much less how to reach them.”
Regrettably, since the acquisition in May, the Press Democrat has lost 52 staffers, according to Meagher, a number which includes 15 local journalists. More importantly, the PD has lost its independence.
CORRECTIONS
In Part 1 of our story about the Community Awards, we mixed up Ray Senn and Joe Pogar, who for many years took care of the town’s fire hydrants. Cindia N. Brody kindly tipped me (Laura) off about this mistake, and I sent out an immediate correction. In Part 2 of our story about the Community Awards, I misheard the name of a local realtor; it’s Steve Prandini not Brandini.
Sebastopol Police Logs, September 22-28
The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.
MONDAY
1:04 p.m. Disorderly conduct involving alcohol (misdemeanor) at Morris Street. Suspect referred to a diversion program.
WEDNESDAY
11:07 a.m. Failure to appear in court after making a written promise (misdemeanor) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
7:57 p.m. Served a misdemeanor arrest warrant at Gravenstein Highway South. Suspect arrested.
10:22 p.m. Grand theft from a building (felony) at Washington Avenue. Charges unfounded.
THURSDAY
8:37 p.m. Violation of parole (felony) at Gravenstein Highway South. Suspect arrested.
FRIDAY
1:13 a.m. Resisting a peace officer, possession of a controlled substance and unlawful paraphernalia, appropriation of lost property, being in a city park after hours, and violation of pre-trial release (misdemeanors) at Willow Street. Suspect arrested.
SATURDAY
7:18 p.m. Violation of a court order involving domestic violence (misdemeanor) at Petaluma Avenue. Suspect arrested.
9:49 p.m. Served a misdemeanor arrest warrant for an outside agency at Sebastopol and Petaluma avenues. Suspect arrested.
OTHER POLICE ACTION
The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 149 events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.
