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Make Local Short — “Open Wide: BigMouthUnique’s Eclectic Flair”
“Antiestablishmentarianism’’ is a mouthful to say and a big concept to wrap your head around, but for a visual representation, you need look no further than Joshua Thwaites and Mathilde Amiot’s Santa Rosa-based funhouse workshop BigMouthUnique. Joshua was first introduced to the term, which he describes as a “business/life model,” by a mentor, designer Mary…
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Make Local Short— “How to Make a Living Torching Metal”
In the studio with jewelry designer Georgia Fitt of Serpentine and Fair by Jess D. Taylor Have an arty start “I’ve been drawing since I was five years old,” says Georgia. Think high-fashion superhero rock-stars with huge colorful earrings. Macrame, crafting, sculpting, dancing, acting—you name it, she’s done it. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz…
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Locavore: Eating Local, Cooking Local — “Confessions of a Germophile: Sheila Shupe Whips Up Some Shea Butter”
My mom always said, “never put anything in your vagina that you wouldn’t put in your mouth.” An OG feminist and sex ed teacher in the ‘70s, she was forced to wear skirts instead of pants to her first teaching gig to keep her ladylike. But by the ‘90s, Mom said pretty much whatever she…
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Make Local — “Resale Therapy”
Why does Brian Benn’s office contain, among other things, a bagful of a stranger’s ashes and a spinning sex swing? There’s also a bulletin board crammed with photos of people in varying degrees of blurriness. Don’t worry, this is not some freaky grisly exposé—it’s the story of a thrift shop. Specifically, Pick of the Litter,…
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Make Local Short — “No More Worksheets”
Learning House envisions a more holistic approach to education In August of 2020, my youngest started kindergarten—a milestone that, with three older sisters, she’d been looking forward to pretty much her whole life. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen what Zoom kindergarten looks like, but you can imagine that it was adorable chaos, the…
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Make Local — “Humor, Horror and Everything In Between”
Humor, Horror and Everything In Between Ursa Born Explores the Liminal Possibilities of The Imaginists The first time I saw the Imaginists perform, I was sitting in the shade of a ginkgo tree in Santa Rosa’s Juilliard Park, surrounded by a lounging audience sipping beverages and snacking on picnic charcuterie. It was a performance of…
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Make Local — “Major Play”
Two Local Baseball Teams Take to the Field There’s a growing spectacle in Sonoma Wine Country. Healdsburg and Sonoma are teaming with talented collegiate ball players, and some are headed for the big league. Games are about to begin, offering a glimpse of raw talent, ripe for the picking. During the 19th century, average citizens…
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Make Local — “Beekeeping to Bee Stewardship”
From beekeeping to bee stewardship with Apis Arborea As the sun began to set on a sweet spring day in April 2019, so too did my dreams of acquiring a wild bee colony for my birthday. Just then, like magic, a good friend called, alerting me to a swarm that had landed in a tree…
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Make Local — “Sole Savers”
Shoe Repair in a Throwaway World According to the Shoe Service Institute of America, which was founded in 1904, there are still some 5,000 people practicing shoe repair across the country—down from 15,000 in 1997 and some 100,000 in the 1930s. The Institute, whose tag line is “If the shoe fits, repair it!” takes seriously…
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Counter Comic
Tara Caplan once pissed off a bunch of Aussies over a didgeridoo. Or actually, her alter-ego Eaglesaunce, a faux-spiritual white hippie dude, did. In response to a fake flier on Facebook advertising “Lower Chakra Didgeridoo Healings for Women”—Eaglesaunce is nothing if not smarmy—scores of Aussies decried the debasement of sacred culture by a clueless white…