benicia magazine february 2011
DESCRIPTION
Community magazine for Benica CaliforniaTRANSCRIPT
This Year's Oscars A Chatty Year for American Movies
ChocolateThe Food of the Gods Demystifi ed
Benicia's Micro-market2010 Real Estate Wrap-up
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Contributors Samuel J. Adams Eric Hoglund Mary Marino Beth Steinmann Christina Strawbridge Sue Sumner-Moore
Photographer Jerry Bowles
Graphic Design Margaret Bowles
Editor Jeanne Steinmann
Publisher Polygon Publishing, LLC
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All opinions expressed in this magazine, including articles and paid advertisements, are those of the authors alone. Benicia Magazine does not endorse any product or service in editorial content or advertisements, and can not be held liable for their use.Cover photography by Jerry Bowles
Inside712 14
20
What’s new at beniciamagazine.com 6
83rd Academy Awards — The Wisdom of Ten 7
Chocolate: Food of the Gods 12
Local Offi cials Tackle Offi cial Chocolate Tasting 13
Real Estate Wrap-up for 2010 14
Benicia's Trees — A Valuable Asset 16
Fashionista 18
Interview with Adriene Rockwell 20
Looking Back 21
Calendar of Events 22
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From the Editor
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One month into 2011, the word on the street, in networking groups and in the offi ce is mixed: business is improving for some, but not fast enough to prevent the closure of others. How do we measure up in supporting businesses in our own community? Not that well, according to shop owners and recent sales tax data. Many cities have “shop local” campaigns to entice residents to invest in the towns where they live. Shopping locally improves the local economy through the reinvestment of sales tax dollars, but in
addition, most local independent store owners live in town and support causes from school fundraisers to cancer walks to nonprofi t agencies. They sponsor sports teams and give cash and merchandise to fundraisers of all types. As an added bonus, our “quaint downtown” is frequently touted as one of the main reasons people move here. So here’s my question: Are you shopping for your goods and services locally? If not, why not? These questions are not meant to provoke guilt, but to help gain insight into why Benicians don’t, in larger numbers, support local shops, restaurants and services providers, and to fi nd out if there’s anything these businesses can do differently to earn your money and your trust. Cost, choice and convenience are often mentioned as the reason locals choose to shop
elsewhere. To the cost issue, I would say this: cost is relative, and investing in fewer things of higher quality (as is common in European countries) is a strategy that pays over time, and although small boutiques can’t compete with big box stores (no business can, which is why quaint downtowns across the country are disappearing), they are competitive with mid-sized chain stores of similar quality. As to choice, it’s true that we don’t have quite as many options as larger cities across the two bridges. But there may be more variety than you imagine. There are more than 800 business listings in the Business Directory at beniciamagazine.com—check it out the next time you are in search of an item or a service. The convenience question is a bit perplexing. Is it more convenient to cross a bridge for something available in town, and pay the extra gas and bridge toll? If you are traveling to Sunvalley mall, at 52 cents per mile plus bridge toll, it will set you back an extra $11 per trip, plus the higher sales tax. Or are you an online shopper who prefers the comfort of your own living room? Consider this: Bookshop Benicia and Benicia Floral both have websites, and both are easily found with an online search. Both can order what you need if it isn’t in stock, and send purchases to the address of your choice. Yet as a community, we still order books and fl owers from internet sites that aren’t local. And so it goes. The 3/50 Project, www.350project.net, an organization dedicated to “saving the brick and mortars our nation is built on,” has studied the percentage of tax dollars that stay local with purchases from local independent shops (68%) vs. purchases made from national chain stores (43%) and the internet (0%). With fewer state dollars fi lling city coffers, sales tax revenue becomes even more important. We would like to hear from you. Let your voice be heard—send your response to be printed in next month’s issue of Benicia Magazine, at [email protected].
—Jeanne [email protected]
Benicia Magazine6
Poetry ContestDo you write poetry? Enter your poem in our monthly contest.
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January's Winner: Malcolm Slight
ContestsLocal merchandise, event tickets & more, each worth over $100
Beniciamagazine.comThis month at
Exhibits, Classes and Events
What Are Benicians Reading?
Local Personalities Suggest Great Winter Reads
Sustainability Happenings Style Travel
Chocolate Recipes
Blogs
Easy Desserts to Make at
Home
Gluten-free Goes Mainstream:
Exploring the Options
The best options for music, visual & performing arts, comedy & classes
Oscar Nominees: The Wisdom of Ten
By Samuel J. Adams Forty-fi ve days before
the show, I knew this much about the 83rd academy
awards. That actress Anne Hatheway would be sharing hosting duties with
actor /writer /grad student/painter/cologne
salesman/likely nominee James Franco, that all convincing predictions held that the top runners for major awards were The Social Network and The King’s Speech, and that the show’s duration would feel long, very long, but still not as long as most angry bloggers would say it felt. The length will be nothing new, but it will seem more justifi ed than usual, because, for the second year in a row, the academy will admit ten nominees. For most of the remembered lifetimes, the nominees have been limited to fi ve. This traces back to the seventeenth academy awards, held in 1945 and broadcast for the fi rst time on ABC Radio, a tinny limited format presumably
unable to deal with an unwieldy ten nominees. Before 1945, ten nominees were the norm. The
academy has declared their own account of why they’ve returned to 10 fi lms, but, speaking from
a strictly historical perspective, Batman did it. Specifi cally, The Dark Night, 2007's billion-grossing, critically applauded, even-the-naysayers-are-on-board superhero fl ick, which was shut out of the fi ve contenders, a fact attributed to the low-standing comic book movies hold among academy members. Of course, a good fi lm year might produce thirty great fi lms, just as a bad one might not quite
yield ten, and some fans will always have to see the darlings go unnoticed. But the earlier number was painfully constraining. The fi ve nominee system made it very hard for certain kinds of fi lms—genre pictures, smaller productions, foreign fi lms—to get a chance, and much easier for other fi lms, like big budgeted dramas with historical elements, to coast to victory. Having ten nominees broadens the playing fi eld to include more popular fare and more cerebral, challenging small-scale stuff too, leaving the applicant pool for greatness looking more democratic
than ever—and more sophisticated. For example of variety, one need only check last year’s pool of nominees, which had two sci-fi fl icks, a dark comedy, a cartoon about fl ying houses, an inspiring football drama, and the winner, The Hurt Locker, the fi rst fi lm to earn a female an Oscar for direction.
Because of this magazine’s print deadline, I had to submit this before the Academy made its best picture announcements. Still, most critic’s circles and nerdy speculators had made their roundup, and I feel confi dent discussing a few shoo-ins for the best picture nominees. None of these fi ne fi lms quite reinvent the wheel, but they broaden the scope of mainstream fi lmmaking, and offer hours of entertainment. This was a somewhat chatty year for American movies, with the Oscar frontrunners fi lms either especially attuned to their voluminous dialogue, or else earning their prestige by the large discussions they generate. The two top runners focus heavily on the power of speech: Mark Zuckerberg, a physically unintimidating man, is almost pathologically articulate, making mincemeat of the lawyers who try to one-up him in the fi lm’s legal battles. King George of England, on the other hand, is unable to properly use the privileges of the throne because of a debilitating speech impediment. In the most acclaimed movie of the year, The Social Network, we follow Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, a man so verbally-assured in his assessments of those around him and so indifferent to—or unaware of—the feelings of others, that he repulses his only love interest in the fi rst scene, severs all meaningful friendships by the fi lm’s end, and would seem primed for the sort of paralyzing misanthropy Ben Stiller evinced so well in Greenberg, were he not spared this ignominy by his astounding levels of wealth and power. But for all he lacks in the fi ner points of humanity, his grasp on human nature is assured: when he transmutes his anger over a breakup into a picture rating website called Facemash, his private gripes become instantly popular (and instantly hurtful). A far cry from the Horatio Alger heroes of the past, this young man manages to sidestep the route of self-improvement by reengineering our ways of socializing. By the fi lm’s end, its hero has given anyone with an internet connection the ability to say whatever it is they please to the hundreds of separate, easily ignored thumbnail pictures that have become their friends. In contrast to the conditions of instant-communication depicted in The Social Network, The King’s Speech is about the challenges of speaking in general, and of answering to circumstances that require us to speak for something larger than ourselves (the coming of WWII, in his case). The fi lm follows the reluctant ascension of King George VI, as he succeeds his miscreant brother to become King of England (his brother abdicated to marry a twice-divorced American woman). The presentation is high-brow enough to curry academy favor, but the King’s speech problems are so relatable and human that it makes even unemployed viewers extend Britain’s future king sympathies normally reserved for boxing underdogs. While The Social Network greets a new dark future, The King’s Speech is a valentine to the allure of twentieth century staples like a liberal education (Shakespeare gets many readings throughout the fi lm), a proud, modern Monarchy, and radio technology. Firth gives a wonderfully wounded, but never overly-endearing performance as the King. His stammering can seem very much the motions of a man suppressing tears, and in addition to its nostalgia for monarchical panache and fi ne dress, The King's Speech shows reverence for the psychologist’s conception of human problems—a fact best highlighted by a joyous montage wherein the camera pans out from speech therapist Lionel Logue’s couch to the often comic vocal exercises of the King. It is a wonderful compliment to friendship and self-improvement, but the zeitgeist remains behind the darker presentation of human nature found in The Social Network.
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Continued on page 11
Benicia Magazine8
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Minding the Mind-benders Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan are the two fi lms that had the most fun playing with the concepts of alternate realities, eliciting audible “Whoa’s” from some audience members, while leaving the unconverted with a mere “Huh?” Both fi lms originate in written projects rumored to be ten years in the works; both were made by acclaimed fi lmmakers who have not yet made a nominated fi lm. Inception immerses you in its strange dream world and spends a lot of time—too much time—explaining it (for those who fi nd these explanations dull, worry not: your attention will be rewarded with explosions). Using what mildly looks like dialysis equipment, the architects of the fi lm basically do mind-to-mind hacking for fi nancial gain. Since the subconscious is a limitless tempestuous thing, the dream worlds the architects partially invade/partially design quickly prove hazardous. It’s all very confusing, but confusing in a way that encourages the audience to catch up with the rules and follow along, and underneath the puzzling technicalities is a more relatable mystery about a man trying to overcome past tragedies. And the three-dream montage that carries the last third of the fi lm is a thing of real beauty. The fi lmmakers behind Black Swan seem far less concerned with people agreeing on a common interpretation. Obviously not all the events in Black Swan are real, but sussing out which ones is a great deal of trouble, and might be a fool’s errand. The
travails of Nina, an ambitious and talented dancer compromised by nothing so much as her own purity, get an expressionistic treatment complete with hallucinations of talking paintings, wing-like growths, and some seriously intense mother issues. While the fi lm offers some color-coded visual cues as to what may be going on, it seems not to care about hammering home one account of what is really happening, and we might be best off reading the fi lm as an especially dark and metaphorical fairy tale. It certainly won’t win best picture, but it's one of the odder fi lms in recent years to command high praise from critics, a generous budget from producers, and a pretty large number of moviegoers—some expecting a horror movie, some a movie about ballet, some a physically punishing acting vehicle—and all getting...well, whatever it is Black Swan is... camp? post-camp? anti-camp?...websites swarm with guesses. However, the camerawork thrills and Portman is outstanding: it’s not often I’ve felt the lines of an actor’s forehead, and the skin between her toes, used to better performative affect. In a way the fi lm's success at the Oscar will have less to do with the odd (and, for me, less-than-satisfying) story on the screen, than with the more familiar story behind it: e.g. the reinvention of a major actor through a physically punishing, transformative role—the most famous instance of this probably being De Niro's award-winning performance in Raging Bull. This list leaves out a number of strong fi lms this year, including True Grit, Winter’s Bone, and The Fighter, but these four fi lms give an exciting picture of the ever-changing face of modern cinema. B
Continued from page 7
Benicia Magazine12
Food of the Gods: The History, Cultivation and Making of Chocolate
By Beth Steinmann Chocolat, ciaccolato, schokolade, chocola, sjokolade—its name is recognizable in almost any language—chocolate. The word is probably derived from the Aztec Nahuatl “xocolatl,” meaning “bitter drink.” In Aztec culture chocolate was prepared by mixing cocoa paste with chilies, cornmeal, herbs, and water to create a strong, bitter, frothy beverage, which was consumed in religious ritual to boost stamina and clarity. The cacao tree was said to have been delivered to earth from the land of the gods by Quetzalcoatl, the winged-serpent god of peace, wisdom and power. Its Latin name, Theobroma cacao, translates to “food of the Gods.” The plant is believed to have been cultivated for at least 3000 years in the regions of Mexico and South and Central America, and was used in ceremony as well as daily life in the Mayan culture. For the Aztecs, cacao was more sacred than silver and gold, and emperor Montezuma reputedly drank xocolatl out of a golden goblet fi fty times a day. According to the Aztec emperor, “A cup of this divine drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.” When Spanish Cortez and his conquistadores defeated Montezuma and raided his palace in 1519, expecting to fi nd a treasury of gold and silver, all they uncovered were massive stores of cacao beans. These beans were also used as currency, and 100 cacao beans could buy a turkey or a slave. Cortez reportedly loaded the galleys of his ships with cacao beans and sent them to Ferdinand and Isabella along with instructions on how to prepare the drink. However, the bitter, medicinal quality of xocolatl was unfavorable to the European palate and it wasn’t until sugar was added that the beverage began to gain widespread popularity. By the 1700’s, it was available all over Europe, the little brown bean having embarked on quite a journey since fi rst being borne under the wing of the feathered serpent. The two most popular ways to consume chocolate today—as a solid bar and heated up with milk—are less than 300 years old. A gentleman by the name of Sir Hans Sloane, physician to Queen Anne and a founder of the British Museum, is credited with the marriage of cocoa and milk. His secret recipe was sold to a British apothecary and eventually found its way into the hands of the Cadbury Brothers. And it wasn’t until the year 1847 that Joseph Fry & Sons chocolate factory developed the fi rst solid chocolate bar by adding cocoa butter to their chocolate paste, making it suitable for molding. For those of you who don’t know, the process of making chocolate is quite the time-consuming and laborious task. First, the large, ripe seed pods must be harvested from the cacao tree using a machete or a fruit picker, and then split in half with a knife or wooden club, with great care not to break the beans. The beans are then extracted from their pods and allowed to ferment for about 5 days. The chemical changes that take place during this process are what give the chocolate its color and fl avor. After fermentation, the beans are immediately cleaned and dried, usually in the sun, to prevent mold growth. Once dried, they must be roasted and cracked open to extract the nibs, which are milled to produce cocoa liquor, a combination of cacao solids and cocoa butter. These two can be separated and the solids pulverized to make cocoa powder, the cocoa butter added back to cocoa liquor to form paste for chocolate bars. For more information about chocolate processing, visit the International Cocoa Organization at www.icco.org. Since chocolate has become a precious commodity, its production has been fraught with unfair working conditions and slave labor. Today, about 70% of commercial chocolate production takes place in West Africa. For the past ten years, major chocolate producers have been under pressure to help eradicate industry slave labor, but many continue to evade responsibility. As multi-national chocolate companies continue to encourage more developing countries to grow and export cacao, the price of chocolate gets driven down even further. Farmers around the world need to be guaranteed a minimum price for their product—however, many are not. As consumers, we can educate ourselves about some of the specifi cs of these complicated issues by purchasing organic and fair-trade chocolate when possible. Fair trade
is a set of transparent standards that applies to smallholders, producers and individuals and includes fair wages and access to healthcare, return to invest back into co-ops and collectives, and often, a minimum price for product. Organic chocolate is subject to independent inspections that extend to fair labor practices and conditions, so buying certifi ed organic chocolate is generally always a safe bet. At this time, only a very small percentage of chocolate produced is fair trade and/or organic, but consumer interest in these issues continues to grow rapidly. For a rather comprehensive table of fair trade and organic chocolate producers, visit this website: http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/main.html. To learn more about the chocolate industry, visit www.chocolatework.com or www.icco.org. For information on fair trade, visit www.fairtrade.net. I wonder if the feathered-serpent had some idea of the responsibility he was placing on the shoulders of humanity when he brought us this gift, or if those who fi rst received it were truly aware of the power contained therein. The cacao plant was, as I mentioned, held sacred in early Meso-American cultures, appearing in depictions of Toltec, Mayan and Aztec ceremonies. Its stamina-producing effect quoted by the emperor Montezuma was probably caused by the alkaloid theobromine, which is a central nervous system stimulant. Theobromine is a vasodilator and is used to treat high blood pressure. Cacao is also rich in fl avonoids, including quercitin, which have a strong anti-oxidant effect, help reduce free-radical cell division and promote immune health. For more information on health benefi ts of cacao and a nutritional composition chart, visit www.montosogardens.com/theobroma_cacao.htm. Today, most chocolate bars are labeled with the total percentage of cacao—this includes cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa liquor—so each can choose his or her own cacao intensity level. My favorite fl avor combinations are sweet/salty and sweet/spicy. At this time, my top three votes for organic, fair trade mouth watering chocolate are: Theo “Coconut Curry Milk Chocolate,” Green and Black “Maya Gold” (dark chocolate with orange and spices), and Vosges “Mo’s Milk Chocolate Bacon Bar.” Theo, Green and Black and Vosges are all available in Benicia. While we’re on the topic of chocolate, I’ve got to mention that three of my all-time movies happen to revolve around chocolate. Coincidence? If you haven’t seen these classic chocolate fl icks, I highly recommend: Chocolat, starring Juliette Benoche and Jonny Depp; Like Water for Chocolate, a love story set in Mexico; and (of course)Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original with Gene Wilder has a special place in my heart but I also love the more recent adaptation with Jonny Depp. Whether you are a cacao nut (like me), or just enjoy occasional chocolatey goodness, there is a world of information behind every bite of chocolate, and just as many ways to enjoy it (I haven’t even touched on mole sauce or white chocolate). Next time you take a bite, I invite you to savor the feeling—scintillating, invigorating, enlivening, deep, smooth, relaxing, or simply blissful. B
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Chocolate Lovers Rejoice! Options Abound in Benicia
By Jeanne Steinmann In addition to shopping, art and quaint downtown, Benicia has a new category to enhance its solid reputation as a great town—one that is sure to grab the attention of residents and tourists alike: Chocolate. Not just any chocolate, but the fi nest of chocolates with a high percentage of Cacao to be found in
the area. In order to explore this sudden explosion of sweet (and salty) offerings, we at the magazine
felt it was only fi tting to investigate. As a confi rmed chocoholic, I will personally
sacrifi ce oral health and clothes that actually fi t in pursuit of the latest fl avors. Like
pig to trough, I follow my nose to the chocolate section of
any specialty boutique or gift store that
carries the stuff and indulge in the many types and fl avor c o m b i n a t i o n s available. Happily, there are at least six such places in
Benicia. On a frigid day in January, we conducted
our fi rst of what will become an annual
offi cial Benicia Magazine Chocolate Tasting Contest. We invited a slate of world-class chocolate-eating judges. Co-sponsored by Christina S Fashion Destination, celebrating their fi fth anniversary in business, we were treated to soft jazz by local saxophonist Kevin Frazier and a warm tasting area inside the store. Judges rated chocolate from six stores in six important categories in a blind tasting. First noting the aroma of each type, then appearance, they commenced to determine taste, mouthfeel and different fl avorings. Palates were cleansed between bites with plain crackers and water. Each category was rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest.
The JudgesCity Manager Brad KilgerMayor Elizabeth PattersonVice-Mayor Alan SchwartzmanCity Councilmen Tom Campbell & Mike IoakimedesMario Giuliani, Acting Economic Development ManagerBeth Steinmann, Manager at Snow LotusHelaine Bowles, Library board member & city staffer
The tasting itself led to some very interesting insights on the personal style and methodology of our civic leaders, which I won’t go into here. Suffi ce it to say that it’s no doubt a good thing to have such diversity in approach. Mayor Patterson and councilmen Hughes and Ioakimedes did their tasting in absentia, due to prior commitments during the public event. The conversation was mostly hushed as the judges got to it. They took the task very seriously, some taking copious notes (Mario) while others adopted a lighthearted approach (Tom Campbell), laughing and joking throughout, while Brad Kilger, who hit the ground running to learn all about our town, was intent on the task at hand. Mario’s comments included pairing ideas (ice cream and red wine), Beth and Brad caught the raspberry notes in one of the samples (it was the See’s truffl e) and Elizabeth caught the complexities of the fl avors in several samples, noting spices and fruit elements.
The ChocolateBenicia Bay Company: Dark Salted Truffl eBenicia Main Street: See’s Dark Chocolate Truffl eBookshop Benicia: Dark Chocolate Bar with Coffee & VanillaDouble Rainbow: Dark Chocolate Fudge BrownieSteve’s Hallmark: Black Forest Truffl eStudio 41: Dark Chocolate with French Grey Sea Salt
The ResultsThe goal of the tasting was to explore the variety of fl avors and styles of chocolate; it wasn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Therefore, we didn’t rank them in a “best” list. Instead, scores were tallied and averaged and those with the highest average scores within each category are noted below. They all scored highly, and there’s no particular order within categories. What’s clear from the scores is that all six samples were delicious and worthy of a special trip. And the highest scores go to…
Valentine’s Day is not complete without chocolate, and Benicia offers great choices. Impress your loved ones by getting the good stuff right here in town. B
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Taste: Dark Chocolate Studio 41
Taste: Flavored Chocolate Benicia Main StreetBookshop Benicia
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Aroma Benicia Main StreetStudio 41Bookshop BeniciaDouble Rainbow
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BeniciaMagazine.com
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Benicia Magazine14
Real Estate: Sellers Get Real, Buyers See Value
By Eric Hoglund, Estey Real Estate 2010 was, overall, a good year for Benicia Real Estate. Early indicators lead me to believe that we can expect a similar trend in 2011. At a time when there is a negative spin on almost any topic, I am happy to report that 2010 was good for both buyers and sellers of real estate in Benicia. We have fi nally found a happy medium where sellers are listing their properties at a price that makes sense in this market place. More importantly, buyers are seeing the value in the investment and are willing to jump back in. Yes, we still have bank-owned properties and challenging short sales in town. Homeowners are still faced with the diffi cult and unpleasant task of enduring a foreclosure or deed in lieu proceeding. It is, however, this realtor’s experience that more often than not the transactions I dealt with last year were with folks that were not upside down, an encouraging indicator that things are improving. One always has to keep in mind that Benicia has a unique micro-market in Solano County. The news is very different in surrounding cities. What makes us so special? It could be the schools (noted to be some of the best in the state), or the weather and proximity to the water, or the small town feel, or the fact that our city, while facing budget challenges, is not insolvent or in danger of a looming economic breakdown. If you ask me, it is the people who live here and the feeling of community that I have every day walking up and down First Street or at the local grocery store. That has value, and I am not sure how to place a number on it, nor am I sure that I would if I could. Benicia is special, but for those of you who like raw data, here are the statistics: Of the 218 single family residences that were sold in Benicia in 2010 the Average List Price was $402,539.00, and the Average Selling Price was $397,074.00. The difference in list price and sales price of $5465.00 is signifi cant, as it proves the market stabilized and now will begin the healthy process of recovery. Gone are the agonizing months of marketing for listings that end up steadily decreasing in price until they are fi nally sold. The Average Days on Market for single family homes in Benicia in 2010 was just 74 days. There was some room for downward negotiation in the most expensive homes, but there was also a trend for multiple offers and homes selling over list price in the low to median price range. 2011 will no doubt be very exciting, and I am by no means saying that we are out of the woods yet. There is still a silent inventory of homes in default, but it is diffi cult, even for insiders, to calculate the number. Many of these “bad assets” are either in the process of loan modifi cation, short sale, foreclosure, or may simply be high risk loans that are not in default at all, but are considered toxic by nature. We can never rule out poor accounting on the part of the big banks, as we all know these assets were bundled, unbundled and re-bundled as a result of large banks buying out many of the institutions that made these loans. Whatever the case, investing in a community and staying there is likely your best bet. And what better place to do that than Benicia? B
— For specific information about enrollment requirements, visit www.beniciaunified.org under “Students and Parents” then “Registration and Enrollment”
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— Child must be 5 years old on or before Dec 2, 2011
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Benicia Unified School District350 East K StreetBenicia, CA 707.747.8300www.beniciaunified.org
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Benicia Magazine16
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Are you aware that the City of Benicia has tree regulations for trees within the city limits? If you are planning on pruning or removing a tree you may need a permit. Please call the Parks and Community Services Department at 746-4285 prior to proceeding. For more information about the City's tree program and rules, you can visit the Parks and Community Services web page at the City web site at www.ci.benicia.ca.us
Did you know: “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.” —U.S. Department of Agriculture Did you know: “Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20-50 percent in energy used for heating.” —USDA Forest Service B
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Benicia Magazine18
Benicia Main Street Presents…
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Fragrance that is Heaven Sent By Christina Strawbridge All my life I have used my sense of smell to defi ne a memory, a person or a place in time. The scent of baby powder reminds me of my children as newborns, the smell of cut grass is a memory of my dad mowing the lawn on a summer morning, and the fragrance of yellow roses reminds me of a romantic husband who still surprises me with a bouquet for no particular reason. I have had a long-term relationship with perfume since I was a child. My earliest recollection of fragrance was a perfume called Evening in Paris, with its rich fl oral, woody scent. I believe my grandmother used it. Who knew this would be the start of my love affair with Paris? The bottle was cobalt blue with a silver cap and the packaging included Parisian landmarks. You could fi nd it everywhere, from the cosmetic counter in the local department store to the local fi ve and dime. Created in the twenties, Evening in Paris symbolized the roaring era of fl apper fashion and luxury, and in the forties, it gave added anticipation to returning World War II soldiers. By the fi fties it was considered to be the fragrance more women wore than any other in the world. As a teenager in the sixties, I was given a bottle of 4711 Perfume by a boy who had brought it back from Germany while on a vacation with his family. Its unisex citrus and light fl oral scent was perfect for the days of miniskirts and fascination with Twiggy. Perfume became the “it” gift from this same boy when one Christmas, he gave me a bottle of Heaven Sent. The tag line was “suddenly, you are all of the things that you want to be, a little bit naughty, but heavenly…with Heaven Sent.” It was launched in 1936, and was described as feminine: fl oral, apple blossom, mandarin, lily of the valley and sandalwood. That same boy is still giving me perfume almost 40 years later, but has had a diffi cult time fi nding Heaven Sent. My fi rst management job in retail was in cosmetics in a department store. I became acquainted with hundreds of brands of perfume. This was at about the same time that celebrity endorsements and spokes models changed the industry. In 1974, model Lauren Hutton became
the Revlon Girl, and Shelly Hack, wearing “new” designer Ralph Lauren, created an image of the liberated woman with the brand Charlie. In the nineties celebrity endorsement became the norm. Successful campaigns started with models, and then with movie stars when Elizabeth Taylor started her own perfume company. The concept continues to translate movie glamour into fragrance. While I continued to experiment with fragrance, my mother's consistent choice was Chanel No.5. Created with the help of Ernest Beaux, famed fashion designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel launched Chanel No.5 in 1922. She named it to coincide with her usual launch of a couture collection on the 5th day of the 5th month. It was designed as the scent of a woman, rather than the scent of a fl ower bouquet. Today’s famous bottle was designed by Jean Helleau, while the original was produced by Brosse glasswork in the image of a travel set owned by Coco's lover, who later died in a car accident. Through the years Chanel No.5 has been represented by stars, from Marilyn Monroe, who answered the question “What do I wear to bed? Why, Chanel No.5, of course!” to Nicole Kidman, who starred in a movie commercial in 2004, directed by Baz Luhrmann, entitled “No.5, the Film.” Andy Warhol made the fragrance a pop sensation when he made nine silk screens of the bottle. Recently there have been several fi lms that have highlighted Coco's career and given insight into the strength of the designer, who continues to infl uence generations. The company estimates that a bottle of Chanel No. 5 is sold, worldwide, every 55 seconds. It has been available for almost a hundred years, and is considered the world's most legendary perfume. In my mind, my mother's glamour matched Chanel No. 5’s fragrance. During my childhood she had platinum blonde hair, false eye lashes, stylish clothes, and her special fragrance. She defi nitely wasn't the mother next door. Mom is nearing ninety; still bleaching her hair and using Chanel. She lives on the other side of the country, but all I have to do is spray myself with her signature scent to feel her near me. The power of perfume is indeed heaven sent. B
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Benicia Magazine20
How did you end up working in Spain? After I graduated, I decided to have an adventure. I didn’t have a lot of money, so I sold my VW. It was a convertible and I loved that car, but I sold it and got a ticket to Spain. I taught English as a second language in Oviedo, a town in northern Spain.
How did teaching in Spain lead to working for non-
profi t agencies? When I came home, I wanted to keep my Spanish alive so I taught English as a second language in San Rafael, fi rst with Canal Ministries and then the Canal Community Alliance. Meanwhile I worked for the Pacifi c Sun (a Marin County weekly newspaper). I did their calendar and was a writer. But it just wasn’t working fi nancially and I needed to make a living. So the Canal Community Alliance hired me as a grant writer because of my writing experience and they trained me! They taught me a lot. I ended up doing a lot of work for them.
What keeps you interested in writing grant
applications? There’s a lot of reward in grant writing. It gives you a ticket into people’s lives. You get to sit down with people who are running the program, people who are benefi tting from the program and really understand how the program is making a difference. I understood I wasn’t going to be able to write a compelling proposal unless I got really close to the program. There’s really no way to write a good grant application without a good program. And then when the money comes in, Hallelujah! I’d ring a bell so everyone would know and we’d really celebrate that.
What did you do while working for Lucasfi lm? I was there as an assistant in the public relations department during the re-release of the trilogy. I was transcribing interviews with George Lucas and doing other work related to the re-release. It was the most wonderful, joyful job. It was one of the two favorite places I’ve worked: Skywalker Ranch and di Rosa. Both are very creative environments. It was exciting and I loved it, but there’s a bit of a glass ceiling at Lucasfi lm and I was feeling a need to do something more meaningful. And I ended up in the most gritty setting.
Gritty? I went to work for a medical van serving the homeless in San Francisco. It was called the SOS van—Street Outreach Services van. … I focused on grant writing. I used my journalism background to write articles about things like homeless people who commit suicide.It was so heavy. I was feeling old, and I was young. I remember thinking it’d be so cool to work for a museum.
How did working for a museum differ from your work
with human service agencies? I started working for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 1999, and it is a big museum, so slick. I was used to working for social services and this was a different ballgame, a big step in professionalizing my grant writing. I call it my grant writing boot camp. I was turning out one grant a week. I was part of a development team of fi ve, and one other person was a grant writer. We were responsible for raising $800,000 a year.
How has fundraising changed in response to the
economic times? Funders have less money to give, but they don’t want to see that you are desperate. They get that. It’s all about your strengths. They want to know you are being creative and not drowning in your problems, that you’re thinking things through and being strategic about solutions. The competition is so much greater because there is less money to go for, so organizations have to get their houses in order.
What does it mean for organizations to “get their houses
in order”? Number 1, you have to have a workable budget that’s pretty well thought through. Number 2, you’ve got to show you’ve done your strategic planning; and, number 3, you’ve got to have great programs. You’ve got to have a database, a way to track your donors and a system to thank them. You’ve got to have a board of directors who knows what its role and responsibilities are, directors who understand they need to be giving. You want to see that 100 percent of your board is giving to support the organization. You’ve got to have a good staff and good, strong morale within the organization. Fundraising is the last thing you do. You have to have your house in order before you can ask foundations to invest in you.
What percent of your grant applications end up getting
funded? Generally I would not count on more than 50 percent. But if you start to target your requests, if you do your research and you talk to your funders, then you fi nd your percent of return increases in relation to the time invested.
What’s next for you? Here’s my dream: I’d like to have my own shop in downtown Benicia. I think it will have repurposed things – pre-loved, beautiful treasures. There will be an element of community service in it and I think it will involve youth, teaching them how to run a business. But that’s down the road. For now, I’m going to develop my grant writing and I think I’d like to go back to school to become a teacher. I want to develop my creative side so I’m thinking about elementary school. It still might happen. B
By Sue Sumner-Moore She’s taught English as a second language in northern Spain and in San Rafael, written for community newspapers, organized events for the Marin County Fair, planned reunions at UC Berkeley, and worked for Lucasfi lm. And she’s raised more than $1 million for art and human service organizations in the Bay Area. “I can’t take full responsibility for all of that, but I was defi nitely part of the process,” says Adriene Rockwell, now mother of a preschooler and part-time grant writer. Her journey in the non-profi t world has taken her from agencies that provide services to immigrants and homeless people to organizations that offer art programs and run museums. Adriene, 45, sought work in the art fi eld in part to balance the intensity of human services work and because she comes from a family of artists. “Everyone in my family is an artist except for me,” she says. She left her “perfect job” as development director for di Rosa, a Napa art museum, when her son was born in 2006. “I intended to keep working there,” she says. But after a diffi cult birth, “I knew I didn’t want to miss even one hiccup.” She is now resuming her grant-writing career. Adriene grew up in Marin County and moved to Benicia from San Francisco in 2003. She joined the board of Arts Benicia shortly after arriving here and currently has a grant-writing contract with the organization. “I feel very proud of my involvement in Arts Benicia,” she says. “It’s in a very good place, doing very well. We got our fi rst two foundation grants last year.” Adriene’s husband is a classical music composer who teaches math and directs the choir at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill. Their son is 4.
Adriene Rockwell
An Interview with
BeniciaMagazine.com
LOOKING BACK
Forty Years of PhotographsBy Mary Marino Photographs digitized from the extensive collection of John Laurence Molfi no, a Benicia barber and amateur photographer, will be on exhibit at the Benicia Historical Museum in February beginning February 6. Mr. Molfi no, born in Genoa, Italy in 1874, immigrated to the United Sates in 1888. He lived in Merced, Port Costa and Benicia. Known as Johnny, his barbershop was at 635 First Street, and he made his home at 295 West H Street. He married Giaconda Canessa (Gita) and had three daughters. Mr. Molfi no’s twelve hundred piece collection, donated through the efforts of Diane and Harry Wassmann by the O’Grady Estate, consists of glass plate and acetate negatives taken over forty years in Benicia, during the late 1800s and early 1900s. His photographs of the Carquinez Strait, sunsets in the hills of Benicia, San Francisco (especially after the earthquake of 1906) and of his family are sterling examples of an artist’s eye combined with the diffi culty of the cameras of the day. There are pictures of snow in our city, and many events at Benicia High School. In order for us to appreciate and enjoy this collection, Museum volunteer Bob Kvasnicka has spent countless hours digitizing these plates, and has created a book of the pictures, “Years Around Benicia 1902-1937” which will be on display and available for purchase. A member of the International Order of Redmen, he and his subjects are remembered by some of our citizens. His daughter Violet Molfi no Wilson was a teacher at Benicia High School. His grandchildren have assisted the Museum in identifying subjects in the photographs. The opening event will be Sunday, February 6, at 2 pm at the Museum, 2060 Camel Road. The event is open to the public and free of charge. B
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Benicia Magazine22
February 2/3-2/25 Capitol & Fischer-Hanlon House Guided Tours 1-4pm Capitol tour 1-4pm, Fischer-Hanlon tour, 2pm Thursdays and Fridays in February 115 West G Street 707.745.3385
2/3-2/27 “Art of a Community” Thurs-Sun 12-5pm Works by members of Arts Benicia Arts Benicia Gallery, 991 Tyler Street, Ste. 114 Artsbenicia.org 707.747.0131
2/4 Jazz’N Crab Feed 6-9pm Fundraiser for Benicia High & Middle School Bands. Includes crab, salad, red beans & rice, bread & dessert Benicia Clocktower, 1189 Washington Street Grace Ann Anderson 707.334.3212
2/6 Arts Benicia Presents Family Art Day 1-3pm Kids wanted! Come have fun and be creative Arts Benicia Gallery, 991 Tyler Street, Ste. 114 Artsbenicia.org 707.747.0131
2/6 Museum Exhibit “Views of Benicia” 2pm Opening day of this exhibit by John Molfi no Benicia Historical Museum, 2060 Camel Rd Beniciahistoricalmuseum.org 707.745.5435
2/12 Friends of the Library Book Sale 10am-4pm Benicia Library, 150 East L Street Benicialibrary.org 707.745-4770
2/13 Celebration of Love Poetry Contest 2pm Reading and presentation of the winning poems Benicia Historical Museum, Stone Hall, 2060 Camel Road Beniciahistoricalmuseum.org 707.745.5435
2/16 Evening Book Club for Adults 7-8pm Library Dona Benicia Room Benicia Library, 150 East L Street Benicialibrary.org 707.746.4343
2/19 Gal-A Palooza Women’s Expo 11am-5pm Women of all ages invited to learn, relax, unwind Downtown Benicia shops and restaurants Beniciamainstreet.org 707.745.9791
2/26 Trivia Bee XX - Survivor! South Seas 6pm Dinner, music, no host bar, raffl e, auction & more Adult Literacy Program fundraiser Benicia Clocktower, 1189 Washington Street Benicialibrary.org 707.746.4343
2/26 Stone Hall Comedy Series 8pm Jeff Applebaum with opener Kellen Erskine Benicia Historical Museum, 2060 Camel Road Beniciahistoricalmuseum.org 707.745.5435
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Benicia Magazine24
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