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New winery; latest hotel; Hitchcock costumes and more

The newest state of Wine Country is Bennett Valley, where, on Sonoma Mountain Road, Belden Barns Winery will become the area’s first. The Board of Supervisors approved the 10k-case facility and (10,000 lb. a year) cheese factory by a 4-1 vote. The lone dissent came from Susan Gorin, who is concerned about traffic and the sheer number of visitors clogging that area of her First District turf.

The Sonoma Planning Commission got its first official look at plans for the erstwhile Sonoma Truck and Auto lot at 870 Broadway, owned by a SoCal development firm. Many public hearings to go for Sonoma Gateway Commons, but the initial plans all for: a three-story, 36-room boutique hotel; 15 apartment units; and a public marketplace along the lines (in its dreams) of Napa’s jam-packed Oxbow. The campus includes some parking, with the hotel’s 56-slot valet lot across the street, in back of the Union 76 station… Great, but how much money will the city make from it? Wasn’t that a key component to the last major hotel proposal?

No official word on why the Sonoma Film Society canceled its Hitchcock-themed mystery gala scheduled for October 25. Nobody could have looked as good as Cary Grant did in “North by Northwest.” According to “GQ” he was wearing the best suit in film history. Being Cary Grant didn’t hurt, either… One would-be guest wonders when the next chance might be to wear a designer ensemble covered with fake bird poop. Another was planning to come wrapped in a shower curtain. With her body double, perhaps?

Meet Dennis McNally. The publicist for the Grateful Dead for 25 years, he’s written a book about Jack Kerouac (“Desolate Angel”), and a history of the Dead (“A Long Strange Trip”). Hi newest is “On Highway 61/Race, Music, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom.” The book began, he says, as an effort to seek the deeper roots of why the 1960s happened – why so many people asked so many profound questions about American beliefs. “After a whole lot of research, I found myself tracing the relationship between white, mostly young, Americans and African American music, and how that connection always seemed to pursue what I call the freedom principle. As I went along, the story touched on Thoreau, Mark Twain, the minstrel era, the origins of ragtime, the blues, and jazz. And that was only the 19th century! Louis Armstrong, the electric Chicago Blues, the folk music of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger… for me, it all came together in the story of Bob Dylan, who returned to the black-white fusion that is rock and roll as his career matured, and whose songs, whether overtly political or more personal and even surreal, always concerned freedom.” On Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m. A long strange trip indeed. McNally promises to “talk about the book, take questions, and sign anything not actually in motion.”

One Comment

  1. Rob Rob

    I’m suspicious of Gorin’s vote and handling of the winery issue.

    For years, I’ve been told that other supervisors almost always will defer to the wishes of the supervisor with jurisdiction/responsibility for the resolution of the issue.

    Why did they not do in this case? Why in fact did they vote unanimously against her?

    Or was there something else at work here? Did Gorin basically send a signal to the other sups to vote as they wish while she fluttered her wings and made noise so as to please her constituents.

    Gorin’s a skilled politician. It would not surprise me at all if the latter was the case.

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