#a season came out around the one year mark of the pandemic and my brain was basically soup at that point

[grunge-mermaid]

when you ask for recommendations for shows/movies that aren't grimdark and the only response is "Letterkenny is probably too raunchy for you, Heartland might be more your wheelhouse" you start to question how you present yourself online

this is "you seem like the kind of person who would enjoy Ayn Rand" levels of misunderstanding me good lord

[bondsmagii]

FUCKING THANK YOU ABOUT SHERLOCK after having multiple people i know irl claim its a masterpiece when it was still coming out, i of course watched it around the beginning of the pandemic and aside from the INCREDIBLY obvious queerbaiting that is actually impossible to deny, the show just got worse and worse? The last season was the most badly written thing like pulling sherlock’s sister out of their ass and introducing her like a dragonball z villain like OH AND SHES SMAAARTER AND A GENIUUUUS AND EVILLLLL AND INSANEEEE like i could not actually believe what i was watching. it was so bad. horrible show, awful writing, just remembering it makes me want to eat the walls

what stuns me after doing a deep dive into all of this was the fact that a lot of the claims that the show was very smart came from the fact that the fandom genuinely believed that the show was gearing up for some final episode that would really tie everything together and make all the glaring plot holes and nonsensical twists suddenly make sense... but it never did. and when the absolutely terrible, atrocious, no good final episode aired, everyone finally realised that no. no, there is no reason for this. there is no build-up, no greater plan, no huge reveal. it really was just that shit. and then they fucking lost their minds, with good reason.

I cannot get over the villains in the whole show to be honest. like don't get me wrong. I love an over the top villain. my favourite kind of villain is absolutely ridiculously overdramatic and a total petty bitch, like, cannot get enough. I'm not even one of those people who needs a deeper meaning. "just thought it would be funny" or "wanted to see what would happen" is a complete reason for me. like yes! descend into megolomaniacal violence and chaos just because you want to! I support this! but I really never got the hype of Moriarty, and I understand Sherlock's sister even fucking less. probably it was the shoddy writing that ended up screwing Moriarty over, but at the same time it just didn't fit with the tone at all and I found most of it just fucking cringe. by the time Sherlock's sister came into it (and of course she was all tied up with Moriarty too, WHY.) it was just so far into the realm of ridiculous that I genuinely wonder how somebody as supposedly intelligent as Sherlock even fucking cared. like not gonna lie but if I was a super genius and I had to put up with the equivalent of a pair of 14 year old 4chan trolls following me around, up with that shit I would not put.

also finally why was Sherlock's brother even there. like. Mycroft is supposed to be this enigmatic figure but in the series he seems to just be... [checks notes] Mark Gatiss's super cool and mysterious OC?? maybe this is like Rick and Morty and we just don't have brains big enough for this series. all I know is I'm taking the whole Moriarty thing as another example of English hostility towards the Irish.

[jinterlude]

Mik’s Follow Forever

↳ Resource Credits: Seokjin | Floral PNG 

Hi and hello everyone! Wow. Can we just take a moment to appreciate that we survived the shit storm that is 2020? Ranging from the pandemic to politics to social injustice happening around the world, we manage to stay resilience to the say the least. With that said, I wanted to finally acknowledged that I hit a big milestone as of November (?) or was it September (?) [I don’t even know anymore LOL😂]! Before I get into my letters underneath this cut, I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for following me! Even though, I post once in a blue moon, and my blog is run on queue 24/7, you still hit that follow button! For that, thank you so much for giving my blog a chance, whether it’s for the multi-fandom content I reblog or my very own creations, something made you stay 💙 Alright let’s get to the personal letters 💌 

To Jey @softjeon : 

Jey. Honestly, where do I begin with you? The End. Just kidding! Damn. I can’t believe you’re one of my oldest friend on this website. We have had our ups and downs, but our friendship always manages to come out strong in the end. You and I always manage to be on the same wavelength in terms of story telling, talking about everything and anything, or just shooting some random ass, extreme ideas that manage to go to the WIP pile in our brains. While, we do not talk as frequently as we used to (I blame school + internship on that part), I just know that I can always go to your DMs whenever I need someone to talk to or if I want to randomly bug you. You my hardworking queen is a force to reckon with, and I am forever in awe of your work ethics. Like who can simultaneously run 20+ blogs? You. That’s who. Granted, knowing you, there’s some tears and sweat (mainly tears with that), but the finished product is worth it in the end. I honestly can’t wait for the day when we have our own apartment, and we can just sit in silence in our living room couch with our fur babies. Can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store for you and know that I’m cheering you on every step of the way (whether it is in silence or vocally). Love you, Queen Jey! 

Signed, 

Your first wife, Kimi 

p.s. thank you for giving/helping me with the idea of creating KWW and creating our seasonal themed headers (all while promoting girl groups)! Seriously, thank you for being and staying in my life. T-T

To my fellow BHQ Admin/Mod Team [ @chillingkoo @/guktro @mygsii @dee-ehn @nightowls388 @yoonqiful @taerseok   @btsxdoll @minloop @namluve ​ ]: 

What can I say except this is an amazing team to be part of in terms of Networks? The Head Admins Vivi, Gray, & Renae are like the board of directors that help make sure that the operation runs smoothly. Then, us Admins (Danica, myself, & Daria) are like the VP’s followed by the amazing Mods (Beezy, Penelope, Daija, & Dani) are the Supervisors/Managers of each division. What I am going with this business analogy is that BHQ is nothing without the amazing team members that make up the network, and I am grateful to be part of a cohesive team where I truly felt like I was with Gray since the beginning of the network establishment. It is thanks to this network (BHQ) that I learned how to run my own network more smoothly and professionally. I can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store for BHQ. Thank you for being amazing and wonderful people and just being a rock for the members during the major events that occurred throughout this year. You’re the best! 

- Mik

To my fellow KWW Admin/Mod Team [ @queen-of-himbos​ @atiny-piratequeen​ @sugarcookiesandsins​ @meraki-mark​ @samuelkimz​ ]: 

First, can I say to the fellow admins, thank you for keeping me sane and helping me run this network while I was swamped with school + internship. Forever grateful of both you (Kes) and Fie for being a driving force and keeping the network afloat while I focused on my school work. It is no secret that I had confrontation, so I’m thankful that either Kes or Fie agrees to being the enforcer and messages someone for me T-T Also, Kes, thank you so much for taking over the coding/member page for me all while still doing the queue. I can never say this enough, but thank you for doing that. Fie, thank you for lightly slapping me and keeping me sane whenever I feel quick to jump the gun. You are there to help me see reason and point out things that I overlook a lot. (This is why I have Jey too lol) To my wonderful Queue-tie Pies! Thank you so much for dedicating a few hours out of your day to add content to the queue and keeping our blog alive! KWW is nothing without you amazing mods. I hope you all know that! Let’s kick butt together in 2021!

- Admin Mik 

To my fellow supportive and loving SIMPS [ @ppersonna​ @jinned​ @sunkissedjk​ @hongism​ @monotape​ @wintertae​ @dreamyhan​ @koophoriia​ @j-sope​ ]: 

First of all, how are you doing on this lovely Wednesday (well it’s Wednesday when I wrote & posted this lol)? I hope each and every one of you are doing fine! I feel bad that I haven’t been in touch lately uwu but I do silently stalk/lurk on the Bangtan University discord server or on your personal blogs (totally not weird whatsoever). I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Now, simply put, I want to say that I’m thankful that you all came into my life this year. In some shape or form, you made my 2020 incredibly bright and filled with so much inspiration and passion for writing that I honestly believed that I would not get back. Whether it is by joining a collab with you all, simply talking about ideas or just in general, or even screaming about potential AUs, you made me want to write again. For that, I am extremely appreciative of it and know that I will forever be a silent cheerleader for you all! 2021 will be the year I invade your ask box a lot more and just scream how much I love you all! You are all rays of sunshine on this website!

- Owner of Mikdonalds, home of the famous Mikimchi

To Kat @yeoldontknow​ & Sarah @yehet-me-up​: 

First, long time and no talk! How are my resident EXO wives doing? Are Chanyeol and Junmyeon treating you ladies well? I hope so! Anyway, I honestly can’t not include you two ladies in my Holiday thank you post because how can I not include the two authors I look up to the most on this website. With how you write your characters, the scenery, background information on the reader/OC, you just leave me completely speech less whenever I finish reading your works. Ah, I might start tearing up as I write this section because I just can’t thank God or fate enough for allowing me to meet two of the most beautiful souls on this website. While we do not talk as frequently as we used to, I wanted to let you both know that I hope you had a wonderful Holiday! Whatever 2021 has in store for you both, just know that you have a silent cheerleader in good old CA! 

- Mrs. Kim Kim 

To every single one of my followers (mutuals or not): 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much, again, for following me and just staying with me. For my newly established mutuals, I can’t wait to talk and get to know you all in 2021! Granted, I suck at talking and keeping the conversation going, so I apologize for that. I promise I will be better!! I want more friends, okay! T-T 

Anywho...

TLDR: Let’s kick butt together in 2021! Also, I’m establishing my New Year Goal of that I will become more consistent of writing + posting content. Instead of once every blue moon, it will be once every full moon. See? That’s doable, right? Right?!

- Mik

[supernoondles]

2020

A lot happens in a year, even when nothing seems to happen at all.

There's nothing new my commentary about a global pandemic (and the particularly frustrating experience of living in America during it, even with all my privileges of continued employment, owning a car, rent stability, and living in the bay area) will bring to the reader, but I will underscore this: my feelings aren't that 2020 is any kind of exceptional year, but the point where, hopefully, we finally realize that economic/climate/racial injustice has been a terrible problem for a long time, and will continue to be unless we enact massive collective change. A vaccine is not going to make any of those issues disappear, and I worry the people in power (including myself) will return to their comfortable life styles as if the next decade won't be even worse.

Anyway, general DOOM aside (RIP man), here's my year in specific!

From looking through my photos: January was off to a great start. I celebrated the new year with dim sum with J/M/M, as per tradition, and went on a foggy hike through SF with my family that involved my dad and J getting hilariously lost. Soon after I went to Sonoma with J/M -- for all my years in the bay, I had never explored north of the Golden Gate that much -- which was a wonderful trip seeing J's hometown. I helped my lab demo research at the Exploratorium, started growing my own microgreens, and went on more (to become semi-regular and my only source of cardio through the pandemic) bike rides with my lab mates. I finally saw Hamilton (though feel a need to justify here how "cringey" I think LMM is). I went to Genesis, my first gaming-related convention, and it was a lot of fun despite seeing no women. I did so many things, was making progress on research (I think? I don't recall any breakdowns) and my mental health was generally good.

The doing of things continued in February. After not going last year, I went to the Tet Festival in SJ (which was kind of sad). I joined a Chinese learning club and a crafts club and had a delicious omakase. N visited again, I went ice skating and tried to rescue a giant rat from string lights, and saw the Sonic movie in theaters (which would have been my last movie in theaters, sigh). After having a drink at Wursthall with T, I felt terrible (to the unaccustomed reader, not only do I Asian glow, my hands/feet itch whenever I drink and I feel like I want to die), and decided that was the last drink I'd ever have -- thanks to the pandemic that's stayed true. I went on a ski retreat with the lab that felt particularly special (and not just because I didn't have to pay). We (I, in convincing my mostly Asian office) wanted to make 元宵 on the eve of E's birthday, but it turns out that a bunch of CS PhD students really love singing karaoke for like 4 hours straight into the night, and at some point I was like, okay y'all, time to go to bed. So I hosted 元宵 making at my apartment the next weekend, and we watched another Bong Joon-Ho movie (The Host) to celebrate his Oscar win. Typing this out, it seems wild that this was even in this year. I also did sh*** for the first time, hallucinated white woman in the edges of my vision like a GAN, ate a lot of shaved parmesan from TJ, and let go of any stress I had about the UIST deadline to the abundance of nature and the world.

I break from the month-per-paragraph format now because we all know what happens next. M and I biked around campus to film a virtual tour for the newly virtual admit weekend. Being in Gates that Friday (three days before the bay area wide shelter-in-place order) was the last time I'd be on campus for a while. The next day I adopted 3 wonderful baby rats (my biggest brain move this whole year) and the day after that I moved home. I was counting down the days until Animal Crossing and then J and I were duplicating royal crowns in ACNH. At some point my hair got really bad. The months blurred together. Adjusting to WFH was extremely challenging for me, someone who had structured their whole life around the "I only do work in the office and I leave the office when I get hungry for dinner" logic. I would stop working at 6pm but spent the entire afternoon mentally prepping myself to do maybe 30 menial minutes of it. I binged AtLA. I gave up submitting to UIST. In May I hung out in the park with J, who came home from Seattle, which was the first time I saw anyone outside my family. Sometime in there I decided to become a Twitch streamer and had a brief revival as DJ Noon before I felt bad for roping my friends into listening to my music and ran out of interesting songs I wanted to play. In June I, like many others, took to the streets. For two weeks I donated $50 a day to a different organization. I couldn't get any work done at all and spent an entire advisor meeting sobbing so intensely that they felt bad and canceled it after 10 minutes. I emailed the university and got my housing back for the summer and I moved back to start my internship.

The internship was the break I needed -- working with W was a godsend compared to the struggle of my advisors. After reaching new lows at the start of the summer, my mental health was sloping positively again -- working on a new research project helped clear the emotional baggage of the last one. I was also getting more outdoor social interaction -- I went to Ocean Beach with M/D, Half Moon Bay with my family, and going on weekly bike rides with M. At the end of June, M, my roommate, her boyfriend M the clown (there are now 3 different Ms) and I waited for negative COVID results before going on a 2 day camping trip to Mt. Lassen, which felt completely surreal, and, at that time, completely necessary.

The summer dragged on and my mental health, at some point, began to slip. If I were to graph it it would probably look like the inverse of COVID cases in the US -- gradually decreasing, but with high variance from the day to day. I got an embroidery machine, I attended a workshop on docu-poetics with CPH that was so ripe with information my brain physically ached, I saw my lab mates again for the first time as we sat in a very, very wide circle to say goodbye to a post-doc who got a faculty job in Israel. Most weekends I drove to my parents' house and would take J on various hikes around East Bay so he could better appreciate his roots before he went off to Boston for college. He was taking the Switch with him, so in August I bought myself a new one and planned out my entire second ACNH town, which kept me busy for a while -- but surprisingly not as long as I thought, as with planning (and money from my old account) the whole project took I think less than 50 hours. The camping itch came back and the day before my birthday, which was also the day before J would leave for Boston, we went camping at a small state park in San Jose where he got heat stroke and we slept on top of fire ants. The entire experience reminded me how much I disliked camping -- but what else was there to do? I had a wonderful (and long, bless the folks who stayed) Zoom birthday party where I wore a mesh shirt I made and covered with worms on a string. The day after my birthday someone backed into my car, which, following the demands of a racist letter from the HOA, was parked in guest parking. (Ultimately this would be a blessing of insurance money, as the damage was mainly cosmetic and the person kindly left their contact information.) At this time I was also unironically watching ASMR videos to fall asleep, so I painted a two Bob Ross style paintings, one in my virtual art club, to pay homage.

Fire season this year was worse than it's ever been. Being trapped inside the house combined with my roommate moving out at the start of fall quarter and now living alone marked the second downward spiral of my mental health. The bad days were more frequent. I TA'd a game design course, my first time teaching at this university, where many students messaged me to complain that their 95s were not 100s. In the end the lowest grade in the class was an A- and 20% of the class got an A+. At some point I submitted a summer-long project I did with J and S to CHI; it is so much easier to produce work when I do not have to wrangle with M. (This paper gets accepted, but my silly grad student excitement is tampered both by general "why are we still trying to publish when society is crumbling" pandemic feelings and the fact that CHI will not be physically in Japan next year.) Maybe once a month I go birding. I feel increasingly as if there is nothing novel in my life; I am tired of it all and my body feels fatigued even though I don't do anything with my days. Some days it feels like if I don't touch someone I will explode. My use of recreational marijuana skyrockets. I start doing exercise videos semi-regularly with A. I briefly consider moving to Seattle with E, who is about to defend, before it's clear we have, as always, different boundaries and expectations. I look for places in Sunset/Richmond with M to little success.

In October I somehow pull it together and organize student volunteers for a 3 day conference that requires waking up before 5am every day. I do nothing the rest of the week. After we get flu shots and I let someone into my apartment for the first time since the pandemic started, I help E move up to Seattle. The trip is comfortable and we get to take care of each other; this fulfills a need in me. On Halloween J and I dance in a soccer field next to a combination anarchist recruitment center and homeless encampment -- now cleared by the cops -- and eat a mud pie that is too sweet. On my last day in WA I ask E if he would like to have sex, as friends, and he politely declines. I am pleased with how easily I emotionally accept this answer, how through time and therapy I've finally come to cherish our friendship without always looking for what could have been. I am extremely nervous on the flight home, and it's the first and only flight I will take during the pandemic, and the N-95 squishes my face so my head looks like a balloon, but I have the privilege of free 5 minute weekly tests through the university and I collect another negative result.

In November I fully embrace the hyperfixation lifestyle. My brain, always looking for novel stimuli, has given up on doing work entirely and instead thinks of Thanzag constantly. There is one day where I play Hades for 8 hours and I feel gross, as if I've completed my regression to my high school self. It takes 90 hours until I achieve all my goals, and with no more runs necessary to roll for RNG-based conversational triggers, I finally feel a sense of freedom. (My Switch tells me I have used it for 580+ hours this year, which is more than double last year.) The second SwSh DLC is a struggle for me to complete as I do not find catching legendaries enticing. J comes back early from university at my urging to avoid the travel surge, a week before Thanksgiving, and starts living with me. This helps a lot. My next hyperfixations come overlapping and staggered: I write 25k words of a second iteration of my 2015 NaNoWriMo with the protagonist I had developed in high school before I get bored with the story and realize I need yet another iteration; I buy a combination air fryer pressure cooker and ask my parents for a functional vacuum and bidet as early Christmas gifts and become obsessed with immaculate inside living spaces. This carries on to re-decorating my room at my parents' house, after installing a shelf in the closet and a curtain to close it off from the living room, and spending roughly 30 hours over December break organizing and cleaning their entire garage--they have not thrown out a single piece of paper or article of clothing since they set foot in this country over 20 years ago. My therapist quits the practice and my relationship with my advisors improve. I watch a few housewife vlogs and make my own. I have the revelation that doing research in a pandemic is basically just like any other creative project -- no one really cares that much if I get it done, it's just harder to do than, say, putting together a vlog in a few hours. This shift in mindset feels life changing to me, having before thought of research more as work, a taboo thing to pursue in a pandemic, and when W compliments me for the progress I've made in both the system and managing our meeting with M I do not know how to respond because no one has ever done that before. In the last two weeks of the year I start tracking my time. In our last session (that I almost sleep through), my therapist tells me that I seem stable to her and she is not worried about me. I believe her.

In 2020 I made a marked point to let everyone know that I didn't have goals. It felt lofty to have personal ambitions in the face of everything at a global scale. With this said I will now revisit the 2020 resolutions I wrote last year: (1) Intentionally seek out love: absolutely not, (2) Do enough work such that I don't feel guilty: also no, (3) sew one thing a month: no, but in the end I sewed 11 things total this year so I was close, (4) improve my Chinese: this was actually the only thing that did happen, and now my mom and I have better conversations because of it and I'm so thankful.

In 2021, however, I feel like I finally have it in me to have goals again. They are simple. (1) Get laid. (2) Submit the two research projects I've been doing forever. (3) Commit to writing down my thoughts that make me think, "Oh, that's interesting, I should write it down." Ideas are unfortunately such currency in what I do.

Last year I wrapped up this post with some candid, but embarrassing, optimism. I will offer no such high hopes for 2021, but I do ask the reader if they have noticed that I switched tenses from past to present halfway through this post. And that's 2021: an incidentally unintentional, but then consciously controllable, shift to the present.

[dipulb3]

Fire-ravaged California Wine Country: We're still here

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/fire-ravaged-california-wine-country-were-still-here/

Fire-ravaged California Wine Country: We're still here

Healdsburg, California (Appradab) — The subject of the call was dire: Scattered reports of fire. On the mountain. Maybe headed straight for the Meadowood Napa Valley resort.

It was late September, and most resort employees had evacuated to safer spots. Officials organized a conference call to reassure their people not to panic. Christopher Kostow, executive chef of The Restaurant at Meadowood, was one of those on the line.

The group discussed conflicting news reports of fire burning nearby vineyards. They shared first- and second-hand stories of friends losing everything. Finally, someone interrupted: What about “the picture?”

The picture, of course, was one that is now burned in the brains of everyone within a 30-mile radius of the most vaunted wine region in California.

In the foreground, a lone CalFire firefighter stands in an orange jumpsuit atop a heap of plant debris. In the background, the three-Michelin-star restaurant and top story of the luxurious Clubhouse at the five-star Meadowood resort are completely engulfed in flames.

Kostow hadn’t seen the photo tweeted out by a Bay Area journalist until someone texted it to him moments later. The chef was driving when it came through on his phone. After glancing at it, he nearly veered off the road.

“I knew immediately — you don’t come back from that,” Kostow said days later, still recovering from the shock. “We put 12 years of human capital into that place, and it disappeared in a few hours.”

Kostow’s restaurant wasn’t the only casualty of wildfires in Wine Country this year. Two separate fires over the course of three months singed acres of vineyards, hundreds of homes and several other tourist destinations throughout the area.

The most recent blaze — the Glass Fire — wreaked havoc in Napa County, hitting Meadowood and obliterating the five-star Calistoga Ranch resort. It damaged or destroyed nearly twodozen wineries as well.

In August, the hulking LNU Complex Fire hit both sides of the region, burning all the land around Lake Berryessa in Napa County and threatening the Russian River Valley resort towns of Forestville and Guerneville on the Sonoma County side.

Cleanup and recovery operations are ongoing where possible; in some cases, those businesses that had shuttered because of damages have reopened.

Still, after an economic slowdown thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and three horrific fire seasons out of the past four, many local folks can’t help but wonder: Will travel to Wine Country ever be the same?

State of the region

To be clear, Napa and Sonoma counties are still vibrant, beautiful places.

Yes, there have been terrible fires since 2017. Yes, people have died. Yes, fresh black burn scars slash the otherwise verdant landscape. All told, across both counties the fires have destroyed more than 7,500 homes.

Amazingly, however, in the context of the local tourism infrastructure, these natural disasters really haven’t precipitated the type of Armageddon that many might extrapolate from headlines and video they see on TV.

Fire crews saved all structures at the Schramsberg vineyard outside Calistoga.

Courtesy Schramsberg

Take the most recent Glass Fire, which burned more than 67,000 acres overall.

Linsey Gallagher, president and CEO of Visit Napa Valley, the organization tasked with marketing the Napa Valley as a travel destination, said the region is home to about 475 wineries. She noted that only 31 — roughly 6.5% — were directly affected by the fire.

Of the 31, she said, 11 suffered major damage or destruction.

Among those reporting serious or total losses: Burgess, Cain, Dutch Henry, Hourglass, Newton and Sherwin Family. The 45-year-old Chateau Boswell also burned to the ground; all that remains today is the winery building’s stone façade.

“Our thoughts go out to all who were impacted by this most recent fire,” Gallagher said. “We have endured phylloxera (a louse affecting vines), Prohibition and earthquakes, and we’ll get through this, as well.”

Officials at wineries that endured less significant damages — all of which are open for tastings again — shared harrowing stories of perilously close calls.

Hugh Davies, president of the sparkling wine producer Schramsberg, reported that fire crews rushed up the hillside and saved all structures at his property outside Calistoga. He noted that a recent effort to create space between buildings and forest likely facilitated the heroic effort, and said that a few vines did burn.

At Castello di Amorosa, a Calistoga winery in a replica of a medieval stone castle, the fire burned a storeroom but not the main structure. Tom Davies, president and managing partner of sister winery V. Sattui (and no relation to Hugh), said the castle “got lucky.”

Philippe and Cherie Melka, owners of Melka Estates & Winery in St. Helena

Mariana Calderon Photography

Philippe and Cherie Melka, owners of Melka Estates & Winery in St. Helena, said flames incinerated their grown child’s detached living quarters and a guest cottage, but firefighters miraculously saved the family’s main home and the main winemaking facility.

“We recognize it could have been a lot worse,” Cherie Melka said. “We’re thankful we’re still here.”

Fallen icons

While the Glass Fire took out 150 of the 5,500 hotel rooms in Napa County, the losses represent two iconic properties: Calistoga Ranch and Meadowood Resort.

Calistoga Ranch, an ultra-luxury resort with 50 rooms, was destroyed — its exquisite main building, spa and $800-per-night cabins reduced to ashes in a matter of hours as the fire advanced from St. Helena north.

Todd Cilano was regional vice president of the resort, and in an email noted that the “Ranch” was a celebration of Wine Country. He wrote that the property was home to a working cabernet vineyard, hiking trails and a flourishing garden and a chicken coop that produced hyperlocal ingredients for the on-site restaurant. He added that people loved the resort because of how it blurred the line between inside and out.

The remains of the guest houses at Calistoga Ranch smoulder after the Glass Fire on September 30, 2020.

Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images

“Our intention is to reestablish the resort, but it will take some time to rebuild,” wrote Cilano, who is also general manager at Solage, a neighboring property which, like Calistoga Ranch, is part of the Auberge Resorts Collection. “The outpouring of support from past guests who already cannot wait to return has been incredibly encouraging.”

At Meadowood, many of the guest rooms survived the blaze but took on varying degrees of smoke damage. Since the clubhouse and other buildings were incinerated, the resort has closed to assess fallout and devise a rebuilding plan. No reopening date has been announced.

One thing is certain: The Restaurant at Meadowood will have to find a new home.

Kostow described his overriding emotion about the fire as “grief,” and likened losing the beloved restaurant to the death of a family member.

The bustling kitchen of three-Michelin-star The Restaurant at Meadowood, before it was destroyed in the Glass Fire on September 28.

Kelly Puleio

“To be honest I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life and I don’t think I ever will again,” he said. “It makes you think about what was of value in what you had done and what should be of value going forward. It throws into question everything about our industry and the value of the work we do. When nothing is physically left, there you are, asking yourself the question, ‘What of value remains?'”

Kostow continued: “For me it was such an honor over the years to work with the people I worked with. We worked hard. We did something unique. I’m so proud of the work they and I were able to do together. Fire can’t render that moot.”

Kostow has another local restaurant — The Charter Oak — in St. Helena, and said he expected to be able to keep most of his staff busy with work there.

He also said he is “looking at ways to keep the team working together” into 2021 and beyond.

Tackling other challenges

In Sonoma County, the hospitality industry has held its collective breath; while both the Glass Fire and an offshoot of the LNU Complex named the Walbridge Fire threatened thousands of local businesses, both fires burned mostly in wild areas and neither wreaked significant damage to the tourism infrastructure.

Of course, Sonoma County was hit harder in previous years, with the Kincade Fire threatening Healdsburg in 2019 and the Tubbs Fire blazing a path of destruction through Santa Rosa in 2017. Certain neighborhoods of Santa Rosa are still rising from the ashes.

This year, in addition to poor air quality, the biggest challenge for Sonoma County was one familiar to tourist destinations all over the world: the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Yes, we battled blazes and a pandemic, but this is a place that personifies resiliency, creativity and a passion for the best life has to offer,” said Claudia Vecchio, president and CEO of Sonoma County Tourism. “While the past several years have given us myriad challenges, Sonoma County continues to be a place where travelers can breathe in the stunning natural beauty, escape the crowds of the city and create (great) moments.”

The Arista Winery in the Russian River Valley sits on 36 acres and is ideal for social distancing.

King Lawrence

As Vecchio suggested, many wineries, hotels and restaurants have improvised.

In the Russian River Valley, for instance, Arista Winery bolstered an existing lineup of private tastings with outdoor experiences held at six spots around the 36-acre ranch.

Mark McWilliams, co-owner and director of operations, said all of these tastings come with small bites, and noted that each of the spots is secluded by big and beautiful oak trees, which means that visitors by nature are practicing physical distancing when they visit.

“We’re kind of set up with these private islands where I can have five groups here at any given time but they never see each other and feel like they’re the only group on the property,” said McWilliams, whose winery is in unincorporated Healdsburg. “We did this because it’s the best way to soak up the view and take in the beauty of this ranch. Turns out (these offerings) work for Covid, too.”

Because Sonoma County restaurants have not been allowed to offer indoor dining until Covid-19 case numbers fall below a certain threshold, restaurateurs have had to pivot in different ways.

In Windsor, Leah Scurto turned her dine-in pizza parlor, PizzaLeah, into a take-out only business. In the city of Sonoma, Sondra Bernstein this summer opened a satellite location of her girl & the fig restaurant in the plaza across the street.

Back in Healdsburg, restaurateur Dustin Valette spent more than $50,000 to create an al fresco patio on the street adjacent to his restaurant, Valette.

Inside, the restaurant could seat 49. Outside, the restaurant now seats 37.

“The patio is a bridge — we’re not at break-even, but we are in a position to endure losses,” said Valette, whose 79-year-old father still flies air tankers for CalFire. “With fires and Covid, we’re doing the best we can while still delivering on great food and a memorable experience.”

Hotels and local hotel companies embraced big changes, too. Four Sisters Inns, which operates seven boutique hotels in Wine Country, this summer signed up with Whistle, a text-messaging platform that allows concierges and other employees to communicate with guests from a safe distance.

The 25-room Farmhouse Inn & Spa in Forestville replaced communal s’mores bowls with single-family packets for guest to use to concoct goodies over the poolside fire pits. Also, every guest gets a face covering.

Some hotels even made operational changes — Vintners Resort in Santa Rosa shortened its cancellation policy to 72 hours from seven days and no longer charges guests for canceling reservations.

“Between the fires, the smoke from the fires, and Covid, we realized guests wanted us to be more flexible,” said General Manager Percy Brandon. “We’re doing whatever we can to make people feel welcome and attract more business.”

What comes next?

Across both counties, hoteliers, restaurateurs, winery owners and tour operators wonder whether all the pivoting they are doing will be enough.

At Farmhouse Inn & Spa in Forestville, California, every guest gets a face covering.

Courtest Farmhouse Inn

Battling the pandemic slump was challenging on its own, but with the additional threat of fires, the pervasive challenge of poor air quality because of wildfire smoke and the forthcoming danger of flooding and landslides during winter rains, many locals are uneasy.

“It’s multiple layers of crisis,” said Gallagher, the head of Visit Napa Valley.

Currently, the busiest time of the year in Wine Country is harvest, which usually takes place from August to November — the heart of fire season. Assuming the risk of Covid-19 will eventually go away, some locals wonder if encouraging visitors to come at different times of year might help circumvent complications associated with climate change.

One possibility: Bud Break, when grape vines wake up from winter dormancy and produce their first buds of the new season. This usually happens sometime between mid-February and mid-March, depending on weather and temperature.

Currently, at least from a tourism perspective, this timeframe is considered part of the region’s “off-season.” That means tasting rooms are less crowded and hotel rates are low — perfect conditions to attract new guests.

Two other possibilities include summer, which can get beastly hot, and November through January, which — at least before the past few years — has been characterized mostly by rain.

“(Typically) winter is rainy, but it’s a beautiful time to be here,” said Joe Bartolomei, co-owner of the Farmhouse Inn. “Maybe one of the ways we can survive the disruptions is by doing a better job of showing people we are a year-round destination.”

Other insiders think the answer is better education about local geography, climate and ecosystems.

Art Murray, president and owner of Flambeaux Wine in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, said that when visitors come for tastings, he usually pulls out a topographic map and tries to show them where the region’s valleys are in relation to each other. Murray also spends time distinguishing between Napa and Sonoma counties, which are separated by a mountain range and ecologically distinct.

To demonstrate the need for this basic education, Murray shared his own story. The Walbridge Fire came within less than a mile of his house and he barely heard from friends out of state. But when the Glass Fire was raging in Napa, 30 to 40 miles away, his phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.

“I had 10 times the messages for Glass, and Walbridge couldn’t have been closer without being in the house,” he said. “Wine County is big. Just because one part is on fire doesn’t mean it’s all going to burn.”

Matt Villano is a writer and editor based in Sonoma County. He has evacuated wildfires twice since 2017.

[theseadagiodays]

April 27, 2020

Art Became the Oxygen

It is true that artists, many of whom rely on public gatherings for their livelihood, are some of the hardest hit during this crisis.  Yet, it’s musicians who are toiling away in basements to serenade us through isolated days.  It’s comedic actors who are offering us essential nighttime laughs.  And it’s visual artists who make meaning from this madness with images that inspire, console and provoke.  The individuals of the creative community are like the unsung frontline workers of this pandemic, only without any salary to support their craft, or a 7 pm cheer to motivate them.  Yet still, they make things because they must, just as artists have done since the beginning of history, particularly in times of strife. (SEE: https://usdac.us/news-long/2017/8/9/art-became-the-oxygen-free-artistic-response-guide-available-now)

In previous periods of economic hardship, the US government responded with forward-thinking programs like the WPA (Works Progress Administration) of Roosevelt’s New Deal (1935 to 1943).  It was designed not only to fund huge infrastructure projects, but also to employ thousands of artists, musicians, writers, and theatre performers to stimulate the economy.  Legacies of this program include Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Jackson Pollack’s Composition with Pouring; and Mark Rothko’s earlier urban studies like Entrance to Subway, where you can see the seeds of his famous color studies from later work.

After natural disasters, senseless violence or war, artist activists have also rushed to the front lines, time and again, to help rebuild communities by activating their social imaginations and stimulating their civic agency with creative collaborations.  

Philippe Thiese gathered digital stories of Hurricane Sandy volunteers in this short film: https://www.sandystoryline.com/stories/sandy-volunteers-remember-the-storm-and-explain-how-they-got-involved/.  

The siblings of Eric Garner, a young African-American man killed by unjust police violence in 2014, came together in grief to write the song, I Can’t Breathe,based on his harrowing last words.  Their music served as a rallying cry to a community berieved and betrayed by their law enforcement: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/eric-garners-family-drops-moving-new-song-i-cant-breathe-192574/

And when a 2011 tornado took 161 lives in the small town of Joplin, Missouri, mural artist Dave Loewenstein asked kids about their dreams for the future of their town, resulting in this stunning piece, The Butterfly Effect.

So, in the great hope that we’ll kick this virus’ butt, and we will be left with a glut of ventilators, how about we use them to revive our society’s artists, since they are the vital oxygen that feed our souls.  

In Vancouver, we are already lucky enough to have our City government responding with funding for the Murals for Hope project (#makeartwhileapart), which is transforming solemn, boarded-up shops and restaurants into colorful and encouraging messages that can help sustain us until their doors reopen again.

Geoff and I are also trying to do our small part to stimulate the creative economy, while beautifying our home in the process.  We are very excited to have just commissioned a mural artist to spruce up our tiny backyard space, which we’re transforming from a gravel parking spot into our own tropical oasis.  Here are some inspirational images as well as a shot of the yard in its current state. And hopefully, I can post the finished product, which will be painted onto the rotting fence, in a couple of weeks.

April 28, 2020

Art of Relationship

This period is not just requiring us to get creative with keyboards and canvases and cameras.  It is forcing us to re-examine the very patterns that make up our daily lives and fit them all inside the same four walls with the same self, spouse, and/or kids, 24/7.  Suffice it to say, this is no small task.  But, if any of you are like me, the grand solutions have sometimes involved tiny changes.    

Personally, my greatest challenge has been to find ways to carve out slivers of shared pleasure amidst my partner’s insanely stressful, often 13-hour work day, now that the pandemic has his team at our local transit authority in serious crisis mode.  Of course, I’m a firm believer in hard-work.  The pursuit of a classical musician requires many years of 5+ hours-a-day of practice.  But I’m also a fun-lover, and a huge proponent of life/work balance, particularly having had to learn this the hard way, thru a chronic overuse injury.  So, for me, Geoff’s manic schedule during the first month of isolation seemed far from optimal. And while this was especially difficult for him, it compromised joy for both of us.  

Seeking guidance as we adapted to the new normal, we found a great online series by Esther Perel, whose regular podcast, Where Should We Begin? always leaves us with sound, simple dance steps that we can apply to the Art of Relationship.  Here, she has created a 4-part series that specifically addresses problems which co-habitators might face in our current reality.  https://events.estherperel.com/april-2020-webinar-resources/?fbclid=IwAR0kRHkuQvEGxcpNuHvPKmmExamZ2Jj_EMZzR-zGp8eDejCR94hE-ZvGYjY

Inspired by her wisdom, we decided that the 7:30 am meetings, which had been occupying our kitchen and bleeding into our morning coffees, every day, could be skipped for a 15-minute walk thru our neighborhood park.  And, let me tell you, what a difference a quarter of an hour can make!  

April 29, 2020

Finding Variety in Repetition

It occurred to me, the other morning, that this experience feels a bit like fasting.  Since college, I’ve routinely devoted a week, every spring, to some kind of dietary shift, for my general health, and as a general mindfulness exercise.   While I’ve tried versions of the Wild Rose and other popular cleanses with some benefit, the method recommended in Staying Healthy with the Seasons has always suited me best. It requires you to slowly wean off many foods (meat/fish, then sugar/alcohol/coffee, then dairy), gradually move to only liquids, eventually evolve to a middle day of just water, and then similarly reintroduce each food gradually.    What I’ve loved about this approach is how much more aware of my cravings I become, how much I notice the “manufacturing of consent” that happens all around me to inspire my “wants”, and finally how various symptoms are suddenly absent once I’ve eliminated certain foods.  Consequently, the slow reintroduction of foods allows me to notice, in much more specific detail, which foods stimulate which responses in my body (IE. huge bursts of energy from fruit; afternoon crashes from sugar; indigestion from soy; sustenance from bread and pasta - NOTE: Contrary to the wheat-vilifying trends that currently prevail, I typically thrive on an anti-Atkins diet, as someone who reaps tremendous fuel from carbs).  

The parallels we are experiencing now relate to the stimuli that we’ve been “denied” by our self-isolating reality.   Speaking for myself, instead of travelling frequently, as I often do, or eating at different restaurants every week, or working at a different café every day to switch up the creative energy around me, I have had, like everyone else, to learn to find sustenance and interest in a much less diverse set of circumstances.  I am eating at Chez Me three meals a day.  We are grinding our own beans and whipping up our own daily lattes.  And most all of our daily walks and bike rides now start from our home.  

But even within the boundaries that we can reach from the nexus of our own address, we have been able to slowly expand our radius of exploration to corners of our city that we had never seen before.  This has felt a bit like switching to a vegetarian diet and gaining new appreciation for the crunchiness of a snap pea, or the filling nature of a portabello mushroom.  

In these explorations, we have discovered infinite surprises which include a cliffside view of the Fraser River from Everett Crowley Park (top image), an old landfill-turned-lush green space in Vancouver’s southeastern-most quadrant.  We’ve seen old growth forest that we had no idea existed so many kilometres from the shore, in Burnaby’s Central Park on our city’s eastern border.  I’ve spotted my first-ever fisher (weasel) sneaking around beachside boulders on the northern edge of the city.  And closer to home, I’ve noticed the whimsy of our neighbors’ gardens in far greater detail than I had ever looked before (as in the Gaudiesque, smiley-face hedge pictured above).  Our ventures from home have been guided by little more than our edict to “follow the pink”, as in the most blossoming streets.  And to document these journeys, I’ve been mapping the various routes we’ve taken.  Interestingly, the trajectory somewhat resembles a many-petaled flower.

Looking for minute changes in what seem to be patterns of sameness is also the secret to one of my favorite movements in music and design: Minimalism. Perhaps this is why Max Richter and Steve Reich have become the soundtrack I’ve turned to most during the pandemic.  Because their music trains our brains to find beauty in repetition while seeking excitement from the subtlest nuanced shifts.  

Meanwhile, I know that many of us would love for there to be a magic wand that could lift all of our restrictions over night and allow us to return to exactly “the way it was before”, in the same way that I long for a mocha frappuccino when I fast.  However, what we have been hearing from our leaders is that the more likely and safe choice will be to move into a gradual re-opening of our cities - a slow reintroduction of certain freedoms.  So, the lessons we can learn from fasting and Phillip Glass ought to prove very useful as we try to be patient and appreciative of this prudent approach.   Then, once we begin to shop and drive and socialize more, perhaps this perspective can allow us to also more clearly notice how we respond to each stimuli as we re-engage with it, And hopefully it will inform a new normal that can be more sensible and moderate and in harmony with this planet that we call home.

And, in case you’re curious to listen to a little minimalist fare...

Notice how welcomed the first chord change is in Max Richter’s Catalogue of Afternoons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubjylmxrj9o

Or drape yourself in his hypnotic music like a warm duvet with his 8-hour lullaby, Sleep: https://open.spotify.com/album/0JLN7JryQ2T7lBEYIrSQF1

And for a mind trip of the eyes and ears, try Steve Reich’s Piano Phase on marimbas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3QoM7dgs_0

April 30, 2020

Film Festivals for free

Pahokee, at this year’s live-streamed Vancouver International Film Festival

Done wondering if Carol Baskin killed her husband?  Couldn’t care less if Giannini and Damian actually ever get married? Well, for those who’ve exhausted the Netflix catalogue, there are plenty of other ways to enjoy film from your home. Lots of festivals have generously uploaded their content online.  So, whether it’s mountain adventure, short films, foreign movies, or arthouse you’re looking for, here are some easy ways to link to those that are totally free:

Banff Mountain Film Festival - https://www.banffcentre.ca/film-fest-at-home

Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, Venice, Berlin and others have collaborated to bring an awesome line-up of livestream videos to the world in their 10-day We Are One Festival, starting on May 29th.  While the festival will stream for free, viewers will be asked to donate to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 solidarity response fund.

If you happen to remain gainfully employed, and it’s important to you to keep supporting independent film making, Vancouver International Film Festival has created a rental-fee structure for a number of films that they’ve now made available for streaming, too: https://viff.org/Online/default.asp

And Sedona Film Festival has done the same - https://sedonafilmfestival.com/mdfhome/

May 1, 2020

Boredom Killers: Ping-pong, birthday song, and Magritte gong wrong

Combing the internet for creative inspiration that I can share with readers has truly been a joy.   It’s also got our own creative jucies flowing.  So today, I thought I’d post just a few of the ways we’ve staved off boredom over these past weeks.

Tennis is one of our true passions.  It’s actually sort of how Geoff and my relationship began.  Given that we didn’t want our paddle skills to get too rusty, we didn’t let the fact that our little laneway house couldn’t fit a ping pong table stop us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kait-zCV94s

Coming from a huge birthday-celebrating family, I’ve tried to make sure that friends with birthdays during quarantine could still feel pampered on their special day.  So, 6 of us put together this silly ditty for our good friend Roger: https://youtu.be/EZKyrdOlvPk

And, we’ve jumped on the art replication bandwagon too.  The Met & the Getty Museum have both followed the lead of the Dutch gallery that first initiated the Instagram art challenge which asks people to recreate famous pieces of art with only 3 objects from their home. https://www.instagram.com/tussenkunstenquarantaine/

Here’s Geoff and my attempt with Magritte’s Lovers. The challenge also asks for participants to create new titles, so this is ours, Kissing Strategy for Stay-at-home Lazy Toothbrushers.