Adventures with a pair of creative friends

Vintage Saki

Today I share good news about a two friends that I’ve mentioned in earlier columns. I’ll not start with “ladies first” since we all know from Saki’s cautionary tale “The Storyteller” that can be fraught with peril.

Don’t know that story? It’s short, with multiple life lessons if one wants to look into that. But for you, my dear readers, I will simply say that it’s not boring (a comment that would make Saki’s fictional bachelor chortle). Trouble finding that story? Saki’s real name is H.H. Munro.

Rhythms and charms

Sweetie and I recently attended a home show featuring Garen Patterson. Home shows are always a hoot. Good friends and strangers gather at a local home while entertainers, famous and local, perform. This show was held in the beautiful Kenwood home of harpist, song-writer and recreational therapist Deirdre Egan and her sweetie Aldo Mosca. Like Creekbottom House, Deirdre and Aldo’s home is creekside with all the amenities that offers: Birds join in chorus, an evening breeze that comforts after a hot April day; a place where all the world seems right. 

An added bonus to this home show was the opening act. Aldo and his musical partner Ron Galen played a medley of Brazilian tunes. They are two of the four members of Choro Sem Nome, who will be performing at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, at the Sonoma Mission Chapel. I’d never heard the Brazilian four-string soprano guitar, called a cavaquinho, and easily fell into the rhythms and charms of this lovely, lively music. 

Sex, drugs, and group therapy

Garen was the featured performer with his de-programming musical theater piece, “Back at the Cult.” It’s a mind-bending tale that takes us from Berkeley to Sonoma and back, in the late 1960s when some folks preached that sex, drugs and group therapy were going to save the world. 

I know some folks who insist that’s still so, or behave as if they still believe it. Garen shares a deeper tale, frank about the confusion that many of us experienced as naive college students in a time of great change.

Garen’s show, replete with laughter, tears, and gasps of painful remembrance, illustrates that few individuals were “saved,” and even less, the world. Garen’s tale can be cathartic for those who share similar experiences, and enlightening for those who didn’t. I easily relate with the chaos of Garen’s 1960s world though the details of my story are quite different. What I share, and others may share: Quite a few of us were set crazily adrift for a while.

However, Garen’s show doesn’t just emphasize pathos and anxiety; he highlights the humor and absurdity of the whole scene. Music and poetry are the medium he employs to bring that wild, crazy, psychedelic era alive with an emotional impact for those who were there, and a clarity for those who weren’t. 

Garen at the Fringe

Great news: Garen has been selected to perform his show at the San Francisco Fringe Festival this fall. It’s a big deal, as any performer knows. I’ll be there in September at the Exit Theater in SF when Garen takes the stage. I plan to clap and hoot, let my laughter echo and my tears flow as enthusiastically as I did when I watched Garen’s first show at Jim and Linda Rawls house some many years ago. 

Hectic, crazy, and sleepless

In mentioning Saki’s short story, I wouldn’t want to imply that the dear lady I’m set to mention now is “horribly good,” like Saki’s little privileged character. But she’s good all right. 

Tasha Drengson is amazingly good at what she does best – creative design, be it with flowers or fabric. Last month, Tasha was involved in two demanding projects, back-to-back. She persevered, she worked endless hours, and she created two of the most interesting public art works I’ve ever enjoyed. And she did it all within one hectic, crazy, and sleepless week. 

Tasha entered a floral piece in the De Young Museum’s Bouquets to the Arts and a snazzy, flowered frock in the Sonoma Community Center’s Trashion Fashion Show. When I saw Tasha at the De Young, she was all smiles and laughter, sharing great stories with her enraptured audience.

Up late with friends

Of course, due credit goes to the three helpers who make Tasha’s demanding projects possible. Tasha’s husband, Jason Jacobsen, her co-floral designer, is always by her side, doing the tough jobs: he lifts, carts, schleps and creates structure to hold the flowers. 

As for her other partner, Tasha’s sister, Charissa, was right there, working with Tasha to create their exotic fashion piece for the local Trashion Fashion show at the Sonoma Community Center. Sister, Aimee, a creative chef, helps feed Tasha’s body, giving plenty of energy for her creativity to flow. 

Stanley the electric and elegant

I attended De Young’s Bouquets to the Arts with my entire book group. We were off on a frolic that day. As soon as I got my program and saw that Natasha’s Floral Design was one of the featured artists of the day, I headed off to find her installation and hear her speak. Often geographically flummoxed, I feared I might not find Tasha’s display, if I didn’t set right out to find it.

To my surprise, I stumbled upon Tasha’s flowers quite unexpectedly. Near a crowd alive with a chorus enthusiastic  “ooh’s and aah’s” I stood tippie-toe to see what caused the excitement. Twenty feet in front of me, within a tight circle of clicking cameras, was a gorgeous, life-sized, brilliant pink peacock. A profusion of orchids formed his body, with his beak a bird-of-paradise bloom. A sweeping, sumptuous tail fashioned of flowers trailed to the floor. The effect was electric and elegant, all at once. Tasha named the fancy fellow Stanley, with a good reason; if you know her, ask. 

A bouquet for Covarrubias 

Above the peacock, the room-sized painting formed by 12 panels, each 180 by 286 inches, was Miguel Covarrubias’s vision of “The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific,” from the Pageant of the Pacific murals, 1939. As Tasha later pointed out during her talk, the painting includes dozens of plants and animals, “but no peacock.” I think her passionate, pink fellow strutting in front of the painting, added just the touch of bright pink that balanced the subtle blues and golds of Covarrubias’ artful map. 

We expect that the ghost of Covarrubias, who used his sharp, pointed wit to caricature famous folk, would be pleased with Tasha’s piece. No less would the ghost of the real Stanley enjoy his eponymous peacock. Tasha’s beautiful art bouquet was a hit with the crowds, and with me. 

Recycled Peacock

By Saturday, Tasha’s creation for the Trashion Fashion show was onstage. A delightful, whimsical piece, it featured some of the same flowers that formed Stanley, the De Young peacock. Obviously, the museum job inspired the fashion, as well as providing the “almost” spent flowers from the museum show.

Tasha is one, among many talented adults who grew up in Glen Ellen, proving that our little backwater is a fertile breeding ground of creative excellence. 

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The Folks in Glen Ellen column also appears online. Look for my column on the Index-Tribune website sonomanews.com under the category Lifestyle. Click on Sylvia Crawford for current and old columns. Want to see your own name in the news? Call or write me at 707 996-5995 or P.O. Box 518, GE 95442. Or email me at Creekbottom@earthlink.net. Glen Ellen chatter rarely requires timeliness; however, if your news does, please be sure to contact me at least three weeks before your desired publication date.