Columns

I live in the outskirts of Sebastopol, so the so-called “mag crews” don’t appear at my front door. But when we lived in Hermosa Beach, they were a several-times-a-week fixture. Those hucksters were always young, always vulnerable, and always poised for the “kill” of getting you to sign up for unneeded magazines. Writer/director Andrea Arnold has fleshed out a New York Times article by Ian Urbana into American Honey, the 162-minute-long, sex, drugs and hip-hop filled, cross-country odyssey taken by Star (Sasha Lane), a luckless teen desperate to escape her groping father and the 24-hours-a-day responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Star finds her means of escape in a Walmart by flirting with Jake (Shia LeBoeuf) the scruffy-looking oldest member of a group of teens who are escorted out by store security. “If you want a job,” Jake tells Star, “be at the Motel 6 tomorrow morning.”

Driving onto the Hawley Bradford Mountain estate 1000-feet above sea level on a cold winter day, I thought of Premier Cru — French official classifications of vineyards that produce superior wine. Brilliant blue skies and white billowy clouds framed the rolling hills and vineyards patterned into the lay of this land, as if planted by God.

We love getting letters to the editor. Send letters to ray@sonomawest.com.

100 years ago – November 1, 1917

Comfort zones are interesting. We all have them, but they are all different.

The Healdsburg Avenue Improvement Project’s expected completion date remains to be late summer/early fall. Those of us who drive through the roundabout regularly have seen the steady progress since January, when most of the underground work was completed.

Woodland destruction