2021
ARTIST NASSO NICOLAOU
INSPIRED
THE ART OF LIVING
EAST BAY & NORTH BAY 50+ LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE | PUBLISHED BY THE BOHEMIAN, PACIFIC SUN AND EAST BAY EXPRESS
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ROUNDING UP A Letter from the Editor 4
THE ARTIST IS PRESENT Nasso Nicolauo 22
NO AVERAGE JOE Coffee-man Michael Murphy 6
CRAFTY ENTREPRENEUR Willow Fish Peterson 30 LEVERAGING THE LEAF Power Plant Park's Richard Trieber 37
COME HEALTH OR HIGH WATER Dr. Sundari Mase 12 WINE & CHEESE, PLEASE Farmstead's Jeff Diamond 18
SEX AS A NUMBERS GAME Nikki Silverstein 44
CEO & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dan Pulcrano
DESIGN DIRECTOR Kara Brown
PUBLISHER Rosemary Olson
PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGER Sean George
EDITOR Daedalus Howell COPY EDITOR Mark Fernquest CONTRIBUTORS Evan Davis Chelsea Kurnick Casey O’Brien Sara Ost Nikki Silverstein
Control your Power Control your Life.
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Numbers Game When Your Number is 50Up
W
henever I hear someone say, “age is only a number,” I know immediately that they’re too old to be doing whatever it is they’re pretending they’re not too old to do.
Once the province of May/September romances, this—what shall we call it?— gerontological numerical fallacy is the reason the trappings of adolescence trail some people deep into their 40s. There is nothing more harrowing than someone pushing 50 also pushing a skateboard in a hoodie and flip flops. To me, this is a deadman rolling. They’re fit, youthful and agile until one pebble in their path makes them permanently neither.
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Scolding aside, I understand the impulse—not to skate but to hang onto youth-identified concepts from the era I came of age in. I have a lingering punk rock sensibility that I’ve secretly nurtured since the ’80s to defy anyone who admonishes us to act our age or dress our age. This is why me and my cohort likely look like a living, Reaganera history museum—basically The Breakfast Club ... with 401ks. Since the Summer of Love, youth culture has dominated the Bay Area, which has systematically convinced us that the only thing that should age is wine. My problem is, I’ve always felt 40-something, even as a kid, and now that I’m nearing 50, I’m finally at a loss
as to how to behave. I’m inclined to take the advice of my high school drama teacher and “do less.” And, frankly, “less” is more energy than I have most days. They gave me this job, editing 50Up Magazine, I think, with the notion I’d grow into it. Now that I have, I realize I have no idea what being 50Up actually means. And I suspect neither do you. That’s the beauty of crossing into one’s fifth decade—it doesn’t much matter, does it? We just keep on keeping on, presumably getting better at being ourselves. And so the cycle continues, headlong toward infinity. Because, after all, it’s only a number. — DAEDALUS HOWELL , EDITOR
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLE COFFEE
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mble past the Rockridge BART station onto College Avenue in the neighboring community and you’ll hit upon Cole Coffee, a beloved establishment that is as much a cultural institution as it is a great place to try the latest imported beans. »»
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BREWED A pour-over in progress at Rockridge’s Cole Coffee.
you’ve done it for so long,” says owner Michael Murphy. “I’ve seen people meet, end up together, have kids and now their kids are in college, or they’re coming in and meeting people as adults themselves. It’s kind of comical; like, wow, you have kids now—you were always late for work!” Murphy himself began as an employee behind the counter in 1990, when the business was called Royal Coffee. “They were a huge importer that had
been founded in Emeryville,” Murphy says, “and this small shop opened in 1985.” Murphy found his calling in coffee, and even considered opening his own store in the North Bay. After a decade at the Oakland shop, he and his wife were excited by the idea of a new venture in a new place. They had a fondness for Petaluma, so Murphy prepared to give his notice. “I was a nervous wreck, let me tell you,” he says. “The owners were incredibly nice to me, the nicest people in the »»
PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLE COFFEE
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«« “You really get to know people when
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‘I love that every walk of life comes through that door,’ says Cole Coffee’s Michael Murphy. ‘Not just college students or screenwriters; everybody comes through that door. A lawyer, a long-haul trucker who buys coffee for all his trucker coworkers. “What am I going to serve, Folgers?” To me, that’s what I really enjoy.’ ««
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the community connections the shop fosters, and though he says he knows he could expand operations, he is content with the role Cole Coffee plays in the neighborhood. “The bills are paid, the employees are paid, I don’t need another gray hair,” he says. “What I’ve overheard from folks is they like coming in and getting in conversations with people. People don’t back away, they just dive in. Somebody once said, you go there to get coffee, and read or maybe get a little work done, but it’s not just one thing, you don’t just have your laptop up, you meet people, too.” Murphy notes that—as with Montclair and seemingly everywhere else in the Bay Area—every year sees higher incomes and rising home costs in Rockridge. He’s heartened that Cole Coffee remains a place for everyone. “I love that every walk of life comes through that door,” he says. “Not just college students or screenwriters; everybody comes through that door. A lawyer, a long-haul trucker who buys
Cole Coffee, 6255 College Ave., Oakland. 510.653.5458. Open 7am to 5pm, Tuesday–Sunday. www.colecoffee.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLE COFFEE
world. Just to say the words ‘I’m leaving’; I really didn’t want to.” Their response was the last thing he expected: They were ready to move on to other ventures themselves, and they offered to sell him the store. A family friend with good investment judgment advised him not to pass it up. Murphy had some savings; he quickly hired a good accountant and a lawyer. He’s been the proprietor ever since. “I simply love going to work and doing what I do,” he says. Two of his employees have now worked for him for 16 and 17 years. Lengthy tenures are the norm at Cole, where a light, unhurried, welcoming atmosphere pervades. “They know their people, their customers; they like coming for their hours for the day and going home or taking a break—I never really ask,” Murphy says. “I certainly talk to my folks a lot, we talk about our processes and such, but we’re more like family.” Murphy finds purpose and joy in
coffee for all his trucker coworkers. ‘What am I going to serve, Folgers?’ To me, that’s what I really enjoy.” Of course, many a writer has written a book in the shop over the years. “It’s always fun finding out later,” Murphy says. I ask the inescapable question: How are things going during Covid? “We never closed down, we just rearranged like everyone else,” he says. “Curbside service, or stand in line six feet apart. We follow the rules, and it’s mostly worked out. The business is still the same, just with some changes. I definitely do a lot more mail orders.” Murphy says he even has a handful of longtime customers he personally drops off deliveries to on their doorsteps. It’s enjoyable, he says; that’s just what good customer service is all about. “At the beginning of Covid, I felt like Costco,” he says. “People were buying so much in bulk. It was actually a little scary; it becomes this thing of stock up on everything until we get into a routine. Like everyone, we just didn’t know what was going to happen.” Now things have settled into a routine, albeit not an ideal one. But the team takes things in stride. One employee did get Covid-19, and as a precaution, they shut down for two weeks—thankfully, she recovered. “Something that meant so much was that so many customers reached out to ask if we were all right, if we were okay as people, not just as a business,” Murphy says. “That was such a nice thing to experience.”
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Ahead of the Curve Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase talks about life before and after the pandemic BY CHELSEA KURNICK
I
t’s late February 2021 and a meme has begun circulating on Facebook that reads, “What’s everyone wearing to the 1-year anniversary of the 14 days to flatten the curve?” »»
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‘I’ve always been an optimist,’ says Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase. ‘I’m really excited now because we’re actually kicking Covid! All the pain and suffering that we’ve been through is for something, and we’re finally going to beat this thing.’ «« It’s hard to believe that almost a year
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EXPERT Dr. Mase is one of the world’s leading experts in treating tuberculosis, having worked with the disease for almost two decades in the U.S. and India.
PHOTOS BY CHELSEA KURNICK
has passed since March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. Within the following week, Dr. Sundari Mase issued a shelter-in-place order for all but essential businesses of Sonoma County, following the lead of several other Bay Area counties. Dr. Mase—who had just stepped into the role of interim public health officer on March 10—immediately became a polarizing figure. As her home filled with bouquets and notes of gratitude, online comment threads about her filled with indignation. The criticism came from all sides. In June, Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick infamously defied Mase, saying “I’m not going to enforce the f***ing health order,” which emboldened skeptics and anti-maskers. In December, some ICU nurses treating Covid patients said that Mase wasn’t taking strong enough steps to slow the spread. Almost a year into the pandemic, many people are simply feeling the fatigue of their kids attending school remotely or the stress of job loss and business closures. Mase says, “I let the criticism roll off
me because I have to. If I worried about it, I wouldn’t be in this job. Everything I’ve done has been to save lives. And I know that Covid will be gone one day soon and people will be like, ‘Wow, I made it through, and you all in public health helped us get through this.’” Sonoma County residents mostly know Mase via streaming Zoom
meetings with elected officials, during which she issues health orders and announces updates about our battle with Covid-19. But at 54, Mase comes to the North Bay with a 30-year international career in medicine, a wealth of life experience and ambitions for what she would like to accomplish as public health officer after the curve finally flattens. Although brand new to her role in Sonoma County when she began tackling the region’s Covid-19 response, Mase is no stranger to infectious respiratory diseases. In fact, she’s one of the world’s leading experts in treating tuberculosis (TB), having worked with the disease for almost two decades in the U.S. and India. Mase was WHO’s TB lead for India, which has the highest case rate in the world. “I always wanted to work overseas—it was a goal,” she says. “So, being Indian, »»
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CRITICAL CONDITION Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase lets criticism ‘roll off’ her.
globally. Mase notes it’s been around in humans for a very long time; evidence of ancestral strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes the infection, have been found in mummies that are nearly 6,000 years old. In 2020, Mase also presented on the impacts of the relationship between TB and Covid-19. “Just like [having] TB and diabetes or TB [and] HIV, having TB and Covid is also a much worse disease if you have both,” Mase says. “And in fact,
PHOTOS BY CHELSEA KURNICK
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«« it was great that I was able to get the position with WHO in India.” When Covid-19 first became known to WHO in late 2019, Mase wanted to jump into fighting it. Yet even while her day job was completely centered on Covid-19 response, she found time to remain invested in TB as a volunteer. Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease killer in the world, surpassing HIV a few years ago. In 2019, TB was responsible for 1.4 million deaths,
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one can make it confusing to diagnose the other because the symptoms are somewhat similar.” The U.S. has one of the lowest TB case rates in the world, so Mase’s work to treat the disease here was different from her work in India. She says that the U.S. is very effective at doing contact investigation to understand how someone contracted TB and who may have been exposed. By contrast, she explains, there are so many cases in India that the country is just trying to keep up with diagnosing and treating people. “We need to raise public awareness globally about TB—to demystify and destigmatize it so that people are okay coming forward to be tested and treated,” she says. Unfortunately, WHO says the Covid19 pandemic has set the world back years in its goals to eradicate and eliminate TB and other infectious diseases. “A lot of the great work that was being done towards TB elimination ground to a halt when Covid struck, because everybody, all the different governments and countries, really changed their focus and had to deal with this pandemic,” Mase says. She also sees how the necessary response to Covid created unfortunate setbacks to healthcare beyond communicable disease. “Even here in the U.S., you can see that colon cancer screening, mammographies, regular office visits for preventative medicine, treatment of psychiatric illness and [healthcare] for the elderly—they’ve all really taken a big hit because of Covid,” she says. “Suicides and drug overdoses are up, too.” Someday—relatively soon, according to Mase—we will not be in the throes
of an unprecedented pandemic. Vaccinations against Covid-19 arrived in Sonoma County on Dec. 17. Mase says that right now, the most difficult thing about her job is getting everyone vaccinated. “It’s just the enormity of the task of vaccinating 450,000 eligible people as quickly as possible, and trying to do it in an equitable way,” she says. Despite the challenges, Mase feels confident that everyone who wants a vaccine will have at least one dose by summer 2021. As soon as it’s safe to do so, Mase says that she is eager to reopen businesses and get back to some semblance of normalcy. Once she’s no longer in response mode, she will be able to focus a lot more on prevention and other public health measures for the county. The job of a public health officer is the overall health of communities, which includes educating the public on specific health risks and healthy living strategies, as well as designing programs that encourage healthier lifestyles and reduce disease risk. “If it weren’t for [Covid], I’d be looking at ways to improve nutrition in schools, ways to fight and prevent diabetes, to start looking at smoking cessation,” Mase says. She notes that Covid has laid bare health disparities in the area, with early statistics finding that Latinx people were nine to 10 times more likely to become infected than non-Hispanic white people. She wants to insure that Latinx people and migrant farm workers receive better access to medical care. Mase also observes that Sonoma County has a high population of people over 65, because it is a popular retirement area. She would like to
specifically address the quality of life for seniors. “This pandemic has really wrecked a lot of the mental wellness of seniors who are in living facilities,” Mase says, noting limited contact with loved ones and how these populations are where the majority of deaths have occurred. Mase is also concerned about homelessness within the county. She points out that Santa Rosa has one of the highest populations of unhoused people when compared to similar-sized cities. “First and foremost, we need to treat the underlying issues that lead to homelessness,” Mase says. “I think looking at the whole picture is important.” Beyond shelter, Mase says she’s interested in addressing substance use, mental health, lack of access to health care and lack of access to good nutrition. Mase also wants to focus on Sonoma County’s water and air quality. “After having lived in Delhi, where the air quality index will be greater than 800 parts per million for days in a row, I really want to focus on some of the environmental health initiatives that can improve our quality of life here,” she says. Even as she speaks about global and local healthcare battles, Mase’s energy is striking. “I’ve always been an optimist,” she says. “I'm really excited now because we’re actually kicking Covid! All the pain and suffering that we’ve been through is for something, and we’re finally going to beat this thing.” She adds, “I was just telling my husband that we’ll probably never go back to a time when you’ll go out without wearing a mask in a crowded area. Influenza numbers are way down, and I haven’t had a cold this year.” 50 UP 2021
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MARKET MAN Jeff Diamond is an enterprising, self-described ‘intense’ person.
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of Farmstead Cheese and Wine BY SARA OST 18
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEFF DIAMOND
Jeff Diamond
t the Montclair Village outpost of Farmstead Cheese and Wine—the original location, at the Alameda Marketplace, serves Alameda Island—I catch up with Jeff Diamond, the founder, to ask the all-important question: Just how much wine are folks drinking during Covid? »»
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‘There was this whole generation of
Alameda residents who were young parents who had moved there to raise families, and they couldn’t get enough of learning new varietals and how to pair things,’ says Farmstead’s Jeff Diamond. «« Though Diamond has been in the
wine business since the early 2000’s, he lived a previous life as a marketing and PR executive in independent film and theater. He belonged to a bleeding-edge group of Bay Area creatives working on indies before indies went corporate, or, in his words, “before Miramax went to Disney, and the hippie commune turned into the DMV.” The answer, by the way, is that 90% of Farmstead’s growth during Covid-19 is in wine, not cheese. Diamond is an enterprising, selfdescribed “intense” person. When the independent film business changed, he changed, too, involving himself in the Bay Area’s salad days of solo performance theater, when awareness and nuance around topics like race and gender were groundbreaking. He worked in tech, turning his marketing chops into a successful agency operation, even managing to survive the 9/11 recession better than many of his peers. Still, he deeply missed working in the arts; but “you’re only as good as your list, and that can change fast,” he says. “Here I was, taking a skills-assessment test,” Diamond says. “My interests were wine and food and music.”
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It was time for a different sort of reinvention. In those days, the cheese industry was a nascent growth market—growing at 10% a year. At that time in the Bay Area, as with the rest of the country, there just weren’t a lot of places where one could buy cheese that wasn’t block cheddar or dehydrated parmesan with a side of starch— technically, cellulose powder. A chance to lease a shop in Berkeley came along, so Diamond decided to open a cheese store. Fortune was on his side. He and his new wife had each owned their own homes in North and South Berkeley before marrying. Flush with enough cash from the sale of the houses, he was prepared to sign the lease and bring proper dairy to the market. He called up his old theater employer, who by then was focused solely on the Grand Lake Theater, but also leased a handful of spaces to smaller businesses. Diamond figured his former boss would know if this lease in Berkeley was a good idea. “He said, ‘You don’t want to do that, you want to go to Alameda!’” Diamond says. The Alameda Marketplace was still under construction—and would be for a few more years—but the Alameda
Natural Grocery was already thriving, though the lunch counter, the meat, the fish, the coffee and the kitchen supply shops all came later. The owner said cheese would be great, as Alamedans didn’t like leaving the island. But there was a caveat: “There would have to be wine, too, she said,” Diamond says. “Even better!” Having never before written a business plan, Diamond hunkered down and got to work. Mass market wine options at that time were very limited. “It was all Rosenblum, Rosenblum Zinfandel, Rosenblum Syrah, 40 SKUs of Rosenblum in some places,” Diamond says. “So that was the palate that people had.” He recounts that when the shop first opened at the Marketplace, customers were amazed at the variety along with small touches like samples of cheese. “There was this whole generation of Alameda residents who were young parents who had moved there to raise families, and they couldn’t get enough of learning new varietals and how to pair things,” he says. Diamond remembers this time vividly. Though he was easily “three steps ahead” of his customers at the time, his own wine knowledge was growing, too. He devoured wine literature and trade magazines. “I thought I knew a lot about wine in 2003, but I soon realized I knew a lot about the wines that I knew about,” he says. “There was a whole world of wine I didn’t know.” His advice? “The more you taste, the more you taste.” A little more guidance: “Relax, it’s just food”—which became the company’s motto, and pervades the atmosphere at both locations. The shop proved a hit, and the business grew rapidly in its first decade. Today, the
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEFF DIAMOND
STAYING AFLOAT ‘Our revenues are up; [it] really speaks to our customer loyalty,’ says Farmstead Cheese and Wine’s Jeff Diamond.
second Montclair location drives most of the growth. The company also hosts more than a dozen wine clubs and newsletters to help customers learn more about wine, cheese and gourmet foods—no matter their preferences or price point. Customers love that there is simply no fussiness to be found with Farmstead; this is a place to learn and enjoy. Things changed during Covid-19, of course. Farmstead shortened its hours a bit, mainly to suit customers’ changing, work-from-home schedules.
The company experienced significant employee turnover as team members opted to weather the pandemic from home. “I have one employee who will always have a job here, no matter what,” Diamond says. “It just might be a while.” Pre-pandemic fire department standards permitted up to 50 people at a time at the Montclair location, but Diamond now cautiously keeps it to three. “The fact that with these limitations, our revenues are up, really speaks to our customer loyalty,” he says.
He says he expected people would want to “get in and get out” when Covid hit, but instead he found that many of them wanted to stay longer and chat. Cheers to getting through this together. FARMSTEAD CHEESE AND WINE
510.864.WINE, 866.931.WINE. Montclair Village location at 6218 La Salle Ave., Oakland. Open 11am to 6pm, Monday–Saturday; 9:30am to 5pm, Sunday. Alameda Marketplace location at 1650 Park St., Alameda. 9am to 7pm, daily. www.farmstead.biz 50 UP 2021
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A Portrait of the Artist
as a 50-plus-year-old Man
Painter Nasso Nicolaou BY DAEDALUS HOWELL
T
he work speaks for itself. It has to, because it defies easy characterization. This is not because the artist—in this case, the disarming Nasso Nicolaou—is evasive or reticent. He’s quite the opposite; the man is open and generous with his thoughts. It’s the nature of his paintings themselves which are vivid and frank; sometimes figurative free-falls that are bold and playfully sexual, and other times abstract and minimal musings on form that could be at home on the wall of Chauvet-Pontd'Arc Cave or a SoHo gallery. »»
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IMAGES COURTESY OF NASSO NICOLAOU
‘The Order,’ acrylic on canvas, 2013.
«« To hazard a comparison, some of Nicolaou’s work suggests a late-night collaboration between Edvard Munch, of “The Scream” fame, and Jean Michel Basquiat’s post-graffiti phase. But blink and it’s something else entirely. More to the point, Nicolaou would rightfully shrug at such characterizations. He doesn’t name-drop artists, nor does he purport to cultivate a specific vision beyond letting the undulations of his unconscious spill onto the canvas. “You can call me what ever you want,” he says. “Just don't call me boring.” “Boring” is the last word that would come to mind for any visitor to Nicolaou’s studio, a space he describes as “subterranean” and has maintained since 2005 in one of Petaluma’s historic waterfront buildings. There, he creates mostly large-format works of at least a few feet in acrylic, acrylic and ink, and mixed media. The artist is self-taught; everything he has mastered in painting he arrived at through his own, hands-on experimentation. Over the past 16 years, this led to an intimate relationship with his media and the deepening of a personal process that is driven more by intuition than theory. “Every ink has its own textural quality to it, whether it’s Mediterranean Blue or aquamarine or oranges and this texture,” says Nicolaou, who, at 6-foot3-inches tall, adds that his “ergonomics” determined the size of his work. “It’s like you start experiencing for yourself, and that’s why I might go from a geometric phase into some abstract expressionist phase where I have to bring back this super-overworked, sloppy, dripping paint back from the dead, bring it back »»
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‘The Blue Riders,’ ink on canvas, 2015.
‘Not So Perfect Lives,’ acrylic on canvas, 2012.
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Nicolaou says. “I’m not the kind of artist that’ll sketch in a notebook for a few days leading up to a session. Whatever that particular evening brought, I would start with a line. I might have a color in mind. I would just walk around. And once I started laying down the painting, be it with pencil or just ink out of a can, or paint out of a can, the paintings would start to show themselves and I would kind of just follow their lead.” The results not only spoke for themselves, they spoke to the artist and, eventually, collectors. “I’m the only one down in the studio
late at night, and it’s not like there’s a bunch of people around to ask, ‘Hey guys, what do you think? You think this painting is done? What do you think about it?’ There’s no show of hands. There’s just you,” Nicolaou says. “And for the most part, if it passes my little test, if I’m like—’Oh, that’s interesting, that’s playful,’ or it has something to offer—then it’s good enough. And I don’t ruminate about: ‘Oh my God, is my work serious enough? Or where is my work in the pantheon of art?’ To me, it’s all about the next experience. You are, just for lack of a better word, just »»
IMAGES COURTESY OF NASSO NICOLAOU
from the abyss. And some nights you’re literally slipping and sliding in paint, and other days you’re just laying down ink in a more patient manner.” His creative process has remained essentially the same since he began painting on his nights off as head bartender at Rancho Nicasio, the classic roadhouse in rural West Marin County. He laid a canvas on the floor, put on an LP and lit some incense. Then he “just started walking around” until inspiration struck. “Basically, there was no real premeditated format on my part,”
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‘Broken Flowers,’ acrylic and ink on canvas, 2012.
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“You can’t walk five feet without running into an artist.” “I was having this discussion with my mom the other night. You know how moms get involved in the discussion,” he says, laughing. “And she goes, ‘You know, you’re the same guy as far as your creative outlet, as far as how you approach drawing and painting, that you were when you were eight!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m pretty much the same guy.’ And I really think it’s hard to retain that childlike approach to art, because you start getting really adult about things and other things take over.” One way Nicolaou preserves his playful, creative mindset is through a committed pursuit of the new and novel. He doesn’t fixate on a particular
To see Nasso Nicolaou’s work, visit www.nasso.us.
IMAGES COURTESY OF NASSO NICOLAOU
a conduit for that bigger piece, and you’re just the vessel. Whatever the universe had in mind as far as creative energy for that moment, that’s what I laid down.” Born in Chicago, Nicolaou spent his formative years traveling between Chicago and his father’s Greek homeland. His dad, he says, was “the classic Greek immigrant, right off the boat.” His mother was from Colorado and together the two of them, with kids in tow—Nicolaou has two siblings, a twin sister and a brother who he says are also both accomplished artists—they made regular pilgrimages to Greece. “We actually went to a Greek school in Greece, not an American school in Greece,” he says of his early education.
subject or practice for too long; rather he finds consistency in constant change. “I like being entertained, and I like creating something that’s new to me—that’s why you might see multi-different motifs and periods and phases on the website,” he says. “I might go from something that looks somewhat linear and sophisticated, and avant garde and minimalist, that might be hanging up in somebody’s penthouse in New York, to this real playful, colorful ink piece. And I get a lot of criticism from people. Art being what it is, it’s very subjective and everybody has their own sensibilities, right?” Among those subjective experiences that tend to raise eyebrows when it comes to Nicolaou’s work are the paintings of his that are resplendent with joyous anatomical depictions. “Nobody seems to have a problem if you paint a big, beautiful, nude woman; the female form,” Nicolaou says. “But heaven forbid if you all of a sudden throw in some penises and some male form and this and that and that’s interacting with the painting.” Nicolaou laughs off prospective collectors who are challenged by his almost cartoonish depictions of male anatomy. “‘No penises please,’” he says with a smile, adding that he doesn’t aspire to be known as “Mr. Phallic Man.” “That’s not my intention,” he says. “But it’s just funny how you get different reactions from different people, which is okay with me. I think one of the main objectives for art is that you want to get some kind of reaction, being visceral or whatever, from an audience.” And then he adds, “I’m a gunslinger. This is all off-the-hip kind of work.”
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A FAMILY PORTRAIT Willow Fish Peterson with her husband Brandon and their daughter Siena.
The Willow Fish Peterson Story BY EVAN DAVIS
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Enter, Willow Fish Peterson. During the Covid-19 pandemic that’s upended so many lives this last year, we’ve all been forced to adapt to any number of changes, endure unforeseen »»
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WILLOW FISH PETERSON
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Willow Fish Peterson is an artisan, a farmer and a ‘maker’ through and through, with creativity fueling each endeavor. «« hardships and watch on as the landscape shifts around us. With so many beloved businesses forced to close their doors amid recent challenges, some others have had the good fortune of a helping hand. The Made Local Marketplace in Santa Rosa would have counted itself among those casualties if not for the chance approach of prospective buyer Willow Peterson. A Hawaiian native and a natural gogetter, long before she would rescue this particular local gem, she began what would become a career in hospitality and service by working in restaurants as a young teen. That continued into her college years as she supported herself by bartending and waitressing to graduate with her Bachelor’s in physical geography at the University of California Santa Barbara, earning top honors. That course led, in time, to her working as the special events manager at San Ysidro Ranch. It was there she met her future husband, Brandon, and after a few short months, she left Santa Barbara and joined him in Los Angeles. Roughly a year later, opportunity knocked and Peterson answered, accepting a job opportunity to manage a private island luxury resort in Fiji, 32
the Wakaya Club & Spa, where she worked for nearly two years. Testing her relationship with a long-distance stint was a bright and adventurous life chapter, but eventually she returned to the mainland to marry Brandon. A Santa Rosa native himself, he convinced her to tie the knot locally, right here in Guerneville at the Boon Hotel. That was in 2013, and after their daughter Siena was born, they compromised and settled down in Sebastopol. In lieu of island life, it was “land where I could farm and [feel] good raising her,” says Willow. “It’s that smalltown feel, in close with nature and close to the beach if we wanted.” Now a Sonoma County local, she remains an artisan, a farmer and a “maker” through and through, with creativity fueling each endeavor. Her business, Sage Real Estate Investments, is no exception. Like any journey of a thousand miles—or more—that path also began with a single step. She bought her first property with her brother when she was in her 20s. “We got it as an investment,” she says. “You know, not to live in. It didn’t bring in a lot, but it was a good stepping stone. [It] didn’t end up being the best
investment, because my brother bought me out of it after a couple years and still owns it today. [But] it did give me the confidence to jump into the next one, and was a great learning experience.” Acquiring a broker’s license allowed her to eventually find meaningful work in the real estate industry, “I didn’t enjoy working retail real estate not for myself,” she says. “I didn’t like how many failures there were to every success. I could do everything perfectly right, and have a project fail for reasons outside of my control.” Even if the atmosphere wasn’t right, the work was something she still found beautiful and fulfilling. “Finding a house or what have you, and turning it into something beautiful,” Peterson says. “Getting that diamond in the rough, so to speak.” It was this drive that set her sights on the Made Local Marketplace in Santa Rosa. When something dramatic happens, like a citizen stepping up to save a business that’s threatened with closure, it often looks as if it was all arranged overnight, but the truth is just a touch more grounded. A maker and creative herself, Willow had sought the business “some time ago, but the numbers just weren’t quite right.” After the pandemic fell into full swing and lockdown restrictions seized the lifeblood of businesses far and wide, Made Local founders Kelley Rajala and Pam Dale announced in June of last year that they intended to close the store for good. With the news, Peterson reopened negotiations surrounding the sale of the business, and over a matter of weeks an agreement was reached. As the keys to the store passed hands, a whirlwind of changes ensued, namely the location »»
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SHOP Made Local Marketplace proprietor Willow Fish Peterson.
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“Things are going really well,” she says. “Business is better really than we could have hoped.” As with her other endeavors, beyond the commercial success of the venture, the human impact on the community has already been felt. “Some of these people,” she says of the artisans her store supports, “it may just be a hobby, but others really rely on the income. We have a few who … all [they] can do to make it through the day is [their] art.” She’s also quick to acknowledge the role of the community she aims to serve with her business. “We just appreciate the community’s effort, you know especially now, to buy local and support local makers. When it’s so easy to go to Amazon or to do it online,” she says. So in summary, we have “a farmer, a maker, and a lover of all things Sonomamade” in Willow Peterson, who managed to find a way to step forward during a time when so many others found themselves forced to fall back. In a life driven by creative desires, adventurous seizure of opportunities and a gumption for exceeding expectations, the proof of her myriad testimonials is laid bare with the effects of her work here in Santa Rosa and beyond. The real secret anyone might want to know about the undertaking is how she found the time to balance it alongside her real estate business, helping her husband with his special-event lighting business and doting on her four-year-old. “I don’t know,” Willow says, laughing. Made Local Marketplace, 2421 Magowan Dr. in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa. 707.583.7667. Open 10am to 6pm, Monday–Saturday; 11am to 5pm, Sunday. www.madelocalmarketplace.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WILLOW FISH PETERSON
of the business. “I was on the hunt,” Willow says. She worked diligently, yet openly, with the owner of the building as she searched for a new storefront. “The Coddings were great to work with,” she says of the real estate group that helped with the search. They toured her through a few locations, and with her insistence to see just one more, they then found the perfect new home in the Montgomery Village Shopping Center. “There we go,” she said, upon seeing the new space. “I don’t want to see anything else. This is it.” When you know, you know. But the real changes were just
beginning. First, came the building itself. The new corner spot, located at 2421 Magowan Dr., saw a bit of touch-up. “You know with my varied past, I got to work right away on the space,” Peterson says. “Some new paint, and one wall had to come down—but really only a few tweaks.” And just like that, the space was ready to shine and do the business proper justice. Peterson then overhauled the store logistically; transforming everything from inventory and online interfaces to invoicing and point of sale systems through two prisms: modernization and organization. A messy desk is a sign of genius may be a fun adage—and maybe even true, to some extent—though it is also true that organization, while often undervalued, is rarely unjustified. However, people proved the greatest rejuvenating factor behind the store’s transformation. Peterson mans the helm, yes, but she’s clear about the secret to her success. “I have some really great people with me in the store,” she says. “People I know I can trust when I’m not there, which is awesome. They know our makers, some of the usual customers. I have really good help.” A welcome change from the old retail real estate days, and it’s paid off.
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VISION Richard Trieber is the developer behind Power Plant Park.
Cannabis and Community Richard Trieber founds Power Plant Park BY CASEY O’BRIEN
PHOTOS COURTESY OF POWER PLANT PARK
L
ike most parents, Richard Trieber is willing to try anything to do what’s right for his children. Unlike most parents, that led him to a career in cannabis—and running the first cannabis business of its type in all of California. When Trieber’s son was a young teen, he started displaying issues at school. He couldn’t focus, and he sometimes distracted other students. “He wasn’t a bad kid, he wasn’t a mean kid,” Trieber said. “He was just very distracted, and he couldn’t behave in class the way he needed to behave.” »»
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‘White people might commit the same
crime, some kind of drug offense or marijuana offense, but they aren’t punished for it,’ says Power Plant Park developer Richard Trieber. ‘But Black and Brown folks are punished so severely in this messed-up system.’ «« Doctors, and the many schools Trieber sent his son to, all recommended ADHD medications such as Ritalin. Trieber agreed. But the more research he did into the medicine, the more concerned he became.Trieber worried about the long-term effects of stimulants on his son. He wanted to find an alternative. In his research, Trieber stumbled upon early evidence that cannabis was an effective treatment for ADHD in kids. He was fascinated—he wasn’t even a cannabis consumer himself at the time, but the data was compelling. It took some convincing to get his son’s mother onboard, but eventually, Trieber decided to try cannabis as a treatment for his son. Trieber began dosing cannabis in very small amounts to his teenager— and found it much more effective than the prescription medications he had been given. Trieber’s son became one of the youngest people in California to receive a doctor’s recommendation for cannabis, and Trieber was hooked on the power of cannabis as medicine. Trieber’s experience working with his son to manage his ADHD and
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succeed in school eventually led him to work in the cannabis industry. A serial entrepreneur, he had previously founded mission-driven startups like Local Heroes, a software system that allows people to receive discounts at local businesses and donate the difference to charity. He used his experience in business and his lifelong connections in the Bay Area—his family has lived locally for generations, and his grandfather was San Francisco’s police chief in the 1920s—to develop Power Plant Park, a massive campus of marijuana growers and product creators that will be the first legal development of its kind in the state. Power Plant Park, an 18-acre, 818,000-square-foot campus along the San Francisco Bay in Richmond, has been approved for seven different types of cannabis licenses. Craft growers and cannabis brands can lease directly from Power Plant Park, avoiding the years-long municipal approval process. “We are the first type of facility like this in the state and very possibly the entire country, and because of that we just have unfettered opportunity,” Trieber said.
Power Plant Park reflects changes in the cannabis industry as a whole. Since cannabis was legalized in California for recreational use in 2016, it’s become much more mainstream, and the science of creating cannabis products has developed in record time. “It’s all changed in such a short amount of time, because we have more intelligence now about things like lighting spectrums and controlling the spectrum during the bloom cycle, all the nuances that we are learning about this plant as it becomes more mainstream,” Trieberid said. He hopes Power Plant Park will be at the cutting edge of cannabis science, and at the heart of the state’s fastestgrowing industry. Power Plant Park will be developed in stages, but construction is already underway for the first phase, and 80% of the Phase 1 leases are rented. The space will open in July. Eventually, when it’s fully operational, Power Plant Park is expected to bring about 500 jobs to the city of Richmond. This would make it one of the city’s largest employers, second only to Chevron. Power Plant Park will include greenhouses; state-of-the-art machinery for creating tinctures, pre-rolls, edibles and other products; cannabis delivery services; and even a drive-through purchase site where people can come directly to the campus to pick up their orders. It will include Trieber’s own in-house brand, Transparency, as well as other craft marijuana brands from around the state. Trieber says he will only sell to or involve distributors, retailers and growers he personally trusts are responsible members of the industry. The development of Power Plant »»
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EMPOWERED Power Plant Park could be a significant boon to Richmond’s economy—Trieber’s team has agreed to donate 5% of their profits back to the city.
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of his own. He knew it would be an uphill battle, and, in fact, it took a great deal of time and money. But after four years of negotiating— and about $4 million sourced from investors and his own funds—Trieber was able to get Power Plant Park approved and make it a reality. For Trieber, it was almost unbelievable. “It was a really emotional thing,” he said. “When we first went out there and saw the construction underway for the first time, thinking through everything we had been through in four years of blood and tears, it was just an extraordinary feeling. Like, ‘Wow, we are really doing something here,’” he said.
Power Plant Park could be a significant boon to Richmond’s economy—Trieber’s team has agreed to donate 5% of their profits back to the city. It’s expected that Phase 1 alone will bring in $4 million directly to the city of Richmond. Involving members of the community directly in the project is important to Trieber. He worked with the City of Richmond to develop a diversion program for nonviolent offenders of color—especially those with marijuanarelated infractions—to be trained at Power Plant Park as certified cannabis experts. Once trained, the students in Power Plant Park’s program can work as cultivators or in other roles and be »»
PHOTOS COURTESY OF POWER PLANT PARK
Park is a remarkable feat, especially considering how difficult it is to get cannabis-related projects approved. “All of these people in the industry looked at this and said, ‘You’re out of your mind,’” Trieber said. “They told me, ‘You have a 2%, maybe 5% chance of getting this developed.’ And those were guys who really knew the industry,” he added. Trieber didn’t expect the project to succeed. At first, he looked for a single building to rent. “I would have been happy with 8,000 square feet,” he said. “There was just nothing left to rent.” When he couldn’t find anyone to lease to him for a cannabis project, Trieber began thinking about building a campus 50 UP 2021
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cannabis operation, you need to be hiring minority people in your business,’ Richard Trieber says. ««
paid a starting wage of $27.50 an hour. Their convictions will also be overturned. “White people might commit the same crime, some kind of drug offense or marijuana offense, but they aren’t punished for it,” Trieber said. “But Black and Brown folks are punished so severely in this messed-up system.” The cannabis industry in California, and in other states, skews white. It’s estimated that about 80% of owners in the cannabis industry are white, while people of color make up nearly half of marijuana possession arrests nationally, according to the Drug Policy Alliance. Trieber’s hope is that programs like his will begin to tip the balance. “If you want to run a cannabis operation, you need to be hiring minority people in your business,” Trieber said. Trieber hopes his plans for Power Plant Park—both his approach to community investment and his model of multiple cannabis licenses
in one place—will eventually be adopted elsewhere. “Why wouldn’t we franchise?” he said. “It would be very easy for us to move the project up and down the state and maybe even all over the country.” Eventually, he hopes other cities around the country will want to establish cannabis production parks of their own. Trieber sees cannabis as a job engine and a tool to lift up entire communities—not just a recreational drug. But the truth is, even one location is a dream come true for Trieber. “People looked at me like, ’Get ahold of yourself, Richard. Where are you gonna get the money?’ But one story led to another,’ he said. “A little money there, a little here, some family money, my wife put in some money she came into unexpectedly. And now, here we are, four years later, and we are building the park. I was an unlikely person for this to happen for, but I worked my tail off. And now the floodgates are open.” www.powerplantpark.com
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ntil I turned 50, I loved sex. I engaged in the activity several times a week with my on-again/off-again beau of a dozen years. Then one day, and I don’t mean to sound grim, my libido simply disappeared.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF OF DR. ORIANA L. NELSEN
FOUNDER Dr. Oriana L. Nelsen, a clinical sexologist, is the founder and director of the San Francisco Intimacy and Sex Therapy Centers.
Just before I hit the quinquagenarian decade, Rick and I took a break from our relationship for a few months. Nothing that I can identify happened to my body during the off-time. I felt fine, and kept up my daily hikes with the dog and yoga classes. Still, by the time we got back together, something had clearly changed. I had no interest in sex. None. Zilch. Zippo. I merely participated for Rick’s sake. What I didn’t understand, and what nobody warned me about, was that entering this phase of life would have a significant impact on my sexuality. Postmenopause took control of my body, ruining my sex life and his, too. To make matters worse, the act itself became painful. Double whammy. I made an appointment with my gynecologist. Thankfully, I was healthy. Perimenopause was the cause of
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my discomfort. I went home with a prescription for a hormonal vaginal cream and a handful of lubricant samples. While these measures helped somewhat, I still struggled with this new reality. Consequently, when my editor mentioned writing an article, I jumped at the chance to interview experts about the issues that arise when people move into their 50s. Enter Claudia Six, a clinical sexologist and author in San Rafael, and Oriana L. Nelsen, a clinical sexologist and the founder and director of the San Francisco Intimacy and Sex Therapy Centers. Both Six and Nelsen agree that partners with disparate libidos ranks high among the most common problems facing couples. In fact, there’s a psychobabble term for it: desire discrepancy. “I recommend the couple finds a balance of initiation that works for both of them,” Six said. A lot of high-desire partners would like to feel desired more, but their mate may not be always willing to participate. Don’t make your mate responsible for your pleasure. Masturbate, take the edge off. The person who wants less sex can touch their partner in erotic ways while they masturbate. You don’t need traditional intercourse.” Although men don’t go through perimenopause, they may also experience physiological changes as they age. Twenty-six percent of men aged 50 to 59 report a problem with erectile dysfunction, according to a Harvard study on male sexuality and aging. There are methods, other than medication, to deal with the issues that men develop. “For those over 50 with a penis, it’s common to need more physical and mental stimulation to get erect,” Nelsen
‘Sexuality is a lifelong experience that goes through many different stages,’ says Dr. Oriana L. Nelsen. ‘Solo experiences, as well as partnered sex, promote overall physical and emotional well-being.’ said. “There are often erectile issues or not becoming as firm as before. They often notice a drop on their libido as well. Other issues around circulation, and prostate or hormone shifts, also account for erectile difficulties. Explore prostate massage and various types of stimulation. For those with erectile difficulties, explore other sensual and sexual pleasures … don’t put all the focus on intercourse.” Deemphasizing intercourse doesn’t necessarily support our conventional expectations of sex. Fortunately, with a little effort, we can shift paradigms. Nelsen encourages couples to get creative with toys to enhance their sex life. Today, these products can easily be researched and purchased online—tip: silicone toys work well for sanitary and durability purposes. “It’s worth exploring different types of intensity in vibrators and sizes of dildos,” Nelson said. “Remembering that sex in general, and great sex in particular, can occur without an erection or penetration, and changing one’s mindset about that is also important for people dealing with erectile difficulties.” Six has a different perspective about tools in the bedroom. Although she recommends vibrators for women having difficulty with orgasm, she says couples should get into the “being” of
sex, rather than the “doing.” Lingerie, toys and sex videos are about the doing. “The richness of sex is more about being present,” Six said. “Having your eyes open can be deeply erotic. Talking and connecting emotionally. The being of sex is a place you go, hopefully together. Especially when people age, revealing yourself authentically makes sex good.” The takeaway from Six and Nelsen is that people over 50 have choices when it comes to sex. From prescription medications to inventiveness, there are solutions to what ails us. We don’t have to give up on the experiences that came so easily in our younger years. It’s essential, for the sake of our health, that we pursue a more fulfilling sex life, whether we’re alone or with a partner. “Sexuality is a lifelong experience that goes through many different stages,” Nelsen said. “Solo experiences, as well as partnered sex, promote overall physical and emotional well-being. It increases one’s serotonin levels and endorphins, promotes healthier circulation and psychological and physiological relaxation. In particular, partnered sex promotes intimacy and connection in relationships.” I’m putting the Do Not Disturb sign on my bedroom door. Rick and I are going to be busy for a while. 50 UP 2021
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I’m John,
and this is my healing place. John Ternullo was rushed to our ER with severe chest pain after a Bocce Ball tournament. We resuscitated him four times before providing life-saving cardiovascular stents. Now John volunteers for our Hayne’s Cardiovascular Institute in Cardiac Recovery, and he has a heart full of love for MarinHealth . ®
Visit www.MyMarinHealth.org/healing to read John’s full experience and read other healing stories.
