Marty Durlin

No big tent on the Mendocino Headlands this year: the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Mendocino Music Festival to cancel its 34th season. In its place, Festival Executive Director Barbara Faulkner and her staff have created online offerings specific to the Festival, and hope to present the same classical music programming next year.  Mendocino Village and the surrounding area will take a financial hit of at least $1.5 million, and locals and visitors alike will miss the live music. But there are some bright spots.

The 31-year-old Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference goes online this year because of COVID-19. But Executive Director Lisa Locascio, in her second year of diversifying the conference by recruiting more young writers of color as faculty and students, says it may make the conference even more accessible.

"Where to start?" asked Fort Bragg Mayor Will Lee on Monday night, after more than three hours of public testimony about whether to change the town's name. He and other City Council members debated briefly on their course of action, looking for a way to address diverse local input about a name that honors an unpopular confederate general, and refers to a fort established to "subdue" the indigenous population of the area in the mid 1850s. Vice mayor Bernie Norvell suggested substituting Union General Edward Bragg for the much-derided Braxton Bragg.

Jim Culp gets his locks shorn by Nancy at Style Salon in Fort Bragg, and describes the double-masked experience. He also talks to Tanya of Hair Company Plus in Fort Bragg, who has been cutting hair for more than 50 years, about what it was like to shut down and now reopen.

Lana Cohen is our new environmental reporter, working for both KZYX and The Mendocino Voice, and recruited through Report for America, a national service program that places emerging journalists into local newsrooms across the country to report on under-covered issues. Her position is funded by KZYX, The Mendocino Voice, Report for America and a grant from the Community Foundation. We will also be fundraising throughout the year to support her work in Mendocino County.

A diverse, all-ages crowd led by high school students gathered in front of Town Hall in Fort Bragg on Tuesday afternoon to protest the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last week. Many spoke eloquently about the history of racial injustice in the United States. The crowd of hundreds of mask-wearing people chanted, waved signs and asked passers-by to honk in agreement. Parts one and two give a flavor of the variety of persepectives at the rally.

Ann Christen, one of 20 volunteers who run the Anderson Valley Food Bank, talks about responding to increasing food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place order. The food bank distributes fresh fruit and vegetables as well as staples to some 600 people each month, operating out of the Methodist Church in Boonville. In May the Food Bank will add a second day of food distribution, and is seeking more volunteers and more donations.

Jim Culp talks with Judy Mello, who with her husband, Frank, runs the B. Bryan Preserve in Point Arena. The preserve is committed to the breeding and conservation of African hoof stock. Currently they raise, breed and study Roan, Sable and Greater Kudu Antelope as well as Grevy’s and Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra and the Rothschild’s Giraffe. The preserve is working to feed the animals during the shut-down.

Interviews with Pastor Doug Moyer of the Chapel of the Redwoods Baptist Church, Rabbi Margaret Holub of the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community and Father Aaron of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, about how the coronavirus pandemic has tested faith and altered fellowship.

Jim Culp interviews Petra Schulte, who talks about the benefits of a plant-based diet in living a longer, healthier life.

In Mendocino Village, there was zero rainfall during the month of February. The county as a whole is showing less than half of normal rainfall. The State of California has predicted a "moderate drought year," and County Superintendent Carre Brown says we should start conservation measures early. Ryan Rhoades, incoming District Supervisor of the Mendocino Community Services District,  takes on a system of 400 individually owned wells in a drought year.

The gray whales are passing close to shore on the Mendocino Coast as they migrate north from the Baja to the Arctic. Under ordinary circumstances, their presence would be celebrated by the volunteer-run Point Cabrillo Light Station, but this year the coronavirus has intervened. Jim Culp reports.

Jim Culp talks to Alexandra Jennings, interim manager at The Woods, a senior community in Little River, about the precautions they took early on to protect against the coronavirus.

Last week officials from Sonoma Clean Power, the Renewable Energy Development Institute and The Energy Alliance Association presented energy-saving options for businesses at a Fort Bragg workshop. SCP Programs Manager Chad Asay talked about his latest project, the Advanced Energy Center, which will open this summer in downtown Santa Rosa and will feature new building technology that can not only save energy, but produce it. 

Anderson Valley resident Captain Rainbow is the founder and impresario of the Variety Show, a two-night extravaganza of local creativity and community that takes place every year on the first weekend of March at the Anderson Valley Grange. Begun as a celebration to inaugurate the newly built Grange in 1991, the tradition continues for the 29th year on Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th, featuring skits, animal acts, dance, music, story-telling and -- always -- surprises.