Soul Motion | Vinn Marti

Soul Motion is an ecstatic dance that weaves together creative personal expression, relationships and divine dialogue. No experience is required. Let Vinn guide you in dance systems that enable you to access your own organic movement. He uses everything from classic jazz to devotional music to help you cultivate an ability to relax while in motion. You will discover, as you move in relationship to self, others, community and the Infinite Presence, that dance is a metaphor for daily life and relationships. Participants discover a profound revelation: They ARE movement. Vinn is the co-founder of Body Moves, an innovative movement arts studio in Portland, Oregon. He has assisted individuals in realizing their potential as creative movers and dance artists since 1976. On the Web: www.soulmotion.com.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Joey Altman

Joey Altman is a San Francisco based Chef who wears many hats: Television Host, Cookbook Author, Restaurant Consultant, Food & Wine Educator, and Public Speaker.

In 1998 Altman launched Bay Café, a food-magazine television show that provides food and wine enthusiasts with an insider’s look at the Bay Area’s rich and diverse culinary scene. Bay Cafe has been recognized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation with the food-world's equivalent to The Oscar's, The James Beard Award for Best Local Cooking Series in 2000, 2001 and 2006. Since 2005 Chef Joey Altman has been the chef Spokesperson for Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, home of BV, Sterling, Acacia, Chalone among others. In addition to local television, Altman also hosted two series for the Television Food Network, “Appetite for Adventure,” a show where gourmet cooking meets the great outdoors and “Tasting Napa” a culinary travelogue through Northern California’s wine country.

Cooking and show business both came early to Joey Altman. He grew up in a resort town in New York’s Catskill Mountains where his mother worked at Grossinger’s Hotel, one of the top venues on the Borscht Belt entertainment circuit. Mel Brooks, Bill Cosby, Lionel Hampton, and other entertainers were early inspirations, and Altman’s culinary skills were developed at a young age by cooking at family parties and celebrations. By the time he was in high school, Altman was an aspiring magician (“Altman the Magnificent”), was playing guitar in a local rock band, and was working as a short-order cook in a local diner. After graduating from the Hotel and Restaurant Management Program at Sullivan County Community College, Altman left for France to train under some of France’s finest chefs, including Lyon's Bernard Constantin and Jean Brouilly. He left France with a thorough grounding in the principles and techniques of classical French cuisine and an appreciation of the importance of balance and harmony in cooking.

Altman returned to America to work at Harvest restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Bob Kinkead, gaining an appreciation of the exciting developments in American cooking that emphasized the freshest seasonal and regional ingredients in creative and exciting combinations. He later traveled to New Orleans where he learned the principles of Creole and Cajun cooking under Emeril Lagasse at Commander’s Palace. He also continued his travels and culinary adventures in the American South and Southwest, the Caribbean, and Mexico – all sources of his lively and eclectic style of cooking. Upon arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area, Altman worked at Stars and other trend-setting San Francisco restaurants. He also worked for legendary rock concert impresario Bill Graham cooking backstage for people like Sting, Eric Clapton and the Grateful Dead. But it was the Caribbean and African inspired dishes that he created at Miss Pearl’s Jam House, which he opened with SOMA pioneer restaurateur Julie Ring and Jeff Gradinger in 1989 that catapulted Altman to the forefront of the highly competitive Bay Area restaurant scene. The restaurant was wildly popular and caught the attention of food writers nationwide with its bright flavors and exciting and spicy combinations of exotic and colorful foods. In addition to his Bay Café on KRON-TV, Altman appears at many benefits and food-related events in the Bay Area and nationwide. He also plays guitar in the Backburner’s Blues Band, a blues-rock group composed of other prominent Bay Area chefs and food professionals. The group plays at local benefits and can be found jamming occasionally at San Francisco rock clubs.

Joey offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each (Wednesday at 11am and 4 pm; Thursday at 4 pm) during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center. You also will have the opportunity to harvest produce you use from our organic garden, Tres Estrellas.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Joey will also offer:

Without Reservations

Experiencing great meals that are full of bold and exciting flavors, interesting combinations and appetizing presentations doesn't only have to happen at your favorite restaurants, they can be enjoyed at home as well. "Without Reservations" is about fearlessly thinking and cooking like a chef. He will share the methods he has gleaned from his 20 years as a chef, and from the hundreds of guest chefs he has hosted on his television show Bay Cafe, for creating delicious dishes quickly and easily in your own kitchen.

Jazz Piano | Joel Camche

Joel Camche has been playing jazz piano professionally since his teens, and his resume runs from being leader of the Harvardians at college, touring Europe and recording for Voice of America with the US Army’s Special Services Jazz Orchestra, playing with the late Lew Anderson’s big and small bands, and the gamut of small group, trio and solo piano gigs at clubs in and around New York City.

His evening program combines what he calls America’s two most important contributions to the world of music, the American Musical, in theatre and film, and Jazz - the songs of composers like Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, now basic to the shared vocabulary of most jazz players, performed with Joel’s improvisatory skill and imagination.

And in his afternoon workshop that follows, he shares a closer look at the lyrics and lyricists that complemented these great composers and turned their joint works into classics of the American Songbook.

Native Peoples of Baja California: Ancient Cultures, Living Traditions | Michael Wilken

 

For thousands of years, native peoples have made their homes in the rugged landscapes of the Tecate, Baja California region. Over countless generations, they learned to interact with the plants, animals and natural landscapes in ways that have provided them with food, medicine, tools, shelter and ceremonial settings. Who are the ancient peoples of this land and how have they used many of the local plants that grow around the ranch and along the hiking trails? How have they developed a way of life as unique as the landscapes they have long inhabited, from ocean to oak woodlands to mountains? What is happening today with indigenous arts such as basketry and pottery? Join local anthropologist Michael Wilken for an adventure in local lore through photographic images, traditional music and lively narrative.

Michael Wilken is a naturalist and anthropologist specializing in native peoples and the environments of Baja California. He has documented traditional lifeways of the Kumiai and Paipai peoples, including the crafting of basketry, pottery, and agave fiber cordage; the ancient chants and song cycles of the region; myths, legends and folk tales; and ethnobotany—native uses of plants for food, medicine, construction and ceremonial life. He has developed lifelong collaborative relationships with many indigenous artists, helping to promote sustainable livelihoods and cultural revitalization. His writings have been published in both academic journals and popular magazines such as News from Native California. Wilken is a lecturer in American Indian Studies at San Diego State University, and is currently collaborating with local non-profit organizations Fundación La Puerta and Corredor Histórico CAREM to create the Tecate Kumiai Museum, set to open in June of 2010.

A Long Term View: Cultivating Marriage, Family and Community with the Future in Mind | Lisa Nave, MA, MFT

In this workshop we will explore how to cultivate marriages, families and communities with the health of future generations in mind. Environmentalism teaches us to be good stewards of the earth; to conserve energy, protect our lands and natural resources. The concept of A Long Term View proposes that we can also be good stewards of people; that we can conserve and protect our social structures for generations to come.

As a psychotherapist Lisa has seen an increasing number of clients in her private practice with issues related to social fragmentation, such as isolation, a lack of extended family or community support, divorce and multiple blended families, and a general sense of indefinable emptiness – especially when feeling trapped on the accelerating conveyer belt of modern life.

In this workshop participants will explore ways to adopt A Long Term View, thereby making their own lives more socially sustainable through inquiry, contemplation, journaling, dialogue and personal and group exercises.

Lisa Nave is a psychotherapist with a private practice in Mill Valley, California. Lisa is an author, speaker, workshop facilitator, has created a social networking site for building community among families, and has taught at Golden Gate University. On the Web: www.lisanavemft.com www.alloparent.org

The Power of Music | Christina Pochmursky

It doesn't matter where you come from, or how old you are: your brain is having a love affair with music.

Find out how music connects you to your emotions and seduces your intellect in an exciting new documentary "The Musical Brain." Film-maker Christina Pochmursky interviews Sting, Michael Buble and Wycelf Jean and the world's top neuroscientists to discover how throughout our lives, music is a gateway to the mysteries of the brain.

Christina Pochmursky is an award winning documentary producer, writer and director whose films have been broadcast all over the world on National Geographic Channels, History Channel and Canal+ in Europe. Christina was a television journalist and a commissioning editor and programmer at Canada's Documentary Channel before starting her own independent production company.

Interviewing Skills for Everyday Use | Marion Coomey and Christina Pochmursky

Learn how interviewing skills can help you with day to day communication, how to prepare for interviews and how to conduct interviews. Marion Coomey and Christina Pochmursky will also offer:

CONVERSATIONAL WRITING. Learn how to write the way you speak. Get rid of long, wordy sentences and awkward phrasing. Make your emails and letters and blogs and Facebook postings sound like YOU. In this workshop, they will help you find your writing voice.

GETTING YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS. Learn how the skills used by television hosts and presenters can help you when you're speaking in front of a group. Whether it's a business presentation or giving a toast at a wedding, these tips can help you be more confident and comfortable when there are others watching and listening.

Marion Coomey has been a Professor of Broadcast Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto for the past 18 years. She teaches on air presentation skills, documentary production, television journalism and writing for the media. She has been a radio and television reporter, writer, producer, host and interviewer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since 1978.