saying goodbye to 2015 / saying hello to 2016…

“for last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.”
~ t.s. eliot, four quartets

“just ’cause something’ ain’t been done don’t mean it can’t be did.” ~ shel silverstein

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above ~ New Years 2014, Oakland/Kensington ~ Gillian Handelman and Lloyd Bernberg… New Years 2015, Bear Valley ~ Royal and August

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From New Year’s 2014 to the welcoming in of 2016, there are 365 days of possibility… old and new friends and experiences, transitions from doing one thing to another ~ always an adventure. Below, a little visual diary of this year’s sweet spots and beautiful moments (that transcended many of the difficult times we had this year with bullying and changing schools), along with some of those memorable movies, delectable dishes, amazing organizations, new directions…. taking risks and moving forward ~

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JANUARY 

above ~ SF Chronicle salon dinner #58, January 17th ~ with Adam Sobel, Alexandra Foote, Shelley Lindgren, Cal Peternell and Daniel Patterson; with Noah Cowan and B. Ruby Rich; with Nathan Johnson, Jake Wall and August; with Lloyd and Royal.

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above ~ Maria Ralph at the SF Ballet in one of our bias cut gowns. Eve Love, Maria Ralph and I at the opening of SF’s Kit and Ace; Andy Dunn and I at a Jeffersonian dinner at his 13th brick and mortar Bonobos store, Santana Row; Angelo Garro with August at his SALT exhibit at Fouladi Projects.

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FEBRUARY / MARCH (NYC)

    One of my favorite pieces of writing this year, was compiled/written by the brilliant Phyllis Grant ~

   below a few excerpts from the whole piece ~ “I know a mama who knows a mama who had sex last

   night. Is feeling the estrogen drop and the testosterone rise. Would give up alcohol and sugar if her son

   would stay small forever…I know a mama who loves her work so much that she sometimes feels like

   she shouldn’t be a mama. Had an affair in order to remember that she likes sex. Wonders just how

   much iPad use will cause her kids’ brains to melt…Said to the bully next door if you touch my kid

   again, I’ll cut your fingers off…I know a mama who doesn’t know how to help her daughter feel smart,

   beautiful, feminine, strong, brave…I know a mama who feels duped. Feels lost. Feels fat. Fells loved. I know a

mama who learned how to be a good mama from her own mama…” Click HERE for more…

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above ~ the SF Chronicle feature written by Tony Bravo; Kiln’s Masayo Funakoshi from Kyoto at Scribe Winery; Anthony Sueuga’s paella at Jerome Waag’s goodbye to Bluxome Street dinner; Michael Cecconi, Margi Young, Phyllis Grant, Kiki Braverman and I, dinner #62, February 21st.

above ~ my very first “moveable feast” in NYC in Susan Sakin and Ronnie Peter’s Tribecca space, with guests Charles Ferguson and Emily, Christine Muhlke and Oliver Strand, Tamara Jenkins and Jim Taylor, Sorrel Ahlfeld and Francesca Esmay, James Croak and Tomoe Ito, John Krokidas, Nicky Kassell, Pascaline Lepeltier, Jane Sutherland, Henry Hargreaves; Susan and I at the Spotted Pig, West Village; on my very first film set with director Josh Marston in Brooklyn during the filming of his 3rd feature, Complete Unknown, with Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon.

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APRIL (Paris, Bodega Bay)

 above ~ Paris with Royal… Meeting up with Pam Esterson; Lloyd and August in Bodega Bay at Chad’s 50th; Alexander Payne and I at Chez Panisse. He’s interning downstairs, and Lloyd and I are having dinner with Joyce Carol Oates and Charlie Gross in the cafe upstairs. My dear friend Britt Dionne, who was in my very FIRST runway show Shedding Skins in 2001 does a week of CB clothes; a favorite Monte Carlo gown from my 4th street studio; my favorite knit piece (and moment) from the Creative Growth, Oakland runway show.

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MAY

above ~ my first banana bread, meeting Mark Bittman (and cooking for him) at salon dinner #68, May 8th; the family screening of INSIDE OUT at Pixar; Jessica and Raj Parr’s wedding at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos; vertical tastings of Thierry Allemand’s Cornas and a Cote Roti; discovering Bacara in Santa Barbara with the family… Meeting Dianne and music writer Ben Fong-Torres at salon #71 for the Oakland Book Festival (Ben did the last interview with Jim Morrison back in 1971, which you can listen to here). Ending the month with salon dinner #72 for Barbara Bylenga’s awesome non-profit Open A Door (now She-Can. You can watch the video of the vision of She-Can here/I did the voice-overs of three of the scholars)

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JUNE / closing down my 4th street studio space

above ~ Negroni week “cultural innovators” dinner, co-hosted with Campari, #73, June 6th with guests eve love, ryan nobles, greg lindgren, jon gasparini, olga semoukhina, victor reyes + katrina santa anna, michele turnure-salleo, diane + scott tavenner, ali partovi + melissa baldauf, daniel patterson +alexandra foote, andrew jiminez, kitty margolis + alfonso montuori, mark jensen, matt dick, mandy aftel & foster curry, tiffany shlain, phil & jules tippett
william werner + sarah logan, marcia gagliardi; images from my last supper, #77 with Eve Love; beautiful moments captures by Stu Maschwitz; my menotr/inspiration Laura Nader and I; Lloyd and I with his bread maker icon Carol and John Field, and whose book The Italian Baker was like a bible to him ~ other guests for the “last supper” on June 20th included eve love, dayna goldfine + dan geller, michelle stock + stu maschwitz, matt dick, cristina mueller + ethan nosowsky, joyce goldstein, shelley lindgren, loni hancock + tom bates, sara o’malley + richard hylton,  jordan kurland, kate jessup, liz gazzano + marcos gandara, angelo garro, isabella polenghi, carol + john field. Packing up and saying goodbye…and a dinner with Paul and Maureen Draper at Chez Panisse (another one of Lloyd’s iconic figures, for Paul’s work with Ridge Winery)..

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JULY/AUGUST 

above ~ from Walden Pond to Old Orchard Beach; my first “moveable feast” at J. Rusten studio for Clorox, Lucy and William Hamilton’s gorgeous garden party in St Helena; lunch at my local fave Ellen and Sunhui Chang’s FUSEBOX, and dinner at Adam Sobel’s MIDDLE’TERRANEA; watching my collaborator and dear friend Jake Wall on Project Runway every week with Royal and August, and finally getting over to Rafael Galliano and John Martin’s Inn at Park Winters.

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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER

above ~ Telluride Film Festival, with Rachel Kushner as guest director; the Q&A at the screening of Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation with Todd McCarthy, in conversation with Idris Elba, Abraham Attah and Cary Fukunaga; and Friday’s farmer’s market with Alice Waters and Hubert Sauper. A16 for Lloyd and my 15th anniversary, a visit to meet David Kelley at the d-school at Stanford, and Let Girls Lead moveable feast at the home of Nancy Deyo. Me as Casper back in 1975. August as a ghost/Halloween in Alameda, 2015.

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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER

above ~ Hubert Sauper in SF for his Oscar’s tour of WE COME AS FRIENDS, my interview with him post-screening, dinner at Chez Panisse; Camille’s birthday at Chez Panisse. A moveable feast in Oakland co-hosted with Etienne Fang and Jason Ring. Bringing Lapham’s Quarterly FASHION edition to life at Starline Social Club in Oakland / with Frieda de Lacker, Deb Fink, Amy Mansfield (as David Bowie), and so many others. Click HERE for more. Celebrating our anniversary in Venice, Torino and Genova. August at Little Italy/Michael Mina pop-up with Adam Sobel. At the SF premiere of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s The Mask We Live In ~ with Nate and Bre Johnson, Jake Wall and Pernella Somerville. August turns 10, handmade threads for Ponyo, Royal sining Sam Smith’s Writing’s on the Wall at Berkeley Jazz. The “Art of Gathering” ConVerge at YBCA ~ with Katya Min, Alexandra Silverman, Rachel Konte; Royal, Davia Nelson and I / click HERE for more. Christmas Eve caroling with the family/with Elizabeth on violin,  at Julie Abram’s. Trying something new on xmas ~ baking my first loaf of bread.

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“remembering our past, carrying it around with us always, may be the necessary requirement for maintaining, as they say,
the wholeness of the self. To ensure that the self doesn’t shrink, to see that it holds on to its volume,
memories have to be watered like potted flowers, and the watering calls for regular contact with the witnesses of the past,
that is to say, with friends. They are our mirror; our memory; we ask nothing of them but that they polish
the mirror from time to time so we can look at ourselves in it.”
~ milan kundera, identity