🎶 Remembering Dolly, and a very eventful Saturday

Last weekend of August, and I'm already seeing some leaves turn on my street. Either way, I'm ready for the weekend.

In this week's Signal:

We lost a good one, folks. My Dad was always a fan of Dolly Parton’s music. As I've aged, I've grown to appreciate it also. More importantly, she showed us how to be humble and kind. Her generosity and loving spirit will not be forgotten. She died Tuesday in Nashville at 80.

Some of her generosity has shown locally. The Sonoma County Imagination Library runs our chapter of the program she started in 1995, which mails a free book every month to any kid in this county from birth to age five. You can support it at A Dolly Good Time, the chapter's fundraiser, which happens to land Saturday. Fundraiser details and tickets here.

Recycling-bin art goes on the wall in Petaluma. The Mahoney Library Gallery at SRJC's Petaluma campus is showing "Beautiful Trash," made by the six students in this summer's Recology Artstart residency. The residency runs in partnership with Recology Sonoma Marin and Artstart, and the work is built from what the rest of us put at the curb. SRJC News

SRJC announced its 2026-2027 theatre season. Four productions are on the schedule: Emilia, Disney's Frozen, Blithe Spirit, and Little Shop of Horrors. That is one Shakespeare-adjacent history play, one Broadway musical, one Noël Coward comedy, and one man-eating plant. SRJC News

Sonoma County broke ground on a youth behavioral health center. Construction started at the Los Guilicos campus on Hood House Drive on an $18 million state-funded facility: two residential wings holding eight substance-use treatment beds and six mental-health crisis beds for teens. Outpatient space at the site will serve young people up to age 25. KSRO

Now open: Wylde Provisions Co. — A Sebastopol playground café with a chef-made menu, tofu soba noodle bowls and proper espresso and beer, built so parents can sit in the shade while the kids run. (Sonoma Magazine)

Now open: The Porch Kitchen — A tucked-away Sebastopol bistro from classically trained chef Lisa Boisset, who makes nearly everything from scratch, ketchup included. (Sonoma Magazine)

🎭 Broadway Under the Stars: Mamma Mia!
Friday–Sunday, 7–10 pm
Sonoma Valley Field of Dreams, Sonoma
Cost: $35 – $175 · See more →

🎭 Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Friday 7:30 pm · Saturday & Sunday 2 pm
6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa
Cost: $33 – $56.95 · See more →

🖼️ If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
Saturday & Sunday, 11 am–12 pm
Cinnabar Theater Studio Space, Petaluma
Cost: $15 – $35 · See more →

🧺 River Friends of the Library Book and Bake Sale
Friday–Sunday, 10 am–5:30 pm
Guerneville Library, Guerneville
Free · See more →

🎶 Summer on the Square: Sonoma County Super Jam
The last of the chamber's summer concerts on the square.
Friday, 4–9 pm
Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa
Free · See more →

🧺 Party on the Plaza & Farmers Market in Rohnert Park
Friday, 5:30 pm
Rohnert Park Community Center, Rohnert Park
See more →

🎪 Cloverdale Friday Night Live Street Fair
Friday, 6–9:30 pm
Downtown Cloverdale Plaza, Cloverdale
See more →

🎬 Grease Movie Sing-Along
Friday, 7–9 pm
Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma
Cost: $25 · See more →

🎤 Maureen Langan Headlines Friday Night Comedy
Friday, 8–11 pm
Barrel Proof Lounge, Santa Rosa · 21+
Cost: $15 – $20 · See more →

🎶 Third Eye Blind
Friday, 8–9:30 pm
Graton Resort & Casino, Rohnert Park · 21+
Cost: from $69.50 · See more →

🎬 Movies in the Park: Monsters Inc.
Bring a blanket, the grass gets cold fast out there.
Friday, 8–10 pm
Howarth Memorial Park, Santa Rosa
Free · See more →

🥾 Sugarloaf Human History Hike
Saturday, 9–11 am
Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, Kenwood
Cost: $5 – $12 · See more →

🎪 5th Annual African Soul Festival
Drum and dance all afternoon in the plaza.
Saturday, 11 am–5 pm
Rohnert Park City Center Plaza, Rohnert Park
Free · See more →

🔭 Monarchs & Marigolds at Sonoma State Historic Park
Saturday, 11 am–2 pm
Sonoma Barracks, Sonoma
Free · See more →

🎶 Real Neato Annual Music Festival
Ten hours of it, out at the roadhouse.
Saturday, 12–10 pm
Rio Nido Roadhouse, Rio Nido
See more →

🎶 Trooperfest at Lagunitas
Saturday, 12–8 pm
Lagunitas Petaluma Taproom, Petaluma
See more →

A Dolly Good Time for the Sonoma County Imagination Library ★
The local chapter's first fundraiser: Sweet T's barbecue, Dustin Saylor playing, a silent auction, and a Dolly Parton look-alike contest.
Saturday, 5–9:30 pm
Friedman Event Center, 4676 Mayette Ave., Santa Rosa
Cost: $95 · See more →

🎶 Downtown Sound: Stereotongue, BOLO, Erik Core
Saturday, 6–9:30 pm
Ross Street, Santa Rosa
Free · See more →

🥾 Walk on the Wild Side: Crepuscular and Nocturnal Wildlife
The park after dark, with people who know what's making the noise.
Saturday, 6:30–9 pm
Jack London State Historic Park, Glen Ellen
Cost: $15.00 · See more →

🧺 Santa Rosa Downtown Farmers' Market
Sunday, 11 am–2:30 pm
Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa
See more →

🎶 R-Tea: Queer Tea Dance and Pool Party
Sunday, 12–6 pm
Guerneville · 21+
See more →

🧺 The SoCo Market Presents Ross Street Markets
Sunday, 12–4 pm
Ross Street, Santa Rosa
Free · See more →

📚 History Talk: Cnopius Field, Sebastopol's First Airfield
The 1925 to 1942 run of a field most people drive past without knowing it was there.
Sunday, 2–4 pm
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol
Free · See more →

That's the weekend. Reply to this email with suggestions on what you want more or less of.

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— Ben, writing from Santa Rosa