Napa Valley Features: The daily surprise!

By Sasha Paulsen

Tim Carl Photo

Tim Carl asked me to write the summary this week, in part because I am about to head off to France and leave him, Paul Franson, Dan Dawson and the others to produce “the daily surprise,” as one reader has described Napa Valley Features.

First, I decided, I should write about Tim since he has introduced everyone except himself to readers, and he is the one who thought up — or perhaps dreamed up — Napa Valley Features at 2 a.m., so he tells me.

He and I were going to collaborate on a story, although I was not sure where we were going to run it, and the interview was set for this day. By the time we met that morning, he showed me the website he had created between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m., not only for this story but for many to follow. I was dumbfounded, but then I am the kind of writer who takes 40 years to finish a novel.

We had talked about ways to get stories out into the world, but extensive talking is not Tim’s style.

“I decided to just do it,” he said. That is his style.

It was Dave Stoneberg who introduced me to Tim some years ago when Dave was editor of the St. Helena Star and I was trying to figure out how to find local features content for the Napa Valley Register.

He told me Tim had come into the Star office proposing to write “The Storyteller,” a series about growing up in St. Helena in the 1960s and ’70s. I read a few of Tim’s stories. They were quirky but fun. They had a voice that captured a moment in time. And they always ended, “But that’s another story.”

“Who is this guy?” I asked.

This was a question I’d be asked many times as I began to run not just Tim’s “Storyteller” creations but also stories about food, wine, the arts and people of the Napa Valley, all with his glorious photos. And he provided other stories, too, not only about the valley but about fossil-hunting in Wyoming or stargazing in Death Valley.

Stargazing in Death Valley - Tim Carl Photo

He is an adventurer in life, whether he is tracking frogs as a kid in St. Helena, playing in a rock band (at 13) in an attempt to entertain Francis Ford Coppola or creating a whole new approach to journalistic storytelling (“Should we do a story about Luddites mastering technology?” he asked when Paul Franson, Dave Stoneberg and I all ventured at his behest into Substack and Slack, which I keep calling Slacker, to add stories into Napa Valley Features.)

I also learned that Tim has worked as a chef, a vintner, owner of a small winery, and a yoga and meditation teacher. He has a Ph.D. and completed a fellowship at Harvard. And he is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Veterans are special. I’ve always known this because my dad and all my uncles were veterans who served in World War II. My son, Sam, a cardiology fellow at UCLA, spends time at the Santa Monica Veterans Hospital and never fails to be amazed by the veterans he has met. Like the man who was feeling chest pains and decided to drive himself to the hospital — from Las Vegas. “It’s not a big deal, Doc,” he told Sam. Actually, it was a heart attack. He survived.

“These guys are tough,” Sam said. (And the women, too.)

But back to Tim, Napa Valley’s Renaissance man, and his newly launched project, Napa Valley Features, into which he is skillfully drawing a cluster of writers who want to tell the stories of the Napa Valley — and beyond, since I am heading to France.

Three weeks in the list of subscribers continues to grow, including this week a huge boost from William and Leticia Jarvis and their son, Will, now president of Jarvis Winery.

William and Leticia Jarvis and their son, Will at their Napa winery - Tim Carl Photo

Last week, Dave Stoneberg, a master storyteller himself, filed his first story, a compelling account of the challenges and solutions of commuting into Calistoga from Lake County. He has more planned.

Zak Fennie, a talented musician and outstanding writer, too, sent in a story about Mama Said, a local band performing at BottleRock.

BottleRock 2023 - JL Sousa Photo

And the well-known Rob McMillan, who headed the wine division at Silicon Valley Bank, provided a fascinating and honest account of what it’s like when your company fails — from an insider’s point of view.

Tim Carl managed to get a seat at the newly reopened Ciccio in Yountville so that he could enthrall readers with what they will find there — when they manage to get a reservation.

Coming up

This coming week will be a busy one in the valley. Lucky Penny opens their hilarious and rowdy revival of “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” on June 2, and the Jarvis Conservatory’s monthly musical delight, “A Grand Night for Singing,” is on June 3.

This weekend also will see the debut of the Napa Valley Vintner Collective Napa Valley Together Again Weekend, the successor to Auction Napa Valley and Napa Valley Wine Auction. It promises to be grand fun but with a serious purpose: The funds raised will support mental health services for young people in the valley. Learn more and donate, here.

But the week begins with Memorial Day. Here’s a list, courtesy of Paul Franson and Napa Life, of ways to honor the men and women who have served this country so valiantly, and this includes Tim Carl.

• American Canyon observes Memorial Day with a ceremony on May 29 at 11 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Park (2801 Broadway).

• Napa will have an observation at Veterans Park at 11:30 a.m. Monday.

• Yountville is hosting two memorials. Today (May 28) at the Pioneer Cemetery at 1 p.m. is the first, led by the cemetery association and the Native Daughters of the Golden West. On Monday the service is at the Veterans Home of California from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

• St. Helena’s memorial is at 10 a.m. on Monday.

• Calistoga’s American Legion Memorial Day service is at the Calistoga Veterans Memorial at 11 a.m.

Thanks for reading. And thank you to all of our veterans.