Paragraphs by Paul Miller
Would young people nowadays believe you if you told them that on weekends they could drive from anywhere in Corte Madera to a shopping center no more than 10 minutes away and for the cost of a coke hear the Black Eyed Peas live, or they could walk from United Market's parking lot in San Anselmo and listen to Beyonce, or in Mill Valley they could easily park near a happening Hip-Hop club where they could dance the night away?
Musical entertainment opportunities like these were more abundant than gas stations in Marin three decades ago.
Uncle Charlie's bar in Corte Madera featured Huey Lewis and the News in what is now a reconstructed building that includes a food market in the Paradise Cove shopping center. You walked into Uncle Charlie's, and there was Huey and his band, the length of a volley ball court away. It was a beautiful sight and sound.
At the Lion's Share in San Anselmo, the building was pounding with the immortal energy and the atomic style of Janis Joplin. "Let's walk over to the Lion and see Janis." It was that easy and intimate and inexpensive. The building today is used by an optical company.
In Mill Valley, dancers would park once, go to a café for dinner and afterwards, walk along the waterfront to The Saw Mill and disco all night. Lights bounced off chrome spheres while a D.J. pulsated music that prohibited sitting down. Besides, there was nothing but a dance floor, a bar and dancers who changed colors like electrified chameleons. Today there are not only chairs, but beds and quietness in the former dance hall that is now a hotel.
Today in Marin there are still world class musicians that can be heard in a few comfortable and intimate venues. But those same '70's music fans now do not even stay up for the 11 o'clock news!
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Long time Marinite Paul Miller
was editorial cartoonist for the Marin IJ, sports cartoonist for the
Novato Advance, a cover cartoonist for the Pacific Sun, and is
currently a cartoonist illustrator for The Ark. He's had cartoons
published in the San Francisco Chronicle and his surf paintings have
been published on the Surfriders Foundation website. He joins MoreMarin
as a contributing editorial cartoonist.
Miller, a former Marine
and UCLA graduate, taught a cartooning course in the art department at
the College of Marin. His paintings and drawings are in private
collections in California, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, Florida
and Provence, France. Miller's book, A Cartoonist's Guide to Prostate Cancer, was described by Dr. Dean Edell as "a must for any man facing prostate cancer!"
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