Interesting People
He’s Got The Blues
Start with David Dot Hale’s voice. Not just any voice, but a rich and expressive timbre with a half-smile behind it. Now watch him don his red hat and transform into his blues persona, Blind Lemon Peel. Finally, savor the guttural growl that is the vocalist’s signature.
“I call what I do ‘progressive blues,’” says Dot Hale, a native New Yorker who relocated to Sacramento from Los Angeles two years ago. “It’s an evolution. I appreciate the blues, where it came from, what it’s about, what the heritage and ethnicity of that music is. I try to anchor my roots firmly in the past while broadening the genre. Traditional blues and art house cabaret is my thing.”
Keep Moving
“I failed at retirement,” Tom Avenell says. And he’s right. At age 93, after a full work life, the River Park resident is still on the move. A self-described “nice old man,” he conducts balance, exercise and self-defense classes for seniors.
While his immediate focus is on teaching, his business background prepared him to conduct those classes. Avenell was a management consultant to banks, irrigation companies, credit associations, agricultural organizations and chemical companies. He was a problem-solver and troubleshooter.
Change Maker
Marie Copher knows how difficult it is to change careers. She left her longtime job as a social worker to start a coaching business. And she did it at the height of the pandemic.
“I had already been thinking about wanting to make a change for myself—doing the work I was doing didn’t seem to be fulfilling me as much as it used to,” says Copher, who spent more than 20 years as a social worker and counselor in nonprofit, hospice and government agencies.
“The pandemic removed the veil—not just for me, but for the world. We were going through our day-to-day lives without even thinking about what we were doing. We were on automatic. Then suddenly there was so much going on in the world affecting everyone.
Task Masters
Replacing a light bulb doesn’t seem like a big deal. But to someone who lives alone and can’t climb a ladder, this simple household task can be impossible.
Enter Blue Collar Concierge. This innovative business founded by husband-and-wife team Ben and Molly Doolittle offers clients a weekly appointment with a handyman to do those small tasks often neglected by an elder or busy homeowner.
“Ben and I both had aging parents,” says Molly, a teacher who grew up in the Bay Area. “We’d go visit Ben’s mom in Petaluma and we’d be walking out the door when she’d say, ‘Can you just do these couple of things?’ She needed someone for her ‘honey-do list.’ We realized there was this niche of people living alone in homes that need tasks taken care of—not big handyman projects, but smaller things like fixing a gate latch.”
Decades Of Service
When you enjoy the shade of hundreds of native oak trees in 13 parks maintained by the Carmichael Recreation and Park District, thank Jerry Eppler.
When you meander down the quarter-mile path to the Jensen Botanical Garden at Sutter-Jensen Community Park, thank Jerry Eppler.
Movie Magic
The room is claustrophobic. You can almost smell the tang of sweat and adrenaline. A face appears onscreen, uncomfortably close, marred by a wound. The camera reels as punches are thrown. You don’t know whether to look away or watch through your fingers.
Spencer Tsang was able to capture this intense scene on film because he lived it. He and his friends would meet behind a Taco Bell near John F. Kennedy High School to fight. It wasn’t until Tsang was in college and won a grant to make “Fight Night,” a short film based on this time in his life, that he realized he could make a living exploring his own experiences through art.
