Time seems to be moving quickly this year. The moment the Great Bay Area "Heat Dome" dissipated, coffee houses were suddenly serving up pumpkin spice lattes. And then, like 15 minutes later, the autumnal itch apparently scratched, it's the holiday season. I'm afraid if I blink, I'll miss New Year's.

By turns comic and camp, heart-rending, occasionally chiding and ultimately a nuanced, clear-eyed expression of what it means to be a trans artist and person of color in this cultural moment, In Mirrors has all the earmarks of a creative milestone—an achievement that is both now and timeless. Its latest manifestation is In Mirrors, a new EP from her band Pretty Frankenstein, now out on Spotify and Bandcamp.

People go to the East to reinvent themselves; they come West to be themselves. And nowhere else can someone do that with more freedom of expression than in the East Bay. From the campus to the curb, it’s in our DNA to be true to one’s self and vision. But it doesn’t stop there—we share it: The walls of our galleries and museums are lined with area art; our venues and stages thunder with local voices; and our streets are an ever-evolving canvas of murals and more.

With apologies to Mr. Tony Bennett—sure he may have left his heart in San Francisco—but anyone who’s been in Oakland for more than two beats leaves a bit of their soul there. That goes for the greater East Bay, from (alphabetically) Alameda, Albany and Berkeley all the way to Union City—under the right conditions, something spiritual happens to you here that changes you. Moments, even small ones, can feel epochal to one’s own personal timeline.

Maxwell’s first act—at least in terms of one of her professional pursuits—included co-creating the PowerBar in Berkeley, a product that launched the energy bar market in the mid-80s. After growing the company to wild success over 14 years, the venture was sold to consumer packaged goods juggernaut Nestlé. End of act one. Now, Maxwell is back in the limelight with her new organic, artisanal energy bar, JAMBAR, which she makes in a newly built, state-of-the-art facility just over the Richmond Bridge in Marin County.

The East Bay has long been the epicenter of the gourmet universe. From Alice Waters introducing the Bay Area to the farm-to-table concept nearly 50 years ago to Alfred Peet kicking off the American coffee revolution from a Berkeley storefront—it seems that everyone in the East Bay has always had a prescient palate. 

The Bay Area’s Fieldwork Brewing Company Legend has it that in ye olde days, people drank beer because it was safer than water. Albeit, this...

An interview with Brook Bradbury of Lincoln Park Design During a phone call to arrange this interview, Lincoln Park Design’s Jennifer Walker and Brook Bradbury...