Where the air smells sweet

There’s nothing quite like a Saturday in Chico. Start it off the right way by going to the Farmers’ Market between Second and Third streets on Flume, across from the Brick Works. If you’re an early bird you can get some great organic produce, bread and craft items. And at 11 a.m. every Saturday the market has a raffle where you can win a bag full of nuts, rutabagas, flowers and soap. One of the greatest traditions in town! Be sure to check out the Tehama Gold olive oil booth run by Dean Markwood and family.

Just up the street on Flume is the Paradise Lost Specialty Video and DVD store. Run by Manny Gonzalez and family, Paradise Lost offers the gamut of films both great and strange, not to mention the largest collection of local hip-hop CDs in Chico.

Up a little farther, around the corner from the home of independent cinema, The Pageant Theatre, is the new family-run business called Café Flo. It’s official: They’re open, and the Gardner sisters have created a great morning place that doubles as a work of art. In the back of Café Flo is Fulcrum Records, the newest music store downtown, run by CSU grad Rene Stephens.

Crossing over Main, you can find the new location of Sound Source. Run by Chuck and Danielle Maher, Sound Source has taken over the old Blue Max, on the corner of Eighth and Oroville across from the Chevron Station. The new digs look great, and it’s cool to see how they have transformed what was once a live venue for music into a music store. The Mahers still run the Epicenter and have some really community-minded stuff planned for 2003.

In the greater world, one of my heroes, Pete Townshend, has been cuffed and stuffed. Apparently, Townshend paid with a credit card to enter a site that had child pornography on it. Scotland Yard got his name from a list of 7000 names that were given to them by “American authorities.” Apparently we have enough time on our hands having solved our own problems to go ruin other people’s lives in other parts of the world.

In the last year, the Roman Catholic Church became embroiled in a sex-abuse scandal, with more than 1,200 priests in nearly every diocese in America having been accused of sexually abusing children. Some studies report that pedophiles have an average of more than 15 victims. Seems like anthrax, 9-11 and Iraq are more important that what’s happening to our own kids. Do you think this is true?