A man who couldn’t get a straight answer about the time of day at the Whale of a Deli last Saturday evening threatened a customer with a machete before darting across the highway ahead of passing cars, said Lt. Doug Pittman, the sheriff’s office’s new public information officer.
At around 6:30 p.m., 47-year-old West Marin resident Rama Bowen approached a man sitting at the deli tables and asked for the time. Unable to overcome a language barrier, Mr. Bowen pulled out a 26-inch machete, waving it menacingly at the man and employees as he yelled, “Dead!” As frightened customers called the sheriff, Mr. Bowen walked out and in front a moving car and again brandished the machete. Deputies and a park ranger found Mr. Bowen a short distance away without the blade, but the latter admitted he had discarded it in an attempt to hide it.
Mr. Bowen is the son of hippie icon Michael Bowen, an artist who helped organize the Human Be-In. At the artist’s residence in 1980, editor Dave Mitchell observed, “The ‘summer of love’ was 13 years ago in San Francisco, but at the Bowen-Blaquelord home in Bolinas it still lives. … The wild art is falling off the walls, hanging from the ceiling. … And the dogs come in, and the cats, and the kids.”
The pornstar girlfriend, Serena Blaquelord, told the Light the town was “just perfect for the kids, but the social scene is real drastic extremes—bums on the street and some really famous artists,” while the father fed the dogs and sent his kids off on errands.
At a court hearing Tuesday on his tenth misdemeanor case since 1986, Mr. Bowen admitted he violated his probation in exchange for other charges being dropped. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and fines and fees totaling $5,193. Judge Andrew Sweet reminded Mr. Bowen that he could not have any weapons in his possession unless it was a cutting instrument used expressly for paid farm work—like a machete.