Chris Smith: That grand horse in Geyserville is not Blaze or Flicker or Flame

Folks living in and near Geyserville leaped at the chance to help name the imposing, rearing horse of reclaimed steel and redwood that Sonoma Valley sculptor Bryan Tedrick placed a week ago alongside Highway 101 at the southerly gateway to the north Sonoma County ?town.

A common thread: A good many of the submitted names evoked the fires of last October. The sculpture itself, commissioned by the Geyserville Community Foundation, was swept by the Nuns fire, but, blessedly, the unique redwood components ?didn’t burn.

Most people who proposed or expressed a preference for a name for the horse desired one that didn’t merely acknowledge the historically destructive firestorms, but that honored the spirit and resolve that emerged amid the horror and powered our recovery.

One woman told Victoria Heiges, the prime mover of the sculpture project, she so hoped the name wouldn’t be something akin to Wildfire.

Victoria said that in the polling the favored name ran well ahead of the others.

The horse is, forever, Victory.

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THE BARF SCENE: If you’re following “13 Reasons Why,” the heavy and controversial Netflix series, partially filmed at Analy High School in Sebastopol, watch for Ann Johnson in the lost-lunch scene.

She works for Sonoma County’s environmental health department and whenever possible takes work as a film and TV extra. Her role in the scene from Season 2, Episode 5 was to jog down a residential sidewalk and react when “a young man vomits in front of her unexpectedly.”

Johnson says the barfer, Brandon Flynn as “Justin,” and his buddy, Christian Navarro as “Tony,” couldn’t have been nicer to her.

And she learned all about the prop lady’s vomit bag.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.