Sun Days on Orcas | 27 things about Philana Goodrich

Well hello again, Orcasonian readers! It’s been a while since I’ve written my column. Last year I took a break indefinitely, thinking my family would be moving away for a year to San Luis Obispo, California. After being there for less than a month, it became clear in a hurry that it wasn’t the right time or place. If you have ever considered leaving Orcas Island, you might resonate with everything we went through. To read more about that short but necessary journey, click here. I am so glad we have been back on the island, and I have a renewed sense of gratefulness and awe for this beautiful place and community.

I have dreamed up a lot of projects for myself this winter, as we all tend to do in the colder, more internal months, and I am also dipping my toe back into this Sun Days column. (Speaking of sun, haven’t we had a refreshingly sunny winter!) While this may not be weekly or even monthly, you may just find a little surprise column pop into your life now and then like an old friend.

Philana Goodrich

And what a spunky, fun, free thinker to start if off again – the lovely Philana Goodrich. I’ve never actually met her in person. A few years ago, we were both featured in the same hour of a radio program that local leadership guru Gretchen Krampf was co-hosting called Lift Your Spirits with Dena Marie on 1150 AM (click here to listen to it). That’s where I learned that Philana makes music for The Young and the Restless. Click here to listen to some of her songs.

More recently, I learned that Philana has been a master hairstylist for 20 years and joined forces with The Barberess in Eastsound with her color and chemical wizardry. She has quite a hair resume here on Instagram.

I asked Philana if she’d like to share 27 things about herself, and that’s where I learned that she has quite the playful, humorous, quick-witted personality. Without further ado, I will turn it over to the subject of today’s column…

27 Things about Philana Goodrich

1. My favorite color is coral. 

2. I once gave Alan White from Yes a haircut in my kitchen. I couldn’t understand him because his accent was so thick, but I think he liked it?

3. I’m a master hairstylist and currently split my time between the salon and the music studio. I do 2 days a week at The Barberess. My favorite type of hair appointment is the ‘whole vision’ makeover kind. Cut, color & shine, baby!

4. I make pop music for TV and film as well as write tracks for independent songwriters. I’ve made music for about 100 episodes of The Young and the Restless now and my first Indie film called Luckiest Man Alive has been on a winning streak at film festivals. Who knows, maybe someday it’ll find its way to Orcas Island.

5. I think that something truly rare and precious is a curious person. 

6. I’m obsessed with houseplants and delight in the fact that this is very common. If you are obsessed as well, and if you name your plants, and if you consider their musical taste while curating Spotify playlists, then come find me. This is next level and we need to stick together. Also, I have a cactus named Allen who you’d really get a kick out of. 

7. At a BBQ once, I nearly bit into a natural pearl when I was given a Judd Cove oyster! I still have it.

8. My family goes way back on the islands. We started on Waldron Island in the ’50s and then migrated to Orcas in the ’60s. 

9. October is my favorite month because it’s inexplicably nostalgic and anticipatory at the same time. 

10. I’m a morning person. I know, and I’m sorry.

11. I have a ranch house in Nashville, TN, and go back and forth between the San Juans. The Northwest could learn a thing or two about hospitality from the Southeast and the Southeast could learn a thing or two about nutrition from the Northwest. There, I said it!

12. AI scares the s*** out of me.

13. I’m in a Mavericks music video; I will never say which one. All I will tell you is that the fan blowing my hair around was on WAY too high a setting.

14. There’s a squirrel named Peanut with whom I’ve built up a pretty good rapport. But on some days, I suspect that Peanut isn’t really Peanut and that the real Peanut actually died years ago and I’ve just been hanging out with some random squirrel this whole time.

15. I have a passion for encouraging women to learn about production and recording. We make up only 2% of the music producer population out there. We have to root for each other. The world needs us.

16. I’m currently obsessed with making this sauce for halibut (for anything, really):

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 dash hot pepper sauce .. aaand you’re welcome. 

17. I can moonwalk pret-ty good. 

18. I’m going to use this opportunity to make a short public announcement: if you want your bangs to lie down perfectly, wet them (especially that cowlick in front) and blowdry left, right, and then down until they are bone dry. If you keep wrapping it around the brush it’s only going to make that little weird spot weirder. No, it won’t make a difference that the brush is boar’s hair. 

19. My favorite side of the island is Moran State Park/Olga. Vibey. 

20. I’m afraid of heights. On a backpacking trip through Europe, I decided to detour to Switzerland in order to get over it once and for all. There, in a little town called Interlaken, I went hang gliding and ice climbing…and I did pretty good! Until, on the last day, I went for a leisurely hike and a power outage left my gondola suspended mid-air for an hour. That’s when I learned about panic attacks.

21. I think it’s so cool how sound shapes our world and how it can manipulate the way we feel. If you ever want to immediately feel peaceful, YouTube “music at 432 hz frequency,” pop in some airpods, and let the world fall away. 

22. Of the best food + weather combos, french onion soup with a glass of white wine on a rainy day has got to be at the top. 

23. Of the best sensations in the world, one of my favorites is that moment when someone goes from being a stranger to feeling familiar. 

24. Of the common fears that exist, I DON’T fear starting a conversation with a stranger or public speaking but I DO quiver in my boots at the thought of a sea monster chomping my legs off while swimming across the lake.

25. I’m a closet Tarot reader and have a Youtube channel. There! Out of the closet. 

26. I’ve always been 5’3″ but was recently told at a doctor’s office that I’m actually 5’5″. Just imagine how those 2 inches would’ve impacted my life had I known for the last 20 years!

27. My least favorite color is brown. 

She sounds so fun! Don’t you want to meet her now?! Thank you, Philana!