The Independent Marketplace, at 600 Ortiz Ave. in Sand City, is like your first child: you didn’t know there was a gaping hole in your soul/heart until you experienced it/it threw up on you.

And having experienced the Marketplace first-hand, much like my (non-existent) first child, I find myself wondering, “How did I go so long without the Independent Marketplace?…and did I leave the oven on?”

It’s such a cool “value-add” to the community (and better yet, when it turns 14 it won’t smoke clove cigarettes.)

The Marketplace, whose doors open at 4 pm, corrals the area’s finest restaurants, artists, and vendors to Sand City on the first Thursday of the month.  Part farmer’s market, part arts and crafts fair, part street party (though it’s indoors.)

And tomorrow is going to be super-special, as the Henry Miller Library gently invades the space to splatter our Big Sur magic around.  Like a soft coup.

This article from the Weekly lists 27 reasons to like the Marketplace.  Check it out.  That said, we have our own reasons too.  Why should the Weekly have a monopoly on reasons?  So here they are:

1. At 8 pm we’ll be showing the five best films from the 2012 Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series, as chosen by our illustrious jury (Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, etc.)
2. Big Sur’s Songs Hotbox Harry Taught Us will play at 7 pm, and front woman Tara Wings will be wearing a “gold jumpsuit with sequins”
3. Food trucks!
4. There’s booze!
5. Last time I was there, I tried to find the bathroom and got lost and momentarily felt like I was in an MC Escher drawing.
6. The evening will also feature include live music plus a locally-shot “adventure film” featuring the notorious (and mysterious) “Hippie Sven.”
7. The bar Post No Bills is crawling distance away from the Independent’s front door.
8. Sand City’s sandy yet quasi-industrial vibe is a whimsical mix of Pecos National Park-meets-Dresden.
9. The brain trust of the Independent – the intrepid dudes who bought the building and made it what it is today – all tend to wear overalls.
10. A ton of incredible local vendors will be there hawking their wares.  Why, last time I got spicy pickled carrots from Happy Girl Kitchen, for example!
11. The Henry Miller Library will have a pop-up book store set up which should include our brand new t-shirts!!
12. George Lucas scoped out the Sand City area as a possible spot to shoot the Ewok scenes in “Return of the Jedi.”  He initially envisioned them as desert-dwelling creatures — “if Berbers bred with hamsters,” he mused – before ultimately opting for the redwoods of Northern California.
13. The marketplace itself reminds me a little of being in Portland a little.
14. There’s booze!
15. Tara Wing’s jumpsuit is also a snakeskin print, form fitting, with rainbow shimmer.