Theodora was Handel’s penultimate oratorio and his least successful. The London premiere came in March of 1750, but the work closed after just three performances. English language sung dramas—oratorios—had enriched Handel in the period from…
Posts published in “Essays”
County elected officials and the impacts of their actions (or inaction, in the case of a few, like Mendocino’s Dan Gjerde) reflect life-long ambitions and collaborations that the mostly oblivious or at least inattentive “public”…
I have been admiring Brad Wiley's Valley Vistas articles. There are probably only a few readers of the AVA who will know most of the dizzying display of homesteads, ridges, creeks, ranches and characters mentioned…
You could see this coming a million miles away. Governor Gavin Newsom has by now established a pattern of telegraphing his next, immediate move. A few days preceding the action to be taken, he gives…
Remember that conspiracy story in the run-up to the 2020 election? Trump was going to cripple the Postal Service by somehow defunding it while his henchman, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, dismantled operations of the vote…
Twenty-two years ago, on the day after Gray Davis was elected governor of California, I hopped aboard a Southwest Airlines plane bound for Los Angeles. I was heading south for Davis’ morning-after press conference and…
Scott Dam was built to hold back water to run a new state-of-the-art hydroelectric power plant. Three quarters of a century later it is a dinosaur in the center of much debate. The dam is…
After driving back roads and living off the beaten path for 50 years I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about our local natural world. When I see something growing along the road that truly looks out…
Down at the Deep End the Valley's vistas become more telescopic as the flatland gives way to rolling hills, tightening ridges framing the more evident tree-lined River until it disappears into the woods west of…