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Posts published in “Essays”

Bird’s Eye View

Greetings one and all — if you are sitting comforta­bly then I shall begin... With the summer approaching and The Valley ‘getting its groove on’ as some might say, let’s get straight down to business…

My Favorite Second Place: Boonville 1999

It was just me and my son Riley leading the 17th Annual Boontling Classic 5K runners west on Ander­son Valley Way to the turnaround. As we hit the mile in 5:36, I said “Just like…

Big River Spring

The copious rains of 2010 made Big River the big muddy for much of the winter, the beach in late April grandiloquent with new sand. The probable summer beachscape is shaping up to be quite…

When Issues Converge: The Pot Conference

Patients Out Of Time is a pro-cannabis reform group led by Al Byrne, a retired Naval officer, and MaryLynn Mathre, a Vietnam era nurse. Al survived two catastrophic events in which others died and over…

Kitten Stompers At The Supreme Court

Last Tuesday the Supreme Court patted America on the back about its specialness, its sacred right of free speech, by striking down a law which prohibited the selling of “crush” videos where kittens and other…

Meet The Guild Artists

It's been said that Mendocino County with its population of just under 90,000 souls, has more art­ists per capita than any other county in California — and Anderson Valley is the place many of these…

How an Alias was Born: The Howard Belkamp Story

Back in the early 80s, I understood there was a story that needed to be told, and I would have to be the one to do it. This story was called Redleg Boogie Blues and…

Farm To Farm

As far back as I can remember, birthdays have always spelled trouble for me. The minute I ever woke up I started misbehaving. These days the epiphany might not hit at all. I am only…

Pain in the Ass or Victim of the State?

David Gurney, “independent video journalist” and enemy of all things MLPA, was arrested last week at a Marine Life Protection Act meeting in Fort Bragg for “disrupting a legal assembly.”

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