In Michael Ondaatje's wonderful novel “Divisadero” — a most memorable part of which is set in Sonoma County — the jazz of Thelonious Monk is likened to “imprisoned birdsongs.” Leave it to a superb novelist…
Posts published in December 2009
Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. Let’s go straight to the topics of conversation under discussion at The Three-Dot Lounge, my favorite gathering place in the Valley at…
Gloria and I sat down to talk at The Senior Center a couple of weeks ago and, like many of her generation, she was very surprised that anyone would be interested in her story. She…
Fact: Every 100 years on the tenth year of the century, Mexico explodes in extravagant social upheaval. In 1810, this distant neighbor nation declared its independence from the Spanish Crown, signaling monumental bloodletting — hundreds…
Forget about kicking back and enjoying an American beer; a massive wave of consolidation is transforming the industry. According to a recent report by the Marin Institute, a California-based alcohol industry watchdog, a rush of…
Thanksgiving Day started out routinely. The cows went through the milking procedure without balking. It was only when I was feeding hay after the milking that I noticed a few suspicious splotches of blood, looked…
Some impulse purchases are more gratifying than others. This Thanksgiving was to be a small get-together; for our expansive family, an unusually restrained event. As such, we decided to keep our celebratory dinner to the…
The economic viability of Ukiah’s historic downtown is going to be shaped not by warring development factions but by a pending state decision on where to build a new Mendocino County Courthouse. The state Department…
It's one of the career changes some of Mendo's unemployed fishermen are pondering these days, according to a story about California's non-existent commercial salmon industry--and what local fishermen are up to--in the LA Times today.