It has long been the dream of dreamers everywhere to have a utopia of sorts, a true heaven on earth. If any in this group were to be asked what this might entail, I am fairly certain that the idea of a culture of acceptance would play well into that picture.
The “Three L’s”
We walk in the steps of those who have gone before us!
Once a year this happens, and once it does, fall is over and winter is here. The time I’m talking about is the day when a combination of wind and rain literally “knocks the leaves off the trees” and there remains a gray and dreary landscape. What may have been mildly colorful foliage the day prior is now replaced by a pall of nothingness… and the cold creeps into your bones in the same manner that it now chills the freshly exposed branches and limbs of now barren trees. Continue reading
On the wall of my office, hangs a beautiful portrait of a lovely young lady. It is the only picture of a woman, other than my wife or family members that I have. If I had to guess, I would say that it will be the only one of “another lady” that would ever be allowed, now or in the future, to reside on any wall, let alone the wall directly opposite my desk. I am confident that the only reason my wife allows it to stay is twofold– the first part being that she knows that, for whatever reason, that I like it; and secondly, I am usually the only one in my office, and she never really has to look at it… at her. “Her”, or that “lady”, is all that I know of her, of the portrait. I have no idea, nor will I ever, of the origin or name of the lady in the portrait. It is a mystery. She is a mystery. However, to me, it is a grand mystery, one that is better left unsolved. To solve it… to know of her… to place her, would be to ruin her forever. Continue reading
I need a haircut. I’ve been overdue to go and get one for quite some time now, probably a couple weeks anyway. It seems to me that since I have grown a few gray hairs, it’s easier to tell when I need a haircut. It used to be that I would grow my hair long, and then “match it” with equally long and ugly sideburns… and I looked kind of cool. But, no more! Now, instead of being in style, I am almost always dead-set against it, and my gray tinted locks do not help the situation. They only magnify an already downhill spiral. So, off I go to the barber shop–happily! Continue reading
Driving down the road the other day, I was struck by how wonderfully beautiful a day it was. A nice blue sky, done fluffy, white clouds. It’s at times like this that a guy thinks, wow, what did I do to deserve this? Cruising down the road, wind in my hair… Alright. So I look over to my radio, all good times like this need a soundtrack, and start dialing in the tunes. Now here’s the really good part, I’ve got one of those new Sirius satellite radios. Now– I’m sitting here thinking, “what would be something good to listen to”? Let’s make a short list; end of summer wide open highway, no place special to be, good lookin’ Senorita ridin’ next to me. Easy… Buffet.
Jimmy Buffet Continue reading
They know how to do it in California…
This sounds about right to me. In the time that I spent in San Francisco this last year, it was a common sight to see people taking in some sunlight, and reading a book while on their lunch break. In the Downtown area of the City, many sections are dedicated to this culture of gathering… socializing during a break and/or downtime. In time, I became comfortable enough to allow myself a minute or three to sit among the greenery, and enjoy the late summer time California sun on my shoulders- of course, while reading one of my favs. One one hand, you have the busy City buzzing around, with live cables underneath the pavement, pulling the trolleys up and down California St. On the other, you are lost in your own imagination, in one of the best spots on Earth, reading a book on a sometimes EX-tended lunch break!
I would imagine that it’s not that different in Pleasanton, or Silicone Valley, San Jose… The attitude that pervades The City expands quite a ways out. 
If you haven’t had the pleasure, I highly recommend that you put these several things on your bucket list:
From the article at the ContraCoastaTimes:
Tri-Valley A&E: Pleasanton, Danville Bookstores Find Mixing Lunch, Literature Draws Crowd
By: Lou Fancher, Correspondent; Posted: 03/08/2016 03: 47: 48 PST
At Towne Center Books in Pleasanton it’s called “Read It and Eat.” Over in Danville, Rakestraw Books owner Michael Barnard doesn’t have a catchy title but says lunchtime author events “attract a different beast” than evening lectures in the Danville shop.
No matter what it’s titled or what’s on the menu, the daytime pairings of food, fiction or nonfiction authors and friendly socializing is undeniably entertainment. Attracting Tri-Valley literary lovers to the area’s two independent bookstores in an increasingly digitized world, there’s smug satisfaction in evidence that some things cannot be pixilated or delivered satisfactorily in “1 and 0” code.
“Around a table, there’s so much more community and sharing than there is in a lecture hall or in group chats online,” says Towne Center owner Judy Wheeler.
Begun 11 years ago, the monthly events have a devoted core of regular attendees, Wheeler says, but they also suit the authors and publishers. “In the Bay Area, there’s a lot of competition for authors traveling on book tours. We were able to get more visits with this format.”
Wheeler has also become a well-practiced amateur chef. “I’ve researched food from Iran for Seraji Mahbod (“Rooftops of Tehran”) or cooked dishes from smaller Middle Eastern countries with spices I’ve not known about,” she says. “When I read books now, I have a special place in my mind to store the food they include or the settings for food scenes.”
Accommodating about 45 people, the menu has ranged from hot dogs on a grill to Japanese cuisine to a single radish served to each guest when Erika Mailman, author of “The Witch’s Trinity,” visited the store. “In ‘Witch’s Trinity,’ people were starving,” Wheeler explains, “the tables were bare, no tablecloths or dishes, just a radish at each place. We told them we were lucky because we found radishes.”
Of course, a full meal was quickly served — but perhaps word of the slenderizing cabbage-family root vegetable luncheon spread because Wheeler says some authors say they will be sure to have characters eat nothing but steak in future novels.
Barnard doesn’t tie his store’s food and book lunch events thematically. “Generally speaking, I respect fiction too much for that. I don’t want to make a book a theme park,” he says. Like Wheeler, he sees the blending of like-minded readers as a way to create intimacy.
“In a smaller group, instead of being one of hundreds, you’re one of dozens. One of the most important elements is that it’s a great way to weave yourself more into your community. The guests meet other people who care about books. You create another way of being involved.”
Because Wheeler tries to schedule the lunches several weeks or months after a book has been released, she says guests have often already read the book before the event. “They can talk intimately about the book and ask questions. For the authors, they aren’t doing a cold call because they’re talking with people familiar with the books.”
At both stores, cookbook author appearances are entirely different affairs. Wheeler doesn’t consider herself a good enough cook to prepare anything for a professional chef’s visit and orders pastries or catered lunch box meals. Barnard says cookbook authors often prepare and showcase a set of their recipes for the “foodier crowds” attracted to their visits.
A look at upcoming Read It and Eat events at Towne Center Books has Lindsay Faye, author of “Jane Steele,” a book set in Victorian England, appearing March 30.
“I’m not sure what we’ll cook for Lindsay but there might be a pudding in there somewhere,” says Wheeler.
An April 26 visit from “Daredevils” author Shawn Vestal, with a novel set mainly in southern Idaho and Utah, renders a spud-centric hint: “No doubt a potato will show up in some form on our table,” she says.
Rakestraw packs the March/April calendar with an 11 a.m. special brunch Sunday featuring cookbook author-blogger Erin Gleeson and “The Forest Feast for Kids;” a noontime visit March 29 with novelist Helen Simonson (“The Summer Before the War”); and a debut release, “Tuesday Nights in 1980,” from first-time novelist Molly Prentiss on April 15. Barnard says menu details are to be decided, but two things are certain: great writing will be foremost and, “You have to eat, so there’s that, too.”
Lou Fancher covers Tri- Valley Arts & Entertainment. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.
~Robert Frost, A Boy’s Will, 1913
A saturated meadow,
Sun-shaped and jewel-small,
A circle scarcely wider
Than the trees around were tall;
Where winds were quite excluded,
And the air was stifling sweet
With the breath of many flowers,
A temple of the heat.
There we bowed us in the burning,
As the sun’s right worship is,
To pick where none could miss them
A thousand orchises;
For though the grass was scattered,
yet every second spear
Seemed tipped with wings of color,
That tinged the atmosphere.
We raised a simple prayer
Before we left the spot,
That in the general mowing
That place might be forgot;
Or if not all so favored,
Obtain such grace of hours,
that none should mow the grass there
While so confused with flowers.
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I bought my golf membership this last week. I know, I know, it’s only March, but I could not wait any longer. Besides, when you buy the stupid thing, it’s only good until December 31 of that year, so I figure that I might as well own as much of the year as possible. I joined out there at Brownstown, Hickory Hills Golf Club. Continue reading
“… The prominent headline, and some of the most talked about news of the year in Jackson County Indiana, as reported in the Brownstown Banner on November 27, 1928, were plans for “Road 50 Is On Paving Program Plans To Pave Same From Cincinnati To Brownstown Hard Surface On West Plans For Number 31”.”… Continue reading
There are times that I sit and wonder just what the hell is wrong with me, and for that matter, with the world in general. I’m nearly certain that, after 41 years on the planet, that things shouldn’t be as they more often than not turn out… and if so, then not only are we all destined to be screw ups, but so will our kids and grandkids. The main problem is that people seem to refuse that others among and around them have feelings. We complain that there is a lack of empathy and a blasé attitude toward the human condition; however, when it comes right down to it– most people could give two shits less about their fellow man, and more than a few will admit that to you freely… upon request. And yet, we think that, somehow, we deserve more… Continue reading