P.O. Box 159 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707.527.5412 www.socobookfest.org email: info@socobookfest.org NINTH ANNUAL SONOMA COUNTY BOOK FESTIVAL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Cathy Balach Electronic Art Available 707-527-5412 info@socobookfest.org The ninth annual Sonoma County Book Festival is scheduled for Saturday, September 20, 2008, 10:00 a.m. to... Read Full Story

Home-Alone Dogs, 42% of whom sleep in the same beds as their owners... 'separation anxiety is the attention-deficit disorder of the pet world.' James Vlahos' Pill-Popping Pets article in NY Times Magazine, 7.13.08. "Americans are spending millions on mood-altering drugs for their cats and dogs. Is it because we've driven them mad?" 1. Dogs too have separation anxiety and compulsive disorder (EX: Hours and hours of tail-chasing). 2. More than 20% of American dogs are overweight. 3... Read Full Story

father's day image from NY Times. Read Full Story

Structure of typical neuron... image from Wikipedia. Taking a Brain Fitness class. Notes from first three hours... learned that MRIs show "Islands of Inactivity" in the brains of those fried by marijuana. Twelve or so students show up and, when asked why we are taking the class, one woman says she'd had a brain aneurism (sp?) and wanted "to find out what's left." Another had had electric shock therapy... others, like myself, were having problems remembering names. Insomnia can mess with the... Read Full Story

Melancholy by Baron Wormser* Weakness—the pale succumbing to loneliness, Refusing to admit anyone else, indulging The blue perquisites of adolescence Long past their sensible deliquescence. He knew it but went on drinking and regretting, Not calling his friends and regretting, Making scenes over nothing and regretting. It helped to make him despise himself, Which was, he sensed, what he wanted. He was Then, in his oblique way, at ease to wander The city's brazen or quiet streets... Read Full Story

[photo from L.A. Times] Retired English teacher, I pride myself on an ability to recognize an author's style... Frost, Eliot, Pound... Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth... yeah, I'm of another generation. So tonight, reading L.A. Times for news of the Tassajara, Big Sur fires... I'm startled to recognize the voice of a particular reporter, the author of a feature titled "Tempest in the Treetops," L.A. Times, Tues., Sept. 17, 2002. The subtitle to that Column One, front page feature has... Read Full Story

Eucalyptus Worship versus Urban Wildfire. See Mike Neff's Web Del Sol / The Potomac / a journal of poetry and poetics (Washington, D.C.) for more on this story. The issue: 1) we and our neighbors live near a grove of blue gum eucalyptus, AKA "gasoline trees"; 2) summer is now upon us and so, too, is the risk of urban wildfire; 3) after 20 years of debate, the issue is still unresolved. Now, following the "Martin Fire," our neighbors and friends in Bonny Doon are moving back into their... Read Full Story

[I have my daughter Hannah Sward's permission to run this brief excerpt from a work in progress, Diary of a Non-Starlet] "On the Set of Beverly Hills, 90210” Author’s note: Chloe is an L.A.-based, aspiring 22 year old actress with a Master of Dramatic Arts degree working as a TV and movie extra -- and stripper -- while she waits to break into the Hollywood scene. What follows is the opening section of a book titled Diary of a Non-Starlet. A work of fiction, the book begins January 3... Read Full Story

Gloria Alford's piece, The Jaded Princess, appears above (at the top). The original, Gloria's inspiration (hers is consciously modeled after the jade burial suit of Chinese Princess Tou Wan, Han Dynasty, 140 B.C.), appears below. Now for something completely different. Moving from Emily Gould, Gawker and the NY Times (yesterday's posting) to something closer to home. We're re-visiting my partner's sculpture The Jaded Princess, on display at Santa Cruz’ Museum of Art and History. With... Read Full Story

Blog-Post Confidential Emily Gould feature in NY Times Magazine, 5.25.08 Sit down with the Sunday Times planning on skimming, racing through the news, week in review, book section, etc., and getting on to The Day. Stuff that needs to get done. My To Do list. Instead, get caught up with Emily Gould's "Blog-Post Confidential" feature. Then see how, for me at least, it connects with panic attacks, depression and, strange as it may sound, soul-retrieval. I haven't forgotten what this blog... Read Full Story