Nine Days
I am, and have always been since I first became acquainted with his body of work, a huge fan of comedian/actor/writer/producer/director Albert Brooks. I find myself thoroughly entranced with his...
View ArticleThe Reno Gang
From October 6, 1866, until February of 1869, the nation’s newspapers carried headlines covering the saga of the world’s first train robbers and the apparent lawlessness of Jackson County, Indiana. The...
View ArticleSon Of The Tamale Queen
“Little sister,” he’d say to me, “put BOTH a them teeties back in your blouse and move on… you don’t need to be nursin’ no man… not when you’ve got your mystery baby to take care of!!!”...
View ArticleRiver Views
Mendocino Redwood Company, the largest timberland holder in Mendocino County, has applied for permits that would run for eighty years. History stands in opposition to this corporate pipedream....
View ArticleKZYX & The Invisible Community
Because two previous KZYX Board meetings scheduled for the coast in November and December had been cancelled, I trekked over the hill to Ukiah on December 18th for a long awaited community meeting....
View ArticleUnpublished Work
“If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” — Toni Morrison They haunt me, the dozens of novels and novellas and stories I’ve written that have...
View ArticleThe Boonville-Jonestown Connection
A Thousand Lives — The Untold Story of Jonestown by Julia Scheeres isn’t what the mighty AVA would recommend as must reading, but for those of us who remain fascinated by a mass murder that got rolling...
View ArticleThe Curious Case Of The Missing Baseball Pennant
The phone rings. I pick up. “Zack, this is The Goob.” The Goob, aka Daniel Johnston, is my fellow AV Panther from the old days. We were on the baseball team in the 1982-83 school year that had a...
View ArticleValley People
EVERYONE’S pleased that the DA took one look at the police report on the alleged after-hours hijinks at the Boonville Saloon and tossed it. No charges, no nothing, as was evident at the time. Two...
View ArticleTwo Down, Two To Go
Paul Sequiera earned his Mendo stripes last Friday. He already had lots of stripes from his years as a Contra Costa County prosecutor, but as chief prosecutor here in Mendo, it took Sequiera a year to...
View ArticleOff The Record
WELL, IT’S NOT a face that inspires much confidence, a phrenologist might say, but it’s also a face that represents the Obama administration’s lack of commitment to anything resembling sensible gun...
View ArticleFrom Murder To Manhunt
The 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth was simpler than the hunt for Aaron Bassler, presumed killer of conservationist Matt Coleman and Fort Bragg City councilman and timberland security agent Jere...
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Mendocino County Today: January 9, 2013
SHIELA DAWN TRACY puts a lot of time and effort into her reporting on pseudo-public radio KZYX, a mostly tax-supported non-profit radio station run by incompetents, nasty incompetents, who run the...
View ArticleThe Hoisting Of Russell Crowe
Every time Russell Crowe appeared on screen in Tom Hooper’s new film of Les Misérables all I could think was: Thank God The Gladiator wasn’t a musical. Imagine if Crowe’s lean, mean, fighting machine...
View ArticleReggae On The River Returns Home
Having gained county approval, Reggae on the River 2013 is set for the first weekend in August at its home site, French’s Camp. It’s another milestone in the festival’s storied 28-year history, as the...
View ArticleThe Goldeneye Diaries
I went to a Boonville party after a long day of harvest. Bo, Rebecca and I didn’t even change or wash up; we just clocked out, hit Lemon’s for beer on the way, and followed each other down 128 toward...
View ArticleA County Public Bank
It is in the County’s vested interest to establish a Public Bank. This would allow the County to acquire and keep for its own needs the significant benefit of credit creation, instead of lining private...
View ArticleBird’s Eye View
Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably I shall begin… First, a big Thank You to all those readers who sent Holiday and New Year greetings to Hummingbird and myself. I have noted your...
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Mendocino County Today: January 10, 2013
BIDEN’S GUN CONTROL PLAN — Buy your gat at WalMart. According to White House press releases, VP Joe Biden is considering a range of gun control proposals — including an option of working with stores...
View ArticleLetters To The Editor
ON THE ROAD AGAIN Editor, I enjoyed Todd Walton’s latest piece about Kerouac. Here is my story: Back in the late 70′s I walked out of the screening of The Towering Inferno (because it was too boring)...
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