Monthly Archives: May 2013

The New Routine

My new post-retirement routine is to spend two hours first thing every morning* writing on a creative project. This does not mean writing a review, or checking e-mail, or reviewing Facebook. It means working on my novel or a short … Continue reading

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Random Images from the Neon City

The tech-boom poured billions of dollars into San Jose’s downtown area, converting it from a basic South Bay (almost Central Valley) city to a gleaming metropolis. Its beauty is paradoxically heightened (pun intended) by the height restrictions imposed by the … Continue reading

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The Fantastical Element; Two Stories from F&SF

Kate Wilhelm once said that the fantastical or science fictional element in a story had to be integral to the story in order for it to be fantasy or SF. If the story is still intact with that element removed, … Continue reading

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The Egyptian Museum

The Nebula event  offered tours of the Museum of Technology and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. I chose the latter. Growing up in northern California I had heard about this museum. I had always assumed it would be vaguely campy, filled … Continue reading

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The Winchester Gardens

During the time period that Sarah Winchester lived in San Jose, the Santa Clara Valley was a bowl of orchards, famous nationwide for its fruit, particularly apricots and plums. Almonds were a big crop as well.  Winchester managed an orchard … Continue reading

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The Winchester Mansion; a Beautiful Bait-and-Switch

  Lucky Thirteen The good folks who own the Winchester mansion, in San Jose, California, have engaged in a clever bait-and-switch campaign. On the Internet, on half-hour TV shows on the paranormal, and on billboards all along Interstate-80, I-99 and … Continue reading

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Oz the Great and Powerful: Pretty and Vapid

Oz the Great and Powerful stars James Franco as Oz, Rachel Weisz as Evanora,  Mila Kundis playing Theodora and Michelle Williams as Glinda. That’s a chunk of talent to waste on a pretty movie with a story that moves from … Continue reading

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DisOrient Film Festival: Heroes and Icons

“Heroes and Icons” included three short features. The outstanding documentary of the festival showed in this time-slot, and that is A Flicker in Eternity. This film stands out because of the powerful voice of Stanley Hayami, a Japanese-American youth in … Continue reading

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DisOrient Film Festival: Family Dramas

Linda with the DisOrient Banner Last weekend I saw 19 movies in two and a half days. Before you do the arithmetic and tell me that this is highly unlikely, I should explain that several of those were short films. … Continue reading

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798 Off Ramps?

Interstate 5 Northbound has 798 exits in California. I think — there may have been one more past the town of Hilt, just before the Oregon border. Still, that’s a lot of off-ramps. One of my favorites is somewhere around … Continue reading

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