FROM BEHIND THE VEIL; BAY AREA MUSLIM WOMEN TALK ABOUT THEIR LIVES, THEIR BELIEFS AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS ELSEWHERE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Looking at the SUVs corralled in the driveway of the Lafayette home, one would suspect a meeting of mothers. Indeed, inside preschoolers race around with toy fire engines, eat chunks of mango and learn to make tornadoes out of plastic bottles. Thursday is “arts projects day” for these children and…
SPRING FLINGS; INTREPID TIMES STAFFERS SCRUTINIZE POTENTIAL OF LOCAL MAKE-OUT POINTS
BUDS JUT from branches. Rose bushes explode in seductive color. After awhile, even the birds start to sound a bit lascivious. Once again, we’re knee deep in spring. And when the whole world heats up and grows fertile, sweethearts leave behind their couches in favor of alfresco romance. Otherwise known…
KILL AND KILL AGAIN; “HANNIBAL” EXPOSES OUR FORBIDDEN PASSION FOR THE SERIAL MURDERER
When Anthony Hopkins met with Jonathan Demme for his casting as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” the actor had to ask, “Why me?” The director, who had seen him as the doctor in “The Elephant Man,” admired Hopkins’ humanity in the part. “I think Hannibal Lecter has…
WALNUT CREEK: A PLACE TO SHOP, TALK AND WALK
Downtown areas in so many American cities can be off-putting. Parking is a headache. There are too many novelty shops, and traffic can be a snarl. The trend of late has been to make downtown areas more pedestrian-friendly, although the strip mall island mentality still predominates especially in so many…
OUTDOOR CINEMA; FIND THE BIG PICTURE UNDER THE NIGHT SKY
One of the best things about movie theaters is that you can escape into their deliciously air-conditioned recesses on sweltering summer days. But give us a projector, a wall, the canopy of night and some natural air conditioning and we have the setting for outdoor cinema. Bay Area audiences seeking…
REVEL IN CLAYTON PARK WITH ITS DREAMY SETTING; THE COMMUNITY AREA SHARES ITS BEAUTIFUL SPACE WITH AN IMPOSING MOUNTAIN AND SOME NONCHALANT COWS
You lean back and wind up. The ball explodes from your fingertips, startles passing birds as it enters the stratosphere and bores right into Mount Diablo. Or, you nonchalantly cock your arm to ready yourself at bat. The ball comes with such clarity that you can practically count the red…
HOLLYWOOD BY THE BAY; MANY CINEMATIC STORIES WERE FILMED IN OUR BACK YARD
THE TOURISTS are coming! The tourists are coming! The high price of living in the Bay Area is putting up with distant relatives, long-lost friends and out-of-towners with tenuous connections who decide they want to visit. Inevitably, there’s always some starry-eyed guest who thinks Hollywood is just on the other…
POINT REYES STATION HAS CHARM BEYOND ITS SIZE
In the six seconds it takes to drive by Point Reyes Station on Highway 1, the town looks like one of a thousand sunny little stopping places with bucolic pastures, a gas station, a deli and a feed barn. Ah, but this is Marin County, where a feed barn must…
CHINA CAMP OFFERS GREAT VIEWS AND TRANQUILLITY
I usually bypass Chinese ghost towns. Maybe that’s because their histories don’t inspire the same sepia-tinted romantic awe in me as they do with my ethnically Chinese friends, whose families have been in America for generations. It wasn’t so long ago that my parents flew over on a Boeing airplane…