Information helps ax-wielders nab right tree
How many holidays do you have the chance to wield an ax? For Christmas celebrants, that time is now. Sure, there’s an additional thrill to driving out into the deep forest or sneaking to the neighbor’s backyard (the trail of needles, however, will give you away), but local tree farms…
Not a baaad idea to buy some sheep
When a catalog trumpets itself as “The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World, ” you want operators standing by to take your credit card orders for world peace and international nuclear disarmament. The Little Rock, Ark.-based Heifer Project International totes enough worthy causes to justify its claims. Imagine the…
TRAILER LURES ‘STAR WARS’ FANS IN FORCE The two-minute, 10-second preview of “The Phantom Menace, ” due out Memorial Day, leaves one movie-goer “almost in tears”
Sitting in a multiplex Tuesday afternoon, Jay Adams had to admit to himself he was, indeed, “a geek.” He was at the Brenden Concord 14 for the sole purpose of being among the first to see the trailer of “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, ” scheduled to premiere…
THIS IS CONTRA COSTA Coffee-table book captures the visual essence of the area
LET THE WORD SPREAD from the rolling Lafayette hills to the valleys below Camino Tassajara, from atop Mount Diablo to the straw-gold grass of Antioch’s Black Diamond Mines: Contra Costa County finally has a picture book. It’s about time. At least that’s what everyone has been telling authors Frank Haegeland…
GREAT THINGS COME FROM CRAFTY FOLKS When shopping for that one-of-a-kind gift, seek out places that showcase works of Bay Area artisans
THERE ARE two things people can always lord over their animal kingdom neighbors: the opposable thumb and the ability to shop. Keep that in mind as you seek the perfect holiday gift. It’s crafts fair time, your chance to find one-of-a-kind items made by human hands (with the help of…
BAD CHOICE ON BAD GUYS? “The Siege” again finds Hollywood under attack for ethnic casting
“This film does not intend to demean or to ignore many of the positive features of (fill in race here) and specifically (fill in ethnicity here) communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any associations, organizations, individuals or (fill in ethnic hangout here) that exist in real…
CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN Arlene Blum remembers Annapurna 20 years later
WHAT WAS A GIRL to do? According to Arlene Blum’s immigrant Russian grandparents, not much. As prohibitive as things might have been for others growing up in the 1950s Midwest, Blum wasn’t even allowed to go to the beach. Horseback riding was definitely out, and as for college, well, what…
HOW DO YOU SPELL FEMINISM?; FOR TV AND MOVIES, IT’S W-I-T-C-H-C-R-A-F-T
The witching hour has arrived. If you doubt it, just turn on your television. For two years, ”Sabrina the Teenage Witch” has been blending magic and teen angst Friday nights on ABC. On the darker side, there’s the new WB drama ”Charmed” with three sisters – they’re gorgeous, of course…
Notable Hollywood witches
_The Wicked Witch of the West. The most familiar and arguably best Hollywood witch may be the one from Western Oz. Her green-skinned presence eclipsed Glinda’s in the “Wizard of Oz” (1939), even though it took the good witch, not the charlatan wizard, to send Dorothy and Toto back home…
Bewitching: TV, movies cast witches in better light
The witching hour has arrived. If you doubt it, just turn on your television. For two years, “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” has been blending magic and teen angst Friday nights on ABC. On the darker side, there’s the new WB drama “Charmed” with three sisters _ they’re gorgeous, of course…