Screenings: American Honey
I live in the outskirts of Sebastopol, so the so-called “mag crews” don’t appear at my front door. But when we lived in Hermosa Beach, they were a several-times-a-week fixture. Those hucksters were always young, always vulnerable, and always poised for the “kill” of getting you to sign up for unneeded magazines. Writer/director Andrea Arnold has fleshed out a New York Times article by Ian Urbana into American Honey, the 162-minute-long, sex, drugs and hip-hop filled, cross-country odyssey taken by Star (Sasha Lane), a luckless teen desperate to escape her groping father and the 24-hours-a-day responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Star finds her means of escape in a Walmart by flirting with Jake (Shia LeBoeuf) the scruffy-looking oldest member of a group of teens who are escorted out by store security. “If you want a job,” Jake tells Star, “be at the Motel 6 tomorrow morning.”
Two Things about Voting
Two things are most important among many others for all voters to remember as the historical (and heavy) General Election ballots sit in our laps waiting to be mailed or cast by Nov. 8.
Battling ballot taxes
When we look at our Sonoma County ballot for the Nov. 8 election with the many individual tax increases we wonder why some items are missing. County leaders want us to raise our taxes for parks, libraries and tourist activities to upkeep “the luxury of living in a world class destination.”
Cultivating Community 10-13-16
To GMO or not to GMO? That’s one of the garden-related questions before Windsor voters and those living in the rest of Sonoma County in the upcoming election.
State of the fourth estate
Oct. 2-8 is being celebrated as National Newspaper Week. This is the 76th annual observance dating to 1940, covering a span of time that has included great changes to the business of newspapers, as well as throughout our society.
GMO free belongs here
Sonoma County’s food consumers, farmers, families and all registered voters are being asked to vote on Nov. 8 on whether they want to ban genetically engineered organisms from local farming operations and the open environment.
Election endorsements
Do you remember the first time you voted in a presidential or other election? Was it for Nixon or Kennedy, Bush or Clinton? Are you old enough to have “liked Ike?” Or, did you become a “none of the above” voter and maybe voted for Eugene McCarthy, Ross Perot or Ralph Nader? Did you “recall” California Governor Gray Davis and vote for the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger? Who was the last person you supported for county supervisor, city council or the local school board?
Arts & Entertainment
Yale Whiffenpoofs to land on Raven stage Sunday
The very name “Whiffenpoofs” is whimsical, but followers of the collegiate music space know that the repertoire and reputation of this Yale University a cappella group is anything but laughable. Sure there are old Yale drinking songs, certainly a bit of jazz-era energy, as well as more modern pop. But are they classical? And what exactly is a “whiffenpoof” anyway?