Snapshot: Showy Shohei in playoff game
Like many other baseball fans, Pierre Ratte was impressed by Shohei Otani's performance in the final game of the National League championship game.
Snapshot: ’Tis the season for scarecrows
The creative scarecrows that show up in town around Halloween are a tradition that started in 2020 to foster community during the pandemic. This year’s beneficiary is Heartizens, which sponsors art programs for young people.
Another check off the basket list
Floating above Santa Rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg’s vineyards in a hot air balloon while sipping champagne and eating croissants makes a morning magical. Even if one is not in the balloon, there is something “uplifting” about hot air balloons. Morning commutes to Santa Rosa down Hwy 101 are boring unless one happens upon a balloon piloting its way up the valley.
Snapshot: Behind Peter Pan legend
Fairies are a part of folklore in many cultures. Typically, they are spritely, small creatures with magical qualities and a penchant for frivolity and trickery. Peter Pan is not a fairy, though Tinker Bell is...
Snapshot: The OG conservationists
Living in a tech-dominated world, it’s hard to imagine a day or year without a cellphone or car, yet that is every day, every year, for the Amish.
There’s only one R&RHoF
Visiting Cleveland isn’t complete without checking the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame off the bucket list. If in Cleveland, it’s an easy checkmark. It’s Cleveland after all. Despite former claims to fame, Cleveland’s currency now is a museum commemorating rock music, the Rock Hall.
Snapshot: From Baker Beach to Black Rock
The Burning Man Project has had a 35-year run. With 35 years, isn’t it time to think about morphing into inclusivity? Burning Woman 2026? She/Her/They? But why mess with success?
Snapshot: Have a sensory sound bath
If you like to meditate and enter a profound connection to the hear and now—pun, drum flair—consider a sound bath. Although there are many ways to enter a meditative state, such as following the rhythm of one’s breath, another easy way is to focus on a single sense. Sound is often chosen because it is uniquely immersive
SNAPSHOT: Remembering Aaron Rosewater
Those who have strolled past Downtown Bakery and then found themselves easing into Levin’s without a thought of buying a book because they were enigmatically drawn in, join a host of others. Walking the east side of Center Street on the Plaza, there is an allure to enter Levin’s. Warm and worn Persian carpets, well-curated tables of bestsellers and frequently changed display books are part of it.
Snapshot: Singing the praises of prunes
Prunes are generally an unsung fruit, but Healdsburg is singing the praises of its Prune Packers’ tie-breaking series game over the Humboldt Crabs Friday night to win the Pacific Empire League. It marks the fifth consecutive championship for the Packers in a collegiate wooden bat summer league.
Arts & Entertainment
Christmas music like it used to be, with swing
Now widely known as “The Harlem Nutcracker,” Ellington and Strayhorn wrote it for Columbia Records, along with film scores and other work. It was met with a sensational reception






















