An excerpt from ‘Santa Cruz is in the Heart Vol. II’
In the spring when the willows and chickens grew fat again and the plum trees blossomed pink and white in the Chinatown yards near the river, the old man with the scruffy beard and tobacco breath sat back in the quiet splendor of the warm April sun and watched with great delight the group of young children playing at his feet.
Far off in the distance, he could hear the children’s grandmother, Gue Shee Lee, turning over the soil of her garden, and the San Lorenzo River tumbling gently through the town. He could smell the fish drying on the porches and the herbs from the kitchens and the faint, sweet wisps of Chinese tobacco in the air. The world had changed many times in his life he thought, as he watched the scene unfolding before him, and it would change many times more before he was gone.
Transition Town News—Rob Hopkins, founder of International Transition Movement, on a rare tour of the U.S., visits San Francisco area, Oct. 10-12; Los Angeles area Oct. 13-14 and other towns. 
‘Beanalicious Living’ author Elizabeth Borelli is on a mission to demystify and simplify healthy eating
Bargetto Winery produces a multitude of good wines—from high priced to very reasonable. I found a Central Coast 2011 Chardonnay in New Leaf for $13.99 (regularly $15)—a pretty good deal for this lovely wine.
AXIS Dance Company challenges what it means to be a dancer
I think it’s a really immature move to try and get attention and create policy change that’s not even possible. I think it’s a last-ditch effort to get attention, mostly, and it’s not going to provide any results for the GOP, even though it’s causing many people to suffer.
Why the environmental and social justice movements must come together
What is being done to curb south county’s high unemployment rate, particularly during the hard winter months?
Gripping, intense, emotional ‘Gravity’ will put you in orbit
