October 2020

  • Leading Ladies of British Comedy

    The Vicar of Dibley – Reverend Geraldine Granger is assigned to the small Oxfordshire village of Dibley, its first female vicar following the Church of England’s quite tardy change of heart regarding the ordination of women. Offering spiritual guidance to the tiny town’s cast of oddballs, the vicar negotiates her way around and through entrenched… Continue reading

  • Dina Rubina, Napoleon Wagon Train – Дина Рубина – «Наполеонов обоз»

    If the name Dina Rubina sounds strange to an American ear, to a Russian it’s a house-hold name. The author of over fifty books; thirteen novels, twenty-nine collections of short stories, and twelve collections of essays, not to mention eight movie scripts is Rubina’s impressive accomplishment. The Seattle Public Library has thirty-seven of Rubina’s books,… Continue reading

  • One Season Wonders (kind of…)

    At Last the 1948 Show (1967)  Prior to 1967 it was a dark time. Comedy hadn’t yet been invented and the population was just starting to accept the world becoming colorized after thousands of years being a nice, calm, black and white. Enter two scholars from Cambridge, John Cleese and Graham Chapman. Well, them and… Continue reading

  • What to Do About Fake News

    A recent study by the German Marshall Fund found that misinformation on Facebook has tripled since 2016, when the term “fake news” was first popularized during the presidential election. Another take on this is the recent Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, which has tech insiders sounding the alarm on how social media manipulates users and… Continue reading

  • 13 Tales for 13 Nights of Halloween

    13 Tales for 13 Nights of Halloween

    It’s that time of year again: time to gather round for a bone-chilling storytime. I’m so sad not to be joining you all at Lotties’ Lounge, Tippe & Drague, Floating Bridge, The Palace Theatre, Capitol Cider, The Pine Box, or any of the other wonderful venues where we’ve done ‘Ales from the Crypt over the… Continue reading

  • Toolkit for Tough Times: Toughing it Out

    Remember the adage, “When the going gets tough the tough get going?” Well, can we all agree that the going has arrived?! These tough times call for some tenderizing measures, something to help in Calming the Rush of Panic with Creative Strength Training, for instance. As we move into this uncertain fall and winter season,… Continue reading

  • And Survey Says… Why the Census matters, a LOT

    And Survey Says… Why the Census matters, a LOT

    The US counts its population once every 10 years, sends out a mailer and all you have to do is mail it back. Easy right? Yes, but people just aren’t doing it. Living in an ongoing pandemic, unbreathable air, and “murder” hornets we’re basically in a millennial’s apocalyptic nightmare. I mean we barely escaped a… Continue reading

  • Read-alikes for the Emily St. John Mandel fan

    Want something like Emily St. John Mandel? We get this question quite a lot from fans of the author’s best-selling dystopian novel Station Eleven or her more literary mysteries starting with her debut Last Night in Montreal. Here are some read-alikes with similar qualities to St. John Mandel’s beautiful and haunting novels: Continue reading

  • The Story of Film Part 15: Cinema Today an Tomorrow

    The Story of Film Part 15: Cinema Today an Tomorrow

    We’ve now come to the end of our journey through Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film, following cinema’s early beginnings to the advent of the digital age. But before we ring down the curtain, we have a few more stops on our tour of cinema history.                As digital effects began to strip the “realness” from mainstream… Continue reading

  • Expand Your Thinking with Exploration Guides

    It’s incredible how quickly you can get pulled into the flurry of online research once an idea, topic or celebrity captures your interest. You start with one tab open on your browser, then suddenly you have fourteen open, and you can’t remember how that Wikipedia article on watering hydrangeas led you to an interpretative dance… Continue reading

  • Three on a Theme: Seattle Writers

    Every fall, as the rains return, we are reacquainted with the knowledge of where exactly on Earth we are. Autumn in Seattle can be gloomy and hard to survive emotionally, but it is also an experience that can be enhanced by delving into the cultural history and storytelling of the specific place we are in.… Continue reading

  • Vampires, Possession, and … Elk? It’s Horror Season!

    Darkness encroaches! This year’s horror novels bring us several takes on possession, some very creepy homes, vampires, and even a vengeful elk spirit. So make a hot beverage, grab a blanket, and settle in on the couch as you prepare to feel a frisson of fear from an outstanding recent horror novel. The Only Good… Continue reading