Auroras

In 1879 John Muir went to Alaska for the first time. Its stupendous living glaciers aroused his unbounded interest, for they enabled him to verify his theories of glacial action. Again and again he returned to this continental ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Rossini on Rossini, Byron on Rossini

From his 1886 book From Mozart to Marvio V1: Reminiscences of a Half Century, Louis Engel discloses the composer Giochino Rossini's slightly jaundiced view of his own legacy; in correspondence to two friends in 1818, Lord Byron...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Make Way for Lucky Ducklings & Yu Byun’s ‘Diminutive Paradise’

JULES declares Eva Moore's LUCKY DUCKLINGS, illustrated by NANCY CARPENTER, to be one of 2013's great picture books, and introduces us to DREAM FRIENDS by an impressive debut artist, YOU BYUN.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Shirley Chisholm: ‘Always a Doer’

In SHIRLEY CHISHOLM IS A VERB! author VERONICA CHAMBERS and illustrator RACHELLE BAKER remember the first black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to make a serious bid for the Presidency. JULES has the inside scoop.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Jackson Galaxy: Feline Miracle Worker

An exclusive interview with JACKSON GALAXY, the feline miracle worker and host of Animal Planet's popular 'MY CAT FROM HELL'
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Pelican Warning

DUNCAN STRAUSS checks in with another scoop: an interview with DUNCAN P. FORGEY, author of FLYIN' KAI: A PELICAN'S TALE complete with a warning about climate change.
by David McGee
 

 

 

They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

Now showing: THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, the 1939 Busby Berkeley-directed drama of a boxer on the run starring JOHN GARFIELD, THE DEAD END KIDS, CLAUDE RAINS and the ill-fated GLORIA DICKSON. Also: More Busby Berkeley, plus GOOFY'...
by David McGee
 

 
 

New Frontiers in Sustainable Agriculture

Urban farms in Vancouver, BC, and Encintas, CA, are doing great things for their communities and for local growers. Plus, 10 urban female farmers planting seeds of change.
by David McGee
 

 

 

For Sale: Wounded Knee; Johnny Depp, Grandstander; Chief Red Cloud, 93, Walks On

WOUNDED KNEE for sale? JOHNNY DEPP grandstands about buying it and returning it to the Tribe, but it's only noise; remembering CHIEF OLIVER RED CLOUD
by David McGee
 

 
 

In Which He Keeps Christmas Well

The old curmudgeon, you ask? No, NICK LOWE is now the old sentimentalist, complete with his own Christmas album, QUALITY STREET. Be ye not dismayed: it's unlike other Yule fare.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Christmas Kisses from Glenna, Serena & Leslie

Four outstanding Yuletide performances by four outstanding singer-songwriters: GLENNA BELL, LESLIE COURS MATHER, SERENA MATTHEWS & LISA MILLS. Christmas kisses all around!
by David McGee
 

 
 

Hag Saw It All Coming

Originally issued on Capitol in 1973 as Merle Haggard's Christmas Present: Something Old, Something New, Merle Haggard's Christmas album has only 10 cuts, but all have a special--and many a prescient--feeling about them. Hag sa...
by David McGee