Here’s a story I wrote for the Ojai Quarterly’s summer issue about the peril that we — meaning our somewhat democratic form of government — face from a “would-be” dictator. The warning comes with authority: W. Michael Blumenthal as a child lived in Nazi Germany — the family barely escaping annihiliation in 1939 — andContinue reading “Refugee from Nazism Warns of Autocracy in U.S.”
Tag Archives: Ojai
10 Years of Reading Ojai
A decade of conversations with notable writers in and around Ojai.
Wild Nature: Waiting All Around Us to be Seen
Here’s an Off the Shelf book feature I wrote for the Ojai Quarterly this winter about a delightful and quite unconventional SoCal birder and writer named Charles Hood, who refuses to play the role of the “High Church” nature writer, but insists nonetheless that we should stop for a minute, and take a look atContinue reading “Wild Nature: Waiting All Around Us to be Seen”
Mr Willis Goes to Washington
Not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, a media attack on masking, epidemiology, and vaccination came in the form of a film called “Plandemic,” made by Ojai resident Mikki Willis, which dropped on May 4th, 2020. Spread by thousands of anti-vax and QAnon followers — according to a follow-up investigation by the Stanford Internet ObservatoryContinue reading “Mr Willis Goes to Washington”
“We’re living in the future”: rainfall variability
The Ojai Valley News encouraged me while at a scientific conference in San Francisco last December to pursue a story about rainfall variability in Ojai and Southern California: here it begins. “Last month was one of the driest Februaries ever in the recorded history of Southern California, according to the National Weather Service, with one-tenthContinue reading ““We’re living in the future”: rainfall variability”
A Friend of the Bees in Ojai
Here’s a favorite story of mine from 2019, for the Ojai magazine, about Glenn Perry, a true hero for what he does for our tiny friends the bees. I really liked the way the magazine laid out this story!
Climate change hits ag in Ventura County
Proud to have published this story recently in a prominent Ventura County publication. With the help of Ben Hatchett of the Desert Research Institute, we showed I think that avocados, though now a substantial part of Ventura County agriculture, will in the not-too-distant future be a much more risky proposition…but that other crops, such asContinue reading “Climate change hits ag in Ventura County”
a traveling travel writer stops over in Ojai
At the Ojai’s Farmer’s Market today a friend encouraged me to talk to the “poet, travel writer, and embodied writing coach” afrose fatima ahmed. She was sitting at a table in the shade near the center of the little farmer’s market. So I did, and asked her for a poem. I asked her for a poem onContinue reading “a traveling travel writer stops over in Ojai”
“Puttering About in a Small Land” — Philip K. Dick in Ojai (review)
Philip K. Dick in Ojai Philip K. Dick, now widely considered the most brilliant of all science fiction writers, wrote hundreds of extraordinarily imaginative stories and forty-four novels, and — like an innovative artist who only becomes famous after his death — in recent years has had his work splashed across all sorts of screens,Continue reading ““Puttering About in a Small Land” — Philip K. Dick in Ojai (review)”
“The fire had me fully terrified” — T.C. Boyle on the Thomas Fire (and more)
For the Ojai Quarterly [pdf], yours truly had the opportunity to talk to T.C. Boyle about the Thomas fire, debris flows, climate change, and other scary realities of the 21st Century. The interview also motivated me to catch up on some past works of Boyle’s, and boy was that worth the reading. Check it out:Continue reading ““The fire had me fully terrified” — T.C. Boyle on the Thomas Fire (and more)”
Kit Stolz 