Personae
Interviews with the most interesting people in the world.
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A Lost Interview with the Late Anthony Bourdain
A previously unpublished interview with the remarkable Anthony Bourdain, who is probably the only man who ever uttered: “Dishwashing saved my life.” He will be missed.
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From Wretch to Fringe: Templeton’s Wretch Like Me On Way to Edinburgh
For some, the 1970s were a hurly burly of hot tubs and hedonism. For playwright, performer and local journalist David Templeton, it was puppets and Christian Fundamentalism. He eventually outgrew both and shares the life lessons learned along the way with comedy and heart in his one-man show, “Wretch Like Me, or How I Was…
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Tuvok Rocks, Tim Russ Too
Not a Trekkie, nor a Trekker be. This was advice someone once gave me at the outset of my love life. They needn’t have bothered. I was part of that cultural shift that occurred when “Star Wars” came along and absorbed the collective attention of an entire generation for anything with “Star” in the title. …
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Goodbye, Norma Jean: Marilyn Monroe Tribute Artist Diana Dawn Hangs Up Her Platinum Wig
How does one pay tribute to a tribute artist? I suppose before anyone pays anything, we should clarify our terms ? a ?tribute artist? is not a mere impressionist or impersonator, which, respectively, might suggest a Monet or an identity thief. Instead, a tribute artist is a performer whose portrayal of a culturally-relevant personality is…
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It’s all NEW for Indie Filmmaker John Harden
An Invitation to Invest in the Future of Film Among my favorite filmmakers, homegrown or otherwise, is Sonoma County’s own John Harden whose masterful short films, La Vie d’un Chien (The Life of a Dog) and The Story of Sputnik, for my money, represent much of what’s great about the form. Harden is now in preproduction for NEW, which follows…
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Emmy Kaplan: Patr?n of the Arts
For Emmy Kaplan, the proprietress of both the San Francisco and Sonoma, California iterations of Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack, the secret ingredient to a good cocktail is ?freshness.? Fear not for Emmy’s punk rock cred, however, a favorite among Bay Area musicians, artists and foodies alike, the Shack (as it’s colloquially known) has not been Michael…
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Hollywood and Vines
Though I had moved to Hollywood from the Bay Area in the early part of this century I remained a stringer for the San Francisco Chronicle (the ink in my veins apparently outshone the stars in my eyes). My contributions amounted to a handful of celebrity interviews (I specialized in what we called “Blisters,” a…
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Closet Case: Andre Benjamin
Andre Benjamin, rapper, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor, perhaps best known by his nom-de-music Andre 3000 in the group OutKast, can add a new gig to his resume: fashion designer. Last Fall, Benjamin launched his Benjamin Bixby line, inspired by American college football culture circa 1935. He took a moment to speak editor Daedalus Howell about…