A Man Impossible to Classify: One of my first experiences in San Francisco was of being flagged down by a stranger as I drove toward the intersection of Stanyan and Frederick Streets at the edge of Golden Gate Park. My friend Malcolm Hall and I, both college students, had driven up the coast highway from Los Angeles in my 1953 Plymouth. The year was 1965. We were headed toward the Haight-Ashbury.        Maybe thirty yards short of the intersection, I saw him standing on the curb, a disheveled young man, not quite in the hippie mold. He was looking directly at me it seemed, and ... Dec 21, 2007, 240574 reads

The Dumpster: by Meredith Sabini “We can’t use these. They look like heirlooms!” Gina, a guest at my holiday gathering, holds up one of the elaborately embroidered napkins from the buffet table. “Where’d you get them?”     “Out of a dumpster. The tablecloth and those candleholders were in there, too.”     “You can’t be serious! Why would they be in a dumpster?” The shock in her voice carried across the room, and others looked up.     It’s common that women ask where something came from, especially if ... Dec 5, 2007, 9159 reads

Interview: Nicholas Hlobeczy: Richard Whittaker I met with Nick Hlobeczy at his home in Corvallis, Oregon.  Richard Whittaker:  In one of my notes I have a quote you gave from Robert Henri. "The object behind every true work of art is the attainment of a state of being." Nick Hlobeczy:  It is as he says. I believed him when I was going to art school and I still believe him. I think he worked for the art student’s league in the early part of the twentieth century. And also, if you don’t work out of love, then it’s not worthwhile. There’s a certain quality of nourishment that can ... Oct 22, 2003, 5880 reads

Keeping Your Hands Moving: Conversation with Taya Doro Mitchell Taya Doro Mitchell July 3, 2007 Oakland CA I heard about Taya Doro Mitchell from Phil Linhares and Michael McMillen. “You’ve got to go see her place!” they told me. The artist, I learned, had been working for many years in isolation. She’d just come to Linhares’ attention. It happened in an unusual way. On a piece of mail soliciting donations to the Oakland Museum, she’d checked the box to donate real estate. In short order, perhaps even in record time, two women from the museum were at her door. What they saw sent them back to the chief curator in a ... May 18, 2008, 8326 reads

The Power of Giving: Conversation with Ehren Tool, Fariba Safai, and Ashley Smith The Power of the Giving, Berkeley Art Center, Richard Whittaker in Conversation with Ehren Tool, Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith were still students at CCA when they decided to do something radical. They decided to prepare a large batch of home made soup (from a favorite recipe of Fariba’s mother), to construct a cart able to wheel a very large stainless steel pot along a sidewalk, and to make their way to Union Square in San Francisco on Black Friday[the day after Thanksgiving and largest shopping day of the year] where they would offer free bowls of ... Oct 21, 2004, 4928 reads

Alive in the World: Conversation with Audrey Lin April 2009, Oakland, California I first met Audrey Lin at the Mehta home in Santa Clara where each Wednesday evening the Mehtas host a meditation followed by a circle of sharing and then a vegetarian dinner eaten in silence. No two Wednesdays are the same since the mix of guests is always changing along with the thoughts and stories that come to life there.      Whenever I attend one of these evenings, I help with the car-pooling. There are always five or six people, often students at UC like Audrey, who need rides. I'd gotten to know her from ... Nov 30, -1, 7223 reads

A Conversation with Adam Campbell: A Taste For Life It was one of those bright mornings we’re blessed with so often in the Bay Area. No matter that it was mid-December. A week earlier, I’d been ambushed by Pancho Ramos Stierle and Sam Bower and told that I had to interview one of the visitors staying at Casa de Paz, Adam Campbell. Neither Sam nor Pancho twist my arm very often and when they do, I’m immediately intrigued. Both possess inspired vision—Sam is the founding director of greenmuseum.org and Pancho, a founding member of Oakland’s Casa de Paz at Canticle Farm. And both are close friends from among ... Nov 30, -1, 6925 reads

A Miracle Cure: Interview with Richard Lueker, M.D. I met cardiologist Richard Lueker at Karma Kitchen one Sunday afternoon in Berkeley where he was doing service as a volunteer waiter. The moment I'd stepped into the restaurant, that day's volunteer maitre d', Viral Mehta, said, "It's great that you showed up today. We were going to call you because there's someone here we want you to meet. Be sure to ask him about his story."       I looked around the restaurant—always lively on the Sunday afternoons it's taken over by Karma Kitchen volunteers—and spotted a tall, distinguished-looking, ... Dec 25, 2009, 7189 reads

Leap of Faith, the Story of a Contemporary Miracle: A Conversation with Susan Schaller Are there adults living today who have not learned any language, who cannot even conceive of language? They do exist, although, according to Susan Schaller, there's almost nothing written about them. Perhaps that's because, according to the prevailing views of experts, adults who have not acquired language will never be able to do so. This was not an area to which I'd given a single thought until my unexpected meeting with a stranger one day in a Berkeley restaurant. It's a nice coincidence that the unlikely meeting took place in an unlikely setting, on the one ... Apr 23, 2009, 22591 reads

Tree of the Art of the Mind: --Tom Weidlinger For several months I had been anticipating a meeting with Dorothy, my benefactress, in which I would present a funding proposal for a new project. Dorothy's family foundation had been supporting my work for nine years. I'd made six films with her sole support-a wonderful circumstance, compared to my pre-benefactress decades when I spent as much time raising money for films as I did actually making them. Though I worked hard and did my best to be worthy of this munificence, I sometimes felt guilty about my good fortune. But not so guilty as to prevent me from presenting the proposal for ... Jun 17, 2010, 5987 reads