Affordable houses have been sprouting up all over Marin. They're not for living in - they're bigger than a dollhouse but a tad smaller than a child's playhouse - but they may help Marin's growing homeless population get back on their feet and maybe one day back into a home of their own.
For many young boys, comic books are a rite of passage that typically focuses on the mighty males who do battle against the forces of evil.
For author Mike Madrid, they have been a lifelong fascination.
The King may be long gone, but that hasn't stopped him from appearing everywhere, thanks to the legions of impersonators and their fans.
But it's not just Elvis. Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, the Stones, AC/DC - all have performed in the North Bay in recent months. Not the real bands, but tribute bands.
IN A PERFECT world, we all would do what we love and even love doing it all the time.
T.C. Boyle certainly knows it's not a perfect world, but he also has figured out how to have fun with the endless supply of imperfection that he encounters.
If you're single in the suburbs, it's a familiar lament - where do you meet other singles? Meeting someone can happen anywhere and anytime, or so say a handful of relationship and dating pros.
These are tough times - who wouldn't want to welcome a superhero or two into our midst? Enter "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," Berkeley author Michael Chabon's story of two young misfits who find fame and fortune by creating comic-book superheroes.
For many of us, rock 'n' roll is more than just music. It is the soundtrack of our lives, a larger than life presence that continues to shape our lives.
As 2010 began, new maps released by the California Geological Survey and the California Emergency Management Agency show the risk Marin's coastal communities could face if a tsunami slams into the county as it did in March 1964.
During the holidays, there's nothing like meeting up with friends in a happening part of town. You send texts on where to rendezvous. You say, "Let's just meet downtown." But then you struggle when you try to get more specific.
Where, exactly, is downtown these days? In some cities and towns in Marin, it's an identity crisis of epic proportions.
Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food," says he has been noticing something interesting as he has traveled around the country talking to college students over the past few years.
WHETHER IT delights or depresses you, this is the month of stuff - buying, giving, getting. What if the stuff we bought not only served a purpose and gave us pleasure but helped change the world?
Years ago, I interviewed Hilary Hemingway - daughter of Leicester, niece of Ernest - who was trying to make her name as a screenwriter. Midway through a flight from Florida to Hollywood to have a script read by a bigwig agent, she panicked - what if it was junk?
We encounter them every day hundreds of times, whether it's a politician telling us that he didn't sleep with "that woman" or our 14-year-old when we ask her whether a parent will be present at the party she wants to go to Saturday night. And in a few weeks it may even be us as we tell Aunt Gladys that the Christmas present she gave us - a baby pink hand-crocheted wine bottle cover - is "exactly what we wanted."
Even if you don't approach the holidays with a loud "bah-humbug!" - and I don't - there's no denying that gathering family, friends and sometimes strangers can have its unique stresses.
Wherever Peter Sinn Nachtrieb got his love for " big theatricality" - his humor-loving parents, his years at Marin Academy as a "theater geek," his time interning as a marine biologist off the coast of Panama, being involved in a sketch comedy group - it has served him well. Nachtrieb's career is booming as his latest play - appropriately titled "boom" - has caught the attention of critics all over.
We all remember our teenage years through a variety of filters, one being the passage of decades.
Living through them is another matter - especially growing up in the North Bay in today's Internet-fueled, media-infused environment. Is the pressure, including the often crushing expectations created by growing up in this county, on today's kids more intense than it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago?
Happy hours mean vastly different things to different people - and at different stages of our lives. But the concept of a happy hour is hard to argue with, whether you are looking for cheap drinks, spirited company, filling (even free) food and mondo screens showing multiple sporting events.
West Fest has many things going for it - including the price, which is free. The concert on Saturday at Golden Gate Park pays homage to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and will feature many veteran Marin and Bay Area rockers.
The signs are everywhere - pumpkins, massive spider webs, Styrofoam tombstones and white sheet ghosts hanging from front-yard tree branches. It's almost Halloween, and so it's natural that our thoughts veer toward the darker side of things as well as the typical icons - including witches.
Many years ago, when I lived in Miami, a new restaurant opened touting its new American cuisine. I was editor of a small weekly newspaper there, and so that meant I did everything, including restaurant reviews.
Even if you don't see a film or run into a celebrity around town in the next weeks, the buzz is palpable when the Mill Valley Film Festival opens. Wherever you turn, you're likely to overhear people talking about what they've seen in the 10 days that the festival, now in its 32nd year, takes over theaters in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera.
If you've gotten stuck behind a slow-as-molasses driver or nearly side-swiped on the highway lately, chances are the driver was either on his or her cell phone or texting.
California may have passed laws against that a while ago, but that doesn't seem to have stopped many people, judging by how many whiz by with a phone to their ear.
Elizabeth Gilbert didn't think "Eat, Pray, Love" was the book that would make her famous.
She was pretty sure it would be her previous book, "The Last American Man," the biography of Eustace Conway, a self-styled man who dropped out of modern American life to live in a forest.
Who doesn't like the nightlife in the North Bay? Oh, not the club, bar and restaurant scene; I mean the real nightlife on Mount Tamalpais trails or the bay and under the stars and moon.
Nanotechnology - the creation and manipulation of tiny materials so they can do new things - isn't some crazy futuristic idea. It's already in hundreds of products and foods, from sunscreen to cosmetics to clothing, and scientists, including some from the North Bay, are working fast and furious to make it more accessible to all.
The "Riverdance" phenomenon that hit its peak several years ago seems to have dwindled somewhat - in fact, the hit theatrical show of traditional Irish step dancing is on its farewell tour 15 years after it opened at Dublin's Point Theatre.
But in the North Bay, it's beginning to seem like it's St. Paddy's Day everyday - not with dance, but with music.
'The trouble with poetry," writes former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins in his poem of the same name, "is that it encourages the writing of more poetry.
Q: Where can a woman go to find a decent, honest, normal guy for a serious relationship? I've tried the dating sites, go out with my friends to concerts, outdoor and indoor activities and bars.
One of my wife's insurance company co-workers and her husband just installed a new, eight-person hot-tub in their backyard. We have been invited to a small potluck party with some co-workers and spouses a month from now. The invite reads, "a dish to pass, towel, no swimsuits!"
