Welcome to Kings River Life Magazine:
A California Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal.


With weekly issues every Saturday morning at 10am and new articles throughout the week, including reviews — movies each Monday at 7pm and live events Wednesdays at 7pm. If you love mysteries — explore Mysteryrat’s Maze — there's something for everyone… and check out our sister site on Blogger for bonus articles; Follow the River for updates.


Terrance V. Mc Arthur

by Terrance Mc Arthur



Where do you eat when you don’t want to cook? Where do you go when you want good, old-fashioned food that isn’t in a paper bag? There are the family-style diners, where you can get bacon and eggs or a steak dinner, open up to 24 hours a day. This Food Quest explores a sampling of these restaurants. The goal was to choose simple, basic food that would show the strengths and weaknesses of each chain.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



The Fresno County Public Library has won six straight grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to be part of “The Big Read,” choosing one novel for a month or more and presenting programs related to it. Past choices by the FCPL were To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Joy Luck Club, Fahrenheit 451, and Call of the Wild. This year, the book is Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



Two people sit at desks and read letters they wrote to each other. Does this sound like riveting theatre? Believe it or not, it is.

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The Great Pizza Search

IN THE April 27 ISSUE

FROM THE 2013 Articles,
andFood Fun,
andTerrance V. Mc Arthur
SECTIONS

by Terrance Mc Arthur



Pizza—That symbol of the circle of life, the roundness of the world, and the bearer of all the food groups of nutrition (but usually too much of the wrong ones). This FoodQuest tried five different pizza parlors/pizzerias, ordering a large sausage/mushroom/pepperoni pizza and various other goodies.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



All families have secrets. Rich and famous families have bigger secrets. In Other Desert Cities, a play by Jon Robin Baitz now performed at Stage 3 in Sonoma, the Wyeth family has some doozies.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



Every church has them—the ladies you never see at the church activities, even though they have been there for hours, preparing food for the holiday/funeral/fundraiser/ wedding, usually in the church basement, the unsung heroines of the church. This time, they get to sing…and dance (…a little; these are Lutherans, you know).

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



S. Eric Day was one of the founders of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival, where he directed and performed. He has worked with the Good Company Players as performer and director, and is now a major part of California Public Theatre as their artistic director.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



It is 1904. In a handful of years, Molly Murphy has escaped Ireland after fighting off a lecherous landowner, been a murder suspect on Ellis Island, become a private investigator, met bohemian artists and playwrights (and magician Harry Houdini and anarchist Emma Goldman), and married an Irish-American police detective, Daniel Sullivan…and now she’s in The Family Way, Rhys Bowen’s 12th in the Molly Murphy series. It definitely meets the high standards of other installments of the series.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur



The Lerner & Loewe Paint Your Wagon, with most of its 1951 plumage intact, is onstage at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theatre. The Good Company Players’ production is filled with energy and life, with all the texture and deft touches you would expect from Dan Pessano’s direction. Tough goldminers look longingly at pictures and letters from loved ones during the mournful “They Call the Wind Maria (pronounced Mariah, like Carey).” One man’s shakes from being near Jennifer (Alyssa Gaynor), the only female in the camp, reach near-weight-reducing intensity. A lively dance number during the curtain call keeps the audience clapping in time. Pessano’s name on a show is a good indication of a quality production.

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Jekyll & Hyde: On Stage At COS

IN THE March 20 ISSUE

FROM THE 2013 Articles,
andLocal Live,
andTerrance V. Mc Arthur
SECTIONS

by Terrance Mc Arthur



In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a short novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, about a man who was beside himself, couldn’t get along with himself, was chemically split into two personalities: a good doctor, and a murderous, licentious monster. It was inspired by the 1700s figure William Brodie: cabinetmaker and city councilman by day, burglar and gang leader by night. According to legend, Stevenson wrote it in less than a week, burned the manuscript, then reconstructed it over the next two months. Jekyll and Hyde have become society’s shorthand for a person with two conflicting sides to his character.

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by Terrance Mc Arthur




When talking about thrillers, complex often means “I have no idea what is going on.” Political thriller means “Never trust a politician.” Breakneck pace means “Don’t these guys ever stop to reload?” Now, after all that, when I say that B. Kent Anderson’s Silver Cross is a complex political thriller with a breakneck pace, I’m actually paying it a compliment.

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by KRL Staff



It’s time for Rogue Festival reviews! Instead of one post for each review, as we review the various shows we will add their review here so keep coming back for more! So far we have reviews of Moonlight and Love Songs (Mostly) with Scats On The Sly, Boxcar Figaro, Never Own Anything You Have To Paint Or Feed, Ne Me Quitte Pas, Loon, Psyche Savage & All My Ghosts, Pipe On The Hob, Gary Has A Date, Gary Has A Date, Answers!!! (or Something Similar), Magical Mystery Detour, If I Could Tell Me, The Secret Adventures of Fat Woman and Remedial Girl, Christmas In Bakersfield, The Chaser, More Power To Your Knitting, Cathedral City, Circus Emporium Roadshow with Circus Et Cetera!, Songs 4 Pints,2000 to 2010, The Road To High Street and Dancing With Demons. Also at the end of this post is a fun little poem by the marathon reviewer himself Terrance Mc Arthur!

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The Great Chinese Food Search

IN THE March 2 ISSUE

FROM THE 2013 Articles,
andFood Fun,
andTerrance V. Mc Arthur
SECTIONS

by Terrance Mc Arthur



O, the life of a roving food critic!
I’ve been to upscale restaurants, simple restaurants, Middle Eastern food, Mexican seafood, Salvadoran, burger joints, taco wagons, and now…..Chinese Food in Sanger!

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Rogue Is Here!

IN THE March 1 ISSUE

FROM THE 2013 Articles,
andArts & Entertainment,
andTerrance V. Mc Arthur
SECTIONS

by Terrance Mc Arthur



The 12th annual Rogue Performance Festival kicked off Thursday. Instead of showcasing a selection of performers on a makeshift stage, the Rogue acts strutted their stuff on the stage of the Tower Theatre! Old favorites, new discoveries, and old friends in new material all gave a taste of what audiences will see over the next nine days.

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