A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
Here we are in the 12th week of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying shutdown, with a return to normal—whatever that was—still far away. We’ve worked from home, done our best to keep our kids mentally stimulated without going flat-out mental ourselves, practiced social distancing on those rare occasions when we braved going out in public, and embraced facial coverings as a fashion accessory.
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Sometimes it feels as though we have overdosed on digital imagery. Good or bad, it’s everywhere. Animated billboards. Movies. Selfies. TV commercials. Magazines. It’s fast, easy, and fairly inexpensive.
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Chocolate. Ooohhh, yes. This delicacy has been around for over two-thousand years, and it’s as powerful as it ever was. Just the word alone conjures up all kinds of imagery, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s the miniature candy bars in your trick-or-treat bag on Halloween or a big bunny in your Easter basket. It has been featured in literature and film: a sensual pleasure in Chocolat, concealing a hidden treasure in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and administered as medication in the Hogwarts infirmary in the beloved Harry Potter series. Ancient civilizations used it for currency and as components in rituals. This delicious treat is also one of the most frequently given gifts for Christmas. I’m not surprised – are you?
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Let’s assume you are someone who includes meat in your diet, whether it’s because you have certain nutritional goals or you just enjoy a steak or burger now and then. Got that? Now, what if you are concerned about the quality of that meat, the way in which it is produced, and how the livestock is raised. You could spend a ridiculous amount of time searching online and end up with not much more than eye strain.
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Good things come in small packages, and few people know the truth of this old saying more than Joel and Margie Weber. They’re the founders/owners/operators of Rocky Oaks Goat Creamery in Clovis, producers of a variety of unique, hand-crafted artisan goat cheeses.
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When I was a kid, something I could always count on during the summer was an excursion “out to the country” to pick produce. Peaches, strawberries, corn, and black-eyed peas were readily available at you-pick farms scattered throughout the rural areas just outside Fresno.
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For women “of a certain age” who are interested in a dance performance experience, it can be difficult to find a school or group that’s the right fit. Classes marketed as being “for seniors” give the impression that if you’re over 50 you’re as breakable as glass, while some performance groups have a creepy, patronizing approach that can be downright insulting: “Look at them go! And to think they’re all over 60 years of age, wow!” Yeah, right.
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Throughout the week we will be posting reviews here of Rogue shows! Check back several times a day! And then go out and enjoy the Rogue Festival! To check out our Rogue muse article & some Rogue performer preview articles go to our Arts & Entertainment section. Check out our Rogue show reviews that will be going up all week!
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To be a successful magician, it takes more than skills. You need something extra, something memorable that sets your act apart from the others. Siegfried and Roy had white tigers. Penn & Teller have a guy who’s really tall and another who remains silent. Newcomer Shin Lim has an unruly mop of hair and stylish clothes. Tiger guys, big guy/quiet guy, hair guy – you know who I mean, right?
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The Rogue is headed this way, look out! This annual nine-day, fringe-style festival showcases the work of independent artists from around the world, and Fresno’s Tower District becomes a hub of theater, dance, music, spoken word, puppetry and just about anything else you can think of.
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You know what I like about the holidays? Dressing up! And who likes dressing up even more than I do? Kids! On a sunny Sunday in mid-December, a bunch of kids came together with another group of people who are even more enthusiastic about dressing to the nines: drag queens and kings. The event was Drag Story Time and from designer dresses to plaid pajamas and a pint-sized Santa Claus, everyone looked marvelous.
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If there’s something you’re seriously interested in, maybe even a little obsessed with, you can probably find a club in which you can share your passion with a like-minded group. Fresno is home to numerous organizations that support the enthusiasm of pet owners, drivers of classic cars, writers of mysteries, gardeners, fans of various sports, and devotees of different forms of dance and music.
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This was DeJa Skye’s response when I introduced myself. Tall, curvaceous, immaculately dressed and extremely personable, she described herself as “a man in a dress who loves to put on makeup in the morning.” DeJa Skye is a drag queen, and I was attending Fresno’s First Drag Festival.
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A young woman, seated in a bubble bath, tells the story of breaking her hand in a bicycle accident in Brooklyn. On the surface, that’s what happens in Broken Bone Bathtub, a one-woman show by writer/performer Siobhan O’Loughlin. But the deceptively simple premise goes deeper than that.
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Matilda is a friendly, feisty furry ninja who loves to play and who is brimming with energy and personality who is 1 year old! She was found at the intersection of a busy road and the freeway and was scooped up by a Good Samaritan! She greets you with cute little meows and she loves to cuddle once she’d finished playing. She’s been fostered with other cats and she like to be the center of attention. Matilda is available from the Cat House on the Kings.
