Arts & Events

FRIDAY, JULY 7 -more-

Last month’s San Francisco International Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival screened more than 250 films, an overwhelming bounty featuring a wide array of topics and genres, from documentaries about adoption and AIDS to narratives about love, loss and life. Nearly every facet of sexual and gender politics was explored in a month’s worth of presentations. -more-

Snowy egrets and coal-black cormorants roosting in trees—in Oakland? Hansel and Gretel along with the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, brought to life with a Magic Key—in Oakland? A Daimyo oak bonsai, in cultivation since Abraham Lincoln’s term as President—in Oakland? Venetian gondolas gliding across sparkling waters under fairy lights—in Oakland? Discover these wonders and more, in Oakland’s Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt. -more-

For those of you who are regular readers of this column, it will come as no surprise that today’s topic is one related to energy efficiency. Keeping our globe cool means generating less heat in all of our pursuits—or at least burning less oil or gas. -more-

Last week I left my readers with a newly installed plant, in its hole of the right size and (shallow) depth, with soil amendments, if any, added on top to be worked in gradually by our ancient allies, the earthworms and other burrowers in the soil. -more-

Have You Talked to Your Kids? -more-

FRIDAY, JULY 7 -more-

TUESDAY, JULY 4 -more-

Somewhere, across the river from ... somewhere else ... there’s a cyber-cafe with two strange young women peering in, in hysterics over what they see and trying to get inside. -more-

We’re fortunate to have rather a large number of Hawaiians living in the Bay Area. I’ve visited the Islands only a couple of times, but I fall in love fast (if selectively) and it wasn’t just the climate, the heartstopping beauty of the place, or even the beautiful, increasingly elusive native flora and fauna that won my flinty, suspicious old heart. -more-

TUESDAY, JULY 4 -more-