Distorted thoughts Social exhaustion Just tryna make my mind function Sometimes I malfunction. Alcohol fixes my anxiety temporarily. Don’t wanna go crazy! People call me lazy. Lucky them, they have the energy to do things. I’d rather be sleeping or staring at the wall. Where has the time gone? Where is my alarm! I hit […]
Scottish-Irish band returns to Benicia for museum concert
The Benicia Historical Museum’s 2018 Spring Concert Series will come to a close this weekend. Throughout the season, audiences have been treated to the Celtic folk stylings of The Black Irish Band and Golden Bough. On Saturday, they will get to experience another museum concert mainstay: Men of Worth. For nearly 20 years, the folk […]
BOTTG spring play captures crumbling marriage
The title of the play is “Coming Apart,” but Benicia Old Town Theatre Group’s spring play is coming together nicely and will open on Friday. Fred Carmichael’s 1994 play centers around married couple Frances and Colin Kittridge, whose marriage is crumbling. Colin works as a humor columnist and Frances as a romance novelist, giving them […]
Jeff Burkhart’s “Rhyme and Reason”: 5 O’clock True Blues
A writer’s life’s not easy It is swathed in perspiration, Rejection and correction, and erasures and frustration So every day at five o’clock To fortify my mind I hit the bar and let it go; just leave it all behind Here I sit; my bar man Pours me up a good stiff drink I’m sipping […]
Poetry Corner: Ranjit Gill “Tasty Death”
Taste of charcoal and barbecue sauce. Chop up the pig, it’s time to pig out. I like the taste of death in my mouth! Chop up the cow. Time to chow down. Turn his smile into a frown. I don’t care. I just like the taste of death on my plate and palate. Looks like […]
Poetry Corner: James Garrett “Box Car”
Roll box car roll, But don’t leave me behind. Roll box car roll, And show me what you find. You travel so quickly, On tracks made of steel. Wind hits me and I feel The click-clack of a wheel. Roll box car roll, And return me to home. Roll box car roll, And no more […]
Poetry Corner: Carolyn Fallon “April in Benicia”
Such a surprise! Out my kitchen window- A demure, debutante delight, in fragile blossom, Gowned by Spring’s couturier. An intimation of youth and joy, But, alas, so ephemeral, Just like us.
Poetry Corner: Bud Light “Worth Remembering”
It isn’t the whistle that pulls the train; Nor the boom of the gun that kills, It isn’t the thunder that waters the grain; Nor the smack of the kiss that thrills, It isn’t the cackle that lays the egg Nor the grunt that makes the pork; It isn’t the flavor In an empty keg; […]
Benicia High takes audience back in time with spring dance show
Remember a time when people weren’t consumed by their smartphones? Benicia High School’s performing arts department will take audiences back to such a time period— several of them, in fact— for its advanced dance show “Scrolling Through Time,” which opens tonight. The dance show— which combines the talents of Benicia High’s drama, dance and other […]
VOENA shines on Carnegie Hall stage
Not everyone can say “I got to perform at Carnegie Hall,” but then again, not everyone is a current member of Voices of Eve ’N’ Angels (VOENA). Seventeen members of the Benicia-based youth choral group received the experience of a lifetime Sunday when they got to perform at the iconic New York City concert hall […]