News

Welcome to California Wine Month!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

September ushers in California Wine Month with special wine-focused events, tastings and festivals at vineyards and wineries across the Golden State.  Get out and celebrate one of California’s signature industries this month, and get to know our vintners and growers, and learn more about the wine culture and lifestyle.

Check out the Visit California website HERE to learn more.

Visit Discover California Wines HERE to find out more about California Wine Month

Here’s the Press Release:

CALIFORNIA WINE MONTH: 

A GREAT REASON TO VISIT WINE COUNTRY THIS SEPTEMBER

 

Wine Lovers are Popping Corks at Festivals, Special Tastings, Wine Immersion Experiences and Tours During Month-Long Celebration Across the State

Screenwriting

MILIUS gets intimate at the Telluride Film Festival’s Backlot

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, has announced the official program selections for the festival’s 40th anniversary. Among the films being presented is MILIUS, Directed by Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa.

MILIUS is a documentary about the career of one of the most legendary, influential, and controversial directors in Hollywood: John Milius. If there was ever a man who could write it to the page and blow it up onto the silver screen, it was Milius. One of the first Hollywood professionals to be a film school graduate, he was a contemporary of the likes of Spielberg and Lucas. He co-wrote the first two Dirty Harry films. He has written by credits for Apocalypse Now, Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian. Story by credits for Magnum Force, 1941, Extreme Prejudice, Geronimo. And he wrote the screenplays for Red Dawn, Farewell to the King, Jeremiah Johnson, Clear and Present Danger, and more. He directed Dillinger, the Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, and more. He has produced six titles – including the upcoming Genghis Khan.

He has created a persona so recognizable, so larger than life, that it influenced John Goodman’s character Walter Sobchak from the Big Lebowski.

This documentary has been well received at every screening, with rave reviews from SXSW reviewers including Film Threat and Dirk Sonniksen of Smells like Screen Spirit.

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National Forests, National Parks, News

Environmentalism, Budget Cuts to blame for Rim Fire

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

As the Rim fire continues to burn closer and into Yosemite, nobody seems to want to point out why this fire is burning so well, or so fast.

The answer is environmentalism, and budget cuts that have prohibited proper forest conservation.

Environmentalism is the idiotic belief that man knows what’s best for the forest, and can bend mother nature to his will.  In this particular arm-wrestling match, nature will always win.  It was here before man, it will be here after man.  The current wave of environmentalism culminated in huge budget cuts, which has allowed undergrowth to grow unchecked.   Controlled burns were cut out of budgets, as was undergrowth removal.

Supposedly, this stupidity was to allow the forest to ‘return to the wild.’  Yet, in the wild, fires started by nature – by lightning strikes, for instance – occur regularly.  Man, compounding the errors of environmentalism, promptly stopped any wildfires. Not a bad plan, but one that runs contrary to the whole ‘return to the wild’ idea.  Environmentalists seem to think that they can have it both ways; control mother nature, and let mother nature run wild.

It doesn’t work that way.

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National Forests, News

Rim Fire destroys Berkeley Tuolumne Family Camp

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

From Sierra News Online:

TUOLUMNE COUNTY – Families who have been camping at the Berkeley Tuolumne Family Camp for years gathered yesterday to mourn the loss of the camp, which was consumed by the Rim Fire on Sunday.

The fire has now grown to 179,481 acres with 20% containment, and U.S. Forest Service officials confirmed yesterday that most structures at the camp have been destroyed.

The Rim Fire has also forced the cancellation of the 2013 Film Fest Twain Harte and the Strawberry Music Festival, an annual bluegrass celebration at Camp Mather that attracts thousands of music lovers to the Sierra each Labor Day Weekend.

The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted last week to close down the event because of the fire.

You can read the entire article HERE.

Dead Tree Books, eBook, Success Stories

Is Self-Publishing here to stay?

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

This question was recently asked, and some mighty strange answers were provided:

“…Is self publishing here to stay? Hogwash. Self publishing will be here to stay when self published authors start showing up on Good Morning America or The View or the front page of the Huffington Post or Salon or the New York Times Book Review, and I don’t mean well known marketable authors who’ve jettisoned the mainstream publishers without which they’d still be a bunch of nobodies tweeting their asses off about their latest novel. Sure, once in a blue moon an “indie” author will break through into one of those venues, but the major publishers are still dictating what America reads. Go ahead, shoot the messenger…”

And:

“…Excuse me, I forgot this is an ebook group, so let’s add the ebook phenomenon to the print on demand phenomenon! You can publish an ebook for nothing too. Of course, with both ebooks and POD, you could pay a couple of hundred dollars for a professionally designed cover, and a few hundred dollars on up to an editor, and then you could pay I don’t know how much to a blog tour broker, and you could pay to have your book displayed on a web site promoting great reads to people looking for something to read…”

And:

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