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Jan 23, 2025 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
In 1971, the English journalist-turned-novelist Frederick Forsyth saw publication of his first novel, “The Day of the Jackal.” Despite struggling to get the book accepted and then having to endure what was a limited initial launch in Britain, Forsyth watched his action-thriller go international, become a New York Times best-seller and garner millions in sales.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
Not everybody is a fan of pop art. When it first emerged in the 1950s, and as it gained popularity over the next decade, any number of critics took their shots at both the type of art it is and the artists who pursued it.
“Pop art,” Susan Sontag wrote, is “only possible in an affluent society, where one can be free to enjoy ironic consumption.” Ouch.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster |John Nelson |Leslie Kelly
Anyone who has ever visited Palm Springs, Calif., knows just how many cool things the city has to offer.
Good restaurants, challenging golf courses (but still mostly manageable for those less skilled among us), museums, the Aerial Tramway and, of course, the surrounding area’s natural offerings – not limited to but featuring nearby Joshua Tree National Park.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
Before 1975, the year of Spanish strongman Francisco Franco’s death, it was dangerous to make any art that criticized Spain’s government. It had been that way since the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. But there are many ways to make protest art that can get a message across powerfully if subtly. And two Spanish filmmakers in particular knew how to do just that. In 1976, Carlos Saura wrote and directed the film “Cría” (or “Cría Cuervos”), which stars Ana Torrent as a child living in 1975.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
Our driver wove his vehicle around an immense plaza that fronts Essaouira, giving us our first full view of this Moroccan city that sits on Africa’s northwest coastline.
But before I begin describing anything more about our visit to this scenic spot that offers great views of the Atlantic Ocean, especially when the sun sets, let me explain how we got there.
And why, specifically, we chose to book a private driver.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Leslie Kelly |John Nelson |Dan Webster |Joe Butler
The calendar still says 2024, but a new year has already arrived for oysters.
Last month, we celebrated “Oyster New Year” at Elliott’s Oyster House on Seattle’s waterfront. The party, an annual event at Seattle’s biggest oyster emporium, celebrates the PNW’s bountiful selection of bivalves and signals the start of a new season.
It was quite a scene: Countless dozens of freshly shucked oysters from providers around the Salish Sea were available to sample -- as many as patrons could slurp.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
In a recent column, Jim VandeHei – co-founder and CEO of the news website Axios – pushed back against X honcho Elon Musk’s oft-publicized statements that journalists, and journalism in general, can’t be trusted. VandeHei referred to the speech that he delivered at the National Press Club, where he referred to Musk’s allegations with a single word that can’t be printed in a family newspaper (it being a profane synonym for bull manure).
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
Even under the best of circumstances, being a parent isn’t always easy. Being a good father can be, in some cases, particularly hard. Imagine what it must be like to be a father who is separated from his children, because he’s serving time in prison. Seeing someone on a computer screen or through a glass window is hardly conducive to any kind of real intimacy. That, though, is the situation facing the men featured in the documentary film “Daughters,” which is streaming on Netflix.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Dan Webster
Sometime in the early 1970s my younger brother Doug began researching our family’s roots. I’m not sure how far he got before he died, suddenly, in 1976. But I know he did manage to trace our father’s lineage to Wales, a place where the surname Webster is far more common that anywhere our family lived in the U.S.
And as a military family, we lived in a lot of places – up and own both coasts, for three years in Texas and four years in Hawaii.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
spokesman.com | Leslie Kelly |John Nelson |Dan Webster |Joe Butler
We have a Thanksgiving confession: The head cook does not like turkey! Before you fly off the handle, here’s Leslie to explain.
Yes, it seems odd that a person who cares so much about food and about gathering around a feast would have an aversion to turkey. This likely goes back to some rocky roads traveled during my childhood.
We lived with Dad after the divorce, but Thanksgiving was frequently spent with my mother on Orcas Island.
