Articles by Al Martinez

It is not enough to worry about the economy, the political impact of Sarah Palin’s wink on the voting population of Nebraska, and the planet melting away under our feet. Read more

When times were hard, my mother used to tell me to whistle something happy and it would make everything better. Read more

In the din of a million voices clamoring for attention, it is occasionally the quiet persistence of a single idea that emerges from the pack. Read more

Ilay in bed half asleep the other night visualizing a kid of about 10 hurrying home through the lingering twilight of an Oakland evening wondering if there would be anything to eat in the house. Read more

Aman I once knew introduced me to Tom Lehrer’s satirical music sometime in the mid-1960s in his small apartment on the edge of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Read more

In the rush of events that keep us pumping through life like chipmunks on a treadmill, one finds it necessary upon occasion to take a moment to acknowledge a person of some importance. Read more

In the arena of human indolence, the male of the species has no equal. Read more

This is the season of combustion, where heat, humidity and wind drive fires through the mountains and canyons of Southern California, howling over hillsides thick with oak trees and chaparral, scorching the summery blue skies and burning wild red patterns into the night. Read more

If it weren’t for the fact that James Dean was killed about a mile up the road, you probably would have never heard of Cholame. Read more