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My son John, who is an artist, illustrator, film/book reviewer and soon-to-be indie filmmaker, is always talking about “the magic hour”–those twilight hours at dawn and dusk which are perfect for cinematographers. With that in mind, my daughter Rachel and I, after stopping by the Artisans fair at Briscoe school last Sunday, decided to take advantage of the day’s lovely snow to take some “magic hour” photos of Lithia Park and the Plaza as we walked from Briscoe School down to Bloomsbury Books for a browse and a cuppa. Here’s a couple of the best photos:

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My son John and I—we are both brains and brawn, such as they are, behind Idylls Press—had a great time at the 2008 Southern Oregon Book and Author Fair, held this year at the Ashland Springs Hotel. All the authors I spoke with there agreed that the move from SOU (the previous venue) was a good one in terms of increased foot traffic. We actually made a modest profit in sales, but more importantly had the opportunity of meeting all kinds of wonderful, creative people. This has got to be Ashland’s greatest draw, when all is said and done!

Click here for a nice write-up of the event in the Daily Tidings. And here is a (lamentably fuzzy, perdona me) pic of John and I (and another of my son’s, Luke) at our table:

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Before the holiday season comes full blown upon us, I thought I’d share some pictures we took from this year’s Halloween celebration.

Halloween (like Christmas) is a very big deal here in Ashland, and the adults get into it as much as the kids. The downtown celebration usually begins shortly after school lets out with a parade of costumed kids (and adults) from the public library down to the Plaza–five or six blocks. Then all the kids go trick-or-treating. Most of the shopkeepers oblige by having someone stand outside with a bowl of treats to pass around to all the goblins and ghoulies.

These pics were taken by John, who escorted our youngest, who went as Darth Vadar, complete with one of those battery -operated masks with a James Earl Jones voice that breathes heavily and says things like “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side!”, etc.

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