Life as We Know It

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Barbara Falconer Newhall

Barbara Falconer Newhall
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
Birthday
July 04
Title
Writer and Blogger
Bio
Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall reports from the scene -- on pop culture, books and the writing life, on her grown-up kids, her husband, her nonagenarian aunt -- and life. Visit her more capacious blog at www.BarbaraFalconerNewhall.com.

MY RECENT POSTS

MAY 13, 2012 5:04PM

My Mother's Goneness

Small tweed and leather purse. Photo by BF NewhallMy mother liked her purse's tweedy, sporty look.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My mother is gone. But when she died she left a few things behind, including the love seat that followed her from Birmingham, Michigan, to Phoenix, and finally to California, where it… Read full post »

MAY 12, 2012 6:13PM

Married 35 Years -- and Blogging


Us in 1975. Photo by Ruth & Scott Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Hey, Everybody!

Jon Newhall -- a brand new OS blogger -- and I just celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. Two kids, one house and lots of rewarding jobs later, we seem to be in it for the… Read full post »

A purple bearded iris blossom. Photo by BF Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I think of irises as a common, garden-variety flower.

You see them growing everywhere. Our own back yard had dozens of them growing wildish when we moved in thirty-plus years ago, and now we have a mess of them growing in our front… Read full post »

APRIL 24, 2012 6:51PM

I'm a Meat-Eating Loser

Chicken wings, legs and breasts in butcher's case. Photo by BF NewhallChicken wings, legs and breasts for sale. Photos by BF Newhall.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I’m not bitter. I didn’t win the “Why It’s OK to Eat Meat” contest the New York Times Magazine put on a few weeks ago. I didn’t even make the final six, which were… Read full post »

Nabeela Raza Sajjad founded Islamic Art Exhibit in 2009. Here, with her work "Creation of Heavens and Earth."

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My book is pretty much done. But I still need to find myself a few more people to interview. A nice, talkative Muslim woman with lots of… Read full post »

Children place flowers on a wooden cross. St. John's Episcopal Church, Oakland, CA. Photo by Barbara Falconer NewhallChildren place flowers on the Easter cross. Photo by BF Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

The really nice thing about Easter is -- you get to sing. Good and loud. And if you go to my church, you get to sing the Alleluia Chorus from "The Messiah," which if you're… Read full post »

flo dead camelia rain on cement

 Dozens of camellias hit the pavement at my house today.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jerome, that famously abstemious fourth- and fifth-century scholar and saint, is said to have kept a human skull on his desk to remind him of his mortality. Those of us with gardens don't need a sku… Read full post »

 Lauren Patti, a short memoir

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Some thirty writers and storytellers took the mic -- for three short minutes each -- to share their works in progress Friday evening, March 23,  at Book Passage in San Francisco's Ferry Building. The writers had been taking c… Read full post »

MARCH 31, 2012 2:09AM

Belief Is Seriously Overrated

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

As I made plans for my mother’s memorial mass at the tiny St. Vincent Catholic Church in Pentwater, Michigan, last summer, I asked my brothers and my mother’s grandchildren if they’d like to participate in the service.

IMGP1661

Pentwater, Michigan, 20Read full post »

Connie Hubbell Arts floral arrangement for Friends of Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA 2012

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

It’s not often you get to do something for the dead. But every year around this time, florists in San Francisco’s East Bay are invited to put on a show to benefit the Friends of Mountain View Cemetery, a famous old cemetery at the to… Read full post »

flow poppy 2012-03 f blog

It's March and therefore full-out spring in our California front yard. Come visit my garden at http://BarbaraFalconerNewhall.com

I can't seem to post more than this one outrageous poppy. There's more!

Photos by Barbara Falconer Newhall

FEBRUARY 14, 2012 1:53PM

Why Am I Still a Size 10?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I discovered a forgotten pair of jeans at the back of my closet the other day. Nice jeans, I thought. I could throw them on for a quick trip to the drug store or the plant store. I tried them on. A perfect fit.

They were a… Read full post »

c 2009 B.F. Newhall

Ready for deadheading?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I’ve tried meditating a few times – a very few times. I’m well read on the subject, however. Indeed, I’ve spent way more time reading about meditation than I’ve spent doing it.

Why would I want to just sit ther

Read full post »
JANUARY 9, 2012 6:47PM

Can This Guy Make Me a Star?

Jeff Greenwald

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I'm getting out of my writing room long enough to take Jeff Greenwald's Page to Stage class at the San Francisco Writers Grotto.

It starts Jan. 17. Sounds like fun. I think there are still spaces available. Do yu live in the San Francisco… Read full post »

food, candy, liz n Xmas gift f blog 12-31-2011

Christmas candy on December 29 . . .

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

My son Peter’s girlfriend’s mom has a lot of good qualities. She gardens, she composts, she giggles at my jokes, she adores my son. This… Read full post »

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Apparently, fewer Americans are getting married these days. (Check out the PBS Newshour story.)

But lots and lots of people are doing the next best thing: making a public declaration of being in a relationship — on Facebook.

Neither of my twenty/thirty-something ki

Read full post »

  

I just discovered a site called Nieman Storyboard: Breaking down story in every medium. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Looks like there might be lots of good stuff for writers on this site -- including creative nonfiction writers.

A very helpful newRead full post »

Yosemite high country near tuolemne meadows

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Is the Yosemite high country even more beautiful than the Himalayas? 

My hiking pal Al Aistrope thinks so. The Himalayas' claim to fame, of course, is all those high, spectacularly high, mountain peaks.

Yosemite, on the other hand, a… Read full post »

DECEMBER 6, 2011 10:09PM

On the Trail at Tuolemne . . .

tuolemne meadows trees

Another photo of beautiful Yosemite National Park high country near Tuolemne Meadows. (It's pronounced too-OLL-eh-mee, btw.)

Photo c 2011 BF Newhall Read full post »

DECEMBER 6, 2011 9:43PM

My (Awesome) Zumba Body

zumba with Barbara Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Trying on bras at Nordstrom the other day, the truth was all too apparent. Too much flesh here. Too much skin there.

Some of it fit into the bra. A lot of it didn't. I felt terrible about my body.

Lucky for my body image, however,… Read full post »

DECEMBER 6, 2011 2:21AM

At Tuolemne -- Celebrating Being Alive

By Barbara Falconer Newhall, with a little help from her friends

On my last birthday, in September, I had three wonderful days at Tuolumne Meadows and Inyo National Forest in the Sierra Nevada with two wonderful friends.

It was probably my best birthday ever -- though there's maybe some forgotten bir… Read full post »

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jasmin Darznik was at the Book Passage bookstore in Marin county, California, Monday night for the monthly meeting of the Left Coast Writers. She had some tips for wannabe writers, particularly memoir writers.

Tip # 1: Jasmin’s New York Times bestselling memoir, Th

Read full post »

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I first met Jasmin Darznik back in 2006, and right away she presented a problem. We were in the same nonfiction workshop – it was led by agent Michael Carlisle – at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley.

darznik book cover 2011-110001

I had dutifully read… Read full post »

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Merle Haggard, Bill Graham, Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Raitt — Joel Selvin knew/knows them all.

And I’ve known Joel Selvin for most of his adult life. My husband knew Joel as a mouthy little kid who used to ride around the Berkeley hills in the

Read full post »

 

Lauren Winner

Lauren Winner

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I wrote this post a couple years ago after a writing workshop week in Santa Fe with Lauren Winner. She’s a fascinating person. Very smart. — bfn

OK, I’m a little late in posting today. But I have an excuse.

Read full post »