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Marin IJ: Martin Cruz Smith, ‘Gorky Park’ Author Who Lived in Mill Valley for a Time, Dies in San Rafael at the Age Of 82

July 15, 2025

Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he studied creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and started out as a journalist, including a brief stint at the AP and at the Philadelphia Daily News. Success as an author arrived slowly. He had been a published novelist for more than a decade before he broke through in the early 1980s with “Gorky Park.” His novel came out when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were still very much alive and centered on Renko’s investigation into the murders of three people whose bodies were found in the Moscow park that Smith used for the book’s title.

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Poet and/the Bench Hosts Workshop / Unbound!, an Exquisite & Wild Floral Workshop With Floral Designer & Stylist Tiffany Blaylock and Poet and/the Bench’s Uncommon Ceramicist Ian Hazard-Bill! July 27: 5-7pm

July 13, 2025

Each participant will be styling using one of Ian’s vases, made especially for this workshop and which you will take home with your floral creation. Tiffany will provide 2 separate demonstrations of arrangements concepts. Modern Sculptural and Wild Garden. Learn how to use mechanics, tools and other floral instruments; how to prepare flowers and cutting of leaves and stems; choose flowers from bunches Tiffany selected at the flower mart to make 1 vase arrangement and 1 hand held arrangement for transport; Light bites and drinks graciously served by Paseo Bistro.

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SFGATE Unveils Winners of the Best of Bay Area 2025 and, Not Surprisingly, Mill Valley Got Some Love Once Again

July 9, 2025

To no surprise on our part, Mill Valley businesses and nonprofits were successful in capturing awards across a variety of business types, a particularly massive achievement considering the fact that SFGate’s Best of Bay Area included the entire Bay Area in its purview: “A reader-driven popularity contest with more than 150 categories accepting nominees, per Editor in Chief’s Grant Marek.

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SF Chronicle: Why Martin Scorsese — and you — Should Get Back to Watching Movies in Theaters (Despite Netflix, there are Still Plenty of Reasons to See Films on the Big Screen)

July 6, 2025

Famed director Martin Scorsese made news last month when he explained to film critic Peter Travers why he no longer went to see movies in a theater. Citing audience cellphone use, incessant talking and generally restive behavior that often drowns out dialogue, the director of “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas” told Travers he’d had enough. Of course, big screens in the U.S. were in big trouble long before Scorsese’s admission. The pandemic only turbo-charged the pre-COVID trend away from theaters in favor of home-based entertainment media. In the first half of 2020, Netflix added more than 26 million subscribers. So when shuttered theaters reopened, audiences — specifically American audiences — did not rush back in droves.

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Durable Goods. Made By You. The Local Trade offers 1-Day Woodworking Experiences in Marin and San Francisco!

June 17, 2025

“The Local Trade exists to teach the people who will build our future,” he says. Together with a team of instructors, mentors, and advocates who share the passion for bringing tradecraft to the next generation, we are excited to offer woodworking classes to the community. Part of what Local Trade is about local trade is that so many of us come from a place knowledge jobs, but maybe not enough of creating something tangible with our hands,” Sanchez says. “I come to this with open eyes in that I am kind of new to this space of woodworking or skilled trades,” he adds. “We’re always learning and I’m on that path right now with others through the help of experts craftsmen and women.”

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