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Saratoga Sampler
Local biographer videotaped for C-SPAN show
By Mary Ann Cook
BIG YEAR: It's a big year for John Steinbeck devotees, because it's the centennial of his birth year. And it's also a big year for one of the biggest Steinbeck fans in Saratoga, one Audry Lynch. Lynch has written a couple of books about Steinbeck, the most recent being Steinbeck Remembered.
It offers a very local, very personal slant. It's a compilation of reminiscences from people in this area who knew him, including Saratoga's Vince Garrod and Los Gatos' John Baggerly. As a result of her research and writings, Lynch was invited to speak at a recent Steinbeck Festival.
Her talk was videotaped for a show on C-SPAN called American Writers: A Journey Through History, to be shown in October. Closer to home, the Steinbeck scholar spoke last week at Barnes and Noble in the Pruneyard and at Borders Books in Santa Cruz.
Celebrating another type anniversary, Lynch and her husband Greg are recently returned from an extended stay in Bermuda. The locale was significant, because the duo spent their honeymoon there. This time it was 45 years later and the sojourn was a full month, a luxury most newlyweds certainly can't afford.
Don't you wonder what had changed more in that nearly half a century--the country or the couple?
CULTURAL DIVERSITY CELEBRATED: The Southwest YMCA will host a celebration of cultural diversity on Aug. 25 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Y's quad. There'll be singing, storytelling and cooking demonstrations from all manner of cultures--Mexican, Native American, Asian, and European.
It will include Mexican cooking and French crepe demos, native American arts and crafts, and storytelling from various cultures emphasizing their history and mythology. The contact number at the Y is 408.370.1877.
SHARK ART ATTACK: Joel Wyrick is the idea man behind the public art project made up of decorated and wittily named fiberglass sharks in downtown San Jose. Each shark is decorated by an artist, and then is put on display in various locales--chiefly around the San Jose Museum of Art.
There are three sharks in Willow Glen and a few near the airport. The project is based on the highly successful display of cows in Chicago a couple of years back. (Which in turn was based on a similar fine-art feat in Switzerland.)
Cincinnati had one that celebrated pigs last summer, as did another Midwest city, maybe St. Louis. The 100 or so San Jose sharks will be a public art attraction until sometime in November, then will be auctioned off to private owners, with the money raised going to charities.
Wyrick has a local connection because he owned the Waves restaurant and nightclub in Old Town, which moved some years ago and is now Waves Smokehouse and Saloon on Post Street in downtown San Jose.
ON STAGE: Katie Marsh of Saratoga played "Gino" in the recent Children's Musical Theater of San Jose's production of Pinocchio. Gino is a street urchin who lures Pinocchio into trouble in the well-known musical. The cast was composed of 130 youngsters, all aged 6-9.
JUNIOR WRITERS: The California Writers Club will host the Jack London Writers Camp for Kids in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Independent Home Study building on Summit Road on Sept. 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The conference is designed for children between 8 and 15 years old.
Workshop subjects will include comedy writing, character development, non-fiction and poetry. One course will even be taught by teens. A writing sample needs to be submitted by Sept. 15. Published "kidlit" authors will be aboard. For more details, call 408.353.1961.
Not all the action will be literary: A hike on the Redwood Trail off Summit Road will also be on the agenda. Jana McBurney, president of the Writers Club, and Martha Alderson are organizers of the event.
HELP AT HAND: Bookish types don't need to feel deprived during these last lingering days of summer, even though the Saratoga Library is closed during August. Books can be had for all ages and interests and for very little coinage at the Book-Go-Round, sponsored by Friends of the Saratoga Library.
The used bookstore is open from noon to 5 p.m. every day except Saturday, when it opens at 10 a.m. The B-G-R is one block south of Big Basin Way, at the corner of Oak Street and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. Mary Jeanne Fenn directs the action there, a money-maker for the library.
SAD NEWS: Bob Williams is back in the hospital. His many friends--creative sorts all--hosted a BobFest earlier this year, an evening of entertainment at Los Gatos High School, which proceeds were used to help Williams in his fight against cancer.
DEAN'S LIST: Peter Carter of Saratoga graduated from Columbia University in New York City this spring and was named to the dean's list.
From the University of Oregon, dean's listees are Rachel Lauren Osofsky of Saratoga, a sophomore pre-psychology major; Molly Vaden of Monte Sereno, a junior art major; and Danielle Shatara of Los Gatos, a sophomore theater arts major.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
