The Mill Valley Film Festival once again reminds us of film’s boundless capacity to surprise, challenge, and move us.
Category Archives: women
Food Set Chef Melissa King Free
By Noma Faingold (Updated October 2, 2025)
Chef Melissa King was not like the other kids growing up in Whittier, a small city in Los Angeles County. While her peers watched Saturday morning cartoons, she was glued to Julie Child shows, Martin Yan’s “Yan Can Cook” and other television cooking programs.
“I was always very interested in food and I liked to eat,” King said.
Artist Rose B. Simpson Transforms Classic Cars While Healing Herself
By Noma Faingold (Updated September 10, 2025)
Artist Rose B. Simpson is more than a little preoccupied with vessels. She views pottery, cars, her figurative sculptures, the womb and clay, a material she most often uses in her creations, as vessels.
Courtesy of Rose B. Simpson
“I think in clay. Clay was the earth that grew our food, was the house we lived in, was the pottery we ate out of and prayed with,” Simpson told a de Young Museum audience at a very personal lecture she delivered earlier this year. “My relationship to clay is ancestral and it has a deep genetic memory. It’s like a family member for us.” Continue reading
‘Reflections’ of Diana Ross: Through the Mirror of My Mind
By Noma Faingold (August 13, 2025)
Diane Ross will be appearing at San Francisco’s Stern Grove on Sunday, August 17, 2025 in a free afternoon concert. While sold out, 1000 tickets will be given away Friday at 5pm. See bottom of this article for details.
The family hi-fi set-up, anchored by two giant hidden speakers, was located in the dining room. We never ate there unless we had company. No one who came to the house knew where the speakers were because the beige tweed fabric covering them matched the adjacent drapes.
The first Diana Ross album I bought was simply titled, “Diana Ross.” The 1970 release was her debut solo record. I was in second grade and my musical taste was already firmly established. I gravitated to the slick soul of Motown – artists like The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and especially Ross, as opposed to popular hardcore rock bands of the time, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.
“Bound” Director Comes Home With Rave Reviews
By Noma Faingold (May 15, 2025)
Writer/director/producer/actor Isaac Hirotsu Woofter was on his phone minutes before his feature debut, “Bound,” was being screened in February, during SF IndieFest at the Roxie Theater. It was a Bay Area homecoming for Woofter and he wanted to make sure the friends and family attending were taken care of.
A Feast of Cinematic & Culinary Delights
A Marcella Hazan tribute dinner, 17 food-related films, and Michelin Chef Yoshinori Ishii’s masterclass on Japanese cuisine highlight a wine country festival starting Wednesday with 90+ events.
By Geneva Anderson
(March 16, 2025)
The Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF), March 19-23, offers an extravaganza of groundbreaking cinema, food, and fun spread over five days in glorious Sonoma, the heart of the wine country. All films are screened at venues in or within walking distance of the historic town square making SIFF one of the country’s most laid back and enjoyable festivals. The full line-up includes over 90 films.
THE DIVA OF ART DECO- Łempicka
By Noma Faingold
“Each of my paintings is a self-portrait.”
Tamara de Łempicka, artist
Group of Four Nudes (1925). © 2023 Tamara de Łempicka Estate, LLC
A Baker’s Dozen: THANKSGIVING PECAN PIE, PLEASE
by Dianne Boate
(Updated November 23, 2024)
Several years ago, I watched apprehensively as eleven people took forks in hand to try their first bite of my new Pecan Pie. Then, silence. Not one word. Color was coming and going on my face as they sat silently, chewing. My brain was bursting with all the arguments against making pie in the first place, and wishing fervently I could disappear on the spot. Continue reading