When I prepared myself for parenthood, I never dreamed I would have to deal with these seemingly impossible issues of how to keep my children safe from the global internet community.
It’s an encouraging look at what some well-organized and sensible efforts by a community can do to turn the tide of malnourishment in our communities.
When Ted Brancato & Friends took the stage, I could only imagine that perhaps this was where the boys of First Inversion would be one day.
Duff ’n Stuff: On how I love to become intimate with strange characters
by Patricia Duff in Blogs, Duff 'n Stuff
Being cast in a play is always a great feeling and probably why I’ve been a theater junkie for ─ yikes ─ almost 30 years. You get the part. You’re flattered.
Duff ‘n Stuff: Serendipity, Chekov and a misguided Russian in Boston
by Patricia Duff in Blogs, Duff 'n Stuff
“If you don’t love me and want to help, then Boetcher and all involved with him need to help me get of the country.”
Duff ‘n Stuff: Welton points his lens toward the happy folks of Clinton’s Thursday Market
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Festivals
WLM resident photographer David Welton is out and about every weekend shooting the cultural life of Whidbey Island.
Duff ’n Stuff sends a love letter to Hedgebrook
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
I love the company of fellow writers with whom I am blessed to eat and the conversations that ensue around that beautiful farmhouse table.
Fast forward 24 years to now when I’m getting ready to see my first ever production of “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.” It opens at OutCast’s Black Box Theater in Langley on Friday, July 19.
Duff ’n Stuff admires a flame keeper
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Visual Art
The paintings were exciting and loose, and I realized that at least one of these kids might become an artist and how cool it is when that process begins.
Duff ’n Stuff tries to keep up with Whidbey Island
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Here’s a little of what I did get to do and click back to Whidbey Life Magazine anytime to keep track of what to do this summer.
Duff ’n Stuff offers visitors a list of summer events on Whidbey
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It’s summer on the island! Here’s comprehensive list of festivals and events through September.
Duff ‘n Stuff on the imminent, sad death of handwriting
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
I aspired to have my mother’s handwriting, which was orderly, legible and feminine looking.
Oh, Norman, you can’t possibly sleep with all of them
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Theater and Dance
It’s not just one play, it’s a trilogy, and that means the six actors had to memorize three plays. I know what it takes to memorize, block, rehearse and polish just one, so I applaud this team.
Boeing employee opens a gallery in Langley and lets his palette knife fly
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Visual Art
“Five years ago I picked up a pallete knife in an oil painting class and I knew I was never going to do anything else.”
Some stuff about local wine
by Patricia Duff in Culinary, Duff 'n Stuff
The wines we tasted were all deliciously pink and refreshing; one very different from the next.
Twitter — that duping timesucker with an ugly name
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It’s refreshing to see a site that promotes textured reporting; the long, investigative style reporting that’s sometimes hard to find amid all the flotsam swimming around the web.
Community spirit is alive and well on Whidbey Island
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It feels good and you meet a lot of large-hearted folks while doing your part to help those in need.
I heart Hedgebrook
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It was the take-no-shit Guterson who said something like, “If you don’t like the stats, get off your ass and write something to change it!”
A couple reveals their effort to build a community theater in Coupeville
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Theater and Dance
This is our first attempt to go public and to let as many people know as possible what we hope to create.
Much ado about circus tents and Shakespeare
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Theater and Dance
As a member of the company that presented “Romeo and Juliet” in the summer of 2010, I had succumbed easily to its spell, along with other actors, volunteers and spectators.
Celebrating poetry month with Whidbey Island poets
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Read these poems; soak them in; see what happens. Happy April!
Local poet reveals tough and tender history with ‘Wallace, Idaho’
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Ironically, it’s Beeman who ends up piercing holes in the picture of her home; an historic silver-mining district, which produced more silver than any place in the country.
They were delicious
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Duff ’n Stuff, April Fools’ Day, 2013 This Is Just To Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold William Carlos Williams Happy Birthday, R.D. From the heart, Patricia Duff (Thanks to Don Wodjenski […]
Will the real ovation please stand up?
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Theater and Dance
Henrik Ibsen, the great 19th-century Norwegian playwright and theater director, incited riots in the theater with his plays.
Island wineries and Hedgebrook authors in the news
by Patricia Duff in Culinary, Duff 'n Stuff
Here’s some cool island stuff I’ve soaked up lately.
… full of long-winded taxi drivers who told great jokes, and excellent breakfasts, bad pizza, peat burning fireplaces and freezing, freezing cold bathrooms.
Tell us; write a letter
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Making it work means finding a balancing act between the blogging realm and the art news.
Indian food for thought
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It was a 75th birthday party of Prabha Devi, the matriarch of a large, family of Indian descent and a talented woman.
Romeo would have made awesome valentines for Hallmark
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
But what to say, what to write in a Valentine to one’s lover?
Your brain on technology
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
I may be wrong about this, but I’ve been having lots of conversations lately about “that bastard technology!” and what a pain in the proverbial ass it is sometimes.
The house on Mansur Street
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
We started calling it “the mansion” but ironically so, perhaps because we were not a mansion type of family. The name stuck and we still call it that.
From Agatha to ontology, Judith sends messages elegantly to the world
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
The headline in the Miami Herald after it opened was one of which every playwright dreams; “BBC Murders’ kills it at the Parker Playhouse.”
Recording the stories of my clan
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Lately, I’ve been asking my mom and my brothers and sisters to recall the people, places and dates of the family stories.
Comedy tonight!
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Welcome to a new year full of possibilities, as they all are. May we all wear the cloak of good health and prosperity in 2013, and may it include pockets packed with plenty of laughter brought on by the incredibly witty company we keep.
Merry Christmas, and let’s all laugh on purpose
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Seeking light when darkness falls
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Music
“Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dillon, Madeleine, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Avielle, Allison.”
Ode to bound books – the thrill is not gone
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
My conversations have been hovering near disappointment with the quick infusion of technology in all of our lives and what that means for … well for everything really, but particularly for the lovely, sturdy, familiar, treasured and sometimes dog-eared-because-we-keep-reaching-for-them books.
Good television starts with the script
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
I often find myself (in this 21st century) much more excited by the scripts that are being written and produced for television dramas, than I am by what Hollywood has to offer.
The day I flipped my car and ate some humble pie
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
“I’m gonna roll,” I thought and braced myself.
A creative spirit and business pioneer for our time
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Visual Art
Since settling on Whidbey Island almost seven years ago and becoming an arts reporter, I’ve met an inordinate number of talented people in a place teeming with artists. But there is a shorter list of those who have stood out to me over the years, and Marguerite Juve is at the top.
Veterans, I would send you a song if I could
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Music
On Veteran’s Day, what other thought could be more appropriate than one of peace, or the thought that whatever beautiful thing you were doing on November 11 …
‘Michelangelo would die if he saw this’
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Visual Art
Stone sculptors are few here on Whidbey Island, relatively speaking, but I know at least one of them pretty well, and these days she’s acting like a kid in a candy store over some white marble.
I’ll give you a Tootsie Roll for that Mounds Bar
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Halloween is Wednesday and let us remember to honor the dead as the Celtic people did, even while sneaking a Mounds bar or two from the stash.
Alas, I am not a Tweetie bird
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It’s not enough that I have to keep up with email, post to several Facebook pages, maintain a couple of websites and write stories. I have to make bird sounds, too? Shoot me now.
Letting go of passing on the sports gene
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Sports was the main focus of my life for many years. I never even considered that my own children would not be interested in athletics. I knew their father wasn’t a sports kid when I married him, but I guess I figured at least one of them would be like me in that way.
Down the rabbit holes of contemporary life
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
It’s the cabal of tech-life; this vast sea of holes down which we all fall …
A story of Whidbey women who produce
by Patricia Duff in Culinary, Duff 'n Stuff
Going into the pastures that etch the circumference of the Imes’ family Quail’s Run Farm, I stopped to greet a sweet, black-eyed cow.
Congrats to the Clyde Theatre in Langley for 75 years of movies
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Last weekend was a busy one on the south end of the island.
Get a dose of passion, get down to DjangoFest
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Music
Some people have ALL the talent. DjangoFest invites them.
Revise your life; nix the shoulder pads
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
My good friend Molly Larsen Cook, the writer, recently moved off Whidbey Island to Bellevue. I hated to see her go.
Put me out to pastures
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
I admit it. I have a Facebook hangover.
Oh. Make it stop.
But that’s a subject for another day.
Meanwhile, surround me with all things bucolical.
Oh teenager of my heart, I need a vacation
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Here is a dilemma: Family vacations with teenagers.
The family took a vacation to British Columbia last week.
We stayed one night at the lovely old Sylvia Hotel, www.sylviahotel.com which overlooks Vancouver’s huge, waterfront Stanley Park.
The heart is a hunter
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
When I find myself at a loss as to what to write, what to “blog” or bloog, or bloop, or whatever this is, I refer back to that line my friend “Sky” gave me.
Ice cream and good music, the balms in my Gilead
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Music
The deliciousness of certain things in life is a blessing that I cherish. Ice cream is one of them.
What’s it all about, Alfie?
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff
Duff ’n Stuff, July 24, 2012 Some folks around here have been asking me, “What exactly is the Whidbey Art Source website?” Well, in a nutshell, it’s a website where anyone interested in the arts and culture on Whidbey Island can go to find out what events are going on that week, read stories about […]
Strive for the art in yourself
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Theater and Dance
Duff ‘n Stuff, July 22, 2012 I couldn’t wait until Tuesday to get on with this blog. So many stories, so little time! A lot has been happening to me (for me) in the past four weeks. I’ve hung my hat here at Whidbey Art Source, for one thing, and am eternally grateful that I […]
Walking through Choochokam Arts #37
by Patricia Duff in Duff 'n Stuff, Festivals
July 12, 2012 Here’s my latest blog post, a photo story about Choochokam, which would not have been possible without the generous donation of a camera from Faith Wilder and the ever-effective Drewslist. Thanks to both of them from the bottom of my heart. This past Saturday was sunny and beautiful when I set out […]
Tom Lindsay blowing bubbles at sunset (Photo by David Welton)