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Review: And Then Come the Nightjars

— by WILLIAM STERR —

Nightjars are medium-sized birds that are active at dusk and in the night, closely related to whip-or-wills. Like those birds, they are superstitiously viewed as harbingers of disaster or death.

Devonshire, England. 2001. One of the worst outbreaks of foot and mouth disease is spreading throughout the nation. Desperate measures are called for, and all herds within three kilometers of an infection are being culled.

Michael’s farm is one of them. Despite his efforts to keep the infection from his herd – his “girls” – a nearby farm is infected. (CONTINUED)


Review: Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West

— by BEV QUESTAD — Smokey mist over early morning vistas, vibrant red sunsets, and grand rusty red mountains in the distance set the idyllic scenes for wild horses nuzzling noses in their family units and galloping freely in sync over the plains. The song, “A Horse with No Name” plays on: I’ve been through […][...]


Review: It’s Basic

— by BEV QUESTAD — Imagine Lucille, a single parent with nine dependents as a school bus driver. In St. Paul, Minnesota, she earns $32,394 a year. She gets up at 4 am. Daycares don’t start until 6 a.m., so she wakes her two toddlers up and lugs them with her on her route. They […][...]


Review: A Haunting in Venice

— by WILLIAM STERR — “It was a dark and stormy night …” Well, it didn’t start out that way. In this, Kenneth Branagh’s third outing into the world of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot following “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile” – we meet a very different Hercule Poirot in a […][...]


Review: Tiger Within

— by BEV QUESTAD — Forever made famous as bushy browed, disgruntled Lou Grant on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” beloved actor Ed Asner went on to many other roles in features, documentaries, voice-overs and political issues. Despite his death in 2021, his last starring feature was released this year. It was his crowning achievement. […][...]


Review: Haunting of the Queen Mary

— by WILLIAM STERR — Ah, the long gone glory of transoceanic travel! Promenading on the deck while enjoying the bracing North Atlantic air. Then dressing for dinner, served in the sumptuous surrounding of the first class dining room. High on one wall, a mural of the ocean, with Europe on the right and North […][...]


Review: American: An Odyssey To 1947

— by WILLIAM STERR — What’s it like to be a child prodigy? Few of us know, and that’s probably a good thing. “American: An Odyssey To 1947,” the latest documentary from Danny Wu (“Square One: Michael Jackson”), begins with a detailed biography of Orson Welles, the “enfant terrible” who took first New York theater, […][...]


Review: The Tank

— by WILLIAM STERR — Ah, the Oregon Coast! Protected against over development by prescient state leaders who, in 1913, declared the entire coast a public highway: open to all; privately owned and developed by none. In 1935, a substantial parcel of land along the coast was purchased by Alec Adams (Jack Barry – “The […][...]


Review: The Last Voyage of the Demeter

— by WILLIAM STERR — Most people are familiar with the story of “Dracula,” written by Irish novelist and theater Bram Stoker in 1897. Stoker was a successful theater manager in London, writing on the side. He produced a number of novels and short stories in the melodramatic or “thriller” vein, although they are antiquated […][...]



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