Pippin, a deceptively complex and challenging musical, gets a strong interpretation by 2nd Star Productions. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) and lyrics by Roger O. Hinson, it recounts a fantastical tale that ultimately comes home to rooted values.     Pippin considers himself extraordinary and recoils from mundane tasks. Thus the son of Charlemagne is like many young people as he sets off to seek extraordinary accomplishments. He goes to war, enjoys...

The temperatures were actually mild the other day. Rain and wind were forecast as an all-day certainty, but I kept a close eye on the weather. Late that afternoon, sure enough, the stiff breeze lay down. With no looming sign of rain from the heavy cloud cover, I hooked up my trailered skiff and headed for the Bay. My heart was set on a fresh rockfish dinner.     Splashing the boat barely an hour before sunset, I headed full throttle over a glassy calm for my favorite rocky cove...

Friday’s new moon re-emerges as a razor-thin crescent with sunset Saturday, at 4:45. Look for it low in the southwest, its bottom tip pointing to dazzling Venus just a few degrees higher. Mercury lurks a little farther from the moon but closer to the horizon and buried so deep you’ll likely need binoculars to pick it out before it sets at 5:30.     Sunset Sunday reveals the waxing moon a little higher above the southwest horizon, now with its curved back to Venus,...

Leaving Breaking Dawn Part 1, mercifully the second-to-last installment in the Twilight Saga, I heard a little girl cry:     “I have so many feelings about this movie, but I can’t put them into words!”     Me too, kiddo, but they pay me to try.     Aside from being poorly scripted and woodenly acted, the entire Twilight series spoon-feeds a destructive message to young girls.     The romantic premise is as follows...