Poetry Is Essential

Poetry is to language what a fine brandy is to grape juice. It is refined, distilled, and concentrated. It has strength and potency and at the same time it’s subtle. A poem invites deliberate contemplation and promises to tantalize, awaken, satisfy and warm and, at...

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The Next Normal

The Next Normal

My grandparents never completely let go of the Great Depression. Mistrust of banks, obsessive frugality and a pervasive hyper-vigilance persisted for the rest of their lives-which in my Grandmother’s case extended well into the 1990s.  The Great Depression,...

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Scrooge’s Gift

Scrooge’s Gift

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an...

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I Pledge…

Since 2018, the folks I work with and I have been engaged in a project that could, if it is successful, have transformative impact on a community. The city of Lompoc (as you pronounce it in your mind, the second O is long like POKE), sits up against the central coast...

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It’s All Immersive

Let’s start with this: Even though I’ve spent the better part of the last century playing around with it, I don’t think there is anything special called “Immersive Entertainment”. Honestly, this is the most blatant kind of industry self-aggrandizing jargon. With all...

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Dare to be Different: Dee Byrnes Bio

I was born in Muskegon Michigan, just a few miles from Lake Michigan and am the 4th of 5 children. My parents set the bar for each of us in our lives ahead!  Dad who was a Navy veteran, worked for the State Highway Department, did all of our cooking, mom also a Navy...

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Never The Same Thing Once

Never The Same Thing Once

Disneyland was born exactly one year, one month and one day after me. I literally grew up there because Dad started there on opening day and it was the one place he could take me to give my mom a break that didn’t cost anything! By the age of 9, I was the family tour...

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100 Years of Masterful Stories

100 Years of Masterful Stories

It has been fascinating to see the range of narrative on the hundredth anniversary of the Walt Disney Company. As has always been the case when it comes to “Waltology”, the stories range from the scholarly to bare snippets of legend with some pretty credible...

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